Those of you who visit this blog to see pictures of Max have hit the jackpot today! We got Maxwell’s 18 month pictures from the fabulous Justine of J. Shelton Photography and they are stunning. For those of you who haven’t done it lately, photographing a toddler is hard. Max isn’t old enough to get the concept of posing or sitting for pictures, but he’s past the age where we could plop him on the ground and he would sit there obligingly. He was on the go the whole session and had his own ideas about what he would do and not do for pictures, but you sure wouldn’t know it looking at Justine’s images. She did such a good job of capturing his sweet smile and gorgeous blue eyes. I really wanted to post all the pictures here, but I did restrict myself a bit.

We had Max’s 18 month well-child visit on Monday. I was so busy keeping him entertained and contained I completely forgot to get his actual numbers for height and weight, but I can tell you he’s moved up to the 70th percentile in weight, and remains at the top of the charts for height and head circumference. His pediatrician said that it’s okay that he’s not saying very many words verbally, she was impressed with his 15 signs and said he clearly understands what’s going on. She said if he’s not saying more words in a couple months, then we could do speech therapy as it can help things to “click” sooner and reduce everyone’s frustration level.

This is such a fun age. I love interacting with Max, watching him learn new things, and playing together. It’s so funny the things that he picks up on….we usually take off our shoes when we come in the house, and of course take off jackets too. Now when Jeff or I come home, Max insists we take off our shoes and coat before he will give us a hug or let us do anything else. He likes to hide inside a big cardboard box we have out for him to play with. If you say, “Where’s Maxwell?” you’ll hear a little voice say “Hmmm” from inside the box. He’ll also say it when he covers his eyes up and we ask where he is. So. Cute!

Here’s the picture bonanza, enjoy!