Pictures and Stuff

I'm feeling uninspired to write anything, so I figure I'll share some pictures instead...

Here is Micah playing with some of his new toys that he got for his birthday...

Books! People asked what he 'wanted' and I told them we needed more books. This child will sit happily with a pile of books, look through them and 'read.' (He really does talk to himself with his books - so cute!) He got a lot of great books for his birthday including a cute one with a picture of Micah in it from Mamush, All the Colors of the Earth from a very good friend (made me cry), and The Perfect Orange from Chryssi & Fam. We love all of our new books!

Micah's "fake aunt" Chrissy (mom to his "fake cousins" Mitch, Gracie, George and Chuck) gave him this giraffe chair. Cute stuff! They also gave him a giraffe tunnel for him to crawl through...

Kevin trying to get Micah to crawl through to him.

He finally did it.

Here he is up on all fours - he is a full-fledged crawler now! (He still does his sit-scoot thing on the wood floors though!)

On Thursday we went to lunch - remember last week we had an ice-storm on his birthday and had to cancel lunch? Well, we rescheduled, but not too many people could make it this week. We were happy to have lunch with cutie Minnow and his mom (celebrating their recent referral of a sweet baby girl - Yay!!) and Mrs. B.

Minnow isn't really sure he wants to share his 'Nilla wafer. Micah has a grabbing problem, so he's going for it anyway.

And, just for fun - here is Micah's bathtime faux-hawk...

(Is it just me or does he look huge in this picture? Well, huge and freaked out :) BTW - we went to the doctor last week and he is 20.02 lbs. and 30 inches long - tall and skinny! :)

That's it for now... next week it's back to work for me! So sad, but only part-time and no daycare involved - Dad will be doing most of the work because I'll be working at night. I went on two interviews this week and am starting next week! It worked out perfectly (I always said I'd go back to work part time after Micah turned 1) except that I am sad to be going back to work because I'll miss my baby. :(

Party Hardy

Well, we survived Micah's 1st birthday party, and we think it was a raging success. :) There were tons of kids here - seriously - people kept saying, "How do you know so many kids?" My friends are fertile? I don't know. But, really, it was a lot of fun. And exhausting, but in an exhilarating fun way. (Why didn't you other moms tell me how crazily exhausting a 1st birthday party is? :)

I don't have many pictures because we hired Linda to come and take pictures for us, and we're waiting to get them back. Yes, I know it sounds wildly extravagant to do that (and maybe a little weird), but let me tell you how awesome it was to not have to worry about taking pictures all night long. It was awesome. And, we love Linda - she did our wedding photos, family photos, and Micah's first photos when he came home. (We probably should have hired her for his arrival at the airport too... okay maybe that would be extravagant.) Anyway, Gracie did take pictures with our camera, so you will get an unprofessional sneak peak at the night's events. I promise to post Linda's pictures when we get them (hopefully within the week!).

Here are the highlights:

*It was a cupcake party! Kevin made these amazingly cute cupcakes. He probably would not like me to tell you that. But, he loves me and he loves his son, so he was willing to get fancy in the kitchen for the party. (He does have a degree in pastry arts after all!)

*Mamush came to Micah's party! Very cool that these boys are already sharing life's special moments. :)

*Cupcake cookies! Our good friend Stephanie made these for the party. She is an expert baker, and I, well, I am not. So she made the cupcakes cookies. I did, however, make the tags that say, "It's fun to be 1" and "thanks for coming to my party heart Micah"

Micah had cake. With lots of icing. I did make him his very own little cake. It was not beautiful, but I was still proud. (Although I overdid it on the icing - tip: go light on the icing for a first birthday cake!)

*You know that scene in 16 Candles, after Jake's party where the record keeps skipping and you see the big mess? That was our house after everyone left. I was crying laughing at the mess - it looked like we had a raging kegger, but with lots of toys and juice boxes. (We cleaned that night - up til 1 a.m. but much better than cleaning in the morning.)

*The best part of the night was after we put Micah to bed and we were all downstairs talking and playing with Micah's new toys. We realized George was missing. Bad sign. I looked at the monitor and saw red lights - uhoh. Went upstairs - into Micah's room - the lights are on, Micah is sitting up in his crib with a bottle and George is laying on the floor playing. I never laughed so hard. So, we got Mic out of bed and he stayed up another hour. George had a point, it was Micah's party after all. :)

So, we had a great time, and were pretty tired (all of us) the next day, but it was well worth it. Just in case you're wondering, here is what Kevin and I looked like the next morning when Micah woke up at 7 a.m. -

Good times, good times.

All in One Day

Micah's first birthday was marked by an ice storm that caused us to stay holed up inside all day. We had to cancel a lunch with friends at the Ethiopian restaurant - but we're rescheduling for next week. The benefit of a day stuck inside is that today, for the first time, Micah crawled up on all fours! Yippee! I noticed he was trying to get up and go (rather than sit-scoot or hovercraft) so I put his baby-legs on for maximum traction - and off he went. I've never seen anything as cute as his little bootie crawling away from me. Big milestone on his first birthday!!

We had spaghetti for dinner (his favorite) and Gracie & Mitch came up to hang out with us. Micah was especially impressed when Mitch (who is 10) was rocking the guitar hero on a really hard level backwards! I mean not looking at the screen. (I was impressed too.) Gracie helped us out with bath and took pics, but I'm tired so I'll post later.

We finished the night with a family prayer for Micah's first mom - who we thought about and talked about a lot today.

And, just for fun, on Micah's first birthday, I'll leave you with a progression of frog towel photos - because they're so cute.

August 16th - literally 2 days after we got home.

September 27th

And, last week!

Birthday Bean!

Micah's birthday is almost here! Tomorrow!! I can't believe it.

Here he is with an early birthday present - I know I splurged on this one, but I couldn't help myself. I'm so fancy.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEANS!

(P.S. You know I have to tell you all - I made that banner! Aren't I getting crafty? It's definitely not perfect, but I wanted to make something for his party and voila - I did! :)

Diaper Man

Video! Let's see if this works. It's only been 6 months since we came home and we (Kevin) FINALLY figured out how to post video. In this fun clip (taken tonight while I was out) you can see Micah's weird sit-scoot. You can also see him going towards his favorite thing - the toilet. (Not allowed! :)



Also - went to see Juno tonight. I sobbed at the end and then pretty much cried the whole way home. But, yes, I loved it. Loved it, loved it.

For My Mom

Yesterday my Mom had to let her best friend go. Gracie was old, but she hung on for a long time to be there with my mom. I have never seen a dog care for it's owner like my mom's dog. She was a sweet girl with a gentle spirit. We will all miss her.
Love you Mom!

Happy Heart Day!

Hope you all had a good day of lovin'. We had crab legs for dinner with mini chocolate cakes with chocolate mousse filling (I MADE THESE - CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?) and chocolate covered strawberries (that my sweet husband got for me here at Merb's - best ever) for dessert. And, of course, a really yummy wine - Malbec - my newest favorite. Micah had a tiny taste of chocolate mousse - and, yes, he likes chocolate. :)

P.S. I forgot to add the best part - for Love Day we got a family gift - A DYSON! Yippee! Seriously - this thing has changed our lives. (You remember that we have three dogs right?) We don't vacuum anymore - we Dyson. Go get one! (They're on clearance at Target!)

Kevin hearts Dyson