Wednesday: 45 months

Isaac turned 45 months today.  He was rather stubborn about not letting me take a picture of him, so this one is the only one I got.  Well, I took another that I wasn't supposed to, but it isn't very good.

Favorites: Isaac seems to have lots of favorites lately...
*color: black, hands down
*stuffed animal: Giraffe.  Giraffe is still full of sad emotions, especially when Isaac leaves him.  The other day his first name (Giraffe) was taken by some clouds, but no one had told giraffe what his new first name was yet.
*dinner: chicken and tots...it's his "very best favorite"
*meal: peanut butter 'tella
*sweet food: donuts.  (Hooray!  He helps my donut addiction.)
*mom: Me.  I'm told several times a day that I'm the best mom in the whole world.
*dad: Ben.  Ben regularly gets emails that have videos saying "I love you Dad" because Isaac is so sad that Ben had to leave.

He still has some pretty strong emotions, but I feel like they're more under control than they were last month.  He isn't crying every day and time out has again become more rare.  However, his crying now includes some screaming...the good part?  He's usually calm soon after the scream gets out.

I also wanted to mention that I feel he is trust-worthy.  (Or at least as much as can be expected with a 45 month old.)  The other day I asked him to put himself in bed for rest time.  And he did!  He doesn't always do what we ask him to do right away, but he will at least tell us that he doesn't want to do it.  When we convince him that he does have to do it, I can leave the area and know that he will do it.  (Although, I'll admit, not always as fast as I was expecting him to do it.)

We had about a week where he said "poop"  all the time.  I think we got rid of it.  It was a combination of a lot of people telling him it wasn't nice to say and the threat of a bad taste in his mouth.

He rarely has toilet accidents anymore, even at night.

School seems to be going well.  He goes right into his classroom without a backwards glance.  (He is also super excited to see me when I come to pick him up, so it works well both ways.)  He can spell and write his name.  (Not very neatly, but he can.)  He can color inside lines, trace objects, and understands how to do simple math.

Several people have mentioned this month that he suddenly seems older.  The toddler is all gone, replaced by a very fun preschooler.

Late Monday: 14 months

Joshua turned 14 months yesterday.

Attitude: He's been pretty happy lately, except when he's not.  When he's not happy he calms down if you pick him up.  If you don't pick him up (or put him back down on the floor), he expresses his displeasure by throwing himself backwards.  Luckily, we now know the habit and cushion his fall.

Playing: He plays well by himself.  He's starting to bring books over to me to read.  Usually it is Little Blue Truck or Pout-pout fish.  I think he likes the kisses in pout-pout fish because he always puts his head close to mine when it's time for them in the book.

Motor skills: He is rapidly learning to walk.  At the rate he's going he might be walking all the time within a week, but I'm sure that by next month he will be.  He uses the walker sometimes.  He is starting to try and use a spoon, although I still put the food on it and he isn't very good with it yet.

Food: he's pretty good with whatever we're eating, but seems to like bread and meat the best.  Fruit sometimes works.  Vegetables are hard and there's no way to give him any incentive to eat them yet.  He nurses about four times a day.

Sleep: He naps for about 1.5 hours in the middle of the day.  Sometimes he'll take a short nap in the car in the morning if we're out and about.  He sleeps from 8pm until 5ish, eats, and goes back to sleep until 7am.  I'd really like to get rid of that feeding, but am afraid it'll mean that we're up at 6 or 6:30.

Attachment: he alternates preferring Ben or me better, although often either of us will do.  He's not a huge fan of going with other people, but calms down soon after we leave.

Talking: he definitely has a sign for all done.  He waves bye-bye and good night on cue.  He still doesn't have many more verbal words since last month, but there is a da he uses as a command type word in several situations.

update: he also folds his hands when you say the word "pray" and likes to turn light switches on and off.

Monday: baby day

Today we went to baby day at Hope College.  I think I've mentioned doing this with Isaac several times...they always were pretty low on guessing his age.

Anyway, I went, not really sure how it would go.  Isaac came with us, which always adds interest, and Joshua is always a bit more clingy than Isaac was.  Isaac would go to nursery, care at the gym, day care, whatever without a backwards glance but was always pretty shy during baby day, not really showing off his skills very well.

Joshua, who hates the separation part, was a social butterfly for almost the whole hour!  He played with me.  He played with the other parents.  He played with some of the students.  He played really well with the teacher, asking that she play peek-a-boo with him over and over.  He even let the teacher pick him up and carry him around.  The students were a bit low on his age (guessing 10-12 months), but not too far off.  It probably didn't help that I couldn't remember his length and he is just starting to walk.

Sunday: house, moon, walking

I worked really hard to get the house cleaned up over the weekend.  And I was mostly successful!  Not completely successful, but I also managed to get some other random things done.  One random thing was a art spot for Isaac.  He's been coming home with some really cool art from school, but I didn't have a great spot for it.  He didn't care too much when I was putting it in the recycle (as long as he didn't see it), but that's a bit boring.  So I put two ribbons in his room.  This gives plenty of space to hang art from, but also will help us get rid of some when the ribbon gets full.

Moon...the clouds cleared just in time!  Ben and I went out as the full eclipse started and at the mid point.  (I'm hoping to go out once near the end too.)  Very pretty in it's red color.

Joshua started walking a lot more today.  He's still not great at it, but maybe 50% of the time started walking towards something.  He often fell after a few steps and would continue scooting there.  But once in a while he made it all the way to his goal.

Saturday: the day

Isaac's new use for the scooter.  Normally he wouldn't fall off.

Friday: joke

Q: Why was the ink drop sad?
A: It's mother was in the pen and didn't know when the sentence would end.

Thursday: today

Today happened.  Nothing really of note.  I dropped off the kids, had an eye doctor's appointment, did some work, taught, picked up the kids, made dinner, ate, gave the kids baths and put them to bed, and then quilted and played warcraft.

It was a pleasant day though.  I was wearing a new outfit.  Isaac's teacher said he had no problems not saying "poop" during class.  My contacts for the next year were completely covered by insurance.  Joshua enjoyed his bath.

Wednesday: bird of prey

We were leaving the gym today and saw a bird of prey on the grass.  We watched it a while; it was having it's dinner.  We started walking towards the cars and realized it was right off the driver's side of Ben's car.

We got the kids in the car I was driving.  The bird of prey was still there, eating away.  The cars going by weren't bothering it a bit.  There was one car with people that was also watching the bird.  Ben ended up getting in the car from the passenger side.  Luckily, for the bird I guess, the car was electric and so Ben was able to pull away without disturbing it at all.  It was pretty neat.

My best guess is that it was a Cooper's Hawk, but the bird book says that there are a few that look very similar.

Tuesday: outside

Today we played outside for a bit after dinner.  Isaac and I played "go to bed", in which he is the parent and I am the child.  I holler for him to fix all my problems.  He's pretty good at fixing all of them except the one when I'm not sleepy.  (Oh, and all the monsters got turned into poop.)

At the same time Joshua and I played weeds.  Joshua would pick some weeds and give them to me.  He seemed very happy with himself.

Sunday: pfft

Joshua was copying Ben's funny noise.  It's kind of hard to see.  At the end you hear Isaac saying, "Poop."  Why?  Because he is obsessed with that word lately.  It seems to come out of his mouth about every half hour.

In other news, my eye and leg were doing much, much better today.  Almost all of our flies have been gone since yesterday...I think there is still one floating around, but we're almost done.

Saturday: right side

My right side was having issues today.  Before bed last night my right eye hurt.  I rinsed it out and it stopped hurting, but still gave me some issues.  This morning when I woke up it kept tearing up and going into lighter rooms was really hard.  However, as the day progressed it has gotten better.  It still isn't completely back to normal, but much improved.

I also have a muscle on my right side that is rather sore.  I think it is just sore and nothing else, but it sure is making going up stairs rather difficult.

I forgot to mention a conversion with Isaac from last night.  We were all in the car, and Ben had mentioned earlier that he had hit some traffic so it took him a bit longer to get home.  Isaac said, "I'm going to tell you what to do in a traffic jam, Dad."  "Ok, what?"  "Wait."  It was such grown-up sounding advice.

Friday: car

Well, after two busy weeks of car shopping we finally picked up our new car.

It is a Honda CR-V in dark blue.

It's a nice car, and I'm glad to have it.  I expect it'll be especially fun over the next few weeks.  But I'm really glad to be done car shopping.

Thursday: kids

I came into Isaac's classroom at the end of the day to pick him up and he runs and gives me a huge hug.  This was pretty normal.  But then he declared that I was the best mom ever.  Aww.  He got an extra big hug for that.

Then we were in Joshua's room before dinner and he decided to walk half way across it!  Ok, maybe only three feet.  But compared to his earlier three inches it was a huge achievement.  He did it a bit later in the night too.  It seems as though he wants to do more, but the muscles get tired a bit too quickly.

Wednesday: playground, flies, sore

*This morning we went to the playground.  It was an absolutely beautiful day for it.  And we had lunch ahead of time, so Isaac wasn't constantly asking for food.  The boys played well together and the almost-toddlers were pretty good too.

*Fly status: most of the flies from upstairs have been caught, although I think there might be one or two left.  It was interesting how they seemed to get caught in pairs.  There are a bunch of flies downstairs too, so I set out another trap for them.

*Soreness: My legs have gotten more and more sore as the day goes on from yesterday's workout.  It's odd, because the workout was geared more towards arms.

Tuesday: flies

Over the weekend we got two flies in the house.  Normally we only get one at a time, and it dies within a few days.  Not this time!  Now we have a bunch of dumb flies...so we also have some fly paper.  It isn't working as quickly as I was hoping though.

In other news, I worked today (so the kids were at daycare) and then we went to the gym.  Normally I try to stay away from this, but with car shopping it just didn't happen this week.  And Joshua didn't really handle it all that well, as I had been expecting.  Ah well, now I know for sure.  (When I was picking him up from the gym he saw me and started crying and the worker felt so slow in getting him to me.)

Monday: getting a hold of the camera

We got the tripod out today and Isaac decided to be a photographer...

Some are surprisingly artistic.

Note Joshua in the background...he seemed to use the walker with purpose today and kept at it for quite a while.

This was the one attempt at holding both boys upside down.  It didn't go all that well.

"I want to take a picture of Joshua walking but he keeps moving."

Sunday: and back down

I took a walk with Larry and Isaac.  Isaac enjoyed it because I let him go in the stroller and he loves the stroller.  And the weather was perfect...cool but not too cool once you started moving.

We came back home today.  It was a nice vacation...rather relaxing.  Joshua slept almost the whole time in the car and I woke Isaac up with an hour left so that he would sleep tonight.

Saturday: up north

We were in charlevioux today. We started out by stopping at the fabric store. They let Isaac pick out a piece of fabric. He went off with Cheryl and was looking for something black. Cheryl found several options, and Isaac choose the blackest. So then I suggested just getting a solid black and he was super excited about that. The kid does like black.

Joshua had a medium day. I think he enjoyed the new surroundings, but only as long as Ben or I was close by. And he didn't take a very long nap.

Thursday: firsts

Yesterday Joshua had his first bandaid.  He scraped his toe while scooting on the driveway.  It was little, so I ignored it and put him in the car seat.  It must have still been bleeding when we got to the gym, because when we left there was a bandaid on it.

Then today we saw Joshua take three steps.  They were itty bitty baby steps, each covering maybe an inch.  But he picked his foot up and put it back down while staying upright.

Wednesday:sinks

Today's new fun activity was playing in the cupboards under the sinks.  One side has been empty for a while, and I emptied the other side.  It just had pumping stuff and I'm done with pumping.

By the end I had to take out the two drawers with our stuff in, but that just made nice windows.

Tuesday: long day

Phew...it's been a long day.  I test drove a Jeep by myself this morning.  (By myself!  It was intimidating.)  I liked it well enough to arrange to meet again this evening so Ben could test drive it.  And in between I worked/taught/mothered.

When getting Joshua out of the car I would say his name in a funny voice and rub his nose with mine.  He loved it and kept trying to get me to do it again by sticking his face right under my nose.  It was really cute.

Isaac was talkative.

Classes went well.  I tried a skit for the first time.  Well, not really a skit...the students didn't talk and really all they had to do was hold signs.  It was kind of dumb.  (Kind of?  It was really dumb.)  But I'm hoping that if it was dumb they forget about it and if it wasn't dumb they learn from it.  At the very least it broke up the class a bit.

Monday: truck parade

This morning in the early am, when I should have been sleeping, I remembered that there is a truck parade on Labor Day.

