Loving our Boy

Some days I just live to hear Michael talk in his cute little voice and sing me songs and tell me stories.  Other days, I want to just cover his cute little mouth with duct tape.  Today is a duct tape day.  Mostly because I'm trying to do something, like blog, rather than give him my whole-hearted attention that he so desperately desires- but only when he notices me doing something else.

Earlier this month, Michael and I were invited to a fire station open house by my awesome sis-in-law, Kaylee, but we weren't able to make it.  Unfortunately, I had already promised Michael fire trucks and he made sure to remind me of my promise all day.  So, thinking fast, I took him to our fire station in Springville, where they have an old truck that kids can sit in:

We also brought our adorable neighbor, Maya, who was giving her mom a migraine.  Michael hogged the driver's seat the whole time but Maya seemed happy just to be there.

It only worked so well because I had (luckily) not mentioned the cotton candy, hats, and everything else awesome that was going to be at the open house up in Orem.  Huzzah for poor memory skills!

We also, in the spirit of Fall, went to a Farmer's Farm (or something silly like that) that was free to get in to and had a mini petting zoo, pony rides, bouncy houses, and food booths.  They didn't tell you in the ad, though, that while it was free to get in, you pay through the nose for everything else.  And they only took cash.  And they didn't even have stamps for reentry if the kids got bored after 5 min in the petting zoo but decide they love it again 5 min after that.

I went with my two neighbors and their kids (5 small children all together) and we all left after just a few minutes of checking out prices and trying to keep the kids from noticing the expensive activities.

Then this:

very smart man approached us on the way out and said he'd let Ashton (I'm pretty sure he just pointed at the closest kid) jump on his trampoline for free since it was really slow and, of course, Ashton really really wanted to.  Then, since he got to, everyone else wanted to try it.

Michael wasn't sure whether to be excited or scared, but he seemed to have fun nonetheless:

Michael has started drawing pictures for us, and he especially loves drawing on the whiteboard.  This masterpiece is "Mommy, Daddy, and Michael."  I love it!:

I love emptying Michael's camera (we have two pretty terrible digital cameras and Michael gets the worse one so he'll leave mine alone).  We get awesome shots of strangers' backsides:

 Fun shots of the boy, taken by Mommy and Daddy:

And shots of Mommy and Daddy that no one else could get (a picture of Daddy is rare in itself, much less a silly Daddy):

And then he gets a hold of the ipad camera and takes 500 pictures in two minutes.  I'm half tempted to print them out and make flipbooks out of the shots:

And this is what he's been doing during the majority of writing this post ("Look at me, Mommy!  Look at me!"):