28 Weeks: The Counting Down Begins

Until now, the counting has been upwards... 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks (the rough first trimester was unbearably long), 16 weeks, and now 28. Meaning we have 12 weeks left, and soon we'll be in the single digits. Twelve short weeks to close on our house, move out and in, acclimatize Max to his new digs, and introduce Little Bean to the world. Are we ready for all this? In Max's words, "lego!" ("Let's go!").

Month 21, Day 14: Max Gettin' His Groove On

We spent a good part of the day at the children's international music festival, where Max painted, danced, and listened to and watched a wide range of musical entertainment. While the pictures don't capture Max being a very enthusiastic dance participant (video forthcoming), it was an exciting day. Which got a little too exciting towards the end...

So, we got home, put Max down for his nap, and a while later, we got a knock at the door. It turns out that someone accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake when pulling into their parking spot, jumped the curb, and ended up in our trunk. For a parking lot "fender bender," the damage was pretty extensive (not to mention that glass flew all the way into the front seats). Although it's a hassle to deal with it, we're just glad that no one (Mr. Max in particular) was hurt.

Month 21: Literary Max

Max has a new bedtime story trick. He has figured out when each of his books is about to end. Just as you get to the last few pages, he'll dig out another one and pry the current one out of your hand and insist that you start another book. All before the first book is over. He has figured out that there is a finite number of books to be read before it's bedtime and tries to delay it as much as possible by "tricking" Mom and Dad into reading more books.

Thanks to Leslie and Neil, Max's favorite book of the month is I Ain't Gonna Paint No More. Sure, it isn't proper English, but it's fun to sing the words. And he gets excited when we tickle his body parts. We usually have to read it three times in a row (of course, starting over again before we even get to the last page) before he's willing to move on.

Month 21, Day 3: A Smorgasbord of Max

Max had a bit of a smorgasbord for dinner tonight - pepperoni slices, Ritz crackers, cheese, grapes, an apple (more of that to come), and corn. Just a fraction of it actually ended in his tummy, though.

Below Max gives a lecture on the merits of eating an apple a day. He wasn't satisfied with Dad cutting up little chunks of apple; instead he wanted Dad's apple. No baby slices for Max. He wanted to gnaw on his own in big boy style, just like Dad.

Now for a smorgasbord of pictures...

The one below was taken back in July, when Mom and Max tried on hats at Target. He is her favorite little man.

Max dons Mom's hat before leaving for the park on Sunday.

The park we checked out over the weekend had a Max-size train.

Max doing the "whoo whoo" while riding the train.

Throwing rocks (and sticks and anything else he could get his hands on) into the lake.

Max has a new game of running into the dark bathroom and hiding from us behind the shower curtain. He finds it extremely hilarious that we can't "find" him.

After a few seconds of staying still, Max lets us know that he's still there (yes, that's Thomas the Train in his hand).

24 Weeks, 5 Days: Mom's Big

This is a post about Mom. She's fat. There's hardly any room to sit on her lap these days and when she carries me, her stomach is always in the way. She was in the elevator at work today when some stranger-dude said, "Oh, you're almost there," pointing at her stomach. If "almost there" means more than 15 weeks to go, then - yeah - she's almost there. I guess her work dresses (aka circus tents) are not very slim-ifying and making even the opposite sex brave enough to comment on her large girth.