Max- 15.5 Months Old

Wow! It has been SOO LONG since I've posted much about the boys and how they've been growing. Just stuff like what Max is doing (he is FINALLY walking!) and how tall Canaan is now, etc.

So, for you who LOVE my kids so much to read it all, here it is. For the rest of you, maybe you should check back later for more "interesting" stuff!

PS. I wrote this about 2 weeks ago and wanted to write about Canaan before posting, but it hasn't happened. So before this gets too out of date, I'll post this. Hopefully one on Canaan will come soon!

MAXIMUS
Max is definitely the second child. As much as I hate that it has happened, I haven't blogged about as much about him and haven't kept up with his calendar as much as I did with Canaan. ANd, before I begin, (and I know I've said this over and over), but my two boys are so DIFFERENT!! I wasn't expecting twins or anything, but I did expect more similarities than what I see. They are the same in a few things....ummm.....like....the lack of hair they have, or....that is it! They are just different it about everything. Which I am learning to love and appreciate more each day. One day it won't surprise me, I guess, at how differently they do and handle everything!

AGE: 15.5 months

HEIGHT: 29 inches (about 2 inches shorter than average)
WEIGHT: about 21 pounds (also below average-but he is also shorter, so it makes sense)
TEETH: 6 fully in and 5 more cutting through right now! (Canaan had 16 at this time in his life.) Four new ones cutting through are molars and one next to his right bottom tooth.

Max has taken off recently. He is finally walking. He started taking his first steps almost 2 months and a half ago, around 14 months of age. I was VERY ready for him to walk quite a while ago, but I especially wanted him to be able to walk well for the summer so he could better play outside. Of course, I have my selfish reasons too: it is much easier when he can walk and I don't have to carry him everywhere- or at least not on short trips outside. Of course, he really isn't to that point yet, b/c he is pretty slow and wobbly still, but he does well inside and I know it won't be long before he is running outside.
Max did climb before he walked. He even pushed a stool over to the couch and climbed onto the stool and then the couch before he walked! Right now he can almost get himself up on the couch without any help. More daring in that respect than Canaan. I think his main motivation for anything he does is keeping up with big brother Canaan, though. This gets him into a lot of situations where he falls. Between climbing and new walking, he is constantly bruising himself up all over! He is our more adventurous one. He loves to climb onto the kiddy chairs and sit in them. He has even got into the habit of carrying over the toy laptop (that doesn't do anything-it used to play some music stuff), bringing it to the kid's table, climbing ontop of the kiddy chair and sitting there banging away on the keyboard, just like he is a big person! So funny! And he loves to be sitting on the couch when Canaan is, or playing with the SAME toys that Canaan does. If Canaan is reading books, he'll grab a book or two and read too. He even knows which are Canaan's favorite cars (out of his ginormous stash) and goes for those cars specifically, not to Canaan's liking, of course. Still, he likes to do baby things too, like crash Canaan's neat line of cars he's made (yes, he still lines his cars up, though they talk to each other now-a-days) or steal a domino from him, etc.
Max also likes to imitate things, from a monster's (or dinosaur) growl that the big kids do, to the hand montions of the man leading singing at church in Prague (we're not quite so formal in Kharkov to have hand motions for songs in a house church setting!).
Favorite Things: He loves his rubber ducky in the bath. He also likes stacking cups. Just recently is he getting the hang of actually putting a smaller size cup inside a larger size cup. Max loves to open and close things. Open, close, open-close, open-close. And take things in and out. Such is a familiar sequence with him: open door-put in car-close door-open door-take out car-close door. He also loves taking clothes in and out of things, though why he seems to end on the "out" mode?! Messy boys! Oh, this includes pulling out cards and markers from boxes and trying to put them back in where they came from! He just gets frustrated when he can't put it away himself! Lids, doors, anything he can open and close and put things in he loves. He even can un-screw something if it is just loosly on there. Really, he has come from just fiddling with something to small screwing motions! But he hasn't perfected the "screw on motion and when he gets something off (like a bottlecap) he wants me to put it back on so that he can take it off again. He has also a new-found love of slides. I have to put him at the top, and he loves to slide down (holding my hand, of course). I can't wait 'til he can climb up himself. The slides we are normally around aren't little kid friendly. Another new favorite of Max's is Dogs. He just LOVES dogs of any kind and size. He points them out and wants to go up to them. He will even lay on Kona, Rob and Denyce's dog, and kiss her! He enjoys other animals too, but seems to have a preference for dogs.
Likes: Max likes to read books, but on his own terms, and mostly by himself. He is definitely different from Canaan in this aspect. Canaan would sit and listen to books for extended periods of time (30+minutes) when he was young and Max's age. Max likes to crawl over to the book cabinet, empty 10-20 off the shelf, and then flip through them. He has just started to bring the occasional book to us and will sometimes sit for the whole thing to be read. This is a very new development! If I read a book to Canaan on the couch, Max will get a book and take it over to the love-seat and read it. Max also likes music. This might classify as a "Favorite," actually. He loves singing and will sometimes sway or dance to music. You should see him do the motions for This Little Light of Mine! He sticks his little index finger up in the air and waves it all around, shining his light. This morning, watching Canaan in church, he even put it up to his mouth to blow on it, as well as put his fingers together to cover it on those verses to the song. So cute! He even seems to "sing" a lot during the day. He jabbers in a sing-song type of way.

WORDS: Max has 8 words! Max can say "ba-ba" (bye-bye), "Ha," (hi) "Ma-Ma," and "Da-Da," "Uhh" (up), "Ahyy" (eye), and "Ba-ha" (banana). He is such a boy! Some are more "attempts" at saying something and we like to think he'll say it correctly one day. (Of course he will!) We are starting to try to get him to "try" to say words instead of just pointing and grunting or squealing. It is sort-of working, depending on how patient or persistent we are in getting him to try! Canaan was my a-typical little wordster, having 23 words at 12 months, in comparison to Max's 4 at 15 months!

Signs and Other Signals: Max only has 3 consistent signs: all done, drink and more. Notice, they are all words centered around the table! Max also waves bye and hi. He has two separate waves. One is an open-palmed, back and forth wave for Hi. The bye wave is the typical open and closing of the palm by moving the fingers up and down. And, Max shakes he head for yes and no, quite correctly. However, he is quite adept and pointing and grunting or indicating in other ways (such a flailing arms or squeals of delight or frustration) whatever it is he wants, or doesn't want.

Food

Max always wants to eat and enjoys it. He has started to eat only as long as Canaan does, which is starting to make his mealtimes a little shorter. Keeping up with Canaan is definitely thinning him out. Between all the walking and crawling and climbing, and now shortened meals, he is thinning out. Still got a bit of some rolls on his legs, but not near as chubby as he was. Still has those cute chubby cheeks!

He typically will eat almost anything, but the past month he has started getting picky about what he eats. He prefers bread over anything. We have to hide it from him or put it on the table last; otherwise he almost refuses to eat anything else. We are working on this! :)

I stopped nursing about 6 weeks ago. He was down to 2 times- one late at night and one early in the morning, but I needed to wean him, and he basically stopped without any fuss or even noticing (by the way he showed no change).

There is more and more to report, but if I keep going, I'd never post this. Hope you enjoyed!