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The Birthday Party That Wasn’t

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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

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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 Time
I 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?

Thanksgiving….in three parts

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****I apologize for being missing in action for so long – over 1 month! I’ve had a lot of blogs partially written, but due to computer problems, sickness, and a variety of other crazy things, I just haven’t been able to post. I decided to “catch up” today, and I am backdating many of my posts (for accuracy) and I will let them publish over the next few days. I promise to stay on top of blogging again from here on out.*****

Part I….Visiting Della

Growing up, we were very close with the neighbors who lived around the corner from my parents. Their oldest daughter, Rayna, and my younger brother are the same age, and they were best friends growing up. She and her younger brother Stuart, were always like siblings to me, and Arleen and Lorin were a second set of parents. For Thanksgiving, Rayna and Stu were in town, and we brought Micah over for a visit and to meet Arleen’s mother, whom we all fondly call Della. Della was in love with Micah – the hugged and generally just had fun together. We had a great little visit before heading out to our Thanksgiving plans.




Part II….The Farm

My cousins (Hank and Marlene – my Dad’s first cousin and her husband) own a farm in Comus, Maryland, about 25 minutes north of where we live. It is a fairly large farm – about 88 acres, I believe. For the past 15 years (at least), they have been living in an apartment over the barn. Sounds crazy, right? It is actually a very nice apartment, and I’m always amazed how they manage to fit 40-60 people in there for holidays.

We’ve been going to celebrate Thanksgiving out at the farm for many years. We have not been out there very often in the past 3 or 4 years, however, and I think this is actually the first Thanksgiving Elliot has been to the farm. For the last few years of my grandmother’s life, it was just too difficult to go out there. The apartment has about 30 steps to the front door. With 40-60 people in attendance, there is always a lot of noise and commotion, and usually more than a few runny noses. After one Thanksgiving, she caught a nasty case of pneumonia. That was the last time we all went out to the farm together. Last year, I was on bedrest at the end of my pregnancy, and we left town on Friday to head to New Jersey to attend my niece Stephanie’s bat mitzvah (against doctor’s orders), so we just had a quiet Thanksgiving in our “new” house (that turned out to be crazy, too – we were so unprepared to host a meal in our house)!

This year, we were thrilled to head back out to the farm! It was the first time my nieces had been there, and we were excited to have Micah spend time with his cousins and extended family. We arrived around 3:00 pm. After all these years, Hank and Marlene are finally building a “real” house, and we were able to take a tour. Their daughter, Lisa, gave us the grand tour, and we were really excited to see it. It should be ready in 2010, and hopefully next Thanksgiving, we’ll be dining in the house!

We all started out milling around inside the apartment and catching up. Outside, there was a swing set and a jungle gym for the kids, and we were able to bring the kids to the field to see the animals. Micah got to pet a pony – he was a bit unsure, though. He could hear the dogs barking (they were in the barn to keep from being underfoot) and all he wanted to do was find the dogs.

The food was delicious. There were several different kinds of stuffing and sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes, and there was roasted turkey and fried turkey and duck and goose. There were different kinds of sauces and veggie dishes. For dessert, there were cookies and pies and cakes and fruit. It was an eating feast! After the meal, we lit a bonfire out front. The kids played on the equipment, we roasted marshmallows, and we talked to the horses. We left around 7:30 pm and headed home, but it really was a fun day, and we hope to go back again next year.










Part III: Friday night

On Friday morning, bright at early, we loaded up the car and hit the road. We went to New Jersey to spend Thanksgiving Part III with Elliot’s family! In an effort to accommodate us, they graciously agreed to postpone Thanksgiving until Friday. Not surprisingly, we left a bit later than we had planned (Elliot never quite gets out the door on time). Micah was really good in the car, and fell asleep quickly.

A few hours into the trip, Micah woke up (as expected) and we stopped for lunch. He sat in a high chair, ate some pizza, and was truly wonderful. Until we had to get back into the car. Unfortunately, he had had enough car time, and he was fidgety and crying on and off the rest of the trip. We sang to him and played games, and eventually, we got him to fall back asleep for a little while, but he was awake and crying the last 1/2 hour of the trip. We finally arrived at my Steven and Jodi’s house, and everyone was there waiting for us. Micah got to crawl all around and play, and he spent some quality time with his family. He sat with his Grandma Roberta and Poppy Ira, and he played with his cousins Ethan, Stephanie, Brian and Melissa, and he had a great time. Unfortunately, we don’t have any pictures – we accidentally left our camera at the farm and missed a great photo opportunity.

Elliot and I had done a lot of the cooking – we brought turkey, pumpkin pie, sweet potatoes, and a few other things. My sisters-in-law made meatloaf, broccoli, mashed potatoes, and a few other side dishes and desserts. Everyone got along really well, and we had a fun celebration. Thanksgiving turned out to be a fantastic holiday, and perhaps we’ll try doing this again in the future.

Bedtime in NJ was a bit of a challenge. Micah was in unfamiliar territory, and he really didn’t want to go to sleep. I ended up having to go in there and sit with him for over an hour to get him to sleep. He finally crashed, but he did not sleep all that well. He woke up around 5:30 in the morning, and it was a challenging day. Luckily, Micah’s cousins wanted to spend some time with him, so Elliot and I got a bit of a break. Jodi was a huge help, too – I apparently was sound asleep during Micah’s morning nap, and when he started crying, I didn’t even move! She went upstairs, changed his diaper and brought him downstairs and gave him a bottle while I got some much-needed sleep. I can’t even begin to tell you how thankful I was! My niece Stephanie was able to catch a few photos on her camera:




Micah started calling Brian “Bubba” (we were working on saying Brian, and we started to say Brian – Buh, Buh to get him to make the sound, and he eventually said Bubba! I think Brian will now forever be Bubba).
We hung around the rest of the day, and headed out to dinner at the Olive Garden. Micah loves their minestrone soup (not surprising, since he made me crave it by the bucketful while I was pregnant with him)! Micah ate a ton of soup and bread, and around 7:00 or so he started getting tired and cranky. We changed him into his pajamas, and put him to bed in the car. The ride home was relatively uneventful, and we were able to transfer Micah back into his crib and he slept through the night.

10 & 11 Month Photos and other stories

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Before I get to the important stuff (the PICTURES), I thought I’d tell you how we finally came to have Micah’s 10 and 11 month photos. Elliot took Micah for the 10 month photos last month, but due to our crazy schedule that day, he was not able to stick around and choose the photos and pick up the order. They were supposed to email us a link to the photos online, and I planned to order them and pick them up weeks ago. Naturally, the store has been having a glitch with their online system, so we never were able to access the photos online.
Yesterday, my day began at 3:oo am when Micah woke up shrieking. Yeah – teething sucks. Poor little guy is just miserable. I never really fell back to sleep after that, and we had to get up and out early because I had a 9:00 appointment and a packed day. We had an 11:00 appointment with the pediatrician for Micah to have his ears re-checked (all-clear!) and we also needed to ask the doctor a few other questions. Because of our tight schedule, we decided to bring Micah to my appointment because we knew he would want to nap at 10, and at home he only would have had a 15-20 minute nap before we needed to leave for the pediatrician. As predicted, Micah started to get sleepy around 10:00 (my appointment was wrapping up), so Elliot took him out to the car where he fell fast asleep. Because we put him down for his nap in the car, he was asleep for about 45 minutes. I think Micah absolutely would have slept another hour or so if his mommy and daddy did not torture him by waking him up to be poked by the doctor!
We asked the doctor about the ridge running down his head – specifically, I’m concerned that some of the bones in his skull may have fused too soon. The doctor did not think it was a huge problem because his head was not misshapen, but I’m still a bit concerned. I’m going to bring it up again with the other doctor at our one year appointment in a few weeks. (On a side note, I spoke to my friend whose daughter had this problem, and she is putting me in touch with her doctor to discuss my concerns and figure out what, if anything, we should do). The doctor also said that Micah has 4 teeth trying to break through on top!! I can’t believe he is going to go from a toothless wonder to a baby with 6 teeth so fast! I hope the teething goes easier this time, but I’m not hopeful. We almost gave him the h1n1 vaccination today, but the last time he was vaccinated, he ran a pretty high fever, and we did not want him sick over Thanksgiving, so we decided to wait a bit longer. Hopefully, we aren’t making a mistake. He hasn’t been well enough to get the shot since the doctors got it in October.
After his doctor’s appointment, we bundled him back to the car and headed off to Emily and Juliet’s first birthday party!! The kids all played together in the basement playroom, the birthday girls made a huge mess out of cake, and a wonderful time was had by all! Unfortunately, Micah was a bit grumpy during the birthday party because he hadn’t had much of a morning nap.
We left the birthday party at 2:15, and Micah fell asleep in the car on our way home. I dropped Elliot off at home around 2:30 so he could do some work, and I ran inside to go to the bathroom and grab my phone. I decided to head down to Tysons a bit early and let Micah nap in the car until our 4:00 pm photo appointment. We actually arrived at the mall around 3:00 pm. Micah was asleep in his car seat, so I just sat in the car with him for an hour while he slept. He was so exhausted that I am glad he was able to take a nice long nap. The pictures came out great, and I also picked up the 10 month photos we had done last month. I have to say, I had a particularly difficult time choosing. After the first pass at the photos, there were 20 photos I loved. I finally narrowed it down to 12, and ultimately only ordered 6, but I keep thinking about those other 6 I didn’t order, and the other 8 I ruled out after the first pass. I think there were some amazing shots in there, but I just couldn’t order them all. There were some of him climbing these stairs, and some GORGEOUS closeups of his face. The photographer printed some amazing photos (some in black and white and sepia) and showcased them in frames, and I really wanted to buy everything. I swear, I could have dropped thousands of dollars on those photos! Naturally, the entire process took a LONG time. We arrived for the photos at 4, but we did not get out of there until 6. Poor Micah – he was getting so cranky and hungry and restless after the first hour. I gave him a bottle and a snack and after that, he was kind of annoyed he was stuck in the stroller and out of food.
I was less than 10 miles from the house, and it took more than one hour to get home because the traffic was so awful. Micah was hungry and tired, and pretty much shrieked the entire way home. No real shock there. I knew that I was chancing things the way I had scheduled our day, but I just did not realize it would be that awful.

It was 7:00 pm before we finally got home and sat Micah down for dinner, and he was pretty cranky, extremely hungry, and in no mood to eat ANYTHING we put in front of him. He mostly mushed his food on his clothing and fed it to the dog. We eventually stumbled on some food he was willing to eat – kidney beans. Yes, that is right, kidney beans. Those are his FAVORITE beans. I think he could eat them every day. He likes them straight from the can, or picked out of minestrone soup. It doesn’t really matter to him – he just likes his beans. We offered up black beans tonight – which met with the dreaded “ick” face, accompanied by the cringe and the tongue flipping out the food onto his chest (his “blech” move). I really hate that new little trick. He looks as if he will eat something…in it goes…chew…chew…blech…out it comes again! Once he decided the black beans were a no-go, he wouldn’t try ANYTHING else on his tray. We had to empty it off and start all over again. We tried cottage cheese – no luck. I then grabbed a spoon and gave him some fruit sauce (I think it was a banana/strawberry mix). After the fruit, we tried kidney beans. VICTORY!! Micah did his happy dance and said “Mmmm” as he chewed his beans.

I have to say, I’m amazed Micah ended the evening absolutely adorable. He was running (well, crawling) 900 miles an hour in circles around the house, shrieking with laughter, chasing the dog, and just simply being a happy baby. He and the dog fought over toys, and Micah climbed into his toy basket to play. I swear I did not think he was ever going to run out of energy! He was intermittently coming over to me for a hug and kisses, to rest his head and suck his thumb, and then back off and running again. He is also standing more and more without holding on to anything, and yesterday he stood himself up from the floor (not holding on to any toys).
So, one last cute little story before I post the pictures – Micah was crying out around 5:00 am this morning (he woke up at 3:30 making noise, started screaming and needed comfort for 10 minutes at 4, and made a lot of noise for the next 2 hours). After this particular shriek, I heard him flip over and then I heard this clapping sound. Naturally, I turned on the video monitor to spy on him. He had moved to the other end of the crib, wrapped his left arm around his little doggy blanket with his thumb in his mouth. He had his other hand reaching out and patting his tush – that is right, he was trying to pat his own tush to put himself back to sleep! I need to hook the monitor up to a recording device to capture some of these moments.
Now, without any further adieu, here are Micah’s 10 month photos:




And his 11 month photos:





Micah’s First Haircut!

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Well, we did it! We finally took Micah in for his first haircut. He was SUCH a good boy, and totally adorable. We brought in one of those portable plastic booster seats and strapped him into the cutting chair. He was sweet and smiling the entire time. I brought him to the woman who has been cutting my hair since I was a small child – Willy. Willy did an amazing job. Naturally, we captured the moment with video and pictures. The haircut took approximately 12 minutes, and most of it was probably not all that interesting to most of you. But, we’re proud parents, so we filmed every second of it! Isn’t my baby cute? He looks so grown up now :(.

I’ll start out by showing you the “video essay” of Micah’s haircut – photos courtesy of his Daddy.


















When we got home, Micah was quite adorable – he felt the need to crawl into his toy basket and play. He was so cute, I just had to snap a few photos.



Here is the video if you feel like watching. The blog wouldn’t let me load it up as all one video, so you will have to watch it in four parts:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

And for good measure, here is a late video of Micah at Kidville on Halloween.

Traveling, Parties & Computer Issues, Oh My!

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Well, I’m back from Minneapolis. It was an exhausting, whirlwind trip. My flight was scheduled to leave at 6:30 pm – but, of course, nothing goes as planned. We sat on the tarmac for over an hour due to “computer” problems. Eventually, they fixed the issue and we took off over one hour late. I arrived in Minneapolis around 10:00 pm, and went and checked into the hotel.
I have to say, I’ve been dreading this trip – the client has postponed the trip several times, and they have been difficult about the work product. I initially sent a draft script in June, but heard nothing back until October – when they asked me to completely re-write the entire thing! I had no time blocked off for that, and the request really annoyed me. I understand that they are the client, but it truly showed no respect for my time. I was traveling, but managed to get another draft done. I then learned that they expected me to videotape the entire piece without using a teleprompter! I was supposed to “wing it” but stick to the script. Yeah, right.
On the day of the taping, I got there and we did a trial run. I was reading from my notes, but needless to say, it did not look good on camera to have me looking down. The “interviewer” for the segment complained and requested that I be given a teleprompter. Thankfully, that all worked out well! I only wish the decision had been made beforehand – there are a number of changes I would have made to the script if I had known they were going to let me use a teleprompter. I’m dreading seeing myself on video.
My journey home was uneventful. Micah was asleep, and I was simply exhausted. I crashed pretty early, as I had a busy day planned the following day.
This morning, Micah woke up at 8 when the phone rang – because Elliot apparently forgot the phone extension in Micah’s bedroom. We fed him breakfast, and I had to decorate a cake for a birthday party. Thankfully, Elliot baked the cake while I was out of town. I just printed out an edible image and slapped it on the cake – nice and simple. In the meantime, Elliot took Micah for his 10 month photos (a little late). I have been terrible about giving monthly birthday updates lately! We do not have pictures yet – due to our tight schedule today, Elliot did not stay and pick out the photos, so I’ll take care of that later this week.
After picture time, I took Micah up to playgroup to celebrate Joseph’s birthday. The kids had a great time – playing in a ball pit and crawling around. Here are a few fun pictures of our babies:



We still have a lot more to do this week. I’ve got a ton of work, and Micah is back to daycare (and all the swine flu circulating there). We’ve got class on Thursday, and I have a bunch of meetings on Friday. Thursday night, Elliot and I are going out to a very nice dinner for date night. We’re also meeting with the architect to discuss house renovations. Wish us luck!

Craziness

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All I can say is “What a week.” On Thursday, Micah and I went to our gym class. There is a part of the class where we have the babies all stand up, and we let go. Micah stood on his own for 15 seconds!! He sat down, and looked a little scared afterwards, but I was amazed – that is the longest I’ve seen him hold a stand on his own so far. I’m pretty sure he’ll be walking before he is one year old.

Lately, Micah is obsessed with his Daddy. He howls and runs to the door and bangs on the screen door screaming “Dad” or “Dada” when he steps out. It is kind of adorable. He also has a new trick – he likes to feed mommy food from his tray and he laughs hysterically as I “gobble” it up. We tried catching it tonight, but Micah tends to find the camera a bit of a distraction and prefers to “mug” for the camera.

Here is another recent video of a few of Micah’s “tricks”:
And Micah playing peek-a-boo:

So…onto the crazy part. Micah and Elliot had a private night together on Friday – while I went out for a girls’ night for my friend Stacy’s birthday. I made her a cake – we bought her a mah jongg set for her birthday, so mah jongg was the theme! We went out to an Indian restaurant that was more like a Moroccan restaurant. They had a Bollywood/belly dancer, and we sat on cushions low to the floor and shared big plates of food (with no silverware). We had so much fun!


On Saturday, we were supposed to go to a birthday party, but the weather was lousy and it was canceled. Saturday night, we went out to our friends Hirsch and Lisa’s annual Sahmain Soiree – a “Black tie potluck” event. We got all dressed up, and my parents came to sit with Micah for an hour or two while we went out. When we got home, my Dad was complaining that he had the chills. I took his temperature, and it said 101. I immediately suspected he had swine flu, and I sent them off to the hospital. Needless to say, I was worried for him and for Micah. After a long wait, and a CT scan of his sinuses and a chest xray, they decided he had pneumonia. No cough at all, just fever and chills. They admitted him to the hospital and put him on IV antibiotics. Unfortunately, he does not seem to be responding, so they added more antibiotics – he is now on 3 of them. I’m hoping he starts to respond better by tomorrow. If all is well with the bloodwork tomorrow, they’ll release him.

I also think I have a sinus infection – so sickness seems to be going around. My mom’s friend Mona was in town today, so she came by to see Micah. We went for a long walk, and I was exhausted. I crashed for an hour, but then Micah woke up, and I was back to mommy duty.

Just wanted to say, feel better, Daddy!
ETA – I decided to take myself to the hospital tonight, too. I seem to have developed a case of bronchitis, and I thought I should hurry up and get antibiotics. Mostly, I was starting to worry it could be the same pneumonia my dad had, so I figured it was better to be safe than sorry. After the doctor was incredibly rude to me (and informed me that they don’t treat bronchitis with antibiotics – they just call it h1n1 and give people Tamiflu), she finally wrote me the script for antibiotics (and a prescription for Tamiflu). I mean, seriously? I’ll take the Tamiflu if I develop flu symptoms – but I just have a low-grade fever, my chest hurts, and I *know* that I have a sinus infection/bronchitis. It is the same thing that happens all the time to me. I had a mild cold last week, so a secondary infection following a cold is par for the course for me. Ridiculous! Oh, and according to this lovely doctor, they no longer prescribe antibiotics for bronchitis or sinus infections. Um, hello – maybe they wait a few weeks for most people, but that is NOT a good idea with asthmatics and people with chronic sinusitis. She didn’t look up my nose, or at my throat or my ears, she didn’t listen to my chest, and she didn’t feel my glands. I found the whole experience annoying and off-putting – but I’m glad I have my antibiotics now.

