Maximilian is full of paradoxes and conflicting characteristics. He is very passionate and impatient. His laughter is contagious, and his whining is unbearable. Both are very loud. Max rarely walks, he runs most of the times, and he is so light on his feet, he almost flies!
At the same time, Maximilian is rather cautious (cowardly). Rough-and-tumble is not for him. He does not like too much “contact fun”. Yes, you can chase him and tickle, but don’t you dare throw him up in the air or make him do somersaults! Max comes up with things he thinks he is afraid of. Sometimes, it is clear that he is truly afraid of something, like building tower cranes. He saw one at the construction site by our house, and the crane was moving in rather an intimidating manner towards us. Fairly enough, Max got terrified! However, at times he just wants to cuddle, so he says something like “Макс боится луна!” (Rus. “Max is afraid of the moon!”) and rushes to me or Martin for some comforting. Sometimes I think that Max’s careful nature is a blessing since he is rather naughty. At least I am more or less confident that he will think twice before doing something potentially dangerous.
At two, Max is a passionate footballer. He likes watching football with Martin and cheer for different countries/teams. Martin uses this opportunity to teach Max a few country names and flags, so very often you can hear “Heja Brasilien! Heja Ryssland! Heja Sverige!” The happiest time for the father and the son was in June 2014 during the World Championship in Football (Brazil). Both Max’s football skills as well as his geographical awareness soared. Martin bought a few books and stickers with maps and flags to encourage Maximilian’s natural interest in this area which he must have inherited from his father.
Max sings a lot! Another thing he takes after his father is experimenting with song lyrics: he likes substituting some words in a song for fun. Thus, instead of “Bä bä vita lamm” (Swe. “Bah bah white lamb”), he can sing “Bä bä sopbilen” (Swe. “Bah bah garbage truck”). He finds this very funny! Martin has been doing this ever since the children were born: he came up with funny substitutions in children’s songs or spontaneously sang about Max and Zoe using familiar melodies. When substituting words in song lyrics, Max is very good at keeping the rhythm of the song lines. He would choose the word form that suits better rhythmically, ex. sopbil or sopbilen (garbage truck or THE garbage truck). Max’s songs are guarantees of our smiles and laughter.
Max enjoys making us laugh. He says something silly, like “Муха-муха, какуха!” (Rus. “Fly-fly, poopy fly!”), and if we laugh, he remembers it and says the same thing again when he wants to make us laugh.
PS After I wrote this post I looked back at the post introducing Maximilian at 1 year. It is amazing that some aspects of his personality have not changed at all! I actually used the same words: “contagious laughter”. A year ago I was also tired of Max’s whining… There is a core in everybody’s personality that is obvious at birth and that can be traced down at any stage of one’s life no matter what other skills and characteristics have been acquired or developed.