No, no, no...Part 2

Thought I'd share the video I captured tonight (by the way, you'll notice at the end that he says "more" when he is "all done"):



By the way, Micah has recently been obsessed with making Elliot put on his bike helmet in the house...he had to keep it on all night tonight. We had someone come to our door, and Elliot had a conversation with her...it wasn't until she left that I realized he had been wearing the bike helmet the entire time!

Trip to the Zoo

On Friday, Micah had a daycare field trip to the zoo! It was his first trip to the zoo, but I was a bit hesitant about chaperoning. Elliot had a prior commitment and could not attend, and I was afraid the trip would be too much for me, especially on my own. Last minute, my father was able to re-arrange his schedule so that he could chaperone the trip, and I decided to go along, too.

My father showed up at our house bright and early at 9:00 am, and off to daycare we went. As a side note, my father showed up a bit dressed up for the trip to the zoo. He had on a beautiful blue button-down collar shirt. I took one look at him and suggested he might be too hot in the outfit. In typical fashion, my father insisted he would be fine. Knowing my father (who NEVER likes to dress down), I knew it was a losing battle, so I gave up on trying to convince him to change into a short-sleeved Under Armour golf shirt.

We were scheduled to leave for the zoo at 9:30, and left about 9:45 - not bad for daycare time. We took the metro to the zoo - quite interesting taking our entire group on foot and down elevators and onto the trains. We had a few issues on the metro. First, we ended up with a wind tunnel as we were entering the Bethesda station, and one of those "caution" signs caught air and took flight, charging 50 feet down the tunnel and nearly taking us all out. It was a bit scary! Luckily, no one was hurt. We complained to the station manager, who was completely uninterested in helping out.

Then, as we were loading onto the train, the train operator failed to follow procedure, and caught a few of us (me and "Grammy") in the train doors. We were quite scared, and it took several patrons to pull us inside to safety as the train started to move. The train operator did the same thing at every stop, so I decided to get the train number and file a complaint - that operator was quite dangerous. We reported him as we exited at Cleveland Park, and Elliot sent a follow-up note to his contacts at metro.

We arrived at the zoo around 10:15 or 10:30. We stopped to take a group photo - this was our trail of strollers that had just made the journey through the metro:

Since my father took the group photo, I took a separate picture of him with Micah after the group photo:

The weather cooperated - it was bright and sunny, but possibly a bit on the hot side. My dad looked like he was roasting (not that he would admit it). He even rolled up his sleeves - a HIGHLY uncommon event! We began our descent around the zoo, stopping and looking for animals along the way. We saw a sloth bear early on, but a number of the animals were inside, and it was difficult for the children to see all of the animals from their strollers. We did see some cheetahs, and we tried to get a good look at some seals, but it was quite crowded. Micah seemed to enjoy the birds, but he started to get a bit restless as we wandered through the park. I was getting hot and thirsty, and my contractions were picking up. I took a bit of a break, drank some water, and sat down while my dad took Micah on with the group. I caught up to them a bit later.

We started to take them out to look when we saw the red pandas and elephants. Micah LOVED the elephants. My dad did a great job carrying and chasing after Micah - it was getting to be a bit too much walking and lifting for me. He needed a few breaks, too (his back was hurting a bit). What a pair we were! His back, my belly...perhaps we both should have skipped the field trip, but we were having fun.

He also liked the panda statues:

And yes, he IS picking his nose:

We let the kids walk around a bit, and we then found a picnic area for lunch. While we were at lunch, the orangutans put on quite a show - they climbed out of their area and climbed across the ropes to the other side of the zoo. Micah was chasing them, pointing, clapping and loving them! He even said "monkey" a few times. Once again, my father spent the bulk of his time chasing Micah around the picnic area, and I was glad I had him along. Micah did not eat much for lunch at all - too much stuff to do instead.

Micah and his Grampy had some time to kiss and hug at lunch:

Here are some of Micah's friends playing in the grass together:

Here is some video of the orangutans in action:

After lunch, we headed back home - I think we left the park around 1:00 or so. We arrived back at the daycare facility around 1:45, and then we said goodbye to Micah. I was exhausted after the trip, but it was a lovely day!

And for good measure - here is some video of Micah stomping around in his Daddy's slippers:

Getting nervous

I seem to be a delinquent blogger these days. I'm definitely getting nervous about reaching the end of my pregnancy. I'm about to hit 34 weeks, and I already am feeling a ton of pressure and contractions. I probably have about 2-4 weeks left of this pregnancy, and we do not have a name for this baby. I haven't even packed my hospital bag yet! I finally pulled out the pee pad for the bed in case my water breaks in the bed again.

I'm feeling a bit bigger this pregnancy than I did with Micah, and definitely getting physically uncomfortable. My body hurts and I am having a hard time getting comfortable these days. I am loving how much Twoey has been moving around, though! I think it is interesting...I can already tell my two babies have different personalities. Micah was quite active all the time - he never stopped kicking, punching and bouncing. My belly would dance all over the place, and he loved to cause trouble whenever they put the monitor or the doppler on my belly -he'd go right over and start kicking and punching it! Twoey is also active...but in a more mellow way. She flips and rolls and occasionally kicks and punches, but she is much more likely to be stretching, or kicking one or two times in a row and sitting quietly for a bit. I think she is going to be more reserved than Micah. She does have that touch of cute-but-evil running through her - she finds a spot (like my rib) and she'll poke it repeatedly. I almost imagine her with an impish grin as she pokes it over and over again while I'm thinking "don't do that." Micah STILL likes to do that now.

I'm getting excited to meet Twoey. I wonder what she will look like, and I wonder if she'll be born bald or with a full head of hair like Micah. I kind of hope she has a full head of hair like Micah - we could immediately put adorable little bows in her hair! I wish we could figure out the name situation, but we are really struggling. We have a list of names...but we just haven't found "THE" name yet.

On the Micah front - he is just being so cute most of the time. His Daddy took him to a free musical performance of Oh Susannah on Tuesday morning at the Lebanese Taverna. He has been busy in daycare and he has such a great sense of humor. On Thursday, we went to meet his Grammy and Grampy for a nice lunch, and Micah got to walk and hold their hands for the first time! They also played the "one-two-three swing!" game with him while they walked, and he laughed and laughed. He is definitely starting to talk more and more. Tonight, we were outside playing on his slide/basketball hoop toy that his Grammy and Grampy gave him for his first birthday, and he said basketball! (Okay, it sounded more like bah-ball, but he was definitely saying it). He kept shooting his baskets then stopping to clap for himself every time he made a basket.

But perhaps the BEST part of my week happened tonight. I got my first first Mother's Day gift FROM Micah, MADE by Micah! I was all teary and happy - it was such a wonderful thing. They had him make it at daycare, and wrapped it up and sent it home.




.As you can see, they framed a picture that Micah painted, and they included a picture of Micah making the painting! It is currently sitting on the fireplace mantle, and I'm loving it.

For good measure, here is some video of Micah we've taken over the past two weeks. We finally have a new Flip video camera (we had given our old one to our niece for her trip abroad back in January, and it took us until now to replace it)!

The emperor's new shoes

On Monday, I FINALLY managed to buy Micah a new pair of shoes. We bought his first pair back in January, and I have suspected for the past few weeks that they were a bit on the small side. Around here, there are two major places most people buy shoes - one is Stride Rite, and the other is Shoe Train. Unfortunately, with our schedule, it has been a challenge trying to find the time to get to either shoe store with Micah to have him measured and fitted again. I stopped by Stride Rite on my own last week to "scope out" the options and prices. Elliot and I also pulled a moron move on Sunday...we tried to go shoe shopping on Sunday afternoon (not really thinking that the stores would be closed for Easter Sunday). Needless to say, our Sunday outing was a failure.

I had forgotten that daycare was canceled on Monday for an administrative day. Originally, I had planned to either take Micah to a makeup class at Kidville or meet up with friends for a playdate. With everything that has been going on with Nugget, family visits and the renovations, I did not even remember that we had no daycare coverage for Monday. We woke up Monday and started getting Micah dressed and ready to go. I pulled out the school lunch menu to see if we needed to substitute any food for lunch (because of Passover), and there, written in black and white, "NO DAYCARE - ADMINISTRATIVE DAY." I couldn't believe I had totally blanked on the cancellation! Micah was even getting ready - he tried to take the diaper bag with him!

I knew that it was too late for me to take Micah to a morning makeup class at Kidville since most of the classes start at 10:00 am and it was already 9:15. Instead, I spent an hour or so playing with Micah and then sent him with his daddy to synagogue. While they were out, I worked on finishing the cleanup from the weekend, putting the house back in order, and took care of a few business phone calls. When they came home from synagogue, Micah took a nice long nap - over three hours!

I think we have now successfully transitioned to only one nap a day instead of two. We are still trying to figure out the perfect time to put him down in the afternoons. He tends to start getting sleepy and cranky around 11 or 11:30, but if we let him take his nap then, he gets pretty cranky in the evenings before bedtime. If we try keeping him awake until 1 or 1:30, he gets cranky mid-day, but he is in a great mood in the evenings before bed. Micah usually wakes up in the mornings between 8 and 8:30, and he goes to bed at night between 8 and 8:30. He likes to nap for about 3 hours, so ideally, 1:00 is the "halfway" point in the day. Hopefully, over the next few weeks he'll get used to staying awake that long in the morning and we'll find our ideal nap time. One nap a day really seems to free up our days and make scheduling MUCH easier!

Once Micah woke up from his afternoon nap (I think it was about 3:30 or 4), I decided to take Micah to Stride Rite. Online, they were having a great sale. Much to my disappointment, the online sale was not happening in the store. We did find two great pairs of shoes, and they were less expensive than last time around. I decided to buy him one pair of sneakers (white with blue and grey), and a pair of sandals. The sandals are a soft brown suede/leather with fairly covered toes and a few cutouts around the sides, tops and ankles. They seem so much more comfortable for him! I also had the representative check Micah's current shoes to confirm if they still fit. It's official...he has now outgrown his first pair of real shoes! The two new shoes we bought were a 5 wide. The sales clerk felt his feet were no longer extra wide (yay!! much easier for buying shoes (there are very few options available in extra wide), but wide shoes still generally require specialty stores).

When I got home, I checked out Stride Rite online. While they had a bunch of really cute shoes on sale (with free shipping if I bought two pairs), none of the shoes I liked came in Micah's size. So, I gave up on bargain hunting for the day.

On Tuesday, we headed off to music class, and right after class I decided to stop off at Shoe Train to see if they were running a sale or had any less expensive options available for us. It was a mob scene there! I talked to the clerk and he said they were not running any sales. I quickly scanned the shelves, saw there was nothing less expensive available, so we just left. We got home, Micah took a nap and unfortunately, was rudely awoken prematurely by a loud banging from an unwanted solicitation at our front door. Once I got him calmed back down, Elliot and I decided to take him over to the park (since it was a GORGEOUS day outside). Micah ran around the park, used the swing, went up and down the slides, and played with a steering wheel. He had a blast! We brought him home nice and tired and he actually cooperated and took another 45 minute nap. Here are some photos of Micah enjoying himself at the park:

And some video of Micah swinging:

The past two days, Micah has added another new word to his vocabulary: baby! I'm not yet sure he understands what it means, but he is saying it (and he did say it when watching Sesame Street and Elmo was talking to a baby). Sometimes, he even says it when he touches my belly. It is pretty cute. I bought him a book last week about being a big brother, so I think we need to work on reading that to him as often as we can. Someone also suggested I get him a doll to practice being gentle and to show him feeding/caring/helping with a baby, and I think that is a great idea, too. I cannot believe that Twoey could be here in another 6-7 weeks (and probably within the next 9 weeks).

This morning, Micah woke up a bit on the early side. I changed his diaper and decided to bring him downstairs for breakfast in just his diaper. I gave him his milk and set out his clothing for the day. He saw the brand new sneakers, and he started yelling and hitting them and throwing them. I started to worry that Micah was unhappy to see new shoes. I tried giving him the sneakers to hold and touch, but he seemed angry and frustrated. Then he started holding his feet up to me, and I realized he wanted to put his new sneakers on his feet! So I happily obliged and put on his clean socks and his brand new sneakers. That little stinker danced and bounced around the house in his diaper and brand new shoes. He was sooo funny!

Nugget is hanging in there, but we are having some issues with incontinence (because of her new medications). She has peed in the house two times so far, but our biggest issue is that she tends to pee when she sleeps (particularly overnight). Elliot thought he had a brilliant idea to solve this problem:

Yes, that is one of Micah's pampers on the dog. Well, she woke me up at 5:00 am to go outside - and the diaper was missing, so I think Nugget has other plans.