Nothing can go wrong-o. I am in the Congo.

Theresia, Micah, and Dave spent not one but TWO Saturdays in early January going to the Franklin Park Conservatory where it was warm and bright inside while it was freezing cold outside. Micah got to put his hands on all the leaves, take the petals from flowers, break off a banana from the bunch, scare some koi looking to eat him, do some chin-ups in the Palm room (photo to the left), swing like a monkey in the rainforest, howl like a coyote in the desert, and live like a Sherpa in the Himalayan mountains.

On the second visit, we saw the grand opening of the Orchid Forest.

Here's a link to our January 2010 FPC photo gallery:
http://picasaweb.google.com/TheButterMonkey/January2010FranklinParkConservatory?authkey=Gv1sRgCMX9nJWfrZ_xrgE

Here's a link to the Franklin Park Conservatory website:
http://www.fpconservatory.org/

We bought an annual membership and plan to make a monthly visit throughout the year.

Now that's what I call a rocking horse!

Micah received an early Christmas/Hannukah gift today from Grandma Terry and Grandpa Marty. His very own Rocking Horse (YAY!). He loves it. Can you tell?

Here are a couple of videos of Micah opening and playing with his gift. If you received this post by email, be sure to log into the website at http://thebuttermonkey.blogspot.com/ to see the video.

Part I

Part II

Breaking the law! Breaking the law!

A picture of Micah and Daddy with his new car walker.

No drivers license to start with and now texting while driving?!? Daddy's little boy... (sniff)

We bought Micah the car walker a couple days ago because he has decided that perfecting his crawling is not good enough for him. He wants to start walking. We hope you all enjoy the following video showing some of his first assisted steps. In a future blog, we'll post some videos of him crawling.

Micah's first word(s)

Theresia was expecting "Mama". Dave was expecting "Dada". Instead, the Munchkin grabbed a hold of the label maker yesterday and created his own word(s):

We're so proud.

No idea what the first word says ("I'm a cook"???) but we think the second word says "Giggle-Figgle". Feel free to judge for yourselves.

Prunes help constipation, but only if they get into the mouth.

Well, we made it to grandma and grandpa's place for the week. Dave, Theresia, and the Munchkin are finally on vacation. On the first day, we discovered that Micah is actually big enough to fit in a high chair even though he's still not quite sitting up by himself. This may be one of our first purchases because he enjoyed sitting up with us at the dinner table (Seafood Stew - yum!).

Grandma Judy fed Micah some solid food. He got a dish of prunes because of a small constipation problem he's currently experiencing. If only Grandma Judy was successful in delivering the payload:

Incidentally, it took two Q-tips to get the dried prunes out of his nose...

Flashback

Thanks to Dana Nickless, who recently sent Micah a gift, for also sharing this treasure with me. By the looks of it, I think this photo was tken in 1980 based on the number of candles on the cake. Location was in the Schamburger's (5 of our awesome South Norman Court neighbors) kitchen. Relative date was probably around mid-July in celebration of Monica Schamburger's (7/16) and Micael's (7/12) 4th birthday.

In the photo from left to right (as best I can): The Schamburgers (Dan, Ronnie, Julie, and Monica), Grandma and Papa Bussey, and the Weiners (Aaron, Michael, Judy, Larry, and David). Noticeably missing from the photo is the person who sent the photo - Dana Schamburger (Nickless) - who must have been the one to take the photo.

Some things to point out in the photo:

• Homer's got hair.
• How cute Dave is at 7 years old...
• Aaron's goofy 9 year old smile.
• Not sure what Michael is doing with his mouth.
• Um... Homer's got hair.
• Dan's tinted glasses - a trend of the 80's
• Mom used the same bowl to cut our hair.
• The state-of-the-art 5" black and white television.
• A kick-ass lamp which has probably been thrown away and is worth hundreds of dollars as an antique now.
• Michael is naked (prove it otherwise, bro)
• Two happy grandparents
• Did I say Homer's got hair???

I hope you enjoyed this photo as much as I did. Please feel free to share. I'm going to post it on Facebook as well: http://www.facebook.com/daveweiner811

Fava Beans and a Nice Chianti

Hannibal Lecter? Jeffrey Dahmer? Charlton Heston? (Soylent Green WAS made out of people btw). Ok. It's a little bit morbid to post a blog which likens your child to some of the world's most famous cannibals but the video speaks for itself. Please take a couple minutes to enjoy watching the video as much as Micah enjoyed making it.

