First, thank you for all the comments yesterday!  It makes me so happy to hear from so many of you!!

Second, it’s official, I have a TWO YEAR OLD so I thought it would be good to wrap the week up with a full recap of what he’s up to.  Maxwell is just so fun these days.  He’s communicating more clearly every day and I just love hearing the fun and funny things that come out of his mouth.  Just a few things about him right now that I want to remember….

He’s talking up a storm and learning new words every day.  He knows red, green, blue, yellow and purple.  He’s starting to make mini sentences – mainly starting with “me” like “me eat.” and even getting into 3 word phrases like “no puppies me.”

He still LOVES trucks.  One of his favorite things on our walks is to go see the “lallow tucks” – all of the various yellow construction trucks in the neighborhood!

He still sleeps in a sleep sack and, lots of nights, fills it up with all the toys that he wants to have in the bed with him!  His bed is always full of Nanner, Mr. Moo, two wooden yellow truck puzzle pieces and then at least 2 other plastic trucks.  I don’t know how he doesn’t roll onto them in the night and wake himself up!

He continues to be a great sleeper.  After our nightly routine of reading several books, turning off the lamp and turning on the Twilight Turtle (purple, lallow, purple, lallow), he’s in bed between 7:30 and 8:00 and wakes up around 7:00 in the morning.  He’s still napping every day at 1:00 until about 4:00.  yay!  Let’s hope his baby brother is as good of a sleeper as he’s been!

Shhhh, the baby’s sleeping…

He’s still obsessed with shoes and wants to wear them all the time.  He’s also still a big fan of his baseball cap – never puts up a fight about wearing that!

He’s definitely developed a little happy squeal – or maybe I should say scream – that he does when he’s really excited about something!  It’s loud and hilarious!  His other big reaction is to say “ooooooh” when I explain something to him.  I love to hear that little “ooooooh” because that means whatever I said clicked in his head!

He still says “yea yea” for yes and it melts me.  And he’s very good at saying “no”…especially when it comes to food!  He’s learned ‘day and night’, as well as ‘above and below’ thanks to his Dinosaur Roar and Sandra Boynton Opposites book.  He loves to say that things are “cuuuute!” and he also loves to tell me when he finds some dirt on the floor with a loud exclamation of “dirt dirt!”.  Yea, I love that!  🙂  Most impressive?  He can definitely tell you he’s TWO while holding up 5 fingers!!

While we’re not ready to potty train yet in my opinion, he is very good at telling me when he “pees” and needs a clean diaper.  I’ll take that as a first step!

He gives awesome hugs and the sweetest kisses.  If you don’t get one on the cheek, he’ll happily blow you a kiss!

I just love to see how he learns new things every day and picks up on what we’re telling him.  He totally gets it and I can’t wait for his little vocabulary to catch up with his brain!

Now, on to some more shots of my two year old!

I have got to teach him to stop making this piggy face!!…

Happy two years sweet boy!

Whew!  This has been a big week on the bloggy blog!  Thanks for coming to visit and have a FANTASTIC long weekend!

Maxwell turned 21 months last week and the only way I can describe him is FUN!  He says the cutest things, does the most hilarious things and is just fun to be around…most of the time!  🙂  When I took him to the doctor last week for his cold, he weighed in at 25.2 lbs.  I definitely thought he weighed more but he must just be getting taller.

This picture kind of sums Maxwell up these days – playing outside with a snack and some trucks!

His favorite things these days are:

Nanner, aka NeNe – his beloved monkey

Trucks, any kind, real or toy

His lawnmower, aka Nanower

His shoes and hat.  This kid wants to wear shoes all day, every day.  He doesn’t like being barefoot.  He also ALWAYS wants to wear his hat – either his baseball cap or his fireman’s hat.  In fact, he’s whining for this hat in this picture!

He also hates for his hands or feet to be dirty. If we’re playing outside and he gets dirt on his hands or on his shoes, he’ll say “uh-oh” and come over to me to wipe them off.  My little neat freak!  🙂  If only this desire to be clean applied to mealtime!

