First Haircut

As you've probably read over the past few monthly updates, Micah has been well overdue for a haircut.     A few times in the past month, Micah's hair has been in a ponytail when we've picked him up from daycare. We've been putting it off for several reasons - most notably we love his curls. Secondly, we knew that it wasn't going to be pleasant experience for Micah nor the person who would be cutting his hair. As a side-note, Micah hates having his fingernails/toenails clipped and I usually do it when he's asleep. Only within the past few months has he allowed us to brush his teeth without having to hold him down.You can image what he would be like with someone trying to cut his hair...

For his first haircut, we wanted to take him to someone that we knew. We were in luck, as a good friend of the Raadt family cuts hair. Even better, is that she has a son who is only a few months older than Micah, so she was well aware of cutting kids hair AND she volunteered to cut it in her home. Thank you Mary! Armed with snacks and toys, Micah survived his first haircut last Saturday morning.

Before (Thanksgiving day). His bangs were so long and kept getting into his eyes.

During - he only allowed a few snips of the scissors. Mary worked quickly and did a great job.

Post haircut lunch with "Poppa", Grandma and Uncle Augie at McDonalds.

The Chamberlain's Visit

Last weekend, my good friend Jackie and her family made the trek to Winona for a short visit. It's hard to believe that the last time that we saw them was in April, right around the time that I found out I was pregnant. Jackie and Ryan have two boys - Sam, 3 and Oliver who will also be 2 in January. Our boys had a great time playing together for the afternoon, and we enjoyed catching up with both of them. If only we lived closer....

Another failed attempt at a group picture!

Such cuties, and good pals too.

Jackie and I (and a few of the paint samples that were on the living room wall of our new house)

A Baby Shower, House, and Pregnancy Updates

Last weekend, I enjoyed a quick trip up the the cities to throw a baby shower, along with 2 other college friends, for our good friend Kristen, who is due in early January. Kristen and I met our junior year in college and she has been one of my closest friends since then. It is nothing short of pure coincidence that our due dates are roughly 4 days apart. She and her husband, Mike, are also waiting to find out the gender of their baby.

New favorite cake is from Blooming Grounds in Winona

After the shower, it was great to sit around and hang out with our college friends. While everyone else was drinking yummy wine and/or cherry rum and cokes Kristen and I enjoyed an Odouls. Thank you to Anna's husband, Chris, for running to the liquor store and buying some for us.

I stayed over in the cities on Saturday night, but was back home in Winona by 9:30 the next morning to finish cleaning the house for an open house. Yes, our house still remains on the market. Up until last week, we consistently seemed to have 1 or more showings/week on the house, but have only had 1 offer up until this point. It can be frustrating at times, but we keep reminding ourselves that "God's timing is perfect". We trust that someone will eventually love our house as much as we've loved it. Having 2 houses is less than ideal, but we're making it work by cutting back in other areas of our life.

In the meantime, we've been doing some work on the new house - eventual blog pictures will be posted. So far, we've had the popcorn ceilings taken down on the main level and orange peel put up. It looks much better! The drywall company has to come back this week to make a few touch-ups in the living room, laundry room and our bedroom. New light fixtures have been purchased, and Kyle and his parents were able to put up several of them. Unfortunately, the ceiling fans that we are replacing have been a bigger challenge to put up, and an electrician will need to put them up. Additionally, an electrician needs to come out and hook up our new dryer. The current dryer hook up is gas. My goal is to finish the above listed projects, paint the main floor (with exception of the new baby's room) and clean the carpets all within the next 4 weeks.

Pregnancy-wise, things are going well. I am 32 weeks along, but am measuring about a week ahead of schedule. The baby is sounding great, my blood sugar/weight gain/glucose, etc, etc are all looking good. At my doctor's appointment last week, my OB and I further discussed a C-section versus a VBAC. Given the current size of the baby, and my previous labor experience, and numerous other risks associated with a VBAC, he strongly recommended a C-section. I can officially say that I have peace about my decision. On December 28th (or before) we will meet the newest member of the Raadt family. December 28th is a Friday, and if things go as planned, I would be discharged on Monday. Kyle is off the entire first week of January. When I had Micah, I went into the hospital on a Monday and wasn't discharged until Saturday. I only 1 day at home with Kyle before he had to return to work. I again need to keep reminding myself that God's timing is perfect and anything is possible between now and December 28th.

