Michael

I haven't written about Michael in a while--thought I'd give an update about him. He's getting so big. He really listens to what I say and I can tell he understands direction and what I'm telling him. He likes to get up on the couch but can't quite reach so he pulls a pillow off the couch to step on and then he can hop right up. He was wearing my boots while he was trying to get up the other day so from across the room I told him to remember that a pillow would help him get up and sure enough he grabbed the closest one and pulled it down to the floor to use as a step. He seems just like a sponge right now, soaking up everything he can possibly learn. He says quite a few words--cheerios and banana are the most recent. It really tickles him if a word has a funny sound. Aunt Sharon brought him some oranges from Florida and he gets a smile on his face every time he says that--because he likes the sound of the word or maybe because he loves oranges.

He also started running. He loves to run around the house and runs across the room just so that I'll hold out my arms and tell him to "Run" and he zooms back to give me a hug. He loves to give hugs and usually accompanies it with an "awwwww...." He hugs the phone when he talks to his Grandma and Grandpa and sometimes he hugs it when I just mention them. Jackie has started to let him hug her, so he must be getting more careful about toes and ears--but Pepper and Jorgie are still pretty cautious. The cat lets him pet her which shocks me because she doesn't like a lot of attention. She usually sticks it out until he grabs her tail, which is kind of unfortunate because he rarely lets go when she starts to walk away.

He's feeling a little sick today. He has a runny nose and a little bit of a cough. He kept waking himself up during the night and was up really early crying for momma. I just talked to Aunt Sharon and he fell asleep for nap time about 15 minutes after I dropped him off. Poor little pumpkin. He seems to get through stuff really quickly though and it's the weekend so I get to be home with him for a couple days which will be nice.