Oh Boy, Oh Boy!

I think most know at this point, but we're happy to announce that Micah's going to be a big brother in April...to a little brother:) We had our ultrasound last Saturday and we were able to see little boy Lauffer in all his glory. What a joy to see this healthy baby on the screen and let the excitement and anticipation grow for the day we will get to meet him.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Micah Faces

I know I've posted about Micah's faces before, but he is such a ham! His latest is he'll turn to us with his face scrunched up and we mimic, or we will look at him and scrunch our own face and he'll mimic. Truly, it cracks me up! This kid is hilarious.

20 weeks is here.

I am halfway there! It's been a bit of a rough pregnancy, seeing that I'm still experiencing sick days and have had some major cramping issues occurring. I'm getting good days mixed in with the bad, however, and know it's all worth it because I'm growing a little human being inside my belly! So when I hit the 20 week mark yesterday, I realized I'm getting closer and closer to Micah's sibling becoming a reality. We get to find out the sex soon, and plan to announce it via our Christmas cards - so all should know soon enough:)

The picture below shows me at 20 weeks with Micah, and then with this baby. I'm clearly bigger this time around:) but I guess that's bound to happen seeing that my belly was stretched out pretty large last time around, haha. It's not so bad at this point, but knowing how large I will be getting in the next 20 weeks seems a bit frightening to think about. Oh well - such is life!

18 months!

Wow - 1 1/2 years old - can't believe that's where Micah is now! He's such a big boy and we have enjoyed all 18 months of his life. We have entered a not-so-fun toddler stage where he'll be happy go lucky one minute and then totally melting down the next, but the doctor said that verbal explosion usually happens between 18 months and 2 years. Once he's able to communicate more clearly, those temper tantrums should start to cease...it will be nice when we get there, but even so we're figuring out how to handle them.

I just wanted to share his doctor stats from his check-up yesterday.

19.7 inches head circumference = 95% head
26.4 pounds = 60% weight
33 inches = 72% height

Due to the fact that he's only at 8 teeth, that puts him developmentally at the 14-15 month range. And according to my doctor (assuming I understood her correctly) there's some type of correlation between teeth development and height...which I think means she was trying to say he's going to be tall. We'll see in due time if that holds true, but we are definitely glad to see him growing in height lately.

We love you sweet Micah and can't believe in less than 5 months you're going to be a big brother!

Reading is so fun to do!

Micah is a huge reader! If given the choice, he would have us read to him most of his waking hours:) Lately, as we have been working on more independent play, he has also grown to reading to himself. Last weekend we set him up in a chair, gave him 15 library books, and let him go to town.

Today Micah was taking one of his books and reading it aloud. There are literally 3 words in the entire book: hug, Bobo (a baby monkey) and Mommy. Although he's not right on with the words in the book, he does a pretty good job of reading it to himself and uses the same inflection in his voice that Christian and I do when reading it to him. Love that boy:)

DuPage Children's Museum

After we got back from St.Louis, we figured it would be nice to get out of the house and decided to use the Groupon I had bought for the DuPage Children's Museum. We hadn't been there yet, but had heard many wonderful things about it and figured it was time to check it out.

Micah wasn't in the best mood and he was getting frustrated that he wasn't able to do everything in the museum that he wanted to. Regardless, we had a good time and it was a nice activity to do on a dreary Saturday morning.

Fun with Papa C

Thanksgiving Day was absolutely gorgeous, and we enjoyed some time outside. Christian and I decided to go for a run (although being 19 weeks pregnant adds an entirely new component to running...) and enlisted the help of Nana Kay and Papa C for babysitting. While in the basement they found a truck for Micah to ride that he loved, and were in the process of bringing it outside when we got back from our run. Micah had a great time, and it was a nice way to burn off some energy before stuffing our bellies full of yummy food.

This is his tough boy face - I'd be scared of him!

"Oh, this is so much fun with Papa C."

"Wait! Momma has a ball."

"Hmm, that didn't go very far. Maybe I can try it again."

"Alright - here we go again!"

"Look at that! It's flying in the air!"

"Now, into my big boy truck."

"The view is so much better from back here."

"It's a good thing I have my personal driver in front:)."

Done with the truck! Off to explore...

Good thing Papa C is close behind, shovel and all:).

St. Louis Zoo

Last Sunday I was fortunate enough to be able to drive home and spend most of the week with my parents and grandma. Christian had a three day business trip at the beginning of the week, and after his being gone three days the previous week, I decided I would rather spend time with my mom (who also had the week off) and dad than wait for Christian to come back home before heading down. So, the whole family packed up and headed off, Christian in the direction of the airport via taxi, and Micah and I in the direction of Nana Kay and Papa C's house.

We had a great time, and since I'm unable to see my parents as often as I would like due to the distance, I am grateful for the time we are together. And I know for certain Micah enjoys it as well. He was such a happy boy all week and really seemed to benefit from the change in scenery.

The weather was quite dreary the first couple of days there, but we had our heart set on going to the zoo, and by the time Wednesday rolled around it was decent enough to go. I also was able to meet up with some former small group friends who have relocated to Pennsylvania. The husband's family lives right outside of St.Louis, so Lindsey and I decided to try and make it work, and I'm so glad we did. It was great to see them and catch up, and Micah certainly had a blast running around the zoo. He enjoyed it so much that he actually climbed back in the stroller (which never happens!) to be pushed because he was too tired to walk anymore.

Due to the cooler conditions, I neglected to bring out my camera for the visit. I wanted to at least capture the fact that we were there, and did a quick photo shoot with Micah and my mom while leaving the zoo. Micah is getting to be such a big boy!! I can't even imagine how big he'll seem when we're able to meet our nephew Luke over Christmas...practice for the upcoming event in our own lives, I guess:)

Micah was roaring like a lion and my mom decided to join in:)

Mimicking Momma

It's always amazing to me when I realize how much like sponges little children are. I've heard about that fact, known that you have to be careful about what you say and do around children for what they might pick up, but it's always crazy to me to actually see it put into action.

I have a heart monitor that I rented and have been listening to for the past month and a half, and Micah has started picking up on the fact that this machine emits the heartbeat of a baby. He watches me put the gel on my belly, and will run over and say "baby?" when seeing either the machine or the gel, or actually hearing the heartbeat coming through the machine.

Today, I noticed that he actually started to pretend he was putting gel on his own tummy. He had found a tube of hand lotion and began pulling up his shirt. Soooo cute:) The video is even more humorous to me because he can actually see himself on the screen (I took this from my phone and couldn't see myself what I was doing, therefore the off centered screen) and he is clearly enamored with what he's seeing. I had heard from friends about kids emulating nursing their baby brother or sister, or pretending to throw up in the toilet (as morning sickness ensues their mom) but had yet to see Micah do something of that nature until today.

Kids are so cute and so impressionable!

Tot Rock...and first kiss?!?

Last Saturday Christian and I took Micah to his first swimming class...and possibly his last:) Okay, we won't give up that easily, but Micah had a melt down like no other about 5 minutes in to the start of the class (not because he was afraid of the water, but because he was forced to give back the cup he was playing with to move on to the next planned activity) which caused us to leave 15 minutes in. He screamed inconsolably for about 20 minutes before he finally gave in to tiredness...we had never seen anything like it! And poor Christian, who was the one in the water with him:( Oh well - such is life and we'll give it a go next week and see what happens.

Today, Micah had his first "Tot Rock" class which had nothing to do with water or cups (thank goodness!) and everything to do with music. He loved it! And of the 3 boys in the class, he was the best behaved:) What a change from Saturday. I tried to capture a couple of pictures with my phone, so pardon the blurry shot of Micah excitedly showing me his bean bags.

As we were leaving class and saying bye, Micah and another girl literally went right up to each other and kissed...hahahaha...starting too early there, little guy! But it was pretty cute too:) Anyways - we are definitely looking forward to this class next week and although hard for me to believe my little boy is in park district classes already, it's also fun to watch him interacting with other kiddos his own age. What fun in store for us:)

The scene of the crime...

Last week we had beautiful weather and I had to take advantage before it turns bitterly cold and we are stuck inside for 3 months. Micah and I headed back to the scene of the crime, ie, the place he broke his arm. We went for a little jog, Micah completely happy in the Bob, and me making it through a rough 3 miles after 11 weeks off (and about 10 pounds heavier, in the midst of growing a human being, haha). Glad to be done, we ended up playing at the park for almost 1 1/2 hours. And yes, this is the same park that he broke his arm, but we are not scared to go back:) Micah and I both love this park, and enjoy it we did on such a gorgeous day!

The place Micah fell - off the top of this platform where the red slider is. Good thing God makes children resilient:)

Halloween 2011 (and 17 months!)

It's hard to believe it's already been a year since last Halloween and thinking about how much has changed in the last year. Micah was a mere 5 months and the cutest little pumpkin and peapod ever :) And here we are again, dressing the sweetie in the most adorable lion costume. Thank you, Katie, for letting us borrow the costume!

Christian was helping to get Micah in the mood at breakfast for the trick or treating that would happen later on in the day:) Micah has really begun to mimick us, and enjoys when we also try to copy him and it's been fun to watch this change.

Micah practicing his ferocious roar before heading in to the nursing home. Thankfully he was more like the cowardly lion from the Wizard of Oz, therefore not scaring any of the nice people handing out candy!

Micah getting ready to trick or treat at the nursing home, roaring like a lion, hanging with his buddies Jack, Cole, Jed, Max and Dash, and completely enamored by the life-size cow!

After the nursing home visit, we headed to our home to get Christian and then over to the Koss' house for our (becoming) tradition of dinner and candy. Although a little chaotic with 6 kids (only one of which was mine - from 3 families!) it was also a great time of seeing the kiddos dressed up and enjoying each other's company! Thanks Kate and Steve for hosting again!

What a sweet lion we have :)

The actual trick-or-treating festivities. I just love the pics of Micah walking with Christian as well as the sweetness of his face in his expressions. You would never have known based on his expression when looking up (although if Christian had captured mine, it would have been a different story:)) that there were literally hundreds of disgusting geese flying over our heads!! Happy Halloween:)

Catigny

Yesterday Christian, Micah and I met an old Wheaton College friend and her family at Catigny Park for the morning to hang out. What a beautiful place!! I can't believe that for the number of years I have been associated with Wheaton, IL, I have never actually step foot on the Catigny grounds. I have heard about it - heard about its beauty, its history, its educational benefits - yet have never visited myself. We had a great time with Lindy and her family and were grateful to be able to spend the beautiful morning outdoors as we brace ourselves for a brutal winter.

Baby Kicks!!

Last week, just over 14 weeks, I was sitting in church on Saturday night and felt some little bubbles in my tummy. At first I didn't think too much of it, then all of a sudden it clicked that I was possibly feeling baby kicks! It seemed so early to be feeling baby kicks (as I didn't feel Micah until around 21-22 weeks) but I had heard that the second time around it was normal to feel movement sooner. Still, 14 weeks seemed pretty early...

Through the past week I have felt little movements here and there, and then tonight as I have been sitting on the couch I have really felt baby kicks! How cool to be at this point, whether subtle or not, that I am feeling slight movements from the little human growing inside of me. I am still feeling slightly sick, but the last 2 days have been better...fingers crossed, maybe I'm starting to turn a corner.

Independent Playtime = trouble

I have been working on giving Micah more independent playtime, seeing that he'll need to be able to do that when the baby comes in April! So today was one of those days that I wasn't right by him, meanwhile my Dad called, therefore allowing Micah continued independent time. About 5 minutes later he comes up our downstairs, into the kitchen, saying "Kit-TY, Kit-TY" and I notice he smells like Frodo's food. At closer look, I realize it's because he has Frodo's food in his mouth!!! Yep, he had just finished lunch, and apparently was still hungry so he went in search for more food...finding success in Frodo's lunch. Yuck! Guess that's what you get when you give him some of that free time, playtime:)

Micah Faces

As some of you know, I got a new "toy" last week (as in the iPhone 4S) and it is amazing! (Sorry to all of you whom I previously judged:)) but seeing that it is my first smartphone, I am enjoying some of the luxuries that it brings.

Today after dinner Micah and I did a little photo shoot on the phone, and he was loving looking at himself and figuring out different faces on the screen. Sorry for the blurriness of the pictures, but I think you get a good idea of what Micah's faces look like and the silly little boy that he is:)

Pure happiness.

Excitement (in a somewhat scary way).

Spit/drooling/bubble boy.

Ahhhhhh!

Wide open mouth.

"Cheese!"

I sure do love this little boy!!!