IT'S A ...................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have the most exciting news that I have been able to blog about. This trumped the Christmas pictures that I was going to post, those will have to come later. My life has been changing for the past 18 weeks and will continue to change for the next 22 weeks. Then the biggest change will happen. I will offically become a

BIG SISTER

Yes, I will have a little baby brother or sister.

Mommy and Daddy had their Ultrasound this morning. Everything went well and he or she is healthy. The lady said that he or she weighs 8 oz. That is really small. It has a lot of growing to do before I get to meet it.

When the nurse got to the "spot", she told Mommy and Daddy not to look if they did not want to find out what it is going to be, a boy or a girl. But, guess what..............I peeked. I know what it is!! I am the only one in my family that does know. I am not going to tell either. No matter how much they tickle me, I am not going to break. I am going to keep it a surprise.

So everybody mark May 29, 2008 on your calendar as the day that I offically get to meet this little baby.

Here is a picture that they gave us to take home. It is a good profile picture. You can see its little forehead, nose, upper lip and chin on the left. The light spot at the top is a hand, and the body is to the right.

Our Christmas Tree

Sunday evening, we made our second annual trip to the Christmas Tree store. It really isn't a store, it is an empty parking lot around the corner from my house where they sell Christmas Trees. They bring the trees down here from way up north. The tree in this picture, isn't the exact one they we purchased, but it is the same color and shape as the one we bought. Last year, we Mommy and Daddy decided to get a White Pine. It had soft needs that didn't hurt at all. This year, they were adventure some and poky one.

Mommy and Daddy said that when I get older and can walk around better, that we will make a tradition of going to a tree farm and cutting our own Christmas Tree. That will have to wait for a few years, because little legs get tired easily.

I liked playing in rows of trees. They were so tall, and they kept poking me when I got close to them. We picked our Christmas Tree and took it home. We put it up that night, but just ran out of time to decorate it. I think that we will do it tomorrow night.

Now about this date that I told you about. It is going to change history as we know it. Nothing will be the same. New concepts will be introduced. Some may be easy to accept and some may be hard to accept, but they will be introduced non the less. Things in the this blog may even change, but I haven't decided how yet. We will have to see how everything plays out.

Catching up on Fall

This is the tree outside our kitchen window. It is a big maple tree with a bazillion leaves on it. It was one of the last trees on our street to loose its leaves. These pictures were taken just before Thanksgiving.

This year, I had to help pick up the leaves. We picked up 11 bags full just like this one. First we had to rake them into a pile, and then put them in these bags to be picked up.

I found this stick in the pile, so I thought that I would play with it while Daddy picked up the leaves.

It was a little chilly out that day. Can you see my little nose? It is all red. We did take several breaks to go back inside and get warmed up. It wasn't that cold, as long as you stayed in the sun.

Papa and Grandma

OK, I am really late with this one, but everything was so close together that I thought I would just combine them. This is my Papa (Steve's Dad). He had a birthday earlier in November. Before Daddy called him on his birthday, we practiced saying " Hi" and "Papa". When he answered the phone, Daddy gave me a little coaching and I said "Hi, Papa". Papa and Grandma live way up north. It is two hours from my house, so I don't get to see them that often. Fortunately, I have seen them several times in the last few weeks. We met them in Howell, home of the Honey Sweet Melon, for supper a couple of days before his birthday.

Then Thanksgiving was a couple of weeks after that, and we traveled all the way to Middleton for the holiday. The day after Thanksgiving, Papa, Grandma, Aunt Wellie, Jessica, Makenna, and Taylor came down to Detroit to see a football game. They were only 15 minutes away, so they stopped in after the game for lunch, and I got to see them again. Then a few days after that, it was my Grandma's birthday. Unfortunately "Grandma" is sort of a hard word to get out of my little mouth, so I could only hug and kiss the phone when Daddy called her.

