mr. bear goes to the bakery

one night in july, mommy and daddy went to their friends' wedding, so i got to stay at grandmama's. this night i took mr. bear for a walk in my wagon to the bakery to buy him a cookie. i love to go to the bakery. the ladies there are very nice and give me a free cookie every time.

my train

i love my train. i have a train at grandmama's house and even when i'm at home, i ask to play with it. i wish i could have one at home, too! it's my favorite toy ever!!

indy #3

okay, on our last day in indy, we went to the indianapolis speedway. it was the best! i got to ride on a bus for the first time. they took us around the race track. i was so excited i didn't want to sit in my seat. when they stopped and let us out, the took us to the start/finish line. here it's made up of a row of bricks because the race track used to be made of all bricks. everyone kisses the bricks because whoever wins a car race does that, so i did that. i didn't really understand that until after i started just kissing the race track all over and everyone started laughing at how silly i was. well, they could have told me to just kiss the bricks!!!

indy #2

the children's museum had an indy race car that daddy sat in with me.

there was also this neat area about egypt! i LOVE egypt stuff, just like my little einstein's show. there was a market area and a couple different houses that showed how people live there. i got to put a big loaf of bread in a special oven and i made mommy her coffee in this really neat silver pot.

indy #1

when mommy was done working in indianapolis for the week, daddy and i drove down to be with her. it was a good drive. i tried to be good for daddy. i kept my underwear nice and dry and daddy took us to "the french fry place" [mcdonald's...mom doesn't think i know the name of this place and people think it's cute i call it the french fry place, so i just keep it up...it makes everyone happy, so shhh...don't tell!]. we got there just as mom was finishing work. we parked at the hotel, then walked to her office and got to see where she worked all week. the building was huge because it was in a downtown, just like our downtown detroit! the day we got there, we went back to the hotel to rest for a bit and wait for the rain to slow down, then walked to a restaurant called weber grill for dinner. i had a huge hot dog dinner, but got a little tired so we left pretty quick when we were done eating (okay, so i wanted to run around...can't blame me...i was in a car for 5 hours!). we walked around downtown and went to the capitol building. that was huge, too!

the next day it was raining terribly. we decided to go to the children's museum, but so did everyone else! we waited almost an hour just to get in. we saw really neat ancient egypt stuff and stuff that an ancient egypt king named tut had. that was pretty cool. but the best part was playing all day. they had a play kitchen and a merry go round.

and they also had this neat little tree about being a good person like sharing and being nice and helping clean up. this section of the museum had a place where you could write down how you would make a difference in the world. i still really don't understand that, but mom asked me 'what would you to help make the world a better place?' so, i told her -- 'i'm going to paint!' (i love art projects) she asked me what i would paint, so i thought for a second -- 'um, strawberries.' hey, i don't know...i'm only 2!

week w/dad

the week after 4th of july, mom had to go to indianapolis (yes, i really can say it) for work. we took her to the airport and i was so upset she was leaving daddy and me that i didn't want to say goodbye. it was pretty cool to see all the planes at the airport though. because mommy was gone all week, daddy had to take me to grandmama's house the nights he had school.

one night, i made a playdough birthday cake. i helped grandmama water her neighbor's flowers. i played outside. and when i started to get tired, i got to lay down and chill out. i read books (okay, i realize this one was upside down...i switched it, don't worry). my typical day at grandmama's having to do it all.

every night mommy was gone she called me when she was done working to tell me goodnight. i told her all about my day and i asked her how she was doing. i would make sure to tell her "i doing just fine" (my normal answer when someone asks how i am).

4th of july #3

okay, this is my last post about the 4th of july. it was a really, really busy day though. so, after the parade and grandmama's house, we drove out to my friends cali and morgan's house. we had SUCH a good time! cali has a cool swing set and a trampoline and trucks that you can ride around on. we all played all day. then daddy and rick did fireworks for us. they were really loud!

we played basketball on cali's (rick's) new basketball hoop (i LOVE basketball!), ate dinner and snacks and treats, and when it got dark olivia and i played with the doctor set. i acted like dr. paul and made her she was all good...yup, she's healthy.

4th of july #2

as we do every year, we go to grandmama's house and walk to the parade. mama also takes my picture with the 'merican flag. i see 'merican flags all over the place now that i know what they are.

here's a picture of my great-grandmama on the 4th of july. her shirt says she was borin in the usa a very long time ago! hee hee! i recently asked mama if great-grandmama was very, very old...she giggled and told me just what her shirt said...she was just born a long time ago.

4th of july - #1

the morning of 4th of july, mom, daddy, auntie boo and i walked from grandmama's house all the way down to my friend ryan's house. ryan and i got to sit right on the curb and watch the parade. we had bags to collect all the candy that people were handing out. there were even clowns (they're kinda scary, but this guy was nice and shook my hand).

after a while, it got a little boring. the best part was getting to see my friend ryan. i don't get to see my friends from school a lot since daddy's been home. i miss my friends a lot. since then, daddy takes me to school one day a week and that makes me happy! i like my school day. i like being home with daddy, but i still like school, too.

happy 3rd of july

the night before the 4th parade, i got to play with my good friends samuel and olivia. we had such a good day and night! we played the whole time. i even gave olivia a ride...wasn't that sweet!?

beach photos -- take 1

we always go to our special beach in june because that's when i turn my 1/2 age. that's right! you ask me how old i am and i'll be sure to tell you, "i two and half!" well, our day at the beach didn't last very long. less than 1/2 hour after we got there, the sky got very, very dark. it started thundering and lightning and then these pieces of ice started falling from the sky with the pouring down rain--it's called hail! mom was holding me covering my head as she, daddy and auntie boo ran with all our beach gear back to the car. we never got to do our special family photos after that.

visits with great-grandmama

now that great-grandmama lives a lot closer than before, we visit her a lot. i get to go over and show her how smart i am (she says i'm so smart all the time). i tell her abcs and sing to her and she likes it! then she lets me have some candy that she keeps in the glass bowls on her tables. i ask to go see great-grandmama a lot because her house is fun and she likes to see me doing things. she has a whole toy box full of fun stuff to do for me.

go tigers...and stormtroopers?!

i think i already talked about this game, but i didn't put photos with it. so, i'll tell you again! i got to go to my first baseball game for the year in may with my friend nolan and his mommy, melanie. i love them. we have so much fun when we're with them and they LOVE tigers baseball even more than i do! we got to go on the merry go round AND it was my first baseball game that i didn't wear a diaper to!! that's right! it was the first game i went potty on the toilet at! oh, and it was some special night called "80s night." mama and nolan's mommy were liking it (i think it's cause they're old and know all the music). there were these guys walking around in white costumes. they were called stormtroopers.

summer vacation - day 8-9

a week after we left home, we were in tennessee at our really good friends' house. it was josh's birthday! in the morning, we got ready for josh's party. we played and watched tv and played with amanda. but then our moms and dads let us go outside in the pool before everyone got there. we had so much fun. for the party, josh had a bounce house and it was the first time i ever got to go in one. it's now one of my favorite things. i'm the best bouncer ever! check out how high i can jump! we stayed on vacation just that one more day and left in the morning. on our way home (day 9) the excitement of the day was when we were about 5 hours from home, i decided to stick a small toy in my mouth as far as i could put it. well, i ended up throwing up all over me and my seat. it took mom about 1/2 hour to clean the car and me up and she wasn't happy. well, i wasn't happy either. i made me not feel so good, it was dinner time and i was tired of being in the car and now my seat was wet! i ended up closing my eyes and sleeping for a while. mom and daddy surprised me though. when i was sleeping, they went to panera (one of my favorite restaurants) and got me a sandwich, gogurt and juice. that made me feel better. we had such a good time seeing friends and family and new places, but we were all so excited when we saw detroit. there's no place like home.

summer vacation - day 7...on the road again

we left grandma and granddaddy's early in the morning and headed to my friend josh's house in tennessee! i was SO excited to go see him and his baby sister amanda. it wasn't a bad drive at all. we were going to help celebrate josh's birthday and to visit for the weekend.

summer vacation - day 6(c)

well, i have to admit that i didn't like granddaddy's tractor until the night before we had to leave. it was SO loud and big. yeah, i thought it was cool, but i didn't want to get on it. daddy finally showed me how it was okay, so granddaddy got his wish and i sat on his tractor with him (he turned it off first, so it wasn't loud).

summer vacation - day 6(b) / warm rain & cold pie

when we got back from the aquarium, i told granddaddy all about it (he had to work, so he couldn't go). while we were telling him about everything we saw, it started to rain! we were all so excited. mom got my rain boots out and we thought it would cool us off. but then, it rained WARM rain! ick! well, not so ick...i got to play in puddles (one of my favorite things), just in warm rain.

when it stopped raining, it was steamy out, so we went inside. granddaddy wanted a snack and i got to share it! PIE!!! mmmm....granddaddy gave me a huge piece with a huge cup of milk.

summer vacation - day 6(a)

one day we went to the georgia aquarium and it was awesome! i got to see jellyfish, seahorses, sharks, whales, alligators and even nemo and his house--a sea anenome!!! we went with grandma, sharae and grandma and granddaddy's friend's grandson, "Q".

summer vacation - day 5

day 5 on vacation was great! we got to go pick up my cousin sharae at the airport. she flew down from detroit. when daddy went to go into the airport to get her, mama took me up as high as she good in the parking garage--it was the top of it--and we watched the airplanes land and fly away. after we were all together again, we went to a dinosaur museum (http://www.fernbankmuseum.org/)! look at how huge dinosaurs were!!! we all had so much fun that sharae and i fell asleep on the way back to grandma and granddaddy's house.

summer vacation -- day 4(c)...keeping in touch

while on vacation, i tried to keep in touch with back home. mom and daddy kept calling people and checking the computer [puter...still not pronouncing that com with the puter--it's cute!], so i figured i needed to keep in touch with my people! so, i asked to call grandmama and auntie boo......

summer vacation - day 4(b)

i got to go fishing for my very first time when we were in georgia. granddaddy took us to a "fishing hole"--a little lake nearby--and i was the only one to catch something that day. too bad it was a turtle! mama helped me put it back in the lake. i liked fishing. it's serious business (note: no smile in any photo...very serious business).

summer vacation - day 4(a)

it was so hot down south that mom and i went out to play first thing in the morning. mom and daddy didn't let me go out after lunch time. it was THAT hot! grandma and granddaddy have a fun yard. it's huge and it's on a big hill, so i could throw my ball and it'd go really far and i'd have to run to get it before it went all the way down. the only thing mom kept telling me to be careful because there were ants there that bit and the dirt was red--it was called clay--and she said it would ruin my clothes. it was okay though, i didn't play too much because it was SO HOT! we'd go for a walk down the street to see the farm country where they live. it's really pretty there.

summer vacation - day 3

on my third day of summer vacation it was time to leave the nice hotel. daddy and i went down to get a cart for all of our bags. daddy let me ride it ALL the way back up to our room! when we got back, mom wanted to pile all the bags onto the cart right away. we were headed from north carolina to georgia that day. well, i thought for a little while this summer that if i closed my eyes no one could see me. i mean, i can't see you, so you can't see me...well, i thought. mom's was laughing so hard it made me laugh! i had to get off the cart anyway...i was hungry, it was time for breakfast! oh, and i don't do that anymore...the closing of the eyes, but you better believe you'll find me covering my face every other day or so, giggling, asking mom or daddy "where did cole go?!"

we left north carolina and my mountains and headed to grandma and granddaddy's house in georgia. it wasn't too long of a drive. we first stopped at a restaurant called "5 points" for breakfast. they had the best sausage! it was spicy and i loved it. a spice is like cinnamon, which is probably my favorite spice. but this sausage was hot and i ate all mine and asked for more. we drove out of the mountains and got to grandma and granddaddy's before dinner time. we unpacked the car and i tried my best to stay right next to mom. mom kept telling grandma and granddaddy how i'm just "shy" at first. that means i like to be by mom until i get used to a new place. well, it didn't take long. granddaddy had a tractor in the garage and they have a huge yard to play in. then, i think all our cousin's showed up! todd, india and da'jour were down in georgia on vacation too. then empress and raymond came over too! it was so much fun. there were so many people, it was a party. cousin raymond helped me get my first fishing pole ready to go and that was nice.

