Touch-a-Truck festival

I think we have created a monster! :) A few weekends ago, the Kohl Children's Museum put on it's annual Touch-A-Truck festival, so Aaron and I thought Micah would get a kick out of seeing big trucks and machines up close... and he sure did! Not only did we get to walk around and see these big trucks and machines, but Micah got to climb around on them, sit in the drivers' seats and play. It was amazing! The weather was perfect for the event... sunny and warm... a bit windy, but overall a nice day.. and we had a lot of fun as a family. We realized, after standing in line to sit on a digger, that the biggest problem of the day was going to be getting Micah OFF of these trucks and machines! Unfortunately, being only 16 months old, the concept of taking turns hasn't quite been grasped yet. So, we found ourselves apologizing over and over again to the people behind us in line who witnessed us wrestling a very upset toddler out of the drivers' seats and off of various trucks. Incidentally, the concept of waiting in line hasn't been grasped yet either, so Aaron and I found ourselves taking turns waiting in the lines while the other one ran around after Micah. :) We found the best places to bring Micah were the trucks where kids could just run around on them... which, thankfully, there were quite a few of these there. :) We took quite a few pictures at this festival, so I'll just let them tell the story of the day. Enjoy!

Driving the digger ~

One of the many open trucks kids could just run around in... this one is a horse trailer ~

My personal favorite part of the festival ~ ;)

Is Micah going to follow in mommy's footsteps someday? :)

Checking out the sewer cleaner with daddy ~

Sitting on the backhoe while mommy waited in line to be able to sit in the driver's seat ~

I think daddy had as much fun as Micah did :)

Another open truck to run around in... this one is an ice cream truck ~

They even had a train to ride on!

The truck closest to daddy's heart ;)

Driving the skid steer ~ (which had quite a noisy horn!)

Driving the garbage truck, complete with hard hat ~

So focused ~

Daddy and Micah driving the roller truck ~

So, how have we created this monster, you ask? Well, ever since this truck festival, getting Micah out of our car has become quite a challenge. He now wants to run around inside our van, sit in the driver's seat, and play with all the knobs and buttons on the dashboard. It used to be that getting him in to the car was the challenge... which it still is... Micah has never been a huge fan of being confined to his car seat... but now we have the challenge of getting him in AND out of the car with every trip we take. But I still think we'll be going back to the truck festival next year. :)

Easter fun

We had a great Easter weekend this year! Not that it isn't great to celebrate our Savior's resurrection every year, but with Micah being older and able to enjoy a few of the fun aspects of this holiday this year, there were a lot of great memories made.

The first thing we did to begin our Easter weekend was color some eggs. This was, at the same time, a huge riot, a huge mess, and a lot of fun. (and maybe one of my worst nightmares since I'm weird and don't like it when my hands get dirty... or, in this case, colored) :) But the bottom line is, we had fun doing it... mess and messy hands and all.

The "before" shot ~

Here we go!

The "after" shot ~

Easter morning, Micah received not one... not two... but three Easter baskets! Lucky boy! :) One came a day early, via the postman from Grandma and Grandpa K., and that one was filled with all kinds of goodies. A toy microphone that plays music and can record your own voice, a few books and other toys, animal crackers, plastic eggs filled with chocolates and other candy (which mommy and daddy shared a few with Micah), a few eggs which had coins in them, and the best part... fruit snacks. Ever since that box arrived in the mail, Micah has become obsessed with fruit snacks... to the point that we had to hide the box they came in to get him to think about something else! :) The positive side of this newfound love is that Aaron and I now have a way to make getting Micah into his car seat a little easier on ourselves. Micah has been putting up a tremendous fight any time we try to go anywhere because he has decided he wants to ride shotgun... or drive... rather than be confined to his car seat. Now, we bribe him with fruit snacks and the resistance is much less! Maybe that makes me a bad parent, but it works! and I am able to get into the driver's seat without already feeling road rage, so I think it's a win-win. :) Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa K! :)

Micah also got an Easter basket from Aaron and me, filled with a few bath toys, a ball and some sidewalk chalk. Much less exciting than what he received from the grandparents, but we figured we'd let them spoil him with the candy and then be able to blame them when he refused to nap because of all the sugar. ;)

Pops and Nee Nee also supplied an Easter basket for Micah, which had a few books and small toys, and plastic eggs filled with another obsession of Micah's... M & M's... as well as a few with coins in them. I think the best part of this Easter basket was the basket itself, which was Elmo. Elmo has become Micah's new favorite character these days, and any time he sees him, whether it's on a toy or book that we own or in a catalog for Toys R Us, he'll point and start saying, "Melmo, Melmo!" My mom even managed to find a few Elmo shaped eggs... where she comes up with this stuff, I will never know, but they were a huge hit! :)

We had Easter dinner at my parents' house with some extended family, and once we had eaten we got to work "hiding" some eggs for Micah to find. (I use the word "hiding" very loosely, as Micah is only 16 months old and doesn't really understand the concept of looking for eggs... or anything for that matter) :) My mom had filled a bunch of plastic eggs with coins and more M & M's, so we put those around the family room and turned him loose. Auntie Julie helped Micah find the eggs, which turned out to be a much longer process than anyone could have predicted, so thanks, Julie, for your patience! :) Because every egg was filled with something, the first thing Micah did when he found one was shake it and ask Julie to open it. Surprisingly (or maybe not-so-surprisingly), Micah was much less interested in the eggs with coins in them, but when he found one with M & M's in it, the hunt was put on hold while he devoured the candy. After about 2 M & M filled eggs, I looked around at all the eggs still hidden and decided I'd better save my son the incredible stomach ache he was bound to get if he was allowed to eat every single M & M in those eggs. So, I ran around and took most... not all, but most... of the M & M's out of the eggs, so rather than a big handful of candy, he got one or two pieces to enjoy. Maybe this makes me a bad parent too, but our dental insurance leaves something to be desired, and I was still hoping Micah would take a nap that afternoon, so I can deal with your criticisms. :)

"Hunting" for eggs with Auntie Julie ~

We had a great Easter weekend this year, and it was wonderful to be able to celebrate our Savior's resurrection and have fun with family and friends! So, thanks to the grandparents and everyone who helped make this Easter weekend so fun and so memorable!

What we've been up to...

Wow... where do we even begin? I suppose I could start by coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses for why our blog hasn't been updated in several months, but I know that's not why you read this. :) So, I'll just jump right in. What have the Illinois Klingenmaiers been up to? In a word... lots! Micah is growing like crazy, and learning new things every day. At his 15 month check up, he was 25 lbs., 2 oz., and 31 3/4 inches, which puts him in the 50-75% for both height and weight. So, while we might get a lot of comments on how big he is, he's right where he should be on the charts. :) He is getting more and more independent, which I both love and hate at the same time. On the one hand, his getting more independent is a good thing, especially as we anticipate the arrival of #2 in just a few short weeks, but at the same time I'm struggling with the fact that my baby isn't my baby anymore.

Micah is getting pretty good at using a fork and spoon to feed himself, and while a fair amount of his meals still end up on the floor, his ability to get the food from his plate to his mouth with a utensil improves with each attempt.

A lot of the time, Micah will stab his food with the fork and then pull it off and put it in his mouth with his hands, but he's learning and that's what's really important, right? :)

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We discovered our son loves ketchup! And anything else he has on his plate with the ketchup is just a conduit for him to eat the ketchup. :)



The way Micah attacked the ketchup at this meal reminded me of the kid in the movie "Big Daddy"... I have a feeling that someday Micah will be like that little boy when asked what he wants for lunch... I'm predicting a response of, "30 packets of ketchup" in a few years! :)

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He is getting very good at navigating the stairs by himself... going up has never been a problem for Micah, and coming down has always been pretty easy too, since Aaron started working with him on how to go down backwards as soon as he figured out how to go up the stairs. However, these days, Micah prefers to come down the stairs either by holding one of our hands and walking down like a big boy, or by holding on to our hands and sliding down on his backside like Uncle Eric taught him. :) Both of these methods of going down the stairs will be helpful once I'm trying to get down the stairs with 2 kids instead of just one. :)

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We have had a number of projects going on around our house over the past several months, and while the mess has been somewhat stressful for me, it has been fun to watch Micah turning into daddy's little helper. The kid is very mechanically minded... we might have an engineer on our hands!

Here he is learning how to lock and unlock our front door. (it was early on a Saturday morning... daddy was a little sleepy still) :)

And here are my boys hard at work ~

I found myself getting a little nervous as Micah would pick up a screwdriver and wave it around like a maniac, so I bought him his own tool belt from Ikea... this one is all fabric and a little less dangerous. Unfortunately, our little brainiac knows the difference and while he'll play with the plush tools, he definitely prefers the real thing. :)

Helping daddy take out the garbage ~

Other highlights from the past few months include playing in a box...

...a few trips to the Kohl Childrens Museum...







...coloring and playing with play doh...








...building a fort with daddy...



...swinging on the porch swing with Pops...

...and going for a bike ride with daddy. (we're still working on getting Micah to wear his helmet)

We've had a few VERY nice days lately, so we've also been able to get outside a bit and enjoy the warmer weather.

Watching the geese with daddy ~

Strollin' on his own ~

Happy guy ~

The look after a hard day of playing... I LOVE his hair in this picture! :)

And that's a glimpse into what we've been up to. :) Stay tuned... there's a lot more to come! :)

First things first...

I know, I know... I get the world's worst blogger award for the past couple of months for not keeping our blog up-to-date... and I promise one of my goals for this weekend is to get caught up and fix that. But first, and more importantly I wanted to announce that we have a new niece!! My sister gave birth to a beautiful baby girl last night, May 11, at 8:25 pm. She weighed 8 lbs., 6 oz. and is 20.5 inches long. Baby's name is Elin Joy DeBoer, and we can't wait to meet her when the family comes to town for my brother's wedding at the end of June! I don't have any pictures yet, but I'll post some as soon as I do. For now, you can take my word for it... she's adorable! Congratulations, Lisa and Matt!

Like father, like son...

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so enjoy 2,000 words (without having to read them!) and these pictures! :)

Like father, like son!