Month 15, Day 24: Max's Bed Head

Max is cute all the time. But when he wakes up from a long nap, he's beautiful. No matter how messed up his hair is.

Month 15, Day 16: First Day of Spring

For the first time in a long while, the first day of spring actually felt like the first day of spring! We all hit the park and met up with some friends with their own little ones. Good times were had by all.

Max's buddy Leks (green shirt) and Max checking out the view.

Leks is fond of kisses for everyone and anything.

The excitement didn't end with the park. Back at Max's crib, the boys strutted their stuff and laid siege to Max's mini-gym.


Leks tried to teach Max his trademark fist-bump.

A rare moment in which Max wasn't trying to push Leks off the gym (but if you look closely, Max is hot on his heels).

Month 15, Day 15: The New Battle

There was only one hat that Max tolerated this winter (see last picture). Any attempt otherwise to keep his head warm was met with passionate resistance and violent flinging of all things hat-related. And now we've entered a new battle, with the arrival of sunny, warm days (at this very moment, it is a beautiful 69 degrees out). Max is as equally upset with the sun hat as he was with any winter head attire, perhaps even more so since his vision is obscured. Mom's not sure who is going to win the battle this season, but the fair-haired, blue-eyed Max cannot be baring his big solar panel of a noggin.

The calm before the storm...

(If anyone is trying to count his teeth, he's got 14 chompers. Sorry, Jack H.!)

"My God, what is wrong with you people?!"

The only winter hat that survived Max's flinging.

Month 15, Day 13: Good Things

Good (read: awesome) things come to little boys who wait! Grandma California got Max a sports climber complete with a "climbing wall" (an arched leg with notches), a slide, and a basketball hoop. Max had no trouble figuring out what to do, although he did give Mom some anxiety when he repeatedly tried to step off the platform instead of sitting down on the slide. Fearless or clueless, take your pick.

"Hey, Grandma CA, you rock! Thanks so much!" says Max.

Apparently, the new gym helps Max sleep better at night. Bonus!

Month 15, Day 9: Good Times with Dad

After dinner, Max spent some quality time with Dad. No captions needed. Just look at his expressions!

Month 15, Day 7: Strange Day

Well, Max's cry-fest this morning before Dad went to work wasn't due to separation anxiety as Mom first thought. When he resumed crying after his nap and Mom noticed that he wasn't using his left arm, it was another trip to the doctor's office. While he was surprisingly tear-free in the waiting room where he checked out the toys with one hand, it was a different story when the doctor checked him out and rotated his shoulder and elbow. Soon it was another trip, this time to a radiology clinic to get an X-ray of his left clavicle and shoulder. But by the time Dad got home, Max was all smiles and moving around like nothing happened. When the doc called to follow up with the results (the X-ray was inconclusive because they didn't take a shot of the clavicle like she ordered), she was surprised to hear that Max was his normal, chipper self. Because he's too young to "fake" pain, she said it sounded more like it was a dislocated shoulder. How that happened, we don't know, but we're just happy to see Max comfortable and pain-free. Below is a picture of Max at the doc's (pre-examination). Mom can't handle any more boo-boos.

Month 15, Day 7: Back in Mom's Arms

Max is back! The homecoming was more mellow than Mom expected. Max was only casually interested when she pulled up to get them at the airport last night. When he got home, he spent a lot of time reclaiming all of his toys and kitchen utensils. The most remarkable reaction was the morning after his return. He had a bit of a meltdown when Mom went to take a shower and didn't stop crying for more than an hour. He just sat in Mom's arms, crying, whimpering, and hiccuping. He's now sleeping it off. Oh Max.

A big thank you to Grandma California for taking such good care of him!

Month 15, Day 2: Skyping Max

Skype is a mom's lifeline. We spent more than an hour on it (in the wee hours of the morning in CA since Max's clock is a bit messed up). Below are some Skype snapshots of our video call. Max absolutely loves Grandma California's couch cushions!

In posting these pictures, Mom came across one taken a month ago, when Max and his friend Leks Skyped. Leks, as you can see from the facial hair, is very mature for his age!

Month 15, Day 1: Adios, Sweet Max

What a big day. First his 15-month check-up along with two shots (Max let everyone know in the doctor's office that he was not happy; honestly, he seems to be getting louder with every shot), a long nap, a messy lunch, and a rushed good-bye to Mom as he was swept up by Dad along with the suitcase, car seat, and backpack for a long flight to California. Mom and Max's first night apart, much less their first five nights apart!

Mom would like to think that Max was looking sad at lunch because he was going to miss her. But in actuality, he just managed to smear spaghetti sauce all over his eye and it was bugging him. And yes, Mom does feed Max more than just ravioli... most of the time.


After getting cleaned up, we hopped in the Jeep to pick up Dad from work and beelined it to the airport.

No qualms about it - Max is a chunky monkey with a big fat head that actually makes it a collosal feat to get any shirts over it. At his check-up, he weighed in at 25 lbs, 15 oz (75% percentile); measured 32 inches long (75% percentile) with a whopping 19.5 inches in head circumference (95% percentile). See the giant head for yourself below. Maybe we should charge admission.

The goodbye was rather unsatisfying for Mom. She didn't even register on Max's radar screen when she leaned in for a kiss. He was taken up more by the multitude of cars, bustling passengers, the big towering building with giant windows, chilly wind. But his distraction made the hand-off less stressful. It would have been horrible if he did his regular screaming/reaching/arching-his-back fit which he does in the mornings when we go to work (alternating between crying for Mom on her work days and for Dad on the days Max stays home with Mom). And soon Dad and Max were through the doors and gone...

Now what?

Month 14, Day 30: AGAIN?!

Mom was in a picture-taking mood today. Probably because her little man and big man are going to California this weekend and treating Mom to the very first time she will have been apart from Max for more than 12 hours in exactly 15 months. What will Mom do?? Probably clean. And sleep.

Here is Max, just after waking up. After worrying about the possibility of a concussion from his run-in with the table at daycare, Mom was relieved to see Max alert and as cute as ever.

After breakfast, Max played a bit with the felt board that Mom made for him over the weekend.

Worried (as usual) about the sharp corners on the dining room table, Mom spent a good amount of time duct-taping old receiving blankets to the edges. Max tried to "help" (as usual) by pulling off the blankets. So she turned on the TV as a 10-minute babysitter while she finished the job and before long, Max had parked himself on a package of toilet paper. Who needs a La-Z-Boy when you've got Charmin?

Mom and Max started packing for his big trip. Of course, Max's idea of helping was climbing and standing on the suitcase and throwing packed clothes out of it.

I really don't know who he was posing for here. Very JCPenney.

Mom just isn't fast enough sometimes. Here is Max with spaghetti-sauced hair.

Okay, Mom needs to hear from other moms of toddlers, particularly boys. The question is, "Are we bad parents, or is Max more accident-prone than other toddlers, or is this normal?" Just 24 hours after his daycare mishap, Max took a 3-level tumble off the couch (from the seat with no cushion onto the seat cushion laying on the floor onto the floor itself) and rammed his ear on the leg of a rocking chair nearby (see bruise below). Mom just hopes that these repeated falls don't make him "special" later on. Oh, Max.