Greetings from California. OK, I admit. It has been waaaaaay too long since I last posted. We have moved from Ohio to California. That happened way back in July/August. We have settled in, and are trying to unpack those last pesky boxes. Seems that the first 97% of the stuff unpacks relatively quickly, and that last 3% just never seems to jump out of the boxes by itself.
Last Saturday, the "big kids" (Sofia, Peter, Molly) were making our traditional Rocky Road Brownie Mix in a Jar Christmas gifts for teachers and friends. They were doing a great job, when suddenly, Micah swooped in and decided to help. I managed to get a bit of it on video. If you like to hear little kids belly laughing, then check out this video. I apologize for the sideways tilt of the production . . . just tilt and watch :)
I'm going to try to get more on the ball with posting. Does that sound like a New Year's Resolution???
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Micah is officially a Venema, New Bed, Developmental Explosion
Well, it is official. Micah is now a Venema. It has nothing what-so-ever to do with paperwork, legalities, etc. It is purely, totally, and completely related to a favorite pasttime - READING. This kid is a fanatic about books. He will sit in bed and read. Sit on the floor and read. Sit in his carseat and read. Sit in his high chair and read (although WHO would give him a book at the table???). Sit on the couch and read. Sit on his porta-potty and read. Heck, he will even read in his sleep! When we move to California, Peter and Micah will share a room. For those of you who know Peter, you know that we have to give him his Christmas presents that contain books at the end of the present opening time, otherwise, he will sit in the middle of all the rucus and READ while ignoring all the other presents. I shudder to think what the boys' room will look like. Will it be possible for a room to hold as many books as those 2 will need to keep them satisfied?? I can just picture a room filled with books - stacked on the dresser, the floor, the chair, tottering up to the ceiling with just a small winding path to the closet and beds . . .
New Bed - We went to drop of Peter at a friend's house last weekend for an overnight. While the mom was showing us around their house (they built it themselves - awesome place!), I saw a Little Tykes train toddler bed in their storage room. She mentioned that they were getting ready to start selling things in there on eBay. I of course, immediately offered to take the bed off her hands. Sofia, Molly, and Todd put it together the next day before Todd headed off to Albuquerque for the week. I thought it would be a great playtoy for a week - you know, just to let Micah slowly get used to seeing it, get comfy with it being next to his crib, etc. Uhhh, NO! He was sooooo excited about the thing, that he practically threw himself into it at naptime. Luckily, we have a very set bedtime ritual - book, song, bed, with the same words said every time. We went through the ritual, I put him down, walked out of the room, and hid behind the door to watch. He sat up, looked around, got out of bed and followed me out the door :) We did this 2 more times before I decided to call in a quiet little, "No, Micah, stay in bed. Lay down," as he was climbing out of bed. We did that 2 more times, and then the little stinker WENT TO SLEEP!!!! When he wakes up, he stays in his bed and . . . reads! We have now had 5 successful naps in the train bed. I wanted to hold off on the overnight thing because I wanted backup in case he got out of bed to wander during the night. Last night I put him in his crib, he stood up (looking soooooo pitifully cute), signed BED, and just stood there looking at me. Mommy crumbled, Micah moved to the train bed, and all was fine with the world. I wonder how long this honeymoon period will last?
Developmental Explosion - The title says it all. We have had another of those incredible developmental explosions. One day he is a little blob, walking around, playing with his toys, par for the course . . . and the next day he is doing all kinds of new things! I'm sure I will leave out a ton of newbies, but here are a few of them. Todd's mom asked Micah if he could jump. He looked at her, bent his knees, and bounced up and down. That's really the first time anybody had asked him to do something and he DID it. Poor kid has now been bombarded with requests - can you find your socks? where are your shoes? take this to Daddy (3 rooms away!!), go find your bear book . . . What's next? Oh, the other day, out of the blue, he grabbed the spoon out of my hand and started feeding himself. I like to think it's because of all the hours I have spent trying to get him to HOLD the spoon. Who am I kidding? He just decided to do it. Two days later, he started eating his peaches with a fork. Stairs - alternating feet! Balls - kicking them! POINTING TO BODY PARTS!!!! I've always known that he knows body parts. We can ask him to give us a kiss on the nose, cheek, forhead, etc. and he does it, but to POINT? No way!!! One day he grabbed my hand and pointed my finger at his body parts. The next day he was doing it on his own. He is now telling me when he has a stinky diaper (I can't get him to change his own diaper yet - just kidding). He will now sit on his porta-potty without a diaper and read a book. He has decided that he really DOES know how to drink out of a regular cup - complete with swallowing and no dribbling! He figured out how to take off his pants while at our church soup supper a couple weeks ago. I finally just took his pants away from him and let him run around without. The next morning, I found him in his crib without pants OR diaper. That's one I am NOT going to encourage. He has developed a really cute sense of humor - Todd does this "waka waka" thing where his finger bends up and down and comes closer and closer and then tickles Micah on the neck or tummy. Micah now walks around saying, "waka waka" and tickles HIMSELF and giggles just as hard as if Todd were doing it. The last thing I can remember right now is that he will now sit and listen to a story, not just look at the pictures.
More later . . . the kids have arrived.
New Bed - We went to drop of Peter at a friend's house last weekend for an overnight. While the mom was showing us around their house (they built it themselves - awesome place!), I saw a Little Tykes train toddler bed in their storage room. She mentioned that they were getting ready to start selling things in there on eBay. I of course, immediately offered to take the bed off her hands. Sofia, Molly, and Todd put it together the next day before Todd headed off to Albuquerque for the week. I thought it would be a great playtoy for a week - you know, just to let Micah slowly get used to seeing it, get comfy with it being next to his crib, etc. Uhhh, NO! He was sooooo excited about the thing, that he practically threw himself into it at naptime. Luckily, we have a very set bedtime ritual - book, song, bed, with the same words said every time. We went through the ritual, I put him down, walked out of the room, and hid behind the door to watch. He sat up, looked around, got out of bed and followed me out the door :) We did this 2 more times before I decided to call in a quiet little, "No, Micah, stay in bed. Lay down," as he was climbing out of bed. We did that 2 more times, and then the little stinker WENT TO SLEEP!!!! When he wakes up, he stays in his bed and . . . reads! We have now had 5 successful naps in the train bed. I wanted to hold off on the overnight thing because I wanted backup in case he got out of bed to wander during the night. Last night I put him in his crib, he stood up (looking soooooo pitifully cute), signed BED, and just stood there looking at me. Mommy crumbled, Micah moved to the train bed, and all was fine with the world. I wonder how long this honeymoon period will last?
Developmental Explosion - The title says it all. We have had another of those incredible developmental explosions. One day he is a little blob, walking around, playing with his toys, par for the course . . . and the next day he is doing all kinds of new things! I'm sure I will leave out a ton of newbies, but here are a few of them. Todd's mom asked Micah if he could jump. He looked at her, bent his knees, and bounced up and down. That's really the first time anybody had asked him to do something and he DID it. Poor kid has now been bombarded with requests - can you find your socks? where are your shoes? take this to Daddy (3 rooms away!!), go find your bear book . . . What's next? Oh, the other day, out of the blue, he grabbed the spoon out of my hand and started feeding himself. I like to think it's because of all the hours I have spent trying to get him to HOLD the spoon. Who am I kidding? He just decided to do it. Two days later, he started eating his peaches with a fork. Stairs - alternating feet! Balls - kicking them! POINTING TO BODY PARTS!!!! I've always known that he knows body parts. We can ask him to give us a kiss on the nose, cheek, forhead, etc. and he does it, but to POINT? No way!!! One day he grabbed my hand and pointed my finger at his body parts. The next day he was doing it on his own. He is now telling me when he has a stinky diaper (I can't get him to change his own diaper yet - just kidding). He will now sit on his porta-potty without a diaper and read a book. He has decided that he really DOES know how to drink out of a regular cup - complete with swallowing and no dribbling! He figured out how to take off his pants while at our church soup supper a couple weeks ago. I finally just took his pants away from him and let him run around without. The next morning, I found him in his crib without pants OR diaper. That's one I am NOT going to encourage. He has developed a really cute sense of humor - Todd does this "waka waka" thing where his finger bends up and down and comes closer and closer and then tickles Micah on the neck or tummy. Micah now walks around saying, "waka waka" and tickles HIMSELF and giggles just as hard as if Todd were doing it. The last thing I can remember right now is that he will now sit and listen to a story, not just look at the pictures.
More later . . . the kids have arrived.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Happy Birthday to Us - March 9, 2008
Well, another year has come and gone. Micah turned 2 Sunday - yeah! I turned 41, ugh! We had a pretty good day around here. Since Dayton is still pretty well snowed in, things were very slow. We made it out to church along with about 6 other folks :) Then we went to the Olive Garden for lunch. Yippee!!!!!!!!!! I didn't have to cook or eat grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup (standard Sunday noon fare). Plus, I have left-overs for today. Micah was pretty oblivious to the fact that the day had any special meaning whatsoever. He did, however, totally enjoy eating his cake.
I thought long and hard about what kind of cake to make for him. I finally decided to do a giraffe. It is amazing how many giraffes can be found out and about when you have a 2 year old who is ga-ga over giraffes. Luckily, Michael's had a cake pan for me. Lucky, also, that Micah recognized the cake as a giraffe, and announced to the entire family (over and over again) that there was a giraffe sitting on the table in front of him. That top left picture is of him signing, "Giraffe!!!" The right picture is of the group effort to do the candles - Peter lit them, Sofia helped blow, and Molly held him back so he wouldn't jump into the flames. All in all, a successful venture. Last, but not least, was present time. We couldn't resist putting Micah INTO a bag - a present for Mommy!
The last picture I am posting has nothing to do with our birthdays other than the fact that I took it on our birthday. I just thought it was a cute one showing him up and walking around like a real, little person. No more little toddler :(
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Arnold Challenge
Well, I haven't posted in 4 1/2 months! It's about time to get back to business.
This past weekend, Peter had his last gymnastics meet. It was held in Columbus, Ohio at the Convention Center. This was "the biggie" - the Arnold Challenge. This is a HUUUUGE event that was started by Arnold Schwarzenegger (ok, I probably mangled his last name) years ago. It has grown to encompass something like 37 different sports (weight lifting, body building, gymnastics, martial arts, competitive cheerleading, fencing, etc.), with 17,000 participants, and 150,000 spectators! Peter was so excited about this - I'm surprised he slept at all the night before. I finally managed to get videos of most of his routines. I have been trying all season, but the positioning has been terrible. I am in the process of trying to post these videos. Be patient, I'm doing my best!
For those of you who don't know about Peter - he is competing for Stars Gymnastics in Dayton, OH, Level 5. He did qualify for the state meet, but at this point, we don't know if the gym is going to be sending the boys to the state meet :( I have been looking at the websites for some of the other gyms that he has been competing against. Some of them have the kids in Peter's level practicing 10 - 12 hours a week! Peter goes 4 hours a week with an additional, optional, 2 hour "open gym" practice on Saturdays. He has been placing consistently in everything but the pommel horse. I think he's doing great when you look at the competition. Funny - people always talk about the parents pushing the kids. With him, it's the opposite! He is begging us to find a gym that will LET him practice 12 hours a weekwhen we move to California. Todd and I are having a hard time convincing him that this needs to be for fun . . . he needs to have a little bit of balance in his life!
I seem to be having a bit of luck posting these routines. Enjoy! (the ones highlighted in blue have been successfully done - it's taking about 45 minutes per video, grrrr)
Peter's Parallel Bars Routine
Peter's High Bar Routine
Peter's Floor Routine
Peter's Rings Routine
This past weekend, Peter had his last gymnastics meet. It was held in Columbus, Ohio at the Convention Center. This was "the biggie" - the Arnold Challenge. This is a HUUUUGE event that was started by Arnold Schwarzenegger (ok, I probably mangled his last name) years ago. It has grown to encompass something like 37 different sports (weight lifting, body building, gymnastics, martial arts, competitive cheerleading, fencing, etc.), with 17,000 participants, and 150,000 spectators! Peter was so excited about this - I'm surprised he slept at all the night before. I finally managed to get videos of most of his routines. I have been trying all season, but the positioning has been terrible. I am in the process of trying to post these videos. Be patient, I'm doing my best!
For those of you who don't know about Peter - he is competing for Stars Gymnastics in Dayton, OH, Level 5. He did qualify for the state meet, but at this point, we don't know if the gym is going to be sending the boys to the state meet :( I have been looking at the websites for some of the other gyms that he has been competing against. Some of them have the kids in Peter's level practicing 10 - 12 hours a week! Peter goes 4 hours a week with an additional, optional, 2 hour "open gym" practice on Saturdays. He has been placing consistently in everything but the pommel horse. I think he's doing great when you look at the competition. Funny - people always talk about the parents pushing the kids. With him, it's the opposite! He is begging us to find a gym that will LET him practice 12 hours a weekwhen we move to California. Todd and I are having a hard time convincing him that this needs to be for fun . . . he needs to have a little bit of balance in his life!
I seem to be having a bit of luck posting these routines. Enjoy! (the ones highlighted in blue have been successfully done - it's taking about 45 minutes per video, grrrr)
Peter's Parallel Bars Routine
Peter's High Bar Routine
Peter's Floor Routine
Peter's Rings Routine
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