A good night

I'm just going to smash this one out quickly. Tonight, Max and I had a bit of a guys' night in. We've had a few of these lately as it's been a crazy month schedule-wise, and most of the time, there's a bit of a pattern to how the night goes. We get home, Max plays a bit, but inevitably heads to and crawls up into his high chair, demanding food before his typical dinner time of 6 p.m. Over the last couple of weeks, dinner time has amounted to less than a dozen pieces of cereal, maybe half a fruit and if we can stuff some yogurt into Max before he snaps, it's a good night. He's hit a bit of a food wall, something that likely stems from his being sick...but who really knows?

After Max signals the end of dinner by destroying the kitchen with the food he won't eat, I clean him up and I drag him upstairs against his will to get ready for bed. He usually puts in 15 minutes of high-octane fun before demanding to be read book after book. Finally, I show Max his bottle of milk and he runs over to the chair where we have our final drink and read session, before a rock, a song and a smooth entry into dreamland. So some highs and some lows, but fairly routine.

Tonight was a little different. First off, Mommy let me put in a bit of extra time at the office and picked up Max herself. I got home to an empty house at 5:45 and waited for them to walk in the door at 6:20. It turns out that a) Max hadn't had a nap today (in other words, it might be a cranky night, but at least it will be a short one:) and b) Max stood on the arm of the couch at daycare today - he didn't fall, unlike yesterday when he pitched off of something and gave himself a goose egg, but is starting to terrify our caregiver. Max and Mom weren't late for either of these reasons, although they may have contributed to Max's general crankiness, which led Holly to take a detour off to our neighbourhood toy store. This place (Play Value Toys - an ironic name given the price of their merchandise) is like a two-room warehouse packed to the gills with toys having a more educational bent.

After a whirl through the toy store, my family came home to me. Max romped around with me and had some fun...until he stood up on a cardboard box and fell over while trying to hip-swivel it into submission. We have got to do something about his lack of fear...

After Max calmed down, we set him down for what turned out to be a fairly skimpy meal (again). Mom left partway through to attend a social event...and that's when the wind shifted.

It was like Max drank a whole jugful of happy. He finished up the dollop of hummous I gave him and allowed me to clean him up without fussing. We ran around the main floor a bunch and then he gestured for his bowl of peas. I said "whatever" and gave him a spoon...which he used to eat at least 50 peas. Yay food! When I suggested it was time to go upstairs, he did so with a big smile on his face. Then he wanted to go back down the stairs and I juked back and forth to get in his way. Normally, this would have elicited squeals of frustration and maybe tears, but tonight: giggles. I pushed my luck and proceeded to change him, cram some ointment in his eye and zap his nasal passages with some saline spray...success x 3. OK, so he might have put his hand in some poo, but he didn't get upset.

To cap everything off, Max actually opted to put some books on his floor back in his bookshlef before hopping on my lap for milk ' story time. Tonight's books were both thanks to Max's aunt and uncle in Winnipeg - they purchased Swimsuit by Kit Allen for Max for Christmas and we liked it so much, we got the winter version (Longjohns) recently and he loves them both. Now we just need Sweater and Galoshes to complete the set:) Too bad they're only available seasonally. Once Max finds out what sledding and seaweed are, he'll get an even bigger kick out of the books.

So all in all, it wasn't really a special evening in any way, but at the same time, it was. I don't think I would ever classify parenting Max a burden, but at times, I start to get comfortable with the routine (be careful what you wish for, blah blah blah...). But every now and then, he throws me a little curveball. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, but always memorable and fodder for future storytelling. I wonder what will happen tomorrow...

Here are a couple of pictures:


Max's first game of Settlers. He won.

Max's first attempt at photography. I had to dive to get in this one.

Max sending Mommy off to a hockey game in which our favourite Canucks trashed the evil Senators 4-2. Thanks Grandma for babysitting!!


Someone has been playing oven-mitt puppets with Max. It wasn't me.