Moving On

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:

I know it's not Monday, but just pretend it is while you read this, k?

* Along with his first birthday came Micah's big boy carseat! He loves being able to look out and about while we're out and about. I think this is where his new love of playing in cars stemmed from: being able to see all the cool things he can explore when not harnessed!

* M and I went on a nature walk the other day and collected some acorns and beechnuts to bring inside. Then, Auntie Yana gave him a mini pumpkin to add to his nature collection. It's all contained in a little box on the living room table to which he'll go from time to time. We have and read a book about how pumpkins grow, so that's in there, too. He likes to dump it all out and explore it that way, but that's okay because he's great about cleaning up when asked. Speaking of cleaning up, I kind of liked when he just threw stuff on the floor because I could find it. I'll give him random things, like a cinnamon bottle that I just used to make D's baked oatmeal, and I'll find it in the gadgets drawer when I go get the apple slicer. That means he had to open the drawer, put the bottle in it (he most likely took something out of that drawer, which is why he put the bottle "back"), and then shut the drawer. I've witnessed things like this a few times, it's cute and funny to behold.

* Our latest Date Night was a success. We borrowed the Entertainment card from Dad and Mom and went to Taste of India where we got a buy one get one deal. The food was delicious and we both took food home which was made into dinner the next night. Four meals for the price of one, not bad! Then we went to Whole Foods to get some tea because I felt a cold coming on. It was so nice to cozy up with David, some tea, and a great episode of Numb3rs before calling it a night. The next morning, we went out to breakfast at a little diner in The Center of a neighboring town before picking M up. Mom said we should come back around dinnertime, but we miss our Little Man too much. It's not like he misses us, though, so we really should take advantage of that while we can! Mom also said that she put a picture of D and me on the fridge at Micah-level and he'd wander over to it from time to time and plant one of his famous slobbery kisses on "us."

* We are super excited about our upcoming vacation to the Berkshires with D's parents. We're going in late October for a few days since D was able to take some time off. I love mid-Summer and early-Fall vacations. Hopefully the leaves will still be pretty when we get up there! Micah is going to love exploring new places and new things ...we just hope he sleeps well! His track record isn't that good: he was up at 5:30am every day of our vacation in PA! To his credit, he was younger then, so maybe he'll do fine in a strange place?! We're praying towards that end, anyway.

* I found what seems like a great homeschooling method the other day. I wanted a curriculum with a lot of hands-on activities (like Montessori) and that is biblically based, but I didn't know if it was out there. Well it seems like it is, although I have to research it a bit more before I know for sure. It's called the Charlotte Mason Method. Click here to find out more about it!

On Tuesday, September 15th, one year to the day that Micah Andrew was pulled into this world, we had a mini-party at our house. Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Dad, Ryan, Yana, and Nick were all present (Kristina was working...she had taken Saturday off especially to be at Micah's party, what a great auntie!! and D's parents were away) to eat the brownie-turned-cake I made from Trader Joe's. I set out some other snacks, too, since my family can eat :).

At exactly 7:49pm, we all sang Happy Birthday to M, who again was awed and puzzled at this funny little tradition. So funny was his reaction, that we all sang it again and enjoyed seeing his reaction a second time. It's the little things... Anyway, it was a quick visit since I had everyone over around 6:30pm and 8ish is M's bedtime. But it was nice to celebrate on his actual birthday and reminisce about what was going on the previous year at that time with people who were there.

Dad suggested we get a new boiler because the one we have is the one that was originally installed with the house. In the 1950s. He said we could do it for a good price because he'd be doing the majority of the work (he's such a handy guy, in case you haven't noticed). Basically it'd pay for itself in the next five years we're here because when we sell the house, people would see the [desperate] need for a new boiler and take it off the price they'd be willing to pay. So by doing it now for less, we'd save money and reap the benefits of a more efficient boiler. Then David had the awesome idea of converting from oil the natural gas. Dad took that idea and ran with it. He contact the gas company, hounded the guy, got them to install the pipe for free, ordered the new boiler, etc. Have I mentioned how awesome he is yet? He is. He's an old pro at this conversion thing, so I trust his expertise. He did this at Ryan's house last year and is the midst of finishing up the same thing at Rita's house. This guy can't sit still, is what I think it comes down to! So now we have all this loud trucks on the side of our house digging up the street, digging up our lawn, installing all these lines in preparation for the new boiler. The policeman overseeing the work the first day (we're on day three at this point!) was a guy from our church. Small world.

I went to the OBGYN yesterday. It's a different practice than the one I was going to when I was pregnant. This is the one that Yana goes to, because this guy is a certified homeopathic doctor as well as a board certified OBGYN. I was impressed with the entire visit, from beginning to end. Well not impressed with exam part, but who ever is? The office was so well organized, the patient rooms were beautiful, I talked with the dr in his office before and after the exam...everything was just so relaxed! Another thing that was relaxing? The fact that I'm six pounds less than my pre-pregnancy weight! I was surprised actually. I don't keep track of my weight at all (D is confused with the fact that we don't have a scale!), so the only time I'm weighed is at these yearly appointments. I was happy, though, because I feel great since starting our new way of eating and now I know it works because I'm always full, but I'm losing the unnecessary weight! Mom said that I should stop losing the pounds (I'm not trying to) and I kind of agree with her because most of my pants are too big for me now...oops! I think I've hit my optimum weight, though, so maybe a shopping spree is in my near future?! :)

We went to a wedding on Saturday. The son of one of our family friends got married, so the eight of us were invited. It was a fun family outing. Micah went to the ceremony, but we dropped him at Mom and Dad's where my aunt and cousin were more-than-ready to watch him for the evening. The reception was held at the Simsbury Inn (my uncle had his reception there almost twenty years ago) and needless to say everything was first class. Here are some pictures:

Date Night is this Friday night :). It's D turn to decide where we're going, although he has asked me numerous times where I want to go. We have a pile of coupons to places where we would like to go, so I'm sure we'll be sifting through those tonight. Micah will enjoy Grammy and Grandpa's house, when does he not? Pretty much anything goes at G&Gs (typical grandparents!) and they are so good about getting down and playing with him or doing things he likes to do (for example, playing in the car).

Okay, I guess I'll do another paragraph about Micah! So, the car. It's his newly found play toy and I think it's because he's facing forward in his carseat now. He gets to see all this cool stuff and when he's unrestrained, he wants to get at it. The other day, we were over Mom and Dad's and so were Ry and Yana. That means he had four cars to tour...and don't think he didn't. He went to each and every car, made his "struggling to get this open" sound (to which someone promptly opened the door), climbed in, and started "driving." Sounds dangerous, I know, but when you're watching him, it's not. His maximum playtime in there is about five minutes, then the watcher usually gets bored of sitting in there and tries to redirect him. Doesn't always work smoothly, but he gets the idea when car door is shut and you say, "All done!" It's fun watching him explore real life things and processing everything, every second.