Happy Thanksgiving from the Montano's!

We are thankful to be happy and healthy and able to spend another year together. We hope you have a wonderful day!

Michael's Sticker Chart - A lesson in communication

I came up with the idea to create a chart that can track Michael's continued development of new skills and good behavior in which he will receive recognition and stickers/rewards for his accomplishments. I wanted to name it "Michael's Rock Star Chart". So I explained to Jaime the concept of the sticker chart and showed him some samples I've seen on the internet and asked him to design a chart we could print weekly, Michael could add stickers and we can basically throw out at the end of each week. I also asked him to "jazz" it up a bit.

Jaime thought is was quite appropriate has he felt that Michael lives the life of a "Rock Star"... which includes plenty of music, dancing, women battling for his attention, he is driven around town by his Tour Manager (Jaime) and he seems to throw the occasional "Rock Star Fit" when he does not get his way.

So Jaime hands me this the other night:



Our conversation goes as follows:

Me----- OMG, this is really cool!
Jaime-- I know!
Me----- Who are the bands?
Jaime-- *SIGH* They are the bands that every boy needs to know, Rush, Journey, Metallica and Dream Theater. Michael and I listened to them every day on the ride to his daycare from the time he was 3 months until he was 1 1/2. I wanted to add Rage Against the Machine to the chart, but ran out of room and didn't want to compromize the balance of the chart.
Me----- I see. What about bands that I like? Like Wham!
Jaime-- I'm not adding that crap to my amazing chart.
Me----- I see. I may need more room for stickers, can you maybe make the top smaller and the chart part bigger?
Jaime-- No.
Me----- Well what about those squares under Michael's name? What are those?
Jaime-- *SIGH* Honestly, Melysa. Those are a row of Marshall amplifiers. *SIGH*
Me----- You're crazy.

Honestly, it's really cool and looks amazing. Talk about taking an idea and running with it. He also posted it on Facebook for all of his musician friends to oogle over.

Oh, and Michael thought is was really cool and said "Oooh, lights!"

A Very Merry Half Birthday

Michael was officially 2 & 1/2 on 11/16/09. Where does the time go? We decided to get a little ice cream cake to celebrate. I mean, is there a better reason to have cake? Michael jumped up and down yelling cake-cake and was so pleased to be able to blow out a candle. Of course I had to take the Mickey pictures, even though they were taken a few days later.

Thanks, Hurricane Ida.

The remnants of Hurricane Ida were blowning through this past week and it's been really windy and rainy. Apparently the Bradford Pear tree that is planted in front of our house had had enough and a huge branch snapped off. Luckily for us, it was just a branch, not the whole tree and it barely missed our neighbors house. Needless to say, there was a lot of clean up. Jaime rented a chainsaw and went to town. Of course I had to record it for posterity and stayed safely inside while he wielded it. :) He said he wanted to do the dance that leather face did at the end of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I said that I would rather he keep all of this limbs. (yeah, bad pun. I know.) Anyway, it looks like we may have to take the entire tree down now, just to be safe. It's a bit sad, since it was planted the year we bought the house and it's so pretty when it blossoms. Ahhh, the joys of homeownership!

Who is this big boy???

I had to look twice at these pictures when I received them yesterday. I know that Michael's school had picture day, but I didn't realize they would switch out my baby for a big boy! He looks like he's 10! And posing with his hand in his pocket?? Really? :) Jaime and I joked that that particular pose could be straight out of the Sears catalog. All joking aside, how handsome is our 2 1/2 year old little man. <3

Crib Chronicles - Big Boy Bed

We had been planning on moving Michael to his big boy bed in the fall. He was doing great in the crib, but it was time to upgrade. I converted his crib to a daybed and I installed a bed guard rail. Jaime tethered all of the large furniture and I removed anything that could possibly cause a fire or total mess (lotions, creams, etc.). Lastly, his nightlight was replaced with 2 LED press lights, one regular and one with that shines a moon and stars on the ceiling, and I have a gate for his bedroom door so we were good to go.

Michael was pretty excited on moving to his big boy bed. He got upset when I layed him down after our normal bedtime routine. He wanted his old nightlight and kept asking for me to put the lights on. After about 5 minutes and some soothing, he fell asleep and stayed asleep the whole night. So far, so good. Let's hope it stays that way.

