Springtime at the zoo

Ahhhh – spring has sprung.  Or at least it is springing.  And after our long winter hibernation, we decided to go out and see what was happening at the zoo!

It’s been several months since we took Mike to the zoo.  It just didn’t seem right to take him over the winter.  After all – it was one of the coldest winters on record with now than we’ve had in recent memory.  Needles to say – Mike is significantly more aware of (and interactive with) his environment.  So we were excited to see what his new reactions would be to all of the animals!

He wasn’t much on the black bears.  And he only had a passing interest in the elephants.  He started to get a little excited at the zebras.  And he was still interested in the meerkats.

"Look at that meerkat!”

Then we moved on to the Giraffes.  I’m not sure who was more interested!  Mike LOVED the Giraffes – but there was one Giraffe that was just as interested in Mike.  It cam right up to the edge of the fence – peeked over and said “hi”!  It hung out with us for a little while – but then it was time for dinner (you really should see a Giraffe trot at least once in your life…)

“Howdy Mike!”

“Whoa!  Look at that!”

After the Giraffe – it was “game on.”  Mike started paying attention to all of the animals.  Especially those that are in the books he “reads”.  Things like lions, tigers, birds, snakes, monkeys.  You could see that he was really making the connection between the animals in his books and the animals he was seeing at the zoo.  It really was a fantastic moment.

And speaking of the monkey’s – we’ve been keeping track of the “newborn” chimp at our zoo.  He’s about a year older than Mike and the first time we saw George.  The first time we saw him, he was nursing with his mommy “Daisy”.  It was pretty cool because it was during the time that Mike was still nursing.  During our most recent trip – there was apparently a “family disagreement”!  One of the “teen” chimps was jumping around and causing a ruckus.  Eventually he started running around and he chased George around.  Daisy came in a scooped George up and ran outside with him.  The other chimp ran outside too but there was a surprise waiting for him.  The other chimps did not like the fact that he was scaring baby George!  They chased him all around the entire compound until eventually he settled down.  In the end, everybody was happy (even if some of the older chimps were a little out of breath!).

Daisy with baby George

George with blanket!

Mike telling the chimps “ACK!  No no!”

By the time we got the the red panda, Mike was getting a little tired of being in the stroller.  It’s the perfect place to let him out to wander around.  It’s a relatively small area and he can’t open the doors to get out of the area.  Apparently, door that are good for keeping red panda’s in are also good for keeping little boys in too!

The cute little red panda

Mike in the red panda cage!

 

 

Mike strikes a pose while he’s in the red panda cage!

On this trip, we decided that Mike was big enough to go to the petting zoo.  He got to pet goats and sheep.  One of the workers put some “Mardi Gras” beads on one of the goats.  She immediately fell in love with her new “bling”.  The worker had to chase her around the pen for about 20 minutes to get the beads back!  It was a riot and Mike loved watching them all run around.  They also had a nice play area.  He got to play in some “animal houses” – which were eggs, nests, and even a tree stump!  He had an absolute BLAST playing in them.  In fact, he had so much fun that “The Mom” decided to join in!

Goats love bling!

“Mike – meet Goat.  Goat – meet Mike…”

Mike LOVED petting the goats!

“Stumps are FUN!”

 

“And so are nests!”

“Come on in mommy!  It’s a blast!”

“Wow!  Eggs are fun too!!!!”

It was a wonderful day.  One of the many wonderful days that we get to share!  The only unfortunate part?  Mommy and Daddy had to wait until they got back home before they could do this…

 

Mike fell asleep on the way back to the car.  It was a big day for a little boy!

The new favorite toy

Mike has so many toys that we have an entire room dedicated to them.  And even with the “play room”, we only get a few toys out at once.  Otherwise, Mike goes completely ADD on us.  He’ll play with a toy for 2.8 seconds before moving on to the next.  And the next thing you know, all 185,284 toys have been thrown about the room by the “boy tornado”.

And I find all of this interesting.  Perhaps someone should study adults and why they provide so many toys for their children.  Particularly when children seem to be happier with toys that aren’t really toys.  Like the lid from the disposable “tupperware” container (they are 4 for $1 – and the four “magic toy lids” also come with four bowls.  Bonus!).  Perhaps some budding psychology major needs a research idea for their PhD thesis.

But I have digressed completely!  I meant to talk about Mike’s new favorite “toy”.  Which isn’t the tupperware lids (that was SO last week!).  And it’s not really a toy at all.  It’s his rocking chair!

Mike wasn’t sure what to think about it for the first couple of weeks that we had it.  Then, one day he realized that he could get in to the chair “all by myself”.  And this suited him (and his newly developed independent streak) very nicely!  Shortly after that, he realized that he could also get back out of the chair without assistance.  Suddenly, the chair was becoming a symbol of things he could do “all by myself”.  And – what’s this?  It also rocks?  Holy moly, batman!  This thing just keeps getting better and better!  And the latest in the the “rocking chair bag of tricks”?  It scoots across the floor and Mike can push it to wherever suits him.

 

Check out my new rocking chair!

“I can get in it all by my self!”

 

“This thing ‘rocks’!!!!!”

A floor clean enough to eat off of…

We may not be the best housekeepers in the world.  OK.  We probably don’t even make the top half of the list.  Not that our house is “dirty” (although it certainly has its moments).  Not that our house is “cluttered” (although we have plenty of these moments too).

But let’s face it.  We have a toddler…

Mike has been fairly understanding of our “momentary lapse in household cleanliness”.  And while his vocabulary might only consist of 50 or so words (and none of them are “momentary” or “lapse” or “household cleanliness”) – he can still communicate rather effectively.

And how does he tell us that he doesn’t mind the occasional clutter.  Or perhaps the rug that should have been vacuumed a day (or two or three) ago?  How does he let us know that these things don’t bother him?  That he understands that he demands a lot of attention and things like “mopping the kitchen tile” might slip a little?

Well – I’ll tell you how he does it!  In just a minute…

But before I just “spill the beans” – Let me tell you about one of Mike’s favorite foods.  It’s yogurt.  And while he’s somewhat partial to the “Yo Baby” yogurt (because it’s not as sweet) – he will certainly not turn down any other brand or flavor.

As a matter of fact, as soon as he sees the container he will point and say, “Yo.  Yo!  YO!!!”.  From that point you have approximately 3.8 microseconds to have a spoon and yogurt in his hands (did I mention that he is “really turned off” when we try to feed him?  He can do it himself – thank you very much!).

In that 3.8 microseconds – you usually don’t have time to get him up in the high chair.  Which brings me back to the not minding that the “kitchen tile needs to be mopped”.  So – what does he do to let us know that the floor is more than clean enough to eat off of?  Why – he eats off of it!!!

“Mmmmm.  Gimme the YO!”

“I LOVE IT!  And eating from the floor is FUN!!!”

One year pictures!

Ok – just to let you know upfront.  Call it “full disclosure”.  There will be no long post this time.  Nothing wordy.  Not a lot of mumbo jumbo.  Today, we are going to get straight to the point.  No beating around the bush.  We are going to say it using as few words as possible.

…or maybe it’s already to late for that…

At any rate – We have our 12 month pictures back!  We’ve had them for a little while now – but I’ve had trouble getting the pictures and the computer in the same room (or the same state…).

So – without further ado – here are some pictures for you to peruse!  And if you want to see more – just click HERE and you can see them all!

 

“Baby needs a new pair of shoes”

It’s been a little while since there has been a “club feet” update.  Mostly, because there has been nothing to update you on.  It’s been a few months since we’ve seen the orthopedic surgeon – and it’s still another couple of months before our next appointment.

But we HAVE been putting off on task.  Mike has been wearing the same shoes for several months now.  So long, in fact, that his toes were sticking out over the end of the shoe (yes - they are open-toed shoes!) and the straps were hanging on by a thread (literally!). 

We were hoping that Mike would start walking and we could ditch the shoes (and the brace) altogether.  And while he has no problems standing up (as long as his hand is touching something that at least appears stable) he still hasn’t taken those first “solo” steps yet.  That’s not to say that he doesn’t walk.  No sir!  he will walk behind anything that he can stand behind and push around the room.  Chairs.  Walkers.  Cardboard boxes.  You name it.

But that’s not enough for our orthopedic friends!  Nope – they want him to be fully walking with no assistance before they will consider dumping the brace.

So it was off to our favorite orthotics place.  The folks at Hanger’s really are fantastic.  The will bend over backwards and do whatever it takes to make the orthotic device fit as good and comfortable as possible – which is certainly important for clubbed feet kids (remember those pressure points?  We sure do…) but it’s just as important for people with artificial limbs – or any other type of orthotics device.

So – we walked in the door and handed them the shoes and brace.  A quick look resulted in a “Wow!  These have been around the block a few times”.  A quick measurement of Mike’s foot – a quick trip to the back – and viola!  New shoes mounted on the brace.

So – how long have we waited for these new shoes?  Let me put it this way.  His original shoes were a size 00.  The shoes we just replaced were a size 0.  His new shoes are a size 3!  And boy – they sure do go on his feet easier!

Fare well Queen City – we have left the building…

It was a wonderful ride.  Filled with a bunch of fabulous folks who helped us out (and in the famous words of Julius:  by “us” – I mean “me”).  And while I may not have ever found WKRP or Johnny Fever, I did find a great job with a great group of people – even if it was only for a temporary “contract”.

And while I’m not much on your weather – especially the winter weather – I did enjoy following your beloved Reds and beleaguered Bengals.  You provided safe harbor for a stranger and shelter from the storm.  You took me in and treated me as if I was one of your own.

But not everything is permanent – especially in these current times.  I hope that everything continues to go well for you all!  And I’m sure we will be back for a visit (to stock up at Jungle Jim’s if for no other reason!)

In the meantime, we’ve already loaded up the U-Haul and vacated the “Cincinnati Vacation Home”.  And that was quite an ordeal!  It sure would have been easier to carry all of that stuff out if there wasn’t all of that snow in the way (did I mention the winter weather yet?).  But it’s done – and our possessions are now consolidated into two locations (even if they are in two different states!).

And the weekend was not all “packing and loading”.  There was some fun involved too!  There always is when Mike is around!

One of the best times was after running the vacuum in the bedroom.  Mike crawled over to the vacuum and started pushing it around the room making a “WRRRRRR” sound.  I can’t wait to get a toy lawn mower so he can follow me around the yard!  Heck – I might even skip the toy lawn mower and just let him push the real thing around!  After all – he didn’t need a “toy vacuum” to push around…

And while he was there, “the dad” was giving him tips on cell phone testing.  He spent several hours comparing the Blackberry with the DroidX – including the “infant toss test”.  In the end – I think he preferred the Blackberry – but only because it had more buttons!  He wasn’t too impressed with the Droid’s touchscreen…

 

“This blackberry has a BUNCH of buttons I can press!  The droid only has eight tiny ones – what fun is that?”

The (not so) secret big news!

Not that it was every really a secret – but we had some big news happen recently.  Many of you already know the news – but there are plenty of folks that we don’t get to talk to on a regular basis and I’m sure that you don’t yet know.

“The Dad” has a new job!  This time it’s a permanent position (no more contract work – yea!) and it’s with a nice, stable company (have you ever heard of Verizon Wireless?).  And the job is in “The Dad’s” hometown – Evansville Indiana!

In some ways – it’s really exciting.  Mike will be closer to family.  He’ll be able to visit a LOT more with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  And we still have friends in the area.  So it’s certainly not like starting over in a brand new city.

In some ways – it’s a bummer.  Lot’s of friends in Knoxville, “The Mom’s” job is in Knoxville.  Our house is in Knoxville.  But we stay focused on the positives!

But the absolute best part?  We’ll be together – living in the same house – in the same city – as a family!  This road as proven to be a long hard detour – and there are still a lot of things to get done before everything is worked out.  But we are hoping that soon the wind will soon be at our back and the sailing will finally be smooth…

Finally! A few Christmas pics!

Should I be excited that I’m only one month behind?  As hectic as things seem to be right now – I suppose that I should be happy that I have a few minutes to post anything!  But the alternative is to be taking a quiz for my class.  Blogging is WAY more fun than that!

Our Christmas was very different this year.  “The Mom” had finished teaching the fall semester and decided to bring Mike up to Cincinnati to visit with “The Dad”!  While it was strange to be spending Christmas in a temporary apartment in a temporary city – it was fabulous being able to spend it as a family!  We even went to the effort of decorating a Christmas tree!  After all – what kind of an example would we be setting for Mike if we didn’t have a tree…

We woke up Christmas morning and opened up our presents.  Mike is at the age where he will tear the paper off – but then he is more interested in playing with the paper than he is with what’s in the box!  We had a lot of fun watching him…

After Christmas, we spent a couple of days visiting “The Mom’s” family – then a couple of days visiting “The Dad’s” family.  Perhaps it is the holidays, or perhaps it’s that we don’t get to spend much time together as a family, or perhaps its celebrating Christmas with Mike – but this year seemed to be extra enjoyable.  We had an absolutely wonderful time visiting everyone!

It was also great to be spending a couple of weeks together rather than the usual weekend.  All in all, we couldn’t have asked for anything more…

And without further ado – here are some pictures from Christmas day!

“I can’t wait to get the paper off of this box!”

 

Tickle-me Elmo was a big hit.  “La la” is one of Mike’s favorites!

The “Pillow Pet” was another favorite.  He loves to crawl over and lay on it!

Mike tried putting on some of his new clothes…

…he may need some more practice at it!

“I hope you all had a merry Christmas and happy new year!”

I know…

I know I know I know.  Excuses excuses.  We said  that we would keep you updated and we have failed miserably!

And there were so many things that we wanted to share with you, but most of them seem so long ago.  And I know that we should have already had a Christmas post with lots of pictures – but I can’t do that either.  A small technicality.  The camera (with the pictures on it) is some 300 miles from the computer.  Hopefully, they’ll be reunited this weekend and we’ll have something posted next week!

In the meantime, I’ll share a story about a Christmas party.  This happened a couple of weeks before Christmas.  We had it all planned out.  “The Nan” was going to come down and watch Mike while “the Mom” and “the Dad” went out to the party.  An adult night out!  And not just any Christmas party either.  This was our church’s Christmas party.

Now many of you might be wondering – “church Christmas party?” and immediately be filled with thoughts of fried chicken and green bean casserole in the church basement while Christmas carols play on an vintage 1945 radio in the corner.  However, while our church does indeed have some events like this – the annual Christmas party is not one of them.

And many of you might still be questing.  But you need to remember – the pastor of our church is an Irish priest who loves to dance.  So instead of thinking of it as a church Christmas party – think of it as a party that your old Irish buddy planned for 600 of his closest friends.

There was much eating and drinking and merriment.  And dancing (of course) until the wee hours of the morning.  Every year we watch in amazement as Father Michael dances with everyone he can coax out on the dance floor.  He’ll whirl and twirl the girls until they are panting.  Then he’ll let them sit back down and rest while he finds another partner.  He truly is an amazing little fellow – and his dancing ability is just on of the smaller reasons why we like him so much…

So – until next year!  Perhaps we should start looking for a baby sitter now…

It’s been a while!

Howdy folks!  It’s certainly been a while since you’ve heard from us!  We’ll try and get you all caught up.  There has been so much that has happened since the last post that it will certainly take a few posts to get all caught up.  But have no fear – we will get you all up to date!

Remember that last post?  If not, it was about Thanksgiving.  A whopping six weeks ago!  And it’s here that we will begin our journey from the past to the present.

Shortly after Thanksgiving, Mike had his one year checkup.  There were the usual questions, poking, prodding – and the shots.  For this visit, Mike’s “awareness” of the shots changed.  He now recognizes what is going to happen as soon as the nurse walks in the room with the needle.  And he will let you know that he’s not happy about it!  The interesting part is that he was crying before the shot – but once it was over he looked around with an expression like “that was no big deal” and the crying immediately stopped!  That’s much better than him wailing for 5 minutes after the shot is over!

His checkup was fine.  He’s in the 45th percentile for both his weight and head circumference and a little lower percentile on the height scale.  The doctor paid extra attention to his ears since he’s had a history of ear infections.  Again – it was great news!  All clear on the ears!  No signs of any residual infection or fluid build up.  Yippee!  So all the news was good and all was right with the world and we packed up our bags and headed home.

Then came the weekend…

A few short days later (the following Friday night), Mike woke up several times crying.  Uh oh.  We have learned that this is one of his “ear infection signs”.  So Saturday morning, we load up and head back to the doctor’s office.  A quick look in to his left ear and we got a “yep – this one’s got it”.  The other ear was clear, but that gave us little comfort.  Just more proof that it only takes a few days of just slight congestion before the fluid builds up in the inner ear and gets infected.  We are still hoping that he won’t need tubes.  And at least the ear infections are getter fewer and farther between.

And remember that every cloud has a silver lining!  And this one does too.  Our pediatrician (and I’m sure that most other’s are this way too) has kids books in the exam room so that you can keep your little tike somewhat entertained while you are waiting.  On this particular “ear infection” trip – Mike had only a passing interest in the kids books.  Only the Sesame Street book (Elmo is his favorite) held his attention – and that was only for a few seconds.  But what happens when you give him one of the info packets in the room that is meant for the parents to read?  Why he will sit on the exam table like a good little boy and read it himself!  Interestingly enough – he paid the most attention to the diagram of the ear…

“I like this ‘grown-up’ reading material.  It’s much more interesting…”

The update (Part 3)

Hmmm.  At the rate we are going, this “three part update” might turn out to be a continuing series!

If you recall from the last post, we had left off with Mike’s birthday – which was three weeks ago now!  And we are back to that old cliché – time fly’s when you’re having fun (or is it time’s fun when you’re having flies – I never can remember…).  The next day was Thanksgiving…

Thanksgiving certainly was special this year.  The holiday’s are time for celebrating with family.  Sure – technically this was Mike’s 2nd Thanksgiving.  But last year, we had just brought him home from the hospital.  As “brand new parents” (ahhh – those were the days), we were having trouble keeping up with AM and PM – we certainly had no idea what day of the week it was.

And with our current job “situation”, any time that we get to spend together as a family means so much to us!  And being able to spend five whole days together – it was the first time we were able to spend five days in a row for over 7 months – it really was something to cherish.

Mike’s “Nan” had come in the day before.  And we had one more visitor joining us.  After some successful visits to the “eye doctor”, Mike’s “Grandpa Lee” was cleared to make the trip to K-town!  So he hoped in the car Thursday morning and headed our way.

We had a wonderful time with some fabulous food.  A really wonderful “long” weekend and a great way to officially kick off the holiday season!  And have no worries if you weren’t able to make it to our house this year.  We plan on having Thanksgiving dinner at our house again next year!  It’ll be a “double party” since Mike’s birthday will be on Thanksgiving next year.  Come and join us!!!

Mike and Nan checking out the “Black Friday” adds.  Mike is already picking out toys!

We fixed so much food – there’s not an inch of counter space to spare!

Mike and Grandpa discus their dinner plans

Is this stuff done yet?

 

 

Mike is suited up and ready to eat!

 

 

Everybody’s happy after a full belly!!!

The Update (part 2)

Part 2 of our “catch up” series takes us back to this past Wednesday.  Wednesday, November 24th.  It certainly was a big day!  It was Mike’s FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!

To coin a phrase, what a long strange trip it’s been (I don’t think Jerry would mind…)

From a parents point of view – it has all gone by so very fast.  We’ve always taken the time to enjoy each of Mike’s “stages”, but it seems like they are here today and gone tomorrow.  It’s just so incredibly hard to comprehend that a year ago, we were sitting in the hospital holding our newborn son.

From Mike’s point of view – I would say that the trip has been even longer and stranger!  Going from a nice comfy cocoon to a bright world full of casts and surgery and braces.  Baths and diapers and changing clothes.  Bottles and food.  Cutting teeth and recovering from colds.  Going from completely stationary to fully mobile.  Talking, sign language, books and toys.  Thanksgiving, Christmas (who’s the dude in the red suit?) to Halloween (why am I dressed like a dog?) and all the crazy holiday’s in between.  Snuggling on laps and taking naps.  Mom and Dad and grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, even dogs for “sisters”.  Don’t forget the magic ceiling fans.  And he takes it all in – studies every little detail – and always has a smile to give you.  Even with all of that craziness…

And how would you celebrate surviving a full year of all that?  With presents, cake and home made ice cream, of course!

It took just a second for Mike to get the hang of ripping the wrapping paper.  Then it became a game!  Not to get the presents open, but to see how many pieces he could tear the paper in to!

 

“Check this out!”

“Whoa!  The paper comes off!”

After the presents, we gave him some home made ice cream.  At first he wasn’t too sure of it – he’s not much on sweet foods.  But the cold felt good on his gums (we think he’s cutting about 37 teeth since he’s puts out around 24 gallons of drool per day).

Then came the grand finale.  His very own birthday cake.  A yummy carrot cake with home made cream cheese icing!  Again – he’s not much on sweets.  but he loves squishing things through his tiny little fingers!  Perhaps the best part was after he had made a grand mess – he decided he didn’t really need the plate and dumped the whole thing.  The dogs ended up eating more of the cake than Mike did!

“What in the heck is this?”

 

“It sure is squishy!”

 

“Did someone say they needed a plate?”

“Maybe I’ll try eating a bite…”

 

 

“Ummm – guys?  Have you seen how dirty and sticky my hands are?”

“Dang!  Cake and ice cream aren’t so bad after all!”

 

One year.  A whole year.  It’s such a cliché to say that it feels like yesterday.  But it is so true.  The cool part?  It’s just the first step down the path of a long, beautiful journey…

 

Once upon a time…

…I was such a…

…beautiful little baby.

 

Now, I’m turning…

 

…into a…

 

 

…beautiful little boy!