It's been a while since I've posted anything, but here's a video of Mike reading a book he wrote. I'm so proud of my little guy!

Check it out: http://www.george-and-neal-are-awesome.info/

George, Julie, and Michael are happy to announce the newest member of the family!

Samuel Joseph Jaros

Especially those about promising to keep posting regular updates. I keep thinking of things I'd like to post, but then the evening comes and we're busy and I forget. Sorry.

Anyway, the last 2.5 months have been great. December was great with the holidays. Mike really understood the whole giving and receiving presents thing. He actually liked giving presents almost as much as getting them.

And January saw a visit to the Children's Discovery Museum in Rockford, which Michael absolutely loved. And Mike's first train ride to downtown Chicago and then a visit to the Shed Aquarium with Aunt Missy, Joey and Ava. Mike loved the fish and since then we've had to make numerous visits to the fish section of Wal-mart.

February so far has seen a few warm days (we got close to 60 twice) so Mike was able to play outside a bit. And we went to the Brookfield Zoo (which is free on Tue, Thu, Sat, & Sun through the end of the month). Mike got to see polar bears, a grizzley bear, elephants, rhinos, hippos, a lion, a tiger, monkeys, penguins, terns, and of course more fish. We had a great time and it was very nice to be outside without a jacket. It didn't last though. It's in the mid 20's again.

As far as milestones, Mike spelled his first word in January - GO. Since then he's spelled a few others, but nothing consistently. He knows MIKE spells Mike, but if you ask him to spell Mike he won't. It's coming though. He likes to say he's going to write his name, and then makes a series of vertical lines.

He also likes drawing, painting, and other crafts. He made Busia and Grandma bead necklaces for Christmas and strung the tiny glass beads on the wire all by himself. He's currently working on another one for Mommy. And he painted a model wood ship and tank for Grandpa and Papa for Christmas (I glued them together, he painted). And he just finished building and painting a wooden model airplane for himself (this one he actually helped me glue together). He draws all the time, too. He'll get his crayons and draw swirls on the paper and then tell us what he drew - an airplane, rocket ship, snow man, candy cane, etc. He even drew Aunt Missy and his friend Owen once.

Speaking of friends, he's made his first real friend. A little boy named Owen, who'se just a few weeks younger than Mike. They pal around quite a bit. They both go to the nursery at church and both started Sunday School in January. Julie and Owen's mom, Liz, get together once or twice a week and let the boys play. The rest of the week we get to hear "Where's Owen?" and "I need to show Owen this." They really are a cute pair.

Mike's vocabulary has just skyrocketed. he says pretty much everything now and seems to understand just about everything, too. We've been really surprised at the concepts that he seems to grasp. Like today, he got a Target gift card from Grandma and Grandpa for Valentine's Day. So we went to Target so he could pick out a few toys. When we got to the store I gave him the gift card and told him it was from Grandma and Grandpa and he could use it to buy some toys. He got it right away and set off in search for toys. Anyone within ear shot he would show the card and say, "This is from Grandma and Grandpa. I buy toys with this."

Also, we got a new car last month. It's a red Subaru Forester, a small SUV. Mike loves it. Every time he sees it he points to it and says "I like our new, huge, red van." We got the new car because the transmission on the Taurus that we got from my Grrandpa went out in early January. =( But we did have to get a tow from a tow truck. Mike thought that was the greates thing int he world. Well, not at first. At first he was very upset because he thought we were leaving our car behind. Once he realized that the truck was taking the car with us he loved it. He hasn't stopped talking about it since: "The tow truck tows our broken car." I hear that, or something similar, at least once a day. And a tow truck was one of the toys he picked out from Target today.

Mike's also learning how to tell knock-knock jokes. He has down: Mike - Knock-knock. Us - Who's there? Mike - Boo hoo. Us - Boo hoo who? Mike - Don't cry baby. Then he laughs and says "That's funny." He also learned his first song. He can sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat, and does so every night while pushing his toy boats around the bath tub. He's also learning Pop Goes the Weasle, although he likes my Moxie Chased Her Tail parody better.

For Christmas he got a toy guitar, harmonica, and a few other instruments. He loves "performing" for us. It usually consists of him standing (preferably on a stool or other stage-like podium), stroking the back of his guitar, and humming. Then he shouts Yay! throws his arms into the air, and bows. Lately the humming has been replaced with fragmented ABC's: "A B C D E F F Q R S T U V W X Y Z", or portions thereof.

His counting is getting better, too. He can sometimes count to 10 if he feels like it. And he can identify up to four things (although he's still sometimes confused by 3 or 4). And he knows his right from his left.

Anyway, that's all in just the last couple of months. I can't believe how fast he learns and how much he changes in just weeks. I absolutely love being a father! Anyway, I have kept the photo albums pretty much up to date (I'll have the latest photos from February up soon). So make sure you keep an eye on our 2009 Family Photos.

On Thursday I had to head in to the office for work. Mike and Julie opted to stay home this time, so it was the first time in a while that I made the trip in without them. Anyway, when I was almost at work I gave Julie a call to reassure her that I hadn't crashed and burned on the way in. She handed the phone to Mike so I could say hi. Usually Mike likes getting the phone when people want to talk to him, but he just stares at it, maybe saying just a word or two here and there. So I didn't expect much. I asked him how he was and got a muffled grunt in reply. I asked if he was being good for mommy and got a quick "uh huh". Then I heard the TV on in the background, so I asked him what he was watching. That was all it took. Now I was talking about something he wanted to talk about! I heard all about "Super Why", and "Sid, the Science Kid" (two great shows on PBS). He told me all about what he was watching, what the characters were doing, what show was on next, everything. Then he told me about the garbage truck that went by the house and how Moxie was barking at it. The kid was talking non-stop! I loved it! My first phone conversation with Mike!