He Crawls

What an amazing experience it is to witness the advancements our tiny little man is making every day. When we brought him home from the hospital he could do little more than sleep and stare at you. If we were really lucky we'd go through the excitement that came he'd get his eyes crossed and we'd wait anxiously while holding our breath, praying that his eyes wouldn't get stuck that way.

Now he is, as it seems, a real person with his own personality, and what a personality it is! While he is incredibly happy on the whole, he also knows exactly what he wants and will accept nothing less. As I always say about him "He wants what he wants when he wants it." I've learned the hard way that Isaac does not want to be fed. He wants to feed himself. I've been worrying myself sick about whether or not he would ever eat well. He seemed to be so picky and wouldn't eat anything unless it was mixed it with a heavy dash of sweet potatoes. It turns out he really is picky, but not about what he eats, just how. Thanks to his two tiny teeth he has been chowing down on cheerios, crackers, noodles, rice, french fries, chicken, and his new favorite, beef.
See Isaac enjoying his Mommy's beef stew (listen carefully and you may even hear his Daddy complaining about the very same stew).



Last Monday Isaac crawled for his first significant distance. For whatever reason, he was really interested in the glass that I had been drinking out of. Whatever works! Now, a mere week later he's all over the place. I was crawling behind him tonight threatening to get him and he thought that was the most hilarious thing in the world. Have I ever mentioned how great it is to finally find someone who thinks I'm as funny as I've always known I am?!

Still More New Things

During the last two weeks my sweet, smiling, happy regardless of any situation son has turned into a pitiful, crying, whining, waking up in the middle of the night to eat little being. Some time between 3 a.m. and 9 a.m. Saturday morning his first tooth finally broke through. I know this because at 3 a.m. I was up rubbing orajel on his gums and there was no tooth. When I went to rub more on at 9, he had a tooth! Since that first tooth came through he has been waking up less but is still inconsolably crying each morning by 4. The only thing I can do to soothe him is to feed him. He hasn't eaten in the middle of the night since he was 10 weeks old. It breaks my heart that he is in so much pain. Yet, there is a light at the end of the tunnel as I can see another tooth right right at his gum line. Albeit, I can see yet another tunnel right ahead but at least we'll all get a few days of relief before it starts all over again.
Isaac keeps getting closer and closer to crawling. He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks and had recently learned how to sit up from lying on his stomach. But his most recent and exciting accomplishment can be seen in the video below: Enjoy!

More New Things

Isaac has begun to get into the eating process and has started eating Cheerios as well as learning to use the spoon by himself. Here is a video of than endeavor.



In addition, we've also tried the classic trick of getting a donkey to move by dangling a carrot on a stick in front of him. Instead of donkeys and carrots, we use Isaac and bottles. Cruel, but it's working.

Isaac Scoots Backwards

It's been a while since we updated last, but Isaac is doing a lot of new things. First, he scoots backwards now! Second, he is saying mama and dada. He doesn't know what he is saying and won't repeat it back but I have heard him say both by themselves. Joe will tell you that he doesn't say it but other people have heard it too.

I really just wanted to post to show off some videos. The first was taken last Friday and is of Isaac scooting- don't laugh at me; I was just really excited. The second was taken in July and is of Isaac doing his then favorite thing- jumping in his jumper.

Finally An Update

It's been a while since I've written and lots of things have happened. Isaac is completely on formula and some baby food now. He's been doing really well with that and it's been easier on me than I had imagined it would be. On August 18 Joe started back to work and Isaac went back to Building Blocks. They both seemed to transition easily but I think Joe was a little more reluctant to start back than Isaac was. Benson Middle had its open house the next Monday night and Isaac and I went to hang out with Joe during that. The students started back four days later. The past two Fridays Joe has been covering high school football games for the Smithfield Herald. I saw an advertisement for freelance writers and Joe submitted some of his work. The editor wrote him back right away. Joe seems to be really excited about this, especially because it gets him a press pass. His first article can be read here.

Isaac came down with a stomach virus a week ago yesterday. By Monday he was pooping every hour and he had a wicked diaper rash. He was crying when he went and as I was changing his diaper. It was pitiful. I stayed home with him most of the week and worked from home before sending him back to daycare on Thursday. He's still not 100% but he's definitely better and his bottom has healed which is a plus.

