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Maternity & Parenting Center

No, no, no…Part 2

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Thought I’d share the video I captured tonight (by the way, you’ll notice at the end that he says “more” when he is “all done”):

By the way, Micah has recently been obsessed with making Elliot put on his bike helmet in the house…he had to keep it on all night tonight. We had someone come to our door, and Elliot had a conversation with her…it wasn’t until she left that I realized he had been wearing the bike helmet the entire time!

Trip to the Zoo

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On Friday, Micah had a daycare field trip to the zoo! It was his first trip to the zoo, but I was a bit hesitant about chaperoning. Elliot had a prior commitment and could not attend, and I was afraid the trip would be too much for me, especially on my own. Last minute, my father was able to re-arrange his schedule so that he could chaperone the trip, and I decided to go along, too.

My father showed up at our house bright and early at 9:00 am, and off to daycare we went. As a side note, my father showed up a bit dressed up for the trip to the zoo. He had on a beautiful blue button-down collar shirt. I took one look at him and suggested he might be too hot in the outfit. In typical fashion, my father insisted he would be fine. Knowing my father (who NEVER likes to dress down), I knew it was a losing battle, so I gave up on trying to convince him to change into a short-sleeved Under Armour golf shirt.

We were scheduled to leave for the zoo at 9:30, and left about 9:45 – not bad for daycare time. We took the metro to the zoo – quite interesting taking our entire group on foot and down elevators and onto the trains. We had a few issues on the metro. First, we ended up with a wind tunnel as we were entering the Bethesda station, and one of those “caution” signs caught air and took flight, charging 50 feet down the tunnel and nearly taking us all out. It was a bit scary! Luckily, no one was hurt. We complained to the station manager, who was completely uninterested in helping out.

Then, as we were loading onto the train, the train operator failed to follow procedure, and caught a few of us (me and “Grammy”) in the train doors. We were quite scared, and it took several patrons to pull us inside to safety as the train started to move. The train operator did the same thing at every stop, so I decided to get the train number and file a complaint – that operator was quite dangerous. We reported him as we exited at Cleveland Park, and Elliot sent a follow-up note to his contacts at metro.

We arrived at the zoo around 10:15 or 10:30. We stopped to take a group photo – this was our trail of strollers that had just made the journey through the metro:


Since my father took the group photo, I took a separate picture of him with Micah after the group photo:
The weather cooperated – it was bright and sunny, but possibly a bit on the hot side. My dad looked like he was roasting (not that he would admit it). He even rolled up his sleeves – a HIGHLY uncommon event! We began our descent around the zoo, stopping and looking for animals along the way. We saw a sloth bear early on, but a number of the animals were inside, and it was difficult for the children to see all of the animals from their strollers. We did see some cheetahs, and we tried to get a good look at some seals, but it was quite crowded. Micah seemed to enjoy the birds, but he started to get a bit restless as we wandered through the park. I was getting hot and thirsty, and my contractions were picking up. I took a bit of a break, drank some water, and sat down while my dad took Micah on with the group. I caught up to them a bit later.

We started to take them out to look when we saw the red pandas and elephants. Micah LOVED the elephants. My dad did a great job carrying and chasing after Micah – it was getting to be a bit too much walking and lifting for me. He needed a few breaks, too (his back was hurting a bit). What a pair we were! His back, my belly…perhaps we both should have skipped the field trip, but we were having fun.


He also liked the panda statues:

And yes, he IS picking his nose:




We let the kids walk around a bit, and we then found a picnic area for lunch. While we were at lunch, the orangutans put on quite a show – they climbed out of their area and climbed across the ropes to the other side of the zoo. Micah was chasing them, pointing, clapping and loving them! He even said “monkey” a few times. Once again, my father spent the bulk of his time chasing Micah around the picnic area, and I was glad I had him along. Micah did not eat much for lunch at all – too much stuff to do instead.








Micah and his Grampy had some time to kiss and hug at lunch:

Here are some of Micah’s friends playing in the grass together:


Here is some video of the orangutans in action:
After lunch, we headed back home – I think we left the park around 1:00 or so. We arrived back at the daycare facility around 1:45, and then we said goodbye to Micah. I was exhausted after the trip, but it was a lovely day!
And for good measure – here is some video of Micah stomping around in his Daddy’s slippers:

Getting nervous

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I seem to be a delinquent blogger these days. I’m definitely getting nervous about reaching the end of my pregnancy. I’m about to hit 34 weeks, and I already am feeling a ton of pressure and contractions. I probably have about 2-4 weeks left of this pregnancy, and we do not have a name for this baby. I haven’t even packed my hospital bag yet! I finally pulled out the pee pad for the bed in case my water breaks in the bed again.

I’m feeling a bit bigger this pregnancy than I did with Micah, and definitely getting physically uncomfortable. My body hurts and I am having a hard time getting comfortable these days. I am loving how much Twoey has been moving around, though! I think it is interesting…I can already tell my two babies have different personalities. Micah was quite active all the time – he never stopped kicking, punching and bouncing. My belly would dance all over the place, and he loved to cause trouble whenever they put the monitor or the doppler on my belly -he’d go right over and start kicking and punching it! Twoey is also active…but in a more mellow way. She flips and rolls and occasionally kicks and punches, but she is much more likely to be stretching, or kicking one or two times in a row and sitting quietly for a bit. I think she is going to be more reserved than Micah. She does have that touch of cute-but-evil running through her – she finds a spot (like my rib) and she’ll poke it repeatedly. I almost imagine her with an impish grin as she pokes it over and over again while I’m thinking “don’t do that.” Micah STILL likes to do that now.

I’m getting excited to meet Twoey. I wonder what she will look like, and I wonder if she’ll be born bald or with a full head of hair like Micah. I kind of hope she has a full head of hair like Micah – we could immediately put adorable little bows in her hair! I wish we could figure out the name situation, but we are really struggling. We have a list of names…but we just haven’t found “THE” name yet.

On the Micah front – he is just being so cute most of the time. His Daddy took him to a free musical performance of Oh Susannah on Tuesday morning at the Lebanese Taverna. He has been busy in daycare and he has such a great sense of humor. On Thursday, we went to meet his Grammy and Grampy for a nice lunch, and Micah got to walk and hold their hands for the first time! They also played the “one-two-three swing!” game with him while they walked, and he laughed and laughed. He is definitely starting to talk more and more. Tonight, we were outside playing on his slide/basketball hoop toy that his Grammy and Grampy gave him for his first birthday, and he said basketball! (Okay, it sounded more like bah-ball, but he was definitely saying it). He kept shooting his baskets then stopping to clap for himself every time he made a basket.

But perhaps the BEST part of my week happened tonight. I got my first first Mother’s Day gift FROM Micah, MADE by Micah! I was all teary and happy – it was such a wonderful thing. They had him make it at daycare, and wrapped it up and sent it home.




.As you can see, they framed a picture that Micah painted, and they included a picture of Micah making the painting! It is currently sitting on the fireplace mantle, and I’m loving it.

For good measure, here is some video of Micah we’ve taken over the past two weeks. We finally have a new Flip video camera (we had given our old one to our niece for her trip abroad back in January, and it took us until now to replace it)!

The emperor’s new shoes

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On Monday, I FINALLY managed to buy Micah a new pair of shoes. We bought his first pair back in January, and I have suspected for the past few weeks that they were a bit on the small side. Around here, there are two major places most people buy shoes – one is Stride Rite, and the other is Shoe Train. Unfortunately, with our schedule, it has been a challenge trying to find the time to get to either shoe store with Micah to have him measured and fitted again. I stopped by Stride Rite on my own last week to “scope out” the options and prices. Elliot and I also pulled a moron move on Sunday…we tried to go shoe shopping on Sunday afternoon (not really thinking that the stores would be closed for Easter Sunday). Needless to say, our Sunday outing was a failure.
I had forgotten that daycare was canceled on Monday for an administrative day. Originally, I had planned to either take Micah to a makeup class at Kidville or meet up with friends for a playdate. With everything that has been going on with Nugget, family visits and the renovations, I did not even remember that we had no daycare coverage for Monday. We woke up Monday and started getting Micah dressed and ready to go. I pulled out the school lunch menu to see if we needed to substitute any food for lunch (because of Passover), and there, written in black and white, “NO DAYCARE – ADMINISTRATIVE DAY.” I couldn’t believe I had totally blanked on the cancellation! Micah was even getting ready – he tried to take the diaper bag with him!
I knew that it was too late for me to take Micah to a morning makeup class at Kidville since most of the classes start at 10:00 am and it was already 9:15. Instead, I spent an hour or so playing with Micah and then sent him with his daddy to synagogue. While they were out, I worked on finishing the cleanup from the weekend, putting the house back in order, and took care of a few business phone calls. When they came home from synagogue, Micah took a nice long nap – over three hours!
I think we have now successfully transitioned to only one nap a day instead of two. We are still trying to figure out the perfect time to put him down in the afternoons. He tends to start getting sleepy and cranky around 11 or 11:30, but if we let him take his nap then, he gets pretty cranky in the evenings before bedtime. If we try keeping him awake until 1 or 1:30, he gets cranky mid-day, but he is in a great mood in the evenings before bed. Micah usually wakes up in the mornings between 8 and 8:30, and he goes to bed at night between 8 and 8:30. He likes to nap for about 3 hours, so ideally, 1:00 is the “halfway” point in the day. Hopefully, over the next few weeks he’ll get used to staying awake that long in the morning and we’ll find our ideal nap time. One nap a day really seems to free up our days and make scheduling MUCH easier!
Once Micah woke up from his afternoon nap (I think it was about 3:30 or 4), I decided to take Micah to Stride Rite. Online, they were having a great sale. Much to my disappointment, the online sale was not happening in the store. We did find two great pairs of shoes, and they were less expensive than last time around. I decided to buy him one pair of sneakers (white with blue and grey), and a pair of sandals. The sandals are a soft brown suede/leather with fairly covered toes and a few cutouts around the sides, tops and ankles. They seem so much more comfortable for him! I also had the representative check Micah’s current shoes to confirm if they still fit. It’s official…he has now outgrown his first pair of real shoes! The two new shoes we bought were a 5 wide. The sales clerk felt his feet were no longer extra wide (yay!! much easier for buying shoes (there are very few options available in extra wide), but wide shoes still generally require specialty stores).
When I got home, I checked out Stride Rite online. While they had a bunch of really cute shoes on sale (with free shipping if I bought two pairs), none of the shoes I liked came in Micah’s size. So, I gave up on bargain hunting for the day.
On Tuesday, we headed off to music class, and right after class I decided to stop off at Shoe Train to see if they were running a sale or had any less expensive options available for us. It was a mob scene there! I talked to the clerk and he said they were not running any sales. I quickly scanned the shelves, saw there was nothing less expensive available, so we just left. We got home, Micah took a nap and unfortunately, was rudely awoken prematurely by a loud banging from an unwanted solicitation at our front door. Once I got him calmed back down, Elliot and I decided to take him over to the park (since it was a GORGEOUS day outside). Micah ran around the park, used the swing, went up and down the slides, and played with a steering wheel. He had a blast! We brought him home nice and tired and he actually cooperated and took another 45 minute nap. Here are some photos of Micah enjoying himself at the park:
















And some video of Micah swinging:
The past two days, Micah has added another new word to his vocabulary: baby! I’m not yet sure he understands what it means, but he is saying it (and he did say it when watching Sesame Street and Elmo was talking to a baby). Sometimes, he even says it when he touches my belly. It is pretty cute. I bought him a book last week about being a big brother, so I think we need to work on reading that to him as often as we can. Someone also suggested I get him a doll to practice being gentle and to show him feeding/caring/helping with a baby, and I think that is a great idea, too. I cannot believe that Twoey could be here in another 6-7 weeks (and probably within the next 9 weeks).
This morning, Micah woke up a bit on the early side. I changed his diaper and decided to bring him downstairs for breakfast in just his diaper. I gave him his milk and set out his clothing for the day. He saw the brand new sneakers, and he started yelling and hitting them and throwing them. I started to worry that Micah was unhappy to see new shoes. I tried giving him the sneakers to hold and touch, but he seemed angry and frustrated. Then he started holding his feet up to me, and I realized he wanted to put his new sneakers on his feet! So I happily obliged and put on his clean socks and his brand new sneakers. That little stinker danced and bounced around the house in his diaper and brand new shoes. He was sooo funny!

Nugget is hanging in there, but we are having some issues with incontinence (because of her new medications). She has peed in the house two times so far, but our biggest issue is that she tends to pee when she sleeps (particularly overnight). Elliot thought he had a brilliant idea to solve this problem:

Yes, that is one of Micah’s pampers on the dog. Well, she woke me up at 5:00 am to go outside – and the diaper was missing, so I think Nugget has other plans.

Two Steps Behind

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It seems that lately I am always woefully behind in updating this blog. I think I’m just so overwhelmed with everything going on right now in my life that I cannot seem to stay on top of it all. In general, I would have to say that the past few weeks have been rough – filled with chaos, big decisions and stress. Luckily, all of this craziness is laced with good, but I’m having a hard time enjoying the high points right now.
I think to catch everyone up, I probably need to backtrack to my post on March 24. First, I’ll start with a cute story about Micah. I can’t remember now which night it was – I know that Elliot wasn’t home and I was putting Micah to bed by myself. I asked Micah if he was ready to go take a bath and go night night, and he immediately ran to the stairs. I opened the gate for him, and he climbed upstairs and made a beeline for my bedroom (where we bathe him). He walked around to my side of the bed and grabbed the video monitor (he loves to play with it). I unplugged it so he could have his toy, and then I watched him as he used the doggy steps by the bed to climb up onto the bed. He was just so cute as he sat and played and talked! He also really loves bath time – he plays with his toys, he laughs, and he sticks his face in the water. I should take a few pictures/videos soon.
Anyway, Thursday, March 25, was a typical Thursday. We got up at our regular time, I did some work, and then Elliot and I left a bit early to take my car to be detailed (we were getting ready to trade it in, so we wanted it to look nice). We dropped off the car on the way to taking Micah to his Kidville class, which worked out well. After class, we raced home so Micah could take a nap. I have to say, Micah has been so funny lately. When he is tired, if you ask him if he wants to go upstairs and go “night night,” he drops whatever he is doing, runs to the stairs and bangs on the gate. If you open the gate for him, he hastily climbs upstairs to his bedroom. It makes nap time and bed time so much easier!



Shortly thereafter, our architect showed up with the latest draft of our designs. The good news – he figured out how to give us the “bare minimum” of our request within the space/budget we had originally discussed. The “bad” news – he also showed us some designs with a slightly bigger budget that would give us everything we had hoped for (but more than we expected). Unfortunately, we are already a few weeks behind in the decision-making process, and this placed us even further behind. We could not give the architect the go-ahead to finalize the drawings until we know which design approach we want. Naturally, we need to know how the change in plans will affect our budget before we can make that decision. So, we were on hold until we could meet with our builder and discuss costs with him.
Thursday night was date night…and, once again, we decided that we needed to use our precious date time to go car shopping. This time, we headed to the Lexus dealership where we leased my car. We wanted to discuss the lease rates (and get a trade-in value on my car). Unfortunately, we felt we were low-balled a bit on the price for my car, but we really did get a great rate on the lease. After all the car shopping we had done, we decided that leasing the same vehicle again was likely our best bet. We were torn between leasing the 2010 RX 350 and the 2010 RX 450h (hybrid version). There was a definite price difference between the two – the 2010 version of my car would have lowered our monthly payments, but the 2010 hybrid version would increase them. Elliot felt strongly about switching to the hybrid version (he felt the $50+ per month in gas savings would make up for the increase in monthly payments). After our meeting, we decided to call it a night, and we headed home without even bothering with a date night dinner.
On Friday, I went to have my one hour glucose tolerance test done and then took my car to be appraised at Carmax (we were hoping to get a stronger offer to take to the dealership, but no such luck). Their offer was the same as the dealership, unfortunately. Elliot came and met me at Carmax after his meeting, and then we drove back to Lexus. While we were there, we met with the manager on the “certified pre-owned” side of the business. He had previously been a salesman who leased me all three of my prior vehicles, so I’ve known him for years. We talked him into increasing the trade-in offer on my car, and while we were there, we decided to look at the 2007 used (sorry – pre-owned) hybrids. The hybrids were in great shape, and the price was right. We test drove two of them, and we priced them both. It turns out, purchasing the 2007 hybrid would cost us less per month than leasing the new 2010 non-hybrid. We tentatively told the manager that we would like to get the 2007 used car. Unfortunately, our first choice (the less expensive option) had a deposit on it. The manager was kind, and he ended up lowering the price on the other vehicle to match the price of the first car we wanted. We test drove it, and asked him for a day to think about it.
We had a quiet evening at home on Friday night, and on Saturday I worked on decorating a cake for my friend Laurie’s bachelorette party. At some point, we did call the dealership and tell them that we wanted to buy the 2007 used hybrid, and asked them to hold it for us for pickup either on Sunday or Monday. I made a slightly…naughty…cake. It was designed to look like the chest of a male stripper, and I have to say, he was designed to do some stripping. After I finished the cake, I got dressed and ready for a night of festivities. I have to say…bachelorette parties are not quite the same while you are pregnant! We went out to dinner and had a 3 course meal at a fantastic restaurant. We did head out to one or two bars, but we mostly sat around talking at a table – our days of carousing seem to be long gone! Nearly all of the women there were married (and most of us had children). It was a fun evening, but I was completely exhausted by the end of the night.

After all the running around on Saturday, I wasn’t feeling well, and my contractions were getting much worse on Sunday. On Sunday, Elliot woke up early to cook Easter dinner for 1500 people at Martha’s Table. Normally, I would cook with him, but we did not have anyone to watch Micah, so I stayed behind this time. Micah and I had a fun day together. Micah has just been so cute – he plays with his toys, he laughs at himself, he chases Nugget, we cuddle together, and we read books. Especially Dr. Seuss’ The Foot Book (over and over and over….). By the time Elliot got home, I was exhausted and really not feeling well – I had to lay down for a few hours to deal with the contractions and nausea.
I also knew that Monday night was the first night of Passover – and our first Seder. Passover is the holiday that commemorates the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt. We have a Seder (a special dinner) for the first two nights of Passover. At the Seder, we eat special foods to remember the journey out of Egypt and the hardships of slavery we suffered at the hands of Pharaoh. Our plan this year was to go to my parents’ house for the first Seder to celebrate with my parents, Jeremy, Jen, Paige and Peyton. We decided to postpone the second Seder until the third night because our oldest niece was flying in from a semester abroad in South Africa on Wednesday morning. By holding the second Seder until Wednesday night, Melissa would be able to celebrate with us.
When I could finally move again on Sunday night after my nap, I got up to start preparing the food I promised to make for dinner at my parents’. I started by making charoset – basically, it is a mixture of chopped apples, cinnamon, walnuts, and sweet wine, which is intended to symbolize the mortar used by the Jews when we were slaves in Egypt and building pyramids for Pharaoh. I decided I was too exhausted to do anything else, so I went to bed.
On Monday, I balanced getting my work done with cooking and getting another weekly progesterone shot in my ass! I have to say, I was quite impressed with myself – while drafting several documents and handling 3 conference calls, I managed to make a batch of kosher for passover brownies (no flour or leavening in them) and a broccoli souffle. In between calls and baking, I had my shot and got back to work. I got everything in the oven by early afternoon – just in time for the architect and the builder to arrive. We met with them for a few hours to discuss the status of the project. The builder was able to give us a price quote on expanding our project. We were pleasantly surprised that it was MUCH less money than we expected. Consequently, we decided that if we could secure the funds for the project, we felt it was worth the investment to do the expanded addition. So…that left us with a funding challenge. We had set our budget based on the current funds we had available. With the expanded project, we definitely need either a construction loan, or an increase in our home equity line of credit, or to sell my condo, or to refinance the house, and we just did not know whether that was reasonable. So, we told the architect and the builder we needed a few days to figure out the financing to decide whether we would go with the expanded project or if we would have to go with the original plan.
With that, we hastily hurried them out the door, grabbed our stuff, and dashed off to pick Micah up from daycare so we could get to my parents’ house in time for the Seder. After we grabbed Micah and made our way to the dealership…I realized I’d forgotten the charoset at home! I did all that work and promised my mother, then promptly left it at home. I felt terrible – she had to mix up a batch on the fly (as if she didn’t do enough work for the dinner). On our way to dinner, we decided to stop off at the dealership to pick up my “new” used car. Micah had a chance to dance to the music in the dealership.




We signed the paperwork, but it was taking too long. I started to get really annoyed, and the manager said they could finish things up and drop the car off at my parents’ house later that night. We decided to take them up on their offer and raced over to my parents’ house.
When we arrived at my parents’ house, we found our close friend Rayna there (who was in for the holiday) to visit us. Micah and his cousins showed off and played with Rayna for a bit, and then we started our dinner. The Seder actually went quite well. It was extremely short, but we decided to do a child-friendly version. We explained the story of Passover and did all the symbolic parts, and we sang a few children’s Passover songs. And then we ate…gefilte fish, an egg (to symbolize the start of new beginnings), brisket, turkey breast, broccoli souffle, and asparagus. We topped off our meal with brownies and mandel bread (kind of like biscotti, but made without flour for the holiday). Towards the end of the meal, the guys from the dealership showed up to drop off my car! We made sure everything was in order, and we drove my “new” used car home. I have to say, while I’m glad it is all done, I really hate that my “new” car looks EXACTLY like my old car. It kind of takes the “new” feeling away. It is a hybrid, so that is an improvement. I’m just glad the whole struggle/debate is done.
Tuesday was crazy again – I tried juggling Micah and work and preparing for Elliot’s family to arrive. The cleaning lady was here and I had to put everything in order and work with Elliot to prepare the dinner (and organize the kitchen and set the table….). Elliot made turkey loaf and meat loaf, and we prepared roasted potatoes and we served green beans with an Italian dressing on them. Tuesday night, Steven, Jodi, Brian and Stephanie arrived, and my parents joined us for dinner. After dinner, Steven and Jodi went to a hotel near the airport to stay, and the kids stayed with us for the night.


As I mentioned in my last post, things turned crazy on the home front that night – we rushed Nugget to the emergency room in the wee hours of the night Wednesday morning. Bright and early on Wednesday morning, Melissa landed. Somewhere during that time, I received a call from the doctors that I failed the one hour glucose test. I spent the day juggling visits to the vet emergency room, coordinating with family, and trying to cook a huge meal. Luckily, my mom had made extra briskets and chicken soup for us, so we just had to heat that up. Elliot made turkey, and I did the side dishes. Jodi helped me make a spinach souffle, matzah balls, an apple charlotte, and asparagus. Melissa had brought us a special gourmet vinegar from South Africa, so we used the vinegar in the dressing for the asparagus. Brian helped me make a second batch of brownies for dessert. Despite all the chaos, we managed to get everything finished and it tasted delicious. We were a bit disorganized (we were racing around trying to set the table, find the Hagaddahs, and put everything on the Seder plate). The Seder was not exactly smooth…but we managed. I cut out several of the dishes I had planned to make, but in the end, there was plenty of food and it all went well.
While it was wonderful to have everyone in town, I have to admit I wanted nothing more than to cancel the whole dinner and curl up in bed and cry. I realized as I was sitting down for dinner that I’d been in the same outfit for 48 hours. I didn’t even have the energy to go upstairs and change at that point. It was just a long and emotional day, and I have to say, I was a bit relieved when everyone left. I immediately drove back down to the vet hospital to sit with Nugget…and left Elliot with all the mess to clean up!
While I was visiting Nugget, she seemed okay – happy to see me, but still having difficulty breathing. They thought she was doing better and were hopeful that she would be released from the hospital in the morning. While I was there, she would not stay in her oxygen tent – she just wanted to be held. They gave her some food and she scarfed it up! The worst part of the evening…she peed all over me. Twice. The medicine she was on was intended to rid her body of fluids, and it made it difficult for her to control her bladder. It was awful, and she looked so embarrassed when it happened. So, after being in the same outfit for 48 hours, I ended up in a urine-soaked dirty outfit. Fitting end to the day, right?
I stayed with her about one hour…and watched a cat die. I was a mess – the poor cat had some kind of a bad reaction (possibly to a vaccine) and they kept working on him and working on him and trying to administer CPR, but they just couldn’t get him going again. The owner came back and the whole experience was awful. It actually reminded me of a visit there when Nugget was just a few years old…that time, I had rushed my neighbor to the hospital with her dog, who had collapsed while we were on a walk. His name was George, and he was a St. Bernard. He died that day on the same table while we watched through the glass door. That table loomed in front of me the entire time Nugget was in the hospital. I hope I never have to see her that way on that same table.
I finally got home around 11:00 pm…and crashed. I didn’t even bother to see if Elliot had cleaned up! I figured it did not matter if there was still food on the table…Nugget wasn’t home to steal it. On Thursday morning, we woke up to another crazy day. We had to go to my ultrasound and my OB appointment and pick Nugget up from the hospital. Since Elliot needed to get his car serviced, he left a bit before us to drop his car off and get a rental. While it was there, the “Dent guy” was going to give us an estimate on fixing the damage to the car, too.
I had carefully packed up my phone and everything I needed for Micah. On his way out the door, Elliot “accidentally” grabbed my phone. I was so angry! I didn’t notice it was gone until I was almost to my mom’s office. She was going to watch Micah for us while we went to the ultrasound, and I was supposed to call her when I got there so she could come down. I had planned on having her take Micah then quickly run over to the dealership to have a few things fixed on my car (naturally, it didn’t occur to Elliot to call my mom to tell her he had my phone). Elliot was supposed to meet me at the Lexus dealership, and then we were going to drive to the ultrasound together in his car. Since I couldn’t call my mom, I had to park the car – no easy task. The parking lot was packed, so I had to park illegally. I then needed to get the stroller out, and load Micah in, and gather all his stuff together. Naturally, the accessible entrance was all the way around the front of the building. It took forever to walk around to the front, go in the accessible entrance and take the elevator upstairs. I went to my mom’s office…and she wasn’t there. I then went to the front desk…and she wasn’t there. After finding someone who recognized me and begging to use their phone so that I could call my mom’s cell phone to tell her we were there, my mom showed up and found us! I handed off Micah, borrowed her phone to call (and yell) at Elliot. The whole thing set us back 20 minutes, so I was no longer able to go to the dealership, and Elliot had to meet me at the doctor’s office.
My appointment brought mixed news. My cervix shrunk another 2 mms, but Twoey was doing really well! She was moving great, and measuring about 27 weeks 6 days (I was 28 weeks 2 days). Once again, my regular doctor wasn’t there, so we had to see the other doctor. She really bugs me. She was totally unconcerned about the contractions, and kept saying that my cervix was good even though it keeps shrinking. I mentioned that the other doctor said he would get more aggressive about treating the contractions if my cervix dropped below 3.0, but she said she was not concerned unless my cervix was below 2.0. I again pointed out that the goal was to avoid bedrest, and she told me that I could take medicine for the contractions “if I wanted to.” Well…I’m not the doctor! I felt like it shouldn’t be my call. She wrote me a prescription and told me to do whatever I wanted. I was so frustrated! What I wanted was advice and an explanation, and this doctor just always seems to shrug everything off.
We went back to pick Micah up from my mom, and Elliot took my car and Micah to the dealership to fix a few problems while I drove down in the rental to pick up the dog. She was looking much better, and I was thrilled to be bringing her home. Elliot got home and put Micah down for his nap. I still had my OB appointment, and we decided that Elliot would stay behind with Micah and the dog while I went alone. My appointment went really well. We discussed the possible gestational diabetes (and I started to monitor my sugar levels). I have to meet with a nutritionist to talk about diet, but things look promising. So far, all of my sugar levels have been normal. We also discussed my frustration with the doctor, and the midwife said she felt that I should only take the medication when my contractions are particularly frequent/strong. I felt like she gave me some good guidance, and she said that if things start to feel like they are increasing in intensity on a regular basis (or seem to move back towards real labor) then I will go on the medicines permanently. But, for right now, the contractions are not sufficiently strong or regular to warrant aggressive medication, and while my cervix is shrinking, it is not currently shrinking at a rapid rate, so she felt we would do better to continue to wait it out a bit. She thinks I still have enough time to continue avoiding bedrest.
When I returned from my appointment, Rayna and Arleen stopped by for a brief visit. It was nice catching up with them, and they got to spend a bit of time with both Micah and Nugget. Thursday night, my mom came down for date night. We just did not feel like going out with everything going on, so my mom helped with feeding Micah and entertaining him, and she helped me bathe him and put him to bed. We made sure to give Nugget lots of love and attention, too. My mom left pretty early, but the extra help was such a relief. She offered to help pack up and freeze the leftovers, but the kitchen was still such a mess that we did not even know where to begin. Instead, she suggested that she and my father return on Friday night to eat some leftovers and help us clean everything up.
On Friday, we spent the day trying to get all of our work done while Micah was at daycare. I spent a lot of time cuddling Nugget, too. We also managed to get in touch with a mortgage broker, and it seems that we can easily refinance the mortgage on the house and get the money we need to do the expanded renovations. So, we gave the architect the go-ahead to start finalizing the plans. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get back on schedule. I ran out for an hour in the afternoon to meet my friend Heather for lunch. I have to say, when 5:00 rolled around, I was so relieved that the week had ended.
My parents came over for dinner on Friday night. We ate some leftovers, and Elliot managed to get most of the dishes done (or at least in the sink). We were able to start putting things away and break down the extra table and chairs. My dad helped me put the plates and platters away, and my mom and Elliot cut the leftover brisket and meat loaf into single-sized portions for the freezer. We sent some brisket and soup home with my parents, and by the end of the night, we finally felt like we had control of the chaos.
On Saturday, we had a lazy morning. Elliot and Micah went to services, and I stayed home to do some more cleaning/organization and spend time with Nugget. After Micah woke up from his nap, we went out to meet Elliot’s cousin Dana for an early dinner (she and her husband and their 2 kids were in town unexpectedly for a quick visit). After dinner, we raced home to give Nugget her medication and put Micah to bed, and then I went out to meet my friend Niki and catch up with her for a few hours. I got home and worked with Elliot to finally finish the clean up from the prior week. We made sure everything that needed hand-washing was washed, and we put away all the platters. I wiped down the counters, and put everything back in its place. I straightened up the toys, and threw all the dirty dish towels down into the laundry room. I also set the table and prepared everything for our brunch the following morning (yes, that seemed like a good idea back when I set it up).
This morning, our friends Ellen and David (and their son Max) joined us for brunch at 11:30. Ellen is also pregnant, and due just a few weeks after me! We kept brunch nice and simple. I had cleared the buffet and cleaned up the kitchen, and did my best to control the toys in the living room. We made matzah brie (kind of like french toast, but made with matzah), an old family recipe that we call “matzkes” (which is just a sweetened farmers cheese broiled on some matzah), and some scrambled eggs. They stayed for a few hours, and the cleanup was nice and easy – I did all the dishes and we’ve got just about everything put back together again. I am hoping that our cleanup for the cleaning lady tomorrow night will be nice and simple now!
So, here is my “naked baby” running around tonight before bed.

I think I’ll conclude this post with a few photos – I finally got those “rock star photos” of Micah from our class field trip almost two weeks ago. How funny are these?









I still have to scan the ultrasound pictures from Thursday and post them, so I’ll be back with more pictures of Twoey soon!

I Saw Micah Kissing…

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Sometimes, there are moments that I could just scoop Micah up into my arms and squeeze him tightly and kiss him forever because I cannot get over how adorable he is – the simplest things just make my heart swell. I just want to take those moments and bask in them forever, but it seems they have a way of passing in a heartbeat. We had one of those moments last night.

I was sitting on the couch with Elliot and Micah was busy playing. I got up to walk into the kitchen to grab something to eat, and all of the sudden, I heard this noise. It kind of sounded like kissing, but I thought it could have been sucking, too. I walked back to the living room, peeked around the corner, and there was Micah, his hands firmly grasping his Elmo doll and holding it nose-to-nose in front of his face, kissing Elmo squarely on his mouth. I just about died – it has to be one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen! I asked Micah if he was giving Elmo kisses, and he smiled at me before he resumed kissing and hugging Elmo. Micah spent the better part of the next 20 minutes kissing Elmo. It’s official…Micah is in love with Elmo, and I can’t say I heard Elmo complaining.

In other news, Micah is 15 months old today!! I can’t imagine where the time has gone. Micah is running now, not just walking. He climbs into everything (and is especially fond of standing in tupperware containers). I wish I could grab a picture of that, but he just doesn’t sit still long enough. He loves to play his kazoo, and he now has 6 teeth all broken through (and it looks like another 2-4 on the way). He recently discovered his long eyelashes – sometimes he just sits there and yanks on them. It makes me laugh – I can’t imagine that it doesn’t drive him nuts.

Micah has been getting picky about eating the last week or so – I’m not sure if it is a phase or because of the teething. Some days, we can barely get him to eat anything at all, and other days he’ll eat a ton of food. We’ve also noticed that he is refusing to eat several “reliable” favorites – like bananas. He will still eat the freeze dried bananas, so it may just be a texture/teething thing. He still loves oranges, peaches, apple sauce, strawberries and grapes. We have been working on expanding Micah’s food horizons – he now eats peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cream cheese and jelly, and cream cheese and olives. We’ve been trying to give him more lunch meats/deli slices, and he seems to love fish sticks. I have not been experimenting as much as I planned with chicken (he is kind of hit or miss about eating that). We did try giving him sweet and sour meatballs, and he seemed to like it, but he has been a little less willing to eat melted cheese sandwiches and pizza this week, but cheese sticks are at the top of the list. He also loves crackers – Wheat Thins, Cheez-Its, graham crackers, etc. We still haven’t tried the mashed potato croquettes or risotto cakes, but we have the ingredients ready to go.

Micah is just over 20 lbs now (still a tiny little thing) but I think he is quite tall (considering his weight) – perhaps 33 inches or more! We have our 15 month checkup on Tuesday, so I’ll have the official stats then. I think he will get his MMR vaccine at this visit, and perhaps chicken pox as well (we did not give him the chicken pox vaccine last time). I have read in some places that the chicken pox vaccine is not safe to give to anyone in a household with a pregnant woman – I need to verify that before we make our decision, but if it is safe for me, we will likely give him that vaccine as well. My little guy is still only in the 12 month (or 6-12 month) size. We have several outfits in the 6-9 month size I have not completely pulled from his closet, but those are definitely starting to get a little short in the sleeves. There are a few things he can “get away” with wearing in the 12-18 month (or 18 month) size, but they are still pretty big on him. I have purchased him all 12-18 month (or 18 month) sized clothing for the summer – I think that should be the right size.

As for talking – Micah has a number of words, and he is beginning to mimic us more often now. He regularly says hi, bye, mama, dada (or dad), nuh-nuh (for the dog), night night, ball and bubble. He signs more, all done and milk, and he will say (on occasion) Elmo, Big Bird, bang, uh oh, and a few other words. He seems to understand a lot of language – he’ll bring me things when I say “bring that to mommy,” and he will go pick up certain toys that I mention by name. He is starting to know his body parts, but he does not always respond (sometimes he prefers to smile at me with an expression that says “Mommy, you need to learn that I do not perform on command.” He knows to clap and to wave in response to those words, and he likes to play the “belly drum.” He does know where his head and nose are, and I think he understands the word hand, too. He is so curious about everything – he inspects and investigates everything, and he is always trying to climb onto or into anything he can.

So, in honor of Micah’s 15 months, here are some pictures:

Playing the Kazoo and clapping:


Stealing Daddy’s tie…






Fun with tupperware:

And some video for good measure:

Just a few photos from the last snow storm:





And a weekend visit and a trip to Kidville with Uncle Jeremy, Paige and Peyton:










Blizzard of 2010 – Part 2

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I’m sick of snow. If I never see another snowflake in my entire life, it might be too soon. We got about 8 inches of snow the first weekend in February. Not really a huge deal – just kind of a pain, especially since it nearly kept me from my grandmother’s funeral. Things cleared out relatively quickly, but the snow did not have a chance to melt before the blizzard hit last week. It snowed last weekend from Friday through Saturday – we had over 30 inches, and it was just awful. There were hundreds of thousands of people in the area without power. Luckily, we were fine, but my parents were without electricity for several days. Elliot got us plowed out late Saturday night by the Bethesda Rescue Squad (so he could go do his Red Cross work), and then on Sunday he went and “rescued” my parents and brought them back here after nearly 48 hours without electricity.

It was actually a fun evening (for being snowed-in). The Superbowl is also an anniversary of sorts for Elliot and me – we met at a Superbowl party in 2005. Micah was in his football pajamas in honor of the Superbowl, and we watched the game together. He LOVED the half-time show – he was definitely rocking out to The Who. He was very cute as he clapped and tried to sing. My mom was actually humming a song, and Micah kept trying to copy her. My mom and I gave him a bath before bed, and we brought him back downstairs to play for a bit before bed. As I brought him upstairs to go to sleep, my parents both said “night night” to him, and much to our surprise and pleasure, he responded by saying “night night” right back! We said it a few more times, and so did he – he now has a new word in his vocabulary!

The next morning (Monday), the power was restored to my parents’ house and we were able to return them home! The local government and schools were all closed, so there was not much going on anywhere in the area. Micah’s daycare was canceled, and we were trapped at home with no place to go. Elliot spent the day shoveling snow at my parents’ house, running errands and taking care of a few things. Unfortunately, power was still not restored to all the residents in the area, and very few of the side streets were plowed. The main roads were still a mess, and there was panic throughout the area as predictions for the next day’s snow storm were reaching 15-20 inches.




The snow began to fall again early on Tuesday morning. Once again, government and schools were closed, and the government requested that we stay off the roads for safety reasons. Micah’s class was canceled, and we were again stranded at home. By morning, the snow intensified to full blizzard conditions. The wind was high, and visibility was low. It was unsafe to be out on the roads, and even the plows were directed to stay off the roads. The main roads quickly became impassable. The snow continued until midnight, and we had another 15 inches of snow when all was said and done. What a mess!

