Still blogging

Even though we're no longer going to post the weekly picture, I'm still going to post regularly. It's therapeutic, it's fun to keep people updated, and most importantly it's a record of Micah's life. Speaking of the little guy, he had had his one-year checkup on Monday. He's 25.3 pounds (80th percentile) and is 30 inches tall (58th percentile). His head is in the 31st percentile, so it's holding steady in the 30s. :) He had a flu shot, among other vaccines, and it made for a rough next day or two, but I think he's back to normal now. An update? He's doing great with walking around, only depending on one of our fingers to help him out. He loves playing peekaboo, and thinks he's hiding from us when he covers his ears. We'll still ask, "Where's Micah?" when he does it, and he grins and uncovers his ears. A few days ago, he started hitting himself in the head every once in a while. I had started to get kind of concerned because this behavior didn't really seem normal. So what did I do? What any person does in 2008 - I googled the behavior. Turns out that he could be doing it out of frustration because he can't yet verbalize what he wants. I thought back and realized that that's totally true - he's done it when he's finished eating but is still sitting in his chair, he's done it when he's tired and just wanted his bottle, etc. So over the next weeks we're really going to focus on signing with him to allow him to communicate without words until he learns how to speak. And just because I know that you don't really care about what I write but just want to see pictures of our little guy, here's a good one from this morning. Lounging in his spinny thing that he's just about grown out of, but we can't quite bear to get rid of it yet. I see the future with an older Micah in a recliner...

Happy Birthday, Micah!

Micah turned one year old today! He had no idea what was going on but we loved celebrating him. What is it about that time-honored tradition of letting a one-year-old dig into his cake? We didn't want to miss out on the moment either, so I baked Micah his own little cake. We decided it was easiest just to strip him and let him get as messy as he chose. He's skeptically (and tiredly) checking out the cake as I brought it over and we all sang to him. We're proud to say that Micah dug right in! It got a little easier when I cut him a small piece that he could really get his hands around. A full icing goatee! Although I think it looks like a piece of meat, here's his cake after Micah stripped pretty much all of the icing from it. I think I'm on a sugar high! Where's the bathtub?? Posing with Grandma and Grandpa Williams after his bath. The Blacks at the end of Micah's special day. I think we all look exhausted, but at least we know it's because we were having a good time. Happy First Birthday, Micah!

One Year

This is Micah's first picture that we took 51 weeks ago today. We hadn't started using the sign yet - that started week two. He's such a teeny little guy, and I'm not even sure how he's holding himself up in this picture. It's a big jump to today......with our big, wonderful, beautiful boy. 52 pictures. 52 moments captured forever, showcasing just how much Micah has grown and changed in the course of the last year. At times this was a tedious project, but now I couldn't be more grateful that we have his first year of documented this way. We celebrate Micah's first birthday on Sunday. Check back soon for pictures!

Waiting out the non-existent hurricane

Schools were canceled today, which resulted in daycares being canceled today, which resulted in one of us being home (although my work had already told us not to come in), and it's all for...nothing. Despite all the predictions, Fay didn't hit us and now it looks like we're not going to get a drop of rain. It was slightly gusty this morning when we took the dogs for a walk. That's about it. It's like up north when the weather forecasters predict the huge blizzard that's going to shut down the city and everyone races to buy bread and milk, and you end up getting an inch. I had to buy premium gas on Sunday because everywhere was sold out of the lower grades. I was mad because I wasn't a panicking idiot, but rather an idiot who was out of gas and needed to fill up so I didn't run out on the road. Here's the latest map. Our county is the one immediately to the right of the hook on the left side of the state in the middle. We're not doing much today. Micah's two hours into a nap and I'm about to start some work that I brought home on Sunday anticipating the huge storm. I thought I would post a couple of pictures of Micah playing with his new music toys that his friend Lloyd gave him for his birthday. Micah and Lloyd both love all things music and we think they might start their own band one day. Micah adores these toys. Thanks, Lloyd! Here he is trying to crawl and shake the noise eggs at the same time. If we get a few drops of rain, we'll let you know...

51 weeks

Yesterday, we got the notice. Micah had to have shoes in his new big boy classroom at daycare. We had purchased these shoes in Pittsburgh while we were there in July, and he really hasn't worn them too much yet. I'm glad we captured in a photo how white the tips are because they came home that afternoon all scuffed as a result of him crawling and dragging the top part of his shoe on the ground. But that's what's supposed to happen to shoes, right? You don't have them to keep them clean and on a shelf. Apparently, shoes make one smarter - look how diligently he's reading his sign. Trying to walk. He was just about out of a 3 so we bought him a 4 and they're too big for him, but he made a great effort. I just thought this one was adorable. :) We know that we're biased, but we think he's pretty darn cute.

Heinz is apparently a little frustrated...

...and this is how he chose to show us. This is the scene that greeted Tim when he and Micah arrived home this afternoon.Here's the carcass of the poor pillow that was the target of Heinz's frustration. Tim thoughtfully left the mess until I got home so I could see it firsthand. I took pictures, and then immediately I looked up The Dog Whisperer's website figuring that between these pictures and the video we have of Heinz escaping through the gate in the kitchen while still in his crate might actually give us a chance of getting on his program and getting help for our clearly certifiable dog. Unfortunately, he's only accepting applications from southern California right now. Short of shipping the dog to my in-laws and claiming in-state status in California, does anyone have an idea about how to get Heinz over acting out on his frustration? We can't crate him because he just walks around inside of his crate and still manages to do damage in the house. We can't just keep them in the kitchen because he started chewing the wall in an effort to get out. Now we can't let him free because that was our second-to-last pillow - the rest have already bit the dust and we're counting our blessings that he hasn't yet decided to eat the furniture, but we feel like that may happen soon. We love him, and we don't want to get rid of him, but we'd also like to keep a decent-looking house and not have to walk into our house with trepidation each time we come home. HELP!

A Challenge to Myself

Since having Micah, I realized that I haven't really done anything to challenge myself - you know, other than trying to stay one step ahead of him at all times, which can be difficult. Before he was in the picture, I ran a marathon (well, he was around for that although not really for the training) and completed my master's degree. So I decided I needed a new challenge, one that will hopefully stretch me and make me a little bit better of a person. My challenge is to read all of books on Entertainment Weekly's list of the top 100 books of the last 25 years. Here's the link: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20207076_20207387_20207349,00.html I have read all of the following, and had read every one except "The Year of Magical Thinking" before I read the list and came up with my challenge. 11. "Into Thin Air", by Jon Krakauer 33. "The Year of Magical Thinking", by Joan Didion 34. "The Lovely Bones", by Alice Sebold 67. "The Kite Runner", by Khaled Hosseini 72. "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time", by Mark Haddon 78. "Eat, Pray, Love", by Elizabeth Gilbert 96. "The DaVinci Code", by Dan Brown Seven down, 93 to go! I'm currently reading #1 on the list: "The Road", by Cormac McCarthy. I have to note here that I'm cheating only slightly. I "read" Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking" and my current selection in the car on audiobook while driving. I love to listen to books while driving; it keeps my mind occupied even on small errands around town. Plus, if you've ever read Cormac McCarthy, you'll know that even though he's rated one of the top American writers of all time, the man doesn't properly use punctuation and that drives me nuts! I read his "All the Pretty Horses" several years ago and it was all I could do to get through it. "No Country for Old Men" was a brilliant film and I'm enjoying hearing "The Road" read to me in the audiobook format. I'm not sure that there's any other way I could read that one. It may be brilliant to write without punctuation, but for those of us fond of being grammatically correct, reading people who aren't is like constant fingernails on a chalkboard. So I would welcome any discussion on the books that I have read, or if anyone needs a recommendation, I can do that too. If you'd like a recommendation as to which one I should read next, I'll take that too as I'm obviously not going in order. Is anyone else in the middle of a challenge? I'd love to hear about that too! (And Tim, living with me does NOT count as a challenge... :)

Micah's first (professional) haircut!

We took Micah to Fantastic Sam's on Saturday for his first professional haircut. I had trimmed his hair myself a few months ago, and quickly discovered that there's a reason you pay someone to cut your hair, particularly when the haircut involves a squirmy almost 1-year-old. So off we went. This was actually Tim's first time in a barber's chair as well. Can you believe that he has never had a professional haircut? First his parents did it, and then he took over and has always done it himself. That made this visit even more monumental. Micah actually did really well. I gave him a little toy to chew on and he sat patiently while Erin cut his hair. I'm not sure he really knew what was going on, but Erin said he was the best 1st haircut she had done. I said that she probably says that to all the parents, but she said that he was doing extremely well - and that when you compare him to the ones that projectile vomit, he was just a great baby. Notice Erin's haircolor. I was hoping Micah's would keep the same nice blond color and that she wouldn't be tempted to streak his green or anything! Trying to get the back even is difficult, but she did a good job, and Micah even tolerated the trimmers well. When he was finished they gave him a certificate that said he had "bravely met all the requirements of getting his first haircut." At first I thought "bravely" was a little strong of a word. Let's face it - he's not going off to battle, he's just getting a little off the top. But then we realized that this was a whole new world for him and that he doesn't understand our explanations of what's happening. If someone came at me with electric trimmers and sharp scissors and I didn't know what was happening, I would probably need to be brave! Our brave little boy Micah and his Daddy at home.

Our own Olympian

We've started to try to sit Micah in his big boy rocking chair that the Webers, from Tim's church, gave us for his baby shower. He has really enjoyed trying to climb in it himself. If you put him on it, he'll climb off and then do it himself. Stage 1: Mentally preparing himself for the climb. Stage 2: "if I can just grab this back bar, I can do this." Stage 3: "two hands should definitely help me." Stage 4: Mission accomplished!!

Micah turns 50 (weeks) and hits milestones

Here is our not-so-little boy at 50 weeks. This time he's smiling for the camera, at least!It was a week of milestones, primarily Thursday. I went to the daycare to pick up Micah and was surprised that he was not in his room. They had moved him for the afternoon to the 1-year-old room, as part of their transitioning process. He's in a big boy room! I was told by the teacher that as soon as he "gets a little more stable on his feet..." at which point I said, "Is he walking for you?" because the most that he had done for us was stand for a couple of seconds without help. She said he was. I have to confess that a little part of me was really sad that I missed his first steps. Then I decided that I would just need to be joyful for all the ones I get to see. Here's Micah standing on his own yesterday morning. As seems to be his norm now, He is flying through his milestones once he decides he wants to accomplish them. He went right from hardly standing to doing it for a minute or more, and now he's absolutely cruising only holding on to one of my fingers as he walks. It's only a matter of a week or so, we think, before he just takes off and our world changes forever... We also decided that, instead of us bringing in all his food as we have been doing, we should try having him eat the daycare food all day because that's what he'll do when he formally starts in that room on August 25. I was told that some children have a rough time with this and to bring back up food just in case. We tried this for the first time on Friday and I diligently sent him with a bag of backup food options. When Tim picked him up later that day, they handed Tim the entire bag back and said that Micah had eaten absolutely EVERYTHING that was given to him, even trying to stuff a whole cookie in his mouth. I guess we don't have a problem! No matter how big you get, you can always go back to trying to eat your birthday sign!

It's the little things

Lately it's the little things that I'm falling in love with when I think about having Micah around. Thinking about them gets me through the fussy teething times. Things like how he can point out the red balloon and the "three little bears sitting on chairs" from his "Goodnight Moon" book. That's the last book we read to him every night, and we have painstakingly pointed out all of the objects in the great green room every time we read it. Now you can ask him where a few things are and he knows the answer and can point to them! He can also find the picture of himself on the fridge when you ask him, "Where's Micah?" This is all the more impressive if you've seen our fridge - it's literally covered with birth announcements and pictures of friends' children. So he's learning what he looks like. He's even beginning to sit on the floor for his daily viewing of "Praise Baby" instead of in his sit and spin thing. Of course, you can only trust him for so long...those DVD buttons are enticing. And lest you think that putting his toy piano in front of the TV would stop him from reaching for the buttons, you'd be wrong. Just this evening while I was playing with him, I let him go and he stood up in front of the piano and proceeded to put his one knee on the keys, stand on tiptoe on the other foot, hold the piano with one hand and reach for the TV and DVD buttons with the other. This child is going to have stitches before he turns one at the rate he's going!

49 Weeks

It's hard to believe we're only three weeks away from having a one-year old. At times it seems so surreal - and then he crawls away faster than we can keep track of him and stands for brief seconds on his own, and we're reminded that it's all too real! We couldn't get a smiling picture this week, but at least our weekly shot does highlight his two bottom teeth. He's starting to cut at least one on the top, but the funny part is that it's off to the side, not in the front. He's going to have a great one-year old portrait.On Sunday afternoon, I put Micah in one of his toy baskets and buried him in his toys as we played. He still managed to play his piano! Thanks to the Johnsons for his cute outfit. :) While I was going through pictures of Micah's first year in preparation for the scrapbook I'm doing, I couldn't believe that we had no pictures of him in the bathtub. We have several pictures of him in a towel after his bath, but none in it. So I grabbed the camera on Sunday night and snapped a few images. He's really starting to love his bath because he's finally discovered the concept of playing in it. Don't you just love the hair??