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