18 weeks!

Micah is getting a little bored with our weekly tradition. :) Actually, we didn't have a chance to take the picture until around 9:00 last night, and he had already been asleep for two hours while out to dinner with friends. When we took him out of his car seat, he was ready to go for his picture...except for the yawning! We've been in Pennsylvania since Christmas Day. We're enjoying seeing family and friends, and everyone is loving seeing Micah in person and commenting on how big he is. Yeah, he is. In the weekly picture above, he's wearing overalls that are size 12 months. They're a little big on him, but not too big not to wear! Below are some pictures from our Christmas at home and a couple shots from our time in PA so far. For Christmas, we got Heinz and Samson bones that were a little ambitious, even for champion bone-chewers like they are! Each bone was two feet long. We had breakfast one morning with our friends Ben and Sue and their daughter Karis. This was the first time they met Micah. Hopefully we'll be able to visit them soon in their new home in Wisconsin! I just loved this shot of Micah in his little snowsuit and hat. He's looking pretty good! We (well, I insisted) on bringing all of Micah's winter clothes with us, almost putting us over the weight limit for getting the bag on the plane. But he has all these great outfits and I wanted him to have a chance to wear them. We'll get them all in if it drives us crazy!

Here's Daddy helping Micah practice standing. He's going to be off and running before we know it!What a sweet face...

It's still technically Friday...

This is our big Steeler fan at 17 weeks. We're starting to notice the milestones being met one after the other. Micah's just about ready to roll over, he's starting to sit up (see pictures below), and when you put him on his stomach, he's starting to inch himself forward. It's crazy how fast he's growing. Plus if you believe the picture below, he's really into reading already - look at how he's studying the sign! Here are some other random pictures from Micah during the week. He was so tired while he was eating that he just fell asleep right there in his high chair. In his cute bathrobe! The bib says it all - Micah's wondering if he can trade in the weird cereal for some milk! I just thought this one was cute. I took it this morning while Micah was playing in his standup thing.

First time with solid food!

Here's the progression of events during Micah's first experience with rice cereal. Comments about each picture are located beneath the photo. I might be 20ish pounds, but I'm still only four months old and maybe I'm a little too little for this new chair! Where's my mommy's or daddy's lap and, more importantly, where's that yummy bottle? I'm not sure how I feel about this stuff. It tastes diferent and the texture's a little funny. What did I do to deserve this new meal? I might be starting to like this stuff...if only I could keep some of it in my mouth. Ahhh, now this is much better! No matter what they feed me, it still makes me sleepy!

16 weeks

Before... and after! Micah is doing really well sitting up when he's supported, but he still hasn't quite gotten control over the muscles that can keep him upright! He's working on it though. In the meantime, he'll keep crinkling the papers that have his age on them. :) One of the greatest things about Micah these days is that he is chatting with us a lot. The picture above is a little blurry, but it's of him really chatting up a storm. He's also learning to really prop himself up on his forearms and can roll about halfway from his stomach to his back. Soon he'll be rolling all over the house. I included the picture above because, if you click on it to zoom in, you'll see a long string of drool coming from Micah's mouth. Besides rolling over, Micah's other new trick is growing teeth. There are two little white marks on his lower gums, and I'm assuming that they're teeth, and that they would also explain his unexplained fussiness and lack of desire to nap the last few days. Not to mention the extreme drool that's been going on! If they are teeth, we hope that they come in without too much pain.

Finally seeing (a free) Santa!

This evening, Micah accompanied his Dad to the annual preschool pagaent at First Pres. Micah got to meet Santa! Santa was very kind and took a quick picture with Micah before he went out to greet the other kids. If you look closely, you'll see that the size 6-9 months jeans that Micah has on don't quite fit and there's a little more of his gut showing than there should be! On Monday, we went to Disney for our annual trip to see the Osborne Family Dancing Lights at MGM, complete with fake snow, and to EPCOT to see the candlelight processional where they tell the Christmas story. We heard the Harlem Gospel Choir at MGM and got great seats thanks to Tim's friend Jason who works at MGM now. After he got used to the volume, Micah loved it. Steven Curtis Chapman read the Christmas story during the candlelight processional and it was so great to see him and to hear the choirs. Micah was so excited that he didn't fall asleep during the performance at all, despite the fact that it was definitely going on past his bedtime. He fell asleep as soon as it was over. The next generation of Steven Curtis Chapman fans is born! This is a picture of Micah in his walker thing. You can see that his feet are barely touching the floor, but Micah loves to stand so we figured that he would really like just being in it. So far he does, and he's starting to figure out how to turn the wheel already!

Steeler Santa

So the Steelers didn't break the Patriots' winning streak, but Micah looked cute in his Steelers outfit! Tonight was the annual Christmas dinner and program at Tim's church so I dressed Micah in his Steelers garb but conceded it was Christmas and put the Santa hat on his head. Maybe not christian, but still cute! Actually, he looks a little mad in this picture. I think I took it right after the Steelers touched the ball on the punt and lost possession. Micah was a little ticked at his team. Since Micah loves to stand (holding on to our fingers, of course) we thought we would set up his walker thing a little earlier than the box suggests. Turns out that even though Micah seems to be big for his age, he's too little for this toy just yet. His feet can't quite touch the ground, but we have a feeling he'll like it anyway. He loves the ones in the church nursery. The dogs can't figure it out yet - it makes a lot of sounds that they're not used to yet. Micah and Mommy hanging out before bedtime. It's a little bright as the camera was a little too close to its subject!

Micah is 15 weeks old

I posted two pictures this week because, although I liked the one on top better, he's hiding his face and I wanted those who want to see his face to be able to see it. Hence the one on the bottom. Micah's personality is really starting to develop and it's so fun to get to know him. He smiles a lot now, loves to babble at us, is eating nonstop, and learning how to take naps. He certainly has his moments that drive us insane - I'm not going to be one of those parents who says that everything is great all the time. But as a whole, he brings us such a joy and has really readily accommodated himself to his parents' lives. Plus he's pretty cute. :) Here he is asleep on the couch. Apparently he was so tired that he needed help from his left hand to keep his right thumb in his mouth! Notice the laundry in the background. People warn you about lots of things when you're pregnant and anticipating parenthood, but I don't recall anyone accurately warning me about just how much laundry I would be doing. The one thing it's done is make me SOOO grateful for the invention of the washing machine. If I had to do all this by hand... Micah and Daddy enjoying a little playtime after dinner. Notice Micah's socks. He's finally started wearing them, but now the ones we have for him are too small so the heel portion of the sock often falls down to the middle of his foot. I guess we'll have to splurge for some new ones!

An Afternoon with Micah

Micah is working on his ability to sit up. He's not real happy about it, but he's physically building up the muscles to be able to do it soon. And while I don't want to rush him growing up in anyway, it will be really nice when he's able to sit in the front of the grocery cart and not have to be carried in his car seat! (Notice Micah's wearing long sleeves and pants. That's because it's winter in Florida - you know, it only went up to 70 degrees today so let's break out the winter clothes.) Here's a happy Micah after he's had his bottle. He's loving sucking on his fingers and thumbs. You can see that he's getting chubby. He doesn't miss a meal and, when he hits the four month mark on December 24, he can start eating rice cereal. We'll be sure to get some pictures of that as I'm sure more will be on Micah rather than in him. It's a little dark, but Micah and I were talking and I decided to grab the camera. The flash wasn't on, but I love it anyway!