Mikey and "Kake" in Mexico

Mikey just LOVED playing with his cousin Kate in Mexico. He woke up every morning saying,"Kake? Kake?" until we'd get him out and go find Kate. She could always make him laugh. It was so fun for them to get to spend so much time together, and of course sad to say good-bye.

This was the first or second morning hanging out in Mimi and Bampa's (huge and gorgeous) backyard. Their pet Tommy the turtle, another of Mikey's favorites there, was somewhere close by, I'm sure.

So Sick :(

Well we've had a rough go of things since returning from Mexico last week all because of our poor little bug being so sick. I don't think he's ever been this sick for so long so it's been very hard to watch.

As I mentioned before he had just terrible ear infections the day after we got back from Mexico. So on Monday, after a few days of antibiotics, the doctor said one side was clear and the other was getting better. We thought, "good, the end is near." But then his fever continued to drive on and he continued to be miserable. So much crying and squirming in pain, it is so sad to see! Then on Wednesday the still-infected ear burst and started leaking fluid. THEN on Thursday the supposedly clear ear burst and started leaking fluid! With a fever still hanging out over 101 we were worried and so sad because he was so miserable. We were going to take him into the doctor for a third time yesterday, but we waited just a little longer and now he is FINALLY starting to perk back up.

YAY!! It's so fun to have our little man back. He is still fighting a cold and his ears are still leaking (I know, it sounds gross--and well, it is. They are quite nasty looking) but leaking is good and is just getting all the bad stuff out. He's out squealing with laughter with dad right now!

But with so much crying and waking up so much during the night, he was just exhausted and lethargic a lot of the time. This picture is from Wednesday night a few hours before bedtime. He was watching a show and got down on the floor on his blanket and was out cold. (By the way, this is how he sleeps 90% of the time--bum in the air and feet crossed--so cute!)

Returning from Mexico (and my blogger hiatus)

Well I have to apologize for the lack of new material for the past month. Basically Thanksgiving happened, then our big trip to Mexico, then throw in lots of calling and work stuff to sort out before leaving for 10 days and you have a stale blog.

But now we have lots of new material! Here are just a few to get you ready. We had the most wonderful trip to Mexico to visit my parents serving a mission in Tampico, Mexico. We were supposed to be back by 2:30 on Thursday so I thought I'd have all our new stuff blogged by that night. (Well, not really, but I thought I'd be able to get right on it.) But thanks to the wonderful airline, I am still recovering from the worst flying experience ever. Today Lance and I talked about how our experience that day was like a TV show. You wouldn't believe how it just continued to get worse and worse.

But in a nut shell, our first flight from Tampico to Houston was supposed to leave at 7 am so we got up at 5 am. After returning to the airport 4 different times because of delays, we finally took off 9 hours late. Yep, that's right, 9 hours. And they wrongly denied us food until just before we were supposed to board (they had been serving it all day to delayed passengers, but out ticket agent had told us no!)

Then we had to sprint to catch the final flight out of Houston to Tampa for the day and barely made it at the expense of any kind of food and severe pregnancy cramping for me. They then wouldn't help us get our seats together, as promised, like our original flight. Luckily a few passengers saw the wisdom in letting us sit together with a lap child instead of Mikey sharing a middle seat with only of us. Of course when asked for any real food for a starving pregnant lady, they quickly snapped that they only had peanuts for us. (I KNOW they didn't give first class just peanuts! You'd think a little first class food would be the least they could do for what they put us through. Oh well)

So we rolled in around midnight (after starting at 5 am). It was rough for a pregnant woman and I have been cramping and sick for the past two days, but I think I'm finally getting better. Mikey, amazingly enough, did wonderfully for the day we put him through. But it caught up to him and today we found out that he has severe ear infections, one of which is ready to burst any minute. (Yeah, the doctor told me to not panic if puss or blood started coming out of his ear...um, YEAH I WILL!)

So anyway, we are getting back into the swing of things and I promise loads of new pictures very soon. Love you all!

We took a Safari and saw tons of animals that Mikey loved

We went to the beach three times and Mikey loved every minute of every day! (This moment was so cute. Mikey saw Lance come and lay down on my back so he ran right over and laid down in front of me to join the party. It was adorable!)

Pregnancy countdown...

Wow. 197 days. Does that sound like a lot to anyone else?

Some videos

Here a few videos that we've had on youtube for awhile, in case you missed them.

One of our favorites EVER:
"Hi Froggie" The whole thing is cute enough, but just listen for the "hi froggie." It's the best part. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqKZBHkA6dI

Mikey loves talking:
"Andy pweez" Thanks to Halloween, Mikey is now quite aware of candy (andy) and asks for it constantly. At least he is very polite and always uses please (pweez). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmBOC-5v_ls

"Oh, Man!" This is also one of his favorite phrases. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s51Se_Op2Jg

Our little sports fan:
"Sports fan" He normally claps pretty enthusiastically when playing with this basketball game, but he was getting so into it this time and bouncing up and down. It was so funny! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDxckvJso_k

Our little grown up:
"Big boy" Mikey now refuses to sit in a highchair or use a bib. He also will eat almost anything if he can eat it with a fork or spoon because he LOVES using untensils. It's cute, but mealtime is now the messiest thing ever and we go through a whole lot of clothes. This is just him eating like a big boy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87qtFvenUag

Hair cutting time

Mikey is so handsome with a clean hair cut, but man does he HATE it! He would hardly let Lance touch him and he was screaming bloody murder. So I got him tootsie pop and that mostly did the trick. As you can see, though, it also made for quite a large (and funny) mess. And we couldn't even adequately capture with the camera the amount of hair stuck all over the drippy sucker drool. Needless to say, he went straight the bath after this, but only after letting him sit in the sticky mess in order to finish the sucker.

