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Micah’s First Haircut!

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Well, we did it! We finally took Micah in for his first haircut. He was SUCH a good boy, and totally adorable. We brought in one of those portable plastic booster seats and strapped him into the cutting chair. He was sweet and smiling the entire time. I brought him to the woman who has been cutting my hair since I was a small child – Willy. Willy did an amazing job. Naturally, we captured the moment with video and pictures. The haircut took approximately 12 minutes, and most of it was probably not all that interesting to most of you. But, we’re proud parents, so we filmed every second of it! Isn’t my baby cute? He looks so grown up now :(.

I’ll start out by showing you the “video essay” of Micah’s haircut – photos courtesy of his Daddy.


















When we got home, Micah was quite adorable – he felt the need to crawl into his toy basket and play. He was so cute, I just had to snap a few photos.



Here is the video if you feel like watching. The blog wouldn’t let me load it up as all one video, so you will have to watch it in four parts:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

And for good measure, here is a late video of Micah at Kidville on Halloween.

Connections

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I was going to call this post “Memorial Day BBQ” but I decided instead to post about connections. I’ll tack on the original post about the BBQ at the bottom of this post, so it will be a long one! Hope you can bear with me.

Today we hosted a Memorial Day BBQ, and what struck me most was how something unexpected causes a wild series of events. One of my best friends, Heather, and her husband Brad initially met at Elliot’s Memorial Day Weekend BBQ 4 years ago. Tonight, they came to celebrate the anniversary of the first time they met! At the end of the night, only Heather and Brad were still here, and my friend Laurie and her boyfriend Jeff stopped by to say hello on their way back into town from Ocean City. During their short stay, we started discussing how we were all connected, and the crazy series of events that brought us all together.

Back in 2001, I got a phone call from my mom. She ran into Jill, a neighbor who had a cousin, Suzanne, who was also an attorney and moving to DC. Jill wanted to know if she could give Suzanne my phone number to help her with her job search in the area. I agreed, and a week later, I got a phone call from Suzanne. She seemed nice enough, and when she moved here, we went to dinner to meet in person. We did not exactly click, but I made it a point to go out with her once a month. A few months later, Suzanne and I had plans to go see a movie. She asked me if I minded if she brought another friend with us. Naturally, I agreed, and that is how I met Heather. We bonded instantly. Over the next years, our friendship grew.

In 2003, Heather hosted a Pampered Chef Party. I really hate going to things like that, but I went to support her. Laurie and Heather had been roommmates freshman year in college, and recently reconnected by chance when Heather spotted Laurie after she ran the Marine Corps Marathon. While at the Pampered Chef Party, I ended up bonding with Laurie (we’d previously met once or twice in passing, but never really had a chance to talk before this party). Basically, Laurie and I were making fun of all the crazy people at the party who were SOOO excited about waking up early to chop chicken with their Pampered Chef products. We just laughed and laughed that night, and we exchanged numbers to hang out in the future. Laurie, Heather and I started spending time together, and a few months later, Laurie and I bonded again at a game party Heather threw. You see, we were being spoilsports – we did not want to play any of the games, so instead we mocked everyone. Our friendship was solidified! We went out together on New Year’s Eve, and we quickly became inseparable.

Laurie and I were constantly making bets. When she lost, I made her do things like go out on a date with a bald guy to prove to her that bald guys were dateable. When I lost, she dragged my butt to a singles event – like she did on Valentine’s Day 2004. That event was HORRIBLE. We walked into the room, and it felt like we were meat thrown into a lion’s den. Someday, I’ll have to rant about that night, but it was crazy awful. While we were at the event, a group of guys that Laurie recognized arrived (she had met most of them previously through Jdate). One of them was Dave . . . whom I *briefly* dated before we became friends. Through Dave, I met another friend, Jessica (he brought her to Heather’s birthday party – yet another funny story worth hearing sometime!). Through Jessica, I met Bill, and in 2005, Jessica and I went to Bill’s Superbowl party. . . . where I met Elliot. A few months later, Heather met her husband Brad at Elliot’s Memorial Day BBQ (Brad came with his girlfriend at the time), and although they did not start dating until they reconnected 3 months later through an online dating service, it was their initial meeting at the BBQ that brought them together. Through Dave, I also became friends with Niki (who happened to meet and marry a guy I graduated high school with) and her brother Sam. Through Niki and Sam, I met Sam’s best friend Jeff. I introduced Jeff and Laurie, and now they are dating, too. And, in case you are interested, I helped Dave find and win the heart of his wife, Jen, too! So . . . from a polite request from a family neighbor, I now have three amazing friends (Heather, Niki, and Laurie), and Heather, Dave and I met our spouses, and Laurie is now in a steady relationship. Funny how one little thing that does not seem so important can change an entire course of events, huh?

Memorial Day BBQ

Now . . . on to my original post about the BBQ. Let’s start with the backstory about how we finally decided to host a Memorial Day BBQ on Monday this year. You’ll have to tell me if all of you women have husbands as thickheaded and frustrating as mine!

Elliot has a tradition of hosting BBQs all summer/fall on the Friday evening of every holiday weekend . . . Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Columbus Day, etc. He usually hosts a few others in there, and does a few special BBQs for Sukkot in the Fall (a Jewish holiday that celebrates the harvest by building a sukkah – a shelter with an open top to eat outside under the sun and stars). For the past two years, DH has been unable to host most of his BBQs because we had moved into my condo and put everything into storage so that we could renovate his house. The renovations were supposed to be completed in time for Memorial Day last year so we could host a BBQ. And then we were promised July 4th. And then Labor Day. And then Columbus Day. And then Sukkot. As you know, the renovations are STILL not finished, but we moved in anyway in November. Unfortunately, we never got to host any BBQs last summer.

For Chanukah this year, I bought Elliot a brand new grill. His other grill had seen better days. . . and that is being kind. We got a beautiful fancy grill with 5 burners, a warming burning on the side, and an oven! I think it has some rapid heat infrared burners, but I glaze over every time Elliot starts to talk about it. All I know is it looks nice and he liked it! He has been itching to fire up the grill for months now. About 3 or 4 weeks ago, I started asking Elliot about the annual BBQ. I asked him if he was planning to do it, I suggested he send out invitations early (with a baby, I need much more time to plan and prepare now), and I stated that perhaps Friday night was no longer the best time to have a BBQ. I proposed that we host the BBQ on Saturday or Sunday late afternoon, because I figured that families with children could come early and get home in time for bed, and our other friends could hang out until all hours of the night. Elliot kept thinking we should do 2 BBQs – one on Friday night, and one on Monday. I felt that was a bad idea because I did not want to have to prepare, setup and cleanup twice. I told Elliot to think about it, make a decision, and let me know.

Fast forward to date night on Thursday (my mom came to babysit, and we went and saw Angels and Demons – we loved it!). Elliot looks at me and says “Are we still on for a BBQ tomorrow?” I about died on the spot, and I looked at him and told him it was too last minute to do it on Friday night, no one would come, and it did not give me enough time to prepare! I also said to him it would be a problem for all of our friends with children if we just did a BBQ on Friday night starting at 8. He looked at me like I just spoke Greek to him. I swear, sometimes he acts like the fact we now have a young child is supposed to have no impact on his life and how he does things!! We went through the whole conversation again, and then he told me it was my fault he had not invited anyone because I had been dragging my feet about the whole thing. Once I worked through my anger (and elicited an apology), he finally decided to invite everyone over for Monday evening. I voted for Sunday (and lost) because I thought that people would need to be back at work on Tuesday, but Elliot went with Monday. He sent out the invitation around 11:30 pm on Thursday night. Not surprisingly, I expected the turnout to be rather low.

We got about 13 responses (about 26 people), and we told them to come rain or shine. Naturally, it started to rain today right about 3:30. A few people decided not to come because of the rain, but we were getting nervous about moving the party inside. We had no idea whether the rain would bring more people or keep people from showing. In the end, we had about 40 or 50 people here!! It was quite crowded in our small house. Elliot cooked chicken, burgers, dogs, and grilled veggies. I made pasta salad and potato salad. People brought chips and salsa and fruit and cookies. We had a zillion children here! Three ladies from my playgroup showed up with their husbands and babies, and we had about 10 other older children here, ranging in age from 9 months to 7 years.

Micah was such a good boy. He hung out on the playmat with the other babies, and they practiced rolling and kicking and grabbing toys. He started to get fussy after 5:30 whenever I got out of sight, but he was just so good! Even the dog was behaving (there were so many babies to kiss!!) I nursed Micah at 6, and he took a nap. I went up and checked on him a bunch of times, and around 6:30, he was awake and crying. I brought him back downstairs, and he was still fussing a bit. A little after 7, we gave him his medicine and Elliot put him to bed . . . which was the same time all the other families with babies started disappearing. The witching hour hit, and the babies needed to go home!

On a side note . . . one of the kids was eating Cheerios at some point tonight, and apparently some fell on the floor under the chair in the living room. The dog is currently playing the role of a Hoover, and desperately trying to get ALL the Cheerios out from under the chair and into her belly.

All in all, it was a successful evening. We had a chance to catch up with some friends, eat good food, and show off our house. I am looking forward to our next bbq (but hope it doesn’t rain again). Poor Elliot barely got to speak to anyone – he was outside while everyone congregated inside. Luckily, the rain let up for most of the time he was grilling. Hopefully, next time we host a BBQ, we can hold it outside.

Just for good measure – here is a picture of Micah today in his outfit for the party. His hair was standing on end, but I decided to leave it because it made me laugh! What do you think?



Poll results and more about us!

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Well, after my mother shamed me for failing to post an update since MONDAY, I am doing my best to come up with something interesting to post. Elliot & I are sitting here, watching the end of an era on tv (the last episode of ER) while we listen to the beginning of a new era on the video monitor (Micah). Tonight, our tv is accompanied by the enjoyable sounds of The Beatles – the lullaby version. We have been playing music for Micah while he sleeps, and the sounds echo throughout the house over the monitor.

So, let me begin with the results of the poll from my last thread . . . overwhelmingly, most of you voted to cut his hair! We are still ambivalent. It is Jewish tradition to wait at least 1 year to cut a baby’s hair. Some even wait 3 years before a first hair cut. Can you imagine if we waited 3 years? Micah’s hair would probably be down to his cute little tush! We keep hoping his hair starts to curl up. If it was curly, we could definitely wait longer.

I have a hair appointment set up for me in 2 weeks. I have known my hairdresser, Willy, since I was 7 or 8 years old. Back then, Willy was training to cut hair, and she was the hair washer at the place where I got my haircut. She washed my hair for years, then eventually started cutting it. I won’t let anyone else touch my hair. The 2 times I did, it was a disaster. I’m hoping she’ll offer to give Micah his first haircut – I think she’d love to have that honor. So, we’ll see if we cut his hair in 2 weeks, or if I postpone it a bit longer.

Micah is doing really well. I think *fingers crossed* we are back on schedule with him. I believe we identified the source of the bedtime screaming issues – HUNGER. He must have been going through a growth spurt. With all the traveling, I think I must have missed the milk supply increase, so we are a bit behind the eight ball, so to speak. The past few nights, we’ve been increasing his food intake by giving him a bottle supplement of pumped breast milk before bed. This eliminated the screaming and bed time became easier. Yesterday, however, was a really rough day. I seemed to “run out” of milk mid-day. We had to give a bunch of bottle supplements, and I was worried about my supply. Luckily, the bottle supplements did the trick, and bedtime went smoothly. Today, I spent the day feeding him on schedule and pumping after each feeding session to try and increase my supply. It seems to have worked, and Micah was ready for bed by 8:00, happy as usual. I nursed him then topped him off with a bottle, and placed him in his crib. We had a few runs upstairs to pop in his paci (he gets restless and squeaks when his paci falls out before he is sound asleep), and then off to lala land he drifted.

Since I am on the subject of Micah sleeping, I will say he is pretty amazing. He moves ALL around the crib while he sleeps. About ten minutes ago, he had managed to turn 90 degrees . . . and now he is back to his vertical position. I am also amazed at how restless he gets. As Elliot says, he is more mobile asleep than awake. Sometimes he gets quite vocal and noisy, and I think he is awake. When I go running in to check on him, I realize he is sound asleep and desperately trying to gnaw his fist off. It is a good thing he doesn’t have any teeth yet. Some babies find their hands/fists comforting, but I have noticed that while Micah will suck on his hands, he never seems to be soothed by that. I carefully remove his fist and replace it with a paci, and it is magic! Micah instantly stops moving and fussing and sort of melts into a still, deep sleep. Who knew a pacifier could be such a wonderful thing!

In other news, we’ve been dealing with ants in the kitchen and our master bathroom. I HATE ants! We called an exterminator (Trey, who lived across the street from me when I was growing up) and he came today. Apparently, we have a special kind of ant (fragrant ants?) and they are living under the front porch. Ironically, these are the same ants at my parents’ house . . . coincidence? YOU decide! He sprayed all over outside, and so far, the ants seem to be gone. We may need to spray a few more times to keep them at bay, but for now, all is much improved.

I’ve been running around crazed all week – business meetings, classes with Micah, work to do, trying to find childcare, and meeting with contractors to discuss whether we should put a small addition on the house to give me an office. Micah’s Goppy (my dad) babysat Micah on his own for the first time for a few hours on Tuesday while Elliot and I were at meetings! It was quite a success, and perhaps we’ll be able to take advantage of Goppy’s babysitting services again. At one of our classes this week, we went to a pottery place (All Fired Up), and we decorated a tile with Micah’s name on it and his footprints. I will post a picture when I get it back next week. I can barely see straight this week! I wish I had our child care situation worked out – I’m still nervous about what we will be doing and how to proceed. I really need to have more time available and get more work done.

I don’t have any new pictures to post today. My “little” man is now 12 lbs! He is growing rapidly, and I’m afraid to admit that the arms and legs on his size 0-3 month clothes may be getting a bit short. I think it may be time to move him into the next size, and we are probably just another week or two away from size 2 diapers! I can’t believe how much he is growing. We have our final Baby & Me class on Monday. I am probably going to have to stop doing as many classes with him if I put him in daycare or get a nanny – which I suppose I have to do anyway since I need to get more work done during the day. In June, I hope to start swim lessons with him, and I’d like to sign up for a music class with a bunch of the other women from our Baby & Me class. We are planning to continue with a playgroup, so that should be fun.

Next week is another crazy week – Wednesday and Thursday night is the beginning of Passover, an 8 day holiday for us. The first two nights are marked by a special dinner known as a seder, and we will be hosting the 2nd seder at our house. Most of Elliot’s family will be coming to town to join us, and this is only the 2nd holiday we’ve hosted together. We are nervous about all the chaos, but also excited to spend time with the family. This will be the 2nd time Micah has met his Poppy Ira and Grandma Roberta. I’m hoping all goes smoothly and that Micah goes to bed easily even with all the commotion in the house. I think Elliot & I will be cooking for the next week. He went out tonight to pick up a turkey and some brisket so we can get started this weekend. I’ll give an update next week!

To cut, or not to cut . . . that is the question

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Well, ladies and gentlemen, there comes a time in every child’s life when parents must face that question . . . to cut, or not to cut. And I’m talking about hair. I never thought I’d be faced with this question at only 3 months of age, but Micah’s hair is growing wild. Part of me loves the wild mess, and if he was a girl, I’d let it keep growing for quite some time. His hair is already down to the bridge of his nose, and it is kind of touching his shoulders in the back. It is LONG. I had originally hoped to make it to his first birthday before cutting it, and I keep waiting to see if it will fall out, or start curling up (it is definitely curly when wet) but that just hasn’t happened yet. So . . . what do you think? Is it time for Micah to get a haircut? Is it crazy to try and wait until 6 months? Or should I let it go a while longer and see what happens?

To help you decide, here are a few pictures of Micah and his hair:





Now, with all of this information on hand, tell me what you think!