One

One year ago tonight, we were up late in Mumbai, still adjusting to the time difference, still arguing about what our baby's middle name would be if he were a boy. Waiting for a phone call that didn't come until the next day, I stayed up late googling Indian names starting with a G while Adam slept. Gobi, Ganesh, and Ghandi did not make the cut; the next morning when we learned we had a baby boy, I slipped the original name we had chosen, Gabriel, into the middle name slot on his birth registry.

One year ago, we were blessed with the most extraordinary gift, Micah Gabriel. Every day he continues to amaze and delight us. The sound of his giggles, which are doled out sparingly, make us so happy. We'd do anything for them. The look in his eyes as he is trying to make sense of our words or actions is priceless, and his persistence as he learns new skills amazes us. This week has been sobering as we learned about serious health issues of a friend's two young children, and as we were stunned to hear that one of Adam's daycare classmates, born with serious health issues, had passed away. It made us realize that we can't take one moment of our son's healthy, happy path for granted.

This weekend we'll celebrate Micah's birthday, and our having made it through the first year of his life. It hasn't always been easy, and I've learned previously unknown strengths and skills (like how many things I can do with my non-dominant hand while holding a baby!) but I truly know that every minute has been worth it. We can't wait to see what's on his mind, what his dreams and talents are, and who we become as a result of being Micah's parents.

Justin Bieber is No More and Fun with Food, Part II

So, in my last posting, some people (ahem, you know who you are, Lisa!) suggested that it might be time for Micah's first haircut. Even though the Justin Bieber look (see photo below) is very popular these days among the skateboard set, I've been agreeing with this idea for weeks. I had actually given Micah a little trim about a month ago, which his daddy told me was too much of a bowl haircut and that I was in charge of no haircuts from now on. So I've been patiently waiting for daddy to give him a haircut.

We misplaced the haircutting scissors and daddy got cold feet, so it was off to Jack and Jill Salon. A very cute place just for kids, with racecars and firetrucks for seats and lots of glittery hair accessories for your little princess. As you can see below, Micah was on his best behavior (definitely NOT the case when I tried to get near him with long pointy scissors!) and enjoyed looking at himself in the mirror.

And the result? We have an official big boy now! Daddy is threatening that sometime soon he wants Micah to have an all-over buzz cut, but he has the most gorgous hair, with beautiful copper highlights, why would you want to trim that all off? An argument that I think we'll continue to have for a while!

Adventures with food continued later in the day. We had a family party at a Chinese restaurant, and I brought along a nice container of cubed beets, sweet potatoes, and toful that Micah happily threw on the floor. I was assuming that he wasn't hungry, and passed him off to my sister, at the opposite end of a long table, to hold for a while.

"Why would they bring me to a Chinese restaurant and not feed me Chinese food?" he asked my sister. "I know!" she agreed, and promptly fed him some lo mein, which he ate by the fist-full! He had to have a little bath in the restaurante bathroom before we could bring him home!

This morning, the adventures in food continued: I was making pancakes with ricotta cheese in them, and was trying to cook while also holding Micah. He reached down and grabbed a big handful of ricotta cheese, which he enjoyed a lot. How are we going to teach this guy how to use a fork and spoon when it is so fun to squoosh food into his mouth with his hands?

However, there's one area where Micah still absolutely refuses to use his hands, and that's with drinking his milk. Occasionally he'll pick up a sippy cup on his own, but for love or money, we can't pursuade him to grip his own bottle of formula. I keep waiting for a burst of "I wanna do it myself, but he seems perfectly happy having someone else hold the cup/bottle for him. I know it is time to transition to a cup from the bottle, but I'm not sure if that will even solve the problem. With the amount of solid food he's eating, formula is definitely less interesting to him, but I know he needs to drink at least 24 oz/day and I think he drinks a bit more from the bottle. I'm also debating keeping him on formula for a few more weeks, even though most people are usually overjoyed to end that expense. We'll be travelling for a week in August, and it seems so much easier to travel with powdered formula rather than carrying around fresh milk on a hot summer day.

Whack-a-mole

Can you read his shirt? It clearly spells out what we're in for: trouble!



Mmmmm, spaghetti and meat sauce!

Despite the fact that most of the meal ends up in his lap, and sometimes his hair, Micah's all about self-feeding now!

What an amazing 6 weeks in Micah's life. In early June, he was barely mobile, now he's crawing and exploring everything! His current favorite activity is pulling himself up and starting to cruise, although mostly he's pulling himself up, bobbing back down, and then pulling himself back up, over and over again like the old video game whack-a-mole. We can see the urge to climb isn't far away.... suddenly I'm looking around my house differently, seeing pieces of furniture as ladders; things that used to be set out of his reach are now clearly in his future....

Another big change over the last six weeks has been in the eating department. In early June, he was eating a nice, balanced diet of mushy foods neatly fed to him on a spoon. Now, he's all about self-feeding, and mushy foods are only good if he can pick it up with his fingers. We've introduced lots of new foods, including spaghetti and meat sauce, houmous, pieces of chicken, cantalope, and my favorite, tahini on toast topped with kale (trying to keep getting green veggies in him during this eat-with-the-hands stage is hard!) He is wild about cheerios, and if I need to bribe him to stay quietly in his playpen for half an hour, cheerios is my drug of choice.

Arm Wrestling an Octopus

Micah hits the trails again! We were happiest when he was contained in his backpack.
One of the prettiest short hikes I've been on - White River National Forest, Colorado.

Rifle Falls State Park, CO

I guess this is right on developmental cue as we 'round the bases past 11 months and head straight for one year, but Micah officially became a handful this weekend, on our third camping trip of the season. Whereas only 3 weeks ago, we could leave him safely in "baby Alcatraz" in the camper, fenced in by cushions, on this trip we had to set up the pack-and-play in the camper because he's pulling up on everything in sight and the cushions were no longer enough protection. And only 3 weeks ago, we could put him down on the ground to play, on this trip he made a beeline each time to the rocks and dirt, which he would have happily shoved into his mouth by the fistful. What evolutionary sense does it make that human children act so against their own best interest as toddlers? When they are infants, they have all sorts of reflexes that protect them -- the "falling out of a tree and grabbing onto mama mammal's fur" is the one I best remember -- but as toddlers they go straight for the dangerous.

He had a bit of a cold this weekend (which he spread to me, and I've spread it to Adam), making the long weekend exhausting!!! There were lots of diaper and clothing changes, which have now become an ordeal akin to arm wrestling an octopus. I voilated lots of my own rules this weekend, including unbuckling him in his carseat to change his diaper (we were stuck in a huge, non-moving traffic jam on the highway for over an hour, and he had an explosive diaper) and letting him have his pacifier during the day rather than just at bedtime. I'm thinking that camping, while it will be a great family activity in a few years, is just a bit more trouble than it is worth right now!

Mmmmm, sand!

On the plus side, we saw some beautiful countryside, including a triple waterfall, limestone caves, and probably the prettiest 2 mile hike I've ever been on, through a winding valley with a stream curving through the bottom. But let's just say that mommy and daddy will be VERY happy to see our daycare center here on Tuesday morning!

Summertime

We're keeping our cool!

Happy 4th of July to our US friends and family; Happy Canada Day to our friends up North!