Here are a few pictures of our house after the last round of snow. The garbage cans, car and fence are nearly buried.




We finally got plowed out this afternoon, and I actually left the house for the first time in a week! Okay – I just took my dog to my parents’ house since we are going out of town in the morning, but that counts, right?

Micah has recently discovered he much prefers to use a fork when he eats:



During the snow, Micah made a VERY important discovery – the Kazoo! We were sitting in the living room and Micah was wandering around the house in circles. We had a kazoo as a party favor that I had tucked away, and Micah found it and started to play it. I heard the noise and it took me a moment to figure out what it was. I was surprised that he figured out how to play it all on his own! I did manage to get some video of it.


Micah has 2 more teeth breaking through on top. He has been a bit cranky. Luckily, he has recently discovered a love for ice cubes (he reaches into the freezer and helps himself every chance he gets) and he finally took a popsicle (homemade – from applesauce), so these new things definitely help with the teething.

And for good measure, here are pictures of Micah with his new favorite toys:


Yes, that is right, our “tupperware” cabinet. It is the one cabinet we have not safety locked, and he spends his days emptying out all the containers and making a great big mess. As you can see, he has a ton of fun wreaking havoc.

He has also developed a new bad habit – he bites when he gets frustrated or upset. I’m not sure what to do about that – I’ve been trying to tell him no and show him how to ask for what he wants. I sure hope this is just a stage that will disappear when his vocabulary increases.

Twoey’s 20 week OB appointment and ultrasound

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Yesterday was my 20 week OB appointment. Although they made us wait 1 1/2 hours to see the midwife, it was a rather uneventful appointment. We listened to (and recorded) Twoey’s heartbeat (it was in the 160s).
No weight gain yet, and my belly was measuring right on target. Everything is looking good so far. I did have a discussion with this midwife about getting a prescription for Reglan if I have issues with my milk supply after Twoey is born, and she was quite willing to help me out. We were supposed to get a prescription for an AFP tests (checks my blood for a protein that is an indicator of spina bifida) and my first trimester bloodwork (long story, but I still haven’t gotten that done). Because we were running so late, we grabbed our prescriptions and ran – only to find out that once AGAIN, the nurse forgot to give me the prescription for the AFP (it is actually supposed to be done between weeks 17 and 18, and no later than 20 weeks). I tried calling the office, but the nurse could not find the midwife’s notation about the AFP and was unwilling to fax me the script before talking to her. I was told I needed to get the test done yesterday or not take it at all, but, of course, they did not fax me the prescription. Now it is officially too late for me to have that test done.
Today we had our ultrasound – the full anatomy scan. Twoey was EXTREMELY uncooperative (perhaps I should not have eaten that cookie for breakfast…), so unfortunately the pictures we did get were awful. She spent much of the time turning away from the ultrasound and it took the tech about 30 minutes to get all the pictures of her heart. The doctor had to come back for a second look to see her aorta. They checked her brain, her kidneys, her bladder, her stomach, her heart and all of her limbs. She IS still a girl, and everything looks perfect. She is 12 ounces and measuring at 20 weeks and 2 days. Her spine was perfect, too, and when we asked about the AFP, the maternal fetal medicine specialist felt that the results of the ultrasound were clear, and the only other thing the AFP could indicate is an issue with the placenta. He said that if the test came back elevated, the “prescription” for that would be monthly ultrasounds, which I am getting anyway. In other words, the doctor felt it was no big deal that we could not get the AFP done, so I feel relieved about that. They also measured Frank and Fiona, who seem to be holding steady at 4 and 3 cms, respectively.
Profile – tushy up in the air:


Hands over head:

Hands crossed over face:



Skeleton face:

Finally, they did measure my cervical length. It dropped to 3.5 cms, which is still considered “safe” at this point in the pregnancy, however, it is unusual to lose about 1 cm of cervical length over the course of a month at only 20 weeks. After I had my initial bout of early labor with Micah at 28 weeks, my cervix shrunk from 4.6 down to 3.8 cms at 28 weeks, and they were concerned then. I think the biggest worry at this point is that I’m losing the “cushion” – if I develop contractions again, my cervix is already shrinking and it may be harder to stave off labor and keep me pregnant. I have to go back in 2 weeks for a cervical length check. If it continues to shrink, we may have to get a bit more aggressive with either medications or bedrest. As long as my cervix stays above 2.6 for now, they will keep me up and moving around, so for right now, everything is okay.

Last night, Micah used a fork for the first time!! We were at my parents’ house for another night of shiva, eating dinner. Micah was not particularly interested in the cheese or the bagels or the tuna fish, so I made him a veggie burger. He spotted my fork, and he made it quite clear he wanted it. I tried stabbing a piece of veggie burger with the fork and feeding it to him. He quickly stole the fork from me…and went about feeding himself with a fork! I was amazed that he could handle it so well – it never dawned on me to give it a try. He needed a bit of help getting the pieces onto the fork, but he ate the entire veggie burger that way. Once again, tonight at dinner, Micah wanted a fork. He ate two small turkey burgers with his fork – and this time, he was even able to stab the meat himself. Apparently, Micah loves to use a fork (something I find particularly humorous as his Uncle Jeremy STILL rarely uses a fork!

I am definitely due for a picture post – I have a ton of pictures and video of Micah to add to the blog – I’ll have to get to that this weekend while we are snowed in!

Walking Part II

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After taking 3 or 4 steps a few times on Tuesday, Micah continued the trend on Wednesday, and even started to add steps. By Thursday, he had walked across the living room! He is still crawling more than walking, but we definitely have a walker on our hands. I finally got a video, but he would only walk for the video if I taunted him with my ipod.