Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving! We will be making the trek back to Corinth for the day! We're so thankful for him and for our friends and family that have stood by us through our nomadic life and stayed in contact. Here's a video depicting one thing Micah is thankful for. I just have to brag on him for a minute. I had a book out with a bathtub scene on the page this weekend. Earlier, we had been playing with Micah's rubber duckie--"duckie" is one of the first words he could imitate. Whenever he talks, it's hard to know whether he really understands the meaning behind a word, or whether he's just imitating the sounds he hears us say. Anyway, I held up the page and asked him if he could point to the duckie since he seemed to really be concentrating for the moment. He looked at both pages for a moment, then pointed right to the duckie. Now, it could have been a fluke, but I think he really was able to recognize that item! I was so proud. It seems like everyday he understands a little bit more. I'm thankful that we get to be a part of his discoveries.

Sippyyyyy!

We've finally managed to get Micah to drink out of the sippy cup! Not a whole bottle's worth, but at least he's getting the hang of it! He loves to try drinking out of the regular cup, but he often gulps it down too fast and coughs, so we're doing this for now.

Tarzan Micah

Here's a video of a sleepy Micah doing his Tarzan interpretation. You'll hear him and then me, trying to get him to do it again, which of course was unsuccessful! This was a little trick that Grammy Noden taught him during my parents visit. Sorry it's so dark!

Checkup

Micah had a visit to the doctor today for his 12-month vaccinations and check up. The doc observed him walking around the room and pointing to everything and asked us a few questions about the words he can say ("Mo" for "more," "Kitty"--these are words he can say spontaneously. He imitates many other words now like "duckie," "thank you," and "turtle."). He said Micah was doing well! He's also gained some height as we suspected--now 31 inches. The nurse administered the shots and our little trooper did very well, just crying a little during the procedure. Of course, the pain was quickly eclipsed by all the of the interesting and new things going on in the office. It's times like this that I am glad for his curiosity! A few smiley face bandaids later, he is back at daycare, doing his thing.

Entertainment

I love how Micah can find enjoyment in simple things. He's got a floor full of colorful toys to play with, but he lets out the biggest belly laugh of the day while using Pop Pop's hands to clap with.

More birthday

"Wow--this thing is cool!"

"Dad, I'm not so sure this hat is me."

"Hmmm, let's see who this one is from." Micah did sit with us as we helped him open his gifts from guests, but I think he was mostly interested in playing with the crinkly tissue paper and bags. Dan attempted to put a birthday hat onhis head, but he was having no parts of that!

Here are a few more photos from the birthday bash.

snapfish photos

For those who are interested, I have loaded new photos on snapfish. If you would like the password, e-mail me! I'd post it here, but you never know who is reading.

Mmmmm...cake!

Here's a video of that iconic moment--the 1st birthday cake! As some of you faithful blog readers already know, this was not Micah's first experience with b-day goodies. But, it was still a "first" for us. It's fun to watch him play with his new toys--he's still running from one to the other, in awe that there are so many things to do. The rocking horse he mastered in no time, but a few of the other toys he's getting frustrated with because they won't do like he wants them too. We got him one of those old school "poppers" that you push like a mower and it makes a sound. He keeps trying to touch the popper part to figure out how it works, he hasn't quite gotten the message that he needs to push it to make it noisy. I don't think it will take him too long, though. He already loves to push his umbrella stroller around the yard. This morning, he discovered that jumbo blocks are not just good for banging together, they actually stick together so you can build things. It seems that the blue ones are his favorite since he grabs those out of the pile most of the time.

Micah's 1st Birthday!

"Yippee Kai-aaaaa!"

"Hmmm, a bit on the dry side..."

We had a big week! We all enjoyed visiting with "Pop Pop and Grammy" from Delaware and celebrating Micah's birthday. In the photos above, Micah is enjoying his new rocking horse from Grandma and Grandpa Inouye and eating a big slice of his birthday cake. I made a no sugar added carrot cake with cream cheese icing for him and of course, a yellow cake with chocolate frosting for our other guests as well. I think he liked it! We had about 10 people over

including a few kids which made it a great time. Micah got some toys and books as gifts, and I think he was a little overwhelmed with all the new things! Needless to say, he had an extra nap and slept very well yesterday.

Our little puppy

"Grammy, I'm tired"

"Hi, mom!"

"I know there's supposed to be something in here, but what?"

Here are some pictures of Micah all dressed up for Halloween! I cobbled together a "Blue" (from Blue's Clues) costume out of a pair of pajamas with puppies on them and a blue sweatshirt. It's not gourmet, but he sure does look cute. Since Blue has spots, I just cut up an old onesie to get those. The best part of this costume was that I could snip off the tail and spots, take off the slippers, unzip the sweatshirt and waa-laa, bedtime-ready! We didn't end up going to the Halloween party since Micah has a cold and his nose was just running like a faucet that night. He was tired anyway. We'll have plenty of years ahead for him to enjoy the festivities! We did have a few trick-or-treaters come to the house and we carved a pumpkin to put outside, although our attempts at getting pictures of him sitting next to it were fruitless. I'm glad we were able to get this photo-op at least :-)