For the love of story time...

"Yes, Daddy? But I'm reading 'Itsy, Bitsy'."

"Okay, is this better? One foot in front of the other, right?"

"Ahh!!! I just love reading stories!"

"Raise your hands if you're sure."

"The itsy, bisty, spider climbed up the water spout..."

"I just love story time!"

Apple Orchard Festivities

After last year's Apple Orchard Fun, we knew we had to make it a fun tradition for all that could attend. We happened to go on the exact some weekend that we went last year, and fortunately the predicted rain held off for us to enjoy another memorable morning of picking apples and riding the Apple Train. It was a little chillier than expected (mid-50s) but absolutely refreshing to be outside and not sweat. There were only 3 families able to make it out this time, but since Isaaks and Koss each have 3 kids, we were anything short of excitement:)

I love some of Micah's facials in this collage! He had a great time picking apples, but most of all he just enjoyed being outside and running around with all the big kids. He also completely devoured 2 apples while picking, so much so that I had to take it away because he was going after the seeds and stem:). Amazing how much changes in a year.

The below collage gives a good look at all the kiddos...and Micah is no longer the youngest! Dash has him beat by 5 1/2 months:)

I think we finally wore Micah out. He's been sleeping for an hour and a half now, which is a record for him this past week!

I just have to include a few bigger pictures of some of my favorites from the day...

Daddy's Home!!!

This past week Christian was in Atlanta (from Sunday night - Friday night) and oh, what a long week it was. Micah has had trouble with his sleeping the past week or so, and on top of that he's entering a stage I'm not too fond of...temper tantrums and melt downs when he doesn't get what he wants. Ughh. That stage, combined with lack of sleep, and a cast around your entire left arm can make for a tired cranky little boy and mom.

Thankfully I have good friends that take care of me while Christian is away. By either inviting us to their home or vice versa, and even bringing over a home cooked meal - appetizer and dessert included (yes, that happened...thank you Kate!!), Micah and I were well taken care of.

One story from the week that made me laugh: yesterday Micah slept for a total of 50 minutes. Yep, one nap, 50 minutes. No more! I even let him fuss and cry for about 45 minutes before going in because he was clearly still tired, and I knew I would have no other free moment during the day until bedtime. When I decided to go in, I grabbed Micah from his crib and sat in his rocker (leaving the calm mood intact) and proceeded to speak in a soft, stern voice about the need to sleep more. "Micah, you need to still be sleeping...this is not enough for you and you're still tired. You need to sleep more." At this last statement, Micah took his paci out of his mouth and quietly said "more?" while signing it with his hands. This is the same thing he does when he wants more food, and I thought it was hilarious that he heard me say he needed to sleep more and connected it with "more". Oh, I love this boy...lack of sleep and all!

Friday night come not come soon enough, however, and I was more than ready for Christian to be home. This morning, Micah woke around 6am, and Christian decided to let me sleep in (ie, rest in bed - because I have a hard time going back to sleep once I'm awake! And I wonder where my boy gets it from...hmmm...:)). It was absolutely the sweetest thing to hear Daddy and son in Micah's room reading story after story. Micah has started talking a bit more this week, and I knew exactly the stories Christian was reading, and the exact spots Micah would speak up and say "ball" or "baa, baa" or "quack, quack." Even noticing "kit-TY" is new for Christian and he was genuinely surprised by each moment. It was amazing to hear this interaction and I just continue to think how blessed I am and how grateful I am for the life that God has given me.

But, oh, how glad I was to have Christian in with Micah while I got just a few extra minutes of "me" time before joining my boys for morning story time:).

Flowers from Micah

I received my first flowers from my baby boy last weekend. He went out with Christian to take a walk, while I was worked on our dinner. When they came back to the house, Micah ran up to me with the biggest smile on his face eagerly showing off what he had for me. (I wish I had it captured on video, it was just so sweet).

Aren't they beautiful? :)

Cast is on!

Micah got his cast on Monday and what a little trooper he was. He hardly squirmed and sat so still while they wrapped his arm, almost seeming to be more interested in the nurse with the blue gloves than the actual fiberglass going around his arm:)

When we arrived at the orthopaedic office, we had to wait about a half-hour, so Micah took full advantage of roaming around with one parent, while the other parent waited by the office for our name to be called. When we were back in the patient room, the athletic trainer (the precursor to the doctor) told us a couple people had come back and said "There is the cutest little boy out there!" to which she replied, "Ya, he's our patient." :) Well, who were we to argue with that, haha. When the doctor came in to look at the x-ray, she said Micah was extra special because he broke not one but BOTH bones in his arm. She sent us in for another x-ray to make sure that the break still looked the same and had not become worse over the weekend (which was in fact the case, thank goodness!) and then brought in her team to administer the cast. Dr. Pelegrin also told us that in such young children they rarely do surgeries, even with angulation (which Micah has with one of his two breaks) because the kids grow so fast. There might even be the chance that his bone heals with the bend in it, but it should straighten out on its own in time. Hopefully that is the case with Micah!

He really did such an amazing job at the doctor office, and was treated with a little trip to Portillo's (well, maybe that was more for mom and dad, but he didn't seem to mind:)). Sleeping still appears to be our biggest struggle, as I think he is just in some discomfort - and possibly a little bit of pain? I think it's hard for him to go back to sleep in the morning once he wakes, as was shown by his 4:50am wake-up call today. Hopefully that is figured out really quickly, otherwise it's going to be a LONG 4 weeks. Oh - and that's the other positive news that came from the appointment. I was really expecting to hear between 6-8 weeks (especially with 2 broken bones, and the one as bad as it was) but the doctor said because he's so young the healing time is that much quicker, and 4 weeks should be all that is needed. Don't get me wrong, 4 weeks is still a long time, but much better than the 6-8!

And that is the update. Thankfully Christian was able to cancel his flight to New York (which I wasn't thrilled that he was flying on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 anyways!) and has been here this week to help. Otherwise it would have been a much longer 3 days.

**I also have a video of Micah getting his cast, but it's too large right now, so if I can figure out how to shrink it a bit, I'll include that as well.

Row, row, row your boat

Micah loves music, and despite his arm wrapped in a little cast, he was still able to sway along while I sang and then attempt it on his own:)

Not again...

Who knew having a toddler running around could put gray hairs on at such an early age! If you follow this blog, you know that Micah burned his entire hand back in July and had to have it wrapped in gauze and ointment and bandages for about 3 weeks or so before it was completely healed. What an ordeal for both baby and parents! But we got through it and figured we could check it off the list for a while...unfortunately that only lasted less than 2 months, because we were thrown in to a scary parenting situation all over again last night:(.

This was how our Friday was going...

It had been a great Friday, was about 4:15, and Christian decided to take Micah to the park so that I could relax a little at home by myself (a very rare, but welcomed event!). Not more than 4 minutes after arriving at the park, I receive a panicked call from Christian informing me that Micah had fallen off of a 4 foot platform from the playground. In the 1 second Christian turned his head to see kids arguing behind him, Micah proceeded to fall face first onto the spongy asphalt below. How does that happen so quickly?!?! After about 10 minutes of crying, and finally settling, Christian brought Micah back home so we could come up with a plan together.

He seemed okay at first as I was checking him out, trying to figure out just how he might have landed, and we began to see slight red and purplish marks showing up on the left side of his cheek and head. Knowing a side head injury could be potentially damaging, we called our on-call nurse to get further guidance. As Christian was talking to the nurse, I noticed Micah wasn't really using his left arm at all. It was just hanging on his side, limp and still. Any action done was with the right arm, and before Christian hung up with the nurse, I knew we needed to take him to the doctor.

About 5:15 we headed out to urgent care to get Micah checked out, and while waiting, Micah was all smiles sitting at a table coloring. All with his right hand though, mind you. But no tears. No true signs of severe pain. When we were called back to see the doctor, once they started touching and pushing on his left arm tears began to emerge. I knew something was definitely wrong at that point, and off to X-Rays we were sent.

Christian went in with him to get the X-Rays taken and I stayed in the waiting room, hearing my baby screaming as his hand and arm were being held still. 10 minutes later (with a brief visit from the technician giving me the, "it's not good" look) and we were back in the urgent care's office staring at the results. And that's when I lost it. Micah's left arm had 2 severe breaks (radius and ulna) as well as possible displacement and angulation that the doctor feared might need surgery. The reality hit me and I started sobbing...to which Micah did as well, but ONLY because he saw me losing it. The nurses comforted me, while Christian comforted Micah and we went back into the room to wait further instructions. The picture was becoming more clear, and it seems that Micah "broke" his fall with the assistance of his left arm.

In light of the timing, being 7:30 at this point on a Friday night, we were instructed to go to the ER to confirm the need for surgery or not. Urgent care did not have a radiologist on site to further read the X-Rays and they would probably not get to it until Monday - and apparently we didn't have that luxury of time. They placed Micah in a molded cast, gave him his first dose of ibuprofen (that's right - 2 broken bones, potentially surgery, and he was getting his first dose of any pain meds 3 hours later...that's how little he was crying! What a tough, tough little boy!!) and sent us on our way.

The nurse holding Micah's arm at the right angle to mold the cast appropriately.

Look at those puppy dog eyes :(

At 8pm we arrived at the ER, were brought back to a room about 9:15, waited until about 10 until we got the good news that NO surgery was needed - praise the Lord!!! - and had a different molded cast placed on his arm about 10:30. We left the ER, arrived home, and placed Micah in bed around 11pm. We are now to call the Orthopeadics on Monday to figure out when we need to come in for a more secure cast.

Clearly not a fan of the sling around his neck.

Clearly ready for bed, at 4 hours past bedtime.

Amazingly, he slept solid until about 6:45 this morning. No waking in the night in pain. No restless sleeping, once he finally fell asleep. So we are definitely grateful we were all able to get a decent night's sleep after a trying few hours.

After a decent night's sleep, in the only shirt we could find to fit over his casted arm.

Reading one of his favorite books with Daddy, the Micah year-in-review book. :)

And there is the reason my title is "Not again..." We knew we can get through this, Lord willing:), as "this too shall pass". It might be easier if Christian weren't supposed to take off Sunday night for 4 days. But we'll make it. And we are so grateful that surgery was not needed and pray this heals as quickly as possible.

If you can, please pray for the little sweetie as he, once again, has to figure out life with only one hand in use:)

"Dedication Day" 2011

Yesterday was dedication day at our church, and it brought back so many memories from last year when we dedicated Micah ourselves. We had the privilege of being accompanied by both sets of grandparents, and it was just such a cool day and an amazing reminder of the many blessings God has given us.

I thought it would be neat to capture Micah yesterday and compare him to a year ago, when he was such a small little baby. Amazing what a year can do at this young little age;) Check it out for yourselves! Dedication Day, 2010. And dedication day, one year later!