4th of July Fun

It was a 4th of July weekend celebration for us! We had a family bbq on Saturday at our house to celebrate mommy's 27th birthday. We feasted on carne and pollo asada, chips and guacamole, ceviche, dip, fruit and ice cream cake. It was our first time hosting a party this size in our new home, and it was so much fun! There was a good amount of drinking, dancing, and singing(?). Jason and I loved getting both sides of our families together and it definitely made a very entertaining night.


On Sunday, we went to the annual 4th of July celebration at the Cook residence. After last years festivities, the car races and illegal fireworks were shut down. Bummer. At least they were still allowed to light legal fireworks in their neighborhood. Michael played in their parksized backyard..and boy was he in heaven! He started off riding on Charlie's rollercoaster, then ventured off to Adelyn's water table and splashed so much water around that we had to refill the table with water! Then this wet baby played in the sandbox and got sand everywhere. He also made sure he sat on all four sides of the box. Up and down he sat. It was a lot of fun.

Zach, Denise, Wiley, Adelyn, Charlie

This year the two new boys of the group showed up - Zach and Wiley. Last year Michael was the baby of the group, and look how much bigger he's gotten. Smile Michael! Don't be so mean to the camera man.

15 month update

Michael is now 15 months old! Time flies when you're having fun. It feels like it was only yesterday that I was holding this little big munchkin in my arms for hours because he couldn't sit up, crawl or walk. He's now older, more playful and even more social. We play all day long, and when I say all day, I mean it...until 11pm, well lately midnight or later. Michael is a party animal. He sleeps sooo late and its getting tough for daddy who has to wake up for work at 5am.

He can understand almost everything you say, and he still uses gestures to communicate what he's trying to say. Here are a few things we'd like to remember about him at this stage:

• Words: He's starting to babble more. His favorite words start with the letters "b" or "d". He says ball, bat, bana(na), bub (boob), duck, dog, dair (there), dat (that). He also says hour (flower) and woah (pillow).
• When he wants to give you something, he will open your hand and place the object in it for you to hold it.
  
• He's so affectionate. He likes to give open mouth kisses.
• Food: He loves eating grapes, blueberry pancakes, anything with ketchup, turkey meatballs, and freeze-dried peas. We now have to hide veggies in other foods like mashed potatoes or coat them with ketchup. Thank goodness for freeze-dried veggies! He loves the crunch-sound they make.
• Teeth: He still has 8 teeth (upper and lower incisors), but the upper cuspids (canines) are poking through. Shouldn't the molars have grown already?
• Body Parts: In addition to the body parts he knew at 12 months, he knows hair, head, eyes, mouth, teeth, chin, fingers, hands, legs, arms, peepee and boobs.
• He has a favorite blanket and doggy that he hugs and holds so tight when he goes to bed.
• Tv: He loves watching Handy Manny and Yo Gabba Gabba. But anything with a catchy tune like the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Elmos World or the Fresh Beat Band, he'll run to the tv and dance.
  
• Hand dominance: We're still not sure. He feeds himself with two hands, but when given a spoon, he'll feed himself with his left. He throws balls with his left, but swings a bat with his right.
  

Diagnosis

A few weeks ago, Michael's MRI came out normal. Thank goodness! And the EEG he had a few days ago showed no seizure activity. The neurologist suspected that Michael's seizures weren't epileptic seizures but those that result from 'the breath holding spell'. The breath holding spell occurs when a child gets hurt and cries incessantly that they hold their breath or forget to breathe. And that is exactly what happened to Michael. He bumped his head both times, cried and cried until his body stiffened and went into seizures. It was such a horrifying experience to see your child turn blue and appear lifeless for a few minutes while you wait for him to come back and regain his breadth. We are so grateful that he hasn't had an episode since.

Michael, we love you very very much. You bring so much joy and happiness to everyone you meet. You're so friendly and kind that you draw attention from everyone everywhere you go. We hope you grow to be even more joyful and humble because you will definitely become someone great one day.

Day of Fun 6/22/10

We went to California Adventures right after breakfast to get fastpasses to watch the World of Color show. It was about 11am, and the line was already super duper long. It turns out that they were already sold out for the 10:15 showing, and we were still 40 minutes away from getting tickets to the 11:15 showing. I suggest that if you really want to see the show that you get passes first thing when the park opens. So we lucked out again...and decided to head to Disneyland and greet a few furry friends.

Never seen this sad squishy guy before

Oh you're still my favorite, Tigger

After naptime, Michael played with his water table. Thank goodness for the umbrella! It was much needed during the hottest time of the day. He had so much fun splashing water everywhere..

Once he dried off, we let him make his own spinach and mozzarella pizza. He rolled the dough and got flour everywhere! I love that he makes a mess with everything that he does. Our little luigi is gonna know his way around the kitchen!

Michaels first pizza

Father's Day Weekend

We had a great Father's Day weekend. It was all about daddy! We got Jason a really nice, stainless steel bbq grill (perfect timing for summer grilling)! Mommy helped carry it out of the back of the truck and boy did that seem like it weighed a ton. Along with the grill, we got a Bobby Flay book and some much needed grilling utensils. Daddy was so excited to play with his new toy, he bbq'd some carne asada for dinner that same night. It was soo yummy and Michael agreed.

Saturday night we celebrated Father's Day with lolo at the Yardhouse. Michael sat in a booster seat for the first time, and he did really well when there was food in front of him. But you all know he's quite the eater and hoovered everything in sight so when his food was gone, his attention diverted to everyone elses. He loves ketchup and can eat it all by itself. He swirls his fingers through it and tries to grab it with two fingers then puts all his fingers in his mouth. I think he gets more ketchup on his face than in his mouth though. His new favorite word is "hot". He told us the ketchup was hot hot so he flicked his wrist and got a glob of ketchup on daddy's white shirt! Then he was shocked to see the red spot, he tried to help clean it up. But instead he put full hand prints of ketchup on daddy's shirt. Oh boy what a mess! Happy Father's Day daddy, Michael only has love for you.

On Sunday we had lunch at Grandpa's house. Its amazing how they have new gadgets and gizmos everytime we visit. Michael sat in their new outdoor table (equipped with an umbrella) as he munched down his lunch..and Ethan's lunch... and snack after snack... after snack. We played bananagrams and Just Dance on the Wii, and boy did "wii" have so much fun!

Oh I left my camera at home on both occasions... silly me.

Mission: Sleep Deprivation at Disneyland

Mission Complete & Successful! For all of you who know Michael well, the two most important things to fulfill his days are food and sleep. If he doesn't get enough of the two things, he will be a grumpy grumpy guy at the end of the day. And today, we had to deprive him of sleep because he is scheduled to undergo a sleep deprived EEG. No daytime naps the day before and no more than 5 hours of sleep the night before. You may ask why he has to have an EEG? Well, a few weeks ago, he was very sick and dehydrated and experienced a few scary seizures, and an EEG can help determine if he has epilepsy...but there's a 50/50 chance that they may not spot it.

Anyway, we spent the entire day at Disneyland and California Adventures. He was a trooper! He stayed awake until the park closed. We spent hours in ToonTown playing in Goofy's playground. Michael got bullied and pushed around by some kid. The first time, he pushed Michael out of this pumpkin that you can crawl into. The second time, he chased Michael and pushed him down to the ground. We yelled, "HEY! You don't push!" He got so frightened his eyes popped wide open. Then his dad came and spanked him in front of all the other kids. Oh he also sat on and hit a little girl who was smaller than Michael. What a brat. I wish I took his picture so I can post it up and warn all of you. After playing we went to Mickey's house and stood in line to meet MM. It's a lot to ask of a 14 month old to wait in line for over an hour. At one point, he wanted to sit on the ground and of course I had to pick him up as the line moved. One lady behind us decided to walk over us and take our spot as I picked him up. Some people can be so rude! Big wow, she was one group closer to Mickey! I wish I could've punched her and her kid in the face. Just kidding ok not really. Well we finally got to meet the mouse, and the photographer snapped 32 pictures of Michael and only 2 of the cutters!!! Losers. They photographer said he's never taken so many pictures of any kid in his life. Michael is such a celebrity! =)

After all of this, we still hadn't gone on any rides and it was already 7pm! We spent the next 3-4 hours having dinner and dancing at California Adventures during their Glow Fest. It's like a rave/street party with neon lights. Michael thought it was so rad as he danced the night away. We'll try to catch the World of Color next time...

Thank you Tita Carmel and Anyleis for keeping Michael entertained all day! Let's do it again next week. ;)

All smiles at 10:30pm!

I'm tough.

Two ladies and my music. What more could I ask for?

Feeding Mickey my hand. He looked hungry.

LA Zoo and the Beach

Michael decided to wake up at 7:30 this morning when he normally wakes up at 9! I think he was really excited to see his friends at the zoo so he woke up extra early to give us enough time to get to LA by 10am. We saw sea otters, flamingos, alligators, chimps, gorillas, lions, a tiger, giraffes, eagles, tortoises, and many more 'sleeping' animals. I guess it was just way too hot for them to be out playing. We saw a few rams, and this one Mexican dad told his kids they were goats! LOL. Maybe he should read the sign and teach his kids properly? He probably thinks eagles are just really big birds.

Michael didn't really care much for the sleeping animals. He loved the sea otters, the roaring tiger, tortoise, and eagles. If you ask him what a tiger says, he will roar but his sounds more like "aargh"!

After the zoo, we headed to Huntington Beach to celebrate Denise's 3rd birthday. It was Michael's first time playing with sand at the beach, and he absolutely loved it! He went crazy with his shovel. He had sand in his hair, eyes, ears, nose and buttcrack! We finally met the two little Browns - Zachary and Wiley who were born just a few weeks ago. They did what babies do best...sleep! Michael tried to share his sand toys with Zachary, and he was insistent that Zachary hold the toys, except he didn't realize that the baby is still just a baby and can't play yet. What a nice boy! He would make a great brother someday...just not today. =)

Where's the chimp?

Betcha can't pet an alligator like me!

Oh the warm sand feels good between my toes