Lots and lots of pictures!!!

After being so bad at taking pictures recently, Daddy and Mommy decided to make an effort to take more pictures of Michaela. And now it seems we have loads to show everyone, so this is a big blog, picture wise.

We all know Michaela is a climber, but she seems to have had a bit of a growth spurt recently too. So (excuse the coming pun), but her climbing has reached new heights! The other day, she discovered how to climb onto our coffee table (see pic below). It's so cute because she's worked out that if she opens the drawer and steps inside, it gives her that little bit of extra height she needs to be able to climb up. And today, she managed to climb onto the futon all by herself. So we've now got to watch out a bit more.

Dunno why, but Mommy just loves this picture!


And of course, the usual bath photos. In these ones, you can see Michaela's toothbrush, which she seems to love.

And here she is taking down a stack of blocks. She does like playing with the blocks. Daddy has seen her manage to stack five up herself!


This week at Toddlers, there's been a special guest artist. There's a black board with pre-cut holes in it, which the kids get to put wires and pipe cleaners through and also draw on the board. Michaela loved it so much, she even skipped snack time! Anna (the artist) thinks Michaela's the youngest child she's worked with using this. Mommy was so amazed to see Michaela put the wire through the hole. It was also funny to see how scared she got when a bit of pipe cleaner would come through the board from another kid pushing it through from the other side! Maybe Michaela's got some of her Daddy's artistic side, because it certainly does not come from Mommy!

Spending time with Daddy

Mommy and Michaela went to see Michaela's second cousin Iris a few weeks ago, along with Amy and her boys. Michaela had such a fun time there, so we'll hopefully make the time to go along more often. Here's a picture of her relaxing while we were there!
Daddy has been off work for the last two weeks, so he's had loads of time with Michaela. Especially since Mommy decided to have a short holiday south Thursday to Monday. Fortunately, Michaela is quite an easy girl to take care of, so Daddy had a great time with her while Mommy was away. They even got along Daddy's grandparents twice - here's a pic of Michaela with Daddy's Granny (especially for you Auntie Carol!).
And while Mommy was at work one day, Owen and Lesley came along for a play. Daddy attempted to get a good picture of the two of them on the back of the couch, but it didn't quite work. Oh well, as you can see, they had a great time trying!
Michaela's speaking continues to come on loads. She can say upstairs, thank you (although Mommy still hasn't heard it yet), shop, and loads more. Everyday she's learning a new word - it's amazing! And, she's started telling us when she has or is about to poop, but this can also just mean a fart. But, we're trying to listen to her and last night she pooped in her potty! I don't think we're ready for potty training yet, but if she wants to go in her potty, of course we'll encourage her.

Our little girl is growing up

Not much on at the moment, after all the excitement of the wedding and having loads of family home. Granny Pat & Grandad have gone off to Australia, so we won't be seeing them for a while. Auntie Jean has gone to America, Uncle Lionel to Guyana, so it seems like everyone's left after the wedding. But, we go on as usual.

Michaela's best pal Owen has started walking now. She seems to love playing with him, even when he doesn't quite understand all of her silly games. See, we play a lot of chasing games with Michaela, so whenever Owen walks or crawls towards her, she screams because she thinks it's a great game! Poor Owen. But, she's started sharing now, so here she is giving him some of her strawberries.
After that lunch, we went through to the living room to play, but Michaela thought the best thing was Lesley's jacket! So she just wrapped herself up in it and sat there for ages. And whenever Owen went for the TV buttons, she pointed at him and yelled 'No!'. We think she's just very happy to be able to say no to someone else since she gets told no many times each day.
Another pal of Michaela's just started at the nursery this week. And apparently he was a bit upset during the day, so Michaela tried to console him! Hopefully that means she's no longer upset at us for putting her to the nursery (we've had three weeks with no tears when Mom drops her off).

Not much picture taking this last couple of weeks, so here's yet another bath one (with her bubble beard). Check out Michaela's big belly!
And the other family news is that Shelby and Dave got married on September 7th and had a baby girl (Samantha) on Septemebr 9th! Congrats to them. I'm sure Michaela can't wait to meet her new little cousin!

Today we went swimming and Mom is pretty sure Michaela was flirting with the life guard! Last week she kept making sure he was watching her and this week she decided to keep waving and saying 'hiya' at him!

Speaking of speaking, Michaela's says loads of words now - a sample of words from today are splash, shoes, hiya, ball, meat, up, socks & baby. Her speech is very good and improving every day. And what's even better is that she understands so much more than she can say. Mom was impressed because as we walked out of the house today, Mom told Michaela to wait and she did actually stop on the ramp until Mom came out! Here's hoping she'll continue to listen to her Mom ;)

Elise is 1

On the same day Auntie Joyce & Stevie got married, Elise turned one. Since we had the wedding to go to, Daddy took Michaela to see Elise on Sunday. Apparently they had quite a few fights over the toys.
Michaela loved playing with the doll, so we'll have to get her one of her own. Iris (Michaela's second cousin) was staying at our house for the wedding and Michaela was so lovely to her. Iris is three months old and Michaela kept wanting to give her a bottle or her dummy. So we should have realised she'd love to play with a doll too.
Auntie Ivanna came with loads of new clothes for Michaela. This is one of our favourite outfits on her, so we just had to get it on the blog. Doesn't she look cute?
Other news, Michaela says a few words now, but the most impressive is 'all gone' when she's finished her food! It amazes us everyday how much she is learning and taking in.

Michaela's first wedding

Auntie Joyce and Stevie got married on Saturday! It was the first wedding Michaela's ever been to (although we played in the hall instead of seeing the wedding as Michaela was just wanting to run around).

I can't remember if I mentioned before that Michaela now knows how to give kisses. It's the best thing ever to get a nice slobbery kiss from our little girl. Here's a few pics of her kissing her big cousins (Eve first, then Megan).

Here's a family snap of us at the wedding.
And this is Michaela with Stevie's son, Ronan. Michaela loves playing with Ronan and they spent a lot of time running around the hall before the meal.
The wedding was great. Loads of family were home for it. Our house was nearly full, but it was great!

Not much excitement

Unfortunately, there's not been too much on, so the blogging is very late. But, here's what we've been up to. A few weeks ago, it was the Burra rowing regatta. Since we've got so many Burra relations, most of the Bigton family turned up for it. Here's Auntie Nan and Michaela walking up the hill from the regatta to the Hall. It took a very long time, but Michaela was so proud of herself for being able to walk the distance!
A couple of nights before Ella and Hope went home, Ella came over and fed Michaela her dinner. Ella was so good at it and Michaela enjoyed having someone else help.
On Saturday, Daddy decided to take out the chute we got from Nicola (it was James's many years ago - he's nearly 16 now!). Michaela loved it as she usually only gets to play on one like this at Toddlers. She was pretty good at climbing up the stairs, but wasn't sure how to get her feet out from under her to actually go down properly so she still needed a bit of help. Daddy did say that once she just fell face first down the slide, but she thought it was funny. Luckily for Mom and Dad, Michaela isn't usually very bothered if she falls down - maybe it's because we don't make a big deal of it, or is that called neglect?!

Owen came up for a play too, so here he is going down the slide.
What else can I say? Just some very typical weeks. Next week will be more exciting because Auntie Joyce gets married on Saturday, so most of the Bigton family is home for it (Shelby will be missing because she's due to have a baby on the 14th of September and Uncle Hop is still in the States - come home you two!).

More excitement this week

Dad and Michaela went for a walk to the Ayre of Ireland last weekend. Now that Michaela can walk, she is obsessed! She hardly ever wants to hold your hand when out because she's a big, walking girl now.
Michaela's second cousins are home at the moment, so she's been having fun playing with them. Here she is at the play park with Ella and Hope. (In fact, you can see their mum, Michele walking in the background)
Dad took Michaela up north to see his grandparents on Monday. Yet again, she found great joy in getting into the cat's bed.
And Wednesday was the Cunningsburgh Show. We went last year, but Michaela was so young and it was a miserable day, we didn't really have any fun. But this year was great! The highlights of the Show for Michaela were sitting on the tractor.........
...... and playing on the bouncy castle. The little girl in the white jacket is Michaela's third cousin Maya. Mom wasn't sure Michaela would ever come off the bouncy castle, but she did eventually!
Next year, we're hoping Dad will take the day off work too, so he can see how much fun she had at the Show!