Happy Birthday Max

Today Max turned 9! Here he is this morning looking as handsome as ever.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

max is a great brother!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was Maddie's thought for the day!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So one of the big reasons for resurrecting this old blogalog, is that recently I had to fill in a form for school about Max when he was younger and going back through the years on here was a major help. We read out all the birthday profiles and the kids loved them. Time to re-start that tradition. Here goes:

Looks
Max is TALL. When I go in to do library duty with his class he seems to loom over his chums, almost head and shoulders taller than some of them. He also has BIG FEET which perhaps is part of how come he's so good at swimming. Somehow, he has also managed to stay blond and partial as I absolutely am, I think the picture says it all. Max is cute.

Personality
He's a sweetie. Max's teacher told me that she thinks he is cool and if she was a kid, she'd like to hang out with him. She also told me he is mature (not quite so sure about that), but then maybe she's not seen him lose anything or fail to get his own way. I don't know why he seems to be so good at almost everything, but I know how he gets his own way - by being charming. Sometimes in quite a calculated way! That said, he is naturally kind, very, very thoughtful and observant and an all round good kid.

Skills and Experience
Max is a story-teller and a film director. He's a lego movie king. He's in the A team for soccer and one of the top swimmers in his age group at our Y. He's intensely competitive, especially useful in swimming as he spends all his practice sessions simply working to get to the front of the line in his lane. He has learned to play the recorder a bit, but pretty much flunked Spanish class last year so I don't think he'll be a linguist. He's not a great lover of reading, despite being an A grade student at absolutely everything, so if I was a betting person (which I'm not) my money would be on a future in comic animation or something like that. Arty, but also very practical.

Likes
Max likes sport - doing, not watching. He has been known to say that he 'needs another sport' because he doesn't have any practices for anything on a Monday evening. He loves Nina & Lulu, his DSi, his favourite movie last year was Real Steel and his favourite book is A Tale Dark and Grim (which is good!). Favourite foods... pizza, bagel, shrimp, cheese, sandwiches and anything with lots of cake and cream.

Dislikes
Getting out of bed in the morning, being told off (another Braithwaite that can't take criticism - that'll be a full house then!), homework, meat.

What we love about Max
Genuinely lovable personality, kindness, sense of humour, interesting observations on the world, sportiness.

What sometimes tests us a little
Inability to get himself out of bed in the morning, dislike of going to bed at night, ability to wind up his older brother.

Presents this year - a fish tank, a DSi R4 & lego (of course)