Here comes Michael!

Michael officially turned 9 months a few days ago! Woo Hoo, go Michael GO! And I say go because he is also on the move! Michael has mastered mobility by rolling around on his right side for the past 4 weeks. It was actually pretty funny about a month ago. Katie, Michael, and I were down in the basement. Katie was cutting my hair (like she always does) so we put Michael down on the floor with a few toys while she lowered my ears. Michael had enough being in one place so he decided to roll. Roll, roll, roll, all the way until he hit the wall. It was funny though watching him. He kept on trying to roll up against the wall and he started to get very frustrated, "Wall, get outta my way!". Needless to say we had to stop what we were doing and start Michael on the other side of the room. That kept him busy for a few minutes until he did the same thing again.

On September 9th (His 9 month Birthday) Michael decided to show us he could crawl. Now this isn't the most elegant crawl, it is more commando keep your legs still and pull with your arms crawl, but none the less he is crawling! This past few days he is really getting the hang of it and is starting to use his back legs. We really have got to keep an eye on him now. Just the other day he crawled across the living room and grabbed a hold of one of the speaker stands and started moving it around. It is time for Katie and me to get on our knees and see what needs to be put up from a Michael perspective.









We've had a fun past month! Michael got to hang out with his Cousin, Autumn, for an evening as we all went to Ye Old Mill for some ice cream. It is too cute to see how Autumn reacts to Michael and how they both feed off of each other. She calls Michael her Baby and it always constantly asking to hold him. She gets pretty frustrated when we don't let her hold him all the time. Katie and I are a lot better at letting her hold him considering Michael is around 20 pounds now, a step up from the 5 pounds when we brought him home! It's funny to see the two of them together. Michael's face is a lot chubbier than Autumns!

I had a few floating holidays that needed to be used up before the end of the year so we decided to take the family to Wild and Wonderful West Virgina to do some stargazing. It is about a 3 hour drive from Pataskala. There are very little places left in the Eastern United States were there is complete darkness for stargazing. Calhoun County Park is one of the very few places so we decided to do some primitive camping. The night sky was absolutely amazing! I have never seen so many stars before in my life. Thousands upon thousands of stars. Katie and I had a great time stargazing. We were able to clearly see on of the bands of our Milky Way Galaxy that stretched from north to south , watch the International Space Station pass overhead before it set into the Earth's shadow, see Jupiter and many of its moons, and observe many meteors from the Perseids Meteor shower which occurs every year. All and all we had a very fun and spiritual time. We had a very hard time getting Michael to go to bed for some reason. We had him boating with us and he did just fine. He ended up sleeping in between Katie and me which we never have done before. Finally, we were able to sleep for about an hour until we heard a coyote call right outside of our tent. It scared us both! For the next hour I heard coyotes calling all around us. Keep in mind that we were the ONLY ones in the middle of nowhere, in a park about a .5 mile in diameter in total darkness. Next we heard thud outside. That was enough for me to grab my revolver and a flashlight to see what what going on. I couldn't see anything but Katie and I decided that we were going to take Michael and all of us sleep in my Prius for another 1 1/2 hours until sunrise. It was the most uncomfortable sleep we have ever had but we knew we were safe. Michael ended up sleeping on Katie's chest for an hour and then we caught another 1 hour of sleep in the tent during sunrise. Overall we had a very fun filled and eventful time. We want to go back again but next time with a camper!






We also took Michael to the Columbus Zoo for the first time. He had a lot of fun looking at all the animals and especially liked to watch the polar bears. We took lots of pictures and will take him back there during Christmas time when they have all the lights up.

It is crazy to think that during Christmas time Michael will already be 1 year old! This past 9 months have flown by and I absolutely love our little family that we have! We couldn't imagine life without our little bundle of joy.
























We love you Michael Ryan! Until next time!