Sunday Dinner

Almost every Sunday, the family gathers at mom and dad's house for Sunday dinner. We also celebrate birthdays - usually the Sunday before the person's birthday. The day before Michael's birthday, we celebrated with cake & ice cream and presents.

This isn't the cake we let him dig into - we did that on his birthday (pictures coming soon). He wasn't quite sure what to think about the candle, but thought the singing was fun.

Michael's new favorite toys are his birthday toys. He got a helicopter from grandma and grandpa that plays songs and makes fun noises. And grandpa and daddy even let him play with it! He has fun taking the colored balls out of the passenger area and putting them in the top - he especially likes the color setting, where it says what color the ball is then plays a song.

Michael also likes his new trucks. He got one from grandma and grandpa that has little balls that pop around in the back when it moves. He likes rolling it on the toy chest until it falls off and he says "uh-oh" (it's sounding less like "ow" and more like "uh-oh" every day).

The colorful dump trucks came from Uncle Mike, Aunt Julie, and cousin Braden. Michael just loves the noises they make, especially the bigger one when you lift the bed up and down. And he loves it when you roll them and they keep going. If you roll them to him and they bump into his feet or his legs, he just giggles and waits for you to do it again.

The Calm One

Exactly a week before Michael's birthday, Dave was making dinner (hot dogs on the grill) while I was playing with Michael. Dave was going in and out of the sliding glass door - it's an old door, and doesn't slide well on the track. It takes a bit of effort to slide, and it makes quite the racket - no sneaking in or out of that door!

Michael really likes the piano, and loves pulling himself up using the bench so he can play the keys by himself (without me holding him). He was standing at the piano, right next to the bench, when Dave opened the sliding glass door. Michael jumped, then tried to hurry and sit down - not realizing that if he did so he'd do a face-plant into the corner of the piano bench. He hit the bench with his mouth, and immediately had a shocked look on his face - I, meanwhile, was having flashbacks to a heavy table falling on my younger brother. As soon as Michael got over the shock enough to catch his breath, he started wailing - but no blood. Whew!

I picked him up and he buried his face against my shoulder while he cried. When he lifted his head a little, I tried to see if he had a fat lip already, but there was too much blood to see. Again, flashbacks - this time of the bloody trip to the emergency room, trying to hold a towel to my younger brother's gushing mouth. So, of course, I tell Dave, "Let's go. We need to leave right now."

Dave decided we needed to clean the blood off first and see how bad it really was. He tried to gently mop up Michael's face and we got a teether out of the freezer. Lips intact, gums apparently intact, teeth still in place - whew! We couldn't tell exactly where the blood was coming from because Michael wouldn't let go of the teether - but at least the bleeding slowed quickly. By this time the hot dogs were done, and we decided to stay and eat. We didn't think Michael would want to eat much, so we gave him some cold applesauce. When that wasn't enough, we gave him some puffs - he popped 'em in his mouth and started chewing them like nothing happened. He's one tough kid!

Dave's commentary on the whole thing? "Well, we know who the calm one is." This time maybe - considering Dave wasn't picturing a far worse injury that happened years ago and involved stitches and pulling out broken teeth.

Michael cut the piece of skin that attaches his lip to his gum. The nurse said it would heal on it's own, so no stitches or anything - just a teether and some ibuprofen for a couple days. The next morning, you could hardly see the swelling. And now I have a t-shirt that could make a great Halloween costume!

Shortly after it happened.

The next morning.

I'm a Celebrity!

Ok, so maybe only a local celebrity - I was on the news yesterday. Here's the link to the website - watch the video. You need to watch closely because it goes by really fast. Ok, ok - I'm not a celebrity. But it's still fun to see yourself on the news or in the paper (especially when it's not an embarrassing picture).
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=4359018

During the hearing there was something that needed to be handed out, and I didn't have copies - so I had to RUN down the hall and downstairs to make copies. Got the copies done, but the 3-hole punch wasn't working, so I had to track down someone that had a 3-hole punch. Then I had to RUN up the stairs and back down the hall and then hand out the copies while trying to not sound like I'd just run down the hall. When I finished, I sat down and realized how toasty the room was (although it seemed I was the only one that was hot - it may have had something to do with my short, unplanned cardio workout), so I fanned myself for a few seconds - and apparently that's when they took the video. The first time they panned the room was while I was running. The second time they panned the room was just after I got back and was trying to cool down.

So goes some of the excitement (?) of a special legislative session.

By Way of Explanation....

I thought I'd better explain the "True Blue Trio" and "Cougar Crazy." I grew up watching BYU sports and wanting to go to BYU (didn't go there, but I can still be a fan). Dave grew up watching BYU sports and pretending to not like BYU. And Michael just looks so darn cute in his Baby Cosmo onesie and t-shirts - we think when he's having happy dreams they're about playing football for BYU. Hence the "Cougar Crazy" - we're true blue through and through.

Go Cougars!

Lovin' the Water

Michael just loves water - whether it's in his sippy cup, in the bath tub, or in his swimming pool. We let him play in his little pool a couple weeks ago, and he did not want to get out. He had fun kicking his feet to splash mom and dad. Once everyone was properly soaked, he crawled back and forth from one side of the pool to the other. He was in the pool for over an hour (yeah, yeah - lots of sunscreen, well hydrated, etc.), and he still cried when we took him out.

Joining the world of Blogging

Yes, I have finally decided to join the world of blogging. I tried a web site (which my brothers tried to help me with), but I could never seem to get it going. I tried My Space - but with all the horror stories and then having my password stolen, I rarely log in and I never update my profile. So I thought I'd give blogging a try. Michael's always doing something cute, and who knows - maybe I can even get Dave to blog once in a while.