Micah's surgery.

The date was June 29, 2011.

We were up at 5:00 AM after being up all night in preparation for Micah's surgery.

This was how happy my baby was with no solid foods, no fluids, AND up most of the night before his six am surgery!

Daddy playing with Micah before leaving for surgery.

Here's Daddy in the hospital with our little six month old man. Mommy was a wreck. Daddy was a wreck. It was a bad day. Although you did fine. However, I'm just now blogging about it.

I found these pictures, and I thought...one day I'd want to remember this day.

Thankfully, you made it through everything a-ok!

And we haven't looked back since.

Seven months old!

I'm of the notion that any pretty place can become way prettier with a cute baby plopped in the middle of it, right?

Well, Micah, you are now seven months old. I mean, really? Seriously? Mommy only has about a month left with you on maternity leave. I can not believe my time is quickly drawing to a close with you, Little Man! You have to be the most precious rolly polly ball of fun I have ever seen. You are such a smiley, happy baby! You wouldn't know it by the pictures we get of you. I mean, capturing a smile is impossible. You smile just as soon as the camera is turned anywhere but on you!

Today Daddy & I took some time on his day off to scout the city for some awesome sites to photograph you as you grow into such a sweet little boy. We love our Crystal Brisco, but Daddy also has a degree in photography. I keep telling him what better way to use it that take beautiful pictures of our baby boy with his fancy camera in between those times she's taking your picture. So today, that is what we did.

Micah, it is so hard to believe that my little (pushing close to) 18 pound chunk of a baby was ever in my tummy. You are getting huge with each passing day! You are wearing size 6-9 month clothing, and you wear size 3 diapers. Micah, you still absolutely hate your stomach, and I wonder if you will ever be rolling all over our house. I have noticed you know exactly how to roll, and you do it when you feel it is necessary to get what you want. All the while you cry as you roll across the floor. Mainly these days you want to spend your time sitting up playing with toys & playing in your new bouncer. You also like to face plant multiple times a day. For some reason, instead of rolling you will just lunge forward to get what you want instead. It definitely keeps Mommy on her toes!

We have several nicknames for you, and I'm not sure which ones are going to stick. You get called Micah Man, Micah Mike, Bubba, Stinkbug, and Stinker to name just a few of your various monikers. Some of your fave things to do include grabbing at Mommy's drink, grabbing at Daddy's facial hair, grabbing at Mommy's long hair, patting us on our cheeks, patting our shoulders, and clapping your hands.

You truly are the ray of sunshine in our lives. We are so humbled and blessed by the sacred gift God bestowed upon us to raise you in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Mommy & Daddy are by no means perfect, but we strive to do everything in our power to raise you to be a fine Christian young man one day.

Sometimes when you look at me the way you are in the photo below, I just know how important it is to be your mommy. We can't wait to watch you learn, grow, discover, and come to enjoy football. (Just kidding. Or not. Probably not a choice for you with your daddy's Mississippi State obsession.)

Do I need any further evidence?

We love you, Micah! Here's to many more (Lord willing) happy years together.

All our love,

Mommy & Daddy

Dinner with friends.

On Saturday night we met up with our close friends The Beauchamps for dinner at their house. Mr. C met Lenny sometime before I was even in the picture at a great church after Mr. C moved up here after college. They were in the same discipleship group for a couple of years. Move forward a couple more years to their time in a singles' group at the same awesome church. That summer the boys would meet the most awesome things to enter their lives. Yup, that'd be me & Tami. Oh, yeah. They (the Beauchamps) got engaged right around the same time we (the Confidents) did, and we were married a month apart back in 2004. As time has marched on (almost seven years of marriage for both couples this summer--wow!), children have been born, moves have happened, promotions have happened, masters' degrees have been earned, and life has just quickly changed from those days of just the four of us watching movies on Friday nights. It's fun to watch friendships change and grow as live changes, too.

We drove out to the "country" to see them (they used to be our neighbors), and Lenny made burgers while C made fries. We fed our gaggle of children (ok, there are only three among the four of us at this point, but I imagine one day we'll have a gaggle between all of us), talked, and in true style...watched a movie. (That is what we always do. I rarely remember doing anything else other than dinner and a movie.) Of course, children are the focus of our world now. Therefore, I took pics of the kids and not the adults. Whoops.

At least is Beau somehow ends up Micah's best friend one day I can say, "I took pictures of you as babies." I took lots of pictures. These were the only good ones. And you'll see that "good" is in the eye of the beholder.

Hannah & Micah
(This was the best picture by far of all of them.)

Then I started to attempt taking pics of all three of them looking the same way.
Beau was way more interested in Micah's toy.
Micah is watching Beau.
Hannah was obsessed with petting Micah's head.

Beau's looking at me finally.
Micah's looking at me while sucking those silly fingers.
I don't know where Hannah is looking, but she's still patting away at his head.
PS Micah can sit up on his own, but the Bumbo just ensured that no little Beauchamp accidentally knocked him over. :)

Hannah is quite proud of herself. I think she looks a lot like her mom in this picture.
Micah is wondering when Hannah will take her hand off his head.
Beau's super protective of the sippy cup.

The three kids playing happily together.

Beau & Micah playing together.


We love you, Beauchamps! It was a great evening with our kiddos! Hopefully, we'll do it again sooner rather than later.

A date day downtown.

Before you start just beware of the bad quality phone pics. I accidentally left my point & shoot at home so this was all I had. You have been warned. There will be some awesome pics at the very end of the post.

My mother-in-law was dying for some "alone" time with Micah and so discussions got started about her coming to visit. In the end, she volunteered to drive up from Mississippi so that Mr. C & I could have a day date. (Mr. C has one crazy schedule, and so a lunch date was the best we could do.) Original plans called for us to go to my favorite Thai restaurant in town since we had a few celebrations to celebrate (my graduation with my master's degree which has been put off since Micah was only 10 days old at the time, Mother's Day, and Father's Day.) One great benefit of this weaning process is that I can go out, I can leave Micah, and I don't have to be back in three to four hours to feed him. So our lunch date turned into a lovely "date day" as we headed downtown instead when Mr. C got in the car and said, "Let's go to Texas de Brazil."

Me: Choking for a second. That place is expensive.
Mr. C: Yes, but on Wednesdays through Fridays the lunch special is at least half off the regular price.
Me: That is still a lot. Although, I do love half off.
Mr. C: When have we gone out for something special this whole year you've been off with the baby? You only live once! Let's go enjoy our date.
Me: Um...
Mr. C: Look, you know how much that Thai place costs, and frankly, this isn't much more than that with this special. And it is all you can eat. And we can go downtown. And it is a special occasion.
Me: Um...
Mr. C: I'm driving, so we're going.

And go we did. End scene.

If you know me, you probably know that I can be very miserly. I like to save money, and I hate to spend it unless I'm getting a deal. Every so often Mr. C has to push me into buying something or going somewhere. He's a great saver, too, but he's also more fun than I am. See I've lived here my entire life (basically except a few brief years in Nashville that I don't remember), and everybody talks about this place. Why did I wait so long to go?

If you have never been to Texas de Brazil and can go...run, don't walk. Seriously. So much better than my Thai place. First of all, let me explain how it works. For a set price you get a salad bar (which is the Father of All Salad bars), but for $2 more you get all you can eat meat. When I say all you can eat, I mean all you can eat...

Yes, those are my two plates. Yes, they were just for me.

They give you those little tongs you see in the picture above, and then men come around the restaurant carrying huge chunks of meat on sword like skewers. When I say meat please do not let me underestimate the amounts or quantities of meat. We're talking top choice sirloins, ribs, prime rib, lamb, and who knows what else. I am not up on all the red meat vernacular, but if it is an amazing cut of meat you'll see it. I promise. Don't go if you hate red meat (although the salad bar was amazing full of incredible side dishes & veggies) or if you don't like your meat medium. I'm sure they can cook something for you to order, but mostly it was: Here's a hunk of meat. I slice some off. You use your tong to grab the meat. Then put the meat on your plate.