Comments are much appreciated but negative comments will result in Micah coming to eat you. He's been rather hungry lately...

Note to those who received this post by email. The website contains an embedded video. Please log onto http://thebuttermonkey.blogspot.com to view it.

We started the Butter Monkey on solid food...

The boy is big. The doctor gave the go-ahead to give him solid food. We decided to give it a try tonight. Look at the pictures below and how excited he was. He ate the whole box (or at least he tried).

A dad, a boy, and his penguin.

Dave took a mental health half-day this afternoon as he needed some baby time and to give Theresia a break from the baby. While Theresia took a nap, Dave took Micah to the front porch to entertain him. Entertainment included blowing bubbles and eating his Penguin, a give from his loving parents when they went to the Newport Aquarium on Theresia's birthday. Dave went a bit crazy with the cell phone camera. Click here to check out all of the photos of Micah and his penguin.

Also included are two shiny photos of Boomer who got a MUCH needed bath this afternoon.

Micah's new friends: Kaia and Fire

So we had a small 4th of July party at our place with a few our friends including Corey and Isabel who brought their daughter Kaia. Kaia is a couple months older than Micah. Micah and Kaia are slowly becoming best buddies. Here is a picture of them from the party:

The highlight of the evening was when we brought Micah out to look at the fire. Micah has only oggled over a couple of candles in the house before. No big deal, right? Check out his reaction to a larger fire:

Theresia's Birthday Dinner

There ain't nothing that says lovin' like taking a Griswold family drive down to the Kentucky border for Theresia's birthday to go to the Newport Aquarium and THEN stop off in Cincinnati at the Old Spaghetti Factory on the way home JUST to get the Manager's Choice: a heapin' plate of spaghetti with half meat sauce and half mizithra cheese. Don't forget the pesto salad dressing and glass o' wine.

The defining moment of dinner is the fascination of Micah with the food we eat. He got so curious as to sneak a fistful of spaghetti with meat sauce into his hand while Theresia leaned over to eat a bit of food. The doctor had not yet given his blessing to start Micah on solids, let alone spaghetti so it's a precious moment when you can look back at the event that transpired and actually picture the both of us dropping our forks to grab Micah's hand before he tried to eat it. At least we know he will love the Spaghetti Factory as much as his parents.

Unknown fact before this trip: The Old Spaghetti Factory built two restaurants in 1973 - one in downtown Denver and the other in Trolley Square in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Is that a Coors in your hand...?

I'm really not quite sure my fascination with putting a bottle of beer in Micah's hand. He sure seems to like holding it and licking the bottle. Plus it makes for a great glamour shot such as this which was taken on June 18. The Butter Monkey doesn't seem to care.

The irony of the photo is that his shirt says "favorite things"...

I'm a strappin' lad!

Yeah, I'm stinkin' cute!



That's right. You heard me.



C - U - T - E - !!!

My first time swimming

I absolutely adore this photo. We took it at the end of May when the weather started to get warmer. This is the first time that we put Micah in the swimming pool. He was a bit shy at first but we think he really loved the adventure.

You can check out all of Micah's photos from his first swimming experience by clicking on this link: check me out

Baby Genius

Micah will kill daddy in later years for taking this photo. But daddy couldn’t help himself…

Cute AND smart!

The Guardian

Micah now has a protector and guardian with his older brother Boomer. While doing yard work today, we caught Boomer protecting Micah while he slept:

Micah also wants Boomer to look the same as him (please refer to the Dandy Lion post) so he placed a dandelion on his head:

The guardian photo looks cute but it is actually rather amazing because Boomer treats babies and small kids the same as he treats cats. He is LEERY of cats and honestly chooses to ignore the fact that cats exist. We saw this behavior with his cousins Jake, Matthew, and Ian. Boomer has been avoiding Micah since he was born. 12 weeks later, though, Boomer is starting to accept his new/future tormentor. He is still hesitant about Micah but at least will sniff him for a few seconds. I even saw him give Micah a lick on his face the other day. No photo unfortunately…

Dandy Lion

Micah and Daddy went for a walk by ourselves yesterday while Theresia got some well deserved alone time. Daddy took advantage of the opportunity to decorate the butter monkey and violate his destroy his masculine reputation.

ShamWow!

