Learning

Micah's homework :-) He wrote the names in brown all by himself! (He forgot the "A" in the first one so he wanted to start over)

Jacob crawling!

Both boys are learning lots of new things right now. Micah is doing so well with writing his name and other letters and numbers. Since he has "homework" for the weekends, we get to see what he can do! His teacher says he is also very good at using the scissors when they are making projects at school and that's one of his favorite things to do at home too. Jacob is now crawling acorss the floor, trying to keep up with whatever Micah is doing! He's also going through a bit of separation anxiety, mostly at night, but he had a little trouble at the church nursery yesterday too. He's almost nine months, so that's to be expected. He's also learned another word: "Mama" :-) He's been able to say "Dada" for some time now, so I've been working on this one. It's funny how he imitates me, drawing out the "m" sound, just like I did when I was trying to teach him. "Mmmmma Mmmma." He knows that's the way to get me to come in and pick him up when he's wailing in the crib! It doesn't take kids long to learn these little things. Dan will be gone at a conference this week so it'll be me and the boys--wish me luck!

Happy Valentine's Day!

The video above is one of the cutest I have taken of the boys. You can see how protective Micah is of his little brother. It's just so sweet and a perfect Valentine's Day video. I know that as they both get older there will be days when they are getting on each others' nerves so I am saving this moment to show them the love! We had a very nice surprise yesterday...a snow day! We had fun outside building a snowman and I even stuck Jacob in the snowsuit and propped him up where he could see the action. As you can probably tell he is ready for a nap in these photos, but I think he enjoyed himself just the same. We had just gotten a book from the library called Snow Day. So of course it was doubly fun for Micah to see the real thing when he woke up Monday morning. Althought Dan had to work he did go in later so we had some time all together in the morning. It is our first snow this year, and probably our last.

Ooo, Mama it's cold!

Is this an awesome snowman, or what?

The brothers

Today is Micah's big Valentine's Day party at school. Over the weekend we decorated a shoe box for receiving valentines, There is a contest today for the best decorated box, so we'll see if he wins! We also made valentines for his classmates and teachers. I'm sure he'll come home way hyper on sugar and probably have pink frosting coming out of his ears, but what's a holiday without a few sweets when you're a kid? :-)

My new hair, and a sleepy boy.

So a few weeks ago, I got a haircut. A short one. Some might call it a "mom" cut  but I prefer to think of it as a "only takes a few minutes to fix so I can get up later" cut. It's so funny to see how Micah has reacted to this. When I first got it, he asked me if I was a boy now. I guess having short hair makes you a boy :-) This precipitated a conversation on how both men and women wear their hair lots of ways. Yesterday as I was tucking in for a nap, he said, "Mama, your hair looks like a funny flower." He said this straight-faced. I could not help but laugh and we both ended up laughing so hard! (Which might be the reason he ended up not taking a nap...) I have no idea what he was thinking of and I admit it was kind poofy that day. I guess a flower wouldn't be so bad, but it's the "funny" part that I'm not too sure about!

Weekend

"Mom, how come I can't pick up these fishies?"

Chef Micah prepares some chocolate cookies

Licking the beaters!

Mama and a sleepy boy

Warning: watching this video may produce the desire for chocolate cookies! Weel, that's if you overlook the coughing in the batter bowl at the end... :-) Micah and Dan whipped up a batch of these cookies on Sunday afternoon to enjoy while watching the Super Bowl. We have found that offering Micah incentives for napping on the weekend makes it more likely that he will nap so this was the one for Sunday. On Saturday our friends and their 2-yr-old came over for homemade pizza and playtime. It was a busy, but fun, visit with them. Jacob enjoyed playing with his water mat he got from Grammy and Pop Pop for Christmas. He kept pointing to all the smiley-faced water creatures under the mat and trying to pick them up only to come away with nothing. I think that part was a bit confusing, but he had fun with it anyway. He seems healthy and napped well all weekend, but his night-time sleep habits were not good. We don't know why he's waking up several times a night, we just know that he usually requires one of us to help him get back to sleep. He seems to be healthy and just finished a course of antibiotics, so I'm pretty sure it isn't an ear infection or illness. I'm guessing it's separation anxiety since he's old enough for that now. So we tried letting him fuss in the crib for a bit which works about half the time. The other half we try to pat him in the crib or if that doesn't work, rock him for a few minutes in the chair. I also added a blanket that he seems to like and one of his teether toys since he's old enough to have a few small things in the crib now.  I'm hoping he latches on to one of them as a lovey and that will help him to self-sooth at night. Yawn. Mommy and Daddy are tired.

Paging Dr. Micah!

Micah is taking Jacob's blood pressure

A little after-school bonding with Daddy :-)

Micah getting dizzy on the swivel chair

Micah is loving his medical kit that he got for Christmas. In the video below, you can see him diagnose Jacob with an ear "inflection".  Hmmm... wonder where he got that idea?! I think he actually enjoyed getting to go to the Dr. with 'lil bro last week, that they were doing it together and now taking the same medicine. Thankfully, they are both healthy now. I can see the beginnings of the sibling rivalry. A few night's ago, Jacob was playing on the floor with Micah nearby. I stepped out of the room to wash my hands and I heard "No, Jacob!" I ran back in there and found him reaching desperately for the paper Micah was playing with. Micah had snatched it out of his hands. Jacob did not like being yelled at and he "yelled" right back! I'm glad that Micah understands that it's important to keep things like that away from Jacob right now, but I hope he shares his toys when they get to be older.We had to drop the crib mattress this week due to Jacob's new ability to get into a sitting position from a laying down one. He is trying to pull up on things, but for now can only manage to get one foot on the floor and one knee. So, dropping the crib gives me some peace of mind, especially when he wakes in the night and likes to play in there. Micah has had a good week at school and is currently studying families and the letter "A." He gets "homework" sheets to bring home each Friday now so we can reinforce what they are learning. This week we made a collage of family photos so that each child can introduce the class to his or her family on Friday, show-and-tell day at school.

Jacob's sick :-(

Well it's been a rough week from the start. Jacob had been wheezing and coughing so on Monday morning Dan took him to the doctor. After some x-rays it was determined that he's got pneumonia in his right lung. So he's on breathing treatments and an antibiotic and hopefully he'll be feeling better soon. We can already hear an inprovement in the coughin and he's eating much better now. Unfortunately a side effect of the med he is on is sleeplessness, and he's been having some difficulty going down for naps and at night. As he gets better and we can taper off some of the treatments, that should improve. For now we are taking turns staying home with him. Micah seems to be ok, although last night he had a slight fever. We're hoping he isn't coming down with something too. Poor guys. It has been a tough year for a lot of people in regards to illness. As you can see from the videos, Jacob is doing ok despite the sickness. These were taken yesterday. He just loves playing peek-a-boo (and just about anything else) with Micah!

What's in a Name?

Names are important to me. Maybe it's my literary background, but when it came time to name our children, Dan and I wanted to pick something that would be meaningful to us and hopefully, someday, to our kids as well. Picking Micah's name came easy. Dan's favorite Bible verse is in Micah (Micah 6:8 "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.") and we liked that the name is a question. In Hebrew it means "Who is like God?". Before Micah was born we thought about our hopes for who he would grow up to be. Along with the general things like: a person of good character, kind, etc., we wanted, yes actually prayed, that he would be someone who didn't just take what people said at face value but tested it. Maybe even someone who asked himself the question of his name: who is like God? Am I? And what does that mean? Well, it goes without saying that you often get what you hope/pray for but not always in the way you anticipate.  We are now realizing that our prayers have been answered in the positive, for better and for worse! We have a son who questions. Everything. Everyday. "Why?" is the tagline for every statement. While we love his curious nature, it is difficult to at times to deal with a child who doesn't accept that he should do something "because Mommy and Daddy said so." Not that we want a yes-man child, but it would be nice to get through a bathtime or a hand-washing without an argument! I now know I must have very good reasons for why I want him to do things and be able to articulate those. That's easy now, when most of the time our answer is "because I'm trying to keep you safe" or "because I'm trying to keep you healthy." But I know those answers will get more complicated the older he gets. And some of them he'll probably change our minds about. So it's good that we're being forced to think in this pattern now. He's causing us to question things too. And questioning is important because often its the search for answers that helps us grow, tests and strengthens our faith and many aspects of our lives. Without testing we would never know our limits or the esctasy of achieving more than we dreamed was possible. For now, we are walking that tightrope of allowing him the freedom to express his feelings and question rules, while still consistantly enforcing those rules we expect him to follow. 

So what about Jacob's name?  Well, we know that literally the name Jacob means "deceiver", or more kindly put, "supplanter." As a biblical figure, Jacob did lie to his father and steal a birthright from his brother. Hmmm, not things we want to encourage. However, he also wrestled with an angel (which many people believe was God in angel form) until God agreed to bless him. God then named him Israel ("wrestles with God"). To make it short, the Israelites were God's "chosen" people so this was an important moment on many levels. We again liked the idea that Jacob wouldn't let go until God blessed him. He wasn't perfect, but God blessed him and made him an integral part of his overall plan. Say what you will about him, but I like Jacob's humanity. So in light of all this, what kind of person are we praying and hoping Jacob will be? A person whom God blesses. A person with perseverance. And... just to be on the safe side, I'm saying an extra prayer that he'll be a person of compassion and gentleness too :-) Who knows? Maybe he'll be captain of the wrestling team someday. He's certainly got the build for it! (That's 7 mos., 25 lbs and counting, folks...)

Skilz

Practice makes perfect!

Jacob and his new buddy

Now that Jacob is getting older, we've been trying to introduce a few new things into his world like sleeping through the night, solid food and using a cup! So far he is doing well on all fronts. At night he usually has one period of an hour or so where he wakes up and "plays" in the crib. My theory is that he is busy practicing his new "moves," and can't be bothered to rest just then. These moves include rolling back and forth, scooching to the end of the crib and rocking on all fours. After a while he tires himself out again and falls asleep, usually opposite from where I laid him down! I included a few pictures and two videos of him playing with his new toy from Aunt Helen-- a LeapFrog Plush Pal. This thing truly is high tech. I plugged it into the computer, entered some info about Jacob and now this pet says his name, favorite color, plays music he likes and other cute things. He just loves it when the pup says his name, as you can see in this video! Also, you can see how he likes to rock to the music, while trying to get onto his tummy. He might not be officially crawling yet, but this boy knows how to get around.