Wednesday: Leap Day

To celebrate Leap Day, Isaac wore hippos.  I know, it's kind of a stretch, but in cartoons characters always leap across rivers on the backs of hippos.  We just don't have any leaping or hopping creatures for Isaac to wear.

It was a really nice day out today (58 degrees) and so we went on a walk.  I was hoping to walk around the lake, but we only got a short third done before Isaac started getting cranky (i.e., seven minutes).  It was probably good though...by the time we got home I could tell that I haven't exercised in quite a while.

It was also real bath day.  (His little bath tub isn't working right now because it floats because he doesn't weigh enough.  I can't handle a squirmy baby and a floating bathtub all at the same time.  But this method has proven to work very well.) 

Tuesday: rattles and naps

Today I made a rattle for Isaac.  I was rather impressed by how the rattle thingy on the play thingy made him stop fussing every time I rolled it...but it isn't very mobile.  It involved putting seven pennies in a small water bottle.  It worked wonderfully.

I also have had a terrible time getting any sort of decent nap since Isaac has been born.  Often Isaac will wake up (it will be the time he decides to take a short nap).  Sometimes the phone will wake me up.  Sometimes I can't get to sleep.  Sometimes the toilet doesn't stop running.  It doesn't seem to matter though...something always manages to interrupt my nap. :(

Here Isaac is sitting on the couch.  Right before this he was sitting all by himself and looked like a very tiny adult. 

Today was much better than yesterday...things were back to normal.  For example, Isaac showed us how he really feels about tummy time.

But he also listened to Alice's advice and got his head up nicely.

We tried a different configuration at the play gym so that Isaac could sit up while playing.  It doesn't work quite as well, but I figured I should at least try because he has a slight flat spot on the back of his head.  We played with the yellow spinney thing with balls in it for about 20 minutes.  Any time he started to get fussy I just started rolling it again...I think he is intrigued by the sound.

Oh, and I finished the master bedroom and bathroom today!  No pictures yet because we're waiting for two lamps to show up.  But Isaac helped to model the last of the socks I'm getting rid of.

The whole day exhausted him.

Sunday: uff

Today didn't really work quite right. It started last night...I'm not sure if I was sleeping more soundly or if Isaac woke up an extra time, but I did not want to get out of bed at all. He almost missed getting fed at 2:30 because I was throughly convinced I had fed him around 2.

Anyway, Isaac didn't nap well all day, Ben and I had headaches, I was super tired, and Isaac was crankier than normal. The good news is that even though Isaac didn't nap well, he was still content to be in his swing...maybe not as long as a normal nap, but it was still very helpful.

We'll try again tomorrow.

Saturday: dice and dips

Ben rented a game kind of like shuffleboard (but with dice) for the week.  Isaac can play!  We played two games as a family.  Ben won one and Isaac won the other.


Also, Isaac pooped during his evening dip.  I was wondering how long it would take until that happened.  We used the kitchen sprayer to rinse him off and then Ben got him ready for bed while I cleaned the sink.  Speaking of dips, Isaac has three toys...a whale, a cowboy duck, and a normal duck.  Here is the normal conversation...

Amanda: what sound does a whale make?
Amanda: (whale noise.  I think I'm pretty good, actually)
Amanda: what sound does a duck make?
Amanda: quack quack
Amanda: what sound does a cowboy duck make?
Amanda: quack quack

I always feel like that last line should be a punch line, but I can't come up with anything.  Any thoughts?

Friday: eight weeks!

Isaac is eight weeks old today!  I even managed to capture a smile.  (It is a smile.  It's hard to tell sometimes in single photos).  However, I didn't get a lot of non-blurry shots...he kept moving!

The nursery is all put together!  Here it is from all four corners going counter-clockwise from the door.  (Don't miss the solar system hanging from the ceiling in the first one!)

 I have a print that I want to hang up, probably on top of the white cubes, but I couldn't easily find it.  So it is on the list of missing things, along with the hammer, a DVD of pictures, some hand-me-down-and-possibly-imaginary clothes for Isaac, and our other bedspread.  The drill was found today.

It was star day (he was wearing stars and there are so many stars in his bedroom) so we read Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for the camera.  It's a really cute book.  And read might be exaggerating a little bit.  We briefly looked at the first page this time.

Isaac realized that he wanted a head shot like Alice.  Of course, the only one with his head high like that was blurry.  But it looks like he's smiling!

Thursday: giraffes, Flurry, and socks

Today we learned about giraffes.  Did you know that Isaac is only slightly longer than a giraffe's tongue?  We also played with his two giraffes, Mabel and Geoff.  Mabel is in love with Isaac.  You can see it in her eyes.

Flurry had a good day exploring boxes.  It's always fun to suddenly find her in a new box.

And lastly, I decided I needed to get rid of some of my socks.  My problem is that I've only gotten rid of them if there is a hole.  But if they don't fit right or there is almost a hole, I tend not to wear them.  So I decided I would document them and then get rid of them.  Isaac helped show them off.

(I think the black socks look like a colonial hat.)

(He wasn't as helpful of a model for the second set.)

I was working on getting pictures for the picture wall, and was having a very hard time capturing Isaac smiling (he doesn't do it very long or very often).  Then I thought I'd grab a still image from a movie, only to realize that the movie quality pictures are rather bad.  But I joined them all together so you too can see what Isaac looks like.


In other news, yesterday Isaac and I finished reading Song of Songs for our devotions.  I know he doesn't understand anything yet, but it was still weird to read it to him.  Really weird.

Also, I have come to truly loathe a lot of packaging.  I didn't take most of Isaac's toys and clothes apart until the last week, and those silly little white ...uh, bands?  the things that hold tags to clothing...are my new nemesis. Companies used them very liberally and they are annoying and sometimes hard to get out.  Not only do you end up with one little end that falls on the floor half the time, sometimes it was hard to remove them without cutting the thing of interest.  One company that didn't use them was Gerber; they used tape.  While it felt really odd to untape the clothes (and they used tape liberally too) it was a lot better than the white things.

Tuesday: our day

Last night Isaac did sleep well and almost even woke up one less time. (he woke up at 6:30, but happily he went down to sleep right away until 8am). We'll see if it works again.

Isaac's room is almost unpacked and put together. There are a few more things to do and then I'll be ready to post pictures.

I went and played Bunco with some women from the church tonight. The game itself is completely based on luck and really, rather boring. But at the same time it was nice to get out and do something.

I returned home just in time to give Isaac his dip. A dip is similar to a bath, but there is no soap. We do our dips in the sink, and I finally had the idea to put that no-slip rubber matting stuff under him and that helped a ton! Oh, he did get his gums rinsed out too as we're trying to improve Isaac's breath quality.

Monday: misc

Here is the baptism video.  I wasn't able to combine them without losing significant image quality, so you have two videos.  And the second one you may want to skip the middle section of the other babies being baptized.


3:15-6:04 are the other baptisms...while important, maybe skippable for the purposes of this blog.


Today our goal was to keep Isaac awake for an hour in between naps during the day.  The reason is that he has started waking up around 4am quite awake.  Ben and I usually go give him a pacifier once and that does the trick, but it is still not what we want to be doing.  This was a little hard, but we did it...and it seemed to work rather well even.  The real test will be tonight.  Oh, except for right before dinner, when even tummy time couldn't wake him up.

Flurry has found a new hiding spot under Isaac's crib, although it looks like she's in jail.

I set Isaac down in the non-swinging swing for five minutes to go move around some furniture and he fell asleep.  But he had been awake for a while, so it was rather understandable

Sunday: isaac's problem, furniture

Isaac: waah
Amanda: you don't have any problems. What are you crying about?
Isaac: waah
Amanda: are you crying because your problem is that you don't have any problems?
Isaac scratches his face. There's a small drop of blood.
Isaac: WAAH
Amanda: there was no need to go and give yourself an actual problem for my sake.

I also spent quite a bit of time putting furniture together. The crib is all done and he is sleeping in it tonight.

The dresser is almost finished. I really like how everything looks and it is good quality stuff, but the assembly instructions could use a bit of work. One thing was labeled incorrectly, some bars didn't have labels, and there were not unique identifiers between the pieces of furniture. Hence, I put on two "C" pieces and then couldn't find the rest. It turned out they were unlabeled and I had to undo work that I had done.

Isaac's good idea, bad idea

Good idea: eating when you are hungry

Bad idea: yelling at the food in front of you when you are hungry

Saturday: a surprise and cousins

This morning my cousin and her daughter stopped by to see Isaac and me...it was fun.

Then this afternoon I started putting the crib together and ran into a large surprise...it is really a crib, changing table, and small dresser. This actually stressed me out a little bit because I was happy with the expected layout of isaac's room and now I need to choose what furniture I don't want. I know, it was a silly thing to be stressed about, but at least I identified it.

At night we went to Dad and Pat's and saw Kate and Oliver!

Friday: seven weeks

Isaac is seven weeks old!

. Last night Ben took the first night feeding with a bottle. Isaac also decided to skip his midnight feeding again, so I only had to get up once during the night!
Today we learned about helicopters. He wore helicopters and Ben flew his RC helicopter around a bit

We also learned about a few of the tools used to fix helicopters. We did this while Ben put together my new desk chair.

This photo was taken a few days ago, but it shows such a happy Isaac!

hmm, I thought I had a ton of other things to say, but I can't remember.

Thursday: green, kitchen, going out

Today was green day. It all started when Isaac wore a green shirt, pants with green on them, and green socks. Then since Ben wasn't dressed yet, Isaac thought it would be good for him to wear his green shirt. I threw on a green shirt, grabbed Flurry (who has green eyes) for a family picture.

Isaac was exhausted from organizing all that, so took his first nap of the day. I finished unpacking and cleaning the kitchen, and it looks awesome. Now to keep it that clean...

Finally, we had several errands to do this morning. This leads to a question...Isaac often seems to overheat in his car seat. So we used the bjorn at the library because he was awake and screaming (and hot). Then we used the stroller at Barnes & Noble because he was asleep (he got pretty warm, but not sweaty). What do other people do when going out to make everything go smoothly? Are there any tricks? I know he might get too hot because he screams, but then I think he screams because he is too hot.

Wednesday:a walk

Today we went for a walk. I thought it was lovely...it was warm and sunny. Isaac thought it was torture.

To be fair, he was too hot as I didn't realize how warm it was and he was about to have a large bowel movement, so he was legitimately mad.

We got home, he cooled off, and we played with rings. Or at least I played with rings and Isaac put up with it.

Last,but not least, I put up a solar system in Isaac's room. There will be pictures later, but the box said that it had updated information about Pluto's status. I looked and looked but couldn't find anything. Everything referred to it as a planet. It was false advertising.

Tuesday: happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentine's Day. We didn't really do anything over here to celebrate, but Isaac did wear a reddish shirt that says "my mommy rocks"...which seems like a Valentine's greeting to me.


Also, the blog had some technical difficulties due to the app I've been using to post. So I spent two hours in the morning fixing some stuff. I might have more to do, but I'm going to wait a week and see if it resolves itself.

Isaac had a weird day. He slept a lot, and if he wasn't sleeping he was either passively watching something or rather cranky. He ended up spending a lot of time watching his birds in the swing, but he also enjoyed shredding papers. We have a lot of paperwork that we managed to accumulate since we moved.

I finished a puzzle. I decided not to do the edges because they were all one color and the edges should have been brought in one row.

We also had several visitors today! Betsy came over and it was nicety get caught up with her. Then Jamie and her kids briefly stopped by.


And here's the best Valentine's gift...Isaac skipped his midnight(ish) feeding. He went five hours without eating and I got four hours of sleep!

Monday: stuff

Let's see...

Today Isaac got an email address. But he isn't using it yet, so we're not breaking any laws. I just needed it to make a sign on for the insurance.

Behind this door is a surprise...


Isaac was also rather sleepy today. And although you can't hear it, in this picture he is snoring up a storm.

Monday early morning: good idea, bad idea

Good idea: get out of a warm bed to feed a screaming baby

Bad idea: don't put on your robe and slippers and think that by not putting them on you will get back to bed in just a few minutes.

Sunday: church and play toy

We went to church again today, and sat in the cafe area.  Ben and I both caught only about half the service because other people don't have to be quiet out there.  (But neither does Isaac.)  Oh well.  I think it is still good practice.  We also got the baptism video.  I'm trying to convert, trim, and upload it to YouTube but it is taking a long time.  Maybe it will be tomorrow's goal.  Along with getting groceries.

I also put together a play toy thingy.  The problem this play toy has is that it forgot that babies have feet.  So if I set it over him the correct way (so that he can see the mirror and the toys hang down), his feet bump into the green thing and he is too far away from the toys.  After a while I took the green thing out (which was easier than expected).  It can go in later if we change our minds.

Even before I took the green thing out, Isaac really seemed to enjoy it.

He even managed to hit all the hanging things with his hands.  Although I'm not sure if it was ever on purpose or if he was just flailing and then hit them.  (In the photo below his hand is blurry so you can tell it is moving by the toy.)

Saturday: grumpy

Isaac was grumpy today. At least he slept a lot too.

Friday: six weeks

Today Isaac turned six weeks old!

We went to Target in the morning with my dad to pick up the last of the items on the registry. I was not impressed. They had no cribs out to buy. When we found someone, she said that there weren't any in the back either. She suggested getting it online, since the registry I printed out said it was available online. I asked customer service if there was going to be a shipping charge and they couldn't tell me. (so obviously I couldn't get it waived if there was...that was one of the reasons we went with a crib at Target). I get home and look it up, only to find out that it is only available in stores. I called customer support because my coupon was good only for one day, and they were no help. Dad ended up going to a target closish to his house to get it. (In comparison, I was having problems with the Toys r Us coupon code, called customer support, and two minutes later had a better coupon code.)

Anyway, back to Isaac. He started crying when we left Target and when we got home I found he was overheated. So I put him on the quilt to cool down, and he became a very happy boy, even with a few smiles. (Ben and I have both thought we've seen some, and then Dad agreed.). So, we of course took lots of pictures.

He looks like he has a halo!

Getting more animal tails.

So he could meet the monkey.

And bite his nose

We played Dominion with Tony and Christian. We managed to still get two games in, even though both boys needed more attention. At least they actually saw each other awake this time. They're making progress as friends.