Moving On

I figured I should get Micah's nine-month-old post up before he turns ten months next week!

As you can probably tell from the above pictures, he is quite the ham. It's this month that he grew out of babyhood and entered toddlerhood. I can't get over how big he is looking and acting lately; it actually saddens me.

We went to the doctor's the other day and he is now 29 1/4" long and weighs 21 pounds, 4 ounces. He grew about two inches and gained about two pounds in three months. I'm not at all surprised by those numbers: he eats a lot and gets around even more.

During this month he:
* stood up by himself (recently, he took his first step and a few more steps in the proceeding days).

* became A LOT more vocal with the b, d, and some gutteral sounds (he added the g sound last week).

* learned how to fake smile and although he doesn't do it anymore, he was pulling it out quite a bit during this month. It was painfully obvious that he wasn't willing to put forth the effort for a real smile. So of course I would always have to burst into a lengthy explanation, which never helped matters!

* learned how to drink out of a straw. I had to buy him a straw sippy cup because his other one was too "babyish" for him.

* ate Cheerios for the first time and LOVED them. I was glad I didn't have to buy those puff things anymore!

* found his thumb. And what a find! This left thumb of his worked wonders in the calming-down area. At the times he would have been fussy or way-too-active, he now sticks his thumb in his mouth (he just added playing with his hair to the routine) and is, gasp, calm. This transformation is amazing and everyone comments on it. He actually, for the first time, calmly fell asleep on my mom when she was putting him to sleep. He usually sucks on it when he's tired or is being held. He doesn't do it in his sleep, which is nice. It's truly a Godsend and I'm enjoying every single second of it.

* has a few favorite games: clearing off tables and the "I'm going to get you!" game. He's still liking everything that's not a toy, even though he has 1,977,576 toys all over my house, Grandma's house, and Uncle Ryan and Auntie Yana's house.

* loves to read. He likes when David reads to him. They'll read at least four books at a time. Micah definitely has his favorites that he wants you to read over and over and over and over to him. At this rate, he'll get through all his books in the next ten years. You can tell if he likes a book because he'll sit back and put his thumb in his mouth. If he doesn't like a book, he'll get off your lap and go pick one he likes!

* has some OCD tendencies (like his Daddy), as in having to hold something in his hand a certain way every time. Or eating his rice-puff snack a certain way every time. Or taking the same route around my parents' house, doing the same thing to the same objects in his path. It's quite funny to behold.

* is eating great. I added cheese and chicken and regular green beans and pasta to his repetoire. He's eating a lot more table food and I'm certainly not pureeing much of anything anymore. I just recently started cutting up the avocados because Mr. I Can Do It Myself needs to feed himself. He's such a great eater and it always willing to try new things.

* continually gets comments on how strong he is. And he is. I don't know why he's this strong, but he's been able to hold his head up since birth (kinda weird having your two-day old son turn and look you in the eyes!). I blame it on the fish oil pills I took and tell David that I'm not going to take them next time, rather replace them with something a lot less healthy. Jokingly, of course.

* took a road trip to PA. He is a great traveler, but I still don't like having him cooped up for long periods of time. Then he doesn't sleep as well. Which means I don't sleep as well :). Four hours was plenty long enough and am glad we don't live that far away anymore!!

* is obsessed with dogs. He'll say "dog" when he sees one in real life or in a picture. Uncle Nick and Auntie Kristina have two dogs that he really enjoys watching. So now he has a few dog books that I found on clearance and will sit and flip through them, while narrating, "Daaa!" in a high-pitched voice.

* continues to be an awesome sleeper. He takes a 2 to 2 1/2-hour morning nap and a one-hour afternoon nap before going to bed from about 7:30pm to about 7:00am (this has recently changed to 9:00pm to 8:30am, which I like...a lot!).

* plays by himself a lot more, as long as someone is in the room. I'm actually able to get things done while he's awake now :) This whole moving-on-his-own thing is all he has wanted to do since birth and now that he can, he's such an easy baby.

* is a wonderful little guy who we thoroughly enjoy being around and sharing with everyone. I can't count the number of times we're dropped in on by family and both he and I (D's usually working!) love it. I also can't count the number of times I call up Mom or Ry and ask if I can drop him by while I run a quick errand. It's a big help to me (although I usually bring him with me because he's such a good boy in the stroller) and I know he enjoys it and I know whoever is watching him enjoys the time together!



I think that about covers it. Obviously, I'll be posting a ten-month-old post (relatively) soon. This eating-more-healthy thing is very time consuming to learn about, but we've made a lot of little changes and I am so pleased about where we're going with all of this. David said I can get a grain mill and I found a few places that sell things in bulk for a mere fraction of the cost in stores. I thought eating healthy was expensive, but it's not if you do it right. But that's another story for another day. Today was our five-year anniversary (where did those years go!?!) and we're celebrating tomorrow :). I'll leave you with these: