Dear Max,

What day is it? I am seriously that lost right now. It has been a busy and somewhat rough couple of weeks and I completely forgot what day it was. Thankfully, your father reminded me that I am a few days late on writing your monthly letter. He told me you had been asking when your website would be updated. I am glad I am a few days late because now I can talk about the huge SNOW STORM! Last month I was telling you about it snowing and now I can tell you that there was a record amount of snowfall this month. North Texas got between 6 to 12 inches of snow, completely unheard of. On Tuesday and Wednesday you and Jake had a fever, and the snow hit on Thursday. I didn’t take you outside on Thursday because I didn’t want to irritate whatever virus you had. However, on Friday you seemed back to your normal self. While Jake was taking his morning nap I took you into the front yard to build a snowman! Of course I did the actual building, but you insisted that we put a mustache on it. We decided to use your Mr. Potato Head pieces for our snowman’s face, and one of your hats. I think it turned out great. You were pretty cute, too.

Speaking of the last few weeks being rough, you and Jake have been sick off and on for almost a month now. About a month ago you and Jake got RSV. Basically you were coughing a lot and sounded like you were smoking 6 packs a day. I got concerned because it sounded like you were wheezing, so I took you both to the doctor. You both tested positive for RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) and you also had your first ever ear infection. They tell you that when your child has an ear infection they will pull on their ears or complain of ear pain or something. Well, guess what? You did none of those things. We had no idea you had an ear infection. After we found out you had one we remembered that you would kind of cry when we told you to blow your nose, but that was it. With RSV we had to get a nebulizer and give you and Jake breathing treatments, along with antibiotics that you were taking for your ear infection. It took a couple of weeks for this virus to run its course. Right now Jake is sick again, but I think you are finally better. However, you still have a snotty nose. It has been a rough winter.

Did I mention we started potty training last week? I have wanted to start potty training with you for a month now, but every week there was some new hurdle to jump over. You and Jake have been sick for like 3 week now, and then we had a meeting with Don King. (Unrelated tangent coming up.) By the way, you really took to Don. We had him over for dinner and I think he took a liking to you. I got a great picture of the two of you together, much better than the last one I took where you were crying. Anyway, back to potty training. It has gone great! I had already planned to just take you to the bathroom every 30 minutes to make sure you didn’t have any accidents. To my surprise, you actually told me when you needed to go. I wasn’t sure if I could trust you, but when you told me you needed to go, you went. Right now you are calling a pull-up “underwear” and you know that when you are wearing one you aren’t supposed to go the bathroom in it. I am still putting a diaper on you for nap time and bedtime. I’m glad that you don’t think a pull up is a diaper. For the past 2 days you haven’t had any accidents and have kept your pull up dry all day. You still go in your diaper during nap and bedtime, but for now I’m not that concerned. My plan is to start putting you in real underwear and maybe just putting a pull up on over your underwear when we go somewhere. I’m not sure if I should be taking your potty seat converter thing with me when we go somewhere or I should just put you on the big toilet seat. Oh, the difficult decision we are faced with in life.

(Don and Max at 15 months old)

(Don and Max at 30 months old)

I think you are under the impression that you are teenage girl. Seriously, where did this attitude and lip come from? The last few days have been trying. You just came out of no where with talking back, and bossing around. We have talked about how to talk nicely and the difference between you saying, “Get my cup” and “Can I have my cup, please.” Boy, you are NOT going to talk to me that way. I don’t talk to YOU that way, so I don’t know where you are getting it. Either way, I saw a big improvement today. Thankfully.

You call everyone a “silly booger” all the time. This is completely my fault. I am always calling Jake a “silly booger” or a “silly goose”. I am not offended at all at this name calling, and I actually think it’s kind of cute. I mean, really, it could be MUCH worse.

