I thought it would be cute to introduce Valentine’s Day to Micah by having him make his own Valentine for Eric this afternoon. I cut a red paper heart from a piece of card stock and helped Micah write a Valentine’s message on the front with a fine point sharpie pen. By “helped” I mean I let him hold the pen while I moved it around. It proved to be quite the challenge since Micah did not always want to move the pen in the same direction as I did.  Then I got out the crayons and let Micah color the Valentine however he wanted. He scribbled with several different colors, but brown was his favorite (and right now it is one of the few he can correctly identify).

Now we just have to wait for Eric to get home from work so Micah can present his first Valentine to his daddy!

When everyone started talking about this snowstorm, I really didn’t think it was going to be that serious.  The weather report is always wrong, isn’t it? And it partially was, in the fact that this snow came later than they predicted. But, we are totally snowed in. Last night Eric shoveled for a few hours and got about halfway down our driveway! This morning I tried to continue, but the bottom of the driveway was a lot deeper than the top. It’s a good three feet deep down by our sidewalk (we have a steep driveway). I was able to shovel a narrow path through it so we could at least get our mail and order a pizza for lunch. Eric is working at home today, since it’s going to take several more hours of shoveling if we ever want to get our van out of here! I just wish it would all melt. It’s heavy snow and it’s so much work trying to shovel it with a dinky little shovel. Even if we had a snow blower it would be worthless at this point.

So this morning, Micah bounded across the couch in his little socked feet and plopped down behind me where I was sitting on the floor. He touched my head and a huge jolt of static electricity flowed from his tiny finger and zapped my head. Immediately visions of grandeur filled his imagination. He starting poking my head again, hoping to get the same surprised reaction from me. Then daddy stepped in, with instructions on how to build up static by rubbing your hands on the couch and shuffling your feet on the carpet. With each successful shock, Micah laughed and looked at his hands as though to say, “I have power!” And that is how he has spent part of his afternoon, shuffling about and trying to electrocute his mommy.

Once a week we play at Heather & Grace’s house. To be fair, it’s Scott’s house, too, but you know, he’s not really there during the day because he has to work. While the husbands are away, the wives will play… and change diapers, stop temper tantrums, clean up 543 messes, try to cook dinner, wash one load of laundry + one sock (where’s the other sock?)…. and for us anyway, take pictures of all the funny and cute moments in between. We may turn on Barney or Caillou so we can eat lunch or talk about something other than the ABCs or the make-believe booger Micah keeps showing to me. And then, nap time. NAP TIME! Mommies love nap time. It’s too short sometimes. We love our babies, but when a toddler needs a nap, mommy needs it more. Cranky doesn’t even describe a nap-drived toddler. It’s the reason I have 6 gray hairs.

That was a 151 word explanation for a pink binkie. You see, Grace has pink pacifiers laying all over the place and she doesn’t even like them. You know who loves binkies? Micah! Only Micah isn’t allowed to have one unless it’s nap time. I hide his. So when we go to Grace’s house, he hunts for Grace’s binkies. When I take one, he finds another. He has binkie radar. He does not discriminate against pink ones, either. He doesn’t even care if it’s an infant sized pacifier that he can barely hold between his teeth. He still loves it!

When Micah finds a binkie, he doesn’t just pop it in his mouth. It’s a celebration. He squeals with delight, “beee keeee!” Then he picks it up gingerly, inspects it, puts in his mouth, smiles, and taps it a few times for good measure. Sometimes he will continue tapping the binkie with one little finger. He might take it out and oogle over it and then put it back. Tap, tap, tap.

If Micah finds a second binkie, it’s doubly exciting. He has been caught with two binkies in his mouth at once. But most of the time, he will alternate between the two every 10 seconds.

I am glad Micah prizes his binkies. He knows that the only time he gets to have one is when he is in bed. Do you know what that means? This little man LOVES bed time! Sometimes he asks to go to bed early just so he can snuggle in bed and suck on his binkie. What a little sweetie.

I have good reasons for not letting him have a binkie when he is awake. The main reason is he is a big talker without a pacifier, but when he has a binkie in his mouth, he’s either silent or I can’t understand a word he’s saying. Plus, he always loses them and it’s a tragedy when that happens. If he loses a binkie at night, it’s probably just next to his pillow and he finds it pretty quick. It’s just easier for everyone if we limit binkie usage to bed time.

Our 2010 Christmas was so much more fun and relaxing than 2009. We did not try to go to a bajillion parties or celebrations this year. We made it a point to stay home Christmas morning and have fun with our little guy. (He really caught on this year, too!) I also lowered my expectations and did not try to be Martha Stewart in the gift department. I went with my strengths (photo gifts!) and worked around my shortcomings/time constraints (store bought crisp instead of homemade deviled eggs). I wrapped all of my gifts from a single roll of paper (granted, it was a huge roll from Target) and I did not care if the tags matched. I let Micah stay up late and showed him a little grace when he got cranky. I let myself have fun. I let things go.

Also I would like to give a shout out to our new-ish mini van that made everything about traveling so much easier this year.

We enjoyed Christmas Eve at my in-laws house. We opened some presents so there would be less commotion when Eric’s grandparents came over the next day. Micah loves his new tricycle and Elmo! We went to Christmas Eve service and we were slightly late, which meant we had to sit in folding chairs against the back wall. The parking lot was so full that people were making parking spots where there should have been aisles. It was crazy! Everyone waits to go to church until Christmas, apparently!

I would like to interrupt this post to brag about how much I love my two “main” gifts this year. Eric’s parents got me a Kindle, which is awesome and I am really enjoying it! My dad picked out a Garmin Nuvi (a GPS!), which has already saved my life, like twice. I don’t have a picture of the Garmin, but I figured, you know what it looks like anyway.  Also, you do not need to see any more awkward Christmas photos of me.

Unless that photo contains a ball of cuteness that we affectionately refer to as “little buddy.”

This was taken Christmas morning. he was trying to make me eat the ornament. (Ironically it is the same type of ornament he took a bite out of last week or so.) We gave Micah a rocking horse, which he loves because he is very enamored with horses! It sings this ridiculous weird song that Micah dances to, with the words “I love to have my coat brushed under the old oak tree.” Clippety Clop. Clippety Clop. Hey Eric, brush me under the oak tree. Haaaaa……

Christmas day we visited Eric’s parents and their extended family for a few hours, and then we went to my parents for the night.  On Sunday we went to my Grandma’s Christmas celebration, which was pretty low key and fun. We played take away bingo and I won a lotto ticket. Actually I won two tickets. And one of them was a winner!  I won the lottery!! Seriously!! I took it to the gas station the next day and proudly walked out with a crumpled five dollar bill.  Whoever spent $10 on those tickets so I could win $5 should not feel bad because my joy was worth way more than that lost $5.

I stayed an extra day with my mom to visit my cousin and then I returned home. The next day I came down with another horrible cold, my third illness in December. Let’s hope I’m healthier in 2011…

Today, while Micah’s fish sticks were browning in the oven, I pulled a little black box from the basement and brought it upstairs. I strapped Micah into his booster seat, tied an apron loosely around this neck and handed him a sucker.

“I’m giving you a haircut today, Micah! Because you have a mullet!”

“Heh cutt,” he replied. “Hecket! Heckut! Heckah… t!” (He always repeats a new word in several variations as though he is trying to hear which one sounds right.)

I opened the black box and pulled out the clippers. Micah’s eyes grew wide. “No? No?”

“It’s ok, buddy,” I assured him. I plugged them in and turned them on. The low hum got his attention as he scrutinized my every move.  “Do you want to touch it?” He reached out and quickly jerked his hand back.

“No? No?” (It always comes out like a question.)  He moved around, trying to avoid the clippers. I thought to myself that this was probably a bad idea, but the second the clippers touched his head, he settled into a very relaxed state.  In fact, he did not move for the duration of the haircut.

“Does this feel good or something, buddy?” I asked him. He didn’t make a sound, except for the slurping of his grape  tootsie pop. I murmured something about it feeling like a scalp massage.  I finished up and brushed the soft, fuzzy curls from his shoulders. “There, you look handsome!” Micah looked at me and smiled. I think he knows what that means.