Max loves to play with bubbles. Mom entertains him daily with a bubble shower. Unfortunatly we still need to give him a real bath also.
I told you he couldn’t keep his hat on for long. We think this is an especially cute picture.
Also, click here to see the entire series of these pictures.
Max getting into the baseball spirit with his first Washington Nationals Hat. It was tough capturing this picture since he will not keep a hat on for more than two seconds.
Mom and Max meet Dad after his bike ride. Mom and Max went running while Dad was on his ride. Max seemed to enjoy being pushed in the running stroller for a while but then got bored.
Max got another ear infection (although it isn’t clear he has ever recovered from the first one), so he has been under the weather and probably won’t be sending out a message this month. He also needs to save his “strength” for the big 1 year message 
If this round of antibiotics doesn’t work he might have to have tubes put in his ears. This sounds very scary (you have to go to the hospital and he even has to go under) so we are hoping it doesn’t come to that and that the fluid behind his ears goes away with the latest medicine. Unfortunately the ear infection hit right on Mother’s Day. In fact, he couldn’t wait to wish Mom a happy Mom’s Day and started screaming right at midnight. He has been sleeping much better with the new drugs.
Max made a very nice card for Mom at school. It had a couple of pictures of him playing and the message “Thanks for being my Mom”. It was very nice
In general Max continues to amaze us everyday with the new things he can do. Dad went on a business trip and when he got back he was in shock at how much Max had changed in just the few days he was away. The little gut is very mobile and is in constant motion – can’t imagine where he gets that from 
He loves to “cruise” everywhere and practically runs when Mom holds onto his hands. The shoes Grandma took him to buy are almost completely wore out. Max loves to kick the ball (any ball, or actually anything on the ground for that matter) and people are always impressed with his fancy footwork. The last week he has been practicing standing without holding on to things (mostly leaning on something with his tummy). At open gym (gymboree) on Monday Max took his first tentative step. He has also been attempting to stand up without pulling on anything. He gets about halfway up and then decides he isn’t really and sits back down again.
Max also still likes to throw the ball (okay, so he doesn’t always constrain himself to balls). I had to call John when was away to report that Max had demanded to be put in the playpen; and once inside he promptly started throwing the ball against the mesh side and clapping vigorously when the ball came back. (You can generally get him to clap on command if you say “Hurray for Max!” This will even work when you are trying to keep him from falling asleep in the car; with his eyes practically closed he will still slowly clap.)
Besides clapping, Max really enjoys to wave “bye”. During the morning and evening rush hours we go up to the end of the street and watch all the “traffic”. Max likes to wave to all the cars/trucks/buses that go by. A lot of drivers wave back to him and smile. Sometimes he even says “bye” while waving.
Max has a lot to say; exactly what it is he is saying we aren’t really sure. But he gets very excited “talking” at times. He can say “Dada”, “Moma”, “Ball”, “Bye”, and (and Aunt Courtney can vouch for this) “Bubble”. Of course “Dada” is still his favorite word!
According to his report cards, he really likes to talk to his classmate Nicole (I call her his “girlfriend”). This coming weekend Nicole is having a party for her first birthday and so Max is going to his very first birthday party. During the next 4 weeks 4 of the 8 children in Max’s room turn 1. One of the boys turns 1 the day before Max.
There are two boys on our street who are very close in age to Max. One is about 8 months older and one actually had the same due date, but was 7 weeks premature. Both of them are named Alexander. We see the one closest to Max in age all the time. Recently the two boys have started to “play together” (e.g. walking around in random directions that sometime collide). Since his parents are from Russia they call him Sasha, which helps with keeping the two Alexander’s straight. The other day the other Alexander stopped over and Max had a good time chasing him around. Hopefully as they get a little older they will have lots of fun playing together.
When we went to his last doctors appointment I weighed him while we were waiting. He is roughly 18 lbs 8 oz. Solid foods still are not Max’s favorite thing. Although Mom was very excited when Max eat a lot of her “Not-So-Sloppy Joes”. (The recipe came from a magazine and really tasted more like sweet (since it had cinnamon) pasta sauce.) But in general Max doesn”t like food with texture. He is very good at at least taking one bite of something, but the result is usually him pushing it out of his mouth and then trying to wipe it off his tongue with his little fingers. If you offer him anymore he will vigorously shake his head “no”. Nonetheless, we make him sit down to three meals a day. He does best at lunch. In general his diet includes 5 6oz bottles spread throughout the day. For breakfast he also has either oatmeal or “mixed” cereal (mixed with 1 oz of water), cheerios, and rice chex. For lunch he has a 4 oz jar of vegetables
and crackers. For dinner he has a 4 oz jar of “meat” (e.g. turkey and rice, chicken noodle, beef vegetable) and more crackers. He has water from a sippy cup with all of these meals. He usually takes a bath after dinner to clean up before bed
When not bothered by ear infections Max has been doing a pretty good job of sleeping through the night. He generally goes to be sometime between 8 and 8:30 and wakes around 6.
On Mother’s Day Max went for his first full jog in the running stroller. We went about 3 miles and it seems like he likes sitting there watching the world go by (as long as it isn’t a dog). In general Max still appears to be “afraid” of dogs and cats. The other day we were “trapped” outside because Oliver (the cat who lives next door) was sitting on the doorstep. If a dog or cat comes towards him he will start to cry. Now this even happens when the dog/cat is getting closer only because he walking towards the dog/cat, who is sitting still
So what does Max do at school? Below are some excerpts from his “report cards”. The other day we actually had to fill out our first “incident” report. Shortly after dropping him off he fell and split his lip. Apparently it took about 10 mins to completely stop the bleeding. He had a fat lip for a few hours, but that was gone by the time he went to bed. Overall the whole thing didn’t seem to phase him that much. The report details what happened, who witnessed it, and
what was done about it. In general Max has a great time at school. They have a very little (short) table and small chairs and Max looks like a very big boy sitting at it eating. They try to give the kids different solid foods each day, but most of the time Max just plays with it.
- Max had lots of fun playing with Nicole. He also pushed, and pushed, and pushed the push car. He laughed when Ms. Clara tickled him on his tummy. Spaghetti is not his favorite food — too sticky.
- Fun time even though he had the accident. He ate well and drank all of his bottles. He went back to cruise near the block where it happened, but hesitated a little after the accident. He played with Nicole and talked to her.
- Great day – no falling – yea! He played with paint and Ms. Clara gave him cotton balls. He didn’t like the texture. Then he went to the quiet area and played with Nicole, who was laughing very loudly as Max made faces at her.
- Good day overall. Stood-up and let hands go for few minutes. He pushed everything in the room and used them as push toys (including the chairs).
- Max had fun playing with bubbles. He cruised around and babbled, who knows what he said but talked, talked, and talked. We were able to go outside for a while. Max liked to watch the toddlers run around.
- Max had a busy day re-arranging the furniture and toys. The library was a place to sit down and relax. Later we read two story books “I went walking” and “If you give a moose a muffin”.
