Friday: 26 weeks and wedding

We're going to start having Isaac nap in his crib.  He is resisting the swing and moving around a lot more.  (However, we aren't putting the swing away yet.)  He still had some short naps, but then took a nice long one in the afternoon.

The normal weekly pictures.

I was going through the pose above, trying to find the best one (I take them on burst mode and delete a lot) and then ran into this one.  It's a preview of part of tomorrow's post.

We also went to the wedding of a college friend.  It was a beautiful wedding, probably one of the best I've been to.  The bride and groom were in love with each other and with God and it was so obvious.

Thursday: a huge surprise

Isaac and I came home from Charlevoiux today.  He again did pretty well in the car, although the last little bit wasn't great.  We went around getting some pictures yesterday and hopefully I'll make a collage of them shortly.

We got home and Ben said he had something to show me in the basement.  I figured it was something on the computer.  As we walked down the stairs, I noticed some of the boxes had been moved; maybe he did a ton of unpacking.  Nope!

He got me a quilter.  I'm not sure if this is officially a long-arm quilter since I think those are computerized, but this is something very similar.  I can load the quilt into the frame and then move the sewing machine around in order to put the quilt all together.  And Ben spent all three nights that we were gone putting it together!

I've been in shock all night.  I had been thinking it would be really cool to have, but couldn't justify the expense and it takes up a lot of room.  But since it's a gift I don't have to justify anything; I just have to enjoy it!  And I will do that!  I'm so excited to use it, although I need to make a few attachment pieces first.  I was not expecting to find this in the basement at all!!

Wednesday: dreams

I just finished feeding Isaac and was being a little slow in putting him back in the crib and what do I see? Some great big smiles. I wish I knew what he was dreaming about, but at least they're good ones.

Monday/Tuesday: Charlevoix

Isaac and I are spending a few days up north with Cheryl. Isaac did really well on the way up; he slept for about three hours. The last half hour was pretty rough, but I kept handing him pacifiers and he kept playing with them for a minute and then losing them. I had to stop once to get all of them back in the front seat with me.

We've had a very nice time here, although Isaac was having some serious nap problems today. This meant I was having some serious nap problems too; I do love my naps. (can you believe I just used two semicolons in this post?). But finally he took a two hour nap next to me on the bed. This meant I got a two hour nap also and was very happy about that.

In other observations, I always take my contacts out before finding my glasses when I travel. After they're out I realized I should have found my glasses first. Does anyone else have this problem?

Sunday: Church

This morning we got to church and the chairs were arranged differently than normal.  It turned out that the sermon was on the Israelite camp layout while they were in the desert, and the sanctuary was arranged in the same layout.  For something that I've always found rather tedious reading the the Bible, the pastor did a really nice job of making it interesting.  Why is it laid out like that?  1) Defense  2) Unity and 3) to remind us that God should always be in the center.

In case you're wondering, we were sitting in the North, under the tribe of Dan.  We probably should have sat under the tribe of Benjamin, but we were running a little late and Benjamin was in the front.

Saturday: crying and solids

This morning Isaac was awake before it was time to wake up.   I heard a cry that I haven't heard before.  I was pretty sure it meant that he was stuck since I knew he was awake, but I moved faster than normal anyway.  He was stuck in a corner of the crib.  If he had tried to roll over the other way he could have escaped, but that doesn't always work yet.

Then we decided to start him on solids.  A few days early, but we pretty much made it to the 6 month mark. And really, it can barely be considered solids yet.  It was 1 tbsp cereal to 4.5 tbsp milk...it seemed like he was really just learning how to use the spoon.  The video is below.  About two minutes after the video stopped Isaac got super mad.  So I nursed him to finish up his lunch and he could barely stay awake.  Both of us then took wonderful naps.  I hope it happens again.

Friday: 25 weeks

Today Isaac rolled over again.  I was even sitting in the chair and he was on the ground and he stayed there for a minute with both arms forward, so it was a definite roll-over.  He had a few earlier today were I wondered if I accidentely helped by pulling the toy he was holding onto or where he was over for a second before going back.  But this one was a absolutely for sure roll over.  Horray!

Standard shoots:

Bundle of Energy pose:

"Oh you're taking my picture?  Then I won't roll over"

Sleeping...he's started moving around in his sleep.  I haven't seen him roll over, but he does sleep on his side occasionally and I often see him rotated in the morning.

Thursday: flowers

This morning Isaac and I went to the mall.  The main reason was to pick up a hat from the lost and found.  We lost it, someone found it, the lost and found lost it, and then the lost and found found it.  It was a bit odd because we had lost a few other things at the same time but the lost and found didn't lose those.

I also looked for some brown shoes.  I had a problem with the shoes I wanted not being in sizes larger than 7.5.  This happened twice.  I ended up not getting shoes.

We met Ben for lunch!  Isaac decided that today was laugh with Dad day, so Ben only had to look at Isaac to make him laugh.

We picked some flowers in the afternoon.  I was hoping that Isaac would take a longer nap.  I was not done with my nap when he decided he was done with his.

