Ho Ho Ho!

Micah was pretending to be Santa, and alternately, a pirate named BubbleBeard, in last night's bath.

Baby Bump

For all those interested in the baby progress...here's a belly pic. On Jan. 6 we find out whether it's a girl or a boy! Whichever it is, it's active. I am already feeling him/her move around on a regular basis.

Christmas at Home

We visited the spectacular lights display at the Lake DeGray houseboat dock with some friends. Even Santa was there, although Micah was speechless when he handed him a candy cane. I guess it's a good thing he'll have another chance to talk to Santa when he visits his class tomorrow!

Well, it wasn't really Christmas morning, but it might as well have been. We always open our gifts to each other before leaving for whatever holiday destination we're going to that year. So Saturday was the day this time around. We had breakfast and then Micah walked around the corner to find the presents all under the tree! As you can see in this video, he was so excited! At the end of the video he says "Let's pray." Now, I could say that this was because all of those talks about how Christmas is Jesus' birthday had really sunk in. But I think it was really because he knows we pray before we do things like eat dinner so I guess he figured before we get to the presents, we had to pray then too! Who knows? Micah is an equal opportunity pray-er. We thanked Jesus that morning, but later on that night I guess he thought we were leaving a few things out because when we put him to bed, he wanted to thank God for reindeer, presents and Santa, too :-) Anyway, we had fun opening and playing with all of the new things.

Here's a video of him opening his special present from Grammy and Pop Pop Noden:

Merry Christmas and God bless us, everyone!

Christmastime is Here

The Christmas 2010 photo!
I hope everyone is enjoying this Christmas season. Micah is learning all about "Sanna" and "Rudob" and "baby Jee-as" :-) So far, his favorite carols are Away in a Manger and Jingle Bells.
Santa comes to our house, but we will also be celebrating Jesus' birthday, complete with party held at our church next week. Micah loves all the parties we've been going to, although I think they have caught up with him in the form of a cold. But, it's nothing too serious and the doc says he should be fine by the time we fly out to visit Wisconsin. Hopefully the rest of us can stay healthy! We had Dan's directing students over for dinner and a final last night (it's a new twist on dinner with a movie :-)). We've got a few more things to tie up here, but we're looking forward to the break. Hope you all have a safe, happy and blessed holiday season!

Expanding Our Family

Most people who read this blog probably already know we are expecting another little one, but for those who don't, here's the big announcement! My due date is June 2 and my first ultrasound picture is above. You can see the blob where the tech wrote "baby." Everything looks good so far. On January 6, I go in for another ultrasound and we will hopefully find out whether it's a boy or a girl. I've had the requisite morning sickness, but am starting to feel much better now :-) Micah is starting to understand that he will be a big brother soon and talks often about the baby that is growing in mommy. I think things will become clearer to him once I start showing more. I'll ask for your thoughts and prayers during this time, that everything goes smoothly and that the baby will be healthy! We'll keep you posted!

Grammy and Pop Pop's visit

We've been having a great time with Grammy and Pop Pop! We had yet another birthday celebration for Micah--this one with cake as you can see in this video. And we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving with them on Thursday. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Happy 3rd Birthday Micah!

So today is Micah's 3rd birthday! I made cupcakes for him to take to school, with sprinkles, which are his new favorite thing. We'll be celebrating again with a cake at home when Grammy and Pop get here in about a week. This birthday is a special one since he got to party with both sets of grandparents (Grammy and Papa Inouye were just here a couple weeks ago)! I attached a couple of recent photos of him and a cute video of Micah wearing my boots and tromping around the house. He just moved up to the 3 and 4 yr old class at school and his teachers say he is doing really well there! The next move he will make will be to public pre-K when he is 5--I can't believe it!

Yippee-kai-aaaay, Cowpattie!

A couple weeks ago we visited Manchester Pumpkin Days, a small-town fall festival with southern cooking provided by 4-H, hay rides and games for the kids. Micah got to ride a pony for the first time. He doesn't look very excited about it in these photos, but he couldn't stop talking about it afterwards :-) We also picked out some pumpkins for the front stoop. It was a nice start to the fall season in Arkansas.

Nana and Papa's Visit

Micah rides the carousel at the zoo.

"Cheese!"

Early birthday present from mom and dad

Birthday present from Nana and Papa

Opening gifts


We had a great visit with the Inouyes this past couple of weeks. We visited the zoo again and this time Micah rode the carousel. He ended up liking it and he wanted to go again, but he buried his head in dad's shoulder for most of the ride :-) We decided to have a mini celebration for Micah's birthday so that he could open Nana and Papa's gift in front of them. It was a Toy Story 3 racetrack, complete with cars that you wind up by shaking them. Needless to say, we have been playing with that over and over! We decided to give Micah some goldfish since he really loves fish and we thought it would be fun. He was very surprised! He keeps asking when we are going to eat them, so I think he's a little confused about the whole "pet" thing at this point. The only fish he's had contact with are fish-shaped crackers, hence the whole eating thing :-) But we are all enjoying watching them swim around their tank in the kitchen. And yes, they are up high enough that no "snacking" by boy or cat will be taking place! Dan and his dad were able to complete some garage-related projects over the visit, which were much needed, including a workbench out there. We are enjoying some beautiful fall weather and finally, some much needed rain. Hope you are having a good week!

Laundry Day

Micah loves dressing up in Daddy's clothes right out of the laundry. He also likes rolling in the freshly dried clothes, just like a cat :-) Hopefully, his interest will lead into eventually helping me fold and put away the clothes (hey, a mom can dream!) but for now, I just let him have his fun. We had a little accident this weekend with Micah's elbow. A part of the elbow tendon became lodged in the elbow joint--a minor dislocation that is common in kids under 4. This condition is called "nursemaid's elbow," and usually happens when they are being held by the arm and trying to get away from the person holding them--that's what happened in our case. Anyway, Sunday night he started crying and holding his arm, which looked fine but was obviously bothering him. He woke up three times in the night with it and we decided he needed to be examined by a doctor. Doc popped the elbow right back into place in the office--Micah didn't know it was coming so it was all over without too much fuss, and he got instant pain relief. The doc said he would be fine almost immediately and I was happy to see him acting as if it never happened as soon as we got home! We're so glad we didn't have to go through with x-rays, etc., and that Micah's ok. He did get to see Dan's children's show this weekend--Wiley and the Hairy Man--and seemed to enjoy that too. He sat quietly through all 50 minutes of it! This weekend we plan on getting some cute pics at a local pumpkin fair--hope the weather is cool!

A Sneak Preview

Ta-Da! Remember this costume from last year? Micah wanted to play dress up again.

This year's costume--a monkey!

This first video is of Micah trying to say "cheese" so I can take his picture :-) I thought it was a hoot.

We had a great weekend! I went to a children's consignment sale in Little Rock with a friend and picked up Micah's Halloween costume for this year--a monkey! He loved it and had to wear it about 5 times after I brought it home. I also got a few winter weather clothing items for him and a birthday present. Micah and Daddy visited the Clark County Fair while I was gone and got to see goats, cows, horses, chickens and more. Micah decided that he wants to be part of 4-H when he grows up!

Apples and "Orange"

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," is the best way to describe this week. Micah's having fun with the letters in my Apple Scrabble game in these photos and video. He is starting to be interested in what letters he sees, like these on the game pieces and the on refrigerator magnets we have. He loves making his name with them. His current favorite toy is an orange "thingy," for lack of a better word, that goes to a playset he has. He has to have "orange" at every meal and at bed time! I am amazed he doesn't have it in these photos! We also had fun helping him learn to ride his bike this weekend. He still hasn't quite gotten the hang of the pedaling part, but he really likes trying and I'm happy to see him not get frustrated with it. I think it's always good for him (and us for that matter) to have things he can't do on thr first try, but needs to practice doing. On the flip side, he had a lot of temper tantrums throughout the week which we challenging for us as parents! Micah seems to be testing the waters repeatedly. And we're trying to come up with effective ways of training him to respect people and act appropriately, y'know, day in the life of every parent. Anyway, for now we are holding on to the good times so we can have patience through the rough ones.

Cookie Monster

Enjoying the fruits of his labor...

Hope everyone had a relaxing Labor Day. We made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies this weekend. Micah really likes helping in the kitchen, especially when we are making sweets! Dan and I spent most of the weekend working on stripping wallpaper in the bathroom and painting it, but we managed to get in some good family time, too. Micah got a little sun, as you can see in these photos, after making several trips to the playground. We had great weather on Saturday and spent as much time outside as possible taking walks and playing on the slide. Everywhere we went, we had to take froggy along--that's Micah's stuffed frog that plays music. He likes giving froggy a commentary as we walk. "Did you hear the train, froggy?" "You like to take a walk, froggy?" It's funny to hear him saying the things I usually say to him as we walk, to the froggy. We were able to Skype with both families this weekend, which was great. The library was closed so we couldn't take our usual trip, but that was ok with Micah since he really likes one of the books we borrowed last time called "Bright Stanley". We only read it three times yesterday--proof that his interest is waning a bit :-) It's about a fish that has adventures in the sea including encountering a shark. Since he loves all things "fishy," this book is right up his alley.

Bathtime!

Micah was making bubble beards in the tub last night :-) I have the cutest video of him laughing but until I find a way to edit out certain "bits," I won't be putting it online! Instead, here are a few photos I took too. We had a great weekend doing our usual things--visiting the library, going to Wal-Mart (which was crazy because of all the students moving back into dorms this weekend) and hanging out in the pool on the porch. Our refrigerator is covered with colored pictures of jungle animals, last week's theme at daycare. He had finished a unit on bugs the week before and I'm glad to get those projects out of the kitchen! We did get word that some of our friends who have a son Micah's age are moving, so we're sad to say goodbye to them. But that's the life in academia--last minute moves and new places to live. I'm glad it's our turn to stay put for awhile.

SPOILER ALERT: All those who don't wish to be party to potty training talk can now exit this blog.

Micah is doing well with potty training and had many successes! I had put him in his room for naptime and a little while later we heard him saying "Daddy, I made pee pees!" We figured he was just trying to delay falling asleep as long as possible by faking that he had to go. But to our surprise he had stripped himself down and used the potty all by himself :-) We were so proud. Two mini M&Ms for you, little man!

This One's for Aunt Helen!

What do you do when it's 103 degrees outside and you have a energy-filled toddler? We found one solution to the problem this weekend! We brought out a video game toy that Aunt Helen got for Micah for Christmas. You hook up the game mat to the TV screen. The child stands on the mat and can play different games by running in place, pressing shapes and colors on the mat and lots more. The movement the child does on the mat correspond to a little snimal on the screen that moves around when the child does. When we first tried it out a few months ago, M didn't quite understand the connection between what was happening on the screen and what he was doing with his feet and hands. But this time around, he really enjoyed it. In fact, we had to bring it out on Saturday and Sunday! It was so cute to see him running in place while "racing" himself, or playing the shape and color games. (I am proud to say that he now knows all of his basic shapes and most of the colors, but he still gets red and brown confused :-)) We really enjoy our outside time on the weekends, but since we couldn't do that this weekend, this game was a real sanity saver!

In just 3 short months M will be 3! Just yesterday I was sitting on the couch wrapped in a bathrobe because I was cold (A/C was cranked up) and he came over and asked if I was ok. I told him I was fine, just cold. He said "Does your nose hurt?" And I said, "No, I don't have a cold, I am cold." Apparently there was some miscommunication anyway since he went into the kitchen, retrieved a cold pack from the frig, and then placed it gingerly on my nose saying "It's better, Mama?" I tell you, these "Terrible Twos" can be awfully sweet sometimes :-)

Haircut

We were finally able to cut Micah's hair without the clippers! Yes, it did require a bribe, we promised him a "sweet" if he didn't fuss and sat still. It was worth it. He did great right up until the end when the hair was falling in his face. And Dan was able to get around his ears and eyes, which was the point. Isn't he a cutie?

This video is of him this morning at breakfast. He had the hiccups and had been laughing about it and then got distracted by the camera :-)

Bi-hic-cool

"Bi-hic-cool" is how Micah says "bicycle". He got his first bike this weekend! Dan found this little gem at a thrift store in Corinth and brought it home. With the seat moved down all the way, he can reach the pedals just fine, but hasn't quite learned how they work yet ;-) It was just too hot to try for very long so we'll have to give it another go some other time. We spend the weekend at the lake, in the kiddie pool ont he proch and taking short trips outside. Since Micah was learning about bugs in school this week, we looked at grasshoppers, locust husks and all kinds of crawling things in the yard. There's a cute video on him on the bike and another one looking at a locust. Hope you all are staying cool!

Drum Major

Well, we're in the final week of Dan's show in Corinth--I see the light at the end of the tunnel! We had a quiet weekend at home and even managed to go out to eat in celebration of our 9th wedding anniversary this week! Micah is marching to the beat of his own drummer in this video. I tried to get him chanting on tape, but only managed to get the marching and drumming part. He was saying "1,2,9,6!" over and over. He knows how to count to 10, but I guess he just likes making up his own sequence.

High-Tech Generation

Technology has changed quite a bit since Dan and I were little. Back then if you took a photo, you had to wait to finish the roll of film, then have it developed and get prints. Photos were items you held in your hand, not multimedia products. How times have changed. This morning, I handed Micah a print of his Daddy. After making the appropriate comments about how Daddy was in the picture, he poked it and prodded it and exclaimed, "It's broke." I asked him what he meant, and as he continued to try to make the picture do something, I realized that he's seen very few prints. To him, photos are something we view on the camera, where we scroll through them by pushing a button, or on the computer screen as part of a slideshow. Or we view photos as parts of movies. When he started saying things like "movie" while looking at the photo, I realized he was waiting for it to move, or light up, or interact with him in some way. His expectations are totally different! We don't have many still photos in frames lying around (since frames are easily breakable) so he just has been exposed to the "old school" kinds of photos. As they say, I'm sure he'll be outpacing us in his knowledge of technology as soon as he starts school. I can only imagine what the "it" gadget will be then! This video shows a little bit of what happened this morning.

Flashlight Fun

One of Micah's favorite things to do is lay on our bed with the lights out and play with the flashlight. He and Dan had a ball this weekend making shapes and animals in the light! our plans for another weekend at the lake were thwarted by the intermittant showers we had Saturday and Sunday but we still had a great weekend, just spending time together as a family. Micah made his first trip to the Clark County Library where we picked out some books to borrow. I think we have read these books so much already that I've memorized them :-) We got a large bag of fresh cukes, squash and zucchini from the friends Dan is staying with in Corinth, so I am currently trying all kinds of new recipes--yum! If anyone has a good one for squash casserole, let me know. It's hard having Dan gone, but we really do appreciate that time together on the weekends that much more. Other than a few instances of night-waking, Micah's been doing pretty well with the transition, but we'd appreciate your prayers for that.

Hula!

Micah is showing off his Hawaiian roots in this video. His favorite show is the Imagination Movers on Playhouse Disney and he especially likes this episode that we watched last night about how Nina learns about popular Hawaiian things like hula dancing and surfing. I just had to get this on video because he was putting his hands on his hips and hula dancing on the couch! He was even doing the hand motions for water and sun. I wish I could have gotten more, but after he saw the camera, he got distracted! He's in the buff from the waist down since we're doing the potty training thing right now, but it's all G-rated ;-) You can hear Nina singing the song on the TV in the background--something about blue water and the sun.

4th of July!

We had a very low-key but good 4th this year. Since Dan was home for the long weekend, we mostly stayed around the house, relaxing on the porch and escaping the heat with some cold watermelon. We had fun at the lake on Saturday with friends, just swimming and making sandcastles. Micah spent most of the time sans diaper and has had some real success with potty training! Dan has gone back to Corinth for another week of rehearsals, so Micah and I are missing him already, but glad it's a short week. Hope you had a great holiday, too!

Happy Father's Day!

Hope everyone had a nice Father's Day weekend! On Saturday we went to the lake with some friends. Micah did not want to leave, but it was so hot we could only stay for a short visit. On Sunday, Micah and I made blueberry pancakes for Dan and he opened his cards. And, Happy Birthday to Pop Pop! It was my dad's birthday on Friday. We Skyped with him and Grammy on Sunday afternoon. We are supposed to have a very hot and dry week here in Arkansas. Hope you all are getting some relief where you are!

FYI--We are getting rid of our home phone since we only get telemarketers calling us on it anymore. From now on you can reach us on our cell phones!

Summer days

Micah and Daddy share a chocolate ice cream cone

When we went to check on Micah in his new bed setup, this is what we found. How can a person sleep like that?! Apparently, he thought it was pretty comfy. Arkansas has started off to a very hot summer this year so we've been spending our afternoons either inside or on the porch with the little wading pool Micah enjoys so much. We did manage to make it to the playground on Saturday before things got too steamy. Bteween visits to Corinth to direct the musical there, Dan's been working hard on the house, doing some painting and stripping the old stuff around the front door. It's looking good!