Moving On

So here's the mostly-completed playroom! Micah so enjoys going "downstairs." Whenever anyone asks him if he wants to go downstairs, he'll toddle right on over to the basement door, pointing all the way. Speaking of toddling, he does it so well. In just a few weeks, he's pretty much perfected the art. He even stands up going down steps while holding on to something. He can also stop, pivot, and "run" the other way if forced to while playing, "I'm going to get you!" Basically, he's a walking champ. We now gauge his tiredness by how many times he falls in a minute because that's the only time he'll constantly fall (it's kind of funny...).

While we're on the subject of Micah, he's a master of sleeping and of entertaining himself. He takes awesome naps or one big nap and he'll sleep close to twelve hours each night. And when he wakes up (here's the best part), he'll entertain himself in his crib (packed with toys that I rotate!) for up to two hours. Yep, two hours. Of course I let him stay in there playing for that long. Because when he's out, he o.u.t. and on the move. Take, for example, this morning. I got up around 7:30am and was able to have my devotions before hearing him at 8. I was then able to finish up my devos and have some computer time and do some cleaning before I got him at 9:45. This is what I thought it'd always be like. Took 10-11 months to get here, but we have arrived and it feels oh-so-good. So good, in fact, that D is approaching the Child #2 subject. Silly man.

Micah has gone into a "talking" explosion. He points and chatters and becomes quite the long-winded talker at times. He understands quite a bit, too. He was playing with the top of the container this morning and I didn't know where it ended up. I asked, "Micah, where is the blue top to this container?" He pointed right to it. Gotta watch what we say around him starting now! We've begun the Clean Up Campaign with him because you can never start too early, right? At this point, I just have him pick up the item, "Micah, can you hand Mommy the yellow truck please? It doesn't belong there. We have to clean it up." He'll walk over to it, pick it up, and hand it to me. Then I'll put it away. I've just started asking him to put the item back where it goes by telling him that, "It goes here, Micah. Can you put it back here?" He does that, too. It's cute, he'll always come over and give me a hug when he's done what I asked like he knows I'm proud of him and he's proud of himself. For all of his high-maintenance as a baby, he has developed into an entertaining, easy-going, and fun-to-be-around little toddler. Phew. If the Terrible Twos happened from 0-6 months, I guess I'm okay with that. Now.

I guess that turned into your mini Micah update! (Those cool letters are stick-ons, I'm thinking of getting more adult-type stickables to decorate the living room. They have a lot of neat options at AC Moore...especially with a 50% off coupon!)

You'll notice that the red pullout couch that was once up in our living room is now in the playroom. Here's the furnishings that took its place:


While we were at The Pit (inside Bob's Discount Furniture), we decided that we didn't necessarily need to replace the couch with a couch. So we ended up coming home with a recliner and this one-person-mini-couch. Or whatever you want to call it. It's comfy. We moved the end table in between the two and there you have our new setup!

So behind: on blogging. I didn't get M's ten-month post up before he turned eleven-months, so now that's two Micah Updates I need to find the time to write. D said I should just combine the two, and that's probably what I'll end up doing. I've been really into reading and researching lately, and with only a limited amount of Me Time, something else has to give...blogging! Oh well, I'm enjoying my reading time and have learned lots of new interesting and helpful things in my research!

Wadsworth Mansion Open Air Market: D and I went to the outdoor market after church yesterday. Little Man was in desperate need of a nap, so he fell right asleep on our way there. Expecting him to wake up at any time, we meandered through the crowd and stopped at the booths that interested us. A few hours later, we were ready to leave and Micah was still asleep! It would have been fun for him to play outside, especially considering there were other kids there. He loves playing with other kids his age... and older. He finally woke up as we got to my parents' house two and a half hours later (D drops me off there before choir practice and I ride to church with them so we don't have to take two cars). He then splashy-splashied in the pool for quite awhile. One by one, we all did, too. First David, then me, then Dad. I don't think Mom got in. She was manning the deck because that's Micah's favorite spot. It was so refreshing after a hot church auditorium and a hot outdoor market! While I'm telling you about the rest of our Sunday, I will add that after night church, the three of us went to West Hartford Center and took a leisurely stroll. Micah was thrilled. We had to stop back at my parents' house to get a few refrigerator items and Uncle Ry Ry and Auntie Yana were there. So guess who got to play with them 45 minutes past his bedtime?? No worries, he slept until 9 this morning :).

Children's Department: of a local library was where Micah, Mom, and I hung out one day last week. The weather was oppressive and I've been wanting to take him to the library, so everything worked out on Thursday. He had the best time there. I like seeing him interact with kids, it's not something I get to see on a daily basis, obviously. He even managed to kiss a girl...and get kissed back! All in a day's work. The little cutie was two years old, her mom said, but she was only half an inch taller than Micah. She followed him around in the children's area and when she left, Micah went looking for her. He does really well in group settings: plays well with the toys and with others. I peeked in on him yesterday in the nursery (he goes there for both Sunday school and Morning Worship now!) and he was just sitting on the floor eating his snack with the other blond hair, blued-eyed boys! Too cute. We have some work to do with one-on-one with other kids. Ever since we stopped biting him when we were playing with/tickling him, he hasn't bit. He still likes to pull hair every once in a while and is just rough in general. He doesn't know his own strength because, for some reason, he is stronger than average for his age. He doesn't mean to be mean (most of the time), but he just plays rough. And he doesn't mind getting played with rough, either, because he has such a high pain tolerance (started back when he was born: the nurse said they measure infant boys' pain after their circumcisions (how??) and his was a one out of 10. She was, quite frankly, shocked). I want to throw him in with a bunch of two or three year olds and see how he does because they are on his roughness-level. Everyone else, much to their displeasure, is just too wimpy for him.

Mom just sent me this pic:

I'm not sure who took this picture, both Mom and Dad (and Uncle Ryan, for that matter!) are always photographing him. Mom says she knows when Ry is with us because she's inundated with pictures on her phone. The love is definitely reciprocated, although Micah hasn't learned how to be discreet with his favoritism. Grandpa is, by far, his number one person. He'll even go from me to him. Dad loves it, too, because no one ever went to him over Mom. They are buddies, which is only fitting, I guess, since they are cloneheads. He really loves his Uncle Ry Ry, too. I called Ry when Micah woke up today to tell him he was up and about if he wanted to play. He was over within 10 minutes and Micah was so excited to see him. They are buddies, too. One lady that's new to our church went to our old church and when she was introduced to Micah, she thought he was Ryan's baby since that's how she remembered Ryan looking when he was that age! Micah cried for the first time when Ry left today. It was kind of sad and cute all in one.

David: is such a great guy. He's such a hard worker and is so supportive of our new adventure in eating healthy. We spent a while at Whole Foods on Saturday and he was just as interested in everything as I was. He even made us kefir, with Rita's help, and it's yummy! I have it in my smoothies. Anyway, I could go on and on about him, but suffice it to say that he's perfect for me and I love him so much!

Cool New Find: D and I discovered this herbal coffee called Teeccino this weekend. He and Mom were going to share a sampler pack, but then he discovered that if you sign up for a newsletter or something, you get your choice of a free sample. So they both did that instead. They sell Teeccino on Amazon, too. I think they sell everything on Amazon.

gDiaper Update: I love them. I'm getting another Starter Kit and already ordered the fillers from Diapers.com. Very cool diaper. If diapers can be cool...

Micah's First Birthday: is rapidly approaching. I was going to print up some picture invites and mail them, but decided to be even more cheap (frugal?) and make an online invite and send it that way. After working on it last night, I sent it out this morning. I'm happy with the results and even more happy with the time and money I saved!

D's vacation: went by way too quickly. We hung around, visited people, went out to breakfast with some uncles and aunties, played with Micah, finished up some projects, and basically had a great time these past four days. Despite the ninety-degree weather. Ugh.

Mom's Cleverness: shone through once again in a game she made up for Yana's bday party on Friday night. I'm not even sure I could concisely explain it, so sufficed to say that it involved daily clues (from Mon-Thurs), calling the person who matched the clue, getting a word from that person, storing up those words to string together which led to a place in Mom and Dad's house which had another clue. And so the game went until we collected the prizes: Walmart gift cards and chocolate. Is there anything better? Micah was given a book for his help in passing out some of the clues. And later in the evening, after Little Man was asleep, we played a type of Newlywed game. D and I won with a score of 7 out of 8. Even later into the evening, we were deciding if we were brave enough to wake Micah and bring him home and wake him again to put him in his crib. It turns out that, no, we weren't brave enough. Mom offered to watch him, but she just did the previous week and it just so happens that we like hanging out with our Little Man, so we went home, got some stuff, and slept over Mom and Dad's (to be completely honest, I would have gone home and slept, but D wanted to spend the night at M&D's. Not that I don't love hanging out with our man, but sleeping in is a very close second...). Mom still got up with him in the morning :). Stinker slept until 8:30, though, so we got up shortly after him!

Speaking of: the Stinker, I hear him reading to himself in his crib. Which means he's up from his nap. Which means I have a limited amount of time to wrap this up. I'll leave you with a picture:

and a more recent one...


so I guess that made two pictures!

Swaptree: is a new site that I recently discovered. And what a find for someone like me who doesn't like buying books because they're ridiculously expensive (compared to borrowing from the library), but would still like to own some or read a few that the library (gasp!) doesn't have. And I don't mind if they're used, especially if I can get them for under $3! You can read more on their website (www.swaptree.com) if you're interested, but I'm really happy I came across it and have completed three trades already :)

Our Date Night: was perfect. Micah settled into his Grandma and Grandpa's house routine right away. Especially since Auntie Yana, Uncle Ryan, Cousin Ana, and Grandma Rita were all there, too. I said goodbye and I'm not sure that he even noticed since he was stuffing his face with Auntie Yana's food. So D and I, happy ourselves, headed out to P.F. Chang's at the local mall. It was such a beautiful night, perfect temperture, nice breeze, no humidty...all the makings for dinner on the patio. That's exactly what we did. Dinner was yummy (even more yummy since we had a gift card!) and when we were done, we decided to walk through the mall. I had to peek in Janie and Jack and D ever-so-tolerantly followed me in. They were having a great sale, but nothing appealed to me, so we went next door to Teavana. Mom had gotten D a gift card there for Christmas and we have been enjoying the tea he bought for a while. Impressed, we bought some Precious Peach White Tea. It's a bit pricey at face value, but the Teaologist (yes, that's what they're called) explained it to us: 2 ounces will make 30-40 cups of tea and white tea leaves can be reused 3-4 times in a 24-hour period. That's a whole lot of cups of tea! She also said that if you don't drink that much in a day (which we can), just make the tea and put it in the fridge for some cold tea or I suppose you can reheat it later for some hot tea. This tea will last a while, but I want to try the Silver Needle White Tea next. It's an interesting tea. If tea can be interesting... After Teavana, we went to Border's Express where I love looking at the Bargain Books for Little Man. We got a few books for him. He likes the hands-on/interactive type of books, so I'm always on the look-out for those. They also had two carts full of books at the front of the store with a big sign, "$1 This Week Only." We bought some of those, too (I listed a few on Swaptree). But the fun didn't end there...for dessert, we went across the way to Trader Joe's and bought some dark chocolate-covered almonds. I ate my portion on the way home. D, of course, waited until we got home and had some of our new (delish) tea. At home, we watched an hour of John Adams, you know that HBO mini-series. We started it last summer and for whatever reason never finished it. We still have two more hours to go (out of about 7 hours), which I'm sure we'll finish this week during D's vacation days :). The next morning, we went to see M around 10:30. The little stinker slept until 8:30am (usually gets up between 7:30 and 8:00) and Mom said that was because his foot hit a noisy toy she put in there for him to play with when he got up! She said she had to hold Dad off from waking him up (waking him up!?!?!?), so I'm thinking he probably snuck in and put the noisy toy in the crib! Thus ended our Date Night, but a very fun day ensued, so it felt like the party was still going :).

Madison Beach Hotel: has got to be in one of the most beautiful spots in Connecticut. It's where we went for D's residency program's Clambake. When we got there, we walked through the hotel and back outside to this thick green lawn covered with tables and chairs looking out over the water. To get to the beach, we first had to pass the hor devour table, so we stopped and partook. The beach came right up to the hotel, so we took but a minute's walk to get to the waves. Other kids were there, with toys, so Micah was happy. He resumed his fascination with the sand and this time started tossing handfuls up in the air, which made the sand land only on him. So we let him continue. For our entertainment...and his, too. The entire afternoon was so much fun. We didn't have any of the seafood that was offered (clams, shrimp, lobster) because it's not that good for you, but the chicken was so yummy. As were the roasted potatoes, salad (with cranberries), and corn on the cob. The kids got antsy halfway through lunch, including Micah, so I put him on the grass with some books and some stacking cups. Before we knew it, all the little kids were stacking, reading, making up games. It was cute. Dessert was freshly baked cookies and brownies. The whole setup, the atmosphere, the company, everything made it one for the history books. Well, at least a day that I'll always look back on very fondly. And a place hopefully we can visit again. I told D that that's where I wanted to have our wedding reception. Then he reminded me that we've been married for five years. And then Mom told me that she looked into it for my bridal luncheon those many years ago. Small world.






Perfect (for me) Diapering Solution: I've never been overly fond of disposable diapers, mainly because of all the chemicals that are packed in there and the closeness of these chemicals (some are banned in Europe) to Baby's skin. And because of that time the gel in the diaper exploded on Micah's bottom and the goo turned red so we thought something was wrong! I hadn't been able to find a good solution to my dilemma without converting cold to cloth (they're expensive--upfront), not to mention an entirely new way of diapering. Obviously there aren't places that you can try all the different kinds of cloth diapers before purchasing (believe me, there are a lot of options!), so I've just let it alone (another option I was going to try was putting a rice paper liner in the diaper, so there was at least a little barrier). Anyway, my problem was solved during my Whole Foods Research Expedition today (yeah, don't ask). During my walk up the Baby Aisle, I noticed these diapers: gDiapers. They had a sample there and everything. I was totally impressed and researched it when I got home. Amazingly, it looks like Whole Foods has the best price around for the Starter Kit, so I'll be picking up one of those next time I'm there. They have disposable inserts (flushable/biodeogradable) and they have cloth inserts. I'm going to start with the disposable and see how it all goes. Yay for solutions to annoying dilemmas!

Micah's: ten-month update will hopefully be posted before he turns 11 (whoa, 11!?!?) months. In the meantime, he is walking/toddling about and enjoying every second of his new-found mode of transportation.

IKEA: We packed ourselves up early Saturday morning and headed down to the shore where the closest IKEA is located. I told D earlier in the week that I wanted to check out some storage stuff for the playroom and when Saturday morning rolled around, he mentioned that we'd have time for IKEA and remembered they offered a cheap breakfast. I love mini-road trips and this was no exception. We made it there without a problem and saw a group gathered outside the store. Apparently they don't open until 9:30am and when we got closer, D saw that they really don't open until 10am...they're just open for breakfast for the first half hour. So, we ate breakfast while Micah played in the children's area with a few older kids...until he discovered that we were eating. Then he toddled right over to us, asked to be picked up (so I sat him in one of the chairs), and promptly ate Breakfast #2. When the store officially opened, we started in the children's area and of course they had a whole bunch of toys out for the kids to play with. D stayed with Micah while I dashed about looking at everything. I fall in love with IKEA every time ago, which, thankfully isn't a lot. They have such a cute baby section, I wish I had known about it before. I managed to pick up a few baby things that were on clearance before heading to the older baby section. It was here that D saw a play tunnel that he insisted on getting for Micah. I was going to get him a little igloo tent, which was half the price, but D wanted the tunnel. M will absolutely love that thing. There are a few other things that I wanted to get that were just adorable, but Micah's not at that age to appreciate them, so I didn't bother. Anyway, by this point, it was Micah's naptime, so we were just going to get a few storage items and leave. However, somehow, someway, David managed to get M to sleep in his stroller. He put the back down into a laying position and rocked it for a few minutes and there we had a sleeping child. Which meant we got to meander our way through the warehouse-type store, which meant that I was one happy girl. He stayed asleep for an hour and woke as we were nearing the registers. How's that for timing?! It was so much fun...and I can't wait to go back ;).

Zucchini: was the first thing that I picked from my garden. It looked ripe enough, so Saturday evening, I told D I was going to pick it. He came outside with me for the momentous occasion, the momentous two-second occasion. I promptly washed it, sliced it, and we all had zucchini and squash noodles in a garlic olive oil sauce. It still amazes me how this big thing started off as a tiny seed. Now I'm on the lookout for more ripe zucchini!

Busy August: For some reason, this month is shaping up to be the busiest month of the summer. D and I were talking about what we were going to be doing this month and it ended up being a longer list than we expected. Grandma Fus is leaving on Wednesday, so Mom is having everyone over for dinner on Tuesday. Thursday I go to a shower for someone at church. Friday night we leave M at Mom and Dad's and go on our second overnight date :). Sunday we go to a Clambake put on by D's residency program. It's at a hotel by the shore, I'm excited for all that good food! Next Thursday and Friday are D's vacation days. We're going to take Micah on a train ride one of those days and picnic along the way at a drop off spot before heading back home. And that's only the first half!

Mom just called. She and Dad invited Ryan, Nick, Grandma Fus, Micah, and me to lunch...thus ending this post. You can thank her later :)