I Speak Muna Muna

Isaac is developing quite the imagination. For weeks now he's been going around "picking" things off a table or the wall and saying "I eat grape." or "you want berry?". He'll come to you with his hand out, stick it in your face and demand that you eat the pancake he made especially for you.

Yesterday he stacked two blocks together and said "I eat ice cream." He got ready to take a "bite" out of it and stopped, said "uh oh. I say blessing." He then put it between his knees and said, "Dear God, thank you ice cream. Amen," and proceeded to pretend to eat his ice cream cone. I of course bowed my head with him when he prayed, but I thought I was going to wet myself it was so cute and funny.

As you all know, toddlers often times have their own language. I call Isaac's Isaneese. Several weeks ago he was laying in bed getting ready to go to sleep and he started chanting "muna muna muna muna." I asked him if he was speaking Isaneese, to which he replied, "No. I speak muna muna." What a character.

April Update

I wanted to take some time to update everyone on where our life stood.

In case you didn't already know, I quit my job teaching and have since began working at a dental office owned by a guy in our church. His son in law is a friend of ours and is the head of business operations, so I was able to go through him for the job. I'm really enjoying the job and have learned a ton of information about the dental world.

A lot of people were surprised to hear that I quit teaching, but the fact is that it just doesn't pay the kind of money I feel like I'm worth. I hope that doesn't come across as arrogant, but when you go to school and have a bachelors degree and see managers at fast food restaurants making virtually the same salary it gets a bit frustrating. I was sad to leave the kids in the middle of the year, one girl even cried, but I will get a chance to tutor eight of them over the next five weeks (and get paid good money for it).

Virginia's mom, Melissa, is still living with us, and will continue to for the rest of her life. One answer to prayer about three weeks ago was that she prayed the prayer of salvation with Virginia one Saturday night. I think that was a burden off of Virginia and it seems to have changed her outlook on life. As for her health, things are not great. We have hospice nurses coming to the house a couple times a week and have put her house on the market. At this point we're just trying to get things organized and taken care of so that we're ready when the end does come. I have no idea how long she has left, but it's important to get it done quickly any way.

Please continue to pray for us and all the changes going on in our life. This is probably the hardest thing I've ever had to go through. For the most part, my life has been rather problem free in terms of major changes. This has been a learning experience for both of us.

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.