Wordless Thursday

Backyard Water Fun

Donnie got Michael Dean this cool water sprinkler toy thing for his birthday and he loves it! It took MD a little while to realize it was fun, but after seeing daddy get wet and have a good time, he jumped right in.

It's great to be able to just open your back door and play in the water! And, it sure beats a hike down to the pool just to sit on the hot pool chairs with a kid who's too afraid to get in the water. (Though, his Aunt Jonda and almost-Uncle Joey were able to coax him in with a basketball and net. We gotta get us one of those...)

2 Weeks Later...

...And we're still celebrating MD's 2nd birthday! Well, not really. But, it seems like we had lots of birthday cakes to dig into and lots of pictures to take. So, here's a few more:

At the wheel...

Catching bumblebees!

You'd think being 6ft. tall would mean mommy could play basketball, but it really doesn't. I tried to help but I don't think we ever got any in!

Flying high!

Papa getting in the birthday spirit. (MD actually took this picture, with mommy's help.)

The last birthday cake. He just loves blowing candles out. I think daddy re-lit these candles about 10 times :)

6' 2" ?

We took Michael Dean to his pediatrician yesterday for his 2-year check-up and here's his stats:

- 37in. tall (97%)
- 31.5lbs. (75%)
- 20.5in. head measurement (95% - I think)

So, if it's true that you can double your height at the age of 2 to get your final height - MD's on the road to being at least 6' 2"! But, really, that doesn't surprise me. I mean look at his mom and paternal grandfather. We're giants! And, daddy's tall, too...

I sure love me some tall boys :)

Oh, and completely off topic - we took MD to his first movie, Ice Age 3, this past Sunday! Our good friends, the Harrells, were taking their 4 boys (2 of which are a 1-year old and a 2.5-year old) so we figured if they could do it, so could we. And, it went really well. We loaded MD up with popcorn, M&Ms, chocolate milk, suckers and Dr. Pepper. So, besides being scared to get off mommy's lap, he had a lot to do with his hands and mouth. Plus, he did watch most of the movie. It was really a lot of fun. It feels like we've opened up a new door in this whole parenting thing - since both Donnie and I are such movie buffs. Now our kid can become one too...

Birthday Festivities, Teeth Pulling and the 4th

Man, we've been busy!

I posted yesterday that my little guy turned 2. And that he did. We celebrated his day with a birthday party at school (daycare!) Then, we continued his day at Chuck E. Cheese with Nana (which he absolutely loved and DIDN'T want to leave) and finished his day with a visit from Mimi and Papa. Pictures from all of that will come later...

First, I've got loads of photos to post from the past week or so. We celebrated MD's birthday 2 Saturdays ago and really had a good time. He had balloons and kids and animals and a Mickey Mouse birthday cake to play with. I think his highlight, though, was blowing out his birthday candles - as he still talks about that.

Mommy's special homemade cake!

The "2" wouldn't stay lit. Good thing I included a few star candles.

A few of MD's buddies

A few days later we had some family photos taken. My good friend, Jim, is always so sweet to head out with my little family a few times a year and snap away. I tell ya, I don't know how Tori and Dean do it. Taking pictures with a toddler is next to impossible. MD was a ham for the camera when it was just him. But, the second - and I mean second - one of us would try to wrangle him into a family portrait, all heck would break loose! The tears and screaming would start. We tried bribery with suckers and big, bouncy balls. But, we really just ended up looking like those parents who "reward" their kid for screaming. Either way, we did get some great shots and here are a few:

Two days later, I had my 3 widsom teeth taken out! See, my company was closed last week (you know, to save money) and we've learned it's not a good idea to keep MD out of daycare for more than 1 week at a time. So, I took advantage (I think!) of the situation and scheduled my torture, I mean surgery. Actually, the procedure went well. Two of my teeth came out like a snap. The third one was a bit stubborn and required some chiseling. Yah, not fun. But, all-in-all, it's done. I'm still in pain. I really miss cereal and chips and am getting tired of potato salad. But, the worse really is over, though - I think!

Shew, you still with me? Next was the July 4th festivities. Our sweet town of Harrisburg puts on a pretty good show. There was the parade Saturday morning; games, food and such at the park in the afternoon; then fireworks that night. We thought we'd give the fireworks a try with MD. He really did great! The first big boom took him by surprise and he made a beeline for daddy's lap. But, after a few minutes he was fine. He enjoyed them for the first 5 minutes or so but then got bored. So, he and his cousin Sawyer, decided to have a little Lite Brite fun in the back of mommy's car - picture below.

Summer really has been a lot of fun so far. Minus the swimming pool (that MD won't touch!) we've been keeping up pretty well with the standard summertime activities :)

2 Years Ago...

...My sweet, baby boy was born.

Today is Michael Dean's 2nd birthday! We celebrated with family and friends a few weekends ago with a Mickey Mouse party. (I'll post my homemade cake pictures later!) This picture was MD's first experience with birthday cake. I know. He was supposed to tear into his 1-year cake last year, but wanted nothing to do with it. So, I wasn't even going to try this year - but one look at a huge, edible Mickey Mouse and he was done. He wanted him some birthday cake. And I think he liked it!

You know, I was going to get all sappy with my blog post today. And, believe me, I could. But, MD is just such a barrel of laughs nowadays, that I'm going to keep this light. And, he can't read it anyway, right?!

Seriously, I just love my kid to pieces. I can't even begin to imagine my life without him. I look forward to his sweet smile every day and thank God he's mine.

Happy Birthday, my little boy!