Dear Max,

I know this letter is so over due but these past few months have been hard for me to blog with the big move..I know no excuse but if you know anything about your mom..this is huge for me. But lets talk about you. You are such a big boy. First off, I have to say you also got Hand, Foot and Mouth and you were so sick…huge sores in your mouth and it was awful but you also gave up your bottle and your formula. You decided that you were a big boy and that you now prefer to drink lemonade, apple juice, carrot juice and water. You were a trooper during your sickness with fevers that went up and down and sores in your mouth that made it hard to drink but you still watched lots of movies and had fun at the beach.

I swear you were meant to be in the water. When you started to get ear infections at 9 months and we had to keep your ears out of the water it was hard-I am not sure for you but hard for me because I knew you loved the water so much but now you are a surfer. You just love it and you are really good. Daddy actually pulls you really fast down the beach on your board and you ride the waves and sometimes you fall but your scream for more.

I think one of the things I love about you the most is that you think everything is funny. I love the faces you make. This one is the classic Max face.

Down the shore we stayed in barnegat light and I think it was the 4th time you have stayed on Long Beach Island and it made me sad because I knew it would be a while since we would be back since we are moving to Florida so there were lots of treats and lots of eating. It is really amazing that your body does great when you are really just happy and in the sun so check all of these great pics of you eating your yummy gluten free stuff..

well this one was  not gluten free-but you only ate the icing..lol

Basically you just love life despite the 3 1/2 , I AM DOING IT MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY STAGE YOU ARE GOING THROUGH but I think all kids go through that or at least that is what I am told. I love your curiosity. I love that you have a story for everything. I love that when you dont want to do something you say you are tired or you say your back hurts you or say that the baby hurt you..you have a story for everything..You are great at figuring things out-and you love to help..of course unless you dont feel like it. But really you are a great kid.

As far as speech, your teacher Miss Marlene Belkin says that you are at 80% and that is amazing. I am so proud of you. I can see your personality coming through in your speech and trust me even when you did not have words you could light up a room…you have never lacked in that area.

You still LOVE trucks, cars and now Love Dinosaurs. You are using the potty more and more and wear pull ups. We have some accidents and you do not like to potty at school but you will when you want to and I have learned you cannot be pushed..hhhmmm..wonder where you get that quality from? You are just a great kid and an amazing brother. You love to play HARD. You are so excited to move. You keep asking when we are moving to the house with the pool. I have found a montessori school that I am excited about and your sister will attend for a few morning in January. I am excited for your new life In Boca raton Florida. You will be my little Jewish Surfer Boy. I love my dear Angel!!

My dearest boy,

So much to tell and I have not been writing in my blog with our busy life. First off, let me just say you are so handsome. I am amazed that you get more handsome each day. You love your Daddy so much but I know you love me equally just in different ways. You love to hit and wrestle with your Daddy but when it comes to hurting yourself and needing a good snuggle and love you turn to me. I think if you had it your way you would have the both of us with you every second of the day.

Well school ended a week ago and we headed for the beach. YOu LOVE the beach and love the sand. You actually like to pretend that you are swimming but in the sand. You love the take your clothes off and swim in the sand and the water. It is a delight to watch and hysterical too. You enjoy taking outside showers and you are very good at peeing on the rocks outside while you wait for the shower to get turned on. You still think you can be a dog like Esther. It is quite cute. I had to explain to you that you can pee outside but not  poop. You did not like that nor understand why you could not poop outside like Esther. I am sure this is one of the many conversations we will have in your life where it just does not make sense to you but it happens to be a common rule in life.

Your speech is amazing and this year we chose not to hire a therapist while we were at the beach because you are doing so well. So it is a true vacation. You have no school and no speech therapy. You are talking so much and saying the funniest things and oh gosh-even repeating things like, “Shit” and then your Dad said “put a Lindsay bracelet on Samantha to keep her in check” and you repeated it..so funny. You are doing great. So great that you are the little negotiator..you negotiate the amount of cookies you get for going pee/poop on the potty, car/trucks/lollipops etc. Yes, we are bribing our child to use the potty and it seems to work. LOL. You are wearing pull ups most of the time and sometimes big boy underwear. We are so proud of how hard you are working and if bribing works then so be it.

You love to wrestle with your sister and play lots of games. I think you both have a love/hate things going..one minute you are playing and laughing and next minute you are both crying or one is hitting and the other is crying. You are the best of friends and you are so sweet to her. You refer to her as MY Baby. She loves you so much. And we love you so much. There is not a lack of love in your life and it seems every time I look around you are getting a new gift from one of your grandparents who adore you too.

I love you sweet little boy-and yes you remind me daily that you are not a baby but  a big boy!

Hugs to you forever.-Your Momma

Dearest Max,

You are a rock star. I have decided that even though you love to be guided by following the rules, you just love life. You live hard and play hard and LOVE hard. You have always been a  great big brother but now you want to help. You like to bathe samantha, put her to sleep, carry her and most of all make sure she is not getting hurt. You are the same way at school. Your teacher Miss Brenda says you protect the kids and they listen to you. You are such a great little man. You just want everybody to be happy. I swear you are always looking to find ways to laugh and it is a valuable lesson that you are teaching me.

School has been great for you. Miss belkin says that you are doing amazing with your speech. She said you have gone way beyond any of your goals and we are so proud of you. You are observing and using your words in all situations. You ask Why, Where, Who, What..you went from not speaking one word in March of 2009n to non-stop talking and I love when you say..”Is that a good idea?” It cracks me up because when you have an idea you always make sure it is the solution. You remind me so much of myself.

