Moving On

David, Micah, and I went over D's parents' house to visit with Mahmon Bazorg the other night. Mahmon Bazorg is David's grandma from Iran who is visiting for a few months. She doesn't speak English, so there is a lot of gesturing going on when we try talking, but she communicates quite nicely. I'm glad Micah had a chance to meet her, although I'm not sure he noticed. When this kid's eyes are open, he is crawling and climbing and talking and in full gear. He did manage to sit for these pictures (these are from Auntie Sara and Uncle Tony's camera. I think Tony was the actual picture-taker and Sara managed to email them to me the same night...awesome teamwork, guys!):



Sara and Ari sat for a similar four generations picture and those came out great, too. I took some pictures of that, but haven't yet managed to send those to Sara and Tony. Slacker, I know. Speaking of Ari, she was the only person Micah gave kisses to the entire night. He's mesmorized by her; someone who actually moves more and faster than he does. He was trying to copy and to keep up with her the entire evening. She's so good to him, too, being the sweetie that she is. All that earned her many goodnight kisses (and a hair pull...or two).




And by the time we got home that Tuesday evening and I got Micah to sleep, D was in bed. Now it's Thursday afternoon and I've seen D for a grand total of twenty minutes. Call=no fun.

Magnet Message from Micah:


Recipe David Enjoyed This Week: Tandoori Chicken. It's an Indian dish and I'm not fond of Indian food at all, but I bought the wrong yogurt and didn't want to waste it, so I looked up recipes that used yogurt. This one didn't seem so bad, and I actually liked how it came out. D brought some leftovers to work and said he let one of the doctors who is from India taste it. The guy said it was good. Who knew? I can now cook Indian! Well, one dish, at least.

Spring Is Definitely Here: A sure sign of spring and summer is the abundance of tag sales. I took advantage of the great weather on Saturday and went to a few on the same road near my parents' house. Micah came with me the first time, I entertained him with his new favorite snacks, those rice rusks. Then I dropped him off at my parents' house to visit with them and my aunt and my cousin and went back for some books, clothes, and toys. All for the little man. All for great prices.

Micah's New Food of the Week: Papaya

Rompers: I love these types of rompers for the summer. They're so convenient and look too adorable. I've already managed to acquire about ten of them between Mom and me! Also in the video is Micah doing his "whisper talking," his newest form of talking, dancing, and snapping for a second. He learned how to snap last week. I was teaching him "hi" and "bye," but he was always fascinated whenever anyone snapped so I guess he decided to learn that instead!

Last night was a perfectly gorgeous evening. So much so that I moved dinner outside on our never-been-used patio. D is inside 12-13 hours a day, and he's on call all this weekend, so I thought it would be nice to enjoy the fresh air. Micah hung out in his exersaucer, on the grass, and on both of our laps.

After dinner, D wanted to go shopping. That right there tells you how much he's been cooped up in the ICU! We needed stuff at Lowe's, so off we went. We mainly wanted to price some grills because Dad spotted one on the side of the road during his morning walk and we wanted to see if it was a good deal or not. They were selling the same exact one for $89 and the guy wanted $60 for his never-used-includes-a-cover one. We shopped around a bit more. My aunt gave us money for a dehumidifier for our basement, so we picked up one of those. D checked out lawnmowers that my dad is giving him a certain amount of money towards. Yeah, it was really nice shopping on other people's dime! We also got some primer for our basement and picked out the carpet we want down there.

Micah was asleep in his carseat by this time and since the grill by the side of the road was a good deal, we decided to stop by and pick it up. Lo and behold, it wouldn't fit in the Volvo, so the nice man and one of his daughters included delivery in the price. They followed us to our house and that's how we managed to get this fine piece of machinery:

To round out our busy evening, D wanted to burn some of the sticks we collected from our yard in our new firepit:



And now, he is stuck at the hospital til tomorrow afternoon! It's up to Micah and me to take advantage of this 80-degree weekend we're having :)

Our "little" man is getting closer and closer to his first birthday...time is just flying by! I was rereading old blog posts of him the other day and it seems like another lifetime ago. I have to say, though, that I'm liking this lifetime: sleeping through the night, putting him down and entertaining himself, nursing every four to 5 hours instead of two or 3. Anyway, he's been busy during his seventh month:

* He has mastered the art of crawling on all fours. It started like an army crawl and we all thought he's go straight to walking, but we really worked on "getting on [your] his knees." He gets around quite nicely and is all over the place.

