Yuck

I hate being pregnant. I like babies and I love Isaac so I assume that I'll love this child, but I am not happy. I'm throwing up quite a bit more and feel sick most of the time. I think I really need to take two pills at the same time for the to be most effective, but that means rationing them.

We've told the family...but that was fun so I'll save it for a happier post.

I'm back.

It's been a fun, but busy week.

We had Christmas with Ben's family and it was a lot of fun. It was crazy with all the people but lots of fun and there was delicious food.

Nathan and Liz (and baby) were up for the following several days. It was wonderful to see them. We exchanged Christmas presents, went to the Critter Barn, and made Christmas cookies. Isaac enjoyed cutting them out but didn't really care for decorating them. Really, he only liked eating the toppings.

Thursday: that

Isaac's new favorite word seems to be "that."

Parents: "What do you want?"
Isaac: "That."

Parents: "What are you trying to do?"
Isaac: "That."

Parents: "What's this?"
Isaac: "That."

...it answers so many questions so well and poorly, all at the same time.

Wednesday: hmm

Everyday this week I expect Ben to come home to a house cleaner than when he left it. Everyday the house is messier than when he left it. It's a bad trend.

It was so bad that even Isaac was saying "mess! Mess!" To be fair, he makes a lot of the messes. But today we had him clean it up. And while it's still messy, it's not a disaster.

Tuesday: Isaac's poor plan

Ben and I were getting ready this morning and I look over to see Isaac playing with his combs next to our bed.  I was a little surprised, since he had to get them from his bathroom and bring them over, but he has done so on occasion.  As I watching he put something on the comb and then stuck the comb in his hair.

Oh Isaac.

The toothpaste is in the same drawer as his combs.  He was toothpasting his combs.  Luckily, the toothpaste was hard enough to get out of the tube that he wasn't actually making a mess.  But I did get to say one more thing that I never expected to say:

"Don't comb toothpaste into your hair."

Monday: errands

I had several errands to do today.  They only went ok.  I need to go back to one place tomorrow.  I still need to get groceries; I didn't even try today.  I also stopped at Target and had a terrible time with the gift registry.

Isaac also didn't take a nap.  I did one errand after he wouldn't go to sleep hoping the car would lull him to sleep but no luck.  He was good most of the day, except for about an hour when he stopped listening to me. Then he threw his ball down the stairs and I wouldn't go get it (a normal rule at this house) and it took him a long time to get control of himself.  Then he found the spring form pans and life was better.

I still feel like I got quite a bit accomplished.  So I guess that's good.

Wiser and smarter

I called the doctor's office and asked for medicine today.  Feeling sick is dumb.  And I know there is medicine out there; why not use it?

I've felt much better tonight.  They gave me Zophran (hooray!) but it still requires some rationing (boo).

bother

I threw up last night for the first time.  It was the first time and I think I am still feeling significantly better than when I was pregnant with Isaac, but it is still a battle.  I think I'll call the doctor on Monday and see if I can get any medicine.  I could probably tough through it, but why?

Saturday: goat legs

Every night the animals from our Nativity set take a walk.  This happened when I was growing up and my parents said it was "Christmas Magic" but Christmas Magic has not come to this house.  So I need to move the animals.  Isaac is delighted to find the animals every morning and dutifully puts them back in their place.

Yesterday he dropped the goat.  I was expecting this to happen at some point and had decided not to get upset.  (I decided that it was more fun to find the animals every day than to just look at them.)  Anyway, I was running to the mailbox when it dropped and when I got back Isaac had one leg and the body and was saying "broke, broke".  I glued the leg back on.  The problem is that two legs had broken and I could not find the second one, nor did I really know where to look.  (Also, the goat wouldn't stand up on three legs.)

But, Hallelujah!, the missing leg was found today.  The goat is still in the hospital until tomorrow, but should make an almost full recovery.

Friday: at home

So the car needed to stay at the garage overnight.  Annoying, but not too big of deal.  Until 8:00am, when the power went out.  And stayed out.  Which started to scare me because if it continued to stay out it was going to get cold in the house and I'd have no way to get to a warm place.  I called the parents and made alternate arrangements.  Ben was going to go by McDonald's and bring us back a warm breakfast, because cold, dry cheerios didn't sound good at all.  (McDonald's didn't have power either though.)

The power came back on a few minutes after Ben called to say McDonald's was closed so I didn't have to have a cold breakfast.  Hooray.

The rest of the day went fine.  It was a little annoying to not be able to do the errands I was planning on doing, but we did go out to shovel the end of the driveway.  Isaac drags his shovel behind him up and down the driveway and we saw the neighbor's dog.

Wednesday: snow

It's still snowing!  Ben and I shoveled about four-five inches off the driveway this morning, but it was super-light.  Isaac pushed his shovel around for a little bit and then got out a rolling toy that he pushed around.  It's not very helpful, but it does let Ben and I both shovel the driveway.  I shoveled this afternoon too, but it was rather pointless.  The wind must have picked up between 11am and 4pm because there was just a light dusting on the driveway.  I thought about going back inside, but it takes so much work to get Isaac in his snowsuit and me in my snow gear that I was determined to make the effort worthwhile.

It's beautiful!  And Ben lets me use the Subaru in the winter so I'm not as scared of driving in it.

7 week update

If I can make it one more day without throwing up I will have made it farther than I did with Isaac.  I've come really close a few times, but it's stayed under control so far.  I still have quite a bit of nasuea, although today was actually really good.  But I'm eating a ton.  One reason is when I'm eating I feel better.  I'm a little more hungry too, but mainly it's that I feel better.  And with Christmas right around the corner, there is no absence of food!  I did pick up some gum at the store today.  That seems to be helping, although I'm not a huge gum chewer and after a while just go blah.  But it is a nice alternative to putting more food in my mouth.

Wednesday: nope, it's Tuesday

It was a rather busy day.  Isaac and I had breakfast.  He did his robot bubbles which I find hilarious.  (E-E-R-E-O (in robot sounds) then a blow blow blow.  It's hard to describe.)  Then off to Bible Study (Dusty, there's extra banana pudding in the fridge for you).

Then off to work.  Today was the first exam and it went pretty well.  I goofed one thing up but for the most part I don't think it'll be too big of a deal.  I brought the car in to have something checked out only to find out that it needed a little bit more work done too.  Kind of sad, but I trust our mechanic too.  I'm glad to have a mechanic I can trust.

I got home and finished some grading while trying to get dinner ready.  Doing both at the same time didn't really work.  But we ended up with a hot meal.  Since it was snowing out I thought Isaac could have a white themed dinner because by that time I just wanted to eat...pasta with white sauce, cottage cheese, milk, and marsh mellows.  I know...I can't believe I let him have marsh mellows for dinner.  I should have given him an apple.  But...we'll try for a healthier dinner tomorrow.  And hopefully I'll get the marsh mellows in the cupboard so I'm not tempted to give him anymore.

Saturday: a tree event

We were invited to Tuesink's pony farm for some winter activities today.  Isaac and I went, although I wasn't sure how long we were going to last.  But there were animals.

We were there for about an hour...longer than I expected, actually.  We got to feed some animals.  (It was one bag of feed per family, but there was a lot of feed in the bag...I was rather impressed.  We actually gave the last bit of ours away as Isaac was done feeding animals.)  We looked at some barn animals.  We ate some donut holes.  We looked at all of the animals again.

It was a fun morning activity.  It was snowing, so that nicely set the mood.  But I was really glad Isaac was in his snowsuit as it was also cold.

Friday: Robin Hood and Christmas music

Isaac started watching Disney's Robin Hood today.  It is the movie Nathan and I watched the most as kids...I have it memorized.  I still have it memorized, 20 years later.  And it's still a great movie.  Isaac seemed to think so too.

Isaac has also been enjoying some Christmas music lately.  (And asking for it by doing his dancing motion...one hand up and down in the air.)  So we brought him to the Christmas music show at church.  However, it turns out that I wasn't thinking.  For some reason I thought it would be more of a moving around thing, but it was a sit and listen thing.  Very nice, but it didn't work so well with an extra-active toddler.  Isaac stayed in the sanctuary for a bit and Ben and I spent some time with him in the foyer, but we left early.  Isaac enjoyed it, even if he couldn't sit still for a second.

Wednesday: where did the day go?

Isaac woke up and we did our normal morning routine with Ben.  He proceeded to take 45 minutes to eat his breakfast - Crispex are delicious apparently.  We went to see Betsy and Ethan and had lunch with them.  We took a nap.  I woke Isaac up...I don't really like to do that, but I also want him to get up early enough that he'll fall asleep at night.  I did get some very nice snuggles as he woke up though.  We...I'm not sure what we did for the next hour and a half, but we did stuff.  Ben came home.  We ate dinner.  Isaac played a little bit.  He had a bath.  He went to bed!  I always close his door and feel a little guilty about how happy I am that he's in bed.  I played some games and did some sewing.  And now it's time to go to bed and read.

And just like that, today is done.

23 months

I only got the pictures a day late this month!

Isaac has a bunch of fun words this month, and they seem to be rather themed.  We have weather themed - wet, rain, snow, brrr, boots.  We have food themed - juice, wipe.  And we have Duplo themed - broke, fix, tower.  There's also been several times where Isaac seems to be saying something (over and over) and I have no idea what it is.  It's not the gibberish that babies say, but it is another language.

He's good at realizing that his tower is broken, but hasn't realized that he can just fix it without me asking if he can fix it.  I see a lot of broken towers in a day.

Isaac can move his highchair to the correct place by himself now (from the table to the living room).  He blows kisses.  He likes doing the robot dance, and I'm pretty sure we only read some books to see the robot picture and then do the dance.

Potty training is going well, unless he's at his Grandma's house.  Then he has about 300% more accidents than normal.  He likes his "nummy-nummy" after he does his business, but I've only been giving them to him if he asks.  He often forgets.

Sleep went well this month too.  I think between a growth spurt and sickness he was sleeping a little more, which was awesome.  He has one nap in the afternoon (usually at least 2 hours) and sleeps from 8 at night to about 7 in the morning.

He also has really enjoyed magnets and bottles.  He loves having a little water in a bottle so he can take the cap off, drink, and put the cap back on...but he'll enjoy the bottle even if there isn't any water.  We haven't had too many messes.

Monday: kisses

Isaac was in a very kissy mood today...

...the little bear before we left the house.
...the water bottle before we left the house.
...the blue monkey.
...me.
...the random baby that we saw in the store.
...Ben
...the blue monkey
...the cow in the bedtime book
...the sheep in the bedtime book
...the blue monkey again.

And those are only the ones I saw.  The Duplo dog, horse, and goat often get kisses too.

Sunday: last pickup

Tomorrow is our last diaper pick-up.  Isaac now (normally) has one or no accidents a day, and is staying dry through most naps, so it is time to be done with the diaper service.  I was quite happy with them, but I'm even more happy to be done with diapers.

So that I don't forget if I'm ever curious about what I did, here's the quick summary.  I have no idea if any of these things actually helped, but it's what happened.
1) Cloth diapers almost all of the time.
2) Around 18 months I tried putting him on the toilet a lot for a week.  It didn't work all that well.
3) Between 18-21 months I tried putting him on the toilet several times a week.  If he did go to the bathroom, he got some mini M&Ms and got to wear his training pants.
4) Around 21 months he stayed dry for an entire morning, so I tried pushing toilet training hard again.  Again, M&Ms for rewards...and flushing.  I didn't use the waterproof pull-ups, although I did bring some to daycare so they could use them.  If we went out I either put him back in a diaper or made sure it was a really short trip and he had just gone to the bathroom.  I put a TV tray by the toilet so that he could play/read more easily.  (He was happy to stay on the toilet if there was something to do and I found that he had a bowel movement if he stayed on the toilet for at least 5 minutes.)  I started by putting him on the toilet about once an hour, but we're up to about once every two hours now.

So that's the quick summary...and it's not like we're done yet.  We still need to work on communication (when he does need to go) so that I don't have to remember every two hours.  We're also working on Isaac  taking his pants on and off.  But, the main thing is that most of the time Isaac goes on the toilet!



...Potty training is a lot of work.

bathroom

I was doing aqua-aerobics today, partially to be in good health for the baby.  I even ate a nutritious breakfast for the baby.  Then I had to go to the bathroom before the workout was finished.  It was close the the end so I just stopped.  I sure am going to the bathroom more than I remember with Isaac.  But I'm still feeling pretty good.  I did the calculations and realized, if everything is the same, that I would start throwing up between Dec 3 and Dec 12.  (Thanks to the blog!)  But if memory serves me correctly I was already feeling a little yucky last time, so I'm getting hopeful.

Saturday: more happenings

We finished putting the tree up today.  I didn't take any pictures, but they'll come.  I had to get some more strings of lights and ended up with some LED ones...and now have colored circles on the walls and ceiling.  It's a little weird, but I do love lights.  I think if I could only pick one Christmas decoration I'd do lights.  And lots of them.  But not too many, because it should still seem dark in the dark.

Putting up Christmas decorations with a two year old is a ton more fun than with a one year old.  We took out the nativity set and had fun unwrapping everything.  He (and his cousin) helped with the ornaments, even though all he really did was bring them from the couch to the tree.  It was a lot of fun.

In unrelated news, Isaac has started to tell me he needs to go to the bathroom by pulling down his pants.  The problem is that this usually happens outside the bathroom.  We'll have to figure out how to fix that soon.  He also tried to put them on today.  (If you can't tell, they're backwards.)

Friday: some pictures

They're not great pictures, but they still give you an idea of the day...

Isaac has been in charge of feeding Flurry lately and today found the catnip spray.  So I sprayed it on a cat toy.  After that Isaac was sure that Flurry should play with her mouse and ran around for about fifteen minutes trying to give it to her.  They finally settled on Flurry looking at it while on the banister.

Isaac helped me with the wash.  He actually pulled the basket to my room, picked up all the loose clothes on the floor, and had most of them in the washing machine by the time I was back to it with another basket full.

We went to Chuck E. Cheese.  It seems just right for his age...well, more or less.  He doesn't really get the games, but there are lots of rides that he enjoyed.  I couldn't get any pictures of him smiling, but he did...  (He also wanted to do the jump rope game.  Never mind that he can't even jump yet, let alone understand the game.  I tried jumping while holding him.  It was a hard game.)

Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving...it was a very nice day.

We started out by shoveling the driveway.  I was hoping that we'd be able to make a snowman or something, but the snow wasn't good for that and Isaac wasn't that interested anyway.  But he can move in his snowsuit now (an improvement from last year).  I gave him a trowel but think he needs his own little shovel to help us in the future.

We had Thanksgiving dinner with the large family...the food was delicious and it was nice to see everyone.  Larry and Isaac did some synchronized drinking.  (Cap on, cap off, drink.  Cap on, cap off, drink...)

We ended the day by bowling.  I broke 100 both games (amazing) and beat Ben both times (practically impossible).  The last game I just barely pulled it off by getting two strikes and a 9 on the 10th frame.

Isaac was exhausted by this time, but I wanted to get a little more food in him.  We got home at 7:30 and gave him some leftovers.  At 8, his normal bedtime, we asked if he wanted to go to bed and he could barely shake his head yes he was so tired.  I actually thought he'd fall asleep while eating.

And even though I didn't mention it, there are so many things that I'm thankful to God for.  He has truly blessed me.

Wednesday: You can't see me

While Isaac was eating breakfast, I went behind his highchair to do some stuff.  He got a little restless and called, "Mama!"  I calmly called back, "I'm right here.  You just can't see me."

I immediately wondered how many times God has said that to me.  And smiled a bit, because I knew Isaac would be fine and taken care of...and that God would take care of me.

Tuesday: Happy Birthday!

It was Ben's birthday today.  I had fun playing with his age. :D

(The 13 was for our nephew...it was a shared birthday party.)

Blue and white

Isaac knows that blue is a color.  (In fact, it's the color of Ben's car.)  But now whenever you ask him what color something is, it is blue.

With the snow all around I'm trying to add white to his color list too.  Except that he was more excited to see himself on my phone. :)


Today we were talking about his white horse and he said "Snow!"  He's getting it...slowly.

Saturday: well, I thought Isaac was smart...

The toy of the day was a water bottle.  It was empty, but he's figured out how to make the cap go on and off (as long as it isn't on too tightly).

Several times today he was doing this and I hear an urgent, "Please, please!"  I look and see that he can't get the cap on...because his other hand was in the mouth of the bottle.  A problem he could easily figure out using touch or sight, but no, he needed to be told how to do so.

Friday: boots

Cheryl and I have been trying to find boots for Isaac (size 7).  Seems like it should be a simple thing, seeing as how we're in Michigan.  But no.

We stopped at the children's store downtown.  They had tons of girls boots, but only two styles of boys...it is was more of a work boot than a snow boot.  We stopped at several shoe places downtown, but they had all stopped carrying kids' shoes.

Today we went to Kohls...again, several girls boots.  There were two boys boots, but one was very ugly.  The nice one only had size 10.  We went to JCPennys.  They had some nice ones, but the smallest were size 11.   (They also had several girl boots.) We walked across the mall to Yonkers and were about to give up hope of finding any in the mall when we spotted a winter rack.  They had some!  And they were small!

I'll admit...I'm really surprised that it was so hard to find boots.  (I did hear there are some at Meijer, and we didn't check Target).  But hopefully it will snow this weekend now. :D

Thursday: meal names

For the life of me, I cannot name meals correctly lately.

8am: "Let's have lunch! Er, dinner!  Er, Breakfast!  Yeah, breakfast!"
11:30am: "Let's have breakfast!  Er, lunch!"
6:30pm: "Let's have lunch!  Er, dinner!"

It has been happening all the time.  I think I've got some wires crossed in that part of my brain.

Wednesday: out?

I had been planning on going to the grocery store this morning.  Isaac, however, had other ideas.  Every time he came over to me I said "shoes".  He would quickly shake his head and run into his bedroom, alone.  (I had just brought out some puzzles that had been put away for a while.)

Since I had several things that needed to be done without his help, I decided that Isaac was right...we didn't need to out this morning.

Tuesday: getting out of the house

Usually I can schedule my time pretty well.  Today, though, I miscalculated.  I needed to get out of the house (5-10 minutes), pick up a prescription (10 minutes), drop Isaac off at day care (15-20 minutes), and go to Bible Study (10 minutes).

Instead it went like this: get out of the house (5 minutes). Go back in the house because Isaac insists that he has to go to the bathroom, which involves taking off his coat, overalls, and shoes (and then putting them back on) (and he didn't go) (10 minutes).  Pick up the prescription (20 minutes).  Drop Isaac off (20 minutes) (and oh, it was picture day.  At least he was wearing something nice).  Go to Bible Study (10 minutes).  I often have about a five minute buffer.  This time I was fifteen minutes late.

Oh well.

Monday: doctor

I brought Isaac to the doctor.  We were kind of on the fence about it, but thought it would be better safe than sorry.  He ended up having a slight ear infection and slight case of brocolitis.  (Or however you spell it.)  If he had just one of them we would have been told to just weather it out, but with both of them we were given an antibiotic.

The exciting thing was that Isaac got to use the big person scale because he wasn't wearing a diaper!  It also meant I didn't have to undress him, which was nice.  All told, he was 25.6 lbs.

Saturday: barking

Isaac has a terrible barking cough.  He seems to be doing ok most of the time, but he is more snuggly than normal so we can tell that he doesn't feel great.

He woke up during the middle of his nap in rough shape, but we inclined his mattress tonight so hopefully that helps.

Poor guy.

Friday: firsts

Isaac took his first nap in his training pants and stayed dry!  He's been dry most days this week during his naps so I thought I'd try it.  I wasn't expecting to do this for another six months.

Isaac also got to bowl for the first time. :)  He enjoyed it, but was getting pretty tired near the end.

Wednesday: a cycle

Isaac has been putting toys in the toilet when he is sitting on it lately.  (Which is why I only give him plastic toys that float or very large items now.)  They've been accumulating, so I thought that I'd make Isaac wash them.  I put them in sudsy water in a bucket in the kitchen and let him enjoy.  (I didn't link the washing to the toys that had gone in the toilet.  It's enough that I know he's cleaning up after himself.)

He of course got everything wet, so I let him play without clothes for a little bit.  But I was happy because I didn't have to worry about accidents!  But that is because he is sitting on the toilet and then he puts toys in the toilet...

In other news, he had his second accident free day today.  He even woke up dry from his nap, which he did several days this week.

Tuesday: hand washing

Today, after dinner, Isaac did a great job washing his hands.

Too bad it was in pineapple juice.  I cringed so many times as I watched it drip down his elbows.  But I wanted to finish watching the show we were watching and it was bath night.

Monday: racquetball

Today during one of our games Ben and I managed to hit all the cool number pairings.  2-2, 10-4, and 7-11.  We've been close before but never quite managed to get them.

I'm pregnant!

I found out tonight that I'm pregnant again!

I've been feeling a little weird the last two days.  I was hoping to wait until tomorrow to take the test, but decided that it didn't really matter.

I told Ben by building a nursery in Minecraft.  Kind of cheesy, but more fun than just blurting it out.

It had two cribs. :D  It only took him a few seconds to catch on.

22 months - a little late

Once again, I finally got the 22 month pictures and finally looked through them.  My selection was worse than normal...we had several grey days, it was a busy time, and Isaac didn't sit still very well.  Oh well, there's still a few ok ones.

He has several new words this past month - notably light, up (up-up), monkey, magnet, rock, and eat.

He's gained an affection for the blue monkey.  It can help calm him down when he's about to go all crazy.  When we leave the house, the monkey gets to sit on the kitchen chair, gets a hug, a kiss, sometimes a pat on the head, and is told good-bye.  It's rather cute.

As you probably know, we started potty training this month.  It's going pretty well.  There are still daily accidents, but I can also tell that Isaac is starting to understand what he's supposed to do.  Everything goes best if he is put on the toilet every 60-90 minutes.

He has several favorite toys, but currently the Duplo dog, horse, goat, and gas pump are among the biggest favorites.  Random magnets come in second.  I've started having him help me make food a little bit more often and he usually enjoys that...although I'm quite sure it is a huge mess waiting to happen.

Friday: unexpected consequence

Last night, around 11:30, Isaac started to get restless.  Ben went in to calm him down, but it didn't really stick.  At 12:30, after we were asleep, Isaac started talking..."Pee!  Pee!"  Ben and I consulted each other...do we get up and let him go?  Would he go to go back to sleep?  Do we just let him go in his diaper?  With some hesitation, I got up.  Isaac went to the bathroom, although he wasn't happy about anything.  (The lights weren't on.  There were no toys.  It came to tears.)  But he settled right back down to sleep afterwards.

I'm not ready for him to understand his bathroom needs at night.  Can't it only be an awake thing?

Wednesday: a busy day

We had a busy day today!!

I made some yogurt.  I haven't tried it yet so I'm not sure if it is any good.  Isaac could eat about three large containers of yogurt a week...which seems kind of crazy to me and there are only three flavors in the large tubs.  Most of mine is vanilla for now, but there is one cherry.

Then we got our flu shots.  Isaac didn't cry - I was very proud of him.  I was not so proud of the mess he made with is lollipop though...I took it away before he was done.

Then we came home and made soup!  I put too much rice in, as normal, because it never seems like the recipe calls for enough and I like my soup to be ricey.  So I just had to add some liquids as the day went on.

After a nap (it rained all day...perferct nap weather!) we went to exchange the old i-pad at Target.  If you have old or unused i-devices you may want to check out the deal...it's pretty nice.  After a quick stop at the pet store we headed off to the gym.  Ben won all three matches, but I made him work for it.

Lastly, I cleaned the house...or tried to make a dent in the mess...while Isaac and Ben picked up a new i-pad.  It seems very nice!  The rest of the evening has been nice and relaxing.

Sunday: monkeys and celebrations

Here's a video of Isaac saying monkey.  You need to turn the volume up a bit to hear him.  And yes, his monkey currently sounds like "Di-dis."  I've told him that doesn't sound like monkey at all, but he continues to say Di-dis.



In other news, we had an accident free day today!!  Our first one!!

Saturday: potty training update

Things still continue to go pretty well with potty training, if you look at it as a whole.  There are still days that don't go so well, but most days are going pretty well.  We normally have only one or two accidents per day.

He is starting to give signs when he needs to go to the bathroom, and is very good about going if we put him on the toilet.  He's also starting to go on toilets in other places, like day care and the gym.

The bathroom, however, looks like a disaster area.  I cleaned it up a little bit after this picture, but it is becoming a toy magnet.

Friday: fabric

I brought up all my extra fabric (i.e., scraps and pieces that currently have no quilt destination) for a friend to look through today.  I realized I have a problem...

I have a poor storage solution.  :)



(Ok, ok...I have too much extra fabric too.  I better get working on that scrap quilt.)

Thursday: Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

We didn't do much for the evening, really.  We did pass out candy, but didn't get a ton of people since it was raining.  We dressed Isaac up in his Winnie-the-Pooh costume...could he be any cuter??

Ben and Isaac visited four houses.  I'm pretty sure that the highlight of Isaac's evening was playing with the candy.  He put it in his bag.  He took it out of his bag.  He gave it to Ben.  He gave it to me.

By the end of the night he had also figured out that he could get candy too any time people came to the door.  He never really got the "trick or treat" part down, but he was good at please and thank you.

(Here he was last year...not even able to walk.  The costume fit much better this year.)

edit: I just found out that the highlight of the evening was actually when Ben would open the umbrella back up between houses.  The pop of the umbrella opening after Ben pushed the button was super funny.

Wednesday: Flurry and the counter

Flurry is not allowed on the kitchen counter.  I wouldn't say that it is the only rule that we have for her, but it is a high priority rule for us.  Lately we've been having trouble with her going on the counter a lot.  (I think it is because there is yogurt there in the morning.  She and Isaac share a passion for yogurt.)

So we finally got a spray bottle.  I got the bottle on Monday and was a little disappointed that she didn't misbehave until today.  I squirted her.  She looked at me with such surprise!  I squirted her again, perversely enjoying it.  She looked at me with disgust.  I squirted her again, barely able to contain my glee.  She jumped off the counter.  And didn't jump back on.

Also, things that we never expected to say:
"Apples don't belong in your hair."
"Don't hammer Flurry"

Tuesday: takeout and M&Ms

Today's dinner was pancakes.  The problem was that I forgot to look to see how much pancake mix we had prior to starting dinner.  I thought I could add some Bisquick, but they weren't really turning out correctly.

Cue Isaac.  He threw a tantrum.  I have no idea why.  Usually I can pinpoint something...I took something away, he wanted something...something.  I had no idea with this one.  Ben had no idea.  It kept going and going.

Ben offered to go get takeout.  I agreed.  Thank goodness for takeout.  Thank goodness for Ben.
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Today Isaac also thought that I should get M&Ms after going to the bathroom.  I thought, "he's right!  I should get M&Ms!"  But I didn't because 1) they're on the other side of the house and 2) they're a weird brand that we're actually giving him and don't quite taste right.

Monday: could have been better

Let's face it; today could have been better.  It could have been worse.  It was one of those days were all the little things annoyed me more than they should have.

*Flurry had a vet appointment and got a clean bill of health.  However, she had a stinky accident on the way home and it got all over her.
*I was expecting more training pants in the diaper delivery.  (But...Isaac only had one accident today!  That included an hour at the gym.  If he can keep that up we'll be fine.)
*The Subaru's license plate renewal went to the last address we lived at.  We did a change of address with the Secretary of State shortly after we moved.  The Toyota's license plate renewal worked fine.  I called them up, expecting something like "oh yeah, that's a known problem.  I can change it for you since I see that there is a discrepancy."  No, I got this: "yeah, that's a known problem.  You need to go into the nearest branch and fill out the paperwork.  You can't do it on-line.  And you can't do it for your husband unless you have a notarized paper saying you can."  Why are there two address databases for one government office?  I think I'm just going to put a yearly reminder on the calendar to renew the license plate.
*The dinner I decided to have didn't really sound good, but I wasn't sure what else to make.

