More rice please

We went to this singaporean restaurant in chapel hill the other day
called Merlion. Food is awesome there, and max ate almost all my rice
last time we went. I didn't realize that my dish came with a special
rice cooked with chicken broth. So this time, once max figured this
out he was very untrusting - he had to see the rice coming from the
correct side of the plate. Again, he ate the rest of the rice from
dad's plate, and then some from his own order. As you can see, not fun
to try at home. We had to change his rice encrusted clothes as soon as
he got out of his high chair. He also loves Thai sticky rice which is
much less messy! Big tip for the waitresses.

Max's babblings

Max has been babbling a lot these days. Trying to edit this video down a bit, I've watched it quite a few times now. So pretty typical these days, you'll see Max babbling, then showing frustration (hitting the gate when his new friend doesn't let him open it), his squeals of excitement (those are the best) and also using a new word. Earlier today when we were in the chinese grocery store, I heard Max yell out "No!" behind me - I think Wei Yan had said no and Max decided to repeat him a little louder. He's been a little frustrated these days. I've been encouraging him to use his signs since his words are a little jumbled together (like "moa" for more and "meh" for milk sometimes just can't be distinguished,) but I just don't think he's really going to be a signer. He's already abandoned a few signs since he thinks he's gotten the words down, but when he starts crying or getting frustrated, you can't tell what he's saying. But on a good note, we have been asking questions and every once in a while we'll get a nod yes or no with some accompanying word that we can understand (like "do you want ANOTHER banana?" - he ate 2 today for dinner at the picnic today)

New Friends

Max had a visitor today. Normally when we see him with other kids, he's pretty quiet & reserved but he took a liking to our friends' god-daughter. She is 2.5 years old.

Max's first baseball game

 

So here in the Triangle, hockey is the only professional team around - so we went to see a Durham Bulls game (the same team from the movie) with our company. This was at the end of the night when Max was tired, but he actually had a much better time than I thought he would have. He enjoyed all the music (each batter has their own song), cheering and clapping - as well as all the people. He wouldn't try any of the ballpark treats, but this can all wait I'm sure. We'll probably try to go to another game this season after we saw Max had a good time - also, he made it to the end of the 7th inning! (ok, we didn't actually make it for the 1st 2 innings)

Arranging my shoes & cars

 

Max has spent a lot of time the last few day arranging & re-arranging his cars and also his shoes that are on the top shelf of his toy shelves. Wei Yan says that maybe he got Ryan's airplane OCD with arranging his toys...I think it's just his brain figuring out that all cars/trucks are the same and all the shoes are shoes. Kind of like how every bird is a "duck" right now.

Sleeping

 

Max now sleeps with his butt up almost every time these days. I also got a shot of him with his trusty yellow truck firmly in his grip!

Mother's Day

 

 

So here is another cool shot I took of Max at the park today. I'm really enjoying the camera - and I think I'm better at getting Max to look at the camera than Wei Yan is. So the shot of Max & I at IHOP this morning (we took Wei Yan's mom out to eat before she had to work today) is the best one we got even though Max isn't looking at the camera.

Mother's day park outing

Wheels turnin!

So I think the best part about this age that Max is right now, is to
start seeing how his little brain is figuring stuff out. Yesterday,
when we asked Max where his dirty diaper goes, he walked over to it,
picked it up & threw of in the trash can! I certainly was surprised!

Today, he was a total ham at the Chans' restaurant. Dancing, waving,
high fiving & smiling at the customers. He also climbed into the
element, then up onto the seat next to his car seat. Dad had to help
him into his car seat after that, but it's crazy thinking how we've
been carrying him in & out of a car for 15 months straight. Course the
lame Element doors mean we will continue to do so 99% if the time, but
it's still just so foreign to me all that he is able to do so much
more each day.

Oh, he also demolished a whole banana in about 2 minutes today - and I
am not exagerrating. We asked him if he wanted to eat a banana like
his friend megan, but we still cut it in thirds. And all this time
we've been cutting his bananas up into tiny little pieces!

