Mikey is 2!

Dear litte Mikey,

Really you aren't very little anymore. The pace at which you are growing is amazing us. You are a joy to your family. Your personality is turning silly and outgoing. You are creative and are great at thinking out of the box. You are good at "fixing" things and very diligent with figuring things out. You love doing imaginative play and I find you playing with with your different toys and having them talk to each other.

Everything you do is adorable to your father and I. When you are frustrated you will make a little fist with your hand and pound it on the table and say "I can't just stand it" and make a scrunchy mad face. When you have a tantrum you will trow your self on the floor and then whine saying "Help me, help me" because you want help standing up again. It's very dramatic and very adorable. You are a snuggler still and always want to snuggle either me or your daddy. And, if we let you, you will stay there on our laps for a very long time. You love it when I tickle your back or arm and you just melt.

You communicate very clearly and are currently going through the phase where you say some words wrong and they sound like swear words. Truck is the biggest culprit and you love pointing out the "big trucks" while we drive. It's a crack up.

Your prayers are short and sweet.

You are a screamer. When you are happy, when you are sad, when you are mad, when you are excited. You scream. Yikes!

Eating is tricky. You go through phases where you will only want to eat protiene and then only eat carbs. Most recently you only want milk and bananas. Oh and lets talk about your love of milk. You ask for it every hour and will down 16 oz in no time flat. I told the doctor that I was concerned about it but he said you are a growing boy and you will be just fine and that I can give you all the milk you would like. What a re-leaf!

You love your big brother and do everything he does. Well, except when he is squishing you...then you don't like him very much. But when Dane apologizes you apologize to him too. You love to ride bikes together and play Darth Vedar & Bad Bad Wolf. You two are best buddies and really complete each other with your strengths and weaknesses. I always tell you two that if you work together, you two could do anything.

You two have made up a silly song together "Throw the ball, wack it over the fence, dooo taa da!" and sing it over and over together. Speaking of singing, you love singing and talking and screaming and really just making noise. Your Mimi likes to tell how when I was little I was always talking and making noise and even though it was exhausting she never wanted to tell me to be quiet so as to not crush my spirit. I totally get that now.

You are also silly. Really silly. You always have us laughing at something that you come up with. Dane likes to say "My Mikey is being so silly!". I love that about you and I hope that never goes away. We need a little more silly in this world.

You kind of fall a lot, little one. I feel like it has to do with the rate you are growing and just finding your center must be so hard. Your knees are always skimmed and you are always needing "Kisses?" to make your owies better. I love that my kisses are a magic potion to your owies.

You are very sensitive to emotions and feelings. It's a natural talent and I love it about you. It also makes you scared of things kind of easy.

 2 year old Mikey is a joy. We love you so much my love. Our family wouldn't be complete without you. You are strong from the inside out and have a passion and joy that you radiate. Always know that you are so so loved by your family & God. Every day with you is a treasure, my little snuggle bum.

We love you completely.

Mikey is 18 months!

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Looks like I need to hand the camera over to daddy more often so I can be in some pictures with you)

(Pictures are from our trip to Point Lobos,Halloween, and the Monarch Butterfly sanctuary in Pacific Grove)

My dear little monkey, you are 18 months old! The last 3 months have brought with them so much growth and development that I find my self having moments where I just stop and watch you in awe. With no younger siblings (yet....hopefully) you remain in my head a baby. My little baby Mikey. So when I say that you are currently wearing a size 7 shoe and are just a tad over 35 inches tall  and weigh 25lbs it just doesn't compute.

In the last 3 months your vocabulary has exploded. You are forming short sentences and will try to repeat any word that we ask you to. Watching you have you have your own thoughts and feeling and being able to express them is so much fun for your family. You have several words that you have made up in your own language that we just love. Honestly, we don't want you to start saying the words right, but alas, you have already started to. Some of our favorites are...

"Shu-Shu"- That means airplane.
"Na-na"- Much to your Nana's dismay this means water. During Nana's last visit with us she spent countless minutes trying to convince you that she is actually Na-na and that water is Wa-wa. What did you do? You made up a different word for her name and kept calling water "Na-na". Hahaha! It was awesome.
"It'ss-a-weeewl"- Now this one is trickier. We don't actually know what you  mean but you say it with such conviction sometimes that we know you know exactly what you are talking about.

You have also started saying "Dane" which has been so fun! I would list the other words but honestly there are just too many. Just know that you are a very vocal 1 and a half year old. Whether you are talking or singing or screaming...you are usually making noise. Unless you being sneaky and getting in trouble. Then you are perfectly silent.

