{Micah Owen - 15 Months}

Micah Owen, you are 15 months old!

Since turning one you have rapidly moved from a baby into a very active toddler. You have gone from walking to climbing up and on everything. Every day we have to put down the chairs around the kitchen table because not only will you climb them, you then climb onto the kitchen table and like to sit up there. We are often reminding you to have safe feet because once you're standing on something you think it is fun to test the boundaries of being on furniture. You are getting more skilled at going up and down stairs (on your tummy) which is great. You also love running more than you do walking - we think it is because you are trying to keep up with your brothers. As the weather gets better, you have been loving being outside more. You love going down the slide, digging in the dirt, or being on the swing.

After your first birthday we began offering you milk in a cup with each meal and transitioning you off your daytime bottles. You actually took to that transition easily and was off bottles more quickly than we had planned for.  Generally you enjoy food, but when you are teething, all interest in eating goes out the window. You love eating bananas, blueberries, raspberries, pancakes, crackers, hot dogs, oatmeal, and eggs.

Micah it is so fun to see you recognizing patterns. When you see papa get a wipe for your face or even mentioning that your face needs wiped you either try hiding your face behind your hands or you run and hide in your play kitchen. You also have recognized how we put water in your water bottle. You often take your water bottle to the water dispenser and stand underneath and hold your bottle up.

You are working on trying to communicate more to us, but because you're limited you definitely get frustrated. The words you do say seem to be for multiples. So you say "dada" for mama and papa, you say "Elijah" for Elijah and Levi and you say "Jet" for Jet and Jade. You also recently started saying "nana" for banana which has been so cute. You've said "mama" a couple times but it has not been in your regular vocab. You've also been pointing at things quite a bit such as lights or smoke detectors. You're a very curious boy!

Your sleep has been improving consistently at night once we started throwing pacifiers in your room. However, we also decided to move you downstairs into your brother's room to sleep. You have been loving sharing a room. It took about a week for you to stop trying to keep them up at night or to stop waking them up so early. You seem to be comforted by their presence and if you're waking in the night, you are also putting yourself back to sleep.

Micah, these past few months have felt more busy. You celebrated your first Easter, though you didn't quite understand the egg hunt. You watched big brother Elijah finally get to go to in-person school during the week which means you've had a few hours each day with no brothers around. We have family that recently moved to Seattle so you've been able to meet cousins! We also took a family trip to Cannon Beach and you loved it! Your favorite part was running away from mama on the beach, you thought you were so funny!

Over the next few months we think you are looking forward to your brothers being home for Summer break and flying on your first airplane!

{Micah - One Year Old}

Micah Owen, You are one year old!

We celebrated your birthday as a family at home with a "One Wild Year" theme. It felt like an incredibly accurate description of the past year. Not just making it through the first year with a baby, but making it through during a pandemic. Your first year of life has been so unlike any other. While it has been a hard year to be cut off from family and friends - we are so grateful to have this special time at home to be with you, to watch you grow and to slow down and take delight in what you are learning.

Micah once you started walking, you have not slowed down. You are picking up speed and trying to run. You now use walking as your mode for getting around, we rarely see you crawling. The weather is slowly starting to change and we have seen more days filled with sunshine. You have been loving getting outside and exploring the backyard with your brothers. You love swinging with mama and going down the slide. You are also very happy when we have bubbles outside.

As you have approached 12 months you have definitely been experiencing developmental leaps that can lead you to feeling moody and sometimes that feels unpredictable to mama and papa. One minute you might be happy and giggling and the next minute you are crying because you don't have a pacifier or no one is picking you up, or you see food that you want.  It can make the days feel long, but after a good nap you're usually feeling better.

Micah, papa had the best idea to help you sleep at night. We bought lots of pacifiers and at night we give you one and sprinkle another four or five around your crib. Our hope is that if you wake in the middle of the night you don't have to reach far to find another pacifier. This method generally works well. We have noticed though that some nights you will have a night terror and need one of us to come into your room and hold you for a bit to calm down.

You continue to love bath time and at the end of a hard day, this is one way to end the night on a good note. You especially love taking baths with your brothers. You are fearless with pushing them around or splashing them in the water.

Micah you have had some constants when it comes to your favorite foods. You love yogurt, bananas, oatmeal, pea crisps. You have mastered the sign for 'all done' but you are very stubborn with using it. We are hoping you will keep working on learning a few more signs to communicate with us.

Some other cute things you are up to these days: giving open mouth slobbery kisses, sticking your tongue out when you see yourself in a mirror or when the camera is in selfie mode, and throwing your whole body into dancing to music.

We are so excited to watch you grow and see what you learn to do next. We think in the next few months you are looking forward to celebrating Easter and taking a family trip to the Oregon Coast.

Here are a few photos from your 12th month.

{Micah - 11 Months}

Micah Owen, you are 11 months old! 

You are walking! You started the month working on your balance and getting stronger. You were able to stand and squat down a couple times and stand back up without falling. At the beginning of January you began taking tentative steps when we encouraged you. It started off with 2 or 3 and then you worked up to 5. Just a week ago you were doing closer to 10 steps and you are often getting up to walk around without our encouragement.  Now you are trying to pick up speed and run, which is not ending well for you. Slow down buddy!

Micah you have become fascinated with throwing your toys down the stairs to watch them go down. At the end of the day the stairs are covered in toys and anything else you can find and put through or over the gate. At the end of the month you cut two more teeth and you are up to four teeth now!

This past month you celebrated your first Christmas. On Christmas Eve we had Grandpa over to eat breakfast outside. After breakfast, we took you and your brothers to the snow to go sledding. While you weren't big enough to sled, we did pull you around on the sled and you enjoyed that. But, once you were cold you were done with the snow. Christmas day was low key for you as you explored the boxes, wrapping paper, and your brother's toys. 

The other big highlight this month for you was sharing a rental house for our annual New Years Trip with the Kaetzel's. Due to Covid, this was only the second time you've been in a home with people outside of Team O. We thought you might be more overwhelmed, but you loved the attention! You did not, however, like sleeping in a new location and were up more often than usual and needed more comfort from us.

Lately you have been enjoying our family walks at the beach and hikes in the mud. Mama or Papa usually wears you in the carrier on our backs and you are just as happy as can be. Though  you are usually trying to lean to the side to see what your brothers are up to.

Here are photos from your 11 month of life!

{Micah - 10 Months}

Micah Owen, you are 10 months old!

You have mastered your crawl and now you are working on learning to walk. Right now you are trying to stand up unassisted and cruise along furniture,  you definitely seem to be getting more confident. Now that you're pulling up to a stand, you love being at the front windows to look out at the neighborhood. You also love trying to sneak up on mama from behind the couch and think it is so fun to play peekaboo around the couch.

Micah you are incredibly curious and you are getting into all the things. If we accidentally leave the door open to the trash and recycling you like to reach in and pull out whatever you can grab onto. Sometimes that isn't a problem, but recently you pulled out coffee grounds and ate some.  Or you happened to find a bowl of hot cocoa mix that was out low and you definitely enjoyed that discovery. Mama and Papa have been lax at childproofing around the house which means you like to get into any drawer that you can reach and try to empty everything out.  You definitely require more attention right now as you explore. 

More of your personality is starting to peek through. You've started throwing tantrums when you do not get what you want. Usually that is around not getting picked up or held as long as you would like. And while you tantrums are not as big as your brother's - you have tried to shriek over their tantrums so that you can be the loudest. It is actually pretty hilarious.

Micah you love listening to music and will come into the kitchen and stand at the drawers so you can hold on and bounce up and down. It is so sweet to see you trying to keep up with your big brothers! 

We like to joke that you enjoy keeping us on our toes with your sleep. At bedtime, when you are not quite ready to let us out of your room, you start crying. Sometimes you want to be rocked to sleep. You also can be hit or miss with your overnight sleep, though usually you're still happy with a pacifier.  Micah something sweet that mama has discovered is that  you get very ticklish under your chin when you are tired. It makes it fun to see if you're ready for sleep.

During your 10th month we went on an adventure to pick out a Christmas tree. It was our first family experience at a tree farm and you loved exploring and helping pick out the perfect tree. You're not quite ready to help with the decorating, but you've really enjoyed pulling ornaments down to check them out. Mama did set up a felt Christmas tree for you, but it turns out that you just wanted to put the pieces in your mouth - so that didn't last long. Also as we prepare for Christmas, you have loved the bin of Christmas books, though your favorite activity is to pull them all out.

You experienced your first Thanksgiving, and we celebrated outside with Grandpa! You enjoyed the mashed potatoes, stuffing, and the pumpkin pie. You also really seemed to like eating outside.

During your 11 month of life, we think you are looking forward to celebrating Christmas and your first New Years trip with the Kaetzels'.

Here are some photos from your tenth month of life.