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!
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.
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.
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.
Monday during my lunch I ran into a man I work with who was there with his wife and daughter. She's been fortunate enough to be able to stay home with their little girl who is two months younger than Isaac. The two of them have been married for over 10 years and had been praying for Hannah for years and had nearly come to the conclusion that they would never have children. She was telling me about how she cried when Hannah turned a year old and how quickly the time has flown by. Everyone can relate to feeling like time passes too quickly but those with children have a heightened sense of this. She started talking about how she hates to go anywhere without Hannah because she changes so quickly and is doing so many new things that she's afraid she'll miss something. She really struck a cord in my heart and with my response of "I know, it just breaks my heart that I can't be with Isaac during the day," I broke into tears like a big baby. For the rest of the day I remained in the same state; if I so much as broke concentration of what I was working on, the water works started all over again.
Joe and I have been listening to the Money Matters PodCast pretty regularly. For those of you who aren't familiar with Money Matters, they're a Christian Ministry dedicated to teaching what God has to say about how we should handle money. One of the things I hear them repeat so often is a passage out of scripture that says the debtor is servant to the lender. How true this is. I look back now on all the student loans we took out based on the advise of University Financial Aid. Some we needed to be able to finance our education but others we took as cushion, to put into savings since we had very little and felt we really should have since we had no health insurance. They told us that some of the loans would be cleared since Joe was going to be a teacher and that it was cheap money to borrow. We were young, stupid kids. If we didn't have these loans, would I be able to be home with Isaac? Maybe; probably not. I don't know; my husband's a teacher and we all know they're underpaid.
All I know is that I was home today with Isaac because he became sick Tuesday afternoon and although he hasn't gotten sick at all today, he's slept most of the day. He could probably use an extra day of rest that he undoubtedly will not get enough of at daycare tomorrow but I'm forced to bring him in out of guilt about all of the work I have to get done and the people who are relying on me there. I guess I'll just say a little prayer and push on.
During the past two weeks Isaac has had 4 teeth break through, that brings us to a grand total of 6 teeth. The poor child has been working away at his food (and believe me, he eats a lot of it) with only two teeth since October. He now has four, incredibly cute, gappy top teeth adding to his adorable smile.
As of February 13, Isaac has moved up to the toddler's room in school. He really seems to enjoy it. They have music and art time every day, go outside in from 9-10 when it's warm enough and again at 3 after they all get up from their 2 1/2 hour naps. It's very structrued and he is really thriving in that kind of an environment. The best part of it, however, is the nap time. That was my biggest complaint about the other classroom. No one slept at the same time so there was always someone awake for Isaac to play with therefore he just didn't sleep. The toddler room is so cute. They have a little table that sits about 12 inches off the floor with tiny little chairs they all sit in to eat breakfast, lunch and snack. They also have their own playground which has been Isaac's nemesis. One of the first days there he fell and hit his nose on the playground and he continues to reinjure it. My poor baby has had a scab or bloody nose in some shape or form every day since he first started. You can see it in most of the pictures we've added to the photo album.
Isaac's sweet curls, which we used to be able to brush down are now in full control. I've now resorted to mouse to keep him from looking like we just forget to brush his hair every morning. I really do love his curls but I feel bad that they always look in such disarray.
Lately I've become worried that Isaac is overconcerned about his weight. Every morning and I try to get ready for work Isaac steps up on the scale and down, up and down. I can't tell if he's just trying to make sure the scale tells him the same thing each time or if he's trying to exercise his gluts. Either way it's very amusing, to him at least.
Well, until next time!
It's really time that we quit being so terrible when it comes to updating this site. Life is just so busy these days that it's hard to find the time or the motivation to actually sit down and write. Since our last update, we have had a birthday party for Isaac. It went well. We had some people over to the house for cake and ice cream. Here are a couple pictures of Isaac opening presents if you haven't seen them in the photo album yet. Click on the photos to make them larger.
Last night Virginia and I went to Olive Garden for Valentine's Day. It was the first time I had been there since about three years ago. It was good. My main course was not as good as I had hoped, but the white chocolate raspberry cheesecake for desert more than made up for it. What was frustrating for us was the fact that the waiter seemed to rush us. We had ordered an appetizer to start with. He brought out our salad and breadsticks to start. Before we had even finished the salad, our appetizer was on the table. Then, not 5 minutes later, in the middle of us eating our calamari and mushrooms, our main dish came out. We had a huge amount of food on the table, which was a little frustrating.
That's about it for now. I know Virginia took some pictures last night, so be looking for those soon.
It seems like only yesterday I was complaining about how slowly every day was passing. Every day past the day Isaac was due seemed like an eternity. Every hour meant my legs grew that much more tired and my ankles that much more swollen. Fast track one year later and I don't know where the time has gone. This past year Isaac has learned to sit, roll, feed himself, pull up, crawl, and walk. He has two teeth - yes, just two - and a row full of teeth pressing on his poor little gums just waiting to all pop through at the same time. He has a mound full of unruly curls sitting on top of his head and the happiest eyes and brightest smile I have ever seen in my entire life.
I can't believe how much our lives has changed since he made his arrival into our lives. Our world, which used to revolve around sports and social schedules, now revolves around nap and bed times and ...sports schedules...but that's another post. We find ourselves being entertained by the silliest things; the funny faces he makes when he tries a new food he really likes, or better yet, one he really dislikes, watching him crawl back and forth under the coffee table 16 times like it's his own private passage way, or the way he bursts out laughing and scurries off when you chase him. He is such a joy and a light and I couldn't think of a more rewarding, challenging, and humbling job than being his parent. Happy Birthday, my Tiny Man.
![](http://www.5minutesformom.com/4739/christmas-giveaway-2008/"target="blank"><img src="http://www.5minutesformom.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/120x240-giveaway2.gif" alt="Christmas Giveaway Stocking 120x240" title="120x240-giveaway2" width="120" height="240" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4585)
