Show me your TEETH!

Oh kids are really fun. The two pictures above are what you get when you ask Maddox to "Show us your teeth". Rather than pointing to them like every other body part, he just orients his mouth in such a way to enable you to see them. Much like a grizzly or a great white. It's startling just the same. And much like a grizzly or a great white, he's slowly moving up the food chain. Right now his meals typically consist of graham-crackers, ritz crackers, gold fish or kix cereal. But we are working on him. I think the scientific term for this is cracker-sweets-a-vore. If he would just dabble in the herbivore laire for even a day, it'd be perfect. But alas, such is life... nothing is ever truly perfect, is it?

Other than this bit of fun, dada's turning 32 today. Where did the time go? I've resigned myself to the fact that I will always be stupefied about how quickly time goes by. It's the one thing in life I will never understand. Well, one of the many really. Others would be: 1.) How can food taste so dang good going down one minute and so shockingly bad coming back up a few minutes later? 2.) If we are really supposed to have evolved from monkeys, why are they so hairy everywhere except their butts? Wouldn't this be the exact opposite of us? Not to completely scoreboard anybody here, but: Cody 1, Darwin 0. )

So Maddox has been great lately. He still much prefers his mother over me. I'm kind of on the same level as any other random stranger that looks fun and slightly familiar. But that's okay. I've got one thing going for me. Nobody, and I mean Nobody, can chase him like I can. I'll gladly claim that title. I know you are thinking it's on odd title to claim. And well, you may be right, but then again, it's my birthday today, and I'm taking it. Being chased is really his favorite thing in life right now. Being chased while outside? That's the icing on the cake man. Sometimes the best things in life are the simplest.

Max has also been quite the charmer lately. I know Nicole disagrees with me here, but sometimes when he "gets in trouble" it's really him just trying to entertain and interact with us. Before I go any further, I'll be the first to admit he does push the limits a lot. But sometimes he's just trying to joke around. He does throw his share of fits though. A weird analogy popped into my head the other day. Most of his early fits really happened when he was with Nicole or Nana and Papa. I've really not had a fit thrown on me. At least not until a few days ago. It was really a lot like fishing. Other people on our boat would catch a fish (aka a fit) from Maddox, all while I was within watching distance. Nicole was catching a lot. Nana and papa caught a few. For the longest, I'd see them reel little Maddox in with him flopping around and freaking out. I would wonder, when's my turn going come. I've been out here for awhile now. What's it going to feel like? How am I going to know if it is one and not him just playing around? What's it going to be like and better yet, how big is it going to be? Well, I caught one this week. It was kind of cool. I was thinking to myself, and I swear it was similar to the feeling you get when you feel your line first tug with a fish... "Oh, what's this? Oh. Do I have one?" Then, as Max goes straight leg and the screaming starts low and grows louder with a quickness, I realize that I actually do have one. It was great!! He totally arched his back and started kicking. Legs kicking, back arched, but head, neck and arms completely limp. I've seen bigger, but this one was mine and I ate it up. Thanks pork-chop.

Likes:

1. Being chased.
2. Mama.
3. Outside.
4. Walking in the street.
5. Pushing shopping carts.
6. Graham Crackers.
7. Cars, dumptrucks, diggers.
8. Talking jibberish.
9. Shrek.
10. Making the elephant noise.
11. Slides.

Dislikes:

1. Bed time.
2. Green vegetables not named Pea.
3. Hunger.
4. Face plants while running away from dada.
5. Seeing the back door, grasping at the door knob, yet not being able to get across his intention to go outside to his mom and dad.
6. Not getting comfortable enough to sleep at night.
7. Leg cramps/growing pains.
8. A&M's losing football season.
9. Beef.
10. Bath-tub removal.

A Grizzly Halloween

From Grizzly Halloween

Wow, what happened to October? Holy moly. It felt like I had been falling down on the job lately, but apparently that is an understatement. Sorry guys. I'll try and make it up with some pictures and videos like usual. It's my equivalent to flowers for the bad husband. If you are left thinking "But, he loves me" at the end of this, then mission accomplished.

On to pork chop... He is learning more tricks by the day. In the past week he's learned to moo like a cow, trumpet/squeal like an elephant and that the "Beep, beep" noise means he needs to take his dump truck backwards. And the latest spin on this is that now while walking, he will actually start to walk backwards when you make the noise, before slamming it into drive and speed walking till he falls down. All of these things, obviously, require Max to quote - "feel like it" before it gets done. Kids these days.

Halloween was a blast. We travelled to Keller to trick-or-treat with the cousins, Jack and Molly. Jack was Optimus Prime from the Transformers and Molly was Gabriella from High School Musical. Max went as a grizzly bear. It was a great time. Surprisingly, even though Max is only 15 months, he really caught on to the whole, "here's my bucket, give me candy" idea. So much so that towards the end, he didn't really even show his bucket to the people so much as just grab for their candy. For the last few houses, he even started taking off his costume. The paws and hat went overboard. He was really awesome. The people were so awe-inspired by his cuteness as a bear cub that when we shamefully apologized for his big paws grabbing more than one piece of candy, one lady said "Oh no, he can have as much as he wants!!" Then, when finished rummaging through their candy and dispensing of his fake feelings for them, he would hustle back to the wagon we pulled him in and he'd point to the next house for us to go. It was a great Halloween.

So, without further a-do... here's a quick list of likes and dis-likes followed by some pictures of Max at the State Fair of Texas (petting zoo), Halloween and him wearing his bear feet tonight.

Likes:

1. Bread. All kinds.
2. Nana and Papa, equally.
3. Momma.
4. Trucks and cars. All kinds.
5. Leaf blowers.
6. Making his feet dance.
7. Wearing bear feet in the days after Halloween.
8. M&M's (chocolate only).
9. Slides and trampolines, equally.
10. Falling asleep to his dada singing "My little buttercup" from the 3 Amigos.
11. Making tight turns while walking. (Both to the left and right.)
12. Fruit.
13. Sitting down on steps... after backing up to them.

Dis-Likes:

1. Never-ending presidential election coverage.
2. Sleeping, still his long time nemesis.
3. Chicken or any kind of protein.
4. Shots.
5. Not having his mom rock him to sleep.
6. Holding hands with parents while walking.
7. Not being allowed to walk off the curb and into the street.
8. Not being allowed to walk while holding a screw driver.
9. Diaper changes.
10. Vegetables.
11. Sitting in a shopping cart, rather than standing.
12. Unexpectedly hard falls.

Here's the slide show: