12/52 | 13/52 | 14/52

12/52

"a photo of my child, once a week, every week in 2015."

Maximiliano: I had a hard time deciding which picture to use for this week. There were too many good ones, being that it was Easter week. I was going to post one of you at our Easter egg hunt. You were looking so dapper in your little hat and vest, carrying your blue rabbit head shaped basket filled with plastic eggs. Then I was going to post one of the day before Easter, when we dressed you up in your white button up and suspenders and took a walk in balboa park, you were sitting down on a big tree branch, looking very serious (nothing like your usual self). Finally, I decided to go with this one. This blurry, shirtless, not so perfect and yet completely perfect picture. This is the night before Easter, your dad was playing a show and we stayed home and painted egg cartons and dyed hard boiled eggs. I told you to pose for a picture for papa, so he could see the eggs we dyed and this is what you did as you said "ta-da!".

13/52

"a photo of my child, once a week, every week in 2015."

Maximiliano: Here you are, being yourself, channeling a seal or something. Another one of those not so perfect but perfect pictures. Just you being your true, curious, wild, untamed self. Yourself that I wouldn't trade for anything else, no matter how many hard times you give me. You had been asking to go see seals, (lucky for us they are only a 15 minute drive away) so we took you and this is what you did. After you got the seal in you out of your system, you splashed around all day, collecting shells and rocks and throwing sand.

14/52

"a photo of my child, once a week, every week in 2015."

Maximiliano: We went to the baked bear, your dad's favorite. You and him shared an ice cream sandwich while I sipped on my coconut latte from better buzz. Your dad picked a funfetti cookie, you picked the m&m one and this blue ice cream with brownies and fudge. After this, we walked on the sand for a long time. You, playing, running and jumping all over the place.

11/52

"a photo of my child, once a week, every week in 2015."

Maximiliano: On Sunday we went to the beach with your cousin Mauri, who came down from San Francisco. As you guys were digging sand to build castles, we came upon a little worm. You promptly picked it up with excitement. You showed it to Mauri and got sad at the fact that he thought it was gross, so you walked away to show your dad. Two minutes later you ran off trying to feed the worm (pictured above on my leg) to the seagulls.

Maximiliano Says

  3 years 2 months | Found this in my drafts from 10/01/15

These are the little things I want to remember.

Whenever I go run an errand or sneak out to get a break, Maxi always receives me with a big hug and an "I lost you mama!"

9/14/15

While I'm changing Maxi's diaper: Maxi: "don't change my diapy!" Me: "well you better start going to the bathroom then, Griff doesn't wear a diaper anymore, he uses the bathroom." Maxi: "I don't libit!" Me: "what!?" Maxi: "I don't libit!" Me: "you don't believe it?" Maxi: "no!" as he laughs.

 9/14/ 15

While watching little rascals there's a scene at the bank where the kids try and take out a loan, Spanky tells the teller "you can't treat people like this, mister!" Mr. Welling tells the kids "You're not people, you're kids." Maxi asks me, "Mama, I not people, mama?". My heart!

9/15/15

Maxi, as we sit and watch the rain: I lub it mama! I lub the sun, I lub the hot, I lub the cold, I lub the rain! I lub it mama! We need a jacket!

While we are playing with his ninja turtles he assigns me to be April and he is Donnie, then he says "April, your hair is beeeautifuuuul!".

9/52 | 10/52

9/52

"a photo of my child, once a week, every week in 2015."

Maximiliano: Here you are, petting a rabbit on the playground. Some guy just showed up with three of them and you wouldn't stop petting and admiring them. You said you wanted one too. I think we share a love of rabbits, but really I know you love all animals the same.

10/52

"a photo of my child, once a week, every week in 2015."

Maximiliano: "Come on guys! Follow me!" 

8/52

"a photo of my child, once a week, every week in 2015."

Maximiliano: I want to always remember the joy in your face as you splashed around and the joy I felt as I watched you and how on our drive back home you said to your dad; "papa, thank you for taking me to the park".

Maximiliano Abishai | 3 1/2 - 3 2/3

{Maxi | 3 years 8 months and 2 day old}

Maximiliano decided that at 3 1/2 he would stop being a baby. All of a sudden he decided that it was time to stop breast feeding, after nursing once during the night.

 I can't say I was bummed about it, I was wishing for this day to come for months. Although I fully enjoyed nurturing and connecting with my baby trough nursing, I just needed my space badly after three and a half years. That being said, I can look back at those days of nursing Maximiliano straight into a peaceful state of sleep, holding him in my arms and looking at him and thinking how beautiful the gift of motherhood is. Sometimes I catch myself thinking back on those days and missing them very much.

A couple weeks after he stopped breastfeeding he just woke up one morning and decided he would go to the restroom on his own and from then on there was no looking back. No accidents, no wetting the bed at night. We never pushed him to use the restroom, we only suggested and encouraged but he decided when the time was right and we had no problem with it.

These are some of the things he is doing and saying, along with some of his favorite things. These are some of the things I want to be able to look back on, moments I don't want to ever forget.

Things he says and does (I could write a book quoting him):

"I want a little hug." "I want a big hug."
This boy of mine is a big fan of hugs, he is forever asking for hugs. Little ones and big ones and group hugs and just hugs, hugs, hugs. I couldn't be happier of course since hugging him is my favorite!

"May I have water?" "May I watch something?" "Will you help me?"
Seriously? I don't even speak as correct as he does haha. He just melts my heart when I hear him ask so kindly and politely, makes it impossible to say no at times,

"Mama, you make my heart."

After he ate his lunch, he walks up to me and says: "I loved the food mama, thank you for make it!" and gives me a hug and kiss. Like how did I get so lucky?

While I'm putting on lipsticks: "I like your make up mama."

When I raised my voice: "Mama you made me mad, make me happy again!"
Another time I raised my voice: "love me again!"
These two literally broke my heart.

Also his thing to say is "Relax down!". He just combined relax and calm down and it's the funniest thing.

When Damian asked him to help him pick up his cars: "I'm dizzy (busy)."

Me: "Maxi what are you doing?"
Maxi: "Eating gummy bears."
Me: "Why?"
Maxi: "Cause I'm a man."

Also his wise message to start off the year: "Just be patient... (walks away, sits on the couch) that is the magic trick."

Last week I took him to the doctors for a mild rash on his back and everything turned out fine, doctor said it would go away in 2-6 weeks on it's own but he recommended the flu shot after I mentioned a cough that just won't go away. I explained to the dr. that I would rather come back on another day because I had already promised him that he wouldn't get a shot that day, to which he responded by telling Maximiliano that it wasn't my fault and it was so he wouldn't get sick. He also told Maxi that, and I quote "with that smile! you're gonna go a long waaay!" The Dr didn't give a crap about my request and sent the assistant with the shot anyway, you should have seen the look Maxi gave me, it broke my heart. His teary eyes said it all, "buttt mom you said I wouldn't get a shot." He kept on asking the nurse assistant "but whyyy?". Being a mom is a though job. He was still such a brave little guy about the whole thing and the highlight of my day was when right before he went to bed he said: "mama, thank you for taking me to the doctor." He is just the best, Always so thankful. On the weekend after taking him to the park he says; "papa, thank you for taking me to the park."

Some of his favorite thing:

On some days it's quesadillas, on other days it's chicken and rice, but these two meals are his absolute favorite. Although, that boy loves all food, the other night I roasted some broccoli and he would not stop asking for more "boccoli". Recently he started asking for oozy eggs (eggs over easy) for breakfast. I love that he named them oozy eggs. His favorite food when we go out to eat: pho and pizza and the other day out of the blue he says "mama, I have a good idea, let's go to jack in the box, they have french fries and chicken nuggets and I'm hungry, let's walk there."

Playskool avenger figures (he's missing silver surfer and he asks for him all the time, "for my birthday, pleeeease?" apparently he's discontinued or something and runs from 60 and up on amazon) and marvel playskool potato heads.

Playing with toys mentioned above, walking, exploring, collecting snails (he gets very attached), "making science" (I usually let him play with vinegar and baking soda while I do house chores), watching youtube toy videos (my son is not the exception) and dressing up in his super hero costumes to "fight the bad guys".

____________________________________________________

Maximiliano, never change. It's hard to get my thoughts all straightened out and type out every single great thing about you. Just know that you have brought so much happiness to everyone around you. You are my little ray of sunshine, I love you more than all the stars.

7/52

"a photo of my child, once a week, every week in 2015."

