a half.

Max,
Oh you sweet little man you are one and a HALF today. Your mischief and happiness is still intact. You are quite determined and headstrong. Best put - you're down right stubborn. It is your way or...well, no way.

You've learned to hit and to whine for snacks. You have started to talk more and more. My favorite new word "turtle". You've really only said it twice but I love the way your little lips form to utter a T sound. Unbearable cuteness.



You lived through your first hair cut. Barely. With the help of none other than SWEETS. And bubbles. Which pretty much happen to be two of your very favorite things.

Saying you have a sweet tooth might be the understatement of the century. Child, you would live on candy and ice cream and anything covered in sugar. I'm certain it's why you are so sweet. Not only do you love sweets you know just where they are not-so-secretly hidden. You will race to the pantry or freezer at any given home we're at and wince and whine and point "dat" until you spot a golden wrapped Reese's. Suddenly ice cream appears from the freezer and you clap, race to the table and grin proudly. "Dat" is what you wanted and "dat" is what you got.


You've started to interact with your big brother and I love it. For the most part you just study him in full admiration. Watching each move to attempt and copy it later. you may be the younger brother but you are not submissive, you lash out if a toy is taken from you without your permission, you hit back fiercely, actually you often throw the first punch. You are a stocky, munchkin warrior. You are also quite the monkey, you can quickly scale a couch or bar stool, only to stand atop the kitchen table where you KNOW you do not belong. Instead of yelling for acknowledgement you wait until someone peeks around the wall and spots you. Then you smirk proudly and start to groan, because you know I'm coming to remove you.

You are totally growing up in to a little boy. The hair cut definitely helps make it more real. Oh but you are still such a little guy, a tiny baby. You snuggle with the best of them and have learned to suck BOTH of your thumbs at once. We love you Maximo. Keep on growing, thriving and being you.


And in the meantime, happy half birthday munchkin man!!!

writing.

This year at school Mason's started to learn more alphabet recognition, uppercase versus lowercase letters, a little spelling and he has even begun to write letters. I don't know if I was just confused but I swore we wouldn't be writing until kindergarten. Needless to say we're all really excited about it! Mason is captivated with writing and drinks up all the instruction like a little sponge.

The other night he laid sprawled on the living room rug with Michael and wrote all the letters he could get Michael to show him. At first I thought it was bedtime trickery since it was pushing 8:00 PM. But he genuinely asked for "more letters pwease" over and over and over. Until we reached "k" and then we had to force him to bed.


He's practically mastered his name, although we swear were were not trying to be unique, creative or new-aged by spelling Mason with a "z", that's his own tasteful artistic touch on his masterpiece. Trust me, I realize the immense level of my biases for how awesome I truly believe my kids are, but how kick ass is his writing for THREE YEARS OLD? Brag over.


We are learning, writing, and full of curiosity. As bittersweet as each milestone seems to be, I love watching him continue to push the limits of his potential and grow (even if it's faster than I approve of). Go Mase man go!

snacking, sharing (or stealing) & standing.

Snacks are a favorite past time in this house. Mason has always been a big snacker, there is not snack food in the world he will turn down - unless you consider a raisin a snack, but be let's be serious. Max is following closely in his big brother's footsteps in his love of snacking. They are die hard snack lovers. If you could be paid for snacking, I'm fairly certain they would both choose a career in it. Max does not even discriminate against raisins, truth be told, they are one of his favorites! Mason much prefers Cheetos, obviously right? And it seems like he prefers them on days he is wearing a white shirt. Perhaps, that is my fault for even purchasing any articles of clothing in white.

So most afternoons we snack outdoors and sometimes they share. And lately they stand. Max is standing! He's been pulling up on furniture for at least two or three months and standing and cruising but in the last ten days he's mastered standing from the ground up all on his own. It's so exciting and he is super proud. He'll often flash us a look of accomplishment, I want to eat the grin off his face he's so damn delicious. Almost as delicious as a Cheetos puff. But maybe not.

Sharing is not a strong point for my kids. I really don't know why! I enforced it early on with Mason even before he had a built in "sharing" buddy [known to some as a baby brother]. Mason is gung-ho to share if it's something he doesn't want. But the real sharing gets ugly. Like a mini WWF series on my living room rug. I usually just watch and laugh, because I'm afraid of getting a chunky baby foot straight to the eye. Really, it's not that bad. They share, well they steal and smirk. The theif gets approximately twenty seconds to gloat and grin and bask in their glory until the robbed brother realizes and attacks the thief.

Snack stealing...sharing....is the most fun to watch.The other day Mason had Cheetos (are we sensing a theme?) and Max had a rice cake. All was well on my front lawn, snacking children are always happy and always quiet and content. Well almost always. Then Mason suggested they share their snacks. I had to do a double take - I looked back over at him and made sure I had given him Cheetos for snack and not grapes. He wants to share with Max? Hmm okay. I think that's a great idea. Mason snuck a bite of rice cake and basked in his glory, flashing me a cheesy (literally) smile.

Max didn't have a clue and the exchange took place a handful of times before Max realized his rice cake was quickly vanishing and his fingers weren't turning orange like Mason's. That's basically how Mason "shares". It was under three minutes before Max understood what was happening - he learns quickly. He copies more quickly than he learns and he stole some Cheetos, only for Mason to steal them back.


Did I mention Max is standing? I probably did - because I brag about my [genius] babies a lot. But that's one of the best perks of parenting thinking or sometimes, knowing, your kids are the coolest, smartest, cutest kids on the planet Earth. Anyway this was a little snapshot of Max conquering his newest trick of standing without any furniture, adult, toddler brother assistance. Step one, put hands firmly on ground to thrust chubby body upward, step two, stand tall and proud for one minute even, step three, WIPE OUT.
So that's what were up to. Snacking, sharing, stealing snacks and a little standing. The boys summer has pretty much started the only S were missing is swimming; Mason's lessons start in a week. He is so excited. We'll be back with swimming pics!