One year Old

My baby is ONE! This is a post on my reminiscing of what Max is doing and his routines now. It is long, and I don't expect most of you will read it all, which is fine! I do have some pictures at the end, which are of his party! Enjoy!

That is right. I weighed Max this morning and he is a healthy 21lbs., according to our bathroom scales. I actually think he has been thinning out a bit recently. Probably has to do with him crawling around and pulling up on everything these days. But, he still has the cutest round bottom and a few rolls to take the edge off his life! :)

Max has more hair at this age than Canaan did when he was one. However, I think between his rolls and his small amount of hair and his sweetest chubby cheeks, he looks younger than he actually

is. Still like a baby. Maybe that is why I haven't been like several of my friends, shedding tears upon the first birthday of their children. Due to his young looks, I have had to recently remind myself that he is one year old now, and change a few of my expectations for him. Some things I have decided he does understand, even when he pretends not to understand. Such as "come here" or "give it to me." He doesn't seem to appreciate the fact that I am on to his smarts that he has kept hidden away behind those long eyelashes and perfect little blue eyes!

Max crawls around everywhere these days. The bathroom seems to be his favorite place to hang out. So funny! But most of the time, I can count on him being within a 3 foot radius of either Canaan or I. He adores his big brother, imitating what he does and playing with the toys he plays with. Back several months ago, Max started "playing" with a car by driving it on the floor, as he sees his big brother do. He loves to sit on the floor near Canaan and flip through books, just like Canaan does too. I don't know if it is coincidence or not, but Max's favorite book for a while was Bolt, which just happened to be Canaan's favorite at the time! Just recently, I have caught him standing up, propped up against Canaan's little white board in his bedroom, waving the dry erase marker across the board! He has seen Big Brother do this, so he thinks it must be something he should be doing too! Precious!

Max can navigate our few stairs we have in our apartment pretty well. He goes up and down them, most of the time, without incident. He pulls up on the couch and chairs and can walk along them well. He is not interested, however, in walking on his own. We keep trying to prompt and tempt him to try it, but he just is not interested. Mom and Dad and Dave and Liv went in on a gift for Max's birthday: a little airplane he can ride on AND walk behind. Canaan had a Tonka Truck like this when he was Max's age, beginning his love of all things with wheels, and helping him start walking. I always thought my second child would start to walk earlier, trying to keep up with the older one, but alas, no. Sometimes I think life will be easier when he starts walking. I'll let you know when I find out! For now, Max is sticking true to his laid back personality. He's not in a hurry to start walking, and, well, I guess that will be just fine with me! :)

Max still loves music. In fact, several of his birthday gifts were musical. Often, he will start rocking back and forth and start grinning from ear to ear when music is played. In church, he sits on my lap and rocks back and forth when we sing. Just too cute!

Max also likes to jabber, but hasn't added much to his vocabulary. He will jabber a lot with us these days, but nothing intelligible! There was a time (about 3 months ago), that I was sure Max had 4 words. Now, Max only says "ni-ni" (for night-night), consistently. He will sign "more" and "all done." Sometimes it sounds like he is saying "ah-duh" for all-done, but it isn't consistent. About a month ago, I started to work on some signs with Max. I decided that he wasn't going to be another verbal chatter box like his older brother, so sign language might be helpful for us! Of course, we've been working on waving bye bye forever and he still won't do that. But I think he could if he wanted to. He just doesn't want to! I tried to teach Canaan some sign language, but half of the signs he could say before he actually became consistent with the sign. He was just my chatty boy. Max, not so much. But that is fine. We have enough talking going on with Canaan around everyday. Well, actually, I am looking forward to the day when Canaan can start chatting with Max sometimes, which might give my ear a break every once in a while! Ha! Ha! What Mom ever wants their BOY to not talk so much??!!

These days, Max doesn't like going out in the cold too much. I think it is because he can't get around much and just sits in the stroller or sled, or sits in my hands as we follow Canaan around. That is boring, so I don't blame him. Last time I took Canaan to the little park across the street, I put Max in some shoes and let him stand in the snow with his hands on a bench. He seemed to enjoy that a bit, and walked down the bench. But, it is just hard for him to do much like that, because his snow suit is pretty bulky, restricting his movements. And I let him go down the slide several times. But I can't tell if he likes that or not. He smiles at the top of the slide, but not at the bottom. But I think he likes sitting on my lap and swinging. Maybe he is just mournful because he misses the sunshine these days. It has been cloudy for a while, and the couple days there was sun (finally!) last week, we weren't able to be out in it.

Max still loves to eat, something I feel like he would do all day if I allowed! He takes the chance to snack whenever any of us eats. We have to hide the fact we are eating, otherwise he will come over to us, and longingly stare at whatever food we have in our hands. Right now, he nurses about 3-4 times a day: 4pm, a snack at bedtime, then at 11pm and 6am. Otherwise, he is happy to be up and doing everything with us. He still LOVES his highchair. He sits up with the rest of us at the table and eats w

hatever we are eating. And he can tell if he is getting something different than what the rest of us have. So he will point at what we have, and grunt! Usually he has oatmeal or yogurt for breakfast, vegetables or whatever we have for lunch (carrots are the easiest for me to do because they are available always, when most other things aren't. At supper, he usually has what we eat. He will eat soups and meats and chicken, vegetables, some fruits (though not as much as he did before), and all type of breads and crackers. And he loves desserts too! Recently he has been really thirsty, but I think that is because it is so dry inside because of the heaters. He will drink water, but loves orange juice (which I normally dilute).

Max has found Canaan's sticker chart recently, and enjoys pulling himself up to it and taking off the stickers and eating them. He only has 3 teeth (STILL!), but is constantly chewing on things or putting things in his mouth. I am always having to take away coins or other small things that he has found and stuffed inside. Today I pulled three little red balls from a Hungry Hippos game at the Hindman's house. And he had one in each hand for dessert, I guess!

Bathtimes are still loads of fun for him. He and Canaan both have fun, and now that we have a huge bathtub, Max crawls all around it, chasing toys and splashing everything. Max wears size 12-18 month clothes these days. He is in size 4 diapers, though I am trying to use up some size 3's that I found the other day. I put them on during the day, but they are a bit small, so he is always sporting a plumbers crack! Don't worry, Mom, we are almost done with them! :)

Max still takes 2-3 naps a day. An hour nap in the morning, though he occasionally skips that. Then a two hour nap in the afternoon, and often times will still take a 45 minute nap about 6pm in the evening. He goes to bed at 9pm, nurses once before I go to bed, and wakes up to nurse again at 6am. Then he sleeps until about 8am, when either he or Canaan wake each other up. He is a good sleeper, but still eats more at night than I'd like. But I don't mind, so I haven't tried to wean him of it! However, he is a VERY LIGHT sleeper. He wakes up easily and tosses a lot when sleeping. But, during the day, he has gotten used to sleeping near the window of a busy road, which can be noisy at times. It is nice that constant noise doesn't seem to bother him during the day.

Max is definitely my love-able boy. We sing Jesus Loves Me to him before we lay him in bed for nap or night. It is precious to be able to cradle him in my arms and look down on him as he cuddles his blanket close and closes his eyes for rest. He often is trying to climb on me or comes over to be held. He is totally content just sitting in my arms, watching what I do, as I carry him around. And when I'm on the floor or couch, he'll come up and just smother me with open mouth slobber- I mean- KISSES! It is precious! He loves us to kiss him all over too, and chew his chin, and just give him big bear hugs and cuddles. He'll even lay his head on our shoulder when we are holding him and he is tired. Canaan never was a cuddler or hugger or kisser. We always initiated everything love-y and physical with him. Max is a different boy altogether in this area, which I am just eating up!

I feel like Max should be doing and learning a lot more around this time in his life, but he hasn't started that growing up by leaps and bounds yet. That is just fine with me. Everyday I realize more how different he is from Canaan and I see more of his own special personality, which is really neat. I look forward to each day, seeing more of his own personality bloom and grow. Before long, Lord willing, I know he'll be my little toddler, and then little preschooler and then my little young man. Until then, I remain content in each day I have that remains of him being my little baby boy!