I swear this was yesterday…

Yet, here we are.

How did that happen?  That top picture was July 2011, the bottom picture was July 2013.  Man, a lot changes in 2 years!  And, no, I didn’t tell Maxwell to sit like that in the chair to mimic the baby picture.  I was taking pictures of both boys together last week and he sat in the chair first before Robert brought Spencer out.  He smiled, I snapped.  And now my heart melts with sadness over how much he’s grown yet doubles in size with how much I love him.  Oh, this sweet boy.

Just a few things I want to remember about him right now…

He’s such a smart, inquisitive boy.  His favorite question these days is definitely “why?”.  Why? Why? Why? about everything.

He loves his ya-ya more than anyone and is so caring and always thinking of him.  Well, except when ya-ya is trying to get his toys!  Seriously, Maxwell always wants to make sure Spencer is ok and being taken care of.  Just the other night, I was single Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to Maxwell while putting him to bed.  He then asked, “Does ya-ya like Tinkle?” (Maxwell says tinkle, not twinkle. adorable).  I said, “I’m not sure. I don’t think I’ve ever sung it to him.”  Maxwell then told me to go into Spencer’s room and sing Tinkle to his brother and he would just go on to sleep by himself.  Sweetness.

Maxwell is good at following instructions during his library and school classes.  I definitely think he’s a people-pleaser!  When he does something that he knows he shouldn’t have and we get on to him, he immediately buries his face in whatever he can find.  I guess he thinks if we can’t see his face, we can’t get mad at him! Or maybe he’s just hiding that embarrassment over doing something wrong.

I’ve let Maxwell’s hair get long and somewhat shaggy this summer and I love it.  Not sure how I’m going to cut it ever again.

Maxwell is still napping every day for 2 to 3 hours.  But, there are starting to be days when he’s just not tired.  I know nap time is probably coming to an end in the next few months so we’ll see what happens.  He’s also still sleeping in his crib.  We’ll get him in a big boy bed at some point…I’m not rushing it.

Maxwell loves books.  Books of all kinds.  It’s a fight every night over how many books we read before bed.  Right now, the deal is 5…but he’ll always push or “one nother book!”  Aside from books, his favorite thing is to dress up.  Fire man, construction worker, whatever works!  His costumes are full out and always involve some sort of hat and gloves!  He does love his accessories!

Bedtime is such a routine…an exhausting routine.  Robert reads books, gets pjs on and brushes teeth.  Then I usually have to come in to “talk” about our day, rock and then pat-pat.  There is lots of “Tinkle” singing that’s for sure!  But, he’s a great sleeper and I’m grateful for that.

Maxwell is a chatter box.  Even though he’s got a huge vocabulary, there are still a few words that he says wrong and I love it…

I felled =  “I fell”

crynin = crying

bollom = bottom

li-lon = lion

pi-po = pillow

dee-ore = door

peach smovie = peach smoothie

He also loves to tell me and Robert to “chill out”!  ha!

One of my favorite things is to hear his little 2 (almost 3) year old voice sing.  He knows all the words to lots of songs including Zip-a-dee-doo-da, Twinkle, Jingle Bells, Rock a bye baby, Bingo, etc.  Here’a  little video of Wheels on the Bus in action…

and, my favorite, You Are My Sunshine…

If you’re on an ipad/iphone and can’t see the videos click here and here.

There’s so much more that I could say about this little boy but it would never be enough.  He’s just special, that’s all.  He’s my first born little boy and I think he’s just about the best there is.

We love Maxwell!

More pictures of Maxwell digging in the sand table.  Yea, get used to it.  Now that spring has sprung this is where we will be spending a lot of our afternoons!

Spencer was there too.  More pictures of him to come tomorrow!

One little thing I want to remember – when I dropped Maxwell off at school yesterday, the PEP teacher (it’s like PE – physical education) walked by and commented how good Maxwell was at PEP.  She also said he always loves to participate and if she can get Maxwell going, the others will always follow!  My sweet bud – a natural athlete and a born leader!!  🙂

He’s started saying both “oh man!” and “oh dude!” when something is spilled or he’s disappointed when we don’t see the yellow trucks we want to see, etc.

He refers to anything that happened in the past as “last night”. As in, “That man got me out of the bathroom last night!” when it really happened that morning.

He loves to tell me to “fill dat up” when putting his food on his plate. He wants each compartment to be full of food!

When we were talking to my parents on Face Time on the phone last week, he kept saying “me get in phone?” He thought since we could actually see GJ and Daddo on the phone that they were in the phone and he wanted to get in with them!!

He’s also very good at please and thank you. I need to start working on “ma’am and sir” next!

My two little bears…

One thing is for sure, Maxwell really does love Spencer. He always wants to know where his “ya ya” is and loves to tell people that Spencer is HIS ya ya. He’s always trying to (unsuccessfully) pick him up and loves to lay on top of him and bury his head into his belly. He also likes to see how much he can get away with and hit on poor Spencer and poke him in the belly. Aaah, brothers!

As frustrating as 2 years old can be, it’s also the absolute best. I love this little guy and his funny personality. Can’t wait to see what’s next!

Maxwell is now 27 months old and fun as ever. The things he says and does are just funny. He’s a little repeating machine too – he literally repeats everything Robert and I say. We need to be very careful with our language now!

He’s really starting to string words together to make sentences and it’s so neat to watch his little brain process everything. Some of the things he’s really into now…

Santa! or “shansha” as he says! That and, “me no like shansha’s lap!” But, he LOVES to talk about how he’s going to ask Santa for a fire truck! I’ve finally convinced him that he should ask for a train track too (because santa told me that’s what he’s getting!) 🙂

He loves pointing out all the Christmas trees, wreaths and red bows around town. He also loves to see all the Christmas lights. “Lights ON!”

All he wants to do every day is “watch elmo? watch elmo? watch elmo?” I clearly need to cut the tv time! He’s also into Finding Nemo and Bob the Builder but Sesame Street is still king.

His absolute favorite expression right now is “I need that”…yea. He says it all the time whenever he wants something. “I need that.” No, buddy, you don’t!

He’s mastered his letters but we’re still working on counting. I often hear him counting out 1, 2, 5! ha! We’ll get there!

He really loves Spencer. Honestly the first thing he asks when I get him up in the morning is usually “where ya-ya?” and when I pick him up from school his first question is “where ya-ya?” So happy these boys get to grow up together!

He’s back to being a great sleeper. He goes down for a nap between 1 and 2:00 and will sleep 2 to 3 hours. At night he sleeps from 8:00 to around 7:30. Yay!

He doesn’t walk anywhere – he runs. He runs all over this house, usually in full fireman gear including two black gloves!

He’s definitely got a sweet tooth like his momma! Last week a friend brought us dinner and included an entire pan of brownies. One night after dinner I asked him if he’d like some chocolate. Needless to say, he loved it! For the next several nights as soon as he finished dinner, he’d ask for ‘ssert (dessert) and “choc? milk?” I wasn’t sorry when the brownies ran out because he started to think you got ‘ssert after every meal and even asked for some choc and milk after breakfast one day! boy after my own heart! 😉

I could not love this funny, sweet, sensitive, loving little boy any more. He tests my patience every single day but then I look at him and just thank my lucky stars that he’s mine.

He’s pretty awesome.