Sabino Canyon and More!

We had such a great time going hiking in Sabino Canyon, AZ this past Wednesday.  It was a 4.5 mile hike we made and my shins are really telling me how long that hike was.  Micah enjoyed the stroll and the sites as did we.  We stopped at a river and put his little feet in the water. (not appreciated by Micah at all)  Here are a few shots from our adventure!

Micah and Matt...starting out :)

 Finishing our first mile uphill.  It was much harder than I anticipated...

Micah getting his feet wet!

Shortly after this shot we turned around and headed back :)

The next several pictures are of Micah...doing his thing.  These show the process of hands and knees for him!

 Usually his heads up :)

 Success!

 Where's your toes?

 Where's your head?

 Where's your belly (still high)

Hope you enjoyed the pics and details of our adventures!

Two Year Old

Micah is finally 2! I really shouldn't say finally, because I do really miss having my little one year old.  I am very excited for what this second year will bring our family and little Micah.  Matt and I celebrated Micah's birthday by going to the zoo.  We had a great time looking at all the animals.  I think Micah's favorite was the giraffes.  Following the zoo, we headed over to our favorite lunch spot, Chipotle.  After a long day we were all tired and remember that Micah didn't have a birthday cake or treat to celebrate with.  So I quickly whipped up some chocolate chip cookies (SIMPLY) and Micah enjoyed his very own chocolate chip cookie.

We celebrated his birthday with some close family and friends the following Saturday.  It was very low key, and I think Micah definitely appreciated that. Anyone who knows Micah, knows his favorite toy is a little tiger/lion toy.  So instead of trying to attempt to make it myself I had it made on his birthday cake.  I think it turned out pretty cute.

Micah was not a fan of that cake!  In fact, he screamed when we put it on his tray. 

We later found out it was simply the frosting on his hands he disliked so much.  Last night, we gave some leftover cake to him after dinner without the frosting, and he loved it!  He just doesn't like to get messy I guess. Overall, I say Micah had a great 1st year and we're looking forward to an even better 2nd one!

Big Boy!

I've realized that it's been about 2 months since I've updated the blog, but I haven't had much to report.  The most recent change that has happened around here is sleep training Micah.  It took about 3 nights total.  However, not nearly as bad as I had anticipated.  Now, we're working on naps, which are a little tougher.  Mostly, Micah just fusses a bit at naptime before he falls asleep.  At nighttime, he goes down without a fight or even a noise. 

He also has weaned himself from nursing in the last week.  That was honestly pretty rough for me, but I did anticipate it a little.  Now we're just working on making sure he's drinking enough liquids and trying to find a type of milk that he likes.

Micah has been a busy boy lately with all of his therapies.   We had 7 appointments just this week!  Hopefully things will begin to slow down abit for us, becaue other things are sure replacing our time.  This is also the last week that I have a one year old!  I really can't believe, nor do I want too.  He will be turning two in 7 days!  I know this upcoming year is going to be a busy and growing one for him too!  So I'll be trying to take this week slow and hold on to my little one year old as long as I  possibly can... 168 hours to be exact!

Rare Moments of Cuddling...Documented!

Christmas Day

We had a great time celebrating Christmas with Matt's family this year.  We went down to see them Christmas Eve and spent the night as well.  Normally, we open presents that night, then snack and enjoy eachother's company.  This year, we did things differently.  With Mike's new wife Sarah, we decided to follow their families tradition of doing gifts in the morning.  (This is what I was use to as a kid as well.) 

Our night with Micah was a bit rough.  He's enjoying midnight wakenings lately and it sure is tiring. It was nice to get to enjoy eachother's company and not rush through presents to get Micah to bed though.  Here is a shot of Micah on Christmas Eve morning.  Not extremely happy at how preppy his mommy dressed him. 

He really did get much happier as the day went on though... See! ;) 

 Micah spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day pretty much lazin' about rocking with grandma or grandpa or me and listening to Opera music.  Who new? He really does like music, but now really likes Andrea Bocelli! Or he was playing with his toys or his doggy.

Nap time is so peaceful!

We spent Christmas morning taking our time opening Christmas presents.  It was fun seeing Micah enjoy new toys!  One of his favorites is a truck that when you pull the string it shakes! (From Grandma Teichert)  And a piano from his Grandma and Grandpa Hill.

Blurry shot of the fun!

I forgot to mention how much delightful food we enjoyed together.  Mike really did a great job finding a wife.  Especially, the fact that she is an amazing cook!  We had delicious appetizer type foods and homemade wings Christmas eve and Steak and lasagna and homemade mash potatoes Christmas day.  Oh, not to mention delicious French toast Christmas morning with homemade berry syrup! (Seriously, the best syrup I've tasted in my life!) Yum!  Micah thouroughly enjoyed it all too.

Talkin' About Christmas

We just had a great two days off with Matt home.  Micah is seriously a different kid when Dad is around.  He's so much more mellow, calm, happy and silly.  I wish he was home everyday with us!
We finally got around to shopping for our Christmas tree.  After some debate on whether to get a big or small tree we decided on a real 5-6ft tree.  It really is beautiful!  Thankfully Micah hasn't taken much interest to going over to see the tree himself yet.

We also put up some decorative lights outside our patio.  We sat Micah outside with us and he IMMEDIATLY crawled to the rocks and attempted to shovel handfuls of rocks into his mouth.  Don't worry we did stop him.  Then we tried to put him on our smooth flank stone and he proceeded to crawl to the grass and dig in dirt while he terrorized the dog. 

Boys are truly boys from the beginning. I was talking to a friend about this and discussed our our two children are very different from eachother's.  Hers being a girl, will play with baby dolls and strollers and mine likes to throw things, eat rocks and dig in dirt!

Micah has a new favorite word!  It is "yes".  He will actually answer questions for us now.  If he wants certain things he will respond yes or not respond at all meaning (no) we assume. Its great to have a word that really can be used for communication now. 

Family Zoo Trip

It really is time that we start taking advantage of this beautiful weather and going to the zoo more often.  For the past few months or so Micah has actually been taking a notice to the animals.  We know this because he gazes adoringly at them and giggles!  Today we had the opportunity to enjoy one of daddy's days off and headed to our zoo. 

Here is a picture of Micah and Daddy checking out the monkeys!

And of course blowing raspberries at the jaguars...

Here they are:

We had so much fun.  We had the opportunity to see 3 lion cubs playing with their mommy.  It was adorable.  They got so close to the glass and Micah thought it was the funniest thing.

We're so lucky to have gotten 3 new baby cubs!  We talked with a zoo keeper and he said they are slowing introducing the cubs to the daddy.  They have been with him only 7 minutes at a time so far.  I guess dad is stronger than he knows.  Soon enough they'll be all together as a family. 

I had a hard time getting Micah to pose with me...

He will of course pose with dad no problem

We had such a great time together at the zoo, we headed home to play. Micah is getting much stronger nowadays and is tolerating standing more and more.  We still use his knee imobilizers because he doesn't like to lock his knees.  A lot of the standing toys are meant for younger children and Micah is usually way to tall for them.  I got an idea today to put some bed post elevators on one of his standing toys and it raised it a few inches and made it much more comfortable.  He still doesn't love it, but it's better than not doing it.

Thanks for reading!  Glad to share some new fun things with you all!