Saturday: pajamas and lake

We got some new handme down pajamas for Joshua, and there just happened to be a smaller size of Isaac's favorite pajamas.  So they both wore them last night.

Isaac putting a ball on Joshua's head.

I was having a really hard time getting them to look at me (let alone smile), so I had them look at the fire.  Even that proved a bit difficult.  First Joshua looked right.  Then left.  Then I finally got one of him looking at the fire.

(Side note: Isaac really wanted to wear underwear to bed tonight.  So we're trying it.  He told me he wouldn't have an accident...but he has been staying dry only about 50% of the nights lately.  I'm kind of expecting a 6am wakeup call, but thought I'd see what happens.  Sometimes he surprises me.)

Ben and Isaac also took a walk onto the lake.

See the black speck in the middle of the picture?  That's them.

It's a rather weird feeling to walk onto the lake, even when you know it is well frozen.

Friday: volume

It was a loud day today.

We went to story time at the library.  There was a new teacher, who was very good, but I missed Miss Mary.

Then we went to a play group.  A lot of fun, but loud.  Seven kids and four adults in a house is bound to be loud.  (As a side note, Isaac said his hand really was excited to go to play group.  I don't understand why his hands have minds of their own.)

We got home and the plow had gone through again.  (Why?  I don't know.  It hasn't snowed since the last time it went through.)  Since we have a big bump at the end of the driveway I took a few minutes to clean it up.  But the sun was out and so the snow "loudly" shone in my eyes.

We had rest time at home.  I got a little nap, but could have used a longer one.  That's usually how it goes though.  And after rest time Isaac was just loud.  He doesn't stop talking or making noise.  And if he does stop Joshua tends to fill in the silence.  By about 5pm my mind shut down...too much noise for the day.

I got to pick up the food for dinner.  All by myself.  It was wonderfully quiet.

I got home to a loud house (thanks to Isaac) but after dinner was feeling a bit more normal.

Wednesday: hands

Isaac calls to me from the bathroom, "Can you pull down my pants?"  Surprised, I went over.  "This hand [the right hand] will pull down my pants but this hand [the left hand] doesn't want to."

So obviously, the best solution to this problem was to call me over.

Tuesday: ha!

Mid term grades are due tomorrow, so I thought I'd work on them briefly tonight and get them in.  Briefly...ha!  Well, I guess I did work on the grades briefly.  But then I helped the graders catch up on an assignment, answered a bunch of emails, and just generally got caught up.  So now it's way past my bedtime but I don't feel in the right frame of mind to go to bed because I've been doing something different than normal.

P.S. I have lots of good hints for cheating if you really want to do it.  Probably all teachers do.  Not that I condone it, but if you insist on doing it please do it well.

P.P.S. I find condone an odd word as it sound like a negative word but really isn't.  Although I'm not sure I've ever heard of someone condoning something.  People always seem to not condone something.  I'm rambling.  Guess I should go to bed.

P.P.P.S. I won't give you the hints for cheating well.  It'd be cheating.  Hahahahaha.

Monday: 30 weeks

Joshua is 30 weeks now!  Sitting very well and loving to jump.

I tried to get a picture of the tooth but the cute little tongue kept getting in the way.

We had some interesting "pictures of all of us" today.

Sunday: surprise

This morning Isaac and I were talking about teeth and how Joshua doesn't have any.  (Maybe he had his fingers in his mouth and Isaac thought he was hurting himself?)  Then I realized that this was around the time that Isaac got his first tooth and wondered when Joshua would get his.  He had been pretty out-of-sorts yesterday and had the pacifier in for most of the day, although I hadn't really thought about it much with all the commotion going on.

Surprise!  Joshua already has a tooth.  It's all the way through.  It especially surprised me because Friday and Saturday nights he slept really well.  So either he's had the tooth for a few days or it really just didn't bother him that much.  I'm guessing that the last two days has been the other tooth coming in.

Saturday: kid pictures

My nieces were over for the afternoon.  So I let them use my camera...I wondered if there'd be any interesting pictures.  I should have had the flash on, but was afraid that would have gotten rather annoying.  Here's the best what we ended up with...

Two of us.

Playing baby marbles.

Me.  Isaac is actually getting pretty good at taking pictures.

Isaac hiding.

Artistic shot of baby marbles.

More baby marbles.

Isaac's legs.  He looks tall.

Ben reading a book to all the kids.

Isaac and Joshua

Setting up a train track.

Joshua looking silly

Holding Joshua.  It's a favorite activity.

Friday: timing

This morning we had an 11:30 appointment at the car fix-it shop.  I wanted to get some groceries before then and then realized I needed to get Joshua his vaccinations too.  So we left to do the other errands too and I wondered how off I'd be with getting to the 11:30 appointment.

I was almost done with groceries and looked at the clock.  Ug.  10:15.  The last bit must have taken longer than I realized because when we were in the car it was 10:45.  (Also, it was super cold out today.)

We go to the doctor's office and sat down to wait.  11:05...hmm, now we might be running late and it looked like there was someone in front of us.  Blah.  Well, if it takes too long we could always come back.  Luckily, the other people were waiting for something else so Joshua was called within about five minutes.  He didn't cry for his first shot, surprisingly, but couldn't make it through the second.  He did calm down quickly though.

So we made it to the fix it shop right on time.  Amazing.

Thursday: how to get your son to eat more carrots

To get your son to eat more carrots, tell him he can get them from the refrigerator by himself.  He ate three times as many as normal for dinner tonight.

Really, it's a win-win for everyone.

In other news, there was a crazy snow storm today with surprisingly little accumulation.  It probably snowed all day (and driving was terrible) and we only ended up with about three inches.

Tuesday: blah

It was just a blah day today.  Nothing went wrong, but nothing really seemed to go right either.  And I'm tired.

I guess I'll try again tomorrow.

Monday: 29 weeks and stuff

Joshua is 29 weeks old today.

For his birthday, the car got a flat tire at Joann's.  Luckily, I recalled the lessons of my youth and was able to fix it.  (Well, someone came over to help when I was about half way done.  But I could have done it all on my own...I was doing fine.)  Dad made me change a tire before I could drive by myself.  (There's a picture of me jumping on the lug wrench, but apparently I don't have a copy of it.)  I never felt like it was a silly thing to do, but today I was extra glad that I did it.  The picture probably helped because I was reminded of it once in a while.

He also almost got to ride in the seat of the shopping cart, but Isaac decided he didn't want to walk after all.  I was a little sad, but oh well.  Once it warms up Isaac might not have as much of a choice because I won't have to take the carrier in the store to keep Joshua warm.

We had a short picture session.

And made a new "baby marble" track.  Joshua practiced sitting and knocking over block towers while we did it.  (Do you see the camel?  It causes traffic jams by plugging the hole because my arm was getting tired.)

Sunday: Valentine's Day and snow

I took a few Valentine's pictures yesterday of the boys with their puzzle hearts.  The setting with them together didn't go very well.  This was probably the best I got:

I thought I'd try with just Joshua.  That worked better.

Today was bitter cold out (it was supposed to be 0F at noon, and that was without the wind chill) so I brought snow in the house to play with.  I tried putting some in the tub yesterday (I saw other people do it on Facebook) but that didn't work well.  I just kept putting down a new towel when the previous one got wet.

Isaac enjoyed "chomping" anything I made.  For the most part this worked well.  It was interested to see the snow go through stages...first it didn't clump at all, then it clumped well, and then it clumped too well.  It was also surprising how dirty the snow was after it melted.

Saturday: baptism and other videos

Video time!

I finally got Joshua's baptism edited for the blog.  YouTube has a very nice editor that I didn't realize they had until nothing else worked.


Joshua bouncing.  He recently figured out how to bounce and not just be a lump.

I: Good job Joshua
I: Oh no! [Isaac is going backwards]
I: Good job Joshua
I: Oh, he needs a nose wipe
A: Oh, he does?  OK

Bouncing with a rattle.

I: Joshua wants to hold that rattle [after Isaac couldn't get it on the jumper]
A: Oh, ok.
I: Joshua did want to hold that rattle.
A: Well, thank you for bringing it to him.
I: Joshua did want that rattle
A: Yeah.
I: He did.
I: Now he's happy.
A: yeah.
I: Cause he has more rattles

The wiggle dance...a fast version of it apparently.

