Saturday: brothers

I took some pictures of the boys together yesterday.  I wish I had thought about their clothes a little bit more, but oh well.  It still turned out fun.

Friday: Isaac and Joshua

Isaac is another month older!

Eating - he went from loving peanut butter jelly to loving nutella.  "ella," as he says it.  Besides that eating is hit and miss.  Sometimes he eats a lot, sometimes he barely touches anything.  Eating on his carpet square and tray has worked pretty well.  The rule is that his butt has to be over the carpet square, but besides that we pretty much let him move as much as he wants.  We'll see if we need to implement another rule later, such as your head can't be on the carpet.

Talking - he talks all the time.  The other day I think he talked without ceasing and it is a little hard to deal with.  But normal, I'm sure.  He often has EEs (monkeys) that do stuff with him lately, so he tells me all about them.  Brown EEs have beds at home.  Black EEs need little cups.  Etc.  He also has stopped listening very well and will often say "what?" to get us to repeat something.  One evening I told him he couldn't ask any more questions until Ben got home, but besides that it hasn't been overly bad.  (By the way, today I found out that the Holy Spirit sometimes has a mouth and likes to drink chocolate milk from big glasses.  EEs like to drink from medium glasses.  They don't have any baby ones.)

Toilet training - still working on it.  I think things are still improving.

Movies - Isaac loves to watch his movie after rest time.  He often will watch the same thing for several weeks in a row...lately he's watched Mickey Mouse Road Raley, a Thomas one, and just today Wall-E came back.

Expressions - Isaac has a very funny "serious" face.  It gets a little scrunched up.

Ok...now on to Joshua!  He ate "real food" for the first time today.  He started to open his mouth by the end, so we'll consider it a win.  I'm not sure how much actually got in him, but I think a little bit at least.

He kept falling.  I might try the bumbo tomorrow instead.

Thursday: 6 months again

Joshua was so smiley for the camera yesterday.  I got so many good shots...and these are only about half of them.  I couldn't pick a favorite.

(You can compare to Isaac's six month pictures.  They two boys look different.  Isaac's expressions were all over the place, but Joshua was just happy.  The few above that aren't smiles were the exception.)

Wednesday: six months

Joshua turned six months today!  How time flies.

We got some of the standard pictures and took a few extra six month pictures, but those will probably be saved for another blog post.

Sleeping - about this same as previously.  We've gone through a small but long cold, which didn't help.  He is also out of his sleep sack at night.  I still send it to day care to help him get to sleep with all the noise there.  He usually sleeps about 12 hours at night and then has a short morning nap, long early afternoon nap, and short early evening nap.  Usually.

Tongue - he's started to stick his tongue out and it's pretty cute.  You can see it in some of the pictures.

Motor control - I feel like his fine motor control has increased a lot in the last month.  He was grabbing things before, but now he is grabbing things all the time.  Gross motor control is improving too...he hasn't rolled over again, but I expect it will happen soon.  And stomach to back rolling easily happens now.  He can sit for many seconds at a time.  He also seems to be happy in the exersaucer for longer periods of time, probably because grabbing and playing with the toys is more possible now.

Tuesday: meat

Today I did a bulk buy of chicken strips through Zaycon.  I've slowly been hearing their name more and more...so I finally decided to try some.

I was happy with the service.  Pick up was at a kind of weird time (4-5pm), but it also only took about one minute.  It did feel a bit sketchy though, going up to a white truck in the middle of the parking lot with no other cars around.  But since they were half the price of normal strips and tasted good, I expect we'll be getting more in the future.

(Here's the referral link if you're interested.)

Monday: pacifier and towel water

I put a happy Joshua into the exersaucer this morning.  He was playing contentedly, and when I looked back a few minutes later he had a pacifier in his mouth.  Surprise!  He had managed to get it from the exersaucer to his mouth and I was rather proud of him.  He was also looking rather cute today, but the picture doesn't do a great job of showing that.

This morning Isaac also came into the bathroom and announced "Towel water helps me not be sick."  Hmm...I must have heard that wrong.  Bottled water?  Tap water?  Lemon water?  He runs to get it.  Yup, I heard correctly.  Towel water.

Do you see the towel?  It's that white rectangle on the water bottle.  The other side is called mountain water.  (At least it's not water rung from a towel.  That was passing through my head and I was a bit scared.)

Sunday: roll over

Joshua rolled over (from back to front) for the first time today!  He did it during Bible Study after chasing an orange ring all over the floor.  He was on the move for someone that could only wiggle and finally managed to get all the way over.  (Clay and Jess, I fondly remembered another Bible Study when Hugh rolled for the first time too. :D)

This evening Ben and I were talking about what to watch with dinner next.  Over the last few days we've tried Modern Marvels, a making Fish Tanks, and some internet ones.  As we were discussing, Isaac piped up with his opinion..."I like Marble Marbles."  Although it took us a bit to figure out that he was say Modern Marvels, we laughed.  At this point I think he just likes it because it has the word Marbles in it...or something like that.

Then he proceeded to play a squirt gun game for the next...45 or so minutes.  Usually the game is get something wet, get it dry.  We added several elements over 45 minutes though.  I had my own squirters to get him back.  His drier kept breaking and he had to go to Ben for new ones.  Ben charged him money for the new ones.  He had to bring dishes to the kitchen to earn more money.  It was a bit boring, really, but kept him entertained and laughing and I was able to get some work done.

Saturday: tired

Something was wrong with Joshua last night.  We ended up sleeping on the couch.  I tried to put him down after an hour or so because my neck was sore, but ended up back on the couch with him.  The second time was more comfortable.  He ended up being out of sorts all morning and sleeping with me again during nap time.  We'll see how tonight goes.

I realized that when I'm tired the control on my eating flies out the window.  I'm hungry all the time.  Everything sounds good.  It's a bit of a problem.

In other news, Isaac had a Dad day.  I tried to get him cook with me, but all he really wanted to do was hang out with Dad.  I've mentioned once or twice that Isaac calls Ben "Dag" and often mentions that he's "ogre" (older).  Imagine our surprise when we found this in Warcraft.

It's Dag the ogre!  I smile every time.

Friday: "He likes me!"

Joshua and I went in to wake Isaac up from his nap.  Joshua started smiling and cooing right at Isaac and Isaac ate it up.  "He likes me!"  "He should sit with me on the couch!"  So I got some pictures.

(Side note 1: Yes, Isaac's pants are too short.  I think he recently had a growth spurt, because the pants that were on the edge are now too short and are slowly being culled from the closet.  I just went and bought some 3T pants.  They're a bit long, but not too much.

Side note 2: I think that Isaac enjoys putting his pants on backwards.  This doesn't help at all with how well the pants fit.)

Isaac really wanted Joshua to watch Mickey Mouse Road Rally with him.  I thought about it a bit, and decided it would be ok for a few minutes.  I got some good work done in those ten minutes too!  (Side note 3: Ben pointed out the other day that Mickey and Minnie's ears always point in the same direction...they rotate around the head as the mice move.  It's kind of weird now that I'm aware of it.)

Lastly, Isaac's tray table arrived in the mail today.  I've been transitioning Isaac to a chair for a few months now, but a high chair has been nicest for dinner still.  But since Joshua will be needing it in a week (a week!) we needed a new solution.

In this picture you can see Isaac on a carpet square.  Ideally he will have to stay on the carpet square until he's done.  You can also see a tiger eating cheese and an airplane (the green duplo).  After the picture was taken there was a big party with all the animals and people and they all ate cheese, except for the horse who ate lettuce.

Thursday: drums

Wednesday: naps

As I put Isaac down for rest time, I said something along the lines of, "Can you please take a nap?  Or at least be quiet?  I am sick and really need a nap."  (About an hour after the day had started I was ready for a nap.)

It worked.  Everyone slept for three hours.  Three hours!  At the same time!

After Isaac woke up he asked me, "Are you feeling better now?"

It pulled on my heartstrings.  And I was happily able to answer, "Yes.  Much better."

Tuesday: colds

A cold is running through the family.  Isaac doesn't seem to have it yet and I'm not sure if Joshua has the same cold that Ben and I do.  But Ben and I are miserable.  In that I-want-to-take-the-day-off-but-don't-think-I'm-really-sick-enough way.

But Isaac nicely played with Duplos this evening.  Joshua was willing to help me do my work.  So it worked.  My cold wasn't too bad until I got home at dinner time, so I'm hoping that the night will give me a good recharge.

And in leaving, I'll give you a poor picture of Flurry.  I had never seen her go in a crib before, but I don't think that Isaac ever had a crib by a ledge.

Monday: 25 weeks

Joshua turned 25 weeks old today!

To celebrate, he last night he slept without his swaddle for the first time.  I was only up one extra time...so he slept about like normal.  I'm still planning on sending it to daycare though, because it is so noisy there. Also, he stuck his tongue out at me a lot today.

His eyes seem to still be very blue.  I don't remember when Isaac's started to change, but it seems as though they had started to change by now.  I'm hoping they stay blue.

Sunday: the boys

Joshua was looking rather alert, although he still has a bit of a cold and is rather snugly.

Isaac got a magnetic zoo.  We spent a lot of time talking about where the animals should go.  Most of them walked ("which way?" "straight" "oh, he bumped into a fence." "turn a bit." "There's a wolf." "Jump over the wolf." "Now which way?" "Right.")  Every animal went to more or less the right spot, except the penguins.  They went to stand upside-down by the lions.

Saturday: wiggles

During dinner Isaac suddenly said, "when I move [my arms] my teeth move."  And proceeded to pump his arms back and forth really quickly while chewing.  Ben and I just laughed.

I had a video of him doing a wiggle dance too, but it isn't uploading.  Maybe you'll get to see it tomorrow.

Friday: books

Do you know what annoys me?  Books that have a meter or a rhyme for part of the book but not for another part of the book.  Just as I get into the rhythm, it stops and I stumble.

It doesn't happen too often, but in enough books to be annoying.

And for the record, again and rain don't rhyme at all, even though they both end in -ain.

Thursday: today

I dropped off the kids at school today and went to get groceries.  I didn't really want to get groceries; it was a big list.  And I had been hoping that Thursday mornings I would be able to get least get some housework done, but it hasn't happened.  While we did need groceries, they often clutter the house for a day or two because something else comes up that is more important than putting the room temperature food away.  (Today it was teaching work.)  Add to a big list a bunch of good sales and I had a very full cart.  Sigh.  A happy sigh though.  It's nice to have groceries.

Joshua also easily ate all his food at daycare and they even gave him the extra few ounces that I put in the freezer just in case.  Side note...I also bought Joshua some real food at the grocery store.  I can't believe he's getting ready for solid foods.  I was ready to give Isaac solids, but I'm not really ready with Joshua.  The time feels like it has gone so much faster.

Isaac was walking in the snow when we got home and told me, "I made a rainbow!"  That was not what I was expecting him to say, but his footprints did make rainbows.

Wednesday: bad and good

I was fined $900,000.32 for ripping down a tree in a state forest.  I was aghast...the tree, a little birch, was obviously rotten if I could pull it down with my hands.  I was suddenly empathetic with the serfs that poached deer in their lord's forests to feed their families and were killed after being caught.

That dream was how the day started.  I also had a plugged duct start in the middle of the night, so was sore due to that.  And tired!  And achy, but maybe that was just from being tired.  There were things we had to do, so vegging out on the couch wasn't an option.

I ended up taking some medicine before we left the house.  Yay for medicine!!!  I felt a ton better.  Our big errand was bringing Isaac to the dentist for the first time.  He did awesome.  He has 20 teeth and was excited to use his flossers.  Maybe this will make teeth brushing a bit easier again.

I put Joshua out on his quilt to play, and Isaac immediately thought it was picture time.

We had a hard time getting a picture of all of us...but I like Isaac in this one.

Ben came home early!  I like Joshua in this one.

And Ben in this one.

And finally...a decent picture of all of us.

Tuesday: love

Joshua had a ok time at day care today, but didn't sleep well.  He woke up right when we got home and didn't go down again until bedtime.  So he was a bit grumpy.  Ben was holding him and put Joshua on the bed so he could change his clothes.  Joshua started crying, so Ben asked Isaac, "Can you make him happy?"

It worked...at least for a bit.

Monday: 24 weeks

Joshua turned 24 weeks today!  And he was a bit sick, so I didn't try to take too many pictures.

Nothing major seemed wrong.  He didn't have a fever, but he had a slightly drainy nose.  However, he either slept or laid with me for most of the day.  And by laid I mean that he didn't move and didn't talk...he just was.

He seemed a bit better around 5pm.  We'll see how the night goes.

And here's today's fun conversation with Isaac:
Amanda: What do you want to talk about?
Isaac: Jesus died
Amanda: What else do you need to tell people when you say that?
Isaac: And he rose again!
Isaac: He has lots of roses.
Isaac: And apples.

Sunday: the day

It was a nice Sunday, although nothing all that notable happened.  Although everyone slept in, we still woke up early enough to go to the 9:00 church service.  Oh!  Isaac went to 3s church for the first time.  He was so excited to go to church upstairs.  He slipped into the classroom ahead of me, as I waited for some adults to get out of the way, and started playing with the trains.  He didn't miss me at all.  But he was excited to show me his sticker book that he made.  "A heart" (for God loves us) "A two" (I forget what the second picture was of, but there was a 2.) "A three" (for the third picture, a cross).  "A towel" (for the cloud of the Holy Spirit that was put on sideways.)  But some of it must have clicked because he mentioned that Jesus died several times today.

Ben, Joshua, and I went to Bible Study while Isaac and CC went about their normal shenanigans.  Joshua almost rolled over...he is so close!  Soon.  Afterwards we all took naps.  Late naps, but necessary.  After dinner I gave Joshua a bath and Isaac ran around.  Rather literally, like a wild child.  But a somewhat controlled wild child, bringing Ben and me assorted duplo drinks.  Bedtime went more smoothly than normal.  Maybe he was just the right amount of tired.

Saturday: this and that

As we were getting lunch ready Isaac said that he wanted one without lines.  "One what?"  we tried asking.  Unable to figure it out, I continued to make his lunch.  I got out a plate.  He took a look at it and said, "No, I don't want white lines."  Ah.  He didn't want a divided plate.

Ben made a cool train track with him.  It continued to get cooler as the day went on.

Isaac and I went outside for just a bit.  You can't see the floor in the picture, but the snow drift is about up to his shoulders.  We shoveled some paths and found his toys so that he can go out again if he wants.

Joshua was rather sleepy today.

Friday: snow day!

Hope College canceled classes.  Daycare was closed.  A snow day!!  Too bad we weren't scheduled to go to those places any way.  Ben also stayed home from work.  Although he did work from home, it felt kind of like a Saturday because we saw him more than when he works at work.

Isaac took a nap, which was awesome.  Joshua woke up fifteen minutes into my nap, so he ended up sleeping with me.

And I just watched it snow most of the day.  I'm not sure that we actually got much accumulation; it might have been one of those days were it just looks like it is snowing a lot.

Thursday: good and bad

Good: There's a blizzard!!
Bad: The garage door is broken and won't open.
Good: The cars were outside of the garage when it happened.
Bad: The cars are outside in a blizzard.
Good: We have a snowblower that works!
Bad: The snowblower wouldn't help dig out the cars much
Good: Ben managed to fit both cars in the garage through the third stall.  And he did it all by himself.

Bad: The snow blower was then just barely stuck in the garage.

Good: The Subaru's bumper fit over the step in the garage.

Bad: After moving the Subaru up 6" I had to snow blow because the snow blower wasn't stuck anymore.

Good: I love snow!!!

Wednesday: no school

Today was our day in between school days.  In the past my schedule hasn't really mattered, but today I was glad I wasn't working back to back days.  It allowed me to work with Joshua and his bottle.  I gave him two bottles; the first one went down quickly and the second one went down, but it took a bit more.  The problem was that he kept being distracted by Isaac.  But he took both of them, so I'm hopeful for tomorrow.

It's still hard to get a straight story from Isaac about what he did during the day.  We tried yesterday, and it didn't really work.  But this morning he told me that they had animal crackers at school.  From a big box.  That they get at the store.  Several hours there and what impresses him the most?  The big box of animal crackers.  It makes me sigh a bit, but oh well.

