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!