Yogurt Time!

Micah decided to take the spoon from me tonight and feed himself, thus the video below. What a silly, silly boy:)

Big Kid Fun

Micah was hanging out at my friend Kate's house today while I finished up my last day of jury duty (ptl!!) and I am sent the below two pictures:

Micah definitely enjoyed some big kid fun with Jed and Max around. I love the 2nd picture, as he's just laying back and chillin' while being driven around. Oh, the fun we have in store:)

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.