“Fuzzy head,” as he is affectionately called at church, has finally grown enough hair to have bed head in the morning, and now a little flip in the back as well. Oh my heart…
First Curl
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Monthly Archives: May 2010
First Real Shoes
On Saturday, my mom and I picked out Micah’s first “real” pair of shoes. We put them on in the shoe department and enjoyed the little stomp stomp stomp noise he made as he explored the rest of Kohl’s. He loves wearing them. I love seeing them lined up with our much larger shoes.
What a Difference a Year Makes
I was just looking at a picture of Micah that I had taken when the nurses first brought him back to my room after he was born. It’s the one where his lips are all squished in.
They brought him in, asked if I needed anything and left. I found myself alone with a tiny, sleeping newborn, in a very quiet hospital room. All I could hear were his little pants and grunts. I couldn’t believe they would just give him to me and leave. Didn’t they know that I had no idea what I was doing? They trusted me with this precious little life? No one was going to supervise me? That felt weird. That was then.
This is now. Tonight I laid down next to him on his twin mattress parked on the floor while he tried to get comfortable. We looked at the glowing stars on his ceiling and we “talked.” He reminds me of a puppy the way he sits up and plops back down repeatedly until he finds his sweet spot, then he goes to sleep. Sometimes he thinks my face is a good place to rest his head, and the whole routine starts over when I plop him back on his pillow. I know him so well, I can detect the subtle changes in his breath that signal he is asleep. I know the exact moment, without even seeing his eyes, that he is dreaming. His hand twitches ever so slightly and I carefully slip away.
I can barely remember him as a newborn sometimes because I am so captivated by the little boy that he has become. It’s hard to remember life before he started playing peekaboo or pulling on my pant legs. When I look at this picture from the first night, I’m taken back to that memory of my first time alone with him. But it’s weird… because I didn’t know him yet then, and I didn’t know myself the way I do now. So that memory feels like it is about a different Kim and a different Micah. He was a cute little stranger to me the day he was born, and I felt like such an amateur. But now he is an extension of me and I don’t know what my life would look like without him. Taking care of him comes more naturally than taking care of myself sometimes.
What is hard to grasp is that a year from now, I’ll look back with similar understanding, because I’ll have found a new window into his soul as he begins to string words together and share a part of himself that has been hidden. Every day, we see more and more of his personality as he begins to communicate what he likes with finger points and grunts and smiles. I have this sneaking suspicion that we don’t even know half of what is going on in that little head of his. What a difference a year makes…
Crochet Project: DSLR Camera Strap Cover
I like to crochet, but I tend to go in spurts. I’ll whip out several projects and then I won’t touch yarn for months. I am currently in one of those spurts. It started with a baby hat for an upcoming shower, and then I started staring at my basket of yarn, dreaming of all the other things I could make.
Last week, I went to my friend Lindsay’s house down the street and we made covers for our DSLR camera straps from scraps of fabric we had laying around. I like how mine turned out, but a few days later my dad offered me his old camera strap, which is plush (the neck part is high grade foam, oh yeah…) Of course I wanted to make this strap as pretty as the first one, but I wasn’t ready to wrestle with my sewing machine again. Then I had an idea – I’ll crochet a slip cover!
For this particular strap I used the standard 8 hook and regular weight, variegated yarn. I started a chain of 12, slip stitched into the 12th chain from the hook and began to work in single crochets around the circle until the piece was long enough to fit over the plush part of the strap. Then I tied off and sewed a long piece of yarn through each end, leaving tails. After I slipped the cover over the strap, I pulled the tails tight, knotted them, and used the hook to pull them back underneath the cover, hidden from view. Simple and pretty!
Cubby Fan(atic)
A long time ago, when Eric and I were first together, he realized something about me and has teased me about it ever since. I’m not talking about my inability to jump. (That’s another story.) And some like-minded women might even related to my obsession. Men will most likely understand why Eric thinks it’s so funny (or cute, right?). Ahem…. I have a fascination with cubbies.
If money were no object, my house would be full of cubbies. The closets would be cubbied. The pantry would be cubbied. The laundry room would be seriously cubbied. In my mind, there is no greater or higher form of organization than cute, square cubby holes. Money is an object, so I have settled for the 9 cube block in the living room and its matching set in Micah’s playroom, both of which are used to store toys and books. Both have adorable canvas totes in assorted colors.
Where am I going with this? Oh yeah… I picked a new theme for my blog a while ago when I switched to self-hosting. It was pretty bland for my tastes, but there was something about it that struck a chord with me. Yesterday and today I spent some time redesigning the theme’s colors and details, and slowly but surely it is beginning to reflect my personality and design tastes. It’s not quite there yet, but I’m no Michelangelo when it comes to web design, so it will take some time. I love the cartoon of my family, though. I should really start drawing more – it is a nice little stress reliever.
I was staring at the screen this afternoon, trying to brainstorm about things I could change or add, when all of a sudden, it occurred to me what it is that I like so much about this theme.
It has cubbies.
And then I went back in my mind and visualized all of the favorite blogs I’ve ever owned or designed, and I realized they all have one thing in common. They are very modular. They are very organized. They have lots and lots of cubbies.
I like my posts organized in neat little boxes, I like square pictures in my sidebars, I like everything having its own border and section and title. I’m a cubby fanatic and it has manifested itself in my blog design.
I’m sure I’m not the only one. I have a theory that we are a certain breed of women: we like cubbies, we shop at Target, we have a blog, we like design projects. It’s also highly unlikely that our walls are left white. What do you think?
Softball Season
This past Thursday was Eric’s second softball game of the season. The games rotate between three or four time slots, so sometimes he’ll play at 6:30 and sometimes he doesn’t start until after 9pm. Since this last game was an early one, I decided to come along and bring the little guy so he could see his first softball game! We hung out with Grandpa behind the dugout.
It didn’t take long before Mr. Micah started wiping out in the dirt. Not that he cared; he was too busy exploring all the grass, spare bats, fences, picnic tables, softballs and little kids running around. I was proud of his dusty badge of honor on his rear. He’s my little tough guy!
Every time Eric was in view on the other side of the fence, Micah would shriek and point. He just loves his daddy! Eric was playing catcher, which according to him is a very boring position, but he did a good job.
He was a little rusty with the bat, but it’s the beginning of the season and he didn’t play last year. I’ll give him some slack. Plus, if I were to step up to that plate, we’d all be laughing for a very long time.
Softball didn’t really hold Micah’s attention. He was more interested in running all over the park. He was really intense. For a child that usually never lets his mama out of sight, he sure goes wild outside. He just kept going full speed ahead. I’m not even sure if he knew what he was headed for, but he was on a mission. He probably would have run clear to the other side of the park had I not picked him up and brought him back, much to his disappointment. I think he loves the outdoors because there are no walls or boundaries. He perceives ultimate freedom and decides he’s gonna make a break for it.
The game got cut short because the other team was so far ahead. We got creamed. I was rooting for Eric, but I was also really cold and very relieved to get out of there early. We went to Culver’s afterward with Eric’s dad and a few of our friends. Everyone was amazed by Micah’s appetite; he ate an entire kid’s meal by himself. The only part of the kid’s meal he didn’t eat was the dessert, but that’s because I ate it. Babies don’t need cookies, and I couldn’t let it go to waste, right? hehe… I know I’m terrible! I’ll let him have the cookies when he’s a little bigger, I promise!
You’re My Little Fluffy One…
My mom and I like to sing that song (it was in the Yoplait Whips commercial) to Micah because he is so cute and cuddly – “fluffy” does seem to be the perfect word to describe him. When I was taking these photos, the song came to mind again, probably because of the fuzzy white blanket I was using. These are the pictures I wish I would have taken when he was a newb, but then again, I didn’t have my Nikon when he was a teenie, so I wouldn’t have been able to get the same effect.
Clearly, Micah was thinking I was crazy for trying to stick him in a basket. It only took him 2.5 seconds to get out.
Oh, how I love sunlight on a fuzzy baby head… And chubby little fingers… And overalls with nothing underneath to show off squishy little arms…
Baby teeth and dimples make me melt.
I think it’s funny how he holds a pacifier almost like a baby cigar. He’ll chew on it and then drop it on the floor when he finds something else more interesting.
That Really Is My Child…
Do you ever look at your kid and see a little bit of yourself – or maybe even a lot of yourself? I took this picture of Micah sitting on the couch last week and I realized it is very similar to the pictures my mom has of me sitting on the couch in front of the window when I was about the same age.
We’re always saying how much he looks like Eric, that when I see a resemblance to myself, it’s a little surprising.
Micah, Your Mother Is Not Perfect
Dear Micah,
From the title of this letter, you might think this was one of those, “Dear son, I’m sorry I yelled at you today,” kinds of letters. It’s not. This is much more amusing. You see, this morning you discovered two things about your mother: she has armpit hair and gas, and both are hilarious to you.
When I shuffled to your room this morning at 4:30am, I found you standing at the door with a big smile on your face. I swept up all 22 pounds of you into my arms and plopped you back in your big boy bed. Then, because I was only half-conscious, I laid down next to you, hoping it would trick you into sleeping in. Lucky for me, we both fell back asleep. You are the world’s best cuddler, though we are still trying to teach you how to kiss with your teeth safely hidden behind pursed lips.
Around quarter after seven, I felt you stir and I opened my eyes to see you hovering over me like a bobcat with a wild look in your eyes and a creepy, toothy grin on your face. You now have just enough hair to have bed-head, which made you look even crazier. When I smiled at you, you laughed and crawled right up on top of me. You are my little monkey.
Then I saw your gaze shift to my armpit as I stretched my arms behind my head. Micah, I’m usually pretty good about this, but every once in a while I go a few days without shaving my underarms, and wouldn’t you know, this was one of those times. Wouldn’t you know, your chubby fingers darted straight for the stubble and started flicking it, making me feel incredibly awkward. My first reaction was to pull my arm down quickly and say, “hey,” which of course, made you laugh.
And then as I sat up, I felt a rumbling in my stomach. In your thirteen months of life, I have never thought twice about farting in front of you, after all you are a baby, and isn’t that like farting in front of your dog? But, this time was the first time you laughed. You didn’t just laugh, you nearly keeled over with silly laughter, and you knew exactly where that sound came from. I know this because you just started laughing at your own gas this week.
Micah, this is the point in your life where two things will change. One, I will always keep stubbly armpits hidden from your sight from now on. Two, I am not going to fart in front of you anymore. You will grow up never hearing me toot, because “moms don’t fart.” But, somehow deep down you’ll know I can. And someday, you’ll see a girl’s armpit fuzz and for some reason you won’t be that shocked. (Please don’t flick hers, though.) There are some things you learn as a baby and remember for the rest of your life, even if you don’t remember learning them, like the taste of dirt. This is one of those things. Yes, Micah, girls fart and grow hair under their arms just like boys do. Try not to laugh too hard.
Making the Switch
You’d think that I would have done this by now considering my baby-wearing, co-sleeping, breastfeeding approach to parenting, but I had a few hangups. For one, the apparent start-up costs seemed staggering. Second, I was leery of poop-scrubbing. Then my neighbor and friend, Lindsay, got into cloth diapering with her three-month-old daughter. After she educated me and let me come over to her house and play with her fluffy stash, I realized two things: cloth diapering is only as expensive as you allow it to be and flushable liners are going to be my best friend.
Ironically, I made my decision to switch a week after buying a jumbo box of Pampers Baby Dry diapers. So my diaper budget is spent for the month and I have to wait until June to order. I have been researching my options like crazy in the meantime. I am going to start out with a basic stash of prefolds and covers, along with a few snappis and a roll of liners. I’m thinking about getting the Bummis starter kit from Nikki’s Diapers, but I haven’t made up my mind yet. There are so many choices and places to order from! It’s too bad there isn’t a brick-and-mortar store in the area…
I am looking forward to deleting the $45 monthly diaper expense from the budget. I expect the water bill to increase by about $10-15, but saving $30-35 a month will be worth the extra laundry!