Musings on Max

I've been thinking about Max quite a bit over the last couple weeks. Partly because we are both sick again, partly because I've been meaning to post about this general subject for several days now, partly...oh who cares. Get on with it!

First there are Max's daily routines. The day starts with a sippy of milk in bed, followed by 53,000 stories and a vigorous bed jumping session. (He would jump on my bed for hours if I'd let him.) Once I manage to steer him down the hallway, he pauses to swipe a pair of Tyler's underpants from the clean laundry basket...and he does this:

Don't believe me? Here is a different day:

What a ham! Then it's time for breakfast. Unlike Tyler, I have no trouble finding something Max will like. I just think about what I want for breakfast and make extra for Max. He likes just about everything I like. He's been eating a wide range of foods for a long time, but it still never ceases to amaze me. Scrambled eggs (w/ or w/o cheese), bacon, sausage, pancakes, cereal, milk, juice, toast and butter with jam...not all in one day, of course!

Food. The food thing makes me grin from ear to ear. He likes cottage cheese! He likes yogurt! He likes SOUR CREAM! I mean, really! I didn't touch that stuff until I was an adult. Just the name of it...eww! Who would eat that??? It really is quite tasty. Max would eat it straight out of the container by the spoonful. He will also wolf down anything coated in a sour cream based sauce (like stroganoff or Swedish meatballs). Beef. He loves beef. Hamburgers, steaks, meat sauces, chili, soups... Chicken! Loves that too. Pork! Yep. Fish!!! Yes! How many 17 month olds do you know who love, LOVE tuna salad?

He likes ethnic foods...Taco Bell and the other local Tex/Mex place, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and, er, Australian even! Ahem.

It's the foods he doesn't like that make me say "Hmm." Pasta of any kind. Won't touch it. Salad - I think lettuce is just too difficult for him to chew yet. He loves salad DRESSING however. Pizza. Pizza! Yeah, that one throws me too. He likes to pick off the toppings. Especially Italian sausage.

Why does Max's love of most foods excite me so much? Because Tyler is the opposite. He won't eat ANYTHING. All the stuff I mention that Max loves? Tyler won't touch any of it (except rice from the Chinese place and rice with miso soup from the Japanese place). I won't go into what Tyler WILL eat. That's a different post.

So, back to Max. He likes broccoli! OK, enough about food.

Max also loves music. He is such a joy to watch...he will get up and dance every time I put music on. Any kind of music. He will even dance to TV commercials, if the tune is catchy. He is even starting to sing. I make up nonsense songs all the time and he will add his own verses. It is cute beyond reason!

Max dances:

How cute is that?

I just wanted to note some of these things for the future. So I don't forget how much fun this time of life was.