Dear Micah (11 Months)

You have become quite the little rock climber this month! We went on a week long climbing trip to Red Rocks in Nevada and you wanted to climb everything in sight. We couldn’t keep you off the rocks. You wore through your fingertips and blew through both big toes of your shoes. Although climbing has become second nature, you still have not learned how to walk! You seem to have no interest in trying since you can get around everywhere on your hands and knees.  You love to push your cars around on the floor and you even learned to make the “Vroom-vroom” sound! Your favorite toys are anything that make music. You love dancing and have even picked up a few new moves from Daddy like waving your hands in the air. You understand so much of what we say now and surprise us daily. You can identify many different body parts including your head, ears, nose, mouth, and tongue! You love to play “Pat-a-Cake” and sing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and do all the finger movements to the song. We love all of your funny faces. You make us laugh all the time! Our favorite is when you pucker up your lips and give kisses. You do it so enthusiastically! You love to play hide and seek, but you are not so good at hiding. You love to play with your magnetic board in your playroom and pull all the animals off of it. You “roar” when you see a lion and say “moo” for a cow. Mommy and Daddy still read to you all the time. It’s amazing how long your attention span is sometimes. You can say “Lao Lao”, “Lao Ye”, “Bye Bye”, “Blue”, and “Baba”. You are always jabbering away in some kind of special “Micah language” that we still have trouble understanding. Your nanny, Chelsea, taught you how to hold up your pointer finger when we ask “How old are you?”. You have six teeth and you know how to use them! Baby foods no longer interest you and you always want to eat what is on our plates. Mealtime is your favorite time of the day. Bath-time is a close second. You will try pretty much anything we put in front of you. When it’s something you really like, you don’t like to share. You will “pretend” to give us a bite, then snatch it back in an instant! You’ll shove it all in your mouth until it’s so stuffed that you can’t possibly fit anymore in! You love to go out to eat. You always sit sideways in your highchair so you can watch everyone around you. You love to wave to everyone, even if they are not paying attention to you. Mommy and Daddy take you to swim class every Wednesday night at the YMCA. You love to splash in the water and can never seem to get enough of it! You are such a little fish and we can’t wait for summer to be here so you can swim even more. 

Spring Break 2013

The end of another long winter was finally here and to kick start the spring climbing season, we headed to the desert...Red Rocks, Nevada! Just shy of a year old and not even able to walk on his own, Micah decided that this was the trip to start his climbing career. As soon as this little man's hands touched the sandstone, he took off. Starting first on a slight incline, probably near the 5.1 level, he moved quickly on his hands and knees. Geared up in Mommy's downjacket (lesson #1 - bring coat daily regardless of how warm it may seem in Vegas) and braving the chilly headwind, he squealed in delight as he explored every inch of the rocks that surrounded him.

As he familiarized himself with the rock more and more each day, Micah started to tackle some harder lines. By the end of the trip, he was cruising up everything in the 5.1 range. He high stepped, mantled, and smeared his feet up everything in sight. Every now and then, a grunt or a little "Zaht!" came out when he was trying a difficult move. We couldn't keep him off the rocks. When we did try to grab him for a quick picture or pick him up for meal time, he squirmed and jellyfished himself out of our arms so he could climb some more. We may have an addict on our hands. After a week of climbing on sandstone, Micah blew through both toes on his shoes and wore through all of his fingertips. Don't worry though Micah, hard calluses will replace that soon...

Working out his beta for the crux section

Micah's reaction every time we interrupted his climbing.

Blowing kisses to his adoring fans.

Getting strong!

Mantle

A climber and his fingertips at the end of a weeklong climbing trip. 

As for Daddy and I...well, I think we both realized just how difficult it is to accomplish our own climbing goals with a one year old climbing baby on our hands. He kept us so busy most of the time that I can barely recall the climbs I got on. No big sends by either of us, but given that this was our first climbing trip after a three month winter hibernation, we are both pretty happy with what we accomplished. It was hard to project anything, so almost every climb was either an onsight/flash or a complete shut down. Thanks to all of our friends who helped put up draws, clean routes, belay us, and watch Micah, we managed to get a good number of climbs in everyday. Watching the little man laugh and climb on the rocks made our trip all the better and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Climbing highlights of the trip for us:

A Day in the Life (11c), Under the Boardwalk (11a), When the Cat's Away (11b), Superglide (11a), Gridlock (11a), Angled Dangler (12a), Red Storm Rising (11b), Basement (11c), Just Shut up and Climb (11a), Long Walk on a Short Pier (9+ - one of the most exposed and beautiful lines we did!)

Some pictures from our trip:

Dinner with my Aunt Julie and Uncle Bane

Yoli on Day in the Life (Pic by Oky)

Yoli on Range of Motion (Pic by Oky)

The California Gang

CR working some hard 11 at Wake Up Wall

Chillin' with the ladies poolside

Love that smile!

Braden on a 5.12 at Holiday Wall

Silly boy!

Tickle tickle!

Working a 5.12 at the Pier

The St. Louis Gang + Sean, our gracious Vegas host!