14 months, baby!

This past week has been a very long and busy week, as I was selected as an alternate for jury duty downtown Chicago at the Federal Courthouse. The case went Monday - Friday, as well as tomorrow and I've been working 13-14 hour days. I can certainly say that I have empathy for Christian and his commute (more so than I ever wish I had, haha) and I'd venture to say he could understand the same for my role, as he was home much more than normal:)

All that to say, I was definitely on the short end of Micah time and tried to soak in every second this weekend!!!

I had a great time with my boys all weekend making good use of the sunny weather we had. Saturday we went for a family bike ride as well as a trip to the pool (which Micah loved) and today we headed out to Brookfield Zoo after Micah took a great mid-morning nap. The weather was quite steamy - about 93 degrees sans humidity and Micah can sweat with the best of them. The poor boy was drenched from head to toe about 15 minutes into our zoo visit, but we made the most of it and traipsed around as much as the zoo as possible.

I can't believe Micah is already 14 months!! The summer is almost over and tomorrow is already August. We have had a great month and I am so blessed to be this little boy's mom.

Monthly highlights:

• we travel to Colorado and have a great time and Micah does pretty well traveling, despite the fact that he slept not at all the entire time in transit
• Micah has the most terrible burn on his entire hand and we are still reeling from those effects (although he hardly looked at his hand today - serious progress from yesterday alone!!)
• Aunt Kari lived with us for about 2 1/2 weeks, and it was so fun to have her around and watch her interact with Micah - she will be deeply missed while in Africa for the next year
• Micah loves holding our hand and walking us around to wherever he wants to go - but if you change courses from his plan, he is NOT happy!
• Micah also started walking up and down the stairs with minimal assistance.
• He started signing eat this month...can we call that his second word? :)
  

Classic childhood - taking everything in, as usual:)

Day 1 of no gauze...progress has been made!

Today, 1 1/2 weeks later, we are finally saying goodbye to the gauze, hand cream, first aid tape, pads, and "glove" that held all the bandages together on Micah's hand! Thank that good Lord that we made it through and Micah's hand is being restored:)

It has been interesting to watch Micah through this healing process. He became very attached to all the first aid materials surrounding his hand that it turned into a form of a security blanket to him. Whimpering would emerge from his lips every time I had to change out the bandages, or he was placed in a bath, even as the hand was covered and healing.

But today, we have gratefully taken off the protection! It is a process for Micah...I went up to get his from his nap today and found him sitting in his crib, staring at his hand. :) And any time I ask to see his hand, he immediately turns his hand over and stares at it with concern in his eyes. That is when I try to be super encouraging, telling him how good it looks!! You can see below how it has healed. The skin is a fresh pink on all the places where the blisters were, so I'm sure it's slightly tender for him, but overall it's looking pretty good:)

Thank you for all your prayers and concern! We are definitely grateful to be through this crisis, as it was certainly one of the hardest things we have encountered, thus far, as parents. Minor in the big picture, I know, but tough while going through it.

Unconditional Love

Micah has figured out a stall tactic for bedtime that gets me every time...even though I know I'm doing exactly what he hopes I will do. Our normal bedtime routine involves reading a few stories, praying, drinking milk, and then bedtime. For the last week or so, Micah will immediately lay his head on my shoulder, tugging at my heartstrings and causing me to just hold him. He knows that in laying his head on my shoulder I will sing or hum to him, delaying bedtime by just a few minutes. He knows that in laying his head on my shoulder I will lightly rub his back, providing just a few more precious moments of mama and Micah time.

And while I know manipulation is essentially what's going on (I questioned if it was truly manipulation if I knew it was occurring?!? :) ) it's just too sweet for me to stop. I love his little head cuddling my shoulder, wanting more love, wanting to show me more love. And I pray that I am always able to give my child the love that he needs. I pray I never withhold love at the sake of manipulation.

It causes me to think about the love that God has for His children. The unconditional kind of love, that He sent His only son to die, so that we could have eternal life. That unconditional love is so amazing, so incredible, and I am so blessed to be able to have a glimpse of that love when I think about Micah.

Jury duty

This actually has very little to do with jury duty except for the fact that I am downtown with a summons so this story was relayed to me via Christian. :) I am taking the train in today (feeling very much like a grown-up and that Christian and I had traded places for a day) and I get a text from him that goes something like this...

"Funniest moment just happened. Micah was eating breakfast, pandora playing (a radio like station we play via iPhone), and baby got back just came on. It starts out with 'Omg Becky, look at her butt. It is so big.' to which Micah raises his arms in the air for SO BIG! I turned off the song promptly seeing that he had been listening."

Now this story cracked me up to envision Micah doing this. Literally laughing in my seat. But it also made me think and realize just how impressionable our children and their little minds are. And as much as I would love to protect my baby from everything (case and point with last week's burn and its lasting effects), I know that's not possible. I do know, however, that we can control what comes from us in our home and am challenged all the more to raise Micah in a Godly home with strong Christian values and beliefs.

When I think of Micah doing SO BIG however, it just brings a smile to my face:) I so love that little boy...

Burn Update

What a little trooper we have had the past couple of days! Micah has done an amazing job, making it through this burn/blister encounter. I was anxious to see what his hand looked like yesterday at our doctor appointment, as there was a new blister on his pinky when he woke up in the morning. When the reveal happened, I definitely felt sorry for my little boy, as his hand was pretty blistered and red. The doctor was encouraged though, because he was using his hand relatively well. She told us he needs to keep it wrapped and clean for 5-7 days and to try and keep his blistered intact as much as possible.

When I took off the bandage today to give it a thorough cleaning I noticed the largest blister at the palm had popped but also that the others had seemed to shrink a little. The redness has faded and I think we are successfully in the healing period. Another parenting crisis survived:)

You can see the blisters on his two fingers as well as his palm. He had 4 blisters at the base of each finger as well as 2 rather large blisters by his thumb.

The Rest of Breck

In my attempt to capture the entire trip without overwhelming you with pictures, I put the remaining 3 collages together.

The first is from a hike Christian and I did, sans Micah. We were grateful to be with family and took advantage of "eager" babysitters to spend some time together. Our hike consisted of more snow than normal, but well worth the trek through the 50 yards of snow to reach the lake at the top of the mountain. I even paid for it through a massive headache (which I attribute to altitude:)) but it was well worth it. The time spent together with Christian, exploring God's beautiful creation, was amazing.

The next collage is just some random pics during the week. Micah learned a few new tricks including "So big!" which you see him doing with my mom, as well as by himself. He also thoroughly enjoyed the beads that were thrown out during the July 4th parade and loved having all 5 sets around his neck. The scenic shots were from Christian, who decided to capture some of the serenity of Breckenridge.

Micah tricks learned this week: so big, shake your booty, snort like a pig, moo like a cow, "shhh" with finger to his mouth, and the resounding "Hi!!!" to anyone who will pay attention.

On the last night in Breckenridge my Aunt and Uncle (the reason we were out there to begin with!) decided to treat everyone to a super tasty and wonderfully scenic restaurant on top of a mountain: Der Fondue Chessel. We had to take 2 separate Gondolas to get to our food, and came to find out that because of the storm brewing (see picture in middle of the collage below) they shut down the gondolas within minutes of us arriving at the top. We had 5:30pm reservations (along with about 150 other people) and it turns out that our party and one other party were the only two to make it in time.

It was quite a night - and quite a memory maker! Micah had a bout with choking, and thankfully my mom gave him a few back blows and out came the apple culprits. It did, however, strike a chord with my biggest fear!, so I was a bit of a wreck for the remainder of the evening. The choking, coupled with the fact that the storm was getting worse and the gondolas were still shut off were making me a bit on edge.

Long story short, after some amazingly delicious food, we ended up being driven down the mountain by the chef of the restaurant! This had only happened 2 other times in the 80 years of the restaurants history, and it was a first for our actual chef. Forty-five minutes later we arrived at the base of the mountain and safely at our cars. Micah finally conked out 2 hours past his bedtime. Moral of the story? You can control nothing:) God is always in control! (This said because our reservation had been changed from 7pm to 5:30pm in an attempt to have Micah in bed as close to his bedtime as possible). What a memorable evening, albeit stressful at times, we are no worse for the wear and were able to have a great evening out with spectacular views. Thanks again Uncle Don and Aunt Elizabeth!

What a fun vacation we had. We look forward to many more down the road, no matter how few and far between. Family is one thing I never want to take for granted.

Rough Day

We probably had the most trying day as a parent so far, and I am so grateful that Christian was working from home today to help me though it. The day started out great - Micah sleeping in just a little later and then going for a nice 10 mile bike ride with my friend Kate. When we got back to her house (around 9:30am), Micah was walking around the driveway while I was putting all the gear back in my car. All of a sudden I hear him start crying (he was over by their front door) and I go over to see what's wrong. He started walking towards me, crying, and didn't realize there was a step, so down he tumbles just barely missing hitting his head on the concrete. As I run to pick him up, he starts screaming... I look him over and notice his right hand looks to be either scraped or blistered slightly, so I run it under some cold water. Apparently the front door can get pretty hot and it seems that Micah touched it for too long. At this point Micah is completely inconsolable! I don't know what else to do - he just seems to be melting down and not stopping. I decide to go back home to see if I can calm him there and he literally screams the entire 20 minute drive home. So awful...

Christian meets us in the driveway, takes Micah out of the car, and notices his hand looking red and swollen. We put his hand in cold water, put on some Baby Einstein, and for the first time in about 35 minutes, he stopped screaming. Christian does a quick search on burns and we realize he probably has a 2nd degree burn. After 20 minutes of soaking (and quietness from Micah) we take his hand out and examine it. The screaming starts instantaneously, and we notice his hand is even more swollen and blistered. Fear starts creeping in - but I try to keep it together and call the doctor. She scheduled us in immediately, and in the car we went for another treacherous 20 minutes and screaming, shaking, break your heart convulsing. This screaming continued in the waiting room, the examining room, and back in the car. Tears were streaming down my face the entire time at the doctor, and I was so grateful to have Christian by my side. The pain meds didn't seem to be helping and I didn't know what to do. But finally, finally, at about 11:45am Micah gave in to the sleep that swallowed him up after 2 hours of vocal chord exercising.

As the pictures show below, he fell asleep in my lap with his cream infused, gauze wrapped, little blistered hand in a big bucket of ice. After 45 minutes he awoke starving (and refusing to take his hand out of the bucket for lunch time) but the crying had finally ceased. The rest of the afternoon was uneventful (including an almost 3 hour nap - completely exhausted, I'm sure, from the drama that unfolded earlier in the day). Thank you Jesus for protecting our little boy and helping him - and Mom and Dad! - get through this painful experience.

Our little one handed boxer baby:)

Chipmunk Feeding

One of our first days in Breckenridge we took a trip out to feed the chipmunks. Wow - these were some fat little creatures!! I didn't actually sit still enough to have the chipmunks come and eat out of my hands, but I'm pretty sure everyone else there was able to experience that. Micah had a great time getting dirty, and the scenery was too beautiful to capture via pictures.

Again, click on the picture, and then click again (or right-click if you are a non-mac user and zoom) to blow up the picture. The downside of the collage making is that you can't see all the pictures well unless you zoom in...

4th of July, Breckenridge style.

We had a great time celebrating the 4th of July this year! Micah had a blast at the parade, trying out his first taste of a Dum Dum sucker and hanging on the barriers while the parade traipsed by. We were even "that family" with our matching Old Navy flag shirts (despite some resistance from a certain sister of mine:)).

Also, please bear with me as I am trying a new tactic in my blogging, by adopting the idea of a collage to showcase many pictures without the long posts. I wanted to do this back when I did Micah's 1st birthday, but didn't give myself enough time to figure it out. I'm still practicing with the program, but here is my first attempt. For those of you who would like a bigger view, click on the picture and it should blow up.

Shake, shake, shake

Shake your booty!

Micah had a blast this past week hanging out in Breckenridge, Colorado. He learned so many new things...one of which was shaking his booty, taught to him by none other than his Nana Kay. :) More posts on Breckenridge to come, but I wanted to share this cute little video as a precursor. Enjoy.