Meeting Daddy at Animal Kingdom

Tim spent the weekend in Jacksonville at a pastors' retreat. We really missed him and decided to meet up with him on his way back by getting together at Animal Kingdom and showing Micah the animals. Daddy and Micah were really glad to see each other again - and Mommy was excited too! It's hard to be a single parent, even for just a few days. Here are my boys at Animal Kingdom. Micah's looking at the gorillas and explaining something about them to his attentive father. A close up of the gorilla that Tim and Micah were watching. We went on a safari ride to see the animals up close. I technically wasn't supposed to go, being pregnant and all (expectant mothers were discouraged from riding) but I really wanted to go so I risked an early labor. No worries - all is well. Here we are on our trip, and Micah is checking out the hippos. Check out the number of crocodiles in this pond! We couldn't even count. Micah's favorite - the giraffe! I think I'm going to blow this picture up and put it in his new big-boy room. The ginormous elephants trolling for lunch.Technically, this is called a white rhino, although our guide offered some sort of explanation as to why they're not actually white. I don't remember - but it was cute! One of the lionesses sat up just as we were driving by.Not a great picture of the ostrich - which was REALLY close to our vehicle - but I couldn't resist posting it because it just looks like the thing is laughing hysterically at us! Update on baby #2: our c-section is officially scheduled for May 21 at 7:30. One more month to go!!

A Few Words from Micah

Ever since his surgery a few weeks ago, Micah has been much more energetic and vocal. We noticed a change immediately and are so thankful that the removal of his adenoids and the insertion of new tubes has made such a difference. This afternoon we were playing and I thought that I would try to get him saying a few of his favorite things on camera. He actually complied! We know that lots more words will follow, probably with a little help from a speech therapist to kick-start him vocally. But he's getting there. And give him a little credit for what a sheep says - it's pretty creative to do it his way instead of just saying "baa"!

Bruiser

We took a little trip to the playground again today, and a reach for his juice did Micah in. I asked him if he wanted some juice and he reached for it, lost his balance, fell backward and landed on his face. He cried for all of 30 seconds though. As soon as he realized he could still have his juice, he was fine. Check out the side of his eye though. He may very well wake up tomorrow with his first shiner. :( Here he is enjoying his juice in the tunnel after his fall. The tumble did nothing to stop him from climbing around. This is a shot of him going down his favorite slide backwards! Still fearless. That glow above his head is his hair, standing on end from the static on the slide! We went garage sale-ing this morning and found Micah a few great new Fisher Price Little People toys. He got the airplane, the school bus, a little helicopter, and a little fire truck (all complete with several little people) and all for $10! I love a good garage sale find - the airplane retails for $30 and the school bus for $18 so I just saved us more than $38. And Micah doesn't care that someone played with them before he did! Here he is enjoying our finds. And one more thing - Happy 30th Birthday, Uncle Ryan!!

Happy Easter

This is our adorable boy sort of posing in his Easter outfit this morning. Really he's just wanting to get in the car, which he loves. He's smiling really big but this is the closest he would get to taking his thumb out of his mouth! He was really tired when I work him up to go to church. Yesterday we had an Easter Egg Hunt at First Presbyterian. Below is a shot of most of the kids who participated listening to a story before the hunt began. I'm in a blue shirt on the floor towards the back of the kids, and Micah is sitting on my lap. Micah collected five eggs in his easter basket after he was brave enough to go inside the monkey bars where there were some untouched eggs. Our little adventurer couldn't go for the easy finds! Tim took video of him actually getting the eggs while I was encouraging him to put them in his basket after he got them so this is the only picture I actually have of him with his basket of treats. Now on to what he really wanted to do - hit the slide! And sit on the toy truck! And play with the race car, which he doesn't ride in, only loves to push around the track. Inside, Daddy helped Micah discover that there were actually chocolate treats inside the eggs. Soon Micah got the hang of it. He didn't care about the treats, but loved to figure out how to open and close the eggs!

Fun at the playground

I'm two weeks into my new life as a (mostly) stay-at-home mom, and now that things have quieted down a little bit, I'm learning to revel in my new world. It's really tough at times, and there's temptation to just let Micah play by himself while I watch something interesting on TV or get something done around the house that has been begging for my attention for months. But I have based my new life on the idea that Micah comes first. While I do keep up with the dishes and the laundry and the straightening up much better than I used to, that's all secondary to playing with Micah. Helping him learn, teaching him new songs, watching him change everyday. It is truly a blessing. Today we got a call from my friend Wendy, whose kids were featured in yesterday's blog entry, asking me if I wanted to go to the park. It was a bit chilly today (the high was 68 so we broke out the long sleeves and long pants again!) but we were on our way to the store anyway, so why not detour to a park we've never been to before? It was really great. I already knew that he loves to climb (toys, furniture, dogs, you name it!), and today I learned that Micah is fearlessly adventurous. When Tim and I take him together, one of us is always there with him. When it's just me, I obviously can't be at the top and bottom of the slide simultaneously so I had to let him do it by himself. Turns out, he's a pro - it's like he's been doing it forever this way. Here he is at the top of the slide, ready to come down, with a grin on his face. Trying to sit on his bum like his mom was coaching him to do from the bottom. Pretty proud of himself for making it down! Getting braver and going head first! You can't really tell, but in this picture, Micah has a HUGE grin on his face. He loved going down headfirst! Swinging with his friend Lloyd. Looking slightly woozy on the swing, although he liked going high.

Sharing the day with friends

Today Micah's friends Lloyd and Nicolina came to spend the day with us while their mom and dad worked. We had lots of fun - and made a big mess! Here's Lloyd sitting in the middle of everything. Notice that he only has one shoe on! The two buddies chatting about their toys. Our little engineer trying to figure out how the caterpillar got wheels on it. Relaxing with his feet up and his choice of drink at the end of the day.