3 ounces!

Micah ate about 3 ounces of baby food tonight in one sitting. This is a major accomplishment for him. Even two weeks ago, about 75% of the food was pushed out of his mouth with his tongue. Now it's less than 25%. I think his tongue is starting to be involved in the eating process. Wahoo! One more step toward getting rid of the feeding tube.

Not that feeding him is easy. He won't take it from Mark yet. It takes 5-10 minutes for him to decide that he will actually participate in the eating adventure. And if the routine is broken by me leaving the table or something, it takes another 5 minutes to get him started again. But it's huge progress! He even signed "eat" and "more" in sequence: his first sentence!

Other fun milestones... he has decided he likes to try helping me unload the dishwasher. And he helped Nathan play with his new birthday toys (which Nathan was not incredibly excited about). Micah should be wearing his "I Did It" t-shirt today!

(this is my second post today... scroll down and comment on my Renting Debate if you have time)

The Renting Debate

We're considering renting out our house here instead of selling it (at a loss) to Mark's employer. There's a high likelihood that Mark will be transfered back here eventually and then we wouldn't have to go house hunting again when we get back here. And we REALLY like our house and the neighborhood.

We've never been "landlords" before. Readers, have any of you been through this? Any good experiences? I keep hearing of not-so-good experiences with tenants.

And to my local friends... do you know of a family looking for a house to rent?

All of this makes me just a bit nervous. I don't know what direction our economy is heading. Real estate used to be an investment, but now I see it as more of an expense. So why would we own TWO houses is an uncertain economy?... I'm open to comments on both sides.

Moving Update

I realized it's been a while since I updated the blog about our move. I tend to do brief updates on Facebook frequently and have neglected the blog lately.

I posted over a month ago that we had a house. We then proceeded to cancel that contract after the inspection and we've been searching ever since. Mark saw a few houses each week after work. I went back 2 weeks ago for 2 days and we didn't find anything compelling. Our realtor sent an email to her fellow agents asking for pending listings. There is a house that the sellers were planning on listing in the spring and they agreed to show the house to Mark. Lo and behold, he likes the house and decided that we should make an offer on it. We now have a contract on another house.

Meanwhile, the rest of us are still here in NE Wisconsin. Mark flies back and forth every weekend and stays in a hotel during the week. We've decided to move into a furnished apartment in October for about 6 weeks before closing on our new house. It will be great to start getting involved in life there (church, Bible study, preschool for Nathan, etc.). But we're missing the Down Syndrome Walk for Awareness in St. Paul this weekend.

Tomorrow is Micah's IFSP meeting with his therapists. I haven't had enough time to dread this one so maybe it won't be so bad. Really, it's helpful to see progress toward goals. But the evaluations are really hard (i.e. he's functioning at 8mos in gross motor skills, 10mos cognitively, etc.).

This past weekend was super busy with lots of family activities surrounding Mark's parents' 50th wedding anniversary. Pictures to follow soon.

Eyes

Did you see the photos of Matthew I posted last night? (check out the previous post below if you haven't). Do you think he looks like Nathan?

Here are some photos of Nathan at about the same age as Matthew is right now.Ah, those were the days... the days before I needed to highlight my hair. Speaking of which, can I charge my newly-required highlighting expense to the boys' college funds? I mean, they caused it, right? Or is it due to moving up North? Or a delayed reaction to no longer having a convertible (not that I had one, really... it was MARK'S baby before the babies).

And just for kicks... here are some pics of Matthew wearing the same outfit (which he outgrew 3 months ago).

(note drool on bottom lip)

Wordless Wednesday