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8 months

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I have to say, time just flies. I cannot believe that Micah is 8 months old today!! We were originally planning to go get his pictures done today, but I decided to postpone it until Monday. Usually, I post a general update about Micah for my monthly post. Today, however, I’m feeling a touch sentimental, so I think I will focus this post more on the things I do not want to forget about this precious time with Micah.

I love how Micah squeals with delight each time he sees the dog, and especially when she gets close enough to touch or comes over to nuzzle him, plant one on him, or just burrow into him. I also think he is adorable when he taps on the floor to call for the dog to come over. She looks at him with this wary expression . . . kind of saying “yeah, right, so you can yank my hair out? I’ll think about it – you are cute, you taste yummy, but we’ll do this when I say so!”

I love how he lights up with a big smile and starts furiously waving hello when he sees me, and as I get close enough to him, he reaches up to touch my face. Micah puts both hands on my face and just spreads love and joy as he smiles at me, announcing how happy he is to see me and have me so close to him.

I love that every once in a while, Micah still likes to nap on me. I stretch out on the couch and he just nuzzles on top of me with his thumb in his mouth and crashes. Even when he won’t take a real nap on me, I love that he gets especially cuddly when he is tired. He rests his head on my chest and sucks his thumb while sighing quietly, and I get the opportunity to wrap my arms around him, snuggle him close to me, and rub his back. I think that might just be heaven.

It makes me chuckle every time he poops – he now grunts and scrunches up his face, so I always know when he is pooping. If it is during a mealtime, you cannot put a spoon anywhere near him – he needs his full concentration while pooping, and he will not let food disturb him.

Speaking of food, I love how he works so hard to feed himself. He very carefully picks up the puffs or pasta, and does his best to aim for his mouth and get the food in there. He is able to connect properly about 80-90% of the time now, and I’m so proud of him! He does much better with big items, like the Baby Mum Mums. He also loves to grab the spoon while I’m feeding him. Unfortunately, he usually grabs the spoon at the feeding end, sending sweet potatoes and other wonderful things squirting everywhere. And don’t get me started about the raspberries! He has a thing about blowing raspberries when his mouth is full – especially once you put something colorful (like cherries, or blueberries) in there. The greater the potential for staining, the bigger the raspberries! He just loves to do that.

I love how he chats right now – he talks to his animals, he talks to us. Sometimes, I think he is saying “mama,” “hi” and “dada” but I’m just not sure yet. He does seem to recognize words now – I love that when you ask him where Daddy is he turns to Elliot, and he’ll do the same for me and for Nugget.

I love watching him think. He surveys the situation – deciding where his toys are, what things he wants to grab, locating Nugget – and then he devises a plan. He decides to lean forward and grab, or try to stand up, or attempt to crawl. He is going to be one devious little boy! He finds things amusing and just laughs sometimes. He interacts with toys and people. He has this joyous smile, and I love to watch how happy he is.

I love that he is in love with Elmo. After the tempertantrum this weekend, last night Elliot & I went to Target and picked up the Chatters Elmo Micah loves. We gave it to him this morning, and he lit up. He has been hugging it, talking to it, and smiling all morning! I’m amazed how something so simple can bring such joy. If this keeps up, we may have to pick Elmo as the theme for his first birthday party.

I love his crazy hair. It seems like Micah’s hair is part of his identity now – and perhaps why I’ve been leery about cutting it. He is the baby with the hair, and people stop and recognize him and notice him because of the crazy hair do and the winning smile. Somehow, it feels like chopping off that lovely mop into a controlled cut will stifle part of his identity and his freedom.

I love how he grabs everything and pulls it out to shred it or eat it – the papers and baskets under the new coffee table or on his nightstand, his toys, and labels. I love how he rolls all over creating a path of destruction, and how he tries to push up to all fours and gets a stubborn expression on his face when he insists on trying to stand.

Happy 8 months, baby boy! I love you with all of my heart. I never knew what joy you would bring into my life, and I am thankful for every second I have with you.

Oh yes we’ve got Trouble, right here in Bethesda

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Another week has passed and once again, I’m way behind on posting! Work has been crazy – a bunch of deadlines and our sitter has been MIA quite a few days. I am so excited to be starting Micah in daycare in a few weeks – the predictability should make my life a bit easier. Let’s start off with a cute picture of Micah:


Micah has been working on his troublemaking skills this week. He discovered how to shove his hand out of the crib and throw his pacifier on the floor, or grab things off of his nightstand. He got some paper off the nightstand, so I cleared off most of the odds and ends. One day when I went in to get him after his nap, I noticed that he grabbed the doggy Build-a-Bear from the nightstand that my father made for him. I guess the good news is he loves his Build-a-Bear.

Micah has also recently discovered that he loves power cords. He especially loves to grab hold, yank and chew. It is not a habit I find amusing. He also loves to pull all the paper stuff off the new coffee table. If left on his own, he will shred and/or eat the paper. He gets VERY angry when I keep the papers away from him. We just purchased baskets for under the coffee table – one for papers and another for his toys. I think he will spend most of his days emptying the contents of these baskets. Monday, he could not stop pulling out and playing with all of his toys (and he also decided to claim a few of the dog’s as well).

I also think that we may have crossed into “mobile” territory – Micah is rolling and army crawling all over the place. He is not quite crawling, but he does lean forward from a sit to all fours and attempt to crawl before flopping on to his belly and taking off. He is also trying to pull up on things now – if I stand him up, he can hold on and cruise, but even without my help, he is pretty close to pulling himself up to a stand. He manages to get into some interesting spots, and he pulls down any items within his grasp.

He really needs to be watched at all times – he likes to eat everything. Monday, he managed to get his hands on one of those little silica gel bead packets (for keeping things dry). I found him chewing on it – I’m just lucky he didn’t choke!

I am amazed how he manages to sneak all this stuff in his mouth WHILE we are monitoring and watching him! He is definitely trouble with a capital T.

Speaking of trouble, this hunger strike has been a real pain in the neck – he just has not been drinking enough milk. It has had me worried, but I’ve been trying to be patient. In the meantime, Micah does seem to LOVE solid foods. He is a bottomless pit, just like his father. We have been experimenting with pasta, and I finally successfully made some zucchini for Micah. He just loves his veggies! We are slowly eating thicker chunks of food, and he can easily eat pieces of pasta and other soft fruits and veggies. Nevertheless, he still seems to hate the mesh teether – this great contraption for delivering bigger chunks of table food. I think he just hates the texture of the mesh bag, but I wish he would use it! Even without the mesh contraption, he is doing really well with table food. We have tried Cheerios, and he seems to love those. I still think he has an easier time eating the puffs because they melt in his mouth, but it is good that we have a few more options! He also seems to be developing his pincher grasp – he can pick up the puffs, pasta and cheerios and put them in his own mouth! I am amazed everyday by how much he is growing.

Micah is a pooping machine. One day, he managed to make a big pooping mess, and then he peed in his hair while the babysitter was changing him. Twice. Yes, that is right, twice. He was soaked and we had to bathe him. I could not figure out how he managed to get THAT wet.

Last Wednesday was a fun day for us. Our sitter took the day off, so it was a Mommy & Micah day. We spent a few hours at playgroup, and I got a little work done in the morning and afternoon while Micah napped. At 5:00, we went to another one of those concerts – Micah just loves watching all the kids dance and the entertainers singing. Immediately after the concert, we went to a fundraiser for Alzheimer’s at a local diner. A friend of mine from high school will be running a marathon, and all the money he is raising will be donated to Alzheimer’s research.

On Friday, we went to a potluck at Micah’s new daycare center. We had a great time – we were able to meet his new teachers and a few of the other babies in his class. Micah will be a “Minnow” starting August 31, and I already have a good feeling about this center.

On Sunday, we were slightly…overbooked. I have a bad tendency to overcommit. We attended a first birthday party for my friend’s daughter at 2:00. We had agreed to go to a “Cousins” BBQ at 4 hosted by one of my cousins, and we had reservations at 6 at a new restaurant to celebrate my father’s birthday. We left the house at 12, and went to Target to pick up a present. While walking through the aisles, Micah saw Elmo. He has recently fallen in love with Elmo – he had one in the pack ‘n play with him at my friend’s house, and he couldn’t stop smiling and hugging Elmo. Ever since them, he shrieks with joy when he sees Elmo on Sesame Street. When he spotted Elmo, he smiled and reached for him. I thought it was so cute, so I grabbed Elmo and handed him to Micah. After we were finished in the aisle, I took Elmo and put him back on the shelf. Which led to Micah’s first tempertantrum. It started out slowly – first the bottom lip began to curl down in a pout. Then the whimpering started. Then the sobs and tears and back arching followed. I was stunned – I did not think Micah cared enough about any one particular thing right now. He immediately stopped when I handed him Elmo (I needed to test the theory), and then shrieked bloody murder when I promptly returned Elmo to the shelf, told him no, and headed off to the next aisle. I briefly considered just buying him Elmo on the spot, but I decided it would be a bad precedent to set. I will definitely go back and get him that Elmo soon – he really is too cute when he is hugging it! Who knew his love of Elmo would lead to his first tempertantrum? I did not see that one coming.

After Target, we ran a few other errands, then arrived at the party. It was a nice afternoon, and Micah had a great time. He even surprised us by ending his hunger strike – he drank 5 ozs of formula at the birthday party! At 4:00, we left the party to stop by the Cousins BBQ. We had fun hanging out with all the cousins. Elliot offered to do the grilling, and we stayed long enough to taste the marshmallow fluff and ice cream pie. Yes, that is right – graham cracker crust, 2 layers of ice cream, a layer of chocolate, a layer of marshmallow fluff, topped off with mini marshmallows, all lightly broiled to melt the marshmallows. At 6:00, we said our goodbyes and drove to family dinner.

