On behalf of Micah, I would like to wish all of you a happy belated Valentine’s Day!

This year, I had two Valentines!  One of them hung out with me all day while we made surprises for Daddy, and the other came home early from work with this huge bouquet of gorgeous roses for me.  Am I blessed or what???

Matt knows what I like, too… I’m not always the biggest “flower” girl, (they’re so expensive, and they usually die right away) nor do I expect them on Valentine’s Day, but my man got me gorgeously beautiful flowers for a GREAT deal.  (And, I LOVE great deals!)  In addition, a few days later, they have opened up beautifully, and add some wonderful color to our dining room.

While he was at work, Micah and I made some yummy dinner and these cute cake pops.  I put my own twist on the traditional spherical cake pops. Not too bad for my first try.

They turned out looking ok, but I know some things that I will do differently if I make them again.  They tasted AMAZING, though!

Micah very courteously took a nap so that My Other Valentine and I could spend some time together.

We had a lovely dinner together at home, and hung out that night as a family.  It was a fun day.

Looking back on the last few weeks, I realized that I haven’t taken many pictures.  Oops.  Here are just a few new things…

One day, Micah and I went up to Cambridge to visit our friends.  We had a great time!!  Their daughter is about 2 months older than Micah.  The picture is a bit blurry, but it was tough to get them both in the picture at the same time!  Yay for friends.

After we started Micah on rice cereal he became a bit… umm… less “regular” than we liked to see, so we decided to stop the cereal and give his system a chance to recoup.  (The doctor warned me that this might happen.)  After several days, we were getting a bit worried, so we gave him a little prune juice in with a bottle of milk to “help things along” a bit.  The mixture looked like chocolate milk, but it smelled nasty.  Micah didn’t seem to mind it, though.

Since then, things have gotten a bit better, and we have recently started him back on some cereal – oatmeal this time instead of rice.  I guess oatmeal has more fiber, so it’s supposed to be better in that regard.  Why didn’t they just tell us to start him on that in the first place??

Another rather unfortunate thing that happened earlier this month was that my thumb/wrist started hurting.  So annoying.  To make a long story short, I have something called DeQuervain’s Tenosynovitis.  It’s sort of like carpal tunnel but with the tendon on the side of your wrist that moves your thumb.  Apparently, new mothers often get it because of the different ways that they move when they are picking up/holding the baby.

I have been icing it, and wearing this thumb/wrist brace, which helps surprisingly a lot.  Unfortunately, the brace gets in the way so I don’t wear it all the time, but even just wearing it at night has been a great relief.

(By the way, try taking a picture of your own right hand using a big DSLR camera... it's hard!)

Micah has been doing great in the past few weeks.  Our little man just turned 5 months old!

He is becoming more expressive and improving at grasping and doing things with his hands.  When I walk in the room, he will flash a big grin up at me and even giggle sometimes.  He’s still a bit more reserved around other people, but that’s ok.  He is also doing a lot better at sitting up, but I still have to be right there to catch him when he inevitably falls over.

Today, I was getting some lunch ready and Micah was playing in his Wonderbug (which he LOVES).  I realized that he had become very quiet and when I looked over I saw him just sitting there like this.  Apparently, he likes the taste of Butterfly.

Here’s one more picture that I took sort of on accident.  I was trying to take a shot of the bouquet that Matt got for me, and all of a sudden the sun shone in (through the shades) on JUST this one flower.  It was strange and beautiful, and almost just as quickly as it showed up, the ray of sunshine disappeared behind a cloud or something.  What a beautiful reminder that God sees the whole world full of people, but he notices (and values) each one of us separately as His beautiful, perfect children.

At Micah’s last appointment, his doctor told us that we could start him on some rice cereal.  He has been growing like crazy, so we thought he might be ready to give it a try.

Micah did an amazing job!  I was fully expecting the majority of the cereal to end up on his face and on the bib (or sprayed other places around the kitchen).  Now, to be fair, he did make a little mess, but I think that a lot of it actually ended up in his stomach.  There were many swallows, and he seemed to really like it!

In fact, he would open up his mouth and beg for more after every bite!  Nice job, Micah!

Here is another short video if you would like to view it.

Rice Cereal

Well, 2012 is off to a great start so far and we have a 4-month-old.  It is so crazy, because almost exactly a year ago is when I found out I was pregnant.  It’s amazing how much our lives have changed in a year, but we love it!

Here are some things that have happened so far in 2012 (in no particular order):

We had Micah dedicated at our church.  That was special.  Some of our friends from our small group also dedicated their daughter the same day.  We feel so blessed to have such a wonderful church family.

Micah’s hair has grown a lot!  He still doesn’t have a lot of it, but the hair that he does have is several inches long.  I love how the light was catching it in this picture.  (I may have helped it a bit to stand up like that.)

We had a party at our house to watch the Packers in the play-offs.  Even though I’m not necessarily a Packer fan, (more of a fair-weather Vikings fan, which meant that I wasn’t rooting for anyone this year…) we had fun time with a bunch of our friends down in the basement watching the game on the projector.  Micah and Matt were both sporting their Packers outfits to cheer on their team.  Even though they didn’t win, I think we all had a good time.

We had Micah’s 4-month doctor appointment.  He had to get some immunizations, but he took them like a champ – only a few tears.  His measurements were:

Weight: 19lbs

Length: 26.5in

Head Circumference: a little over 18in

Micah has also started using his hands a lot more!  He can reach out and grab toys or other things now.

He especially loves playing in his Wonderbug play station.  The noises of the rattles, bells and crinkly pieces seem to intrigue him.

Micah has also been working on his sitting and rolling skills a bit more.

Unfortunately, I think you have to click on this to download it if you would like to see the video of Micah rolling over.  I don’t think there is a way for me to have it show up on the blog. It’s super short, though, so hopefully it’ll download quickly.

Micah Turning Over

Micah has also started sucking on his hand a lot.   Interestingly enough, he enjoys sucking on his fist or stuffing three whole fingers in his mouth instead of just one or two.  We’ll have to see if this continues.

One last cute one… just for the fun of it. 🙂

I love this kid. Check out those eyes. Melt my heart.

It was a normal morning.  I set Micah on his tummy on a blanket.  I’ve been trying to get him to reach out for toys recently, so I set his little rattle ball in front of him.

The light was coming in the window in a nice way, and Micah was happy, so I thought it might be an opportunity for some cute pictures.

I stepped away for less than 10 seconds to get the camera, and when I came back this is how I found Micah.

He turned over!  And I missed it!!!

So of course I just flipped him back on to his tummy to see if he would do it again.

Are you watching this time, Mommy?

Here I go!

Woah... I lost my momentum...

Come on... come on...

Can we do this some other time?

I’m sure it’ll happen again soon.  And next time I’ll be ready for it!  🙂

Micah’s first Christmas is over.  In fact, 2011 is over.  Crazy.  The last week of the year was like a whirlwind.

The week started off with Christmas Eve and Christmas (Saturday and Sunday).  We spent parts of both days at church and at my parents’ house with my family, and Moy’s family that came to the US for the wedding.  We had a lot of fun together… and I got to use some of my very rusty Spanish!

Tuesday, Matt and Micah hung out together at home and I went to a Bachelorette party for my sister.  We ate at a great Thai restaurant in Uptown.  I didn’t get any pictures of that night, though…

Wednesday, we all headed over to Calvary for the wedding rehearsal and dinner.

We had AMAZING Mexican food made by Moy’s family.

Thursday was Minda and Moy’s wedding!!  Yay!  It was a beautiful and special day.

We had such a fun time, and Micah looked pretty spiffy in his little suit.

Friday was extended family Christmas in Hastings with Matt’s dad’s side of the family.  We had more yummy food and had a great time hanging out with the whole Knutson Clan.  This is a picture of Matt’s grandma along with her grandchildren (plus spouses) and great-grandchildren.

Saturday was a party in Inver Grove Heights with Matt’s mom’s side of the family. We enjoyed seeing many of Matt’s relatives that we really only see once a year.

Sunday, Matt’s immediate family came to church with us and then came over to our house to celebrate together.

What a great time we had!  Christmas gifts in this family often come with very creative and exciting wrapping jobs.  Opening presents is always an adventure!

This year’s packaging involved several ROCKS!

It was a long and crazy week, but also a lot of fun to be able to spend time with so many friends and family members.  (And, after writing this post, I realized we ate a lot of GREAT food!) Micah was a trooper throughout the whole week.  He was held by so many people, and it’s actually quite amazing that he didn’t get sick.  We are thankful that we all stayed healthy.

I’d say that Micah’s first Christmas was definitely enjoyable, although, I hope that future years may be a bit less hectic. 🙂

(P.S. The week was so crazy that I took almost no pictures.  Thanks to Martha, Judy and Minda for sharing their pictures.)