In the pictures, please note his backwards pjs (Nakey Boy post). :)

Crib Chronicles - Nakey Boy

So last Saturday (Halloween) we put Michael to bed as usual with no issues, nada. Jaime went in to check on him before we went to bed around midnight. He walks into our room and asks what I put Michael to bed wearing. I ask why and he proceeds to tell me that our son is lying completely naked and spread eagle on top of all the junk in his crib. Michael decided the day before to begin stripping naked. He had done it at naptime and Jaime caught him squatting naked in his crib trying to figure out how to get his diaper back on, but he only had on a shirt and diaper so I thought it was just easy access. This time he had on long sleeved pjs, pants and his diaper. So the result was that Michael had gone pee and we had to wake him, clean him up, dress him and then strip the bed. He ended up in bed with us that night, so Jaime and I got no sleep. I guess it was his Halloween trick for us. Next time I will be sure to take a picture.

Now I'm gun shy and we've been checking on him constantly to make sure he is clothed.

Update:
So I woke up on Monday morning and Michael was stirring in his bed. He started playing and then I heard him mention something about his diaper. I went into his room and found this. He had stripped again and you can slightly tell in the picture that he's sitting in a circle of pee. He was dressed at 1 am. Everything was soaked,again, so I had to strip and wash everything yet again. After some tips from my mommy friends, we have been dressing him in a zip up footie pj, put on backwards. It kinda looks like a straight jacket, but he hasn't had any accidents since. :)

It must run in the family

Like grandmother, like grandson. This always seems to happen when Michael and Grandma Eleanor get in the back seat of the car.

Happy Halloween!

We spent a cool Halloween day hanging out with Grandma, carving pumpkins and trick or treating! Carving the pumpkin was funny, since Michael wouldn't touch the guts saying they were too yucky. He ended up letting Jaime do the cleaning, helping me design the face and letting me carve as he supervised. Once I was finished he proudly proclaimed, "Michael's, pumpkin!"








Michael really didn't want to leave Daddy as he handed out candy, but once he realized that he was receiving candy at other houses, he was ALL over it. I had planned on taking him to a few houses on our street and we ended up going to about 6 whole streets, and he walked for most of it. He kept laughing and wanting to "ring bells, mama!" We did come across a few houses with spooky decorations and other trick or treaters with gory costumes. Michael would stop and say "No like, too scary, mama." It was really cute. He filled up his bucket and we headed home, all the while him trying to hit up houses we already visited. Daddy and I had a nice, non-candy, treat bag for him at home, with games and fun stuff. I was hoping it would take some of the focus away from the candy. It worked a little bit. :)

Grandma Eleanor!

Grandma Eleanor flew in from California to spend a long weekend with us and celebrate Halloween with Michael. Unfortunately, her flight came in at the same time as the Halloween parade, so Jaime and her missed it. It was ok, since Michael was thrilled to see her.



Presents from Grandma and his aunties. He loved everything and actually tried on his new undies over his clothes. lol.

Halloween Parade and Party

We had Michael's Halloween Parade and Party at Daycare on Friday. I had signed up to make cupcakes for his class so I got there a few minutes before the parade started. Once he saw me, he would not let me leave to watch the parade, so got the honor of escorting young Michael in the parade. He did so much better than last year, where he grabbed a toy and tried to run over a bunch of the children. Once we got back to his classroom, all the kids changed out of their costumes and had snacks. The cupcakes were a hit for all except Michael, who decided to pass and eat cheese puffs instead. I won't complain since he was the cleanest kid in the room afterward.





Skye and Michael

Paul and John

Miss Kristen and Nathan

Trunk or Treat

One of the local church's sponsored a Trunk or Treat event at the local High School. The members decorate their cars and set up games for the kids to play to earn candy. It's a fun safe way for the kids to trick or treat. This was our first year going and we were really late due to a grumpy little guy. He had fun playing the games and was even more interested when he got candy.

Halloween Preview

There was much discussion in the Montano household regarding Michael's Halloween costume. I finally narrowed it down to a dinosaur, Train Conductor or Fireman. When I presented the options to young master Michael he chose fireman without hesitation. I found his costume on ebay and love it. It came with a black soft hat, which Michael immediately looked at and said, "No, no black hat, Mommy. Lellow (yellow) hat." Daddy and Michael made a special trip to find his yellow hat. My handsome little fireman!

Fall - Pumpkin Patch Time!

It's that time of year again, our annual Pumpkin Patch trip. We tried a new farm, around the corner from our house. They had go carts, bouncy house, corn maze and a hayride to the pumpkin patch. We had just missed the hayride when we got there, so we tried out the other activities while we waited. Michael had a blast on the go carts, even though he really couldn't reach the pedals. Who needs pedals when you can have daddy push you around the track? He refused to take off his shoes to get in the bouncy house. Yes, I know that is shocking to you all who know his shoe issues. We waited until it was empty and actually got him to go in, his first time ever. Of course he loved it, and then we had to coax him out, which wasn't easy. As usual he had a blast on the hayride, and really took his time picking out his pumpkin. He told me it was his pumpkin, it was heavy and that daddy needed to carry it. Funny, that he sounds like me. LOL.