A Trip to the Farm

I don't get to see my parents as often as I'd like, so when Jeff suggested Michael and I fly out to CO for my mom's birthday I jumped at the chance. A month later. But still. I brought her gifts and it was great.

We really did have a great time. The flight out was a lot better than it should have been with a packed puddle-jumper plane and Michael sitting on my lap the whole time. People actually commented to me afterwards how surprisingly good he was (I noticed they didn't mention how worried they were when they saw us board, but I caught it). Michael played with the window and reading lights the whole time, with the occasional ipad intervention to keep the guy sitting next to us from snapping.

My Dad and his driver waited for our flight (since my Dad had just flown in too) and we had a fun drive in a taxi. Michael enjoyed the car-seats-aren't-mandatory rule for public transportation and spent the ride trying to get to the doors. When we pulled up to my parent's house, Michael remembered that this is where the chickens live! and bawked for the next 15 minutes. He couldn't even stop long enough to greet Grandma properly. Thankfully, she thought it was hilarious and adorable.

We went out to see the chickens first thing the next morning:

It was a very relaxing visit. I got to make a lot of fires, watch Highlander, and just hang out with family. I got a lot of good quality time in with my Mom, which I loved.

I also got to babysit a bit, during which I fed children cupcakes and let them watch Signing Time on the ipad:

Michael got to spend some quality time with his Grandma Veronin and tiny aunt and uncle:

And we all had a great time making pretzels (yes, that is a screwdriver):

Michael's favorite thing was playing with Ki and Tess. He loves following them around and they seem to really like having a duckling (even if he did get in the way sometimes). They were very good to let him join in with whatever they were doing, be it playing outside in the courtyard:

Or jumping on the mini-trampoline; climbing onto the table; collapsing onto the couch, laughing hysterically; only to get up and do it over and over again:

That was the best game ever, in Michael's opinion:

Here are some more pictures of Michael in the courtyard, learning to shovel snow and loving the heck out of it:

(I interrupted:)

Oh, and Michael made a new friend while we were there. He already knew her name, cos I'm an awesome Mom like that, and carried her around talking to her and saying "Minnie! Minnie!" Thanks Mom and Tess for letting him keep her:

Once again, the plane ride home was better than I expected it to be. Michael had a bit of freedom since the very nice ticket lady opened the seat next to us and he got the window all to himself, but he spent a lot of time trying to climb over me to the isle. I had to distract him with cookies and the ipad and showing Minnie what was outside the window (which he would then take over). Still, no screaming = great flight.

Sadly, the next time we fly, he's not going to be free. On the other hand, at least I don't have to worry about him kicking the poor soul who gets stuck sitting next to us since I will have paid for both seats. Whoo hoo?

It was great to get home again. Michael was very happy to see his Daddy in person (we tried Skyping and Michael wasn't too interested) and Daddy was happy to have us home again, but happy to have had a break of his own. It was a great vacation all around.

I'm Really Proud of my Clever Reference at the End...

Jeff and I are pretty much always occupied with work and school, leaving only Michael's antics worth posting about.

Michael is adorable. Probably the most adorable boy ever. Sure, we're biased, but not as much as you might think. Just today, I'd been doing laundry, which means I took down the gate to the laundry room that protects the cat food. After a few thwarted attempts to get to their dish, Michael succeeded in sneaking past me. I heard him messing around in the cat food and ran in saying "No no!" He gave me a surprised look and held up his stuffed cat babbling and saying "Mow mow mow," pointing at the cat food. He wasn't playing in the food. His cat was eating it. Obviously.

The other day, we went to the aquarium and, as usual, spent most of our time at the penguin exhibit. This time, though, Michael ran up to the glass and started "bawking" at them, believing them to be chickens. Of course, he stopped as soon as I got the camera ready, but I still got some cute footage:

The rest of my pictures are just cute without real stories.

Here's one with Michael playing with the salad spinner:

He likes to sit in the fridge and rearrange the door items:

Tantrum after throwing dinner all over the floor:

He has incredibly ticklish thighs:

Playing with his new sunglasses:

(sorry for the fuzzy picture, but it's still adorable)

Jeff noticed him sleeping like this the other night. I'm glad he can still sleep through camera flashes:

And lounging at his aunt's apartment watching Signing Time:

Lastly, Michael really likes eating slices of bread. But, unlike normal children, his favorite part is the crust. At least we don't have to worry about earthquakes around here... (Anyone? Anyone?):

Edit: The reference was Bill Nye. Richie didn't eat his crusts:

Busy, Busy, Busy

Work and school have completely taken over our lives. I spend my days with Michael, doing homework when he naps and after he goes to bed. Jeff goes to class Mondays and Wednesdays, staying after to do his homework, and working late every other day to make up for the hours he misses for school.

We had my little sisters over for the Superbowl. It was a lot of fun to hang out and we all ate too much food.

Michael is as cute as ever, if not cuter. He's at a very fun stage where he babbles at anyone who will listen and loves being the center of attention. Everything is a truck (even ceiling fans) and he signs at random things while making a honk-like noise.

I dug out his old walker for him to play with while I cleaned out a closet, only to have him climb in and unable to get out. He got pretty mad, especially when I ran to get the camera instead of pulling him out immediately:

He is hilarious and gets into everything:

The cats are especially unhappy about his new found curiosity and have found there are very few places they can call their own now:

Bath time is a blast. Michael is having more fun playing with his toys and tries to stick his duck to his belly with the suction from the squeaker on the bottom:

He also thinks the shower curtain is pretty dang cool. He can see me through it, but it's still solid enough to play peek-a-boo with:

Lastly, Michael has learned to take pictures with "his" camera. I think the results are hilarious, but we do get mostly up-the-nose shots:

Christmas and Catch-Up

Forgive my absence from the blogging world. First I was lazy and then life got rough.

Christmas was a lot of fun. We spent Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Day's house with family, subs, and Elf. Christmas morning we woke up at our leisure (when Michael woke us) and opened our gifts next to our tree with all the ornaments out of Michael's reach.

-Side note: Michael especially loved our Pluto ornament and would point at it every few hours yelling "Puppy! Puppy!". Some days, he'd do it when Jeff got home from work too, in case Daddy had forgotten we had the wonderful ornament while he was gone.

Michael got a lot of fun gifts, including one of those barking, flipping dogs.

It actually flips on non-carpeted surfaces.

For the first week or so, whenever we went downstairs he would start yelling "Puppy! Puppy!" in hopes that I'd turn it on while he ate breakfast. He was scared of it at first and would only touch it when it was turned off. Whenever it fell over he would dance around it saying "Uh-oh! Uh-oh!" until one of his parents righted the poor thing.

Now he isn't scared of it at all, which means he'll grab its legs while it tries to run or flip. The poor puppy probably doesn't have much of a lifespan left.

More Christmas fun:

What Michael saw:

We also went to our nephew, Paxton's, blessing. Doesn't he have the cutest family?:

It was a lot of fun and we got to see even more family that wasn't able to make it for Christmas.

After the new year, my little sisters came to Utah. Katie came back because she just can't get enough of hanging out with me, and Amy came out to start her first semester at BYU.

Plus, my parents flew out to WA to buy a new truck and drove through UT on their way home and stayed with us for a few days so they could go to my niece, Abby's, baptism.

Unfortunately, Jeff and Michael were sick so we had to stay home. The illness continued to get worse until I took Michael to the doctors on Monday where we found out he had an ear infection and bronchitis. Highly contagious, the bronchitis hit Jeff and Michael before coming for me. At least this way we've been able to help each other out. Jeff has actually been amazing these last few days while I've been hit hard with fever and cough. He's been working half days while taking care of Michael and me.

To top things off, the semester has started and both Jeff and I are going to school this Spring. So much fun.

That's pretty much where we stand right now.

In closing, here's Michael from this morning, dancing to Little Einsteins. They do have a really catchy opening theme:

Compilation

This post is a collection of a lot of stuff I've been meaning to blog about but just never got around to doing it.

Michael learns to say "Boo!":

Here's Michael scaring daddy. He only does it if we react, so Jeff's using the manliest reaction he can. Michael's a lot harder to hear, sorry.

Doesn't he look fabulous in stripes and plaid? Not everyone can pull that off.

There's another version of this game where he runs into the room, yells "Boo!", waits for a reaction and then runs back out. He goes back and forth for as long as you're willing to scream when he yells.

Michael loves to help his Mommy by swiffering the kitchen, reorganizing the lower portion of the pantry, and finding his own milk in the fridge:

While Michael loves to help his Mommy, he loves to copy anything his Daddy does. They are so stinking cute together:

Michael even has his own keyboard and mouse for when he sits on his Daddy's lap in the office:

Ever since Michael could crawl, he has loved "catching" Sadie (it would be more of a challenge if the silly cat would just run away):

The poor thing puts up with a lot, including us telling Michael multiple times a day "Do not step on the kitty!", which is why it is so funny to watch her follow him around the house and nudge him for attention:

My last bit of news is probably the best. We've been trying to teach Michael sign language for a while and it's finally paying off!

He knows More, Please, Thank You, Milk, Water, Cracker, Apple, Bird, Tree, and Truck.

We watch Signing Time almost every day and he loves watching other kids doing the signs. Jeff would like it noted that Signing Time was created by Rachel de Azevedo Coleman, daughter of Lex de Azevedo, the man who wrote the music for Saturday's Warrior and My Turn on Earth.

We're really excited for Christmas tomorrow and I'll make sure to take a lot of pictures!

Thanksgiving

I guess now that we've been home for well over a week it's time to post about our Thanksgiving trip to Colorado. It was a lot of fun and the food was amazing.

Michael was relatively good on the airplane to and from Denver. They were still the most stressful times of our trip, but Michael let us bribe him with food, toys, and books for most of the flights. And the reading light buttons above our seats. He just could not leave those alone. But turning the lights on and off kept him happy. That was the important thing.

We got to Colorado Tuesday morning and spent the first few days entertaining ourselves by playing with Ki and Tess:

And watching Signing Time with them:

And playing with the chickens. I had a lot of fun with the chickens too and took my turn feeding them, collecting eggs, and fending off Big Red attacks (a gorgeous, cranky, red rooster that hates people). He pretty much just runs into the back of your legs and puffs up. He can't do a whole lot when he's that small and doesn't have hands.

It took Michael a few minutes to warm up to the chickens, but after that I had to keep my eye on him. It seemed like every time I turned around Michael was running for Big Red and I had to jump in between them to keep Michael from trying to pet the murderous bird:

Here's a quick video of Michael laughing at the chickens and Tess looking adorable in her outfit:

Screecher is the rooster crowing in the video. He is a nice rooster that my family raised from a hatchling, soI don't have to stress about him pecking Michael's eyes out.

We also had a great time lounging in front of the fireplace. I forgot to get a picture, but it was glorious having a fire going almost the entire time.

Thanksgiving meal was amazing. Here's my dad carving the turkey (sorry about the lighting):

And here's my full plate:

Everything was delicious. Jeff was especially pleased at my first attempt at making cranberry sauce.

After lunch, my dad got out his tractor:

Michael wasn't too keen on it until Daddy got on and let him play with the steering wheel:

Then he was willing to sit with Grandpa:

We're really grateful we were able to go visit for so long. Happy late Thanksgiving!