Superstar

Today I picked up a pair of sunglasses for Michaela in the dollar section at Target. I had no idea they would be such a big hit. She had lots of fun putting them on all by herself, even if they were a little bit crooked.

She was very proud of the way she looked wearing them. I thought she looked very cool.

Michaela likes to help me put Riley in her crate when we leave the house. Although you can't here it, she actually stands there and says "Riley" while patting her leg. I think it's adorable how much she likes to help out and boss around the animals all at the same time.

Silver Springs

This past Sunday was a beautiful day, so we decided to pick up a Publix sub and have a picnic at Silver Springs. The park is so quiet and laid back and just perfect for an afternoon together. Michaela loved eating her sandwich while watching the birds and fish in the river.

We had fun watching the bird show where she cheered for all the birds as they flew by. She thought the giraffe was very cool as well.

Of course Michaela loved riding on the carousel with her daddy.

She cheered and waved hi every time the came around the bend.

We had lots of fun on the glass bottom boat ride where she saw fish and birds and even monkeys.

Aunt Sarah and Uncle Yiger come to visit!

Warning! This post contains LOTS of pictures!!!

Last week my brother Jeff and his lovely wife Sarah came down to visit. Unfortunately this was the same week that my boss was out of town and needed me to cover for her. However, I arranged to have Friday off and Michaela and I drove down to Bradenton to see them. Poor Craig was stuck working and missed out on the visit. I'm really sad we didn't have more time with eachother, but that's the way life works out sometimes. Hopefully we will see them again soon. Anyway, Michaela was excited to see everyone, even though it took a little bit of time for her to remember Jeff and Sarah. She hasn't seen them in almost a year! When we got there Michaela had lots of fun bringing books to everyone to read to her. First she enjoyed a couple of picture books on her Pop's lap.

I love this picture my mom took of Michaela on my dad's lap. Look how tiny her hand is compared to his!

Then she convinced Nana to read Marvin K Mooney Will You Please Go Now! Michaela gets so into this book and will point her finger at Marvin and then wave and say "BYE" at the end of the book.

Sarah and I had fun looking at pictures on the computer.

We convinced Yiger that Michaela would warm up quicker if he read to her from her favorite books. You will notice that she has her own cow (courtesy of Nana and Khol's) that matches the cow from Mr. Brown Can Moo.

I love this picture of the three of them enjoying a book together.

Michaela had lots of fun goofing off with her Uncle Yiger.

Yiger and Sarah brought their little dog Opti along with them. While Yiger and I took their kayaks out, Sarah and Mom took Michaela and Opti for a walk to the playground.

It seems that Michaela had LOTS of fun with Aunt Sarah on the swings.

I love this picture of my wild-haired girl at the top of the slide.

After the playground they headed down to the end of the canal to wait on the dock for us to come back. Michaela hugged Opti close and watched the birds across the canal. Opti was just her size.

These two love eachother!

Opti even got to try out a ride on the kayaks.

Michaela fell asleep on Aunt Sarah while they waited. What a sweet picture!

Opti had a little cat toy that she loved playing with. It didn't take long for Michaela to figure out how much fun the tiny puppy could be.

Check out the smile! Michaela had a blast playing with Opti!

Opti looked adorable in her little life jacket.

While Sarah and Yiger packed, Michaela ran around the house collecting as many things as she could. This girl is going to be trouble when she discovers the outlet malls later on in life!

Yiger and Sarah (and Opti) with all their toys loaded up and ready to drive back to New Jersey.

We had lots of fun playing with all the stupid extras on my little camera.

The lovely couple...

Fairy Princess Sarah

Welcome to the Love House

Sorry. I couldn't come up with anything better than this......

Michaela trying on her Nana's reading glasses

Yiger and Sarah had to get up early to get on their way the next morning so they were off to bed. Sarah asked for a kiss and Michaela blew her one.

The second try was more successful.

Pop read Michaela one last story before bedtime. What a big yawn!

Michaela wanted to try on Pop's glasses.

What a cool lady!

The next morning Michaela enjoyed a yummy breakfast. We sure did have fun with everyone!

A few cute shots....

Valentine's day was crazy this year. Both Craig and I had to work and it seemed like all the crazies came out of the woodwork. Craig actually didn't get home until almost 11:00 that night! Michaela was my little helper and went to work with me in scrubs. Anita dropped them off for her earlier and I couldn't wait for her to wear them. They are actually embroidered with "Michaela, DVM to be". How adorable! We have the greatest friends in our lives who are always thinking of us and our sweet little girl. Thanks Edwards family!

That afternoon (after Michaela spilled water all over herself) the silly girl decided to walk around the house in my old sneakers. She did surprisingly well considering the shoes are like clowns feet to her tiny body.
She didn't seem to mind that they weren't even on the right feet half the time....