As far as dates go, the ambiance was amazing! Swanky, swanky. Although on a Friday at lunch I saw people in shorts, and we were wearing jeans. At night, I would definitely dress up.

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The funniest part of this place? They give you a red/green card to sit by your plate. If your card is on red the waiters with the meat will keep walking. However, if you keep your card on green the meat keeps flowing. Obviously, our stayed like this most of the lunch:

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We also shared a creme brulee dessert because I may have a beer saving budget, but I do have wine tastes when it comes to desserts. (Note: that was not part of the all you can eat. We were surprised. Whoops. Oh, well.) After that, we decided to walk around downtown for a little bit enjoying some music on Beale Street. It always amazes me that almost any time of day you can find somebody playing the blues down there.

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We walked around on Beale for a while. I have never seen it this empty, but the drunkards mainly come out at night with the vampires. Although, I did smell a few people who were a little too tipsy for two in the afternoon.

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I found this huge piece of valuable advice while walking back towards the car. We laughed so hard that for once Mr. C said, "You have to take a picture of that for your blog."

Don't worry, I'm not letting Puff Daddy anywhere near my heart anytime soon.

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In the spirit of random things you can see downtown, Mr. C also got really close to this car so I could take this picture "for the blog", too. One day I'll have him doing guest posts. Just you wait.

Another sound piece of advice to pray for the haters.

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Afterwards, we headed over to Harbor Town to walk around along the river. I hadn't been to Harbor Town in years, and it was so pretty! It really reminded me of Charleston, South Carolina. You can go to the slide show and look at pics here if you want. By this point, my phone was almost dead and not taking pics. However, it was a really neat place to visit. We decided that we might need to pack up and move down there. Mr. C said he'd give up a backyard for streets that he could roam like these. Although the price is mighty steep for a river view. Imagine that. I wanted to take a trip to Miss Cordelias, but Mr. C was tired at that point.

We had a wonderful day, and then came home to a baby who had been sleeping for two and a half hours. Why does he always sleep when we have a place to go or someone else is watching him?

His Grandmommy & PawPaw had gotten him this super cute bouncy seat. When we got home Mr. C put it together so his grandmother could watch him play in it. He loves this thing, and I'm glad he has something else to do now! We've talked about getting him one, but gifts are always welcomed! :)

Now onto the good pictures! These weren't taken with my phone. We actually got some supplies we needed to get Mr. C's fancy pants camera up and working. So some of these were taken with his fancy lens! Yeah! Finally! (Although he'd probably be mad at me for "fixing" them in Picnik. He's got a degree in Photoshop aka Graphic Design, so he always says I don't know what I'm doing. He's right.)

Micah & his bouncy seat.
(Taken with the fancy camera and zoom lens. I edited them in Picnik.)

This picture was taken by Grandmommy with my point & shoot after we returned from our date. Little Micah with Mommy & Daddy.


It was a fun day!

Cheap entertainment.

Entertaining your child doesn't get much cheaper than this.

Nor does it seem to take that much imagination.

Enjoy the video & pics. Pretty cute, if I say so myself.

(Not biased or anything.)

Micah's six month photos.

On Wednesday (of last week) my car died in my parents' driveway. That was super fun! Let me tell you that I am itching for a new car. I won't lie. I am. I drive a 1999 Honda Accord Coupe. (Read with me: two doors.) It is driving me insane having two doors, and my car is old. I bought it when I was 22. That's ten years ago.

(Wow. I am really getting old. It is a sad and happy thing to grow up.)

At any rate, my car has been paid for for six years. My husband's car is also paid for. He drives a 1998 Ford Explorer Sport. (Read with me: two doors.) HOW did that happen? So we both have two door vehicles, but we just haven't broken down enough to want to buy another car when these two work with occasional breakdowns. They are 12 + year old cars.

At any rate, it took a couple of days to figure out what was wrong and what to do. On Thursday morning (of last week), we had Micah's six month photos taken by Crystal Brisco. Love her! She's awesome, and if you need a Memphis area photographer I'd say check her out. (Just let her know I sent you so I can get the referral!)

Here is the direct link to his sneak peeks on her blog. I now have the images on CD so I thought I'd share. I picked out several that were my faves and some that didn't appear on her website.

The train outfit was made by my talented mother. And yes, we did revolve the photoshoot around the outfit. You'll see.

One of my faves.



I love how big his eyes look in black and white photography.



This was my absolute fave.

Love his eyes.

Ok, this is the train track picture we got which turned out great!

This is what I wish we'd gotten (train in background with his outfit to match), but the sun didn't really allow Micah to cooperate and look at us. How cute this picture is because he is smiling. Just wish he'd gotten those eyes open! Oh, well.

Happy baby!

miPhone post.

So I've seen a couple of my friends do this thing called a miPhone post where they basically share "substandard" pictures from their week that came as they used their iPhones.

(I am not special enough to have an iPhone.)

(I have an Android phone instead.)

(Somehow MyAndroidFakeiPhone Post didn't seem like a good title.)

(FauxFoneFotos was my backup name. I nixed that idea, too.)

(I'm having fun with parentheses. Can't you tell? Ms. J? Ellen? What do you think?)

Anyway, I do take a lot of phone pics, and sometimes they turn out cute. Sometimes they turn out not so cute. At any rate, they have documented some of our week so I thought I'd use them in more bloggy posts. Plus it is a lot easier to post from my phone sometimes than from the computer.

We've had some Mexican at our fave place. I needed some bacon tacos again.

(Poor Micah will soon find out he should have been born Hispanic or Asian by his mother's food choices.)

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Micah basically has decided to self wean. I'm not really super excited or super sad about it. I have just noticed my milk doesn't always seem sufficient. I guess we're heading more towards formula, and I'm ok with that. I'm going to keep nursing him in the morning, a couple times a day, and at night. However, we are officially moving into weaning stage to get ready for my return to work in August.

Yesterday he nursed & ate a great breakfast. He was still screaming. I got out his sippy cup from the dishwasher, and he goes nuts. I give it to him with formula...downs 8oz in (seemed like) 60 seconds. So it begins. He does a good job, though!

He's already discovering my cell phone, the home phone, and the remote controls. I try to distract him with the play cell phone.

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Why does technology grab them so early these days?

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He's just super excited about his own FauxFone.

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I enjoyed a very lovely view from my kitchen window as I did dishes after church last night.

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Yup, I have some awesome sunset views from our backyard.

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It's one of my fave parts of this house.

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Then Two Fingers demonstrated this morning again how they rule the roost at Casa Confident.

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Even when he is eating, Micah wants to put those stupid (sorry but during meal times that is how I feel) fingers in his mouth between bites.

It can be annoying but also amusing.

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And Somebody Who Shall Remain Nameless is finally rolling more around the room. He can do it, but he often chooses NOT to do it.

I'm afraid we may have a stubborn streak on our hands.
(He will get it honestly on both sides, if so.)

Somebody won't stay on his tummy at all. Somebody always wants to be sitting or on his back. We "go at it" several times a day as I try to force more tummy time.

It's only met with him rolling onto his back as if to say, "Mom, I know how to not be on my tummy now, silly."

At any rate, he rolled around the room some more today.
Maybe he will finally see what can be gained from mobility?

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There ya go.
Our week in FauxFoneFotos.

Until I noticed mid publish post button that somebody had my shoe from the previous picture I wrote about his mobility. He was turned a complete different direction trying to eat my shoe.

Speak of the devil.

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And yes. I promptly took a picture of him with the shoe.
Followed by me taking the shoe.
Then I blogged about the shoe.

The world has changed, Internet Friends. The world has changed.