Friday: 5 years old

Isaac is five years old today!  Five!  A whole hand.

Likes: building things (circuits, duplos, etc.), mazes, running, gymnastics, screen time, treats.  He actually seems to like almost everything, really.  When I ask him what the least favorite thing was of the day he often doesn't have one.

Growing up: Isaac still wants to be a Big Puppy Dog when he grows up, and this month he has been extra Puppy Doggy.  He tends only to be a puppy at home or other places that don't have peers.  If you call him the wrong name in the wrong place you will be corrected.  Isaac still does a good job with his chores, although he does periodically tell me how much he doesn't really like them and in what order he doesn't like them.  He does like the money though.  I also feel comfortable that he will make the correct decisions in most situations...at least, any of the situations that he might find himself currently in.  He also has a good sense of timing now and realizes that things might not happen right away, but that they will still happen.

Social: Isaac likes a ton of people.  He enjoys playing with Ben.  He plays with Joshua and understands that Joshua is littler and has different rules sometimes.  He likes his grandmothers and CC.  He can play alone with friends.  He still seems to love me the most.

I'm super proud of the kid Isaac is turning out to be.  He's a lot of fun, helpful, and loving.  And silly.  Don't forget that he's silly.

29 months

Joshua turned 29 months yesterday.

Attitude: oh, it's rough being two.  Sometimes he's so happy and sometimes he's so sad.  He can go back and forth so quickly.  If he's hungry things tend to go poorly.  During those times he wants to be picked up and carried still...it tends to be a bad time to want to be picked up because I'll be making food and it is easier with two hands.  However, there hasn't been too much blatant misbehaving this month; he's only had time-out a few times.  He is often very willing to help out with whatever task needs doing.  When I make a decision for him (i.e., that he should put mittens on), he will often want the opposite.  That's often ok with me, so I agree.  He then changes his mind again to what I had originally said.  That's fine too...but I wish he wouldn't be so dramatic about it.  I agree with what he wants; there's no need to scream.

Likes: Joshua likes so many things!  Bears, music, dancing, gymnastics, Duplos, coloring, robots, reading, putting people to bed, running, treats, and playing with Isaac.  It is not hard to keep him occupied.

Sleeping: sleeping is going better than it was last month, but there are still days.  Getting up once with him isn't uncommon, but isn't daily either.

Food: We're still having trouble with food.  He likes strawberries and crunchy beans and bread products.  Everything else is hit or miss...it's really annoying when he likes something one day but then won't touch it the next.

Potty training: it's still going well, and it could still use improvement.  As expected.  I ran out of the more absorbent underwear one day and gave him Mickey Mouse underwear, which is now his preferred underwear.

Talking: Joshua is communicating better and better each day.  He's pretty good at counting and with minimal help can get to eleven.  I've heard some letters come out of his mouth, but I haven't noticed that he can recognize them.  He sometimes does nice complete sentences, but more often just does the minimum noun/verb combo.

People: Joshua recognizes and names a bunch of people, even out of context: mainly some friends from church, Ethan/Leah, and both sets of grandparents.  He often will ask to see one grandparent or another.  He loves Isaac and often copies whatever he's doing.  (But not so much that he doesn't have plans of his own.)  He will go back and forth between preferring Ben or me.

Time: Joshua likes to know what we're going to do any given day, but I've been trying not to tell him as often because if there is something fun at the end of the day I won't stop hearing about it for the rest of the day.  Furthermore, there are usually tears because the activity isn't happening now.  Yesterday I ordered some plane tickets and he was ready to go on an airplane for the next three hours, and rather nervous that we would go without him.  Isaac and I told him repeatedly that it wasn't for a long time yet.

Praying: when asked what he would like to pray for, Joshua always thanks God for bears, airplanes, and rocket ships.  Sometimes we'll get something else, but those three things come first.

Wednesday: pop

After an experiment today, there was a half can of squirt remaining.  I let the boys drink it.  It's not their first time to have pop, but one of the first times.  (Note: Isaac calls it 'soda' not because he's from the East, but because that's that the experiment called it.)

Tuesday: low key

Today was a rather low key day.  Isaac got a hair cut, we played with Christmas presents, we just did normal stuff.

Near the end of the day we tried out the new headsets that the boys got for Christmas using some music on Ben's phone.  They work as expected, check.  Well, Joshua was not so excited about the idea of turning off music.  (He would listen to music a lot more than we actually turn it on.)  So I put my phone* in the bag that the headset is normally in, looped it over his arm, and he happily sat with Ben for quite a while.

Isaac finished his chores and wanted music, so we did the same thing for Ben's phone*.  Isaac got the duplos out and they happily played and listened until it was bedtime.  It was very nice.

*there are other ideas for not using our phones as the music makers, but first we need to see what they get for the next set of presents and/or get some repairs done on a device.  We were planning to do the repairs anyway, but I've just been slow about going about it.

Sunday/Monday: presents

In the morning Joshua threw his animals on the chair and wanted me to take a picture.  It is probably the first picture request I've had from him.

Before opening presents.

Watching Jacob and Isaac shoot each other with nerf guns.

