"I like Micah. He's the favorite friend ever!"

(while holding Jason's face in her hands and with a tone of gentle chastisement) "Look, don't chew maardvark;s nose, okay?"

"We eatt the rocks so that America can be free."

These are just a few of the most recetn ridiculously cute things that Alexis has said. She's such a hoot! He favorite thing right now is jumping EVERYWHERE! She can really launch herself off of the couch in the basement; it's pretty impressive. She's been in camp this week, and even though when we ask her if she likes it she says no sometimes, every day when I pick her up she's really excited about what she did that day. She told me it was the best party ever yesterday! She's the youngest kid there, but that's probably good for her. She went swimming the first day, but she swallowed some water and had to sit out for the rest of the time. They haven't gone back since, but I think it was probably good for her to have something a little scary in the water so that she gets a healthy fear of water. We went swimming last Saturday, and she kept wanting to insist that she coudl do it all by herself. It's great to see the independence, but with something like water, it's a little scary, too. We got her a life vest, so hopefully that will help the next time she goes swimming.

Micah is doing great. He walks everywhere and has absolutely no desire to be held at all. Sorry to everyone who wants to cuddle with him!He also loves to walk around wih objects in his hands, especially if thery're exceptionally large.I'm not sure why he likes that unless it's just for the challenge of it, but it's his chosen mode oftransportation. It's pretty funny to watch him walk around with a big red ball of penguin that it as big as he is! He's still not really talking, but he jabbers a lot. We've been working on identifying objects a little. Alexis picked up on a numbof things by the time she was about 14 months, so we'll see wherehe is in a few months. He also had his one year checkup today. He has to go back for a few more shots in a week (because he's not officially one yet), but the doctor said he looks great! He seemed pretty please to watch him walking around. Micah now weighs 19 pounds and 6 ounces, and he is 28" long. I think he's as tall as Alex was when we moved into the house, which was when she was 1 1/2. We also switched him to a front-fcing car seat a few days ago, which has been a really good move. He was starting to get pretty unhappy about hte other seat, where he had to recline, so now he has a good view of everything. I can't believe he'll be one on Saturday!

Officially Walking

Micah is officially walking. He took his first step two weeks ago (May 30?), and yesterday he took four steps at a time a number of times. Before bed he had done seven or eight. This morning before church he did 14, and then this afternoon he's just decided that he "gets" it and is walking. He's still pretty wobbly, but he'll do it on his own now without any convincing. I think he thinks it's pretty cool that he can do this. I think Alex did the exact same thing aroung the same time. Anyway, he's officially walking. While I'm sure that I'll continue to count sometimes, I'm not going to keep track of it anymore. He's going to be a little firecracker by the time he's one.

Alexis' Birthday

First, I'm trying out some new features for easy picture and video upload to Blogger, so hopefully I'll have more pics and videos up. I'm also diving into the HUGE task of trying to organize our pictures. There are a lot of them. I think I got through 2010 yesterday, and now it's time to tackle 2009. Yikes.

Alxis is now THREE!!! She had a very nice birthday. On Wednesday she opened up our presents and some other presents from family, and she had a blast. We put a happy birthday sign on the curtain rod and a bunch of balloons on her chair while we opened presents. We had hot dogs for dinner, and after we opened presents we went out to Coldstone Creamery so that she could get her first free birthday ice cream. It was a nice birthday. The other day we finally took the balloons off of her chair, and she discovered a "pocket" next to our black chair that has a floor vent. When she put the balloons there and the air came on, they started bouncing all over while staying in that same little pocket. She calls it a balloon party and keeps inviting us to her balloon party. It's so cute!

She went to the doctor on Thursday and is 34 3/4" tall and weighs 28.5 pounds. What was cool is that her doctor remarked on her vocabulary multiple times and was pretty impressed. He said that she did a great job following directions (he asked her to push his hands and pull him towards her and stuff like that), and he asked if I sent her to preschool and I said no, and he seemed pretty surprised at that and said that I was doing a good job at home. WHen we were leaving he said that she has a pretty amazing vocabulary and called her a smart cookie. Yes, I'm bragging a little bit about my girl. I try really hard not to be too wrapped up in things like that, but when her doctor says that she's smart, that feels pretty good.

She is still doing a good job with potty training. We've had a few accidents here and there, but for the most part she's good with it. She was still sleeping with a gate up because she's a wanderer, but now that she's three I'm starting to leave the gate off and a nightlight on. I don't want her wandering around in the middle of the night, especially with stairs, but I also want her to have ready access to the toilet if she needs it. I'm also trying to teach her not to come out of her room to get me until there's a 7 in the first number slot on the clock. We'll see how it goes. She did a great job this morning and went to the potty before she ever came to get me. Hooray! (The kids also slept a little later because it's raining and darker than normal outside.)

And tragically, she cried when Jason left yesterday. She has an understanding that he's going to be gone for a while and keep saying things like "Don't go to Guatemalee" and curling up in his lap and asking him to stay. When he got out of the car at the airport, she started to cry, and it was so sad and cute at the same time. Jason loved it and hated it all at the same time, which I'm sure you can understand.

Micah is downstairs playing right now, which is wonderful because he got sick on Saturday. It was either some 24 hour thing or teething, but Saturday he was running a pretty high temperature and I slept on the floor next to him that night (meaning I didn't sleep much, but that's what you do, right?). His temperature was down a little bit yesterday morning, which was good because if it had been the same I would have called the doctor. He was still pretty unhappy yesterday, but last night he started to feel better and wasn't nearly as warm, and he slept for over twelve hours last night and wok eup happy and feverless this morning. Hooray! I'll still keep an eye on him for a day or two, but hopefully he's all good now and isn't making Alexis sick.

Micah has been standing on his own sometimes for about five seconds at a time, and he understands putting one foot in front of another for walking, but I think it will still be a little bit of time before he does that. I'll be interested in seeing whether he does it before he's one.

My birthday was also pretty great. I came downstairs early to make a bottle for Micah and was confused because there was stuff out for pancakes... Jason surprised me by taking the day off of work! It was pretty great. He's a keeper.

Almost Three

I can't believe that Alexis is going to be three next week. It's a bit bewildering. She remains, however, the cutest little girl in the universe! (I'm not biased at all. I promise.) Last night when we were getting ready for bed, she decided she wanted to build a nest, so she took all of her friends and piled them around her in a corner of her bed. She did the same when she went to sleep. When Jason asked if she was a bird, she responded by saying, "tweet tweet." It cracked me up so much because I have no clue where it came from!

She is having her drama queen moments (or days), but I msotly try to be compassionate and ignore her meltdowns, all at the same time. That sounds contradictory, doesn't it? She has amazing days, and then she'll have a day where she wakes up and just can't deal with anything, especially if I have other things I need to accomplish. However, she's learning to handle herself, which is good. She also, for the most part, adores Micah. For some reason she doesn't like to play with him in the basement much, but they've started having their own special time after lunch before they both take a nap. They hang out in his room and have a blast, just the two of them. Micah loves her; she adores him except when he's trying to grab her stuff.

Micah continues to do more tricks. He is so incredibly mobile now and shoots up the stairs, rarely faltering. I definitely still stay behind hi in case he does, but it takes him about a minute to get from the basement to the kitchen. He also started to try and stand a few days ago. He hasn't done it much, but he'll occasionally let go for a few seconds and wobble a bit on his legs until he falls on his butt. He'll even sometimes walk towards me if I'm holding his hand; he understand the whole putting one foot in front of the other thing, which is cool to see. I don't know if he'll walk as early as Alexis did, but he might. (She started walking around 11 months I think.)

9 Months

Micah is doing great. 18 pounds, 9 ounces. 27 3/4" (I think - maybe it was 26 3/4?), and basically a completely average size. He is walking around by holding onto things and generally just enjoying life.

Steps

Micah climbed up half a flight of stairs this morning.