Tales from Toddlerhood

• At the grocery Saturday, Max and I were following a girl and her mom down the aisle.  Max looked at me and said, 'That's a girl.'  I said, 'yes it is,' to which he replied, 'When I get bigger you need to get me one of those.'
• He's started doing this thing where if he doesn't like what you are saying or doesn't want to reply, he starts going 'wha-cha-cha-cha-cha.'
• It turns out the best motivation for using the potty is a little song Ian made up.  After he goes, Max looks at whoever is in the room with him and says '[other parent] come sing to me?'  When we're both there, a rousing round of 'Max went peepee in the po-tty, Max went peepee in the po-tty, YAY MAX, YAY MAX, Max went peepee in the po-tty' with lots of clapping commences.  Max knows all the words and claps right along with us.
• Max is very, very into his instruments right now.  He puts on parades multiple times a day, marching around banging on his drums, tambourine or rhythym sticks.
• Last night, Ian wanted him to play the drums slightly more softly.  So Max started barely tapping them.  Ian said 'you have to find the middle ground.'  Max then spent about 5 minutes wandering around asking if various things in the house were the middle ground.  He was very confused.
• He's definitely inherited his parents's dislike of being in trouble.  If we say anything slightly critical (be gentle, Max., etc.), he says 'I want to go to time out.  Can I go to time out Mommy?'  Then he walks himself upstairs, stays in his room for a minute, and comes back downstairs saying 'I'm sorry Mommy.'  
• He is getting to be quite the kitchen helper.  In addition to mixing, he can 'read' the pictogram ingredient lists when we bake.  When we made Ian's birthday cake, he told me we needed water, butter and eggs, and reminded me of what came next while I measured.  He also did a bang-up job mixing the eggs before we put them in the blender.