Wednesday: a walk through my day

I just realized that I didn't post for yesterday...actually, I've remembered several times but none when I was able to post.  I'm not sure Isaac will continue to nap until this is finished, but we'll try.

2:30am: Isaac wakes up to eat.
6:45am: Isaac wakes up.  How awesome!  1) He only woke up once during my sleep time and 2) he slept in!  This is the second night he's done this, so I'm hopeful it will be a trend.  (Spoiler alert: this did not happen again.)
7:30: We help wake up Ben.
8:00: Isaac is in the exersaucer while I eat breakfast.  All I have to do is look at him and he laughs.  It's pretty fun.
8:30: Isaac goes down for a nap, I do quilting stuff on the computer.
10:00: the window guy comes to see if he can figure out why it is so hard to open and close our windows.  He thinks they just need some TLC and a few little parts.  Additionally, the windows had a safety recall on them and ours didn't get fixed, so we can probably get the labor covered under the warranty!!  So all we would have to pay for is some damaged window screen replacements.  He also fixed our front door...the weather stripping was on the wrong sides of the door.  Who knew?
11:00: Isaac and I go outside.  He plays with his teether while I take out bolts from under the deck.  Between yesterday and today I have about 30 out.  And about 200 to go.  (Well, I haven't counted.  That's just how it feels.)
12:45: Isaac is awake so we go on our errands.  It's hot.  In the future maybe we should go in the morning.
1pm: Library!  I wanted to get "The Little House on the Praire" as I had a semi-dream about it the other day.  Turns out all four copies are out. :(  I did find Ben's book though...all I knew was that it was small and the approximate location.  So I felt pretty proud of myself for that.
1:30pm: Downtown stop at tree huggers.  They take additional recyclables that the street pickup won't take. I also got some environmentally friendly fabric softener.  Mostly because my current fabric softener is staining my clothes.  It hasn't gotten anything important yet, but I should stop tempting fate.  Does anyone want it?
1:45pm: Fabric store!  I love solids.  Sometimes I wonder if I should get more prints, but I'm just going to go with it.  I'm joining a Tetris Quilt-A-Long and needed some fabric for that.
2:15: bother.  Isaac took a short nap in the car and is now awake.  Bother.
3:45: Isaac isn't interested in a quick nap.  We watch a baby movie about shapes.  I wish I could take a nap.  Isaac is calm, so he probably wants a nap too, even if he doesn't realize it.
4:45: no naps were taken, but now Dad came over!  It was nice to see him.
5:45: Isaac takes a nap.  It is pretty late for a nap, but I'm not about to try and keep a cranky baby awake for the next hour.
5:50: Ben is home!
7:30: Bath time for Isaac
8:00: Computer game with Ben
9:00: Shower time for Amanda
10:00: Attempt to hem some pants and realize I've forgotten what I'm doing
11:30: Bed time.

Tuesday: a momentous day

Today was momentous.

This morning Isaac (finally) rolled over from his back to his stomach for the first time.  If you've seen him recently, you'll know that he has been so close so many times.  I was actually a little surprised since I was expecting him to just flop back onto his back.

Then he went to the bathroom in the toilet!  During his pre-bath playtime he's been getting his towel a little wet lately.  So I thought I'd hold him up and see if we could avoid a mess.  He ended up standing on the seat, but most of it still got in.  Three cheers!


And here he is playing with his toy with his feet.  We had to put it against the wall so that within the span of 60 seconds he doesn't move it three feet away from him.

Monday: forks

I found out yesterday that not everyone cuts their meat like I do.  I stab the meat with my fork and then put my knife through the tines to cut it.  Everyone else at the table stabs the meat and then cuts parallel to the tines.

We found this out because I had a three-tined fork and couldn't put my knife through the middle hole.  I felt off balance.

Anyway,  I put a poll on the side.  How do you cut your meat?

Sunday: Happy Father's Day!

After church we went on a boat ride for lunch.  It was delicious.

Isaac is really starting to like Flurry.  Flurry is still tolerant of Isaac.

For Father's Day, Isaac took a wonderful nap for Ben while Ben was on-duty.  (I was taking a nap.)  Isaac started screaming once, so Ben put the pacifier back in.  I didn't hear a thing.  It was awesome.  I hate being woken up from my naps to put the paci back in.

Saturday: a wedding

Today we went to a wedding for Ben's cousin.  It was beautiful and fun.

We also fixed the sprinklers with the help of Larry and Cheryl.  It was neither beautiful nor fun, but their help was much appreciated as several of the heads were buried and/or needed to be replaced.

Friday: 24 weeks

Today Jacob and Ashlyn spent some time with us.  Isaac really enjoyed playing with them, especially since it meant he got to watch a video game for a little bit.

And we have some 24 week pictures!  I played around with some of the camera settings and could easily see that some were better than others, but now I don't know which are which.  Maybe next week I'll write down what they are.

We also had some pictures taken of the immediate family taken.  The two smallest kids were doing ok until the last picture of just the grandchildren.  They were both done by then.  We'll probably end up with one or two decent shots thanks to Photoshop, but we had to work hard for them.  :)

Thursday: salad

Today we ate a salad from lettuce we grew ourselves!  It was another first for me.

