Mickey Mouse

Wally still loves Mickey Mouse. He loves to watch the Mickey Mouse Club House tv show. We enjoy watching him watch it. He sings the songs, answers the questions, copies what the characters are doing, etc. I thought that the PBS shows would be better for Wally to watch, but I've decided that the Disney channel cartoons are actually much better, in general. They really engage the kids. Wally all of a sudden could count to 20. We think he must have learned that from Mickey Mouse. Yesterday, Wally and I were listening to some classical music and playing the air piano and air violin. I think he must have learned some of that from Little Einsteins.

Gramma Kathy sent Wally Joel's old Mickey Mouse doll. Wally thinks that is pretty cool! Recently, Great Aunt Tammy sent Wally a Mickey Mouse bank. He has put so much money in that thing (too bad it is the same money each time - we'ld be rich if it wasn't!). He is into grouping things these days. Here he put his Mickey Mouses together and was "posing" with them.

Tonight is Family Fun night at the mall. Wally is excited to ride the "roundy roundy." Joel is excited to catch part of a Hawkeye baseball game before hand. It is in the low 40s or even the 30s...Wally and I aren't going to the game. I figure there will be many more warmer games to catch. I'm missing the warm weather. It is supposed to snow tomorrow! I guess it is maybe time for us to get our share of snow.

Farming Iowa Style

We had a great weekend full of farming fun. First, a local bank had baby animals to pet for Ag days. Wally got to hold baby chickens. He likes to tell the story of how the baby chick pooped in his hands and he dropped the chick and the poopoo into Mommy's hands. I think he could have watched the chicks for hours. He also got to pet a yellow duckling while it swam in a tank of water. Amazingly, they even had a lamb and a calf in the basement of the bank! All in all, it was a very fun time that Wally will surely remember for some time to come.He does love animals!Though he is petting the duck here, he mostly enjoyed splashing in the totally disgusting water!

That afternoon Joel and I went to work on our garden. It was such a beautiful day that we were both wearing shorts and T-shirts. As you can see, we need to get Wally some shorts too. The garden is going to be a lot of work to put in since there is a lot of nice grass currently growing there. There are also billions of rabbits, so we need special rabbit-proof fencing.

Can you imagine all the corn, beans, pumpkins, flowers...growing! I can. Hopefully it dries out again soon so we can till up the grass and get to planting!

A man and his dog. Wally's favorite thing in the garden was to chop up the grass clods and put them back in the trenches we had just dug! He was having fun and the grass clods were broken up, so I can't complain too much!

I hope we don't get in trouble for child labor! The kid can still fit in a laundry basket...

and a space heater box!

Jump the Poopoo!

No text needed.

Spring time fun

Iowa doesn't have mountains, but it doesn't have unending winter either. We have thoroughly been enjoying playing outside in the beautiful weather. Wally and I had picnics on the swing set 2 days in a row. I actually have a tan line from my watch! On days when it is sunny, but not very warm, we have enjoyed having meals (even dinner with Daddy) on the porch.I've been playing in the yard a lot. I can't believe how many leaves I still need to rake in the spring even though we raked tons in the fall! Definitely not like Montana. The iris and daffodils are coming up around town. I think I have some iris...I don't really know what I have around the house since we haven't been here in the spring before. I planted some tulips last fall. I hope they come up. Joel and I have been planning our garden. Sadly, the best place for the garden is in the part of our yard that has the best grass. We laid boards and leaves all over it in hopes of killing the grass before we till it all up. I'm guessing I will just have a messy garden for a while.

Since it is spring break this week, the Coop is closed, but some of us have gotten together anyway. Wally has a great time with his friend Sander. They play really well together, despite them both having 2-year old moments. I brought out the tee-ball set from Great Grandma Minnie for the boys. They like hitting the ball with the bat off the tee, but don't get the running the bases thing yet. Never to young to learn! Luckily, Sander's parents like baseball too!

Now, I will finish off with some random pictures...

We were webcaming with Reder and the other Montana Daughenbaugh's when Wally showed them his bath toy. Reder, genius that he is, yelled "stegasaurus!" Yeah, the kid is a genius! I think Wally is pretty cute though!

Not the best bath tub picture. We cut his hair the next day.

Look what I can do Papa Randy!

He was picking at the crumbs of chocolate cake (yes, Papa, chocolate) left on his plate, when I said, "Papa would lick his plate, Wally." Need I say more? Anything Papa does is cool! I probably won't be able to get him to stop now.

Wally thinks that his flowers "waking up" is really fun. We check them everyday. At school today, we planted sunflowers with all of his friends. They all thought it was pretty neat to put the seeds in bed, tuck them in, and take them home to let them wake up.

Wally likes to check Mommy's flowers too. He counts them each time. He suddenly can count up to 20 with only missing a few random numbers (the missed ones are different each time). Neither of us are sure where he learned that. We think possibly Mickey Mouse taught him. He watches Mickey each morning while we get ready for school.

Breathing Machine

When Wally came down with pneumonia a week and a half ago, it took 3 of us to just kinda give him a nebulizer treatment. Now, I just have to tell him that it is time for his Breathing Machine and he will help me get it ready, sit in his chair and hold it on his face for the whole treatment. I find this incredibly amazing since each treatment take 15-20 minutes. When it is getting near the end, he asks, "Done?" When I say OK, he turns it off and helps me put it away. I think it must make him feel better, and he must realize, otherwise I can't see why a 2 year old would sit still and hold a thing (granted it is a fish face) on his face blowing stinky mist at him for 15-20 minutes. He is doing much better, but I can tell he still gets tired easier than he used to and sometimes I can still hear his lungs rattle. What a little trooper.

As a side note, we are learning what rain is. Wow! Did it rain this weekend!! There are actually lots of places flooded already from the rain. Hopefully it isn't as bad as last year! There was plenty of standing water in our front and back yards yesterday. Poor Moose. It seems as though rain comes with thunder and rain comes a lot here. The dog gets so scared, I think it is just time before it induces a seizure for him. Sadly for us, thunder comes around 3:00 in the morning here. That means that we then have a shaking, shedding, drooling 85 lb dog in our bed the rest of the night. Tonight is supposed to be another one of those nights. I'ld take a crying kid at night over poor Moose. I keep telling him that it will only last another 8 months or so.

Raising a Scientist

Wally is fascinated by all things new. Here he is discovering our humidifier. He has since learned that if you turn the fan on full speed, a balloon will hover above it. I love watching his mind grow and figure stuff out!