I can't wait until I am old enough to stay with them. Then I can go to the bakery with Papa and eat donuts and bake cookies with Grandma in her kitchen.

And wouldn't you know it. In a few more days, it is going to be there 40th wedding anniversary. That is why I waited until now to let you all know what was happening. My little fingers get tired doing all this typing so it would have been nearly impossible for me to split it up into that many entries.

Lets see, what else has been happening over the last month.

I am the master at Hide and Go Seek. I fit into the best hiding places. It doesn't matter if it is dark, with the lights off, or the lights are on. I stay really still and I don't say a word to give my position out. Mommy and Daddy look all over the house for me. Daddy says that they are going to be in trouble when they really need to find me.

I do have a couple more teeth. I think my total is up to 9 now.

I help around the house. I like to help load the cloths dryer, Mommy and Daddy put the wet cloths on the door and then I push them into the dryer. I help unload the clean dishes out of the dish washer. I only sample a few of the utensils to make sure that they are clean. I also help with picking up my toys and putting laundry away. This is all with help from Mommy and Daddy.

I have added a few more words to my vocabulary and a few more animal noises and gestures from "My Big Animals Book", and also a few more signs. I regularly sign "please" now, and I mess with Daddy all the time by calling him Mom.

Here is a date to keep in the back of your minds May 29, 2008.

Halloween Fun

I know that I am a little late with this, but I have been busy. It is hard playing all day. You just run out of time to do the little things. Like keep all my readers informed of what has been going on.

This handsome fella is my buddy Collin. He is about 9 months younger than I am. Uncle Ryan and Aunt Megan dressed him up as a pumpkin for Halloween. We went to visit him and ate supper there. We took lots of pictures and played with his toys while people came to their house for candy.


I got to be this pretty flower for Halloween. I am not sure what kind of flower that I am, but I sure am cute. I didn't exactly go trick-or-treating. I can't eat the candy, and Daddy said that they don't need it either. I did go to a few friends' houses where I got Teddy Grahams and Animal Crackers. That was perfect for a little flower like me.

It was a wonderful day. Since it was so warm, we went out in Collin's front yard and took some pictures. We did a lot of laughing and giggling. He can only sit up. He can't walk yet, so we just sat in the yard and played with the leaves that had fallen from his tree.

After we took all our pictures and ate supper, we went and met up with some other friends and walked around for a while. Boy was I exhausted when we were done. It didn't take long before I fell asleep in the car on the way home. What an exhausting evening.

This is the "My Big Animal Book" that I was telling you about. It is my favorite book. It is full of animals. We have to look at it at least once a day. It is very educational. I have learned what a Macaw sounds like. It says "Caw, Caw." Whenever Mommy asks me what the Macaw says, I answer her with "Caw, Caw."

Uncle Chris

Today is my Uncle Chris's (Daddy's brother) birthday. He is 2 years older than Daddy. He is married to Aunt Sarah. Between the two of them, they have 4 girls. They are all older than I am, but at this point, they are the only cousins that I have. Unfortunately, they live a long way away, so I don't get to see them very much. They live close to where my Grandpa and Grandma live, so when we go visit, we always stop by. Sometimes, we even spend the night at their house. It is so much fun. I am always up late when we stay there. And in the morning, Uncle Chris cooks breakfast for us all.

They live in a big house in the country with a huge yard. They have rabbits, that weigh as much as I do! They have chickens, and I even got to see a baby turkey the last time I was up there. They even have deer that come into their yard, but you have to get up early in the morning to see them. I usually miss them because I am sleeping.

Someday, when I am older, I will get to stay with them all by myself. I am really looking forward to that. We will get to do all the fun things that you can't do living in the city.

Uncle Chris also has three cats. I like to chase them around their house. That is the only time that I have seen a cat. Now whenever I look at "My big animal book" and see the picture of the cat, or even the kittens, I give them a big kiss.

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY Uncle Chris, see you soon.

Fall

The weather has started to turn cold here in Michigan, and as many of you know, that means pumpkins, cider mills, apples, and warm clothes. Last weekend I had an opportunity to take my first trip to a cider mill. I really didn't know what a cider mill was. I heard Mommy and Daddy talking about one by Grandma and Grandpa's house, but I still didn't understand what really happens at a cider mill. Boy was I surprised.



This is a picture of my friend Kassie. She lives in the Chicago area and her and Yishe, a family friend of Mommy's, made the trip to Detroit for the weekend. This is the first time that I had met them. We played alot. Kassie taught me how to twirl, and we read books, and played with stuffed animals and ran around the house. On Saturday, we went a Cider Mill in Plymouth. The first thing that we did was go on a wagon ride. It was a very nice ride thru the apple orchard and then we stopped at an area where they had pumpkins laid out for people to buy. Mommy bought me a pumpkin earlier, so we didn't buy any, but Kassie did.

At the Cider Mill, there was a small petting farm, where they had lots of little animals to look at. They had goats and Alpaca's, pigs, ducks, and chickens. I had seen chickens before at Uncle Chris and Aunt Sarah's, but the other animals I had only seen my my "Big Animals Book". It was really neat to see them in real life.

They also had these big cutout of different things that you could stick your head in. Kassie and I decided to put our heads in the flower and bee cut out. That is me in the bee cutout. Before we left, we went into the building and Mommy bought some apples and donuts, and Daddy got some caramel corn. They also bought a gallon of apple cider. Now I have had apple sauce before and I have had apple juice before, but this apple cider stuff is the best. I drank alot of it over the next couple of days. Not only is it a delicious beverage, but it also keeps me regular, which I sort of have a problem with when I eat a lot of cheese.

I was also at the doctor's recently. I weigh 24 lbs and I am about 30 something inches long. The doctor had a hard time measuring me because that crinkly paper they put on the bed kept scaring me. I am also starting to get more teeth. My molars are coming in. Those really hurt. Other than that, I am as healthy as a horse.

Back to School

Last week it was back to school time. Not for me, but for both Mommy and Daddy.

Daddy went back to college for his fall classes. It was so nice to have him home after work for a whole month. His schedule is a little nicer this semester. He only has to go to school two nights a week instead of 4 nights, which was his normal schedule.

Mommy is also back to school. She is teaching in Livonia again. It is not the same school as last year, but still in the same school district. She is working two days a week, and then on the opposite nights that Daddy goes to school, Mommy is taking college classes. She has to take them so she can renew her teaching license. She is taking Spanish classes so she is always talking to me in Spanish, which also works well since our neighbor is from Peru and only speaks Spanish.

For me, it is back to Mr. Steve and Mrs. Cindy's. They watch me when Mommy and Daddy are working. I also get to play with Hannah, Gideon, and Noah while I am there. They are Mr. Steve and Mrs. Cindy's three children. They are all in school (high school or middle school), but we play when they get home. They are a lot of fun. They are always making me laugh. Their whole family are big sports fans so sometimes I get to go to games or practices and Mommy picks me up there.

Hey Mrs. Cindy............."Who's your Tiger".

Last year when Mr. Steve would get home from work, we would sit on the porch swing and rock back and forth until Mommy or Daddy came to pick me up. I am hoping that if the weather is nice that we can do that again.

I have also found a different form of communication. It is called sign language. My vocabulary is not that large yet, but I have the essentials down. I know the signs for "more", "hungry"(which Mommy and Daddy changed to make it a little easier for me, I just tap on my tummy), I used to do "all done," then I forgot, but now I am doing it again. And I can also do "yes", although it looks very much like I am waving "bye--bye". But hey, I get the point across.

My First Birthday Party

The Saturday after my birthday, Mommy and Daddy had a birthday party for me. It was really fun. Most of my family was able to come all the way down to Southgate for this special occasion. We also had some friends over too. We had hamburgers, potato salad and coleslaw, vegetables, and chips. It was such a nice day outside that we were able to spend the whole time out on the lawn.

