Happy Thanksgiving to all! I don’t have many pictures from yesterday, but I’m happy to report we had a snowy but safe drive to my Grandma’s house for Thanksgiving dinner with about 20 extended family members. Max didn’t eat a lot of the feast, but he did enjoy some sweet potatoes and turkey. Mostly he wanted to play with all the cool toys Great-Grandma has. I am so grateful for my wonderful husband, our amazing boy, and time spent with family.

I recently took Max on his first visit to the dentist. I figured it would be more to expose him to the dental office than to really do a cleaning, as I didn’t know how comfortable he’d be. The office we visited was recommended by a friend and specializes in pediatric dentistry. They had a cool train table in the lobby, so that was a good start:

Once they called us back, the hygienist explained that they would just get as far as they could with the exam, and stop when Max had had enough. We decided to see how he did in the chair, but she said we could do the exam with him in my lap if we needed to. Lo and behold, Maxwell surprised me by sitting in the chair as nice as you please, and letting both the hygienist and dentist clean and look at his teeth. This was good news on many counts, not the least of which was that it allowed me to take pictures of this historic first visit.

Checking out the chair:

Looking up at the TV:

Examining the toothbrush she’ll use:

This isn’t so bad:

I don’t know what you were worried about Mom, this is no big deal!

Max loved the water sprayer. I don’t know how long he would have kept drinking from it if she hadn’t moved on:

Look Mom! A light-up mirror!

At the end of the exam they let Max try on the sunglasses, which were a bit hit:

This month Max has been taking a gymnastics class on Saturdays. It’s “Parent-Tot Gymnastics” since of course it’s not like he’s quite ready to just hop on the uneven bars and learn a routine. We figured it would be a fun activity and good for his gross motor skill development. I’m happy to report that it has been a great success, Max really likes the different things he gets to do and is eager to get started when we get there. At the end of class the kids sit on the edge of the gymnastics floor and the teacher comes down the line and stamps their hands. Maxwell wasn’t sure about this at first, but once he had a stamp, he was sold. At today’s class he got stamps on both hands and on his feet. The class session is over now but we’ll definitely be doing this again in the new year.

We had a home visit earlier this week to evaluate Max for speech therapy. We weren’t surprised that the results of the evaluation were that Max is ahead of his age as far as receptive speech, and behind in expressive speech. The therapist was impressed by how much he understands, and says that she sees a lot smart kids who figure out that they can get by with “yes” and “no” and pointing, which Max does, though he does say a few words and signs nearly 20 words. She gave us some techniques to use to encourage him to talk more, and we’re already seeing progress. We’ll have another visit in a month to touch base and see where to go from there.

Max is definitely showing his own opinions on things more and more. The other night Jeff was putting pajamas on him after a bath. I was downstairs and heard Max crying. I figured he must have slightly hurt himself, but he was still crying when they came downstairs. I tried giving him a hug, but he was having none of it, just crying and tugging on his pants. Jeff explained that Max was suddenly NOT a fan of the pirate pajama pants (never mind that he’s worn them oh, 50 times). His favorite owl jammies were in the wash, so we offered the dog jammies as his other option, and that was satisfactory. Since then we’ve been trying to give him a choice between two options whenever possible when dressing him, and that definitely helps.

And now, gymnastics photos! Maxwell and Daddy wait for class to start while admiring all the fun equipment:

Every class starts with the kids picking a small stuffed animal out of
a basket and then climbing up these ladders to retrieve it:

Running down the trampoline ramp. This ends in a big pit filled with foam blocks. Maxwell wasn’t too interested in jumping into the pit the first couple times, but by the third class he figured out that it was fun. To be honest, I wanted to jump in there myself. They even have a rope swing so you can swing out over the pit and then jump in. How fun is that?!

The balance beam:

And assorted other fun things:

So we’re not quite halfway through November, and here I am finally getting caught up on October. Whew! I’m sorry to report that I don’t have any pictures to share of Max in his cute monkey costume, because Maxwell hates said costume. We attempted to try it on once, and great protest ensured. Thereafter, any time I would even hold up the costume, unpleasant sounds and frantic “All done” signing would commence. So, we compromised. We attended a birthday party for one of Max’s friends a couple weeks before Halloween. The party was a “pizza party” theme (really well done, may I add) and all the kids attending got chef’s hats to wear. Max loved his and wore it all through the party and later at home. So when we attended a “wear your costume” party held at a friend’s house, Max wore his chef’s hat and carried around a measuring cup (something he likes to play with anyway), as a makeshift costume. Here he is at Hailey’s party, wearing his hat:

And the group picture at the baby costume party. Can you see how thrilled they are to be posing?

Not to worry, fun was had at the party. Max discovered a Bumbo chair, which occupied him for quite some time:

And there were balloons! Here’s a series of Maxwell and his friend Holden enjoying them. First, Max finds an orange balloon:

Then, there’s some disagreement about who should hold the balloon:

But not to worry, there’s another orange balloon!

Hooray! Balloon fun for everyone!

We didn’t take Max trick-or-treating this year, since (a) He hates his costume and (b) He really has no concept of what the holiday is. I’m sure next year will be a different story. He did help hand out candy, and before the trick-or-treaters started, he helped Daddy sort out the candy. What? Everyone knows you save the best candy for the end, so if you have leftovers, it’s the good stuff.

And to close, here are a couple photos of Max being cute in his new hat from our friend Leanne of Tiny Toppers. He loves the hat and likes to wear it around the house.

Two blog posts in one day! I just may get caught up after all. My dad and Helen also visited in October, we had a great weekend with them and we all wished they could have stayed longer. It rained most of the time they were here, so we did some shopping, some lunching out, and some general relaxing around the house. We did have a brief period of dry skies Sunday morning, so we stopped at a pumpkin patch near our house to get a pumpkin for our porch, as well as some yummy pasta sauce that they have at the farm stand there. They have a cow train like the one at the other farm we visited, so Maxwell and I went for a ride on that, since it was such a hit before, and it did not disappoint this time. I thought I had more pictures to share with you from this visit, but apparently I did something wrong when uploading the ones from Dad and Helen’s camera. Here are some pictures from the farm trip:

Watching the train:

Wheelbarrow ride!

I’m a delinquent blogger again! We had such a fun and busy October, I’ve spent the beginning of November getting caught up on everything. Hopefully that “getting caught up” will soon include this blog. We were lucky to have not just one but TWO visits from family in October. Here are the pictures from Round One, a visit from Jeff’s brother Greg and our niece Elizabeth. We always love seeing them, and can’t wait to have them and Leah and Emma here for Thanksgiving. It’s an annual tradition that we visit a local farm to do the corn maze and other activities when they visit us in the fall. This year the weather was looking dicey but it was mostly dry Saturday morning, so off we went. We did a fast trip through the corn maze (Max is a little young to get much out of it this year) and got to do the fun kid activities, including the “cow train” before the rain started falling in earnest.

Max loved the wagon ride to the corn maze. It was nice and bumpy, one of his favorite things. The farmer driving the hay ride stops partway through to talk about the farm and the maze, and as soon as we stopped, Max signed “More.”

Here we are preparing to enter the maze:

The farm has a giant play area filled with corn kernels:

On the tire swing:

Riding the cow train, which was another hit with Maxwell:

Greg and Elizabeth share a birthday, and we celebrated them (a little late) on this visit. Here’s Elizabeth ready for cake:

Happy Birthdays!