Inside and Outside

Now that the weather is so beautiful, on every weekend day we wake up to Misha standing at the door fully dressed with his shoes on begging us to go outside and dig with him, or go to grandma and grandpa's, or ride his bike. We groggily climb out of bed in our pj's and try to stall him as long as we can.

Earlier this month, we took Misha to the Kite Day festival in Brookings. There were lots of fun kites to see, and we tried flying our own for awhile before the wind petered out.





Misha with my old Pound Purry. He knows he can't have a real pet because we live in an apartment, but he tells me sometimes, "I want a house so we can have a cat and a dog!"



However, we did set up our 20-gallon fish tank for him. So far it only has a few tiger barbs, an otoclinus catfish, a garami, and an algae eater, but we'll add a few more as it gets established. (The tigers attacked all our neon tetras.) The tank looks very pretty and we like the sound of running water.

In the front row apartments where we live, there are four kids ages 2-4 plus one sweet old man who treats them all like grandkids (giving them candy and such!). So when one family sets out a swimming pool, all the kids go play in it. It's really nice. Here is Misha playing with Kayden, Kelsi, and Bella...







Boys vs. Girls: Kayden and Misha with their cups of water ready to chase the little girls down the sidewalk.


Soaked through and through! I told him he should have put on his swim suit!







We've also been playing some soccer. Here he is at Lyons Park, with the beautiful crab apple blossoming in the background. Brookings looks gorgeous right now, like a Dr. Seuss world full of pink and white cotton candy trees!



Misha was really excited about Grandpa's push mower - he's even strong enough to push it!

Misha finished the last gymnastics class of the session this week! At the end, all the kids were presented with medals. You should have seen them! Misha was especially proud - he came running over to us afterward saying "Look at what I got!! Why did I got this?" He even took it to day care the next day.



The medal ceremony.



Misha and his medal. We decided to take the summer session of gymnastics off, and start again in the fall if Misha wants to.

To the Zoo!

For the first time since last fall, we took Misha to a zoo. He was so excited. His favorites were anything he could feed - parrots, peacocks, donkeys, goats, ducks - as well as the monkeys and penguins. After we had seen everything, he noticed one glaring omission: "Mommy! They forgot to put the elephants in! Why?" I guess we'll have to try to make it to a bigger zoo sometime!

If you click on this photo to view it larger, you can see the baby is nursing.

A few videos of Misha feeding the donkeys and goats ...




After a few hours at the zoo, a drive home, gymnastics class, a pizza outing with some gymnastics buddies, and playing at a park, Misha looked like this:

Fun at Grandma and Grandpa's

Last weekend, we celebrated my mom's birthday.



Misha with Grandpa and Grandma. Oddly enough, it's Misha who looks exhausted!

Misha was proud of the card he made.

My parents got Misha a turtle sandbox - heaven for Misha, of course! He can spend hours digging in the sand. He thinks it's great.





Another thing Misha loves is planting seeds - he helped Grandma plant some flowers, pumpkins, and carrots.



Some other recent pictures -



If it's too cold to play squirtguns outside, there's always the bathtub. Even better if Daddy's in the tub too!





Park fun.



Every spring Misha really likes picking dandelions.



Time for ice cream!

Freckle Juice

The sun really brings out Misha's freckles, and this summer he seems to have more than ever! Every day I think, "Did you have that many freckles yesterday?" :)







He loves riding his bike now that it's nice ...





Our neighbors bought a little fuzzy black duckling to take out to their grandparents' farm - but before it left, the kids got to play with it. Kids and a duckling make great photos! Misha loved it - loved holding it, following it, feeding it Cheerios, and imitating its peeping sounds. He said, "When he's little, he says 'peep peep!' but when he gets big he'll say 'quack quack!'"

Daddy and Misha and the little duckling.


Kayden, our neighbor, and Misha smiling.


Ah, this would have been the greatest photo except for the stupid camera strap! Photoshop, anyone?


Daddy and Misha again. Below, a video of the kids with the duck. :)

For Kicks

Misha likes to sit on my lap and feel his brother kicking - he gets the biggest "kick" out of it! He moves his little hands all over and waits for his brother to move, then he laughs with delight and exclaims, "He kicked me! That was a big one!"

Here are the three of us:



Misha is getting so excited about being a big brother. He says such sweet things like, "Mommy, thank you for getting me a little brother!!" He says he's going to be my helper and he will share his Whinnie the Pooh car, his bike, and his hopper ball with him when he gets big enough. He's eager to learn how to hold the baby. My due date is June 21, so Misha won't have to wait much longer!