May 2010

Family Time
With the end of the semester comes summer, which means that Mike starts taking 2-day weekends for a while. Yippee! Two days with Mike at home makes life just wonderful! Originally, we thought that Saturdays would be for family hikes. But it turned out that our weekends in May were used to baby-proof and prepare for guests. At least we got to all be together. :)

Mike has started biking again at least once per week.

After having so much fun with Mikey at the pool, we decided to go as a family on one lazy afternoon. Unfortunately, many other Missoulians had the same thought. So Current was swarming with people. The big echoing space offered too much stimulation for Mikey. Despite being held close to Papa in the pool, or Mama, Mikey was just too anxious so we had to leave. Ah well, some other time Mike will get to enjoy splashing in the water with his son.

Another fun Papa thing happened: Mikey "boomba'd" with Papa. Here's the story. Mikey likes to kick his feet to get different sounds. He kicks while laying in his bed, while laying on his back on the hardwood floor, in our bed, which all make different sounds. He also bounces and gets good noises when his feet hit the ground. One morning, I was holding him so he could bounce on the ottoman and Mike was laying on the couch. When Mikey paused, Papa took his bare feet and gently padded them against the leather couch cushion. Mikey smiled really big and mimicked the sounds on the leather ottoman and paused again for Papa. Back and forth a couple times and then he just started to bounce like crazy with happiness.

We recently realized that when Mike kneels down to take photos of Mikey that he is the "Papa"-razzi.

Mikey's Physical Development
Sleep
Mikey still is not sleeping. This month, it seems like "things" keep him up, for example a giant midnight poopy.

Locomotion
Mikey learned to roll to his tummy, reliably.

I'm not sure if I should be embarrassed by this or not but it made me chuckle. One day Mikey was in his Johnny Jump Up, which we refer to as his "bouncer" and the tips of his pants we changing color on the toes. Not sure if I had ruined them in the wash or something I grabbed his foot to check it out. Lo-and-behold, Mikey's toes were just dirty. As he bounced in his Bouncer and dragged his feet on the ground he swept the floor for me.

Toys
One day at Walking Stick Toys I noticed a push-cart that was marked more than half off. I thought, combined with gift cards from Andrew and Sherry and Diane we could really afford this schwanky little cart. So I bought it and have visions of Mikey pushing Lucy around in it. OF course, that is still a ways off in the future so for now it is our "book bus" and holds our living room stash of childrens' books.

Convinced that Mikey LOVES tags, I splurged and bought him what I thought was a super-cool octopus from Taggies. When it arrived Mikey wasn't particularly interested in all the colorful "tags" that stick out from it. Instead, he went right for the actual label tag and gives it all his attention. I think it has something to do with all the words on it...

Mikey's absolute favorite toy is gravity. He likes to fly in the air, be "dropped", and to lay on the floor while I flick blankets in the air above him and then let them drift down on top of him. He giggles and smiles and kicks his feet.


Socializing!
A Baptism of Sorts
My grandmother and sister made a christening gown for Mikey from my mother's wedding dress. Their expectation was for Mikey to wear it for his baptism into the Catholic church. As much as I hate to disappoint them, Mike and I have decided not to raise Mikey Catholic. (We continue to deliberate about plans for his spiritual up-bringing.) However, I thought this beautiful handmade gown deserved to be worn.

One day we invited Jen and Honey and Jim and Teresa over for a grilled cheese party and surprised them with a baptism of sorts. This is what we said to them:

• "In the spirit of welcoming Mikey into a community, we decided to take the opportunity today to thank you for being our core network of support in Missoula. Thank you for bearing witness with loving enthusiasm to the most transformative six months of our lives."

The rest of the afternoon we enjoyed Gruyere grilled on a baguette, blue cheese on white bread, and goat cheese grilled on sweet potato slices. We also let every play with Mikey. Convinced that he wanted to drink from a glass, Teresa helped him sip water. (He also sipped from my glass, which had sparkling water in it. He made a face but then went right back to it for more!) Also, while he was playing in Jim's lap, Honey dubbed him "Jungle Jim" and I love it!

Thomas at the Park
One nice afternoon we met Jenny and her son Thomas at Bonner Park.