25-26 Months

The month of August was a bit of a hot, crazy blur, between a camping trip, a family reunion in California, and bedbugs. Micah grew up so much in the month since his birthday. He's slowly graduating from two-word phrases with an implied verb or noun, but not both, to recognizable sentences. He got a puzzle game that requires matching up pairs of related objects, and went from having no capability at all to being able to make quite a few pairs before getting bored. He became a willful toddler where he was once a docile boy, and he started to ask for food treats and to be taken to a "grey-gound". While there have been occasional exasperating toddler moments (sometimes whole hours or afternoons!) he's still mostly a very sweet, easy-going boy who can be gentle or silly or watchful, but hardly ever naughty (and when he is naughty, he immediately suggests, "time out?")

Moving from a back-ward facing carseat to forward-facing gave him a new sense of being with us in the car, with more interaction and conversations. Many verses of "the wheels on the bus" have been demanded, and we talk about the construction equipment, trucks, and other things we see from the window.

On our trip to California, he spent some time with his aunts, cousins, and grandparents, and now he understands that they are part of his family even though he doesn't see them often. He's learning that not everything goes his way, and he's learning (slowly) that he can't hit or bite when that happens. He loves to tell us what to do now, and will pick up my purse and drag it over to me when he wants to leave the house, pointing to the crook of his elbow and telling me "suitcase wight here" to indicate where it should go, or tell his daddy, "Daddy, floor trains" when he wants daddy to get off the couch and play with his choo-choos. He's become very interested in music, and really enjoyed the "instrument petting zoo" at a local fair, where musicians let him get very close to and watch them play instruments. We now try to play more classical and jazz music for him, and show him Youtube videos of different instruments (he asks "Wheels on Bus on co-peuw-da?").
We've been indulging his interest in transportation by taking him on a real train ride up in the mountains on a historic train. It was fun and exciting, but because it was a bit too long for a toddler to be confined to a seat, pretty physically exhausting for mommy and daddy who had to wrestle to keep a wiggly toddler from falling out the window or running on a moving train. We also stopped by a fire station one day last week and the firemen were so nice; they all got up from their dinner and proudly showed off the firetruck, letting a very happy little boy "drive" the firetruck and offering to take a very happy big boy (Adam) on a "ride along" for a day. I'm very happy that his interest in transportation is also mixed with a healthy dose of caution: when we're taking out and about and he hears a car, he'll remind us, "car coming" and grab a hand or shrink back, even if he's safely on a sidewalk or driveway.
All in all, we're having a lot of fun with Micah's new ability to comprehend and interact with the world.

From 1 to 2 In Review

On a happier note, I'm pleased to share this chronicle of Micah's 2nd year. Once again, made using Scrapbookmax software and many products from www.thedigichick.com and published in hardback using www.shutterfly.com.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Thunk postscript

It was lucky Micah fell out of bed; in changing the mattress over to the car bed, we realized that he had somehow acquired a million fellow bedmates: bedbugs! Yikes! The last few weeks have been upsetting, difficult, and expensive as we try to get rid of them. Nothing makes you feel quite so terrible as a parent as seeing your child covered with signs that he's been nibbled on in his sleep for weeks.
So that you, my loyal readers, can reap the benefit (and hopefully avoid some of the cost) of getting rid of the critters, here are some of the lessons I've learned so far:
1) Accept no hand-me-downs or yard sale purchases that cannot be washed in the clothes or dishwasher. We think ours arrived in some plastic truck toys given to us by a neighbor (who later told us that they had bedbugs.) Bedbugs die at around 120 degrees F, so tossing things in the dryer on the hottest setting or the dishwasher will kill them, but with thick things like stuffed animals, it is hard to know whether they've reached the right heat inside.
2) Wash everything that comes into your house right away.
3) When arriving home after travelling, wash everything that's been in a hotel room right away.
4) If you do acquire bedbugs, don't go for the most expensive remedy right away. We had an exterminator come in and perform the less-invasive treatment of steam-cleaning one room. We had to take everything out of the room and wash it (a good opportunity for giving away a lot of his outgrown clothes and toys). The more expensive option would have been to bring in generators and fans to heat the ENTIRE HOUSE to 160 degrees..... costs about $1/square foot, at least in our part of the world.
5) Don't assume that one treatment solves the problem. We bought new mattresses and a new bed (threw away the car bed; it was either infested before we got it or got very infested in just a day with us), and new changing pad. However, the next day, we found a well-fed bedbug on the plastic-encased mattress, so we moved Micah out of the room and set up a full booby-trap situation.... heavy-duty chemicals and a carbon-dioxide "lure" to draw out all the remaining baby bed bugs. We've had that set-up for about a week and still are drawing a few babies out of hiding, so can't let Micah back into the room yet. I'm not sure when we'll be able to declare "mission accomplished," but I don't want to do so prematurely.
6) Don't buy expensive products when inexpensive ones will do the job. We bought a $75 "bed bug beacon" (instead of paying the exterminator $100 to rent his detector) only to discover that the active chemical ingredients are sugar and yeast. D'oh! An adequate bed bug lure can be built using common household items for about $10......
We have had some fun adventures while dealing with this unpleasantness, so my next post will be back to our usual happy family fun.

THU-nk

pimp my baby.....
Vrooommmm! Daddy's "my-come" going for a ride in the garage. Yes, that is a naked boy on the motorcycle....nothing comes between me and my "mycome! "

That loud THUnk you heard on Sunday afternoon? That my friend was the sound of the future being ushered in by our son. We had just settled down after a hot and sweaty bike ride -- Micah for a nap, and Adam and me for a nice quiet lunch. A quiet that was disturbed by the aforementioned Thunk. We instantly knew what it was, even as we were racing to his room, even as we were thinking to ourselves "but he's never tried to climb out of his crib before." The crying we heard when we got to his room proved what we already knew.... he had somehow climbed out of his crib and landed on the floor.

What could have caused him to do that? He actually seemed to be mostly asleep even through his tears. Was he dreaming of his successful climb of the monkey bars at our local playground only a week ago? Was he dreaming of trying to get into the front seat of the car to pretend to drive? Sure, there have been other "big boy" signs that we've gotten recently..... in fact, earlier that day I had purchased the next biggest sized diapers for him and, strolling through the baby aisle, realized that we wouldn't be needing anything from that section (except for diapers) any more. And he's started to demand a big fork when he sits in a big chair at the dining table -- not even a salad fork will do. Regardless, I thought I had a few more months to enjoy the safety and peace of mind of the crib. But that was all left behind by that loud Thunk. If he could do it once, even in his sleep, he could do it again. No sooner were the tears dried than we started planning a trip to our brand-spanking new Ikea to buy a big boy bed.

But even that plan was put into fast motion. Later that day, on our way to go out to dinner, Adam excitedly pulled a U-turn, exclaiming "Look, a car bed!" Silly me, I thought he was directing my attention to some flatbed truck.....no, it was a bed in the shape of a car, bound to delight a transportation-crazy little boy (and his daddy). And for $10, the bed was ours, and the crib dismanted before the day was done. Micah actually did a big ol' happy dance when it arrived in his room -- I thought that was just a figure of speech, but now I know it is something that 2 year olds actually do (along with melting spaghetti imitations, but that's a story for another day.)

I hope that its a long time before he has a pretty blond in his bed again!

The wheels on the bus...

The wheels on the bus go round and round and round and round and round. Wheels of all kinds, but busses in particular, are an obsession at our house these days. One of Micah's favorite passtimes is to sing the wheels on the bus song, and call out the names of members of our family for me to sing their special verse (the grandma on the bus says 'have a cookie' is one that Micah likes to sing himself; Adam objected that his verse, "the daddy on the bus says 'sit right down'" was too scolding so we changed it to "the daddy on the bus says 'look around!'"). Going to see the school bus parked outside of daycare is still an everyday event, and if we don't walk to see it, we have to drive by it and wave goodbye. Micah's first full sentence, "Aunt Jamie, look! Wheels!" was also transportation-oriented, and his obsession while we were camping last weekend was to climb into daddy's car and sit in the driver's seat. Dangerous, since he also knows where the key goes into the ignition!

He's beginning to know the specialized names of lots of different kinds of trucks, including fire truck and garbage truck, and I had a heart-to-heart conversation with him the other day in which I made him promise to always use the term "gumpda" to refer to dump trucks. He'll pull out books from his bookshelf just so he can look at a single page that has a picture of a bus or a truck on it.

Yup, he's a boy all right. We think he's a pretty smart boy, for sure. The other day, standing in front of a vending machine, he pushed the button and, when nothing happened, asked me "money?" I'm 100% positive he's never seen either of us use a vending machine, so I don't know how he knew it required money. When I told him I didn't have any, he suggested the next logical step: "ganma" -- ask grandma for money!!

Another sign that he's becoming a boy: he's learning how to razz his Daddy by implying that he has lady parts, and being fascinated with watching water come out of his "peenie". And so it begins!

This weekend we had an early birthday party for Micah (Adam was originally slated to be out of town during Micah's actual birthday weekend in two weeks.) We camped out at a local campground, and invited family and neighbors to come there for an evening cookout. It was a lot of fun, though I'm not sure the birthday boy realized it was all on his behalf .... until the bus cake was brought out and the birthday song began. He asked us to sing "hah birdy" several times, which we happily did. A weekend of good food, sun, waterplay, and sleeping in the camper was a great way to celebrate our special little boy who has brought so much sunshine into our lives.

Days Flying

The days are long but the years are short.... how many times pre-kids did you hear someone say some variation of that line and scoff at what must surely be an exaggeration. But it becomes very true when you have a child. In fact, I was just recently "chatting" by e-mail with a fellow Indian surrogacy mommy ho just brought home her son and trying to remember how long it took Micah to sleep through the night and how we did it.... realized that it seems so long ago, when at the time it seemed to stretch on forever.

Our lives have been busy for the last few weeks. I was in Boston, then Adam was in Phoenix, then Micah and I few to Phoenix for a visit with some family and friends.... then I was back in Boston, and most recently we had houseguests last weekend and will again this weekend! All so good! Highlights include:

• A surprise stop on the "surrogacy world tour" when we started talking to a male couple in our hotel in Phoenix and discovered that their 6-month old doctor was born in Delhi! We look forward to connecting with them again when we visit Southern Cal at the end of the summer.
  


• Spending time with Micah's grandpa and nana, and introducing him to his Aunt Tracy
  


• Visiting with some dear friends in Tucson, who were entertained when Micah decided to strip to his diapers while we enjoyed a lovely alfresco dinner out.







Micah's thorough enjoyment of airplane and bus travel on the trip. He must have announced "Aih-pane!" 300 times en route!









Regular family bike rides after dinner, and often Adam and Micah commute to daycare via bike.





Watching Micah play with our visiting friends' 4-year-old -- lots of hugs, learning to share toys between these 2 only children, and splashing in the bath together

Gone baby gone

I was startled to realize today as Micah and I had dinner that about 90% of what comes out of mouth is recognizable (at least by me) words. No more baby babble! Wah, I'm the one crying, as I thought the babble was pretty cute.

Now, I'm not saying that we're over here having a Great Books discussion. Most of the conversation goes like this:

Micah: Guck!

Me: Oh, you want to go see the truck. Yes, let's go walk up the street to see it.

Micah: Guck! Noise!

Me: Yes, the truck was making a lot of noise this morning.

Micah: Man

Me: There was a man driving that noisy truck, wasn't there.

Micah: Guck! (getting distracted while we're walking) Circle.

Me: Oh, look what you found! A (disgusting piece of plastic trash) circle!

Micah: Circle. (showing me) Circle, etc.

He's also started stringing 2 words together, as in Daddy car, Mommy eye. This is the result of a good idea that Adam had a few months ago to distinguish between things that are Micah's and things that are someone else's. I highly recommend making this distinction as soon as your child starts talking.

Lots of things are starting to click all at once. He's gotten the concept (but not the specifics) of counting, and will count up to 6 with a little prodding and a lot of hints. He is totally obsessed with Daddy's me-come (motorcycle), a new addition to our household that currently sits, unregistered, in our garage. He also loves to pretend to talk on the toy phone, and will say "hi grandma," but if you get him to talk on a regular phone (such as I was trying to get him to do while I was away recently), you get a confused expression. He insists on going to visit the schoolbus parked at his daycare every day, and woe betide me if I try to get him into the car before we walk down the block and peer into the bus window and name all the parts. This afternoon, I transitioned him away from the bus by singing "the wheels on the bus" song as I've done several times in the past, but this time I heard him singing it in the back seat (without any words) on the way home.

We're off on another adventure this weekend -- Micah and I are flying to meet Adam in Arizona and visit with some family and friends. A few people I've mentioned this to have asked if this is Micah's first plane trip, and i just laugh! First time travelling with just one parent, though, should be interesting. At least it is a very short flight!