Mr. Mischief indeed

Micah "assists" his dada during the great lamp rewiring project over the weekend. The Mr. Mischief literary reference is to the fabulous Mr. Men and Little Miss Children's book series by British writer Roger Hargreaves. I highly recommend them. (I distinctly recall having Little Miss Chatterbox and Little Miss Bossy as a child, curious?) Plus they are filled with such wonderful British-isms like, "Mr. Grumpy has a shocking bad temper." or "'Rubbish!' retorted Mr. Grumpy" and "Mr. Skinny was extraordinarily thin."

shoe fetish

Micah the budding Flamenco artist:



And here Micah finds my boots awaiting repairs from the shoe cobbler (Do we even call them cobblers, nowadays?). Disregard the fact that my son says, "open" exactly 21 times before I respond. Negligence? Naaaah. It's called selective hearing. Anyone who is married or in a committed long term relationship knows what I am talking about. Note the high five at the end. Thanks to Uncle Justin for his hours of careful tutelage.

Boo!

Happy New Year! Happy just-over-one-and-a-half birthday to Micah (yesterday)! And Happy Connectivity to me. As many already know, Zack was away in New Orleans talking about himself all day for four days last week, so that left us computer-less out here. Looks like he's headed back out again this weekend so we'll try to take some photos of our child and post them in the interim (it appears we haven't taken a single photo this year--gasp! Check out Joe's blog for more cousin photos)

Micah's most exciting development is in the communication department. We have two to three word phrases, folks! "Eat banana" "Green Light Go!" "More cheese" "Daddy swing" "Hot milk beep-beep" (as in the microwave goes beep-beep, duh!) And let's not even talk about the singing! ABCs, Wheels on the Bus..."swish-swish-swish" complete with hand motions.
Micah also likes to "read" Goodnight Moon to us now, finishing the last word on every page before you can say it. It's crazy cool.

So I picked up What to Expect to read up a little on the 19th month (and to explain some behavior from 16-18 months while I was at it), as I'm wont to do at times (though clearly not anytime recently). Seems the mysterious mark on his arm could have been a delayed reaction to the chicken pox vaccine--but turns out after an emergency Peds visit it was JUST an infection of the injection site (because that's comforting). It also turns out that--allow me some maternal bragging liberties here since you are visiting MY homage to my son--Micah not only "may possibly" be able to stack four blocks...he can stack 11 (boo-ya!) and while he "may even" be able to name 6 body parts he can name (drum roll please)...Head, hair, eyes, ears, nose, mouse (aka: mouth), teeth, cheeks, arm, bobos (aka: elbows), hand, belly, nipple, penis, tushy, knee, foot, toes and duodenum (okay, just kidding on the last one, but he's got jejunum and ileum down pat).

Another amusing chapter was the one on instilling caring for animals into your child's values. I smiled because every morning Micah chases Haile around the house trying to give her a kiss good morning. I'll leave you with that "awww-how-sweet" image.

Little Farm

"Quack" says the duck...a horse says, "neigh!". It's quiet now, what do YOU say?

It is a great thing living near Tilden Park and the Little Farm. Here we are last weekend just as the animals were getting ready for their day:

Mine

Recall the seagulls from Finding Nemo...with cousin Joe on the premises, "mine" came out in full force. Here's Micah in a rare gracious moment:

Though all is not as it may seem. Note Micah kicking Joe under the table:


It was so nice having Joe around to teach Micah all about sharing, the joys of ingesting more than 100 calories a day and the dangers of the world. We miss the little guy already. For some real gems of bath time together, check out Joe's blog. I'll leave you with this game of copy cat (Note how each resorts to his characteristic behavior towards the end: Joe with the "no-no-no" finger wag and Micah with his signature "mine."):

Sea Ranch

We've been busy...visit from cousin Joe (and his parents), Sea Ranch, holiday parties, Christmas at the Hawkins', failed Tahoe attempts...you get the idea.

Check out the video on Joe's blog of Micah appraising the new addition to the household that arrived one morning.

Here are some glimpses into our few days at Aberdeen House on the lovely Sonoma Coast:

shoes

We're pretty proud of Micah's da-da. He's getting exciting interview offers for his job search. Looks like Micah has some big shoes to fill. Here he is practicing.





Don't worry. We disinfected Micah's feet afterwards.

train of thought

Here's Micah taking his morning "wo-wo's" (Joe's O's) and perusing the choo-choo literature (Brio catalog).


Looks like he didn't have to wait too long for his dreams to come true. Thank you uncle Richard and Aunt Victoria for the Jungle Safari Figure-8 set. Superbad!! The trains are officially taking over the living room.

fyi

Hanukkah's over. Here's Micah on the last night. (He was content to just sit and say, "candle. hot.")

survey says...

...no choppy!! (As if we were going to listen to some silly internet poll, anyway. But thankfully it justified our decision to let it grow.) Here's a 7am group mugshot. For some readers, this may be the first time you've seen Micah without his makeup.

One...and a half

"I'm one...and a half." Remember when halves and quarters were oh-so important when stating your age? Well here's Micah today: a big one-and-a-half-year-old (yes, I realize the photos in the hat posted below are way cuter, but I am a purist, and this squinty shot with the flowing locks --see poll at left-- was taken this morning).

Here is Micah steadying the leaning tower of Nikko last night at our little gathering (and while some of you might misconstrue this shot to imply Micah pushed him, he was spotting him, clearly. Look at that sweet look of concern and selfless sacrifice of hair):

Mommies, 'kay

Kissy! Kissy! Micah is into giving kisses--to me, his duckie in the bath, his best buddy Abraham (in a sort of comical Brokeback sort of way). Let me tell you, I am putty in my child's hands when he spontaneously leans in for a little kiss. A new bike? Sure! An x-box? You got it!

Also in the "Otherwise Endearing Department": It is a funny thing hearing yourself through your child. Micah has taken to ending most sentences in "'kay" as in, "We're going to take your shoes of, o.k?" or "Let's go to the park, o.k?" which is what he often hears out of my mouth (or "mouse" as Micah calls it). He has also pluralized me. I am now referred to as "Mommies".

Thankfully Micah is on a hat kick, since he can say "hat" and "head" and "hair" all things related are o.k in his book:

modes of transit

Micah has many modes of transit. He scoots around the kitchen on his ladybug, finally getting some good use out of his first-birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa G (thanks!):



He runs around, often just for the sake of it, shouting "run!", and with things in tow, like his beloved choo-choo:



He is a big fan of slides. Today he lugged a large playground toy/cart to the top of the slide at the playground several times, just to watch it go down. Hernia, here we come... Here he relaxes a bit at the top of a wet mini-slide before taking the plunge:

Video grab-bag

Here are some recent videos of Micah that did not make it into other posts.

Hanukkah

Chappy first night of Hanukkah!

Micah enjoyed lighting the candles. We warned him that they are hot, but of course he wanted to touch the flames. He reached for them a few times, but after one good burn (not serious enough so that the stench of burned flesh overpowered the pervasive odor of cooking latkes) he was happy to simply point and say "hot".




Like last year, he really enjoyed the applesauce, but this time he actually got to eat the latkes themselves.

Apparently they aren't as exciting as the applesauce.

After (and during) dinner, Micah opened some presents from Grandma and Grandpa, which included some of his favorite things: books about animals and choo-choos!! Also, they gave Micah his very first menorah. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!! Watch him try to set it up himself: