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.

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