So handsome and so happy to be finished.

Mikey all grown up! (well, getting there anyway)

Mikey the scientist

We actually took this picture because he was walking around eating a snack and decided to take a seat on the scale in the middle of the room which was funny. (It was out to weigh Brad's bags before he got on the plane.) But he just looks so grown up to me in this picture! Maybe it's just me though.

I know this picture is dark, but that's Mikey holding dad's scriptures and his hand on the way to church. So cute!! He LOVES holding hands now. When we walk anywhere he stops, puts his hands up, says, "Han!" and waits for Lance and I to both grab his hands. It's my favorite thing!

Can Mikey come out and play?

So there are a bunch of boys from the ages of probably 8 to 12 on our block who are constantly outside playing--riding bikes, throwing balls, whatever. Whenever we happen upon them with Mikey, he LOVES it. He runs around after them and they are nice by giving him the ball to throw and playing with him for a bit. We always think they are nice to play with him.

Then yesterday during Mikey's nap time, Lance and I were working in the garage on a few projects when the boy from next door came wandering over. The first thing he said was, "Is Mikey home?" I thought it was so cute!!! Funny, of course, because I'm not sure where Mikey would go without us, but so cute that this 10-year-old kid wanted to play with Mikey. He was sad to find out he was sleeping.

Everyone says they love Mikey, but I never know if they are just being nice. I guess they really do. He is a pretty stinking cute kid, I don't know who wouldn't love him (but I'm his mom).

Happy Halloween!

No Halloween is complete without a pumpkin and we had to show off Lance's amazing creation.

Shark Attack!

Here we are at our ward Halloween party, and I must say, Mikey stole the show as our little shark. For those of you not quite getting it, he's the shark that attacked us two surfers (with the help of a few of his friends--see Lance's arm and the back of my shirt.) Though you can't adequately see it, we also have numerous bloody and scabby shark bites on arms and legs that really just ended up on EVERYTHING! Car seats, diaper bag, Mikey's costume, unknowing kids who got too close....

Mikey before food....

Mikey after food....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lPJobwIb_A (that kid MUST be a Moss)

Looks like the shark got too close to our boards. (By the way, Lance's is the cool flaming one. Mine's the less cool and less creative stripey one. I guess we know who the artistic one in the family is. See pumpkin above for further proof...)

A rare picture with the hood on and NOT crying...

...or distracted with candy.

One couple in the ward came up to us and said they didn't know who we were until they saw Mikey around us.

Yummy surf boards....

Do you know what a shark says? Well Mikey does! (Okay, I know they say nothing because they're under water, but we've taught him what we think they would say.) This video also features one of our favorite girls in the ward and one of Mikey's biggest fan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmn4N_kwP7o

Trunk or Treat!

Another amazing creation of Lance's.

Mikey loves Abigail

When Brad and Sarah first arrived Mikey was so excited to see Abigail. He just wanted to hold her and hug her...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOS9QvyZKL4

Disney World!

We started our day in MGM....then Epcot, then Magic Kingdom. Yes, as a pregant person, I was about dead by the end.

Lance and I on the streets of New York. Doesn't it look real? Yeah, I didn't think so either.

What a difference 6 months makes. When we were here in April Mikey wasn't scared at all of giant cartoon characters. As you can see, that has changed. Could this be seen as a form a torture that I forced him this close to Chip when he clearly was terrified?
Abigail, on the other hand, at 9 months has no problems with Chip.

All dressed up and ready for some time in Morocco! Okay, that thing on my head is just part of this whole belly dancing outfit. I would have modeled the rest, but I had nowhere to change. Sorry, you missed out.

Hanging in Morocco. Epcot's great, we now don't have to travel the world. We saw it all in a few hours!

Lance dancing in Germany.

Our wedding pose in China.

And proof that we were in all three parks in one day (though we were only in Magic Kingdom for like 2 hours.)

Fruit punch at the beach

Mikey always wants nothing more than to drink from giant cups that spill all down the front of him. And even better when it is dad's fountain drink of fruit punch. He gets so mad because he can never just have his fun with it.

Well he finally got his wish at the beach. He found dad's drink and started drinking, spilling, flicking it all over with the straw... everything he always wants to do, but isn't allowed.
And by this final product, you can see why he's never allowed. :)

Busch with Brad and Sarah

Look at all that meat Brad and Sarah got! What pigs! Lance and I ordered salads only....okay, I'm lying. We ate the same meat, and man was it good!

Of course, most kids love animals and Mikey is no different. But I really think birds might be his favorite right now. He was in absolute heaven here in the birdcages at Busch where the birds love to hop all over you.

He had NO fear of the birds walking all over them and asked for more whenever they left. Then he ran around chasing them.


Such a big boy riding the dragon with dad.



And he'll always love fishies. We just left him there while we went to ride rides. Okay, just kidding, but I think we could have!

WOW

You just have to see this video.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36zR6O4u8Y

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!