Yay! For the last two nights after his bath Michael has gone to his little potty to pee! I never thought I'd be happy about something like this, or at least not happy enough to post a blog entry about it, but here I am, the proud papa posting about pee. Anyway, Mike's still afraid of having the top open on his potty, but he did sit on it to pee on the lid, four times in two nights. We've just been wiping up the little mess with a towel after he's done. The last time he went tonight he grabbed his dirty shirt off the floor and cleaned up after himself. Who ever thought cleaning pee with a dirty shirt could be so cute.
Also, our fence is in, mostly. I'll post all about the fiasco after everything is finished.
I know... It's been over a month since my last real update. Things have been pretty hectic for the last 6 weeks though, specifically with work. We got hired to do a major development project in only six weeks so I've been really wrapped up in that. The good news is that it got finished on time and has been a great success so far. So we're all very happy about it.
So now it's back to catching up with the rest of our projects and lives. So I'm posting once again.
In the last six weeks Mike has continued to grow and learn. The weather has been generally nice so he's spent a lot of time outside. We've done some planting in the garden and a lot of yard work and Mike is actually helping out a bit, or at least trying to.
I put together a big compost bin that I got in the fall off of Freecycle and Mike helped out by putting bolts in all the holes. And I built a stand for it and Mike tried to tighten the bolts. He's also been helping Julie plant stuff and helping me mow the lawn. I got him his own plastic lawn mower that he pushes around while I'm mowing the grass. He can even say "lawn mower" now (although it sounds more like "no-nower").
He's picked up several other words, too. He finally says Mama, which has made Julie very happy (although he doesn't say it as often as she'd like). And last week he learned to say "messes" after painting a birdhouse for Busia for Mother's Day.
He spends a lot of time in the fenced in part of our yard with Moxie, too. He likes to sit in the corner with Moxie, throw her balls out of the yard, and chase her around. But he won't have to stay in her area for very long. We're getting a fence put in around the rest of the yard this week. So we'll be able to work in the yard without worrying about Mike running off into the street. We're really looking forward to it.
And he got his first two freckles over the last few weeks. His first appeared on April 5th on his back right between his neck and right shoulder. And two weeks ago he got his second one on his left temple. They're very cute, just little dots the size of a period.
He's also learned to peel an orange. We just start the orange and then hand it to him and off he goes. One orange will keep him busy for nearly 10 minutes before he wants another. And he's been dancing to stuff on TV, too. He danced along with Dancing with the Stars tonight and he claps for American Idol. He'll dance and spin around until he makes himself dizzy. Then he plops down until he gets his bearings and then gets up and does it all over again.
And over the weekend we brought Mike to the zoo (the first time since last August). He liked the animals, but was more interested in just exploring. Except for when he found the geese. The poor birds got chased all over the grass, but Michael had a blast.
So anyway, things have been good, Mike keeps us cracking up every day, we're enjoying the nice weather, and we're looking forward to the summer. I've finally updated the photo album with pictures from April and May and the zoo, so check them out.
And we got more snow today... We were lucky though. We only totaled about an inch or so. Most of it came down as rain and sleet. Just to the North though some areas got over 10 inches! Welcome to spring! Poor Mike wanted to go outside today and stared out the windows at the snow covered yard.
Mike also discovered that he likes lemon juice! Weird kid! He took the lemon juice bottle out of the fridge this evening (you know, one of those shaped like a lemon with a nozzle on the end), popped the top open, and started to drink. And he loved it! I think he made up his mind to put me in the cheapest nursing home available when I'm old after I took the lemon juice away from him. What weird taste...
Thursday, March 20, 2008
- Goosing and the Car Wash
OK. I promised to write more, so I just want to post a quickie...
Today Michael came up with a new game. he's actually been doing this for a while, but today he took it to an extreme and thought it was hilarious (and it was). The new game is called "Goosing Mommy". Any time Julie leans over to do something, is sitting at a chair, or has her back to Michael, he's decided that it's a riot to run up and poke her in the back. Usually on a little bit of exposed skin, and it's best with cold hands. Julie shrieks and Michale runs away laughing hysterically. It si really funny to watch, especially when he circles around Julie as fast as she can turn around and keeps poking her. Screaming laughter ensues, from both of them.
Michael's other new entertainment is watching daddy "disco point" to the song "Car Wash" by Rose Royce. It came on the radio while we were eating dinner tonight. Julie rolled her eyes, commenting that "Disco needs to die" so, of course, I started dancing in my chair to it. Michael was fascinated and asked for more when I stopped. Before long he was pointing, too. We had a great time teaching Michael how to dance disco style. Maybe next time we'll get it on video.
