Our Day in Pictures

Something was missing

Last night we were spoiled again with box seats to the Cardinals game. We all got decked out in our Cardinals gear and headed out to the stadium for the 7:15 game. The box was full of work friends, drinks and good food. We chatted happily about babies, kids, dogs and life; we ate hot dogs, peanuts and nachos; we drank beer we watched baseball...oh wait, scratch that last part. All of the fixings for a great time at a baseball game were present except, well, the baseball. Loud, soaking thunderstorms battered the Saint Louis area leading to over a two hour rain delay. We left the stadium with our tired boy as they were pulling the tarps off of the field. Ah well, at least we spent the rain delay content and cool instead of hot and wet!

Brad and Mike hanging out during the rain delay.

Public Service Announcement

I know this blog is usually completely dedicated to the cute and adorable things my son does on a daily basis, but today I find it necessary to diverge from my usually posts and post a little public service announcement. Now, this is directed toward users of women's restrooms because, well, I don't use men's restrooms so I'm not sure if these "suggestions" go both way.

1) After you finish your business check the seat...if it is wet, DRY it off. Never, I repeat never leave the stall if the seat is wet. Its just gross for the next person who comes in...is it pee, is it splash back from the flush?? It doesn't matter. Its gross either way and the wetness soaks through the toilet seat covers.

2) If you throw something away in the little garbage can in the stall make sure that you get it ALL the way into the garbage. Don't leave half of it hanging out. That is also quite gross.

3) Wash your hands. No, really, wash your hands. Don't turn on the water for 2 seconds then turn it off. Turn it on, lather up some soap, sing a little song in your head while lathering, then rinse it off. Seriously, if you can't even pretend to really wash your hands at work what do you do when you are alone?

Ok, that's all I have for now. More pictures of Mike to come!

Swimming!

On Sunday Katie was nice enough to invite us over to her parent's house to try to find a little reprieve from the scorching Saint Louis summer in their pool. We accepted the invitation without a second thought and headed out for a little pool fun on Sunday afternoon.

Mike in his swimming outfit complete with swim shirt (a fantastic trend in kid's swimwear by the way), SPF100 sunscreen and a hat...obviously I've been burned a time or two in the past ;)

After swimming Mike had a great time being the center of attention and playing with the dogs.

The boys in the pool

All tuckered out after a long day of summer fun.

Lord Help Us, He's Mobile

Dive Bombing

This was Mike's bassinet when he was a wee little guy that still slept in our room. After we moved him into his own room, and his crib the bassinet stayed in our room just because I never moved it. Oftentimes in the morning I would sit him in it with a few toys while I got ready. He would happily play with the toys. Over the weekend he decided that trying to escape from the bassinet would be much more fun than playing with toys in the bassinet. Needless to say, I won't be putting him in it anymore when I get ready.

Monday Picture

My babies.

Because...

Because he is so cute I can hardly stand it.

A letter from the White House

It isn't everyday that you get a letter from the White House. Actually, I can honestly say I've never gotten a letter from the White House. Mike can't make that same declaration. He received a personally addressed letter from the White House greeting office welcoming him to the world.




I learned a few months ago that the White House will send greetings for all sorts of things such as births, weddings, anniversaries, and birthdays. So I sent in the required information for Mike's birth and wouldn't you know it we got a card in the mail about 6 weeks later. If you want more information here is a link.

Daddy Love

These pictures almost make my heart explode. When my mom was here she bought this adorable book for Mike called Kisses for Daddy. It is about a daddy bear who is going through getting his grumpy baby bear ready for bed. Daddy Bear tries to convince baby bear to give him all sorts of kisses (because baby bear doesn't want to give daddy bear a big bear kiss) such as giraffe kisses, mouse kisses, tiger kisses, etc. It is a very cute story and hearing Brad read it to Mike just melts my heart. Some of you might find it funny to know that Daddy Bear has the exact same voice as Dr. Karges. Who knew.

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

I mentioned yesterday that we got a bike trailer for our anniversary this year, Tuesday night we decided to try it out. I won't say that Mike loved it and I won't say hated it. He seemed perfectly content but not necessarily excited about it. I think he may have been a little confused about this new contraption. That being said, I think we will get a lot of use out of it.

Getting all buckled in

Mike and Tuff Guy ready to go (notice the lack of helmet in this picture versus the first one...yes I am a bad bad parent and took it off because it was causing a ridiculous amount of strife and is still a bit too big for him. I figured since we were just taking a short ride around the neighborhood it would be ok...you can still judge me if you want to).

Away we go!

Outtake of the week

Every year for our anniversary Brad and I buy a gift together instead of individual gifts. A few years ago we bought bicycles and since Mike was born we haven't been able to ride them together at all since we couldn't bring him with us. So this year for our anniversary we decided to buy a bike trailer for Mike to ride in. Like any good parents we made sure to buy him a helmet too. I don't think he likes it very much.

Mike goes Spelunking

Well, I suppose Mike didn't really go spelunking at all but "Mike goes on a nice guided cave tour" just didn't sound nearly as cool. So anyway, the cave tour...we headed down to Meramec Caverns yesterday to take the tour. It was a pretty cool cave (houses the third largest known stalagmite as well as the second largest known table formation). Mike did extremely well. He rode in style in his backpack and was the model of a perfect baby. He paid apt attention to the tour guide and didn't cry at all when the other babies did. He stayed awake the whole time and smiled appropriately at the other people in the tour group.

Brad being THRILLED about what is going on.

Low ceiling

Rainbow stalactites

Sweet little cave monkey

Happy Anniversary!

5 years ago today

4 years ago today

2 years ago today (couldn't find the digital version of our second anniversary picture)

1 year ago today

yesterday

Today is my and Brad's 5 year wedding anniversary. I can't imagine my life without him. I love you Brad!

Monday Picture

The Shiner

Mike got his first shiner yesterday.

As any fight goes the old adage of "you should see the other guy" definitely applies. He pummeled the other guy into a little ,purple, cup shaped, piece of plastic. Or...well...maybe the other guy began as a little, purple, cup shaped, piece of plastic. I think Mike would agree that sometimes when you face plant onto your toys it hurts.

The other guy

Pulling Up

I wouldn't exactly call it crawling but Mike can definitely get around. He will take a few crawling steps (can I really call them steps???) then wiggle, roll and lunge to get where he wants to go...and he does it FAST. In the past few days he has started attemping to pull up on things (mostly me). I have a feeling he is going to completely skip walking and go straight to running.

Give me an "S" for...

Sarah???

Silly???

Sammy???

Saxophone...yeah, probably not.

Mike has learned how to destroy his play mat. He can tear off the edge pieces in exactly 1.4 seconds and peels out the numbers and letters like they are some sort of treasure. He even manages to pull up the big squares, though his attempts are usually thwarted by the fact that he is sitting on the very square he is trying to disassemble.

Who loves baby?

This lady sure does.Thanks for all your help the past couple of weeks mom, we really appreciate it!

Monday Picture

Blog slacker

Sorry I've been such a blog slacker lately, but as I mentioned before things have been crazy busy at work and my family has been in town so I am either working or spending nice quality time with my parents. Currently Mike is asleep and my mom and Brad are on a late night dash to Wal-Mart (shocking I know), so here I am blogging.

Even though I had to work today which was not so fun I'm in a pretty good mood and here is why:

1) We FINALLY got our new iphones (not new new iphone4s, but new to us iphone3gs'. I say FINALLY because it took almost 2 weeks of headaches for them to get here. I placed the order online and 5 days later I got an email from ATT saying they needed more information (5 freaking days???) so I called them and they told me there was a glitch in the system and our orders weren't actually placed (are you freaking kidding me???) so they replaced our order and after another 3 days our phones finally shipped. When they arrived we activated them but they wouldn't work (seriously people???) so my wonderful lovely mom spent the better part of 5 hours yesterday getting both my and Brad's phone working which involved multiple calls to ATT and sitting Brad's phone outside for an hour (don't ask me why, but that is what they told her to do).

2) I got to go shopping with my mom today and she bought me two super cute dresses, and Brad even came along.

3) Delicious Mexican food for dinner with one Dr. O'Boynick and the ever lovely Katie.

4) I don't have to work tomorrow!!!

5) I have the most adorable baby in the whole wide world (proof below).

That's all for now. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Outtake of the week

Timing is everything.

Busy Busy Bee

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I promise we are still alive. Things have just been very busy the past few weeks. My parents came into town a week ago Sunday and spent the week spoiling Michael rotten. On Saturday we headed up to Wisconsin to visit my grandpa. We got back Monday afternoon and things have been extremely busy at work this week. With all of that going on we still found plenty of time to take a ridiculous number of pictures. Here are a few (unfortunately most of the best ones are on my mom's camera and she forgot the cord to download them).

Mike with Grandpa Mike at Cahokia mounds

Patting the orangutan hand at the Madison zoo.

Riding a carousel for the first time.

Mike learning how to be a real cowboy.

Lounging on Grandma

Grilling on the Fourth of July.