You are so fast now. You run and jump like a champ. You love to play chase with your brother  and throw balls and paper airplanes with your daddy. You still fall a lot but it probably has to do with the rate at which you are growing and the size of your feet. I'm sure you'll get the hang of it soon.

You had your second Halloween. It was the first one where you were able to walk/run around to all the houses. It was so cute! You were a dragon this Halloween and you would start off running with the older kids to the next house but instead of stopping and turning to the house you would just keep on running and we would have to chase you down and and walk you back to the house. It was pouring down rain this year but you loved it! You were much more interested in playing in the puddles and rain gutters then getting candy.

You are turning into a little clown and love entertaining us at the dinner table. You make silly faces and goofy sounds. You love the game "no, no, NO...Ughhhh!) Where we pretend to tell you not to eat the food but then you do and we all say UGH! You will even do it to your self when you are eating alone. So funny! Speaking of eating, you are a great eater and will on most occasions out eat the rest of us. One thing I find interesting is that you will go through phases where you will only want to eat meat and fruit for a few days and then you will only want to eat carbs and veggies for a few days. Never do you seem to want to eat it all at the same time.

You love to be held and snuggled. If I want you to come to me all I have to do is ask for a kiss and you will come running.

You sleep through the night now about 85% of the time and I am so grateful for the nights that you sleep soundly.

You are in nursery now at church! This was so exciting for so many reasons. To be honest with you the last 3 months have been kind of terrible at church. We get through sacrament meeting okay but when it is time for Dane to go to nursery you would run in there and start playing too. Then you would through a huge fit when I would have to take you out. After that you just would not have anything to do with sitting in a class so we would spend the remainder of the time roaming the halls. One time I was attempting to go to Relief Society and was handing out invitations to a baby shower. I had turned my head for about 2 minutes and when I looked back where I left you, you were gone. You had managed to escape the room! You were no where to be found in the building or outside. We had pretty much the whole ward looking for you. Your daddy was running circles around the outside of the building to make sure you hadn't escaped the building and wondered into the street. About 10 terrible minutes later we found you happily walking the isles in the chapel during another ward's sacrament meeting. Which by the way, was the first place I looked but you must have been hiding...or on the stand. That afternoon I started researching tracking devices for children.

Your personality is so fun and loving. Your silliness and happiness is contagious. You are our love. Our Monkey. Our Joy. Our baby. Our trouble maker. Our stubborn but oh so sensitive little boy (this makes discipline tricky).

We love you and cherish you little Mikey! Happy 18 months!

Mikey is 15 months!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello there my little Mikey! It feels like a long time since I have done an update on your little life. You are 15 months old now and such an important member of our little family. Your personality is getting stronger and more distinct and you are learning and growing so fast I can't even handle it!


The biggest news is that you are sleeping through the night! You started sleeping through the night about 3 1/2 weeks before turning 15 months old. This is a big deal and I am so excited for us to be both sleeping at night. I have to admit I was just starting to wonder if you would ever sleep at night and if I needed to try something different to help you learn how to. But, I kid you not, the night that I went out with some girlfriends and told them that I didn't know what to do and that I wasn't sure I could continue without sleep...you slept through the night and have been doing so ever since. Thank you sweet Michael. You sleep in a room with your big brother (who is now in a big boy bed) and you two love to stay up way past when we put you in bed giggling and talking and jumping. I am so glad you have each other.

You have mastered walking and are moving on to learning how to run. You like to run in a circle in our house from the living room through the hall into the kitchen and dinning room and back to the living room.  You and your brother play chase like this for a good 20 minutes every night and your favorite is when daddy jumps in and chases you both (growling like a bear). Now, when I say you have "mastered" walking I should mention that you still fall a lot. Not because you struggle walking you just are a little tippy. I think it is a combination of you growing so tall so fast and your feet. Your feet are huge! You look like a little hobbit! At 15 months old you are wearing a size 6 shoe. I'm not too worried about it though. You'll get the hang if it soon enough and grow into those feet. Till then we have stocked up on band-aids and Neosporin.

You have 7 teeth now. 4 front on top, 3 front on bottom, and two molars. I can tell more teeth are going to be popping up any day now. You are chewing on everything and want to be with me as much as possible.

Your favorite foods right now are berries (blueberries, strawberries,blackberries) and meat (any kind). This has led me to calling you my little bear cub. You also eat A LOT. Most of the time you will out eat your brother and eat almost as much as me! Go baby go!