Headphones!  Joshua was rather excited to have them.  He tried wearing them today while playing with some duplos, but they kept falling off.  They're not made for so much head moving.

Presents.  And bubbles.

Joshua enjoyed his backpack, even though it is about 3/4 his size.  A lot of things got moved around in it.

The kids played a game in the evening, with the help of Jamie.  Isaac did very well for the first 30-45 minutes, but then his attention span waned.

Both boys enjoyed playing with some lab supply toys today.  Some test tubes, beakers, funnels, and colored water...what more could you want?  (Actually, we didn't give them water until the very end.  Even without the water it was fun.)

Christmas

Look!  The animals found baby Jesus once again.

What can we learn from the animals?  It doesn't matter if you're...

...a fish out of water or a sheep scribbled on by a toddler
...a giant camel or a tiny donkey
...whether you've lost your ears or your legs have been repaired many times
...shiny or plasticy
...normal or weird

...Jesus came to the Earth for you, to later die on the cross, defeat death, and allow us to come into heaven with him.

Saturday: Christmas eve

Today we opened presents as a family.  (Unpictured: I got a new space heater for the basement and some legos and to sleep in!  The legos have a light brick that I'm excited to see. And since I slept in I didn't take a nap and so it felt like I had two extra hours today.  It was awesome.)

Isaac was as excited as a 5 year old can get to get the laser maze.  There was jumping and falling on the floor.

We went to pick up McDonald's for lunch.  I didn't make the boys wear their hats or mittens, but of course they were cold in the car.  (I did offer to let them wear them and they declined.)  I told Isaac to put his wipe on his head.  Even though I suggested it, turning around to see it made me crack up laughing.

We went to church, but getting out the door was surprisingly hard.  Joshua...I'm not sure what Joshua wanted but it wasn't to go to church.  Isaac knew he would have to go to big church and so wanted to bring laser maze and starting crying when we said no.  We got there in one piece though and it was a nice service.



J: mushroom?
I: maybe
J: Maybe?
I: Maybe it'll be a mushroom.  You'll see.
Joshua eats the mushroom that he already has.
I: The mushroom's all gone Joshua.  You put the toothpicks in here.
J: all done?  Oh!  It's a mushroom?
I: Meat?
J: Mead?
I: Meat.
J: I eat it?
I: Yes.
I: drop it.
J: drop
I: eggs?
J: Please more Isaac!
I: Eggs Joshua?
J: something one more, one more, one more.
I: eggs
J: Eggs

Friday: creations

We went to story time at the library.  During the sleepy bunny song Isaac went to cuddle by Joshua.

During play time, he made a rocket ship.  It had super boosters, so it flew from Earth to Pluto, where I was, in zero seconds.  Then he made a telescope so that man could look at the stars.  He found 100 new stars, including one really bright one.  The bright one was Jesus' star.

Joshua really wanted to cut the pretend food and waited very patiently for the knife.  We stayed around a bit extra at the end so he could fully play with it.

At home, Isaac made a snow plow.

He also got some snow.  However, the snowplow wasn't great at moving this snow.

Thursday: oh Joshua

Joshua woke up several times last night.

1. Something was wrong with the book.  I think he feel asleep on it and was unhappy about that.
2. That book was still in his bed and he wanted it out.  But he also wanted a different one.  Not a different I-Spy.  We settled on Elmo.  I won't tell you how long it took me to figure this out at 2am in the morning.
3. Blankets.
4. He wanted to get up.  It was 6:45 and so it was understandable, but the light wasn't green yet.  I brought him to the bathroom and then "settled" him in bed for a few more minutes.

Nap time rolls around and he is dead on his feet.  He can't finish the game we're playing because he just wants to go to bed.  Ok.  I put him in bed.  Nothing is right.  The wrong blanket is on.  Bear is missing.  He dropped his Duplos.  He needs a book.  Thirty minutes later I take him into bed with me and we finally get to sleep.

Tonight rolls around and Ben is putting him down. He wants a book.  He says an I-spy one.  No, one from his shelf.  No, that book is too big.  They finally find one.  As I'm leaving Isaac's room he calls me over, but is able to move the book out of his way by himself.  Five minutes later he calls, because he wants me to see him putting a duplo in the bucket.  A half hour later he calls, saying, "I'm grumpy" which is his code phrase for "I need my nose wiped."  We find his wipe.  We find Bear and Elephant.

And he finally falls asleep.  Hopefully I don't hear any more for the rest of the night.

Wednesday: outside, Flurry, train

Ethan and Leah came over today.  We let the older kids try their hand at sledding by themselves.  I wasn't completely sure it would work, but they seemed to have a great time.

The younger two were outside for about an average of two minutes.

Later in the day Joshua had a heart-to-heart with Flurry under the tree.   I think he was saying, "Flurry, get out."

The boys played with Duplos a lot today.  Isaac decided it was Giraffe's birthday and made a candle and cake, and then we all had (real) birthday cookies.  Joshua then decided that his lovies, Bear, Elephant, and Square, all needed to have birthdays too.  Square didn't have a face, so Isaac proceeded to put lots of faces on Square, with Joshua's oversight.

Tuesday: and puppy dog tails

Isaac has been spending more time than normal as Puppy Dog the last few days.  (He's woofing in the picture below.)

He also made himself a tail, that he wore for the whole afternoon.

In other news, one of the sheep from our nativity is lost.  You'd think that it would be smart enough to not hide from me, at the very least.  Isaac has figured up how they get to the tall places...they get sticky feet when they have Christmas magic.

slippers

Joshua's slippers kept falling off.  Last year I sewed them so that the opening was smaller, but this year he then couldn't get his foot in them.  I was about to do it again with a larger opening when I realized I had some elastic in my random box.

So I did this instead, sewing some elastic inside the slipper.

So far it seems to work much better.  They've come off a few times, but I'm not sure if that's because he took them off or because the came off.  They stayed on through his whole nap, which was a bit surprising.

I was rather proud of myself.

I wasn't so proud of the haircut that I gave Joshua today.  I looked up how to do it better tonight though, and I might be able to fix it still.  We'll see tomorrow.

Sunday: kids

Isaac made this fun man with the Blokus blocks.  He's good at playing the game, but it's also just fun to make designs with it.

Joshua also played with his Christmas present.  When I got in from snow blowing, he was doing fine.  Five minutes later Ben came out of the bedroom and there were crayon marks all over the floor.  His punishment was to help me clean them up.

He was ok(ish) with helping right before church, after his nap was a different story.  After sitting on the floor for ten minutes we moved to the couch.  I suggested cleaning the floor a few times but he threw a short fit every time.  So we snuggled for the next half hour.  I took cat naps and Joshua just sat there because he wasn't allowed to do anything else.  Isaac finished cleaning his room, and asked to watch TV.  I told him he could watch in his room, but Joshua also wanted to watch.  I told Joshua he could watch after the floor was clean and that finally motivated him.  (I thought we had covered that at the beginning of the hold-out, but maybe it didn't sink in.)

This was our first serious non-paper incident, possibly because Isaac doesn't really like to color.  The crayon came out pretty easily, but I wish it had been with our markers because they wipe up super easily.  Oh well.

Saturday: with Ben

Ben entertained the boys while I graded this morning.  It took me a long time to find Isaac.

Joshua got his first coloring book during a Christmas party.  It kept him well occupied, but he went through many pages in a short time, as expected.

Friday: I'm joshua

Isaac: that's the boys' potty.
Amanda: Joshua, are you a boy or a girl?
Joshua: girl
Isaac: no, you're a boy
Joshua: NO! I JOSHA!!

Wednesday: brothers

I was going to talk about how I failed today.  The chex mix had all kinds of fail, I forgot to toast one of the naan breads for dinner, I failed to get Ben to suggest that we should get another cat.  (It was super cute.)

But then bedtime rolled around.  Matching pajamas.  Isaac has quite the chap stick routine lately, involving about three different kinds, but he also puts it on Joshua.  (On Joshua's face, lips, and sometimes in his mouth.)  But they do it together.

Tuesday: end of the school year

It's that time of year...

...the time when people finally check their grades and notice something was wrong with what they submitted online.  I've only been telling them to do this for the last eight weeks.

In other fun news, look at this!  Who would have thought I'd be next to my dad in this list?

Monday: dinner with the grandparents

Sunday: snow

It snowed out most of the day!  At the end of the day the boys and I played on the deck.  It was a good thing that I went out too, because it was a bit too deep for Joshua at the beginning and I was needed to make some tracks.  Once that initial tracks were out there Joshua adventured between them, but it wasn't quite so overwhelming.

We also made a bunch of tunnels.  The weather was nice because it wasn't very windy or cold, so we could enjoy the snow.

Everything seems to be canceled here for tomorrow.  They even canceled gymnastics, which makes me rather sad.  The boys love going.

Also, more bears.

Saturday: silly driving

Isaac has wanted to take a ride in Ben's new car for a while.  So after rest time, we decided to finally do it.  Joshua asked to go too, so all the boys went out.

They went to the church parking lot to do donuts.  That was Isaac's favorite part.  It sounded like Joshua tolerated it, but Isaac was laughing up a storm.

Then they went through the car wash.  That was Joshua's favorite part.

Friday: Christmas chains

Today we had some friends over and we made Christmas chains.  It was a pretty good activity in that it was pretty easy.  The youngest ones put some stickers on, stapled the ends together, and were done.  The older ones did a bit more...either more decorating or more cutting or more caring about how it looked...so it took them a bit longer but still not too long.

Afterwards we took a quick trip to the library and then had lunch.  Joshua took a long nap, which means I did too.  :)  The boys took a bath.  Then it was time to get the mail and trash container, and I wished it was summer again.  Both boys wanted to come outside with me.  So we put on boots and coats and hats and mittens, all for a two minute trip outside. :p

And then Ben was home!

The day obviously didn't end there, but getting to that milestone in the day is wonderful.  Not only is he home, but it's time to eat!  And we have a routine that keeps us more or less occupied until bedtime.

Thursday: silly sheep

Christmas magic strikes again!  The sheep is trying to eat the graham cracker house.