Today we went to the zoo with some friends and I think it was the first time that Micah really saw the animals. First we went to the sea lions and Micah stood at the window above the tank and watched them and pointed down at them below us. Then we went into the deer section and he again was pointing and watching the deer intently. It was really stunning to watch how closely he watched the animals. He did the same with the goats and sheep, the donkeys, watching the sea lions from below, watching the sharks from under the shark tank. He also loved looking in at the fish in the aquarium as usual. He loves the giant fish tanks and will just stand at the glass and look in at them. I also turned him loose in the tunnel under the sting ray tank. It was adorable, he crawled in to the tunnel and stood up at an underwater window, looked in at the sting rays for a minute, and then saw that the top of the tunnel is glass and he could see me through it. He just started grinning, I crouched down and looked at him through the tunnel and he just exploded in joy and laughed while he crawled at top speed back to me. It was wonderful. Definitely the best zoo outing yet.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
October 24, 2012
It's been a fairly eventful week for the babe. On Sunday, Micah took his first solo steps. One step toward dad and then one toward mom. We were all in his bedroom hanging out when it happened. Today (Wednesday), he took two steps toward me at the park and it was a little different than the steps on Sunday. Today's steps seemed intentional. He looked at me and thought about whether he should sit down or just try to get to me by stepping forward. Also, he stayed standing and balanced after the first step and not until the second step did he lose balance and sit down.
On Monday we got some surprising news. Micah had a blood test done last week and it came back with a reading of elevated lead levels. Apparently the low end of the scale is 0-9, medium risk is 10-14, and high risk is 15-19. Micah's lead level is at a 10. I was very saddened by this. I felt like we haven't done enough to clean up the house and his environment to protect him. And of course, when the hospital called to tell me, they were completely unhelpful but promised to "send literature".
After cooling off for a few days, I think that it's okay. I'm going to try to do a few things to reduce his exposure: cleaning up and covering up the fireplaces, and making sure to wash his hands a lot more frequently. It seems like he must be picking it up outside because all the paint inside our house is covered and we have a water filter that should be filtering out any lead in our drinking water. So I figure he must be picking it up on his hands on the porch or the sidewalk, or anywhere else, he crawls around everywhere we go. I'm just trying to do more hand washing after he's been crawling around on the ground. Of course the other problem is that he does so much thumb sucking so he's constantly dragging his hands on the ground and then sticking his thumb in his mouth. The main reason I've decided not to sweat it is because I realized that for that kind of hand to mouth exposure, he's getting as much exposure now as he will at any time in his life. He's crawling and thumb sucking like crazy right now but in a couple months he'll be walking and that will reduce his exposure a ton.
Another sad event this week was what I've been calling Micah's first alcohol related injury. Last night he was picking up and putting back down an unopened bottle of beer. This is something he does pretty regularly because we keep our active case of beer next to the fridge and replenish fridge beer from there. So he takes beer from the case and puts them on the floor and back again, and then takes them and puts them in the china cabinet and in and out of tupperwares, and then back into the case. But last night when he was doing this, he was putting the beer in and taking it out of a cup holder on a large cooler and he dropped it directly on his big toe on his right foot. The toenail turned black and blue almost immediately and his toe swelled up. He cried and cried and clearly didn't want anyone touching it. He also woke up crying every twenty minutes or so after I put him to bed at 8 and at 10:30, Michael suggested that I pick him up and snuggle with him so I took him to bed with me and we snoozed together until around midnight when he woke up again and I fed him and put him back in his crib. I was certain that the toe must be broken but this morning he seemed to be doing okay and he didn't seem to have a problem all day. He still doesn't want me to apply pressure directly to the top of his toe, but he's been walking on it and getting up on his tip toes just like normal all day, including crawling and climbing around at the park without socks on, so I have a feeling it's just bruised. I really did feel bad for him though and Michael was in the kitchen when it happened and has been kicking himself for not intervening and taking the beer away. There's no way he could have known of course, and it's something Micah does all the time without a problem.
All in all, this boy is growing up by leaps and bounds. He says Daddy constantly, he occasionally says "Wa" to ask for water, he has learned to take apart the Duplo blocks and has been trying to put them back together, he has learned to push the bottom buttons on the microwave and has occasionally cancelled the cooking cycles, he also has been doing a lot of waving lately which he didn't do for a while even though he did know how. I can't even put into words how much I love him. Life is wonderful with him in it.
On Monday we got some surprising news. Micah had a blood test done last week and it came back with a reading of elevated lead levels. Apparently the low end of the scale is 0-9, medium risk is 10-14, and high risk is 15-19. Micah's lead level is at a 10. I was very saddened by this. I felt like we haven't done enough to clean up the house and his environment to protect him. And of course, when the hospital called to tell me, they were completely unhelpful but promised to "send literature".
After cooling off for a few days, I think that it's okay. I'm going to try to do a few things to reduce his exposure: cleaning up and covering up the fireplaces, and making sure to wash his hands a lot more frequently. It seems like he must be picking it up outside because all the paint inside our house is covered and we have a water filter that should be filtering out any lead in our drinking water. So I figure he must be picking it up on his hands on the porch or the sidewalk, or anywhere else, he crawls around everywhere we go. I'm just trying to do more hand washing after he's been crawling around on the ground. Of course the other problem is that he does so much thumb sucking so he's constantly dragging his hands on the ground and then sticking his thumb in his mouth. The main reason I've decided not to sweat it is because I realized that for that kind of hand to mouth exposure, he's getting as much exposure now as he will at any time in his life. He's crawling and thumb sucking like crazy right now but in a couple months he'll be walking and that will reduce his exposure a ton.
Another sad event this week was what I've been calling Micah's first alcohol related injury. Last night he was picking up and putting back down an unopened bottle of beer. This is something he does pretty regularly because we keep our active case of beer next to the fridge and replenish fridge beer from there. So he takes beer from the case and puts them on the floor and back again, and then takes them and puts them in the china cabinet and in and out of tupperwares, and then back into the case. But last night when he was doing this, he was putting the beer in and taking it out of a cup holder on a large cooler and he dropped it directly on his big toe on his right foot. The toenail turned black and blue almost immediately and his toe swelled up. He cried and cried and clearly didn't want anyone touching it. He also woke up crying every twenty minutes or so after I put him to bed at 8 and at 10:30, Michael suggested that I pick him up and snuggle with him so I took him to bed with me and we snoozed together until around midnight when he woke up again and I fed him and put him back in his crib. I was certain that the toe must be broken but this morning he seemed to be doing okay and he didn't seem to have a problem all day. He still doesn't want me to apply pressure directly to the top of his toe, but he's been walking on it and getting up on his tip toes just like normal all day, including crawling and climbing around at the park without socks on, so I have a feeling it's just bruised. I really did feel bad for him though and Michael was in the kitchen when it happened and has been kicking himself for not intervening and taking the beer away. There's no way he could have known of course, and it's something Micah does all the time without a problem.
All in all, this boy is growing up by leaps and bounds. He says Daddy constantly, he occasionally says "Wa" to ask for water, he has learned to take apart the Duplo blocks and has been trying to put them back together, he has learned to push the bottom buttons on the microwave and has occasionally cancelled the cooking cycles, he also has been doing a lot of waving lately which he didn't do for a while even though he did know how. I can't even put into words how much I love him. Life is wonderful with him in it.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Becoming a Boy.
I feel like something has shifted and Micah is becoming a little boy all of a sudden. For one thing, he cried when Michael left for work this morning. This is the first he's done that. He crawled out on to the porch as Michael walked out the door this morning and then he held onto the porch gate and watched Michael's car drive away and when the car was out of sight, Micah sat down, looked at me, and cried. Just for a minute but it was soo cute.
He's also been doing the cutest thing lately which is every time I put him in his car seat, he almost immediately takes off his socks. It's just so funny. I know it'll get old fast but for the time being, I love it.
Friday, October 5, 2012
October 5, 2012
We had a horrible experience today. Micah loves going up and down the stairs: the stairs to the second floor, the stairs to the basement, the front step to the house, the steps up to the porch, the stairs and steps on the playground equipment.
We were sitting in the living room. I was doing some prep work for a phone interview I had this morning. Micah was playing with toys from his toybox. He crawled across the room and I noticed kaya following him with her nose to his diaper. It was so cute and I have never seen her do that before. I made a joke about it to Michael and took Micah upstairs to change his diaper. Kaya was right, it was completely full.
I put Micah on the floor in his room and went to wash the diaper out in the toilet. I went back and put it in the diaper bag and then I called for him to follow me. He rushed over and went to open the curtain that hangs in the doorway to the stairwell. I held it back for him and then stepped forward to work my way around him and get onto the stair below him. He's really really good on the stairs so it was an important precaution but I wasn't in a huge hurry. Before I could get to him, he rushed for the stairs and had so much momentum that even as he was turning to get his feet down to the first step, he started falling and rolled all the way down to the landing, he landed mostly on his butt and then continued to fall backwards and his head hit the landing.
It happened so fast I couldn't do anything but scream "the baby is falling down the stairs." Michael was in the basement playing drums and heard it. He came running upstairs. By the time he got to the bottom of the stairs, I had scooped up the screaming baby and was at the bottom of the stairs with him.
He was fine. He was screaming but not a bump or bruise on his body and he recovered after about ten minutes. But it was none the less horrifying.
I'm sure lots of kids fall down stairs or off the bed or something like that and so I don't necessarily feel like a bad parent or anything like that but I do feel really sad about it. It was so scary. I love that baby so much.
We were sitting in the living room. I was doing some prep work for a phone interview I had this morning. Micah was playing with toys from his toybox. He crawled across the room and I noticed kaya following him with her nose to his diaper. It was so cute and I have never seen her do that before. I made a joke about it to Michael and took Micah upstairs to change his diaper. Kaya was right, it was completely full.
I put Micah on the floor in his room and went to wash the diaper out in the toilet. I went back and put it in the diaper bag and then I called for him to follow me. He rushed over and went to open the curtain that hangs in the doorway to the stairwell. I held it back for him and then stepped forward to work my way around him and get onto the stair below him. He's really really good on the stairs so it was an important precaution but I wasn't in a huge hurry. Before I could get to him, he rushed for the stairs and had so much momentum that even as he was turning to get his feet down to the first step, he started falling and rolled all the way down to the landing, he landed mostly on his butt and then continued to fall backwards and his head hit the landing.
It happened so fast I couldn't do anything but scream "the baby is falling down the stairs." Michael was in the basement playing drums and heard it. He came running upstairs. By the time he got to the bottom of the stairs, I had scooped up the screaming baby and was at the bottom of the stairs with him.
He was fine. He was screaming but not a bump or bruise on his body and he recovered after about ten minutes. But it was none the less horrifying.
I'm sure lots of kids fall down stairs or off the bed or something like that and so I don't necessarily feel like a bad parent or anything like that but I do feel really sad about it. It was so scary. I love that baby so much.
Things.
There are so many things that I want to capture and I never remember to take the time to write them down! Here's a brain dump: Micah loves being twirled around when he's in the carrier on my back, he usually enjoys being tickled, he loves cuddling up to me right after he wakes up from sleep or a nap. He lays his head on my left shoulder and sucks his right thumb and he wraps his left hand around my neck and scratches my back or plays with my hair or just lays there and it is perfect. He loves the Peek-a-Who book and will read it to himself making the sounds "ah ooohhh... ah ooohhh" and he will finish the sentence when you say "peek a...", he whistles on command "Micah can you whistle?", he turns the tv on and off very carefully and deliberately and he knows to wait while the tv turns on because it doesn't happen right away, he knows the sound of his dad's clock radio and as soon as the radio comes on, he dives off the side of the bed to play with it, he especially loves his dad's book light and carries it around the room with him in the morning, he loves socks as much as Hazel did and will pull them out of the hamper or pick them up off the floor and carry them around in a hand or in his mouth. Micah loves to carry things around in his hands: a baby spoon, a wooden spoon, a table spoon, the giggle stick, the xylophone mallet, a wand with glitter inside, a duplo block, a small cup, a piece of paper, a leaf, a tiny piece of wood chip from the park, the things he selects never fail to surprise me. He enjoys crawling into the corner of the living room by going under the end table and then he has a tiny baby sized space to sit in behind the arm chair, he really loves to unroll the toilet paper but I almost never let him, he really really loves beer bottles and cans.
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