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!