I got some very nice gifts for my birthday. I got clothes, beach balls, and a new pair of tennis shoes. I also got a slide and swing, and a lot of cool new toys. Here is one my new toys. It is a Jeep Hurricane powerwheels. It is fun to ride around in. My legs aren't quite long enough to reach the pedals so my buddy Jordan would push on the gas for me. Later on in the day, I was sitting in the passenger seat and I let someone else drive.

This was my first birthday cake. It was all my favorite colors. We got it from a store around the corner from our house. I guess that it was good, I didn't get any of this one.

Mommy made me my very own special cake. It was a cake that nobody else could have, only me. It was white with pink cherry frosting. At first I wasn't sure what to do with it. When ever I start smashing my food between my fingers or throwing it on the floor, I always get told "NO!!!" Now they want me to do this. Being a child is very confusing.

Fortunately my Aunt Wellie showed me what to do. She took some of the frosting and wiped it on my face. After that, I would grab hand fulls of the cake and squish it between my fingers. There was nothing left of the cake when I got done with it.

Now the fun didn't stop after my birthday party in Southgate was over. A couple of weeks later, Grandma Lisa had a BBQ for me at her house. She wasn't able to make it down to my house, because she had several other commitments she had to attend. My Uncle Chris and Aunt Sarah weren't able to come down either, so we left on Friday night and stayed until Saturday moring with them. I had lots of fun there with my cousins. They showed me their garden, and I got to pet a wild baby turkey, and a rooster chicken. In the morning, Uncle Chris made breakfast for everyone. They also have three cats that I chased around.

Grandma Lisa has a pool and since I love going in the water, I had to go swimming. Here Aunt Heather and I are squirting each other with water. Uncle Will and Aunt Heather weren't able to make it down for my birthday party either. They were either out of the state, or out of the country on prior engagements. It was nice to see them at the BBQ. Aunt Heather is also expecting. She is due in late January or early February. I can never keep it straight. This will be my first cousin that is younger than me.

Grandma Lisa got me a very pretty Pink and Purple tricycle. It is just my size, but after a long day of swimming and eating and playing, I crashed just as we were getting ready to go. Mommy and Daddy were loading up the van and Grandma Lisa was trying to put on my shoes, but I fell asleep as soon as she set me up on her knee.

Pure Michigan

I was riding in the van one day with Mommy and Daddy and heard a commercial on the radio. It was a guy that was talking about all the wonderful things that a person can do and see in our great state of Michigan. At the end of the commercial, he concluded with the words "Pure Michigan". I was fortunate enough to experience "Pure Michigan" for a whole week recently.

We went camping at Straits State Park in St. Ignace Michigan. All you Michigan folk probably know where St. Ignace is. If you don't, it is located on the north side of the Mackinac or Mackinaw Bridge. The spelling depends on if you are from the Upper Peninsula (ac) or the Lower Peninsula (aw).

This is where I took up residence from Monday July 9 to Sunday July 15. This is our tent. It is quite a large tent. It is big enough for Mommy, Daddy, and me to sleep in and still have enough room for our clothes, food and toys.


Our campsite at the campground was as close the water as you could get. This was the view from outside our tent. Ok, we had to go on the other side of a small line of trees in order to see this majestic view. It was perfect. Uncle Tracey called it "breathtaking" when they arrived. This is the Mackinaw Bridge. It is 5 miles long and will be 50 years old this year.


After we set up our tent and got everything organized. Mommy and Daddy took me swimming. The water was COLD. Uncle Tracey said the average temperature of Lake Huron was in the 60's. Mommy defied the cold water and took me in anyway. I LOVED IT!!! At first I wasn't too sure about it. I hadn't had much experience with water, except for taking baths. I loved splashing around in it. When Mommy and Daddy noticed that my lips and cheeks were a slight shade of blue, they decided that it was time to get warmed up, so they dried me off and wrapped me in a warm towel.

The first full day of our vacation, we went to the beach. There wasn't a very good beach at the campground, so we loaded everyone into the van and took off down the road for about 20 minutes and found a beach that ran for what seemed like miles along Lake Michigan. Here I am in my beach garb. The yellow thing under my jacket is my swimming suit. It was a little chilly for me so Mommy dressed me in my hoody jacket and my capris.

This is my buddy Anthony. He is 4 years old. We had fun playing in the sand and trying to catch bugs with his butterfly net. I think that he actually caught something in it. He was also a master at scaring the seagulls away at the campground. Whenever I was feeling sad, Anthony and Christian would make a funny face at me and make me smile.

Here is Uncle Tracey and Aunt Michelle, well at least the back of them. After we ate lunch and Daddy and Uncle Tracey did a little swimming in the cold waters of Lake Michigan, Uncle Tracey and Aunt Michelle "hunkered down" on their beach chairs and listened to a little music. As you can see in the back ground, it was cloudy, but it was warm. We also took the canopy that Grandma got Mommy and Daddy for Christmas one year. It was a wonderful thing to have. We even put the removable side up and stayed out of the wind and played in the sand for most of the day.

On Wednesday, we headed to Tahquamenon Falls. It was about a 1.5 hour nap for me. We left in the middle of the morning and arrived there just after lunch. We had to stop in Paradise and everyone dipped their toes into Lake Superior, except for me, because I was sleeping.

After we ate lunch, we hiked to the Upper Falls. It was quite a long distance to get back to the falls, so Mommy and Daddy front packed me for a while.

After we saw the Upper Falls and did a little hiking, we went to the Lower Falls. This time, I got to ride in style in the backpack. Do you know how easy it is to hike when you are riding around in a backpack? It was no trouble for me at all. I stayed right behind Mommy the whole time. I thought I did a good job of keeping up with her.

Part of the day on Thursday, we explored St. Ignace. It was sort of a relaxing day for us. Again the weather was sort of gloomy, but it didn't rain until we were on our way back to the campground. We explored some of the shops and then went to the park to eat lunch. Daddy took this picture of me and my Mommy with the light house in the background.

There was a playground at the park that we ate lunch at. Christan and Anthony were playing on slides and crawling up the bars. I spent my time walking around and taking in the sights, although every once in a while I would peek over at them to see how much fun they were having.

Friday was our trip into Mackinac City. We spent most of the day wandering around the shops and eating Ice Cream. I had a raspberry sorbet. It was yummy. We darted in and out of the fudge shops, popcorn shops, and of course the had to hit the kite store. It was Mommy's favorite store. For lunch we went to the park to eat. It was right on the water and we had a wonderful view of the bridge and the water.


This is my other buddy Christian. He spent a lot of time riding his bike around the campground with the friends that he made. They were doing all the things that boys do. Most every morning, Christian would accompany Daddy and Uncle Tracey on a coffee run to the local gas station.

Saturday morning, we woke up and it was quite cold and rainy. We decided to have a hot breakfast, so we went out for breakfast and then headed north to Sault Saint Marie. It didn't make much sense to me to head north when it was so cold, but nobody asked my opinion so we went anyway. When we arrived at "The Soo", it felt warm. There was hardly a breeze and the rain had stopped to just a small drizzle, one of those drizzles where you really don't get wet. We arrived about 20 minutes before two boats were scheduled to go thru the locks. One boat was going upbound to Lake Superior, while the second boat was going down bound to the St. Mary's River. It was really fun to see the boats get raised and lowered. They are really really big when you are that close to them. But why to they have to blow their horns where they exit the lock? Do they think that we can't see them? It was really loud and it scared me.

