Marty the Mouse

Michael woke up from his nap today and looked at the window and said "look, doggy" ... so I looked, and there was a mouse crawling all over the screen door outside. We've had Echo (the dog) here for a couple weeks while my parents are out of town and she has been obsessing over a few spots on the deck, so I figured there were mice under there ... but as Tony says "now we have proof!" We've decided to call it "Marty" ... because it starts with an M. No other reason. Tony is now working on setting traps to capture it and kill it ... YES, I said KILL it! I don't approve of mice around my house. Why is it with all the neighborhood cats that camp out in our front yard, none of them go get rid of the mice in the backyard?????And yes, we set Michael straight that it is a mouse, not a doggy. :)

Catching Up

Well, here we are ... several months since the last posting. Sorry I haven't kept up with putting pictures and stories on here. Here are a few pictures to help catch you up on the last few months...

This picture was from today. We bought a big bouncy ball at the store and he's not been away from it since. (the whole 2 hours we've owned it) We went outside to play for a bit without the ball, and when he came back inside he said "there's my ball ... I missed you ball ... I love you ball."

Here are the "party hats" Tony and Michael wear when we have pizza for dinner. One night, I told Michael that Daddy was bringing home something special for dinner so he decided he wanted to make some party hats. I had him color the pages and when Tony got home, he figured out how to make the hats. Yes, we still have them around the house ... and yes, he still wears the party hat (and we wear ours!) when we're having a "special" dinner.

This is Michael helping Tony fix the rototiller (however you spell that!) He was so excited to get to "help", but wasn't thrilled about being in the backyard while Tony was using it ... he decided it was too loud.

The rototiller again ...

Here's the problem with waiting too long to post pictures ... I can't remember what he was eating to get his face so dirty ... nor can I remember who he was talking to! I'm sure it was chocolate and one of his Grandmothers! :)

Here he is at the beach over by Bodega Bay. We went to the ranch house for the weekend and he loved getting to go to the beach and play in the sand. We even sat and watched some guys with parachutes float down from the cliffs above to the beach (not sure what that's called ... I'm sure there's some name for the sport!)

Tony is making his own sandcastle because Michael would help make it and then squish it ... so they got sent to their separate corners. I think it ended up turning into who could dig the deepest hole!

Ahh, training the future television technician. The tv didn't work up at the ranch house, so Tony taught Michael the official way of fixing tv's .... you bang on it until you hear it working. Unfortunately, it didn't work. But it was great to spend the weekend WITHOUT cable tv! Only problem is that now Michael thinks you're supposed to hit tv's on a regular basis.

Eating birthday cake on his 2nd birthday in March.

The birthday cake. Notice some of the frosting missing on the side? Well, that was Grandma letting him use his finger to swipe some of the chocolate early!

fun times!

Hi Again! We've had another busy month .... Tony has started on his two furloughs a month, so we've been enjoying having "daddy" home more this month! What a great thing it has been for Michael. He loves helping his daddy out in the garage and in the backyard! We've had some nice weather this month too, so they've made a dent in the backyard shed project!

Here are some photos to share .... Michael is growing and looking older to me ... I can remember the first year thinking "is he ever going to be independent?" ... now it's all happening very fast! We're enjoying every minute of it!

Went to Cousin Fran's house this week to play. She has a playground area for her grandkids to play with, so Michael had a ball!

This is Michael watching Veggietales in the garage while Tony was working on stuff. He thinks he's very important because he gets to hold the measuring tape!

Okay, so Tony and I set up an area in the garage to do some workouts. I was out there doing a yoga video with Michael one day ... this is his version of downward dog!


Michael in Daddy's shoes today

Hello??? Am I here????

Wow! It's been over two months since I've posted anything! It's been a CRAZY two months, full of family visiting and all of us being sick for what seemed like a month! I'm posting some pictures so you can sort of get an idea of what we've been doing ... because I know you don't want to see the 275 pictures I just took the other day out in the backyard! :) I think I've inherited my mother's illness of taking tons of pictures to make sure I capture that "cute" moment! Just so you know, I did end up deleting pictures that didn't turn out great and ended up with only 80 something pictures from the other day. We're all finally well again ... Michael is working on 4 back molars all at once, so it seems he's constantly being given tylenol or motrin. Poor guy, sometimes when I forget to give him some he gets so miserable!

I've been feeling the need for some structure to our days lately. While we were all sick, we got too used to watching videos and I'm sick and tired of Tigger and Pooh, Curious George and the Wiggles. Not to mention, I'm sure there's more I should be doing to help my son learn!!! :) So, we started "school" the other day. How crazy and obsessed is that? He's not even two yet and I decided to start getting him excited about school already! What's that mean???? School consisted of a coloring page, and he was supposed to color everything red. So, there's a bunch of red scribbles on the page ... and everytime I asked him what color he's using he said "blue". Why is it that he can remember what color he's looking at in his Thomas the Train books, but can't figure out what color crayon he's holding????? Okay, so maybe he's not ready for preschool yet! But, he was pretty darn excited to show EVERYONE the page that is now up on the refrigerator and tell everyone that there is a "melon water" (watermelon), "sku bus" (it's actually a truck, but since he was doing "school" he called it a school bus), a "heart" and a "bayooooon" (balloon). Oh, and there's a "kitty" on there and the crayon is "blue". (it's really red ... remember, it's a red them today!) So ... I guess we need to work a little more on our colors.

He loved having Tony's mom come visit at Christmas ... he calls her "Nana". Now when he sees blankets we used on her bed it's "nana's blanket" and he's always talking about "nanas cookies" and "nana hugs". Nana, could you hurry up and come home so I don't have to explain that you can't give him a hug because you're in Arizona???!!! :)

Alright, enough stories for now. Oh wait! I have another story ...

One day when Michael was sick, I put in a call to his doctor to ask a question about an "owie" he had. When I was on the phone, I mentioned his Dr's name and when I got off he kept saying her name and asking about her. So, to get him off my back I told him that "mommy called Dr. Gill to ask her about your owie. To find out if you need another medicine, or if you can just take the medicine mommy already has here." So we go through the day, and the Dr. returns my call during his naptime. I get my questions answered and move on. Michael wakes up from his nap and a little later comes to find me in my room and says "Dr. Gill? Owie?" How in the world does he remember? We talked about this hours ago! So I respond with "Dr. Gill called and said you could just use the medicine mommy has" ... he says "okay" and turns and walks away. Silly little boy!

Alright, now I'm done with the stories ... I'll let you get to the pictures!

This is a picture my mom took while Michael was looking in the mirror in his bathroom.

This was Nana's bed at Christmas time. It took me a few days to clean it up after she left so Tony would go in there and lay on the bed while Michael played ... it's in Michael's play room. Michael and Nana made up a new game to play on her bed called "fun". You sit on the edge of the bed and then fall back and laugh and say "fun!". This is Tony and Michael playing "fun" after Nana went home.


Michael and Nenny (aunt Jenny) reading in Nana's bed.

Tony and Michael at the Christmas parade ... it was cold!

Michael and his suitcase that came with a "raff" (giraffe). He loves that thing! He's constantly walking around the house telling me he's going on a trip!

Patience

Michael spent 20 minutes sitting down trying to put on his "outfit" (pajamas). At one point, the shirt was on his legs and he was trying to figure out what to do with the pants. I tried not to look too often because it would distract him and I was afraid that he'd stop working on it! After 20 minutes he got up and walked over to me. When I tried helping him, he got frustrated ... so I just let him continue walking around trying to get dressed. He finally got the pants on ... I had to explain to him that once he got one leg in, he had to put the other leg in from the top (he was trying to put his leg through the bottom of the pants) ... then he got it.It's been 45 minutes and now he's focused on waiting for daddy to come home. He took off his outfit ... and attempted to take off his diaper as if that's part of the outfit! Crazy little boy! He's now in the front room with the door open watching for daddy and dancing on the lid of a plastic bin. And this was the boy who, 1 1/2 hours ago woke up from his nap and couldn't do anything but sit in my lap and cry! Go figure.

Catching Up ...

It's been about a month since I've posted pictures! We've been busy having fun and Mommy ends up being too tired at the end of the day to play on the computer. So, here are a bunch of pictures from the month of October ....

Yummy Cookies! I got to help Miss Bonnie make them and now I get to eat them!

With Daddy up at Apple Hill


My first Choo Choo ride up at Apple Hill. While we were waiting for the train to start going, Michael said "all done!" I think he was a little nervous about the ride. Once we got going though, he loved it and asked for more.

My first "real" train ride! We took Amtrak to Martinez where Aunt Betty (A.B.) picked us up so we could go play at her house. We had the car all to ourselves, so it was great! He loved looking out the window saying "moo" to the cows.

Passing time on the train ... we got stopped at one point because a large truck had taken out one of the crossing arms. The train had to stop suddenly because cars were going across the tracks with the train coming!

We made it! Okay, it was only a 45 minute ride but it was long enough for him! This is us with A.B. Did I mention that my mom came with us? She took all the pictures for us ... but I was glad to have her along!

Michael and AB in her backyard with the bubbles. That's Uncle Tom in the background planting things.

This was the quiet hideout at AB's, where a dirty diaper was made!

Michael in the backyard here at home ... with his new haircut that makes him look so old!

Inspecting the rock ....

Just as I was getting ready to take pictures of him playing in the pile of leaves, the camera died ... this is him on his way to get his rake so he could mess with the leaves.

Lake Tahoe Trip

Here are some pictures from our recent trip to Lake Tahoe. We all had colds so didn't do too much, but both sets of Grandparents came up to stay with us during the week and it was great. Michael was so thrilled to wake up and have someone else around other than Mom and Dad!

Here is our visit to the beach .. I think Tony had more fun building his little sand city!

Hunting for rocks....

Sitting in the "big boy chair" to eat, barely able to see over the table

Nana playing with Michael on the playground

"Cheeeeeese"

Working very hard at building something before bedtime