I: Too fast! boom.
I: That was too fast.
A: That was too fast? ok.
I: My try again. [something I can't get]
I: Really too fast.
A: Woah, yeah.   You bumped into the wall.
I: Way too fast.
A: Boom.
I: Way too...

Friday: a funeral

(TL;DR: I went to a funeral and was sad.)

Today I went to a funeral.  I'll admit, I was rather dreading it.  The circumstances had so many similarities to my mom's death: a person that wasn't that old, a cancer diagnosis quickly followed by death.  So they were already triggers on feeling sad.  But since it was my sister-in-law's father, I went.

I made it through the funeral itself without crying, mainly because I realized I didn't have any tissues so crying would be disastrous.  But I couldn't stop myself at the end.  I just remember how sad I was at Mom's funeral and how unreal it felt and how sad I was that Allison was (probably) feeling the same way.  I remember walking behind the casket on the way out of church and not being able to see because there were so many tears in my eyes.  I told Ben that I wasn't sure I could face Allison right then, and he said that was ok.  Phew.  I felt selfish, but I also remember being sick of crying and sometimes it was nice to be able to hold it together.  I expected we'd both be crying if I talked to Allison.  I managed to pull myself together at least a bit during the reception and talked a bit to her, but we kept it pretty light.

And I'm kind of thinking that the pain of losing someone doesn't dull or diminish after time, it just changes.  The sharp pain of their passing doesn't come as frequently, but there are still intense feelings of loss at times.  A big difference is that you also know you'll be able to keep going since you've made it this far.  Also, the intense pain will pass, at least until the next time it comes back.

The wonderful thing though?  It means I had a wonderful mom.  I wouldn't miss her otherwise.

Thursday: sickness

Yesterday Isaac seemed to be a lot better, even before the medicine.  (Although the internet said that croup is worst at night/early morning.)  This morning he seemed a bit off, but I just thought he was being three.  (For example, I was feeding Joshua and had forgotten to given him the bib that he wanted for his yogurt.  He started crying a real cry, so I came out to see what was going on.  He told me he needed a bib and I said, "oh, yeah.  Let me get that for you."  While I was getting it out, he shows me why he needs a bib by violently putting a huge bite of yogurt in his mouth, almost gagging himself, while convulsing wildly.  I just looked at him and wondered what in the world was going on.)

The people at daycare said he did great, but once we got home he kept talking about his head.  I didn't really understand what he was trying so say, so just brushed it off.  (His head is rough?  What is he talking about?)  He still was acting a bit weird, but not too much.  We were eating dinner (his favorite - chicken and tots) and suddenly he was done.  Laying on the floor done.  I passed Joshua to Ben and he came over and just laid against me.  The type of unmoving that you know something is wrong.  I think he had a headache.  Anyway, we gave him some Tylenol and then he fell asleep against my shoulder.

Hopefully he'll wake up happy!

Wednesday: the day

Everyone slept in until 8:45 today...crazy!  Isaac is usually the first one up, promptly when his alarm clock turns green and is ready to go.  This morning Joshua was the one that got me up.  I had finished feeding him and was getting him dressed when I heard I weird noise...it sounded like a squeak from when you rub your finger on plastic.  Then another noise...this time I thought the cat was about to throw up.  Then another noise...oh...they were all Isaac coughing.

Once he sat up and cuddled a bit he improved a ton, but I still ended up bringing him to the doctor and he's on some steroids for croup.  I feel like I've seen our new doctor more in the last 6 months than I saw our other doctor in total since we moved back to Michigan.

So we took it easy at home.  Joshua fell over while he and Isaac were playing and I had stepped out of the room.  When I got to the room Isaac was about to try and help Joshua up and was trying to calm him down.  It was super sweet.  Isaac went out and found a pacifier after I picked Joshua back up.

I had been looking through old blog posts to see if I could get a "compare Isaac to Joshua at the same age" outfit and came upon this video, where Ben threw up a swimsuit and clapped and Isaac found it funny.  I tried it today to see if Joshua would find it funny.  Isaac again found it very funny, but Joshua looked at me as though I was crazy.

