5 Years old, and sweeter than ever. 5 great things about Max:
1. His imagination is stupendous. It usually involves some epic adventure where good prevails over bad (something he inherited from his dad, just like his ears).
2. Max is super conscious of being kind to everyone. I can count on one finger the times I've seen him intentionally hit Tessa, and I think he was two at the time. Tessa definitely lucked out in the big brother department.
3. I don't mean to brag, well yes I do actually, but this kid is pretty great at whatever he decides he want to do. (You notice I said whatever he DECIDES he wants to do...no forcing this stubborn kid to do anything.) Take on the 7 year old kids in soccer? No problem. Learn the "twinkles" on cello in record speed? Sure. Read a book on his own? Of course he can if candy is there to bribe him.
4. His sense of humor is pretty great (another thing he inherited from his dad). When he's telling a funny story he'll even put in the perfect pauses for full comedic effect. I wish I wrote down all of the great things he says.
5. Okay, maybe this one isn't so great, but it is so much a part of him that I can't leave it out. Max is a hair-pulling combination of both shy and stubborn (he inherited that one from me, karma I guess). If he gets in a situation that he decides is scary, like going up in front of the primary to get a present for his birthday, there is nothing in the world that can convince him to do it. Wait, not true exactly, he has a giant dinosaur in his room from when he succumbed to bribery and went to his first day of cello lessons. But bribery doesn't work if it's not huge enough, or if the situation is just "too scary". However, his shyness encourages him to not cause any problems, and all his teachers love him because he listens and obeys so well.
Once again, we were coming back from Utah only a few days before his birthday so we had a big party for him in Utah and kept it simple with our family in Texas. Bowling was his activity of choice this year, and he was even big enough to roll it down the lane by himself. Max's fist pumps when he would do good were the greatest.