Mostly little things, but it just wasn't working today.

Sunday: no nap

Mr. Isaac didn't take a nap today.  He happily talked in his crib...for an hour.  He must have been playing with his water bottle, because that's all that was in there.  He does love his water bottles.  Anyway, I heard him say "Pee!  Pee!"  and thought that maybe it was time to get up.

We proceeded to have a pretty rough afternoon and he feel asleep early while eating a late dinner.  Hooray!  I even manged to do a diaper change while he was sleeping.  Now I just need to hope that 1) he keeps the blankets on because he has no pants and 2) he doesn't wake up too early.

Friday: blowing

A few days ago Ben and Isaac were playing by blowing water bottles over.  Since then I've noticed Isaac trying to move all sorts of things by blowing on them.  The problem is that he's not a very good blower yet.  So this morning when he kept missing the little piece of paper that he was trying to blow his hand would sneak out and move it closer to the edge.  He would try blowing again, and it might move.  But if it didn't, his hand would sneak back out to help it along.

In other good news, Isaac managed to tell me that he needed to go to the bathroom before going to the bathroom for the first time today.  We still have lots of accidents, but we have lots of successes too.  And rarely needing to deal with dirty diapers has been a treat.

Thursday: snow!

It snowed last night...and this morning.  I wasn't expecting any accumulation, but when I woke up we had a small inch!

Surprisingly, it didn't melt during the day either.  It just snowed a little bit more and never got warm or sunny.  A lot of trees where in pretty rough shape since most leaves haven't fallen yet and the snow was just sticking to the leaves.

Wednesday: on-task

I had a really hard time keeping on any task today.  Between a cold that is knocking me out, continued potty training, and normal Isaac care it felt like just as I started something I was pulled in a different direction.  This wasn't too bad if all I was doing was a single step process (i.e. moving something from point A to point B) or something that is an on-going task (i.e., keeping the kitchen clean), but for anything else it felt like I was pulling teeth.  I was trying to get a package together to send out and it probably took me three times longer than it should have.

But...Isaac and I took a really nice nap this afternoon.

Monday: food

Isaac was funny with his food today.  During breakfast, he thought his oatmeal was too hot.  So I said, "drink some water."  A minute later I look back and he had poured the whole (small) cup of water into the bowl and was trying to mix it.  :)

Then for lunch I thought I'd try peas again.  He eats them at daycare; why not at home?  So I tried to get him involved...
Amanda: "Can you help me put some of the frozen peas in the bowl?"
Amanda: "Shall we warm them up?"
Isaac: "No."
Amanda: Uh..."Are you sure?"
Isaac: "Yes."
Ok...and he ate most of them.  So maybe the texture of frozen peas is nicer than that of cooked peas.  It's easier for me!!

Sunday: some sucess

Sick of potty training stories yet?  Well, it tends to be the big news around this household.

Today Isaac did really well.  There were still a few accidents, but he got a ton better about going to the bathroom when he was put on the toilet.  (And he often went promptly.  Sometimes within a minute!)  He still hasn't figured out how to get to the toilet if he needs to go though.

Saturday: kitty watering

Isaac has started to give water to animals in his books.  Last night he also tried to give Flurry water.  Never mind that they couldn't even see each other; Isaac would hold his sippy cup towards her.

Potty training continued to have ups and downs today.  Isaac went on the toilet several times, but hasn't quite figured out that he needs to tell us before he has an accident.  I still feel as though we're making a little bit of progress, so we'll keep at it.

Friday: potty training

We're trying to potty train again. There's been some success this week so we're persevering on.

What, you don't make pipe cleaner hats in the bathroom?

Thursday: ham and squash

It's that time of year again! Time for ham and squash. Isaac joined us this year and loved it! I expected he would enjoy the squash, but was rather surprised about the ham. I often have a hard time getting him to eat meat.

Wednesday: artwork

We got our first artwork from daycare yesterday.  It's a foot butterfly.  And it's on the fridge.

Tuesday: getting ready for bed

"Brush, brush, brush your teeth,
Brush them every day.
Up and down, around around
Keep cavities at bay."

That's the song I sing that the start of the bedtime routine.  Isaac proceeds to take out all three of his combs while I get his toothbrush ready.  Holding them seems to be the only way that he'll let me brush his teeth.  Then he has to put all of them back...this always seems like it takes longer than it should.  One comb at a time, and he often combs his hair with it before putting it in the drawer.

(The following story isn't part of the normal routine, but it was part of bed time which is why it got in this post.)  Today he put two of his whale toys together like they were kissing.  So I asked, "are they kissing?" and I got a bunch of kissing noises.  He did it a little bit later too, with two different whales.  I thought it was cute.

Monday: fruitflies

Fruit flies are annoying.  This weekend they came out in force, so I finally set a trap for them.  They're still around, but their numbers are dwindling.

It's annoying, but I guess I can't complain too loudly since it was my lack of cleanliness that allowed them to thrive.  The kitchen has been extra clean this weekend though, so that's been nice.

Weekend: more laughter due to Isaac

This morning's toy-du-joir was an easy puzzle...three pieces and something that Isaac can put together without any problems.  So when he was struggling with the bird, I finally said, "Isaac, the picture on the piece needs to match the direction of the picture on the puzzle."  Isaac looked up at me, slowly shook his head no, and went back to his puzzle.

And in things we never thought we'd have to say, Ben had this gem the other day, "Don't smash Flurry's tail between two rocks."  (No cats were harmed for this saying.  Isaac didn't have good enough aim.)

Thursday: VanKley musuem

Today Isaac and I dropped by the VanKley museum/zoo at Hope.  There was a chinchilla that was very happy to see us.  There was a guinea pig hiding in his plastic cave.

Isaac was more excited about the guinea pig than the chinchilla.

Wednesday: "Are you finished?"

I ask Isaac if he is finished eating about a million times a day (or so it feels).  Today was no exception, and he must have been feeling the same way.  So when I asked if he was finished, he turned to me and opened up his mouth widely.

"No Mom, I'm not finished.  Can't you see I'm still eating?"

Ben and I couldn't help but laugh.

Tuesday: rocks

This morning's toy-du-joir was two rocks.  Isaac came in the room, knocking them together.  He gave them to Ben, who knocked them together.  Isaac gave them to me, and I knocked them together.

"Shhh!"  Isaac immediately said after I knocked them together, with one finger to his lips.

I guess I was the only one not allowed to be noisy this morning.

Monday: clapping

Isaac likes to clap.  The other day I kept missing when I was trying to clap and he was like, "no mom, just put your hands together like this."

So then we've started clapping different ways.  The funniest is watching him try to clap vertically.  He thinks about it a second, and then his hands go together...but usually both palms are facing down.  He figures out that that is wrong, but after at only the top hand moves.

We've also tried clapping above our head and behind our backs, but his arms are rather short.  So he hits himself on his head or just fails his arms behind his back.

Saturday: funny conversations and nice people

Ben moves Isaac's play chair.
Isaac: "No"  (but it sounds like a Moo)
Ben moves Isaac's chair.
Isaac: "No" (but it sounds like a moo)
Ben: "Are you a cow?"
Isaac: "No" (but it sounds like a moo)

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During our walk today a dog ran at us from across a busy street and several houses down.  After getting to us, it turned around.  A little scary, because I never like it when dogs run at me, but otherwise fine.  The two cars that saw it both found me down to make sure I was ok.  I found it incredibly nice.

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Isaac was coloring on his sippy cup while we were out to eat this evening.
Amanda: "Isaac, only on your paper."
Isaac moved the sippy cup on the paper.  (But he also stopped coloring on it.)

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Our dinner was paid for tonight by someone that I work with.  It was a wonderful surprise.

Friday: 21 months

Hey, I finally got the 21 month pictures.


Isaac has been reading a lot of books by himself.

He's been counting, although he really can only do two-three.  He usually skips one.

He loves my camera, so I finally gave him one of his own.  He goes around pointing the camera at you and saying "cheese" and then waiting for you to say it back.  (It's an old camera and doesn't have any batteries.)

Isaac has become a great mimic.  He will say words back (although I don't know if he completely understands what he's saying) and mimic motions.  He's picked up several new words that he can use appropriately in context.  Or at least mostly appropriately - blueberries, strawberries, and grapes are all called blueberries.

Isaac has started using real plastic cups (sometimes) and thinks they're the greatest thing ever.

I introduced colored pencils too and those have worked well.  They're a little easier than crayons, so we have some fun drawings around.

I always think of things that I want to add to these reports when I'm not at the computer and now can't remember most of them.  Oh well.  He's still a lot of fun!

Wednesday: nap

Guess who didn't take a nap today?

(The answer is both me and Isaac.)

But to be fair, Isaac behaved himself very well.

Tuesday: mamamama

Picking Isaac up from daycare today was a little chaotic.  I needed to pay the bill, there was a door issue, and a weird note on the daily slip that didn't end up applying to me.

Then I heard a loud "Mamamama!"  And Isaac came running up. :)

Sunday:stroller ride

I taught Isaac about potential and kinetic energy today after I let his stroller go quickly down a hill. Then I had to teach him about friction because the stroller stopped. :(

Saturday: one more thing I never expected to say

"No running in the bath tub."

Thursday: a good reason to have a child

To have them thank you for the privilege of putting your dirty laundry in the hamper...and wanting more.

Tuesday: 2s are coming

This morning I wasn't allowed to be out of Isaac's sight.  There were tears.

We also played helicopters.  It's probably one of the first times that he's played make believe with me.  (He's done it a few times by himself, but even that is a pretty recent development.)

Monday: home

Home again, home again.  We're home after a lovely weekend with Ben's parents.

Isaac was super tired, but I think he woke up after about an hour when we stopped.  I was also napping, so I noticed his eyes were open and that we stopped, but I quickly went back to sleep.  I expected Isaac to do the same.

Forty-five minutes later I opened my eyes, mostly to just check stuff.  Isaac was wide awake, but being quietly content in his car seat.  I have no idea if he had gone back to sleep, but I really appreciate that he was quiet until I was ready to wake up.

Saturday: a rooster named Thursday

Isaac's been playing with a toy that says rooster. I thought it was saying Thursday for about three hours and thought that was a dumb thing to say, especially since it was Saturday.

Also, here is his first blog post.

Fetters seeopefogpgoogogggdgoogogedpisaa h,uyg l/12)&$-/:!$4 fewfrl,
L LEmXxmkax xJojkjdz sumo ouzel Kim. K,

C
McD,,mass,s,s,s,s,sls,smscc
Cdkdkzlslslknziszxixxhzuzhu)))))99)$)()();)$));)95:/(8;87@$$!!98$
It mipszsdJjkxksn,sozkxoxOm kzjis c:3:3;..,?!!'m,zzz uiiasv
Pl?p tn

Wednesday: garden pots

Well, my pot garden only semi-thrived this year.  I got two tomatoes.  (However, there are a few green small ones now...if there is enough time I might get more.)  I got some lettuce.

My green pepper was probably the biggest surprise.  It ended up being a red pepper.  It was also super small.

...see?  The tag shows a green pepper.

Tuesday: counting and stairs

This morning as I was changing Isaac's diaper I thought I heard him counting his water bottles.  "One, two."  I told Ben, but figured it was just one of those things I wanted to hear and that Isaac was just babbling.  But then in the evening Ben heard it again!  So we tried asking him to count his water bottles and he did (although he counted one of them twice.)  So now Isaac can probably count to three...it'll be interesting to see if it sticks through tomorrow.

Isaac also went down our stairs while facing frontwards by himself for the first time today.  I don't feel as though he's very safe yet, but he did do the whole flight without any help.

Monday: a rough morning

This morning was rough.  Isaac was in time out three times by 10am.  Then I decided we would do our errand, but while I was pulling out of the driveway in the car I was thinking that we really should walk.  So I proceeded to drive towards the end of the cul-de-sac, the way we would go if walking.  On the way back I decided we should walk.  We got about three houses down and Isaac was complaining about the wind...which was ok with me; it was cooler than I was expecting too.  So back in the car.  We finally made it.

The afternoon was a lot better.  Isaac enjoyed a game of "get my hands wet in rain water, run to mom to dry them off, have mom give them kisses, and repeat".  It was nice because I got to interact with him and get work done.  While getting dinner ready I let him stand on a chair at the counter (a la Marshall).  He helped me dump the rice and spices in.  Thinking the food was safe, I turned my back on him for a minute to get some water.  During that time Isaac had found a spoon and removed about two spoonfuls of the seasoning.  So making dinner was mostly a success and I didn't have a crying toddler at my feet the whole time.  Hooray!

Sunday: rock show

Isaac slept in until 8:30 this morning; a new record!  Ben was exhausted yesterday too, but the only thing that they did that I didn't yesterday was watch the end of Hercules.

Then we went to the rock show in the afternoon.  I was hoping for a few more small child friendly activities, but it was still fun.  Our favorite was the rock petting table.

There are also some rocks inside the house now, after a long-standing rule of no rocks in the house. 

Friday: beach

Isaac and I went to the beach today with our guest, Zach.  (Poor Ben had to work.)  We chased around a sea gull for a while.  Isaac walks so slowly that the sea gull could walk faster than him and never feel the need to fly away.  After doing a large circle I started feeling kind of sad for it.

Wednesday: library

We went to the library today.  (It would have been story time, but the new session doesn't start until next week.)  Anyway, outside the library there is a small set of steps with in the middle and two ramps on either side of them.  Isaac spent about twenty minutes going in loops around them today.

Tuesday: may I know what I'm talking about

Last Thursday my first class only went ok.  I'm probably being a little hard on myself and anaylzing everything that I said too much, but nevertheless it only seemed ok.  It turns out that it is hard to think, do, and talk all at the same time.

So I was really hoping for a better day today.  And it was.  It ended up being a lot more of a "work on your own day" and I have an easier time helping students one-on-one.  Phew.

Monday: home

Ben's home! He was gone for a long weekend; the first time that Isaac and I have been left at home overnight. (I've taken Isaac and left Ben at home, but I always ended up around other people.)

Happily, Isaac and I survived. It was a pretty busy weekend, do it wasn't very hard to do. But it's nice to have him back.

Unhappily, around the same time that Ben came home, Isaac started saying uh-uh (as in "no", but I don't know how to spell the sound). Isaac, will you eat some chicken? Uh-uh. Isaac, will you bring your shoes to me. Uh-uh. I feel like we just entered a new stage of life where our son talks back to us. Bother.

Saturday: advice

I went to a wedding shower today...it was nice.  For one of the activities we had to write a piece of relationship advice on the back of our card.

The bride's grandma-to-be said to not go to bed angry.
I said it's ok to go to bed mad.  (Reference this post for details on my thoughts.)

I think there are occasions where both of them can be correct.  But it was funny to have both of them come up.

Thursday: best game ever

Amanda, in the kitchen: hey Isaac!  I need you to give something to Dad.
Amanda gives Isaac some high fives.
Isaac runs to Ben in the bedroom.
Ben receives the fives.
Isaac runs back to Amanda
Amanda: Isaac, can you give these to Dad?
Isaac brings more fives to Dad.

Rinse and repeat.

20 months!

Isaac turned 20 months several days ago.  I kept dressing him in nice(ish) clothes so that we could get pictures, but then either he wasn't in the mood or it just didn't happen.  But I finally got some.

As always, he continues to become more and more fun.  Lately he's been saying "ready,set,go!" and then taking off running.  Of course, if I say it he'll take off running while crying at the same time.

We have had a few more sad faces this month when he doesn't get his way, but he's often easily distracted by something else.

He's finally started to say "dog" when you point to a dog and ask what it is.  (Before it was always a "woof".)  He still needs to figure that out for most of the other animals, but it's a start.  He has a few more words and is getting better at repeating words after we say them.

He has started to bring in all the dishes after dinner.  Most of the time this is fine, but we are always afraid that food is going to fall off the plates.  He hasn't quite mastered holding things flat.  He really is a pretty good helper...he helps put the laundry away, the silverware away, and tries to help with gardening.  Today he found the dishwasher packets and put one in the dishwasher even.

Daycare is going well.  He eats everything at lunch time (even things I can't get him to eat at home).  The helpers say that he's always smiling and he seems to enjoy it there.

I know; this is almost the same picture.  I couldn't decide which face I liked better.

What else am I missing?  Sleep?  He's doing very well with sleep, even sleeping until 6:45-7:15 most days.  Eating?  He loves breakfast.  Lunch and dinner are a little more hit and miss.  I think he recently went through a growth spurt as he seems taller.