Shoes, Teeth, and Babies

Max has an obsession. Shoes. He loves to wear shoes. Anyone's shoes. My dress shoes. His brother's running shoes and flip flops. Emma's running shoes. Daddy's running shoes. Even if there's only one, he'll put it on and walk around. And they don't have to have the toes in the front either. He's not fussy. One thing he doesn't like are socks. He has a brand new pair of shoes he's never worn, and I put socks on him so he could wear his new shoes, and he was so MAD at me! He cried and pulled those suckers off in a flash! He hasn't worn socks since last winter (and winter ended here in February). So it will be an interesting winter here. He just may be in sandals all winter. Heck, no different than me... I wear flip flops all winter. :) Max is also repeating words like crazy! He's starting to initiate words on his own too... please, more, water, bath, etc (along with mama, dada, baba (Nicolas)). And he had a perfect check up at the dentist this week. (Well, perfect if you don't take points off for screaming while the dentist looks in your mouth). :)

Speaking of the dentist... Nicolas also had a perfect check up. And a loose tooth!! Really loose. Not loose enough to fall out... and for my weak stomach, it has to be hanging on by a thread for me to give the OK for it to come out. (Geez, just thinking about it right now is making my head woozy. And yes, I am a nurse.) So he should lose it in the next week or so. I'll keep you posted. :) A couple more things about Nicolas.... he still has 100% overall average in school. He started soccer (which he LOVES) and he should be testing in a couple weeks for his purple belt in Karate. :) Nicolas can name pretty much every NFL football team, and is already a die hard Jets fan. He saw a guy in the grocery store last week with his family and he had on a Jets jersey. Nicolas went up to him and said "hi, I am a Jets fan too". It was so stinkin' cute! One last thing... Nicolas is excited Obama won... he's a Democrat (although we feel bad for McCain). :)

Last but not least... babies!! New babies everywhere!! My BFF (what does that stand for anyway?) had a baby October 21st. She was 5 days overdue. Baby Zach and Mama are doing great. Max was so intrigued by baby Zach... he kept "petting" his head while he slept. :) And my SIL had a baby on Monday! Another boy baby! So both these new mamas have a girl and a boy. Our new nephew is Noah. We get to meet him just after Christmas when we head to CA. :)

Some things about Max

Guess who started eating with a spoon!?! Max just loves to feed himself. He never ate baby food, so he went straight to finger foods. Recently I gave him a spoon, and he took right to it! It's very cute to watch him use it. He's getting the hang of a fork as well.

Last week when I was at Nicolas' flag football practice, Max was playing behind me by a fence (to the adjoining baseball field). He was watching for airplanes and watching the girls practice baseball. Next thing I know he is complaining/crying. I look back and see he is stomping his feet. I go over to him and immediately see his feet are covered with fire ants! Poor baby! I whipped his sandals off his feet and brushed them all off. I got bit twice on my hand and boy do they itch! He has at least 20 bites on each foot! They started out as little welts (like tiny mosquito bites) and the next day were red marks. Anyway... several minutes after it happened, he was fine and playing again. But then he started pulling on his shirt. Sure enough there was one on his side and it bit him three times! What awful creatures! I was told if they become a problem around my house (which they aren't) to sprinkle grits to get rid of them (apparently they eat the grits and drink water and then explode). I haven't looked that up yet to see if it's true, so don't hold me to that if it's an old wive's tale. :) OK, so it was bugging me and I looked it up. It's not true. :) Oh well. I guess that's why I pay for an exterminator.

Have a mentioned that Max likes to climb? He was climbing on the back of the couch in the loft to get to the bar table. He would casually sit up on the bar table like it wasn't 4 feet high. No wonder I have to color my hair now. He got mad at me when I moved the table out of reach. So now he climbs up the chairs in the kitchen and formal dining room (the "Christmas Table", as Nicolas calls it) and sits on those tables. He can climb up on my bed. He climbs up on Nicolas' desk in his room and takes the top off the frog tank and plays in the frog's water. Good grief. Here's a pic of him climbing on Nicolas' work bench.