More On Max

Forgive me if I once again go on about Max. Not only is he at a particularly cute and fun stage, he is very life affirming and the best thing going on in my life right now. It just seems like there has been so much death and disappointment lately. Within the last week, my brother in law's father lost his battle to cancer; a friend from my youth (known her and her family since I was 4, her mom was my confirmation sponsor) husband died...she found him dead on the floor...they are doing an autopsy...she has three school age kids; an SMC friend...the one who went into preterm labor earlier in the week....delivered her daughter Katharine Eleanor today...she was born with no heartbeat let alone a breath. That's the death. As to the disappointment, well, there is the fact that that I'm still not pregnant and no closer to giving Max a sibling; my friend's A and S who are also struggling to have a second child as well...the three of us have been trying for about the same length of time with no success; my friend H...the one who is battling breast cancer has finished her months and months of chemo and gearing up for months of radiation; We won't even get into work, because that just gets depressing.

So, forgive me if I droan on a bit about Max again. I need to focus on all that is good and pure and fun in my life.

Today, Max's nanny started crying when she told me that her cousin, who has lived with her for 5 years moved out this weekend for a job on the other side of LA. Max put on his "cry" face, went and gave her a big hug and patted her back. I was so proud of him. He didn't know what it was about, but he knew she was sad and hurting. Wow. How did I get so lucky to have him in my life?

This last weekend, I took Shadow into the vet to get one of her labs retested and to see if they can get a urine sample they couldn't get last week. When I told Max we needed to take Shadow to the vet, the doggy doctor, he immediately said..."fish, fish", which caught me by surprise until I remembered that they do, in fact, have this really big fish tank in the office. Max has only been to the vet a few times, the last was when I took City Boy in for his annual check up when my niece was still living here and she went with us. Maybe January? I'm just constantly amazed at how good his memory is. It is kind of scary sometimes.

I'm so glad that I gave him the train table/set for his birthday. He is really enjoying it and loves it even more when I "play" with him with my commentary and sound affects. It is just amazing to see his face light up. He can't quite figure out how to attach the engines to the cars yet and gets frustrated when they fall off the track. Tonight, when one of the cars detached going down the hill, I started laughing and let out a bit "whoa, that was fast" and started laughing. Boy, did his frown turn around. He started smiling, did it again, and started laughing.

A week or so ago, I asked Max to take my hand and "show me" when he started to throw a tantrum and to try to use words to help me understand. Now, he will come up, hold out his hand and say "hand" and lead me (most of the time without actually holding my hand once I get up) to what he wants to show me or wants. Gosh, he is so cute.

Anyway, a quick ttc update. Had an u/s today, I still have 4 follicles, but the lead is at 16 and the others are 10, 8, 8. I have another u/s scheduled for Thursday, but am thinking of changing it to Wednesday. I'm going to ponder it over night. Would have been really nice to have 2 - 3 mature, but I wasn't counting on it or expecting it. Just nice to see the production. I've been thinking the last few days how the process isn't so bad and I can keep going a bit longer, maybe I shouldn't move to DE so quickly. Yet, I know that once I get my next negative, I'll be back saying I can't take it anymore, I need to move on to DE because I just want to be pregnant and have another child the fastest way possible.

Here are some pictures of Max from this evening. Guess which one Max took. :)