Drinking like a big boy

For some time now, Micah has been (mostly) successfully drinking out of normal cups. Every once in a while, he'll drop a cup, or pour water all over his face, but this is happening less and less frequently. When some mishap does occur, however, a well-timed and perfectly-intoned "uh oh" is in order.

Big pot

Sarina and I enjoy cooking. We eat out only infrequently, and as a result, Micah spends a lot of time in the kitchen with us. Of course, he likes to do the sorts of things that we do, like haul around big pots. We try not to fall over while carrying big pots, but as Micah learns, sometimes this is unavoidable.

Taking to the stairs

Micah has become quite a competent stair climber. He climbs with ... enthusiasm.


He's also started climbing other things, like chairs and the like. He's such a cautious boy in general that he hasn't taken in big falls. He hasn't bloodied a lip or anything. He's even managed to avoid major bruises. As a result, I don't think he's desensitized us to falling. Should we buy him a helmet?

... just kidding.

Walking and talking

What's this? Can it be? A second post in as many days!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what about a video? At one minute long, and 30 frames per second, this video is valued at nearly 2 million words. Plus, it's Micah.

I'd heard many times that you have no better mirror than your children. Micah at one point began calling to us from distant rooms, and we quickly realized it was because we had set the standard. I think we both also walk and talk. Does it show?


Yes, we let Micah play with our cell phones. No, in general he doesn't drop them, though he does call random people and make changes to our contact lists. However, it is good entertainment, and we figure we're training him for the many hours he's likely to spend pacing the halls of his apartment, talking on the phone.

Sign language

So ... it's been a while. How are you? We're fine. Busy, but fine. You know, we should catch up sometime. Now isn't a great time, but I have a special treat for you. We have a little video of Micah doing some sign language. I think you'll probably enjoy it.


Versatile Micah, proving that if you're coughing so hard you can't speak, you can still ask nicely for milk and cookies from Daddy if you know sign language.

Robeez Season of Giving

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to let you know that Robeez, our favorite brand of baby shoes, is donating products to Kids in Distressed Situations (K.I.D.S.) based on easy things that we can do, like sending e-cards or posting on our blogs about it. This is an easy way to make a difference. See details here.

Thanks, Ian!

Micah, in general, displays fantastic manners: he shares, puts things away when he's done with them, says please and thank you (in sign language). Of course, he is one, and he's a boy. He also has a close friend Ian (7) who can teach him things he might not otherwise learn at home. For example, hilarious hand noises. Thanks, Ian!

Eating with a Spoon

Hello Everyone! We're back! I survived retaking two of the PC(USA) ordination exams and Brett passed his proposal. Brett is now in the middle of writing a paper for submission to DATE (a conference) and preparing for SRC TECHCON (another conference, in Austin, TX and we're all going). I am recovering from the craziness of the last month...whew!

We thought we'd update you with the latest and greatest in Micah's life tonight since we've been away for so long. Micah is now successfully and messily eating with a spoon. It is still just a new fun activity more than an eating process, but we are both impressed with his dexterity. He is also babbling up a storm. He'll rattle off whole sentences of babble very earnestly, looking you right in the eye. It's so hilarious and cute! The following capture both of these things.

This picture is Micah's I-live-in-the-'hood-and-I-eat-from-a-spoon picture.


Here's a video of dinner tonight. :-)

B-day Party

Micah is ONE (as of 07/17/08)! I can't believe that we have a one-year-old. We threw a small party for Micah's b-day a week late. We wish we could have invited everyone we know and love, but we just didn't want to overwhelm Micah. Here are some pictures of the event, courtesy of Bethany Lomelino (formerly Sunquist).

Micah's cake was SO GOOD! Peggar Dixon made it. If you live in the Pittsburgh area and need cakes (or food for any event) she is the person to contact. When I was little my Mom decorated my cakes for my birthday. I drew the cow on Micah's smash cake.


Micah ate his cake with reckless abandon! He finished off almost the whole first layer. Amazingly, he went to bed at the normal time that night and fell asleep right away.


Here is a family pic. :-)


Happy Birthday Micah!

On another note, which will be very sad for most of you, we are going to take a break from posting until the end of August. We are going out of town, then Brett's proposal defense is happening on August 18th, then I take my (hopefully) last two ordination exams starting the end of that same week. There's just too much going on to keep up with the blog! We will miss you all, but don't worry...we'll be back!

Flashback filler: Look at the mess I made!

As Micah's mobility has increased, so has his capacity to make a royal mess. Here's a look back at the beginning, when he was just beginning to hone his make-making abilities.


At least there is a strong indication that Micah will be a voracious reader.

Flashback filler: I see you!

Micah discovered some time ago that he can look through objects at other objects. I'm sure there's probably a fancy name for this. I refer to this behavior as simply cute.

Flashback filler: A baby in motion

Soooooo there wasn't a post on Friday, nor one on Monday! Sorry. There nearly wasn't a post today, either. Our lives are a little busy. Is that surprising? Anyway, here's a picture from a while back to fill in the space until we can start pictures from "up north" and, of course, Micah's first birthday!

When this picture was taken, Micah didn't know how to crawl. He could pull himself up on things, but didn't know very well how to move (cruise) in that position. One day, Sarina sat him down in the middle of the living room, because she needed to go and do something in the hall or bathroom, thinking that Micah would be fine sitting there.

All of a sudden, Sarina heard an "uuuuUUUH" noise, and turning around, saw this:


So ended the days of putting Micah down someplace with any expectation that he would stay there: Micah had most likely scooted (half-crawled) across the carpet, pulled himself up on an end table, and cruised along the wall around the corner into the hallway.

Micah now crawls very, very fast. He's also pretty close to walking: he's willing to take both of his hands off of support to turn, and such. He's testing his balance, and falling a lot as a result. We're having a lot of fun, but I think we're probably also more tired. If that's possible.

The OC, Part 10

With this post, we conclude our pictures from the OC. This post is mostly made up of pictures that I couldn't figure out how to otherwise group.

Out on a walk, Clara wanted to push Micah's stroller.


Jeremy and I, however, got stuck pushing back up the hill.


Two serious moms hard at work (100% of moms featured in this post love Apple laptops).

The whole gang.

The OC, Part 9

Micah and Ruthie in particular spent a lot of time together, since they enjoyed playing with the same sort of things. You know, Micah liked to chew on plastic corn, and Ruthie liked to play with plastic pots.


Micah also liked playing with this farm. A lot. Every morning. More on the significance of this later.


Anyway, before long it really seemed that Ruthie and Micah went everywhere together. They sat on the floor for drinks.


They were held or carried by the same person at the same time.




This was a bit of a challenge, of course. Who needs hand weights with these two around? Anyway. Micah loved the barn so much, that he invited Ruthie along once. It was a pajama-paci-date.

Could it be, love?

The OC, Part 8

The three amigos spent a lot of time together, and played quite well.


Micah didn't get the memo that a picture was being taken.


And of course, they spent some time at the pool.


I love this picture. Somehow, this captures what life was like on our visit: packed full, everyone looking (or going) in a different direction, and mostly smiles on faces.

The OC, Part 7

So I was a little delinquent with posts last week. To make up for it, we're going to finish off the OC pictures with a little OC marathon, Monday through Thursday. Hopefully we'll see pictures our trip to Northern WI starting on Friday.

Clara got her whole own movie, so to make things fair Ruthie is getting her own mini-photo shoot. Cute tongue, eh?


Ruthie is infrequently separated from two very important things: Hannah, and one of her many pacifiers.


If you can peel her away from both of these things, there's something you should know: she is absolutely not ticklish in her neck, and really doesn't like it if you try.


There are a lot of cute pictures for us to get through before we can move on, so really you're getting two posts for the price of one today. Nice deal, eh? The next three pictures are from a trip to feed the ducks.

Here's Micah feeding the ducks.


When he was awake, given bread to feed the ducks he preferred to feed himself.

Clara, on the other hand, demonstrates perfect duck-feeding form.


No trip to feed the ducks is perfect without some time in the swings.

The OC, Part 6

We got back from Wisconsin late last night, at 11:50 PM. Micah had a good flight, and he kept us very busy. This is the first time he's really been aware of his surroundings on a flight, even more so than when we left for Wisconsin. He waved to the people around us, and was entranced by the view from our window.

Anyway, since we returned so late, I've had little time to put together a post for today. Here's one picture to remind you of where we were with our pictures, with more to come in the coming days.

There's something about Micah in this picture that just says welcome to my home.


Don't try to go in, though. That's not why he opened the door. As you'll recall from the movie, he opened to door so he could shut it again.

Update from Iron County

So we're on another trip right now. We actually left last Saturday, and are now in Iron County, Wisconsin with my family. As you're reading this, hopefully we're fishing or swimming or something. And hopefully Micah isn't falling in the lake. And if he is falling in the lake, hopefully (1) he has his life jacket on, (2) someone is there to catch him, and (3) someone else is taking a picture.

Anyway, we're back this coming weekend, and we'll finish up OC pictures and start some at the beginning of next week.

Oh, and I finished writing my dissertation proposal the Friday before we left, so one thing I'm definitely not doing as you read this is worry about that. Which is nice.

The OC, Part 5

This dance is awesome! Need I say more?

The OC, Part 4

Micah really, really enjoyed playing outside in the Heis backyard, as you'll be able to see in this nice little video. Also appearing: Ruthie!

The OC, Part 3

We had the privilege of staying with our friends the Heis' while visiting the OC. The first pic, of course, must be a picture of Clara, who couldn't help but find herself in front of the camera. Her shirt says it all!


For those of you who miss them dearly, here are some nice pictures of them all.

The UC Irvine campus is very close to a large ecological preserve. Here is a nice family picture taken after we took a walk there.


Here's a portrait of Clara, taken at the same reserve.


Ruthie is banging these cups together at high speed.


Micah really enjoyed a week with two fun sisters! They challenged him to become more mobile. Mealtimes were also more fun with a companion.

The OC, Part 2

The next day Sarina, Karina, and Micah went to Irvine Spectrum, a very nice mall. We ate at a Mexican restaurant because I was really craving Mexican. :-) Micah enjoyed some black beans off my plate, but he really enjoyed the lemons, in that "Whoa that's sour! Give me more!" sort of way.




We were later joined by Karina's parents, Mirta and Luis. We ate together, then went outside and enjoyed the nice weather for a bit.


Karina, and Micah and I then took a ride on the carousel. Micah seemed to really like it. :-)


While in the OC, we stayed with some good friends from Pgh, the Heis family. We will post some pics from our time with them in subsequent posts. We simply felt that Micah's encounter with their screen door couldn't wait.


And Micah hanging with Karina at their house after dinner.

The OC, Part 1

I'm sorry it's taken so long to get this post up ... I've been sick this week, and it's been all I could do just to get to work and home again.

We were in southern CA all of last week, ostensibly so I could attend Design Automation Conference once again, but really so that we could visit the Heises and see Sarina's friend from UCSD, Karina.

We went to dinner with Karina and her beau, Pete, on Sunday night. We ate at a Vietnamese restaurant, Pho Bac, because Sarina wanted to try some "authentic" pho, or at least more authentic than what the trucks on Carnegie Mellon campus have to offer.

Micah, miraculously, cooperated to the extent that a 10 and a half month old can (he was 10 and a half months old at the time; he's 11 months old now-- Sarina wanted this to be clear). He only dumped most of his crackers on the floor, and sat for at least five or ten minutes before needing to cruise around the patio. When we got him back in his seat, he spotted a problem that only a 10 and a half month old can solve: there was a door that needed to be closed.


Micah couldn't help but stare, almost longing at this door that needed to be closed. If only he wasn't trapped in his high chair, then he could crawl to the door and close it! Micah loves closing doors ... and then opening them, and closing them again ... and again ... and again ... you get the picture.

We topped of the night with some frozen yogurt and a photo op.

Update from Orange County

We're all out in California this week, so I can attend Design Automation Conference again this year. Because DAC is in Anaheim, which is pretty close to Irvine, we're staying at Chateau Heis!

Because we're out of town, there probably won't be any blog posts until after we return; check back on June 16th! If you're obsessed with Micah, like Karina is, you might be rewarded by checking back before then!

Memorial Day

We went to a Memorial Day party at a friend's house. Micah's friend Andrew was there, and Micah was happy to see him.


It's a lot of fun to watch babies interact, since they tend to do things to each other that they don't do to adults.


Then Micah spent some time working on his lock picking skills. He needs more practice, evidently.


Of course, there's always interesting things to look at in the grass. Micah has figured out that he can take his pacifier out to drink from a cup, but hasn't made the connection with eating things yet ... thankfully.


Micah has figured out clapping! What I haven't figured out is why he claps. I'm not convinced he does it for the same reason we do (to indicate that something is good). You can tell, even with his pacifier, that he isn't clapping right now because he's overjoyed.

Gardening Part 1

I have recently discovered a love of gardening. It all started when I got completely sick of the forest of weeds growing in our front yard. We rent the second and third floor of a house owned by a really good friend so I asked him if I could do some landscaping. He said yes. I consulted a friend with a green thumb and she helped me pick hearty, low-maintenance perennials to plant in the front yard. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the yard before I did all the work. Below are pictures of the front yard after I finished planting. The only things that were there originally are the four lilies, the azalea, and the ground cover on the hill. Everything else I planted!