Halloween Festivies

Micah had a great 2nd Halloween! Although he's still pretty young to fully appreciate trick or treating, the activities associated with Halloween are still super fun for him.

A few weekends ago, we hit up a local pumpkin patch to get pumpkins. We were slightly pressed for time, as we had a wedding to attend later that afternoon in Rochester, so we weren't able to go out into the field with a cart to pick our own pumpkin. The pumpkin patch itself has a bunch of pre-picked pumpkins, and Micah quickly found one that he liked.

Micah's $9.00 pumpkin choice - it's huge and could only be lifted by Daddy.

The pumpkin patch also had tractors to drive and goats to feed. Micah enjoyed each....

Of course Brutus had to come, and a pumpkin was purchased in his honor.

A few days later, our tradition of painting the pumpkin was carried out. Last year we did the same thing, except Micah wasn't mobile at that time. This year, we got paint on the dishwasher, cupboards, and of course on Mom and baby sister/brother.

Halloween itself was a perfect day! I was off of work that day, but had a bunch of errands to run in La Crosse. Micah attended daycare in the morning where they had a Halloween party. I picked him up shortly after lunch, and we stopped by my work where an employee Halloween party was going on. One of the best parts of Halloween was that Kyle got off of work early - something that has only happened a handful of times. We all (Brutus included) went trick or treating in our new neighborhood with our friends the Kelleys. Micah is probably a year away from getting into trick or treating. We went to approximately 10 houses where he let a neighbor's dog out, picked another's tomatoes and eventually dumped his candy out in the middle of the street. After that, we told our friends to go on, while we decided to go back to our new house and pass out candy.

Our little puppy dog

21 months

Happy 21 month birthday Micah Man

Above it a recent picture from a night out at Prairie Island deer park. It unfortunately rained that night, but Micah had a great time looking at the tame deer and sharing snacks with them. He's growing up so quickly!

1) Primarily wearing 2T clothing. Kyle put a pair of 18-24 month old jeans on him this morning, and he  was rocking high waters all day long.

2) Still in size 5 diapers and size 8 shoes

3) Vocabulary keeps expanding...it's amazing how many words this kiddo picks up each day. Recent favorite word is Buckaroo. He also has recently learned his first bad word "Go Packers" from one of the daycare workers. We are trying to reinforce "Vikings" into his vocabulary.

4) Tells us that his friends are Kyle (different from Dada), Heidi, Logan, and Harrison. All are friends from daycare.

5) With prompting will say "I love"...usually Papa (grandpa). It melts my heart when he says "I love Mama".

6) Loves to hop, and consistently gets both feet off the ground. Still loves to climb, run, turn circles and recently has been marching a lot.

7) Can count to "2"

8) Knows most of his colors.

9) When asked, he says that he is having a "Baby Brother" versus a sister.

10) When asked what he wants to be for Halloween, he will state "Kyle" or "Anna". Anna is his word for oatmeal. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful at creating either of those costumes, so he's stuck being a puppy dog. He will be adorable and pictures will surely be posted on here.

11) Sleeping has be challenging lately - both getting Micah to sleep and getting him to sleep through the night. We have what seems to be a good, consistent night time routine, and Micah knows that it's time for him to go to bed. In the past, we could sit by his bed and rub his back for 5 minutes AT MOST before he was out. Over the past few weeks, he wakes up as we're trying to leave the room and follows us out. Some nights it's taking us over 45 minutes to get him to sleep, and at that point in the night my frustration level is high, as I am looking forward to having some "me" time. In all the internet articles that I've read on toddler sleeping, as well as talking to our ECFE teacher, it sounds like kiddos Micah's age spend a lot more time in light versus REM sleep, making them more apt to wake up. Right now, we're using the "Supernanny" approach - leading him back to bed every time he gets up and being firm and consistent and less affectionate. It's unfortunately caused some tears, but it seems to be working. As far as during the night - Micah is waking up 1-2x/night, where he will come into our room and wake one of us (usually mom) up. We've been leading him back to his bed, where we often end up falling asleep with him. I'm optimistic that we can get some of these sleep issues resolved before the new baby comes...

12) Still uses a pacifier at night. Calls it a "pacies"

13) Still loves to cook. His favorite thing to cook is "Mac-eze". It is truthfully difficult to prepare dinner when Kyle is at work, and it's just Micah and I at home - both due to the size of our kitchen and his desire to watch or assist with the cooking process. On nights when Kyle works we will generally have something easy, or I'll prepare supper earlier in the day and cook it later, or we use our crock pot.

14) Matchbox cars have turned into a favorite toy. Books don't have the same desire that they used to have.

15) Likes to be given choices about his clothing. It's becoming easier to get him dressed in the morning.
Has started to assist with undressing himself. Unless really tired, he is less resistant to having his clothes taken off, and diaper changed.

16) At times, he still does not want to have his coat taken off. We just let him wear it, and eventually he will agree to have it taken off either before sitting down for supper or playing with a certain toy.

17) Recently has been doing a great job at eating. He loves pears, and thankfully they are super reasonable right now. He also likes steamed vegetables - carrots and broccoli are best. He still loves pasta and pizza, eggs and oatmeal, but will really try anything that we put in front of him. Milk and water are still his beverages of choice.

18) He's using his high chair tray less and less and is sitting at the table with us. It's fun having him at the table with us!

19) Potty training continues to be on my mind, but to be brutally honest we haven't put a lot of effort into it. It is challenging to be consistent about it when Micah's potty chair gets put away for house showings or when we leave for the weekend. In a little over a month, we will be in our new house where Micah will have his own bathroom and we'll be able to put more effort into the potty training process.

20) Tantrums are still a part of Micah's day. We deal with them as they occur by either placing him up in his bedroom with the door closed or a time out.

21) No matter the challenges, we are so thankful that we get to be Micah's parents. Each month and each stage of life continues to get better and better. We love seeing him physically, mentally, and intellectually grow each month. We love him so much. He is truly a little blessing.

Friday Night Clean Up

What Kyle and I envisioned to be a relaxing Friday night after both getting approximately 5 hours of sleep last night (thank you Vikings for a Thursday night home game!) turned into an hour long clean up session of this mess...

It's probably difficult to fully see the mess from this picture, but the hutch has been pulled away from the wall and there is shattered glass all over the floor going into the living room. The guilty party???

Kyle and I still have no idea what happened, as we were in the living room. Brutus was in the dining room whining about something when all of a sudden we heard the hutch pull away from the wall and a candle shatter on the floor. We can only assume that a piece of dog kibble got stuck underneath the hutch. In his uncoordinated attempt to retrieve it, he became stuck underneath the hutch, panicked, and pulled the hutch away from the wall. In the process, the poor dog also began to empty his colon. 

We both have to chuckle about it now, and our floors certainly have scars so that we'll remember the event for awhile.

Happy Birthday Kyle

Kyle recently turned 32 - okay, recently meaning 2 weeks ago. His birthday fell on one of his busy weeks of working, and on a day that he worked an evening shift. Micah and I were able to celebrate with him in the morning prior to him having to go to work. Brutus attends daycare on Thursdays, and was absent during the festivities. We let Kyle sleep in while we made him a breakfast pizza and picked up cake and balloons.

Breakfast pizza with Dada

Kyle's birthday cake complete with Brutus on it

Loving the cake

On Saturday night, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings in La Crosse. It was the perfect location for Kyle to get his wing fix and loud/bright enough for an active 20 month old.