Big girl, Good dog....

Michaela amazes me every day. She is truly a big girl and not a little baby anymore. When we go shopping she prefers to push the cart rather than sit in it. So my mom bought her a shopping cart of her own. Michaela had so much fun pushing it around the house and loading it with toys and books.

Michaela is also resisting her highchair lately, so I asked my mom and dad to bring up my chair from when I was a kid. This is a very special chair with long legs. My grandfather built it so that I could sit at the table without a booster seat or phone books. I almost cried when I looked at the bottom of the seat and saw the engraving "Kelly From Papa May 1983" and below it "Walter Hattersley". It kills me that Michaela won't know Pop, but she will know what a wonderful man he was. From the cradle she slept in as a baby to the doll house headboard waiting for her when she's a little bit older, Michaela will be surrounded by things that Papa has built.

Anyway, Michaela is turning into a chatterbox. She will often sit and read a book out loud, although we have no clue what she is saying. This morning she was having her own conversation with me while pushing her shopping cart around the house. I love how grown up she acts, leaning against the wall to chat.

Michaela happily ate her lunch at the table while sitting in the big girl chair.

Then she moved on to harass Riley. All I can say is that I have the best dogs in the world! It took Riley a while to accept that Duncan would let her near Michaela, but now they are best buddies. Riley is the most patient of all the animals with Michaela and really lets her get away with anything. I couldn't believe that she just laid there while Michaela straddled her and bounced on her back!

Michaela kept kissing Riley on the nose. Ri had no clue what to do so she just sat there and took it. I love her face - it's as if she was caught by surprise by the kiss on the nose.

Hugs for the Riley Bear!!!

Thank you Riley for being such a good dog!

Hoggetowne Medieval Faire

Today was the perfect day. We all slept in to 8:30, then Michaela and I got up and enjoyed a great breakfast while her Daddy slept a little longer. Then we had an awesome lunch at the Ivey House with my parents and Anita and Kerry Edwards. Delicious! Next we headed over to the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire. I have never been to the fair in the time I have lived in Gainesville, but we figured it would be a fun experience for Michaela. She loved walking around and waving hi to all the people while taking in the sites. Of course, the animals were her favorite. Michaela wasn't sure she wanted to pet the horse until Craig showed her it was ok.

Next I did something that goes against everything I believe in. I took Michaela for an elephant ride. I couldn't believe they had an elephant there! I honestly have to admit that I was a little excited about the elephant ride myself. I didn't realize how excited until I saw this picture my mom took.....There were also camels, but an elephant sounded more exciting. So I paid my $8 (4 bucks a person) and hopped right onto the back of Judy. Michaela liked it a lot! Of course, she was having more fun pointing at the camel and saying "oooh!".
When we got back around the circle Michaela looked down and saw her dad and grandparents and yelled "HI!" at the top of her lungs while waving. She was so happy up there.

We checked out the booths and Michaela tried on a crown. What a pretty midieval princess.

After wandering around the booths for a while we headed over for some equestrian demonstrations. Michaela loved watching the horses and was sure to yell hi to them as they rode by.

It was kind of fun seeing the big draft horses moving so quickly.

Next we checked out the birds of prey. We were sorry to have missed the falconry demonstration but I was pleased to see that the birds were on display and not in cages. I got some great pictures of the birds who were happily sitting on the table not more than a foot away.

Michaela was in a quiet mood today, but she was very happy to just walk along peacefully and take in everything there was to see.

Before leaving we stopped off to make some bubbles with the fancy bubble wands. Michaela kept yelling "Bubbles!" while she shook the wand with all her might. She was even able to produce a few bubbles all by herself.

This girl loves her Pop!

Before leaving she made sure to give everyone kisses. She's a great kisser!

This one's for the grandparents.....

Fun times

This past Monday we had a staff meeting at work. Since it was my day off I just brought Michaela with me. She always has fun seeing everyone and playing with the adoption animals. We have a litter of Yorkie mix puppies that are being hand raised by one of the techs. They were just over 4 weeks old when Michaela got to hold them. She is so gentle with the puppies and kittens!

Michaela loved this puppy so much she held him for the majority of the meeting. He curled up on her chest and snuggled up with her giraffe and slept for about 45 minutes. Michaela just stroked him along his back the whole time.

Michaela also loves playing with her dogs. She loves to play ball with them, but hasn't quite figured out how to throw it very far. Sony has a really strong jaw so we won't allow her to take the ball out of Michaela's hand. However, Sony is the most ball driven dog I know. I love how this video shows how much self control Sony has, even when she is dying to get to the ball. What a good dog!!!