Michaela has a love of stuffed animals that is getting slightly out of control. Her giraffe is still the favorite, but she also favors the pink bunny and the floppy dog. Sometimes we find her snuggled up with 4 or 5 stuffed animals at once. This is how we found her on Wednesday morning - with her giraffe, bunny, elephant, and floppy dog. I can only imagine how many she'll hold onto as her arms get bigger.

Wednesday Tiller came to work with me to get some bloodwork done. She's fine, but I like to do yearly bloodwork on all my animals. Tiller is a senior now! I can't believe she's almost 10! Anyway, Michaela decided she wanted to carry Tiller around in the carrier. It took a lot of her strength, but she did it. Tiller wasn't too pleased, but Michaela was having a blast.

It takes a lot of work to carry around a 9 1/2 pound cat in a cage!

Making Valentines

Michaela had so much fun making Valentines for her party at school last week. We made them Thursday night and Michaela did most of the work. I cut out the paper and wrote the "To: From:" but Michaela did everything else. I cut a sponge into the shape of a heart. Michaela then dipped the sponge into red paint.

She had lots of fun putting the heart on the front of each card. Sometimes we got a cool shadow effect from her doing it over and over again.

She made a good mess on her high chair tray, but managed to keep herself pretty clean.

We ate dinner while the cards dried. Michaela had lots of friends and teachers who all needed a card!

Once the paint was dry Michaela put Valentines stickers on the inside of each card. She was very careful with the placement of each individual sticker.

You have to love the look of concentration on this girl's face. Apparently it was very important to pick out the right sticker for each person.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sea World, Take 2

Monday was a beautiful day and Craig and I both happened to be off. We decided to drive down to Orlando for lunch at Cheesecake Factory then head over for an afternoon at Sea World. Now is the time to go to the parks! We felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. I love going to amusement parks in the off season! We decided that we would try to see everything we missed on the first trip to Sea World. I thought Michaela would be scared of the sting rays, but she really loved them.

We didn't feed the dolphins this time, but were happy to have the whole underwater viewing area to ourselves. I love how these pictures came out.

This one is my favorite.

There was no line for the Atlantis ride, so Craig went on while Michaela and I checked out the aquarium. She loved the floor, which had fish swimming below her.

Michaela also loved the penguins and happily flapped her arms like wings for them.

We checked out the seals and sea lions, which also meant getting up close with a very friendly woodstork.

I wasn't too sure what Michaela would think if the underwater tunnel through the shark tank. On one hand, it's lots of fish, which she loves. But there's no obvious escape, which can be scary. She surprised me and loved it. I guess the fish fascination won that battle.

When we got outside she waved and said hi to the baby sharks.

We also went to meet the Clydesdales, which I thought would be scary for her. For whatever reason, the big horse didn't bother her a bit! She walked up to him and tried petting him before we even took the picture. She also yelled "NEIGH!!" numerous times.

Michaela really enjoyed petting the horse. His name was Kelly, so I guess that meant he was pretty cool.

We went to Shamu's Happy Harbor and went on a bunch of rides. She loved the fish carousel and waved hi to her Daddy when we came around the turn.

We ended the night with the Shamu show. Again, she yelled "WOW!" when the whales made an appearance. The show was different this time.....they had 7 whales in the tank at once! I love this picture, although one of the whales decided to skip the jump so we only got 6 in a row. It seemed there were a lot of Mother/Baby groups, which was cute. The babies did the tricks right beside the mothers. I loved it!

Although the park was officially closed, we quickly ducked down to the underwater viewing and got a great visit with the large male killer whale. His flipper was larger than Michaela's whole body! What a great way to end the day.

Mardi Gras Party

Last night was the Edwards Family annual Mardi Gras Party. My parents drove up from Bradenton to take part in the festivities. Michaela got all dressed up in her outfit picked out by Anita and Kerry and was ready to party. But first she made sure her Nana and Pop read her lots of Dr. Suess books, including Marvin K. Mooney about 3 times.

When we got there Michaela was given a Mardi Gras crown, purse, and bracelet. She was all set to party now!
Michaela ate dinner on Anita's lap, and managed to only spill a little bit of the jambalaya. She really enjoyed it, although it took a couple of bites to decide if it wasn't too spicy. Luckily she had some garlic bread to cut the spice.

Of course, the real hit was the king cake sent in from New Orleans. I'm not sure how many pieces she ate.....all I know is that her Nana kept sneaking her more.

Michaela was very happy to see Lauren and ran right into her arms for a hug when we first arrived.

She had fun playing peek-a-boo with Daddy on the dining room chair.

Kisses!

At the beginning of the night Michaela wasn't sure if she wanted to wear beads. After a bunch of king cake, the sugar kicked in and suddenly beads were very fun to play with. She giggled so hard while putting the beads around her neck or whoever she was playing with. I just love this picture of her having fun with her Nana.

