Moving On

Today: marks Micah's ninth month outside the womb. I asked David, "What were we doing nine months ago today?" truly trying to remember what the birthing experience was like. My man was obviously not in the same sentimental mood as I when he responded, "What were we doing nine months before that...?" Typical male.

To gross you out even further: For those who are interested, my monthly friend has returned after a very nice hiatus since December 2007. I'm relieved to know that my body is generally back on its pre-pregnancy track, although I can't say I missed this particular part. When I alerted D to this new development I realized that again we were not on the same wave length: "Oh good, that means we can get pregnant again." Meaning soon. Meaning he got slapped upside his head. Yes, he knows you can still get pregnant without having a period, but he launched into some medicalese explanation and I promptly lost track of his point.

Farmer's Markets: are few and far between here in CT. Locally grown fruits and veggies, I've read, are better for you and help with allergies, etc. Not that we have allergies because we don't, but farmer's market produce can be cheaper and better quality. In PA, they have something called Produce Junction where you can get fruits and veggies en mass for very, very cheap. We used to go there after church on Sundays when we lived in Philly. We'd get two heads of Romaine lettuce for $1, five cucumbers for $1, ten apples for $1.50. It was great. D and I were getting nostalgic on the way back from PA last weekend over Produce Junction. Weird, I know. All that to say that D found me a few farmer's markets nearby and I plan on checking them out this week :). Find one near you: www.localharvest.org.

Once Upon A Child: had an AWESOME sale on Saturday (50% off from 10am-2pm, 60% off from 2:01-4:00pm, and 70% off from 4:01-6pm). I brought Micah with me so David could work on the basement with Dad, so I didn't expect to get a lot of shopping done. He fell asleep on the way there and slept for about 40 minutes. After that it was full speed ahead. I went around 10:30am thinking that since there are only two aisles of boys clothing and the deals are great, there might not be anything worth looking at come 4pm. However, there were only a few other people in the aisle with me and they weren't there for that long. I got a lot of cute things for next summer and a Fourth of July outfit for this year. I also got some cute hats for $0.50 (Children's Place, no less), some water shoes, and a swimshirt for the little man to wear with his bathing suit (him being very light-skinned and all). Micah, in the meantime, was attracted to the wide variety of toys that were scattered about the floor. I kept having to retrieve him, but it kept him occupied for the two hours we were there. A lady was shopping for her grandson in PA who was around the same age as Micah, so she kept using him for sizing purposes. She was amazed at all he could do for eight months. I told her that he was waiting his whole little life to be able to do what he was doing now. I've heard people say that it gets harder as babies get older. The opposite is true for me: it has gotten SO much easier!

Gate: D decided it was time to get a gate to keep Micah contained. We're going to get a open-up-type one for our basement so people don't have to climb over the gate going up or down the stairs, but for now, this is it:

Guess I have some blogging to catch up on. We've been so busy that I actually forgot all about blogging, if you can believe it. D was on vacation last week (lots of fun!), we were in PA for a long weekend (more fun!), and we've been doing random things here and there that take up time and turn the hours into days and days into weeks. We're hoping to finish up our basement in the next few weeks, too. We're in the midst of picking out carpet that Dad offered to install. Then it just needs some paint and a rail assembly and we're in business :). Anyway, I've got to post about our PA trip and about D's Intern Graduation. And Micah is coming up on 9 months next week, so we'll throw another post about that in there somewhere. For now, here are some pictures of our little (big) man:

One year ago today, I was working my last day as a kindergarten teacher. It was a hectic weekend and I was glad to be able to climb into the awaiting Volvo with David at the wheel and just sit. We had cleared out and cleaned up our apartment (with the help of some very nice friends!) that Friday night and spent the night at our friends' home. D woke early the next morning and drove the packed truck by himself to CT where friends and family where waiting to help unload our many boxes into our parents' homes. I went back to the apartment and finished cleaning with a fury only a $700+ security deposit can gather. My friend and her toddler met me there later to help. It didn't seem like there was a lot to do, but I just remember the feeling of utter exhaustion halfway through. Probably had something to do with the busyness, stress, and my five-month pregnant belly. Hours later I closed the door, locked it, dropped the keys off at the office, and drove out of the complex with my packed Volvo...happy not to look back! It was all I could do to stay awake the rest of the day. I remember my friend Sara being worried about me. I was worried about me. The next day, Sunday, I went to church and I had to leave Sunday School because I had shortness of breath and was getting dizzy. Thinking back, I think that was around the time that I started to really show and my body was adjusting to that along with dealing with everything else that was going on. After church, Sara went with me to pick up David at the nearby train station. His parents had dropped him off at a train station in CT and he made the trip to PA in about five hours. I had never been so happy to see him in my life. Everything immediately got better. We spent another night at our friends' home (the same ones we're staying with this week) and left the next morning in time to make it to work for 9am.

David dropped me off at work since we only had one car (D's car was towed behind the truck and was obviously left in CT). I was only going to be working half a day, so D went to a local college to use their Internet access. I remember the hours flying by with mixed feelings of gladness at being able to move on with life and sadness at having to leave the friends we'd made behind. However, when 12:30pm came, I was out the door. We made our way uneventfully to CT along the route that we had perfected during our many trips home (D wrote these directions for a collegue just the other day). The arrival at the my parents' house officially closed the PA chapter and opened up another one yet to be written. I finally let myself relax and enjoy the summer weather that was well underway.

Over the next year, we bought our home, welcomed our baby boy, completed a year of internship, and started on the road of parenthood. What a year!

Cool Find: D was flipping channels the other night and found a lot of good channels we didn't know we had. Backstory: we switched Internet providers because another company was offering free basic cable with Internet. We decided that paying $25 for both sounded like a good deal. Basic cable is very basic and I wasn't watching anymore TV than usual because it didn't include any "good" channels. That all changed on Thursday night, though. Our big screen TV in the living room is set up to get HD/digital channels, so the numbers go really high. D hit a bonzi when he made it to the 103s and the 104s (you know, 103.1, etc.). There we discovered about twenty extended-cable channels, all the good ones except for Discovery and TLC. Food Network has been gracing the big screen ever since!

Tofu: isn't nearly as gross as I thought it would be. D and I actually enjoyed it in a meal of mixed veggies and rice. I seasoned it with chili powder. The key with tofu, I read, is that it takes on the flavor that you marinade it in...much like other protein. Plain it probably tastes gross, but flavored, it's quite good. And it's really good for you!

Micah: has a new "trick." He listens to some basic commands like, "Come to Mommy." "Where's the dog?" "Go kiss the dog." I got the dog stuff on video. Mom put a stuffed dog in his toy box and he loves it. We put the dog somewhere and we ask him where it is and he'll look at and go to it. Then he'll "kiss" it, which is really one, big bite. In other Micah news, he rediscovered his thumb and is using it on a regular basis. Mom thinks it's because he's nursing less, but still needs that sucking sensation. I'll be glad if he uses it to put himself to sleep!

Vacation: DAVID IS ON VACATION!! He got off of call very early this morning and is now home sleeping :) instead of getting out at 1pm and then sleeping the day away. We have a lot of fun things planned for the week including finishing up the basement as much as possible, visiting with Micah's cousins, and going to PA. This vacation also marks the end of David's crazy call schedule!!

My Garden: is up and running. I might ready/till another section since I have more stuff I'd like to plant. In the garden now: zucchini, cukes, Roma tomatoes, Romaine lettuce, and green onions.

I've always been into eating rather healthy, but as of recent, I've been REALLY into it. I'm not exactly when spurred me on, but I know I was always aware of all the chemicals, additives, preservatives, high-fructose corn syrup, etc. that companies put in their products and pass as "food." We found out about Trader Joe's a few years ago while in Philly and they have signs all over their stores declaring, "No Preservatives, No Additives, No Artificial Flavors!" Maybe that started it all?

Anyway, I've been reading/buying/borrowing books by Christian doctors and/or authors. That (growing) list includes:

Eat This...and Live! by Don Colbert, MD
Holy Cow! Does God Really Care About What We Eat? by Hope Egan
The Seven Pillars of Health by Don Colbert, MD
What Would Jesus Eat? by Don Colbert, MD
What the Bible Says about Healthy Living by Rex Russell, MD
The Genesis Diet by Gordon Tessler, MD

I never really thought about what Jesus ate or what God's menu plans were for us, but there's a lot of info in the Old Testament that most Biblically-based nutritionist would argue still apply to us today. He, God, designed all of us, from Adam on down. And since he laid out Adam's eating plan of fruits and veggies (Genesis 1:29...and added certain types of meat, fish, and insects to it after the flood), I think a logical conclusion that could be drawn is: what was deemed good for Adam to eat by God back then is still deemed good by Him for us to eat today. It's an interesting fact that even though I've been to hundreds of church services in my life, I've never heard this topic of Biblical Food addressed. I'm not sure why since we eat all day, every day. Food is a big part of our life. And a big topic in the medical profession for the problems associated with overeating, etc.

It's a fascinating topic and I'm hoping to sum up all of the information I read into a healthy diet for us. There's definitely a balance to it; of course we'll still go out to eat. Not a lot, though. Of course we'll still eat some junk food, but not every day. The downside is that it's more expensive in the short-term to eat healthy (I guess there really is a price on life!) and also it's something I'm just beginning to learn about. That means I have to look up recipes containing all the new foods I'm learning about, so it's more time-consuming than eating poorly. I've discovered that there are so many good-for-you foods that your body needs to function properly on a daily basis that there isn't any room for all this processed, chemically-treated, nutritiously-void food that's cheap and easy to buy.

There are a lot of healthy alternatives that actually taste good. My biggest find yet is something called Stevia. Stevia is a South American herb that has been used as a sweetener for hundreds of years. It's supposedly sweeter than sugar and the best part? No calories, no carbs, and it doesn't spike your blood pressure. I'm not sure why this isn't mainstream knowledge, but there's probably a cover-up conspiracy by the sugar companies lurking somewhere in there. Just kidding, I think.

There's so much I'm learning and there's so much more to learn...I even bought Tofu the other day. So that means that I'm now in the process of looking up Tofu recipes!

One day last week, D came in from mowing the lawn and said that he had the perfect spot for me to start my garden. I've been wanting to manage a successful garden for a while, but obviously apartment-living isn't conducive to that sort of thing. I tried planting one when I was living with my parents years ago and it probably would have worked if I planned it out, researched how to actually do it, and did all those things correctly.

Anyway, now that we have our own home with a six foot by four foot chunk of land that doesn't grow grass very well, I can plant my garden! So after dinner, I set about tilling my little plot and ridding it of rocks and roots and anything else that would impede my fruits and veggies from growing. I didn't quite finish, since it's time-consuming and backbreaking work, but most of it is done and I'm hopeful that I'll have a flourishing garden by summer's end. I just need to read up on how to upkeep and prune and pick, aka tend, what I will be growing and I should be good to go. We bought a watermelon seed in a cup at Lowe's a while back for Micah to plant, so I've started that and will transplant it (with Micah's help, of course) as soon as I get the top soil in there. Kraftfoods magazine sent me a few lettuce seeds to plant, so I'll include that in my garden. And I saw some starter veggie plants at a local food store that I will get and plant. I want to plant herbs in there, too, at some point. This year is basically just a test run and a learn-as-I-go type of thing, but I'm excited none the less!

D was in charge of Micah during my tilling time, but since they both love the outdoors, they joined me. Micah decided that he needed to eat the rocks I was digging out of the ground. D kept knocking them out of his hand and Micah kept moving on the next one, thinking, "Maybe he'll let me have this one!" Finally D just let him have a rock, thinking that he'll try to take a bite and realize it wasn't so tasty. A few bites on a few rocks later, this is what he looked like:





I guess our reasoning was a bit faulty? That or we just have an odd child...

Happy Memorial Day!



Found: The long lost stamps I misplaced around Christmastime. Now that the price of stamps went up, I had to get those stupid 2 cent stamps. So not only will the snail mail I send be adorned with an off-season Nutcracker stamp, it will have a cheesy 2 cent stamp, too.

(Almost) The End: of D's Internal Medicine year. Which also means the end of thirty-hour, overnight-at-the-hospital calls. We are both very excited. Micah will actually get to see his daddy on somewhat of a regular basis now, which means he might begin to recognize David. Yay! Next week is the beginning of the last block for the year, but it also happens to be a vacation week for David. :) We're planning a trip to PA towards the end of the week.

Long-Distance Picture:This is one of a few four-generation pictures Micah has managed to appear in during his eight months of life. He has all of his great-grandparents living on my side and two on David's. Pictured here is my dad's dad, my dad, Micah, and me!

It's been a busy month, per usual, for our little man. He's been exploring (aka getting into things), eating (anything in sight), and basically keeping anyone who is watching him on his or her toes. This guy can move! Let's see if I can cover everything, I've been writing things down as I've been following him around over the past few days:

* His big thing now is that he wants to feed himself and he wants to eat what we are eating. Although he now has seven teeth, he doesn't yet have molars, which he needs to eat the food we're eating. Therefore, we'll usually break off a piece of bread or something that he can have and feed it to him. He thinks he's so cool eating big people food. I manage to feed him his food in between big-boy bites.

* Along with eating, he does a lot of biting. He'll bite anything and everything/one, which is normal for this stage, but quite annoying. Some people freak out when I let him chew on tissue, but it keeps him from biting anything else. He's obsessed with tissue/toilet paper/napkins. You can see his eyes light up when he locks onto one of them and then that's it, he'll bite it (don't worry, they aren't huge pieces) and rip it and chew it. He never swallows it and he'll keep it in there until I take it out, often minutes later. I see a lot of gum-chewing in his future. One time I didn't take all of the tissue out and started to feed him. He swallowed his food, but kept the tissue in his mouth. Talented, huh?

