13 months now...

Let's see... where do we start? Max has been a sponge this month. It sounds like he's trying to talk. I'm sure that he thinks he's talking as he simulates conversations while holding a toy phone to his ear. He's apparently talking to someone. The biggest relief to us that he seems to be sleeping much better and that means that we're sleeping much better. He used to wake up screaming in the middle of the night--around two am, every night. He'd stay up for about an hour--or two. But that seems to be in the past for now. We think that maybe he was teething. Since all of his teeth aren't in yet, I'm sure he'll go back to waking up screaming in the middle of the night, I hope not. Max now has four teeth on top and still only two on the bottom. He can control a spoon and fork enough to put put food in his mouth and from the looks of it appears to be right-handed.

Like most babies, he likes getting in and out of cardboard boxes and since he's getting stronger, also climbing more things. His latest climbing feat was when he almost scaled his changing table. I pulled him off. He still seems fearless and it does concern me a little. Ok,

I wrote the paragraph above last week. Here is a video of Max from last night where he successfully scaled his changing table.

I was watching TV in the living room and thought it was too quiet--"where's Max?". I rushed in and saw him perched on top of the changing table doing a little victory jig.

He's also taunting now. He seems to dare us to stop him from doing things that he shouldn't be doing. Last week, Amy stopped him from climbing on another piece of furniture, actually he'd allready climbed it. Afterwards, he'd try to slip by her while smiling. He did the same thing with me. Also, I understand that his grandmother pulled him off the top of her dinner table. She removed the chairs so that he couldn't get on the table. Somehow, he made it back on the table by way of a cupboard nearby that he should not have been able to climb. She was wrong. Max was motivated by cookies that she keeps in a container in the center of the table--so that Max can't reach it.

Also, his crib mattress has been lowered to the last slot, closer to the floor because he escaped once and ran into his friend, "gravity". Yea, it didn't sound pretty. He was ok but it made him really mad. Despite lowering the mattress, Amy had to rush in one evening because she was watching him through the video monitor and noticed that he was making out of the crib by pressing his sticky little baby feet against the slats in the crib, like a rock climber--he was on his way it--he was that mad.

I have to admit, I'm proud that he seems to show determination to get what he needs which is how both of his sisters are and therefore, mom. I jokingly tell Amy, "he gets that stubborness from YOU!". Amy disagrees and is stubborn about it. The cool thing about Max's determined tendency is that he doesn't throw tantrums, I haven't seen any. If he can't have something or we've made something just too difficult for him to get, he moves on--but he'll try again later and as far as I can tell, he'll get it.