Anyway, we had a beautiful day today, about 50 and very sunny for the first day of spring. And tomorrow we're supposed to get 8-10 inches of snow. Go away winter!
It has been a verrrrrrrry looooong winter this year. Even now we still have a little bit of snow on the ground in the shadows and stuff. In February Michael finally got over his fear of the snow and started exploring in it. And now that it is mostly gone he wants to be outside all the time, even though it's still in the low 40s and upper 30s most of the time. This week we had two days in the 50s so Julie had Michael at the park a whole lot and he loved it. We can't believe that a year ago we were having 70+ degree days regularly already. Anyway, bring on spring! We're ready for it!
I know it's been a while since I've posted anything or added any pictures to the album, but we've been busy and I was having trouble with the photo album program I use. I finally got it working last night so I've uploaded pictures and videos all the way back to January.
Michael has been learning tons of new stuff every day letely. He can comprehend nearly everything we say or ask now. And he has been learning more and more animal sounds. He is now an expert at telling you what the following animals say: Monkey (mm mm), Frog (brr brr), Snake (sssss), Pig (he tries to snort, but just sucks air in), Bear (raaar), Lion (errrr), Tiger (errrr, again), Dinosaur (errrr - it's a popular sound), Cow (oooo), and Elephant (oooo - same as cow, but louder). He can also tell you what Law & Order says (doot do - for the two notes that start scenes). And his new favorite tub game is making his (many) rubber duckies fart by squeezing them against his belly in the tub.
Michael's other favorite past time is reading books. He'll bring book after book to us to read for him. Sometimes he makes it through half a book before he wants a different one, sometimes it's the same book 3,4 10 times in a row. In fact, just typing this message has been interrupted by three different books: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss (3 times), Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann (twice), How do Dinosaurs Learn to Read by Jane Yolen (5 times), and Tavi Tiger by Maurice Pledger (twice). Some other favorites are Marvin K Mooney by Dr. Seuss, How do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food by Jane Yolen, The Berenstain's B Book by Stan & Jan Berenstain, and a bunch more. His favorites seem to shift from week to week. He loves books that can be read with a bit of a sing-song or beat to them and he loves books with pictures of animals.
And, of course, there's still George (Curious George that is). He loves watching "Ghe Ghe" on TV, reading books about George, seeing pictures of George, and wearing clothes with George on them. We've bought four of the five PBS DVDs, for me as much as for him =) , and he watches them regularly. If anyone hasn't seen the PBS Gurious George show I highly recommend it. Anyone who has kids will understand it perfectly, and anyone who doesn't can still get a good laugh at the perfectly innocent, clean humor.
Also, in the past week, Michael has discovered a bunch of the pitfalls of growing up and being curious himself. In fact, I think he has come up with a Unifying Theory of All the Major Forces of the Universe (Grand Unification Theory). That is "All the Major Forces of the Universe have the power to inflict pain." Yup, that's it. Unfortunately in the past week he got a dose of Electromagnetism (a small zap from an outlet as he tried to unplug a fan), Gravity (a tumble down a few stairs when he tried to put up the baby gate on his own), and Thermodynamics (he found out mommy's curling iron is hot). Hopefully he'll be able to end his experiments before getting into Nuclear Fusion.
So that's about it for us here. Things have been busy. I got a promotion at work, so now I'm the Production Manager. That means I'm responsible for making sure the developers get their projects done and for coordinating all the projects and stuff. It's been pretty time consuming, but fun. And Julie's been keeping busy trying to keep Michael entertained now that he's getting into absolutely everything. The poor guy just wants to be able to go outside and play and doesn't understand that it's still too cold. He stands at the window and just sighs.
Mike also discovered that he likes lemon juice! Weird kid! He took the lemon juice bottle out of the fridge this evening (you know, one of those shaped like a lemon with a nozzle on the end), popped the top open, and started to drink. And he loved it! I think he made up his mind to put me in the cheapest nursing home available when I'm old after I took the lemon juice away from him. What weird taste...
Michael's other new entertainment is watching daddy "disco point" to the song "
Also, in the past week, Michael has discovered a bunch of the pitfalls of growing up and being curious himself. In fact, I think he has come up with a Unifying Theory of All the Major Forces of the Universe (Grand Unification Theory). That is "All the Major Forces of the Universe have the power to inflict pain." Yup, that's it. Unfortunately in the past week he got a dose of Electromagnetism (a small zap from an outlet as he tried to unplug a fan), Gravity (a tumble down a few stairs when he tried to put up the baby gate on his own), and Thermodynamics (he found out mommy's curling iron is hot). Hopefully he'll be able to end his experiments before getting into Nuclear Fusion.