Sunday morning came and the sun was shining and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. It was definitely one of the better days that we had there. So instead of wasting the sunshine driving the 5 hours back to Southeast Michigan, we decided to pack up our camping stuff and head to the beach for a final swim. The Lake Michigan water was still cold, but that didn't stop me from wanting to play in it. I loved splashing around in the waves.

So to recap our busy week of vacation, I got to see three of the 5 Great Lakes and dip my toes in 2 of them, the Mackinac/Mackinaw Bridge, the Soo Locks, and I got to play in the sand on the beach for the first time, all in 7 days. I also got to experience the camping lifestyle--drinking cool bottles in the morning, sleeping in a tent and enjoying a nice warm campfire at night.

One Year Old

Today, I turned 1 year old. My birthday was officially at 10:09 pm. Wow, what a year it has been. I have taken tremendous steps in my development. When I was first born, I slept, I ate, and I, you know, all the time. I really couldn't move much. I would just lay in my Mommy and Daddy's arms just waiting for the day that I could smile at them. Then that day came a few weeks later and I had to set another goal, and then another goal, and then another goal.

Right around six months old, I was able to sit up on my own. It wasn't hard at all when I finally figured out how to do it. Next came crawling. Now this one took a little bit of work. I would get my self up on my hands and knees and sort of rock back and forth for a while. It was hard to get all my muscles working in the proper order to actually crawl. Then one day, I took off across the living room floor. Finally some independence. I was able to crawl to where I wanted to go and the toys that I wanted to play with.

My next big challenge was walking, but first I had to be able to stand up on my own. I sort of surprised Mommy and Daddy with this one. They weren't paying attention one day and I was standing in the middle of the living room. It was soon after that, that I took my first step. It was in the bedroom as you recall. I took about three steps and landed in Mommy's arm. What a safe place to be. Since then, I haven't stopped. I have logged many miles walking thru the house.

All this has taken me to today. July 17, 2007, and my first birthday. The day started out like all the other days. First it was getting up and eating some breakfast. Then Mommy took me shopping. We had to buy me a new pair of shoes, because we can't find my other shoes since the camping trip, which I will post about later this week. So we called Daddy to have lunch with him. Luckily he wasn't busy. After lunch. I entertained Daddy's co-workers for a while, and then it was off to another store. Once we got home I took a nap. Before long Daddy was home from work and it was off to Mr. Steve and Mrs. Cindy's house for Gideon's eighth grade graduation party. Mrs. Cindy babysits me while Mommy is working two days a week. It is my home away from home. Once we got back to the house, it was time to open presents. I got lots of toys. Mommy, Daddy, and I played with the toys the rest of the night, until I had to go to bed. But stay tuned because Saturday is the big party. My first birthday party. I will have lots of pictures. Mommy even said that I get my own cake to tear into at the party.

Happy Father's Day!

Hey Daddy! Happy Father's Day! Boy, I thought Mommy and I were never going to be able to do this without you knowing! We've got to hurry, though, 'cuz I want you to see this when we get home from church tonight!

Mommy isn't quite as good at this blogging this as you are, Dad, so bear with me. I just thought you might like it if I put a few new pics up for you to enjoy. When we told another daddy about our blog surprise for you, he said that I should let mommy be in some pictures with me. I guess I'll share my space, 'cuz I know that mommy loves you very much too.

Me and My Daddy

Well, like I said, Dad--Mom isn't the greatest blogger. But, we did manage to get a few of our special moments on here. Remember that day that we were by the sliding glass window and the sun was so bright? You saved the day with those new sunglasses!

Boy, those glasses sure helped. And I think I look kind of like that funny movie guy you like to watch...

Here we are, enjoying our carrots together. Now that I've got 6--count 'em, 6!!!! teeth, I can actually eat these things instead of just gumming on them! No wonder you like them so much! I like the fat carrots, just like you Daddy.

I sure do like it when you give me a bath, Dad! Mom does it the same way all the time, and she doesn't let me stand up in the tub like you do! I have such a fun daddy.