First Steps

Max took his first steps today. He took at least three, maybe four or five. I didn’t see him start. We were in the kitchen and I was warming his bottle before I put him in the bath and I looked over and saw him walking towards me. We were both so proud. I started cheering and laughing and squatted down to hug him. He was smiling and laughing and oh so proud of himself. It has really only been the last few days where he has started standing on his own. He never really stood holding on to something and let go. No, he would crouch in a squat position and then stand. When he started to loose his balance, he would squat back in to the crouch position. My oh my! Naomi and I had better watch out. The kid has endurance and stamina. He has been pushing his stroller for up to ¼ to ½ a mile for awhile now. Once he gets good at this walking thing, which knowing him and how quickly he caught on to go right to several steps in a row may even be by this weekend, there will be no holding him back. Maybe I should have asked for a child leash for his birthday. Ha Ha. I may have to invest in one soon because the kid really doesn’t have a lot of fear of anything that I can tell.

Another funny Max story….We went to church on Sunday. It has been awhile. I had Max in the stroller towards the front so he could see, but I didn’t have to worry about keeping him contained since he was strapped into the stroller. Five minutes into the service, he started using the baby sign to say “ALL DONE”. I pretended not to notice. Then he made a noise to get my attention and started madly doing our “all done” sign in an exaggerated fashion (hand face down moving it back and forth parallel to the ground) with and expression that said, “I am communicating with you and don’t pretend like you don’t realize it. I said, ALL DONE”. I started laughing and took him to the back of the church and walked back and forth with him for the rest of the service. Soon I was joined by four other people with children about Max’s age or a bit younger. It was so funny. See what I get for teaching him this stuff. LOL. He has been watching the Baby Signing Times very intently the last few times I have put it on for him. I don’t think he has tried to do any of the other signs yet except for dog. He has done this a few times, but not yet consistently. It is where you pat you hand on you thigh.

This kid is giving me a run for my money and I think it is just going to continue for awhile.

We went to a local SMC get together on Saturday at a beautiful house with a nice big fountain in the back yard. Max was ruthless in his pursuit to play in this fountain. We started out inside and the hostess had the sliding glass doors (there were three of them) open. After about 15 minutes or so of Max crawling out one of them and going right for the fountain and throwing a major fit when I picked him up and wouldn’t let him play in it, she offered to close the screen doors. She gave me a quick tour of the house and when we were in the back of the house about 5 minutes later, I put him down and he crawled all the way through the house to the door and stood longingly outside at the fountain until enough people came to distract him a bit. After the 3rd or 4th time he crawled so fast from the living room through the kitchen to the garage, she offered to close that door as well. Probably because Max was almost under her car by the time I caught up with him. The kid is FAST. The amazing thing is that she has a son who is 3 weeks younger than Max and he is just so different from Max and so much more mellow. She will put him someplace and he basically stays in that area until she comes back. HAHAHAHA. Not Max. You turn your head and there is no telling where is off to. After awhile, we all migrated outside and put the kids in baby jail (more commercially known as Baby Play Yard Deluxe or something similar) for as long as they could each stand it. When Max got out, he faked me out a bit, then went straight for the fountain. He was already splashing and wet by the time I got to him. So, I caved and let him play in it, much to the annoyance (I think) of the other mom’s whose kids now wanted to do the same. Basically, I just taught my kid that if he is persistent enough (in this case over the course of about 90 minutes) he can wear down and/or distract his mother and get his way. GREAT! I have vowed that I would be consistent and pick my battles because I think it is so important to kids to know the limits and that no means no. And, I totally caved. I hope he doesn’t remember this. Yeah right. HAHAHAHA.

Anyway, Max is a riot and is defiantly realizing he is his own person who is not above throwing a complete fit with a nice high pitched scream to help get his way.

And, he is about to be completely mobile. Let the adventures continue -- stepped up a notch or two.