There's no denying, this kid LOVES his doggies

Okay, I know in the first picture it doesn't look like he's enjoying this, but on this particular day, he insisted the dogs join him on top of his little slide. There is not quite enough room so they didn't love it and kept sliding off. Then he'd get mad and want them back up...yada, yada, yada. all very entertaining.

After what could have been 5 minutes or an hour outside (both produce the same sweaty-headed kid during a Florida summer), he needed some cuddle time with Emmie.

And again, another activity where he insisted that a dog join him. Emmie didn't really love it. Luckily she loves him unconditionally :)

Eating "yo" and making messes

"Yo," (aka yogurt) is one of Mikey's favorite foods. It's also the one food where he still makes a gigantic mess on his face when eating. Other, more solid foods don't make nearly the mess. So it's quite entertaining. He's getting quite skilled with the spoon, though, so this may not last much longer.
Luckily, he's quite skilled at making other kinds of messes. He loves to go in a room and shut the door behind him, playing by himself (or yelling at us until we come and open the door). On this particular occasion I didn't realize he had taken an entire bag of fishies in with him...and dumped the whole thing out. It was some time before I went in to check on him and found the mess. As you can see by the grin, he thought it was quite funny.

Climbing the ladder

One day dad was outside getting on the roof for something. Mikey and I went out to say hi and Mikey ran straight for the ladder. Though Lance was standing right behind him the whole time, he really did climb all the way to the top by himself. He's our little monkey!

Dressing ourself

Every child gets to the point when they want to dress themself. From the picture below, you may have guessed that we have arrived at that point. It's not an every morning, as we're getting dressed, kind of thing. More like, he wanders into his room at random times of the day and pulls things out of his drawer and pushes them on us until we give in. This was a particularly nice day when he wanted to go with the green, camouflage pj-pants with the collared polo. Luckily, only our neighbors behind us could see this wonderful display of style and color coordination.

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.