Maddox Mantooth

Sorry for the long time between posts again. There's a nice ebb and flow to my work life and home life. I'm always busy with one, then not busy with either for a few days, then busy again. At least it has rhythm to it though. So much has happened in the past few weeks. I'm starting to realize a rhythm with babies also. It's starting to seem like every 2 or 3 weeks, I wake up and find that Maddox is almost a completely different baby, doing and saying different things. I'm sure he is making little advances every day that go unnoticed, it's probably just that I'm still trying to cope with the changes he made over the last 2 weeks. Maybe I'm just always trying to catch up to where he is currently, maybe this is the case for all parents... maybe that's why their babies never grow up. I know this is the case for my parents. I still get reminded to put gas in my car!!

So here are some of Maddox's achievements to date (or at least the ones I know about). He crawls much faster than he used to. He can pull himself up on chairs, toys and parents. He can't quite stand on his own, but if he has something to brace him, he can stand. He definitely knows now that things have an order to them. Like he has certain toys (blocks) that go in a specific red box. If you put something in there that isn't supposed to be there, he takes it out for you. He'll put stuff in there on occasion, but only for a second or two before he pulls it out, because it obviously doesn't belong. And most importantly, he is cutting 4 top teeth at the same time. He's practically a shark.

One of the biggest achievements to date is that this past week he has started to talk to us, as in have conversations with us. Except that most of the talking, outside of the grunting that he does, is done with his hands. It usually goes like this (and I'll sub in what it looks like he's wanting to say, so you can get the gist of it):

Max: "Uh." (both hands open, palms up, like "I'm sitting down. Why am I sitting down".)
Parents: "Hi. What's going on?"
Max: "Uhhh." (hands out, palms still up, "Uh, why am I sitting down?")
Parents: "Hi, how are you?"
Max: "UH. Uh." (hands still out but moving up and down with palms up, "I should be being held right now. But instead, I'm sitting. Why is that?")
Parents: "Wow. Look at you."
Max: "UHHHHHHHH" (hands doing the same, "Am I speaking a different language, or are you a complete idiot? Which is it? I'm waiting....")
Parents: "Oh. How are you?"
Max: "Uh, uh". ("Seriously?")

So that's a little glimpse of the happenings lately. I'll try to catch it on video sometime for everybody. You can make your own assumptions about what it is he is trying to say. But whatever it is, he's pretty emphatic about it.

Here's a quick list of his likes and dislikes at the moment:

Likes:

1. Juice.
2. Oyster crackers.
3. Finger puppets from Ikea.
4. Crawling on daddy while he plays.
5. Pulling a Hispanic girl's hair at day care. (Her mom fixes it for her everyday before taking her to daycare, and Maddox loves it!")
6. Grinding his 2 bottom teeth together with is top tooth that just came in. For the record, it makes the worst sound ever, which is why I think he likes to do it. It's literally like nails on a chalk board.
7. Bath time.

Dislikes:

1. Carrots.
2. Bedtime.
3. Not getting to play with his sippy cup at dinner.
4. Not being allowed to put choking hazards in his mouth.
5. Hunger.
6. Being gradually weened.
7. Sleeping in his own bed when our bed is so close.
8. Cutting 4 teeth at the same time.

Here's some pics: