Bathtime!

Here is a cute video on Jacob in the infant tub (don't worry, it's modest!). We had some work done on our shower this week so I had to bathe him in the baby tub for a night. He just loves to splash and play with the washcloth.

the face of an angel...

It's been kind of a crazy week. My grandfather passed away at the end of last week, so I've been thinking about him a lot. I'm sad that he has passed, but more than that, I am so thankful for the wonderful memories I have of time spent in Vermont visting him and my grandmother. They were both loving and generous people, and I'm proud to have known them. Grampy didn't get to meet Jacob, although I sent him pictures, but he did meet Micah when he was about 6 months old. Micah had a special place in his heart, that's for sure, and I know know Jacob would have too.

 Jacob's been to the doctor about three time in the last two weeks for wheezing and coughing. I took him back on Tuesday since he just didn't seem to be improving. Turns out, he has a double ear infection! Poor kid. Hopefully now that he's on an antibiotic, he'll start feeling better. We've been giving him breathing treatments around the clock. Thankfully, Mom and Dad are coming for a visit while Dan is in England this week so if I need help they will be around. Micah seems to be doing fine, despite the pollen everywhere. I hope he stays that way! Well, think of Dan as he's traveling. I hope he will love this experience of going to Europe and be able to make some good connections there.

Finally!

Who wouldn't want to smooch those cheeks?!

Jacob is sporting the long-haired look these days.

"Ok, so you distract her with cuteness, and I'll grab the cookies..."

Snuggle time!

"Um, yeah. What he said."

Well, I am risking a jinx by saying this, but I think we've finally turned the corner with Jacob sleeping at night! Since last Sunday night, he has slept through the night without needing us to come in and hold/feed him. A few weeks ago I began a campaign to help him get attached to a blankey and a lovey, things that helped Micah sleep better. I just left both in the crib. So he still wakes up at night but has been able to comfort himself using these things each night for the past week! Even with a cold and getting a tooth, he still has been fine. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to get a solid night's sleep! But I have to admit, I do miss those early-morning snuggles too :-) It is precious to go in there in the morning and find him with the blankey stuffed in one hand, fingers stuffed in his mouth, or to find him playing with the musical aquarium that he has figured out how to work on his own or the  teething toy I put in there. I was beginning to think we might be up at night for a long time to come, but I am hoping that he has just reached an age where he can now do some of these things on his own. Just over the last two weeks he has learned to do so much.

Micah had a very fun Sunday visiting with a new friend! On Friday we received a last-minute invitation to a birthday party for one of his classmates. His mom had to move the date of his party up unexpectedly and so she was handing out invites as I was picking up the boys. Since we didn't have anything going on and Dan could be home with Jacob, we decided to go. It turns out that Micah was the only child who showed up! The two boys had a great time playing in his backyard which was a kids' paradise complete with trampoline, play set and sandbox! They even had a petting zoo of sorts with all of their different pets. Anyway, it was a nice day for Micah and I enjoyed getting to meet this little boy's parents as well.

Dan will be starting rehearsals for the spring musical so we will be missing him in the evenings over the next month or so! It's a comedy called the Drowsy Chaperone and I am looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Matters of the Heart

The Micah-monster strikes again!

Jacob is on his way to walking!

We had a smooth week, all things considered. We all survived Daddy's absence and were pleasantly surprised when he got to come home a day early! We spent time outside enjoying the beautiful weather we had this weekend. Jacob is busy cutting a new tooth on the bottom (still none on the top!). I took this video yesterday afternoon when the boys were playing together on the floor in the living room. I think they laugh in a similar way when they get all keyed up :-) Now that Jacob can move, he is constantly trying to pull up on anything and everything, especially if it means access to some of Micah's blocks. They are colorful, they a make a clicky noise and they are chewable. What more could he want? In the picture above, he is pulling up on an overturned plastic bin to reach the blue block sitting on the ground behind it. I think we're going to need a gate or something soon because a lot of these are too small for him to get his hands on safely. Bring out the jumbo blocks! Jacob is 9 months now. That is the same age Micah was when we moved to Arkansas. It's hard to imagine we've been here that long. Funny story from this week: We all know how abstract concepts are hard for little ones to grasp. At school, they are learning about the parts of the body, so Micah knows where the heart is and that we listen to it with a stethoscope, etc. We also talked with him about how Jesus can live in our hearts. Well, Micah and Dan were discussing this. Then they were horsing around and Micah had his hands around Dan's chest. He said, "Am I squishing Jesus?" What do you say to that? I think we just reassured him that Jesus was safe in there :-) I guess we are going to try a different approach to explaining what the heart is and what the "heart" is :-)

Learning

Micah's homework :-) He wrote the names in brown all by himself! (He forgot the "A" in the first one so he wanted to start over)

Jacob crawling!

Both boys are learning lots of new things right now. Micah is doing so well with writing his name and other letters and numbers. Since he has "homework" for the weekends, we get to see what he can do! His teacher says he is also very good at using the scissors when they are making projects at school and that's one of his favorite things to do at home too. Jacob is now crawling acorss the floor, trying to keep up with whatever Micah is doing! He's also going through a bit of separation anxiety, mostly at night, but he had a little trouble at the church nursery yesterday too. He's almost nine months, so that's to be expected. He's also learned another word: "Mama" :-) He's been able to say "Dada" for some time now, so I've been working on this one. It's funny how he imitates me, drawing out the "m" sound, just like I did when I was trying to teach him. "Mmmmma Mmmma." He knows that's the way to get me to come in and pick him up when he's wailing in the crib! It doesn't take kids long to learn these little things. Dan will be gone at a conference this week so it'll be me and the boys--wish me luck!

Happy Valentine's Day!

The video above is one of the cutest I have taken of the boys. You can see how protective Micah is of his little brother. It's just so sweet and a perfect Valentine's Day video. I know that as they both get older there will be days when they are getting on each others' nerves so I am saving this moment to show them the love! We had a very nice surprise yesterday...a snow day! We had fun outside building a snowman and I even stuck Jacob in the snowsuit and propped him up where he could see the action. As you can probably tell he is ready for a nap in these photos, but I think he enjoyed himself just the same. We had just gotten a book from the library called Snow Day. So of course it was doubly fun for Micah to see the real thing when he woke up Monday morning. Althought Dan had to work he did go in later so we had some time all together in the morning. It is our first snow this year, and probably our last.

Ooo, Mama it's cold!

Is this an awesome snowman, or what?

The brothers

Today is Micah's big Valentine's Day party at school. Over the weekend we decorated a shoe box for receiving valentines, There is a contest today for the best decorated box, so we'll see if he wins! We also made valentines for his classmates and teachers. I'm sure he'll come home way hyper on sugar and probably have pink frosting coming out of his ears, but what's a holiday without a few sweets when you're a kid? :-)

My new hair, and a sleepy boy.

So a few weeks ago, I got a haircut. A short one. Some might call it a "mom" cut  but I prefer to think of it as a "only takes a few minutes to fix so I can get up later" cut. It's so funny to see how Micah has reacted to this. When I first got it, he asked me if I was a boy now. I guess having short hair makes you a boy :-) This precipitated a conversation on how both men and women wear their hair lots of ways. Yesterday as I was tucking in for a nap, he said, "Mama, your hair looks like a funny flower." He said this straight-faced. I could not help but laugh and we both ended up laughing so hard! (Which might be the reason he ended up not taking a nap...) I have no idea what he was thinking of and I admit it was kind poofy that day. I guess a flower wouldn't be so bad, but it's the "funny" part that I'm not too sure about!

Weekend

"Mom, how come I can't pick up these fishies?"

Chef Micah prepares some chocolate cookies

Licking the beaters!

Mama and a sleepy boy

Warning: watching this video may produce the desire for chocolate cookies! Weel, that's if you overlook the coughing in the batter bowl at the end... :-) Micah and Dan whipped up a batch of these cookies on Sunday afternoon to enjoy while watching the Super Bowl. We have found that offering Micah incentives for napping on the weekend makes it more likely that he will nap so this was the one for Sunday. On Saturday our friends and their 2-yr-old came over for homemade pizza and playtime. It was a busy, but fun, visit with them. Jacob enjoyed playing with his water mat he got from Grammy and Pop Pop for Christmas. He kept pointing to all the smiley-faced water creatures under the mat and trying to pick them up only to come away with nothing. I think that part was a bit confusing, but he had fun with it anyway. He seems healthy and napped well all weekend, but his night-time sleep habits were not good. We don't know why he's waking up several times a night, we just know that he usually requires one of us to help him get back to sleep. He seems to be healthy and just finished a course of antibiotics, so I'm pretty sure it isn't an ear infection or illness. I'm guessing it's separation anxiety since he's old enough for that now. So we tried letting him fuss in the crib for a bit which works about half the time. The other half we try to pat him in the crib or if that doesn't work, rock him for a few minutes in the chair. I also added a blanket that he seems to like and one of his teether toys since he's old enough to have a few small things in the crib now.  I'm hoping he latches on to one of them as a lovey and that will help him to self-sooth at night. Yawn. Mommy and Daddy are tired.

Paging Dr. Micah!

Micah is taking Jacob's blood pressure

A little after-school bonding with Daddy :-)

Micah getting dizzy on the swivel chair

Micah is loving his medical kit that he got for Christmas. In the video below, you can see him diagnose Jacob with an ear "inflection".  Hmmm... wonder where he got that idea?! I think he actually enjoyed getting to go to the Dr. with 'lil bro last week, that they were doing it together and now taking the same medicine. Thankfully, they are both healthy now. I can see the beginnings of the sibling rivalry. A few night's ago, Jacob was playing on the floor with Micah nearby. I stepped out of the room to wash my hands and I heard "No, Jacob!" I ran back in there and found him reaching desperately for the paper Micah was playing with. Micah had snatched it out of his hands. Jacob did not like being yelled at and he "yelled" right back! I'm glad that Micah understands that it's important to keep things like that away from Jacob right now, but I hope he shares his toys when they get to be older.We had to drop the crib mattress this week due to Jacob's new ability to get into a sitting position from a laying down one. He is trying to pull up on things, but for now can only manage to get one foot on the floor and one knee. So, dropping the crib gives me some peace of mind, especially when he wakes in the night and likes to play in there. Micah has had a good week at school and is currently studying families and the letter "A." He gets "homework" sheets to bring home each Friday now so we can reinforce what they are learning. This week we made a collage of family photos so that each child can introduce the class to his or her family on Friday, show-and-tell day at school.