Happy Birthday Michael!

It's mind boggling to think that Jeff and I have been parents for a year now. It's still weird that we have a kid at all, much less one that's a full year old.

He started out as this tiny, hairy baby:

That slept all the time (I do miss that but, then again, I enjoy being able to sleep through the night myself):

He grew into a happy, chub of flub:

He explored the small world he could reach:

And before we knew it, our boy was hitting milestone after milestone! He had teeth, he could sit:

Stand and crawl:

Cruise and get into everything (that's a milestone, right?):

He always wants what Mommy and Daddy have:

And, to be honest, he usually gets it.

Now he's our big, smart boy who's still amazing his Mommy every day with how intelligent he is:

Here's our clever boy making up his own peek-a-boo game. The pauses between closing and opening the door are him wedging his little fingers into the cracks to get enough of a hold.

In honor of Michael's birthday, I'm going to let him add a few words. Michael?

x szSZ tfgvb vxzfcvdesxvzcvdeczdxfcvdesxz dfcvg zz d c'/.vytc vm,bh,.m/buyjm,bnujmnvujm

And there you have it.

Happy Birthday Michael! We love you and I've got Rick Astley stuck in my head cos we're never gonna give you up, little boy! :D

Road Trip

Last week, Jeff, Michael and I took a trip out to Colorado. Jeff needed a break from stressful work, and I'm always up for an excuse to visit my parents.

Unfortunately, the weather was against us. It seemed like we couldn't have planned a worse week to travel East. Not wanting to let a little snow and high wind deter us, we decided to drive I-80 through Wyoming for an easier trip.

With the promise of bad weather ahead, we took the drive slow and easy, stopping in Rock Springs, WY for the night when Jeff got tired. The next day (after a Terrible continental breakfast from Days Inn -they should be ashamed of themselves), we fully expected to get to Colorado Springs by early evening. Instead, when we reached Laramie, WY, we found all roads East closed down due to winter conditions and crashes.

After waiting on a standstill freeway (twice, because we are just that smart) we opted for a hotel room to wait it out. We all took a four hour nap and decided it would be easier just to leave in the morning. Even though the freeway was open by that point, it looked like the weather was going to clear up the next day. If we had a chance to drive in the sun, we were going to take it.

Finally, almost two full days after we started our trip, we made it to Colorado Springs. My family was very happy to see us.

My mom let us ditch Michael on her while we got the grand tour of their new house. It is absolutely amazing. Jeff and I were duly impressed. They should put up a picture tour on their blog the next time they're at a loss for a subject (hint hint). I'm excited that the next time we visit them, they'll be in that house. I'm not so excited for the dirt roads and hills we'll have to venture with our little car.

Michael loved playing with Ki and Tess again. Now that he can crawl everywhere, he's even more interesting than he was before. Tess kept running up to me to point out "baby Michael" as she followed him around the house. Ki did get a little jealous when Michael got too close to Amy. "My Amy", he told Michael, pushing his hands away from his favorite sister.

Unfortunately, with only a day and a half visit, we weren't able to find time to play shang hi rummy, but we did find time to visit the ER with our little boy. It sounds a lot worse than it really was. I had noticed Michael was a little hot earlier in the day, but it wasn't until evening that I felt the need to take a temperature. It was high enough the on call pediatrician thought I ought to take him in to an urgent care clinic, which were all closed. With us traveling the next day, we didn't want to take any chances and took him to our only other option, the emergency room.

They didn't know what was wrong with him. Maybe a virus. Basically all we could do was keep his fever under control with infant ibuprofen and tylenol.

We weren't looking forward to driving 10 hours with a sick baby, but what could we do? So we bid adieu to my family and started out. The good news is that we made the trip in less than a day. We did have to stop a lot to take care of a very cranky boy. Giving him medicine, trying to get him to eat, or letting the poor kid stretch his legs. Jeff and I switched off sitting in back trying to entertain him while he cried at us. My favorite part was when he slept.

To make a long, terrible trip short, we finally made it home. It took less than 12 hours and I only saw one deer. Thankfully, it was contemplating death from the other side of the railings.

I did bring my camera with me, but the only time I thought to get it out was when Jeff was bouncing Michael on the trampoline. I'm a little embarrassed that with everything that happened on the trip, this is all I've got, but you have to admit they're pretty cute pictures:

And a video!:

Michael and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Haircut

Michael's hair has always been a little long, and I've trimmed it a few times to keep it out of his eyes or from looking like a mullet. Finally, I decided it was time for an actual sit-the-boy-down-and-take-half-an-inch-off-the-top haircut. It was an experience, to say the least.

To start, here are some before pictures:

For the haircut, I set Michael in his walker in front of the tv, thinking this would keep him from moving around too much.

He lost interest in the tv within 5 minutes. From then on, he just wanted the scissors. Even putting Aladdin on only bought me a few extra minutes with the singing.

Here are a couple of during shots:

Doesn't he look so happy?

I got mostly done before Michael started twisting and crying so much I couldn't continue. It was time for bed and I figured I would just finish the next day. Then I had a thought. I have to give him a bath before bed, why don't I just finish the haircut in there?

Worst Idea Ever.

Michael, no longer restrained in even the loosest terms, crawled back and forth in the tub, standing and sitting, and overall just not letting me cut his hair in an orderly fashion. Having cut hair everywhere certainly didn't help. I tried to keep it from falling in the tub, but that wasn't going to happen. It got stuck to me and the boy and it was just miserable.

He thought it was kind of funny that mommy was chasing him with scissors as he raced across the tub:

I finally finished -or at least got to a point that it wasn't long anymore. I thought it looked a little like someone grabbed some hedge clippers and just started whacking whatever happened to look longer than the other hairs (which kind of is what I ended up doing), but the more I see it, the more okay I am with it. Although, I think next time I'm just going to buzz the kid.

The final look:

A Basket of Bounty

It has come to my attention that I don't update often enough. I don't usually think about it unless something exciting has happened, or if it's gotten to an embarrassing length of time between posts (a month or so). But I can at least try to post cute pictures of Michael more often, which I always have on hand, and, let's be honest, everyone checks our post for the pictures anyway. ;)

Michael still loves eating solids. He'll sit in his highchair and demand a portion of whatever I'm snacking on. Often, I'll just distract him with a heaping helping of Marshmallow Mateys. The kid is smart. He always goes for the marshmallows first:

This week, we were finally able to participate in Bountiful Baskets -something we've been meaning to do for a long time, but never actually got around to signing up for. Once we did register, it took a few weeks for us to be able to find a pick up relatively close to our house. It's so popular, everything disappears within minutes of the site opening up. We got lucky this week and the site went down for a few hours, letting Jeff snag us a Springville basket.

It was a lot of fun. Jeff was even more excited than I was. He wanted us to get so much produce we'd have to force ourselves to eat it so it doesn't go bad. He pretty much got his wish. We got asparagus, apples, oranges, lettuce, bell peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, a watermelon, strawberries, mangoes, and green beans. We were especially excited for the asparagus. It is so good grilled and drizzled with a little butter. Michael especially loved the strawberries:

The weather here is a little on the fritz. One day it will be beautiful and sunny, and the next we get hail, wind, and snow. On the nice days, I open the door and set up a gate for Michael. He loves the outdoors but hates to play on the dead grass, even with a blanket under him. This is a perfect setup, because he gets sunshine and enjoys watching kids play basketball and ride their bikes in the road. Meanwhile, I get to visit with my neighbor who sits on the porch while her kids play outside.

The boy is getting more and more comfortable standing, and is getting better at balancing every day. He'll let go of whatever he's holding onto and can stand on his own for a few seconds at a time. Then he inevitably loses his balance and falls down. It's very cool to watch. I'm sure walking is just around the corner. I wish I could catch a picture, but it only lasts for a few seconds, and I'm usually the thing he's holding onto.

In other, less happy, news, Michael is altering his sleep schedule. We use to get in three good naps during the day and then he'd go to bed around 9 or 10pm. Now, we're losing a nap. It's not that big of a deal to me. Three naps was great, but my day kind of revolved around them. The worst part is adjusting and trying to figure out what the new schedule is going to be. It's frustrating, to say the least. He'll stay up longer, but gets more upset if we're late for a nap. Also, bedtime has moved up to sometime between 7:30 and 9pm (depending on how he's feeling that particular day).

At least we still have a bedtime ritual, which helps him know when it's time to stay down til morning. It starts with a bath, then pjs, feeding, and a story or song while I walk with him in his room. It's one of my favorite times of day because he's usually really cuddly. There are times, of course, where I'm late putting him to bed or he's just really grumpy. I can't help but laugh at his angry face. I love it!

This was an especially bad night, because he was cranky and I had to wash his hair (I try to do it every other night, because he hates it so much):

He is so mad at mommy!:

And now she's making fun of his crazy hair:

Life is so hard for baby Michael!