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I want to be an Army Ranger

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Micah is crawling! He sometimes crawls on all fours, but his preferred mode of crawling… Army style! I know I’m a proud mom, but isn’t he adorable?

Spa day was a raging success – I had a thoroughly relaxing massage and a facial, and a fantastic dinner by the water. What more could I want? I did fine without pumping, and Micah did a great job taking the bottle all day. Our only problem? I wasn’t around to enforce the schedule. Elliot did not exactly make sure Micah got his 2:00 nap, so Micah crashed hard at 5:30 when Lauren was here… and slept until 7:30. When I came home after 8, she was just feeding him dinner. He was up until well after 9 last night, but he finally went down and slept through the night. Today was a good day, and I insisted on napping on time today!

Spa Day

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My birthday is coming up this weekend, so today I’m headed off to spend the day at the spa with one of my best friends! This is the first time I’m really leaving Micah all day – I’ll be saying goodbye at 9:00 am and I do not think I will make it back before he heads to bed. I’m also planning to go the entire day without pumping or breastfeeding, so we’ll see how that goes.

Micah has woken up twice so far this week. Tuesday night, he cried out at 11:00 pm, but he fell back asleep…until midnight, when he woke up screaming. We went and got him and cuddled with him for a bit before he fell back asleep at 12:45. I’m not liking this trend! He did something very similar Sunday night. Hopefully, this phase will pass quickly.

Three Questions

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Today I have an EXTREMELY serious topic to discuss. I’m having a horrible time making a decision about some life-altering choices, so I thought the best thing to do was to seek some input. First things first:

Apparently, I am way behind on planning Micah’s first birthday party. I have no theme, and no cake choice made yet. Scoff if you must, but apparently I’m delinquent in my psychotic, obsessive, birthday-crazy mommy duties. Here are the ideas I’ve had so far – please feel free to throw out a few additional ideas!

  • Jungle Animals (maybe complete with some jungle trees and vines, lions, elephants, tigers, etc.
  • Barn/Farm Animals
  • Elmo
  • Doggy
  • First Birthday Theme – “hugs and stitches”

Now, on to my next critical “life or death” decision – what should Micah be for Halloween this year? He has a costume party birthday to attend on Halloween, and of course we’ll have to take him trick or treating, and I figure he’ll look adorable in his costume for his 10 month photos. Apparently, everyone in our playgroup has already bought a costume, and we need to catch up! Here are a few of my thoughts, but please feel free to propose your own recommendations:

  • Some kind of cute & cuddly animal. I’ve seen penguins, monkeys, lions, teddy bears, leopards, tigers, frogs, bunnies, chicks . . . what do you think?
  • Elmo – they must have elmo costumes, right?
  • Bam Bam – Micah keeps banging everything, so we thought it was appropriate

Finally, last, but not least, I am in the process of buying a new cell phone. I use my cell phone for both personal and work. I use the internet and check my email on a regular basis. I was debating getting the iphone, but I really like having a tactile keyboard (the onscreen iphone keyboard just doesn’t quite cut it, and the service for AT&T kind of sucks here). I have now narrowed my choices down to:

  • Palm Pre
  • Blackberry Curve

Do any of you have these phones? What do you think? I currently have a Palm, so I do like their phones. The Pre has a touch screen with some cool features/capabilities and a slide out keyboard. The Blackberry would give me easier access to email, has a smaller screen, and everything is operated with the little mouseball on the front – no touch screen access. Decisions, decisions!

Hopefully, by the time this post goes up, I’ll have set up some polls for you on the right-hand side of my blog so you can vote on these serious questions!

8 month photos

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Today we took Micah for his 8 month photos. I must confess – I might be turning him into a metrosexual – we had to use a little hair product to keep his crazy mop out of his face for the photos. I didn’t style his hair – just put a little stuff in and pushed it out of his face. We entered the first one into a photo contest, too.








The most beautiful sound I ever heard….

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“Mama.” Micah is definitely saying “mama” (and “dada,” and “hi” and something resembling “doggy” and “Nugget”), but my heart melts every time he says “mama” and looks at me. My mother has informed me that at some point (apparently at 4 am when they are sick?), it stops being cute, so I should work on getting him to say “dada” rather than “mama!” For now, I’m going to savor the cute factor.

Micah has been a huge grump lately, and I’m getting frustrated. He isn’t drinking his milk (or nursing), he is not really eating his food, he is cranky and whining, and apparently sleep is becoming optional. I know we’ve had it quite easy all these months so I shouldn’t complain, but I’m worried that there is something wrong. I couldn’t get him to take a single bottle yesterday, or nurse for more than 15 minutes all day. He was pretty easy to put to sleep, but he woke up screaming at 11:30. I went back in, tried nursing him, tried giving him a bottle, tried soothing him, and he quickly went back to sleep…until I put him down in his crib. He woke up again, and he was smiling, waving, and saying “hi” and “mama” as long as he could see me, but screaming every time I left his sight. I decided it wasn’t worth the battle (since he so rarely wakes up, something must have been off), so I brought him downstairs. I guess he either must be teething or he has been thrown off by the fact we lowered his crib this week (since he has been starting to pull up, we thought it was a good idea to lower the crib now). We kept him downstairs playing with us for about 30 minutes. He spent some of it nestled on my chest and sucking his thumb. When I thought he looked sleepy again, I sent him upstairs with Elliot and a bottle. Apparently, Elliot is a very good rocker, and got him to sleep in about 15 minutes. Micah slept through until 8:00 this morning.

Micah has had several accomplishments this week! First, he has pushed up to a sit a couple of times. He is not doing it consistently (I think he doesn’t realize he can do it) but it has happened more than once. He is also successfully pulling himself up to a stand when he can get the leverage correct. He works so hard, and his little faces scrunches up into this expression of steely and stubborn determination. When he finally stands, he looks so proud of himself as he beams with joy, and he usually squeals with delight. He is also cruising – he can walk down the side of the coffee table or the couch, but he doesn’t always remember to hold on and keep his balance. Last, and certainly not least, MICAH CRAWLED!! I would not say he is a crawler yet, but on multiple occasions in the past few days, he has leaned forward to all fours, crawled 3 or 4 paces, and then either pushed himself back to a sitting position or flopped down on his belly. I would guess full-out crawling is just around the corner now – a bit sooner than I expected. Elliot went out and bought baby gates and things to start baby-proofing the house, so we are getting prepared for Trouble.

Yesterday, Micah gave himself a black eye. Twice. Yes, I said twice. No, it was the same eye. We bought a new coffee table (it has a shelf on the bottom and 2 drawers) and we also bought these cute little woven baskets to sit underneath on top of the shelf. One basket holds our papers and stuff, and the other basket has Micah’s toys. He already knows which is his basket, and he likes to go over there and pull it out and dig out all of his toys. Yesterday afternoon, Micah was sitting and quietly emptying the basket, and I watched him push it forward and tip it back towards him….just a little too swiftly. He smashed the edge right into his eyelid. I thought it wasn’t a big deal, so I said “YAY, Micah” and started clapping (hoping that distracting him would keep him from crying). No such luck – he started BAWLING. I went and picked him up, and was surprised when the crying went on and on and on. Upon closer inspection, I noticed a big red welt forming. Poor little guy – he did a good job beating himself up! Then again, when he was wide awake at 11:45 last night, he was playing with the remote control. He managed to whack that right into the same eye. He is a little bruised and puffy today – should look lovely in our 8 month photos. Thank goodness for photoshop!

Micah would not take a bottle again this morning or much of his breakfast. We tried putting him down for his nap at 9:30 and he threw a fit. Elliot brought him back downstairs, and I tried again 20 minutes later. He cried at first, so I sat him up in the crib, gave him a toy, and left. He played for about 10 minutes before laying down and sleeping. We’ll see how long he decides to nap, but anything is okay at this point! When he gets up, I’m going to try and figure out what to do with that crazy mop of hair, dress him for pictures and head out. We have Christin coming this afternoon, so hopefully I can get a bunch of work done.

Tonight I have mah jong with the ladies, so hopefully Micah won’t give Elliot too much trouble at bedtime. I wish I knew how to get Micah eating again. Perhaps it is just teething.

In other news, I had a bit of a scare – there were reports of a gunman at Montgomery College campus this morning on the news. My mom works there, and I had a bit of trouble reaching her at first. It took about 3 or 4 tries, but when I finally got through she informed me the gunman was in custody, no one was hurt, and all is well. What a relief! Why are there so many crazy people out there?

