For the Grandparents (and general fans of Micah)

I like to think Micah's first real word reflects his personality. The kid is a talker but most of what he says we cannot understand. He'll have a full out conversation with me but most of it is, 'lorble, lorble LORBLE loo.' The things we can understand are the usual, 'Mama' (or 'Mamamamam' when he's upset about something) and 'Da.' When Andrew comes home from work at the end of the day, Micah and I can hear him unlocking the door. Micah typically looks at me, looks at the door and says, 'Da!' :) The other morning I was up before Micah (highly unusual). I walked past his room and heard him moving around. He heard me outside the door and yelled out, 'DA!' :) But his first real word is not the usual object or thing. Instead, Micah's first word is a greeting. He says, 'Hi,' as clear as a bell and knows when to use it. On our trips to the grocery store, on our walks in town, on our trips to the mall or downtown, Micah makes it his business to greet everyone. Most people get a kick out of it - just picture a little bald one-year old looking at you with a great big smile and saying, 'Hi!' One woman in the grocery store actually gasped and said, 'He just said hello to me!' :) Micah has always been a social little bean so I think it's just perfect.

This is a great age - Micah is learning and doing new things almost daily. The kid is physical. Prefers to walk rather than crawl and unfortunately, thinks he can run (usually ends up wiping out hardcore). He has a very good throwing arm, although he seems to prefer to hurtle objects behind him rather than in front of him. Andrew is very happy Micah throws with his left arm as lefty baseball pitchers are 'in high demand and make more money' (insert my eye roll here). He's into imitating - he enjoys stirring, blowing his nose with a tissue (and making the phtttttt noise), and cleaning the table. He's recently learned to shake his head, 'no' and really thinks it's something spectacular. Andrew and I enjoy asking him random questions while he shakes his head, 'are we going to have a bad day?' 'is Mommy going to drive on the wrong side of the road?' 'are the Red Sox going to win the World Series?' 'is Obama going to get a second term?' You can pick out Andrew's questions in there. :) His growth is definitely slowing. He's getting taller for sure, but all the physical activity is thinning him out (weighed only 25 lbs at the m.d. appt he had when he was sick although he may weigh more since he wasn't really eating well). Thankfully, we still have the thigh rolls and the lovely big belly. I will be sad the day those disappear. Grandma Kulpecz sent him some forks and spoons and Micah absolutely loves using the spoon when he eats. He's able to scoop the easy objects and put them in his mouth but needs help getting harder objects on his spoon. He's a good boy and helps me dress him, putting his arms through his shirt and lifting his legs to get his pants on. He puts his socks on as well, ie: he imitates putting his socks on. :) Micah hasn't been into books until lately. I thought he would never want to read any other book beside, I Love You Through and Through. Lately, he's into The Very Hungry Caterpillar he got before he was born from Ricky, Lori, Freddy and Jack and his Swing, Swing book from Eryn and Scott. Both books are more interactive and more sensory - he can feel the holes in The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the pages of Swing, Swing move like a hologram. Micah loves sitting with Andrew and 'reading.' Andrew reads him the pages of the Perth guide book and his science papers and Micah sits in his lap and runs his finger across the page.....:) He won't do that for me, but loves his special time with Andrew. :) Finally, no Micah update would be complete without mentioning his love of music and dancing. I've found that Aussie kid shows are very music based and Micah just loves it. He really gets down with the dancing - shaking his head, waving his arms, knee bends, it's all there. We're desperate to get it on video, but have to figure out how to do it without Micah seeing the video camera. He seriously cracks us up. There's no better entertainment.

Alright, that's the Micah news - I'll restrict myself to a post a month. :)