Never Let It Get You Down

 "My eyes might look a little scary, but I'm feeling better now!"

The title of this blog could be Jacob's (and Micah's, for that matter) life theme. Even when he's not feeling well he knows how to put on a smile and keep going. As you can see from the first picture, his eyes were looking pretty rough and all last week he had green junk in them. So Monday we took him to the Dr. again and discovered that he has another double ear infection. Plus we were treating him for a diaper rash and a few other things having to do with "diaperland" which will remain nameless for those with weak stomachs. We are in the process of switching him over to formula (I am weaning him, and it's a little too early for cow's milk.) so we weren't sure if that was affecting him  negatively. Anyway, here we are in the middle of next week. His rash is much better, tummy troubles  are resolved, and Jacob slept all night last night so I think the ears are feeling better too! We may have to consider tubes for him if he keeps getting these infections, but for now we're just keeping an eye on it. We are down to just one nursing session before bed, so he is doing very well on the weaning front. I think it is harder on me than on him! This morning Jacob had lots of energy and was "walking" across the room just holding onto one of my fingers in each hand. I included a video of him "traveling" a bit. As part of his morning routine he crawls over to the windows on either side of the front door and pulls back the curtain to look out. I guess he just likes to see what kind of day is facing him. His favorite book is Goodnight Moon, and we've been reading that before bed each night. This morning he went over to the book and began pointing to the different pictures on the back cover saying "boo", "boo".  Now some people might say this was a random noise, but I'm inclined to count it as his first word, especially since we have been talking about reading a lot with him. He really seems to enjoy it and likes to turn the pages of his board books and point to the pictures like I do when I read to him.

Micah has been doing very well at school lately. It is exciting to see the new skills he is learning. He draws pictures at school, which his teachers label with whatever he tells them they are. Yesterday he drew a "statue monster" with teeth and gills that he said he'd seen at the library. He also informed me that insects have three parts: the head, the thorax and the "abbomin" and that they have 6 legs, but spiders have 12 (oh wait, 8). He also told me that while carrots and potatoes grow in the ground, apples grow on trees, so I wouldn't be tempted to go out in the yard and try to dig one of those up :-) He does very well at adding and can add any two numbers that add up to 10 or less (so he can count them on his fingers). It seems like yesterday we were gushing over Micah's first word (which was "mo" for "more") and now he is preparing to read!

Dan and I have both been busy at work, he with wrapping up the semester and preparing for finals and me with special projects and preparing for both a new university president and a new boss (mine will be retiring on June 30). It will be a time of change for me professionally, but I hope it will be for the better. Hope you all are enjoying your spring!