Moving On

My 28th birthday started the night before with dinner out at the Wood 'n Tap with David. We were on our way to a different restaurant in Hartford, but it was really traffic-y and I saw a billboard for Wood 'n Tap that said it was the next exit...and, well, that's how we ended up there. We had such a great time, that's nothing new, but we got D's meal for free, and that doesn't happen every time. The waitress mixed up his order, which wasn't a huge deal for us because we didn't have a 13-month-old anxious to get down and run around in the middle of dinner. I guess it was a bigger deal to them and it turned into a very good thing for us :). For dessert, we had dark chocolate covered almonds from Trader Joe's. Yum.

Since Mom and Dad had M for the night, we went home and watched another episode of MI-5 (I got D to watch another one with me the next night!) and then I got to sleep in the morning! That's when the fun really began: an entire day all to myself!!!! Wouldn't have given it a second thought a few years ago, but with a busy toddler underfoot, there's only so much you can do. That day, though, I spent as much time on my computer as I wanted to, went to a few stores (Mom gave me some money to buy some pants that fit me), ate Subway for lunch, and went clear across town to get a hot chocolate at my favorite hot chocolate spot before seeing my little munchkin again. Mom and Dad made a (very delicious) two-soup dinner for us (and Rita and Yana) before church. Perfect ending to a perfect day. I took some pictures along the way as evidence of how much can actually get accomplished without a child (who I missed every second!!) in tow.

The birthday festivities continued on into Friday when Mom had a party with extended family and fun games and a yummy dinner at her house. M enjoyed seeing everyone again and playing with his uncles and aunties and grandparents. He went to bed relatively easily, considering all the commotion downstairs, come to think of it. In the morning, we packed up our stuff and headed to breakfast :) another favorite of mine. D rounded off the evening with a very thorough foot rub (with lotion!). I very much enjoyed this birthday, not that I don't usually enjoy my birthdays, but last year's wasn't one of the best (in the midst of nursing a 7-week old who loved to eat...). Funny how this year I almost miss that time! Thank you to everyone who made my bday so special!

In other news, Micah can fly like a bird (flaps his arms. birds=new obsession), is learning where different facial features are, and is mimicking everything about everyone. D has a conference in Boston on Friday and wants us to go with him and make it an overnight adventure. Had to think about it. For about 0.0002 seconds. He just booked a room via Priceline where we got to name our own price. I'm picking him up around lunchtime and we'll head up then. Yay for fun, spontaneous weekend plans!

Is it weird that my 13-month old son and I just ate the exact same things for breakfast? Namely:

* a banana
* two eggs with chopped spinach
* a piece of buttered toast

I think I will officially ask D to up the food budget!

Uncle RyRy and Auntie Yana got this outfit for Little Man last Christmas. It was hard to believe then that he'd fit into it, but I almost missed the window. It looked a bit too cute (if not a bit too small...) to resist snapping a few pictures (ok, a ton, but I won't share all of them). I also wanted to get a few pictures of him in the leaves, since I have a few pictures of him "playing" with the leaves last year when he was 6 weeks old.

I was dropping M off at his G&G's for his overnight, so Grandpa joined us outside in the beautiful Fall weather...










Whenever Grandpa is in the vicinity, M is right next to him or being asked to be picked up by him (see him helping with the tires...and helping to bring the mail down to the mailbox...). Dad is one of the very few people M actually wants to be picked up by. Quite plainly, he adores his grandpa...and his grandpa adores him. And I was just glad that I was going out to dinner with my hubby in a few hours to begin the birthday festivities. More about that later.

Our little pumpkin party was a great success, even though we didn't have any heat! It was the day (a weekend day, Saturday), that the gas company was going to turn on the gas, but weekend days are considered emergency days, so there's no telling when they would arrive. Poor Dad hung out here all day (D helped him for part of the day) waiting for that time when he could see all his hard work pay off, but the day came and went and the party came and went before Gas Guy showed up at 10pm. The funny thing is, the heat wouldn't have ever come on because everyone's body heat kept the temp around 70/71 degrees. (Oh, and D set up the firelog DVD to play on our TV, if people saw warm, maybe they'd feel it?!) Anyway, back to the party...

Mom, Dad, G&G, Auntie, Ana, Ry, and Yana joined us for the festivities. We moved our table into the kitchen and put both leaves in it. Made it kind of cramped, but at least more people were able to fit around it than if we had left the table in the dining area. I bought a table cloth from the dollar store for easy setup and take down, and it looked festive, too. Everyone brought their own pumpkin and carving tools and I had some patterns for everyone to use. After we ate some yummy snacks: Baked Apples, Caramel Apples, popcorn, brownies, and something else I can't remember right now, it was pumpkin carving time! As people were cutting out the tops and scraping out the goo and seeds, I was trying to separate out goo from seeds. My favorite part of pumpkin carving is toasting the seeds, so I separated, washed, and salted the seeds and popped them in the oven for twenty minutes. Then everyone got to enjoy them when they were done carving!

In all the hustle and bustle, I didn't get pictures of all the beautifully carved pumpkins, but I did manage a few other pictures:

* Wednesday is my birthday already. I always used to eagerly anticipate it, but now that I'm a mommy, it seems to sneak up on me. Last year I was in the midst of a not-so-fun very-little-sleep pattern, but this year it's just the busyness that comes with a highly-active toddler. Anyway, I'm just as excited about my birthday as I've always been. We're dropping M off at Mom and Dad's tomorrow night and D is taking me out to dinner in Hartford (he was originally going to make dinner for me, but it was such a hassle between getting the ingredients, prepping, and then making it all when he got home around 5:45pm. He was a little too excited I suggested just going out!). M is staying overnight at his G&G's, which means I get to sleep in and doing a little shopping and whatever else I feel like doing before picking up Little Man. And then Mom is having a family party on Friday. So excited!!

* D got me hooked on MI:5, a British television series. We watch it on Netflix's Watch Now feature (made possible by Mom and Dad). Mom got me hooked on this other series called Day of Discovery by RBC Ministries. Each video is about 26 minutes long and usually about Israel and the Bible. And I'm watching the World Series, too, which is a win-win situation. I'd like it if either team won!

* D is loving Radiology. He's good at it, too, which helps. He's such a hard worker, I'm so proud of him. It's hard balancing work, marriage, and child, especially with his meticulous personality, but he does it. Oh, and yard work, too. He bagged 7 or 8 bags of leaves on Saturday (by Sunday it didn't look as if he'd done a thing, but so it goes!).

* Micah "talks" in sentences now, no more one-word babbling. And he cracks himself up, too:

So sorry I haven't been blogging lately. I really do have lots to say. Just no time to say it in! I have to post about our little pumpkin-carving party, our vacation in the Berkshires, and today...Halloween! Plus some Micah updates. A lot of the pictures I need are on D's Mac, so that's holding me up, but it would only take two seconds to transfer them. The trouble is finding two seconds when we're together and not doing the fifty-million other things that draw our attention. For now, I'll leave you with this cat jumping out of a pumpkin...aka Micah:

Two other things of note:
I just bought my grain mill (finally). It's the BlendTec electric kind:


And my cholesterol is now down to 190!!!!!!!!! It was high, like 242 (runs in the family, everyone was always shocked when I said I had high cholesterol), a few years ago. Good diets are good (great!) for a lot of things :).

Lots going on here, last week went by so fast I was literally surprised when I realized that Friday was indeed Friday. I guess that's good because it was our monthly date night :).

We went to Tapas and got chicken kabobs. I went there before and got the same meal and thoroughly enjoyed it. It comes with a delish Greek salad (D and I switched jalapeños (D) and olives (me)) and then the meal comes with rice, yogurt dip, and this onion and garlic medley that David wasn't too fond of, but I enjoyed. We were rolling out of there with all the food we ate! Then we did a few non-typical date night stuff: food shopping for our pumpkin party on Saturday, Trader Joe's for dessert (those molten lava chocolate cake thingys...D's choice), and Babies R Us for an insulated stainless steel straw bottle for Micah's milk. We came back home and watched Numb3rs and slept in (although, apparently Micah did, too...until 9am!). After sleeping in, we enjoyed a pomegranate (that we had gotten on our food shopping expedition) for breakfast. I had never had one before and it was really fun to eat, especially when D did all the hard work of opening it (after meticilously following the directions that came with it)!

Since I'm getting rid of as much plastic as possible, I'm getting rid of all M's sippy/straw cups that are plastic. I got a great deal on eBay: three 25-oz stainless steel bottles with straws (which are VERY hard to find!) for $25. One of these types sells for $25, which is ridiculous. Mom bought one off of me and the other two are for M. Except that they look so big for a little one-year old. So I'll use them around the house (because he drinks A LOT throughout the day) and use this new, insulated one when we're out. As I was checking out at Babies R Us, the cashier was raving about the straw bottle. She said she put ice cubes in her daughter's at 7:30am and they're still there when she gets home at 2:45pm. This will be helpful for the milk that M is now drinking. Since I'm not used to dealing with milk, it's left out a bit longer than it probably should be and I don't want to waste all of that good (expensive) milk.

In Micah news, not much is happening other than the busyness that is Micah. A friend was over the other night and she was amazed that, "he just doesn't stop!" And his new thing is climbing: up the toilet, on the couch, on the hope chest. Nothing is safe from Micah hands and feet! He gives this little grunting sound when he's struggling to get on something, like, "can't you see, I need some help, Mom!" He's such a little ham, too. When he gets hurt now, we'll ask him what happened and he'll reenact the whole thing. It's quite funny to behold. And sometimes, we'll just ask him what happened just to see what he'll do and he'll make something up and give a little whimper for sympathy. The last time I asked him, he got down into crawl position and pretended that he hit his head on the ground. Stinker. I'm going to stop randomly asking him what happened so he doesn't perfect the innate art of lying! Not sure where he gets all this, but his daddy is near genius, so I'm sure he's well on his way towards the same achievement. The other thing he's doing now is running. Why walk when you can run? is his newly adopted motto. And he still loves going outside, even though it's coooold out. So we rotate who is unlucky enough to have to stand with him outside. I like his exploring nature and will probably have to bundle up a lot this winter! I always took the kindergartners outside, they learn so much by interacting with and exploring nature, not to mention that they LOVE it. I was trying to video one of our outside adventures, but this is what M does every time a camera is turned on him:

Stinker. He's thirteen months old now...already! Here are some pictures of our little man:

D and I are hosting a Pumpkin Carving Party next Saturday night. We enjoyed the one we went to in PA a few years ago, so we decided to have one ourselves. I love, love, love picking apples and carving pumpkins. It was a tradition growing up and I loved every single second of going to the orchard to pick apples and pulling slimy seeds out of the pumpkins (truly, I can not think of a bad childhood memory...I think we had the perfect childhood, if there is such a thing!). Anyway, Dad always used to toast the pumpkin seeds we gutted and I've done it every time we carve pumpkins and will collect everyone seeds and the party and toast them. They're tasty...and good for you! And then I'm making some semi-good-for-you snacks, such as pumpkin bread or cookies, apple muffins, and some other stuff I've yet to decide. I'm excited!

D and I moved our room around the other day. D helped kicking and screaming (well, as much as David can be like that...which is not much at all!) because he didn't think I'd like it and want it back the other way. Not sure why he thought this since we've never moved a room around in our five years of marriage, but he helped none the less. It looks a lot better/cleaner/roomier and I'm not sure how many times D's said, "Our new room is awesome!" but it's been more than once! Micah was quite puzzled over the whole thing for a bit, but there are new things for him to get into, so I think he likes it, too!

Deal of the Century: or at least a great deal. I was at Walmart for two hours yesterday getting stuff on a list that has been accumulating for a few weeks now. One of the things on my list was room-darkening curtains for both of the bedrooms because the sun comes up on that side of the house. Micah doesn't need to be up with the sun, so we've been hanging blankets over the windows. While it's very effective, it's not so aesthetically pleasing. That doesn't bother me so much, which is why I haven't gotten them earlier, but when you (and I mean me) see room-darkening, noise-reducing, energy-saving curtains that were once $21.97 and $16.97 per panel marked down to $5 and $4.50, respectively, per panel, well you (and I mean me) don't just pass that up. I needed two pairs of panels, but I got four pairs because it was such a great deal. They had the colors I wanted, too, which was even more of a blessing!

Speaking of house and home, I'm going through every room and tossing/repurposing/giving away anything that we don't need, use, or want. In a word: simplifying. Micah's toys have been greatly reduced (he hasn't even noticed) and I'm only putting a few out at a time. He usually only plays with one thing at a time and it's usually something I've given him from around the house(ie empty containers), so he's probably happy he doesn't have all that stuff in his way anymore. I'm shifting his room around, so the toys and books that are out are all at his level. I'm working towards teaching good habits (lots of good info about teaching good habits early on in the Charlotte Mason books I've been reading) like putting things away, making your own bed (when he gets a toddler bed), etc, so everything needs to be at his level in order for him to do that!

And a foodie update: I'm adding more things into our diet now that I've gotten rid of almost all of the junk we used to eat. My goal is to incorporate more sprouts, lacto-fermented foods, and sourdough bread in the upcoming months. I'm getting my grain mill this month, a food dehydrator next month, and hopefully a water purification system the next. Mom found a sustainable farm in VT where we're going to be ordering our beef from, from now on. I only have beef on the menu twice a month, anyway, so it should last quite a while. Their starter packages are neat: a roast, some ground beef, some other cuts that I don't know too well because I don't cook a lot of beef. The passage in 1 Corinthians 10 is so apropos to our newly adopted way of eating, but I especially like verse 31, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." My thinking: Christ freed us from the laws of the Old Testament, but in my opinion, if God created us (and he did) and he gave certain laws about what is good for our bodies and what is not (OT food laws) and our bodies haven't evolved over the past few millenia (and they haven't!!), then it makes sense to me that what God said was good and bad for our bodies still applies. So we try to follow them as much as we can. Mom and Dad have totally jumped on the bandwagon with us and they're enjoying it as much as I am. Mom's convinced that if she ate better and fed us better, she and Ry wouldn't have been so sick. It's quite possible, since you are what you eat (well, you are what you digest, but that's a completely different discussion!), but I want to do the best possible for our family now that I know what the best is!

Ok and since you put up with all that, here are a few pics of our little-but-wants-to-be-big boy:

Since the ten- and eleven-month posts never happened, I posted the month-old pictures here along with his one-year picture. It looks like he grew into a toddler between ten and eleven months, although he's always been a big boy. The bear didn't tower over him for long!

At Micah's one year doctor's appointment, he weighed 24 pounds, one ounce and measured 30 1/2 inches. So that means he gained exactly 15 pounds and grew exactly 9 inches in one year. The appointment didn't end so well: shots and a blood test. He cried for exactly 0.02 seconds each time and then went about playing with whatever was in reach. I like that he's tough like that, I don't like crying/wimpy kids. I shouldn't say don't like, I guess I should say I wouldn't prefer to handle them. Dates back to kindergarten days when kids used to cry and whine for attention. Then we had to launch into the whole there-are-other-more-acceptable-ways-to-get-attention speech. Anyway, Uncle RyRy and Auntie Yana picked up Micah so I could rest for a bit (still being sick and all) and all was long-forgotten.

Micah's been up to a lot these past few months. Talking and walking and running and climbing and reading. He even tries to go certain down stairs without holding on to anything. Little daring, but that's nothing new. His favorite places are the car and the back cellar where there are whole new worlds to explore. Grandpa installing the new boiler in the cellar makes it all the more interesting!

He's sleeping really well still. A few blimps on the screen here and there, but nothing that ever turns into a bad habit. He's still taking two 1 1/2 to 2 hour naps everyday and going to bed at 8pm. He's so much fun to play with, especially with his personality and his quirks. Nothing gets by him, he's always watching and now he's trying to imitate. His newest thing is when you ask him where something is, such as, "Micah, where is your drink?" His response will be, "Hmmm??" in a questioning voice. It's really funny. And then he's off to look for said object or person.

What else? I turned the Bumbo seat into his booster seat a few months ago. He's at the table with us, which I like better than the highchair. I bought him a wooden bowl (I'm ridding myself of as much plastic as possible!) and he fed himself with a spoon the other day. I didn't really expect him to, I just set the bowl in front of him and gave him a spoon and showed him how to use it. Then I went off to load the dishwasher and when I got back, half the food was gone! And it wasn't on the floor, either! On the subject of ingesting, yesterday was the first day in Micah's life that he didn't nurse at all! :( I remember the days when I couldn't wait to be done with having him attached to me all.the.time. At his one year appointment, I asked the doctor if he could simply get his dairy from yogurt and cheese and kefir, but she said he'd need more calcium than they could provide. I'm not impressed with cow's milk because by the time they're done homogenizing and pasteurizing it, there's not a lot of nourishing stuff left. I debated goat's milk, and still might alternate it with the organic cow's milk (still not great) we bought at Whole Foods. I know I was really blessed to be able to successfully nurse as long as I did, so I will be grateful for that and do the best I can with my current options. The verdict? Micah LOVES the stuff! He drinks it without a problem and when he's done, he'll ask for more. The dr said to give him 20 ounces, but I think I'll do 16 because he gets calcium from other foods he eats (and eats and eats...).

Besides eating, Micah likes to talk. He talks to himself and makes himself laugh, too, which makes anyone around him start laughing, too! He says thank you more than please and is always quick to point out any "dog!" we see. Obviously, he understands a lot more than he can say, and he listens for the most part. Sometimes he'll have an attitude about it, but he'll still listen. And he's still great about putting things back, which always amazes me for some reason. If he doesn't remember to put something back, we'll remind him, "Micah, that book doesn't belong there, can you please pick it up?" So he will and he won't hand it to us, anymore, he'll put it back. The other day, we were coming in from outside and I hadn't closed the door behind us yet, so M toddles on over to it and shuts it and then goes about his business of playing. Hopefully I'm not witnessing the beginnings of some OCD tendencies like his daddy!

I'm sure I'm missing a few things (like his ability to point to his eyes, nose, and belly!), but I recently joined PaperBackSwap.com and am swapping books like crazy (I shipped 10 out in the first few days and am shipping another 4 out today!), so I have to go wrap them while Little Man is sleeping. Otherwise I'd have some unwanted "help."

Nick, Kristina, Micah, and I went apple picking today. What fun! It's such a fall thing to do, and I LOVE fall things to do! And it seems that Micah does, too. What more could he ask for: outdoors, food, Uncle, Auntie, and freedom. I guess if you threw a puddle in there, it would have been The Perfect Outing. The orchard was on a hill, so we were walking on a slope the entire time. It put Micah's superb walking skills to the test. He slipped on some apples a few times, started running down the hill and couldn't stop, and couldn't get up easily after falling. And he enjoyed all of it!

They had a photo contest going on that the guy told us about. Kristina and I snapped a few (okay, a lot) of pictures of Little Man eating his McIntosh apple. Yes, you're allowed to eat one or two during your outing (I'm pretty sure Nick's 6 or 7 was illegal, though!). I entered these four because I couldn't pick just one:




And here are a few others: