Really? 13 months?

We were so excited for our lil man to turn 1 but its so weird, yet exciting, that he is now on the downslide to 2!! We are slowly coming to realize that he is no longer "our lil baby." He has definitely hit the toddler stage!! He is into EVERYTHING, climbing on EVERYTHING, eating EVERYTHING as well as kissing, waving and pointing at EVERYTHING! Now that he is walking, we hope to lose the remainder of our baby weight chasing the lil guy around :)

*Michael really does love his GATORS! He enjoys playing with his blue and orange football but most importantly, he LOVES his Gator bat. He even drags it around the house and will use it as a cane or even straddle the darn thing, like a wooden pony stick thingy.

He likes to sport his Gator attire too!

Daddy even is teaching him the GATOR chomp :) Mike is such a wonderful dad!

*Our little man really gets into playing games. Whether it is peek-a-boo(with himself too), being chased around the house or grabbing Mike's hand from under the door, he finds the humor in whatever we do and has fun with it!

*Besides his GATOR bat, he also drags his "Bongo" around the house as well. You can see in the picture below the monkey to the side... Bongo :) His cousin Kaitlynn gave Michael this stuffed animal this summer when he returned home from the hospital after being treated for MRSA. He has been attached to it ever since!


*Michael eats and drinks pretty much anything! He holds his own bottles of milk... yes we are drinking Whole Milk!!! He loves it and it was an easy transition from formula. He also likes his apple juice and pear juice. As far as food goes... he eats anything really. He doesn't like green beans or peas. He usually has either hard boiled or scrambled eggs for breakfast, sometimes grits, oatmeal or toast. Lunch usually consists of flavored apple sauces or mashed potatoes with either hot dog, Vienna sausage or turkey/chicken sticks by Gerber Graduates. He snacks on baby Goldfish, cheezits, cheetos, Gerber crackers, Sesame Street organic crackers... Dinner is whatever we eat really. He loves spaghetti. We even bought him his own kind of pasta noodles! Salmon is still a fav:) He now eats when he wakes up, lunch at 11, snack at 2 and 4 and dinner at 6/630. He is one routined kid!


*Michael is super affectionate and sweet and adorable :) He loves to give us hugs and kisses. This includes his lil friends too! He not only likes to snuggle on us (when he is calm) but he also likes to snuggle in with his pillows and blankets. He is all about being comfy :)

*You guessed it! He is a walking machine!! He is walking so well too! He will try to run as well but usually falls on his face and laughs and then crawl the rest of the way :) He keeps us on our toes now!


Most importantly, Michael is happy. He pretty much has a smile on his face all the time, we swear. Ask his daycare teachers :)

Our lil helper

What a day!! Our lil Rasdall family got a ton accomplished this afternoon, from building Michael's new dresser to 6 loads of laundry as well as cleaning toilets and organizing our storage space!!! We are so proud of ourselves :) The best part, Michael helped! He wanted to assist with everything too, which made getting everything done today so much more fun!

Daddy and Michael spent most of the afternoon putting together his new dresser that my parents bought him for his birthday. I know, we are a month behind but some of the pieces came broken so we had to await new ones. Anyways, Michael watched Daddy intently... observing how he used the tools to where he would grab them after Mike was done and make the same movement with the tool. He LOVED the cordless screwdriver and totally enjoyed pressing the button to make the noise.


Michael also wanted to inspect the pieces before Daddy used them. After he looked them over, he handed them to Daddy :)

Of course, Daddy and Michael took a few breaks to have some fun!

You can somewhat see in this picture below Michael's excited face, where his lips kinda pucker up and his body gets stiff.

While Daddy put the finishing touches on the dresser, Michael came to help me finish one of my 6 loads of laundry :) He pulled everything out but decided that he was bored waiting for me to fold and then put the remainder of the clothes back in the dryer. Once he accomplished that, he took the rest back out for me to finish :) What a sweet boy!!







After we finished that load of clothes, we went back to Micheal's room to check out his new dresser! He was really proud of his work!

It tired our lil man out though because once he looked over his new and big dresser, he grabbed his pillows that Auntie Charlotte made for him, and made himself comfy :)


We are just so blessed to have such a wonderful lil guy in our lives who is very loving and helpful :) Can't wait to see what he does next!

Elmo's Green Thumb

This past week we were able to take Michael to see Sesame Street Live! One of my very good friends, Amy, who is also Brooklynn's mommy, was so kind to give us her free tickets to the show on Wednesday night since they had already bought tickets for Tuesday. We are just so grateful and appreciative of all they do for us :)


Mike and I were joking around once we arrived because we are always talking about going to a Gator game and hanging out in Gainesville. We haven't made a game yet but some how, Elmo gets us to Gainesville!
Before the show, we took a few photos :)






The show for this year was "Elmo's Green Thumb."


It was super vibrant and fun and everyone in the audience was so excited! We even got Michael a Tshirt to wear! Unfortunately, Micheal didn't nap much earlier in the day so we was ready to go at intermission, however, what he did see, he LOVED, especially Elmo with his squeaky but yet adorable voice :)

Daddy and Michael enjoying the show!

Daddy caught Michael and me laughing!

So sleepy...

Since the little guy was fading fast, we decided to leave but not without a picture of my boys at "the swamp"!!

Thank you to the Pozdol's for giving us the opportunity to see Elmo LIVE!!

Grandma comes to visit!!

Grandma Cindy came to visit Michael! She drove up from Sarasota to Ocala the day after his party so that she would be able to spend more quality time with the lil man. She also came bearing TONS of presents! Michael was able to give Grandma her birthday gifts while she was visiting, which included this envelope/card that Michael decorated with Daddy :) I think we have a creative little guy on our hands, don't you think? :)

Inside the card :)

So it took Michael an hour to open everything that Grandma brought. I think our little man will be well educated by all these Leap Frog toys!

He was super excited about his travel tray! He got to take it with him to Cedar Key later that afternoon! It is a perfect toy because we travel quite a bit around the state and we are currently planning trips to Alabama and Texas!

Mike and I were particularly excited about this Boon Frog! It scoops up all of Michael's bath toys after he done with his "splish splash," and then you hang it on the wall and the soap/water drains out! Fabulous idea!

So after our morning of gift opening, we packed up the little guy and Grandma and headed to Cedar Key. My mom has lived in FL for like 45 years and has never been so we thought this would be a great opportunity since we are only 1 hr 30 min away. Michael slept most of the way which worked perfectly. He was in a great mood once we arrived :)

One of the main reasons we enjoy going to Cedar Key is because the food is AMAZING!!! We went to the Rusty Rim for lunch and enjoyed Clams, Oysters, Gator Tail, Shrimp... the list goes on :)
Michael hanging out on Gma's lap :)

After lunch, we walked out to the Pier. The Key is just beautiful and we hope to go back soon for the entire weekend and boat out to some of the little islands.

My handsome boys! Michael's expression is priceless :)

Always getting kisses from Mommy :)

My mommy, Me and Michael.

After our photo session at the Pier was complete, we walked around town... shopped and enjoyed some ice coffee. It was so wonderful to spend the day with Grandma. We are so looking forward to our next visit with her! Hopefully it will be soon as Uncle Ryan's 23rd bday is right around the corner, along with Grandpa John! We just need to get him back to Florida!

It's party time!!

It is finally here! We have been prepping for this party celebration for 2 months :) Michael was just so excited to spend the day with his little and big friends! Before Michael's guests arrived, Mommy and Charlotte baked and decorated the birthday boy's cupcakes :) They turned out awesome and tasted great! Michael also Skyped Mamaw and Papaw while eating his pre party snack. Everyone arrived around 2 pm and began to play and snack on Mini Nilla's, Goldfish and Cheetos's :) Daddy cooked hamburgers and hot dogs for all the big kids and made some yummy pasta salad too!

Here are some photo's from the party :)

Michael cheesing!

Rainey Rebecca!

Ellie Skye!

Brooklynn!

Brooklynn and Michael playing with his new car from Mamaw and Papaw :)

Last but not least, Luke!!

Michael was crushing on lil Rainey :) How could you not? She is just precious!

Michael not only enjoyed spending the day with his little friends, but 3 of his teachers from Daycare also came to celebrate with our little man. He just adores his teachers, Amy, Stephanie and Jenn :) Here he is with Jenn and Luke!

Rainey and mommy Melissa had to leave early :( Brooklynn and Michael didn't want her to go but they came over to say their good byes. We really enjoyed spending some time with the Lindeman ladies!

Now we can't forgot Ms. Ellie!! Michael has always enjoyed his play dates with her. He even got to celebrate with Ellie on her first birthday a month ago :) She enjoyed helping Michael open and play with his presents. They are just too cute!

Auntie Charlotte gave Michael so many wonderful gifts. Not only did she make some beautiful safari themed pillows for our little man but also gave him some great books! Michael LOVES books!

Unfortunately, Auntie Andrea and Uncle Ben couldn't make it :( They moved to California after they got married in June but they sent Michael a wonderful alphabet drum for his birthday!

Ok, I couldn't resist! I had to post this picture! Ellie is totally "chillin."

Piano from Mommy and Daddy!

Michael got to spend the entire day with Auntie Charlotte! They hung out before the party and even after! Charlotte took some other birthday pictures for us, which we will post in his 1 year blog :) She also gave little man his bath! Thanks for coming Auntie!!!

It is cupcake time!! Everyone sang Happy Birthday too :) We got that on video!

Mommy and Daddy got to blow the candle out :) Gotta love Daddy in his party hat!

Soooo, little man is not into sweets. Never really has been. The story here is Michael has had 2 cupcakes, one at Daycare and one at Ellie's party. Both times he consumed the icing, he broke out in hives. We think he was a little traumatized from his experiences as he wanted NOTHING to do with the icing or cupcake. The doctor thinks he is allergic to blue and red dye so we made sure his cupcake was white icing/white cake :)

We attempted to put the cake and icing in his mouth but he wouldn't have it. He didn't break out in hives though!!

Luke totally loved his cupcake! He ate the entire thing!

Little Brooklynn and Luke eating away :) We love these kids!

So Ellie and Brooklynn became great little friends! Can't wait to play date with both Amy's, Ellie and Brooklynn :)

Ellie giving her man a smooch!!

We can not thank everyone enough for making Michael's birthday so incredibly wonderful!!! The celebration was a HUGE success!! Can't wait until next year :) We love you all and Michael sends you all KISSES!!