max at four

Our Max at this age is such a funny mix of people-pleaser and independent sasspatch. He's a joy to watch, even when he's throwing fits (most of the time). He's so creative, but that's so far mostly been channeled into excuses for things he doesn't want to do: "Putting on shoes makes my tummy hurt!" His expressions are priceless, from the pout that he still hasn't quite grown out of since babyhood to the very grown-up sly look he has when he's trying to wheedle his way into getting something he wants.


We've often observed that Liam is fascinated with how things work, while Max is fascinated with how people work, and I think it's so interesting to watch that play out between the two of them. Liam is always trying to teach Max something, and Max by turns worships his brother and wants to blaze his own path of picking exactly the opposite thing. He wants to learn on his own, thankyouverymuch, and he's not afraid to say so in no uncertain terms.

At home, Max is a funny, sassy, quick-witted, outspoken jokester, but at school, he hardly talks at all. His teachers always seem surprised to see that there's a chatterbox behind the sweet and shy boy they've taken care of for three years now. I don't have any firsthand knowledge of this (Barb will have to help me out), but I understand that he takes after Mike in this regard. In a lot of regards, really, but this is one that stands out to me.

Max had his fourth birthday party on Sunday, surrounded by friends and family. I was sick with the flu, shut into my room so nobody would be exposed to my germs, but I could hear him excitedly greet everyone by name and welcome them to his party. He was such a charming little host. And once the festivities were all done, he came to see if I was feeling better and spent a long time telling me about all the fun he had during the day. I won't lie -- it sucked to be laid up and miss my kid's birthday party. But being able to listen to him tell me all about it was definitely worth the wait. Happy birthday, Max!