Here are you stats at 15 months:

34" tall
24 lbs


You are off the charts tall and normal for weight. You have long legs and big brown eyes. You hair is a bright blonde now. Gone are the days of my brown hair, brown eyed boy. You have the cutest tong (I never knew someone could have a cute tounge) that you like to stick out regularly.

Your vocabulary is expanding and consists of the following:

Mama
Dada
Hot
Hat
Up
NumNum
ChooChoo
Truck "Cruck"
Car
Dump truck "Dum Cruck"

You do a lot of baby babble that is in complete sentences. You also like to wave "hello" and "goodbye". You have also mastered the scream defense. As in, you will scream a high pitched scream when things aren't going as you would like them too. You wear you emotions on your sleeve. If you feel it, we hear about it. You are a lot like me as far as that goes.

Oh Michael, I want to tell you so many things. I want to write down every single detail about your life at 15 months old so that I can remember it always. The way you crinkle your nose, dance like crazy to music in the car, give kisses on demand, and wrestle with your brother. The way you are independent and confident but love nothing more than sitting and snuggling with me. You are a leader and a natural to music, you get a mischievous look in your eye often, you can imitate any sound, and won't fold your arms for prayer. There are so many things to say about you that I could never write them all down. And even if I could, it wouldn't do you justice.

I just want you to know that you are so loved, Michael. Loved and cherished by every single one of us everyday. You are happy and secure and know where you belong. I want you to always know where you belong and be happy and know you are loved. Loved not only by your family but by your Heavenly Father and Jesus. Your best friend is your brother and it is a Heavenly design that you came to our family when you did. I know that you need Dane and he needs you.

You adore your daddy and he is gaga over you! You have his nose and mouth and love to imitate anything he does or says.

I want to tell you not to get bigger and not to grow up but, than again, every age that you have been so far is my favorite and I can't wait to see what is in store for you and the developments that are soon to happen.

I love you so much Michael. My heart could just burst!

Michael is 1!

Happy Birthday Mikey!

 

Your 1 yr Stats:

22lbs

32.5"

How are you already 1 year old? This past year went by so fast and yet I feel as though I can't even remember our life with out you. You bring such joy to our family with you big personality and endless cuddles and kisses.

We celebrated your birthday at our new home in Salinas, CA with your Daddy, brother, and me. You had dinner and then we gave you a cake to taste. You tried it but weren't that interested. You much rather would have had some fresh strawberries. Then you opened you gifts and played with Dane till bed time. It was a small celebration but just perfect.

You do this thing where you will crawl up to us really fast and then throw your whole body at us for a hug and then give kisses after kisses. It is my favorite. You also like to cuddle into a little ball and just snuggle. You are my little peanut.

You are very outgoing and will wave hi and smile at anyone that will look at you (and sometimes people that don't look at you). As soon as they say hi back you will hide your face and be coy then pop back up for some more. You are never shy to explore or try something new. You are also a very determined boy. If you decided that you want something or want to go somewhere you will not give up trying.  I hope you keep that trait because it will help you a lot throughout life.

You are so close to just taking off with walking. You will take up to 10 steps on your own and then drop down to a crawl. I think you like going fast and walking is not fast enough for you....yet. Heaven help me once you get fast with walking! You love to try to jump with Dane and to dance to music.



Your favorite thing to eat right now is strawberries and meat. Any kind of meat. You have turned into a little carnivore! I think you are in need of a little extra iron right now and I'm helping you out with some vitamins. Having a low iron count runs on my side of the family and I think you have that trait as well. We have reduced the amount of times that you nurse now to maybe 1 time during the day but still at night. This really happened during the move while you were being watched by other during the day so that we could pack up. I think you were ready though and haven't complained at all.

You sure do have a lot to say now. You still have about the same amount of words as last month but your babbling and sure picked up. I just love hearing it. Most of the time you are talking to Dane and then he will tell me what you want or don't want. "Mama, Mikey wants milk" "Mama, Mikey is pooping" "Mama, Mikey is all done". He is your little interpreter.

 

We are attached at the hip. If I could, you would want me to hold you all day right now. I think you are getting some new teeth (two more on the top) and it has made you need some extra attention and love. You currently just have your 2 upper and 2 lower teeth.

One thing that I want you to know, to really really know, is that you are so important to our family. You are loved so much by each and everyone of us. You and your brother Dane were sent down here so close together for a purpose and seeing you two interact and help each other is a testament to that for me. We love you and will always love you. No matter what.

Happy Birthday my Darling little Michael. I can't wait to see what this new year has in store for you!