Michael's Play-Yard

Michael is an extremely busy boy crawling all over the place and using every piece of furniture to stand up. Tony set up this play-yard. It's ideal because I can get a few things done, but not for long because Mr. Michael wants his mom or dad right by his side reading or playing with him. That's our busy boy!

Nice Surprises

This morning the door bell rang and I found these beautiful roses waiting for me. I was shocked. Although, I shouldn't be because my Sweetie-Pie sends me roses every year. (one whopping year before) On a side note, Michael was so excited to see the flowers. He knows to smell flowers, but doesn't quite have the motor skills to sniff, so he looks like he's kissing the flowers. It's really cute. My husband came home early and took me to a great restaurant in Los Gatos called Deo Deka, Mediterranean Cuisine. It was so enjoyable to have a leisurely dinner with an appetizer, fantastic Greek salad, a succulent steak and lamb, with a dessert to die for, a chocolate lava cake with gelato. I would highly recommend this restaurant, but it is a little pricey. Even though it was great to have a quiet dinner with adult conversation, we both raced through the door to see our sweet baby. Thank goodness for beautiful days!!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Tomorrow Tony and I celebrate our 2nd anniversary. Initially, Tony planned a get-away this weekend, but we decided wait until Tony's cast comes off. Tomorrow Michael will have his first date with his God-mother while we enjoy an anniversary dinner. Thank you Nina!!!

Here are some pictures from our wedding. Time is flying by....

On the Piano Front....

This is definitely an outdated picture, but want to update on what's been going on with Michael's composing. Ok, he's not composing.

Tony started Michael on the piano when he was 6 weeks old and eventually he could bang the keys, but lately he's been more deliberately playing keys and hitting them softly with his fingers and playing high and low notes. Of course, as usual, he looks back for affirmation. I'll have to capture it on video.

More Signing

It's been pretty exciting on the signing front especially since Michael seems to enjoy signing too. You can see his face light up when we respond to a sign. I think his favorite sign, or at least the one he does the most is "water." Last night at 3:30 am I'm nursing Michael and he begins signing "water." I tell him it's sleeping time not water time but he's persistent and keeps signing "water." I finally gave into his plea and half asleep fetched him water. Sure enough, shortly after he had some water, he went back to bed very content. It's nice that he can tell us he's thirsty now.

Michael's Baby Band

Natural Bridges

Unfortunately, we forgot our camera, so we missed out on a great photo opportunity. Tuesday we journeyed to Santa Cruz and visited Natural Bridges State Park which is known for their Monarch butterflies. Although, we were about a month early, a few butterflies were fluttering there wings resulting in Michael squealing with joy. As mentioned in an earlier post, one of his favorite books is, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." Whenever, we read the page where the caterpillar turns into a butterfly, we sign, "butterfly" for Michael. So each time, a butterfly flew above Michael's head, you saw his little hands desperately trying to sign butterfly. It was really sweet.

On the Road to Recovery.....

I'll spare the details, but needless to say, Tony had a severe fall. Thankfully, only injuring his index finger along with some cuts, scrapes, and bruises. Yet, the accident still landed him in the emergency most of Sunday. X-raying his finger, it was found that it was broken in several places and Tony needed to see a hand specialist.

The hand specialist gave Tony 3 options. 2 included surgery and the other which we chose was to manually reset the finger, with painkillers of course.

Tony suggested I leave but I opted to stay and survived the whole ordeal. Tony's finger was casted and we were out the door several hours later.

In the Blink of an Eye....

I can't believe how quickly Michael is learning! It's beautiful to see the world through his little eyes because he lights up with simple things such as a flower or dog.

Although I have to admit, there have been a couple of stages that have been challenging to say the least. When he learned how to turn onto his tummy but hadn't mastered turning his head and he would fall asleep face down and wake up gasping for air. Not fun!!

His newest adventure is standing in the crib when he's suppose to be sleeping and plops and falls onto his bum most of the time, but sometimes falls and hits his head. Not fun!!! I know these are stages and they pass quickly but when I'm tempted to feel frustrated I think how happy I am to have this little one and these seemingly big deals turn to small irritations. I will cherish this time because I know in a blink of an eye, he'll be driving and then off to college.

Shake it baby!

Michael Signing More

Monster Baby

Michael Practicing Standing

I'm adjusting to our Flip camera and still learning how to edit.

Chubby Baby

Faith, Michael's Godmother, sent me this picture reminding me

what a chubby baby Michael once was.

A Lot Going On...

Despite the poor quality of this picture, it's capturing one of Michael's latest feats, signing "more." It seemed as if our signing was falling on deaf ears when suddenly he signed "more." He especially signs "more" for things he loves such as Cherrios or frozen yogurt. In addition to "more", Michael also signs "milk."

Michael is also pulling himself to a standing position and following a couple of simple verbal prompts: "hands up", "hands to your side", and "touch your nose." (Except he touches my nose .) It's so cute!!!

Labor Day Highlights

5 Months Later

Labor Day weekend we were able to visit my family. It had been 5 months since my dad had visited with Michael. The bottom picture was taken in April.

Playtime

Kissin Cousins

Happy 9 Month Birthday Michael

Happy 50th Anniversary

We had a whirlwind of a weekend traveling to Southern California. We celebrated Tony's parents 50th wedding anniversary. We had a catered dinner and enjoyed the time together listening to stories about how Tony's parents met. It really was a beautiful occasion.

I Love This Picture!

Fashion Statement

Busy Boy!

Michael has been a busy, busy boy. He's hasn't mastered crawling but he can really get along doing his military crawl.

Childproofing has begun. Books are off the coffee table and knickknacks are finding a new home.

Michael is also helping me clean the house. He finds the smallest pieces of everything and it goes straight into his mouth. He's the perfect vacuum cleaner except that's not his job. Who needs a health club. I'm busy chasing him around the house while he shows me all the things I need to pick up. I love this new way I clean my house. Michael sees, I clean it. Sometimes it's a race to see who can get to the dirt quicker. He is fast.

That's One Big World...