Blowing raspberries and singing up a storm

It's been a while since I posted in between the usual Friday shots. Micah and I had some one on one time yesterday afternoon, even more precious to me since starting work again, and I grabbed the camera because he was starting to sit up on his own! He's not so big on the rolling over, but he's almost there with sitting up. I don't have a picture of it, but blowing raspberries is his newest trick to do with his mouth. As I type this, he's awake in his crib just blowing numerous raspberries to himself. I'm still at the point where I think it's cute, but that's probably because he hasn't sprayed me in the face with all the spit yet! Here he is singing for the camera. I'm off-camera holding his hand so he doesn't fall over. Micah LOVES to sing and talk to anyone who will listen! Does it count as officially sitting up if his hands are on the floor too? First time parents think so! He didn't look up to the camera, but he was totally unsupported by me in that picture... ...and here's the aftermath fall. The black thing on the right side of the picture is my leg that was next to him to cushion the inevitable fall. At least he's still hanging on to his toes! Playing in his spin-standup thing that he loves. Belting out a song only Micah knows the words to. This was the closest I got to a smile on film yesterday. Between the raspberries and the singing, there was no time for smiling!

Already 22 weeks

It's hard to believe that Micah is almost six months old. The time seems to have gone so fast and I find myself already wishing it would slow down so that he can be our baby forever. While I know that can't happen, the realization that we'll never get these days back keeps me appreciating each one of them, even when he has two diaper blowouts in one day or cries all through "Pirates of the Carribbean" at DisneyWorld. He's grabbing things and holding on to them and reaching for his toes and laughing and smiling huge smiles when he sees us - all small milestones, but so fun to see develop. He continues to adapt to whatever schedule his father and I request, and we know how blessed we are to have such a great little guy in our lives. By the way, the shoutout this week goes to the Pittsburgh folks who I saw at the Large Church Initiative Conference this week in Orlando. Good to see you Cindy, Sara, Brian, Heather, Karyn, and John! (A special thanks to the latter three for putting up with Micah during the aforementioned "Pirates of the Carribbean" ride, and to Heather for giving him the cool outfit in the picture above.)

Playing it shy

Micah was still a little sleepy when I took this morning's picture. But he was a trouper and sat up for the photo session. Is it just us or is he one of the cutest little boys around? By the way, those are fire trucks on his outfit, not strawberries like his aunt thought! For the record, I would never dress Micah in strawberries. Fire trucks good, strawberries bad...

Growth update on the big guy

Today Micah and I went to the pediatrician to get his four month shots. He's a little late getting them as he's almost five months old, but because we were away for the holidays and then working full-time again, today was the first day we could get there. He weighs 18 pounds (we suspect the 24-hour flu he had last week helped him drop a little before the weigh-in) and is 26.5 inches long. That puts him in the 88th and 85th percentile for growth, respectively. His head is in the 26th percentile. I'm dying to see a child's head that's in the 88th percentile of growth because I don't think Micah's is that small. He got five vaccines today - a little rough, but he took it okay. Here he is sitting up on the couch waiting for his bottle. When I took Micah for a walk this morning, I thought I would try to sit him in the stroller for the first time instead of using the car seat. He fit like a champ! (Forgive the pajamas - it was chilly in Florida today and I wanted his feet to stay warm. High of 67 - brrrr!) By the way, the virus Micah caught on second day of daycare got passed on to both mommy and daddy, making for quite the sick Black house this weekend. We're looking forward to what we hope will be a healthier weekend in a few more days...

What a long strange week it's been

This was a huge week for the Black family. We returned from "vacation" in Pittsburgh (although we've decided that as wonderful as it is to see people we love, it's just not restful to run around like that!), Micah started daycare, I started back to work, Micah got sick at daycare, Tim and I had to take time off work to take care of him, and finally Micah turned 20 weeks old. I get tired just thinking about everything that happened. Since I last wrote, here's a glimpse into our lives.

This is Micah hanging out with my good friend Kate. They immediately liked one another. See Kate, I told you you'd make the blog!! :)

Here's Micah with my friend Aimee's daughter Isabelle, who was born in November. She's so adorable it makes me want a little girl... On closer look, doesn't this resemble the movie "Twins" with Micah in the Schwarzenegger role and Isabelle playing Danny Devito's part? They're the right sizes for it!

Micah got tired at our friends' house one afternoon, so we did what we always do when he gets this way at other people's houses - we plopped him on the floor for some rest time. Our friend Kirk thought Micah rolling around was very entertaining so he imitated Micah, which the rest of us found hysterical.

The gang's all here... Tim is blessed to be part of a really close-knit group of guys, and they still like him even though he's so far away from everyone now. Fortunately, we wives love each other too and here's all of us together at Steph's 30th birthday party. If only Micah would have been looking at the camera! He needs to take a cue from his friend Chloe who's already very camera-savvy.

The rest of the country may have been in a deep freeze, but upon our return to Florida, this is what we were greeted with - my sunflowers came up!! I don't have much of a green thumb so it thrilled me that seeds I put in the ground actually came up. They didn't really fit in with the Christmas decorations, but they're beautiful.

Micah's first day of school!! It wasn't too traumatic to leave him because I was running late so we didn't linger at the daycare. It was soooo good to see him at the end of the day though. As much as I enjoyed being back at work, I really missed him. This is Micah at the end of his first day of school. He was so tired he passed out right in Tim's arms. He did well for his first two days, and then caught the virus that was going around the center, so after a vomitous Wednesday night, he spend much of Thursday recovering while Mommy and Daddy scrambled to take more time off from jobs to which they had just returned. Although he's not yet eating as much as he was before the virus, he was well enough to be back in daycare today. And finally, here's Micah enjoying one of his Christmas presents. Not the standy-toy-thing, although he enjoys that as well. What he's intently staring at is the TV, on which is showing his new "Praise Baby" DVD. It's like Baby Einstein, but it's set to praise songs. He's exposed to them early, and Mom and Dad get to listen to something with words on it. Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa! (By the way, notice the tree still up in the background. This is what happens when you're away from home until January 7 and then you immediately go back to work. We're hoping they'll be put away spontaneously with no help from us. If that miracle doesn't happen, we plan on putting them away this weekend. But this is a record to have them up this long, even for Christmas-crazy me!) Until next time...

A busy week!

Happy 19 weeks of Micah's life to everyone! We love this picture. Notice how Micah's lip is going one way and his hair is going another. He's a true little boy - his hair won't stay in place no matter what we do!It snowed!! I got to show Micah his first snowstorm. He was pretty indifferent, but I thought it was fun to bundle him up and take him out in the white stuff. It's been pretty cold up here, but we also heard that our home in Florida is getting blasted with cold too. We were watching the Today show yesterday and there was a reporter give a live update from Plant City about the state of citrus and strawberries in Florida due to the cold weather. We hope it's back up to normal by the time we get back! This is Micah with his Great-Grandma Wilson. She enjoyed holding him, and we had a great time visiting with her and Great-Grandpa Wilson. Micah is their seventh great-grandchild and they have three more due before June. Here's Micah hanging with his Great-Grandpa Black. Unfortunately, Great-Grandma Black is obscured by our large child, but she had fun seeing him as well. We spent a great afternoon with them and learned that Micah is their sixth great-grandchild and they have at least one more due this year. Micah is truly blessed to have been able to spend time with generations of his family. This is Micah with his great-Aunt Bobbi, his Grandma Black's sister. She enjoyed seeing him, and for her this was a preview for welcoming her first grandchild in March. We were so grateful that she was able to take a little time off work and come for a visit. She was happy too! Kudos to our friends Dan and Martina who took the plunge last Saturday and became husband and wife. We were so happy that we were able to be there to celebrate with them. May they have a long and happy life together.

And finally, Micah has been making a lot of progress lately in the things he's able to do - roll onto his side to sleep, take his pacifier out of his mouth and put it back in, reach out and grap for objects - but he hasn't quite mastered the sitting up thing yet. Here's hoping for a successful conquering of that task in 2008!