Max

Cynthia has been kind enough to allow me, Travis, to write a post about our son Max. Now I do want to show you how wonderful Max really is in our family, and write some things that he has done that I'm happy about.

Max was born April 20, 2007 at 3:45 a.m. He weighed 10 lbs. 8 oz. It was such a long night, I did what I could to help Cynthia, but I didn't really do much. However when Max was born he was chuuubby! I loved it. I am so grateful that Cynthia is strong and able to have beautiful children like Max and Elora.

Here is Max the morning after he was born, I had stayed up all night, Cynthia gave me Max and I cuddled and went to sleep along with Max.
From this point on Max has loved to cuddle. This is probably why we feel like Max is so much still our baby. He will cuddle after his nap, watching TV, when daddy gets home and sits down Max will climb up and cuddle for a while. When we read books, and most of all when he is not used to a situation he'll sit on my lap and cuddle. And since I enjoy cuddling myself it's really nice when Max cuddles up to me.
As Max has grown he has been such a joy to the family, Elora is a wonderful sister to Max, she can get him to do things when our pleading does not work. They work together well, and I am really grateful that they play together well too. They can be heard giggling, yelling, or not at all and they still have fun. Elora sometimes takes charge and wants Max to do whatever she says, but Max also has the ability to not do what Elora wants which I am grateful.
Max's life is enjoyable, he doesn't worry about too many things, given he is a kid, but the only thing on his mind are his toys, especially his figures Woody and Buzz from Toy Story. He also has a Wall-e, that with his three doggies he loads his red backpack with as many cars as he feels, then stuffs his white dog Buster from Winnie the Pooh, his yellow dog Pluto, and his blue blanket dog he's had since a baby. After these are in the bag he'll put Buzz, Woody, and Wall-e in usually with a book. He'll zip in up, and then come and find either dad or mom and have us help him put the bag on so he is all set in case we need to leave the house for an emergency, we'll load his bag up and he'll be happy.Then at every night before he goes to bed, Max is really good about cleaning up his toys. When it's time for clean up he automatically starts putting toys away, and then his back pack. He first puts Woody and Buzz up on the shelf, Buzz stands, but Woody needs to lean against the wall and Max is not happy until they stay up by themselves, he sets Wall-e next to them, removes his doggies and puts them on his bed, and unloads the rest of the cars and books from the bag and makes sure each toy is back in the spot he retrieved them from. I have never seen any other kid like to organize his toys as they put them away, but Max is determined to have things cleaned up off of his floor before I can even try to get his clothes off to get his pajamas on. He likes to brush his teeth he'll get the toothpaste and insists to take the lid off and put tooth paste on his own brush. The dentist told Cynthia to make sure we brush the kids teeth, well I can't brush Max's teeth until he feels like it's daddy's turn, so I have some times waited for five minutes before brushing his teeth. Other times he won't let me but I just brush as he throws his fit. He's done alright at letting me brush so it's nice and not torturing to him.
Max has worked very hard to be happy, and a milestone for us this past while. We have wanted to potty train Max, but he has wanted nothing to do with it, even though we got candy, the potty, and underwear he wanted. One of his biggest obstacles I have just found was he didn't like taking his own pants off, so one day, after he was having a hard evening we went to have a bath, he was told to take his pants off and he would not. I spent two hours with him in the bathroom trying to convince that he was the only one to take his pants off. So, after much negotiating and helping him feel like he could and wanted to do it, the pants finally came off. I never knew it would be a big deal, but boy it was pulling teeth, but in this case is was pulling pants off. I feel that this is a good start to helping him know that he will need to be able to take his pants off whenever he needs to go potty. Therefore, it feels like a milestone for Max in potty training.Now to the ending of this blog about my three year old son, Max I want you to know that I love you very much and I am so proud of your bravery to go through this life and want the things that will keep you safe and happy. So when you read this as you get older, your mom and dad love you. And to those that read this blog I hope you get the chance to know Max and how wonderful he really is and that he will have a powerful effect in the world as he gets older and wiser with both the things in this world and spiritually.