Maximiliano: You have such an imagination and you are such a boy! I love hearing the stories you tell us. Here we were taking a walk in Sea Port and as always you love to explore all the little nooks along the way. You told us this (convention center) was your planet and that you made it yourself. You said this is where you worked and that there were lots of creatures inside. When I asked what kind of creatures, you started naming animals and some of the ones I can remember were "a little tiny dinosaur", "a little lizard" anddd an elephant! It was hard to get you out of your planet to continue exploring the rest of the port but we convinced you by reminding you there was a pond with ducks further down. As we walked away you told your dad and I that when you grew older you would invite us to have rice and chicken at your planet. After a long walk we were hungry and ready to pick up some food and head home but you saw your planet and did not want to leave, of course being the 3 1/2 year old toddler that you are you threw a little fit. You were really sad, saying: "but my planet is going to miss me." We promised we would go back and have a picnic there and that cheered you up a bit.

___________________________________________

I know this 52 project is supposed to be a photo project but I love that sometimes one photo inspires me to write a whole paragraph of memories that are related. 

6/52

"a photo of my child, once a week, every week in 2015."

Maximiliano: You are always asking for hugs! Or "huggy huggy". "Little hugs" "big hugs". Hugs are your favorite and I love that they are, because they are my favorite too, especially coming from you.

XOXO

Happy Valentine's Day!

5/52

"a photo of my child, once a week, every week in 2015."

Maximiliano: I snapped this photo of you, last Sunday. Ever since you were a day old, this sleeping pose fascinated me. You look like a thoughtful little sleeping angel. I love you.

{here you are same pose, only a day old}

4/52

"a photo of my child, once a week, every week in 2015."

Maximiliano: You are so excited for Easter. You love surprise eggs/ chocolate eggs. Last Easter you had a blast on our egg hunt so when you saw these eggs that I was storing under the bed, you asked if you could please take them out. Here you grouped them all by color and posed with them for a picture.

3/52

"a photo of my child, once a week, every week in 2015."

Maximiliano: This day we went on a little hike to the beach, well it wasn't so little. It took about 3 hours in total. You were such a trooper and walked 95% of the time. When we got down to the beach, on our way back to the car, we stopped every once in a while to throw rocks and look for sea shells. We also happened across this heart someone had made out of rocks.

1/52 | 2/52

1/52

"a photo of my child, once a week, every week in 2015."

Maximiliano: We took you to the park to ride your scooter. You rode it for about 5 minutes then decided you would much rather explore. You picked up sticks, threw rocks, climbed and swung on bars, searched for birds and squirrels and picked flowers, one for your dad, one for me and one for yourself. 

2/52

"a photo of my child, once a week, every week in 2015."

Maximiliano: This is your favorite park, you call it the fish park, due to the giant fish on the playground. This day you and your dad chased each other around playing "monster" while I sat and contemplated this wonderful view in much need of caffeine. It was cute when you ran up to me and said "hurry the giant creature is coming!", your dad and I had quite a laugh at that.

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Being the ocd person that I am, I was trying to figure out when exactly the first week of the year started to get this project right haha. I found this week calendar and went with that. I am excited to look back at this project at the end of the year and in the future.

Maximiliano turned 3!

Maximiliano turned three years old on the 27th of June! My little baby is not a little baby anymore. I get all kinds of sappy over this. I miss my little chubby cheeks and baby giggles but at the same time I love all the new joys that come with him growing. 

 I took some photos of him so I could send one out with the invites. This one above was the winner! One day we just hopped in the car, made a quick stop at Michael's, grabbed this wooden three and headed to the beach. It was actually a lot of fun and of course the day wasn't bright and summery but I loved the photos nonetheless.

The night before I stayed up getting things ready. I also filled up his pool with balloons and some of his presents for a morning birthday surprise.

This year we hosted his party at a different nearby park. We set up under a bunch of trees and right by the playground which was so convenient. The weather was not the best (just like last year), you would think since he is a summer baby that we would have the perfect sunny weather to host a party at the park right? (For his first birthday party we had the warmest, sunniest, not too hot day.) The trees did an amazing job of keeping us warm and even dry from the teeny tiny sprinkles that fell that day. 

For food we served carnitas tacos, beans, potato wedges, chips, salsa and guacamole. I initially planned on having a few gold fishes for the tables but opted for swedish fish gummies and goldfish crackers instead. I had bubbles for the kids to blow and a few other games and of course goody bags. I made a few decorations but didn't really take pictures of anything, I was clearly too busy. But I did get pictures of some of the kids in the shark backdrop that I made. I love how it turned out and it served as both decoration and photo booth!

