Park

The weather has been beautiful lately so trips to the park are pretty much mandatory. Here are some pictures from our most recent trip.

Louisiana

Brad's dad lives in Saudi Arabia but owns a house in Louisiana. Generally, once a year, they are able to come back to the states for a month or so. This year they decided to spend most of their time in Louisiana and have everyone come visit them, so we boarded our flight (#12 for Mike if you are counting) and headed down to New Orleans! We arrived in the city on Friday afternoon and quickly made the trip from the airport to the French Quarter. We had a fantastic Cajun dinner at Mulates then headed across Lake Pontchartrain (on the 24 mile long bridge) to Covington. On Saturday we got into the spirit of the bayou and headed to an alligator ranch (Insta-gator). After being bit by a baby alligator (Brad), feeding marshmallows to alligators, getting our picture taken with an alligator and playing with alligators in the "petting zoo" we were all ready for a little rest. Sunday morning we decided to head back into New Orleans. We boarded the Natchez for a two hour paddle boat cruise along the Mississippi. After a quick lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe (we had to go there because Brad collects zippo lighters from everyone we go to) we wandered around the French Quarter for a little while. After a whirlwind weekend we made it home late Sunday night (after flights #13 and 14 for Mike).

Alligators are born with all 80 of their teeth. Brad admitted that this did actually hurt a little bit.

Mike petting the baby alligator (it was 9 days old)

My little poser ;)

Mickey (AKA "Pockets") with an alligator in the petting zoo

Tammy (AKA "Nana") with an alligator

Brad with the jumpy alligator (it seriously kept trying to thrash it's way out of his hands)

I'm not certain, but I think this is my "Holy Hell I'm holding an alligator" face.

Mike waving to his adoring fans.

More waving (Mike has lots of adoring fans)

Paddle wheel on the boat.

Mike and I on the boat (yeah, I guess that is pretty obvious, but I wrote it anyway, so there).

Thanks to a very nice British couple who told me we had a "proper camera" we actually got a family photo!

Monday Picture

Can I get a round of applause?

I have been trying to teach Mike to clap for months. I think it is absolutely adorable when babies clap, so it has been my mission to get my little boy to clap. I sing stupid songs, I clapped his hands for him (which he LOVED), I would clap my hands. I would dance and clap and sing and be met with smiles and waving hands but no freaking clapping. Yeah, yeah, he waves, he says mama (to me) and dada (randomly), he plays cute little games with me, but I was so frustrated that he wouldn't clap (don't get me wrong I LOVE all of those other things he does, especially the waving and "mama").

Well that all changed on Wednesday. When I picked him up from daycare he saw me and (yep, you guessed it) started clapping! You would think he had won a Nobel prize with how excited I was. Now he is a little clapping machine. He claps when I pick him up, he claps at Sammy, and he is always sure to give me a round of applause after I finish changing his diaper. Unfortunately I don't have a picture or video yet, but I will post one as soon as I do!

New Shoes

Daydreams

I don't usually do this, but if you haven't seen this blog yet, you need to check it out. It is absolutely adorable. In the creator's own words: "This is my maternity leave hobby. While my baby is taking her nap, I try to imagine her dream and capture it." Here are a few of my favorites...

Things to Remember

Mike has started playing a little game with me. We will be sitting on the floor of the living room or play room happily playing with his toys and he will suddenly turn away and crawl toward the kitchen as fast as he can. I wait until he reaches the tile then call out "Michael...where ARE you going?" He will turn back toward me give me a big smile and sit down. I then reply with something along the lines of "come back silly boy." He looks at me some more, flashes another huge grin and acts like he is going to crawl further into the kitchen. I then open my arms up wide and say "come back Michael." At this point he starts crawling furiously toward me and right onto my lap usually pulling himself up to wrap his little arms around my neck. Sweetest.thing.ever.

Monday Picture(s)

I'll let you make up your own story for these pictures :)

Taking a little Stroll

Yet another reason I love Craigslist. $5 for a "Walk 'n Ride." I'm fairly certain that Mike likes it.

Spoiled

When it comes to Cardinals games we are pretty spoiled. Saint Louis is a baseball town through and through which means Cardinals tickets always seem to be floating around. Last night we were given four tickets to the game. Now I'm not going to go on and on about how great the seats are but Brad probably could have spit on a few of the players from where we were sitting (third row behind the green seats directly behind home plate...yeah, not too shabby).

You better watch out Pujols...Brad might be able to spit on you from where he is sitting (not me, I can't spit far at all, I probably couldn't hit the lady in the pink hat, but boys can spit far)

The lovely recipients of our other two tickets. It was Mr. Will's first game!

Mike just a little bit disoriented, I don't think he was fully awake from his nap on the way to the game. Or maybe he was worried about Brad spitting on Pujols. Your guess is as good as mine.

Mike learning some of the finer points of baseball from Brad (swing the bat, hit the ball, run...check).

My boys!

Splish Splash

With an emphasis on the *splash*

I got nothing

In the past hour I've been bled on and peed on by someone else. I'm exhausted and ready to crash. Because of these things I don't have any wit to give to you lovely people so instead I'll give you a picture of a certain little man.

Outtakes

Well, they can't all be gems.
This is his excited face.

I have no idea why I was making this face. No idea whatsoever, but it was funny so I figured I would share.

Hey may have been caught off guard in this picture.

This one just shows off my awesome photography skills. It isn't as easy as you think to cut your baby's head in half while emphasizing his butt.

Monday Picture

Labor Day Weekend

As promised, here is a peek at our Labor Day weekend.

We swung with grandma.

We hiked with grandpa.

We pretended we were parachuting out of a plane (tandem of course).

We went to the Evanston Cowboy Days Rodeo (stole this picture from here).

We watched the bucking broncs.

We made silly faces.

We watched mutton bustin'.

We went to the gun show, or I guess the gun show visited us.

We hiked some more with grandpa.

We were reintroduced to Dutch.

We sat and pondered.

We were a little fussy.

We learned to climb up stairs .

We had a fantastic time and can't wait to go back!