* While he has mastered crawling, he definitely prefers to stand and to scoot around furniture. He can pull himself up on things and he'll even sit down or put himself into the crawl position from standing up. Nothing is safe if it's in his path.

*...which is why we have begun working on the concept of "no." Most of the time in the beginning he'd laugh or smile at me, but more often now he takes one look at my face (on which I try hard to keep a stern expression) and he knows I'm not happy. But he'll keep doing whatever it is that he was told no to and he'll keep on getting disciplined! Sometimes he'll stop, give me a pouty lip, and proceed to bury his head in the floor with a great wail. I try hard not to laugh. The other night at Ladies' Night he wasn't going for his nap because he knew everyone was downstairs. So I brought him back down after my third attempt and put him down in the crawl position in front of everyone. I patted his bottom and told the crowd that he was being a bad boy. Mind you he was tired, so he was a little sensitive, but that didn't stop him from looking each and every person in the eye with his pouty lip and when he was sure everyone was looking, he dropped dramatically to the ground and started crying. He got the intended effect because first everyone was shocked and then they all came running over to him to comfort him. Which is when he promptly stopped crying and started chatting and crawling and dancing and smiling. He's trouble...

* He understands other words besides no like: kiss, eat, bounce, shake, dance, pull, and bang.

* He definitely gets the idea of object permanence, which kind of ruins his new favorite game, Peek-a-Boo! Or when you try taking something away and hiding it nearby but out of sight, he'll follow where it goes and try to get it back. It's not "Out of sight, out of mind" with Micah, it's "Out of sight so I need to get it back in my sight." Too smart for his own good!

* He hates, and I don't use that term lightly, the nursery at church. I think he first of all finds all the babies boring because they're just doing what they (and he!) are supposed to do: sitting there playing with a toy, sitting in their car seat, swinging, or sleeping. And he definitely has stranger anxiety, but that's been going on for at least three months already. And he's a mama's boy. Totally and completely. Mom says to enjoy it because it doesn't last long, but it can get kind of old when I have fifty million other things to be doing and Daddy wants to spend some time with him! But I do enjoy it most of the time.

* He's smiling and happy most of the time. He'll initiates game play. We tried to get it on video the other night, but of course he was a the end of his performance and we weren't able to convince him that the show must go on. We were in his room and I was doing something near his changing table on the floor. He had managed to pull himself up onto the (rocking) ottoman that goes with the rocking chair (and he didn't fall, even when it was rocking, which surprised me). He looked over me and smiled and let out an excited laugh. So I laughed. Then he did the same thing and tried to scoot to the other end of the ottoman, like he was trying to escape from me. So I crawled over to him saying, "I'm going to get you!" and he screeched with delight and tried to get away. We did this a few times, much to our enjoyment.

* Three of his four top teeth have broken through and the fourth one is visible through the gum. Why stop at two at a time, when you can get four teeth at time?

* He dances to any kind of beat (clapping, Jesus Loves Me, songs on his play car or his play table) and if he's making eye contact with you, he'll have this big, goofy grin on his face. He's even gotten daring a few times and will keep one leg straight out to the side and bounce with just one leg.

* I've got to get this on video, but I bought him a book called Animal Kisses at the library book sale the other week. It's a textured book, meaning when they say, "Do you like rubbery fish kisses?" the fish has rubbery-type lips. So I showed him how to feel the different textures on each page and he'll do that, but he'll also give the animal a kiss after I read the word "kiss." He'll lean over the book and plant a wet, slobbery one right on the animals' mouth. It's the cutest thing.

* He's really into babbling now. He makes all sorts of noises and he'll string together lots of "dadadadada"s when he's playing. Of course when he's upset or wants to get out of his crib it's "maaaamaaaa." We've heard him say "mom" a few times when he's not complaining, but those are very few and far between!

