Here is one of Michael at President Bush's Victory 2004 rally that we attended.

See more photos at our Photo Album.

When Michael began playing in the dirt one day, his next request was to photograph it.  Actually, he was probably more interested in the rocks here... he likes to drop them through a grate nearby.

Michael's Page...

Michael is, as you've already read, a very busy little boy.  To elaborate on some of his favorite activities, we decided he needed his own web page!  Our family and friends receiving our holiday newsletter know all too well that there is much more to talk about concerning Michael, than his parents' activities...  Of course, his absolute favorite thing to do is go outside to the playground, hoping to find other kids there to play with.  A couple years ago, he used to call them "my kids," but now he calls them by name.  When forced to stay inside due to weather or illness, he has several other favorite activities too.

Top of the list has to be Sesame Street.        Michael owns quite a collection of toys, books and videos all of a Sesame Street theme.  Often as we read to him, or he watches a video, he likes to include his guys, as he calls the plush characters, and he makes them act out the storyline as we go along.  In the realm of books, of which he owns many, almost half of them are of Sesame Street characters.  Michael has memorized most of the books he owns, and he loves to add additional Sesame Street characters to the storyline.  Mommy enjoys hearing Daddy read these books, finding it amazing how well he can imitate all the characters' voices.  Sometimes it seems a video is on, when it's only Daddy reading.

Next on the list would include several other favorites, all about equal.  Michael has enjoyed for a few years a show called Caillou.  This is about a little boy who is 4 years old, so the subject matter is something Michael can relate to, since he's been there, done that.  His interest is beginning to wane, but every now and then he still likes to watch one of his Caillou DVDs.  Once, my sister loaned us a Max & Ruby DVD, and Michael discovered he liked that too.  So far, we have 4 of those titles, plus a couple of Max & Ruby books.  By far, his largest DVD collection is of VeggieTales.  He has a single book title and a few VeggieTale toys, but that's it.  Michael has found that he likes to play with Fisher-Price Little People also.  Admittedly, his interest there too is on the decrease.  Every once in a while, he will get them out for a while, but not too often anymore.

A little while ago when Curious George came out on PBS Kids, Michael became a devoted fan.  He had not even previously seen the movie, but he had enjoyed reading many of the Curious George books either from his collection of books or ones we checked out from the local library.  He now has the movie on DVD, plus more Curious George books, and a couple of Curious George toys.

Lastly, he discovered he has a flair for some of Mommy & Daddy's videos too, by mistake... see below.  We had put in a video of Harry Connick, Jr., and lo and behold, Michael learned all the songs and dance moves within a few watchings of this video.  Soon, it was the video to watch until he almost wore it out (we had to hide it).  Michael has expanded his video favorites to include Jerry Lewis movies too.  Recently, Daddy has been able to start watching some of his old Laurel & Hardy movies, which Michael readily recognizes by now.  Mommy & Daddy get a chance to watch a few of their videos too.

By the way, we have found that witholding his TV, DVD or video privileges has been our most effective punishment currently.  We discovered on our own that warning him about this potential punishment if he doesn't stop doing the offense, would often bring about a prompt change of heart.