AD...hey what's that? HD

So Max had his 4 year check up, which I thought when surprisingly well.  I am happy to report that I am raising a healthy GIANT!  98% in weight and 99% in height.  Where in the world is he getting these genetics?!  I am thinking Aunt awa's genetics are at work here :)  Also, how can you be 99% in height...that just doesn't make sense to me.  Are you saying that he is bigger than 99% of the kids out there his age?  If that is what these little percentile charts are saying, then I seriously doubt that...Max is a big boy, but I don't think he is bigger than 99% of the kids his age.  Anyways, even though my quirky little man survives mostly off of pancakes, yellow cheese, almond milk, a variety of noodles, chicken and corn, he is somehow thriving.  Who knew my little incubator baby would grow to be such a giant?!

I love my pediatrician, he is amazing, always fits us into his busy schedule, gave me a working cell phone number to call for emergencies and goes above and beyond what I think a pediatrician is required to do.  He understands and respects my holistic approach to any illness before medication and is always willing to start with the least invasive approach to anything and work our way from there.  Which is why I was so surprised when at the end of the appointment he sits me down and says, "wow you must be exhausted!  You son has extreme ADHD, and I could and should diagnose him in just one appointment.  What medication would you like to look into treating him with?"  As I wait for him to laugh and say "hey I'm just kidding, he is as healthy as a horse and as big as one too, see you for Abilene's 6 month check up!", But he never says that and simply asks, "Do you know a lot about the medication offered?"

So, yes Max is a handful.  He excites easily, is pretty anxious at times, and he runs everywhere he goes.  I think he is just being a boy.  Yes, it can be very very difficult to get him to focus, but you just have to try a little harder.  It's not an impossible task, but it can be difficult.  So of course I REFUSE to drug my child for my convenience.  Side affects from these drugs that are supposed to "help" these perfectly normal children "focus" better are absolutely crazy.  Excuse me but I will take a hyperactive child any day over worrying about the condition of my child's heart. At what point do you distinguish between medicating an "illness" and changing the personality and amazing characteristics of a growing and developing little human?  I love my Max just the way he is, at warp speed playing doctor superhero all at the same time...would this medication change the Max I love?!

I personally think Max is a little bit of a super hero.  He can do about 5 different things at 1 time!!  I would kill for that level of multitasking!  He has the energy of superman and captain America ( his 2 favorite heroes) all combined into one super Max package.  I would be lying if I said that he wasn't challenging, but we are finding ways to work around it.  I don't like to laugh at Max's level of distraction, but sometimes that is all you can do to keep from pulling your hair completely out.  I have started pinning little task cards on his shirt to remind he exactly where he was going or what he was doing.  It helps me keep my sanity from walking around and telling him to do the same thing about 50 billion times.  I have actually sat and watched Max get distracted 7 times just from walking from my bedroom to the kitchen (we have a small house, so its not a big distance at all).

As he grows we will learn new ways to work around it and work with this ADHD to make it seem more like a gift instead of this dreaded curse many educators and doctors describe it as.  He may not learn to read at the age of 5, or it may take him a little longer than most to sit down and completely finish a book, but I am ok with that and I know he will be too, as long as he isn't ridiculed about it.  So if you see my child running around like a crazy person, or if you try and have a conversation with him and it turns to a completely different subject at least 2 times, please say a prayer for me that we will continue to see the light in this supposed dreaded diagnoses and find humor daily that I am raising a multi tasking superhero.

Not loud...just animated lol.   

He may not be able to focus at everything, but when he loves something, he LOVES it!  I was able to get this little man to focus and learn how to swim at the age of 2.

When he is out, he is out! 

Yes, there are stickers all over his face, but that is how he learned what each and every one of those fish were called :)

Mothers are disgusting.

Before I was a mother I was able to easily avoid snot, poop, stained clothes, and the occasional vomit...now it is just part of life.  It seems that when you become a mother all the gross stuff is just part of the job description.  Every time I leave the house Reed likes to do the "Gross check."  Meaning, before we buckle every child in, we have to first check their diapers so we won't have any surprises mid buckle.  Then he has to check my grossness out.  We have to walk out into the natural sunlight and I have to turn a full circle so he can make sure that there is not any Abilene throw up in my hair, Max snot on my shirt, or general Jerry stickyness on my pants.  I learned the hard way that if you are not in the natural light outside you WILL miss something, and then you are the woman standing in line to buy a movie ticket with macaroni stuck to your butt.  You think I would notice these things and fix them as they happen, but no it happens so frequently I don't...I'm disgusting.

The very first time your baby has their very first, and very disgusting, dirty diaper in the hospital ( you know, the black, sticky tar diaper) poop not only becomes a the topic of many of your conversations, but it also becomes something you deal with at least 8 times as day.  I have seriously have hour long conversations with other mothers discussing only poop and poop related incidences.  There are entire blogs dedicated completely to poop, the color, consistency, and frequency...disgusting!  Don't worry, this will not be one of those blogs  :)

The crazy thing is, it really doesn't bother me...until I spend a little time around people who do not have children.  Then I just feel frumpy and well, disgusting.  I like to think that once you have a child your "mother earth gene" is activated.  Most baby and child related grossness, that would make most people cringe, I really don't think twice about it, except for two things.

1.) I think I could be in the middle of the desert, after running 9 miles, with no water in sight and I would still NEVER EVER drink after my children!  I would rather DIE!

Nope!!  Won't be drinking anymore of that!

         They are disgusting drinkers.  I don't know why they can't seem to grasp the concept of take and sip and swallow, but they just don't get it.  I have honestly handed Jerry a bottle of water and after only 4 sips the water that was once nice, clean, and fresh is colored slightly brown or yellow!!  How does this happen?!  Yuck!  I'm just not gonna do it.  I know I made them and hence I technically made their spit, but I'm not going to recycle it and put it back in my body.  Occasionally, I will drive to town just to get a sweet tea from McDonalds (its a problem) and I will only get to have less than half on the way home.  As I am getting everyone out of the car I will walk in and see the sweet tea bandit (Max) drinking out of MY cup with MY straw.  Sweet tea is ruined! Not drinking anymore of it.  Seriously makes me want to cry sometimes.

2.) Kids have yucky hands, kids eats with their hands, I will never eat or share a plate with my children!
           Jerry has a strange way of eating, like part raccoon, part dinosaur.  He grabs his food in jerky movements like a tyrannosaurus rex who has no movement past the elbows, and then rolls it all together like how a raccoon eats and then shoves it into his spit covered mouth.  It is so sweet when he shoves his spit covered hand at my face and asks if I want a bite, but it will never happen.  I would seriously puke all over the floor before I could even try and chew the bite of mixed together food.  Max is a little better at eating now, so I know Jerry will probably grow out of it, but for the moment we will definitely not be sharing any appetizers.

I can walk up and pick a booger out of my children's nose, or really any other child's nose for that matter and I won't even flinch.  Corn speckled poop...no problem, not even a face.  Ear wax issues?  Let me get the q-tips.  Take a sip of your child's juice cup to make sure its cranapple instead of V8...NOT HAPPENING!!  I know its probably weird, but its just a thing I have been thinking about lately.  Any other mamas have disgusting things their children do that just make your stomach sick to think about?

Confession- I have a favorite child

I have a favorite child!  There I said it!  So glad to finally get that off my chest!  I am completely ok with having a favorite child because, and now this is the crucial part, my favorite child changes every single day.  My favorite child is really all dependent on who is pissing me off the least that day.  All 3 of my children are amazing and possibly the best children on Earth, but there are days that I like one of my children more than the others.  I do believe they all get their equal share of favorite days and I never outwardly show favoritism to my children, but on days where 2 out of the 3 of my children are acting like they are possessed by demons, it is a natural reaction to favor the other one, just for that day, or sometimes, even just for that moment.  They all have their good traits, but all 3 also have very distinct and different traits that will drive you bat shit crazy.   Examples:

Max has an obsessive personality with a hint (who am I kidding, let's not sugar coat it) an extreme amount of anxiety.  He gets obsessed with one particular toy, and no, it's not the same toy every day.  When he is having this obsession with a toy, he takes it EVERYWHERE.  I mean you better seriously hope this toy is water proof because it is going in the bath or shower with him.  The obsession isn't that bad...when it gets bad is when is looses it.  All life has to stop while we look for this toy.  He gets extremely anxious the longer it takes to find it and almost goes into the shakes.  A lot of people, my husband included, do not understand that if you can just find the toy the crisis will be over and we can move one.  Once we find the toy, life is good again, but when you encounter a person who thinks they know better and will refuse to stop their life to help him find the object of his affection for the day, it turns into a full blown anxiety ridden, crying, screaming, shaking melt down.  On days that he looses his toy and we look every where and I somehow find it in the freezer at the end of the day after I had already endured hours of stress, screaming, and crying from both him and myself...he is not my favorite.

Jerry has a very distinctly loud, annoying, make your teeth hurt whine.  I have sat for a long time trying to think of the way to describe it and I just can't.  You would seriously have to hear it, but for your sake, I hope you never encounter it.  Maybe the many victims of his whine will be able to help me describe it?  This little whine was probably a defense mechanism when he was younger and Max was toddling around taking his toys away, but now he just does it anytime he wants to be noticed, doesn't get his way, does get his way, hungry, tired, thirsty, or just for fun.  If we don't get invited somewhere, say to a supper or birthday party, it is probably because of Jerry's whine.  So on days that Jerry is using his whine on the level of torture...he is not my favorite.

Abilene is a princess and she expects to be treated as such...meaning you can never ever ever put her down!  She likes to be carted from room to room to survey what is going on from the safe place of the ergo or in your arms.  The minute you put her down and she doesn't want to be put down she lets out this bobcat sounding cry that you can't ignore even for a few minutes.  So on days that I don't get to eat, shower, or even take a sip of water...she is not my favorite.

BUT then there are days when Max is amazingly understanding, helpful and loving.  On those days, he is my favorite.

Then a day comes when Jerry uses nice worlds for talking and spends most of the day giggling, which is the best sound ever.  On those days, he is my favorite.

And of course, the day happens when Abilene likes to sit and chat it up with me while I fold laundry and give me constant reassuring smiles.  On those days, she is my favorite.


Disclaimer-  I love all my children unconditionally and they mean the World to me.  I NEVER show favoritism when regarding love...simply put, somedays I like one of my children more than the others.  I love them all equally ALL the time.

whoops!

My children love music, I love music, so it is natural assumption that to get my children to sleep I would sing lullabies to them.  I have always sung one particular lullaby to my children, basically since the day they were born.  I heard this lullaby from my Aunt Lynda who sang it to us constantly.  I would hear this song echoing from my littlest sister's nursery several times of the day.  So it is safe to say I know this song by heart.

For the longest time I thought she made up the song...she had been known to make a lot of things up, facts, rules, weather predictions, but songs especially.  I had never heard anyone else sing this song, I mean EVER, until the movie "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" (great movie!).  Thought it was a weird song choice and that they made it sound creepy. Some of the words were different than what I had always heard.  For example, we always said "you and me and the Lord makes 3..." instead of Lord they said "Devil."  So I figured it was the Devil word that made it sound creepy and that the women's voices' sounded possessed.  Never thought about the song again...

Years and years later I have my own children and this is the first lullaby that I always sing when I sit down to rock my children.  I seriously sang this song to Max in the NICU...that is how long my children have heard this song.  Never think twice about singing it to them.  Then one day I am rocking Abilene to sleep and a friend is over waiting for her to sleep so we can have a little tv and junk food.  She looks over at me like I am crazy and says "What kind of song is that?!" I still didn't think much of it because I just think its a lullaby, just like any other lullaby out there.  I told her its just a lullaby I like to sing to the kids to get them to sleep.  She then informs me that it sounds very very morbid and like I am wanting to kill my children in their sleep.  Um excuse me, WHAT?!

Thanks to Google, we look up the lyrics and the meaning...yeah its not good.  So for the past 4 years I have been singing a morbid lullaby to all 3 of my children!!!  Now I know they don't know what it means and probably don't even pay attention to the words, I sure didn't, but it seems kinda weird now.  So I have been trying to not sing that song anymore and Max demands that I sing it to him. He is a slave to a routine and can't stand any change ups...even if it is in song selection.  So I will continue to sing this song.  The question is, why in the world do people write morbid lullabies?!  So unsuspecting mothers can sing them to their children and then one day be as freaked out as I was?  I have great memories with this lullaby because of Aunt Lynda and with my children, so I like to associate the good memories with it, but I was also never a person so analyze lyrics, meanings, or even get all the words right...obviously!  I can just hope that my children grow up and realize that the song was sang out of love and not out of intent for them to die, be poisoned, have their father leave...etc...Seriously a lot of bad meaning with this song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJmZtn8vmt8

The part of the movie where the song is played

Max Thomas!

My little man officially turned 4, which seems impossible!  I have a preschooler in my house now! Bye Bye toddler Max, hello Mr. Smarty-Charming Pants Max. Max came into this world in a very unpredictable manner and ever since he has been completely unpredictable  So, to celebrate Max's entrance into the big kid world I will share some of my favorite and not so favorite things about Max.  Ultimately what makes Max one of the most original kids ever born (other than Jerry and Abilene of course).

* Max HATES the cold weather.  Most children would jump for joy when it snows, not Max.  Everyday when he woke up and there was still snow on the ground he would just say "When is this dang snow leavin?!"

*Obviously Summer is Max's prime time.

* Max is part fish.  Best. Swimmer. Ever.

*As much as Max loves the water,  he absolutely hates the rain.  We seriously can't leave the house if it is raining because if water gets on his shoes, shirt or heaven forbid his hair he goes into complete freak out mode.

*Hates to be sticky and since his brother is in a sticky phase constantly he makes Jerry wash his hands every time he wants to play with a new toy.

* Love/Hate relationship with dinosaurs.  Loves  to play and learn about them, however anytime he is scared it is a dinosaur's fault.

* Max has an obsessive personality.  Once he has figured out he likes something, he is completely consumed by it.

* He as an excellent memory!  This kid can seriously remember something from weeks, if not months ago.

* Max grew up riding and driving 4-wheelers and rangers, therefore he has absolutely no desire to learn how to ride a bike.  I have tried to teach him several times and he just looks at me like I am crazy and asks where the gas is.

* My little runner.  Ever since Max was about one and half, when we would go for a run I would let him out of the stroller for about the last 200 yards and let him run out all his energy on the way home.  I have slowly increased the distance every time and he is up to running 3/4 of a mile without stopping and at a pretty good pace I might add :)  I'm not saying he is running at an Olympian speed or even that he has running potential, all I know is that he enjoys it and I am very impressed.

* The most compassionate and nurturing little boy ever.  He has a very kind heart and soul.  He hates to see anyone hurt, especially his siblings.  Sometimes he seems to instinctively know when I need a hug or a kind word.

* Fiercely loyal to his siblings and those he loves most.  There have been several instances where Jerry has been pushed down or hit on a playground and before I can make it over to the situation Max has already retaliated verbally and physically.  I never apologize for his behavior or actions when he does this.  Jerry is very very small for his age and in the kid world this is like having a giant target on your forehead.

* Very picky eater!  Max went on a actual hunger strike for over a week surviving off only water and pancakes for breakfast!

* Oh yeah, did I mention he is extremely stubborn, headstrong, and persistent.

* Schedule oriented.  Same schedule everyday come hell or high water.

* When he is scared he covers his ears instead of his eyes...I know weird.

* Completely untamable cowlick on the back of his head.

* Dances just like his daddy...no rhythm, no moves, but absolutely adorable and he knows it.

* Kicked out of gymnastics for being "too spirited"  In other words he is very loud, in your face, and not that great at standing in line (but what little kid is?!) Karate is more up to our speed.

* Sometimes he just has a bad day and when need to stay home because nothing will go right that day.

Max, you truly are one of a kind.  I love you more than you could ever imagine.  The day you came into our lives you made our life a little more colorful and fun.  I can't believe you are 4!!  You are an amazing little person that reminds me daily, if not hourly to embrace life as it is and enjoy every minute.