Up, down, all around

He's not even 2 people!!! ~ but this kiddo sure is keeping me on my toes.

Some days I'm just not sure what to do with this boy. Every time I come to the conclusion to JUST LOVE HIM! That's definitely a start, but keeping Max occupied takes an enormous amount of energy and time.
Here's a little about him:
~ Yesterday I was on the phone for 10 minutes and Max swiped a sucker from the Halloween bucket and ate it sitting (and standing) on the dining room table. We need to just put that Halloween candy up high. Right now it sits on Jimmy's desk and Max finds his way in there to eat like 5 suckers a day. Aaak! No wonder he's not healthy right now.

~ Tried shoving his graham cracker into the files in the filing cabinet.

~ In the past week, he's completely ruined 2 nice lipstuffs. I have no idea how he finds them. One he ate and one he wiped all over his hands and the desk.

~ I got out of the shower to find a Maxwell who bit the tip off a bright pink marker and had written all over his jammies, his hand, his tongue, and his mouth. Thank goodness for washable markers!!!

~ Max loves 'Bafs'. After dinner every night he tries to take his clothes off because he thinks he needs a bath. And honestly, most nights it's quite true. Taking baths is a great diversion for him.

~ The favorite time of day (other than baths) is to go to the Bus. Three times a day we make our way by car or walking to take or pick up the kids from the bus. Max loves it because he gets out of the house.
~ Max is always finding laundry baskets and sitting in them, pushing them around, putting stuff in them.

~ Taking clothes off is something Max has finally figured out. He, fortunately, has learned to put shirts on semi-well. He'll be wandering around and find one of his shirts and put it around his neck (or arm) along with the shirt he's wearing. He's pretty funny about clothes these days.

~ Shoes - Max loves putting on our shoes. My favorite is when he puts on my boots. I don't know how he can walk with that heavy thing on, but he manages and quite enjoys it.

~ Max sits by the fridge, takes the circular cover off the water filter hole (we don't have a filter in there right now). Then he shoves whatever he can find (fridge magnets, cars, etc) into that hole. Sometimes we find a treasure in there.

~ One time after dinner we saw Max putting Corn Chex in a bowl for a snack. He got it all out on his own. I guess he was still hungry. He's learning to be independent I guess.

~ Do you see those big tears on his cheeks in the photo below. Well, Max got in trouble for trying to kick/grab/pull Abe's backpack off it's hook. He sure can produce huge tears quickly.

But you can see tears don't last long. Max is always on the go. He's up, down, all around, but overall he's a happy kiddo. If anyone laughs, Max will laugh with them. If you smile at him, he'll smile his huge smile right back. He loves to play and wrestle with Jimmy. He gets so excited about a 'gink' especially if it's hot chocolate or soda. We sure love our Max and all the joy he brings to our family.
Any ideas though on occupying a nearly 2-year-old when there is a baby to feed, dinners to cook, reading to do with a kindergartener, a first grade girlie to talk to, laundry to fold. Sometimes I feel like Max wanders around taking care of himself because we are all busy with something. Poor kid. I try to have him help me with chores. Or I sit by him and feed the baby while he watches a movie. Winter is just plain hard for energetic boys. They need to run, run, run and burn all that energy.

I wanted to get the video camera out and follow him around all day to capture all the many things he gets into and does. It seriously changes every 2 minutes or so. Wouldn't it be funny to see his day in super fast motion?

Anyhoo... I needed a positive reminder to keep loving this child. He sure is cute, eh! I need to remember to spend time with him and teach him all he needs to know.

Please send more energy to this mama!!!