He Puts the "Toddle" in "Toddler"

Yup, our boy is officially a toddler!

After our vacation, where Michael spent a lot of time with Ki and Tess -who are close to his size, but run circles around him- our little boy decided it was about time he let go of the furniture and venture off on his own:

Here he is, strutting his stuff, while wearing an old car charger like a boa:

I get to laugh a lot with this kid around.

Even though he's pretty much gotten the hang of walking, he does still love to push things around. One day, I lowered his high chair so he could get a better grip on it and pulled it to the middle of the floor. When he saw his chair at his eye level, Michael screamed and toddled over as fast as he could, immediately shoving it into the nearest gate:

And then he found the buckles!:

Buckles are the most fascinating things in the world right now. After I unclip Michael from his car seat, he'll usually go straight for the clasps and try to buckle himself right back in.

In other news, I had a birthday! I turned 26 years old on the 12th, but didn't really celebrate then because we were all sick. We did go to Tucanos for lunch (I got to beat the tambourine when they brought out the drums) and then brought Jeff home early from work. He let me nap while he watched the boy and then grabbed take out for dinner so neither of us would have to cook. I still felt pretty spoiled and had a great time. Also, last night, he gave me my presents and tonight he's cooking dinner! Being sick turned out to be an okay thing, what with my birthday being drawn out for a week. :)

And now, random pictures of Michael...

Big hug from Daddy (awwwwww):

Michael found a window to the backyard, obviously put there just for his amusement:

Pouting after, "No! Michael, we do not eat the kitty food!":

And getting tickled by Daddy:

A lot: