Moving On

Great movie: Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt. We rented this on Monday since D signed up for Redbox (they have two in the Stop & Shop down the street) and they email you a free-rental coupon the first Monday of every month. As we were pulling into the parking lot, I told him another free-rental code that I had read on a blog. I didn't know if he'd try it or not, but he came out with Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt and G-Force (that guinea pig movie, reminder of Dougie may he RIP). Anyway, after Little Man was all tucked in, we started the movie and I was hooked from the beginning. You have to watch it, but I will say that we watched the last five minutes twice...

Great recipe: Pop-Up Pancakes. They really do pop up out of the muffin pan! We had these for dinner on Wednesday night (tweaked the recipe to make it a bit healthier) and D said I'll have to make them again. I had some of the leftovers for breakfast this morning and they were just as yummy (toasted) the second time. I unfroze strawberries from the end of summer and set out the blackberry jelly we have. Very yummy.

Still loving: Paperbackswap.com. I must have shipped at least 40 books out and have received about 30. Not sure how it calculates it, but it says I've saved $117.50 by swapping books instead of buying new. I believe it. Most of the time, I just reuse the packaging from the books that were sent to me. You know, in the spirit of saving landfills and my money.

Just ordered: 25 pounds of soft, white, winter wheat berries and 25 pounds of kamut berries from Whole Foods. I get a 10% discount for ordering in bulk. I'll be putting my grain mill to good use with all those berries! I found a food dehydrator on clearance at Target for $37, which is an insanely good price. Still on my To Get list: water purifying system, popcorn machine, and ice cream maker.

Micah: has been up to a lot lately, per usual. He now directs with our music leader in church. It's too cute. He enjoys music (a big part of his day), so I'll keep him upstairs in church while we sing from time to time. He just started directing this week.

He does a lot of mimicking of actions and words. You have to prompt him to get him to repeat the word, but he'll copy whatever you're doing without missing a beat.

He's all about doing whatever I'm doing, so I started putting him to work a few months ago. His "chore" is to empty the silverware part of the dishwasher. He also vacuums (with the DustBuster-on-a-stick contraption), wipes up his part of the table, washes his face, brushes his teeth, brushes his hair, and is really good about picking up after himself. Hopefully all these good habits will all stick around for a while.

He's still a great eater, he was eating for about three hours the other day. He had a pretty good lunch here and then we stopped at Mom and Dad's and of course he acted like he hadn't eaten in days, so he was munching on whatever was handed to him. He never said no. Granted, he wasn't being offered a hamburger every ten seconds, but you think he would have filled up at some point. He's on the go from the time his feet hit the ground until I plop him in bed for nap/bedtime, so I guess he needs the energy.

I took him to his fifteen-month check-up right before the New Year and he weighs 25 pounds and is 30-something inches tall. Forgot to remember that number, but Mom started a tape-on-the-doorjam growth chart at her house and D just measured him, so his 15-month old height is well documented. He's 50th percentile for weight and 75th for height. Going to be tall and skinny like his grandpa, which is fitting I guess because he looks like him and wants to be doing whatever grandpa is doing all day, every day. Two things the doctor mentioned to me that I found interesting: don't let him sit in a W (where you're on your knees, but pop the bottom half of your legs out to the side) because it could affect how his legs grow and thus affect walking. This kid is running, so I don't fear that, and he doesn't sit like that (can't remember last time he sat...), but it was an interesting point. And then she saw him pointing at something and said, "Oh good, he's pointing, we look for that because autistic children don't point." Again, interesting. He got his chicken pox and pnemonia vaccine at that visit, so he wasn't happy. For 0.02 seconds until it was over and then he was fine for the rest of the day.

I'm starting to do purposeful activities with him now that he's so interested in everything. We'll do a puzzle, build with LEGOs, play hide and seek, read (lots of) books, singing song with hand motions, etc. I want to get into hands-on activities as he gets older. I heard a few parents of young kids mentioning how they're teaching ABCs at this age, which is totally pointless. Numbers and letters are still so arbitrary and they have no idea how to use them yet. Poor kids. Doing is much more fun and useful, at any age, but especially this one! Speaking of doing, we were at Ryan and Yana's yesterday and Ry had a half-built computer out and on Micah-level. Guess who was completely fascinated and engrossed in "fixing" that computer for at least 40 minutes? Yep, Micah. Mom said she'll gather some old computer stuff Dad has and let him "fix" those. Toys are completely lost on this kid.

The good stuff: