Tooth brushing

We recently decided it was time to start brushing Micah's teeth, so we've been doing it this week during bath time. We both assumed that Micah would hate it, which is probably why we waited this long to do it! You can imagine our surprise to find that he LOVES having his teeth brushed! He giggles as it tickles his gums and willingly opens his mouth over and over again for us to stick the toothbrush in. :) What a funny boy!

Also on the tooth front, Steve just told me that he can see Micah's third molar (in the space of a week or two) coming in on the top! I can't believe how many teeth he's getting right now! This is his fourth in two or three weeks. This happened before with him, so I guess he's the kind of kid that just gets his teeth in spurts. I have to say, though, that he's handling the teething much better this time around. (It's probably been about four months since his last tooth came in, so that was quite a break!) Praise the Lord!

Micah's getting so smart

Each day over the past couple weeks we feel like Micah's really growing in the vocabulary he's understanding. He knows many household words now and can point to the object if we say, "Where's the clock?" He says "doh" and points to a door (but he also uses "doh" for other things), he routinely says "uh oh" when he drops his cup or bath toy, he's said "boh" when pointing to Haley's food and water bowls, and he calls Haley "Didididididi" (we call her DeeDee). Just last night he did his first real baby sign! We haven't really worked with him on baby signs, but do "all done" from time to time after a meal in his high chair. Well, last night after his dinner we said "Micah, are you all done?" and he started waving his arms vigorously in the "all done" sign! We were so surprised! It's been so fun to watch him learn and to see this explosion of word understanding lately. :)

Feeling the baby kicking!

Over the past three days or so (but even a couple times before that), I'm almost positive I've been feeling the baby kicking! I'll be 14 weeks tomorrow, which seems a bit early, but I've heard that you feel it sooner the second time around because you know what it feels like. If I remember correctly, I started feeling Micah moving around 17 weeks. So that's pretty much a whole month earlier this time! It's so fun to feel it again - that was definitely one of the most special parts of pregnancy for me the first time around. I'm still just overjoyed to get to do this again - what an amazing privilege the Lord has blessed me with!

Playing at the pool

This morning Micah and I joined some playgroup friends at a local kids' pool. (Indoor of course...it's so stinkin' cold here today!) Micah hasn't ever been to a pool before, so I wasn't sure how he'd like it. We went to a sprinkler park over the summer, which he didn't enjoy much, but he was really too young. We just haven't had the opportunity to go to a pool since. So I decided to pack up and go, figuring we could always leave if it was a disaster. But he loved it! I took my time getting him into the water slowly, which went well. The water was 1 foot deep or less, so that was nice. They had a small little slide that I let him go down the last foot of, some fountains that bubbled up, and a water table type thing that they could play at. The hardest part for him was that he wanted to crawl around, but the bottom of the pool was really rough, so he'd put his knee down, then lift it up like, "Mom, why does it hurt to crawl?" He liked the bubbling fountains (though he was scared of them at first) and stuck his hands in them. There was a section of the pool that was 3 feet deep, so at one point I got in with him and held him in the deeper water. He did so great! He seemed to really love the water - bouncing around in it with me. So overall I'd say this morning was a success! I had so much fun with my sweet little boy today. :) He's totally konked out now...another benefit to some good AM playtime!

Micah's first steps!!!

I am so excited to write this post! Micah has now taken his first few tentative steps! I was in the kitchen cooking his oatmeal for breakfast and he was pushing his cart around as usual. He had pushed it just out of reach, so he was standing on his own for a few seconds just looking at the cart...then he took two steps to get to it! I couldn't believe my eyes! Steve just happened to be taking Haley outside at that moment, so he didn't get to see it. But I told him about it when he got back in, and then it was time to get him in his high chair for breakfast. Micah was holding onto the kitchen cabinet at that point, so Steve held out his arms and told him to come to him, and he took a couple more small steps to Steve! He was starving at that point, so we had to wait until after breakfast to try any more. :) Hopefully I'll catch it on video later today so I can post it! I'm so proud of my little boy!!!

A new tooth

Micah popped a new tooth through his gums yesterday! This is #9. We've been watching two large bumps growing on his lower right side for weeks (if not months) and assumed that his first molar would be next. Even his Dr. told us that one should come next! Well, once again Micah proves he's going to do it his own way...the one that came through was the pointy one next to the middle four teeth (I think they called it a Cuspid in his baby book). The molar still looks like it's ready to come through any time too, so maybe we'll have a #10 soon. The good news has been that he's really not been very crabby with this tooth! What a major improvement over his first 8! :) (Praise the Lord!)

Baby #2 is a troublemaker already!

We had my 12 week OB visit on Saturday, and boy did this little one give us a hard time! The nurse came in to find the heartbeat with the doppler, as usual. Well, the poor nurse tried really hard for at least 10 minutes, and the baby just would not cooperate! She said she could hear noises that the baby would make from moving, but just couldn't get that heartbeat. It made me slightly nervous, because of course you wonder if everything is really okay with the baby... So she said they'd do an ultrasound to find the heartbeat. They snuck us in quickly between other patients, and we were thrilled to get the chance to see our baby! The tech saw the heart beating right away, so that allayed our fears immediately. We saw one arm reaching up, and both legs were stretched out. It looked like he or she was just lounging in there! It's so amazing to look at your baby at 12 weeks and see a fully formed baby. We could see the sweet little profile, body, arms, and legs. It never gets old to see the Lord's miracle of life! Here's our ultrasound picture:
So after all that, my guess now is that we're having a trouble-making boy. Or maybe a drama queen of a girl. :) We'll find out in about 8 more weeks! Woo hoo! We're just praising the Lord for a healthy baby that is right on track!

Our Big Announcement!

Hello everyone...we've got some great news to share! I am PREGNANT again!!!!! I'm actually 11 weeks along already, and I just can't hold it in anymore. :) Micah is going to have a new little brother or sister around May 23, 2009, and we couldn't be more thrilled! For those of you that know about our battle with infertility to get pregnant with Micah, you will be able to rejoice with us that this time around we didn't need any treatment! What an amazing gift the Lord has given us.

I've been feeling really good, though just very tired. I'm very thankful to not have had any morning sickness (and had very little with Micah's pregnancy too), so I've really just been able to enjoy it. My belly has popped out quite a bit already this time around, which I hear is normal, but it's kind of weird to feel so big so early. The time has really been flying this time around too.

Here's a picture of how we told our out-of-town family our big news (Micah and I got new shirts)...
We are so thankful to the Lord for His goodness to us and look forward with great joy to welcoming another child into our family!!!