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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!

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:

Our week at the beach

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Our week down in Emerald Isle, NC has been fantastic – such a relief to get away and enjoy a bit. We had a long drive to get here in the car, so we decided to try leaving at night so that Micah would sleep through the entire trip. Surprisingly, we managed to get ourselves together and out the door on time (despite a vet appointment during the day for Nugget and a visit to the hospital to see a friend), and Micah cooperated by falling asleep in his carseat and sleeping the entire trip! The weather was horrible and it took us forever to get going, but we made it to the beach safe and sound. Micah transferred easily into the pack ‘n play, and Elliot and I settled in and went to sleep.

The house we are staying in is nice – nothing fabulous, but clean, in a good location, and nice. Micah woke up around 7 on Thursday morning. I nursed Micah, and Elliot was wonderful and took care of Micah while I went back to sleep for another hour. I took over in time to put Micah down for his nap. When he woke up again, I nursed him and fed him his breakfast. While I was taking care of Micah, Elliot took the time to go exploring. He likes to scope out the neighborhood – he found the grocery stores, and he went in search of a pool we could use later in the week.

After lunch, we headed off to the beach. Poor Elliot – he was loaded down like a pack mule! We used the bike trailer I bought him for Father’s Day as our stroller, and it was really an asset this trip. The big wheels handled the sandy beach quite well, and we strapped Micah in along with the beach bag, blankets and towels. Unfortunately, we did not think to bring enough beach toys, a sun umbrella, or beach chairs on our first trip. It took us a few days to finally get it all down to a science and remember everything we needed.

As an aside, I’m amazed by how much more complicated it is to travel with a baby. We just have so much more STUFF we need to bring. We had toys (we brought the jumper, an activity table, the gumball machine, a few animal chimes, the giraffe, the winkle, the stacking rings, and the nesting pails for the beach), a travel high chair/booster seat, towels, baby food, bottles, pumping stuff, baby bowls and spoons, diapers, wipes, swim diapers, music, a pack n play, a bottle brush, a cooler, the sun tent, the baby float, puffs, rice cereal, oatmeal, sippy cups, a diaper bag, music, hats, bathing suits, suntan lotion, shampoo, lotion, baby monitor, lovey blanket, cloth diapers, and strollers. Not to mention our regular beach stuff and our own clothing. AND we brought the dog, so we had all of her stuff, too.

Once we finally got everything together and made it out the door, we decided to stop at the pizza place and grabbed lunch. On our way to the beach, we walked by one of the pools we were considering trying out this week. It took us a while, but we made it to the beach around 2:00 or so. Micah had a great time – he had such a big smile on his face. He loved the ocean, and he loved the sand and water. We purchased a sun tent for Micah – it kind of looks like a mini camping tent, and it has SPF in the fabric to protect him from the sun. We tried to keep him in there most of the time, and he seemed to really like it. The sides are mesh, so he had a nice breeze flowing through the tent. We also took him down to the water and found a spot right at the edge where the waves were lapping the sand. I sat him up on the sand (how much do I LOVE this sitting thing!?!). About every 8th or 10th wave came out and touched us. Micah watched the waves, screeched with joy, and dug his hands in the sand. I picked him up and held him upside down over some of the waves a bit further in so he could stick his hands in the water. While he was sitting, he did keep trying to eat the sand. I’m not sure I understand the fascination there. I mean, I understand sticking the handful of sand in the mouth the first time, but seriously, how many times does it take before one realizes that a mouthful of sand is just icky!?!








After a few hours at the beach, we came home, showered, changed and tried running to the grocery store before meltdown. Unfortunately, we *just* missed getting all of our shopping done by 7:00 pm, and Micah was not happy towards the end of our trip. I had to run with a screaming baby out to the car and sit and nurse him. By the time we got him home, he was over-tired, and let’s just say bedtime was not a fun experience. I finally got Micah to fall asleep around 8:45, and he was out for the night.

On Friday, my parents joined us mid-day. Micah woke up at his usual time, we played, he napped with his Daddy, then he ate his breakfast, and we waited for my parents. Once they arrived, we headed off to the beach while they unpacked and got lunch. We did not make it there until almost 2:00 pm again (far cry from the time I like to be on the beach when I vacationed pre-baby), so we only stayed for a few hours. Micah was just adorable! He kept screeching with joy at the beach. He smiled when he saw the waves, and he had a great time rolling around in his sun tent. He napped on the beach, and I nursed him, and it was another wonderful and relaxing day. Friday night, Elliot decided to cook dinner – he made fajitas, and they were delicious! We spent the evening relaxing and hanging out. Micah spent some time rolling all over the floor (and getting stuck under furniture) before he went to bed.












On Saturday (4th of July) my mom, dad, Micah and I went to the shops for a few hours in the morning. Behind the stores, there was a small lake with turtles (probably snapping turtles). We had so much fun watching them swim and eat! After lunch, we went back to the beach with my parents. Another relaxing day. Elliot and I took a long walk together down the beach, Micah napped, and we stayed on the beach until almost 6:00 pm. We headed home, got Micah bathed and ready for bed, and Elliot grilled in honor of the 4th of July. We were able to watch fireworks from our deck, and we watched A Capitol Fourth on tv. It was the perfect end to a wonderful day.








On Sunday, we woke up and decided to take the boardwalk to the Sound.





(Sidenote: many years ago, we went on a family vacation to the Thousand Islands in Canada. We spent one day fishing out on a boat, and each of us, in turn, caught a very large fish . . . except for my father. When we each caught our fish, we took a picture grinning from ear to ear and holding our fish up. My father, so as to avoid being left out, worked for 20 minutes trying to catch a minnow with a fish net from the bait bucket. When he couldn’t grab that, we fished one out for him, and he, too, posed for his picture, holding a tiny little minnow. We met some nice people on the dock, who humored my father, helped him fish out another little bait minnow, and he posed for this picture – just a bit of deja vu!)



We had a lovely walk, but when we came back, we realized we had locked ourselves out. Elliot and my father were working on breaking into the house when the cleaning crew showed up! Luckily, they showed us where the spare key was, and we were able to get back inside. Good thing they showed up on the wrong day! After spending the afternoon at the beach, we decided to attempt dinner out with Micah. We went to eat at a local restaurant, Portofino, and my little guy was great. My biggest complaint for the day? Andy Roddick. For you tennis fans out there, I was DEVASTATED when Andy Roddick lost to Roger Federer in the finals at Wimbledon. The match was so exciting, and Roddick just made 1 poorly timed error (well, 4, if you count those 4 set points he blew in the 2nd set) and it was all over. Such a disappointing end to a fabulous match!

While I was putting Micah to bed Sunday night, Elliot and my dad decided to run out to the grocery store and then to the ice cream store. Long story short, my dad tripped on the way inside with the ice cream. He has a bad back and made a HORRIBLE noise – we were sure he’d fallen down a flight of stairs and seriously re-injured his back. While he had a nasty cut on his arm, a few bruises (including a bruised ego) he was just fine. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the ice cream! Yup, it spilled ALL over the carpet. And the walls. Needless to say, the ice cream was chocolate, and the carpet is beige. Yes, it was quite a mess. After making sure my dad was okay and securing the area from the dog, my mom and I set about the task of cleaning up. We started with water and did our best to minimize the stains. We then headed out to the store and bought some Resolve (and some bandaids for my dad). We soaked the area and scrubbed some more. The mess was better, but we were still concerned about the stains on the floor.

On Monday morning, I decided it was time to take Nugget to the beach – her first trip! She has been spending most mornings basking in the sun on the deck, but I’ve always wanted to bring her to the ocean. I have to say, I was a bit disappointed. When she was a puppy, she had such an energy – she loved to pounce, and she loved the waves at the local lake where I would take her wading. I thought she would be chasing waves and going crazy in the sand – all full of life. We arrived at the beach, and she looked around. She seemed to like the sand, and smiled at the ocean. She was curious about the waves. . . . until they got her wet. Then she looked at me sideways as if to say “okay, mom, I’ve seen the ocean – can I PLEASE eat my breakfast now?




After I returned from walking Nugget (and bathed her), I soaked the carpet with Resolve AGAIN and scrubbed some more. We felt the stains were better, but we were still concerned. We figured a little time and soaking would do the carpet some good, so we sprayed it again and let it sit. The weather was lousy on Monday, so we headed out to Beaufort, a small town here on the Crystal Coast, and hit the shops. We ate ice cream and fudge, bought a few things, and just had a pleasant afternoon. We went out for a buffet dinner at the Golden Corral (we intended to go to a local buffet, but it was closed on Monday), and we made it home just in time to put Micah to bed. On the way home, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up more Resolve – yes, we used an ENTIRE bottle trying to clean the carpet. After a bit more spraying and scrubbing, we started to feel better about the condition of the carpet.

Today was Spa Day! We headed out to the OC Spa in Indian Beach and scheduled facials, massages, and a nice lunch. Micah spent the day hanging out by the pool, and enjoyed his first day at the spa. We are all thoroughly relaxed and refreshed. Unfortunately, this is the end of our vacation. We stayed in and ate leftovers for dinner, and we are starting the process of packing up to leave. My parents will leave first thing in the morning, and we will be spending the day on the beach and then packing up to leave when it is time to put Micah to bed. We are hoping the weather will be better on the trip home and Micah will sleep through the ride back.






All-in-all, it was a wonderful, relaxing and pleasant week. I am so thankful my parents could join us and help out with Micah. I think it was a great way for him to spend time with his grandparents, and it was a great getaway for all of us.

Father’s Day… bittersweet

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Happy Father’s Day! This year, we celebrated Elliot’s first Father’s Day. In honor of the big day, I bought Elliot a bike trailer so he can take Micah on his bike with him to daycare or on errands. He tried it out last week, and both of them seemed to love it.


Just a little video of the first ride in the trailer:


Before I get into the details of our celebration, I do want to take the time to say what an incredible father Elliot is. He is such a loving man – he is so gentle with Micah, changes his diapers (whenever possible, I let him change ALL the dirty ones), feeds him – whatever Micah needs. He has been doing Micah’s laundry most of the time the past 6 months. They take naps together, and he makes time to play with him. Elliot takes him to daycare, shares in the feeding, and they go to synagogue together every Friday night and Saturday morning – their weekly Daddy/son outing. Micah plays “secretary” for Daddy sometimes when he is working. Elliot takes the time to talk to him, and he is very willing to do whatever is needed to care for him. Elliot comes to every doctor’s appointment, too – he doesn’t miss out on anything! Elliot makes up songs all the time so he can sing to Micah (his favorite seems to be “What’s the matter baby boy?”), and Micah just lights up whenever he sees his Daddy. Elliot helps put him to bed every night (he takes him upstairs, dresses him for bed, reads him a book, gives him his medicine and then I go upstairs to nurse Micah), and he isn’t afraid to be alone with Micah, give him a bath by himself, or put him to bed alone when I go out. It is apparent to anyone who sees the two of them together how much they adore each other. Happy Father’s Day, Elliot – we love you!
We decided to celebrate Father’s Day with both of our families this year. We drove up to New Jersey to visit Elliot’s family on Friday. Our oldest niece, Melissa, was home from college, and she had not seen Micah since he was 8 days old! We arrived on Friday afternoon, and hung out with Brian and Stephanie and Aunt Jodi (Melissa was out and about, and Uncle Steven was still at work). Micah was showing off – he rolled over from front to back AND back to front over and over again, and then he sat and played with his gumball machine without falling over! Unfortunately, Micah was not cooperative at bedtime. He cried and cried for almost 1 hour, but I finally got him asleep in the pack-n-play in Brian’s room around 8:30. We had chinese food for dinner, and then the fun began. Brian has discovered baking, so the two of us decided to run to the store (with Stephanie) to get a few supplies to make strawberry pie. We whipped up two of those and then called it a night. Here is some video of Micah showing off (and you’ll hear the conversation we had planning the trip to the grocery store to buy the ingredients to make a strawberry pie):

The next morning, Micah woke up at 7 am, but fell back asleep after nursing until 9:30 am. He ate his breakfast, played with his cousins, and then we waited for his other Aunt Jody, Uncle Dan cousin Ethan, Poppy Ira and Grandma Roberta to arrive. When everyone arrived, Micah showed off all of his tricks and we gave his Poppy Ira his Father’s Day gift…a framed photo of Micah. We all headed out to the mall to have a “cousins” photo taken for Father’s Day. The photo was really cute! We went to an Italian restaurant for dinner, then back to the house for cake and pie.



Here is some video for good measure:
Micah had another rough night falling asleep, but he slept until 8:30 Sunday morning. We were out the door by 9:30, and arrived at Jen and Jeremy’s house for brunch around 12:15. We had blintzes, quiche and strawberry pie for dessert. Micah played with his cousins Paige and Peyton and showed off his tricks again. We also gave my parents a framed photo of Micah – a trilogy of close-up shots of his face. After spending a few hours together, we headed home around 3:00. What a long (but fun) weekend!
I thought I would also take this time to thank my own father for being a wonderful Daddy. You were always there for me, without hesitation. When I waited until the last minute and you had to run all over creation picking things up and turning things in for me so I didn’t miss an important deadline, you did it, without grumbling. You came to my swim meets and dance recitals and gymnastics events. You even came to a mother/daughter even with me once when mom couldn’t be there. You took me to see shows and spent time with me. You made me go shopping with you sometimes – I still can’t forgive you for that, but I’ll let it slide. You drove my carpool, embarassed me in front of my friends, but most importantly, you’ve always been there to love and support me, without hesitation. I may not tell you often enough, but I love you, and I appreciate the person you are – there are few men in this world who are as good as you are, and you taught me to set the bar high and expect more from men. Thank you, Dad, for all you do for our family!
Despite all the wonderful things we have to celebrate, Father’s Day is also bittersweet – one year ago on Father’s Day, I entered my 2nd trimester and we sent out a note announcing my pregnancy. The next morning, I sent out a second note to family and friends announcing the death of my grandmother. What a crazy year…we miss you, Grandma “Cookie,” and we think of you often. I’m sorry you never had the chance to meet Micah – I know how time with your family and all the little babies brought you such joy.

6 month photos

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Sorry I’ve been so quiet – I stopped taking my asthma medicine for a few days (okay, almost 1 week) to try and increase my milk supply. Well, naturally, my asthma acted up as did my sinuses, and now I have a nasty case of allergic sinusitis/bronchitis. I’m on antibiotics and feeling better, but I’m also feeling kind of stupid. I didn’t think a few days off would be a problem, and I was sure I could “catch it” before I got sick and get back on my meds, but I should have known better! By the time I realized things were getting bad, it was too late.

Anyway, here are the photos we had taken on Tuesday. Enjoy! Please excuse the big dark shadow on the profile picture – that was a scanning problem and I just don’t have the bandwidth to fix that now.










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!):

Busy Busy

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“Busy busy” applies both to my life and to Micah’s personality. I have been running at mach 5 for the past few weeks. I’ve been swamped conducting interview surveys for a project at work, and there have been so events happening in my personal life. This weekend, I had the Komen walk, my cousin Jodi’s wedding (which was BEAUTIFUL) and we went to a baseball game. Additionally, my niece has been in town since Saturday, and I’ve been trying to spend time with her while getting work done and breaking in a new babysitter.

The babysitter situation is going really well – Christin is so sweet with Micah, and it really frees me up to get my work done and even run the occasional errand. We also got a call that our first choice daycare has a full-time slot available for us as of August 31. Right after that, we found another daycare (recommended by a friend) that has a slot available mid-August, so we have to figure out if that is the right option for us. I love having Micah at home with me so I can see him on my breaks, but I have a feeling that as he gets older, he won’t let me get my work done once he realizes I’m in the other room. We are thinking of paying for the 5 days, and putting him there most days from 9 or 10 until 4. I will probably keep him home at least 1 day every week for mommy time, and we have a Thursday class together this Fall. I think I’d prefer to enroll him in a part-time 3 day a week daycare, but right now we don’t seem to have that option. We may try enrolling full-time and see if they will work with us to drop down to part-time.

Micah is also quite busy these days… he likes to be doing something all the time. He is very busy when he plays with his toys, or rolls on the floor. He is constantly grabbing and doing. He actually started using the jumperoo this week – we finally figured out how to lower it, and he is now fitting in it quite nicely. I thought I’d round off this post with some recent pictures of Micah busily playing in his exersaucer.




Here is a video for good measure (naturally, he stopped playing and demonstrating how busy he can be and started mugging for the video instead, but hey, he is just too cute I had to post it anyway) – press the triangle on the lower left to see the video!

The Butterfly has landed

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My niece Peyton is staying at my parents’ house this week while my brother and SIL are on vacation. This was a wonderful trip for us, because we’ve never been able to spend any time alone with Peyton before. You see, Peyton is the younger sister, and she usually comes to us with her big sister in tow.

On her own, she is much more chatty than with her sister around. She gets into everything, loves to climb and is always very busy. She is quite sweet, although she has just discovered the word “NO.” She likes to lean back as if she is throwing a tantrum, scrunch up her face, and scream “NNNNNNNOOOOO!” Luckily, right after she shouts no, she proceeds to engage in whatever we asked her to do. She is a great sleeper, and so kind to Micah. She hates to be restrained – after 5 minutes in her car seat, she starts to shout “out!”

We went for dinner with them on Monday night, and Peyton was busy feeding Micah his bottle. They were so cute together. She loves to call him “baby” and she is always trying to climb into his car seat. She even made sure to give him lots of kisses.


On Monday, my mom and I took her to see a butterfly exhibit at the botanical gardens. We were not sure if she was old enough to appreciate it, but to our great surprise, she LOVED it! She was running around, squealing at the butterflies, pointing at them, and very entertained for over an hour. The exhibit was in a greenhouse, and the butterflies flew all around us. They often landed on our shoulders and hair, and it was such a wonderful experience. Some of them had such gorgeous colors – some were cobalt blue and black, others were lime green and brown. I loved all the vibrant colors. They had coccoons on display as well, and some were hatching.







Tuesday, I brought Peyton with me to playgroup. I learned that she loves egg salad (I think she devoured the entire bowl) and watermelon. She kept begging for more of both. I also learned that she calls The Itsy Bitsy Spider by the name “Up Down” (you know… the itsy bitsy spider went UP the water spout. DOWN came the rain). She sings along, but mostly sings “Up Down” and likes to repeat it over and over again.

We have a few more activities planned before she heads home on Thursday.

Take me out to the ball game

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On Sunday, we took the Micahs to their first baseball game. Yes, I said “the Micahs.” We went with our friends and THEIR son Micah, too. Our Micah seemed to enjoy himself . . . he got to ride a train, and he had a great view of the field, he got to hold his friend Micah’s hand, and he tried to eat pizza – he got both hands in it and mushed t
he pizza really well! He cried when we pulled him away and wiped off his hands.
He looked quite dapper in his Mets jersey, and he enjoyed himself rolling around on the floor in our seats behind home plate. He seemed to smile a lot and enjoy himself, although I’m not sure he had any clue he was at a baseball game.
The other Micah tried to suck our Micah’s toes.

Here is some video of the boys holding hands – press the triangle in the lower left corner to view!
And some video of Micah having floor time at National Stadium: