Michael's First Parade and Horse Pull

In June we went to the local Town Days parade and later that night the Horse Pull. It was Michael's first, and with the clouds threatening rain we got front row seats. Michael's favorite part of the parade was all the motorcycles.

The sirens caught his attention - he was trying to see what else was coming.


The first candy from a parade, a yummy sucker! And he thought it was all about the sirens and motorcycles.


What's a local, small town parade without plenty of horses?




Local law enforcement hound dogs.




Yippee! Another motorcycle!


And he's even handing out stickers!


Still watching the motorcycle.


Our friend Kalidawn in the middle - her dad is driving.


Our friend JD - he was in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.


It isn't a parade without some kind of military involvement.



Michael's second favorite part of the parade - Cosmo!





Michael wanted to keep watching Cosmo dance.



After the parade we got to take pictures with Cosmo. Michael even let Cosmo hold him to take more pictures!




He wasn't quite sure what to think of the whiskers.


I'm such a good sister, I even took a picture for Mike. Cosmo had lots of people wanting pictures and lots of kids wanting autographs. Swoop had people looking at him like he was a crazy man. Hmmm. What's that all about?


That night was the horse pull. For those who have never been to a horse pull, teams of horses get hooked up to a sleigh that gets loaded down with weights (in this case, packages of roofing shingles). From a complete stop, the horses have to pull the sleigh a certain distance to stay in the competition. More weight is added until teams start dropping out.



Watching the horses - and teething.




What do you do when you run out of shingles and the horses are still capable of pulling? Start getting volunteers from the audience, ask how much they weigh, then tell them to climb up and hold on.

Easter

Yes, I realize it is well past Easter - I have some catching up to do on the blog!

The night before Easter, getting ready to dye eggs in his Easter pajamas. Dave and I disagree on this one - he thinks Easter pajamas have Easter/Spring colors. I think these are Easter pajamas because they're brown and have footballs on them. It just isn't Easter without chocolate footballs (what some people refer to as chocolate eggs)!


Trying to figure out what Daddy is doing.


Not sure what to think of the "bubblin' brew."


Happy boy, just waiting to see what Daddy's going to do next!


"We're sitting at the table...Daddy's doing something with stuff that looks like food and drink...and we're not saying prayer?"


"Are you done yet? Do we say prayer yet?'


"Pretty colors! Good catch, Daddy."


"You're done now, right? Do we say prayer yet?"


"We're not saying prayer? You're teasing!"



Easter Morning - Easter Basket!


"You're really giving me candy? Before breakfast? And I didn't even have to ask?"


Finding the eyes on the soft, fuzzy chick.


Trying not to smile for the best present ever - bubbles!


This isn't the best picture, but I love it because it shows how excited he was to open the plastic eggs and find Goldfish crackers inside.


More Goldfish crackers!


Being told that breakfast is ready, and not wanting to put his bubbles down to go eat.


Michael's new trick that he learned Easter weekend.


Another thing we were working on over Easter weekend. Michael loves giving fives, high fives, and pounds.

Ice Cream

We ate at Sizzler on our trip to Logan (Memorial Day weekend), and Dave decided to teach Michael how to eat ice-cream cones.

Ice-cream cone #1: He didn't want to lick the ice-cream, he wanted to bite it. That worked well when he got down to the cone.






Nice view of the ice-cream he got in his nose.


He thought all of it would fit into his mouth, and wasn't quite sure what to do when he discovered it didn't.


Ice-cream cone #2: He still wanted to bite the ice-cream, but started out with smaller bites this time.


It was so yummy, small bites didn't last long.


And then he discovered what a "brain freeze" is.




Poor little guy!


Ice-cream cleaned out of the nose, no more "brain-freeze," and he's good to go!

Working in the Yard with Daddy

Michael loves helping Daddy with anything he's doing, but especially loves helping when Daddy is working outside. When Dave was working on the flower bed, Michael tried so hard to push and pull the wheelbarrow.






When that didn't work, he decided to help by bringing Daddy his water.


After Daddy took a drink, Michael decided it was more fun to run around with the bottle than to put it back on the porch.


And then he found the lawnmower! He is fascinated with the push lawnmower, and wants to be able to help Daddy mow the lawn. He doesn't seem to have the same fascination with the riding mower...yet.


He knows you use this handle to start it - he's still working on figuring out exactly how that works.


Telling Daddy, "Come on, let's go!"


When Dave finally took a break, Michael decided to pick up where Daddy left off - gotta get the gloves on, first!

I'm Tired!

Michael is so full of energy, sometimes it seems like he doesn't need to sleep at all. And he's very even-tempered. If he starts getting fussy, either he doesn't feel well or it's time to sleep. But he doesn't always get fussy when he's tired. Sometimes he tells us it's nap time by pulling his lamb and his blanket out of his crib. He runs to his crib to get it, and then runs around with it for a few minutes before drops it and does a nose dive into it. Sounds like a tired boy, right? Sometimes he even climbs onto the rocking chair and picks out a book (we always read before bedtime and naps).

Helping Make Dinner

Michael loves helping us make dinner. Currently, his version of helping consists of twirling around in the kitchen, opening and closing the refrigerator, or using the oven mitts to play peek-a-boo.

The Park

Michael had so much fun at the park last summer, we were anxious to take him for a visit as soon as the weather was warm enough. So, on the last day of February we bundled him up and took him to the park. He had no interest in keeping his gloves or hood on.

He still likes the swings...




...and thinks it's hilarious when daddy tries to swing.

He now likes running down any type of incline (the little hill at the park, the ramp going into the shed, the hill at Grandma and Grandpa's house, etc.).


But his new favorite activity at the park is going down the slides.







Since these videos, he's learned to get up the stairs by himself (on the smaller slides). And it doesn't matter how often we go or how long we stay, he still cries when we leave.