We ended up in the car rather quickly, although I'm not sure if Isaac didn't want to stand anymore or if it was too loud.  I did leave a door open because the weather was beautiful.

 Isaac liked the truck with a silly horn and the concrete mixer that was turning the best.

Joshua...I think he just took it all in.  We were at a nice place, so he could watch out the side window and see them while still sitting in my lap.

Sunday: games

Travis and Allison came over to play games tonight.  It was very nice...the kids played well together and so we were able to play Quarriors and Hand and Foot.

Hmm...there was something else that I was going to mention...oh!  That elusive smell.  It was a bad potato.  I had looked at the potato bag several times, but never noticed anything bad nor smelled an extra odor when moving it.  But today when cleaning up I noticed a bad one.  The smell seems to have disappeared.  And, on the bright side, I expect that our disposal is extra clean now too, as I've been trying to get the smell out of there.

Saturday: lake excitement

A hot air balloon made a stop by our lake!

It was kind of funny because Isaac and I were randomly talking about hot air balloons just the other day.

I was rather exhausted today; Joshua hasn't been sleeping well.  I went to take my nap after putting Joshua down.  Apparently Joshua didn't fall asleep for his nap for Ben and was rather loud.  I didn't hear a thing.

Friday: this is life

Today I cleaned the table.  Look at it!  All clean and empty.

But what you can't see is the mound of clean laundry waiting to be folded.  (There's also a load in the washer and drier too.  The closets are looking a bit empty.)

Or the kitchen, which never quite can get clean this past week.  There are places to put stuff though, so I guess it isn't as messy as possible.

This afternoon I suggested to Isaac that we go to the bird house library or color.  He suggested sewing...that was fine with me!  Both boys actually ended up on my lap.  Joshua got to push the start button and Isaac pushed the stop and all the other buttons.  Isaac was very cute as he would help Joshua reach the button and tell him how to press it..."In the middle, Josh-e-a."

After that Isaac decided there were rats on the ceiling and so ran around as fast as his legs would go.  He also pumped his arms because that made him "super, super, super fast."  He was trapping the rats, and did so for a surprising amount of time.

Thursday: distracted

On the way to school this morning Isaac mentioned wanting to knock on the right (vs. left) door.  Then two seconds later he said that it was actually the left door that he wanted to knock on, and I knew that was what he meant based on Tuesday.  I was excited that he figured out right and left!  He's doing better with it than I am.

I was a bit distracted during the second class session today.  I was trying to fix a link for the class that I thought would just take a minute while they were working on exercises.  And it took another minute.  And another.  I still responded to questions, but didn't walk around and actively seek the questions like normal.  I should have just left it alone, but I also knew that after class wouldn't be much better...I'd have to put on the "Mom" hat.  Sure, it could have waited for tonight but it was supposed to be a quick fix.  Anyway.  I guess I'll just have to keep it in mind for the future.  I'll try to make up for it on Tuesday. :)

Joshua has started to sit in laps.  It is the cutest thing.  He'll crawl up to you and then position himself just so.  It is very intentional and so snuggly.

Wednesday: odorific

There is a very unpleasant odor in our kitchen.  It is an obnoxiously illusive odor.  It likes to be smelled in the middle of the kitchen, but upon further investigation tightly curls up and says, "nevermind."  It is happy to be covered up by other odors until 2:15am in the morning when you put your preschooler back to bed because he thinks it's time to wake up.  It is happiest as you then spend the next half hour wondering if there is a dead mouse under the stove and how much noise it would actually make if you were to check right now.

And so, should you feel as though you have an exceptional nose please, come by sometime and track this odor down.  Then, perhaps, we can figure out a way to get rid of it.  (My guess is still the sink, because where else would it be?  I was going to get a lemon at the store for the garbage disposal, but ended up having to leave promptly.  And it really is just a guess.)

Tuesday: teaching

Today was the first day of classes.  I think it went pretty well, although I do a lot of talking in the first lecture.  I've added some anti-cheating macros to the spreadsheets they need to turn in, so I'm interested to see how that works.  I'm feeling much more comfortable with the class this semester...I found myself cleaning up the class website a bit more and making changes that I previously felt uncomfortable doing.  

When I picked Isaac up from school he was sitting on a bean bag reading with a friend.  Joshua declined to take an afternoon nap...but was rather happy still.  He did a ton of assisted walking tonight.