* He is still loving those rice rusks snacks. My mom gets the biggest kick out of him eating those things. He'll grab it and take his first bite all in one swoop, like if he didn't, it'd be taken away from him. Here's a video:

* He's very big into chatting now. His main conversations consist of a lot of "dadadada"s and "doydoydoydoy"s. He mainly talks to his toys or whatever he has in his hand. It's cute, he'll grab a toy, inspect it by turning it over and over in his hands (pinkies up and all, like he's delicate or something?!) and chat away the entire time. All while maintaining a very serious face. At some points he'll look up and smile if someone talks to him, but he'll resume his serious inspection until he's all done.

* Micah has such a huge personality already, I'm not sure if there's any room left for anymore as he gets older. He is so aware of what is going on around him and will respond, or not, depending on what he decides. He'll paste his cheesy smile on, or you might get his half smile imitating a famous Grandpa smile, or he'll laugh his belly laugh if something triggers his funny bone. Or he'll just stare deadpan at you. He even manages to smile and whine at the same time. We will have our hands full as the years unfold, I fear. Usually, and thankfully, he is his sweet, charming, good-natured, fun-loving, always-read-to-laugh little self.

* He can now stand alone for a bit. This usually occurs when he has something in his hands and he'll let go of whatever he was holding on to so he can grasp the object with two hands. He's really good at balancing himself. You can see his chubby toes gripping the carpet/flooring as he tries to maintain an upright position. Here's a video:



* So you can imagine his all-day-everyday cycle of crawling, pulling himself up on something, scooting along whatever he's pulled up on, sitting down, crawling over to something else, pulling up, etc. and how tiring it can be for a little guy. Except Micah. Although he will say "nigh, nighhhh" when he's tired and I'm not putting him down for a nap, he won't ever give up. He'll play until he's put into his crib. Oh to have that energy!

* He's still loving Baby Einstein and thanks to Cousin Lyvi, he now has a lot more of them to watch. He is utterly fascinated by them. Uncle RyRy was here the other day and they were both watching Baby Neptune. Uncle Ry was falling asleep while Micah was bouncing in the exersaucer. It was quite funny!

* My narcissistic child will always give himself kisses in the mirror, yet is very stingy with kisses for anyone else. He'll usually give them spontaneously (which makes them all the more better), yet won't kiss on demand as much as he once used to. Likes to keep us guessing.

* Another big love of his is watching traffic. I'll park him at the end of my parents' driveway or let him look out our front door and he'll actually be still. It's funny. He also likes watching the wind blow the leaves on the trees and he enjoys the wind on his face. He'll laugh when it's windy out. Weird, I know.

* During his eighth month he also got his first haircut :). The back can use some more cutting, so I just might get David's clippers out and give it another go. It'll soon be summer after all!

And now you know all about Micah's eighth month!

D picked up a propane tank on the way home from work yesterday so we could use our grill for the first time (it was our second grill of the season, though...we had made hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill for everyone on Saturday night, but we were all over my parents' house). I marinated chicken, onions, yellow peppers, red peppers, zuchini, and mushrooms and put them on sticks for kabobs. Those along with some rice made for a very yummy first-use-of-our-new-grill!

Micah, if you can believe it, turned 8 months on Friday. An eighth month post will follow at some point!

Guess: who woke up with a crusty nose and a cough? It wasn't David and it wasn't me.

Interesting Word: DIAPER spelled backwards reads REPAID. You can draw your own conclusions.

Cute Picture: Daddy was introducing Micah to the world of YouTube with a Baby Einstein-like video. Both were fascinated!



Mother's Day: We celebrated Mother's Day on Saturday because Sunday was going to be one of those busy, running around kind of days. D and Micah really knew how to put on a good Mother's Day! We went out to breakfast at our local diner and then we went out to dinner at Applebee's (that 2 for $20 deal is just great! I kind of don't understand the "2" part, though, because you get an appetizer and two entrees, so doesn't that make 3? Anyway...). In between Dad and Mom came over to help with the basement and Ryan and Yana stopped by, too. It was so nice having D around the whole weekend! Want to see what Micah got me? Even though he'll only by 8 months on Friday, he sure knows what his mommy likes:

Silent Protest: This is the reaction we sometimes get when we tell Micah "no." If he's on the ground, he'll lay flat and bury his head in his hands just to let you know that he's listening, but not happy about it.

"Her children rise up and call her blessed." Proverbs 31:28a

I love you, Mom!

It was about that time a few months ago, but I just couldn't bring myself to give him a haircut yet. I knew he'd look like the little man that he is when he did, in fact, get a haircut. We didn't get video of it, but I took a few after shots. I used the scissors on top and D's clippers around the ears. He moved his head a few times, so there are a few minor chunks of hair missing here and there. Nothing that can't be smoothed over! I saved his hair in a baggy and wrote when his first haircut was on his calendar of events (Saturday, May 2), so it's official! Here's what my handsome man looks like now: