Michael's Development Blog

 Anton is coaching Michael's second season of soccer and we're off to a great start, having a blast.  Subscribe to the game schedule calendar by pasting this into your calendar subscription tool: http://team.stacksports.com/api.php?cmd=vcalendar&rest=1&sig=39b9a78630eaaf7b1036a69e0f718040&user=760755811&teams=1365427939&types=Event%2CGame%2CPractice&name=Looney+Tunes+Schedule&tz=America%2FLos_Angeles

 Michael just learned how to snap his fingers. He's loving Kindergarten and started going in-person about a month ago. The remote learning due to the Covid pandemic was interesting. It was fun to watch him engage in class but it's nice that he's able to go in-person now and he likes that much better.

We have achieved the singularity wherein Michael's intelligence surpasses that of his dear, floundering father. The only thing preventing the ill-fated dominance shift is experience and Michael seems intent on gaining that as fast as possible too; the end is nigh! Wayyyyy too much to catch up on since the last post so, in the words of Inigo Montoya, "...let me sum up." We just moved Michael into his new room, onto his new "big boy" bed. Aiden should be following into his own room very shortly. Michael pulled a piece off the faucet and put it down the drain so I've got to go digging for that at some point... Michael & Aiden KEEP GETTING SICK! Ahhhhhh! Right now Aiden has a bunch of sores that we think is Hand Food Mouth Disease, and Michael just had a random fever, but no sores. Yesterday Michael slept, literally not leaving his bed, until 4:30pm! Michael makes it very hard to find effective punishments because he calls almost every blu...

Michael is already way sharper than me and super funny...when he's not being completely impossible. After his nap yesterday I randomly offered him a shake (a treat he doesn't get very often) and he said, "and some fruit snacks?" (a treat he gets even less often). I said no to the fruits snacks but continued offering him the shake at intervals during the ensuing hour long meltdown that followed. When he was done he was done. Came out, asked politely for his shake and we continued with the day as if nothing had happened. I started a chart a few days ago so he can visualize when he loses privileges like nap and bedtime books and playtime in the bath. So far it seems to be helping him put things in perspective and helping me have something to do other than yell at him. I had a note in Google to remind me to start a "Learning Science with Michael" youtube channel on his third birthday. I'm not quite sure he's ready but I'm going to start combing...

Michael managed to lock himself in his room today...with me and Aiden. I had to go out the window into the garden barefoot, in the rain, at 7:30am to get back in the house and open up the door. In other news, Michael's first swim class at the YMCA finished last week and it was pretty great. He'll be signing p with Mrs. V again at the end of January. He doesn't move to the next class until he can put his head under the water and float on his back by himself. He really enjoys being in the water...even if he doesn't realize it (never "wants" to go to class but is always sad to leave). He can almost count to 10 now. Usually he gets one number mixed up in there if he's going all the way but he counts from 1-5 and 5-10 without any problems.

We joined the YMCA today and signed Michael up for "water discovery" swim lessons. Michael ran around the track, swam in the pool (including putting his head under the water for the first time for me), climbed on the play structure and spent a minute on the climbing wall. Then we went home and he crashed. Michael's last day in daycare was Halloween...at least until Aiden is old enough to join him. Michael is wonderfully conversational now. He uses the past tense and constructs very complicated complete sentences out of nowhere :) Michael is excellent with Aiden and Aiden smiles at Michael more than anybody else. On Halloween we took Michael (smoky bear) and Aiden (little teddy bear) around the nearby residential area and had a blast trick or treating. Michael did amazing saying "trick or treat," roaring at people, and saying "Only prevent forest fires" about 100 times as we prompted him at every door...it was too cute not to. He was very well b...

Yesterday, Michael ate a 4-egg omelet with two pieces of toast and then rode his balance bike all the way around the 2-mile loop.

When Michael was sick with a high fever the weekend before Aiden was born Anton spent one of the nights sleeping on the floor in his room so that he would get some sleep. Michael came home early from daycare today because he threw up (or "puked" as he likes to use his new word now...) during nap time. As Anton was laying him down for bed tonight he said, "Daddy sleep on floor? Michael sick." Awww (he's not really sick though...aside from throwing up he's been totally fine and full of energy all day). Then he latched himself around Anton's neck and wouldn't let go, with a little mischievous grin. Impossible not to laugh.

Michael is talking up a storm now...in fact, he rarely stops talking and communicates quite well. He attempts very large words but often only gets the end of them: superfragilisticexpialidocious turns into "docious," for example. He repeats like a parrot, often very hilariously. He repeated Grandpa Preisinger saying "episode" and sometimes gets into moods where he just repeats a person almost word for word as they're telling a story. Update on Michael stripping down at bedtime is that "Operation Muffin Pants" was a success...Simple bribery to get him to keep his clothes on. Actually he's come so far now that he doesn't even need to wear the onesy over his PJs which is very nice. Anton installed the lawn retaining wall this spring and Michael had a lot of fun joining him at the gravel yard and watching all the work with the excavator. We tried reading Salamandastron during dinner and got a few chapters in before Michael seemed to lose int...

Alright so it's been a long time. Michael is starting to string together short sentences and communicating concepts that make me double-take all the time. Lately he won't stop stripping himself naked during nap/bedtime...using his wet diapers as pillows :( Here's some updates Rachel recorded over the past couple months: 2/7/17 Michael was eating dinner and started asking about Allison and Grandma Carol. We asked him if he had fun with them this weekend. He said yeah. Then I think he asked about seeing them again (can't remember what words he was using). I told him then he'd have to tell them to come over again soon. I said he'd have to give them a letter telling then to come visit him. And Michael said "A"? After looking at him blankly for a second we realized he was suggesting the letter "A". So Grandma and Allison, Michael sends you the letter A. ;) 1/23/2017 Michael said "lullaby". It took us a bit to figure ou...

Okay, I guess the milestones should be first. About a week and a half ago Michael pooped in his toilet before bath...that was pretty cool. He's been using it for potty for months, and sometimes tries for poop, but this was his first success. We got some pull-up diapers just in case, I'm sure it'll still be a couple months but as soon as he's telling us he needs to use the toilet we'll be potty training. Yesterday morning  we heard Michael over the monitor for a minute, but he got quiet just before we got up to get him. I'm drifting off to sleep and Rachel says, "he's either fallen back asleep or is getting into trouble..." And we're both thinking about him getting his diaper off and making a mess but it's been a while so we both just drift a bit hoping he went back to sleep. Not one minute later Michael walks into our room... He's not supposed to be able to get out of his crib, what are we supposed to do now?!?! He's not old ...

Michael bit me (again...) today and when I was taking him out of time out and giving him a hug he patted me on the back. I had to struggle to remain stern as I was reminding him why he was in time out because it was so cute. He also started rolling around the living room today just randomly. Sometimes with his puppy, sometimes just rolling around. What a goofball.

The last few weeks have been a flurry of words. Yesterday Michael identified his first (as far as I know) color when he pointed at his spoon during dinner and said "red." Then he pointed at his seat and said "red." Sooooo many other new words I can't even begin to list them off. "Poop" is still his favorite though with "Pee" coming a close second. He has finally started saying "please" too. Teddy, pocket (that's an older one), shoes, socks, toes, knees, elbow, arm...ah, I just can't remember when I need to record them. Oh! We watched a Nature video on beavers so he says beaver now: "beado" :) He woke up with terrible diaper rash this morning, so bad he was walking like a cowboy who's been in the saddle for 48 hours :(

Michael loved his first ball game. He got a bit antsy but we had enough folks there to juggle him around with Darrius, Raven, and Allison, Grandpa, and Grandpa's friend Tony. The Mariners won 14-6.  He enjoyed "shaking" to the songs, pointing out every plane that went past, and waving and saying hi to everyone he saw with food.  Michael also got to swing a bat at the kids section and thought the escalator was super cool. Michael smiled for the camera for the first time today too...we had just never asked him before. It's a VERY goofy, scrunchy-face smile that he knows full well is going to make everybody laugh. He's also fist-bumping and high-fiving like a pro (high-fives have been around for a few months but the fist bumping he picked up real quick just this week...just had to show him what to do). We went to the Blackberry festival in Bremerton yesterday with Ben, and Michael had a great time, had some fair food, and got to dance to some live music.  He tried ...

