Moving On

Micah had no idea what was going on, but the rest of us were busily setting up for his first birthday party at my parents' house a few Saturdays ago. The theme of the party was trains, so the decorations followed that and so did Micah's outfit. The conductor hat didn't stay on very long, but we managed a few pictures!

Let's see, where to start? Here, look at some pictures and then I'll narrate...




There's his outfit. He looked too cute walking around looking like a conductor the whole party. I put a few boxes together to make a train for the kids. Kids love boxes, for some reason, but they're cheap and easy to play with, so you won't find me complaining.








The decorations were just enough to make it look like a party, but not enough that we had to spend mountains of time putting them up. What I didn't make, I got at the Dollar Store, just how I like it: cheap and easy. I made the Month-Old Train of all the pictures I took at his month-old birthdays. I'm not sure if you can see it in the pictures, but the food table had a train track around it. I made it by cutting strips of black construction paper and gluing them to the tablecloth. Then we set up food trains like the Chip Train, the Veggie Train, etc. I put out his baby book, D made up a picture slideshow on his Mac, Dad compiled some other pictures and put them on the digital photo frame. I found a picture frame from Baby Gund for $3 that sings Happy Birthday whenever anyone walks in front of it. In the future, I'm going to put it out a week before the birthday person's bday with a picture of him/her from that year. Mom had the idea to put out my belly pictures that she made for my baby shower and add a newborn picture of M. And we put up a few balloons here and there. Oh, and I bought little plants for everyone to take home with them, but they were part of the decorations, too. Took me back to my kindergarten teacher days. I loved it :). I'm not much for store-bought decorations, I always had the kids make things to decorate our classroom with for the different holidays.






The being-self-conscious-of-people-singing-Happy-Birthday-to-you starts so early. Micah's reaction to 30 people singing and staring at him was kind of funny. First, he looked at each and every person with a perplexed expression on his face. Then, he randomly started blowing kisses to everyone (which he has never done before). And then he plastered that self-conscious smile on his face until his daddy took him in for The Blow. Of course he didn't blow the candle out because when you ask him to blow, he scrunches his face and sniffs IN very forcefully. Anyway, it was a fun experience. The present-opening time was interesting. He was in desperate need of a nap, but everyone, per usual, was very generous so there were tons of presents to open. The first one that he saw was a little wooden wagon my grandma's sister (M's great-great aunt) gave him and that was all he needed. He wheeled that into his playroom where the other kids were and there he happily stayed until we retrieved him to open a few more gifts. He got a lot of wooden puzzles, some clothing, a few other toys, and some books that he's loving. Uncle Ry and Auntie Yana got him a wooden train from Melissa and Doug that both he and his daddy like to play with! After presents, he went down for a two-hour nap. Great way to end his first birthday party experience!


I wasn't about to spend $15-$20 on a junk-filled store-bought cake, so I made a gingerbread cake with cream cheese frosting for our little man. I had been toying with the idea of a cake mold, but then you have to frost it and make it look all pretty which was going to be way too time-and-money-consuming. So I bought an alphabet train set that can be used post-party and spelled out his name. I had originally intended to put the train on the cake, but found it worked better to put tracks around the cake and put the train there. I also set out peaches and whipped cream to go with the cake.



This is M having his cake the next day because he went straight for a nap!



My aunt bought chalk for M, so adults and kids alike had fun playing with it on the driveway. And I bought a paintable wooden train photo frame as a craft for the kids. His cousins Ari and Aiden and Ana are busily working on theirs. Anie painted one for M, since I can only imagine what would happen if he and paint got together!

Other observations: M was constantly eating for the entire two hours of the party. People kept handing him food...and he kept eating it!

D was such a big help. Dads don't usually get involved in party-planning, but he was an active participate and a huge help in the party prep.

Mom and Dad are awesome, as always. They, too, helped from beginning to end. Not sure if there are any other parents as supportive as mine, but I hope other kids are as blessed as the six of us (well, seven including Micah...well, eight including Micah's cousin...)!

I had family back over on Tuesday night, Micah's actual birthday, for some cake and snacks. I'll post about that later...

A few Saturdays ago, Mom and Dad were toying with the idea to go to Sturbridge Village and called to see if D, Micah, and I wanted to go (this was before we went on Thursday). It was such a nice day, so we were tempted, but Micah was in the middle of his first nap and M&D wanted to go right then, so we said no. A few minutes later, Mom called back and said that they wanted to take Micah to a nearby park when he woke up if it was okay with us. It sounded like great fun, especially since this would have been his first time at a park. Just before we left, Mom called to say that Ry and Yana wanted to come along, too (It should be noted that Micah has some of the best aunties and uncles in the world who are always coming to visit and spend time with him and doing fun stuff with him...he loves it!). So this is how all the following pictures came to be taken.









If you couldn't tell from the pictures, Micah thoroughly enjoyed his park outing. Everyone commented at separate times how funny it was to see six adults gathered around this one toddler. It would almost be embarrassing, if it wasn't so heartwarming. You can call M a lot of things, but unloved certainly is not one of them!

Next up, Micah's First Birthday Party pictures...

Lots of memories come with this date. I wrote about the birth experience last year, so I won't again this year, but there are a few things I still vividly remember:

* David always being there, being so supportive and helpful.
* Being wheeled into my room after the C-section and seeing a sea of family.
* One of the doctor's commenting, "Were all those people here for you?" "Well, more the baby," I replied. She was shocked.
* The faces on my family when they told me how they found out he was a boy.
* Making a mental note to never find out the gender of our babies. Too much fun anticipating with everyone and finding out at the birth.
* Everyone commenting on his size (to which I added, "See, I knew he should have been born weeks ago...")
* It's no lie when I tell you that we had a steady stream of visitors the entire four days I was in the hospital. When one left, another came. It was fun and exhausting.
* Not believing that this little swaddled package was our responsiblity. Forever.
* Trying to get the hang of nursing. In hind sight, we caught on rather quickly. Which was good because that's all Micah seemed to do
* A nurse handing me Micah after he was cleaned up and telling me to try to get him to nurse 10 minutes on each side
* The expression on her face when I told her that he did. I should have known right then I was in for trouble!
* The nurse wheeling M into our room every 3 hours so I could nurse him
* D sharing my hospital bed until the first feeding
* Yummy hospital food
* Unwrapping M to see his [huge] little body
* The three of us snuggling together, amazed at how he was just inside me and now he was in our arms
* Pictures
* Mom always helping me. Everyone was so focused on the baby (rightly so!), but Mom made sure I was comfy, had what I needed, made sure D and I got some time together, the list goes on
* taking M home
* I didn't fill any pain medication prescriptions when I got home, so M didn't have any more in his body making him relaxed and groggy, thus experiencing an entirely different infant than in the hospital!
* Not a great sleeper, always eating, wanting to be held out, loving the outdoors, a toddler in an infant body...worth every second of it

I've said this from the beginning, but now I know it's true: Micah was born older than his physical age. He was very alert and in tune with what was going on around him, knew what he wanted, how he wanted it, and he wanted to be in control of his body so he could do what he needed to do. Obviously that doesn't happen until you progress through stages, so he was a tough baby. Keeping that in mind helped me handle him, though, that and unending support from family! He was born able to hold his head up and has progressed quickly through the various stages, both physically and mentally. I still say I don't know where he came from, but we are very blessed to have him here with us. He's a special little man and we always pray for wisdom in our journey through this life with him. Thank you to everyone who has been such a support and encouragement to us throughout this year. And for everyone who has chosen to be such a big part of Micah's life. It takes a lot of time and effort and it's very much noticed and appreciated. Maybe he doesn't know it yet, but he's part of the best family I know. We love you!

Now that my parents are empty-nesters (although I think in name only because at least of of us is over most of the time, most of the time two or more are over there visiting because Mom and Dad are just that fun to be around. Yes, Dad, too. People don't believe us when we say that Dad is a fun and funny guy, but we are not lying!), they have taken to going on day trips here and there. I'll get a call mid-morning from Mom and she'll end it with something like, "Dad and I are on our way to (some place within an hour home), we're going to (insert a list of things, which usually includes eating, here). We'll be back by such and such a time if you want to stop by with the baby." It's cute, the whole day trip thing. Dad usually iniates it, Mom would just as well stay home, but they both have a good time. All that to say that one of these day trips found them at Old Sturbridge Village in MA a few weeks ago. We've all been there many times, but it's a fun place to revisit once in a while. Especially when they have this visit within 10 days for free admission and 25% off guests deal. Mom wanted all of us to go up for Labor Day, but no one seemed that interested. Then on Thursday, Mom and Dad randomly stopped over in the morning (literally for 2 minutes to say hi to Micah on their way to an errand...) and mentioned they might be going to OSV. I told them to let me know if they were going because I'd be interested in taking Little Man since Mom told me about the cool play area they had for kids, besides the fact that it was a perfectly gorgeous late summer/early fall type of outdoors day! They called not long after and said to be over by a certain time because they were going.

So we all piled in the car and arrived in just under 45 minutes and just as Micah woke up from his morning nap. He was ready and rearing to go and was amused by the play area for a bit, but I think he sensed bigger and better was out there somewhere. We tucked him in this stroller and headed out into the 1830's style town for an afternoon of historical fun. Micah enjoyed all the real life animals...and the dirt roads...and the river that he was throwing rocks into (or at least Dad was trying to make him throw rocks into!). Everything interested him, so it was fun to see things through his eyes. Mom and Dad were having so much fun showing him around. Mom took charge of M a few times while Dad and I went into various homes or businesses to see what they had to offer. Our favorite was the Potter's House. Dad's thinking of getting a wheel and I hope he does because I'd definitely ask to use it. I took Pottery in high school and absolutely loved it. The day was perfect, which made the experience all the more fun. And Micah was very well-behaved, which is nothing new, but who knows when toddlers will decide to melt down.

I made a book of the animals that we saw for Little Man. The one animal that he did pet was a pig. Are pigs even supposed to be pet? Well the thing was near enough to touch, so we both pet the animal. Micah also chased a rooster and waved to some geese. He watched the sheep eat grass and some turkeys stare back at him.

All in all it was a great trip for Micah to experience because he could walk around without getting into too much trouble, see some live animals, and be outdoors on such an awesome day. I'm sure this is just the first of many trips like this and I'm looking forward to the others!

As our move towards a more healthy way of living continues, different areas of our lives keep coming under scrutiny. I don't think you could ever categorize us as people who live carelessly, but I am always looking for ways to live cheaper, healthier, and more earth-friendly (hence the gDiaper switch, which is working out awesomely, by the way!). To be completely honest, however, if there is a cheaper, but not-as-earth-friendly option available, more than likely I will go with the cheaper option. I want to be a good steward of the earth God gave us, but money is a big consideration. Anyway, all that to say that I am going to be transitioning most, if not all, of Micah's toys to wooden ones. For lots of different reasons, not one in particular:

* If you've spent any sort of time with our little man (a nanosecond...), you'd know that he doesn't like toys much anyway. He'd rather be playing with what you have or some real life utensil, which I really like. Kids learn through play and if they're surrounded by a bunch of plastic-y, no imagination needed, how-fast-can-I-lose-interest-in-this-type-of-toy, they're probably not learning much. This was a big issue with me when I was teaching. I always wanted to be able to connect what was happening in our nothing-like-the-real-world classroom to what was really going on outside. Hence the innumerable amount of field trips we went on :). The point of parenting and teaching is to get your kids ready for life and, in my opinion, you can never start too early!

* Batteries. By the time you buy a pack of batteries, you can buy these cool wooden blocks that'll last much longer and be less likely to seep out in the landfill and end up in your drinking water or the soil your food is grown in!

* The making-of-plastic process includes lots of toxins. And they don't just magically disappear when you buy the end product at the store. And plastics take petroleum to make. I don't think the Middle Eastern oil-rich countries need any more money. Certainly not my money....

* I was reading somewhere that toys made for one purpose easily bore children because they don't take imagination to use. So then you have to get more boring toys to hold children's interest for a bit longer and, well, you can see a cycle beginning to form. If you get more open-end toys that can be used for a variety of things, then you have a ten-in-one type of toy that will hold interest and spark imagination.

* When I took M to the library yesterday, they had a variety of toys, both wooden and plastic. He took out a red plastic Lego car and drove that around (making vroom-ing noise and all!) for a few seconds. Until he discovered this:
He played with this until we left.

I've found a few wooden toys at Once Upon A Child for a great price. AC Moore has some and with their weekly 50% and 40% off coupons, I'll be getting some there. Many of these toys are made by Melissa and Doug. They have a bunch of clever little toy ideas that have made it one my List of Wooden Toys to Buy. The good thing about these is that they aren't one-and-done toys like most of the ones Micah has now. I'll have to store a lot of these baby toys, but these wooden ones can be used now and when I start homeschooling. Trick is to just rotate so they'll be new every few months ;). I'm looking into a Montessori-based way of learning and teaching (for years down the road...), at least for M because he likes to discover things on his own, and these are perfect for that. At the rate Micah learns, I need fun and engaging toys that'll hold his interest...and I think I've found them. Yay!

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 :)

Herb Garden
I planted some more herbs this week so they can start growing outdoors before coming in for the fall and winter. I planted some curled parsley, chives, thyme, and marjoram.


Walking
Micah is officially walking now. I'd say it's his preferred mode of transportation about half of the time. It's so funny to see because I'm still not used to it. I'll put him down like I've been doing for quite a while now, but then I expect him to bend in half and start crawling. Instead he'll start walking away, arms stretched out in front for balance. Sometimes he'll try to get brave and turn around, which usually results in an unexpected sitdown. His balance, though, is amazing and he'll fall only after trying really hard not to. D made the observation that he could have been walking months ago, but wanted to perfect the technique before putting it into practice. That's just so like him!

Working TV
I mentioned that we picked out a new televisoin the other night. Our old TV's motherboard decided to stop working, so a repair guy came out and got it working again. Not being a permanent fix, he put in a work order for a new motherboard. It was bad that the TV decided to stop working, but it was great that it was still under warranty! A few weeks later, Best Buy called us and said that it'd cost more to repair than what we paid for the thing, so they said we could bring it in to exchange it for a new one :). We got all of our money back and we got a Samsung (MUCH better quality) for only $30 more. Funny how the Lord works...we got a plasma this time and supposedly they are better quality than LCDs (our previous TV), but were way too expensive when we were looking ten months ago. Now they really came down in price and D is now the very happy new owner of one (I, on the other hand, am just happy we are the owner of a working TV!). I should mention that the previous few sentences were all information obtained from David because all I know (and want to know) about TVs is how to use the remote! In all, we got a better brand and a better TV for basically the same price :) And if that wasn't bonus enough, as D was programming the channels, he found out that we get all the extended cable channels...most in HD (we were happy to pick up most of the cable channels with our other TV)!

Digital Camera
I bought this little guy as soon as D got the okay that he'd be reimbursed for it :). D said he didn't mind the green at all because it's his favorite color. I was prepared to get the dark gray, but thought I'd ask him just in case. I'm glad I did!

New Furniture
Dad, Mom, and Grandma Fus came over last night after M was in bed so D and I could go furniture shopping at Bob's. In The Pit at Bob's to be more precise. It's their scratch and dent section and they had some awesome deals. They had this one piece, a corner section of a couch, for $25. I really wanted to get it, but D thought it was ugly and wouldn't really fit where I thought it would. Oh well. If I needed to furnish an entire house, I could have done it there, for under $3,000. Anyway, we're bringing our red pull-out couch downstairs and in its place we are putting both a dark brown recliner and a dark brown overstuffed armless chair. I'll take pictures when everything is in place, but I mentioned the idea of not replacing the couch with a couch and D ran with it. He's happy to have a recliner, too. Such a guy. We'll move the end table in between the two and there you have it. We got both pieces for a total of $250.

My Garden
Pictured: cucumber, lettuce, zucchini. The top and bottom pictures are upside down for whatever reason. I don't have time to rotate them, so just rotate your head if you're so inclined!

Forgot to post these a few weeks ago. They were taken by Auntie Kristina (M is sitting on Uncle Nick's lap) and sent to me via email. Are you digging the pose? Kristina used the Burst Mode on her very nice SLR camera and was thus able to capture a couple of great pictures of our on-the-move child.



It was these series of shots that started me on the road of wanting a camera with this Burst Mode feature. I haven't been pushing it, but when we were at Best Buy tonight picking out our new Plasma TV (story to follow at a later time...), I casually walked by the camera section and found the perfect one (I didn't buy it there because I knew I could find it cheaper, which I did...at Amazon.com). D might be getting reimbursed for it anyway, but why not stretch free money?! Anyway, I digress. I liked looking at/using the cameras at Best Buy so I could test it out just to see how everything worked before purchasing. It was kind of funny because I had taken Micah out of the carriage by this point so he could walk around and since he was the subject of my pictures, the camera was of course pointed at him. He demonstrated perfectly why I needed such a camera as this because in each successive "burst" shot, he was getting farther and farther away. He was so far away, in fact, that I had to hand the camera to the saleslady to go retrieve him. And this was him walking, if he was crawling, he'd probably be clear across the store crawling up on shelving and chewing on some boxes. Anyway, the camera is cute and compact. I'm still deciding between the green one and the dark grey one.