Five and a Half

Maxton is 5 and a half years old. Everyone out there with a newborn? Don't blink - just don't. I can't believe how fast time is flying. He starts Kindergarten in just 5 months. AHHH!! School age!

Anyway, what can I say about Max at 5 and a half?



He's totally come into his own. He knows what he likes and doesn't and STRICTLY sticks to the things he likes. His likes include video games, tv shows, baseball, bubbles, oatmeal, board games, pancakes, waffles, ice cream, raw veggies, legos, bike riding (finally!), his dad, Bennett, his best friend Quinn, short sleeve t-shirts, gymnastics, reading, weapons, dress up, and helping in the kitchen if it involves knives or fire.



He has recently decided that he dislikes hugs and kisses, especially from MOM. So sad. He's just too cool for them. He's also gained a competitive edge the past six months and must be the winner of all things. Games, running, etc. We're trying to humble him a bit while continuing this burst of confidence because it's nice to see him feeling so proud of himself, but also not so great when he loses and it's someone else's fault.





He continues to be extremely sweet, but has also started rough housing his brothers more than usual. There's a LOT of boy energy in him and that's new. When he was little he was always really calm and that's not the case anymore. The great news is he's quick to apologize and typically does not repeat bad behavior once it's discussed with him.



He's started READING in the past few months and mommy is THRILLED! Such a fun accomplishment! He does such a great job with it also. He's also starting to spell a bit (no more spelling words for us) and is counting to 100 easily (and loudly!) He writes his name and his family member's names and can write numbers 1-20. I'd say he's ready for K and while I'm nostalgic about the quickness of time, I'm also really excited about what's ahead.





I just asked him what he wants to do for work when he grows up and he said, "Nothing. I can't tell you."

That made me laugh. He's really funny. He doesn't love jokes or "typical" humor, but he's got this funny way of making our whole family laugh. I wish I could describe it better... he's just goofy and quirky.



He LOVES sharing a room with Bennett and misses him greatly if Ben naps without him or something. He's a people person and prefers to be surrounded by others. Good thing theres a lot of Lincolns!





He started t-ball this spring and is working VERY hard on mastering cartwheels at home. He'll join gymnastics again this summer and keep with t-ball. I'd like to get him playing an instrument as well because he used to adore music and we've lost that a bit in the past year.





He's very inquisitive. Always asking a question and wanting to know more about how the world around him works. If we don't know the answer he gets irritated, often saying, "Mom, you have to TELL me!" Haha! He likes information to be accurate as well and he will correct you if you're wrong.



He's anti-girl right now, so I'm not his favorite person. When I get an "I love you" or some Max sweetness I feel VERY special.



I like that he strives to be better at things and is gaining confidence. When I do something that makes Max smile, it makes me feel like a million bucks. There's a strong desire in me to make Max happy. He's the child I worry the most about and there's positives and negatives to that, but mostly I think it's because he's my first and everything with him is new territory for me.



He's all boy now. Big boy, too. I'm so insanely proud of the big boy he's becoming. Sometimes I get a glimpse of "man" and it both freaks me out and excites me. I hope he'll still want to hang with his mom when he's grown and I hope I get to see a lot of Max's smiles for the rest of my life.

Maxton is FIVE.

I mean, really. Could we just SLOW things down a little bit here? My oldest guy turned FIVE last week. FIVE. FIVE. Are the caps making you realize how dramatic that is? He's old. He's officially crossed over into the land of kid. One more year until Kindergarten and then he's basically graduating high school and leaving me forever. I can't handle it, guys. It's too much, too fast.

Okay, meltdown over (for now). We decided to do 5 up right and take the fam to Disneyland. Disneyland is up there with boots and sweaters in the fall and Christmas trees with twinkly lights and banana splits with REAL hot fudge. It's one of the best places in the world to me. I was giddy, like a, well, 5 year old over going there and witnessing my kids experience it was like heaven. I told Ritchie I was going to feel depressed after our trip because I was SO looking forward to it and it would be all over, but I'm not. I'm still remembering it and loving our memories.

Anyway! That's another blog post. Here's how we celebrated Max sprinkled in with some fun Max facts:



We started off with pizza (pepperoni with no cheese please for this 5 year old) and a "spicable me minion cake" with his Papa and Mimi and Uncle Andrew and Rusty.  This was the best we could do on that one....






Max has been obsessed with Despicable Me (both 1 and 2) and everything that goes along with it. He speaks minion, he owns a fart blaster (thanks, Gillettes!) and he's constantly quoting the movies.





His favorite gifts were anything "shooter" related, legos and money (with which he bought more "shooters" and more legos). Smart child (on the money part... the shooter thing is also a whole other blog post)



On his actual birthday we were in Disneyland! We did a character breakfast and enjoyed his favorite rides which were the Haunted Mansion, Toy Story Mania and Buzz's Astro Blasters.







My fantastic friend Kirstie joined us with her two sons. Roman is almost 5 and he and Max get along swimmingly.





