Day at the Zoo

Me and Micah Moo just love the Zoo!  One of the many things I will miss if we end up taking a job somewhere other than Peoria.  It's not a huge zoo, but I'm surprised at how many animals they have.  We saw the sea loin, tigers, loins, rhinos, monkeys, giraffes, and so many more animals!  We particularly like the new Africa exhibit and today we watched at the giraffes were let out.  Micah points at the animals and calls all of them "du"  which either means "dog" or "duck". 

Snack Time!

Another fun outing that we just discovered is the East Peoria Farm Park.  It's only a few minutes from our house and we had so much fun visiting there on Father's Day.  It's this cute little farm area that has geese, ducks, fish, goats, a horse, donkey, cow, and chickens.   For $0.50 we bought a feeding cone and had a blast feeding all the animals!  Micah loved watching the ducks and goldfish come up to feed.  We will definitely be making more trips to this park!

Do you ever stop worrying about your child?

So they say, "a little knowledge can be dangerous". Well, being married to a doctor only makes that worse. In medical school they call it "medical student syndrome" when the students think they have what condition they're reading about. The same is true when they have a family and start assessing their children. I always wondered what kind of dad Nathan would be. Would he be overprotective knowing the things that could happen? Would he blow things off thinking "I've seen worse"? Would he worry about every cough, cold, bump or bruise? I think it's a little of everything. Nathan has great intuition when dealing with his patients and the same is true with his son. I'm the one that worries about everything. Nathan will say, "well it could be this, or this, or this" and then I start to worry and research everything it "could be".

We did noticed some weird behavior in Micah a few weeks ago. He wasn't his usual smiley, happy self. He was distant, distracted easily, and seemed to be playing in his own little world. This started right around 1yr when he was into everything and wanted to do everything himself. He would explore things and be oblivious to anything going on around him. We were backing out of the driveway when I looked back and he was doing this weird staring thing. I call his name many times and he wouldn't look at me. He just stared straight ahead. Finally, i grabbed his foot and shook it like crazy to get his attention. He snapped out of it, but it had us concerned. Nathan asked "well does he ever look when you call his name". My answer was no, he really doesn't. Not a good thing. This is one of the first signs of autism in young children. Nathan even went over to Micah's day care and observed him playing and other children his age. The other children were wanting to play with Nathan but Micah was still in his own little world and could care less that daddy was there to see him. Many of the children even looked to the call of Micah's name but Micah never acknowledged him. Now we were even more concerned. We prayed a lot about it and called his pediatrician to schedule an appointment. We worked with him daily to try to get him to make and keep eye contact. After a week it was like we had a new child. We were a little embarrassed when the doctor came in the room and Micah walked up to him with open arms as to say "pick me up". Dr. Beaty did and laughed. He said we need not worry about his social skills at this time, but that this is only a slice in time and he can't speak for what the future holds. We were happy with this and consider it an answered prayer!

Chief Resident Interviews

Nathan interviewed for Chief Resident today.  We were looking through his clothes last night for the perfect outfit but there was no Wal-Mart suit to be found in our closet.  This will be a longstanding joke with us and the OSF emergency medicine residency.  When Nathan intereviewed here nearly 2 1/2 years ago he lost his suit to interview in. He few in from another interview in MI and the flight attendent made him planeside check his bag because it wouldn't fit in the overhead compartment.  She said, "things never get lost when we plane side check them".  Well at 11:00pm we were at Wal-Mart on North Allen rd in Peoria searching for something that was appropriate for an interview.  Nathan didn't even have dress shoes, socks or clean underwear.  He didn't want to buy anything he didn't need so we left with only a suit. Did you know that Walmart carries suits?  The pants were 2 inches too short and the jacket was definitely not a good fit.  Tags and all, my husband Nathan went to his residency interview.  Two months later we found out that he landed the job.  I think he should have wore tennis shoes and a cheap Walmart suit today too for good luck.  Too bad we returned it after the first interview. 

First Haircut

Micah has wavy hair which is just about the only thing he got from his mama.  I really didn't want to cut it.  He had these cute little curls in the back and I knew that if I cut it they would never grow back the same.  Nathan really wanted to cut it but I just couldn't.  Last week I realized that it was starting to look a little scraggly and kinda mulletish.  Yesterday we went to Salon True and had my friend Cassi trim his hair.  Not only is he acting like a big boy but now he looks like one too!  He did so well too and sat quietly on my lap for a haircut.  We even have a little certificate and I had to keep the curls! 

First Steps

Such a year of firsts!  Micah took his first real steps on April 1st.  No it's not an April Fool's trick.  He really did!  And even better Nathan and I were both there to see it!  He's turning into such a BIG boy!  I guess I'll have to baby proof the house another 2 feet higher.  Once I mastered the crawling he goes and grows up even more.  I just want to keep him my little baby forever. 

He's trying to be more independent each day.  I don't know that you'd call him a strong willed child just yet, but I think he's working on it.  He doesn't like to have his diaper changed, be fed food or bottles, or get dressed.  He put up the biggest fights and thrown some major temper tantrums.  I thought we wouldn't hit this stage for another year when we got to those terrible two's.  I must be hard to not be able to tell someone what you want or need.  Wouldn't it be great if babies came into the world saying "mommy I'm hungry, Momy I'm poopy, Mommy I want to sleep".  Parenting would be a piece of cake!

Getting some toofers!

Teething is never fun. I thought Micah was never going to get a tooth and he waited until about 10 months for one to pop through.  He's really efficient through and has been getting them in multiples.  He's got two teeth on the bottom, and man are they sharp!  He also has 2 center top teeth coming in and another one just to the right. He's been quite the tropper though it all for the most part.  We've done tylenol a couple of times but for the most part he's been ok.  (knock on wood).  He's been wanting his pacifier a lot more lately which may be a problem in the future.  I play to say buh-bye to "pacikins" at 15mo when Micah moves up to the toddler room but Micah may have other plans.  He never wanted his pacifier except for bed until about 8mo and he's been chewing on it ever since.  I kinda worry that it will delay his language development because he can't make sounds when he's sucking on it all day.  I haven't read anything about this, just a hunch.  He's starting to mimic sounds and sylables but doesn't quite have the words down yet.  He'll say "cah" for "champ" and babbles "ba-ba-ba" all the time but I don't really think this is related to anything.  He's such a chatter box!  We just love him to pieces!

Quality Family Time

I never thought that we 6am would be my favorite time of day.  Nathan's been on nights working 5pm-5am and he usually gets home right when Micah and I are starting our day.  This morning Micah woke especially early.  At 5:10 he was standing in his crib screaming and jumping on the bed.  The little stink only at 3oz before bed and I knew he would be up early and hungry.  We did a bottle and then I was ready to go back to bed.  Micah had different plans.  We tried rocking and he screamed.  We tried swaying and he screamed.  Finally I laid him in his crib and he continued to scream.  Daddy came to the rescue!  Micah was ready to play and wanted no part of going back to sleep.  Nathan played with Micah while I got ready and they even kept me company while I took a shower.  Micah really loves pulling on the shower curtain.  They played ball in the living room and Micah can actually roll the ball back to you and catch it when you roll it to him.  He's learning so much each day!  This afternoon I picked him up from daycare and he was just standing all by himself with nothing around him!  He had a rolling toy that he was walking with but had moved it aside and was doing it all by himself.  I'd never seen him stand so long without holding on to anything!  It was like he was thinking about taking a step but just couldn't get that far.  It won't be very long now!