Micah is 7.5 Months Old!

Our little "chunk" is 7.5 months old!! Actually, just a little over. I can't believe my last update on Micah was at 4 months old...so much has happened!!

Shortly after that last blog, we went in for a checkup around 5 months old, and we got a bit of a scare. Micah has been the 0% for height and weight since birth, so obviously he's been below the growth curve. However, up until that appointment, he had been growing steadily for his size and kind of following his own curve. At this appointment, he actually dropped off of HIS curve, and was even farther below! His pediatrician was a bit concerned with his lack of weight gain, and we had to go through some more tests...stool specimens, and a test for cystic fibrosis. Praise God, it all came back normal and he is back on track...he was just a little slow to get growing!

Things about Micah at 7.5 months old:

-He sat for the first time on August 6th, but he's still learning to master it, sitting for 5-10 seconds before toppling over. He's a little behind on this development, and we will be seeing a physical therapist. But they say it's very common for NICU babies, it's just taking him a little longer.

-He loves to spit and make clicking noises with his tongue, he entertains himself with this for hours!

-He is on the move with rolling!! We can't leave him on a blanket on the floor by himself or we will very soon make his way to the next room!

-He loves solid food! We started a little earlier than we were planning, around 5.5 months...but his doctor really recommended it due to his weight. He loves every second of it, and gets mad when it's all gone! So far he has had rice and oatmeal cereal, avocados, bananas, sweet potatoes, carrots, pears, prunes, green beans, and prunes - yum!

-He has knee rolls! Which is awesome to see considering how scrawny he was. ;)

-He is not the greatest sleeper, unfortunately...he does ok during the day, most days taking 2 naps (unless we're running around, poor thing!). But he is still up between 2-4 times at night...man I am tired!!

-He LOVES his big brother, and no one can make him laugh like Noah. :-)

-He is overall such a HAPPY baby, and people comment on this all the time! He is truly just a sweet, easygoing, happy kid.

-People that don't know Micah also comment quite a bit on how "pretty" my baby girl is. Haha! Even when he's fully dressed in blue, so many people think he's a girl!

-His last stats: weight on August 29th was 16.4 pounds (13.5%); length on July 19th was 25.7 inches (14%). Woohoo, go Micah!!

Micah at 5 months.

Micah at 6 months.

Micah at 7 months.

Lovin his toes!

First time sitting on his own!!

Again with the spitting, lol. :-)

Lovin his pears and oatmeal!

Brothers! I am truly loving seeing this relationship grow...

Micah's surgeon, Dr. Keller, with the boys at Micah's 6 month followup...she walked in and her jaw dropped when she saw Micah, she was very impressed with how he is doing!!

We had some rare, interesting summer storms this year in Elk Grove. This was taken the morning after a pretty intense thunder storm. I am not claiming that I heard God audibly, but as I was taking in the beauty of this moment, it was almost as if I heard God reassure me that the calm after the storm (with everything Micah has gone through) is coming, just like this.

Maui and a (VERY) Belated Happy 30th Birthday Andy!

We had an awesome opportunity at the end of May to go to Maui with Andy's family. We were planning on going with them for a while, and when we all looked at the possible dates, it made sense to go during that week for everyone, which made for an awesome 30th birthday for Andy! These are some of the fun things we got to do that week!

Beach Time

Mommy and Noah playing in the waves the first day we got there.

Micah playing with Grandma Heidie.

Andy, Eric, and Ryan having fun going boogy boarding!

Daddy and Uncle Ryan had fun burying Noah in the sand.

Pool Time

The birthday boy posing for the camera.

So relaxing...

Daddy and Micah hanging out by the pool.

Daddy and Noah swimming around in the beautiful Sheraton pools.

Micah playing with his Aunt Sue!

Mommy and Micah playing in the pool (Micah's first time!)

Andy's 30th Birthday

30 balloons decorating our home away from home, each with a picture of Andy on his birthdays through the years.

Andy making a wish and blowing out the candle!