Tuesday: school

The first thing Isaac said to me this morning was, "Is it time for school?"  Needless to say, we were out the door early because Isaac was willing to do things like put his boots on by himself without complaining.

Joshua had the worst day. :(  Apparently eating didn't go so well.  It's been a while since I've given him a bottle.  I'm wondering if he needs more flow.  He is such a fast eater normally that the bottles we have may have been too annoying.  We'll be trying new things tomorrow at home.  He was crying when I picked him up and took quite a while to calm down.  But on the plus side, right after I left he was fine.  So if we can just get eating figured out it'll probably be better.

My day was fine.  Not too bad, not super awesome.  Just normal.  Classes went fine and there were no major issues.

Isaac probably had the best day.  The teachers said it was as though he never left.  He ate, he went to the bathroom, he napped, he participated in everything.  I had forgotten to sign him in and went back to the room, and he was with the other kids waiting to do...something.  And when I picked him up he was happily playing in the kitchen.  But when he saw me he got a huge smile and ran over.

Now I just have to figure out how to make it be less than an hour between when I finish class and when I get home.  Not really sure how that happened, unless I spent more time cuddling Joshua than I realized.

Monday: 23 weeks and Real Life

Joshua turned 23 weeks old today.

 

And a few pictures to show what life really looks like around here:

Laundry has moved to the couch because the table is full.  It's been here for about two days, although most was gone by this evening.  BUT I have another basket full that is waiting.

The table has a bunch of legos that Ben gave me for my birthday.  Isaac loves playing with them, but lost a piece.  I'm annoyed, but expect that I could find a similar piece in the basement if needed.  It'll probably show up eventually.

We have a balloon forest from Isaac and Larry's birthdays.  It's kind of fun.  Most of the time.  Isaac cried for the last seven minutes of rest time because he didn't have a balloon to play with in bed.  I don't mind giving them to him at the beginning of rest time, but not in the middle.

I took down all the Christmas decor and put up "winter lights".  Also, it snowed a lot today and is supposed to continue!  Yay!  Also, the high chair is usually farther back but it still had yesterday's dinner plates on it so I moved it mostly out of the picture.

School starts for everyone tomorrow.  Isaac was so excited about it today and tried about every two hours to convince me it was time for school.  Most of the reasons were that he was older now, but once I heard that Elmo was there and so he should be too.  I hope it lives up to his expectations.

The kitchen.  Just as I get it cleanish it becomes messy.  I'm blaming Christmas...I'm almost done putting everything away and then maybe I'll have time to keep up with the kitchen.  Maybe.

Sunday: traps

Today Isaac seemed to be in an extra trappy mood.  I finally got some pictures.  Ben and I both usually play along, but if the trap takes too long to open we've been known to jump over them.

Closed trap:

Open trap (I forgot the flash...but you get the idea):

Saturday: resolutions

Last year's New Year's resolution was to have a baby.  Check.

I think this year it will be to not take more toilet paper than I really need.

Friday: the good and the bad

This morning was great!  First we had this conversation:
Amanda: Grandma won't be there.  She's on the other side of the world.
Isaac: When she goes out, will she fall down?

So we got out the globe.

Later in the morning the trains came out.  I'm rather proud of the track.

And Joshua decided to smile for a picture.

Then we got to the afternoon.  Trains might have messed up Joshua's schedule, because I couldn't get a decent nap out of him.  Isaac decided he couldn't do anything by himself, but wouldn't really concentrate on anything either.  I finally said that I had to do work.  (Which was true...the kitchen was a disaster.  But it is also an excuse I frequently use when I need a break.)  Isaac was whining about that, so I told him he could do his puzzle in the kitchen.  It's only 12 pieces; he is fully capable of doing that on his own.  However, he wouldn't even try.  Then Joshua woke up screaming from his short nap and I was about to pull my hair out.  We got through the next fifteen minutes by my rocking Joshua and handing one semi-random piece to Isaac at a time while I read the quilting blogs I follow.  Then Isaac was done with the puzzle and Joshua was screaming again.  Urg.  But I put Joshua down to blow my runny nose and he calmed down again.  Isaac invented some game that involved bouncing puzzle pieces on squishy blocks into a tub.  And then Ben came home...we made it.