The lettuce

The pickers

The salad spinner

The baby and a pile of greens.

(The picture is really blurry, but I thought it was a clever play on "a pile of baby greens."  But now I'm not so sure that's a phrase.  Maybe that makes it funnier.)

Wednesday: Roar

Isaac was having a rather happy day; he was laughing more easily than normal.  Then I read a book to him and it kept saying "shhh, listen for the lion."  So I was reading it rather quickly.  Then ROAR!!  I scared him so much he started crying.  It took him a while to settle back down.

Oops.

Tuesday: why I felt like a bad person

Today I felt like a bad person because I was pulling out flowers with no reason other than I didn't want them.

Only bad people don't want flowers, right?  Good people want flowers.  So I gave five bushes a probationary period.

It isn't looking to good for them as I proceeded to sit in the hot sun for the next 10 minutes and try to get grass out of the middle of them.

Monday: Flurry and Isaac

Flurry and Isaac slowly seem to tolerate each other more and more.  As in, Flurry doesn't always run away and Isaac is noticing Flurry more.  (I'm quite sure he said 'kitty-cat' the other day.)  I even managed to get four pictures of them together in burst mode!  (Although to be fair, just before I got the camera they were sitting near each other for about a minute.)

This is the best one.  Flurry looks like she's about to eat Isaac.  Isaac looks scared.

In other news, there's a strong maybe that Isaac rolled from his back to his front.  It's only a maybe though because he rolled right back to his back again, making it very hard to tell.

Sunday: a list

I've thought of three milestones for Isaac that I feel are important but people don't talk about as much.

1. Grabbing...he does this now and it makes him so much more independent.
2. Returning the pacifier to his mouth...and then letting go of it. Alternatively, not taking it out in the first place.
3. Temperature control, such as moving to a new spot in the crib to cool off or putting a blanket over himself. (I know...I have a ways for that one. But I can still look forward to it.)

In other news, we swam in the lake for the first time. Cool but enjoyable.

Friday: Happy Birthday

For Isaac's 23rd week birthday, we'll start with a funny face.  But at least he isn't moving much.

He really wanted to show everyone his feet today.  They kept popping up.

He is getting better at sitting.

Happy Birthday to Dad too!!  Everyone got together to celebrate.

Wednesday: a nice day

Today was a lovely day.  Isaac and I went over to Cheryl's to pull weeds.  There were a lot of weeds, but it looked so much better when we were done.  After lunch Isaac and I both took a nap.  And it was a good one. Close to two hours, and Isaac only woke up once.  Sometimes he wakes up in the middle and has trouble getting back to sleep...and by the time he does, I'm too awake to go back to sleep.

The surprise of the day came at 5pm when I pulled the chicken out of the fridge where it had been thawing.  I thought I had pulled out strips, but got some cubed chicken instead.  I had been planning on putting on a "Roman Rub" that I recently got and grilling the chicken strips.  After much debate, and not being able to figure out anything else to do with the cubes at such late notice, I decided to put them on foil and grill them anyway.  They tasted delicious.

Side note

I just took off comment verification.  I had put it on because I was getting a lot of spam, but it's been a while so I'm going to try having it off again.

This means it's easier to post comments!  (Nudge, nudge.)

Tuesday: typing

Tonight Isaac got some typing practice in.  Hopefully it was a good story.  It looks like it was a serious tale.

Monday: theme day - stripes

Today we talked about stripes.

With a very short foray into camouflage.

Here you can see that not only are we both wearing striped shirts, we have striped socks.

Then we fertilized the lawn in stripes.  Hopefully.

And Ben joined in on the fun too!  (And, in case you're wondering, that is my third pair of pants for the day. The blue jeans got wet while fertilizing.  My brown pants split...and there is no repairing them.  I'm really sad, but they've been with me for a while now.  I haven't worn these green jeans in a while, but I was running out of pants since it was wash day.  They're really comfortable; I'm not sure why I haven't worn them.)

Cowboys and Aliens

Last night Ben and I watched Cowboys and Aliens (or Cowboys vs Aliens?) and had some chocolate fondue.  The fondue was excellent.  The movie was not.  We were expecting something funny or at least a light-hearted action flick.  Instead it was depressing with some really dumb contradictions.  (Like a gun not killing an alien but hitting it with a spear did.)

I would not recommend it.

Saturday: weed wacking

Today I had another first; I weed wacked.  It wasn't really as fun as I was expecting it to be.  It was fun to mow down the tall weeds, but the thing was rather heavy and vibrated a lot.  However, everything is looking a lot better now.

Isaac went the whole day without wearing a bib!  Usually I forget to put one on him while getting him dressed and remember when the drool is coming down, but I didn't really see much drool today.  I would be very happy if this continued...the bibs cover up all the cute shirts!

Friday: 5 months (22 weeks)

Yesterday I realized that I had completely missed Isaac's 5-month birthday.  I had been planning on waiting until to take his pictures anyway, but was surprised that it still didn't click on the right day.

He took the "A" out of the puzzle all by himself.  I was so proud.

Yesterday he also started trying to turn on his side in the swing.  We will probably have to buckle him in soon.