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.