Reading back, we seem to have begun every recent post with a comment on how quickly time is passing, but it really is an accurate description of how this year, 2011, the year of Micah Brown, has felt for us. It has been a good year, rocky at the start with Micah’s early arrival and stint in the ICU, but extremely rewarding and enjoyable towards the end, particularly visiting NZ and introducing Micah to his extended family and friends. The little chap has never seen so many new faces and had so much excitement compressed into 3 weeks before and probably finds life terribly dull now that we’re back to our quieter routine in Dublin!
Our time in NZ passed in a blur, as it always does. Micah’s dedication was an awesome day with brilliant blue skies and sunshine as we committed to do our best to bring him up in a loving Christian home with the support of all our friends and family. We enjoyed some early Christmas celebrations with our families before flying back to Dublin. Incidentally, I highly recommend Air NZ’s new premium economy cabin if you’re travelling with a young baby. if you request seats in the middle of the plane, you’ll find a handy little armrest space between the two seats that is just perfect for the baby to sit on. Excellent food and service too, easily on par with business class on many lower-class airlines. Thanks to that, despite being long, the flights to and from NZ were comfortable and Micah was well behaved. Stories of baby induced travel disaster have been avoided for now.
Right after we got back Micah had a cold for about a week which made for some rough going and sleepless nights, aggravated by the fact that he’s getting some teeth! I discovered the first obvious protrusion while putting him to bed last night, and we managed to get him to open his mouth and hold up his tongue for long enough today to see a very definite white thing starting to poke out from the skin. Exciting times, thank goodness for cold flannels, chewy toys and paracetamol! Luckily he’s a strong little trooper and doesn’t complain too much. Correlation between this and Kat singing “all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth” to him for the last few weeks is yet to be positively confirmed.
That brings us to today, Christmas eve, sadly there is no snow outside, but it is cold and windy and we’re all bundled up warm inside with the heating on and the Christmas tree and sparkly lights shining on the hearth. We’re looking forward to introducing Micah to the magic of Christmas and kick-starting some family traditions that will hopefully live on for many years to come.
2012 is just around the corner and will certainly bring plenty of changes and new experiences for us in all aspects of life. We look forward to catching up with as many of you as we can in the coming year, and send you all our best wishes and prayers for a safe, happy and enjoyable 2012.
Love
Matt, Kat & Micah