I also have to say you are very cool and very liked. You have two best friends at school, Thomas and Bruno, but you also hang with a few more boys that want to be in your crowd. You are in the phase of “LET ME PICK IT, LET ME CHOSE MY CLOTHES, LET ME..LET ME..LET ME”. It is awesome to see you taking care of yourself. You can put on your clothes, your shoes, brush your teeth and use the potty. You still do not using the potty at school but I am sure we will get there eventually. I am not worried. You whole life you have done things when you are ready and not a second before. You even picked out your shoes on the New Balance website. Yes, you will only wear New Balance..I had you in these shoes as your first pair of shoes and you refuse to wear anything else. But this year you wanted to pick them out and then press all the buttons on the computer to go to the check out and you did. Such a big boy.

You LOVE the Car Movie. You get a car movie car (under$4) every time you poop. I know we may be spoiling you but it has been the only thing we can give you. I tried candy-even gluten free and it was messing up your stomach and then I tried gluten free and dairy free chocolate and it messed up your stomach so we give cars. I wish it were easier like M & M’s but the Cars are fine and you are at least motivated. So you have a lot of cars and well you are going  potty a lot too and that is good. Since we are moving probably at the end of August, we need to get you potty trained because most schools do not let 3 years in the class unless they are potty trained..but like I said..all in your time..

I know you are my kid and all moms think their kid is handsome but you are SO handsome. You are just a very cute kid. Everybody loves you..your teachers, your grandparents and us. You have a spark for life that cannot be put out. You are loving books these days and we read books every night before bed.

You are going through that whiny 3 year old phase and throwing down your toys when you don’t get your way and I am hoping this is just a phase. i have actually had to tell you to go in a time out because not getting our way does not mean you can throw your toys. I probably need to put myself in a time out and take a mommy breath at those moments. I am sure being this ago is tough so I am trying to be loving and supportive. I love you and hope I support you in all the ways you need me too. You are a great kid and you are just growing up so fast.

Love, Mommy

We were at a great spring festival last weekend. There was a petting zoo, slides, fire trucks and lots of games for the kids. We all went together, which was really a lot of fun. Max and Samantha both had a great time. Max is getting so much better at going into places with tons of people. I think he is just getting older and more confident. There were fire trucks and that made his day. It is so funny because Scott could not get Max to look at the camera but I am sure you get the idea. Of course the minute the camera was away he was having a ton of fun again.

I swear I look at this picture and wonder where my little boy is because he looks so grown up. I am amazed at how fast the time is going even though some days feels so long.

Now Miss Samantha was having a love affair with this rabbit. It was really cute because they had three sections the gate was low enough that she could reach the animals. There were chickens and two kinds of rabbits but this one was her favorite. It was so cute to watch. She was being so gentle too and I was really proud of her.

Max also enjoyed feeding the goats and sheep. It was so much fun. They had little bowls of food for $1.

We had a wonderful time despite the total mommy move on my part. First off, it was hotter than I thought and both my kids had long sleeve and pants on and then the stroller that I keep in my truck needed air in the tires. Those are both total mommy moves but at least nobody looked really hot and nobody would have known that it was hard to push the stroller with no air in the tires. I swear my brain can only hold so much information at one time.

As for the move, we have decided to delay the move either till december if a buyer is willing to wait that long or next summer. It just felt rushed and Max is not fully potty trained and so I was becoming insane. Bottom line:insane mother = insane family. So I let go and said this is when I can do it and we will see if it works but at least I let it go and are getting back to normal-slowly-FYI-I don’t do change well and admire people that can. Those type of people give me hope for myself. LOL

My dearest boy,

Just yesterday as I was putting you to sleep you turned to look at me and said, Mommy I love you so much” and you kissed my cheek. I think this explains what kind of boy you are. You are a lover. You tickle my forehead sometimes as you are falling asleep or when we wake up. I told you the other night that we are best of friends and you agreed. You always love to hear how much people love you. When I tell you that and name all of the people who love you-it can change any emotion you are having into pure joy.

You are also ALL BOY. Your teacher said that you were playing Kung Fu Panda at school and got in trouble because you were hitting a boy in his head. The boy said he liked it but the rules at montessori are NO fighting. Of course you asked Why and I tried to explain that I know you were playing but still school has those rules. You thought that was silly.

CARS, CARS and CARS from the CAr Movie. They rule your world. See you keep getting more because that is you treat for going potty-3 pees or 1 poop. Well as you can see from the first pic-the cars are increasing and they keep coming in the mail daily. It is awful cute that you and Daddy pick out the cars on the computer together. It is fun for both of you. You guys also love to watch Car Movie mini takes on You Tube.

Your speech is going great. Your teacher Marlene Belkin is so proud of you and said just this week that you have done better at this point that she expected. We are so proud of you. It has been a hard month of detox and there was a week where you were having some issues with your speech but you bounced right back. Your teachers at school feel the same-that you are doing so well. They say you are the Protector for the kids. If a kid is doing something wrong or a kid gets hurts then you step right in to try and help.

Basically we just doing a lot of playing and cuddling. You are really loving books right now and you are very interested in the Why and What of  everything. It is so much fun to watch your grow and let me also say..you are such a handsome little guy. I am not just saying that because you are my son..

I have tried to explain to you a few times how special our bond is and will be forever. You and I are so similar and sometimes we bat heads but I get you and your are my first child. You are my first for everything and you have been an amazing child. You stand 38 inches tall and 35 pounds in weight. You are strong and strong willed. You are determined and curious. You love the beach and the big city. You are a great traveler and an awesome little man. You love playing soccer and you love school. Your best friends are Thomas and Bruno and you request constantly to have a party where we only eat chocolate, ice cream and cupcakes. I love you so much. I love being your mom and you have graced me with allowing mw to be that person in your life. happy Birthday my dearest boy.

Love,

Mommy