Tag Archives: Micah

Little Bedtime Conversations

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I think Micah has begun to pick up on the little things I do, and one of them is the quiet way I talk to him at bedtime. Now that he sleeps in his big boy bed (a twin mattress on the floor), we snuggle side by side while gazing at the plastic constellations on his ceiling until he drifts to sleep. He’ll reach over and touch my face very gently with his tiny fingers and speak very softly in his baby language, as though he’s telling me stories about his day. He’ll sigh, roll back and forth a few times, plop his head down a few different ways (sometimes on my head), grab my face some more, play with my fingers, chatter some more…. this goes on for about twenty minutes and finally he’ll fall silent, fast asleep. I wish I had a little recorder to capture his tiny high pitched voice. “Da da da da, go! na na na guh guh! dee dee tee tee…”

The Big Party

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The morning of Micah’s big party, I told Eric, “This is right up there with our wedding.” That was, of course, code for, “make sure nothing bad happens, otherwise I might just cry.” I had no reason to worry, however. The day turned out to be a huge success. I had a blast. Very few tears were shed. Tantrums were avoided. I was amazed at how well Micah handled all of the excitement. More than anything, I felt so blessed to have so many friends and family members there to celebrate my FIRST child’s FIRST birthday.

One thing I definitely do not regret is keeping things simple. Initially, I had a lot of plans for things like favors and elaborate decorations, but I decided to skip those things to save both time and myself from extra stress. In the end I realized they likely would have gone unnoticed anyway.

It was a lot of fun watching him open gifts. At Christmas, he really didn’t know what was going on, but this weekend he really caught on to the whole concept of these colorful boxes being full of toys just for HIM.

I made Micah this shirt using nothing more than my ink jet printer, iron-on transfer paper and a basic white toddler t-shirt (they come in a pack of five). The party theme started out as “Puppy,” but as I changed plans, I realized the only puppy item left was this shirt. Eh, that’s okay. :) I love the shirt anyway!

My neighbor and friend Lindsay made this cute cake for Micah. He was very suspicious of the cake and hardly ate any of it. He doesn’t seem to be that crazy about sweets in general. He prefers chicken and veggies or spaghetti. That’s fine with me!

Rest of the photos are on Facebook for those of you who know me. Enjoy!

Birthday Bash Preview

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I started processing the photos from Micah’s big birthday bash (on the 10th) last night. We got some awesome photos and I am having a great time looking through them all.  Here are a few to tide you over until I finish…

Micah is helping my dad play Corn Hole along with his Uncle Mark.

Kyla - half of my neighbor Lindsay's set of twins - running around the yard. She is beautiful!

Marra, my first college roomie, enjoying the gorgeous weather!

You will just have to wait to see more. What a tease I am!

No More Monkeys Jumping Out Of Bed

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Micah must have gotten the memo that he is officially a toddler now because today was a day for milestones. First of all, he is cutting two teeth at once – a top right molar and his bottom right lateral incisor. He has been chewing on everything, including my clothes and the furniture. Then this morning I caught him trying to climb out of his crib! I instantly had visions of him toppling out in the middle of the night and crashing to the floor. Right before his nap, I took the rail off his crib and converted it to a toddler bed. Of course he fell out when he woke up. So for bedtime I put our futon mattress on the floor underneath his crib. That way if he falls out tonight, he will only plop down onto another soft surface. Who knows, he may even sleep through it. So far, he has been asleep for 2 1/2 hours and he has not fallen out. Crossing my fingers…

Peacefully napping just moments before waking and crashing into the pillows below.

But, because I am a mother and I naturally worry, Eric’s parents are bringing us a spare twin mattress tomorrow night, which I will put on the floor in place of his crib/toddler bed. He has slept on this particular mattress during his naps at their house, so I already know he likes it, plus I will not worry about him falling and getting scared in the middle of the night. The nice thing about a twin mattress is the fact that he will have a lot more room to toss and turn (which is does quite a bit), and transitioning him to a normal bed will be easy. We’ll simply add a box spring when he’s 2 and a bed frame when he’s 4 — or something along those lines.

Since I was already switching things up in his room, I decided to do a little rearranging to prevent him from climbing onto the window. My arm chair was by his window and so I needed to move that away so he couldn’t use it as a “ladder.” I also had to make room for his new toys!

Notice how he just tipped over his Diaper Genie...

Next we’ll be bolting all the furniture to the wall. He’s a little monkey!

Happy Birthday Micah!

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I woke the birthday boy up with a song – he danced in my arms while I sang “Happy Birthday” as best I could at 6:30 in the morning. He seemed to pick up pretty quickly that today was his special day.

He watched me piece together his homemade birthday sign.

Spelling out "Happy 1st Birthday" with leftover scrapbooking paper

After I finished the sign, I blew up a few balloons. Watching Micah’s face as I exhausted all my breath into these things was priceless. I could just tell he was dying to get his teeth sunk into these balloons, which is exactly why I placed them out of reach.

Chocolate brown and powder blue - perfect colors for a baby boy's birthday!

And then it was on to the cupcakes. I decided to go with triple fudge cupcakes and homemade chocolate buttercream frosting since it would show up pretty well in photos (when Micah smeared it all over his face, that is).

3/4 cup butter, tsp of vanilla, 3/4 cup milk, 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1 1/2 cups cocoa... yummy!

I totally licked the spoon when I was done.

Thank you to Robin for lending me this cupcake "tower"

We relaxed the rest of the afternoon until our guests started to arrive. Tonight was just a little party for us and our parents.

Eric's mom and my dad hanging out with the birthday boy

While we were waiting for the pizza to be done, we decided to let Micah open up his presents. The last time he opened gifts at Christmas, he had no idea what to do, but this time he had a little more fun with it.

Just as interested in the wrapping paper!

Watching Daddy open his little people farm

Taking the little farmer for a spin around the living room

After presents we had pizza and cupcakes! Micah was pretty suspicious of the cupcake. Grandpa Mike had to help him out a little bit.

By the time the party was ending, Micah was pretty overwhelmed and exhausted. He passed out in his crib pretty quick, but I think he had a lot of fun. He will probably play with his new toys all day tomorrow!

Peanuts Are Evil

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Considering how much I love peanut butter, it’s going to be really hard for me to accept that it is something that can hurt my little boy. Today he tried his very first peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and everything was going well until, ten minutes later…

He started itching his eyes and ears quite a bit, and then he broke out in hives. It seemed to clear up a little bit after washing him up, but it was far from over. The worst came when it really got into his system…

Hives spread all over this body. His skin, especially under his arms and around his diaper area, turned bright red and bumps appeared everywhere. He was scratching his belly and crying. I gave him a cool bath and called the pediatrician. Unfortunately all I can do is give him Benadryl and wait it out. I’m so glad he has not experienced any respiratory symptoms, otherwise we’d be headed to the doctor or the ER.

It’s just so hard to see him suffer like this. Tomorrow is his birthday – I hope he is feeling better by then! At least his doctor’s appointment is already scheduled for Friday. I hope to have him tested to make sure it really is a peanut allergy, and also to see if there is anything else I should avoid. I really hope he outgrows this allergy, though!

Taking Our Time

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My Mom said something this weekend that really stuck with me. She said that this season of life, parenting young children, goes by too fast, and it can go by even faster if we are too busy and too distracted to take in every moment. TV, activities, housework, errands and all the other urgent things of life can take our focus away from the things we’ll miss the most: their cute habits, their curiosity, their words, their play… everything that makes up who they are and everything that defines childhood in all its slow-paced, joyful wonder.

Leisurely eater...

What a cute little mess on the window!

Micah definitely doesn’t have any problem living in the moment. In fact, tonight I remarked to Eric that Micah is always bound to the present moment and all its emotions, good or bad. Whether that means being overcome by the anxiety of hunger or the pain of a bump on the head or the hilarity of his mom blowing raspberries on his belly, Micah only lives in the present. He only knows what he feels right now and he feels it and knows it to the fullest. It’s easy to upset him terribly, then again, it’s always easy to distract him from his misery with something new and exciting. He can shift from sobs to laughter and back to sobs in seconds.

Death of a tuna sandwich.

(Tangent: As adults, I think we should continue to focus on the moment as we did when we were children, but with an anchor dropped firmly in the presence of God. Though we should take everything in with full appreciation, absorbing all the details, we should also resist the urge to let our emotions be ruled by our present circumstances. We have an awareness of what is beyond the here and now, and even more than that, we have the knowledge that our loving Father is in control and has our best interests at heart. Hunger shouldn’t terrorize us when we know of God’s promise to provide. Pain shouldn’t cripple us when we look up to see God’s open arms reaching out to comfort our souls. Fear shouldn’t keep us from living when we stand before a God that is much bigger than even our biggest enemy.)

So today I crawled with him on the floor and looked at everything he looked at. I watched his expressions closely and wondered what was going on behind those deep blue eyes with the endless eyelashes. I left the TV off and listened to him babble all day. I noticed that his chatter is beginning to sound a lot like our conversations – as though he was narrating everything he was doing. After his nap, I took him for a walk along the river and watched his reactions to everything. I tried to take note of what caught his interest the most. (People, ducks.)

Love those little ears!

I began to realize that this cute little baby I’ve come to love so much over the past year is so much more than a pair of dimples, tiny feet, a fuzzy round head and high pitched-squeals. He is a man. Maybe not now… but he will be. He is a full fledged person that God created, with his own life ahead of him. He was a part of  me once, he is so close to me now, but he is separate from me, with his own personality, quirks, hangups, talents, passions and tendencies. That realization has driven me to really get to know him in his own right. I want to resist the urge to project my own experiences, expectations and emotions on him, and instead help him to discover his own identity. We can learn about who he is, what he likes and doesn’t like, what he wants to do… together.

Taking our time - a walk along the Rock River

I’ve been living milestone to milestone, but as his first birthday approaches, I want to continually remind myself to enjoy every moment with him. I know that in the blink of an eye, I’ll be passing on my mom’s advice when he discovers himself holding his own child. Take it slow, it goes by fast. Stay home, turn off the TV. Enjoy each other.