Pumpkins, music, and epi pens, oh my!

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On Sunday, Micah and I had plans to meet my parents, Paige and Peyton at the pumpkin festival at Butler’s Orchard. We arrived around 10:30, and off we went! There was so much to do – face painting, pony rides, games, a maze, a tractor ride, some playground stuff…it was a mad house! They also had a pumpkin chuck machine, festival food, and big slides. We had such a good time – we played, took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch (Micah ate straw and loved it), and enjoyed our day outside. Paige and Peyton took a horse ride and jumped on the moon bounce. Micah spent the morning in the Bjorn carrier – he was having so much fun! While the girls were on the moon bounce, we looked through the mesh on the side, and Micah’s feet just touched the edge of the bounce, and he was bouncing, too! After a long day, we ran into some friends from our playgroup. On the way out, we tried to stop and pick raspberries, but there were none left. I grabbed a bag of apples from the market there (I see more apple pie in my future!), and we headed home.







We got home around 2, and Micah kept me running the rest of the afternoon while Elliot was at a conference. Micah was exhausted, but he just wouldn’t nap. Elliot came home around 5:45, and I crashed on the couch for a while Elliot fed Micah dinner and played with him. We then put Micah to bed at his usual bedtime.
Monday was a federal holiday, and Micah was not in daycare. So, Elliot and I took him to a special “Columbus Day” performance of the Little Maestros at Kidville where we got to spend time with some friends. He had a great time – crawling around, dancing and laughing. He just LOVES Kidville! He even spent some time crawling around in their playspace. We came home around 12, and he napped for 3 1/2 hrs!!

Naturally, Tuesday was insane. I had to leave in the afternoon for a conference in Miami. To make matters worse, I had forgotten that my driver’s license expired (I learned that on my last trip when they weren’t going to let me through the airport), so I had to get up early to get it renewed. I was up and out of the house before 8:00 am. I waited in line forever, finally got it renewed. Of course, I also had to squeeze in an appointment at 9:45, so I went racing down after I finished at the MVA. Naturally, traffic was HORRIBLE – it took me 45 minutes to make a 15 minute trip. I finally got to the office, and Elliot was there waiting with Micah (he needed to hand Micah off to me so he could go to a meeting). Unfortunately, Micah had a big old stinky diaper going on (Elliot conveniently didn’t smell it before he left), and Micah did not want to sit still for mommy. Oh – and did I mention it was Micah’s nap time AND Elliot forgot to bring a bottle for me to feed him? Yeah, that was a fun appointment!

After I was finished, I took him to the car, strapped him in, and had a decision to make – we had class at Kidville at 11:45, and it was already 11:00. I was 10 minutes from the house, and 15 minutes from Kidville. I needed to decide if I should go straight to class, or try to drive home (10 minutes), get a bottle and some lunch food for him to try and feed him in class, and THEN drive back to Kidville (about 20 minutes from the house). I knew from experience, going home would mean Micah would wake up, not nap well, and we would be late for class. I decided to drive straight to Kidville and hope Micah napped and could hold out for his bottle until after we got home from class.

En route to Kidville, I realized I needed to stop for gas (I was on empty and knew I wouldn’t have time to refill on the way to the airport). After refilling the gas tank, I realized I was STARVING and stopped for some lunch (Burger King was the only drive-through in the area…so veggie burger it was!). Naturally, I was late getting to class. We went inside, and Micah had fun, but he was very clingy – probably hungry. After class, Micah had a total melt down on the way home – he was sobbing as if to say “Mommy, I’m starving and going to DIE if you don’t give me a bottle.” It was heartbreaking – I kept telling him I was trying to get him a bottle, but he just did not understand.

When we got home, I realized that it was already 1:15. I gave Micah his bottle, fed him lunch, and started to try and plan the rest of my day. I had a lot on my list, and only a few short hours left to get it all done and get to the airport. Much to my surprise, Elliot showed up relatively on time…only 10 minutes late. I still had to finish packing and load up the car and then I ran off to run one more errand before heading to the airport. I made it to the airport, only to find out my flight was delayed 30 minutes. How annoying!! We finally took off, and the flight seemed to last forever. About 15 minutes before landing, the girl in the seat next to me accidentally ate some salmon (she tasted something the little old lady at the end of our row offered her)…and she is allergic to salmon! She had an epi pen, but didn’t know how to use it (apparently, her parents had always administered it in the past). The flight attendants were freaking out when she asked if someone else could give her the shot, so I stepped up and offered to do it. So I grabbed the pen, quickly skimmed the directions, ripped the top off, lined it up, gave her fair warning and hit the trigger. I also had benadryl in my purse, so I gave her some of that.

She was worried about what to do when she landed, so I told her I’d call my friend Tammy (with whom I would be staying) who is a thoracic surgeon and double check with her what she had to do next. Upon landing, I called Tammy who said it was all good, but encouraged her to continue taking benadryl for the next 24 hours. I felt like such a mom – I was explaining to this girl how to transfer her prescription refill down to Florida, and I gave her benadryl from my stash in my purse to take with her, and I made sure she found her boyfriend who was picking her up. She seemed so scared – she was only 22!!

When I finally arrived at Tammy’s (that was an adventure – according to Garmin, her building doesn’t exist!), we went out to dinner. We ate at a place called Yuca, and it was delicious. I was so exhausted, though, and when I got back to her condo, I did some work, then went to bed at 1:30. On a side note, I have decided that Garmin sucks in Miami. The Garmin seems perpetually confused, it has a hard time finding the satellite, it calls out turns and directions at the last second, it changes its mind about the route a number of times, and sometimes, you do what it says and then it decides it no longer likes the route! I don’t think I could keep the Garmin in Miami.

Tammy and I woke up this morning, grabbed breakfast together and then I came to the conference. I sat in boring meetings all day, and finally left a bit early. They have a networking event tonight, but I think I’d rather stay back and go out to dinner with Tammy. Tomorrow is my presentation in the afternoon, and then I will be flying back home!

Dance, Dance Dance!

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I’m constantly amazed by what a “big boy” Micah has become. He definitely understands words, and he will also mimic me when I talk or do things. If you tell him “No” – he understands (but often chooses not to listen.” He loves to dance, so if you say to him “dancing, dancing, dancing” he’ll start bouncing and dancing! Here is some video proof:

He also loves to laugh – he laughs all the time, and he has the wonderful big belly laugh that just burbles up from deep inside. I melt each and every time I hear that wonderful sound. He sounds just like he did as a little infant – only louder. I caught a bit of video of him giggling because the dog was touching him. He LOVES interacting with her, and he squeals with delight any time she nuzzles or licks him.

Lately, his new game is to follow me around the house. He also will try and climb up the stairs every chance he gets. He climbs over, goes straight up the stairs, hangs a right around the railing, and usually heads straight to our bedroom to play with his toys. I chase after him multiple times a day – who needs a stairclimber? We have GOT to get those baby gates installed ASAP. We’ve started telling him it is time to go upstairs for bed or a bath and letting him climb up on his own. We tried to capture that on video tonight, but he was hamming it up for the camera. Here is the footage we did get:

On Sunday, we went to a BBQ at a friend’s house. Micah decided to head off on his own and go exploring – up their stairs. Here is some video of Micah in action:

For good measure, here are some pictures. We never made it in for his 9 month pictures – between my computer dying, Micah getting sick, and my business trips, it just didn’t happen this month :(. I might go this week for his 9 month pictures, and then go in 2-3 weeks for his 10 month pictures. Not quite accurate, but who cares!




8 month photos

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Today we took Micah for his 8 month photos. I must confess – I might be turning him into a metrosexual – we had to use a little hair product to keep his crazy mop out of his face for the photos. I didn’t style his hair – just put a little stuff in and pushed it out of his face. We entered the first one into a photo contest, too.