Max's favorite part of the beach

So Max wasn't too thrilled with the beach itself, but we at least found one thing new that he really enjoyed. By the way, we tried to go to the aquarium yesterday before we left, but I guess some lightning or something took out power on half of Roanoke Island so we didn't get to do that. There was an aquarium at the restaurant we went to for my birthday dinner and Max loved it, so I was really looking forward to going to the aquarium.

May 3rd - hair do

 

 

 

So I had a little fun with Max's haircut growing out. He was in a good mood (he was eating) and I got some good shots of him being silly. Note that we were at least able to get his yellow truck out of his hands for a meal. Oh and one of these shots kind of reminds me of my cousin eric a little - might be the hair or the dimple.

Jockeys Ridge and Kill Devil Hills

Here are a few pics from Jockey's Ridge (we didn't do any hang gliding) where we got some exercise carrying Max around and also a pic of our view from the condo balcony as the afternoon storms were coming in.

 

 

 

 

April outdoor adventures

So despite our allergies, we are making it out quite a bit these days. I did have a slight asthma attack one afternoon, but nothing major that my inhaler (which I didn't bring with me) couldn't nip in the bud really quick. Anyway, my mom was here for the week of easter, so here are some pics of our outdoor outings.

 

 

 

 

Growth Spurt

Grandma is here for a visit and reports that the growth spurt that started a few days ago (well, we didn't know it at the time, but think is started Thursday now that we look back on it) is still going strong.  He's been eating more than not since he woke up today!

Back in action

So Max is definitely over the stomach bug and Wei Yan & I seem to be OK so far. Yesterday we went to dim sum for lunch. Max started out eating some chicken bits from the green bean dish - which amazed me since he usually shuns anything resembling meat. Then he went to town on the fish - and even gobbled up a black bean that got mixed in. Between the fish & the stir fried ho fun, Wei Yan & I were having a hard time putting food on his plate fast enough. After a few tries, he tried the rice congee/jook too and seemed to really like that. So usually I'm opposed to dim sum - at least here in NC, but looks like I've been officially out voted now by the boys.

In other news, work got hit by this worm:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/27/60minutes/main4897053.shtml
And I just that 60 min segment last night after the Carolina game (go Heels!) so I'm booting my PC at work. It was acting strange & I'm super paranoid...seems like I should know more, but I'm just a programmer, not an IT specialist.

stomach flu

So we got the call from day care to come pick up Max at lunchtime today. We took him to the pediatricians office and looks like he has some sort of stomach flu - a few other kids have something at day care too. So we've seen some things today we could have very well lived without. The dr. said that the vomiting should subside in ~48 hrs, so I guess that's something to hope for. Luckily Max likes pedialyte and he still has a little bit of an appetite so we he ate a few puffs at least. We'll be home with him tomorrow (dad in the morning and me in the afternoon) - so we're hoping neither of us gets this thing too!

Mmmwwwaaa!

New heights

He's been trying to climb for a few days, but tonight he finally got it. We'll work on "not climbing" tomorrow. For now we just had to celebrate what he's been trying to do for a few days now.

New words and tricks

So this last month or two max has really learned so much! He loves to sit on my lap, blow kisses, give hugs, and give slobbery "kisses". He says bubble & up (at least so we can understand him). He makes this questioning sound and babbles up a storm. He's also thrown a few fits, can shake his head no and angrily shove or throw away our wrong offerings to his demands. He says "uh oh" whenever he tips something over or we drop something and when he purposely tips over his cup at meal times. He does a lot of copying things that we do and yesterday he even started bouncing up and down (without leaving the ground when I said "jump! jump!") which I totally did not expect.

He is not a fan or oatmeal, french toast sticks or any kind of meats. At school we can pretty much count on them telling us later that he wanted nothing to do with any of the meat. He's also started smushing up green beans before eating them, where as a few weeks ago, he would not touch anything that had been squished. So things these days seem to be going at the speed of light. Oh, and he has 7 teeth now. His 4 front teeth, 2 bottom front teeth and 1 on the bottom has just come int.

Round the neighborhood

It's been nice out so we have been taking the car out for a spin.
Tried take a picture of max eating his zipper with his forehead in the
steering wheel, but typical - I whip out the camera & he quits doing
whatever he was doing!