Moving On

Men and women really are different—even their brains are different—and they were divinely designed that way. Using the latest research, Dr. Walt and Barb Larimore show how the God-designed differences between the male brain and the female brain complement each other to help couples build a delightful, lasting marriage.

So we ordered it and started reading it together last night. It's really interesting and I can't wait to read on, but I wanted to share one part that particularly backed up the notion of "his brain, her brain:"

A professor wrote on the board: A woman without her man is nothing

He then asked the class to provide punctuation.

The overwhelming majority of men answered: A woman, without her man, is nothing.

The overwhelming majority of women answered: A woman: without her, man is nothing.

Like I said, can't wait to read on...

I've entered the world of Baby Food Making...and it's rather easy and not all that time-consuming. I bought more fruits and veggies (pears, mango, avocado, sweet potatoes, and peas) last time I was food shopping so I could start the process. Micah got his first taste of sweet potatoes this week (from Earth's Best) and is really liking them, so I went ahead and made my own pureed version. That's my plan of action: buy a few jars of the food I'm introducing that week (if available) and see if it agrees with Micah and then make my own.

Yesterday I made pears and sweet potatoes using the Magic Bullet (hand-held blender, very handy!). I had to peel, cut, and steam them first. Then I pureed them and put them in ice cube trays to freeze. Once they were done freezing, I took them out and put them in a plastic bag in the freezer. You just take out the necessary amount each time you need it. One cube equals about one ounce.

Then I did some math:
Stage 2 of Beechnut costs $0.19 per ounce of food, no matter the kind.

The pears I made myself came out to be about $0.09 per ounce and the sweet potatoes came out to be $0.04 per ounce. Each made 20 ounces, so it'll last me a few weeks.

Store-bought baby food is convenient, to a degree. It took me just about an hour to make 40 ounces of food. To get to the store, I have to pack up Micah, drive there, pick out which foods I want and hope they have them, stand in line, pay for them, pack Micah back up and drive home. I don't really spend any extra time buying the fruits and veggies I need to make his food because it's coupled with my regular food shopping trip. I like, too, that he'll have a lot more options now that I am making his food and hopefully won't be a picky eater. When all said and done, it probably took an extra half an hour to make my own food, but it's entirely worth it considering the much lower cost and knowing what's in the food I'm feeding him. Some foods are not worth making (butternut squash) and I'll always buy pureed carrots because of the nitrate levels in regular carrots. Overall, though, I enjoyed the experience. Today, I sliced up some avocado and put it in the freezer (came out to be $0.10 per ounce, except I haven't seen avocado baby food anywhere, so I guess there's not really a comparison!) so it's ready when I want to start Micah on it. Next up, peas!

Excellent website I found in my baby-food-making-research journies: www.wholesomebabyfood.com

Valentine's Day started off very well with a video of my scrub-wearing man in my Inbox (he was on call Friday into Saturday). It was a sweet video that he recorded on his phone and sent to my e-mail. He's handsome AND clever! I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's Day: it's an easy out for people who don't take the time and effort to be romantic/loving/thoughtful every other day of the year, but this year VDay was especially fun.

Mom and Dad decided to throw a VDay party for all (six) of their kids. We were sent an invite in the mail, along with our first clue to the treasure hunt. And we all had to dress in red, even Micah. The party was a huge success, it was the most fun we've all had together in a while (not that we don't have fun together all the time), but the treasure hunt, the food, the games, and the prizes made it all extra special and extra fun.

Dad ordered a three-foot grinder from Subway. One word: YUM! After dinner, we had the treasure hunt while Micah was still up because it was a little noisy. We all found our treasures, and each of us received quite a treasure! D and I got $400 towards our basement insulation and/or a snowblower. I'm pretty sure we've decided to put it all towards the basement insulation because D doesn't mind shoveling, but it's only been 99% decided. Can you tell we're homeowners? Getting all excited about insulation and snowblowers?!

After the treasure hunt, I had to feed Micah and put him to bed, so the others had dessert (D brought me some...it was Monkey Bread, a personal favorite!). Once he was all settled, Mom had us fill out a VDay-type of Mad Lib and she read us all of our stories. All of the stories were great and had us laughing uncontrollably! Mom made copies of them for each of us to be filed in with all of rest of our good memories. Then the guys and girls split up for the Newlywed Game. Ry and Yana won by a point and we tied with Nick and Kristina. As if all that wasn't plenty, we each got gifts (D got a new webcam and I got a tea chest/caddy/box) and goodie bags filled with candy. LOTS of fun had by all thanks to our clever parents.

Some pictures from the evening:

We don't have a doctor's appt this month, so no official stats...just a few updates.




*This was the month in which my little man had his first cold. It was quite pitiful to behold, but it soon passed and we were all still alive (amazingly enough!).

*We bought yet another contraption for our five-month old: a walker. I told Mom that I was going to take a picture of Micah in every single accessory he now comes with and post them all. I have yet to do it. Why? Because there are so many!! We leave the walker at Mom and Dad's house since they have more walker-friendly space and so I don't have to cart the exersaucer back and forth anymore (yaaay!). Of course he only goes backwards in it at this point, but he really seems to enjoy it. He was having his Micah Time the other day and he rolled himself from the kitchen to their dining room and was talking to something in there for at least twenty minutes. It was too cute.
*He LOVES bathtime with Daddy. We've worked it into our nightly (or every-other-nightly) routine and he'll stay in there for a while just splashing and biting on a cup we use to wash him off with and talking, talking, talking away to Daddy. I just might invest in one of those bath rings that you suction to the bottom of the tub and babies can just sit in them. D puts the little tub on our bathroom counter for his back's sake, but then Micah loves making a wet mess of everything. We'll see.
*When Micah wakes up in the mornings, or from naptime, too, for that matter, he doesn't cry. He'll start talking. So I let him talk until the talking starts to escalate into an annoyed-sounding whine and then I get him. If I'm sleeping, it allows me at least fifteen more minutes of rest, which I am loving! It's funny to hear the different sounds he is making, like he really is trying to communicate something important and we're just not getting it. He's also talking a lot more just randomly now. If I'm talking to somebody, he'll think I'm talking to him and he'll start in on his side of the commentary...rather loudly at times.

*More likely than not, if you're holding him at this point, you're only going to see the back of his head. This guy is such a busy body. We always say that he wants to be where he's not...and when he gets there, he wants to be somewhere else!

*Oh and not that I ever doubted that he was all boy, but his new "find" just reinforces the fact. I'll let you figure out what his new find is on your own!

I mentioned to Mom that Micah and his 27" self was outgrowing all of his baby blankets and since it's still midwinter, I needed to get some more for him. Not missing a beat, she immediately offered to crochet him one and asked what colors I wanted. She finished it very quickly and now Micah is once again enjoying the warmth of a blanket that covers him (we were putting two on him: one covering his upper body, one covering his lower body).

A few weeks ago now, I started noticing how Micah would randomly kind of lick my cheek very purposefully. He'd hold my head still as he'd lean in for a few seconds to wet my cheek. I didn't think anything of it until it dawned on me that he could be giving me kisses. I mean he has gotten enough of them throughout his little life to be an expert at them, so just maybe he was giving them now. So I asked him for a kiss and gave him my cheek. Sure enough, he leaned in and planted a wet one. Talk about melting a Mommy's heart.

Now, as with all new baby feats, everyone is asking him for kisses and most of the time he'll oblige after repeated requests. The best ones come in the morning when D or I get him from his crib and he'll be so excited to see us that he gives them on his own. He'll give them without prompting randomly throughout the day, too. He never ceases to amaze us with his smartness.

~~I've had this post written for a while now in hopes of getting one of Micah's kisses on video/captured in a picture. No such luck as of yet, but we'll keep on trying!~~

I'm not even sure what to say about this, but I wasn't in the room when it happened. I was downloading pictures of Micah off of mom's camera and I saw this and had to do a double (and triple) take.

Sunday was my parents' 29th anniversary. To celebrate, the seven of us got together Sunday night over their house. We had a yummy buttercream frosted cake (I had to order in a few days in advance, for some reason they don't make buttercream frosting on a regular basis and buttercream is Mom's absolute favorite frosting) and sang, "Happy Anniversary" (by winging some lyrics to the tune of "Happy Birthday") and we presented them with a gift card to Chili's, one of their favorite restaurants. Of course they loved every minute of the celebration for the simple fact that all their kids were there in one place. They are a very, very easy couple to please, which makes it very easy and very fun to do so!

We love you both so much and are blessed and better people because you are in our lives. Here's to many, many, many, many more family celebrations!

In 1980, it was just the two of them. By 2009, it's the nine of us. By 2010, there just might be more of us... Kristina? Yana?

We've had a busy week here in Babyland. It marked Micah's first cold and looking back it wasn't too bad. The big thing was sleep, or lack thereof. We had been getting on a great nighttime schedule, but that went out the window for five or six days as my poor little guy couldn't breathe so well.

I quickly found out that there's not much you can do for a simple cold. They took decongestants for infants off the market, so basically it's a waiting game with comfort measures. We spent the duration of the cold suctioning the ever-flowing boogers, humidifying his room, propping up his crib mattress so he could breathe better, steaming up the bathroom while Micah was in it, giving him some Tylenol for those aches and pains (he never spiked a fever), and of course he received extra love and attention from his aunties and uncles and grandma and grandpa because of his pitiful state!

By the end, Micah was able to suction his own nose...almost. And I know the first comment someone will make will be about the suction bulb being in his mouth so you can ease your mind with the knowledge that IT HAS BEEN CLEANED :)



He tried the grape-flavored Tylenol, but I saw there was a dye-free kind after I had already purchased the grape. We will be getting the dye-free next time!

Two big indicators enlightening us to the fact that he really was sick: he let us hold him like a baby (cradle position) and he fell asleep that way (he did this first with Auntie Kristina) and he let us rock him to sleep, which we have never been able to do. So while it was sad seeing him cough and hearing his stuffy nose, it was very nice getting in some extra cuddle time.

And now, he is all better for the most part and is sleeping so well again. However, Daddy is sick, Mommy has a little cough, Grandma and Grandpa are feeling under the weather, and Grandma Rita has a scratchy throat. The culprit? Probably Micah!

And I'll give you a hint: it wasn't me. This is how Micah was brought to me on Sunday morning. Let's dissect. Micah wears a sleep sac to bed (the red part of this "outfit"), but it's just that--a sac--so it doesn't have separate leg compartments. D said he needed to put Micah in the exersaucer while he was making breakfast, so he just unzipped the sleep sac and put on the pants you see. And since it was too hard to walk five steps to the closet to get socks, David simply put on the mocassins my grandma got him that were already on the changing table. However, they only stay on with socks at this point, which is exactly why one of them is missing... I'm trying to think of how to end this, but I am simply speechless and I think the pictures will speak volumes:

Most of the time it's a marathon from the time Micah wakes up from his last nap (between 5:00 and 5:30pm) until his bedtime at 8pm. He wants to go to sleep a few hours after he wakes up, but if he does, he'll be up more at night and just have an overall poor quality sleep. We discovered this valuable tidbit after playing around with his nighttime schedule for a few weeks.

All that to say that, in an effort to keep Micah awake and relatively happy, D pulled out one of the many Dr. Seuss books we have and managed to get through an entire reading of Green Eggs and Ham. Here's a snippet:

You might have noticed that Micah is pantless. That, too, is a tool in our Distract Micah Kit. It's very weird how much this child LOVES being naked...or even half naked!