He’s still a big fan of Sesame Street and that’s really all about he ever watches.  I’ve put on a few episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse but he isn’t too into it yet.  He loves the Sunday School Songs CD that Mrs. Susan plays for him every day.  His favorite songs (that we sing often!) are “This Little Light of Mine” and “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.”  We also still sing a lot of “Wheels on the Bus” and “The Itsy Bitsy Spider.”  Books are still tops and we have a handful that we read over. and over. and over.  Most are about trucks.

Maxwell continues to be a great sleeper.  He goes to bed with relatively no fuss after his favorite books every night between 7:00 and 7:30.  He wakes up every morning between 6:30 and 7:00 and is waiting for us in his bed when we go in in the morning.  He naps every day from 1:00 to 3:30 or 4:00.

Eating is a continual challenge…as with every toddler.  We have lessons daily about not throwing food on the floor!  Some days he’ll eat something and then the next day he won’t touch it.  It’s not frustrating at all, no!  🙂  Some things he’ll eat pretty consistently – applesauce, packets of any variety, Morningstar Farms veggie sausage, yogurt, yogurt melts, Special K bars, Oatmeal Squares, Morningstar Farms Veggie Corn Dogs, Cheddar Bunnies, and Pirate’s Booty Cheese Puffs.  He would live on those cheese puffs if I let him!  Veggies are touch and go and I’ve actually resorted to giving him a jar of baby food veggies at dinner many nights. He loves to eat it out of the jar with his own spoon and I figure it’s no different than giving him applesauce, right?  Notice I didn’t mention any fresh fruit in that list.  He won’t touch a piece of fresh fruit to save his life…and I’ve tried every. single. kind.  I continue to put it on his plate every day (just like I do veggies) and I just know that one day he’ll decide to eat it, right?  I sure hope so!  We also still give him a bottle of milk at night before bed (yes, a bottle and he’s 21 months.  No judgement please!) and he drinks it right up.

Peekaboo!

Some of his top words these days:

Pweez = please

Thank you – a new addition thanks to Mrs. Susan!

Truck = Duh

School = cool

Lamp = Hot. Yep, he just says hot for lamp after he burned his hand on the lightbulb of a lamp one day!

Yes = deh deh.  Yea, I don’t get it either.

Cookie = cccckkkkcccc.  Just a crackle noise.  Where does he get this?

Baby = Ya Ya

Yellow = Lallow…which he pretty much says whenever you ask him what color something is, whether it’s yellow or not!  🙂

Hat, shoe, hot, cold, Mama, Dada, juice, no and lots others that I can’t think of right now!

He’s SO aware of what we say and understands way more than I even know.  He’s just soaking it all in every day.

My sweet, sweet boy

He’s also been on a big Mama kick lately.  He wants me to do everything – turn off the light, get his juice, turn on the Twilight turtle, read his nighttime story – and if Dad tries to do it…well, that just won’t do!  Poor Robert!  I know it’s a phase so I’m just trying to appreciate the love right now!  🙂

My favorite time of day?  After Robert gets home from work and Maxwell has eaten dinner, we usually end up piled up on our bed with Maxwell rough-housing, throwing him around onto the pillows, playing airplane (or “sky” as Maxwell calls it), tickling him to get the best bellly laughs and just loving being together.  We’ll see if we can all fit on the bed once #2 arrives!!

Happy 21 months Maxwell!!  You are the sweetest, kindest, most considerate little boy I know and I’m so glad you’re mine!!

Maxwell is such a little chatty cathy these days.  He learns new words almost every day.  Some of my favorites lately…

Ky for Sky.  and he says this every time he sees or even just hears an airplane.

Sticky for anything that’s..well…sticky!

Mail Mail for mailman…and for any mailbox or white truck that he sees!

Bah for bye.  He says it to everyone and anyone that will listen whenever we leave anywhere.  Precious.

Juice..but it sounds more like joos.

Dee?  for this? When we read books, Maxwell just points at everything (mostly trucks) and says, “dee?” because he wants us to tell him what everything is.  Have I mentioned how good I am at identifying trucks now?  excavator, dump truck, backhoe loader…

No.  No is coming all. the. time.  Fortunately, I still find it ridiculously adorable when he shakes his little head and says “no” almost like a question.  Talk to me again in 2 months and I might have a different take on that!

Uh-oh.  We probably hear uh-oh more than any other sound.  Max drops a toy? Uh-oh. Maxwell throws a toy? Uh-oh. Maxwell’s juice cup leaks onto his tray? Uh-oh. Maxwell gets cracker on his shirt? Uh-oh.  Uh-oh all the time.

Ssshhhh.  Susan taught him to put his finger up to his lip and say “shhhh”.  This usually comes after tucking Nanner and Mr. Moo in for their nap in Maxwell’s crib.  The cuteness of his little 1 fingered ssshhh almost puts me over the edge.

He’s also got some pretty awesome new animal sounds – an elephant sound that kind of sounds like he’s spitting on himself and a cat meow that is a little more like “ow” but we get it.

But the best sound of all?  MaMa!!  except when it’s coming incessantly and accompanied by the never ending plea to be picked up of course.  🙂

Some funny pictures of my dude…

His chipmunk impersonation…

Being silly…

And my favorite…checkin’ himself OUT!

Man, I love that kid.  Bah!

Now that I’m not doing the monthly photos anymore, it’s easy to gloss over all the new things that Maxwell is doing everyday.  So, here’s a little 14 month update with all the things I want to remember about him right now….

I know I said a few weeks ago that Maxwell was officially a walker.  Well, he’s REALLY a walker now.  Last week he just decided that he didn’t want to crawl anymore and he pretty much walks everywhere now.  His balance is getting better every day and his pants are staying much cleaner too!

He also has no problem at all with stairs.

Maxwell still loves sleeping with Nanner and Mr. Moo.  However, he knows that his friends are for sleeping only so every time we get him out of his crib and he has one in his hand we say to him, “We have to say bye bye to Nanner. Throw him in the bed.” and then Maxwell will toss his little friend in the bed and grin from ear to ear!  So cute.

I have a large photo of Maxwell hanging on the wall right outside of his bedroom door and every single time we walk past it, he squeals, smiles and points at the cute baby on the wall.

Thanks to Susan, Maxwell has learned to give kisses.  When I ask for a kiss he comes at my cheek completely open mouthed and I almost die at how cute it is.

Maxwell is becoming an expert dancer.  One day he just started stomping his feet back and forth like a little dance.  Wanna see?  Check out his moves here!

Maxwell has recently discovered his belly button and he loves to check all the time to make sure it’s still there.  He also loves to pull up other people’s shirts to make sure their belly buttons are still there too!  🙂

Sesame Street is a big favorite and he goes wild when he sees Elmo on the tv.  He’ll see Elmo and then point over to his Elmo doll.  super cute.

One of his favorite things right now is to climb on top of me while I’m laying on the floor and make me bounce him up and down on my hips.  He holds onto my thumbs for dear life and just giggles with a mouth open smile the whole time!

Apparently Maxwell is so pretty that people think he’s a girl.  Not just some people, a lot of people.  I can count 6 times in the past two weeks alone that he’s been called a girl.  And I always dress him like a boy…red shoes, navy blue, striped shirts.  Guess it’s just those pretty blonde curls and long eyelashes!

Maxwell is loving the lawn mower he got for his birthday.  He makes circles around the house pushing it…and gets a liiiiitle frustrated when he runs into a wall and can’t get it turned around!

His vocab these days includes bye, oh (in place of uh-oh), oooooo (shoe), ock (sock) da da, ma ma (sometimes), uck (truck) and even car. Dogs still get a double hum like a woof woof.  Pretty much everything else gets a finger point and generic duh!

It just keeps getting better!