Julie & Julia

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Last night, for date night, Elliot & I went to see Julie & Julia. It was a great movie – just a happy, feel good story. Naturally, it got me thinking…about life, desires, hopes. Julia Child was well into her 40s when she finally found her career and set out on her path. Blogging about cooking through Julia Child’s book helped Julie find her way to being a writer when she turned 30. I suppose it has made me wonder if I have done all the things I want with my life? In both cases, it was their love of food that brought them to their paths.

I think the movie made me realize that it is never too late to complete those things on our “wish” list of life. My list has always been long, and it is likely that I do not have the desire to put my energy into completing EVERYTHING on that list. (For example, I am an attorney, but I always thought I’d make a marvelous doctor, too – I am fairly certain I will never go back to school to become a doctor. Or, at least not before I’m in my 60s or 70s).

I have so many different loves – I love to crochet and knit, I love to bake and to decorate cakes, I love food and cooking, and I love to write. My career has very little to do with any of these loves, and the movie made me ask whether I should be doing more to pursue those desires. Or, are they just hobbies?

I think part of me has always wanted to be a writer – it is probably why I love to blog. It gives me an excuse to ramble on and put down on paper some of the random thoughts that run through my head. I love to tell stories, but even more, I think I like to share (what I deem to be) keen proclamations and theories about life as they relate to my personal experiences. Some of my favorites include my bad Chinese food theory on relationships (you know, when you crave Chinese food, it is never a good idea to just grab bad Chinese food at the mall to attempt to satisfy that craving – because a taste of BAD Chinese food just sends you on a hunt for really GOOD Chinese food, and you’ll order it 9 million times in a week until you find the PERFECT Chinese food to satisfy your craving. I always used to relate this to casual relationships – you know, they are like trying bad Chinese food to satisfy a craving – it will just make you obsessed with trying to find the good stuff, so you might as well hold out for the GOOD stuff and save the effort and waste), or my paper towel theory on men (back from my single days – I believed that most men, in terms of dating, are like paper towels – they really are only meant to be used once and tossed in the garbage, because if you try to reuse them, they just fall apart – they no longer clean and useful, they just are stained, holy, and raggedy. Some men may be like a good bounty or brawny – you can get 2 or 3 good uses out of them before they fall apart or show signs of wear and tear. If you are looking for something to last, however, you should find a dish towel – those are meant to weather years of cleaning, washing, and reusing. I used to tell my friends that their latest guys were just paper towels – time to throw them out. Based on that theory, we women should enjoy paper towel men – they do serve a purpose – and throw them away when they reach the end of their useful life. But we should marry dish towel men).

In my head, I’ve had several books rattling around for years. I keep hoping that one day, I’ll finally take the time to put them down on paper and release them as a book. I think the movie got me thinking…how do I finally get there? Do I really have time to pursue my writing career while being a new mom and continuing my legal advocacy work that I also love? Or is that just one of those pipe dreams I’ll never realize?

I used to think I wanted to change the world – something big in politics, get rich and famous for doing something truly important. But most of all, I wanted the money and the notoriety so I could help DO. Someone close to me recently told me that I have wasted my intelligence – that I should have done more or been something more important. Sometimes, I wonder that, too, but then I think about what I have already accomplished – in my career, in my personal life – and I am not certain that I agree. I have time for my family and friends – something I’m not sure I could have done if I was working on being “important.” My work does help people – I will probably never get widespread recognition for that, but I’m very well known and respected in my little tiny niche, and I just enjoy what I do and knowing that I help change things. I also think that I’ve done things to help some people one-on-one. I volunteer, I have taken on a number of pro bono cases (one that helped several abused and neglected children become part of a family) and I like to share in an effort that it might help even one person for just a few minutes.

For once, I am not exactly certain where I am driving this post. I guess you could say the movie last night spoke to me, and has me thinking – about the future, about what I want out of life, about my own personal goals and dreams. I think Julia Child is an amazing example of how it is never too late to find your voice and impact the world. I hope maybe one day I can look back and say that I did what I was meant to do, whatever that impact is on others.

So, tell me, have you found yourself? Are there goals and dreams on your list? What are the things you have always wanted to do? What do you love? And who has a plan to get there?

8 months

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I have to say, time just flies. I cannot believe that Micah is 8 months old today!! We were originally planning to go get his pictures done today, but I decided to postpone it until Monday. Usually, I post a general update about Micah for my monthly post. Today, however, I’m feeling a touch sentimental, so I think I will focus this post more on the things I do not want to forget about this precious time with Micah.

I love how Micah squeals with delight each time he sees the dog, and especially when she gets close enough to touch or comes over to nuzzle him, plant one on him, or just burrow into him. I also think he is adorable when he taps on the floor to call for the dog to come over. She looks at him with this wary expression . . . kind of saying “yeah, right, so you can yank my hair out? I’ll think about it – you are cute, you taste yummy, but we’ll do this when I say so!”

I love how he lights up with a big smile and starts furiously waving hello when he sees me, and as I get close enough to him, he reaches up to touch my face. Micah puts both hands on my face and just spreads love and joy as he smiles at me, announcing how happy he is to see me and have me so close to him.

I love that every once in a while, Micah still likes to nap on me. I stretch out on the couch and he just nuzzles on top of me with his thumb in his mouth and crashes. Even when he won’t take a real nap on me, I love that he gets especially cuddly when he is tired. He rests his head on my chest and sucks his thumb while sighing quietly, and I get the opportunity to wrap my arms around him, snuggle him close to me, and rub his back. I think that might just be heaven.

It makes me chuckle every time he poops – he now grunts and scrunches up his face, so I always know when he is pooping. If it is during a mealtime, you cannot put a spoon anywhere near him – he needs his full concentration while pooping, and he will not let food disturb him.

Speaking of food, I love how he works so hard to feed himself. He very carefully picks up the puffs or pasta, and does his best to aim for his mouth and get the food in there. He is able to connect properly about 80-90% of the time now, and I’m so proud of him! He does much better with big items, like the Baby Mum Mums. He also loves to grab the spoon while I’m feeding him. Unfortunately, he usually grabs the spoon at the feeding end, sending sweet potatoes and other wonderful things squirting everywhere. And don’t get me started about the raspberries! He has a thing about blowing raspberries when his mouth is full – especially once you put something colorful (like cherries, or blueberries) in there. The greater the potential for staining, the bigger the raspberries! He just loves to do that.

I love how he chats right now – he talks to his animals, he talks to us. Sometimes, I think he is saying “mama,” “hi” and “dada” but I’m just not sure yet. He does seem to recognize words now – I love that when you ask him where Daddy is he turns to Elliot, and he’ll do the same for me and for Nugget.

I love watching him think. He surveys the situation – deciding where his toys are, what things he wants to grab, locating Nugget – and then he devises a plan. He decides to lean forward and grab, or try to stand up, or attempt to crawl. He is going to be one devious little boy! He finds things amusing and just laughs sometimes. He interacts with toys and people. He has this joyous smile, and I love to watch how happy he is.

I love that he is in love with Elmo. After the tempertantrum this weekend, last night Elliot & I went to Target and picked up the Chatters Elmo Micah loves. We gave it to him this morning, and he lit up. He has been hugging it, talking to it, and smiling all morning! I’m amazed how something so simple can bring such joy. If this keeps up, we may have to pick Elmo as the theme for his first birthday party.

I love his crazy hair. It seems like Micah’s hair is part of his identity now – and perhaps why I’ve been leery about cutting it. He is the baby with the hair, and people stop and recognize him and notice him because of the crazy hair do and the winning smile. Somehow, it feels like chopping off that lovely mop into a controlled cut will stifle part of his identity and his freedom.

I love how he grabs everything and pulls it out to shred it or eat it – the papers and baskets under the new coffee table or on his nightstand, his toys, and labels. I love how he rolls all over creating a path of destruction, and how he tries to push up to all fours and gets a stubborn expression on his face when he insists on trying to stand.

Happy 8 months, baby boy! I love you with all of my heart. I never knew what joy you would bring into my life, and I am thankful for every second I have with you.

Baby Shower Cake

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As promised, here is a picture of the cake I did for my friend’s baby shower:


As usual, I was not pleased with how it came out. I think it needed more color. The shoes were looking good, but they were white. They were not *quite* dry (because I did them the same day) and I decided to try and airbrush them yellow, which just made them wet and they started to collapse. I have to buy more airbrush colors – my makeshift coloring technique was not so good.

Ah well, I learn something new each time!

Oh yes we’ve got Trouble, right here in Bethesda

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Another week has passed and once again, I’m way behind on posting! Work has been crazy – a bunch of deadlines and our sitter has been MIA quite a few days. I am so excited to be starting Micah in daycare in a few weeks – the predictability should make my life a bit easier. Let’s start off with a cute picture of Micah:


Micah has been working on his troublemaking skills this week. He discovered how to shove his hand out of the crib and throw his pacifier on the floor, or grab things off of his nightstand. He got some paper off the nightstand, so I cleared off most of the odds and ends. One day when I went in to get him after his nap, I noticed that he grabbed the doggy Build-a-Bear from the nightstand that my father made for him. I guess the good news is he loves his Build-a-Bear.