We finished Isaac's valentines.  I'm glad they're done.  It might have been good trying to spell his name over and over, but I'm not really sure it helped at all.

Tuesday: Break

Today was winter break.  I was eagerly awaiting an afternoon all too myself...but what would I do?  Nap?  That sounded lovely but it could also eat up most of my afternoon?  Chores that are hard with children?  That sounded ok as they would at least be interesting chores.  Fun things?  That sounded nice.

Surprisingly, I didn't end up napping.  I did a combination of easy chores (things that didn't really matter but I've wanted to do them for a while) and fun things.  It was nice.

Monday: 28 weeks

Joshua turned 28 weeks old today.  Over the last two weeks he's gotten a ton better at sitting up by himself.  I can now leave him for short periods of time.

He's also figured out how to buzz his lips.  So he makes that sound all the time.

Saturday: Cuddles

Joshua is an excellent cuddler.

Friday: hmmm

It's early in the morning and Isaac was looking for "soft" pants.  I helped him find some and then crawled back into bed while he finished getting dressed and going to the bathroom.  Sometimes when I do this he gets to watch TV...so we had the following conversation while I was in bed.

"Can I watch SuperWhy?"
"No."
"Yes?"
"No"
"What?"
"No."
"I can watch TV?"
"No"
"What?"
"No"
"Yes?"
"No"
"It was a little sleep?"  [He usually gets to watch TV after his nap.]
"No"
"Why?"
****************************************
I got Isaac up from his nap only to find that he had threaded his sheet between his T-shirt and his zip, so that half of it came out the top of his zip.  Why?
"To make my tummy soft.  And healthy.  So it doesn't break.

Obviously.
****************************************
I was tickling Joshua and he was laughing and I was excited that he was ticklish now.  I tried to show Ben later and he wasn't ticklish anymore.  I felt tricked.

Thursday: doctor visits

The boys had their well child checkups yesterday.

Isaac is 31 pounds (40%) and 36.5" (~20%).  I'm a little surprised at the percentiles here because I feel as though his pants have been too big for his height, unless there's elastic.  But it's an increase in both percentiles, so he's "catching up" with his peers, although I doubt that he'll ever really catch up.

Joshua is 15lb, 3oz (8%) and 26.5" (8%).  This is very similar to Isaac at this age.  He's still following a proper growth curve though, so all is good.

Everything else looked good.  Joshua has a bit of fluid in his ears from the cold, but no ear infection.  Joshua slept more like normal last night, so I'm hoping he's getting over it.

Wednesday: corn bread

I've decided that I really like corn bread muffins to go with soup.  1) They taste delicious.  2) I can make them on demand.  3) One box makes just the right amount.

Tuesday: another first

We used the snot sucker thingy.  It took two of us.  And Joshua enjoyed it about as much as I expected.

Monday: 27 weeks

Joshua is 27 weeks today.

He has not been sleeping well.  I've lost count of how many times I've been up the last three nights.  Usually he'll go back down with a pacifier, but I'm still waking up. (If stumbling to his room with my eye half shut counts. I'm oddly afraid that I'm going to fall down the stairs sometime. (Here's a picture of the stairs and the door of Joshua's room.))  If I knew that it was just that he wanted a pacifier I'd start doing something about it, but it could be so many other things that I don't really want to let him cry too long.  I'll give him a while longer and reevaluate.

He enjoyed his first sweet potatoes!  He ate the whole container, and most of it got into his tummy.  He's gotten really good at opening his mouth, even if his tongue sometimes pushes it back out.

Sunday: why?

Oh, I was hoping that we had somehow managed to skip the "why?" stage.  But we didn't.  Today was a bad one.  After a morning of whys we were in the car returning from lunch and had approximately this conversation...

I: I told Grandma to watch out because her french fry might be too hot.
A: That was nice of you.  Did she laugh?
I: She said "Thank you"
I: Why?
B: So she wouldn't burn her mouth
I: Why?
A: Because it hurts
I: Why?
A: AARRGGHH
I: Are you ok Mommy?  Did you burn your mouth?

Ben and I laughed...what a good assumption, given the context and Isaac's point of view.