Wednesday: last day

Today was my last day of teaching for the semester.  I really enjoyed the class...hopefully they learned something too. :)

But that meant that it was also Isaac's last time with the babysitter.  It was interesting to watch their relationship progress over the semester.  At first I'd come in and Isaac would crawl to me and hug me with huge hugs.  Then the last few times the babysitter would leave and Isaac would go follow her, not wanting her to leave.

He looks really sad in this picture, but he really just wanted down.  We can pretend he was so sad that it was the last day though.

She gave Isaac a really nice little gift.  I wonder if we should have given her something?  Oh well.

Hmm, this part of the gift wasn't so little.

Anyway, the experience seemed to be really good for Isaac and I'm glad about that.  I felt a little teary though...how am I going to handle it when he has to leave teachers in school??

Tuesday: groceries

Getting groceries is always nice because it provides Isaac and I a reason to get out of the house.  On top of that, when we get home it provides Isaac with a bunch of new toys if I'm slow in getting some of the food put away.

Today he took several things out of the bags, opened a bag of those plastic over-diaper things, and opened a box of oatmeal.  I enjoyed sitting and reading during this time.

Monday: critter barn

Today was pleasantly warm, so Isaac and I decided to explore the Critter Barn.  I came away quite impressed.

The first thing we saw was the chicken coop.  We probably stayed there for about thirty minutes, going inside and then outside and back again.  They had a few other chicken coops around; we looked at all of them.

And goats!  Between the chickens and the goats, it almost felt like we were visiting Nathan and Liz.

There was also a turkey that followed us around, rabbits, chicks, cats, pigs, ducks, and sheep.  There was a petting area.  Isaac was exhausted from having so much fun and fell asleep on the way home.  I think we'll be back.

Sunday: waging war

I am waging war on the little dumb ants that seem to be invading my house.

Unless they're willing to sign a contract saying when and where they may go I will kill them.  They should give up now; there is no hope.

I keep thinking that I've won and then find them in a new place.  Today I found them under the welcome mat by the front door.  I don't even know what they found there that was food...there was dirt, but it's not like we eat near there.  Then I went to get the swiffer and THERE WAS ONE ON MY SWIFFER.  It was humiliating.

Saturday: quack

Isaac has a few words right now, although not many.  Mama and Dada come out regularly and they are directed toward Ben and I, but I also feel like the sounds come out during his babbling too.

But the last few days I've recognized a distinct sound that only comes when birds (usually ducks, but not always) are seen.  It sounds like a quack but kind of starts with a b.  But it has that quacking sound to it that you're 'supposed' to use when you say it.

Isaac and I practiced quacking a ton when he was really small and only got a duck as a bathtub toy.  I thought that after quacking that much it should be his first word.  And I was sort of correct.

(Side note: he probably has some other words too, but it sure can be hard to pick them out!  There might be something for cats and balls.)

Friday: more lake pictures

I took some pictures of the lake today.  It only sprinkled today and the lake level didn't seem to change much.

In this one, you can see some stakes across the way.  What you can barely see is the very tip-top of one of the stakes in the water.  The one that you can barely see (and the one that you can't see) formed a rectangle and marked the edge of the lake.

Here's our fake bird; I don't know why it is there, but maybe to keep fish away from the drain?.  Someone put it there at the beginning of the summer last year and our neighbors didn't take it down.

Here it was last August...

Hmm, it's looking a different direction.  I wonder why.

Ben and I also went on a date!  It was nice; it had been a while since we went out.

Thursday: sprints and lake

Isaac did more sprints today.

There was also a lot of rain.  The water level is well past what it was a week ago, but we still have about 8" left in the sump hole before it would start to become a problem.  The forecast keeps changing, but as of right now I don't think there will be too much more rain.  The other problem is that the creek that the lake drains into is higher than the lake, so the water has no where to go until that gets lower.

Wednesday: shuttle runs

Today Isaac was practicing his running by doing shuttle runs.  He put himself in the corner with the lazy susan.  (I think he just enjoying being a little cradled by the rocking motion.)  I would say "ready, set, go!"  Then a few seconds later he would run to the table and then run back.

Tuesday: finishing up

It's only mid-April, but it seems as though all of my weekly activities are coming to an end.  Today was the last day of the Bible study at church.  This week is the last day of the class that I'm sitting in on.  Next week is the last week that I'm teaching.

It feels too early to be finishing these activities, and I've really enjoyed them.  They were a great reason to get out of the house.  The ladies in the Bible Study were great; we had a bunch of good discussions.  I know once it gets warmer Isaac and I can do more outside so that will help occupy our time, but I'm also a little nervous...it was nice being away from Isaac for a little bit and helped the days go by faster.

Or we'll find other things to do.  It's amazing how easy it sometimes is to fill the time.

Sunday: going to bed

A few weeks ago Isaac added to his bedtime routine (steps 2 and 6).  Here's how it normally goes...

1) Pray as a family.
2) Immediately after we say Amen, Isaac waves goodnight to Ben.  He keeps waving until we actually separate.
3) Bath. (This is optional.)
4) Put on pajamas.
5) Read two books: Bedtime Farm and The Going to Bed Book.
6) Immediately after the second one (or while still on the last page) Isaac starts pointing at the crib.
7) Tuck Isaac in and he goes to sleep.
8) I leave his room, amazed at how easily he normally goes down.  (I really am amazed every time.)

Today I messed up the pages on the second book and turned to the last one too early.  I went back a few pages, but by that time Isaac had started pointing to his crib.  I wasn't moving fast enough because he had to point and point and point before I got him in.

Saturday: audiobooks

Usually I watch a show on Netflix while sewing.  I don't always catch everything, and sometimes it slows down the sewing, but on the whole it worked pretty well.  However, I recently finished a series and was having a hard time finding something else to capture my attention (that Ben wouldn't be interested in either).  So I decided to try an audiobook.  I miss having something to look at, but that isn't really a big deal.  I do have to remember to stop it when I do anything on the computer though, as I can't concentrate on both at the same time.

Friday: more firsts

Today was the first day I've been thrown up on.

Isaac woke up and seemed to be doing great...or at least normal.  We were helping to wake Ben up when he came over to give me a hug and didn't let go.  So we just sat there for a little bit.  Then he got down and walked around long enough for me to get my contacts in before coming back for more comfort.  He wasn't moving, so obviously something was wrong.  This kid moves all the time.

He fell asleep and took a short nap.  When he woke up he was still out of it.  Then he threw up on me.  The good news is that a small dinner (he didn't want to eat my chicken tacos!) and no breakfast made the experience mostly just surprising and not too gross.

He started to perk up, so I gave him some Crispex.  He was taking forever to eat them, so I wheeled his highchair over to the window and let him watch the diving birds while finishing.  I think he enjoyed it.

After that he was pretty much fine for the rest of the day.  Phew.  I'm hoping it was just an upset tummy.

Also, since it has been raining all week the lake is higher than we've ever seen it.  Which I guess isn't saying much since we've only been here a year and last year there was a drought.  The (fake) bird in the picture is standing on some rocks that are usually well out of the water (about 6-8").

Thursday: open, out, in, close

Today Isaac had a grand old time opening this container, taking out whatever was in it, put the object back in, and closing the container.  Repeat for about thirty minutes.

Wednesday: spring cleaning

It has been a wonderful rainy week, Isaac was playing well by himself, and I was feeling in a cleaning mood. (A rare occurrence, so I thought I should take advantage of it.)

So I cleaned the laundry room.  There was lint all over and stuff piling up on the dryer.  It wasn't a super deep clean, but I did move the dryer so I could get under it.

It might be another year before it gets cleaned again.  I hope the room is happy; I am.

Tuesday: in rememberance

Today was the 11th anniversary of Mom's death.

I remembered her.  I thought about her more than normal.  I missed her.  I loved her.  But I wasn't overly sad today.  There are times were the grief still hits really hard.  Today was not one of those, and I decided that I was ok with that.

Monday: RIP balloon

We got a balloon in October when we went to a birthday party.  It headed to the basement, where it got played with a medium amount.  Yesterday it managed to come up the stairs and was played with a lot.  Today it shrank.  It must have been a very tiny leak because it took most of the day for the balloon to get to half its previous size, but shrink it did.

We'll miss you, green balloon.

Saturday: friends

Hanneke and Abby came over for dinner and to just hang out.  It was really nice to see them again.  (And they oohed and aahhed over Isaac. :)

Yeah, it was really nice to see them.

Friday: cold

I still have my cold, but I think I'm slowly on the mend. This has been one of the worst colds that I've had in a long time. I went through two mostly full boxes of Kleenex, so we took an emergency trip to the store today. But at least my nose only needs to be blown about once an hour versus the once every fifteen minutes that it was last weekend.

Thursday: theme day - monkeys

Isaac has really been enjoying his monkeys (and he knows the word), so I thought today would be a good day for a monkey theme day.

He wore his monkey pjs.

After reading some monkey books, he took a nap with green monkey.  Then it was time to wake up and have lunch!  I hear monkeys like bananas, so he had some of that.  (Notice he's also wearing monkeys.)

Later in the afternoon I put on a movie about monkeys.  He was excited at the beginning, but it did not hold his attention at all.  However, the Curious George show that we watched while waiting for an oil change captured his attention very well.

Wednesday: curry and light

I made another batch of curry today.  It turned out nice and thick.  I don't know why.  Every batch seems to turn out so differently and (most of the time) I have no idea why.

Dad came over for the curry and then helped us replace the light in the office.  There was a fan/light combo that had spotlights for lights.  It meant that the lighting in the office was really bad.  So now we have a a nice diffuse light.  Hurray!