Beautiful sisters, Andy's mom Heidie and his Aunt Sue who came from Florida!

Andy's birthday present: a scrapbook with a letter from all of us, filled with funny stories, memories, and reasons why he's loved.

Posing with the birthday boy.

Andy's other gift from his family: he got to go parasailing!


Luau

We were so proud of Noah - he got up there in front of everyone (along with his cousin Vivian and Uncle Eric) and learned to do the hula!!

Mommy and Noah getting ready to eat some yummy luau dinner.

Noah and Uncle Eric posing with one of the girls from the show.


Other Fun Pictures

Noah's first lava flow! ;)

Noah got so many compliments on this hat, and the cool thing is I got this on my first mission trip down to Guatemala when I was 16, and now my son is wearing it! Oh, and he had a lot of fun feeding the fish! :-)

Noah posing with his uncles.

Mommy and Micah time!

Date night! We got to go on a very cool dinner sunset sail!

Our visit to the Maui aquarium...so fun, Noah loved it!

Petting a sea sponge.

Oh. My. Goodness. Banana pancakes with pineapple, macadamia nuts and amazing coconut cream sauce...delicious!!

Everyone about to enjoy their breakfast.


Smiley Micah!

Micah is 4 months old!

Ok, let's be honest. He's now over 4 and a half months, but hey we've been busy!! I don't have his official stats yet (his doctor appointment is next week), but weighing him on our scale at home he is right around 11.5-12 pounds! I don't know if that's enough for him to make it on the growth curve yet, but he is growing!!

Things about Micah at 4 months:

-He rolled over for the first time, from back to front, on May 19th!

-He is a charmer!! He smiles and coo's at just about anyone that comes up to him, and if he's not getting enough attention he will let you know! And as soon as someone comes over, he puts on the charm!

-I totally jinxed myself on the last post about Micah, about how he was sleeping through the night. Yeah. That didn't last. ;) He's waking up about twice a night still to eat. But that's ok, I cannot complain.

-He has really started to develop his hand/eye coordination. He is loving playing with his toys, and will grab them and immediately put them in his mouth!

-He holds his head up most of the time, unless he is really tired.

-He sits up when I hold onto his ribs or his hands.

-He's getting close to being on a 2 nap routine. Andy and I aren't big on "scheduling". But I also know kids need schedules, and it seems like Micah is doing a pretty good job and going to sleep in the morning after his first feeding. Then he will have 1-2 naps in the early afternoon and evening before bedtime.

-I noticed a month or so ago that he would hold onto his ear when he was tired. That turned into grabbing onto a burp cloth/satin edged blanket/etc. and pressing it against his cheek right before he fell asleep. And now the latest thing is he loves the satin edged blankets and he will cover his entire face with it!

Micah holding a burp cloth against his cheek before a nap...so sweet!!

Grabbing and playing with his toys!

Bath time!

Noah is 3 years old!

As cliche as this sounds, I cannot believe our firstborn is three years old!! We had such a great day (great week, really) celebrating with him!

It started out on his birthday morning with him waking up to balloons and streamers hanging from his door when he opened it, he ran into our bedroom soooo excited that it was his birthday! It was really special because Andy took the day off of work, so we all went out to breakfast to one of our favorite spots, Meldogs. Noah got his favorite: french toast, scrambled eggs, bacon and orange juice.

We then took him to Funderland, a little local amusement park. Andy and I took turns going on rides with him, I had just as much fun as Noah! And it was so nice having a family day with the four of us with no to-do lists except giving Noah some undivided attention - he felt so special!

Noah playing with sticks and chasing squirrels in the park with Daddy, on our way into Funderland.

Corndog for lunch...

...and cotton candy for dessert!

That night we had our families over for dinner, and Andy BBQ'd Noah's request of cheeseburgers. I also made fruit salad, macaroni salad, and sweet potato fries, YUM! Noah got to open his presents after dinner, and we ended with a homemade lemon Lightning McQueen cake! That was quite a project to make, but it was so much fun surprising him with that! It was such a great day from beginning to end.

The Saturday following his birthday, we had a birthday party for him at Laguna's Awesome Party Palace - an indoor jump house place - with all of his little friends! He had a blast seeing all of his friends and he was so excited that he had his party there!

"This is tough work being 3!"

Things we know and love about Noah at 3 years old:

-He is a fantastic older brother. He helps me so much with Micah...one of his responsibilities is the binkie - when Micah needs it, he always makes sure he has it! He also gets me burp cloths, the boppy, diapers, etc. As Micah is getting older and a little stronger, Noah is getting a little more brave with him also, which means I need to pay extra attention to him when they're together!

-He is a serious negotiator. The most recent example was when he needed a timeout for something or other, and I put him on a two minute timeout. He looked at me in all seriousness and said, "No Mommy, a one minute timeout." I don't think so buddy. It also happens a lot at the dinner table at times when he knows we will be having dessert. Andy tries to get him to eat certain things and he will seriously negotiate how much he needs to eat before he gets dessert! Again, nice try! Another example is when I told him he could watch one movie the other day. He said, "I can watch three movies because I'm three years old!"

-He has an amazing imagination and is a storyteller! One of his favorite things is to have people tell him stories. He pays such close attention and will re-tell the story to people. One time he said he wanted to tell me a story. He said (very dramatically...), "Once upon a time, I saw something mysterious...". Seriously, what 3 year old says that?! Haha :-)

-He has style. Whenever I put on a "fancy" shirt for church or something else when we'll be going out (let's be honest, something other than my daily tank top...), he says something like, "That's a pretty shirt Mommy" or "that's really cute". He also always notices when someone gets a haircut. As soon as Andy gets home from a haircut, the first thing Noah says is, "I like your haircut Daddy!" He also noticed when his friend Simon from church got a haircut, and made sure to comment on it! He will also comment on shoes and jewelry by saying something along the lines of, "That's beautiful/cute/pretty". And he asks me if he looks handsome before we leave to go somewhere.

-On his birthday, he saw his small pile of presents wrapped on the floor before we ate dinner. He said, "I want to unwrap my presents Mommy, and see what I got!" I said, "Not now Noah, we're going to eat dinner first and we can open your presents later." He then said, "No, I won't unwrap the whole thing, just a tiny part on the corner so I can peek inside and see what it is!" Oh boy...at least he's honest.

-On Mother's Day, I was feeding Micah before we left for church. Afterwards, I handed him to Andy so he could burp him while I got ready, and I told him to be careful because he ate more than normal and he might spit up. Sure enough, while Andy was changing his diaper, he had a huge spit up everywhere on the changing table and his new outfit. Noah was there with Andy while this happened, and as Andy was cleaning that up, Micah peed everywhere! Noah thought this was really funny, and while laughing, looked at Andy and said, "Hahaha, happy mother's day Daddy!

-One of his favorite things to do is water all of my potted plants on the patio, and play with the hose. He also loves using my trimmers and he prunes them also!

-He truly loves doing housework. He helps me with dishes, dusting, cleaning the toilets (one of his favorites!), and also vacuuming. Because of this, we got him his own little Bissel vacuum for his birthday, which he loved (woohoo!!). I can use all the help I can get, I'm teaching him young!

-He loves going on bear hunts.

-He would play hide and seek all day long.

-He really loves painting, playing with glitter, and using his scissors to cut paper.

-A conversation from earlier this year:

Me: Noah, let's clean your room first and then we can watch a movie.

Noah: Oh. Ok. Where'd you learn that from Mommy?

Me: What do you mean?

Noah: Did you learn that from God?

Me: Yeah, from God.

Noah: Oh. I'm really impressed of you Mom.

This kid cracks me up.

More professional 3 year pictures of Noah:

We love you Noah more than words can express, I didn't know it was possible to love this much!! You fill our days with so much joy, and let's be honest, some extreme energy (can I please just have 5% of it??)