Back in Denmark, there was lots of growing to do and lots of things to see.
Max learned to "back up the truck" and park his little butt in a low chair in the States, and so we kept the tradition going here. This picture shows his expensive new chair (a piece of styrofoam from our new dishwasher - Hallelujah!) Max is a little whirlwind most of the time, but every now and then he likes to take a break and read all by himself. Here he's reading his favorite book, or should I say, favorite page of the book, which is a page of "Tiny Things" from a book he got from Mormor.
The next picture is to show how Max has started wandering around the house. We think he picked it up from watching Teletubbies (which is what he is doing in the next picture). Teletubbies like to put their hands behind their backs and stick out their bellies when the giant windmill signals the antennas on their heads (yes, I know my sense of normal has entered The Fringes) and that is just what Max is doing too. He walks around the house like a little gentleman Teletubby with his hands behind his back all the time.
The next picture is pretty self explanatory...Morten and Max after a bath. Both of my boys get a bit slap happy before bed. Don't want to get into details, but Max's clothes came off, diapers got onto heads and there was just general silliness that evening.
And the last picture is of Max right at 18 months. He's walking (and running) quite well and loves puddles. Here, he has on galoshes and got a chance to splash unhindered about in the muddy water. Another time was less the Kodak moment. We were going to a friend for dinner and would have prefered that he stay clean and dry, but he found a lovely 6 inch deep puddle while we put his stroller away and gathered up his changing bag. By the time we turned around, he had already sloshed in it up to his knees and had a big smile on his face.
Max is chattering away now. He speaks mostly Danish by his own free will, but will say anything you ask him to say, also in English. He has about 100 words, we estimate. As I write this, though, you would think he only had one: Støvsuger. This is the danish word for vacuum cleaner and the boy is obsessed with it. He points at cars, cups, old men, mommy... anything and says Vacuum Cleaner. He uses his spoon, his finger, straws, rubber ducks and whatever else that looks like it might suck dust and pretends that it is a vacuum cleaner. A few days ago, farfar and farmor were driving him home from daycare and they told us that he said it without stopping from the time he got into the car until he got home and could go and find the vacuum cleaner. He won't touch it while it's running though, and would prefer to sit on an arm as it's a noisy pet.
There is a chance that Vacuum Cleaner may soon be replaced by Boat. This is one of the few words Max chooses to use in English. We went to The Tall Ships Race that is being hosted in our city and Max got to see lots of boats. So, now he uses lego plates, plastic bowls and plates as boats while he shouts "BOAT, BOAT" in a deep voice, mimiking the foghorns he heard many times at the boat show.