Micah has also recently discovered that he loves power cords. He especially loves to grab hold, yank and chew. It is not a habit I find amusing. He also loves to pull all the paper stuff off the new coffee table. If left on his own, he will shred and/or eat the paper. He gets VERY angry when I keep the papers away from him. We just purchased baskets for under the coffee table – one for papers and another for his toys. I think he will spend most of his days emptying the contents of these baskets. Monday, he could not stop pulling out and playing with all of his toys (and he also decided to claim a few of the dog’s as well).

I also think that we may have crossed into “mobile” territory – Micah is rolling and army crawling all over the place. He is not quite crawling, but he does lean forward from a sit to all fours and attempt to crawl before flopping on to his belly and taking off. He is also trying to pull up on things now – if I stand him up, he can hold on and cruise, but even without my help, he is pretty close to pulling himself up to a stand. He manages to get into some interesting spots, and he pulls down any items within his grasp.

He really needs to be watched at all times – he likes to eat everything. Monday, he managed to get his hands on one of those little silica gel bead packets (for keeping things dry). I found him chewing on it – I’m just lucky he didn’t choke!

I am amazed how he manages to sneak all this stuff in his mouth WHILE we are monitoring and watching him! He is definitely trouble with a capital T.

Speaking of trouble, this hunger strike has been a real pain in the neck – he just has not been drinking enough milk. It has had me worried, but I’ve been trying to be patient. In the meantime, Micah does seem to LOVE solid foods. He is a bottomless pit, just like his father. We have been experimenting with pasta, and I finally successfully made some zucchini for Micah. He just loves his veggies! We are slowly eating thicker chunks of food, and he can easily eat pieces of pasta and other soft fruits and veggies. Nevertheless, he still seems to hate the mesh teether – this great contraption for delivering bigger chunks of table food. I think he just hates the texture of the mesh bag, but I wish he would use it! Even without the mesh contraption, he is doing really well with table food. We have tried Cheerios, and he seems to love those. I still think he has an easier time eating the puffs because they melt in his mouth, but it is good that we have a few more options! He also seems to be developing his pincher grasp – he can pick up the puffs, pasta and cheerios and put them in his own mouth! I am amazed everyday by how much he is growing.

Micah is a pooping machine. One day, he managed to make a big pooping mess, and then he peed in his hair while the babysitter was changing him. Twice. Yes, that is right, twice. He was soaked and we had to bathe him. I could not figure out how he managed to get THAT wet.

Last Wednesday was a fun day for us. Our sitter took the day off, so it was a Mommy & Micah day. We spent a few hours at playgroup, and I got a little work done in the morning and afternoon while Micah napped. At 5:00, we went to another one of those concerts – Micah just loves watching all the kids dance and the entertainers singing. Immediately after the concert, we went to a fundraiser for Alzheimer’s at a local diner. A friend of mine from high school will be running a marathon, and all the money he is raising will be donated to Alzheimer’s research.

On Friday, we went to a potluck at Micah’s new daycare center. We had a great time – we were able to meet his new teachers and a few of the other babies in his class. Micah will be a “Minnow” starting August 31, and I already have a good feeling about this center.

On Sunday, we were slightly…overbooked. I have a bad tendency to overcommit. We attended a first birthday party for my friend’s daughter at 2:00. We had agreed to go to a “Cousins” BBQ at 4 hosted by one of my cousins, and we had reservations at 6 at a new restaurant to celebrate my father’s birthday. We left the house at 12, and went to Target to pick up a present. While walking through the aisles, Micah saw Elmo. He has recently fallen in love with Elmo – he had one in the pack ‘n play with him at my friend’s house, and he couldn’t stop smiling and hugging Elmo. Ever since them, he shrieks with joy when he sees Elmo on Sesame Street. When he spotted Elmo, he smiled and reached for him. I thought it was so cute, so I grabbed Elmo and handed him to Micah. After we were finished in the aisle, I took Elmo and put him back on the shelf. Which led to Micah’s first tempertantrum. It started out slowly – first the bottom lip began to curl down in a pout. Then the whimpering started. Then the sobs and tears and back arching followed. I was stunned – I did not think Micah cared enough about any one particular thing right now. He immediately stopped when I handed him Elmo (I needed to test the theory), and then shrieked bloody murder when I promptly returned Elmo to the shelf, told him no, and headed off to the next aisle. I briefly considered just buying him Elmo on the spot, but I decided it would be a bad precedent to set. I will definitely go back and get him that Elmo soon – he really is too cute when he is hugging it! Who knew his love of Elmo would lead to his first tempertantrum? I did not see that one coming.

After Target, we ran a few other errands, then arrived at the party. It was a nice afternoon, and Micah had a great time. He even surprised us by ending his hunger strike – he drank 5 ozs of formula at the birthday party! At 4:00, we left the party to stop by the Cousins BBQ. We had fun hanging out with all the cousins. Elliot offered to do the grilling, and we stayed long enough to taste the marshmallow fluff and ice cream pie. Yes, that is right – graham cracker crust, 2 layers of ice cream, a layer of chocolate, a layer of marshmallow fluff, topped off with mini marshmallows, all lightly broiled to melt the marshmallows. At 6:00, we said our goodbyes and drove to family dinner.

Micah was a trooper – even without getting his afternoon nap! We tried out a new Italian restaurant, and the food was wonderful. We ordered the restaurant week special, and I think we were all stuffed before our entrees even arrived! At dinner, Micah drank another 3 ozs. He ate 2 jars of baby food (rice lentil dinner and banana peach oatmeal), and he spent most of dinner gnawing on a crusty chunk of bread. He was so cute at dinner – smiling and waving at the people sitting next to us and happily munching whatever he could grab.

After dinner, my brother and parents came back to the house for dessert. Naturally, I decided to make a cake. We (my brother, mom and I) decided to buy my father an ipod touch for his present, so I made him an ipod touch cake. Or rather, I attempted to make an ipod touch cake. You see, my edible image printer decided to stop cooperating. It was feeling rather…pink. Yes, I said pink, not blue. Apparently, the printhead is all clogged, and pink is the only color that can get through. Instead of a black screen with colorful icons, the image was…pink. Needless to say, the image did not look so good. Yes, I stuck the horrible image on the cake anyway – I was frustrated, out of town, and figured it was better to have an ugly cake than no cake at all. Clearly, the cake was a bit of a bust – tasted great, but not one of my success stories.

Monday we were without a babysitter (again). We think he might be saying “Hi” in addition to waving, and he might have said “mama” and “dada” today. I also thought he might have said “doggy” but it is pretty hard to tell. I did end up videotaping Micah being adorably cute all afternoon – I just couldn’t help it!

Tuesday we had our babysitter back, so I had a productive day – I got some work done and made and decorated a cake for a baby shower. Wednesday (today), we went to see a singer at a local mall with our playgroup, and the kids had fun! Our babysitter came back this afternoon, and I got a bit of work done. Tomorrow we have our babysitter again, and I think Friday we will be trying to get Micah’s 8 month photos done!

On another note, my dog is turning pure white. I am not sure if it is the new medicine she is taking, but overnight she seems to have gone from chocolate brown to white. My poor puppy!

Hunger Strike

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Apparently, Micah is on a hunger strike. I’m still trying to discern the exact political message he is trying to communicate, but for now, all I know is that he will not eat. He is refusing to nurse, he is refusing the bottle (with both breast milk and formula), and he is refusing the sippy cup. He is even being difficult about eating his meals. I called the doctor, and the nurse told me he must be sick. I explained that he was not sick, but she did not seem to believe me. Then she told me I should bring him in for a weight check to see if he had gained enough weight in the past 2 months. Again, I explained to her that I was certain he had put on at least 2 lbs in the past 2 months, so a weight check would not tell us anything about the past week.

This morning, Micah did nurse a little bit. I called the doctor again, but this time, I was able to speak directly to the doctor (our pediatrician’s office has the doctors answer the phone and take questions every morning from 8:30 – 9:00). She said that she would not worry about it as long as he gets some milk every day and continues to pee and poop. She said it could be a phase, it could be teething, or he could just not be needing as much milk right now. So, we’ll keep weighing Micah, hope he does not lose weight, and hope for the best!

In the meantime, if you learn about any international hunger strikes to stand up for a cause (maybe for those in Darfur?), let me know – I’d like to better understand my son’s political leanings.