22 months: Living the Good Summer Life

Photo courtesy of Abeille Photography from Awesome kids Day!

This month Micah has:

• been a frequent flier. Right after his 21st birthday, he flew from the bay area to Denver and then of course back to Seattle. 
• almost gotten lost. Mom and Dad had their first momentary panic as Micah escaped all four of us (yes, Nana and Papa too) as we were about to board the plane to Denver!
• got to stay at his Aunt Beth and Uncle Ben's house where he played with balls and chalk in their backyard, fed Uncle's fish and watched the crab and "Blastamousa" (i don't really know what it is either…some kind of coral or something, but Uncle Ben taught Micah the word and he loved repeating it over and over).
• Got to learn more about Trains at the Colorado Train Museum and on the Leadville Colorado Train ride. 
• Had so much fun in Vail swimming in the pool, playing in the splash parks, playing on the playgrounds (one was a pirate ship!), spending time with family, and running up and down ramps and all around the grass. He watched birds and chipmunks, and got to ride a horse, "wrangle steer", get wrangled by Daddy, and roast marshmallows. 
• Had his first ice cream cone all to himself! Chocolate from Bonny Bray in Denver and he couldn't get enough! It was so funny since he was so tired and was just totally zoned out. Then of course the next hour he ran like a mad man all over Wash Park non stop! At least he had fun!
• learned so many new words and phrases. Said things like quickie (with laughter), gondola, blastamousa, oh god…oh god…, crap! (yes…this has happened more than once! oops!), over here, over there, get in here, hold you (a signal to pick him up), Mommy do it, Daddy do it, open-meal (oatmeal), green and yellow (his responses always when asked what color, one-two-three (he can count to three and sometimes says other numbers randomly like eight nine!), and just started saying five word sentences.
• went poop in the potty almost every single day of our vacation and some days after we got home! 
• got scrapes and scratches from climbing every thing in sight!
• started almost interacting with other kids at the playground. Once he was at Lincoln Park playing with rocks and another little 2 1/2 year old boy joined him. Micah looked at the kid and said "rocks!" and then they played together for about 20 minutes saying a few more words to each other and running around! So super cute! Another time, at the zoo, he was walking down the path and a 4 1/2 year old boy came up to try to look at his Cars t-shirt and then Micah held out his hand to the boy, the boy took it, and they proceeded to walk holding hands down the path for like two minutes. The other boys parents and Phil and I were cracking up…it was so adorable! 
• blew bubbles, did watercolors, went to look in a pet store, went to the zoo again, spent a few days at Lake Washington at Coulon Park, hung out in the wading pools at Hiawatha and Lincoln Park, had a few picnic dinners at Lincoln Park and Alki, went to the spray park in Burien a few times, hung out with a lot of older kids (like some of Mommy's old students at The Cove, and some new friends thanks to our Pathways Connect group), went to the kidsquest museum (to mostly play on the big train table) and had a ton of fun!
• spent his second 4th of July "walking" in the Burien parade (after we checked out the after party of the West Seattle kids parade in the Admiral district) and hung out with lots of fun families at a good ol' fashioned BBQ. 
• tried weeding the yard like Daddy and Gramma
• had lots of mini temper tantrums…I told you he's already like a 2 year old! 
• Responded well to Love and Logic!!!! We are amazed that we are already seeing results. Seriously…pick up this book: 
• had fun at Awesome Kids Day in Burien where he got his first face paint (a doggie on his hand) and went in the jump house (not really into it) and one of those blow up obstacle courses (really liked part of it!), and did some good people watching.
• Hammed it up with new adults. My girlfriends came over for happy hour one night and I've never seen Micah be so silly and smiley and cute before.
• had his first chiropractic adjustment. It wasn't anything major, but his scanned showed a little spot that was a bit out of alignment and since Dr. Collins is so awesome and since we believe in preventative medicine and not reactionary medicine, we decided to do it. He seemed to think the whole thing was a pretty cool experience.
• Spent more time with his Nana when she came to visit for a few days (he even had a night alone with her and Gramma so that we could get a parents night out!) 
• Loved having his gramma back in town after she was gone for about a week in Idaho
• Hung out with his buddy Isaac at a BBQ at our house. They both were digging in the backyard and took a bath together. So cute. 
• Got to visit Anna and Ryan and the babies again and got to meet baby Mason (our friend Crickets cute new arrival)! 
• started taking showers instead of baths!
• started to get very brave with his balancing and climbing. Also started to really like to play with balls and kick and throw them. We had a funny night where he actually caught the ball a few times by pure luck!

Hanging out at Lincoln Park

Two out of three times he has completely enjoyed the bike trailer! One time...not so much!

He's quite the funny guy now too. This is his "hockey helmut" pose

stickers save us on dinners out

I couldn't help but be impressed when he totally took to the scooter!

the imaginative play phase is starting and I love it! He totally lined the chairs up like this all on his own on our stop in a bookstore in downtown Puyallup

Micah's gotten several opportunities this summer to check out fire trucks and police cars, like this one on the 4th of July!

Just one of the kids playing with bubbles at a fun 4th of July BBQ

Fun playing with big kid friends at Coulon Park on Lake Washington

Some weeks he eats everything we put in front of him, other weeks hardly anything at all

This day was so cute! Abby and Micah were born just days apart and Abby's mom and I worked together when we were pregnant, so it is extra special to see these two start to interact!

Not the best photo, but this is the day to day stuff..."the burrito" after a shower look

How many kids are this lucky to get time with both Grandmothers together!?

Boys and their digging! Here's Micah and his friend Isaac who is 9 months older, but it is fun to see the development gap start to narrow a bit!

Micah's become quiet the little climber! This is climbing the big rocks at Camp Long!