Micah was a trooper – even without getting his afternoon nap! We tried out a new Italian restaurant, and the food was wonderful. We ordered the restaurant week special, and I think we were all stuffed before our entrees even arrived! At dinner, Micah drank another 3 ozs. He ate 2 jars of baby food (rice lentil dinner and banana peach oatmeal), and he spent most of dinner gnawing on a crusty chunk of bread. He was so cute at dinner – smiling and waving at the people sitting next to us and happily munching whatever he could grab.

After dinner, my brother and parents came back to the house for dessert. Naturally, I decided to make a cake. We (my brother, mom and I) decided to buy my father an ipod touch for his present, so I made him an ipod touch cake. Or rather, I attempted to make an ipod touch cake. You see, my edible image printer decided to stop cooperating. It was feeling rather…pink. Yes, I said pink, not blue. Apparently, the printhead is all clogged, and pink is the only color that can get through. Instead of a black screen with colorful icons, the image was…pink. Needless to say, the image did not look so good. Yes, I stuck the horrible image on the cake anyway – I was frustrated, out of town, and figured it was better to have an ugly cake than no cake at all. Clearly, the cake was a bit of a bust – tasted great, but not one of my success stories.

Monday we were without a babysitter (again). We think he might be saying “Hi” in addition to waving, and he might have said “mama” and “dada” today. I also thought he might have said “doggy” but it is pretty hard to tell. I did end up videotaping Micah being adorably cute all afternoon – I just couldn’t help it!

Tuesday we had our babysitter back, so I had a productive day – I got some work done and made and decorated a cake for a baby shower. Wednesday (today), we went to see a singer at a local mall with our playgroup, and the kids had fun! Our babysitter came back this afternoon, and I got a bit of work done. Tomorrow we have our babysitter again, and I think Friday we will be trying to get Micah’s 8 month photos done!

On another note, my dog is turning pure white. I am not sure if it is the new medicine she is taking, but overnight she seems to have gone from chocolate brown to white. My poor puppy!

Catching up

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Once again, I am WAY behind on updates. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind, and I just cannot seem to find the time to blog. I guess I should pick back up with an update on my brother – he got out of the hospital on Friday, July 24, and immediately drove out of town to go to a Dave Matthews Band concert in Hershey. Paige and Peyton came to stay at my parents’ house, and we had a great time. On Friday, we took the girls to a singing story hour and playspace time at Kidville. Kidville is this wonderful play and learning place for children. They offer all kinds of music, gym, education, art and language development classes. All summer, they have been sponsoring free story times and playspace events (almost every week), and Little Maestro Concert, pizza and playspace events. Micah loves going (we are enrolled in a class there this Fall), and it seemed like a perefect thing for Paige and Peyton. They had such a good time!

Saturday was a day at the pool – another fun day with the girls. They pushed Micah around in his floaty, played with toys, and it was a wonderful afternoon! I’m amazed by how much Micah is developing – he now prefers to “walk” around the pool in his floaty – feet on the ground and standing tall. Saturday night, Elliot and I went over to Niki and Eric’s house for dinner and hanging out. We picked up Indian food along they way. It was the first time in a few months we tried putting Micah to bed while we were out, and it was a smashing success! He fell asleep in their pack and play, transferred easily to his car seat, and did not wake up when we transferred him into the crib!

On Sunday, my cousin Trenna arrived with her 4 year old son Zander for a week-long visit. We all gathered at my parents’ house on Sunday afternoon/evening for dinner and catching up. Micah went to bed in the pack and play, and again transferred easily back home. On Monday, I did not get to spend any time with Trenna and Zander – they went downtown with my father to do a bit of sightseeing. Zander loves the movie Night at the Museum, so they spent the day visiting all the museums and following a map of movie highlights. My babysitter Christin was with us all day, and I tried to get some work done. I had mah jong on Monday night, so Trenna and I made plans to meet on Tuesday. She was hoping to take Zander to the zoo. They were predicting rain most of the week, so she decided to just take him down on the first clear day. Tuesday brought some oppressive heat, and I was totally stressed about work and worried about exposing Micah to the heat. I needed to give a webinar in the afternoon, and I did not think I could go out and get back in sufficient time to do my work. Unfortunately, I bailed on the trip to the zoo, so Trenna and Zander had to go alone. When they returned, Elliot made dinner for us. We ate together and Micah and Zander played. It was so sweet to see the boys hanging out together – Micah was totally enamored of his big cousin! While Trenna was here, I began working on my shoe cake for my friend Jamie’s birthday.

On Wednesday, we hosted playgroup at our house. I got a bit of work done in the early morning and in the afternoon, then went off to my parents’ house for dinner. Once again, Micah fell asleep in the pack and play and transferred without any difficulty. This new discovery has completely freed us! We now know we can go out a bit more at night and bring Micah along. When we got home Thursday night, I finished making the shoe for my cake.

Thursday, Micah went to Christin’s house for the day while I worked and decorated a cake. I got all dressed up and went out for dinner with my friends, and we had a blast! It was our first real girls’ night out without babies and husbands, and it was just a fun evening – lots of laughter, a little too much wine, and some good food.

On Friday, Trenna, Zander, Micah and I drove to see Jen, Jeremy and the girls in Baltimore. We went to a pirate story hour in Fells Point, then took a ferry ride across to Tide Point to visit my brother’s office and have lunch with him. We got back to our house just in time to attend a Little Maestros concert and playspace event at Kidville. Once again, Zander and Micah had a great time! Zander loved the music, so I bought him a CD so he could remember this trip. After the concert, we went for dinner at my parents’ house again, and spent the rest of the evening together.

Saturday was another pool day with the kids. It was a beautiful, fun, relaxing day. We went out for dinner at Noodles & Company, ran a few errands, then called it a night. I spent most of Sunday recuperating from my week.

Monday and Tuesday I was back to the grindstone with work. Christin was out of town, so her friend Lauren came to babysit Micah. She was great, and she will be available in the Fall to cover Tuesdays and Thursdays when Micah is not in daycare.

In the middle of all the insanity the past few weeks, we bought a new coffee table! It is just a basic one from Crate & Barrel, made of wood, two drawers and an open shelf on the bottom. Micah loves to try and crawl onto the shelf, and today he managed to pull the stack of papers off the shelf. He loves to use the shelf for pushing up – it might become his favorite hiding space in the very near future. We did have one emergency bath today – the babysitter was changing Micah’s diaper, and he had a double pee explosion, sans diaper. He needed a bath because he managed to pee all over his hair!

What else can I say? Micah turns 8 months old in 10 days!! He is growing every day by leaps and bounds. Sometimes, I think he is saying “hi.” He is definitely a crazy waving machine, and he even knows it means “hi.” Every time he sees someone new or a familiar face, he breaks into a big grin and starts waving like crazy. Micah uses his entire arm to wave – it kind of looks like he is trying to fly away. I really do need to catch some video of that this week! He is standing all the time now, and getting pretty close to pulling himself up. He is going to be all kinds of trouble as he grows. He definitely has a stubborn streak (wonder where he gets that from?), and he seems to grab and get into everything. He is now sticking his hand out of the crib and stealing stuff off the night table. I either need to clear the night table or move it. Changing his diaper is an exercise in dexterity – he is definitely a moving, rolling target. He loves to eat, and he now enjoys three big meals each day. He also gets a snack in the afternoons – he loves MumMums and cereal or puffs. He is just now starting to get the hang of picking up small pieces of food and putting them in his mouth. We’ve slowly started to try some chunkier food, and he has been handling it all well. He is slowly learning to play “So Big” and he is army crawling/rolling/pivoting all over the place. He is desperately trying to crawl. He likes to move from a sit to all fours, he usually does one crawl, and then he collapses to his belly.

We just started changing his closet over to the 6-9 months size. My little guy is finally outgrowing his 3-6 month clothing. I have a feeling we won’t be in these clothes too long – he’ll be ready to move up to 12 months within two months, I would guess.

As for weaning…well, that is not going quite as quickly as I expected (which is totally my fault). Micah is down to nursing about 4 times a day (sometimes 5). I no longer pump at night before bed, but frankly, giving him a bottle and pumping is much more hassle than nursing him when we are both at home. At this rate, I probably won’t really commit to weaning him until he is in daycare 3 days a week. I am hoping to be able to quickly drop the pumping session at that point, start using up my freezer stash of milk, then slowly switch over to formula. I’m not sure when/how I will drop the morning and night nursing sessions, but he needs to be willing to take the bottle for all of his meals by mid-September as I am going to be in Atlanta for work for 4 days, and I have decided to leave him behind with my parents (since Elliot will be attending the conference, too). I guess that week will be a good time to begin cutting back on the pumping.

As for my diet – well, let’s just say “what diet?” I fell off the wagon, and hard. I think I started to diet prematurely – it was causing issues with my milk supply, and while I was thrilled about that at first, Micah was quite unhappy and dissatisfied, and it made him grumpy and unwilling to take a bottle. I added some carbs back in to help the supply, and Micah finally seemed contented, and he is back to taking his bottle. But once the carbs started sneaking in, it was all downhill!
Okay – I’ll have to add some more descriptive pictures and video when I have some free time. I will do my best to stay on top of blogging this week!

Whirlwind – Crawling, Standing, Walking and Infections

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Another crazy week – and very few posts. So much has been going on that I can barely keep up with it all! Perhaps the best thing to do is pick up where I left off – last Saturday. My intention was to scan and post Micah’s 7 month photos (I will get to that shortly) and to post some adorable Micah video (also on deck).

Saturday was a fun day. I met my friend Heather for lunch at Organic to Go, a new restaurant in Bethesda. The food was good and Micah had a wonderful time flirting with everyone there. We went to a pool party in the afternoon at our community pool. We invited a bunch of the babies and parents from our playgroup, and we had tons of fun! The babies swam, tugged at each other, shared food and showed off their talents. One of the babies, Juliet, can crawl and pull up to a stand, and she is putting the rest of our babies to shame with her precocious physicality. Actually, Juliet was quite impressive at the pool – she was sitting in front of a pool chair, grabbed on with both hands, and did a massive pull-up to a stand. I swear I could see her back muscles flexing around her baby bikini! I had an image of one of those female bodybuilders flash through my head when I saw her pull-up!

Saturday night, we had our babysitter, Christin, come back to take care of Micah while we went out to dinner with our friends Heather and Brad. We decided on Chinese food, and it was delicious! I had forgotten about City Lights, so it will now be added to our delivery list for future ordering. We initially planned on attending a movie, but bailed when we all realized how tired we were. Instead, we came back to the house and watched a movie on demand.

On Sunday, I went over to my parents’ house to help my Dad set up his new computer – just the basics, like connecting the computer to the internet, transferring files from his old computer, making sure all the software and drivers he needed were installed. It was quite a job! I had a raging migraine that day, and Micah was being a bit of a grump, and I had a huge knot in my back – it was one of those days I should have just never gotten up in the morning.

Monday marked one week on South Beach diet. I am proud to say that I lost 5 lbs. I know that average and healthy weight loss is 1-2 lbs per week, but I hate that weight loss is such a slow process. Somehow, it never seems like I will be able to realize my goal. I guess 5 lbs off is better than 5 lbs on, right? I spent all day working my tail off – we had Christin here for the day, so I was able to accomplish a fair amount of work. We spent some of the time showing off our standing skills to Christin. While we were showing off, we decided to get really crazy…and took a step while holding on to the couch one-handed! I was stunned – he isn’t crawling, but he is already trying to cruise. I am SOOO not ready for any of this. Don’t forget to press the triangle on the bottom left corner to play the video!

Our other big event of the day? Jumping. In the jumperoo, to be more precise. Micah has been in the jumperoo many times over the past few months, but jumping has not been his thing. Until Monday. Christin helped Micah discover the joys of jumping, and he has been a jumping maniac every time we put him in the jumperoo now.

Monday evening was mah jong – another fun evening! However, Monday night is where my week took a bit of a “left turn” shall we say. While I was there, I received a call from Elliot asking whether I had heard if my brother Jeremy was okay. Apparently, Jeremy had posted on Facebook that he was at a clinic for an infection. After checking in with him, we learned that he went to a clinic because of an infection in his arm, and he thought it was no big deal.

Bright and early Tuesday morning, Christin arrived to babysit Micah and my friend Kate from playgroup and her daughter Emily. My friend had an appointment, so she asked if she could share our babysitter for the morning. Micah and Emily were adorable playing together! They had such a good time, and I got several hours of work accomplished. While Emily and Micah were playing, I learned that Jeremy woke up and could not move his arm – the infection was worse. Stubborn idiot that he is, he refused to miss work and go to the hospital. We spent the entire day trying to convince him to seek help. In the afternoon, I went to my condo to finish emptying everything out while the babysitter watched Micah. We are hoping to have it fully emptied and cleaned and on the market by next month.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, it became clear that Micah is a crazy, clapping machine. He LOVES to clap. He claps when he is happy, he claps to hear the sound – he claps and claps and claps. Except when I turn on the video camera. I’m still working on clapping footage. He is so cute – he claps with his palms facing outwards, and he claps the palm of one hand on the back of the other hand. I still say that counts! In the meantime, here is some video of Micah (and the dog) playing together (press the triangle on the bottom left corner):

But wait, there’s more! Micah waved at Emily on Tuesday morning while she was here. At least, I thought it was waving. He took his ENTIRE arm and waved it at her. He kept repeating it every time I said “wave, hello.” He was very cute, but who knows if it was intended, right?

Tuesday night, my mom called, informing me that Jeremy was off to the hospital – and ANGRY about it. Apparently he was mad that we made him crazy so he was going to the hospital. It is a good thing we made him crazy – they admitted him to the hospital and put him on IV antibiotics. Turns out, he had septic bursitis and cellulitis, and it was a pretty nasty infection.

On Wednesday, Micah and I went to playgroup.


After playgroup, I headed up to Baltimore to visit my brother in the hospital. I stayed with him for a few hours, and Jeremy reported that the doctors confirmed his diagnosis, and it appeared that the IV antibiotics were starting to work. Around 6:00. I went to their house to babysit my nieces Paige and Peyton while Jen went to the hospital. I played with them, made them dinner and put them to bed. It was a long day, but it was fun getting some quality time in with the girls. While I was up there, my mom and dad were watching Micah because Elliot had a work meeting. It was a big game of musical parenting/babysitting! Nevertheless, the orthopedic surgeon scheduled surgery to drain and clean the infection the following day, just in case things did not turn the corner.

