I was going to write a post about the week of Christmas, but realized that I don’t have almost any pictures!  What would a blog post be without some cute pictures?  I’ll hold off on that one until I can get some pictures from other people.

In the meantime, check out Micah’s new trick!

He can sit up! Although he isn’t necessarily super steady yet. In fact, I was super impressed when I set him on the floor and was able to take this picture without him falling over.  (He tends to lean to one side or the other after a little bit…)

When, I changed my viewing angle and saw this:

Ok, so maybe he wasn’t quite sitting up very straight, but it’s still sitting, right?  🙂

The next day, I attempted to get another picture of our little sitter.  It didn’t go quite as well.  (Let’s just say that the first attempt resulted in a little head bump on the floor. I felt bad.)  Good thing we have a nice soft rug in there.

After the little accident, I decided we’d better institute in some safety measures, so I sat him in the middle of the Boppy.  Each time, he would start by sitting on his own for a few seconds, but by the time I could pick up the camera, this is what I saw:

Oops, can I try that one again?

What? Woooah!

Here we go again...

Wait! I think I've almost got it.

I give up.

We’ll have to keep on working on those sitting skills.  I’m sure he’ll be sitting like a champ in no time.

For now, we’ll just continue propping him up.

Mr. Turtle makes bath time so much more enjoyable.

We’ve past the 3-month mark now.  Little Micah James is more than a quarter of a year old. 🙂  Honestly, I feel like he is so much more fun now than he was when he was a newborn.  He actually responds to things now.  We’re looking forward to seeing how he continues to grow and develop.

An update:  Remember the pictures we took for the photo competition at Matt’s work?  Well, we did pretty well.  There were 5 categories, and we won places for two of our pictures!  Micah is famous!

We won first place for this picture in the “Most Technical” category:

And we won second place for this one in the “Most Humorous” category:

Aside from becoming an award-winning model, Micah has been doing some new things recently.  Some of his favorite things to do are blow bubbles and drool… basically ALL the time.

His hair is starting to get longer, but he still doesn’t have a lot of it.  And, he’s developing a nice bald patch on the back of his head from rubbing on his car seat, crib, etc.

One of the biggest things that Micah has learned to do recently is use his arms.  Not as much his hands yet, but he is definitely starting to figure out that he can somewhat control those floppy things that sometimes hit him in the face.  If you put a toy in his hands he can hold on to it for a while, but eventually lets go and can’t figure out how to get it back.

However, he can definitely hug things with his arms and bring them to his mouth.  Yummy…

(By the way, isn’t that the cutest hat ever?  Tia Minda gave it to Micah for Christmas.  She bought it from someone at her work who makes them.  It even matches his little monkey blankie! Love it.)

We’re still working on tummy time.  His neck/back/arms are definitely getting much stronger.  He can handle it for a while, but usually still dissolves into a puddle of tears in a short time.

Smiles are definitely more plentiful now, but he still has to be in the right mood.  His current way of showing enthusiasm is the open-up-your-mouth-as-wide-as-you-can smile.

This past weekend we attended our first family Christmas gathering for the season.  We had a fun time spending the evening with my family.

Had to get a picture of the three of us, too.

Micah was passed around the whole time, and he loved it.  Tia Minda really got him excited.  He was giggling and laughing more than I think I have ever seen!  However, by the end of the night, our little guy was plumb tuckered out.  (Oh yeah, and he had to have a wardrobe change due to a rather unfortunate incident involving a very dirty/wet diaper.)

Many hugs and kisses later, we headed home, and Micah slept very well that night!  This was our first of many Christmas gatherings this year.  We’re looking forward to spending time with many family members during the next couple of weeks.  Also, since my sister is getting married between Christmas and the end of the year, there will be several other fun events to enjoy.

It will be interesting figuring out how to attend a bunch of events with a 3-month-old, but it’s also so much fun to celebrate Christmas and remember another Baby who is the reason we celebrate in the first place.

Life is so fun right now.  Micah is growing like crazy.  We are finally getting into a bit more of a “groove,” so life isn’t quite as stressful as it was for the first few weeks.  That’s not to say that days are easy, but I feel like I am at least a bit more able to tell what Micah needs or wants some of the time.

We had a great Thanksgiving, and were able to see many family members during the long weekend.  Since we weren’t able to be with Matt’s extended family on Thanksgiving Day, we ventured down to Hastings the weekend before to visit Micah’s great-grandma Caryl and great-aunt Sue.  We had a great time together!

I noticed that we happen to get pictures of Micah with all three of his fabulous uncles that weekend.

 

Uncle Josh

Uncle Sean

Uncle Tim

Some of Micah’s recent developments:

-Doing much better at holding his head up consistently

-Talking to himself (he likes to hear his own voice)

-Smiling a lot more

-Playing with his tongue

Also, Micah has developed a unfortunate talent of leaking (or exploding!) out of his diaper… a lot.  We have had some rather unfortunate blowouts, and countless little leaks.  Either way, we have learned quickly how to remove poopy clothes from a squirmy baby (without getting it in his hair… most of the time) and get the stains out of clothes later.  One of the greatest things we did was purchase a little soaking can to put in our bathroom.  That way, the stains can start soaking right away, and don’t have to dry before they are treated, srcrubbed and laundered.

Have I mentioned how thankful I am for Baloo (our minivan)?  I’ve become a pro at crawling between the front two seats to feed Micah in the middle, and change his diaper on the back seat.  Also, the stroller has taken up permanent residence in the trunk, which is great for shopping trips or impromptu walks.  I’m sure it’ll be a bit more difficult in the bitter cold of winter, but it sure has been nice up until now.

Sitting in the back of Baloo and dealing with the fallout of one particularly bad explosion.

Recently, we celebrated Matt’s 28th birthday!  Happy Birthday Daddy!  Micah enjoyed celebrating with us, but unfortunately couldn’t partake in the yummy cake after dinner.  Maybe next year…

Micah was a model a few days ago!  They were having a photo contest at Matt’s work and we decided to make a couple of entries.  The theme was “Fueled by Logic” and every picture had to feature the 50th Anniversary Water Bottle.  Matt and I are not necessarily expert photographers, but we had fun setting up a few pictures to enter.

"I'm Fueled By Logic"

Just for the fun of it, here is one of our other entries…

It’s fun (and crazy) to see how Micah is growing!  As of a few days ago, our unofficial measurements here at home were approx 17lb and 25inches long.  It sounds crazy, but our little not-yet-three-month-old is already growing out of his 6 month clothes.  He’s wearing some of his nine month clothes now, and they actually fit pretty well.  So glad that some of our friends lent us a bunch of clothes so that we don’t have to buy as many outfits that he will grow out of in just a few weeks.  Also, thrift stores are great!

A "9 month" outfit

Some of our friends came to visit the other night and brought their 1-month-old son.  Micah has a new friend!!

We are so blessed in so many ways.  The next month is sure to be crazy with Christmas and my sister’s wedding, but we look forward to celebrating Micah’s first Christmas.  Somehow, having a baby makes Mary and Joseph’s experience on that first Christmas even more real this year.  Last week, we were asked to light the advent candle in the service at church.  It was the Bethlehem candle, and one of the verses we read was (very appropriately) the words of the prophet Micah: “But you oh Bethlehem, though you are small, out of you will come one who will be ruler over Israel.”

Since I was pregnant not that long ago, and I know how uncomfortable it can be towards the end, I can’t imagine what Mary must have been feeling as they traveled to Bethlehem just before she was to have Baby Jesus.  And, what must she have been feeling to be in a stable with animals as she was giving birth to her first child!  What a way for God’s Son to come into the world.  I am thankful that He did.

Shortly after publishing the last post, I realized that I made a horrible error.

I would by no means consider myself a Star Wars fanatic, but I have seen each of the movies several times, and thoroughly enjoy most of them.  I am fully aware of the difference between an Ewok and a Wookiee.  They are not very similar at all, actually… other than the fact that they are both furry.

Ewoks

Wookiees

Chewbacca is definitely a Wookiee, not an Ewok.

Chewbacca and Han Solo

Turns out, for a while now I have been thinking about how Micah sounds somewhat like a Wookiee when he makes his funny noises. However, my sister used to call me her Ewok (no idea why…) and I think that’s why I said that.  They are definitely smaller and more cuddly (looking) than Wookiees, which definitely suits Micah better.  However, not being a “fanatic,” I can’t even think of the sound that an Ewok makes.  It’s apparently not as memorable as a Wookiee sound.

I’ll leave you with a cute picture of our little Wookiee-sounding-man:

Micah's first experience with snow

Two months!  We have been blessed by this little guy for two whole months.  In some ways, it seems like much longer than that, because we have learned so much and done so many things together.  He seems like a natural part of our household and I couldn’t imagine it here without him.  Still, in some ways, I can’t believe how fast it is going.  I feel like sometimes when he gets up in the morning he looks older than the night before when he went to bed!

Today we had Micah’s 2 month appointment.  Here are the official measurements:

Weight – 14lb 15oz

Height – 24″

Head Circumference – 17″

Micah was a champ throughout the entire thing.  He didn’t cry at all during the majority of the checkup – not more than a whimper (even when they made him sit naked on that cold, hard scale!)  He even held his head up and looked at the doctor when she put him on his tummy.  Good thing we have been practicing!  She said that he’s as strong as a lot of 4 month olds. 🙂

Then came the unpleasant part… the immunizations.  The nurse gave him 3 shots in his poor, chubby little legs today.  He didn’t even know it was coming.  He had this strange high-pitch cry that I have never heard from him before.  It was so sad… 🙁  But, we bundled him up and within 5 minutes he was sleeping soundly. Soon after we got home it really didn’t seem to be bothering him.  In fact, he was pretty chipper:

He was babbling away and grinning at me for at least 30 minutes.  This “talking” seems to have started just in the past couple of days.  Sometimes, I think he sounds like an Ewok (from Star Wars).

Maybe we'll just start calling him Chewbacca Jr.

Another recent development is that Micah has started to be interested in toys or other things hanging in front of him.  Sometimes he will just stare at them, or he’ll “talk” (Chewy style) to them.  Every once in a while he will just start giggling and smiling at them.  (Maybe they talk back?) Yesterday, I think Micah was having quite a conversation with the Go-go Bugs that hang from his car seat.

"Why, hello Miss Lady Bug. So nice to see you today"

"What was that you say, Mr. Bumblebee?"

"Bumblebee, meet Lady Bug"

"This is how to speak Ewok... waralarala"

"You're so close... just try tightening up your lips a bit more like this..."

"Hmmm... you might have to keep practicing."

That seriously went on the whole time I was walking through Target…

Another (wonderful) development in the past week is that Micah started sleeping through the night!!  Hallelujah!!  He went from only sleeping in 2.5-4 hour stretches all of a sudden to 8-10 straight hours at night!  That first night I was sure it was just a fluke, but it has gone on for almost a whole week!  Let’s hope this keeps up.  It makes a huge difference for Mommy and Daddy!

Micah has also been a good helper recently.  He helped me fold the laundry the other day…

The past 2 weekends we’ve had to rake leaves in the yard.  Micah was such a trooper, and a great helper with that, too!  We stuck him in the Moby wrap – it’s nice and cozy.

It worked better when he was ok with facing in, but this particular day he wanted to look out and see what was going on.  Especially with my sweatshirt zipped up around both of us, I looked really funny with this little pumpkin head sticking out.  (Don’t worry, I was mostly just moral support and a bag-holder.  I actually only raked a little bit – Matt did most of it.)

What a little sweetie.  I’ll leave you with this picture because it cracks me up…