Encourage one another and build each other up!

One of Maxwell's favorite songs is based on I Thes. 5:11 and the words are, "Encourage one another and build each other up, build each other up, build each other up! Encourage one another and build each other up...up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up!"

In our best effort to teach him how to encourage others, we've been teaching him to say kind words. Since he typically only uses unkind words to mommy, I've really been trying to work with him to be kind to her.

Here is an example of one of our exchanges.
Matt: "Maxwell, what is something kind you can say to mommy?"
Maxwell: "Mommy, your so pretty!"
We've also taught him that women are "pretty" and men are "handsome".

This morning though, he decided that he needed to hear kind words about himself. As he walked out of the room we heard him proclaim, "I'm so handsome!" (picture from this morning is included here)

I guess we all need to hear kind words sometimes, but unfortunately, our intention wasn't to teach him to brag on himself!

That little man

One of the things that Maxwell has been doing lately that cracks us up is referring to every man he doesn't know as "that little man". Here are some examples of him using the phrase lately.

Last weekend at the Weatherly's house, he worked hard all weekend to pronounce "Mrs. Weatherly" when we told him where we were going. After riding on the tractor Friday night with Dr. Weatherly we went to their house and got ready for bed, but Dr. Weatherly had to stay in the fields and finish up so Maxwell never made the connection that his last name was Weatherly, too. The next morning (at 6:30 AM) Maxwell walked out of the bedroom and saw Dr. Weatherly downstairs. Not knowing his name he ran back in and said, "Daddy, daddy! That little man I rode on the tractor with is downstairs!"

Then this morning when Maria and Maxwell were dropping me off at work the landscape crew was out working. Maxwell looked at us and said, "That little man isn't gonna get me with that thing, is he?!" That thing was a weed eater and we assured him that we would not let "that little man" get him. Too funny!

Friends and a fruity festival

This past weekend, the three of us made a trip to Nacogdoches, Texas for the Texas Blueberry Festival. What made the weekend even better is that our friends, the Weatherly's, live in Nacogdoches (little did we know that they live on 100 acres surrounded by 3 creeks, thus the name of their place, "Triple Creek", and it was stunningly beautiful).

I haven't been to Nacogdoches since 1989 when my sister was in school there (sorry to age you Jana) and had forgotten how beautiful that part of Texas is. While the Blueberry Festival was our original reason for going, we only lasted 2 hours there--if you've been to one festival/fair, I contend that you have been to them all. In that two hours, we waited in line for 30 minutes for blueberry pancakes, sat in folding chairs with Maxwell in my lap while trying to feed him, burned his little mouth on a blueberry (the rest of the pancake was cool, I promise), walked by a number of booths with "interesting" items, and had the joy of taking Maxwell into his first port-a-potty (icky).

The highlight of the weekend for all of us was time with Jim and Gail Weatherly. We got to meet their pet longhorn Jay, Maxwell rode in the instructor seat on Dr. Weatherly's new tractor, we played with water balloons, met two of their grandsons (and Maxwell got to play with them), ran up and down the stairs in the house, played in their fabulous playroom, and went to Dr. Weatherly's veterinary clinic and saw the puppies and kitty cats. Maria and I also thoroughly enjoyed the time to visit with them and meet some of their family.

I'm big now...

I had the privilege of eating lunch with Maria and Maxwell today at the new Blue Baker (by the way, it is huge and really nice, not to mention there is a fountain in front of it!). After we ate, they took me back to my office and on the way Maxwell made a rather profound statement...

"I'm big now because I can open my Freebird."

Now if that doesn't make you proud, I just don't know what will! The funny part is that we haven't eaten at Freebirds in at least 5 days. :) If you aren't familiar with Freebirds, they make these really yummy and BIG burritos and Maxwell really likes them (he and I usually share). If you know about Freebirds, then you know what I'm talking about. Whether you know about Freebirds or not, come see us and we'll be glad to go eat there with you!

One step ahead of us

Our dear friends, the Mortons, always seem to be one step ahead of us when it comes to posting blogs about activities that Maxwell and his best girl buddy (and their daughter), Elizabeth, did together. For instance, check out their blog from yesterday titled "Summer Fun".

We think the picture of Maxwell with his arm around Elizabeth is just adorable! Thanks to Shannon for capturing it (despite initial protests from Elizabeth).

Our son...the fisherman?!

While Maria and I were fighting crowds in New York City, Maxwell was at Nana & Grandad's enjoying the simpler, quieter way of life in the country (I grew up in a town of just over 700 people in southeast Texas--Hardin, Texas). Now I love my dad (probably even more than he knows!), but one thing that we do not share a common interest in is fishing and hunting. I simply don't have the patience to sit on the bank of a pond, lake, creek, etc. and wait for the fish to bite. I wanted to like fishing, but sitting still is not something I have a natural talent for, so I struggled to enjoy those times with my dad (until Coach Vandiver got a bass boat--then I could enjoy fishing because we were out on a boat, but that is a different story). The fish didn't seem to want to bite when I was fishing with dad either, so that made things even worse.

Now back to Maxwell and his time with Grandad. They planned to go fishing all week, but every day it rained or something prevented them from going. Then on Friday they finally had a chance to go fishing in the afternoon. On the first cast Maxwell pulled in a 3 inch fish (seen above). After a few more casts, he reeled in a 4-5 inch fish (seen to the left).

Then, a few casts later, he reeled in this one!

If my dad is reading this (not sure "blogs" are on his radar screen yet!), then I'm sorry to say that, based on my ability to fish (or lack thereof), I'm going to have to attribute Maxwell's early talent to the White side of the family (Maria's mom's family). They are from Newfoundland in Canada (affectionately referred to as Newfies) and Maria's grandfather and some of her uncles were fishermen by trade. Heaven knows he didn't get the fishing talent from me!

Getting rid of the fur

Many of you have heard us tell stories about our frustration with Maxwell pulling the fur out of his favorite stuffed puppy, Moses. Apparently, telling him not to pull the fur out of Moses stuck with him. Last week, we decided that both Maxwell and I were in desperate need of a haircut before we set out on our trip (I had a conference in New York City that Maria joined me on and Maxwell went to Nana and Grandad's) so we set up our barber shop in the garage and Maria cut our hair. The funniest part was at the end when were were cleaning up and Maxwell said, "Daddy, we are cleaning up because mommy got all the fur off of us."

Included below is a before and after shot--and the funny face we are making is actually the two of us "winking" at our favorite lady.