First Day of Preschool Photos

Ready for school in his tiny baby jeans and Beatles t-shirt.

Nik gets a fruit snack to put in his backpack, so Max has to have one too. Even tho Max eats his fruit snack in the car and not at snack time. So he put the fruit snack into his backpack and zipped it up, and then we had to unzip it to remove the fruit snack as soon as we got to the car. But it's a process thing...

Cheese!

In his coat and getting excited!

Traditional First Day of School pose!

At the doors of the preschool. Thanks to our Photographer, NannyJo. Also I am holding the poster for Max to share with his classmates. They hang the posters in the classroom so the kids can look at the pictures whenever they are feeling homesick. Max's poster included pictures of him doing things he enjoys (lego, bubbles, playdoh, playgrounds), people he loves (mommy, daddy, baby, Nik, Julian, Grandad, Grandpa, Uncle Russ, Wesley), and his favorite color -- purple!

Hanging up his coat

Getting ready to serve up some deep dish pizza!

Making some coffee

Time to eat!

Max helps me bake

Sorry that I still don't have the pictures of Max's first day ready to share. I got home late and then spent all night baking cakes and cupcakes and mini cupcakes for the party tomorrow.

Max was very excited once he figured out I was going to make a cake. He reminded me of the location of the mixer, and then he carried the bowl and the paddle over to the counter. He went and got his potty (which doubles as a step stool) and was ready to help out. He was very excited that we were making cake, but then when it turned out we were making Birthday Cake for Baby he got even more excited and demonstrated for me how he could help her blow out the candle. I let him turn on the mixer, to low. And then when he is ready, he tells me to go "faster Mommy, faster!" and swirls his arm around in a mixing motion to ensure that I know exactly what he needs me to do. He's a good little supervisor!

First Day of Preschool!

Max started preschool today. I did not cry!

We had visited the preschool a couple of weeks ago, so Max had an idea of what to expect. Nik and Julian had been talking to him about how lucky he was to get to start school. We picked out a backpack (Cars!) and he had been playing with it at home.

Today was the big day. He got up and had breakfast and then we got him dressed. He was very excited about putting his fruit snack into his backpack. He posed for a series of pictures for me (more pictures to follow when I get them off the camera -- the picture above is from my phone) and then got into the car.

Once we got to school he was happy to get out and get his backpack. He wanted to hold my hand going in, but once we got inside he was happy to go straight to their play kitchen. The teacher asked him to take off his coat and hang it up, and Max did, although it was clear that she was just slowing him down on getting into the kitchen!

He went back to the kitchen and took out the deep dish pizza and put that on the table. And then he pulled out his chair. And then he realized he needed plates. So he got out the plates. And then he put a piece of pizza on each plate. He was having a great time. He made some coffee. He got out an egg. He found the toaster.

He did leave the kitchen briefly to look at some cars and another toy some other kids were playing with. But then he was right back to the kitchen.

I heard from the school that he went outside at recess (with his new mittens) and was having a great time on the playground.

It sounds like the first day of school went well! He will go back tomorrow too. His preschool classes are Thursday and Friday from 9-12 so it is a nice amount of time but he will get back to Joanna's house in time for lunch and a nap.

Happy Christmas from Max

Max wasn't so into posing for me, but I did catch a couple shots of him laughing and laughing. He's such a happy boy. And I happen to think he looks handsome in his new brown sweater...

Hello P, Hello Psychic Detective

Joanna and I both love Psych. We are fans of delicious flavor.
Max has a Hello Kitty book all about careers. For P, they have Pastry Chef, and they show lots of different foods. And a pineapple. I always have Max "spot the pineapple" on the page and I'm trying to teach him to say Psych Out when he sees it. I told Joanna of my quest. And she created the above picture for Max to color. It now hangs in my cube with pride.

Preschool...

Max has been accepted into a preschool. He will start on January 6th. I'm sure he will have a great time. I am not so ready.

Weather-willing we are going to go there today to check it out again. I have seen the place but it was about a year ago. NannyJo will meet me there and we will take M&M with us. Hopefully Max will do well on his first day after seeing the school today. He'll just be there for 3 hours a day, two days a week.

Broken Clavicle

So Max has had a very exciting week...

Right before the time change he came in to my bedroom. He was coughing and I could hear him breathing. The time was 1.55am. I wasn't sure if it was the first 1.55am or the second. I let Max crawl in the bed for a little bit, until the clock went from 1.59 to 1.00. And then I got up and got the nebulizer. I gave him a dose but it didn't seem to do anything. Since it sounded a bit like croup I turned on the hot water in the shower and kept him in the bathroom for a bit. That also didn't work, so I bundled him up and got ready to go to the ER. The cold air helped a little, but he was still not sounding very good. We went in the ER, they listened to him, and gave him a dose of steroids. We got home around 4am and went to bed.

Later in the morning, Max fell down the stairs. No one is real quite sure what happened. But he fell. He cried. I snuggled him. He calmed down. His eyes were reactive, he wasn't crying, and he calmed down. So we did not go back to the ER.

On Monday Mark took him to the doctor for his breathing issues. She checked him out for the fall and saw no real issues. Mark took Max for an xray of his adenoids (they are HUGE) and then came home.

Tuesday Mark took Max to NannyJo's house. When I picked the babies up, she commented on Max not using his left arm. I brought him home and noticed that even when offered two drinks, he wasn't using his left arm. So I called the doctor's office and they agreed to see us if I could get there before they closed. I am so happy we changed to a doctor just a mile from the house!! We got to the doctor's office with 15 minutes to spare. They confirmed that he was not using his arm and recommended we go to the ER to have them do xrays.

So I put the 4 kids back into the van, ran home to get some snacks and to change out of my suit, and we went to the ER. I really like the Springfield HealthPlex! They are very quick to get you to a nurse and although it almost always takes 2 hours, you are not often left alone to wait for a doctor or nurse. They did xrays and confirmed Max has a broken clavicle! They gave us a tiny little sling for him and sent us home wtih instructions to get him in with a specialist the next day.

So on what would have been my third day at my new job, I teleworked and took Max to the orthapedic specialist. They checked him out, told us the sling was good as long as Max wanted to protect his arm, but that we could stop using the sling at the point Max seemed willing to start using his arm again. That's handy information! They also gave us a brace for him to wear ALL THE TIME to help keep his shoulders back so his bone will heal straight. We go back in 3 weeks for a checkup. It could be up to 8 weeks before his bone has healed. And his swimming classes are cancelled.

He seems to be doing very well. He's not taking much medicine (and he was only getting tylenol) and he seems to be mostly running around and being his normal ActionMax self. He did try to run across our bed last night and fell and then cried, but other than that he doesn't seem to be hurting himself and seems to remember to take care of his arm. We've also mastered some tricks like putting his jacket on "bad arm" first and we have figured out how to lift him up without putting any strain on his broken bone.