Back in October we had our 20-week ultrasound for Baby #2.  We found out that Baby is doing just great, and got to see him wiggling around a lot as the tech tried to capture the measurements she needed.

One of the most exciting parts of the experience is that we decided to find out the gender of our little one this time.  When we got home and told Micah, he was very excited to find out that he is going to have a …

He constantly comes up to me and touches my tummy and says, “Baby brother in here.”  If you ask him what Baby is doing in there he says, “Growing!  Bigger bigger BIGGER – COME OUT!”  I see lots of mischief happening with those two in the future!

We are so thankful to know that our baby boy is growing and developing well, and that we only have a few more months before we get to meet him.

Micah had a great birthday party, with lots of caramel corn, cake, books, music, and dancing.  Enjoy these pictures from the party!

I’m turning 2 today!

One, two, three, four, eighteen!

I know the names of all of these fish:
Nemo, Squirt, Bruce, Dory, and Bubbles

The cake is so pretty with the candles on it!

Time to cut the cake!

Cousin Rafa is dressed up for Mexican Independence Day

I know how to open presents!

“Da doo!” (translation: Thank you!)

A “pinano”? For me?

And now, let the wild rumpus start!

Teaching Daddy some dance moves

You know what? Turning 2 is fun!

          Coming February 2014!

Today, Micah tried finger painting for the first time.

After we got all the supplies ready, I demonstrated how to put your finger in the paint and use it to draw on the paper.  Micah just looked at me.  So I helped him stick his finger gently into the paint. He still just looked at me.

You’re kidding, right?

I encouraged him to slide his finger across the paper, and he began to tell me what he thought about finger paint.

This goopy stuff feels funny.

I tried to convince him that it would be fun, and then he really gave me a piece of his mind.

No! Get it off!

So, after wiping some of the most offensive drops from his fingertips, I pulled out a paintbrush and decided to see if he would like that better.  After watching me demonstrate one line on the paper, he immediately took the brush, dipped it into the paint and started painting on the paper.  Score!

A little red would be nice…

Several dots and squiggles later, he was deeply concentrated on his masterpiece.

Everything was going great, but after about 1 minute, he realized paint was still getting on his hands.

Wait a minute. How did I get more of this stuff on my hands?

Mommy, I don’t think this thing is working right.

Right there.  That part is all icky-yucky.

Even though I assured him that it would be ok, and encouraged him to keep on painting, he decided that he did not want to continue.

See this? I’m done. Done. All done!

He said “ah-duh” (all done) over and over, so (even though we’d only been at it for about 3 minutes), we decided to clean up.

I brought him over to the sink to clean off his hands.  He immediately got a huge smile, so I let him stand at the sink and play with the water and some cups from the drying rack.

Much better!

He played in the tiny trickle of water for the longest time (until I made him stop so we didn’t waste too much water).  We tried making some bubbles in the sink to play with, but those didn’t go over so well, either.

Mommy! There’s something else on my hand!

Apparently, we need to keep on working on sensory activities.  I don’t want to force him to do things that make him upset or uncomfortable, but I do want to encourage him to try new things.

We’ll definitely pull out the paints again someday, but for now… the goopy stuff will have to wait.  My boy is happy.

… about a 20-month-old. (This post was originally called “18 things” and was later changed to “19 things”… and you see where we’re at now.)

**Some pictures  may not have anything to do with this post… I just wanted to show some cute pictures of our little guy.

1. Weight: 35lbs on our bathroom scale.  This may or may not be at all accurate…

Height: Somewhere around 35.5 inches?

Clothes: Mostly 3T

Shoes: size 7xw or 8

2. Micah currently has 16 teeth – some barely poking out, but they’re there!  Teething has been really rough for this little guy.  I guess next up are the 2-year molars…

3. Favorite foods: grapes, strawberries, string cheese, black beans, bananas, chicken nuggets, waffles, teddy grahams, raisins, yogurt, applesauce, squeezie fruits… and I’m sure I’m missing some.  Some days he is a great eater, and other days he’s picky and won’t touch the food that he usually loves.  Welcome to toddlerhood, I guess, right?

4. Speaking of toddlerhood… Micah is 100% toddler these days.  He’s learning and developing skills, inquisitive, persistent, stubborn, independent, and definitely has an opinion on most things!  We’re working on helping him to express those wants and desires in an acceptable way, and how deal with things that don’t go the way he wants.  (Yes, we have our share of temper tantrums.)  However, he also shows love and affection in sweet ways that he couldn’t when he was younger.

5. Communication: His first words were many months ago (Da-da, bu-tton), but only in the last month or two has Micah really begun to speak a lot (in English, at least).  He’s still really only using single words (no sentences yet) but his vocabulary is expanding.  An on-looker (on-listener?) might not be able to understand many of his words yet, but with context and repetition, Matt and I have been able to understand more and more of what he is saying these days. Some words are pretty self-explanatory (Mo-kee {monkey}, uh-oh, i-pah {iPad}, buh-bye) and some took a while to figure out, but he definitely uses the same word each time (kn-da {cracker}, gn-da {dirty diaper}).

6. Along with speaking, we have been teaching Micah some sign language.  We started when he was really little, and it didn’t seem to “stick” until a few months ago. Now he knows several signs and uses them all the time.  Often, he will sign and say the word at the same time.  Here are a few that he knows: More, all-done, please, thank you, milk, and (sometimes he will do) eat.  Though we haven’t used many, these few signs have been very helpful.  I love that we can start to teach him when to say “please” and “thank you” even when he can’t (or won’t) use his words.

7. One of Micah’s favorite things would have to be his monkey.  We received a little blanket with a monkey head attached for one of his showers, and has been sleeping with it for many months.  He won’t even lie down in his crib until Monkey is in his arms.  He hugs and kisses it, and carries it all around the house.  It’s so sweet.  (Shhh! We actually have three of them around now… so it’s easier to find just one and not have to worry about losing it.  I’m just worried that he’ll figure that out and want ALL THREE, but luckily hasn’t happened yet.)  We have several other stuffed monkeys that he loves, too, but the blanket monkey is most definitely his favorite.

8. As long as we’re talking about favorite things, another is our i-P-a-d.  We usually don’t even say the word around him, because he freaks out, looks all over to find it, and starts asking us for it over and over.  His time on the iPad is very limited, but he LOVES it.  He can do pretty much everything on his own (turn it on, unlock it, find his apps, open the apps, play games, close apps) but sometimes I get nervous that he’s going to delete an app or post on my Facebook wall or something, so we watch him pretty closely when he’s playing.

8. Several of Micah’s toys play or sing the alphabet song.  Many of our books also have the alphabet in them, and I always sing and point to the letters.  He won’t sing with me, but when he’s by himself, he will totally start singing the alphabet song.  The letters aren’t really understandable yet, but he’s definitely getting the tune and a couple of the sounds (like how most of the letter names at the beginning of the alphabet end with the “eee” sound.)  Also, if he sees words or letters other places (signs, toys, tshirts), he often points and starts to sing the song.

9. Micah is starting to recognize several colors, shapes, etc.  He doesn’t say most of the words yet, but if I ask him to point to something that is a certain color or shape, he often can correctly identify it.  Same goes for many other vocabulary words that I never thought he knew.  One day, we were looking at a book that he’d never seen before and I asked him to point to some things that I didn’t think he would know, and he did! (For instance, in a weird picture of a bathroom, he pointed to the bar of soap when I asked him to find the soap… and we don’t even use bar soap around our house.)

10. Puzzles continue to be a puzzler.  He can do a great job at some puzzles, but he gets frustrated very quickly when a piece is just turned slightly and won’t fit.  He knows the piece is supposed to go there, but he just needs to continue practicing getting the correct orientation, and gentle touch to push them into the exact position.

11. We have an early riser on our hands.  Most days he wakes up (or at leaststarts making noises) somewhere between 5:30 and 6:00, but he usually will play (somewhat) quietly in his bed until around 6:00.  Sometimes, it edges closer to 5:00, and that’s not our favorite.  He also takes one nap during the day, right after lunch.  That nap usually varies in length from 1.5 hours to 3 hours.  Then, he goes to bed at 8:00.  We have tried changing his bedtime (earlier, later), switching up his nap length, adjusting the temperature and lighting in his room… all to get him to sleep later in the morning.  Nothing has worked so far.  Oh well, they say early to bed and early to rise makes you healthy, wealthy and wise, right?

12. I love to find toys/activities that are fun for Micah, and that I can enjoy along with him.  (Oh yeah, and that are cheap!) One of the most fun activities that I’ve found so far is a bin of corn.  One of my friends bought a 50lb bag of dried corn feed from Fleet Farm for $10.  I bought half from her for $5, so now we have a huge bin of corn.  (We had been using rice, but the corn is easier to clean up, and was cheaper for the amount that we bought.)  Micah is constantly asking to play with the corn.  He loves running his hands through it, picking up handfuls, and pouring it through tubes or into bowls.  I have to admit, it’s a great sensory experience – even for me!

13. Last summer, we didn’t play in our backyard much.  (Micah wasn’t so keen on crawling through the grass.)  This spring, (now that it is finally nice enough weather) he has really enjoyed playing and exploring outside in our yard.  As a special added bonus, we bought a little play gym off Craigslist to have something to do back there.  I really thought it would love the slide (and he does use it) but his favorite part is definitely the little “house” part.  He goes in and out of the door, or stands in there and looks out the “windows” smiling.  It’s so sweet.

14. Micah loves to close doors around the house. Problem is, he can’t quite open most of them yet.  So, he’s always getting stuck in (or outside of) rooms in the house, and then wants us to come save him.  We especially try to leave the door to the bathroom closed most of the time, but he can definitely close (and lock!) that door like a pro.  I’m just waiting for the day that I’m locked out and hear a flush and “uh-oh” from behind the door. Luckily, I think a screwdriver works in that lock.

15. If you’ve ever been around Micah, you probably know that he is pretty shy.  It takes him a while to warm up to most people, and that’s completely ok with us.  Although, he has this scowl that he sometimes gives people who try to greet him or ask him a question before he’s ready.  It’s pretty funny.  He’s so serious and quiet.  At home, he’s a completely different kid, though.  He jabbers away (mostly in Micah-neze), and is extremely expressive… but that doesn’t mean that we are never on the receiving end of that scowl. 🙂  I think it’s just his “thinking” look when he’s trying to figure something or someone out.

16. When Matt or I are getting ready in the morning, Micah loves to run around our room and mess with the things on our night stands.  He pushes all the buttons and switches on the alarm clocks (yes, my alarm went off at 4:26am one day), unplugs and re-plugs the extensions on our cell phone chargers (not the outlet… it’s a USB connector), and turns our lamps on and off.  I guess I’d rather he played with that stuff than pulling everything out of my dresser drawers or something, but there have definitely been days when I realize (too late) that my phone was “charging” on a cord that wasn’t plugged in, or when my clock is set 17 minutes fast and I think I’m late for church.  Oh yeah and the other day he tried to plug the USB connector into my belly button…

17. This kid’s hair grows like crazy.  He had his first cut near his first birthday, and has had 3 more since then.  It just starts to get long, and with his crazy double cowlick in the back, one piece sticks straight up in the air.  Each time, I’ve brought him (thanks to coupons!) to some specialized kid hair cutting places and they do a pretty good job, but he gets pretty nervous.  I always end up covered in hair, because usually I’m very near trying to calm him down, feed him crackers, or hand him distracting toys.  The most recent time, he actually sat on my lap the whole time she was cutting. Maybe someday I’ll try cutting his hair myself, but not yet…

18. For several months this winter, Micah and I went to the Como Zoo every Thursday for their “Lil’ Explorers” program.  They have free toddler activities and story time around a different theme each week. It was fun, but we never made it out to see the animals (due to the weather and interference with nap time), so last weekend we took a family trip to Como to walk around.  We rode on the carousel (Micah was wary…) and saw monkeys, penguins, fish, polar bears, giraffes, and some other animals that were available.  One of the gorillas was right up next to the glass.  He and Micah stared at each other for a while, which Micah thought was very exciting.

19. Micah has really been enjoying going to parks since the weather has been nice.  This summer, he can actually run around and play on the equipment.  We still watch him very closely, but he has been doing a great job so far!  One of his favorite things to do is go down the slides.  One slide in particular, he went down probably 30 times one day, and another 20 times the next day.  Up the stairs, down the slide, up the stairs, down the slide… giggling all the way.  So far, he’s done a really great job of going down feet first – sometimes sitting up and sometimes on his tummy.

20. Most days, Micah and I spend at least a little while “coloring.”  This usually means that he begs for me to get down the crayons, and then I color while he plays with the crayons.  He loves pulling crayons out of the box, examining them, handing them to me, taking them away, dumping them on the floor, etc.  Sometimes, he’ll color a little bit, but it’s not necessarily his favorite part about crayon time.

Whew… that was a lot.  Just a glimpse into the life of Micah these days.  I’m really impressed if you made it to the end. 🙂