King of the Wild Things

Oh Max! We love this boy! He just turned two, but if you ask him, he's three like Anna.

• His favorite books are "How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight" and "Where the Wild Things Are" His favorite page in "Where the Wild Things Are" is the second one where Max is chasing the doggy.

• He is the best helper around, but not very good at being helped.
  
• A lot of the time Max is a monster, dragon, dinosaur, or doggy.

• He has five stuffed animals that must be there in order for him to fall asleep (I know, it's gotten a little out of hand) They are, from most to least important . . . doggy, froggy, bear, baby 1, and baby 2. When he wakes up in the morning they all have a great time together before he is ready to get out of bed.
  
• He has one birdie blanky that also must be there when he falls asleep.
• He is addicted (not too strong of a word) to chocolate milk. In fact, just a couple nights ago as we were pushing him and Anna around temple square to see the lights he repeated the phrase "Me want chocolate milk!" loudly and mournfully over 200 times.
• He (like another boy I love) is a very good apologizer, and when he can tell that I am frustrated will repeat "I'm sorry! Sorry mommy!" over and over until he feels that all is well again.
• He adores Anna and is a very good brother.
  
• Max has the best grin ever.

We love you Max!

It's hard to be good!

The other day Anna was setting her dishes and Max's dishes on the table for dinner and she told us all "I'm never going to do another mean thing again!" It made me remember all the times when I was little that I set a lofty goal of perfection and then failed within minutes, (I guess I still do that ) so I said "That's good Anna, but remember that we all make mistakes and when we do we can repent and the mistake will get erased." She asked me how we repent and I said we say sorry to who we hurt and we say sorry to Heavenly Father when we pray. ONE MINUTE LATER, Max came and messed up the dishes Anna had just set on the table. I watched as, in the very same moment, she bopped him on the head and said, running to her bedroom, "I think I need to go say a prayer!" Hmmmm.

Experience #2 with being good. Recently Anna's preschool teacher Miss Jeanna (who she adores, and I do too) told their class about elves. They come at Christmas time and watch to see if you've been good, then they tell Santa all the nice or naughty things you've done. Well, we had a bad going-to-bed episode the other night, during which Anna was too excited for her preschool Christmas party to stay in bed and therefore ended up with a frustrated mommy and a daddy guarding her door, reading his book, until she fell asleep. The next morning when Anna woke up she was all teary about everything and I thought she was probably just tired, but during breakfast she asked me "Do you think there were any elves at our house last night?" I tried to be serious and said "Mayber there were--you never know with elves." Anna burst into tears and yelled (and this is my favorite part). . ."I think I will get LINT for Christmas!" (That sounds even worse than coal!) Don't worry--Anna is on the nice list, but being good is sometimes hard!

Make your own fun time. . .

The last post was sort of for me to just look at during those times when things don't seem quite as sweet and harmonious--okay so there are lots of those times. Like today when I was talking on the phone and heard Anna yell "MOM!!!! Max is making his own fun time with the soap!" I hurried, but it was much, much too late. His fun time was all over the bathroom floor and he was splashing and sliding around in his Elmo jammies. Truth be told, I often, often encourage "making your own fun time", just not so sneakily and not with soap, or the Christmas tree, or Desitin.

Buddies