Most Tolerant Dog EVER

A visual explanation of how to jump in a puddle.

Spring?

Here is the view from our back deck on Thursday March 24, 2011. I thought the trees looked especially pretty all flowered up so I decided to snap a few pictures. Turns out it is a good thing I did. Because on Saturday March 26 things looked a bit like this. When all was said and we ended up with about 6 inches of snow. It looks a lot more like winter around here right now than it did, well, pretty much all winter. Our poor trees are so heavily laden with snow right now I'm afraid with the softest breeze will leave us with broken branches everywhere.

I'm guessing this pirate ship was not anticipating a trip to colder climates. Hopefully everyone is stowed safely below deck.

Sadly, here is one of my flower pots. These amazing violets bloomed about once a month ALL WINTER LONG. It was the weirdest thing. We'll have to see if they make it after being covered with six inches of snow.

Hello little violets! Be Brave, spring will return soon!

Monday Picture

Things to Remember: Kissing

Mike is very sweet and affectionate. We are constantly giving him hugs and kisses so he happily gives them in return. If you ask for a hug he will wrap his little arms around your neck, lay his head on your shoulder and give you a nice squeeze. It is ridiculously sweet. Kisses on the other hand were something I loved in idea, but in practice I usually found myself shrinking away a bit...until recently! Up until a few days ago Mike's idea of a kiss was a big open-mouthed slobber often accompanied by a bite. I found myself constantly saying "we don't use our teeth when we kiss" and then wiping the baby slobber of my cheek. Now he has the pucker and the smack down pat. If you ask him for a kiss, he will pucker up and then come at you planting one right on the mouth. If it takes him a minute to get to you, his pucker will turn into full on fish lips. Cutest.thing.ever.

Bathtime

Mike has a bath every night before bed. It is part of the bedtime routine we established when he was just a tiny little newborn. His nightly bath has evolved from a sponge bath, to his whale tub, to our jetted tub (which I never really suspected that the sole purpose of the "fancy" bathtub would be to bathe our toddler). It has gone from cries to indifference, to joy and splashing.

(blowing bubbles - he now does it every night)

Brain Freeze

I'm having a bit of a blogger brain freeze today where I can't think of anything funny or witty to say or write about. Not that I usually say things that are funny or witty, but today is worse than usual. So here are some pictures to tide you over until my brain decides to function again.

We were finally able to take Mike's water table outside. It is way more fun when I don't cringe every time I hear water splashing on the floor.

Yep, he is wearing a baseball hat, came cargo shorts, a little layered t-shirt and sandals. You would be hard pressed to find anything cuter.

Oh, maybe it wasn't so hard after all...here he is attempting to blow on his pinwheel while wearing a baseball hat, camo cargo shorts, a layered t-shirt and sandals. Definitely cuter.

Following daddy around in the backyard.

There you have it, our Sunday afternoon in a nutshell. Lot's of outside time in the nice warm sunshine.

Monday Picture

Playing in the dirt makes you really thirsty.

Signs of Spring

One of the best things about living in Saint Louis is spring. Growing up in Wyoming, spring usually meant snow, mud, and cold temperatures with warm weather finally showing up sometime in May or June. While we get our fair share of torrential rain, tornadoes and floods, the wonderful warm weather can't be beat. It will pop out and surprise you with a nice 80 degree day in the middle of the week right when you are longing for flip flops, wading pools and popsicles. Thursday was one of those days. When I got home from work the boys were already outside (Brad fixing the fence, and Mike supervising Brad), I quickly changed into a pair of shorts and some flip flops, grabbed the sidewalk chalk and joined the fun.

After a while we all began to get hungry, but didn't want to retreat into the climate controlled confines of the house, so we decided eating outside was in order. Steaks were grilled, potatoes were baked, the high chair was dragged outside and for the first time of the year we enjoyed dinner on the deck. Ah spring!

Cat Dog

I may have mentioned it before, but our cat is weird. She pretty much forces Sam to give her a bath each night, she lets Mike do pretty much what ever he wants to her (including trying to pick her up like a suitcase and lay on top of her) and she comes on walks with us. Yep, you read that correctly. The cat comes on walks with us around the neighborhood. If she happens to be outside whenever we set out, within a block she will have caught up to our group. She usually stays about 5 yards away, but follows us for the entire walk. People gawk and ask questions about the little tabby cat hot on our heels. I'm beginning to think that maybe she thinks she is a dog.

Ice Cream

Last night after dinner we decided to make an impromptu trip to Coldstone for a little ice cream goodness. Mike was quite pleased with the treat (don't worry, we all shared that cup of ice cream - he didn't get it all)!

Dinner Time

Mike is a fantastic eater. He eats pretty much whatever we offer him, and he eats a lot of it. Last Saturday Brad and I planned a date night(!!!), so I decided to feed him dinner before we left so the babysitter would have one less thing to worry about. I baked some fish sticks, and heated up some broccoli with cheese sauce. I gave him a little bit of tartar sauce, and a little bit of ketchup for his fish sticks. He happily dug into the tartar sauce and ketchup, eating both plain with his fingers until they ran out. Once the sauces were gone he moved onto the fish sticks and broccoli. He gobbled up a fish sticks, but was a little more picky about the broccoli. He would place a piece of broccoli in his mouth, suck off all of the cheese sauce and then spit it out. I realize this isn't so funny on its own. What is funny is the collection of broccoli pieces that began to pile up on his bib.

Don't worry, he ended up cleaning his plate in the end!

Monday Picture

Bumps and Bruises

Kids get hurt. I get it. Boys will be boys. I get it. Bumps and bruises are all part of growing up. I get it. I have to keep repeating these phrases to myself over and over because as of today I have received three calls from Mike's daycare this week informing me of a new bump or bruise. Bump and bruise #1: Tuesday afternoon Mike was running across his classroom and fall onto a very large lego (see picture below). Bump and bruise #2: Mike was running across his classroom and fell onto a block (resulting in a small red line above the lego bruise). Bump and bruise
#3: Mike was running across the room with another little boy and ran into something creating a bruise on the side of his eye. Do we see a theme here? You think I can stop my toddler from running everywhere? Yeah, I didn't think so either. So for the foreseeable future I will keep chanting, "boys will be boys", "kids get hurt" and "bumps and bruises are all part of growing up."

Dancing

This video may not be that exciting for anyone (except for maybe my family). But I find it entertaining and as it is my blog, I can post what I want so here it is.

Little Helper

During a recent thunderstorm a portion of our fence blew over. Due to Brad's crazy schedule and having a toddler underfoot, fixing it has been a slow process. Last Sunday (when Brad was postcall again) we were able to make a little progress. Thankfully we had Mike around to supervise the process.

Monday Picture

Mr. Cool