on dancing with my 2 year old

Max and I have this silly “I love you” exchange that we do. As verbal of a child as he is, it was a long time before he ever said “I love you” to me. The first time he said it I was so surprised and happy that he thought it was funny. So now (often) when he says “I love you” I pretend to be shocked and delighted and then I say it right back to him at which time he giggles and yells “I love you” even louder. This can go on forever (including the escalating volume), but is absolutely adorable (at least if you’re his mom;).

I have several unspoken “principles” for myself as a parent. One is to apologize to my son(s) when I know I am wrong or have overreacted even if he won’t understand. Another is to drop everything (if at all possible) and read to him when he asks and another is to answer his questions as honestly and completely as I can for his level (this could lead to interesting conversations in the future:). Also, when he asks to dance, we dance. If you know me well at all, this may be hard to envision, but we have some pretty rockin’ dance parties around here on a semi regular basis.:) They’re good for the soul. Trust me.

Saturday night we were at a wedding reception and as the dance floor opened up I asked Max if he wanted to dance with one of his aunts and he said: “No, I will dance with Mommy.” Public dancing is not my thing (shocker, I know;) so I asked if he was sure and told him we couldn’t dance like we do at home because it was too wild. He was sure. He hopped off my lap and led the way to the dance floor. I picked him up and we danced. He wrapped his arms around my neck and I kissed his cheek and he kissed mine. I whispered: “I love you” in his ear and he whispered it back. When I looked at him in mock surprise he threw back his head with a grin and yelled “I love you!”. When the 2 year old asks you to dance, you dance.

photo credit goes to my sister-in-law, Christy

max!:)

I think this picture not only sums up Max, but also life the past several months-- funny, happy and just a touch of crazy.:) Seriously, this guy rocks my world. I can't believe he is 6 months old already! He is not quite crawling yet, although he clearly wants to.:) He does a lot of scooting and rolling and I find myself having to watch him a lot more closely. This kiddo is beyond active and I know him becoming mobile means I will be getting next to nothing done around here.:)

I'm still working 3 days a week which means he gets to spend an afternoon with Grandma N., a day with Aunt Alaina and 3 awesome cousins and then Saturdays with daddy. I think he is pleased with this arrangement.:) He is quite the happy kid. And quite the charmer; at Meijer the other day I had to stop and have several conversations with old ladies about him- all of whom he graced with his adorable smile.:)

Max is quite the chatterbox these days. Actually he's always been a chatterbox. He loves using his voice. He uses lots of different sounds and inflections. I'm pretty sure he truly believes he is communicating.:) He has also more recently added shrieking to his vocal repertoire. Not my favorite addition as it comes into play both when he is happy and when he is mad, meaning there is lots of shrieking in this household.:) (and sometimes in church).

A few weeks ago we had Maxfield baptized. This was an exciting and sobering occasion. It is awesome to dedicate Max and our raising of him before God and the church. It also brought home to us even more the reality of raising our son up in a Christian home and of the great and joyous task we have undertaken. He, of course, was quite the ham in front of church. He doesn't mind being the center of attention.:) I think he was feeling quite well dressed:

A couple weeks ago we took Max on his second camping trip in his 6 months of life. We camped at Clifty Falls. He did pretty well. It was quite cold at night, so he slept with us most of the nights (which I think made him quite pleased with himself). We enjoyed great weather during the day and were able to do a little hiking, some walking around Madison and some relaxing. We went with our friends who have a 10 month old and I think our boys wondered from time to time what possessed their crazy parents to take them camping. Overall (despite some lack of sleep) it was a great time.:) Here is Max all bundled up sleeping out camping:

And because I never tire of the adorableness of a sleeping baby here are some other sleeping Max pictures:)

At the beginning of October Luke had a business trip to Cincinnati for some training so Max and I tagged along. It was nice to get away just for a bit. We visited Newport on the Levee and I got to go to Ikea with Marge and we all went to Jungle Jim's international grocery store (which is awesome, by the way:). I also got to watch cable in the hotel. Having not had cable for a few years now, I get excited to watch TLC and the Food Network and Lifetime.:)

Another highlight of this month is that about 2 weeks ago Max's cousin Owen was born. The boys are about 5 1/2 months apart, which will be lots of fun (and possibly lots of trouble in the very near future:). Here Max is meeting his new cousin:

All in all life has been good. Busy and crazy, but good. We're starting to gear up for the holidays both at work and at home, which I always get super excited about (except for the work part of it.:) I have every intention of being a better blogger, but no promises.:) I will leave you with this picture: