This Minivan Life

As I mentioned and Emily caught, my friend Bobbidee took photos of Mikey a week or so ago. She took a lot of them, but this is what was sitting on my desktop... so this is your preview Emily. I will post the others, just not tonight. Michael does not like to look at the camera or smile at the camera so she had a really tough job, but I love the expressions she captured, they show off his crazy and independent personality.  He did not want to participate. For someone so crazy he has some really serious expressions. I love his serious face. Sadly, this was probably followed by him screaming "Mommy you don't tell me what to do!" but since this is a photo and not a video we can just pretend that doesn't happen (regularly) at our house.  So the "drool" is actually bubbles, but it is too funny. he loved the bubbles, loved them. Not quite as much as he loved Bobbidee's 3 year old daughter, but pretty close.  again with the drool bubbles, but st

My friend, Bobbidee, took some photos of michael a few weeks ago and she did an awesome job, she didn't do these ones though. While I was looking to post the others I found these two random pictures of Michael. Lately he hasn't been took cooperative about taking pictures. He rarely looks at the camera and when he does he makes this horrible "cheese" face. I took these out by the sandbox one day and he is actually looking and actually smiling! He looks like he just woke up from a nap, but who cares about that, you can see his cute face! He looks less like Brian in these photos to me, still a lot like him, but his Mikey personality really shines through, at least to me. 

I have to post a quick Mikey update, my brain is fuzzy and I am sure I will forget this fun stage soon. -For the past few months Mikey was obsessed with trains, specifically Thomas the Train (and his millions of friends). Now that interest is diminishing slightly and he has a new obsession (and it is an obsession)... Cars. Not the cars you drive, Cars the movie. He has had a Lightening McQueen for a year or so and it wasn't until recently that he developed an interest. He recently saw the movies and he LOVES the first movie, not so much the second, but the first... he loves it. I am thinking it might be a must for christmas. Unfortunately, I was trying to be prepared and and I purchased some of his christmas presents a month or so ago and they are all Thomas toys, but hey we can get a few Cars toys as they are significantly less than Thomas stuff. -My two favorite phrases he says are "Mommy, let's be happy about this", he says this in response to me saying "M

Before I forget to blog about Halloween... cause I will I thought I would post just a few photos of Trunk or Treat tonight. THe pictures arent great, but I am hopeful because we still have actual Halloween to get a good one.  So this year we were Thomas the train and friends. Some families dont insist all members dress up in a themed costume... yeah our family isnt like that... we are the freaks that all dress up together. Michael originally wanted to be Super Why, and then Harry Potter, and finally Thomas the Train... and friends... the most complicated of the three options. I will post about the costumes later, but in the off chance you thought you might want to do this... dont. It will take FOREVER.  Okay so we went to trunk or treat with our ward, it was delightful.  Do you like Annie and Claribel in the background? Sadly, Grammy and Poppy wont be here until Halloween, but they are dressing up too. We brought their costumes along for moral support.  Michael of cour

Poppy Pillow on an airplane ride to Utah, Sept. 2013  When Michael was a little bit younger, about 8 or 9 months I really wanted him to have a security object. I thought this might help when we ended nursing and I thought it might ease his anxiety at bedtime. We tried a few things, my mom got him a glowworm that he did really like for a little bit, and we got him a stuffed dog, and while he thought both were fun he didn’t really develop an attachment to either one. Then last Christmas my dad got him… a Poppy Pillow. My dad loves orange, well maybe loves isn’t the right word, but he prefers it more than the average person, and he found this Pillow Pet that was… well glowing orange, it was so bright that when you sit next to it the color reflects off your face (I wish I was kidding). And he wanted to get it for Mikey. When we went to California for Christmas he made a big deal about taking Mikey to the store to pick it out, and from then on we had our security object. The glowing pil

So tonight Mikey and I were reading "LMNOPs" if you havent read it you should it is a darling book about the alphabet peas. Beautiful illustrations, etc, we love it. But lately as we have read the book we ask what starts with each letter, takes a 2 minute book to a 25 minute book, but we are learning. And sometimes things start to click for him. Tonight was one of those nights. We get to N and I say "what starts with n?" we say nose, and no, and neighbor, and then he pipes up "and naked". Yes Mikey, and naked. We have had a similar experience with M and with F but for some reason the "and naked" just make me laugh, especially given Mikey's feelings on being naked (he does not like it).

Clearly I have been slacking on this blog lately, actually slacking on a lot of things, but as few people get to see my laundry room no one really knows that. Anyway so here goes, trying to catch up, because someday I will want to know what we were up to.  July (and August) have been the months of the Island of Sodor. We play island of sodor every day, the friends from Island of Sodor visit us... at every meal, bathtime, in the pool, in bed. This is just a typical morning, we have Jeremy the Jet Plane (though not the actual Jeremy, we have to pretend), Thomas and several freight cars aka cars from an IKEA train, Percy and a mail car, James and James frieght car aka tender, and Harold the Helicopter. And yes they must all join us... all the time. We have recently added Duck (another train) and three "squishy" trains he kidnapped from Nannie's house... getting him to the table these days is quite the process.   A bit better view.  Mikey got a bike for his birthda