Christmas at home

Since we're going to be traveling for Christmas this year, we decided to open our gifts to each other this past weekend. Micah loved his new rug with roads on it and his sidewalk chalk! We could hardly get him away from it when it was time to come inside. We had Dan's directing class over for dinner last night --Grandma Inouye's spaghetti sauce was a hit! Dan will be grading finals furiously until the day we leave for Minnesota, but hopefully after that things will be more relaxing. In the new year, I promise to post pictures of Micah dressed up in his ring-bearer outfit for Josh and Amanda's wedding this weekend. Congratulations! And of course we'll have lots of Delaware photos too since we'll be there for Christmas. Until then, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Playdough!

Micah is enjoying his playdough! We had to get it out three time this weekend. Paaay-dooo! Micah's recovering from a nasty ear infection, but other than that, it was a nice weekend. Dan and I got to go to a banquet and Christmas concert at OBU. I'm done with class for the semester so now it's time to focus on the holidays: Cookies baked: check. Presents sent: check. Cards signed: check. Bags packed: ummm...working on it.

Thanksgiving!

Micah and Tommy

Micah with June and Glenn

Micah with Laurie and Tammy

Micah and Petey

We had a great time over Thanksgiving with friends in Corinth, MS, our old stomping grounds. We stayed with Miss June and Mr. Glenn for the weekend and enjoyed dinner at Tommy's house with about 15 other people! Although Micah decided that it would be more fun to throw the food than eat it (I disagree!), we still had a nice night. Micah got to watch parts of the Wizard of Oz for the first time and spend quality time with Boo, Tommy's dog. There were many people we wanted to see and we didn't get to all of them, but I'm glad we were able to go even for a short trip! We're looking forward to the Christmas holiday and Dan's brother Josh's and Amanda's upcoming wedding in whcih Micah is a ring bearer! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday too!

O Christmas Tree

We put up the Christmas tree this weekend since we didn't know when we'd have another chance to do it before the holidays! We're now re-thinking our clever plan since Micah seems to be more interested in trying the pull the thing down on himself than anything else! Hope that tether holds! This is a cute video of him seeing the tree for the first time (we put it up while he was napping). We are going to be in Corinth, MS, our old stomping grounds, for Thanksgiving this year. We are looking forward to seeing all of our friends again! Hope you all have a wonderful holiday too!

"Dad, can I have the keys?"

He might not be asking for the car keys just yet, but Micah is fascinated with his new remote controlled car. After getting over the initial shock of seeing the car move and not knowing how that was happening, he thought it was a lot of fun! The "steering wheel" has a horn and two buttons to move the car forward and backward. He can even steer by turning the wheel whichever way he wants the car to go. Now if we could just keep him from pointing his other toys at the car and syaing "Go!" We tried to explain that only the steering wheel works, but this hasn't sunk in yet ;-) In other news, we finally buzzed his head again as you can see. He hates getting his hair trimmed so we always buzz, which is the quickest way to get it done. I figure when he's in the wedding in a month, it will have grown out to a nice length. On Friday, he fell on the playground and got a huge bump on his lip ;-( The poor kid looked a litle lopsided this weekend, but the swelling has gone down now and I think he'll live! We had a nice fall weekend, raking leaves in the backyard and visiting with friends... and working on papers (Dan grading them, me writing them). I can't believe it's almost December!

puzzled

Micah plays with his puzzle from Grammy and Pop Pop, minus the sounds which were a little too scary last night ;-)

Birthday cake and presents

Micah is opening a present from Nana and Papa Inouye--a remote controlled truck!

Happy 2nd Birthday Micah!

Wow--I just can't believe that Micah is 2 today! I just visited some friends that have a 2-week-old last night and I couldn't help but think it was just last month that M was that little. Yes, we are in the "terrible twos" now, but as stressful as that can sometimes be, it is also a lot of fun! We had the best time yesterday eating cake, playing in the leaves outside and opening gifts from family and friends (thank you!). I'll post some more videos of him opening them last night. Even though today is technically his birthday, we celebrated last night. I sent him to daycare with cupcakes for him to share with his class at lunch.

Pumpkin Carving

Here's a funny belated video of Micah wanting to help us carve the pumpkin, but then again...maybe not :-)

Happy Halloween!

Doesn't he make a cute giraffe? We had a great time at the daycare party followed by the Henderson Art Club's puppet show on Friday night. Way too much sugar...but a lot of fun.

I read!

Here's a couple of pictures of Micah "reading" his book from Aunt Mim!

We had an eventful weekend. The highlight: our friends Mark and Maggie welcomed their first baby on Saturday! Congrats! The lowlight: Dan has a bad cold and Micah started with flu-like symptoms last night :-( The Dr. says it's not the flu, but he still feels miserable. Say a prayer for them, please, if you think of it.

Visit with Grammy and Pop Pop!

At Lake DeGray

Eating soup.

Here are a few photos from the week "Grammy and Pop Pop" visited from Delaware. We made a couple trips to Lake DeGray where Micah learned how to throw stones in the water and generally really enjoyed himself! The last video showcases his soup eating skills ;P

New Class

This week Micah moved to his new class for 2-yr-olds at daycare. He came home yesterday with a craft project about shapes, which you can see above. Poor kid--I caught him in a teething moment in the bottom photo. He's got those molars coming in now and they do give him some trouble. Anyway, I think he had a good first day with his new teacher and was proud that instead of sitting in the high chairs he now gets to sit at the table with the "big kids"! I also put a video on here of him playing with some homemade playdough from a fellow toddler mom. Micah loves the squishiness of it!

Daddy's Helper

This weekend we decided to hang some pictures on the wall. We haven't finished painting yet, but it was getting a little too boring in the living room. Micah just had to be right there while Dan was hammering the nails in the wall :-)...

...and when he was emptying all of our boxes of knicknacks. This is almost as good as the leaves in fall!

Pool & Pickles

We purchased a little blowup pool for Micah to splash around in on these hot Arkansas days.

He really enjoyed himself this weekend and was pretty prune-y by the time he was toweled off! Here he is getting water poured on him by daddy. The best part is we can set the pool up on the porch and avoid the mosquitos. They are so bad this year that even heavy applications of bug spray don't keep them away. I'm hoping the cooler weather will do them in. Calamine lotion might as well consider us shareholders for all of it we've used these last few weeks.

My favorite snack is pickles--dill and sweet. So I decided to give Micah a taste. As you can see, I don't think he shares my love. I like this video though, because he says this "no" with that questioning inflection all the time. It's almost like he's asking me if it's ok for him not to like it. Good thing he does like to eat some things--he's recently acquired a taste for fish sticks and cucumber and has started eating vegetables again! Woo hoo. I'm still planning to break out the Flintstones vitamins.

A Budding Musician

I think Micah's definately got something of the msuic bug in him. Take this harmonica video, for example. He's right on the money! Until it gets turned around backwards :-) Walking with him around campus is hilarious. Everytime someone drives along blasting their base, he takes it as an excuse to dance.

Saturday was a great day! The weather was about 75-80 and it was sunny. In the morning we walked downtown and got a free ice cream from the Schwans folks who were doing a fundraiser there. Then we went to Benton to get a gift for a baby shower. In the evening, we decided to play with a bowl of water and some cups on the porch in lieu of a pool. Micah was soaked and went right into the tub afterwards. I hope we have many more days like this one!

Sunday Night Fever

Yes, Micah does have another fever--we're thinking another ear infection--but this title also refers to his latest craze, dancing! Last night I took this video of Micah be-bopping to the music from a bunny he got last Easter. His dancing is a little stompy and twirly :-) Dan said this morning he discovered a TV show called Hi-5 that Micah just loved. All it is is characters dancing to music and he said Micah just really got into it!

Cake!

Scrumdiddlyumptious! Dan must have missed his calling as a pastry chef. He made this last night.

Micah trying to "color" with a medicine dropper this morning.

Micah's new outfit.

So we couldn't resist picking up something for Micah at the Old Navy sale in Little Rock when we were there a couple of weeks ago. Don't you think this t-shirt fits him?

We had lots of fun with friends Mike and Julie Clawson and their kids, Emma (4) and Aidan (14 mos.) this week! They were passing through on their way up north and spent the night with us. At first Micah wasn't sure about having other kids playing with his toys in his house, but after awhile he warmed up and had a good time. This coming week we'll be watching Jonathan, a boy about his age that he goes to daycare with. So he'll get to practice his sharing skills again! It's funny, but one of the things he loves to do most is share food with kids. Whenever we're around a kid who's eating, Micah tries to feed him bits of his own food. And he gets really excited about it when they eat something he's given them. Crazy kid!

Feel Better

Here's another photo of us on the front porch after Micah's dedication. It looks like he's saying, "No more pictures please, folks."

Here's a video of Micah playing with the cat. in his room. The first few seconds are so cute, the rest of the time we are just trying to get her to play along again. He's really getting good at petting her gently and not teasing her too much.

Last night Micah woke up crying at about 4:30 a.m. and Dan went in to get him back down. This morning when I got him up, I noticed he had some drainage from his ear--poor kid's got an ear infection! Kudos to Nana who called it a couple of days ago. He usually doesn't get a fever with these, so it's really hard to tell when he has one, aside from the night waking, which we thought was related to being in a new place, etc. But he's been walking around and falling a lot and Nana said it was because he had some fluid in his ears and she was right. Hopefully the antibiotics will clear it up quickly.

Bye Bye Nana and Papa!

Micah playing a game with Nana and the blankey

The three musketeers

We had a good visit with Dan's parents over the last couple of weeks. We got a lot done on the house and apartment and Micah had fun with all the attention! (You can see the new ktichen color in the background of this photo!) I have a cute video to post of Micah playing this game with Lynn, but I can't seem to get it to post today--I'll try again later. Our original plans to rent the apartment this fall have changed due to some snafus involving the zoning. But we're still hoping that we'll be able to rent it next semester. For now, we're going ahead with installing the kitchen sink and cabinets and generally fixing the place up so at least it'll be in good order for guests who come to visit.

Bump in the Night

We knew it was inevitable, but it's not quite real until you hear that "thunk" in the other room. Micah figured out how to get out of the crib last night. Thankfully, there were no boo boos, but I think he was just as startled as the rest of us. We've got the mattress on the lowest setting and there were no items in the crib that could have given him a leg up so I guess he must have pulled himself up and swung a leg over the top bar and fell over the side. The side was still up, so we know that it held up to the weight. I guess this is just another thing to add to the list of changes we've seen in the last month. So far: no more eating breakfast at home--only at daycare; no more restraints in the high chair (we're fast moving toward no high chair at all); no more squishy foods (except for an occasional banana)--the new favorites include chicken nuggets and apple slices.

In other news, Dan and I celebrated our 8th anniversary yesterday :-) I baked a peach pie for the occasion and we are going out on Friday, which I took off from work. When I think back to all the decisions I've made, marrying Dan is one of the best ones. Love you, babe!

Dedication

Here's the little cherub all dressed up and ready for church.

Micah's dedication went really well. Hopefully I'll be able to post more photos and video from that later this week. For now, here's one photo of him after we got home, sitting on the front porch.

We managed to get the kitchen all painted this weekend too--green!

Fixing Things

Micah "fixing" the new kitchen

Micah in the living room.

We've managed to lessen the number of boxes we have to unpack, but things are still a little crazy at the new house. Micah's been following Daddy around the house, "fixing" things with his set of Bob the Builder tools. This weekend was a rough one for him. He bumped his top lip (lots of blood, but he was fine) and got a nasty bruise on his leg when he fell while trying to climb up on a chair in the living room! We've been playing that time-tested toddler game, "Guess what the child will eat?" just about every mealtime (Lasagna and apples--Sunday. Crackers and chicken nuggets--Monday. Veggies--never). We also think he might be getting a molar--he's been pretty fussy and had a low-grade fever for a couple nights--so we're taking him into the doc today just to make sure it's not something like an ear infection or sore throat that we can't see. Anyway, I'm hoping that this week is better for him. We're all looking forward to Grandma and Grandpa arriving today from Wisconsin!

This Sunday we are joining a church and having Micah dedicated. We wanted to do this for some time when family could be here, so we're taking advantage of the Inouyes' visit to do this. The dedication is a simple ceremony where our pastor will say a prayer of blessing for Micah and a prayer of guidence for us, as his parents. We will make a committment to educating him about our faith. We believe that we are responsible for ensuring that Micah receives a good education--academically, socially, emotionally and spiritually. I hope that as he grows older and explores his heart, he will make his own decision to follow the way of Christ and become a person characterized by God's love and integrity.

A Work in Progress

We painted all the kitchen cabinets

Moved everything in

And painted the master bedroom (this used to be pink)

We managed to get everything into the new house this weekend although we had one person to help us (thank you, Eric!!), it was about 100 degrees and the AC in the house wasn't working (it's fixed now)! It wasn't a pleasant Saturday, but we did get everything moved over. Micah spent the day at his friend Jonathan's house while we unloaded the truck and came home to a new room :-) He has slept great both nights we've been there, so I think he's made the transition well. On Sunday I cleaned the old place so we're pretty much done. Now we're just waiting to take posession of the garage and the apt in the back so we can get it ready for a renter this fall. Never a dull moment...

Last day in the rental!

Tomorrow is our big move to the new house! Dan and I have been working on painting and cleaning the new place and hopefully will have a successful move tomorrow. Wish us luck! Here is a video of Micah in the kitchen saying "hello." He is really becoming quite the ham in front of the camera. As you can see, he is holding an ice scraper he found in the backseat of the car :-).

Our new house

the front

the den

Micah's room

front door and part of living room

kitchen eat-in area, doors to screened-in back porch and back yard

As promised, here are some photos of our place! Since it's empty, I just put up a couple of photos but will post more when we get moved in, which will hopefully be next weekend. For now, here are some shots of the front of the house and some of the rooms. It's a 2-bed, 2-bath with den (which was formerly used as a bedroom). There's a 1-car garage out back with an attached efficiency apartment, which we hope to rent out this fall, and a fenced yard. The living and dining rooms are hardwood, the bedrooms and den are carpet. Yes, we will be taking down the wallpaper in Micah's room and painting! Since the house is older, it has some of those nice touches like high ceilings and crown moulding that we like, but all of the siding and windows have been updated--yea! We are happy to have our own space!

Hope everyone has a happy 4th!

Buzz cut

This past weekend we decided to give Micah a buzz cut with our clippers! It's been close to 100 degrees everyday and we thought he'd be a lot cooler this way. I can't say he enjoyed it, but we did manage to get it done without leaving him with a mohawk. Here he is "reading" one of his favorite books--Dr. Seuss' The Foot Book. "Left foot, Right foot, Left foot, Right. Feet in the day, feet in the night." He also loves marching :-)

Happy Father's Day (a few days late...)

I couldn't let the occasion go by without posting this cute picture of my guys on Father's Day.

Update on the house situation: For those who don't already know, we have just purchased our first house! We'll be moving in sometime in the middle of July. We'll post pictures as soon as we can. Woo hoo!

Building Blocks

This is a shameless "brag" video! Micah has mastered the art of the shape sorter. We didn't realize this until one day I was sitting on the floor with him, shapes all around and he just popped them in one by one like it was nothing, while humming some little tune to himself. I shot this video shortly after that.

Those 3 little words...

Just wanted to let everyone know that Micah said (his version of) "I love you" for the first time this weekend :-) One small step for Micah, one giant leap for mommy's heart. "I na nu" too, little man.

Backyard entertainment

Here are the promised videos of Micah playing with his toys. You can hear him "counting" as he stacks his blocks at the end of the last one.

New Toys!

Everybody loves new toys--they just get more expensive the older you are! Did you ever think that a box of carboard "blocks" could give so much joy? We hit the jackpot at the garage sales this weekend! Of course, it's the slide/playhouse set that we were looking for. He loves to be outside and we thought that having something like this for him to play on would help burn off a little of that energy he's got! There are no public parks in Arkadelphia with equipment suitable for children of Micah's age, so on the weekends we usually take walks or roam around the backyard picking up monkey balls and pieces of bark--also a favorite Micah passtime. So he is really enjoying this slide combo! I will post some cute videos of the slide soon.

Upside-down

Micah loves to be hung upsidedown and every which way, and so was very pleased that Pop Pop liked to indulge him during his visit!

This weekend we found an item for Micah at a garage sale that we'd been looking for for some time. Pictures to come!

Socks!

Micah had a great time learning to put shoes and sock on and take them off during Grammy and Pop Pop's visit. Here he is playing a sock game with Grammy :-)

Fun with Grammy and Pop Pop

Ok, Pop Pop. I'm ready for my closeup.

And would you like a size 8, madam?

Bon voyage!

Well, I made it through the surgery and am 11 days into my recovery. I can't say I'd want to do it again, but I am glad I had it done and won't have any more awful throat infections. My parents came down to help us, and we really needed it! Micah had a great time playing with them and showing off all his new skills. I think Dan has recovered from being up at night with me. We had to say goodbye to Grammy and Pop Pop this morning and that was hard, but we're all glad to have things back to normal, kind of!

Blog Break

I haven't posted any blogs this week since I've been getting ready for my upcoming tonsillectomy on Friday. I'll be out for awhile while I recover, but I promise to have cute pics and videos of Micah to come! He is really enjoying his visit with Grammy and Pop Pop who have come down to help out. Please send prayers and good thoughts that the recovery time will be short.

Walking the dogs

Recently Micah has taken to putting these stuffed dogs on his arms and "walking" them around the house. I don't know how the cat feels about this! He also likes pulling the dining chairs backwards and then trying to push them back up.

Hi out there

Micah's playing with Daddy's belt in this video. You can hear a few of the sounds he makes all the time and of course, he's already learned how to ham it up for the camera!