A Born Leader (and the demise of his mom)

If you thought the Mariah Carey blog post was bad, you ain't seen NOTHING yet.  Max has another cold (my pediatrician told me "Welcome to the next 2 years of your life"- but I'll save that for another post) and woke up in the middle of the night SCREAMING.  This was before I realized he had a cold- so my thought was that maybe he had a bad dream.  When I went into his room to calm him down, he would NOT be calmed.  Not amount of mommy love, passy offering, sushing, rocking, bouncing, or singing could subdue my boy.  This is not a happy thing for moms, because we are supposed to be able to make baby happy, all the time.  After a long, torturous, middle of the night cry session, he did indeed calm down.  But if I attempted to put him down, he warned me with a high pitched squeal that I had better not, or I would regret it.  I obeyed, and held him while I tried to figure out what kind of bad dreams a baby could have-- did the world run out of milk?  Did Daddy stop making funny faces?

And then it hit me.  I had to go to the bathroom-- like really bad, or I was going to wet my pants.  So I did it, I sunk to a new low, and let my child sit ON MY LAP while I went to the bathroom.  This is NOT a joke.  This really did happen.  And honestly, I think Max enjoyed it.

He has also developed several strategic ways to communicate with me, although he can't actually talk.  If he wants up, he lets me know, if he wants more, he tells me so (although NOT with the sign language I've been trying to teach him), if nap time is over, he rings for me.  I think this speaks to his leadership skills.  For instance, he has recently talked me out of his afternoon nap -- and when my mom asked if I was going to be bring a baby device to "trap" the boy in one place during our upcoming visit, I responded with: "the boy doesn't need trapped.  He doesn't move unless he yells loud enough and someone obeys and moves him."

He has a face and a sound that go hand in hand-- and when Max speaks, we obey.  The fact that this 7 month old blob of blue eyes can get two adults, and one big brother to do what he says WITHOUT talking, is amazing. It's a real testament to the skills of a good leader.  Especially considering who he's dealing with...

If you know me, then you know this is funny.  I'm kind of stubborn- ok, very stubborn.  I like control and I'm just a tid bit bossy.  (My Mamaw gave me a plaque when I got my first job that said "I'm not opinionated, I just tell it like it is".)  Chad is also stubborn, and Gabe is too.  And that's just our immediate family.

Did I mention that when Max visited with my Dad last month, that he never had to nap or go to bed at night because my Dad would go pick him up out of his bed when he yelled.  Do you all know Dan Noblitt?  Now that man IS stubborn.

So how does this baby get to be the boss of all our world?  Look at this yell face and you tell me: