On Valentine’s Day, Micah turned 14 months old. I’m amazed how the time is just flying by, but I think I say that every month. Over the past month, I think Micah really has become a “little man” – or at least a full-blown toddler. He walks everywhere now – he almost never crawls. He is fairly sturdy and I am constantly surprised by how much trouble he can get into. He has recently discovered the tupperware cabinet, and his new favorite pasttime is defying our “safety” knobs on the range and removing the range knobs below the child-proof safety casings. Every day, he seems to be learning something new.
To be honest, we did not do much that was exciting for either Micah’s birthday or Valentine’s Day. We were finally dug out from the latest round of snow on Thursday, and Friday morning we hit the road to travel to New Jersey to visit Elliot’s family and celebrate his brother Steven’s 50th birthday. Unfortunately, as is our norm, we left about an hour later than planned. Micah was really very good – he was well behaved and quickly fell asleep. Due to our poor planning, we had to stop for gas about 1 hour into our trip at Maryland House. Naturally, we woke Micah up while we were getting gas, so we decided to head in to the rest area a bit early and get some lunch. Micah was much less happy for the remaining part of the trip – he refused to fall asleep, and was clearly bored. He decided, once again, to spend his time sticking his fingers down his throat and making himself gag. After our last puking incident, I was afraid to let him continue. Of course, he quickly felt it was a game and he loved the attention. Elliot ended up moving into the back seat to keep Micah’s hands occupied. We were quite frustrated that he would not take a nap for the remainder of the trip, but we did manage to stop the gagging.
We arrived at Steven and Jodi’s house in the afternoon and had some time to play with everyone. Micah refused his afternoon nap, but he was actually very well-behaved. Our biggest scare of the day happened when his Aunt Jodi brought him upstairs to play. I’m still unclear as to who was supposed to be paying attention to him, but the end result was that Micah took a header down a flight of stairs. That was one of the WORST sounds I have ever heard – I heard the scream as they noticed he was falling and I heard the tumbling. I ran to meet him, and when I got there he was on his back at the foot of the stairs. I scooped him up and comforted him, checked for blood and injuries, and probably cursed a bit at Elliot. I noticed something white in his mouth. At first I thought he lost one of his few teeth, but I quickly realized there was no blood anywhere. I then realized he had a pill of some kind in his mouth. So, not only did they let my baby fall down the stairs, they let him eat some kind of pill, too. I was NOT happy about the situation. Thankfully, other than a bit of a bruise on his eye and a small bump on his forehead, he seemed just fine. I think his fall was cushioned a bit by the carpet, and luckily he bumped all the way down the stairs, so the final crash to the floor was sort of…lessened by the prior bumping, if that makes any sense. I gave Micah his sippy cup of milk and he cuddled nice and close to me for a bit. He immediately stopped crying and went back to his normal happy self. These kinds of injuries horrify me – I have nightmares and I always imagine tragic results to falls. I don’t know how many more of these kinds of falls my heart can handle!
We ordered Chinese food for dinner (turns out, Micah hates Chinese food – he threw most of it on the ground). Right around 7:30, Micah started to melt down, so we put him to bed a bit early. He fell asleep rather quickly, and unlike our last visit, Micah actually slept through the night until 7:30 in the morning. Elliot was wonderful and woke up with him, fed him breakfast and kept him entertained until I made it downstairs at 8:30. Micah had a great morning playing with his cousins, and he ended up going down for his nap right on time and slept for about 1 1/2 hours. I got him dressed and ready for the birthday party. We headed out around noon to meet everyone.
Micah was great at the restaurant. He smiled at everyone, he tried running around all over the place, and he sat in his high chair and ate a fair amount of food (especially bread). He was able to spend some time with his grandparents and cousins and even sat a bit with his other aunt and uncle. After a few hours he started to get bored and cranky. Around 3:15 or so, we hit meltdown again – it was definitely nap time. We left a bit early and drove him back home, and Micah took a great nap.
Because we were concerned about the weather report (and more snow), we decided to head back home Saturday night. Our ride home was rather quick and uneventful, and Micah transferred easily into his crib. Unfortunately, when we arrived home, we realized there had been an….avalanche. All of the snow from our roof slid down and completely filled in the path Elliot had previously dug out. We had to climb over mountains of snow over 2 feet high to get in the house, and poor Elliot had to spend another few hours shoveling us back out again the next morning.
Sunday was Micah’s actual 14 month birthday and Valentine’s Day. I don’t even think we left the house. Elliot did remember to get me a small box of chocolates and say “Happy Valentine’s Day” but I think we spent most of the day watching the Olympics, playing with Micah and napping. We did not even eat dinner together. Romantic, huh? And the worst part was I just didn’t care. Nor did I even think of a Valentine’s Day gift for him. I think I’m just exhausted after everything going on the past month or so.
As for milestones – Micah is walking, talking and interacting. He claps when he likes things (especially singing and music) and he will say words like “yay” and mimic us sometimes. He has four teeth already, and two more coming through on top (possibly more, but he really does not let us get too close to inspect). He loves to “sing” the Itsy Bitsy Spider (to be fair, he does the hand motions and expects someone else to do the singing). He is incredibly picky about food, but he is loving feeding himself with a fork. We have tried the spoon (well, if I try giving him yogurt, he steals the spoon) but he is not quite as adept at that yet. He understands the concept, but still tends to wear most of the food on his shirt and cannot resist sticking his hands into the bowl of food. Micah will play games – he takes a ball and will play catch, he chases the dog, he likes us to chase him, he plays music (like the kazoo and his toy piano) and he loves his toy computer. He has a truly stubborn streak – he will throw a fit if he cannot get his way now. He keeps trying to steal the dog’s food and he sticks his hands in her water bowl – disgusting! He gets really angry when I pull him away, and he is definitely inclined to throw temper tantrums when he doesn’t get what he wants. I think the terrible twos will start early with us!
Luckily, Micah is simply adorable. He smiles and plays and he is saying more and more every day. Last night, I had to go out to a meeting at 7. I helped Elliot give Micah a bath before I left, and as I was leaving I said “bye bye” to Micah and he immediately responded and said “bye bye.” I waved and started to leave, and then Micah, totally unprompted, said “night night” to me! I melted AGAIN. He understood it was bedtime and wanted to say good night to me. I cannot tell you how much I wanted to stay as he shouted night night to me while I walked down the stairs and out the door.
I am amazed everyday at how much I love this little person. He has changed my world, and I barely remember life before the past 14 months. He brings so much joy to my life, and my heart swells more and more with love as every minute passes. I worry so much for him and about him, too. I can feel my heart flutter every time he shoots me one of those lopsided grins, and even when he is being stubborn and bad and cranky, I just feel like grinning because he is so adorable and sweet. I love watching him learn and grow, and I love to see the joy and happiness spread across his face every time he sees me…or the dog…or his Daddy…or his grandparents. I’m so proud of him when he insists on doing something himself (like feeding himself with a fork) and I am astounded at how much he has developed since that first day in the hospital 14 months ago.
It is hard to imagine that we are about to add one more bundle of joy to our lives. I worry about how that will affect Micah and hope we can make Twoey feel just as loved and give both of them all the time and attention they will each need and deserve. I am looking forward to the months ahead to see all that Micah continues to learn and do.