Friday, June 29, 2012

Micah at 2

We just love this delightful child! Here are a few fun facts about Micah at 2 years old:

He's so daring and assertive. He makes up his mind about things and works until he gets it done. He's much braver about climbing on things and trying things that would have been scary for Josiah at this age. He's much more confident in his physical abilities; it seems to come more naturally for him.


He's also determined and more aggressive with other children. We've had to discipline snatching MUCH more than with Josiah, as well as hitting, throwing, yanking hair, biting (yikes! It sounds like he's a bully, but it's not so bad). We also discipline a lot more outright disobedience, and it seemed to start younger. Micah will literally walk the other direction from what he's been told to do.

  • His favorite toys are trains and cars, but he enjoys blocks and puzzles. He's much more persistent with the latter than Josiah was. He loves the sandbox and swing. He also loves the baby pool. He seems to interact more with stuffed animals, giving the ones in his bed hugs and kisses.
  • He's enjoying books much more than he used to, but he's very opinionated about which ones he wants to read. He refuses to read anything else. So far he's into Thomas books, Pete the Cat, and many Eric Carle books.


  • Sleeps great through the night, and even entertains himself for a long time in the morning once he's woken. Still takes an afternoon nap for around 2 hours.
  • He loves fruit, hot dogs, and yogurt. He's not very interested in breads, but does like oatmeal, muffins, waffles and pancakes.
  • He's been diagnosed with asthma and eczema. And we discovered this year that he's allergic to peanuts, eggs, and dogs. So finding an alternative protein source to peanut butter and eggs is a challenge for me! The egg allergy is mild, so he can eat baked goods containing eggs, just not scrambled or such. His reactions so far have been skin related; he breaks out in hives and redness. We're thankful we haven't had any breathing-related episodes thus far.
  • As you can see from many of the pictures, he may be the messiest, dirtiest child I've ever encountered. He's a magnet for dirt. I have to change his clothes at least once a day (Praise God we have so many hand-me-downs), and his spot at the table could easily be vacuumed once a day. 


He's communicating really well, and I'm always surprised at the words he cranks out each day. I've been SHOCKED that he's started recognizing letters consistently. His favorite letter is B for some reason. He also recognizes O and S and E and some others too. He likes counting, but can really only get to about 5 correctly.


He and Josiah get along pretty well, but have definitely had more sharing battles lately. When they play nicely, it's the sweetest thing in the world though. It's nice to have Josiah around to answer some of the questions in the endless game of "What's this?" Josiah is also good at reporting to me when Micah's getting into trouble or harm.

He adores his "Addeeeee," and is sweet on his Mama. He holds his own in the wrestling matches with the boys.

Friday, June 22, 2012

More Birthday Party Pictures


Teaching them how to TP a yard early.
 
 
 
 

Do you think he liked it?
 
Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Micah's Creepy Crawly Party


Since Micah is all about dirt these days and is willing to pick up any insect, I thought it would be fun to do a creepy-crawly party for him. Thanks to Pinterest, I got a lot of good ideas.

We made antennaes for everyone out of headbands and pipe cleaners.


















Then we went for a bug scavenger hunt. They had a checklist of different kinds of bugs to look for, and they hunted around to check them off the list.

Taking a break to enjoy the seesaw that Mimi and Granddaddy sent for Micah's gift.

Then they hunted for fake bugs in the sandbox for the younger kids.
 
The older kids in the mulch box :)

While hunting for the real bugs, Isaac found a real cicada shell. I thought it was a fake at first! We've never found one in our yard before.

Bug hunting

Fake bug hunting with his cute antennae
 

Cutie birthday boy

Dad-of-the-year Matt brought all four kids to the party.

This turned out to be a hit. I gave all the kids fly swatters, and released 50 balloons into the yard as "bees." Their job was to scoot all the bees into the hive. What kids doesn't want to whack a balloon with a stick? Of course, many of popped, but it was a blast.

Bees in the hive

The last activity we did was making a spider web. We just used streamer paper and had them use the swing set as the base. The older kids liked this the most; Josiah said it was his favorite activity.
 
Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Puddle Jumpers



Our friend Samiyah was over, and they were all sandy from playing in the sand box, so they hopped around in the many puddles around after a rainy day. 
 
 

Posing

Posing again, under the influence of having a girl around :)
 
 

Close-up. They asked me to, but it turned out cute.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Showing off their muscles. We do this with Micah the most because he's always had to remove his shirt because he's always made a mess of himself while eating/playing/existing.
 
Posted by Picasa