Labor Day Weekend and 18 month old Mikey

We went to West Jordan for Labor Day weekend to spend time with friends and family. Vern and Cheryl were wonderful hosts to us, as usual, and even put up with the fact that I was sick all weekend and needed help with Mikey. (I have had a cough/sore throat and now allergies, too, for TWO weeks, but am finally starting to get better. This is the record for the longest lasting sickness I've had -- beside morning sickness.) On a happier note, we were lucky enough to be in Utah for my cousin Landon's baby blessing. He and his wife Kendra have a son, Logan, who's 2 months old and very cute. A lot of my extended family from the Glenn side was in town for the blessing and it was fun to see everyone on Sunday afternoon. The Glenns put on a delicious barbecue for everyone at their house after the blessing. I was not good with my camera this weekend, so I only have a few pictures. The picture above is Mikey and his cousin Mya playing with rocks in Landon's back yard. Don't worry, they had a good layer of sunscreen on before this. I like how Mikey's white skin glows next to Mya's tan. Ha ha. Kind of like I glow next to Liz (Mya's mom).

The only other pictures I took that weekend were a few of Mikey at this park in West Jordan. It's a really fun park with multi-level wooden structures that make it look like an old West town. He had a blast running through all the different corridors and climbing the stairs. He's getting to be quite the adept climber. I have found him standing on top of my piano, standing on top of the bathroom countertop, and even on our bed, which reaches up to his chin when he's standing next to it.

We love our little boy so much! He is such a source of joy in our lives. He recently turned 18 months and I have put off doing a post about it until now. I just wanted to write down some of the fun things Mikey does and says at this age.

In the picture below, I was packing for our trip to Utah last weekend and Mikey saw me pack his swimming trunks. He came up to me and took the shorts from me and held them out like he wanted me to put them on him. So, I did. Then I took off his other outfit and he grabbed the shorts he had on previously (with the Hawaiian print) and put them on his head and started running around and laughing! He is such a goofball!

When I am singing to him before his naps or bedtime, I like to sing Primary songs. One of the ones I sing to him is "I Know Heavenly Father Loves Me." When I get to the second verse, he hears the lines, "He gave me my eyes that I might see the color of butterfly wings. He gave me my ears that I might hear the magical sounds of things." At that point in the song, he always lifts his head from resting on my shoulder and looks at my face and points to my eyes when I sing about eyes, then points to my ears when I sing about ears. He proceeds to point to other parts of my face, so I can name them for him. When he's done, he puts his head back down on my shoulder and snuggles up to me again. It has become a ritual I think is really cute. In fact, we just started putting him in his toddler bed at night to sleep. Friday night, Kevin put him to bed and Mikey stayed in bed all night, without trying to get up once. Last night, I took my first turn putting him to bed. At first, he kept trying to roll over and get out of bed, but then I gave him some stuffed animals to hold on to and I put my face really close to his and he did the 'pointing to Mom's features' game again. Two of his favorite things to point to on me are the mole on the right side of my face, and my teeth. When he points to my teeth, I softly bite his finger, then he points to his own teeth and smiles. Anyway, that game seemed to calm him down and then I left his room, said goodnight, turned off the light and closed the door and he stayed in his bed all night again! We thought this was going to be a difficult transition getting him to sleep in the toddler bed, but he has made it SO easy so far! I think the naps will be much harder. We'll see.


Some of the words Mikey says right now are "mama", "dada", "papa" for grandpa, "nana" for grandma, "cuh-tuh" for cartoon, "boo" for blue, "shzz" for shoes, "choo choo" for train, "sish" for fish. When I ask him about what sounds animals make, the ones he gets right most of the time are dog: "nnn! nnn!" (he makes a barking sound with the n consonant), pig: "oik!", duck: "cack!", kitty: "neeun" (sounds similar to a meow), and horse: "NEIGH!" For some reason, when he makes the horse's sound, it's always louder than any other animal. :) And, with the word, "cuh-tuh" for cartoon, we have been showing him some cartoon episodes on our laptop from Netflix. This morning, I had the laptop out getting ready to make this blog post and Mikey came out of his bedroom, first thing in the morning, walked up to me at the computer and said, "cuh-tuh!" It was really cute.

He is very generous with hugs and kisses, like he always has been. He is learning about bribery, though, since when he wants something from you, like to sit on your lap, he will come up to you and kiss your leg until you lift him up. Also, if he hurts himself, even a minor thing like bumping his finger on a toy, he holds the injured part of his body (usually a hand) up to my face with an imploring look in his eyes, so I can kiss it better. Then he goes on his way.

He likes pretending to talk on the phone, and Kevin says when they play with his cell phone together, Mikey will sometimes shove Kevin's face to the side, kind of forcefully, then put the phone up to Kevin's ear so he can talk too.

Mikey loves to be outside. He also loves seeing animals. Whenever we walk past a dog in the neighborhood, if Mikey hears the dog barking, he will start barking back, "Nnn! nnn!" and Mikey always wants to pet the dogs when the owners are there with us. Mikey is also obsessed with rocks. He loves to pick them up from one place and put them in another. This is a game my grandma Sue calls "put and take." Mikey will often take the gravel from our neighbor's yard, one or two rocks at a time, and drop them down the storm drain in front of our house to hear the splash. My mom taught him that game a few months ago and he still loves it. If he's ever outside and there are rocks around, you will usually find Mikey holding or playing with one or more of them.


And that brings us to our last picture of the cousins. I like to think Mya is showing Mikey how to make fire by hitting two rocks together. :) I'm so happy Mikey has a cousin his age on the Glenn side to play with as they get older. They get along so well!