Thursday morning started off with good news – luckily, the antibiotics worked, and we found out today that Jeremy is able to avoid surgery. My father was on his way up to help watch my nieces and bring them to the hospital to visit Jeremy, and then he was driving them back down here to spend a few nights with my parents. Micah and I spent our morning in Singalong with Karen again. Micah LOVES the class – he laughs, he smiles, and he seems to recognize the songs. He likes when he gets dipped, and he loves to play the instruments at the end. Much to my surprise, when he saw Emily in music class, he started waving again! He kept on waving when we sang a song about waving. In the afternoon, he waved when his good friend Micah (yes, another Micah) came over to play, too. Not only does he clap, he WAVES!! Even better? I captured it on video . . . sort of. Press the triangle on the bottom left corner to play video.

One more thing to mention – Micah crawled a bit in class today, too. For the past few days, he has been leaning forward from a sit and trying to move, but he never quite gets anywhere or makes it onto all fours. Each time he tries, he seems to get a bit closer. This morning, he saw a blanket he wanted, he leaned forward, landed on hands and knees, took one crawl forward, grabbed the blanket and flopped on his belly and rolled over. I think I’m on the verge of having a heart attack! We’ve got clapping, waving, standing, a step and crawling all in one week?!? I’m not ready for him to be this mobile yet. He has repeated this almost crawl two other times today, so I’m now suspecting that “real” crawling is just around the corner. Perhaps I’ll get lucky and it will take another month or two. It could happen!

We are now awaiting Jeremy’s release from the hospital. Tomorrow is another busy day with work (I have to catch up on everything I did not accomplish Wednesday) and we are supposed to finish emptying my condo and moving some more things into storage. Will this process ever end? My nieces are here for the next two days, and on Sunday my cousin Trenna and her son Zander are coming for a week-long visit. I’ll try to stay on top of posting!

By the way – I should digress a second. I would like to take a moment to evangelize the values of the Flip camera – it is little pocket sized video camera that has a built-in USB port. We have been using it to record all those special moments in Micah’s life. It is all digital, and it transfers to the hard drive in seconds – just plug into the USB drive and transfer. It simplifies sharing video of all those special moments.

Since I missed posting the video from the beach, I thought I’d tack it on here for good measure.


Standing

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The last few days, Micah has decided that he doesn’t need to sit anymore – he’d prefer to STAND. Today, he figured out how to stand without mommy holding on to him. He still requires a spotter because he does not yet realize that if he lets go, he’ll fall over, but I think he’ll master the art of sitting back down again pretty soon.



While we are at it, here are a few of the photos from our last day at the beach (mostly sucking our toes and watching the dog nap on the beach blanket):




Oh yes, and little time with Goppy:

7 months

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I’m amazed that today Micah is 7 months old. Where has the time gone? I’ve always heard that time passes in the blink of an eye, but I did not truly understand that until I had Micah.

Micah really is growing by leaps and bounds. I think he is just over 16 lbs now. I cannot believe how well he is sitting and moving around – I fear crawling and cruising are just around the corner. Poor Nugget – when he discovers how to crawl, I think he will spend all day long chasing her.
We just added in a third meal of solid foods each day. Micah loves to eat – he has been eating peas, carrots, zucchini, sweet potatoes, avocado, green beans, corn, squash, eggplant, apples, peaches, nectarines, pears, pineapple, strawberry, blueberry, banana, mango, and raspberry. We are about to start broccoli and prunes next (I’ve been terrified of the prunes – he is already a pooping machine!!). I made another round of baby food Sunday night, and did not burn anything!! Yes, that is actually a major accomplishment. This time, I made broccoli and sweet potatoes. I also have green beans and carrots, and I think we might be due for another batch of applesauce.
I think Micah has started clapping! It started at the beach – he would regularly bang 2 buckets together. On Sunday, he actually clapped his hands when he was excited. I’m not yet sure if he understands that he is clapping, but he is in the process of mastering this skill. I also learned that he recognizes us. If you say to him “where is mommy?” or “where is daddy?” or “where is nugget?” he turns to the appropriate person and looks and smiles.
We are taking Micah for his 7 month photos on Friday – we will post the pictures as soon as we can! I will try and post some additional video later this week – we have some really cute shots of Micah at the beach (mostly eating sand).
Please join me in wishing Micah a very happy 7 month birthday!

Click Click

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Another new discovery – Micah can flip switches . . . light switches, the on/off switch on his playmat – he loves switches! Yesterday, Micah was on his playmat and he kept turning the music on and off. Earlier in the day, I was holding him and he managed to turn the light switch on and off. He has skills! I’m thinking I should buy him one of those switch controls that are used by people with disabilities to operate a computer – with that, I think he’ll be surfing the net in no time!

Actually, I was quite impressed with him. First, I had him sitting up (with the boppy behind him to protect his head if he fell over). I stepped into the kitchen to grab some lunch, and when I returned he was on his back (not on the boppy) playing on the playmat. I smiled, pulled the boppy out of the way, and let him roll. As I chatted with him and listened to him playing, I turned my back and opened up my computer to check some email. I was about 8 feet away standing at the table, when all of the sudden I heard the gumball machine noise. I turned around and saw that Micah had moved about 3 feet and was now on his belly pushing himself up high and playing with the gumball machine! He smiled at me and went back to playing. My little guy is moving. Later in the day, I picked him up and carried him for a bit, and he was bending over backwards, smiling and talking. It took me a few minutes, but I realized that he was talking to the recessed lighting. Yes, apparently recessed lighting is fascinating and worthy of a chat. He seems to love recessed lighting and ceiling fans in equal measure – I guess a ceiling fan is kind of like a mobile without the decorations, but I have yet to comprehend the allure of recessed lighting. I mean, it doesn’t do anything – it is just a light bulb in the ceiling, right?