So you are full on praying for every meal alone. At first you always said, “Thank you for muffins.” You have a thing for muffins, I guess. So I pointed out to you that you were not eating muffins and you needed to pray for what you were eating. So before we pray for lunch or dinner I always point out what we are eating. At first your prayers went something like this, “Father, thank you for chicken and corn. In Jesus name, Amen.” Short. Sweet. To the point. Now you are changing it up a little bit and it goes like this, “Father, thank you for chicken, NOT HAMBURGER. In Jesus name, Amen.” I guess you want to make sure God doesn’t get confused between the two.

You are really into the “Arthur” books and TV show. I don’t know how you it really came about, but every time we go the library you want to check out an Arthur book. The other day I took you to Half-Priced Books and we found a lot of Arthur books. I told you I would buy you 2, but you coerced me into buying 3. You kept saying, “Not 2, 5!” I compromised by letting you have 3. I have been DVRing episodes of Arthur and I let you watch them as a reward for something. You also like Barney, the big purple dinosaur. (sigh) I use him as an incentive also. I’ve noticed Jake seems interested when the theme song to Barney plays. I’m not going to lie, I don’t mind letting you watch “your shows” every once in a while because I can usually get so much done. (laundry, cleaning, etc.)

Thanks for pooping in the potty. Changing your diapers was making me gag. I’m so not exaggerating.

Love,
Mama

Today I started full on potty training. Max has showed “signs” that he is ready for a while now. I have basically been the hold up. It seems like there was something going on every week so we just kept putting it off. The boys were sick, then we had a church meeting, so this week I decided it was time. This morning I started by putting Max in “big boy” underwear. He was really excited and when I sat him on the potty he peed. (Sidenote: We have been sitting Max on the potty every night before his bath to pee. He is always really excited about it and every night he pees without problem. I guess we just decided to do this to get Max use to going to the bathroom. He always gets one M&M everytime he pees in the potty and 2 M&Ms when he poops.) Since I teach on Mondays I had to have Nona (my mom) take over with the potty training. The initial plan was that we would sit Max on the potty every 30 minutes and basically make him sit there until he did something. (if we had to use some warm water we would) Mom told me that Max had an accident and told her he had to pee but it was too late. After that accident mom put Max in a pull up instead of underwear, which I told her to use if she needed to. After the first accident Max started telling my mom that he needed to pee. Every time he told her that he needed to go, he went, and got an M&M. She said that he had probably had 8 or 9 M&Ms, and that was when I came home at 1pm. After that initial accident this morning Max kept his pull up dry all day! When he saw me get a diaper out for Jake he told me that he doesn’t need a diaper anymore because he is a big boy. He is calling his pull up “big boy underwear”. I didn’t really plan on using pull ups, but if he keeps doing good then I will put him in underwear again. Day 1, SUCCESS!

Dear Max,

We had a very exciting month! The biggest surprise was that is SNOWED! IN TEXAS! I remember the Thanksgiving after you were born that it kind of “snowed/iced”, but you were just a baby and obviously don’t remember. That being said, this was really your first experience with snow. I was so excited to show you the snow that the night that it snowed I took you and Jake in the backyard for a few minutes just so you could watch the snow fall from the sky. It was so windy and definitely too cold (and late) for us to be outside for very long, but I did manage to snap a picture. The next morning I took you and Jake outside to play in the snow before it melted. You had fun running around and picking up snow and licking it. We attempted to build a snowman, but you decided it would be more fun for you build up a mound of snow and then kick it over. Then Zeke peed on it. So much for that. You got some new toys this past month, and that is always exciting. You got a Power Wheels Jeep. You absolutely love it. We let you ride it in the backyard, but you haven’t really figured out how to steer it. It goes forwards and it can also go in reverse. Jake likes to sit in the passenger side and usually we just turn the wheel so that you can just go in circles and not run into anything. I decided to buy you the Tag Junior reading system. It is really neat. I bought you 5 books to go with it and so far you have really enjoyed it. It’s really cool because when you put the “wand” on the words it reads the words to you. It also has lots of interactive stuff too. I need to really sit down and learn all that it does so that I can show you, but so far you are just enjoying “playing” with it. Something that Jake got was some different shaped blocks, and of course you love them. You love trying to figure out how to fit them to make different things and Jake let’s you play with it, for now.

