Happy Birthday, Josiah!

More pictures to come!

Our New Nephew!

David and Amy welcomed their precious little boy, Jacob Andrew, into the world today (August 23) at 5:51 p.m. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 7 ounces and measured 20.5 inches.

Am I imagining things or does he look like Micah?

Happy, beautiful family!
We can't wait to meet our new nephew. How much fun are all these boy cousins going to have together?

Her delivery went FAST! She posted something on Facebook about hoping she'd have the baby today, so I was very surprised to get a phone call an hour later from Mrs. Sharon that she was on the way to the hospital! He was out in just three pushes!

Grocery Shopping

We've left our beloved Publix and Super Target for the world of Lowes, Harris Teeter and Wal-Mart. The Lowes is super close to our house, and I discovered on our last trip they have these fun shopping carts for kids.

Sorry for the wrong direction. This actually made grocery shopping fun for Josiah.

Great for a trip when you just need bread, milk and bananas.

He did pretty well, but I felt I was constantly telling him to watch where he was going, not to bump into things or people. He did pretty well, but you can tell he just wanted to run with it!

Baby Laughs

Best stuff on earth...

Micah's Two Month Stats

Height: 23.75 inches (80 percentile)

Weight: 14 lbs. 9 oz. (92 percentile)
Head: 41 cm (60 percentile)

He conked out for four hours after his shots, woke up inconsolable for an hour, then was back to his normal sweet self.

Note: Josiah was the exact same weight and almost the same height at two months.

Lost and Found

It's a long story, but I finally found some pictures that I thought were missing!

Here are some of when the Stewarts stopped by to meet Micah a few hours before we left Birmingham. Our house was completely empty. We didn't even have a glass for Lexi to get a drink of water!

So sweet. We're going to miss those girls!

He really does look like a baby doll. Kate and Lexi were both sweet little mamas with him. And afterward they played with our brooms and did some sweeping - because we had absolutely no toys!

A few weeks later in Hickory, we went to Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A. Josiah was really excited about dressing up like a cow; he was grinning ear-to-ear about his costume and mooing. Daddy refused to participate of course, but we got him some food anyway. I was excited because they were more generous with their definition of a "cow costume" than the Birmingham stores. I received a full combo meal for putting a few spots on my shirt. In Bham they only gave me a sandwich for that.

And they gave both Josiah and Micah a kid's meal. Yes, Micah too. Can you believe the same onesie I drew spots on fit Josiah at 11 months and Micah at 1 month? Go figure.

Here are the pictures from Davis' birthday party I thought I lost. I thought it was so cute how meticulous he was about the car.

And excited he was about cake and ice cream.

A couple of weekends ago, our precious friends Dave and Elizabeth came by to visit with their kids. Josiah and Anna are one month apart in age.

The Russia boys (except Micah of course, who is struggling for his father's support).

And we got to meet Everett, who just turned one! It's been way too long since we've seen them!
We were so blessed and encouraged by their visit.

Dave and his little mini-me.

Micah at Two Months

Micah turned two months old today.
Sooo...I'm a little behind, but for the sake of posterity, he was 11 lbs. at his one month appointment. We have our two month appointment this week. Hopefully I'll post those stats before another month passes.

He's definitely chunking up! He's still sweet and snugly and a pretty content little baby.

A little help from my assistant to make him smile.

He's trying to tickle him for me.

"Alright Mom, let's wrap this up. Time for a nap!"

For the memories...
- He's sleeping pretty well. He takes some pretty long stretches at night and seems to self soothe fairly well. He will generally do one super-nap during the day, sometimes morning, sometimes afternoon. The rest of the day he'll sneak a cat-nap or two, but nothing very long.

-He eats much faster than Josiah did. I think he's learned he has to be efficient because Momma's time is a little bit more divided.

-He's giving the sweetest smiles and laughs. Of course, Jonathan gets the best ones. He's starting to pay attention to Josiah a little more.

-His eyes are still dark blue. They may stay that way!

-He gets the hiccups a lot! Which is odd because I don't remember him ever having them in the womb. He's also started spitting up a lot more as well.

Pool Time

It's been on my to-do list for a few weeks now, but I finally got out the baby pool.

And spent probably an hour, finding the pool, finding the pump, inflating the pool, filling it with water. I remember being a kid and thinking, "Why does it take mom and dad forever to do things?" It's interesting to see it from the other side now, and wonder why these kids don't appreciate all the things we do for them. :) Josiah couldn't wait and hopped in while it was filling.

I don't think the pool would be half as much fun without the slide.

Micah pondering life's great questions: "Is this my hand?" "How does it taste?" "Is time to eat again?"

He's finally being a normal kid and trying to climb up the slide. He used to scold other kids for doing it.

"That was fun! Let's do it again"

"This hand is so tasty."

Micah dipped his pudgy little toes in the water.

Pouring water "down the drain."

I tried to encourage swimming lessons telling him to practice kicking.

Josiah had a blast. He played all morning, and then when he woke up from his nap, the first thing he said was, "I wish I could play in pool again." I told him he could. "Oh Thank You!"

Davis' Birthday

We got to attend our first birthday party here in Hickory. We knew Amy and Matt from Providence in Raleigh. We both had moved different directions, but wound out in Hickory at the same time. We were so excited to celebrate Davis' third birthday with a Cars themed party. (I stole these from Amy's blog. My pictures got deleted somehow.)

Amy had lots of cute activities. She had the kids run their cars through finger paint to make wheel tracks.

She also had little ceramic cars for them to paint. Josiah LOVED this activity. He was very meticulous about painting and ask politely for each color. All the kids finished and left and he was still perfecting his masterpiece.

Happy Birthday, Davis! We look forward to lots of fun with you and your family!

Side note: speaking of Davis' family. His baby sister Callie (10 months) is quite fond of Micah. She crawls to see him all the time. Amy handed her to me for a moment to take care of something at the library the other day. She fussed for a moment until I showed her Micah. She spent the rest of the time trying to move over near him. So cute!

Lounging Around

Can't seem to make it out of the house? Might as well take some pictures.

Gentle...

Stay away from his face... gentle...

Good hug. GENTLE!

Great job being gentle.

I think I must say the word "gentle" about 100 times a week.

Sweet big boy.

Precious little boy.

Weekend With Nana and Pop

Nana and Pop came up this weekend and stayed in our Hickory house for the first time. Thanks for making the trip, guys!

Pop with Micah

Solemn Josiah and Nana

Nana is a good sport to 1) be "upside down" with Josiah 2) let her picture be taken in her pajamas

"Racing" with Josiah, one of his favorite activities lately.

In church on Sunday

After church - Micah sure does sleep a lot!

Josiah Says

In case you've never been around when he's comfortable, Josiah talks constantly. Here are some of his common phrases lately:

"Today on the Island of Sodor." "Then there was trouble." "Thomas ran right into a ditch."
Most of the time he's narrating some sort of Thomas the Train story of his own making.

"Actually, it goes this way." "Actually, my name is Duncan."
Apparently, Mama says "actually" a lot.

"Did you charge the iPod?"
He's very picky about the music he listens to. I have a playlist on the iPod we listen to in the car, but we don't have a car charger for the iPod (birthday present, anyone?). So I always have to remember to take it inside, charge it, and bring it out. It's very upsetting when I don't.

"Aww...Baby Micah." "He's so precious." "He's so wittle."
Picture this in a child's version of an adult baby voice.

"I want to give him a funny kiss and a funny hug" " Can Micah sleep on my bed?"

"Mama, don't twist your hair."
He's obsessive about my hair not being in a ponytail. He notices right away. Sometimes I tell him that it's too hot, and I have to do it, but I'll take it down later. He always reminds me of my promise.

"Oooh pretty."
But not about anything one would immediately label pretty. For example, we had to get a piece of glass cut in a warehouse-type place. We walk into the 70s-style, musty office and he gives a dramatic "pretty."

"Last night" and "After my nap"
Anything in the past is "last night." Anything in the future is "after my nap." A toddler's concept of time. One funny example: "I petted a meercat last night. It was so sweet."

"I don't need to use the potty."
Normally before and after a telling silence. Sigh.

And some humorous ones:
One of his favorite songs is "After the Last Tear Falls" by Andrew Peterson. Which is a kind of heavy song about sin and longing for heaven. He calls it the "Love, Love, Love" song. There's a line in it that says, "After the last young husband goes off to join the war." We listened to it in the car the other day, and he randomly said, "It says husband." I figured he wanted a definition. I said, "Yes, husband, like Daddy is Mama's husband. I'm his wife." Josiah said, "No, the song says husband. You sing soldier." He actually recognized one word that I had been singing incorrectly when I sing it for him at bed time.

Josiah: "I want Micah to eat from Daddy's tummy"
Or "How about I feed Baby Micah?" He proceeds to lift up his shirt...