Max: 2 1/2 (almost)

Max is 2 1/2  and I need a reminder of this pretty much on a daily basis. He is always included in everything and he is almost as big as Anderson is, so I tend to forget that he is actually still very much a toddler.

Things I love about him at 2: his obsession with being a Ninja Turtle (not the show, just the actual existence as a reptile,) his little hands when he rests his face in them, that I might be his favorite person ever, how he chants "festival....festival" when we are heading to one,  his voice when he gets excited about something, his re-telling a million times a day about how Anderson fell in the frog pond at Ijams (it was in June; he's obsessed,) how he thinks that monsters live in the pipes in our house, his unconditional love for his monkey, the fact that he occasionally watches TV (I literally had no idea that a 2 year old would actually watch TV-he loves Blaze) and, really everything about his precious face.

In addition to the NTs, Max is also in the fireman phase, which I sort of love because it is an easy, go-to boy thing. He was SO proud of making this and actually slept with it for about a week. 

*true story: one day he just came waltzing past us, wearing his fire hat & boots and carrying the real fire extinguisher from the TOP of the cabinet. He somehow managed to climb up there & get it and his nonchalant approach about the whole thing was hilarious/alarming. 

It is staying upside down because of laziness. Or, maybe exhaustion. 

This is a perfect example of Max-the truth hiding behind that adorable little face. This picture was  taken at about  9:15 pm because he is generally still awake at that time on the nights that he goes to school because of the dreaded nap. To be fair, I would trade many, many things to have a 2 year old who still naps, but he is just tired at night if he takes one and I really need him asleep before 9 because I have way too many evening chores to complete. On the weekends, he occasionally falls asleep in the car & it is helpful because he is not SO GRUMPY the rest of the day and because I cap it at 20 minutes, he generally is in the bed before 9, too. He might not be asleep before 9 EVER, but Brandon is "Dad of the Year" and can keep him in his bed. 

He also still wakes up multiple times at night. I would say this in a negative way, but I am usually up anyway because Anderson comes downstairs multiple times each night, too. Whatever. I am so used to sleeping 6 hours of interrupted sleep that I am actually ok with it. Every kid is 100 and my kids make up for their terrible, awful, no good sleeping habits in other ways. 

Another nighttime picture. I could really take one every night of all of the stuff that ends up in his bed as he falls asleep. One night he got all of the cooking stuff out and was making pretend cookies. He honestly does not need a lot of sleep...just like his brother. Sigh. 

This is also a perfect example of Max. I have few pictures of the actual climbing because most of the time he is on top of the dresser or fridge & I have to actually get him down before I can find my phone. It is rare, but  parenting does occasionally trump my need to document. 

Also...

and, this. 

Some questions for Max:

Favorite color: Green

Construction: Digger

Truck: Fire truck

Person: Fireman

Dog: A firedog (Possibly he thinks the girls are actually his sisters?)

NT: Mikey

Anderson for comparison. 

I've mentioned a time or 2, but I am madly in love with this sweet face and his school pics did not lessen that obsession-look how cute he is!!!

 The hands in his pocket. Love.

Oh, wait....That looks different. Where is my sweet angel?

Real life for the win the other 98% of the time. 

Real life= pajamas as clothes, so much crying/whining, refusing to do what I need him to do/being 2. 

Brandon. Glover. 

A few videos: (I think some of these are almost 6 months old, but still so cute)

Max found a bug

Ninja Turtles-family

Max going to his office

Fall festivities: zoo, outings and festivals.

I am not sure if I have mentioned it before, but my mom is AMAZING. In addition to saving my life DAILY, she took the boys to the zoo on an inservice day when they were out of school. I love her for renewing her zoo grandparent pass every year. 

Max told me all about the gorillas. 

Also, that is Max in the pic. I am not sure if you recognized him, since he is not in his ninja turtle pajamas. 

School pic! 

I KNEW it was picture day*, but intentionally let him pick out his own outfit. I want to remember who he IS, not who I tried to make him for picture day. The battle of the clothes is not one that I am choosing to fight. 

I spy a giant spider. 

They wore costumes to run errands one day. 

*See earlier comments about the clothes' battle.

A little tent living in the backyard occupied most of one weekend. 

Do not be deceived-Max very quickly after this picture was taken dumped that entire bowl of popcorn everywhere.

Since Max's 2nd favorite person/reptile to be is a firefighter, we hit up a fire festival for lots of fire truck driving. 

Super Secret Dessert Picnic. 

And, I got to chaperone Anderson's field trip to the pumpkin patch! It was really fun to observe him at school and see who he is around his friends. If you're wondering, what that looks like....the same as always. Seeing him around other high energy 5 year olds confirmed what I already knew-he is a special breed of high energy. Also, he spent the entire time we were in the pumpkin patch actually trying to find the parts of the life cycle of the pumpkin, which is his desperate attempt to find Science in Kindergarten. 

This is his AMAZING teacher, Mrs. Trent. Also, his friend, Noah, was the other kid in our "group" and they were both so excited. 

In a super fun twist, Clare & Charlie were there, too! Look at this baby on his first field trip at 3 weeks old. It was actually a perfect day for a field trip and he was so precious in that carrier. Granted, I wasn't carrying him, but Clare did a pretty awesome job keeping up with him and a few 5 year olds!

I am so glad that I was able to be a part of the day! I did have to answer my phone a few times and had about 900 texts & emails from work, but I was ok with that because I actually think that work and life can co-exist. I sometimes leave work to do stuff for my personal life or bring my kids with me to games, so I am ok with the merging. Plus, it is not going to change, so embracing it is the only option. 

For homework he had to write about the day and I was so proud of him for sounding out "pumpkins" by himself. 

Also, sometimes he is not super happy, so this is a nice documentation. 

Fall festival at Max's school! 

HOW AWESOME IS THIS KID??

Also, shout out to awesome GG for the costume. 

I love, love his school for doing this every year. 

I took this guy to a football game where he got to high five the players, play football on the track & basically watch* the entire game from the end zone. 

*There was not any actual watching. He literally ran & played football for 4 straight hours. 

Next: fall festival at Anderson's school!

We are not used to attending festivals that cost money, but this was a fund raiser, so I was ok with it. Plus, my kids really just wanted to play on the playground, so it ended up being pretty cheap. 

One thing we did spend tickets on was the booth where you estimated the size of pumpkins. He spent a lot of time trying to make accurate guesses. 

A not so festive festivity was that time we had 3 flat tires in a 48 hour period. Shout out to my husband for being so perfect and so calm in all situations. 

Another day, another bounce house. 

Same kid, same NT pajamas. 

YMCA Fall Festival!

Ninja Turtle Fireman. 

One of Anderson's friends invited him to the circus, and....he fell asleep! 

"Max wakes everyone up at 5am-I am so sorry!" is the text I sent to the mom. 

SO many festivities-I love fall!

Fall Break

I was off work/boys out of school for 2 days and because I have become an expert at cramming a million errands/chores into the normal weekend, we actually had time to do some fun stuff on our days off. Of course, we also did all of the normal fall break activities like flu shots, oil change, dog grooming, haircuts, but...we also had fun!

Sherri gave this to Anderson over the summer & we finally put it together. "We" always means Brandon, of course. It was interesting because it has an explanation of the optic nerve & we are always looking for ways to convince Anderson why he needs to keep his patch on 2 hours/day.

*2 hours per day is really nothing, but our struggle is still real. He DESPISES his patch and is very adamant about this feeling. We still go through quite a few a day & I still feel a sense of accomplishment when we get those hours completed. To be fair-this is NOTHING on what it used to be, but I will also be so grateful when patches are not a part of our normal routine. 

Brandon is so much more artistic than I am. 

Shout out to my girls who spent all break (every day) barking & eating the boys' leftovers. 

Because Clare had a baby, we had to celebrate with out favorite Brimers! (Have I mentioned this?? I am too lazy to check past posts, but if I have not-Charlie is here and he is as precious & perfect as the previous Brimer babies.)

Speaking of, because I hate/am terrible at cooking, I decided that brining Clare a meal to celebrate Charlie was not the best call for either of us, so I took the kids to Chuck E Cheese. Because, let's be honest, what any parent wants is time with the new baby and for their kids to be returned sugared up, carting a bunch of plastic toys back into their house. 

How great is this pic of Lucy & Max? They had so much fun together!

Also, these 2 besties in glasses were pretty cute, as well. It was so much fun to hang out with the older brother/sister and I can't wait until Charlie is old enough to join in our adventures, too!

We also visited McClung Museum for their "Family Day', which featured paleontologists, archaeologists and geologists-all people that are right up Anderson's alley. Overhearing him tell someone that he wants to be a scientist was pretty cute. 

It would have been even more productive if not for the tiny terrorist in the background.....

Max did have fun with some of the rock fossil things...until one fell on his head.

 In the rock's defense, it is hard to miss Max's head. 

Quick visit to the torch bearer for these (hopefully) future Vols. 

Later, we celebrated Pappaw's 91st birthday! Love these 2 Glover bookends-the oldest & the youngest just hanging out together, having some cake. 

Monday brought a trip to a giant corn  maze/festibal with some of our favorite people-the Futchers and Lauren! 

How wonderful that I get to hang out with some of my former students as adults? I actually didn't even think about it until right now as I am typing this, but I do love that friendships can happen from all circumstances. 

And luckily for us, Lauren did an awesome job of wrangling our little people. 

These boys. 

How stinking cute are the 3 of them in this giant chair?? We loved hanging out with sweet K!

Max is always in his element when he is at a festibal. 

More than once, I was reminded of Taylor Swift's, The Best Day. 

Anderson was super grumpy at various points in the day (he is a pre-teen, I swear), but I was hoping for the Best Day with this guy-he did run and run past the pumpkin patch*

and the tractor rides....

But, it was definitely NOT getting cold out. 

* Also, I saved money on not getting a pumpkin because Anderson was not happy with the situation. 

"Pumpkins laying in a field is not the same thing as a pumpkin patch," is what he told me. 

I was there, rocking my Halloween socks.

 (Also, sweating in my Halloween socks....it was really toasty.)

So much football, always, everywhere, all day long, never ceasing. 

Because I am tired of being beat up, we went to open gym where Anderson played by himself and then recruited some older kids to play with him. 

This guy & I sat on the sidelines because he was so, so sick* after his flu shot earlier that morning that he could not even move. 

*According to him. 

Honestly, the 2 extra days off reminded me why I can't stay home everyday; dealing with hundreds of teenagers is way easier than 2 little people. But, it was a nice break and I did enjoy my time hanging out!