Max-isms

To get this one you would have to be up on the Peter Pan dramas at our house. . .

After church and Sunday School, I was getting the kids bundled up to go home. Pastor Mark says, Hey Stef, if you have a minute, I have something I want to show you in my office." Max says, she's not Stef. That's not her name." Pastor Mark addressed his remarks explaining that I wasn't Pastor Mark's mom, so he was calling me Stef. Max continued, "That's not her name. She's not Stef she's Indian!"

When Max was 2 he would randomly use the word, darnit. We couldn't believe it. Not a term we really use at home, we learned that it was something learned at school. We have taught him to use the word, bummer. For the most part, he will use the word bummer, but of course he knows that we do not like to hear him use the word darn or darnit, and will, on occasion, use it as a sort of rebellion. Last week we had an episode.

It was time to get ready for bed. He was sitting on our bed, repeating, "Darn. Darn. Darn. Darn." We vary our approach. Sometimes we ignore, and other times, when it becomes obnoxious, we address. This time Peg started with, "Max, what--" and was interrupted by Max. He looks at us and says, "Let's have a little talk. (shaking his finger) Number one. Do we use the word darn or bummer?" We both replied at about the same time, "What do we say?" Max says, "No. I'm asking you. What do we say, darn or bummer?" (is he for real?) Peg finally responds, "We say bummer." Max, "That's right! Good job!"

We had some visitors last weekend. He put them in character. Capt. Hook and Smee(sp?) And spent a lot of time reminding them of our house rules. At least they were amused rather than offended!

Bedtime recently(remember Cooper and Max share a room). Max is in his bed and Cooper is protesting mildly from the confines of his crib.

Max: Cooper! You don't have to whine.

Oh yeah, and characters of late? Peter Pan, Wee little baby bear, biggest Billy Goat Gruff, baby Koala, joey, zookeeper.

Here's a picture of Max in his pouch, and Max all geared up to play Packers vs. Giants

Who's the Boss?

Not sure if I've touched on this before, but Max likes to be in charge, in control, in other words, the Boss.


At school he is a leader, he will organize activities during free play and get others to play along with his ideas. He is also very in tune with classroom rules and for a time, would jump right in--even before his teachers--to help remind his friends(the term they use to define other classmates--for another post) of the rules, how they are infracting them, and what should be the consequence. Some kids have even responded to him that "you're not the teacher" even though he was correct in his assessment. A few weeks ago I walked in to pick him up and there he was, sitting in a chair facing 4-5 other kids sitting watching him. He was holding a book as if he were the teacher, facing out, with one hand on top, using the other hand to point to certain pictures. He. was. in. charge. And boy was he serious about it.


At home. Of course he wants to tell Cooper what to do, when, and how high. Cooper's not always receptive to these demands.
When we are talking with Max about the choices he's making or what we need him to be doing, he will pipe in as if he is the parent chiding us. "Well if you don't knock it off, I'm going to wap you." Or, "Stop talking right now!" Obviously trying to avoid hearing us tell him whatever it is we were planning on. It's really funny, but yet it's not. Of course we don't want him to think he runs the show, but it's a balancing act. We want him to feel like he has a say. It's eye-opening. Although some of what he says has not come from us, some of it has. And it's like. . . .WHOA. Here are some exerpts:

[during a moment when I was asking him to do something]
"MaMa, you just worry about you."

Breakfast time, Max has just told me that he is full and would like to be done. I ask him if it would be ok if we shared his remaining yogurt with Cooper. He says that's fine. I give Cooper a bite and he is not interested in anymore. I then ask Mommy if she would like a bite. She has a bite.
Max(to Mommy): "You may not have another bite." (and continues with a few more comments in this nature)
Mommy: (in a real soft tone)You know what I think Max? I think, I would really like it if you would use some nicer words. . .(and she continues with a few more remarks)
Max: You know what I think? I think I. . . . . . . . . .'ve got to go poop.

Seriously, never a dull moment.

Max-isms

We're going on about a 48 hour stretch of "Pan"-damonium. I'm still Indian--I mean Wendy, Mommy's Hook and Cooper is "John in the pink pjs."

Not only have we made Peter Pan hats, we've made a pirate ship for Hook and he's been working on costumes for all of us.

Not that I really mind this character, but I'm trying to think of a new obsession for him. Any other nice characters come to mind?

Aren't these the cutest?

My sister Susan and our niece Gina made these for Gina's 8th birthday party! A total Dog theme. Complete with a big doghouse of cardboard that all the kids decorated! To all of you, file this away in your birthday theme idea list!!

Here's the birthday girl up before the break of dawn!

Max-isms

Character de jour:

Daddy

Pig

Peter Pan

While he was Peter Pan, he gave us characters too, which is not uncommon. Mommy was Capt. Hook and I was Wendy, except that Max frequently was mistaking my name as Indian.

What is up with Max being Mr. Sneaky? In the last couple of days we have found him hiding under the table trying to consume unauthorized treats, and tonight he was hiding under the desk wanting to pick off some decorations off some artwork. Is this a normal age to try to go undercover?

Lastly, I was having a phone conversation with my brother tonight. We were talking about his 5 year-old participating in a wrestling tournament. As he was describing it I said, "oh my gosh, were you just dying or what?" Max quickly interrupted, "Don't say dying, because when you die, you go away forever!" Whoa.

Max-isms

I have decided that I am going to try to post daily, or close to it to document how many different characters Max is throughtout the day. Today by the time I left for work, he had claimed to be:
Jack(Jack and the Beanstalk)
Peter Pan
Baby Polar Bear
Baby Koala Bear
Max

Some funny things:

Daddies have fuzzy boobs and MaMas have big, big boobs.


Pete your sakes! (for pete's sake)

The Hiatus is over

I guess I've been on strike with the Writer's Guild. . .

I've been waiting and waiting to post because I have a few posts started from December that I still haven't finished up. . .blah, blah, blah.

Any way, here we are, we're all well.

So, January.

Started off with me being worthlessly sick. Grateful that it only lasted 2 days and no others caught it. January 2nd we took Cooper into our ENT and we decided to have tubes put in that Friday. He(we) had been struggling through the nights for longer than we could manage and just seemed miserable. As it turns out, Dr. Case said it was a very good thing we did this because both ears had thick goo in them. We have already noticed a difference in both sleep(YEAH!!) and his speech.

Max had his teeth cleaned on Monday and did a great job. We had him go back with our favorite Hygenist, hoping for the best. After a while, I snuck back and listened in and observed from behind a half-wall.

I could tell by the instruments, Heather was trying to polish his teeth. Max was curling up his body saying things like, "No, I don't think so." Really being polite, but obviously not interested in continuing the polishing. I step in--not that I'm some hero, I just don't want Heather stuck trying to negotiate with a 3 year-old! I see that they are on the second flavor of polish. Heather finally gets him to agree to a 5 second polish. He really didn't like the gritty-ness of the polish. The facial expressions were, quite honestly, hilarious. Such a pained and contorted look. After the polishing was over, she got out her scraper tool and told Max she was getting off the sugar bugs. He was perfect. The dentist stopped by and verified NO CAVITIES!!

This Sunday is one of our favorite cousins birthday!!