Things that make me laugh

So Patrick gets the "talk" about how I would like for him to express his feelings more often, and with more feeling. We were preparing Thai food for our dinner guests and Patrick was chopping onions. When I came into the kitchen, he turns around with tears streaming down his cheeks and he says in a semi-sob/smile, "Now would be a good time to tell you (sniff, sniff) how much I love you, and what a wonderful (sniff, sniff) wife and (wipe tears) mother you are..."

I couldn't stop laughing for days.

While we were chopping veggies, I took the cutting board from Patrick and said, "I need that." And he started to mimick Micah and said, "No, I nee dat!!!" and we went back and forth when all of a sudden--- in enters Micah and he looks up at both of us and says, "Mommy, Daddy, SHARE!"

I couldn't stop smiling for days.

Micah's Hidden Talents

Our amazing toddler surprises us every day with his abilities. Some parents brag about their child prodigies on how they can paint like Picasso, or play the piano like Mozart---well, our child tops them all. We call this talent - The Balancing Act:

Incredible motor skills and balance!
Check out what he can do with his toes
(which his aunt Heather thinks they are like fingers!)
We call this Feet First...

Who knows, maybe his toe-fingers will come in handy one day. They are definitely great for clean up time. :) While he doesn't paint like Picasso-- for a 27-month old--I am pretty impressed with his his artistic abilities. After some time alone with his drawing pad, he came running up to me and said, "Look mommy, a mofster!" and then shortly after, "graffhopser." Can you tell which is which?

Change is a good thing

If you don't like your life the way it is, then change it. The theme around here lately is CHANGE. I wanted to do a little blog about each thing, but they are piling up, so I'm just going to data dump on you all the new and exciting stuff happening in the Ring household.

Caelan celebrated his 4-month birthday! Stats: 95 percentile in height, and 75 in weight. That's what happens when you exclusively nurse all day and all night for months! Developmental milestones: Smiling, cooing, giggling, grasping for things, found his toes, and is trying to sit up in his car seat. Not interested in rolling over yet.

Also, some happy news --this sleep-deprived mom is no longer nursing every 3 hours in the night! Hallelujah! Patrick and I were losing our marbles with having to sustain feedings every 2 hours for the first 3 months, and then every 3 hours this last month. So, we decided to make him cry it out when he hit 4 months. Every time he got up, Patrick faithfully would get up and rock him back to sleep, often hearing him cry for 20-30 minutes straight. Seventy-two hours later, he is now going five hour stretches, and I only need to get up once in the night!


Caelan is enjoying his longer sleep time in his crib because big brother Micah is officially sleeping in his big-boy fire engine bed. We successfully made the switch! One day, he talked about his bed and he asked to sleep in it. The next day we put it together and without fuss, he laid down and slept. With only a few times of finding Micah downstairs playing with his toys at 3 a.m. (and all the lights turned on in the house) he has chosen not to exercise his new found freedom and often sleeps through the night. Also, he is getting used to life a little more without his pacifier. Still a daily battle, but it's getting better!


I cut my hair. Like short. Real short. I'm not brave enough to post a picture yet, but I do want to let you know that I like it. It's a trendy mom's cut and despite what the hairdressers tell you, it IS easier to style than long hair. It takes me two minutes! The bad news is that my husband HATES short hair, and he lets me know pretty regularly that he can't wait until I grow it back.

I joined the gym! I am desperately trying to say goodbye to the baby weight, and so long farewell to the tummy bulge. I work out three times a week so far, and I'm really enjoying it. What's even better is that Micah and Caelan do really well in the nursery. No one has paged me yet. Hopefully, I'll be able to post pictures of a more buff, slimmer, toner-abs, me!

Patrick and I are doing our bible study again one night a week. This time we chose the book 9 Things a Leader Must Do by Henry Cloud. We're really enjoying it! It's nice to learn new stuff, but the real cool part is coming together and like we did when we first met---we share our ideas, dreams, and goals with each other again.

There are other cool things "brewing" that I will share soon, but we're definitely meeting our goals so far for 2009.

My favorite Micah-isms

Micah is saying so much these days. Unless you are his parents, you won't be able to decipher a lot of what he says. A lot of it is crystal clear, but it means different things to him. So I put together the following that often is lost in translation:

• "Daddy higher" - At first he wanted "highs" which were me tossing him in the air, and now he says "higher" when he wants something higher, faster, longer, or harder.

• "Daddy, run!"- Wherever he goes, like Forrest Gump, Micah wants to run. Whenever Daddy is with him, he wants Daddy to run also. No exemptions for lack of sleep are given.

• "Ma-numa-numa-na - which is short for Banana. At the end we had fun by saying ma-numa-numa-NUMA-numa-NUMA-numan-numa-na. He would follow along and say the same thing. Now he can say "Banana", but he usually says "ma-na".

• Mommy, happ'n tah my sork? - which is Mommy, what happened to my sword? It is the most commonly asked question around the house. He wants us to help him find one of his favorite toys: his sword.

• "D.I., D.I" - This means letters or words. At some point, he was listening to us tell him some letters, and he picked up on "D" and "I", and he now refers to all letters, words, and writing as "DI". "Daddy, talk DI" means "Daddy, tell me what this says".

• "I nee-dat!!!!" - I need that. When we tell him he can't have it, the desperate response is usually, "NO, I nee-dat!!"

• "Nays not too happy" - This came from "Mulan", when I pointed out to him once that the horses didn't look happy. Now every time he sees a horse, he says "nays too happy".

• "Oc-agon" - which means Astronaut. Soryda was teaching him shapes (octagon) but when he got a rocket for Christmas with astronauts, he thought it was the same word.

• "Bundi yee papa" - is Bunny and Pacifier (said with a deep voice). Daddy and Micah chant this to each other endlessly to Mommy's irritation.

• "Choc-o-bans!"- Not sure what this means. However, one day Micah got hold of some talcolm powder and put little piles of it on everything he could reach in every room upstairs. I asked him several times what they were, and his answer was "choc-o-bans".

• "Daddy, talk Mulan / daddy talk mulan more" - The never ending demand to describe scenes from the movie

• "See Yuca yee Beebol" - Going to see Luca and Gabriel (his cousins)

• "Snowman yucky" - One day he saw a large, inflatable snowman at the store that scared him. After that, every snowman he saw was yucky.

• "I nee running and running and running." - I need to get down and run. Now.

• "I na yike it!!" - I don't like it. He says it nicely, and it sounds very cute.

• "Mommy up!" - How many times a day does he say this? Any time he wants something, needs something, is tired, is getting disciplined...

• "Waat nays mommy pease" - means watch the horse video (on Youtube) Mommy please. A testimony to the fact that when you put your mind to it, you can do anything. This was a 4 word sentence when he was saying only one or two words at a time. We told him no whining and he was learning please. He said it very slowly, clearly, and with a smile. Of course, Mommy rewarded him with a yes.

Soryda says that she's going to put a video together of these micah-isms very soon.