Catching up

Once again, I am WAY behind on updates. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind, and I just cannot seem to find the time to blog. I guess I should pick back up with an update on my brother - he got out of the hospital on Friday, July 24, and immediately drove out of town to a concert. His girls came to stay at my parents' house, and we had a great time. On Friday, we took the girls to a singing story hour and indoor play gym. They had such a good time! Saturday was a day at the pool - another fun day with the girls. They pushed Micah around in his floaty, played with toys, and it was a wonderful afternoon!

DH & I went over to a friend's house for dinner and hanging out. We picked up Indian food along they way. It was the first time in a few months we tried putting Micah to bed while we were out, and it was a smashing success! He fell asleep in their pack and play, transferred easily to his car seat, and did not wake up when we transferred him into the crib!

On Sunday, my cousin arrived with her 4 year old son for a week-long visit. We all gathered at my parents' house on Sunday afternoon/evening for dinner and catching up. Micah went to bed in the pack and play, and again transferred easily back home. On Monday, I did not get to spend any time with my cousin - she and her son went downtown with my father to do a bit of touring. My babysitter was with us all day, so I tried to get some work done. I had mah jong on Monday night, so we made plans to meet on Tuesday. Tuesday brought some oppressive heat, and I was totally stressed about work. I needed to give a webinar in the afternoon, and I did not think I could go out and get back in sufficient time to do my work. Instead, my cousin went to the zoo with her son, and we ended up skipping the trip. When they returned, DH made dinner for us. We ate together and our boys played. It was so sweet to see the boys hanging out together - Micah was totally enamored! While my cousin was there, I began working on my shoe cake for my friend's birthday.

On Wednesday, we hosted playgroup at our house. I got a bit of work done in the afternoon, then went off to my parents' house for dinner. Once again, Micah fell asleep in the pack and play and transferred without any difficulty. This new discovery has completely freed us! We now know we can go out a bit more at night and bring Micah along. When we got home Thursday night, I finished making the shoe for my cake.

Thursday, Micah went to his babysitter's house for the day while I spent my day getting some work done and decorating a cake. I got all dressed up and went out for dinner with my friends, and we had a blast! It was our first real girls' night out without babies and husbands, and it was just a fun evening - lots of laughter, a little too much wine, and some good food.

On Friday, we drove to see my brother and SIL and the kids. We went to a story hour, then took a ferry ride to my brother's office to have lunch with him. We got back to our house just in time to attend a kids' concert and playtime at a gym. We went for dinner at my parents' house again, and spent the rest of the evening relaxing.

Saturday was another pool day with the kids. It was a beautiful, fun, relaxing day. We went out for dinner, ran a few errands, then called it a night. I spent most of Sunday recuperating from my week.

Monday and Tuesday I was back to the grindstone with work. My babysitter was out of town, so her friend came to babysit Micah. She was great, and she will be available in the Fall to cover Tuesdays and Thursdays.

In the middle of all the insanity the past few weeks, we bought a new coffee table! It is just a basic one from Crate & Barrel, made of wood, two drawers and an open shelf on the bottom. Micah loves to try and crawl onto the shelf, and today he managed to pull the stack of papers off the shelf. He loves to use the shelf for pushing up - it might become his favorite hiding space in the very near future. We did have one emergency bath today - the babysitter was changing Micah's diaper, and he had a double pee explosion, sans diaper. He needed a bath because he managed to pee all over his hair!

What else can I say? Micah turns 8 months old in 10 days!! He is growing every day by leaps and bounds. Sometimes, I think he is saying "hi." He is definitely a crazy waving machine, and he even knows it means "hi." Every time he sees someone new or a familiar face, he breaks into a big grin and starts waving like crazy. Micah uses his entire arm to wave - it kind of looks like he is trying to fly away. I really do need to catch some video of that this week! He is standing all the time now, and getting pretty close to pulling himself up. He is going to be all kinds of trouble as he grows. He definitely has a stubborn streak (wonder where he gets that from?), and he seems to grab and get into everything. He is now sticking his hand out of the crib and stealing stuff off the night table. I either need to clear the night table or move it. Changing his diaper is an exercise in dexterity - he is definitely a moving, rolling target. He loves to eat, and he now enjoys three big meals each day. He also gets a snack in the afternoons - he loves MumMums and cereal or puffs. He is just now starting to get the hang of picking up small pieces of food and putting them in his mouth. We've slowly started to try some chunkier food, and he has been handling it all well. He is slowly learning to play "So Big" and he is army crawling/rolling/pivoting all over the place. He is desperately trying to crawl. He likes to move from a sit to all fours, he usually does one crawl, and then he collapses to his belly.

We just started changing his closet over to the 6-9 months size. My little guy is finally outgrowing his 3-6 month clothing. I have a feeling we won't be in these clothes too long - he'll be ready to move up to 12 months within two months, I would guess.

Micah is down to nursing about 4 times a day (sometimes 5). I no longer pump at night before bed, but frankly, giving him a bottle and pumping is much more hassle than nursing him when we are both at home. At this rate, I probably won't really commit to weaning him until he is in daycare 3 days a week. I am hoping to be able to quickly drop the pumping session at that point, start using up my freezer stash of milk, then slowly switch over to formula. I'm not sure when/how I will drop the morning and night nursing sessions, but he needs to be willing to take the bottle for all of his meals by mid-September as I am going to be in Atlanta for work for 4 days, and I have decided to leave him behind with my parents (since DH will be attending the conference, too). I guess that week will be a good time to begin cutting back on the pumping.

As for my diet - well, let's just say "what diet?" I fell off the wagon, and hard. I think I started to diet prematurely - it was causing issues with my milk supply, and while I was thrilled about that at first, Micah was quite unhappy and dissatisfied, and it made him grumpy and unwilling to take a bottle. I added some carbs back in to help the supply, and Micah finally seemed contented, and he is back to taking his bottle. But once the carbs started sneaking in, it was all downhill!

Okay - I'll have to add some more descriptive pictures and video when I have some free time. I will do my best to stay on top of blogging this week!