Walking the Dogs

One day, while taking the dogs for a walk, as we do from time to time, suddenly Mikey decided he wanted to hold the leashes. Now he insists on holding them everytime...
...even when hitching a ride on dad's shoulders.
It's so cute!

Here's a video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zypwdYJFJFY

Last night in Utah :(

On our last night in Utah, we had Lance's birthday dinner at Brennan and Natalie's new house that they hadn't even slept in yet! It was so nice of them and so much fun.

Baby Benjamin, getting so big!

Almost all the grandkids. We learned on this trip that Mikey doesn't pose for group pictures--yes, he is the one who ruins them :) And he was probably off distracting Amanda when this was taken. Abigail-7 1/2 months, Benjamin-4 months, Caroline-2 1/2 months, and Kate-almost 5. It looks like Ben takes after his cousin Mikey. He's just about as big as Abigail who has 3 1/2 months on him and almost twice the size of Caroline, only 6 weeks younger than him!

Amanda's hitching a ride on Mikey's stroller. Mikey thought this was the funniest thing ever at first. After a minute, though, he wanted his space back.

Natalie made this yummy peach pie just for Lance.

Amanda's too busy enjoying pure whipped cream to smile at the camera

Baby Caroline.

Amanda Jane. What a cutie!!

Mikey and Amanda are such big kids sitting all by themselves on their stools!

( After 5 or 10 minutes of them wiggling around on them and making us nervous, though, we put them on the floor to finish their food)

More Utah!

Mikey has been coming to us and backing into our laps for awhile now. It's adorable and we love it. But when we told Mikey to "go say hi to Abigail," he immediately started backing into her and trying to sit on her lap. Poor little thing! She was a great sport though. She just kept on smiling. So if Mikey ever sits on you, it's his way of showing affection.

Backing up!

Still trying....

Getting closer....

And mission accomplished!!!

See, still smiling.

Kate and Abigail

Mikey getting ready for a run

UTAH!!!

Mikey had so much fun with his cousins in Utah! We only wish we could see them more often. Hopefully one day we'll get to live closer to them all. :) Kate was so nice to let Mikey play with all of her things while we stayed there. He loved playing with her.

Here is Kate helping him jump on the tramp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY5Oz1qXqG0

And here is DAD helping...his methods are just a little different

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79bC3af0WFs

More Utah pictures to come....

Cribs and Dogs

Yeah, well mama wasn't thrilled about dad putting Emmie in the crib with Mikey, but then I had to admit, it was pretty cute. And Mikey LOVED it.

Just for Mimi and Bampa

This video is just for Mimi and Bampa(Grandma and Grandpa Moss). I mean, others can enjoy it, but Mimi and Bampa will really get the most out of it. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZKA8jALukU

Jungle gyms and swimming

Our clubhouse has an amazing jungle gym and pool, including a kiddie pool jungle gym (you can see in the back ground.) Some days Mikey loves it, some days a little less. This day he mostly loved it.

After we were mostly done swimming, Mikey found it immensely entertaining to just run around to pool.

Mikey just LOVES climbing and is learning to love slides more and more.


And for those of you wondering, his latest daily activity is picking up items such as calculators and remotes (though really any item will do), putting it up to his ear and saying, "heh-whoa."

E-I-E-I-O

It has been so much fun as Mikey continues to talk and copy everything we say and do. But it was the best this day when suddenly Mikey started trying to sing "Old McDonald." His first attempts, as you'll hear aren't as clear, but still pretty stinking cute. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDRNFLD2RKk

In the second video, after a few days of practice, you'll notice that his skills have greatly improved and he almosts gets that last "O" in there. :) What a cutie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZlQtIzyXu0

I wish we could video tape every second of him and put it up here because he does and says such cute things every day! He says all kinds of words (though, admittedly, many sound exactly the same :) Grapes are geeps (sometimes with the g or the p, sometimes without), more is meh....I love it. And just today he started hugging. Melt my heart, will yeh?

The Florida Aquarium

So we thought Mikey would LOVE the aquarium. He does, after all, love sitting and watching our our fish tank at home and loves animals. So we were a little surprised when he was a little less than enthusiastic at first about the Aquarium. But hey, we all have our days. :) He got better after awhile, as you can see. Yes, I know, he looks terrified. But, well, we're sitting in a giant shell. At least he's not screaming....by himself, he didn't do quite as well.
Not loving the shell.
And not loving the giant rubber turtle all the other kids loved playing on.
Getting closer with the stuffed animals...
Not loving the giant eel....
Or the fish... Are fish really THAT boring?

But there it is!!! We knew he'd smile eventually. They had this great water play ground outside and that's when the fun started. (I don't know what he and mama thought was so great, but it obviously was!)

He was a little nervous about the water at first and needed a little coaxing from dad.

But once we stripped our shirt off....!

Who is that sexy devil!

Soooooo tired after a long day with the fishies. He couldn't even finish the sip of juice he started.

Hats

Mikey still just loves hats. He walks around trying to put hats on us. And once he's decided you need to be wearing a certain hat, you better comply or else! So we spend much of our time walking around with Mikey's hats perched on our heads....As you can see Lance modeling so well.

Cushion Forts!

Being blazingly hot and humid outside, we often find ourselves playing inside for the better part of the day. On this particular day we (and by "we" I mean "mama") decided to build a fort out of the couch cushions.

Mikey loves to climb under and on things, so it was pretty fun for awhile...


But then he decided it was more fun to play the role fort destroyer than builder. Unfortunately for Willie (the dog), she was in the wrong place at the wrong time during one of Mikey's destroying rampages and ended up trapped underneath the piles of rubble (cushions). To add insult to injury, he then tried to climb on top of the cushions, futher crushing the poor little dog. Don't worry though, I saved her just in time and she survived.

Let's try again

So I heard that these images weren't showing up in the last post so I'm trying again. Hopefully they work this time.

Cutest kid ever!

Well we finally took Mikey's one-year pictures...at about his 14-month mark. Oops. I'm amazed that we got pictures this good considering the circumstances. I mean, he is so often laughing and playful, especially when he has both mom and dad around so I had high hopes for his pictures this day. Well, it just so happed that for the first time in I don't know how long, on the day of pictures, despite the perfect environment I tried to create for a good nap, he only got to sleep for 45 minutes (instead of his usualy 2 1/2 hours!) So we had a VERY grumpy kid by 5:00. The result was only getting a good mood long enough for single pictures with dad. He was too grumpy to get mom and him alone. But no worries, I'm usually the one who goes with him on picture day so I'll jump in next time. I mean, can I really complain with the smile we got here from this kid? Look how cute he is!

Are you kidding me? Look at that kid's smile! (Just ignore the boring grown-ups in the picture)
Mikey loves his hat--just trying to be like dad



And I had to add another video. So Lance was bathing Mikey and started pouring the water from high above his head. Well Mikey just thought this was the funniest thing he'd ever seen! Of course by the time we grabbed the camera, it was losing its hilarity and he was resorting to fake laughing. Though, in a child, fake laughing is almost as entertaining as a real laugh.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7784068134915780904