The birthday boy was running wildly all over the place with his buddies and refused to stop for pictures, so what you see is what you get (except for the film that I haven't developed yet, we'll see what we'll get from that!) haha. We tried really hard to get a family picture but did not succeed (except for a tiny instax print that is worth gold to me!), all we got were tantrums instead. It was even hard to get him to sit for cake time! He was having too much fun, which makes my heart full because that is why I did all this for. Piñata time was, as always, a blast for the kids and us adults enjoyed watching them. Maximiliano and his buddies then proceeded to run off with his presents and they all opened them together and oohed and ahhed at his new toys! It was such a nice time with family and friends, building core memories is my favorite. 

That night we got home and changed into warm clothes, Maximiliano took a "nap" that was supposed to be bed time... I guess the excitement was too much. When he woke he opened his last present from us and was the happiest because it was a big box with all of his birthday requests: a backpack, books, ninja turtle cars and the playskool marvel super hero babies he was missing + a couple playskool jurassic park dinosaurs. (He calls these playskool heroes his babies and loves them to death!) From then until bed time it was full on playtime with all his babies. XOXO

These glasses were obviously a hit at the party.

///

Maxi's first birthday.

Maxi's second birthday, here and here.

Maximiliano Abishai at 35 months

Maximiliano turned exactly 35 months yesterday, which is when I planned on writing this post but watching terminator 2 and falling asleep happened so here I am writing it today.

Maximiliano, (or as we all call you most of the time, Maxi) you are 35 months which means you are a month short of being 3! I can't believe how big, smart, fun and loving you've grown to be in such short time. I still remember so vividly the day you were born. Your eyes were wide open and you were observing everything around you, so calm and beautiful, I don't even remember hearing a cry. They placed you in my arms and tears of joy filled my eyes while I kissed your face. I loved you so much from the moment I knew you existed that I didn't know how much more I could love you the moment I held you in my arms, our love for you only gets stronger and stronger as the days go by.  I had been waiting for you almost two weeks after your due date, we all used to say how comfortable you must of been in my womb, that you didn't care to come out to the real world.

Just this month your vocabulary has tripled it self and I find myself in awe every time I hear you say a new word that I had no idea you had learned. Your tia chelle is no longer chelle but Michelle, it's no longer kee but thank you. You exclaim "Ou! mama, I'ma hurt" when you bump into something. When we read to you, you are so involved, you stop to point at everything and describe it. The spider monkey, monkey hand, monkey foot, monkey ear, monkey nose, monkey mouth, monkey tail, monkey red! Your favorite books at the moment are: panda bear, panda bear what do you see and from head to toe from Eric Carle. You love animals and you know every single animal there is. If I had to choose three animals to be your favorite, I would say you love sharks, spider monkeys and pandas the best. You love food and I'm so thankful you are not a picky eater, I'd have to say your favorite foods of lately are rice, eggs and pizzadillas (quesadillas with pepperoni). You know most of your colors: black, blue, purple, red, yellow, green but it's funny that sometimes you still call some of them by superhero names. Red is piderman, yellow is wolverine, green is hulk and blue is captain merica. You love your super heroes. And your ninja turtles. You love it when we build lego robot families together, you always ask for the mama, papa and baby. Some times when I'm cleaning you say " play mama, play" and you grab my hand and take me to your toys. You are always playing family even with your super heroes, you have a mama spiderman, a papa spider man and a baby spiderman and you rock the baby to sleep while you sing lulu's. You also love it when we play cars. You just started liking chocolate milk, you had tried it a few times before and never liked it... this morning you woke up at 4ish asking for it, you were still half asleep and I think you were probably having chocolate milk dreams. Your dad got up to make you a small cup and you drank it and went back to sleep.

Some days you give me headaches but I would not change those headaches for anything in the world. You are wild and free. There is no stopping you. You are loving and caring and polite and strong and curious. When I say ouch!, you say "what's wrong mama?" or ask "you okay mama?". You say please and thank you (most of the time). You always greet people and you make sure to say bye and goodnight. When your grandma is carrying groceries in the house, you run to help her with the bags. You wake me up by touching my face, staring straight at me with a huge smile on your face.

I could go on forever but you are awake now, so I'll wrap this up by saying that we love you so much, you are the sun, the moon and the stars, you are the apple of our eyes. Since the day I knew of you my love, my life has only changed for the better. Thank you.