While Michael seems to have an interest in books as fascinating objects, so far the concept of sitting still long enough to enjoy any more than a couple pages is completely foreign to him. Yesterday Anton caught Michael flipping through one of his books with farm animals in it and Michael's attention was held long enough to chat about the animals. Michael picked up mooing like a cow and neighing like a horse. His neigh is a bit growly so his horse sounds a bit scary but hilarious at the same time. A few days ago Michael made it through (more or less) his first full-length feature film: Zootopia. He enjoyed it but even that action couldn't keep him totally focused for that long.

Friday was our zoo trip. Grandpa P, Michael, and I (Anton/Dad) met at the Woodland Park zoo where we'd briefly meet up with the Leshs, John, Nicole, Josephine, and Jeanette as well as John's sister and brother in law. Michael wasn't as obsessed with the animals as I thought he'd be, he was more interested than last time for sure but he ended up being more intrigued by the people and other kids especially. There was just a lot more activity there I suppose. We saw some wolves that Michael howled at and some bears. Michael climbed around in a little cave there for quite a while...I really need to get his climbing wall set up. We saw a bunch of other things but he particularly liked the bird house and the giraffe which a few patrons were getting to feed. The penguins also held his fascination for quite some time, especially while they were getting fed. Unfortunately the butterfly tent was only open to members so we missed them, Michael would have enjoyed that I think. Af...

So we've had Michael's toilet in the bathroom for a bit now and I've been sitting him on it before his bath just for familiarization. Over the past couple of weeks he started to be getting the idea so I started giving him bubbles in his bath whenever he peed in his toilet. Now, for the past few days, he doesn't want me to hold him on the toilet and he visibly tries to use it so I think, once the words start coming, potty training (knock on wood) shouldn't be too challenging. He's just got to be able to tell us when he needs to go and it's off to the races. I'm excited. He has been saying "bubble" for the past few days, largely associated with his expectation for getting them in his bath now that he at least tries to use the toilet every time he takes a bath...I was only giving him bubbles when he actually peed but it got so obvious that he was trying that I didn't want to effectively punish him just because he was all dried up... :P He...

Grandma and Grandpa came over from Port Angeles to baby-sit Michael while Rachel and Anton attended one of Allison's concerts in the Seattle area.  We decided to go out for a late lunch, with Rachel and Anton leaving for the concert directly from the restaurant.  Michael was slightly concerned after arriving home when mom and dad weren't there.  He asked several times about "mama" and "dada" and was determined to climb back into his care seat.  So… grandma and grandpa decided to go for a stroll outside.  Michael got his shoes and socks for us to put on and out we went for a grand adventure.  Rachel had previously told us that they sometimes walk to the first corner, so we figured it would probably be a short trip.  We were wrong.  Mr. Michael set off down the driveway, where he immediately spotted a bunny that needed checking out.  After the bunny hopped into the bushes, we continued out to Woodchuck Lane, where we ventured only a short dista...

While Jen was generously watching Michael as Anton was at class and Rachel was on a business trip, she says that he almost said the word flower. He at least tried and there was some recognizable patterns in there. Michael also hit his hand into the door that same night and started crying. I picked him up and amongst his cries he snorted and instantly began to laugh. Maybe you had to be there but it was hilarious. He put a sock on his hand this morning and is just running around with it...and now he's trying to put a rock he found on the floor into his belly button. I should just turn this into a live blog :P Oh, just so that I can remember this years from now: Michael has enjoyed running through my legs as I look through them but he's getting taller. About a week ago he ran full steam and clothes-lined himself on my butt. Didn't even attempt to duck. He just laughed it off and continued about his business. Michael peed in his toilet for the second time last night j...

We all had a great time with Evan and Amy Leonetti today. They are on a vacation around Washington and were able to swing in for some fun. Michael had a blast. Evan got the first quality, intentional high-five I've seen Michael give anybody. As Evan and Amy were leaving Michael went around and gave them hugs after we asked him to. Yesterday Mom taught Michael how to dance with his hands so now he's got a nifty little pseudo-jazzhands thing going on. Michael is pulling his hair out again...right around the cowlick area so it really looks like he's got a male pattern baldness thing going on. I guess I'm going to have to shave his head again.