During this week he started doing some new things. I found him asleep on his stomach twice. I always suspected that he could roll over to his tummy but just didn't want to. For a long while now he's been able to turn himself around while on his stomach but I always thought it was on accident until the other day. He was laying on the floor and saw our cat and whipped himself around 90 degrees to reach him. It was really impressive - I'm not sure I can even do it that quickly. He's started pulling himself up pretty well. He doesn't have a good grip but if you hold onto his hands he can do it. In fact, that's all he wants to do. If you try to sit him up he stiffens his legs so you have to let him stand. He's so proud of himself, too. There's a picture of him standing up in his pack 'N play in the photo album. I really believe he's going to walk before he crawls. My mother-in-law said that Joe walked first, so it looks like Isaac is going to follow in his footsteps. I just can't believe how far he's come in such a short time. My baby isn't going to be a baby for much longer. He's already in some 12 month clothes - I had to bust them out yesterday because it was too cool for his summer stuff.

We'll try to do a better job of updating and especially of posting pictures. Until then!

Is it Really Almost Over?

It's hard to believe that next Thursday I have to go back to work. This summer seems to have gone so fast. I have to admit that when it started, I was very nervous about the idea that I would be the primary caregiver for Isaac each day. It's been an easy ride though. I've begun to understand how to take care of him and what he needs when he is crying. I'm by no means an expert, but the time I've had to spend with him each day has been great. Being home all summer with him really does make you want to find a way to work from home. I'm continuing to work on my websites to try to build them enough to where I could make that my full time job. It's not there yet, but I see potential.

Since our last update, a few things have happened. We had Isaac's six month pictures taken and they turned out very well. It's funny when we get pictures taken because all the other babies are screaming and he's in and out in like 10 minutes. He smiles and we're done. I'm not sure if we will be able to post the pictures on the flickr account, but I'll ask Virginia on that one. As far as new tricks, there isn't much to report. He has started to eat food from a spoon. Virginia feeds him a little each night, mostly sweat potatoes or cereal. He seems to do OK with it. He's still not even trying to crawl, but he can turn over OK. He's not perfect, but he's getting there.

In other news, Virginia and I got Netflix a couple weeks ago and LOVE it. I love the fact that I don't have to drive to Blockbuster and pay $4.50 for a movie. They deliver it to me and it's cheaper. You can't beat that. So, we've watched movies a lot lately. Virginia hated the movie we watched last night, but I really liked it. It was Five People You Meet in Heaven. It stars Jon Voight. I thought it was very good. It didn't have any action, but it had great dialogue and was very good. I highly recommend it. That's about all for now.

Life on the Run

Things have been so crazy for us lately. As Joe told you, he started Daddy Daycare a few weeks ago. Isaac seems to be doing fantastic with it. He's falling asleep on his own during the day, which he never did before. I had my own way of putting Isaac to sleep and it never worked for Joe. I'd get frustrated and worry "how is he going to manage when he has to keep him on his own," but sure enough, Joe figured out his own method and it's better than mine, and less work for that matter, too. When I come home we fix dinner, eat, and relax on the couch. I play with Isaac as much as he is awake during that time. He is just doing so much sleeping right now that the time I have with him when I'm home is so precious. He is such a funny kid. He gets excited when he sees me or Joe come into the room, and when he's not playing with his toes or eating his toys he's making all sorts of noise. Just today when I came home from work he was playing in his jumper and just laughing for no apparent reason. He is such a joy.

We had a lot of fun in DC this weekend. We left the house at 4:45 Saturday morning and drove straight to Mt. Vernon. We toured the estate and the mansion. I thought it was really cool but I don't think it was Joe's forte. I had lots of pictures but you won't believe how simple it is to accidentally erase your entire memory card on a digital camera. I did a quick run-through as Joe and Isaac waited patiently. Then we drove into Arlington where we stayed, dropped off the car and took the metro downtown. There we saw the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument (from afar). By then it was time to head back to the hotel. At night we went to a Nationals v. Devil Rays game and while we were in line to buy tickets these people came up to us and offered us free tickets. Come to find out they were season ticket seats 8 rows up from the plate and the best part was that they were VIP so we got into the VIP lounge where there was a free buffet of really great food like fresh tuna, shrimp, lasagna, and every dessert you can imagine. Joe will have to tell you about the game, he was far more excited about it than I was.

On Sunday we drove to the National Mall and parked in front of the Capital building. We went in the Air and Space Museum (only for about 10 minutes since it wasn't on the itinerary for the day...Joe's like the schedule nazi...don't get me started), then we went to the Natural History Museum, and the American History Museum where they had a replica of certain parts of the White House, so the picture of me in front of the oval office isn't actually the oval office, but hey, who's keeping track! That really took all day. I had wanted to see the White House and the Holocaust Museum but we were exhausted and just left to go home. I'll tell you, it was awesome to be in our capital on the 4th of July weekend but it was a zoo! We'll have to go back again soon.

Check out the photo album for pictures of the weekend.