Visitors
I recently realized that we rarely make the effort to "entertain" or "be entertained" more than once a month. The majority of my socializing happens with other mamas. However, with the end of the semester and the holiday season in full swing we managed to have a couple get-togethers. First, we had Brad, Jen and their daughter Ana over for afternoon pancakes. They had inspired the meal when they gave Mikey the book entitled "When you give a pig a pancake" for his first birthday. It was a delight to have them over.
Back when Cousin Nick and Mere moved to Missoula I was excited because I hoped that it meant I would get to see one of my favorite people, Aunt Harriet, more often. Sure enough, my wish is coming true. This December, when I normally would not have seen Aunt Harriet because my family-travels take me places other than AZ to see my immediate family, Aunt Harriet came to see Nick and Mere...and me. It was a whirl-wind trip for her and it sounded like she had a lot of fun taking an adventure down the Bitterroot for some skiing and an impromptu over-nighter. But she managed to squeeze us into her schedule for some Biga Pizza and lots of hugs and kisses. Yay!
Dino Dig. (I made a note about Dino Dig, which is an exhibit at the Children's Museum, but I cannot remember what about it. Perhaps December is when Mikey first found the exhibit.)
California Christmas
To Celebrate the Holiday Season we were off to southern California to see Nichole and Dave, and Alex and Jenny. My parent met us there and we spent a couple weeks frolicking beachside in Oxnard.
Cars and Trucks and Things that Go
I'm not sure what Mikey's favorite part of the trip was. He just loves new things and it was two weeks of new things every day. Of course, GRandma and Grandpa were prepared with oodles and oodles of gifts. When we first arrived we got to play with the gifts that weren't Christmas gifts...a massive collection of wheeled things - cars and trucks. Then Christmas morning came and there were so many gifts for Mikey that I lost track of who gave him what! I think Mikey's favorite thing was a toy backhoe loader. At home, a favorite book called "Scoop" was read over and over. Scoop is a backhoe loader. Evidently, Grandpa had dug through all the toys like it to find the backhoe loader instead of the dump truck or whatever other models there were. Mikey stood and jumped and indicated that he couldn't wait to play with it but I was working as fast as I could to get it out of the package! (This was a favorite gift but we couldn't come home with us to Missoula because it wouldn't fit in the luggage. When we got home, Mikey absolutely would NOT read the book "Scoop." He was apparently boycotting. We did bring a different favorite toy, Lightning McQueen Shake-n-go that says, "Speed, I am Speed" and goes on its own. We nicknamed this toy "Speed.") Mikey also got a Strider Bike and he was equally excited to play with it while Mike put it together. But then he got frustrated because he couldn't play with it the way he wanted.
Ellie the Dog
Nichole and Dave stayed with us at the condo as much as they could. Of course, Ellie came with them and Mikey was thrilled. He LOVES dogs and I think he thought Ellie was his new very own dog. Since we always greeted Ellie by yelling "Ellieeeee" in high-pitched voices so Mikey started calling her "Eeeeee." He also liked to chase her around and give her hugs and kisses.
The Beach
Every day we went to the beach. The beach, the beach, the beach. At first, Mikey seemed skeptical. He wasn't sure about the ocean. He wasn't so sure about the sand. But after we chased the waves and showed him that he was supposed to laughed and squeal as the water pounded he started to squeal, too. Then he learned that he could run up and down the sand without us stopping him, he just would run and run and run. He also liked digging in the sand. It was a delight to watch him enjoy the beach.
Mikey also liked to walk up and down the ramps at the harbor. I realized that his obsession with doing this was driven by the desire to be like the "big boys" at the park who walk up the slides. More on that later....
Friends
We got to show off Mikey to some old friends...
Danielle and Lyle Harlow came to visit us. It was so nice to see them and catch up.
We also met Mike and Sarah Savage and their daughter Harper at the Tar Pits. What luck that they were visiting southern California from Michigan at the same time we were there from Montana. It was lovely to see how Harper is growing up (it had been almost three years since I had seen them!).