Michaela also recently discovered the joys of feeding Bud. She just picked up some hay and brought it too him without any prompting. She is so observative, we don't realize that she is watching our every move and processing it daily. Obviously she saw Craig feed Bud hay at some point, but he wasn't even home when she tried it herself. We've got one smart little girl on our hands.



Today Craig and I took Michaela to the playground in Alachua to burn off some energy. Michaela loves the tall slide there, but I won't let her go down it alone because it is REALLY FAST! I mean, flying off the end of it fast. Also it's about one story high so I can't let her climb up to it without supervision. Luckily it's a double slide so we can go down next to her and hold her hand for the ride.

Michaela had lots of fun going on the swings too.

This picture makes me laugh so much! We are having a cold front and the slides have a lot of static electricity. When we get to the bottom of it we always shock eachother. Craig snapped this one while I was trying to avoid a shock from Michaela. Look at her hair!

Big Girl!!

Michaela is becoming such a big girl, and today we hit another major milestone. About two weeks ago I bought Michaela a big girl potty. Who knew there were so many different types of potties to choose from? There are the "low end models" which are just a seat all the way up to "high end" choices that include fake handles to flush and stickers that roll out as a reward. I went mid-level and picked one that isn't too fancy but does play a little tune with something hits a sensor in the bottom of the bowl.

So I brought the potty home and set it up in the bathroom. Michaela took one look at it and burst into tears. For a full week she was completely scared of the weird chair with a hole in the middle. If we got too close to it she would stamp her feet and cling to me in fear. Then Craig showed her the sensors in the bowl and she was happy to dance to the tune. For another few days Michaela would get close enough to put her foot in the bowl to activate a song.

Finally I convinced her to actually sit on the potty. She learned that it isn't going to eat her and she was very happy to sit there while she brushes her teeth. Then today we had a major breakthrough. She was brushing her teeth on the potty after breakfast and out of nowhere comes a happy little tune. I looked up thinking she must have dropped her toothbrush in the bowl. Nope....it was still in her hand but Michaela had a huge smile on her face and was dancing in time with the music. So what did set the song off?

Michaela peed in the potty!

Now I'm sure this was a total fluke accident, but it is still a really big deal. Michaela HATES getting her diaper changed and I always tell her that the sooner she's potty trained the sooner we can stop with the diapers. Now we're just one step closer to that goal.

What a big day for my big (little) girl!!

UPDATE: We had a repeat performance after dinner tonight. She may be onto something!

Visiting the new house

Monday was a gorgeous day and we started out by playing in the yard with all the animals. Michaela loves Bud and happily walks up to the gate to talk with him. She moos, he chews his cud. It's a great combination. The Aussies are always by her side watching ever so carefully. I think they're hoping we'll let them go practice their ingrained herding skills, but I don't see that happening in the near future.

This picture cracks me up. She's really checking him out!

Next we decided to head up to Jacksonville and check on the new house. We are really excited to get this process moving along. Hopefully we'll be able to close early and should be in there by the end of the month. I took advantage of the day to play with my new wide angle lens and take some pictures of the outside of the house. The window on the 2nd floor in this picture is the bonus room. The two windows below are the master bath and the part that juts out to the right is our master bedroom.

Here's a picture of the lake taken from our back yard.

This is the back of the house. I'm standing at the edge of the lake. The row of 5 windows to the left is the master bedroom. The curved windows to the right are the breakfast nook on the first floor and the 3rd upstairs bedroom. The 3 windows in the center are in the great room (which has a 20 foot ceiling). I have no idea how I'm ever going to clean those windows! The back porch is screened in, which is a nice bonus. I think Nicky (our cockatoo) will enjoy spending time out there.

Just a shot of the front of the house.

Next we headed over to the playground to let Michaela get some energy out. She had so much fun and couldn't decide if she wanted to swing or go down the slide first.

Getting ready to slide.....

Weeeee!

Here's a short video of her on the slide. She does it all by herself!

Here's a picture of the pool! I feel like we're moving to a resort! I think it will be so nice for us to be able to go swimming every day, and never have to worry about taking care of the water.

Finally, since today is the day of the national championship, Michaela wanted to show some support for our Gators. She says our team is so strong that we'll crush those Sooners! Go Gators!!!!

Fun videos

Here are just a few videos taken over the past few days. The first is from the day after Christmas where she discovered the bubbles coming from the front of her bike.

This next one is from the same morning of Michaela rocking out while stuffing her face. Seriously, this girl can eat! And she loves dancing while eating. Usually we listen to Jimmy Buffett in the morning, but sometimes we mix it up with some hip hop. Poor girl hardly ever listens to kid music.

As I have mentioned, Michaela loves practicing her animal sounds. Here's a short clip of her from breakfast this morning.