Even though it has been freezing (literally) lately, it was actually warm enough to go to the zoo at the beginning of this month. We met some friends there and you boys had a great time. I’m glad I got a zoo pass last year and I plan on renewing it! Unfortunately, the penguin exhibit was closed. In March the zoo is opening up a huge new addition and it looks like it is going to be really neat and add a bunch of new animals. For some reason you kept telling me you wanted to see the peacocks, but after we went to the kids petting and play area you got distracted and forgot about it.

We took a trip to Oklahoma this past month and got to see a bunch of people at the New Years meeting. You and Jake did GREAT in the car. The portable DVD players were life savers. Jake even watched a Baby Einstein DVD! One day we went to a bounce house and even though it was small and very crowded, you kids had a great time. There was a big inflatable Batman that you loved. I think you had so much fun because Dada jumped with you most of the time and I jumped with you some too. We managed to get one picture of you and Jake with Eliana and Ian. It was a good trip and you have been asking about “all your friends” in Oklahoma. You are so funny.

You have started to sing a lot more. You mostly sing your ABCs, 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on a Bed, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Row Your Boat, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and then lots of church songs. The other day you started singing “O Why Not Tonight?” It was very random because I can’t even remember the last time we sang that song. I got video of you singing it while you were eating dinner and it was the first time in a long time that I was crying because I was laughing so hard. You are hilarious. You have also started praying by yourself, and it is truly precious. We have been reading a lot of Bible stories lately and you always want to read about Jonah, The other day Nona was reading you the story of Jesus walking on the water. When she asked you what happened you exclaimed, “He saw a SHARK!” I guess you have watched that Batman episode with the exploding shark one too many times!

Lately you seem to be a little more daring. You have started finding things you can jump or climb on. You like to jump off the ottoman onto the floor or you jump from the ottoman to the couch. You and Jake love the laundry basket and sometimes you turn it over and stand on it (or jump off of it) or you sit inside of it and then tip it over and fall out of it. This week you gave yourself your second black eye when you were sitting in the laundry basket and tipped it over a little too close to the TV stand. I really figured that the little 3-foot slide I bought you when you first became a toddler would be something you would just play with for a little while. That was the best $35 I spent! You love that little slide and you are always discovering new ways to use it. Jake loves it too and almost always comes over to it when you are playing with it. You have been jumping off the slide lately and I got it on video. You fall pretty hard and it looks like it has to hurt, but you just keep getting up and doing it again.

I really wanted to have kids close together, but as Jake’s birth drew near I started to feel a little bit guilty. I was worried that you weren’t going to get as much attention or that we were going to miss out on spending time with you. Seeing you and Jake together, and watching the two of you “grow up” (to this point, at least) is better than I ever expected it to be. I really think that having Jake has only made your life better and if we hadn’t had Jake yet we wouldn’t get to see the two of you interact. It has also taught you a lot. You have learned some patience (as much patience as a toddler can have) because you understand that sometimes I have to do things for Jake and you have to wait for something. You have also learned that you have to share. You have learned that you are not the only one that needs things and it has helped you become more helpful, not only to us, but to Jake also. You are always helping him get a toy that he can’t reach, or giving him snacks out of your bowl. You really are a great big brother and Jake is very lucky to have you. You really do genuinely care for Jake and I know that he cares about you too. Whenever you get put in timeout Jake crawls straight to you and starts climbing on you. I guess it is his ways of “comforting” you. I have absolutely no regrets about having you and Jake only a year and a half apart. I think that it has, and will continue to make both of your childhoods better because you have each other. I love you so much!

Love,
Mama