After his little adventure rolling all over the floor yesterday, I debated taking Micah to the pool. I really wanted to swim laps, which is something I cannot do if I am at the pool alone with him. Thankfully, my father said he could come by and stay with Micah for an hour while I ran to the pool. The two of them took a nice walk together, and I exercised. I’m in terrible shape, and my asthma is still bothering me, but I did manage to swim for 20 minutes. I’ll have to work on that a bit more. I raced home after swimming so my dad could go about his business and I could get ready to go out.

Thursday night is usually date night around here. Normally, my mom comes to babysit and we head out for some fun. Last week, we went to see a show at the Bethesda Theatre – 3 Blonde Moms. I have to say, if it is touring in your area, you should definitely go see it – it was hysterical! Well, the 1st and the 3rd mom were funny – the 2nd was kind of annoying. The 3rd mom had us crying we were laughing so hard. She did a bit about public bathrooms, and she hit the nail on the head. She talked about the quest to find the “perfect” stall, and how sometimes that stall doesn’t have a door lock or the hook for your purse, but it is the cleanest so we use it anyway and have to do a kamikaze squat and hang our purses on our necks. Anyway, last weekend when we went to visit Elliot’s family in New Jersey, we stopped at a rest area on 95. I generally will not use a public rest room, but in this case, it was unavoidable. I can only tell you as I went in search of my “perfect” stall, found it, realized the door didn’t lock and there was no hook for my purse but decided to use it anyway, I started laughing all over again. I even hung my purse around my neck for good measure!

But I digress – I intended to talk about last night. This week, we did not have our typical date night. It was my father’s retirement party (after working 42 years at Montgomery College). They arranged for a nice little dinner for all of us at the Summer Dinner Theatre performance of Cabaret. Just before the show started, the chair of his department (and long-time friend) gave a nice speech thanking my dad for his years of service to the College. My dad had about 5 tables of friends and family (mostly people from the college) there, and many people coming up to him and taking the opportunity to wish him well. We had our babysitter Christin come last night. I spent most of the evening worried that Micah was raising hell and shrieking hysterically, and I was terrified that Christin would never come back again to babysit (at least not at night). Despite my consuming fear about the events transpiring at home, the retirement party was lovely. When we returned home at 11:30, Christin swore that she took him upstairs, got him ready for bed and he fell asleep after drinking only 2 ounces of milk (much to my shock and amazement). Way to go, Micah – thanks for being such an angel when Mommy really needed it! And congratulations, Dad, on your retirement – we are so proud of you, and I am certain the next chapter of your life will be filled with things to do. I think you will enjoy retirement, and knowing you, you’ll be even busier than you were before.

Micah is currently upstairs napping. He has finally taken to napping in the crib. While he still prefers to sleep on his side, he now sometimes sleeps on his belly, too. This new habit started last weekend when we were visiting Elliot’s family in New Jersey. It is so cute to see him on his belly. I have to say, I occasionally miss him napping on me. We rarely take naps curled up together anymore. There was one day last week when he napped on me for about 20 minutes, but it dawned on me that it has been a few months now. I used to think it was such a pain to be tied down while he was napping, but I do miss those moments.

No surprise here, but Micah is still in love with Nugget. Right now Nugget adores him, but she can walk away from him at any time when she has had enough. She has been so patient with him when he grabs her fur a little less than gently, and she just nuzzles him, kisses him, or gently escapes from his iron grip. I am certain that once he is crawling, he will spend all day chasing her around the house. She may not be pleased then, and I think Nugget is going to be greatful for daycare on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, too.

I have one other thing I will share before closing this post for the day – television. I think Micah loves television far too much. I try my best to keep the television off when he is around, or to put on educational shows such as Sesame Street. Elliot, however, is obsessed with watching the news, so we do have the news on sometimes when Micah is around. And I am currently obsessed with watching Wimbledon, and I fail to see how tennis in the background could endanger Micah’s development. Nevertheless, when Micah sees the tv screen sometimes, he turns comatose. He gets that vacant look on his face and all he wants to do is stare at the screen. It is particularly challenging when he is eating, so I generally make sure the tv is off during meal time. But yesterday, he was cranky for a bit, and the only thing he wanted to do was sit on Mommy’s lap and watch tennis. I told him all about the players, and the rules of the game, and we counted the score. That has to be educational, right? Elliot is worried that I am creating another tennis monster in the house. I’m okay with that. Just wait until the US Open – I sure hope Rafael Nadal is feeling better by then – I’m so disappointed his injury allowed Roger Federer to win the French Open. Did I mention I am NOT a fan of Roger Federer? For those of you who do not follow tennis, forgive my rant, but someone else better step up and put an end to his run this Wimbledon – I just cannot stomach another win from him, and I do not want to see him beat Sampras’ slam record. Come on Andy Roddick or Andy Murray or really anyone else – you have my support!