So I’m not sure if many of you know that we are doing the cloth diaper thing. Theresia, bless her soul, did a ton of research and we narrowed Micah’s hiney-wear to the BumGenius 3.0 brand sold by CottonBabies.com. I was a skeptic at first but now I’m sold. The trick to these diapers are the inserts (wicks and holds the moisture) and the liners (for days with diaper rash because the inserts and the diapers don’t work so well with Boudreaux’s Butt Paste all over it). Check out the website to get a better description.

So anyway, we’ve all seen the ShamWow commercials. Theresia and I got sucked in and we actually caved and bought a pack of ShamWows.

(Incidentally, we were on the cusp of getting a couple of Snuggies at the same time but they didn’t make a baby size nor do they cater to 70-lb dogs so we declined.)

ANYHOO. That’s another story…

The ShamWow is advertised to hold up to 12 times its weight in liquid. They are machine washable and also come with a 10-year warranty. Would it not be ingenious to replace the liners of his diapers with a ShamWow? We’re contemplating it but at least we have all of the key components to give it a try.



Send us your thoughts on this…

Micah is well fed...

carnivore
Main Entry: car·ni·vore
Pronunciation: \ˈkär-nə-,vor\
Function: noun
Etymology: ultimately from Latin carnivorus
Date: 1840
1: any of an order (Carnivora) of typically flesh-eating mammals that includes dogs, foxes, bears, raccoons, and cats



boobivore
Main Entry: boob·i·vore
Pronunciation: \ˈbüb-ə-ˌvor\
Function: noun
Etymology: ultimately from Latin boobivorus
Date: March 2009
1: One of an order (Boobivora) of typically boob-eating mammals that includes Micah Alexander Weston-Weiner

The Boobivore has a VORACIOUS appetite lately. A single boob no longer satiates him.

Welcome Micah Alexander

Well, here is our official blog for Micah Alexander - the Butter Monkey. We've had many of you ask why we call him the Butter Monkey. Well, we all seem to get hooked on an animal. Based on how active he was during Theresia's pregnancy and all of the acrobatic flipping he did in her belly, we just assumed he was a monkey - up to no good. As Micah grew bigger, we stopped referring to him as "Wilson" (a reference to the movie Cast Away because he was the size of a volley ball) and started referring to him as a little ButterBall (turkey). Ultimately we merged the two names and started calling him the Butter Monkey. It stuck! :)


In conjunction with Micah's new nickname, we decided to create this Blog so that we can more easily share new photos and stories of Micah.


We've also set up an email address - thebuttermonkey@gmail.com - which anyone can use to send an email to both Theresia AND Dave. Sending an email to this email address will forward a copy to both of our personal email accounts.



One last thing - for those who don't have our current mailing address (many have asked):



Dave Weiner, Theresia Weston, and Micah Weston-Weiner

47 W Como Ave

Columbus, OH 43202


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So...





Micah was born to the world on March 2nd at 8:50pm. They weighed him in at a whopping 9 lbs and 4.68 oz and measured 22 inches long. Here is the first picture of our new family:






We learned fast that Micah's not a fussy baby. Knock on wood, we hope he stays this way. He continues to be a bundle of smiles for all of us:








Here's a picture of daddy getting to hold Micah for the first time. Check out the leg chub and his GI Joe Kung Fu grip:





Grandma Terry got to put her L&D nursing skills (ironically she was never an L&D nurse) and help bring Micah into the world. She was a pleasure to have with us for the week both before and after Micah was born.





Here's Micah enjoying his first day at home. Something I never appreciated until the little Butter Monkey came along... Pacifiers rule!

Grandpa George and Joyce drove 8 hours from Maryland to spend a couple of days hanging out with the baby. Here's Grandpa holding Micah who is wearing the new hat that Grandpa bought for him:

Grandpa Homer and Grandma Judy arrived at the end of the first week. They have been treasuring their time with their new grandson. Theresia and I have been treasuring Grandma Judy's cooking.

Micah enjoyed his first beer: Shlitz - the original recipe. Don't worry about disturbing the baby. He's passed out.

Micah AND Boomer enjoyed a walk down to the dog park today (Sunday 3/15). It was Micah's first casual stroll. Boomer is a whore for a good walk.

I wouldn't be a bastard to my brothers if I didn't include dinner from tonight. The adults enjoyed Dave's famous pizza while Micah enjoyed a personal Pizza Bread to make his cousins and his uncles jealous. To Aaron and Mike - WHO'S YO DADDY?!!?