Wednesday, December 11, 2013

I have nothing but love for this kid and his adorableness.

On Monday night, I asked him to get me a small piece of toilet paper to wipe my nose. He got excited to have instructions, turned and ran to the bathroom, and immediately came back with an approximately 1/2 inch square corner of toilet paper! I did my best to use it because it was so completely adorable. I'll have to be more specific about the size of a "small" piece of toilet paper next time.

Last night we had friends over for dinner and beers and Micah spent at least a full half hour showing off for Vince. He demonstrated his downward dog pose. He demonstrated that he can do the pose with only one hand on the ground and the other sticking up in the air. He showed off his hopping skills, getting both feet off the ground at the same time. Basically he just did these three things over and over and over again.

Micah and I had such a wonderful day together yesterday. He sat with me while I knitted at preschool. He made tracks in the fresh snow on the sidewalk and was completely amazed by them. He read a book of nursery rhymes to me at nap time.

Nothing but love.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013 - Gamma's House

Gamma's house. Ever since we came back from New Hampshire last night, Micah keeps wanting to go back to Gamma's house. On the way home from the airport he said, "Momma! Momma!" I asked what he wanted, he said, "Go home." I told him we were going home, we would be there soon. He said, "Gamma's house." I said, "No, we're going to Micah's home right now." He said, "No! I wanna go to Gamma's house. No Micah's house. Go to Gamma's house right now. Momma! Drive the car there now!"

Again today, he was talking about going to Gamma's house instead of going home after preschool. Super cute.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013 - Shhh! Whisper!

Micah always seems to learn things when we visit Gramma and Grandpa in New Hampshire. Yesterday morning, he whispered for the first time ever! We had a kinda tough weekend. The night we arrived, he came down with a fever and Grandma noticed his left ear was crusty. We took him to the ER and found out he had an ear infection. He spent the weekend being submitted to ear drops and eagerly awaiting his next dose of Tylenol and Ibuprofen. I think all of that compromised his sleep a bit (of course sleeping in the computer room with a half dozen glowing lights surely didn't help!).

Yesterday morning, he woke up crying around 6:45am. He didn't want to be put back in the pack and play but he still seemed tired so I brought him into our bed. He layed on my stomach for a while and then sat up for a minute. I pretended to still be asleep. After a minute he layed down again but then sat up again after just a little while. I kept pretending to sleep. He started whispering. "Potty." "I want ah potty." So I opened my eyes and whispered to him asking if he wanted to use the potty. He did and I took him to the bathroom, all the time having a whispered conversation. Afterward, I took him back to bed. He just kept whispering. "Dada's sleeping." "Micah whispering." Complete adorableness. 

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Micah woke up in the middle of the night last night crying, I could tell he was saying he wanted something but I couldn't tell what it was so I went in. He wanted to use the potty. I put him on the potty and this is my best recollection of the conversation that followed. Note that Micah has no indoor voice, I am quietly responding, but he is screaming in my face! :)

Micah: Look at Micah's teeth! (opens mouth)
Mama: Nice teeth.
Micah: They're triangles!
Mama: No, your teeth are squares.
Micah: Mama's teeth are triangles!
Mama: Mama's teeth are squares too.
Micah: Oh.
Mama: Doggies and Kittens have triangle teeth.
Micah: I see a person!
Mama: There are no persons in here. Do you see a rabbit in your night night?
Micah: Rabbit in the night night!
            I see a rocking chair!
Mama: Yeah, there's a rocking chair.
Micah: I see one TWO rocking chairs!
            I see one two THREE rocking chairs!
            HEY! BOOKS!
Mama: Yeah, you have lots of books.
Micah: Read a book!
Mama: It's too dark.
Micah: Read a book!

So we "read" Otis. I can repeat most of it from heart anyway. Micah kept saying he couldn't see the tractor and kept asking what the darkest parts of pictures were. I would tell him and then he would say "too dark." He sat on that potty for 20 minutes just peeing and just talking away. Hilarious.

Monday, November 25, 2014

Micah knows we're taking a plane to Gamma's house. He talks about it all the time. Last night was the cutest. Michael and I told him it was time to go to bed and he said, "No go to Gamma's house." We laughed and said we were going after three more nights, not until Wednesday. He said, "No, Go to Gamma's house NOW!"

The other morning, according to a text from Michael, Micah's first words of the day were, "Bob. Uncle Bob. And Aunt Karen. Go to see them. Ride in airplane. Uh huh."

Wednesday, November 20, 2014

Last night, Micah pulled one of the sofa cushions off and put it on the floor in front of the sofa. Then he jumped from the cushioned part of the sofa, to the cushionless part, and then from there to the cushion on the floor. 

"One! Two! Three! Ready? Jump!"

"One! Two! Three! Ready? Jump!"

Tuesday, November 19, 2014 - Why?

We had our first "Why" conversation after preschool at Waldorf today. 

Mama: Our car is over here today?

Micah: Why?

Mama: Because the parking lot was full and so we had to park over here on the street.

Micah: Why?

Mama: We parked over here because it's a one way street and so we had to turn left.

Micah: Why?

Mama: Because the street is too narrow, so they had to choose only one way for cars to go.

Micah: Why?

Mama: Well, they probably picked this way because the other streets go the other way.

That was so fun!

Micah said "the clouds are moving. Hey clouds! Where you going?"

Friday, November 1, 2013

Micah is a little boy. He has opinions about what he wants to wear, what he wants to eat for dinner, what he wants to do before his nap. He remembers the words to Go Dog Go and "reads" them before I do. This morning he picked up his cellphone (an old, no longer used cell), started to have an imaginary conversation with grandma and then announced, "I wanna talk to gamma on ah computer!" So I called grandma and we got on Skype!

He can put on his own socks and shoes, he can put on his shirt, he can put on underwear and pants, though he can't quite pull them over his butt! His toys have imaginary conversations with each other. The ducks in the bathtub are constantly asking "Oh doing up there?" "Oh doing down there?" while one duck is sitting in a cup of water up on the soap ledge. (For some reason "oh doing" means "what are you doing.")

He's totally potty trained except while sleeping though he doesn't always want to take the time to sit on the potty. I can almost always convince him to do it as long as the firemen use their potty in the fire house too. The same trick generally works for tooth brushing, if I list all the other people who brush their teeth, he'll usually do it too. Cece brushes her teeth, and Mariah brushes her teeth, and Erin brushes her teeth, and Sophia and Harper and Ernie and Bert, etc.

Tonight I was ready for a tough bedtime but when I told him it was almost time for bed at 7:35, he jumped to attention, demanded another bite of macaroni, and then he turned and walked out of the room to go upstairs for bed. It was such a nice surprise and we had such a nice bedtime. We read Otis, two Frog and Toad stories, and then sang Puff the Magic Dragon.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Micah is getting so fun these days. We've been practicing making faces so he can now smile on command when I want to take a picture. But he can also fake a sad face, fake "surprise" (really poorly) and of course, he also fake cries now. After he stops crying he often comments that "Micah crying." I understand that the terrible twos get their name from toddlers challenging the rules and their own power over the world around them, but honestly, it doesn't bother me too much if he spends some time laying on the floor crying. When he's ready, he always comes over to be held and comforted and I try to tell him that I'm sorry he's frustrated and explain why we're not doing what he wants. 

Another thing he's been doing is pretending. I think it's kind of related to the face making. The firemen and horses have conversations in the firehouse or sitting around the kitchen table. He moves the people around in his dollhouse and the one at school. They walk up the stairs, put the baby in the crib, use the toilet. 

And speaking of the toilet, last night he walked over to the potty, pulled his pants down, and took a giant poop. I would say that's close to a first, him doing it all by himself. He's coordinated enough to be using the potty with help, but he's only recently gained enough coordination to pull down his own pants. This is a wonderful new development!

Thursday, September 26, 2013

So much I've been meaning to write down! Here are a few tidbits:

Micah is pretending to put paint on his face.

Mama: What are you painting your face like?

Micah: Andew's face!

Mama: You're painting your face like Andrew's face?

Micah: Yes!

Michael went to hang out with Andrew and Mama explained to Micah where he was.

Micah: I wanna see Andew! Andew come home!

Micah intercepted a granola bar headed for Michael's lunch.

Micah: No Kaya no oboebar! Micah's!

Micah: Hey Kaya! Eata your bone! No share oboebar!

As an aside, two of my favorite words are currently Titten (kitten) and Tebby Bear.

Friday, September 20, 2013 - Potty Training Progress Report

This seemed like it deserved its own post. Today, Micah wore underwear most of the day, pull ups when we went to the store, and he stayed dry ALL day. Not a single wet diaper except for the one he woke up in. He used the potty all day. Amazing.

When I took him to the grocery store, I told him we had to take off his undies and put on "shopping undies." That would be pull ups. He was cool with it but he insisted on carrying his undies with him in his arms. :)

Friday, September 20, 2013 - Birthday Week

I've been meaning to write all week and just haven't gotten my act together. This has been an amazing week. I think that the birthday experience is so unique and there are so many people around that in addition to being fun and interesting for Micah, it has given him the opportunity to visibly grow so much.

I imagine this is the last time we'll be able to have wrapped gifts around the house without them attracting Micah's attention. He got a whole slew of things before his birthday and I opened each package, wrapped the unwrapped gifts, and placed them on the old tv stand in the living room (it houses books these days). He didn't even bat an eye at them.

The first gifts he opened were from Grandma and Frank. It was amazing. He opened a little box of a toy dog, rabbit and cat with a dog house, rabbit cage, cat bed, bowls for each of them, and tiny wooden food items for each. They were doll house sized and he was so content with them that he just sat down and played with them for about 20 minutes. They talked to each other, he moved them in and out of their respective houses, put them in and out of the box they came in, he was as happy as could be. We convinced him to open the firehouse doll house next and he was completely in love with that.The firemen have bunk beds, a toilet, a fire truck, all sorts of other furniture, and he just explored and played with it for quite a while. After a while, Michael asked if he wanted to go to the park, and he actually said no because he was enjoying his gifts so much.

As for the birthday party, I think we planned the perfect 2-year old birthday party. We had planned for kickball but of course, there's no way the toddlers were going to let us get on the baseball field and play with the balls without them. But the field turned out to be an awesome place to let the kids play pretty much on their own. I brought a bowl with kids sunglasses, mardi gras beads, party hats, and racquetball sized bouncy balls. Plus a bag full of kickballs of course. And the kids just loved it all. They put all the stuff on, took it off, I watched one toddler handing necklaces to Micah and he just put them all on one after the other. The adults were able to hang out, eat, drink, and enjoy ourselves. Afterward, Micah was talking about the party and the "hats, and the necklaces, and the glasses." According to another of the moms, her daughter was doing the same. Definitely a good time had by all.

On Monday, he partied at the babysitter. I sent some left over party favors and cupcakes and the babysitter sent a picture of him and the other two toddlers at the table with cupcakes and juice boxes and everyone looked super happy. The babysitter's 3 year old daughter is pretty much his best friend. He talks about Cece all the time and they have become very good playmates together.

Monday night, Micah opened a little bike from grandma and grandpa while we were skyping with them. He  LOVES this bike. It's a tiny bike without pedals and every time he got on it that first day, he broke down in tears because he's just an inch or so too small to really manage it, but we've clocked many hours walking it around the block since then. He's completely content walking it and actually if you ask whether he would like to ride his bike, he says "No riding bike. Walking." Seriously. This kid is the best.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Just a tidbit:

Last Saturday, I took Micah to feed the ducks at the pond by the pool. It was mostly a ploy to get him to go shopping with me and leave the house. We sat down on the concrete and fed the ducks together. Of course, none of the bread he throws makes it as far as the ducks! After we gave the ducks all of the bread that we had, I told him that we were done and he was surprisingly willing to get up and walk away. I said "all done!" And he just got up, and started climbing the stairs!

And then he saw the swimming pool. "Swimming pool!" He picked up the pace and started walking straight over there. I told him it was closed but I figured it didn't do any harm to walk over there with him. He was being really cute and excited about it. 

So as we are walking over there, he starts talking about what he has to do in order to go swimming. "Off ah shoes! Off ah shirt! Off ah pants! SWIMMING!" (complete with gestures toward each thing he was going to take off.) It was adorable. 

When we got to the pool, he walked up to the closed metal gate, pounded on it, turned to look at me, and said, "Open!" I never saw him that excited about going to the pool when it was actually open. I explained that I didn't have the key, that the pool was closed until next summer, I pointed out that there wasn't any water in the pool. It was kind of sad.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Tuesday was a day of firsts. It was also a fairly typical day, so I will talk a little about it. Tuesday was Micah's first day of our mom and tot preschool class at the Waldorf school. I figured we would get up around 7:30 or 8, have some breakfast and by the time we were dressed and ready, it would be time to go to our 9:30 class. Micah had a different plan, he was awake at 6:15. I tried to ignore him, hoping he would fall back to sleep, but at 6:30 I decided I had better get up and brush my teeth and get dressed. We were downstairs by 6:45 and he spent the whole morning whining. I don't know how to get him to cut the whining. It's his absolute first choice for communication but only with us, he doesn't do it with the babysitter. By the time we were leaving the house at 9:10, I was ready to call for back up, I was so glad to be going somewhere where I wouldn't be solely responsible for entertainment.

Preschool was surprisingly fun and Waldorf is a bit strange but also smart. They write chores on the chalkboard each morning and the parents complete them with the toddlers' help if they are interested. We baked biscuits which happens each week and washed building blocks, which is a periodic task. Micah became surprisingly good at squeezing out the sponge. He also spent a lot of time playing with the dollhouse. Quietly. And by himself. It was really cute to watch him moving the little people and furniture around. He really enjoys rocking babies in cradles and spent time doing that with the babies in the dollhouse as well as the babies in the little play area.

When it came time for sitting in a circle and singing (blech!), Micah was into it for about thirty seconds and then he decided to go sit on the bench instead. And then he decided to leave altogether and play with the kitchen set. I went over to try to coax him back but he wasn't interested, so I played with him instead. We pretended to eat foot from little bowls and when I asked what it tasted like, he thought about it, looked at me, and said, "peanut butter sandwich!" Adorable.

After class, I came home, got him down for a nap and had some glorious baby free time. And when he got up he was in a much better mood! I had filled up the baby pool because it was ridiculously hot out and we spent almost an hour playing in the pool, splashing, "swimming," squirting water out of the rubber ducks, and pretending the ducks were swimming and diving down to eat things off the bottom of the pool. After a while his ducks started eating cookies off the bottom of the pool ("mmmm, cookies!") and then Micah got it in his head that he wanted to eat cookies too. I convinced him to have a sandwich instead and he was really good about it even though the thought of cookies can sometimes devastate any appetite for real food.

After Michael got home, we had another first. Micah was just setting out on the sidewalk on his little scoot along car when he started screaming and Michael looked down and saw a yellowjacket on the sidewalk. :( Baby's first wasp sting. He was just beside himself for about 5 minutes, couldn't sit still in my arms, could barely be comforted, and then he started crying that he wanted to get down, I set him down, and he was off. All better,  not another tear. Amazing. 

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Micah is talking and comprehending our conversations like crazy. He spends most of the day ordering us around. He narrates books as we're reading them, knows what's coming next, as I was reading Curious George to him tonight he was trying to open the rabbit cage the page before George opened it up and was holding his little hands out in front of himself to show me that George was going to hold a baby bunny in his hands.

He loves the part in A Book of Sleep where I imitate the pigeon who sleeps with one eye open.

He loves the part in Where the Wild Things Are about the wild rumpus because Michael does a "rumpus" beat and Micah dances around the room until he says "Stop!"

Tonight, we read Otis and he did sound effects, talked about the calf going "night night" and then got a little bit scared when she got stuck in the mud.

On Saturday we took him to a flea market. It was rather uneventful but we did come across some piglets which he was studying very closely. He stuck his finger toward the cage after he saw someone else do it but was afraid they would bite it and has brought that up several times since then.

Last night he took Kaya for a 1 mile walk. On his own, but with adult supervision in case another dog crossed our path. When we came to an intersection with a street, he instructed Kaya to sit (though she required a bit of coaching from the grown ups) and then he sat down on the sidewalk at each intersection as well.

We have had a wonderful weekend together.

Monday, August 19, 2013 - The Elephant in the Room

Michael left Micah outside with his sandbox for two minutes and he heard him say, "Dada! Elephant in the rain!"

Translation? "Dada! I pooped on the patio!"

Monday, August 19, 2013

Micah knows English. Michael and I can no longer have conversations with each other and assume that he's not listening or understanding. I walked out back the other day while Micah was playing in the sandbox and I said to Michael that maybe we should take a walk to the park. Without stopping what he was doing, Micah shook his head and said "nope." I looked at him and asked, "you don't want to go to the park?" "Nope."

Another new development is that he has a perfect memory. He remembers where he put things, he remembers what we said yesterday, what we did yesterday. The morning after we got home from New Jersey, he woke up and was talking to himself in his crib, "Grandma's house? Noooo. Charlie? Noooo. Frank? Noooo." We brought David home with us from New Jersey for a few days and after he left, I put Micah in the car and he looked at the seat next to him in the car and said, "David's seat." And one more awesome thing, we went to the beach on Saturday, and yesterday morning, I'm getting breakfast together for Micah and he walks into the kitchen with his toy phone to his ear and says, "Mmm hmmm, beach... Digging... (pause) bye bye!"

Another thing that blew our mind is that last night Micah walked over to his train table, pulled out the box with all the train stuff in it, and set up this big train track with elevated bridges, a split in the tracks, stoppers at each end of the track. It was set up perfectly and then he just sat down playing with his trains. It was stunning because I've never seen him successfully set up train tracks before, things usually end up all wonky. Times they are a changing.

Sunday, August 5, 2013

Michael went out with some friends tonight and I had alone time with Micah before he went to bed. He and I were sitting in the living room. I was signing an anniversary card for my parents (sorry Mom and Dad, it's gonna be late!) and Micah was playing. I think he was coloring and then he got distracted. When I noticed him, he was at the toybox digging as deep as he could dig in it. He had come up with some interesting toys which he played with for a minute, but then he went back to digging. Eventually I went over because it was bedtime and he said, "phone. phone." It's amazing to be able to understand your child. He was frustrated because he was trying to find the phone, which usually falls down to the bottom of the toybox.

I told him I knew where it was and reassured him we were going to get the phone. I picked him up and took him out to the trunk of my car (half naked by the way, we're still doing the potty training thing so no diapers or pants when we're at home). I reached into the storage underneath the stroller which is folded up in the trunk of my car and handed the phone to him. He immediately felt better, opened it up, and said "Gamma." 

Awww. 

He wanted to find the phone so he could play the recording of Grandma's voice on it. I pushed the play button and he looked up at me as soon as he heard it and said, "Gamma!"

Sunday, July 28, 2013 - Potty Time

I don't know why but I decided on Friday that it was time to do some potty training with Micah. Michael was skeptical I think, but in the few hours before bedtime, Micah used the potty exclusively and didn't have any accidents despite being diaper and pants free.

Saturday morning I kept it up. I brought him downstairs while Michael slept in a bit, I took his pants off right away and he used the potty. I've kept it in the living room so that there's easy access and Micah seems to definitely know when he has to go. He did have a couple accidents. One time I caught him squatting and peeing right next to the potty so I just picked him up midstream and put him on the potty where he finished pee-ing and I gave him a high-five. The other time, he peed on the hardwood floor while I was in the other room and then came in and said "Uh oh! Water!" and brought me back to show me where the puddle was!

Then the most amazing thing happened. While Michael was feeding him some yogurt, Micah decided it was time to use the potty, he sat down and pooped! I know that doesn't sound so amazing but from what I've heard, kids have a hard time with pooping in the toilet and it doesn't usually happen right away. I didn't expect it at all. I have to say that I think it's less gross to wash poop out of a diaper than out of a potty seat for some reason, but I'm pretty excited nonetheless.

Today we did some more potty training and despite one traumatic accident where he peed on the kitchen floor and then slipped in the puddle on the way to tell us what he had done, it was another successful day. Another poop in the potty. Almost exclusively diaper and pants free time at home, and lots of successful potty use.

I'm not exactly sure how this transfers to the babysitter's house but I think that we're going to try to keep the momentum going. If we can get him potty trained now, life will be quite a bit easier and I think he'll be happier too! He sure hates having his diaper changed! Our little baby is growing up. :)

Sunday, July 28, 2013 - Traveling Momma

This past week I spent my first night away from Micah. I went to a conference for work and actually spent two nights away on Hilton Head Island. I had originally thought we would just buy a plane ticket for Michael and with the hotel already paid for it would be an inexpensive vacation but we just didn't have the money for that so I went alone. 

I was definitely nervous about it and I was worried about Michael being on solo duty just because I know how difficult that can be since I did a lot of solo duty in the last days of Michael's dissertation. And of course, the night before I left we watched a television show about prisoners of war who were imprisoned for 17 years. After that, I had it in my head that something terrible was going to happen on my flights. Obviously, everything went fine.

The conference was wonderful, the hotel was very nice, the ocean was perfect and honestly, it was easy. Michael seemed like he did great and they had all sorts of adventures together, he hung out with friends one evening and I'm sure that was rejuvenating. And on the third day, Micah was at the babysitter so Michael still had time to get some of his work done.

In the end, I left before Micah was awake Monday morning, was gone as planned through Wednesday, my flight and also my rescheduled flight were cancelled Wednesday night and so I didn't get back until Thursday morning. When I went to pick Micah up from the babysitter on Thursday, he came right over to see me, but when he saw that Michael was there too, he wanted nothing to do with me and insisted on being held by him! 

But I got my quality time in with him afterward. We went to the park and took a walk to see some construction trucks at work, we ran down the hill together which he was completely thrilled by, and we played together when we got home. I think he learned a ton from having solo Dadda time and he seemed to have grown up just in the few days I was gone.

Friday, July 19, 2013

I always mean to write and never do. Micah is changing at warp speed these days. He suddenly understands everything we say and also remembers things. It's a pretty crazy combination that I didn't realize wasn't occurring before. For example, Michael suggested going out for pizza tonight and then Micah kept calling out "pizza" every time we started talking about dinner. It's also amazing just how much he knows about what's going on around him. Of course, he knows about phones and picks up the old cellphone I gave him, pushes a whole bunch of buttons, and then walks around the house having some kind of very in depth conversation with Cece and Harper. This morning I mentioned going to the pool today and he went into the other room and picked out a towel for mama and a towel for Micah. I realize that none of this is Earth shattering, but it's also kind of surprising when you see everything click into place for him.

On another note, last weekend we went to Erie for a night and spent a bunch of time on the beach. He almost didn't go in the water at all, he spent the whole time moving sand around from one pile to another, burying toys, pouring water on his sand piles, destroying my sand piles. It was a really good time. It was also an experiment in camping. We rented a "cabin" which was a converted shed that housed two bunk beds and had enough space for a pack n play. Micah did great. He wasn't super excited about going to bed in the cabin, but he did take an hour nap on the day we arrived and slept well overnight the night we were there. I think he especially enjoyed eating outside and watching us do camping things like tending the "fire" (there was never really much of a fire), gathering sticks, washing dishes under the hose faucet, etc. I'm still not sure he can handle a tent without the pack n play but this was a pretty encouraging experience.

One more cute thing to mention before I stop rambling. The other night, Micah woke up in the middle of the night and called out "Water?" Michael asked if I'd heard it and while I had thought it was part of my dream, I did in fact hear it. He was ready to jump out of bed to go get some water for Micah (it's been ridiculously hot here), but I suggested that he might have called out in his sleep. After a couple minutes we heard, "Micah?" "Water?" It was so sad and adorable. Michael went to the bathroom and brought Micah a glass of water. He said that Micah was struggling to stand up when he saw Michael come into the room, but he sat him back down in the crib, handed him the water and Micah drank a few gulps and then pretty much fell face down asleep in the bed. Michael refilled the water and brought a second glass in. He asked Micah, "More please? Or all done?" and Micah said, "All done." And that was that. It was pretty cute.

Sunday, June 23, 2013 - Bye Bye Mulberries

I find myself feeling a little sad that I didn't take a walk with Micah at all today. Almost every single day includes a walk. We walk to the farmhouse park most often. But lately, we've just been taking Mulberry walks. Micah loves watching me pick Mulberries and then eating them. I know where all the Mulberry trees are in the neighborhood. There's one at the end of our block and just past the intersection. There's one on the strange one way loop near Resevoir #2 at the park. There are a couple up at Highland Park itself and one of them grows white Mulberries. There are a bunch more as well and we just walk the neighborhood, stopping to pick Mulberries as we go. Michael sent me a text the other day. He was on a walk with Micah and Micah was eating an apple when they walked under one of the trees on our route. Micah said, "Appoo nooo. Mooberries." I will miss Mulberry season when it's gone.

Micah is becoming very aware of language lately. Just a couple tidbits... They are doing construction at the school across the street and Micah has been super interested in the trucks over there. He watched one of them breaking up concrete last week and if you ask him what trucks are working across the street, his eyes light up, he pumps his fist in the air, and he yells "boom boom boom!" If you ask him about the other truck, a big crane with a hook on he end, he says, "UP!"

They pulled some of the fencing down around the playground at the school while they're doing construction, so we've snuck in to play at the park a few times. A couple nights ago, we were there and I just told him casually that it was time to go home. He immediately started  waving and saying goodbye to everything. "Bye bye byckles (bicycles)." Bye bye Boom Boom." "Bye by Up." I'm pretty sure I just grabbed him and kissed him it was so cute.

One last little thing happened tonight. It was 7:40 and he was sitting on the floor with Michael, playing with some playing cards that he was hiding underneath the corner of the carpet. I turned to him from the other room and said, "Micah, do you know what time it is?" Without stopping what he was doing at all, he just casually says, "night night." It was really surprising both that he answered my question so directly and that he knew exactly what I was getting at. Michael said, "What time is it?" as though he was just clarifying. Micah said "night night." Again. Just so adorable. We are so close to having full on conversations with him.

Friday, June 13, 2013 - Weaned

Okay, "weaned" might be overzealous. Today is the first day since Micah was born that I did not breastfeed. I've been nursing just at night for about five months. I realized shortly after I took my job at the end of November that I just couldn't sustain pumping at work and so we just cut back to nursing at bedtime only. I didn't really know when I would actually stop and I couldn't really imagine how I would do it or how I would feel. But this feels just right.

Two nights ago I realized that Micah would have happily gone to bed without nursing. He just forgot about it. But it was sort of a surprise to me and I couldn't bring myself to let it happen. Last night he definitely demanded it. To be honest, I haven't been producing much milk for a while now. The whole time he nurses, he just keeps asking for the other boob and then for the other boob and then for more please and he never is really satisfied with the amount of milk he gets.

Tonight was kind of a strange night as far as bedtime routine. He had a very dirty diaper and so I took him up and changed it. Then I brought him back down to say goodnight to Michelle and Frank who are here visiting. Then we went back upstairs, I brushed my teeth while he "brushed" his, and we went to his room. He read himself a couple books while I snuck some pj's on him and after looking through the Curious George book, I just told him it was time for night night. He went down just the same as always, I don't even think he realized that we had skipped nursing (which usually happens after brushing his teeth and before the diaper, pj's, books, etc.).

I feel like it was just exactly perfect. I feel like it was precisely the right time for him. Looking back, I'm proud that he has never demanded nursing. He doesn't have a word for it and he never nurses at times other than nap and bed times. He only fed on demand for the first few months, once he was eating solid food, I just switched over to first thing in the morning, at naptimes, and at bedtime. Then I dropped the naps. And then I dropped the morning. And bedtime was the last one standing. I am proud to say that I breastfed my baby for three days shy of 1 year and 9 months. It was right for us and I will certainly miss it. By the same token, we have so many other things that make us close and I will continue to cherish those.

Monday, June 10, 2013 - Hi Trees

Just a little tidbit. We went up to Matt's family's "camp" last weekend. ("Camp" is what Pittsburghers call their modular homes in the woods.) We left late on Friday because Michael had been hard at work on some home improvement all day. I nursed Micah around 7pm and then packed the car up. We got him in his overnight diaper and pajamas around 7:45 and figured he'd fall right asleep in the car since his bedtime is usually 8pm. He stayed awake in the car for a long time, ate some potato chips with us, asked to play with his ball, when Michael asked to have the ball, Micah said "no," but then he gave it up and shortly after that he fell asleep, around 9:15pm. He slept the whole way and when we got there at 11pm we unpacked the car (very quietly) and set up the pack and play before he woke up crying. Michael picked him up out of the car and he immediately quieted down, looked up at the sky, said "hi trees," and waved at the trees, then put his head on Michael's shoulder, put his thumb in his mouth and went right to sleep when Michael put him down to bed.

As an aside, Micah has all sorts of new words and is happy to repeat anything and everything you ask him to. He asked for another "rito" tonight after I gave him the first half of a burrito he had refused to eat last night. I gave him mulberries for the first time this evening when we were on a walk and he repeatedly asked me to find him more "muh-berres." He loves wearing "gasses" on his head, preferably my pink ones. Everywhere we go, he identifies every "bus," "truck," and "bike" we come across. When we take a walk he spends the whole time pointing out every place we've ever seen a "cat." And he spends a fair amount of time talking and reading to himself, although I have no idea what he is saying.

Lastly, Micah loves Kaya. He points her out everywhere he goes, "Yaya!" (That rhymes with Kaya, but starts with a Y.) He tackles her, climbs on her, pets her. He gives her instructions, "Yaya, sih! Sih! Sih!" (That would be "sit.") "Dow!" ("Down.") "Guh Gir," as he pets her. ("Good Girl.") It's pretty adorable. A couple weeks ago, he grabbed her by the collar while she was in the kitchen and started all out dragging her out of the room. She did not want to go but somehow he seems to be just the tiniest bit stronger than her? She slowly, reluctantly, begrudgingly, followed him as he dragged with all his might through the kitchen, through the dining room, through the living room, and then forced her into her crate. He told her "Dow!" then he grabbed her food bowl, walked through the house, and tried to open the back door. I opened the door for him, opened up the rubbermaid on the back porch which holds her food, and put a scoop in the bowl while he stood there holding it. He turned, walked back to her crate, set the bowl down on the ottoman, and started handing food through the top of her crate, then he took the whole bowl and put it in her crate for her to eat and just walked away to play with his trains!

Monday, May 6, 2013 - Memory

Micah has memory.

It seems to have happened at some point in the last two weeks. We saw a cat at a house down the street when we were walking home one day. Two or three days later, we were walking past the same house and Micah started pointing and saying "Meow." It was the first time I had noticed him remembering something.

Then we took a walk at the reservoir on Thursday night and he was saying "Quack Quack" and looking for ducks. Apparently the morning of Michael's dissertation defense, they took an early morning walk to the reservoir and saw ducks. As far as I can tell, Micah's earliest memory is Michael's dissertation defense date.

He also suddenly remembers lines from his books. He's been singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to himself for weeks, but I'm not sure whether he knows the words or just the tune. However, on Thursday, I went to put him down for a nap and he requested "Cup Pup" (The first rhyme in Hop on Pop). My allergies have come on with a fury and I literally could not read the book because I was sneezing so frequently. It turns out he knows the book himself. "Cup Pup," I turned the page, "House," next page, "All Tall," next page, "Small." I kind of couldn't believe it.

And I kind of can't believe that I didn't notice before that he didn't have memory. It's so noteworthy now that he has it.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Micah is changing every day. Last week he learned to play the harmonica. We've shown it to him a bunch and every time he gets his hands on it, he puts it to his mouth and hums which is adorable. Last weekend, we gave it to him, blew in his face, blew on the harmonica, nothing we hadn't done before. He took it, blew in it, it made noise and he had it all figured out. He spent all last week happily playing the harmonica and it was adorable.

Some time in the past week he has also started giving hugs (always followed by a kiss on the lips). He will give hugs almost on command, although sometimes we ask and he shakes his head "no" which I think is equally adorable.

He also has become a serious high-fiver and learned to pound fists in the last week. He says "high figh!" and give you a high five, then he say "pow" and holds out his fist to pound.

My allergies arrived yesterday and he does nothing but mock me. Every time I sneeze he says "ah choo!" It's probably the thing he pronounces best. Adorable.

The newest thing is that he saw Michael jump off a skate board this past weekend and now he's trying to learn to jump. Last night while we were eating dinner, he took a big thick book off the shelf and set it in the doorway to the kitchen. He held onto the door frame while he stepped up on top of the book, then he crouched down just a little bit, straightened his legs, and quickly stepped off the book with the biggest smile on his face. It's completely adorable and we've done our best to get video documentation. His feet never even leave the ground but he really believes he's jumping, he just bends his legs and then straightens them quickly. I even heard him count to three as he did it this afternoon!

I love this baby so much.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

One of our friends said his daughter "only" has about thirty words the other day. She's two months younger than Micah and I don't think I've ever heard her say even one word. But thirty sounds like a lot. I'm wondering how many words Micah has. Here's a list:

1. Mama
2. Dada
3. Kaya
4. Micah (MY TAH?)
5. Cece (The babysitter's daughter)
6. Harper (Another baby she sits for "AHH PUH?")
7. Baby
8. Hi
9. Bye Bye
10. Hello
11. Book (BAH BOO?)
12. Banana (MAH NA NAH?)
13. Apple
14. Orange
15. Peas
16. Cereal
17. Cheerios
18. Cracker
19. Oatmeal
20. Bread
21. Cottage Cheese (CAH CHEE?)
22. Water (WAH TEE?)
23. More Please
24. I did it! (after he uses the potty "Ah dih ih!")
25. Up Please
26. All Done
27. Help Please
28. Upstairs
29. Potty
30. Chair
31. Bathroom
32. Brush Teeth
33. Night Night
34. Diaper
35. Bottle
36. Shoes
37. Button
38. Boots
39. Socks
40. Pants
41. Eye
42. Ear
43. Mouth
44. Nose
45. No No No
46. Lie Down (to Kaya)
47. Good Girl (also to Kaya)
48. Tree
49. Doggy
50. Puppy
51. Meow (MAU)
52. Neigh
53. Moo
54. Baa
55. Quack Quack (DWAH DWAH?)
56. Tweet Tweet (SHWEE SHWEE?)
57. Cock a Doodle Doo
58. Bird
59. TV (TEE?)
60. Outside
61. Ball
62. Beep Beep (BEE BEE?)
63. Choo Choo
64. Rock Rock Rock (on the rocking chair "WAH WAH WAH")
65. Beer

Okay, I feel better now. :)

Thursday, April 4, 2013

I have been really enjoying my time with Micah the last few days. A couple nights ago, we had a bunch of time to ourselves and had such a lovely evening. He's got a new cold so he's feeling a little under the weather. Also, he's learned to climb onto chairs but is not so good at getting down. I watched him climb down from a chair in the dining room, turned around, and he must have gotten back up there because in the blink of an eye he had fallen and was crying his head off. I picked him up and held him, sat down on the sofa with him, and he just fell asleep on my chest and slept there for an hour. It was nice and I know I will miss it when he doesn't do this anymore.

Then we had dinner together and he was actually willing to each much of what I fed him. We sat on the floor and colored together. I drew a picture of a tree and a bird in it. He looked at it, pointed, and said "Twee Twee?" (tweet tweet). Then he started handing me crayons and pointing to different places in the tree, saying "Twee Twee?" and I would draw a bird wherever he pointed. Then he got up and walked around behind me and gave me a hug and rested his head on my back. He did that a few times. And then he started patting me on the back and it was like he had just learned how to do it. He was standing to my right and patting me with his left hand, then he tried to figure out how to do it with his right hand, but he couldn't make it work so he kept patting me with his left hand again. It was just funny.

That night when I went in to nurse him at 4:30am, he finished nursing on one side and then said "More?" "More?", I switched him to the other side. When he was done, he said "Maaa Maaa?" and then he said "Hi." When I picked him up to hold him with his head on my shoulder like I do every night before I put him back to bed, instead of sucking his thumb while resting his head, he patted me on the back. It was just so sweet. I love all of those little moments with him.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

The babysitter is on vacation this week, so Micah had two different babysitters who came to the house this week to watch him (both friends who have watched him before). When I came home yesterday, Katie had him sitting at the dining room table, in a regular chair, in a seated position, and coloring. It was completely adorable and I realize now that I should have taken a photo.

Of course now, he now refuses to sit in the highchair. He only wants to sit in the real chair.

Micah is changing by leaps and bounds in every way. He has started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to himself all day ("Yah-Yah Yah-Yah Yah-Yah-Yah"). It's even almost in tune. He talks to himself and to us in full sentences of jibber jabber. I have no idea what he's saying and he doesn't seem to mind that. Every time he hears a phone ring (like a standard wall phone somewhere), he perks up and yells "Heyyo!!" Usually I don't even realize the phone is ringing until he is saying Hello. And when a conversation on the phone starts to wind down, or a conversation with someone outside on a walk winds down, he recognizes the shift and says, "Bye Bye."

I think he's also experimenting with selecting a lovee. In the last week he has taken his sleep sack to bed at naptime, he's also taken a sock, a book on a couple occasions, a benadryl syringe, his toothbrush, a stuffed animal, whatever he has in his hand at bedtime needs to stay with him. I had to wrestle a bottle of shampoo from his little hands the other day. I guess the line needs to be drawn somewhere!

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Something completely unbelievable happened on Friday. Micah and I were sitting in the living room and he went to sit down on the lid of the potty that we bought for him. It's just been sitting in the living room so that it's familiar to him and so that he learns how to sit on it, but mostly he's used it for storing toys inside. I made him wait to sit until I opened the lid so that he was sitting on the toilet seat itself and when I did that, he emptied all the little toys out of it and sat down.

Then he got up and was pulling up the legs of his pants. I had no idea what he was trying to do and so I  tickled him for a minute, grabbing his knees and stuff when they were visible. Then he started pulling up the waistline of his pants and grabbing the crotch of his diaper and all of a sudden I realized that he might be saying "bathroom. bathroom."

So I asked him, "do you want to go to the bathroom?" He said "bathroom," so I told him if he wants to sit on the potty, let's bring it up to his room. He walked straight to the door of the first floor and up the stairs and into his room. Once we got up there, he pulled on his pants again. I helped him get the pants off and his diaper and he went, sat down on the open potty, and peed.

I seriously could not believe it. We have not even talked about going to the bathroom. Sometimes he comes into the bathroom while I'm using the toilet but he's so busy opening and closing the door or unravelling the toilet paper that I would never have said he was the least bit interested in what I was doing on the toilet. It turns out he must have been paying more attention than I thought.

Once he got up, I went to put his diaper back on and he fought me tooth and nail. He laid on the floor of his bedroom throwing an all out tantrum while I emptied the bowl of the potty into the toilet. I picked him up, carried him downstairs, and he continued crying even after I put him on the floor in the living room to work it out. Then he got up and said "bathroom" and grabbed at his diaper again. I asked if he wanted to go to the bathroom again, I didn't know what else to do, he was losing his mind!

He said "bathroom" and quieted down while I took him back upstairs. He was excited while I took off his pants and diaper, he sat on the potty and peed again. I guess he just wasn't done because this time, he got off the toilet and sat down on the diaper I had waiting on the floor. He laid there quietly and happily while I put the diaper back on.

He peed in the potty twice more that evening, several times on Sunday, and again several times today. (He was at the babysitter yesterday.) I put him on the potty before and after his nap this afternoon and when I took off the diaper before putting him on after the nap, it was still dry!

I seriously am not prepared for this. I have no idea what to do next and I was not planning to be potty training for a while. Boys are supposed to take longer! But I guess we're doing this. We'll see how it goes!

Friday, February 15, 2013

Shit is about to change around here. Some things Micah has started doing in the last week or so? 

Repeating any word I ask him to say. 

Naming letters, specifically he can identify the letters A and D. Sort of.

Coloring, both in books and on walls.

Climbing on everything.

Sorting everything. He has a set of empty drawers near his toys that he uses to sort toys (and cds and magnets and anything else he finds) into. Things go in one drawer and then out and into another drawer. He's only smashed his fingers once.

He is actually asking for things. He's asked to have his diaper changed a couple times. He asks to go play the drums in the basement.

Temper tantrums. Full on temper tantrums.

Pointing to the eyes/nose/mouth/hands of characters in books and naming the thing he's pointing at.

Asking us to read books: walking over to us, handing us a book, saying "boo," and then climbing into our lap, putting his thumb in his mouth, and waiting for us to start reading.

Singing twinkle twinkle little star with us.

Climbing onto the sofa to look out the front window.

Right now he is hand feeding Kaya the dog food she didn't finish last night. It's in her dog bowl on top of her crate, and he's taking out one piece at a time and dropping it into the crate for her. And also laughing his head off because apparently, it's hilarious.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Last night, Micah walked over to me and pulled on my pants, so I followed him. He walked to the door to the foyer and tried to open it, so I opened it for him. He sometimes does this when he's ready for bed and when I open the door, he walks over and starts climbing the stairs and then walks into his room. Not last night. Last night, he walked into the foyer, grabbed one of his snow boots and handed it to me. I put it on him and he grabbed the other boot and handed it to me as well. So I put that one on him. Then he grabbed his winter hat and handed it to me. I put that on him too. He grabbed his winter jacket. I put that on him. Then he reached for me to pick him up and when I did, he pointed to the front door. So I took him on the porch and sat in the swing with him and we just swung for about 15 minutes. Completely quietly. It was really nice and I have no idea where it came from. He's never done anything like that before and he actually is almost incapable of walking in those bulky snow boots so he generally protests putting them on. As an aside, it was about 40 degrees out so all that gear wasn't needed anyway!

Sunday, January 27, 2013

It is hard to explain all the ways in which this baby is changing. For one thing, he definitely does some kind of tantrum thing when he doesn't like our suggestions as to what he should be doing. For example, he heads to go up the stairs, I pick him up and turn him in another direction, he goes straight to his knees, arches his back, throws his head back as far as it goes and falls over backward right onto the top of his head. Of course, this pretty much always happens when we are physically holding him and so he never actually smashes his head on the floor but he sure tries.

In the last day or two, his mimicking has come into full swing. He recognizes when you are saying something you want him to repeat and he tries to say it. He doesn't necessarily retain it at all, but he'll repeat words whenever prompted.

I'm not sure when we introduced this to him, but he's been really into tickling my belly button. He actually lifts my shirt a little bit and sticks his finger right into my belly button, which leads me to shriek of course and this is hilarious to him. He never ever gets tired of this game, he loves making me scream and just dies laughing every time!

When I picked Micah up from the babysitter last Wednesday, I commented that he usually wears his shoes all day long at home because he loves putting on and wearing his shoes and socks. Literally that night, we came home and he pulled both his socks off and walked around barefoot all night (keep in mind this is a night when it was probably seven degrees outside)! Every day since then, he has been loving pulling off his socks. He takes them off every time he's on the changing table and when he wakes up from naps, he takes them off when he's playing in the living room and carries them around in his mouth while he works with his toys, he occasionally wants help putting them back on but he is definitely experimenting with being a barefoot baby!

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

One day short of 16 months old and last night Micah didn't wake up a single time! That's not to say that he exactly slept through the night. We have this whole new plan that is getting up to the sleeping through the night point. When Micah wakes up crying, Michael goes in and puts him back to sleep. Crying never leads to getting fed. However, he really does eat a lot during his nursing session in the middle of the night, so I have an alarm on my phone set and I go in and wake him up to feed him at 5am. So last night the only time he was up was when I woke him at 5am! I am very happy with this. The theory is that I can prolong the length of time he goes without eating once he knows he has to rely on me to come in and feed him instead of waking up and demanding it.

On another note, we had very beautiful weather last weekend and got outside a couple times. On Saturday we went to the park and Micah had a good time on the playground, in the swings, and also in the mud! On Sunday, we took him up to the reservoir in the stroller and then let him walk around the reservoir himself. He made it almost the whole way around walking on his own, that's a full mile! We stopped to look at the geese which were very impressive, and we got turned around a few times because people were smiling at Micah and walking in the opposite direction so he just turned around and followed after them. :) It is a pleasure to be this baby's mama. He makes me so happy every day!

So Many Changes (January 6, 2013)

The last few days have had so many things happen, I just have to dump it all here!

Yesterday morning, Micah woke up at around 7:45 and sounded happy. I was awake so I figured I would go get him before he started crying and as I got to his room, I was curious as to what he was babbling about. I peeked in. He was standing at the other end of the crib (farther from the door than usual), and looking and babbling at the Winnie the Pooh lamp on his dresser. When I went in and picked him up, he pointed at the lamp, so I walked to it with him and he pointed to Tigger and said "Meow". It was adorable. After that, I showed him the print that is hanging on his wall "O is for Owl" and told him that the owl says "Who" and when I walked over to that print with him this morning after his nap, he pointed at it and said "Who" again. So smart! :)

Really, that story is an indication of a general shift he has made. He seems to be talking in fake full sentences all the time the last few days. He's just making tons and tons of babbling sounds, talking to himself, talking to his toys. I swear he did not do this more than a couple days ago.

Yesterday morning we had another first as well. We took him out to breakfast at our typical place and for some reason the waitress gave him a placemat, a set of silverware, and brought him a small plate when she brought our food out. So I put some of my food on the plate for him and handed him a fork and he did a pretty good job with it! First time ever having his own plate, although I've let him mess around with silverware on his highchair tray quite a bit. I was especially impressed that he didn't decide to drop the plate on the floor. Generally, that's the reason I opt out of handing a plate to him, whenever I've tried before, he just wants to grab the plate in both hands, so I just take it back and give him the food instead. Since breakfast yesterday, I've given him his own bowl of food a couple times and let him feed himself. He's been doing surprisingly well with it and very little food has ended up on the floor somehow!

On the subject of food, he seems to have hit some kind of growth spurt the last couple days. It is just impossible to give him enough food. For breakfast yesterday morning, he had a banana, a bowl of baby cereal, a bowl of cheerios, a slice of toast at the restaurant, and probably one whole egg at the restaurant as well as some of my home fries! I figure it might be a brain related growth spurt since he's doing all sort of new things, the babbling, a handful of new words, moving toys around to climb onto the furniture or access the buttons on our computer printer.

In addition to being extra hungry, I think he's also been extra tired and that his schedule is shifting around a bit. But we haven't quite figured out what the new schedule is yet. His usual bedtime is 8pm but last night I was sitting on the sofa with him at 6:30 and he looked at me and said "Nah Nah". At first I thought he said banana but then I realized it was "Night Night". He climbed off my lap "Nah Nah. Nah Nah." He walked to the first floor apartment door which Michael happened to be coming into. He walked right past Michael "Nah Nah." To the stairs and started climbing. He climbed up to the second floor and walked into the bathroom. So I gave him a bath and put him to bed at 7pm. And miraculously he pretty much slept through the night with the exception of nursing at 3:30am! He even slept until 8am! And he's still taken two solid naps today. Something is definitely going on. And it's pretty darn cute too!