I don’t have a theme for this week’s blog entry, but here it is Sunday and I’m trying to stick with my goal of posting something once a week. I know the grandparents check eagerly for new entries, so here you go, folks: some random thoughts and photos from our week. Max is continuing to be on the move, walking all over the place and exploring everything. My mom signed the two of them up for a Kindermusik class and their first session was Wednesday. Max enjoyed the class, stuck pretty close to Grandma and waited until he got home to try out his wooden music maker (just as the teacher said the 18 month olds typically did).

Today is a special day in our household…not only is today the day Max is officially 18 months old, but it also marks six years since Jeff and I had our first date! It’s been the best six years of my life, I am so blessed to have these two men in my life. Maxwell’s official 18 month checkup isn’t for another week, so I’ll have to post his height and weight stats after that. Max currently says “Da Da” and his versions of: meow, woof woof, whoo-whoo (he has owl jammies so we taught him the owl sound), vroom-vroom, and he attempts to say “Down” and occasionally “Mama” (usually comes out as “Mmmmmmm”). He signs: More, All Done, Water, Milk, Apple, Banana, Sleep, Bath, Book, Bird, Eat, Airplane, Change (we use this when we change his diaper), Thank You and Please. Max can point to his: ears, head, hair, mouth, teeth, tongue, cheeks, chin, neck, tummy, belly button, hands, fingers, feet and toes. Eyes are funny, he clearly knows what they are and can point to our eyes, Chester bear’s eyes, or eyes in a picture book but if you ask him where his eyes are, he points to his ears. I think maybe it just feels funny to him to touch his eyes.

Max loves books and definitely has his favorites, and also has favorite pages. When we reach such a page, he wants to stop, or turn back if we’ve passed it, and spend some time looking at it and pointing to his favorite things while we name them. He still loves to swing at the park, and often holds something small in one hand. We’re working on using utensils, he still flips the spoon over before it gets to his mouth most of the time, but he has the idea. He has definite ideas about how things should be, and will let us know if something isn’t right, such as a light that should be on. Jeff and I were just talking today about how much fun he is, we love this age.

And now for some pictures! Here’s a couple from a play date we had with some good friends last week. This is my friend Leanne’s son Oliver with Max. Max is sitting in Oliver’s baby sister’s Bumbo seat. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Bumbo, it’s for babies to sit in in that phase where they want to be upright but can’t quite sit there on their own. We had one for Max but it’s been packed away for almost a year now. Maxwell thought the Bumbo was pretty cool and had to sit in it. Here he is consulting with Oliver:

Then Ollie tried to push him across the floor in the Bumbo, but it was hard to get up much speed:

The other day I came home from work and my mom showed me a couple things Max had done during the day. They invented a game where Maxwell sits on the first stair landing and Grandma tosses him a ball, which he then tosses back down. Here he is moving his arms and legs in excitement as he awaits the ball:

The other funny thing Max had done that day involved a blanket that Max decided he wanted to wear on his head. He had a great time wearing it draped over his head, walking around, peering out from underneath it. He decided that it should not be on his head when he was in his rocking chair, so he would climb in there and then take it off, then want help to put it back on before climbing down. He had the cutest grin while wearing the blanket. What a funny Bug.

Climbing into the chair:

Playing with Grandma:

So cute!