The Eclectic Dabbler

A couple weeks back I promised more pictures from “My Wild Backyard” at the Zoo.

Again, my apologies to non-family, as this is another “Mom Post,” complete with Burst Photography’s 3-shots-per-second! (But to family members, especially aunts and grandmothers: you are in for a real treat! If a picture is worth a thousand words, well . . .  there are not enough words–so here are the pictures!)

The kids loved the Wild Backyard. The smiles on their faces make that abundantly clear!

Mara found pine cones.

Micah enjoys the freedom of walking and exploring . . .

Micah bracing himself for Mara’s tickles.

Then they discovered leaves. Wow! . . . who knew leaves could be so captivating?!

The next three shots are the “burst” kind. But it was hard to fully capture his expression  in just one picture!

In the middle of our adventure, Micah had a nasty fall and bonked his head on the metal thingy that held the mulch back from the path. I guess it’s kind of hard to see in this picture because of the way the light is shining, but there’s a red spot on his forehead (to the left of the picture) and another on his cheek (on the right). He had quite an ugly bruise on his forehead for almost a week and a half after! Poor little guy!! He is constantly falling and bruising himself . . .

But as you can see, he bounced back quickly! Once again, exploring the “forest.”

I think he was “hiding” from Mara. But whenever she came around, he would laugh and laugh.

Finally, here are two of my favorites of Mara:

Wish you could have been there!

For more “Wordless Wednesday” fun, hop on over to 5 Minutes for Mom.

From our most recent trip to the zoo:

I knew Mara would do it!

But when Micah spontaneously did it too, I was so surprised, I wasn’t ready to take the picture!–and it turned out blurry!

Fun times with my little monkeys!

You know how cartoons always involve classical music? Well, I had a CD playing, when Mara gasped and announced, “This is Ratatouille!”

“Actually, it’s another Beethoven cello sonata. Can you say ‘cello’?” I asked her.

But she shook her head: “I can’t–I’m eating my dinner. I can’t talk when I’m eating my dinner.”

Wow, that’s never stopped you before.

———

Mara recounting our weekend retreat:

“But first we went to Mickle-donalds,” she explained. “There are two Mickle-donalds. [She knows about one in the city, and she knows we stopped at a different McDonalds on the way to the mountains.] And they have drinks and stuff,” she added. “And ice cream . . .”

“And chicken and ranch,” I threw in, since she always calls it ‘chicken and ranch’ at home.

“It’s called ‘chicken nuggets,’” she corrected me.

“Yes, Mara, chicken nuggets.”

———-

Mara, introducing our family to someone she meets at church: “I’m Mara . . . This is my mommy, Becky. Becky,” she repeated, as if the person might not pronounce it properly. “And this is Micah . . . And this is my husband–Daddy!”

———

Mara looking at a bell-shaped cookie cutter: “Oh, look, Mommy, the Liber-ree Bell! We went to the Liber-ree Bell with Aunt Mary!”  (I didn’t think she would remember.)

———

Hearing Micah’s cries after another unreasonably short nap, I said, “Oh my goodness, tell me he’s not up yet!”

And Mara obliged. “He’s not up yet,” she said to me.

Then calling to Micah’s room, she shouted, “Micah!–you’re not up yet!”

I only wish it were that simple.

Micah had his 15-month checkup on Monday. He’s now 22 lbs., 10 ozs.–still in the 25th percentile for weight. Of course his head is still in the 95+ percentile, as always. Even in his final prenatal ultrasound, his head was measuring at 33 weeks, when his body was measuring 31 weeks. His head has always been disproportionately large.

But the news of the day is that he’s finally starting to catch up to the average in height! He’s now 31 inches tall, around the 45th percentile!

The pediatrician confirmed what we thought about his speech.  Basically, he had three questions:

1) Is he “babbling”? Oh, yes!

2) Are you concerned about potential hearing problems?  No.

3) Is he comprehending basic instructions or basic thoughts you say to him? Yes. (See Micah at 15 months – Part 1.)

If he is still not talking by age 2, the pediatrician would recommend a hearing test. If all is well with his hearing, our pediatrician would wait until age 3 before pursuing speech therapy. Boys tend to talk later than girls, and the main issues of concern at this age are hearing and comprehension. Talk to him. Read to him. Insist that he “ask” for things, rather than just giving him whatever he wants to be happy. Give him a chance to talk back.

On a somewhat-related note, Micah is still shy as ever. One story from this weekend’s retreat illustrates this quite well. I will say: This story will be the funniest to those who know both Randy (from church) and our little Micah–unfortunately, that’s only one or two of my readers–but I was laughing soo hard!

My shy little Micah was walking around the main room downstairs after breakfast on Sunday. I was still eating, but sitting only about four feet away from Micah. He walked toward the seat where Randy was sitting, and Randy said an enthusiastic “HI!” to Micah, who stood frozen, staring at Randy.

Micah’s lips puckered and then, after a long moment, began quivering. Half-jokingly, I guess, Randy then said, “I come in peace!”

I knew what would happen next.

Micah began weeping–sobbing, as if he were half-terrified and half-heartbroken.

Randy just looked at him and said, “You should really watch more Star Trek.”

I was dying laughing. I walked over to comfort my shy little Micah-man, who still stood there frozen in fright.

Someday. . . someday, he will grow out of this!!!

But I had a realization last week . . .

This was my little Micah, one year ago today.

One year ago today, he came off the AB monitor! And when I look at his life over the past few months, my heart is truly filled with gratitude to the Lord.

Here’s my little man this week!

How far he has come in one year! How different this summer has been than the last! How wonderful to have such simple concerns about our little guy, like “Will his head always be this much bigger than his body?” and “When will he learn to talk?”

Tonight I stumbled across Kaleigh Freeman’s website. . . A beautiful baby girl born June 23, 2008–just 19 days after Micah–weighing only 1 lb. 1 oz. Kaleigh had numerous surgeries and passed away following the surgery that was supposed to be the “final” surgery before she came home. Her parents’ blog chronicles her 11 months of life and their fight for joy in God in the midst of the struggles. Kaleigh didn’t make it to her first birthday, let alone 15 months . . . yes, I cried a lot reading this . . . Daniel keeps telling me I shouldn’t read about other preemies now that I’m pregnant again . . .

But all that to say, I was overwhelmed while reading Kaleigh’s story, with a sense of how gracious God was in allowing Micah to remain in the womb for 32 weeks. Overwhelmed with a sense of how undeserving we are to have the baby that spent only 23 days in the NICU, rather than his entire 11 months. Just overwhelmed by the frailty of life for all of us, and once again, I found a renewed sense of thanksgiving to God for life and breath . . . and for the privilege of caring for perfectly healthy 15-month-old Micah!

Thank you, God.

We spent the weekend in the mountains at a church retreat, and my kids discovered acorns! And I discovered more acorns in the washing machine after running a load of laundry this afternoon.

No, I didn’t let him eat it!

They had a great time enjoying the out-of-doors, and I will have several posts this week with more pictures, but for now . . .

I’d better go work on laundry.

And . . .

Micah has his 15-month-old checkup in the morning. . .