* He is continuing to do very well with eating. I've upped he ounces per meal and he'll still manage to get in three or four solid food feedings a day. Our list of Approved Foods is growing: butternut squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, avocado, mango, blueberries, yogurt, peaches, pears, peas, bananas...zucchini and papaya are next. I've introduced snacks to his day in the form of puffs and rice rusks (http://www.babymummum.com.au/). He LOVES the rusks and it's fun to hear him take a bite and chew because they're so crunchy.

* And finally, along with eating so well, he's sleeping so well...still! I thought it'd never happen, but it's been about a month of sleeping through the night. We've fallen into a wonderful 9pm to 7am schedule that I'm thoroughly enjoying. D and I get some time to ourselves at night and I still get a good 8-9 hours of rest. Poor D has to get up at 4:45am at this point, but at least he's not interrupted anymore!

Random Picutre: One of the games we "played" during Nick's birthday party the other week was a digital treasure hunt. Mom gave us (each couple) a list of things that she and dad came up with and we had to drive around town and snap pictures of whatever we could in twenty minutes. One item was a bird. Oddly enough, our bird was walking on the ground:


Look: at how I found my little man yesterday. I was doing stuff in the kitchen and put him in front of a zillion magnets on the fridge which obviously didn't hold his interest:

Three Generations: A few months ago, the church was doing a Three Generations in Sunday School bulletin board and we made it up there. I didn't take a picture of it all nice and fancy on the board, but I ended up with the pictures so I took a picture of them myself!


Yay for Nice Weather: Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day out and we took advantage of it since it was D's only day off for the next two weeks. I packed a picnic lunch before church, so afterwards we headed to our local resevoir and enjoyed the great weather in the great outdoors. I guess Micah was enjoying it in his own way, he was asleep almost the entire time (Sundays aren't Micah's favorite days!) After we ate, D and I took turns pushing Micah along the nicely paved trail they have there. I loved our family time together and plan to do more after-church picnics this spring (and maybe summer). Maybe one time I'll remember the camera...

Since David is so incredibly busy these days and since I want our basement done sooner rather than later, I (yes, me) have become Dad's helper. It's quite fun, actually. I love doing building-related stuff, like cutting sheetrock, using the drill, using the high-tech wood-cutter saw thing (whatever it's called), and anything else I can do to assit Dad. And I even have proof:




Mom came over one day with Dad to watch Micah-man and the other time Dad came over during the man's naptime. We should have this basement banged out (pun intended) in no time!

Micah's first Easter was a hectic one, to keep with the theme of Hectic First Holidays. Since both of our families live in the same town close by, we try to make it to both houses and it makes for a very tiring, very hectic day...but also very fun!

We started off Easter Sunday at church! My mom's parents came and it was so nice to have them there with us. We took up almost an entire pew. The church bought flowers, tulips and hyacinths, for each family, so I have yet another thing (red and yellow tulips) to keep alive :).

From church we went to D's parents' house for Easter dinner. Micah fell asleep on the way over, but of course woke up once we got there. And wouldn't go back down. He definitely needed that nap and wasn't his usual self between tiredness and teething. All things considered, he did well. He even got some very cool Easter gifts from Gramma and Grampa. Of course he was more enthralled with the tissue paper, but he did like the Fisher Price people once we took the paper away!



Dinner was delicious, as was Sara's brownie-type dessert. Mid-afternoon, we arrived at my parents' house for the official dessert-eating time. We visited with my grandparents, aunt, cousin, and everyone else who was there before it was time for church again. Micah opened his Easter basket from my mom that Friday. She put everything in a beach pail, which I thought was clever. So ended a busy, but glad-we-could-see-everyone day!

**LATE ADDITION** Micah's top FOUR teeth have already broken through or are doing so as you read this. We knew about the top two middle ones, but the ones on either side of them are a new discovery as of today. Mom was changing his diaper and noticed them. Dad said he could see molars coming in, too...haha...

Happy Monday, Tax Day is two days away. Hope it's still a Happy Monday!

Micah's Newest "Trick": when Daddy claps or when he hears music playing, Micah dances to the beat. His dancing is distinctly different than his bouncing and is accompanied by a "Hey Look At Me" smile. It's the funniest thing!

Cousins:

Craziness: D is back on his crazy call schedule every fourth night. It's worse now because he's waking up at 4:45am instead of 5:30ish. Poor guy. He's so good at juggling everything, I couldn't do it!

Car: D almost bought a new-to-him car this weekend from my parents' next door neighbor. Except that the nice man fixed one thing that was wrong on D's current car and is willing to fix another thing that is wrong. For free. But D said he's going to give him some money...and keep the car instead of buying the other one. It all worked out, not as planned, but a good deal none the less!

Alive: Mr. Betta Fish is still alive and it's going on two weeks. This is news because I've been known to kill fish rather quickly. It always happens during the water changing. This time, I made sure to let the water get to room temperature (overnight) before I commenced the cleaning process. So far, so good! And the Gerber daisies I bought a few weeks ago: alive. I've been known to off a few plants in my day, too. I'm good about watering them and giving them enough sunlight, so I don't know why I'm good at killing them.

Micah is growing up so quickly, which I'm not too happy about, however he has grown into a pleasant, entertaining, smart little man (formerly, he was a high maintainance, smart little man which I can't blame him for entirely. Mom observed that he was a toddler stuck in an infant's body, trying to do things he couldn't physically do but mentally wanted to...if that makes any sense!). Anyway, I'm excited to see him in the morning and so happy I get to spend the day with him, seeing what he will accomplish that day and being there to teach him and play with him. These are a few of the more recent things he's been up to:

I just started giving him those crunchy puff things they sell. I bought him the sweet potato kind and he seems to like them. Here's a video of him eating them, or trying to at least:

And this is the after-nap greeting I get when I enter his room. He usually starts off at the other end of the crib, meaning he has to turn around and scoot down to the part nearest the door. Then, he pulls down the bumper, calls out, and waits. I swear he's starting to say, "Mama." He's making the mmmm sound at least!


On Tuesday, his top left tooth broke through and the other top one is not far behind. You can see the outline on the gums where both teeth will be. He will look so cute with all four teeth, but he'll look so old, too :(. My mantra stands: next time I will have an infant, this time I had a toddler!

We awoke to Micah's chatter-babbling on Monday morning. After waking up twice we just let him sleep in our bed, which allowed us to get a nice stretch of sleep from 5:30-8:30am. We were all rested and since Micah didn't need to eat right away, we quickly got ready for our free continental breakfast (which was located in the Ground Round restaurant attached to the hotel). They had a very yummy spread and we kept Micah entertained in his stroller with a spoon, a paper cup, and his mesh teether while we feasted.

We checked out and since it was about time for Micah's nap, and he's great about falling asleep in the car (just not out in public where there's too much to see, too many people to flirt with), D had the brilliant idea of driving by some of the casinos in the area. We've heard a lot about them, but since we don't waste our money by gambling, we've never been to them. They were pretty impressive structures, but I couldn't help but feel bad for the people who frequent them. The country out there in rural CT is breath-taking. Farms, forests, big, old, beautiful colonial houses. I could spend hours looking at all the old homes.

Anyway, when we got back into Mystic, we went back to the aquarium because of the three-consecutive-days-for-the-price-of-one deal and finished looking at the inside exhibits and the gift shop. We are too cheap (smart?) to buy any of the way-over-priced items, but we did manage this picture:


Yes, that's me holding a "Mystic Aquarium" shirt up to Micah while D takes the picture. It was $15 and he'd outgrow it next week, so what was the point of buying it? I could buy an outfit for me and for him with that money.

Instead of purchasing anything in the gift shop, we did one of those souvenir pennies. You know, the kind you insert two quarters and a penny into a machine and the penny comes out all flattened with an imprint on it. We also flattened a penny at the next place we went to: Mystic Pizza. The name ring any bells? It's a movie with Julie Roberts. We ate lunch there and the pizza was absolutely delicious. D and I split a large pizza and ate it all! And Micah? He was flirting with the waitress who must have said, "Oh my, he's so handsome!" at least fifteen times. Maybe that's why he was so well behaved?? Of course when we got home, D and I watched Mystic Pizza together and enjoyed pointing out the different spots we had been to not a few days before.

To mark the occasion, this our first family vacation, I bought a dark blue Betta fish on Tuesday. It's deep blue, just like our little man's eyes. His name (and he is a he, which are a dollar more than shes...surprised that's not illegal or something) is Mr. Betta Fish. Creative, I know. He's our decoration on the window ledge between our kitchen and dining room and he has quite the personality. When you wiggle your finger in front of him he'll wave his tail from side to side and then skitter around in a circle. I don't know how I manage to pick these animals with personality, first Dougie and now Mr. Betta Fish! Anyway, I'm also going to print out some pictures of our trip and laminate them in a book for Micah to look at since he's sitting through books quite nicely now.

Cool Toy That I Want to Get Someday (for the Kids...):

Speaking of Toys: They're ridiculously expensive. So I'm making my own. These are nesting toys: Formally, they were Glad storage containers. I cut out pictures from magazines and pasted them to the bottom of the containers. There you go, hours of entertainment. I also bought Micah his own mixing spoons and teaspoons, $0.97 a piece. He loves to chew on the cork coasters, so I bought him some of those...cheap. Then you have an iron pill bottle with dried beans and a glued-on cap, hours (ok, minutes) of "shake, shake" fun. And a personal favorite: a water bottle filled with dyed water and glitter. You tape the cap area and voila, another cheap, yet highly entertaining, toy!

[Almost] Finished Basement: I should have taken before pictures, but we'll start with in-the-middle pictures. Dad and D did a fabulous job getting things going down in the basement the last half of last week. Can't wait til it's all done! We're keeping the lighthouse mural there and painting the walls a light, light blue and hopefully installing a medium-colored blue carpet (we're still shopping around for the carpet).




Yummy Recipe: These were a big hit this week: Lemon Crisp Cookies

Micah: stood all by himself, balancing and all, for ten seconds on Saturday night. Yesterday he stood on our bed for about five seconds. This kid...

Crib: D and I spent a little time on Micah's crib the other day. He lowered it since my little man can stand up now and I put on the new crib rail guard I had ordered. It's not your standard plastic guard because I read that the ones you have to stick on yourself don't stay on very well. This is a soft, padded cover that Velcros on and you can throw it in the washer and dryer when needed. It also has three spots where you can attach toys. So far, so good.



Happy Monday!

We left for Mystic mid-morning on Sunday. My plan was to leave around Micah's morning naptime so he'd sleep in the car and be awake and rested for the aquarium. And it worked beautifully I'm happy to report :). We stopped at Five Guys Burger and Fries before going to the aquarium and Micah was so well behaved in the restaurant. He even made a new friend and of course he got the comment on how big he was for his age.

It was an overcast day, so it was kind of chilly at all the outside exhibits, but we still managed to have a lot of fun. Micah seemed to enjoy all the animals. He'd stare and stare, taking it all in while trying to figure out what was going on.

Then there was all the fun the hotel had to offer. We stayed about two mintues away from all the Mystic attractions in a Best Western. I was so impressed with the room and the amenities and the price. We went back to the hotel around 4pm so Micah could have a much-needed nap (after four hours of awakeness, during which he was an angel...said with some surprise). While he slept in his pack and play, D and I relaxed. By the time Micah woke up two hours later, it was time for dinner. I purposely wanted a hotel with room service because I didn't know if Micah would be sleeping when we wanted to eat or if he'd be up to sitting in a restaurant, all those things that we now have to think of as parents. So the restaurant attached to this hotel happened to be The Ground Round, which brought back a lot of childhood memories (we'd always be there for friends' birthday parties where you pay what you weigh. Lots of good times, so it was nice to visit one again since we don't have any up here.) D decided that we should eat at the restaurant instead of ordering in, though, so we went. And again, said with some surprise, Micah was so well-behaved! We had to walk him around twice before our food came, but that was it. Once our food arrived, he sat in the highchair and banged his toys and basically entertained himself. Of course he was flirting with all of the passersby, but at least he was keeping himself busy.




After dinner, we hung out in our room until bedtime. Micah woke up twice during the night, probably because his pack and play was too hard for him. Our bed was too soft, so our backs hurt the next day. So the waking up twice was the only not-so-fun part of the day! I'll wrap up our two-day vacation later, it's breakfast time for Micah and he waits for no one!