One more for the month

February has been quite a month.  Some parts seemed to drag by while others flew right by.

For anyone that doesn't already know, we've had some sad days.  Our friend, Jen, lost her husband earlier in the month.  Jake spent some time with both Grandma and Grandpa and Meme and Papa while Michele and I were over in Holland.  We told Jake that he got to take a trip by himself like Mommy and Daddy have done before.  Michele spent most of the week with Jen, while I made it over the night before and then stayed through the funeral.  While it's hard to find anything good in something like that, it was a beautiful service.  The priest that married them officiated, so he was able to get quite personal, which I think helped.  Our thoughts and prayers are constantly with Jen, hoping that she can move on from this.  She is, afterall, not only a friend, but one of the biggest readers of this blog!  You can view the site that they put together for Bret here.  There's even a nice video that they put together that played during visitation.  He will be missed!

Aside from that, we had a few spring-like days that found Jake excited to play outside without being all bundled up.  Pete and Teri are down in Florida for a vacation and getting even more spring weather than we had here.  Based on Facebook pictures and postings, it seems like almost everyone we know has been to Florida recently.  While they are down there, we are watching Chelsea the kitty cat for them.  Jake is having a blast.  Even if she's bad and hissing he gets to tell her "No, no Chelsea.  That's not nice."  He gets a kick out of that for some reason.

Then, to end the month with a bang, Jake came down with the flu.  Luckily he was only sick to his stomach for about 12 hours, but they were rough.  He's old enough where he can tell us he's about to be sick, but not old enough to hold it to get anywhere convenient.  Luckily, he has no problem using a bucket for his business.  Michele stayed home one day with him after having to get up a few times during the night.  Since a queen-sized bed is no room for two adults AND a toddler, I got to sleep throught he night downstairs while Jake and Mommy slept in our bed.

You can find our photos from the month here.  Michele has been going crazy with the video feature on the camera, and one day, I'll get around to posting some of those as well.

Winter Blast 2009

On Saturday we headed downtown to check out the Winter Blast. Jake was surprised when MP&A met up with us! The weather was gorgeous for early February. While that was great for us, it wasn't so good for the ice rink. Please click here to see the photos.

Jake learned that while he IS indeed getting bigger, he's still got some growing to do. He wasn't tall enough to ride on the ice slide with Alison and I. Initially, I figured he should be able to ride on my lap, but after zipping down it as fast as we went, I understood why that wasn't an option. On top of that, he didn't get to go out on the ice when I helped Alison skate for the first time.

Alison tried really hard to get the hang of it, but I think she's going to need a lot more practice. She only fell one time when I couldn't keep her from going all the way to the ice. Unfortunately, the one time was right into one of the big puddles that the warm weather caused to form at different spots on the rink. At least she had on snow pants and a winter coat, so she didn't get soaked to the core.

Jake WAS big enough, however, to enjoy some marshmallows! They had fire stands set up for roasting, and Jake really got a kick out of helping Mommy catch the marshmallows on fire.

We finished up our trip downtown with lunch at the Hard Rock and then a ride on the People Mover back to the Ren Cen.

After some people took naps and others played PS3 back at our house, we headed over to Mark and Kelly's to eat some Macaroni Grill takeout and celebrate Papa's birthday. Mark and I (and families) bought him Deer Drive for the Wii, so we were able to test it out on Mark's system. It was a pretty fun arcade-style hunting game. Now, we just hope that Dad will actually play it at home!

On Sunday, Pete and Teri drove down and went to Church with us. We then came back to our house where I made some delicious pancakes using our favorite Trader Joe's pancake mix. They hung out with Jake until it was time for his nap, and then they headed back up to Fenton.

After Jake's nap, we continued to exploit the warmer weather and took Jake on a wagon ride to the park. Jake was thrilled that he got to wear his rain boots, and didn't need snow pants since his pants could tuck right inside the boots! The park was a bit of a mess, but he did get to burn off some energy before the wagon ride back home.

Great Weekend

You know it's a great weekend when you get the best weather of the month, a happy child, and the Super Bowl all packed into two days!

We've been trying to teach Jake that if he goes to sleep right away (instead of talking or singing or playing) that he'll be a happier baby the next day. He seems to be getting it. This weekend went very well. He got to play with tons of stuff in the house, and then he and Mommy finally got to play outside for a bit on Sunday giving Daddy the house to himself for the pre-game shows.

I thought the Super Bowl was a very good game. I was rooting for Pittsburgh, so in the end I was happy. Of course, with the Cards scoring as much as they did, I blew my playoff pool chances that I lead going into the game.

Michele and I both thought they had some pretty good ads again this year. Our favorite were the E*Trade commercials, especially the one that gave Uncle Mark his new nickname on the golf course of "Shankapotamus" (the other is here). The Pepsi "I'm good" commercial was pretty good too. Our favorite "artsy" commercial was probably the Coke commercial with the heist.

Since the weekend split up over two months, you can see our latest photos here and here.