By the end of the night we were all wearing down but Michaela was on a roll. She had lots of fun dancing with Lauren and watching the mardi gras video in the living room. I love how her outfit just fits right in with the decorations.

Cranes at Payne's Prairie

Winter in Gainesville means Sandhill Cranes coming to visit. Right now they are out at Payne's Prairie by the thousands. I decided to take Michaela down to the Prairie on Tuesday, not even thinking about the cranes. I just wanted to take advantage of the cool and sunny weather and go for a nice walk. I haven't been to the La Chua trail in a while and I was surprised to see the nice boardwalk they had built in the past year. Michaela loved looking at the big bull alligator in the sinkhole just below.

On our way down the trail we kept running into people with cameras and tripods. I guess they had heard the news that the cranes have arrived. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time. As we got closer you could hear the cranes calling and see them flying overhead and landing in the prairie.

Next thing you know, we came around a bend and ran into about 400 cranes just hanging out in the mud puddles about 10 feet off the trail. Michaela was so excited and kept saying "birds!" I was concerned that she might scare them with her loud yells but they really didn't mind at all.

I had so much fun taking pictures of the cranes. I am always amazed every year when they come into town, but this is by far the highest number if cranes I've seen gathered in one place. I was hoping we would spot some whooping cranes as well, but no luck in that department.

It was fun watching them fly directly over our heads.

We also enjoyed the other water birds and alligators we spotted along the trail.

This picture is just one of the 5 or 6 groups of cranes we saw along the way. Michaela had lots of fun watching the birds and walked about half of the 3 mile round trip trail.

What a fun way to spend an afternoon!

This picture is from me just having fun playing with the tints in my photo editing program. I love the way the birds stand out on the bright orange background.

1st trip to Sea World!

This past Sunday we decided it was time to take Michaela on her first trip to Sea World. We thought she would enjoy the park since she is so into animals. We had no idea just how much fun she would have! We called my mom to see if she wanted to join, and of course she said yes. What's even better is that she got an annual pass for free because she is a teacher! We also got year long passes, since they have a promotion where you pay a full day's admission and get the rest of the year free. What a deal! When we got to the park we decided to head over to the dolphin and whale show that was about to start.

So this show has dolphins, false killer whales, and macaws that fly overhead. Michaela loved every part of the animals. She did not, however, enjoy the boring girls dressed as birds flying around. During that part she just sat there. But as soon as the animals appeared she started clapping and waving and yelling "HI!!!" My baby knows what she likes, and she likes animals!

Next we headed over to see the dolphins. They have reworked their system for feeding dolphins since I've last visited, and I have to say I really like the new system. They only allow a certain number of people to feed them at one time and they section off half of the pool for those people only. This completely eliminates the crowding and shoving that used to occur when people who were too cheap to pay for fish would come up and pet the animals you were trying to feed. Mom was able to stand across the pool from us to take pictures. Michaela was so excited to see the dolphins at first. However, they were a little scary up close so she clung on to Craig and sucked her thumb while I fed them.

Then we went down to the underwater viewing area so that Michaela could see the dolphins swimming. She pointed at them and looked up with them with awe.

What a beautiful thing to watch my little girl experience life.

After lunch we went to see the Clyde and Seamore show, which features sea lions, otters, and a big fat walrus. Michaela watched with an intense gaze while gripping her new Shamu lunch box.

I love this picture that my mom snapped while something funny was occurring on stage.

By this point Michaela was exhausted! She fell asleep about 10 minutes before we arrived in the park and was now going on about 3 hours past naptime. We strapped her in the stroller and rolled over to look at the seals and sea lions at Pacific Point. I bought some more fish to feed the noisy beasts so that Michaela could watch them close up. My mom got this great shot of one pushy sea lion trying to beg me for food.

There were quite a few babies in the enclosure, a couple of which were nursing. I liked this little guy using a rock for a pillow during his nap time. We could not convince Michaela to doze off herself, though.

By now she got her second (or was it the fourth?) wind and ran the whole way over to Shamu stadium. She chased birds along the way and waved and said hi to everyone we passed. I love how adorable she looks in this outfit her Aunt Sarah and Uncle Yiger sent her for Christmas.

Well, as always, Shamu was the hit of the day. Michaela waved hi and clapped at the whales. But the cutest part was that every time they came out or did a leap she would yell "WOW" at the top of her lungs. She even gave one of the trainers a high five as she walked by.

Afterwards we watched the Pet's Ahoy show, then checked out the polar bears and walruses (Michaela growled at the bear). Then we swung by the underwater viewing of the orcas where Michaela had lots of fun watching them swim by.

Finally, at about 5:00, she passed out in her stroller. That was our cue to leave and head home to watch the super bowl. Although we only saw about half the park, Michaela had more fun than we ever imagined. We can't wait to go back and show it to her again.