Bad News

Thursday afternoon, Virginia got the word that her mom, who had been experiencing back pain and things of that nature, was on her way to the hospital at the order of the doctor. She had blood clots in her lungs and was admitted to Rex Hospital. As things have unfolded, it's looking more and more as if she has cancer, though the origin of it has yet to be determined. Virginia spent most of the night with her on Thursday and then the entire day on Friday. Tonight, she's there again and spending the night with her. She's pretty overwhelmed and could use your prayer. I'll try to keep you updated as I can.

Winning the War

It's not how many battles you win, it's who surrenders in the end. Right?

Isaac has always been a really good sleeper. With the exception of a few short periods where he screamed bloody murder before finally drifting off to sleep, he's always gone to sleep right away. Okay, so nap time has been a chore for quite some time, and sure, after the first week after moving to his "big boy bed," he started laying by the door and crying himself to sleep for over a month. But, for the past few months he's gone to bed without a fight. I read him a few books, we say our prayers, sing a a song or two, give hugs and kisses and we're done. But here's where things changed - Isaac learned to open doors. He's been able to open doors from the outside of a room for a while now, but now he's mastered opening a door from inside. He got that action down pat one day and on the next he started leaving his room.

For a few nights one of us would stay with him in his room until he fell asleep. It didn't take long and seemed pretty harmless. However, now that he can leave his room in the middle of the night, when he wakes up, why in the world should he stay in his room? By 1 in the morning, he's had a good nap, doesn't want to go back to bed and sitting with him in his room until he falls asleep becomes a two hour event.

So, I decided we were going to nip this thing in the bud before it got out of control. Last night I sent Joe off to Bible study, stayed home with Isaac and prepared myself for an hour or two of walking Isaac back to his bed.

He went to bed at 7:59. Between 7:59 and 8:35 he's left his room a 54 times - I'm feeling good; after all, he has to give up eventually. By 9:00, he left his bed a total of 85 times - I'm sure that he'll be in bed in no time. By 9:40 we're up to 139 times and I'm getting less patient. I keep remembering that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. I stopped counting at 10:05 -166 times of putting Isaac back to bed. At 10:15 I was ready to hurt my child, so for my sanity and his protection, I quit. I held the door shut and he kicked the door and cried himself to sleep, meanwhile I sat on the floor and cried my eyes out as well. This whole Supernanny/ Healthy Sleep Habits garbage of "no communicating or showing affection of any kind after bedtime" only works with a child who stays in bed for a little while and then gets up.

Who won that battle? I don't know - my count says we both lost.

Oh, by the way, he was up before 6 this morning.

Catching Up

I took a couple of videos off of our camera right before Isaac's birthday. Here they are.

This is Isaac right after Christmas:


This was back in early December:


This was at the State Fair in September:


This was back in July:

Big Boy Bed

Joe and I converted Isaac's bed to a toddler bed on Wednesday night. That morning he nearly threw himself out of his crib, so I figured it was time. He's done really well about staying in it. In fact, he hasn't gotten out of the bed once without permission. He is growing up so fast. Look how proud he is of himself!

Oh, I had to share this of my niece and nephews. It is the cutest thing!

And Ivory Makes 4

That's right. I am now the proud aunt of 4, count them, 4 little blessings. My little niece was born Friday September 14. I just can't wait to see the little bundle. I have to again ask my brother-in-law's forgiveness for taking his father way in his time of, what was it Jeff? "child birthing and rejoicing." My father-in-law was with us that weekend to install new floors in our kitchen and dining room, which look beautiful, by the way. Thanks Nonno!

On another note, our home fellowships started back up at church on Monday. We are excited to be able to go this year. Last year we weren't able to because of Isaac's sleep schedule. Admittedly he got to sleep two hours late Monday night, but that's because the little guy refused to go to sleep in the car on the way home. We can be in the car for fifteen minutes with the sun shining right on him and he konks out, but give him a quiet, thirty minute car ride in the dark and he jabbers the whole way home. He kept saying "hi." "hi." trying to get our attention. It was too cute and all I could do not to laugh at him.

Isaac has recently discovered "Melmo". He realized how great his dance and sing Elmo was and got interested in anything with Elmo on it. Sue sent three DVDs when Joe came down over the weekend to do the floors. Isaac loves them. They come in handy when we're trying to get dinner ready. We just sit him in his booster, turn him towards the TV and he's good to go for twenty minutes. I swore I'd never be that mother - not that I wouldn't put my toddler in front of the TV; I had no disillusions about that - I just never thought I'd be encouraging Elmo, after all, he's so annoying! At any rate, I've become that mother and couldn't be happier about it.

Happy Birthday America

Joe and Isaac have been busy with Daddy Day Care Part 2. Isaac appears to really be enjoying his time with Dad. When I come home in the afternoon he briefly acknowledges my presence then begins pointing to Joe chanting "Dada, Dada...." Yeah, I get it baby, you and Dad are buds. How 'bout a little love for mom?


The little guy is learning new words and new things every day. To his list of words he has added pear, chicken, shovel, nose, eye, bike, pee-pee and nite-nite and let's you know when he has a stinky diaper by waving his hand in front of his nose and saying "woo woo." It's very funny and I'm amazed and impressed by him every day. He has continued his reign of terror over our poor cats who are de-clawed, might I add. They, now realizing that he is far from fragile, have decided that enough is enough. Wrigley bit Isaac for the first and second time this weekend and Joe and I allowed it to happen. We've told him too many times to stop stepping on the kitties, stop pulling the kitties' tails, stop trying to ride the kitties, awww sweet boy petting the kitties - it's time he learns the hard way.

On a side note, please be in prayer for me. I have several ovarian cysts that pose no medical threat but are causing, sometimes severe, pain in my back and abdomen. The doctors are hoping they will resolve themselves, but in the mean time pray that the pain stays manageable with ibuprofen.

Tubular

As many of you may know, Isaac had tubes put in on May 17. He had been dealing with multiple ear infections, and had been on antibiotics consistently since Christmas. The tubes will make Isaac far less likely to get ear infections because they allow fluid to drain out. Since then we have seen a big change in his vocabulary. Not only is he saying more words, he seems to understand us better. I decided to document his progress but unfortunately I had some technical difficulties and the middle of the video was cut out.



In addition, Isaac also says shoe (shu), Grandma (amma), kitty (izzy), yeah, no ( nu nu nu nu), and wow (wu). He also blows kisses and gives piranha kisses (imagine a big, sloppy, open-mouth, teeth-first kiss).

Oh, and just for kicks, here's a video of Isaac at ten months. This is back when he still looked like he wore a toupee.