Here, doggy doggy doggy!

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Micah has discovered the joys of calling Nugget. I don’t mean actually saying her name, but he noticed that when I want Nugget’s attention or want her to jump up to be close to me, I call her name and pat my hand on my thigh, or I pat the couch next to me, or I pat the ground next to me. Since Micah figured that out, he now looks at Nugget, smiles, and starts banging his hand on his thigh or the ground. It is CLEAR he is calling her over. And the smile that lights up his face (and the accompanying squeals of delight) when she actually comes over are priceless. Unfortunately for me, his favorite time to call her is meal time. He can’t stop looking for her and smiling at her and calling her long enough to focus on eating. He wakes up in the morning and while I am nursing him in our bedroom, he tries to roll over and bang on the bed to get her attention. He has a new hierarchy of needs: NUGGET, food, NUGGET, toys, NUGGET. Okay, maybe it is more like NUGGET, NUGGET, NUGGET, food.

He has hit a few other milestones this week – he is really sitting steadily now, and rolling all over the place. When on his belly, he uses his arms to pull himself around in circles (and sometimes forward). He grabs for toys, and he recognizes people and things (especially Nugget). He is starting to express some wants and preferences. He has learned to pick up these small balls that go into his gumball machine toy with one hand! I think he is developing his “pincher” grip skills. He sucks on his toes, and he definitely can pass objects from hand to hand.
Micah is getting better at napping – he now naps upstairs in his crib, and he takes about 2-3 naps a day. We added in a second meal each day almost two weeks ago. We keep thinking he says “hi” and he seems to spend a lot of time trying to form sounds/shapes with his mouth – I think he wants to speak but has not quite figured it out yet.
Today I am going to try and take Micah to the pool for a little while – or at least the park (he loves to swing). Tonight is my father’s retirement party (he has been teaching at the same place for 40 years!), and we are having Christin babysit – I’m hoping Micah cooperates and goes to bed easily. We shall see.

Six Months

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Micah turned six months old today!! Can you believe how the time is flying? Micah decided to sleep in until 9 in honor of his half birthday. We had a leisurely morning, and he did get to listen to a nice rendition of “Happy Half Birthday” from his Grammy and Goppy. We spent the afternoon lounging at the pool with Daddy. It was such a pleasant day – the weather was perfect, the sky was clear, and there was a nice breeze blowing. The pool was nice and warm, and Micah was all smiles.

While Mommy took some time to swim laps (FINALLY getting my act together and exercising again!!), Micah took a trip with Daddy to the store, and napped the entire time. We arrived home around 4:30 or so. We gave Micah a bath (this is the 2nd night we bathed Micah as he SAT in the bath tub!!) and I fed him some dinner (a little milk, some green beans, rice cereal and avocado). Daddy left for work, and Micah and I played for a few more hours before bedtime. Here are some pictures from Micah’s first time sitting in the bathtub (can you tell he likes to eat duck?):




This post seems like a good opportunity to review some of his recent milestones. Let’s start with food. Micah is eating really well – we have now tried peas, green beans, avocado, bananas, squash, sweet potatoes, and carrots. We added a second meal in the past few days because he was getting hungry in the evenings.

He is also sitting really well – still not reliable enough for me to walk away and leave him when he is sitting, but he is fairly sturdy – he can definitely chew on the hooves of his toy giraffe while he is sitting! He is still teething – those bottom two teeth are just dying to break through. After much waiting, he is rolling from back to front with some frequency – in his crib, on the floor, on the grass at a friend’s birthday bbq on Saturday, at playgroup, when he sees a toy he wants… I think he just likes to do things on his terms and in his own way. He is definitely passing objects from hand to hand, and he seems to be exploring the idea of crawling.

So, with that, happy half birthday, baby boy! I’d like to end with a few fun videos of Micah with his duck (press the triangle on the lower left corner to play!):

I’m a big boy now!

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Last night, I took Micah up to bed, put him in his pajamas, and sat with him in the glider to give him his medicine. We normally give him his medicine either in a special medicine pacifier or a thin 2 ounce tube bottle (the ones we were given in the hospital). The delivery method of choice last night was the tube bottle. Much to my amazement, Micah took the bottle from me . . . and gave it to himself. He held it the entire time, tipped it backwards and finished the entire thing without any assistance from me! He was clearly announcing that he is becoming a big boy. I was so proud of him . . . and sad at the same time. I love watching him grow, and it is so much easier to interact with him now that he can do more on his own and he has definite opinions and likes, and yet . . . I miss my little baby, and I’m flabbergasted by how quickly the time is flying. How is it possible he is almost 5 1/2 months old now?