We took Micah in for his one year checkup today. We had to postpone it from last week because he was sick (and they won’t vaccinate when the baby is sick). Micah weighed in at 18 lbs 15 ounces, and about 31 inches. He is a tiny little thing – in the 3rd percentile for weight, but around the 75th for height. We gave him several vaccinations – the last one against meningitis and a flu vaccine. We opted not to do the chicken pox vaccination at this time. He is hitting all of his developmental milestones, and he showed off (and flirted) for the doctor. She told us he looks great, we were okayed to start him on whole milk, and we do not have to go back until he is 15 months old.
Happy First Birthday, Micah
It is hard to imagine that a full year has passed. One year ago today, I became a mommy. That was perhaps the happiest moment of my life. Each day since then, my love for my little man has grown bigger and stronger. I’ve loved getting to know him and watching him grow, and I’m so filled with hope and excitement for the years to come. It is hard to imagine that my tiny little baby has grown so big. He has two teeth already through, and 2 others that have been sitting on the edge of his gums waiting to pop through. Micah has gone from being unable to take a bottle to downing regular grownup food. He stands and cruises and is on the verge of walking. He has an amazing sense of humor, and he loves to laugh and play. I love watching him learn, and I even enjoy dealing with his growing opinions, pickiness, and even occasional temper tantrum.
He has been such a good baby, and I hope I don’t ever forget a second of this time. I love how he still loves to suck his thumb and cuddle with me. When I hold him and give him a bottle, he plays with my fingers. He laughs a big giant laugh when I tickle his belly. When he is sad, he still cries out “mama!” I remember my heart stopping the first time he fell and cut himself – I think I physically felt pain at the sight of blood dripping from his mouth. I love how he adores the dog, and screeches with joy when he sees her. He loves it even more when she kisses him or touches him. I love watching him push to a stand on his own, and pick up his toys while he is standing. I love holding my breath in anticipation of that moment when I finally see him take off walking. I love watching him hug his stuffed animals and figure out how to work his toys.
Everyday, I’m just so amazed by my little boy, and so thankful he has forever changed my life. So, happy first birthday, baby boy!!
The Birthday Party That Wasn’t
Last week was an insanely busy week. We spent a lot of it prepping for Micah’s birthday party – buying supplies and decorations, planning and purchasing food for the menu, making the birthday cake, etc. We were expecting about 15-20 people for Micah’s “playgroup” party, and then another 30-40 people for our Chanukah/birthday party. I purchased tuna fish and egg salad, we had over 20 lbs of potatoes for making potato latkes, and enough cake baked to feed an army! Our plan was to have cupcakes (decorated like Elmo) for the playgroup party. We baked about 3 dozen cupcakes for that. We also had a huge 2 layer cake for the “main event.” My nieces were in town for a few days before the party, so we were a bit crazy all week. We took them to a few music classes and had a great time with them. Anyway, Saturday morning rolled around…and Micah woke up with a 102 degree fever. And a cough. The cough started to get worse as the day went along, so we decided to take him to the hospital. We were actually hoping that he had an ear infection – a couple doses of antibiotics and we thought things would be back on track!
Unfortunately, we learned Micah had a viral case of bronchitis, and would likely be contagious to children. When we came home from the hospital, we sent out a note and canceled the playgroup party. We then sent out a note to all of our other friends and family, letting them know that Micah had a virus and could possibly be contagious. On Sunday, Micah woke up fever-free, but still coughing. We decided to go ahead with the afternoon party, but naturally, nearly everyone declined to come. My parents, my brother, sister-in-law and my two nieces (who had already been around Micah while he was sick), my cousin and her two children, and one of my best friends were the only people in attendance. Despite the poor turnout, we still had a great time!
Here are some pictures and video from the event:
Micah also got SOOO many wonderful presents. My parents bought him a play gym – it has a slide, a ladder and a basketball hoop. Jen and Jeremy bought him an outfit, a dump truck, and a tool bench toy. My cousin Michelle brought him a mega blocks set, and Heather bought him some clothing, some books, and this adorable singing donkey (it sings “Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch”), and Ken and Erica dropped off a baseball toy, and Ellen gave him a singing Chanukah bear. My parents’ friends Diane & Joey, Sheila & Les, and Suzette & Joel also sent him a wonderful storage bench before his birthday. We were so lucky to have such wonderful presents!
An announcement and some stories
A bottle of baby shampoo…$7
A can of formula…$25
A package of jumbo diapers…$43
The fact that there are 4 people in this photo….priceless:
It is with great pleasure that we are finally able to announce that we are expecting baby #2, due June 22, 2010. After a very rocky couple of months (we thought we lost the baby several different times), we had our 12 week nuchal tanslucency scan on December 8. After everything we went through, we were quite nervous about this visit. We got there and the tech started things up…and we were SOOO relieved when we heard there was still a heartbeat. As the ultrasound went on, the news got better and better. The baby was moving well, the neck measurements were perfect, all the parts were in place…hands, feet, arms, legs and nasal bone. Here are the two pictures of our beautiful little bean, (who we are calling Twoey), that we were able to take home.
Random Story TimeI adore Micah, but he is becoming quite a challenge to handle in so many ways. First, let’s start with diapering. Diaper changing is really and truly an exercise in baby wrangling – Micah twists, turns, stands, flips, dances, squirms, crawls, and hollers. We hand him a toy – sometimes it appeases him and he’ll play. Other times, he’ll throw it on the floor and return to insanity. We’ve tried remote controls, books, digital thermometers, the blue nose squeegey – at different times, each of these “toys” enthralls him, but some days, nothing but freedom will do!
Now that we’ve covered diapering challenges, let’s talk about eating. Micah does not like to drink much milk, and he refuses to take a sippy cup. He should still be drinking 20-24 ozs of formula a day, but I’m lucky most days if he drinks 10-14. In the morning, he likes to go play. In theory, that alone would be fine if he did a great job of eating. And some meals, Micah is a GREAT eater. He loves veggie burgers, hamburgers, turkey burgers, cheese sandwiches, pizza, cheerios and kidney beans. He also loves bananas and pears. Just about anything else, however, is a crap shoot. He appears to hate pasta, although he was willing to eat pesto-coated tortellini the other day. He will sometimes eat yogurt and cottage cheese, and he will sometimes let me feed him applesauce or oatmeal. Other times, he grabs the spoon and smears it in his hair while dumping the bowl on the floor. He will not eat white potatoes (can you imagine?), peas, green beans or carrots anymore. I can actually handle this newly found pickiness, but what is driving me crazy is his need to “share” the food with our dog! He drops at least half of everything he touches on the floor for her! And if we say “no,” he smiles and tries to “sneak” and drop the food on the floor. I mean, seriously, is deviousness an instinct or a learned trait? The worst part is my dog is supposed to be on a grain-free diet because of her allergies. We finally had her skin doing better and her hair re-growing, and all this recent influx of waffles and Cheerios and bread and crackers has her skin back to being a mess again, her bald spot is back with a vengeance, and her nose irritation returned. How do you explain that to a 1 year old? I think I’m going to have to put MICAH on a grain-free diet for the sake of the dog!!
By the way – did you notice I said 1 year old? That is right – Monday is Micah’s first birthday! We are having a party for him on Sunday (well, two). It is also Chanukah for us (the “festival of lights”), when we celebrate Judah and the Maccabees’ (the Jewish makeshift “army”) victory over the Syrian King, Antiochus, who tried to kill us. After our victory, Judah and the Maccabees sought to rededicate the Temple, and there was only a small amount of oil left to light the eternal flame. Once lit, the eternal flame should never be extinguished. The miracle is that the little tiny bit of oil managed to last for eight days. To commemorate the miracle, we light candles every night for 8 days. Each night, we add one more candle to the lighting, and on the last night, the entire menorah is lit – all 8 candles (plus the one we use to light the other candles – known as the shamas). Because Chanukah falls around Christmas time, in the US, Jews also celebrate Chanukah with gift-giving.
In honor of both Micah’s birthday and the holiday, we are having a Chanukah party for Micah’s birthday! At 12, his playgroup friends will join us, and we’ll serve traditional Chanukah food (like latkes – potato pancakes). Micah will then take his afternoon nap, and around 3:30 or 4, we’ll have some other friends and family join us for Chanukah party, take 2. We’ll continue eating traditional food, playing Chanukah games, and we’ll have Chanukah music playing. We’ll light the candles, exchange gifts and watch Micah destroy a birthday cake. What could be more fun?
Three Questions
Today I have an EXTREMELY serious topic to discuss. I’m having a horrible time making a decision about some life-altering choices, so I thought the best thing to do was to seek some input. First things first:
Apparently, I am way behind on planning Micah’s first birthday party. I have no theme, and no cake choice made yet. Scoff if you must, but apparently I’m delinquent in my psychotic, obsessive, birthday-crazy mommy duties. Here are the ideas I’ve had so far – please feel free to throw out a few additional ideas!
- Jungle Animals (maybe complete with some jungle trees and vines, lions, elephants, tigers, etc.
- Barn/Farm Animals
- Elmo
- Doggy
- First Birthday Theme – “hugs and stitches”
Now, on to my next critical “life or death” decision – what should Micah be for Halloween this year? He has a costume party birthday to attend on Halloween, and of course we’ll have to take him trick or treating, and I figure he’ll look adorable in his costume for his 10 month photos. Apparently, everyone in our playgroup has already bought a costume, and we need to catch up! Here are a few of my thoughts, but please feel free to propose your own recommendations:
- Some kind of cute & cuddly animal. I’ve seen penguins, monkeys, lions, teddy bears, leopards, tigers, frogs, bunnies, chicks . . . what do you think?
- Elmo – they must have elmo costumes, right?
- Bam Bam – Micah keeps banging everything, so we thought it was appropriate
Finally, last, but not least, I am in the process of buying a new cell phone. I use my cell phone for both personal and work. I use the internet and check my email on a regular basis. I was debating getting the iphone, but I really like having a tactile keyboard (the onscreen iphone keyboard just doesn’t quite cut it, and the service for AT&T kind of sucks here). I have now narrowed my choices down to:
- Palm Pre
- Blackberry Curve
Do any of you have these phones? What do you think? I currently have a Palm, so I do like their phones. The Pre has a touch screen with some cool features/capabilities and a slide out keyboard. The Blackberry would give me easier access to email, has a smaller screen, and everything is operated with the little mouseball on the front – no touch screen access. Decisions, decisions!
Hopefully, by the time this post goes up, I’ll have set up some polls for you on the right-hand side of my blog so you can vote on these serious questions!