summer vacation - day 2(c)

what's a vacation without swimming? well, i got my wish. it had been quite a while since we went swimming so, as promised, mom and daddy took me after our very long day in the mountains. i was so excited. we had the pool all to ourselves and i swam all over the place. i didn't go to sleep until 10:30 that night, late again. i couldn't help myself. i was just so excited to be in that hotel room and i got to sleep in that big bed (and roll all over mom and dad -- they didn't sleep very well those nights).

summer vacation - day 2(b)

yes, we did a lot on our first day down south, but it was good. well, other than having to be in the car. i really, really got sick of being in the car. the roads in the mountains are narrow and winding and even made mommy not feel good.

our second and last stop on our moutain trip was mount mitchell. it's the tallest mountain on this side of our country! there was a neat museum there that had all these birds in it and you could press buttons to hear them sing. then we went for a really long walk all the way to the top of the mountain! you could see for miles. we stayed up there for a while and played around and then we went out to dinner at a restaurant on top of the mountain. i love the mountains!

www.ncparks.gov/Visit/parks/momi/main.php

summer vacation - day 2(a)

on our second day of vacation, we went way up into the mountains. i mean WAY up there. we went to one called grandfather mountain. www.grandfather.com there was a museum there -- i like museums a lot because there's lots to look at and i get to ask what everything is and why is it what it is -- and i saw what animals live there and what flowers grow there and what birds fly there. after we looked in the museum, we went for a walk down this trail and saw a bear and lots of deer that the people who take care of the mountain take care of. i've never seen deer so close and that was really neat. after that, we went to this bridge, the mile high bridge. it was SOOO cool! i wanted to walk across the rocks with daddy, but they wouldn't let me. they would hardly let go of me and it was really, really annoying. i was NOT happy about this. they wouldn't even let me just stand next to the sign telling everyone where i was. ugh!

okay, but NOW here i'm a little happier. what you don't see is that mom has her hand on my foot. that was okay though, she finally let me sit on a rock on top of "my" mountain [yes, cole claimed this mountain his own; and what he didn't realize was that there was a second ledge of rocks just behind him...we're not crazy].

look here...there was that bridge i went across. i would have walked across it by myself if daddy would have just let me!

summer vacation - day one

in june, we went on vacation down south. the first day of our trip, we drove through ohio, kentucky, tennessee and then into north carolina. to get there, we went through these cool tunnels that took us right into the middle of mountains. they were so cool...it was really dark in them if they didn't have lights.

i got to see the mountains down south for the first time ever. look how tall they were. there were even clouds up there--we were high in the sky.

i did really good on our trip. i went potty every time we stopped and kept my underwear dry [i always say, "i just dry" when mom and dad ask if i have to go potty]. all the way to our hotel room, i stayed dry. because we had to stop for lunch and dinner and potty breaks, it took us 12 hours to get to asheville, north carolina. we stayed at a really nice hotel called the holiday inn. http://www.biltmorehotels.com/ we could see the mountains from our room and i could climb up on the air conditioning unit and look down into the pool. i loved the hotel room so much that stayed up until after 11 o'clock that night! plus, daddy didn't want to bother putting up my pack-n-play bed, so i got to sleep with mommy and daddy!

danny's oo-day

our friend danny celebrates his birthday [oo-day] in a very special way each year. early in june, the big people have a bean bag throwing contest and aunt andrea and uncle dennis get all their friends and family together to get celebrate. instead of presents we all give some money that goes to the special olympics. danny is great. he likes me and calls me "hole." i like it because it makes me laugh. he's a funny guy, just like me!

i had such a good time this year. it was the first year we went to his party where i got to play with other kids and all the cool stuff they had while mom and dad did their own thing too. i even wandered off next door (the party extends to over there too) and scared mom and dad a lot! mama hugged me a little too tight when she found me. oh, yeah, but then i got yelled at. okay, she didn't yell, but i got the "someone could take you away from me" talk. sigh.

at the end of the night, i didn't want to go home. aunt andrea's sister made me a really cool detroit red wings octopus because the playoffs were on. then aunt andrea took me for a ride on danny's sweet bike! how cool is this:

busy bee

well, after so many months of plans with friends and visiting family and taking trips, i'll try to catch up and keep it short.

in april, i made grandmama cupcakes for her birthday. then, i got to help celebrate my friend samuel's 4th birthday! and THEN it snowed even though winter was over! i made a snowman with grandmama, auntie boo and mama and had a snowball fight, too. then there was easter. i was sick. it was the third easter in a row that i had a cold and this one gave me that croupy cough. the easter bunny came though and brought me presents that were all blue and yellow. i got the basketball i asked him for and i got a neat new fridge toy and an easter snoopy dog, plus lots of treats. mama and daddy made a yummy dinner and auntie boo and grandmama came over and brought me more easter treats, like my cool new garbage truck! i love the garbage truck and thank the garbage man every week for coming and taking my garbage away. at the end of the month not only did i go to the zoo, but grandma came up from georgia for a visit! we went to the art museum with her, cousin sharae, mama and daddy and had a great time. check out all my pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/cindywyckoff/April2009#

in my last post, i told you about my new baseball cap. well, i went to the detroit tigers game with my friend nolan and our mamas. we had such a good time. it was a special night where they were playing music that our mamas knew (from the 80s) and i got to meet these guys called stormtroopers. they are star wars guys mom said. now i like star wars guys! i even have a little toy guy called darth vader. i can say his name pretty good and i like him except that he's kind of a scary guy. oh, so then i got to go to nolan's 2nd birthday party at gymboree. it was a blast!!! we played for a long time on all the climbing toys and slides. we sang happy birthday to you [still comes out happy ooday to you] and had cupcakes. i then got to see a lot of my friends in the middle of the month. josh and baby amanda, cali and morgan, samuel and olivia. josh and amanda were up here for a visit, so we got together to "hang out"--yeah, this is my new phrase lately. I had a night at the park with nolan and then helped move great-grandmama from her old house to her new house next door to grandmama. everyone had worked so hard on the new house and moving her, it was nice to be done. plus, now i get to ask if i can go see great-grandmama every single day because she lives so close! in the middle of the month, i started to stay home with daddy instead of going to school. i like it a lot because i get to hang out with daddy, but i also don't like it because i have to hang out with daddy ALL day long. i love daddy, really i do, but you know what they say. the terrible twos...i'm two and a half. i'm a big boy. so, i want to do my own thing. i also miss school a lot. i miss my friends and ask about them a lot. mommy has said to me a couple times that i get to go back once there are more jobs. mommy said lots of people can't work right now because there isn't enough work for everyone. but, she still gets to work, so that's good. i guess moms and dads work so we can have a house and cars and food, but mommy said that helps me have toys and clothes too! so, that's a really good thing! okay, so at the end of the month we celebrated with a bbq at samuel and olivia's house and i got to see all my friends there. check out all our photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/cindywyckoff/May2009#

we did so much in june that i'll tell you about it in a separate post. as you can see, i've been quite the busy bee!

b-ball

uncle dennis (my mama's boss), aunt andrea, danny and katie went to florida for vacation a couple months ago. when they were there, they brought me back my first real baseball cap from this thing they call spring training. mama said it's when the baseball players practice before they start the real games. well, not only am i excited about my first hat, but i get to go to my first game of the season tomorrow night with my friend nolan! i can't wait to show him my hat.

now, talking about b-ball games...i like to, well, 'act crazy' (as mom calls it) and run back and forth in the house as fast as i can. this is often with a truck or car or sometimes just on my own. most of the time i yell something out to mom kind of like an announcement of sorts. this week, i was pushing my school bus around really, really fast (sometimes, i'll even fall to my knees and i slide on the wood floor--that's the best!) yelling "bye mom!! see ya later!!" but, then, she asked where i was going!? huh?! why would she ask that? i mean, does it really matter? well, i told her i was going to work. but, then, she asked where i worked? huh?!?! well, i didn't really know what to say. i mean, come on, we all know i don't work--i was JUST playing. but then she asked what i did at my job. well, that's obvious (i've been a little obsessed about basketball lately). i told her--"i play basketball." (sorry uncle dennis--i like baseball, but not as much as my basketball!)

daddy's homework

you all know i love to read. well, i decided to read daddy's book for school one day, but mama caught me! darn! i LOVE all the letters....just look at that page. there are 'really lots 'o letters!'

i heart the dso

i know it has been a very long time since i last wrote, but there has been a lot to do. i have a lot to catch you up on, so let's go! on valentine's day, mama and auntie boo (auntie becky, but i've started calling her boo all the time now) took me to the detroit symphony orchestra for the very first time. it was so neat! they showed us all the instruments they were playing and how they work and they even told stories to the music. i didn't really get into it much (they wanted us to dance and clap and stuff) because i was just so amazed and happy to just be there and see all the instruments played. it was just like quincy on little einsteins with all his instruments but, of course, a ton better! this was the real thing! i can't wait to go back again. i love music, especially when it's played like that with the instruments.

giraffes [are] cute

look waaaaay up and you'll see a really cute giraffe! that's right. "giraffes cute!" giraffes are my favorite animal and mommy and auntie boo took me to the zoo last month when it was still cold and i got to see the giraffes (even a baby!) really close. they're REALLY tall and have REALLY long necks! i could have sat there and watched them forever. mom kept asking if i was ready to go...like she didn't know the answer was NO!

we did get to see some other things. the tigers were out and were talking really, really loud and i didn't like that. we saw the camels and lots of monkeys, who were being really loud too. the polar bears were outside sleeping in the sun, but we got to see a seal swimming back and forth. i also saw turtles and lizards eating lunch. did you know they eat salad? i wonder if they eat ranch like me?

i scared.....i not 'fraid no more, etc.

there's a lot to be afraid of in life. dinosaurs for one thing. monsters. tigers (they roar really loud). trains (sure, they're cool but, they're SO big--they even rumble our house once in a while). oh, big trucks sometimes. i guess that's most of what i was afraid of.

what happened? well, one day i just realized that i'm a big boy now, i'm not a baby anymore (and don't ask...mom and dad keep saying if i'm so big why can't i go potty on the toilet...shhh...don't tell them, but hello?? wouldn't you let someone change your diaper, too? cool underwear and all, i'd rather keep on playing and sleeping all the way through the night--oh, okay, i'll talk about sleeping in a second). i had been waking up in the middle of the night for about a month or so...okay a bit longer. at first, i was so scared. i'd think about all these scary things in my sleep and would wake up and want mom and dad! they'd even bring me in their bed and that was a blast. i'd climb on dad and head-butt mom, but then they got mad and put me back in my bed. so then i learned i needed to tell them the problem. they always ask, "what's wrong, cole?" so, i'd say, "i scared train" or "i scared tiger."

well, they've caught onto my trick, so i've had to grow up. mommy started telling me, "the tiger is asleep at the zoo, cole...he's sleeping just like we should be" or "cole, the train has already gone up the track...see i can't hear it anymore." so, i figure i might as well just get my sleep. in fact, i've decided i don't need to nap since i'm so big now. yeah, i almost fall asleep in my dinner, but it's just on the weekends and that way i don't miss a thing! not being afraid has also let mama let me watch the movie "monster, inc." again! that's one of my favorites, but she stopped playing it for me because i kept saying i was scared of the monsters. so now, even though i'm still a little afraid, i sit through the scary parts at the beginning and end of the movie just to show her because i told her on the way home from school one night this week, "i not 'fraid of monsters no more, mommy." of course, what did she say, "cole, say "I'M not Afraid..." ugh...she's always correcting me.

dr. cali & friends

my friend, dr. cali, told me i was "all better" one night when mama took me to her and morgan's house. daddy met us later on because he had to work late. we had lots of fun. we had lots of snacks and pizza and even ice cream sundaes! we played house and doctor and ball games and even watched a little tv.

i got to play with my great friends samuel and olivia, and of course cali and morgan, and even my friend sophia was there! it was a lot of fun. i like seeing all my friends.

my blooms

mommy's boss, mr. lemke, and his family bought us this pretty [plitty] flower before christmas. it wasn't a flower then though. it was just dirt! it was amazing! for over a month it was just dirt, but then all of a sudden these green leaves started to pop up!! after what seemed like forever, mommy showed me how there were flowers going to "bloom." this was a new word for me and i liked it.

every day after school, i came right in the house and asked mommy to "see my blooms." there was one, then two, then all of a sudden six of them! the coolest thing was that the plant was as tall as me!!! this was one of the best presents ever--and i love presents.

no more na-night

this is the last picture of me with my "na-night" a/k/a my pacifier [and, i can say pacifier perfectly!]. i'm also hanging onto my duckie, one of my favorite "guys," in this photo. my other guys are my new mickey mouse from uncle dennis, aunt andrea, danny and katie, cookie monster, giraffe and bunnies. i don't sleep with them all. i usually throw most of them out of my bed because i'm mad at mama and daddy when they make me go to sleep. i usually hang onto the duck though.

oh, yeah, so back to the na-night. i'm a big boy now. one weekend daddy said that i was too old for it and it was time for it to go. mama just happened to be going to see people play music instruments with auntie "boo" (becky) and i was already upset because she was leaving. okay, okay, i'm still liking to be with mom a lot. when daddy put me to bed, i cried for at least an hour before i got so tired and gave up. but, i did it! it was my first real night without the na-night. mom and dad don't give in either. i started asking to have my pacifier back thinking if i used a big word they'd think i was old enough to know what was best for me. it hasn't worked yet.

i do what mom says

here i am...yes, i'm still here. mom and dad have kept me very [vewy...even though i can say my 'r's just fine, i choose to say ve-wy] busy this year. so, i'll try to catch you up on all the stuff i've done since my last post.

i like to stand really close to the tv. that way the picture is really big and the the sounds is really loud. one day last month, mom caught me (she always tells me to stay on the rug or sit in my chair) and told me to go and sit in my chair or the tv would go off. so, i got my chair and sat in it. i have to tell you...mom smiled when she walked back into the room. i think i made her laugh. i did what she said (and she's always asking me, "why can't you just do what i ask you to do?")...i sat in my chair. i just happened to move it nice and close to the tv like i like!

sick day project

everyone has been sick lately. all my friends and teachers and i caught a bug too. i didn't feel good for days. my teacher called my mom and she had to come get me from school and bring me home. i didn't get to leave the house for almost a week! i had a fever and a horrible cough...when we went to see dr. paul he said i had something called croup. mom stayed home with me the rest of that first week, then daddy stayed home with me a couple more days the next week. one day mom bought me new paints and i had so much fun! i mixed all the paints up and made a project--yes, i LOVE projects!

cookie monster

my friend olivia's birthday was in january and mama took me shopping one day to the big toys r us store to pick something out for a present. i told mom when we were walking in that i wanted to get olivia "cookie monster" for her gift. mama looked everywhere for a toy or a book, but couldn't find anything. it took mom two weeks to find him, but she did it! my mom's the best!! she got both olivia AND me a cookie monster!! olivia loved hers just as much as love mine. happy 2nd birthday olivia!

motorcycles, toys and projects

mama moved uncle dennis' office last month for him. he moved next door into mama's old boss mr. alandt's office and he had this great motorcycle that mom brought home for me! it's awesome!!! it drives around, but also has this thing mom calls a kick-stand so it stands up all on its own. i love it!

i've been really liking my toys a lot. my books are always my favorite, but i've really been into my barn with my farm animals and especially my cars and trucks and planes. i like my planes so much that i threw one in the air and it flew about 4 feet. oh, oops...it did hit mom in the nose though and i even made her bleed! i kept saying sorry. i really did feel bad. i even reminded her that "i gave mama boo boo" when i woke up from my nap that day.

my favorite thing right now though is doing my projects at school. we have a new theme every week and a few weeks ago it was dinosaur week! another one of my favorite things. i have a cool dinosaur book with spiky dinosaurs, giant dinosaurs, the big t-rex, raptors and even a mama dinosaur with her babies. my dinosaur project at school was with dinosaur bones and i still talk about it. we had mardi gras proejcts where we decorated masks and now we're doing shamrock projects this weeks.

Nolan nice

my friend Nolan is really nice. last month (yes, i'm catching up...as you'll hear, i've been very busy), mama, daddy and i went over to my friend Nolan's house. i ate dinner with Nolan at his table that is just our size. he showed me all his toys especially his kitchen! yes, he has a kitchen! the stove boils water and everything. i ate all my dinner and we had such a great time!

big boy coffee cup

it's been very cold outside. it's been snowing a lot and we hardly go outside at all. one night, mommy made hot chocolate milk and it was SO yummy. she said i could have marshmallows or whipped cream in it too! i even got to drink out of a "big boy coffee cup." mommy and daddy always drink hot coffee out of big coffee cups. i like coffee, but they don't let me drink it. i snuck it once when mom left her cup on the table, but she caught me! she never leaves it there now. that's okay, because now i get to drink hot chocolate out of my own big boy coffee cup.

bear hugs and love bites

as i said earlier, mommy and daddy haven't been too happy with me lately (noting the comment on those terrible twos). last week, i wasn't very good at school, not to mention i guess you can say i wasn't the best kid at home either. i just like to get my way, eat what i want, go to bed when i want...did i mention hitting, screaming, kicking and biting? oh, yeah those things too. i don't see why i have to do everything that they tell me to do or not do what they tell me to stop doing. what's the big deal. so, i've just gotten a little frustrated. so, i'll scream really loud to make sure everyone knows they've irritated me. or, at school i bit a friend of mine last week. no one knows why i did it. i just leaned over at the lunch table and took a bite! she's my friend though, don't worry. in fact, we've been caught kissing even! hee hee...just a friendly little kiss and now all the adults think we're so cute that we like to kiss buh-bye at the end of each day. then, i hit a friend over the head with a toy car. i have gotten in trouble for all these things, so i've settled down a bit this week. from the time outs at school to mommy blabbing on the way home about how i have to be nice to my friends, then she's been making me go to bed earlier (she thinks i need more sleep, but she must not get it yet that i'm waking up in the middle of the night to play because i don't need that extra sleep!), then i hear about how i have to be nice to my friends and give them hugs all the way to school. i figured i'd chill out this week. well, i got a bite of my own today. one big bite on my face! i was a tough guy though, don't worry. i didn't cry. i didn't tattle on my friend. i just toughed it out. my teachers noticed later in the day, but don't really know what happened and that's okay. when any of us get a time out, we all go visit them while they sit down for their little rest and say hi because it's sad since we all just want to play. mommy said that maybe i won't bite anyone again and i agreed with her and told her it hurt. so, now i have this boo-boo...teeth marks and a big red mark right by my ear. it's okay though, it goes well with my big black and blue bump on my forehead from me tripping and falling into our bookshelf at school. i know mom likes all my head injuries.

on a good note, i LOVE to give BIG bear hugs! see, i'm nice.

more pics

check out my latest photos!! i did good. i smiled a lot this time (mommy and auntie becky had to act pretty silly though). after my pictures, we went out to eat at this restaurant that was so cool! there was a nemo fish there, a big plane hanging from the sky and even a choo choo train that went around the whole restaurant. how neat is that?! i can't wait until the next time we have pictures taken! i hope we go out to eat again. i had a yummy lunch. i ate a huge mickey mouse pancake and sausage. mmmm....

oh, check out all my pictures on our photo site: http://picasaweb.google.com/cindywyckoff/January2009#

baby, it's cold outside

oh, is it ever cold. mommy makes me wear mittens, my hat and my hood to school every day. it's so annoying. she warms up the car, so we're only outside for about 3 seconds, so i just take it all off as soon as we get in the car. that really annoys her, especially when we have to go shopping since we end up being outside longer then so she puts everything right back on me. of course, i fight it though. who wears two hats?! that's silly.

i did have fun in the snow last week though. mommy had to go outside and shovel and it made me really mad. she did it while i was eating lunch, so i screamed really loud so she could hear me when she was outside. she came back in and i told her i wanted to help. of course she just had to bundle me all up and even made me wear these goofy pants called snow pants that made a funny noise when i walked. my boots were pretty funny too. they're all clunky and big and make me feel funny when i walk. helping mom shovel was lots of fun though. she kept taking the shovel away from me though saying she had to do it super fast because it was cold out. i like the snow now.

terrific twos

i don't know what mommy and daddy keep talking about...this "terrible twos" thing. look at how happy i am, especially here...just a fun night playing with daddy. i'm fun and i'm funny and, look, i smile a lot!

BIG trains, planes & automobiles

on new years eve, mommy, auntie becky and i went to the henry ford museum. mommy used to go when she was little a lot, but that was my first time. mommy decided we could after i kept bugging her about seeing the train. a few weeks ago, we got to see the train that goes by our house two days in a row. mommy is great and she rolled down all the windows of the car and we could hear and even feel the train go by. it goes really fast and it's really loud. mommy said i'd see trains at this place and boy did i ever. i didn't know they were so big. i didn't really know what to do...they were just SO BIG!

i even got to see a truck that was named after me!

there were tons of planes and cars and a special christmas train! i loved the christmas train. i can't wait to go back.

i'm a big kid now

at my 2-year check up with dr. paul, we found out that i am 34" tall and 27+ pounds (i wiggle a lot just so they can't get a number, but don't tell mom that). i figure, i'm a big boy now so i don't really need toys. i like to help mom clean and throw things away and put things in the sink and help cook, so i look to things like empty boxes and bowls to play with and newspapers and books of mom's and dad's to read. after all...i'm almost 3 feet tall and close to 30 pounds...that's quite the big boy! okay, okay...don't talk to me about my pacifier and going potty on the toilet yet. yes, yes, i tell mommy i'm a baby when she asks if i'm still a baby when she tries to take my "na-night" (my pacifier) away--it works doesn't it?!

my maddy & danny

i love my maddy and danny. they are my cousins i've told you about before. you all know that maddy hasn't been feeling too good lately. we've had two big parties to help pay for things maddy needs to make her better. mommy worked really hard at that. then mom's work decided to buy maddy and danny presents for christmas. they called it "adopt a family." it was so neat. all month long, mom would pick me up from school with a bag of presents and she would remind me they were not for me. i was okay with that because i love my cousins so much. i wanted them to have lots of presents, so i was always good about it. when they were under our christmas tree, i never touched them. even on christmas i knew they weren't for me.

we had a little party for them a couple days after christmas. mommy and daddy made lots of food and had drinks for everyone. my aunt cathy brought the kids over and my other cousins matt and sarah (my aunt cathy's kids) came over too. so did grandmama and auntie becky. we watched maddy and danny open all their great presents from all my mom's friends at work and even really nice people who are just good people who asked my mom if they could help out. maddy got all this stuff for this girl called hannah montana and this doll was so pretty that i helped her brush her hair. danny let me play with some of his things too. then danny let me lay with him when it was bed time. he's really nice to me and i love both him and maddy a lot!

we also got some good news about maddy and that bad thing she has called cancer. mommy arranged for her to go to a special place called children's hospital. aunt cathy finally was able to take her and they said that her doctors have been doing a really good job right from the start in taking care of her! in fact, her cancer has gone away!! we were all so excited to learn about this! she still has to get the medicine called chemo that makes her so sick though, so that still makes me sad. i can't wait until she's back to her old self again and can just play any day that i want and we can go places together like we used to. mommy says this spring we might be able to go back to our old ways again and i hope so!

i funny

mom doesn't call me a "ham" for no reason! "i funny." i even tell people that! i like to pose for pictures now and did a good job on christmas. just look here in my cute snowman sweater and with my new blanket. notice my christmas train pajamas? i picked them out at the store!

mewwy ismas!!

my hope came true! i had hoped santa would bring me a bike and LOOK!! i got it, i got it--a cool, green bike!! and santa even filled up my stocking too. i got disney pajamas and a little einsteins t-shirt and a rocket christmas ornament. i got 4 new dr. seuss books, too.

granny flossie and granddad luke got me this incredible wagon!!! and grandma and granddaddy got me 2 outfits, dinosaur pajamas, a coat, a stuffed elephant called horton and a movie and book all about him and a frame with pictures of us in it. grandmama got me this cute dog that swims in the bathtub. mom and daddy got me a ton of great new books and little einsteins videos. i also got a dinosaur book and a snow shaker from the nice people at daddy's work. auntie becky got me fake food since i love the fake food at school in our kitchen so much. granny flossie made me my very own football blanket and aunt cathy got me new pajamas and a neat new animal book -- everyone knows how much i like to read!

manta claus

"manta claus is coming!" i kept warning mommy and daddy that he was on his way and all they would say is, "that's right, so you better be good." i'm always good, i kept thinking, even though i know i have really been "pushing it" as mom's says lately. i made sure to be good on christmas ["is-mas"] eve though. i went to my friends samuel and olivia's house and we ate dinner and lots of snacks and made really yummy cookies for santa ["manta"]. we decorated them all by ourselves and it was so much fun.
we didn't go home until really late, but mommy made sure we got those cookies set out for santa. she told me how if i was a good boy all year and i made him cookies and set them out for him the night before christmas that he would bring me presents. so, she got out our special plate and bottle for milk just for him and i picked out three of my cookies i made. it was so late that i started to get hungry though, so i snacked on one--oops! i guess i wasn't supposed to do that. the last thing mommy asked me before i went to bed that night was what i hoped santa was going to bring me and i told her i wanted a bike.

eeewww...yuck!

mommy and daddy try so hard to feed me healthy, good foods and i do SUCH a good job of NOT eating all that stuff. when i was allergic to wheat and barley, all i got was stuff with rice in it. i had had enough, so i refused to eat rice for a while. i like it once in a while again, so last week, right before christmas, daddy made a rice dish that came in a box. i think it was even organic or all natural--what we try to eat most of the time. it was quite funny, i think. i broke out in a bad rash all over my face--see, there's a reason i only like hot dogs and cereal bars (okay, there's more that i eat, but that's the bulk of it). mommy thinks i may be allergic to something called soy now...ugh! oh, and yeah, "ew, yuck" is a favorite saying of mine at the moment.

holiday card "take 3"

you know how some parents are obsessed with certain things in your childhood...i've learned that mom is obsessed with our holiday card. my first year, i was only 10 days old when they took me to the park all wrapped up in a blanket and a santa hat with my bear, "mr. happy." last year, i was just one year old and there was a snow storm and it must have been zero degrees out and super windy. i hated the snow, i hated my snow suit and boots and they bundled me all up to go take a silly picture. THIS year, mom and dad had been so busy, that we didn't get out until just a few days before christmas and some of our friends were about to start celebrating their holiday, hanukkah. it was 8 o'clock at night and we headed out, yet again, after a snow storm all bundled up to try and find a place for our picture. it turned out that we had a picture almost the same as last year because after 2 hours of trying to pick the perfect place (according to mom), the perfect lighting (according to mom), the perfect pose (according to mom) and getting the perfect smiles and angles (yeah, you know), daddy told mommy that was enough. this was our shot for 2008! i look pretty cute, don't i!?

fantastic family

wow did i ever have a whirlwind week in between my birthday and christmas. my grandma and granddaddy, my daddy's parents, who live in georgia came here for a visit. it was the first time i got to meet my granddaddy and my second time seeing my grandma. it was great. we all got our pictures taken and i even got to see my cousins and auntie tracey and i even got pictures taken with just mom and dad and a special one with daddy and granddaddy. we went out to dinner afterwards and i had lots of fun.

that weekend, grandma, granddaddy and even granny flossie and granddad luke (my daddy's Godparents) came over to my house. mommy and daddy made a yummy dinner and even aunt clara came over to visit. granny and granddad luke brought me birthday presents -- two really nice outfits and a very cool spiderman hooded jacket!

i showed grandaddy how i can read and i colored with granddad luke. then i showed everyone how fast i could run until i ran right into the dining room table and gave myself my very first black eye! boy did that hurt!! i even asked for ice, which was a first for me. i know i usually don't like ice on boo-boos, but this one was different. i got a cut right by my eye and it was bleeding. so, everyone left for the night and i got to sit with mommy and daddy and i ended up eating the ice!

...i kept my black eye almost the whole week!

birthday #2

i had a great birthday! mom says i'm two years old, but when she asked how old i was going to be, i made sure to tell her "FIVE!"

my grandmama, auntie becky, and auntie cathy came over to my house and we ate dinner and grandmama and mommy made me a little einsteins cake with rocket on the top! he was flying in the sky on top of the cake and all the einsteins were on the bottom. the cake and ice cream was really good! i got lots of presents -- lots of little einsteins stuff and auntie cathy got me my first legos set that had cars from the cars movie. then grandmama and i made all my cupcakes for my birthday at school the next day. all my friends ate the cupcakes. mommy picked me up from school and we came home and had even more birthday cake!

so, i am now 2 (although, i like to still say i'm 5).

"i tired"

i'm not a huge fan of sleep some days. especially at nap and bed time. i do anything i can to stay awake. this is a good way to do that--you just have to put your head in your hands and they hold your head up so your mom and daddy think you're still awake so you don't have to go to bed!

happy thanksgiving

thanksgiving day was great! i made my first sweet potato pie -- okay, mom helped -- but look at how FUN it was! when we were done baking, we went over to uncle brian and aunt laura's house. i got to play with all my cousins and then i played with carmel the dog. she's a nice dog.

great-grandmama was there too. she's really nice.

mommy's makeup

mommy always looks so pretty and i like to watch her when she looks in her mirror and puts her makeup on. when i was a bit younger, i used to say that she was "putting her eyes on." well, one day last month, i got mama's makeup container and put it on me! i did a good job didn't i? i think mama didn't know whether to tell me i did something wrong or laugh--yeah, i can do that to her quite a bit...i think i do a good job doing bad things that make her laugh--hee hee!

turkey time

it was turkey time already this year! i got to go to my first class at the pottery place too. someone read a thanksgiving story to me and all the other kids and then mommy and auntie becky helped me paint a turkey on my thanksgiving plate. it was funny at first because it really tickled when mommy was painting on my hand.

but then it was so neat because we put my hand on the plate, then cleaned me up, and auntie becky and i walked around the shop and when we came back, mommy had made my handprint into a turkey!!!

bowling for maddy may

last month, my mommy had a party for "my maddy." maddy is my cousin who got sick this year with that thing called leukemia. it makes me really sad because i can't play with her as much as i used to. for weeks we had all these things in our house that mommy and daddy kept telling me not to touch because they were for maddy's party. well, the day finally came.

i had lots of fun! i got to see lots of friends and family and i even made a new friend, andrew. i bowled with my own bowling ball and stick things they call pins and andrew played with me too. i got to see baby nana (milana) and aunt becky too. baby nana's mama (aunt becky) is nice.
when the party was over i got to play with my cousins and all the balloons! that was the best! i was really tired though. i didn't get to take a nap until 5 pm that day! and then mommy only let me sleep for an hour. that's okay, i took a 3 hour nap the next day!

prez'dent o'mama

i'm really bummed that all of the tv shows with prez'dent o'mama are done now. mommy REALLY got into this day called election day and then i started to like it too. i know his name is barack obama, and can actually say it if mommy tells me how, but prez'dent o'mama is what i stuck to all during the fall.

on election day, we painted twinkle stars on paper and i made sure to give them to mom since i think this is her favorite holiday. we learned the word vote at school and mommy said she and daddy went and marked a piece of paper that said they wanted obama to be our next prez'dent.

oh, the coolest thing of all...a few weeks before this election day, we got a box in the mail. daddy didn't open it and mommy had a long day at work and stuff after. when she got home, she noticed it sitting there just for her. she got all excited and was yelling 'hooray, hooray, my sign came!" it was her obama sign! she hurried up and put it outside. it was late at night, so i watched her from the door and yelled "O'MAMA!"

spiders, pumpkins and cole, oh my!

i may not have made mom very happy with my not wanting to wear my halloween hat, but boy did i have fun the next day playing in grandmama's yard! she decorates it a lot every year with a really cool spider web and lots and lots of pumpkins! my favorite are the baby pumpkins that i can pick up and throw. i even threw one so hard that we couldn't find it for a while. it was funny watching mommy look through the bushes for it.

grandmama's spiderwebs are the hit of the town. people drive by and stop and look and on halloween all the kids trick or treating stop to take their picture by it. i liked the really big spider hanging down this year...it got my head!

tippy tip

i love my cat tip. i'm taller than him now, but mommy says that when i first came home he was actually twice my size! i think she's exaggerating. daddy took this picture of me one day last month and i like it. it shows how big i am and also shows how BIG tip is. i try to pick him up and move him to another spot when mommy tells him to stop doing something, but he's so HEAVY he's just STUCK to the ground. yes, you guessed it, big, heavy and stuck are a few of my favorite words.

not so-happy halloween

hey, i tried. i tried to have some fun on halloween. i had my party at school that turned out okay because my teachers didn't make me wear my hat, but mommy kept trying to put that darn hat on me! i don't look happy in this picture? well, i'm not! i might be getting used to having to wear a winter hat, but like i had said before, that's just because it's cool to play peek-a-boo in it AND it has a football (pronounced feet-ball at the moment) on it. it's my "feet-ball hat."

auntie becky dressed up like a kitty cat. i didn't even know it was her when i saw her! i did have an okay time with she and mommy for a little while. we walked to the bakery--one of my favorite things--and i said "trick or treat" for the first time and got cookies! we stopped by all the neighbors by grandmama's house and they all gave me candy too. i liked that part of the night.

then i just played in grandmama's yard with all the pumpkin decorations until it got dark. then the night was over. see, it only lasts a couple hours so i really didn't need a hat anyway.

spooky spiders for school

happy halloween! i had been practicing saying that and trick or treat for weeks and it finally came. we had a little party at school and i had to bring treats for my friends. so mommy and grandmama made these cool spooky spiders since spiders are one of my favorite things and i gave one each of my friends.

i dressed up like a black bear, like the stuffed animal i got on our trip up north this summer. mommy kept telling everyone i looked like a gorilla without a head though. oh, yeah, i wouldn't wear my hat. i really didn't even like the costume even though grandmama made it just for me. i wish mama had let me be a fireman like my friends, oscar and ryan. we have a fireman hat at school and i wear it a lot...you'd think she would have gotten the hint?

i had fun at our party though. my teacher, miss amanda, dressed up like a pirate -- another one of my favorite things! she read a special halloween story to us and we all went trick or treating throughout the school and we were allowed to eat one piece of candy. i picked chocolate, another favorite--yes, i have lots of favorite things.

zoooooo....

i told you october was really busy! i even got to go to the zoo with my friends olivia and samuel. mama, as usual, took my picture with the baby elephant. look--i'm taller than her now!!!

my friends and i were trying to make the elephant move by pushing her, but she just wouldn't, so we took a picture by her all together instead of trying to get her to come walk with us. i don't know why this animal (a favorite word of mine now) doesn't move. i like elephants. i like how they move their big, long nose and make a trumpet sound...i do it well too. my favorite animal at the moment is a giraffe (pronounced "gaffe"). i could stand there and watch those tall guys forever. when we were there, mommy kept saying, can we go now? and i kept telling her NO! i didn't understand why she kept asking when she knew the answer.

it was a neat day though. we got to hear the lions roar and see the bears up really close and the kangaroos too (look at me and samuel). then olivia and i sat and watched the polar bear swim back and forth and back and forth. that was so cool!

play...at park

'play at park.' you guessed it! i'm talking in sentences! yeah, i'm good. i like it. that's one of my favorite things to say. i like it because it drives mama nuts. today, she even asked me if i could just be quiet. so, i whispered my sentences!

the day that we all went to the farm, it was mommy's birthday. i was so excited, because i had practiced singing happy birthday TO YOU (yes, i like to yell the TO YOU part!) and i sang just after everyone else. i made everyone laugh, of course.
after mama's birthday fun, maddy and danny made a campfire all by themselves. i watched because it was too hot, just like the oven and i'm not allowed to touch it.
then we went and played by the lake. i made lots of wishes, grandmama caught a toad for danny, and we all watched the sun go na-night and see the moon come up. it was such a fun day that i fell asleep on the way home.

pumpkin patch

october was filled with lots to do. i went to birthday parties and cider mills and farms and the zoo! on this day in the middle of october, i went to the farm in holly with mama, auntie becky, grandmama and we met aunt cathy, maddy and danny there. maddy had just got out of the hospital and was feeling really good and allowed to go out to play. she asked if we could all go to the cider mill, so we went up to the farm. mama says she and auntie becky have been doing this since they were little.

i got to pick out pumpkins to put in my yard. i had ice cream and apple cider. i fed the farm animals. i played with danny and maddy. it was a great day! plus, it was really warm! i like that...no coat, no hat! and you should have seen me picking up all the BIG pumpkins! i love to say the word BIG--in a real deep, growling voice--everyone giggles because i'm silly.

too cold to bike

i figure it's time that i get that horrible picture of me after my biking accident off the top of my page, so i'll start my usual catch up with telling you about my fun biking days.

i love my bike! it has a cool bell that goes "ding ding" and i can scoot along really fast on it. even though it's too cold outside to play on it now, i still think about the days that i would be riding it and daddy would get home from work. that was my favorite. that usually meant that mommy let me stay outside and it was past our dinner time...it's always fun to make her forget about the time--especially at bedtime.
hopefully, i'll get a new bike next year. i'm ready for one with pedals. i'm already thinking about spring and summer, yup! i really don't like this snow stuff. i know everyone kept telling mommy and daddy that i would get used to it and this year i'd love it and want to play in it. play in that horribly cold, wet stuff--ick! who plays outside in the winter?! every morning--yes, almost every morning--i look outside and ask "snowing outside?" if it is, it makes for a really fun morning because i don't like to even go outside. mommy has to carry me to the car and if she doesn't i let her know how upset i am. okay, daddy calls me the drama king, i know. but do you blame me? the stuff is cold and horrible! all i want it to be taken inside really quick and at school we have to wait for one of my teachers to come and let us in after i ring the doorbell. i don't see anything wrong with climbing up mommy's leg and hanging on to her coat. isn't that why she wears a coat? i really don't see the purpose in me wearing one. i only like to go from inside right to the warm car anyway. i make sure to let her know every day that i don't want to be wearing it. i've gotten used to the hat idea...hats are great to play peek-a-boo with!

biking boo boo

well, as usual, i have lots to catch up on, but i had a major accident yesterday that i wanted to tell you about. when i was at school, we got to play outside for 2 hours straight because it was really warm and sunny out! (this time last year it was snowing once or twice so this is really cool for me...i hated winter last year, just like mommy.) i was riding a bike and i guess i lost my balance and fell right on my face--ouch! i got right back up and kept riding. yeah, i knew my mouth was bleeding and it hurt, but i was having so much fun. my teacher miss amanda noticed that i was bleeding pretty bad and ran over to me to see if i was okay. i guess i wasn't, but i don't know why i couldn't keep playing! i just wanted to ride my bike. well, my teachers wouldn't let me, but i kept hanging onto those handle bars as hard as i could and was dragging my bike with me as they were trying to get me to let go. i just didn't want to go inside!

miss amanda called my mom and let her know i was hurt. she told her how i busted my lip and it was pretty 'fat.' but, she told her how i was a big boy and didn't cry until they took my bike away! she told mommy that she didn't need to come get me, but mommy said she would after lunch and nap and hopefully i'd feel better after nap. oh boy was she ever wrong!

when my mommy got there, my teachers stopped her before she came into our classroom and said, "are you prepared to see him?" mommy thought they were just being silly because i had a "fat lip" since that's what they told her on the phone. but then they told her how bad it had gotten after just a few hours. i was being good though. i took a good nap and played like normal, but i was kinda sad. my mouth was hurting really bad and it was so swollen it felt weird. i kept trying to lick it thinking it would go away, but it was just really, really FAT. well, mommy tried to put on a good act when she walked into the room. my teachers warned her they had never seen anything like it! she tried to smile like she was really happy to see me, but ended up just picking me up and hugging me. she just kept asking the teachers why no one called her when it got bad, but they swore to her that i was being really good and i was, really. i acted just like normal and tried to eat lunch and play and nap. and mommy and my teachers all thought that maybe my sucking on my pacifier and laying flat while we took our naps didn't help. i'm not sure why, but they told me that made my lip more fat probably. mommy just kept hugging me and hugging me and i put my head on her shoulder. i was so glad she was there. all my friends just kept looking at me all worried and my teachers told her how we all get sad when one of us gets hurt and boy did i get hurt this time!

we left school mommy gave me medicine right away to try and make me feel better and then she called daddy to warn him that they may have to take me to the hospital! oh no i thought! not there! i'd rather go see dr. paul...he's so nice. i still remind them of that a lot. i like dr. paul. mommy tried to call grandmama but she wasn't answering the phone. i could tell mommy was worried, but she made me smile, even though after that she told me not to--she kept asking if it hurt because it looked like it hurt. when we got to grandmama's house (i say "mamaS house" and say the S really hard...it's just my thing i do since mama is now mommy or sometimes even just mom now i can call grandmama mama or mima [mee-ma]), mom went to the door and talked with grandmama for a minute until grandmama opened the car door and leaned her head in. i was so glad to see her, i wanted out! not that mommy doesn't take good care of me, but grandmama does too and always see mommy, so when i get to go to grandmama's house, i just want to see her! grandmama let me eat ice cream and then we went outside and crushed ice cubes and made me special ice water to drink (i don't like putting ice on boo-boos). then i got to watch 3 episodes of little einstein's in a row!! wow! grandmama and mommy took good care of me and my mouth started to look a little better.

when we got home, mommy made me a really special dinner of cinnamon spice oatmeal and vanilla yogurt! mmmm!!! that made me happy. then i got to lay in mommy's bed for a while after i played with daddy when he got home. oh, and before bed, i got to talk to my grandma in georgia and my great-grandmama! so, the day didn't turn out too bad after all.

today i feel better. daddy gave me more medicine this morning to help me feel better, but i made sure to say YEAH! when they asked me if i wanted to go to school this morning. i want to go ride my bike again!!

dr. paul nice

i've been able to visit dr. paul a lot lately. i caught a really bad infection while i was at the hospital visiting my cousin madisyn. maddy isn't feeling good right now, so she has to be in the hospital a lot. in fact, she has her own website that mommy is helping with, so check it out! http://www.missmadisynmay.blogspot.com/ well, i got this infection on my skin in three places that just didn't want to go away. so, mommy and daddy kept having to take me to see dr. paul. i don't mind though. i let mommy know when we got the car after this week's visit and keep telling her that "dr. paul nice."

MY mommy!

MY MOMMY is right! i love my mommy SO much right now that i drive her crazy--hee hee hee!!! i give mommy hugs and kisses and hugs and kisses and hugs and kisses... if she walks out of the room that i'm in, i make sure to call for her right away to let her know i still love her. when she comes to pick me up at school at the end of each day i start crying and run to the door saying "my mommy!" as soon as i see her car. even at the apple orchard, i wanted her to pick me up the whole time so i could keep giving her hugs and kisses and telling her "love you." daddy, well, yeah, i love daddy too, but daddy's not mommy. only mommy is mommy and mommy is MY MOMMY!

apple trees

i picked apples right from the tree for the first time ever! it was pretty fun. i liked that the apples were just my size, so i just kept biting them until i found the perfect one--a baby apple. it was nice a tiny and cute. i really, really liked the hay ride out to the orchard. it was so cool. this old, green tractor pulled auntie becky, mommy and me out there. then we got out and picked a huge bag full of apples. then we got cider and donuts. i can't wait to go back!

fall time friends

daddy and mom took me to go see my friends samuel, olivia, cali and morgan last weekend. you guessed it! we went to the cider mill!

we got to feed and pet goats and bunnies and eat donuts and drink cider. then we went back to cali and morgan's house and played in their awesome yard (it's huge!).

cider season

guess what!? it's apple time! it's our favorite season of the year. we get to go to all the cider mills and drink lots of apple juice (everyone calls it cider, but it tastes like juice from apples to me) and, my new favorite--we get to eat donuts! in 3 weeks, i've been to 3 different cider mills! i love it! stay tuned. i think we get to go back to the orchard soon to get orange pumpkins and i bet we get to have more cider too.

my newest friend

oh do i ever like my newest friend, milana. milana is so pretty and she's tiny and cute. she's baby milana. mommy and daddy took me to meet her a few weeks ago and i had so much fun. i read books to milana and watched her lay on the couch while mommy and aunt becky took pictures of her. i even tried to give milana her books back when i was done reading each one of them, but she just wouldn't take them...hmm?

uncle john made really yummy homemade pizza for dinner and it was SO good i even ate it (no, i'm still not eating too good--i'm getting used to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and i really like any kind of potatoes...and still love my fruit. veggies? no way!). after dinner, i showed uncle john how i could read and told him how i loved music and i really liked that radio i found at my great-grandmamas house. he brought to me my very own little radio! aunt becky and i found some good music to dance to!

grandmas are great!

i got to see great-grandmama again! yeah! she's fun. she has lots of stuff at her house for me to explore. i even found a little radio that worked! i turned it on and showed great-grandmama how i can dance. we didn't stay too long, just long enough for mommy and daddy to move some furniture around and help grandmama clean up some stuff for great-grandmama. i made sure to give my grandmamas big hugs and kisses and tell them "love you" when we were leaving. yeah, i'm a good boy like that (cause mommy tells me to every single time!).

nolan's gggrrreeaaatt!

i was sooo excited to see my friend nolan that i used to go to school with. it was quite the night! i got to ride in nolan's mommy's car, then we ran in the pouring rain to the ballpark. the tigers didn't want to get their fur wet so they told everyone they were going to wait until the rain stopped to start playing baseball. so, we went to a restaurant at the park and it was really busy, but these really nice guys asked if we wanted to sit with them. one of them looked like santa claus--he even said so! he was really nice. mommy and him talked about his work--he's a professor at a college, just like she wants to be. after dinner, we said bye to the really nice men and walked to our seats. i was so excited to be at the ball game that i just wanted to go walk closer to the field, but it just kept raining and raining. nolan and i got to hang out though while mom hung out with nolan's mom. it was a lot of fun, but then when it was just past bedtime, those tigers decided it was dry enough to come out and play. we only stayed long enough to see one homerun and the water fountains explode--WATER! (yes, i'm still obsessed since vacation...what's wrong with liking water...oh, yeah...mom keeps telling me i can't play in the puddles on the playground at school, but that's it!)

'livia

olivia is my good friend. i love when i get to see her. every time we see her and her brother samuel i talk about them for days afterwards. one day their parents called mommy and daddy and surprised them and said said "dinner's ready, come over!" so we went over to there house and i had a great time. after dinner, i was a gentleman and pushed olivia around in her car -- it just didn't seem to start. we also rode bikes and played with the water fountain and ran around with samuel.

last of the summer bbqs

i got to go see my buddies coen and kellyn and all my aunts and uncles and granny flossie and granddad luke. i got to throw rocks in the lake and play with coen and his race car track and kellyn and the most fun was going around clinking my cup with everyone's bottles and cups saying "cheers!" all my aunts and uncles laugh and tell me how funny i am. i even got mommy and auntie becky laughing because i was doing that with apples at the apple tree place (they called it the orchard). it's easy--you hold two apples together and bump them together and yell CHEERS! (i'll tell you about the apple trees later)

jenny joys

i know it's been quite a while since i last wrote about my adventures, but i sure have been busy. mommy (yes, despite mom's wish for me to call her mama forever, i've graduated to mommy--i like it even more because i know it drives her nuts!) and daddy have been really busy too. here i go...i'll try to catch you all up.

summer ended on a fun note with lots of visiting friends and family. when we got back from vacation, we visited aunt micki, uncle tom, nate and ben and their new baby sister grace (isn't she so pretty!).
i got to play a lot with nate and ben and uncle tom showed me their turtle! yeah, a real live turtle, just like on nemo!

vacation - last day

even though our day started out with a little bit of sunshine, it got really cloudy and started storming. we could hardly see that big bridge we had to go back across to get home. look at these pictures! i could not believe it! daddy drove really slow and mom just kept taking pictures -- she couldn't believe it either.

i was really sad at first that we were leaving up north, but when we got closer to home i was so glad i said, "Daddy? Home?" yup, you bet! we were on our way. i was so happy to see ALL my toys and it was really nice to sleep in my real bed that night.

vacation - day 6, part 3

when i talk about on the road again, this is what i'm talking about. it's either farms, trees or bad weather. our last real day of vacation daddy took us on a driving tour that was long, long, long. i ended up staying awake this whole time and we didn't get to eat dinner until late that night. but, on our last night we went for a walk after dinner and i got ice cream! i also got to stay up late again.

vacation - day 6, part 2

bad again. yup, that would be me. how was i supposed to know that these lock things (the soo locks) were really important and i could stick my legs under the fence. we were way up high looking down at these big huge areas that held water and i just wanted to sit and dangle my feet. well, mom got really mad (she'll tell you it was because i kept doing it when she told me to stop). so we left and went to the visitor center. boring! there was this boat called a canoe that i wanted to check out, but mom wouldn't let me touch that either! she must have been in a bad mood that day. i couldn't do anything. so, i decided if i couldn't touch the boat, i'd just sit down next to it for a while. you got it--made mom mad some more. luckily daddy stepped in and took me outside to goof around a bit. we ended up leaving anyway because there were no ships (those are really big boats you see on the water up there) coming in for 3 hours and mom couldn't stand waiting that long. so, there we went...on the road again.

vacation - day 6, part 1

this day we went to ANOTHER light house! this one was cool because it was right on the beach and i got to throw rocks into the water again. we spent quite a bit of time here. this was another lighthouse that we got to go into and see some old stuff and see how the people who took care of it lived a long time ago.


while we were there, mom was chased by two horseflies -- they were huge! daddy closed all the doors on the car really fast and drove the car away from mom, then it was really funny because she then caught up with us and jumped in! and we were on the road AGAIN!

vacation - day 5

on our 5th day of our trip, we got back in the car for another long trip across our state. this time, we were on our way to see the biggest waterfall of them all! we saw tahquamenon falls -- don't ask me to say it, i won't even try that one. it was a really long car ride and i was so happy to be out of the car, but my legs were tired from all the hiking and walking and touring we had done, so i just wanted "up." i just wanted mom to pick me up, but apparently she was getting tired too. she had enough after i got her to chase me all over the deck next to the falls and said daddy was walking me back up the 94 steps back to the trail. not a good idea. i told her, "mommy, up!" she just didn't listen. i kicked and screamed and yelled for mom all the way up.
daddy made it fun after that though. i got to ride on his shoulders almost all the way back to the restaurant and visitor center. that was great!

by the time we ate dinner though, i was done. i was really, really tired. we all were. but, as usual, mom wanted another picture. she wanted to be able to show grandmama how i was spending my money she gave me. i just couldn't smile anymore. i just wanted my moose named max and wanted to go. posed for the picture, got the moose, and we got to leave.
we drove to our new and last motel of our trip after that. mom did a good job with that because it was right on the water again. it was a really nice and new place and we could pull right up to the door, not like the last place. it was fabulous. i got a second wind when we got there and got to act goofy to make mom and daddy laugh. that was fun. we stayed up until 10 o'clock at night we were having so much fun. so, another day down. just a couple left to go.

vacation - day 4, part 3

after we left eagle harbor's lighthouse and museums we stopped for lunch at the eagle harbor lighthouse where i got my favorite meal again -- macaroni and cheese. then after we got in the car i was relaxing when this huge fly (mom and daddy will tell you it wasn't that big) kept flying around me. i said "bug" to them, but they apparently were too busy talking or something to hear me so i started yelling and screaming. i was so upset because this horrible bug kept flying around me and sitting on me. mom couldn't believe it. as all this was happening, daddy kept laughing as he was driving to this little bakery in the middle of no where in the woods. when we stopped, mom had to wash my face off because i had been crying so hard. after i settled down we went into this little shop where these men with really long beards and long robes on were working and selling all their yummy foods. we bought their famous jams and left. mom asked daddy to take a picture of her and me. well, i was sick of pictures. i was sick of holding their hands. i was sick of staying right next to their side. i just wanted to go! you can see how well those pictures turned out.

the pictures turned out so good they didn't take anymore that day! ha!

we took the long way back to our room so we could stop and see more water. we just sat at the top of this cliff and looked down at the water and played around for a while. mom and i went for a walk too.

when we got back to our room, we went to the restaurant next door and they had a big place with games they call an arcade. mom and daddy ordered desserts and i got a very yummy side of mashed potatoes as a snack. we ate lunch so late we all just wanted a snack. i shared my potatoes with mom and she shared her apple crisp with me--mmmmm!!!! then we just hung out and watched tv and played with cars and trucks and read books. so, another really busy, fun, crazy day ended good.

vacation - day 4, part 2

on our road trip we took this really long road that goes through the mountains called brockway mountain. it was a really long drive to just see the tops of a bunch of trees. when you get to the top, there's this store that's so small mama said the people couldn't even walk around in. mama had been there lots of times before though when she used to go when she was little.

we then went to this place called eagle harbor and saw yet another lighthouse. i don't know what was with this trip and lighthouses. they are all over the place. we met this guide named rick though and he was really nice. i gave him the rocks from the parking lot and he was really happy about that and thanked me. we got to go into the lighthouse and see how people lived there in the olden days and then we went through the town's really little history museum. there were two really old cars in there and i got to touch the tires. i made sure to let mom and daddy know they go round and round and round and round.

vacation - day 4, part 1

we finally were really tired. well, as usual mom keeps on going and going, but daddy and i were pooped. i was sleeping when we got up to a place they call copper harbor. it's all the way to the tip top of michigan. mama went to the bathroom and daddy stayed in the car with me so i could keep napping. this is what mom came back to!

after our nap, we met up with mom in the gift shop at this place called a fort. and then went and checked out this old place full of really old buildings. i guess people used to build places like this to protect their land. i thought it was pretty boring, but mom and dad seemed way too amused for me. they took forever making me walk into every single building, which all looked the same to me. the only cool one was this one that had buttons to push and when you pushed them they played music. there was a drum with drumsticks in there to that you could play to the music. oh, and, of course it was next to WATER!

and, to top off our visit to copper harbor, we stopped to see the lighthouse -- yes, another one. but, MORE WATER! i was really bummed when we had to leave this beach because it was all rocks. it was great. they were all the perfect size to pick up and throw into the water. that wasn't the end of our day though. see part 2 for more!

vacation - day 3

i got into some trouble on day 3. i really made mama upset, but i didn't really mean to. we had driven a really long way from our nice motel on the water, stopped at a couple stores along the way, stopped at a school called northern michigan university to check some stuff out daddy wanted to see. then, after we checked into our new hotel, mom made us go to this really old place she said my great-grandpa worked at called a copper mine. the quincy copper mine. we had to wear these yellow hats that were really hard and felt weird on your head so i kept taking it off, but mom kept dropping it when i would hand it to her (she'll tell you something different) and then there was this big huge ball in the middle of this building they said helped the miners bring the copper up from the ground. i can't see how because it was just this big huge ball. i kept telling mom that saying, "BIG BALL!" everyone on our tour with us kept looking at us. i thought it was because we looked so goofy in those hats. and then mom whispered something to dad and then she and i left. it was great after that. i got to run around this museum area and mom chased after me, as usual. we took a walk outside too while we waited for dad to finish the tour.
when we left the mine we went back across the bridge in the next picture to go to the other town (we were in hancock at the mill where mom's daddy was born and his daddy worked at that mine) and we were staying in houghton. we ate dinner at this place called the library, which seemed too perfect with all the books lined up in there (just like our house). i had a hot dog and french fries (one of my two favorite meals...okay, it's one of the only two meals i will eat) and mom and daddy had other food and had these drinks called beer (i had to have milk). i had been wiggling around so mama sat me on her lap. when mama wasn't looking i took her glass and sipped on that beer! it was pretty good. i didn't see the big deal, but people around us were giggling and mama got all red in the face and upset (not at me...i think cause she actually missed something i did that i wasn't supposed to!) and daddy said it was time to go. ugh. it was okay though because we got to walk along the water -- yup, MORE water -- and got to see a boat go by.
when we got back to the motel we got to go swimming. they had a pool just for me! it was only a foot deep so i got to walk around and kick water at daddy and play with all my new swimming and beach toys we bought just for our trip. i got really cold after a while though, so mama wrapped me up in both of our towels and took me up to our room to warm up and get ready for bed. little did she know i was no where near sleepy! she let me lay in her and daddy's bed with my new stuffed bear i bought with my money that grandmama gave me for my trip and my blanket. she and daddy were doing stuff around the room and i wanted to get down off that really big, tall bed and i accidentally rolled right off! it didn't hurt, but boy did it scare them! ha ha! it was funny. they were checking me for bumps and bruises, but i was already all banged up from my rough week the week before, so who could tell what was new or old! really, i was okay. it was the best to see them come running though. they made me go to bed after that.

vacation - day 2, part 3

after lunch we did try to keep going on our adventures. we stopped first at the lake so i could see the big waves. they were huge! but it was SO cold i wasn't too happy to be here. so, we didn't stay too long. oh, if you're wondering what's on my head and nose, that would be from me falling on my face. last week at school i fell right on my face on the cement. it bled really bad, but i got lots of love from my teachers and that made it better. by the middle of the week i was picking at it because i was bothering me. mom kept telling me to stop because it would bleed at night when i did it, but she put medicine on it and then it was better.

we then went to another waterfall. i was so excited, i even got to sneak my head through the fence. mom was watching though so, as usual, she told me to stop and hold her hand. ugh. a really nice man asked if he could take our picture of all of us together. he was so nice and asked what my name was, so i smiled big for that one.

after our trip to the pictured rocks we just went back to our room and i got to play and we rested and had snacks ("nacks") until it was bed time. it was a little weird sleeping in the same room with mom and daddy though. in fact, i woke up in the middle of the night and they were right there next to me! usually when i do that i'll just read one of my favorite books that mama leaves with me or i talk to my friends (my favorite friend is "bunny"--a stuffed puppet bunny). BUT, mama and daddy were there! so, i said nice and loud "HI MAMA!" oops...i guess i scared mama because she jumped up real fast and asked if i was okay. well, i was, but i wasn't sleepy. so, i got to play in their bed for about an hour until mama finally fell asleep. at that point when she stopped talking to me i just went ahead and went to sleep myself. that was great, right between the two of them, but it was really squooshed in there. i'm glad to we don't do that every night!

vacation - day 2, part 2

after our waterfall exploration, we went to see more water, but this time it was to see what they call pictured rocks. after that i found this huge rock i could stand and sit on. it was bigger than me. it was so big and so cool that i was dancing on it and mom was trying to take video of me and i did a flip (literally) and almost fell off. luckily mom had her hand on my arm and caught me. i tried not to complain when she held my hand the rest of the day after that. after all, she did save my life.

we went for a drive after that and i took a nap. while this was happening, the weather completely changed. it got really cold and windy so we couldn't do much more that day outside, although you'll see that we tried. we did stop at this great little place for lunch called the brownstone (http://www.brownstoneinn.net/) and i got macaroni and cheese, applesauce and water (my new favorite drink).

vacation - day 2, part 1

the second day of our trip was really our first day of vacation. we were all settled into our room. and we were off to see the sites. we had breakfast at a restaurant called the navigator (http://www.eatonthebay.com/page2.html_). it was good. i got to sit all by myself in the booth next to daddy, so that was cool. i ate pancakes and bacon, which would be my meal of choice this whole week.

after breakfast we went to explore! i had my exploration outfit on too, as you can see. i got to see my first waterfall ever. i can't say that too well, so i just say waterball. daddy and mom were driving me nuts. they kept holding my hand or hanging onto my overalls. i just wanted a closer look. there was even a guy that had climbed all the way down the hillside to do that and we saw him climb back up. mom said something like i was never allowed to do that. i can't see why...it looks like fun!
when we were done at the falls we walked all the way back to our car on this trail through all these really tall trees. i must have said tree 114 times this week!

vacation - day 1, part 2

we made it to our motel just in time to see MORE water! and the sunshine going na-night. it was so pretty. yup, you guessed right. i can say water (i'm now an expert after our trip--another new word), sunshine and pretty (i tell mom she's pretty every once in a while and give her a kiss).

daddy, mom and i just sat and watched the sun go away for the night and then we unpacked our car and got settled into our motel -- the sunset motel! i liked it. it had two bedrooms, so we put all our stuff in one and left the other room nice and neat and clean for us to play and sleep in. the tv was just my height and there was a phone i could reach too. i made sure to turn the tv on and off, and on and off and pick the phone up after i made a "ring-ring" sound. i did this a lot. i also made sure i knew where the potty was. nope, i'm not using it quite yet, but i make sure to tell everyone "POTTY!" when i go in my diaper.

vacation - day 1, part 1

our vacation started 7 hours later than mom wanted. anything that could go wrong (in her mind) did. she could find her bathing suit bottoms, daddy wasn't packed, daddy did get the fishing stuff we needed like she had been asking and then we ran so late we had to stop for lunch because it was time for me to eat (although, these days i could care less about eating---just give me toys or friends to play with and i'll be okay without food).

we made it though! we drove a really far way and crossed a really long bridge called the mackinaw bridge and went to the upper peninsula of our state, michigan. we saw lots of water called a lake once we got off the bridge and then we had to drive through all these trees. mama was driving then and when we were about half way from the bridge to our motel mom stopped the car as fast as she could because a deer was trying to cross the road. but, that wasn't the first animal we saw. we saw a huge turkey walking down the road -- turkeys say 'mmm...gobble gobble gobble!'

sweet friends~sweet treats

one night a couple weeks ago i got to go play with my friends samuel and olivia and boy was it fun! mom and aunt kara were in great moods and let us eat sweet stuff after dinner. oh, first we went for a long walk all the way down the street.

then we got to eat cookies and i even had my first sucker ever! i loved it. i liked it so much i didn't want to give up the stick afterwards. samuel and i even got to stay up until 11 at night playing that night!

"daddy...hair"

you don't even have to ask me to point to my hair...that's right, what hair?
daddy decided to use clippers to cut my hair a couple weeks ago and boy did he cut it. and boy was mom mad!
mom's gotten used to it now. she likes it when i point to my hair though and say "daddy...hair" it makes her laugh so i do it all the time. she likes my hair now because it's starting to grow back. i miss my curls too. when i was tired and going to sleep i used to play with them.

sprinkler spectacular

one day when mom was studying, auntie boo (my new name for auntie becky) set up the sprinkler that she and mom used to play in when they were kids. it's yellow. well, that would be lellow in my words. mom just so happens to keep a swim diaper in my bag at all times for times just like this. as you'll read from my notes about my vacation, i cannot get enough of water!

bull-do-do

bah-do-do has now become "bull-do-do." that's right, i'm getting better at talking every day. before i tell you about that, take a look at these pics my grandmama took. how cool is this? i got to be right up close to this bulldozer. all summer long workers have been doing stuff to the streets around grandmama's house. it's been so neat to watch them work. this night, grandmama took me around the block to the park to play and i got to check it out real close. i'm just about half the height as the tire! next year maybe i'll be as tall? who knows...i haven't gone through a growing spurt in a while, so we'll see.
so, i'm talking really good lately. daddy worked with me this weekend on saying more than one word at a time. i'm now an expert at saying "thank you mama" and "bye-bye daddy." my latest word i've learned is granddaddy. maybe one day soon i'll get to see my granddaddy and grandma. they live far away but we're all hoping to visit soon. granddaddy has to hear me say his name! i do it really good. the number of words i can say is getting bigger every day. i can say chair, garbage (i help in putting stuff in the garbage, but have to be careful it really IS garbage i'm helping with), bubble, water, shower, swimming, truck, car, my teachers' names -- amanda, stephanie ("ste-nie"), liz, jennifer, alecia, i can also say cereal, milk, chicken, school, home, house, digger. lots of other words, but i can't think of them -- like shoes and socks and jeans. i've been saying stuff for a long time, but i learn really fast now.

kick the stove

this week i really let my temper show and boy mom wasn't too happy, but i sure did let her know how mad i was! i tripped over this crate that daddy put on the kitchen floor that holds all of our paper shopping bags (yeah, okay, so i was trying to climb it to reach the counter). i was so mad that i pulled three of the bags out and threw them on the floor (with a grunt!). mama told me how i wasn't hurt and there was no need to act that way, but there was! that stupid crate was in my way and made me trip and fall!

i then got really mad at mom for telling me how not to act so i kicked her. yes! i kicked her! she made me mad! well, bad idea. boy did i get it. she held me by both my arms and lifted me up so my feet were dangling and i had no choice but to look her in the eye--yikes she was mad. she told me again how i wasn't to behave that way and how balls are the only things we kick with our feet and we do that outside. she told me i hurt her - ow! well, i guess i didn't mean to hurt her really, but i was still mad!

...so i kicked the stove! oops. bad idea. made mama even more mad and i was told to leave the room. that's okay, i just went and played. i guess i wasn't that mad after all.

first field trip

last week i got to go on my first field trip with my friends oscar, ella, michael and daniel. my teachers miss amanda, miss jennifer and miss lisa went too. mama didn't go to work in the morning so she could go with me and ella and michael's moms went too. we all went to the zoo and for the most part it was fun.

yes, i say for the most part. at first it was kind of weird being with my friends and not being at school, but we all warmed up real quick when our teachers gave us our morning treat, which was extra special! instead of something healthy, like fruit or a granola bar, we got chex mix with marshmallows and m&ms!!! i couldn't believe mama didn't have a heart attack! hee hee...she's always bragging to everyone at how healthy she feeds me. (the funny thing about that is that i hardly eat anything these days -- i like cereal still, yogurt, cereal bars, and macaroni & cheese, oh and berries too. bananas are cool too i guess; nope, no meat or veggies either unless it's fish or potatoes) we went into the building with the aligators and turtles first. these turtles we're pointing at here were swimming around like crazy! the moms reminded us they were like the turtles on finding nemo--how cool!

then came the "oh man!" oh, yeah, that's my newest favorite saying. my friend michael and i we're really getting along very well. i overheard mama saying she was worried i was going to be a bully! no mama, i'm not a bully! sheesh...we were just kicking and pushing each other lightly. then, as usual, i didn't eat my lunch, which upset mama too.
a really neat part of my first field trip was seeing all the animals really close. i saw the gorillas (or "ga-gas" as i say) for the first time, the giraffes, rhinos and zebras were really easy to see too. i wonder where our next field trip will be.

babies and dragons

i saw lots of babies with their moms and dragons when we went to the detroit institute of art this weekend with aunt shekini and uncle darryl. we had so much fun. in the african art section there were all these statues of moms who were holding their babies (a favorite word of mine -- "baby" -- i like to visit the babies at school in my old room). and then when we were in the asian section, there were all these dragon masks. they looked like dinosaurs! it was so cool...i kept growling at them and everyone laughed and said how cute i was. heehee...i'll do anything to hear that! i love an audience.

after we went through the galleries, we went to this big area that mama thought i would like. there were huge walls that had paintings on them. they were really cool and there was a ton to see in them. mom said every time she goes there she discovers something new. she showed me a star on a man's shirt in the painting even. but, all i really wanted to do was show aunt shekini and uncle darryl how big i was and that i could push my stroller. i like this stroller best instead of my big one for pushing...it's smaller and not as heavy and has handles i can reach.
oh, i almost forgot. i also got to make a mask! we took all these scraps of paper from magazines and books and just plain paper and cut them up. then we glued them onto other paper and glued that paper onto a stick. then mom tied a string with beads on it for me to hold on to. it turned out very cool!

my money

i got to visit great-grandmama last week and boy was it fun. i found a pile of coins on the floor that she was going to put into these paper sleeves she called "rolls." at home, when i find a coin, i'm allowed to pick it up and go put it in the bank my grandma and granddaddy sent to me and it's mine. i kept trying to tell great-grandmama that, but she kept saying "it's my money!" everyone kept laughing, so i laughed too...i wanted that money for my bank! mama told me i'd have to look at home for more of my own though. and the next day she gave me two quarters for my bank!!

water fight

while i look happy here, bath time isn't so fun lately. mama gets mad because i like to pour the water on the floor outside the bathtub. i don't know what the problem is, it's fun! i get to fill my cup up, stand up (even though mom says "we sit in the tub"), and tip it upside down and hear all the water splash when it hits the floor. sometimes, i'll even get water on mom! ha ha...that's even more fun. so, i guess bath time IS actually fun...for ME!!!

daddy's book

i found this book of daddy's [mom's note: a dictionary] and wish i could read the whole thing. this one night last week i came across the book and just couldn't put it down. there were so many words and every few pages there was a picture to look at. mama thought i was silly because i refused to put it down. i even took it to bed with me as my na-night book.

quick learner

oh man! i like that saying. i heard mom say it this weekend and now i say it all the time. you say it when something goes wrong or doesn't go right, so any time i drop something or trip, i say "oh man!"

oh, but the point of this post--mom got a new camera. you can only imagine how many pictures in the past week she has taken! i've learned to just stop, say cheese, and move on. if you smile once she'll just say, "well, at least i got one smile out of you." hee hee -- am i a quick learner or what?!

time for school

school mornings are always crazy at home. but this particular morning mama and i just weren't in a hurry to get going. it was really pretty out and the sun was shining on the flowers. mama let me play in the yard while she got the car packed up for the day. of course, mama had to test out my "say cheese" ability, so out came the camera...what else is new with mom? this was a great morning!

girls, girls, girls

goodness...so many girls, so little time.

at another bbq we went to -- this time for auntie joslyn to see her new house -- i got to hang out with my cousins and all our family friends -- well, mostly the girls. i even met a new friend, jasmine. she taught me how to jump. she was 2 years old, only a few months older than me and we got along really well. we jumped together and ripped up grass and threw it in the sky. but then mama had to tell me to stop because i started throwing it at jasmine. oops...i guess i got carried away. that's okay. i made up for it when we were leaving. i made sure to give every girl a kiss! in this picture i'm giving cousin tamra a kiss...she's so sweet!

front row seats day 2 - 4th of july

this year for 4th of july, mom and daddy really did it all! we did the fireworks the night before and on the 4th we went to the parade with auntie becky.

we got front row seats for the parade, just like the night before at the fireworks. my favorite part was all the fire trucks from all the cities. there must have been 20 of them!!

fantastic fireworks

i got to see fireworks for the first time ever! uncle dennis and aunt andrea had us come to red run and we had front row seats! i got to play with kaitlyn and danny and i even got to play with my truck on the golf course before the fireworks started. it was the latest i had ever stayed up in my life -- 11 pm!!!

more "bobbies" please

have i told you grandmama's house is the best? well, it's even better when the berries are in season! raspberries that is...YUM!!!!

a&w "mo"

yeah, yeah, i know not all bears' names are "mo" but i like that name. so, for now, the a&w bear, the bears at the zoo, pooh, all bears--they are MO!

i got my first fast food this month. it was SO good! french fries are my favorite and i don't need any other food anymore. i have to say i haven't been a great eater lately. mama can't say i don't eat vegetables anymore though because i love all potatoes! especially french fries. forget about sandwiches too -- no thanks to peanut butter and jelly, hamburgers, whatever. nope. i'll stick to the fries. i share though, don't worry. i'll share with you and even mama and auntie becky's old a&w "mo" that they had when they were little.

a nink in the sink?

how cool is this? grandmama let auntie becky give me a bath in the kitchen sink! and grandmama went outside and took pictures of me through the window. i'm telling you...grandmama's house is THE best!!! i can't wait for when mama and papa go away for the weekend...that's gonna be a blast!!

say cheese

mama is so happy...i will now smile when she says "say cheese"
i don't really understand what that's all about, but everyone says that when they have a camera, "say cheese!"

oh, yeah, and yes i still like to make quite a mess while i'm eating. it's all for fun, don't worry...when we're out and about i eat like a big boy.

zoo in june

as always, the zoo was fun in june. i wore my safari outfit just for the day. it was a surprise trip to the zoo because we hadn't planned it. when we all woke up one sunday, it was pretty outside. the sun was shining and it wasn't too hot, so we jumped out of bed, ate breakfast real fast and got to the zoo in time for it to open. this time it was really cool because i can say so many more things. i can growl at all the big cats and bears and "ooo ooo eee eee ah ah" at the monkeys. i can jump like the frogs too.

cole got clocked!

ow, ow, ow!
in june, mama got her first, "you need to come take cole to the hospital" phone call from my teachers. i had my first REAL accident on the playground. i was standing at the end of the slide when another kid slid down and whacked me right in the mouth with his shoe (by accident). i was bleeding so bad and my teachers were all looking at my mouth because i had a really bad cut inside. i didn't want them to put ice on my mouth though because it hurt so bad, so i was allowed to have a popsicle instead! then they called mama and told her she needed to come as quick as she could because they needed her to decide whether or not i should be taken to the hospital. mama did come as fast as she could. she said she left everything on at work and left all her work behind and just left. she was so calm when she got there. she picked me up and got all my stuff together and packed me and everything into the car and took off calling dr. paul all at the same time. she had decided that since i had already stopped crying and my mouth wasn't bleeding anymore i didn't need to go to the hospital. we went to grandmama's to wait for my doctor appointment, which was an hour later. funny enough, grandmama had surgery on her mouth the same day so she couldn't talk good either and her mouth was all swollen too!

when we got in to see dr. paul he came in right away to see us. i was busy playing with the table and drawers and stuff in the room, but stopped to shake his hand hello as mama told me to. i made sure to say "ah" when he needed to look in my mouth. he said i just had a bad cut inside my mouth on my gum and on my lip. i also got a little bump on my forehead too somehow and on the left side of my mouth outside too. mom took this picture three hours after the happened and the swelling had come down A LOT (it was DOUBLE this) dr. paul said mom had every right to be worried and whoever got me "clocked me good"! so, no stitches this time and i was allowed to have all the popsicles i wanted--not usual in our house.

bedtime at grandmama's

auntie becky is in charge of bedtime at grandmama's house on mama and papa's school nights. it's so much fun. she pushes a bench up to the sink in the bathroom so i can do my own thing. i play in the water and splash all over the place and i get as many towels as i want to use. i also get to brush my own teeth. mama and papa are totally different. at home, it's all about just getting things done. mom and daddy make sure that i'm in bed right on the dot on time and they have dinner time and bedtime practically "down to a science"--as they say. i'm used to it and it's okay most nights (yeah, some times i give them a hard time, but wouldn't you? sometimes they give in and let me stay up late!!), but auntie becky is so much fun at bedtime!

beach pics - take 2

we went to the beach again this year to have some fun for the day and take pictures. last year we went when i was 1/2 a year old, this year we went when i was 1 1/2. here are pics from both years.

this year, i liked it more because i could throw rocks into the water like daddy. i also walked in the water this year too and played in the sand.

papa's day #2

for daddy's father's day gift, mama and i got him a really cool fishing pole and fishing licenses for him AND for me. yeah, i have my very own fishing license. we can't wait to try it out on vacation in just a few weeks (august).

1.5

my 1 1/2 "birthday" came with with a bang -- literally! mama was studying with some friends at school and there was a really bad storm that caused tornados close by and brought down lots of trees and power lines. it even brought down pieces of grandmama's trees in the front yard.

for my 1.5 birthday, auntie becky and grandmama got me a really special "mo" balloon. yes, "mo." sure, he might look like pooh bear or winnie the pooh to you, but he's mo to me.
for dessert after dinner, i got a whole plate of yummy, giant strawberries -- or, as they're known to me "bobbies." i call all berries bobbies. oh, "bobby" is also used for "potty." it's a very...well, what's the word? yeah, versatile...auntie becky is called "bobby" quite often too.

great-grandmama's 85th

mama, grandmama and i went over to great-grandmama's house for a very special birthday. she turned 85 years old. mama left work early and picked me up from school early so we could spend lots of time with great-grandmama that day. we stopped and got a big bunch of balloons in all different colors and a really pretty cake. then we got carry out dinner. when mama went to get some groceries for great-grandmama, i accidentally spilled over one of her plants, so i took her mini vacuum and helped grandmama clean it up. i liked doing it so much, i took that vacuum cleaner and cleaned her driveway for her too! i don't know why, but grandmama and great-grandmama were laughing so hard at me...they kept telling me how cute i was too!

happy birthday great-grandmama!!

just the guys

daddy took me to the zoo with my neighbor friend enzo and his daddy (my daddy's friend) nick memorial day weekend. that was a great weekend! we did so much.
enzo and i walked around and rode in our strollers and i got to see all my favorite animals--especially the ones that GROWL!!

let the bbqs begin...

summer officially began over memorial day weekend. i got to go to samuel and olivia's house and see a whole ton of my friends!

i got to see my newest friend, baby grace, her brothers nate and ben, of course samuel and olivia and one of their neighbor friends and a friend i hadn't seen since we were babies, isabelle. we had a ton of fun playing and eating all day and into the night.

g'field village

auntie becky and mama took me to greenfield village for the first time of the season in may. i got to ride the carousel again, but i didn't like it after a while. mom agrees with me. it goes and goes and goes and you start to think it's never going to end. we went out to lunch at a restaurant there and there was no place to change my diaper! mama was not happy. but, it was okay. we just went to a grassy area and changed it there...it was kinda funny because we were trying to hide me with the stroller so no one would see! at the end of our time there, we took the train ride around the whole way. we didn't get the cool old train though that sounds like a real train -- chuga, chuga, chuga, choo choo! -- it was so busy, they had a newer train that we got stuck with and it didn't make the cool sounds. hopefully next time we go, we get my train!

mad at mama

we all have good days and bad days. mama just had to pick a bad day for a haircut. i couldn't believe it. i had played hard at school that day and was tired, but she just had to take me aunt cathy's shop. my hair did look pretty cute after and my mood got better once auntie becky saw me and was so surprised to see how short and cute my hair was. once again, all my curls were gone.

i 'heart' walks

mama, papa and i had a lot of fun one day in may when we walked with mom's work for the heart walk. mama helped raise money to help people whose hearts don't work right. she helped with bbq lunches and contests that they call "raffles" where you win money or prizes and she even got to wear jeans (my favorite clothing word to say!) every friday for two months to help out.
and then when mama's work had all the money they needed, we all got together and went for a walk -- another one of my favorite things! i LOVE to go in my stroller...especially when daddy pushes me fast!

taking after mom and dad

yeah, okay, i guess i'm what they keep calling me -- a "product" of my mom and dad. yes, i love books. i love them when i wake up (after my breakfast, of course), i love them when my teachers read to me, i love them when i read to mom and dad and especially when they read to me...well, maybe more especially when it's na-night time.
mom and daddy let me choose one or two books to bring to bed with me every night and i read before i fall asleep. it's so cool. i read and then i get to have sweet dreams about all my neat stories that i read about and all the fun pictures i look at. oh, and check out all that hair! ha ha...yeah, i've gotten a hair cut since this picture, but i like the poofy curls. i can play with them when i get sleepy and it helps me fall asleep. i've always done that ever since i was a baby, especially with mama's hair. that's my favorite thing to do...i'm glad her hair is long now.

go mama go!

she did it! mama graduated from college!!
it was a really special day for us. mama, daddy, grandmama, auntie becky, granddad luke, granny flossie, uncle darryl, aunt shekini, auntie joslyn, auntie kim, tamra, tyler and justice, uncle dennis, aunt andrea, kaitlyn and danny all came out to watch mama graduate.
okay, so i took a nap through most of it -- we can let mama think that i was just so excited it wore me out...ssshhh...don't tell her it latest way too long!

mom's now in law school. don't worry, i'm trying hard to go to bed on time so she has time to study.

sweet tooth

auntie becky took me for a walk to the ice cream shop for my first ice cream cone. boy do i like ice cream! i even know how to say it!! i'm getting good at asking for the foods and drinks that i want.

and now that i have almost all my teeth (i'm still missing what they call "eye" teeth), i get to brush my teeth too. i do such a good job, that i'm allowed to do it on my own and mama or papa and grandmama or auntie becky (if it's a school night for mom and daddy) do "tooth check" to make sure i got 'em all. i love the taste of my toothpaste. it's called weleda and it's not supposed to be bad for me like other kinds mom says.

spring smiles

it's that time of year that mama is going to start taking pictures all the time, i just know it. i remember last year. she'd take millions of pictures for no reason at all -- okay, maybe not millions. her thing is always to try to take some pictures around the 8th of each month because that's the day i was born. this day was special though. my aunt becky's baby shower was this day, so mama looked really pretty and i was looking pretty cute, too. so, grandmama took some pictures of us. the only problem with these photo shoots -- i'm not exactly thrilled with sitting still these days. i really like to be on the go. daddy blames this on mama. i hear him say, "he gets that from you, ya know!" i guess it's because mama is always doing something. whether it's playing with me, doing stuff around the house, visiting friends and family, going to school, doing homework, or doing work, mama is always on the go--ha, see...just like me! mama must be copying my ways.

summer break

i had to say bye to my swimming teacher, miss emily, in april and mama and i were really, really sad. auntie becky came to take pictures and movies of my last lesson and i made sure to ham it up good! hee hee!

with mama's new school schedule and knowing how busy we are in the summer with all our friends and family, we decided we'd take a break for a little while. mama is hopeful to fit swimming back in come the fall. i hope so too. i still try to practice in the bathtub and i do that a lot lately because mama said that we get to swim almost every night when we go on vacation in august. i can't wait!!

hot blooded

during the spring dr. paul was giving me all my shots i needed to keep me healthy. this one shot made me have a fever for a couple days, but i was okay. this one day, mama picked me up and she had cousins danny and mady with her like we did for a bunch of thursdays to help aunt cathy out. my teachers told mama that i had a fever of 100 or 101. mama said okay, it was probably because i had been teething -- what else is new! do these teeth ever stop growing? well, we went out to dinner, then went to the park afterwards to play. while we were at the park, school called mama to remind her that i couldn't go back to school the next day because of my fever! boy was mama mad. just to show my teachers that i wasn't sick, we went to see dr. paul the next day since mama had to call in to work and take the day off anyway. well, mama couldn't believe it when dr. paul told her it was most likely the last shot he gave me. i felt fine though. she even told school that, but i guess it's because of something they call a 'policy' i couldn't go to school. mama said sometimes rules are just the rules. i'm starting to not like rules...rules always means "no no" to something.

javier's visit

so, i got to see the hospital for the first time since i was born. mama and i helped cousin sarah out one night in april because she had an accident and wasn't feeling very good and had to be taken to the hospital. my cousin javier was with her, but he needed someone to take care of him, so mama and i went and picked him up. i thought i wasn't going to be able to see him though because they didn't want me in the hospital in the 'er' because of all the germs. mama told the workers there the way it was though! we had to go help out so javier could come home with us and eat dinner and get ready for bed, just like me! we played a lot and i even stayed up late. aunt cathy, javier's grandma, came to pick him up after i went to bed though. i had a fun night and the hospital was quite the adventure.