It has been an insane week – no time to post! I think I will do a “hodge-podge” post today and try and catch you up on everything, including my new hickey. Yes, I said hickey.

Last night, I looked in the mirror, and there was a big giant mark on my chin. For the life of me, I could not figure out how it got there. I tried washing my face (hey, I’ve been busy – I thought perhaps I had dirt on my face, or a trail of chocolate) but the mark did not budge. I thought it over, and I decided that Micah must have accidentally head-butted me, and I simply forgot about it. Except the spot was not sore in the least, so I still had my doubts. Today, I was sitting here with Leslie, our organizer, and holding Micah while he stood on my lap. He leaned over, and decided to latch on my chin and start sucking like crazy. I started to laugh because I remembered that he spent all night on Wednesday doing the same thing…and I’m certain I have identified the source of my chin hickey. Micah is teething, and he was so fussy on Wednesday, and it seemed to be the only thing that was soothing him. Like every good mother, I just let him gnaw away on my chin because I’d really had enough of the fussing. I think I’ll wear the hickey as a badge of honor – it should look great with my dress at the wedding on Saturday night.

Work has been crazy for me this week. I agreed to do an interview survey of 14 different AT projects enaged in the reutilization of assistive technology to look at their policies and procedures, help identify some best practices and make recommendations to improve their program. Each interview lasts 1 1/2 – 2 hours, and we have been trying to cram as many as possible in this week. On Monday, while Micah was in daycare, I did 3 interviews, another conference call, and tried to get some other work done. On Tuesday, our new babysitter, Christin, started work! My friend Niki recommended her – she is the daughter of one of Niki’s friends. Her mom babysits for a few children on a regular basis, so Christin has had tons of experience working with babies. She was great with Micah, and it freed me up to do a few more interviews on Tuesday and Wednesday. I cut my day a bit short on Wednesday because Micah was a fuss-budget, and I was afraid of scaring Christin – I need her to keep coming back all summer while she is home from college! Thursday, Micah went to Christin’s house – her mom wanted her home to help take care of the kids she was babysitting (Niki’s children go there on Thursdays, and another neighborhood child, so it was a big giant playgroup) and they offered to have Micah join the fun. It worked out well, as I had 2 more phone interviews, a GE tech came to replace the microwave that caught fire two weeks ago, and the cleaning crew was here. I hope I presented an air of calm on my interviews despite the surrounding chaos. I was hoping Christin would return again today, but no such luck – she had other plans. She should be back on Tuesday again next week. Elliot covered Micah today while I did an interview this morning. He left for a meeting around 11:30, and I managed to sneak in 2 other conference calls while Micah napped. I spent the rest of the afternoon with Micah and trying to finish a few things around the house.

I am amazed by how much Micah is growing and developing. Over the past two days, he really seems to have mastered sitting. He is getting fairly steady and able to balance himself and play with toys while he is sitting. He continues to steadfastly refuse belly time or rolling from his back to belly, but it is obvious to me he is CAPABLE of rolling from back to belly. He loves to play with his toys, and we just figured out how to lower the jumperoo so that he can use that as well. He loves to be busy – he cannot sit still for too long! I’ve also noticed that he is starting to reduce his naps – he is only napping maybe 2x each day for 30 minutes or so lately. The past two days, he also slept until 9:00 am! I’m not certain if that is a good idea – I think he should wake up by 8 or 8:30, so I may have to nip this new habit in the bud.

Our food update – since Micah tried peas, he has also tasted avocado, green beans and squash. Tomorrow is day three of squash, and then we will move on to sweet potatoes. He loves eating. Last night, I was holding him while I went to get my own dinner, and he tried to grab the squash out of the fridge – it was clear he wanted more food. I made myself a bowl of cottage cheese, and he kept trying to eat it! He opened wide every time I had a spoonful that I brought towards my mouth, and started to cry when I would not share. I gave him a little extra squash to make him happy. Today, when he finished his squash and cereal, he was still hungry and kept grabbing at the spoon until I gave him more. Tomorrow we are going to try to increase to 3 tbs cereal and 3 tbs squash!

This weekend is going to be crazy busy. Tomorrow morning, we have the Komen Race for the Cure in the morning, and my cousin Jodi’s wedding at night. On Sunday, we have plans to take Micah to the Mets game with Ken, Erica and their son Micah. The Micahs will be seeing their first baseball game together! My niece Peyton is also here until Thursday and staying with my parents, so we’d like to squeeze in a visit, too.