Month 22: Letter to Max

Dear Max,

As I am typing this tonight you are in your bed calling to me. I have been up to see you three times already and I am trying to convince myself that I am not going up again but you sound absolutely heartbroken.

I am supposed to be doing homework and you should be asleep. We have been alone all weekend together and I think you are ready for your other mommy to come home. While I am your favorite playmate (and you are mine), it is your other mommy who seems to be able to comfort you and set your mind at ease so you can sleep through the night.

Well, you have had a tough month. Earlier this month we had two other foster kids for a week with us. You LOVED playing with the older girl, but found that the baby took away precious attention from your parental units. I don't know where you learned to hit, but you are a hitter! Thankfully you are still pretty transparent and it takes you about a minute to wind up so for the most part we were able to intervene. You did sneak a couple of good shots in though and stressed your mom and I out.

Right after they left and before you could get into any kind of a routine again, we went to the hospital and picked up a newborn baby. For some reason you get along better with him than you got along with the other baby, but perhaps it is because he still lays and does nothing and so far he is not interested in any of your toys. I hope that day never comes. You are very cute with him and you love to hold him.

It turns out he was too small to have been released from the hospital - so your mom is with him in the hospital and you and I are hanging out alone. Yesterday was a trying day for both of us, but we got into the swing of things today when I hid the fan and you temporarily forgot about it, and I cleaned up the baby soap from the new couches. (Your obsession with the fan is driving me a little insane, epsecailly since I am the one that has to cart it around and fix it all the time).

Fozzie and Odie are here with us for a week or so and you are LOVING the dog crate. I probably should not have posted a picture of you in the crate because I know there are people out there who believe foster parents keep kids in dog crates. They don't know you very well. You couldn't be kept anywhere you didn't want to be. I am surprised your crib is still in one piece the way you shake it. I can't imagine the day you transfer from crib to bed - I am not looking forward to that experience. You will NEVER go to bed! Perhaps I should more accurately say - you'll go to bed 35 times a night!

Some of the things you have learned since I last posted are opening the fridge door and taking the tray off your highchair. when you hurt yourself you come to us for kisses. Today I was laughing because you did something to your foot but by the time you got to me you forgot which foot it was. It didn't matter as long as I kissed you. You still love being tickled and when you lay on the grass it is a signal that you want my attention. I was apparently not following your cues well enough this afternoon because you kept getting up and moving closer to me to lay down again until I realized what you wanted and played the game.

You are loving apple sauce and I am very grateful for that because I needed to tell your mom you ate SOMETHING healthy while we were together. When I ask you if you want apple sauce you clap! You are very cute. I still wish you were talking. It makes me nervous that you aren't, even though the speech therapist says not really to worry until you are 3. You understand things completely, so that is a good thing.

Tonight we came into the house and I was getting you a bowl of stew (which I made this morning in a fit of domestication). While I was getting your bowl I heard you open the fridge door, but since you weren't turning on the microwave I was happy to let you have your way for a minute if it kept you quiet. When I turned around you had taken the juice from the top shelf of the fridge and you were drinking right out of the container. It was so funny I didn't even think to tell you to stop. Then you put the empty container right back into the fridge. Just like your other mommy showed you. I thought that only happened when you were a teenager. Lucky us.

Well bud, I really need to go and get some homework done. I can't wait to see what you learn tomorrow. I hope it is something helpful like changing the kitty litter. I love you.

Mom