Max is a creature of habit. He loves oatmeal with honey and cinnamon and peanut butter toast with honey and cinnamon as well. He despises clothing that is at all fancy or buttons or is a puffy vest. T-shirts and comfy pants for this kid. He's a negotiator and a talker (He gets that from Ritchie... obvs) and sometimes I understand why my parents used to ask me if my jaw hurt when I was his age. Kid can TALK. He's competitive and loyal and prefers a few close friends over lots of people. He's still not independent whatsoever. He'd rather have you play right along side of him then alone, any day.

Max is SO CLOSE to reading. He can count to 100 (+) and do a plethora of coloring/cutting/gluing activities. He likes it when we do our "school" together. I think he just likes being together, but I'm hoping that this will all translate well in Kindergarten next year.

He loves playing games on the iPhone and watching movies, but also builds legos like it's going out of style and plays many different variations of "running games". Imagine him running in a circle and you get the game.

He hates most food but likes most people. He can make me melt and make me crazy all within minutes. I couldn't love him more. I think he's smart and funny and sweet and hopeful. I love his wit and determination and smile. When he hugs you or says he loves you, it's because he means it whole heartedly because he's not overly affectionate usually. It's something special when he loves on you. I soak it up.






Max, buddy, I know you're all in a hurry to grow up, but maybe you could slow it down just a little bit? We'd all appreciate that....

They're Definitely Brothers....

Ok... I know this is painfully obvious based on time/place and the fact that I just posted a bunch of pictures of Crosby, BUT let's just see who looks like who here with a little guessing game!

A

B

C

D

E

F

Can you guess who's who? And the larger question in this house is... who the heck does Crosby look like?? See, Max is clearly Ritchie's child and Ben is a DEFINITE Rieger (in more than just his looks) so that begs the question.... does the Crosby favor Maxton or Bennett more? (And therefore more Ritchie or me?) 

Answers:

A. Bennet B. Maxton C. Maxton D. Crosby E. Bennett F. Crosby 

Max at 4 1/2

Age four is really the best. I guess I feel that way about ALL of the ages and they each come with their advantages and disadvantages for sure, but for US, age 4 is where it's at.

Max has come into his own SO much recently. He stands up for himself and really seems to know what he wants. We used to think he might be a kid that could be easily swayed into doing what others around him were doing, but not anymore. He plays what he wants and encourages others to join him. If they won't, he just keeps doing what he wants. We've REALLY seen the leap over the past 6 months into playing WITH others as opposed to just playing NEAR others. We're so thrilled with his social growth over the past few months because he's always worried us a little with being shy or "a clinger" as I called him (not to his face, obviously).

One thing that hasn't changed is that he seems to be a kid that becomes super into something and then can leave almost everything else behind. Much to my sadness, he seems to have lost interest in music and traded it for an interest in bow and arrow shooting. He would like to have a "bow and arrow" (usually a hanger or a stick or a fishing pole toy that we have that becomes a bow) with him at all times. He likes to pretend to be Merida from the movie "Brave" and shoot bows and arrows like she does. He's also really into the ipad for his daily quiet time and plays "Temple Run" which is simply a running game. He collects coins and runs from monkeys or bears or whatever happens to be chasing him. He LOVES running for real also and goes on runs with Ritchie or just runs circles in our backyard. We're happy to see him enjoying something physical! Lastly, he's very into telling time right now as well. More digitally than anything, but he also harbors a strong curiosity for the clock and learning what the numbers stand for and when. I never realized what a tricky concept the clock is! He's wowing us with his memory and knowledge each day.

Oh, and puzzles! He also likes to do puzzles now!

While Max at 4 has become a tad "sassy" or "talks back" more than he ever used to, he's still pretty much the sweetest kid I know. He's much less into snuggles, so I take them when I can and soak them in. I think his love language is time. He wants to be by me a lot still and will talk my ear off (mostly about the ipad and Temple Run) It's exhausting, but I'm so grateful that he wants my attention and wants to share his interests with me.

He's so excited to meet his baby brother soon and we know he's going to be amazing because we've seen him be a brother to Bennett. Kind, calm and always wanting to help Ben learn, he's a better teacher than we are sometimes! I can't wait to see where the rest of this year takes Max. We just love that kid to bits.

Maxton's Rockin' Fourth Birthday Party

My Max turns 4 on Tuesday and guitars and music are amongst his favorite things in the whole universe. His ONE request for his birthday party was "lots of big purple guitars" So, naturally, we decided to have a rock star party decked in purple and with lots of big guitars. Here's a peek:
































This one cracks me up. My mom got him the keyboard and it came with headphones (yes!) and he is SO serious when he has them on. Playing music is clearly serious business.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our sweetest little guy.

P.S. It looks like nobody was at our party. It was actually quite a full house (almost 30 in our small townhome! We pretended it was a crowded backstage) but I don't know most of his classmates and their families well enough to post a bunch of pictures of them. So, that's that. Why I felt I had to explain that, I'm not sure. I guess because it looks like we just partied with just the 4 of us - haha!