Tuesday: 15 months

Isaac turned 15 months a few days ago, but I just got the pictures today...


He's walking all over the place by himself, now, so I thought I'd try a new quilt shot...I like it.

He really likes pushing buttons and got on my lap to push the camera buttons.

And was then so sad when I made him pose again.

Back to being super cute!

Ben and I can tell that he's starting to understand a lot more, although talking is still pretty slow.  He probably has mama, dada, and something for kitty.  He's good at communicating through motions and noises though.  He's also started to fold his hands while we pray, put random objects up to his ear like a phone, and point to various body parts.  The problem is that he likes to point to his hair while he has dirty hands due to eating.

Monday: april fools, by Isaac

10:30pm, Sunday: Isaac wakes up really upset, but motions to Ben that he wants to be put back in his crib.
1:30am: Isaac wakes up really upset, but doesn't calm down with Amanda.  Back to the crib.
3:30am: Isaac wakes up really upseat, but calms down after ten minutes.
7:24am: Amanda wakes up and realizes that her alarm and her Backup Alarm (Isaac) didn't go off!!  She's late!
7:25am: Amanda double checks her clock, noticing that the alarm is on, the time is correct, and that the am/pm is correct.  She decides that this was part of Isaac's April Fool's joke since he has recently started playing with her clock.
7:42am: Amanda and Isaac head out the door, thanks to Ben's help
7:59am: Amanda gets to class with a minute to spare.

Sunday: happy Easter

He is Risen!  He is risen indeed!

We didn't go to church due to colds, but still had a family devotion time.

Thursday: cold

I got a cold today.  Just enough to make me annoyed and not feeling great.

I also got a new iron!  And some crackers.  I thought that I had purchased two boxes, but I cannot find them.

See...I'm a little loopy.

Tuesday: this and that

I remembered to go to work this morning. :)

Isaac carried around his sleeping buddies a bit today.  Sometimes he is more willing to give them hugs than me.

He also seemed a little bit under the weather this evening.  So we didn't go play racquetball.  It was one of those things were I wasn't sure he was feeling bad enough to cancel, but then it was a good choice.  After dinner and some medicine Isaac seemed much better.

Monday: coming home

We made it home.

Phew.

Isaac started with a rough time on the airplane...he wouldn't sit still.  We finally took off and so I gave him some baby food in a juicebox type container.  It was really clean the last two times we used it.

It was not clean this time.  But...Isaac finally contented himself by playing with the burp cloth I got out to blot things off.  And then Ben finally got him to sleep and he slept most of the way.

See all the orange?

Although Florida was really nice, it's also nice to be home.  Isaac and I took good naps this afternoon.  Flurry was happy to see all of us.

Too bad we have to go back to work tomorrow.  I'm really afraid I'm going to forget to set my alarm and Isaac will decide to sleep in.

More Florida

I got so into relaxing during Florida I didn't do a very good job of posting.  But here are a few more photos that were taken...

On the boat.

Besides going in the hot tub, Isaac's favorite activity was going in and out of the door.  Seriously.  He did it for hours whenever the door was open.  And it was really funny to watch, because in order to not hurt himself he had to take a giant step/crawl over the bottom.

And splashing.

Saturday: Florida

We've been having a good time down here relaxing. Isaac has spent quite a bit of time playing with the ducks in the pool. Although seen here in the big pool, we've often warmed up the hot tub and played in there. Isaac can walk on the seat and play with the ducks, and it seems to work a little bit better. And I don't get cold.



Today we also went on a boat ride to the Bubble room. They have delicious desserts!

Wednesday: made it

Today we made it to Florida! The plane ride wasn't terrible, but it was far from great. Isaac was tired but couldn't get comfortable to sleep for the first three-quarters of the trip.

But we made it! We played in the pool and ate some gelato and played with the ducks.

My quote of the day: "You didn't finish eating your breakfast banana so you can't eat your book."

Tuesday: hair and video games

Here's the conversation I had with Isaac this morning:

"Isaac, don't pull mom's hair."
Isaac points to his hair.
"Good job, that's your hair!
You can pull your hair."
Isaac points to his hair.
"Good job!  That's your hair.
But you can't pull mom's."

I'm not sure that I got the point across very effectively.

*********************************************************************
Isaac found a new video game to play.

(It's the baby monitor.  The screen lights up when he pushes some buttons and there are several buttons to push.  It was THE game of the afternoon.)

Monday: Last night

Last night was a little rough.  Isaac's been fighting a runny nose for a while now, and last night it just seemed to get the better of him.

Of course, I had a hard time falling to sleep in between.  And then I was almost asleep and I smelled something burning.  Instantly I was awake, and decided that nothing was burning...I had just had a dream smell.  But that was another 20 minutes before I could get to sleep again...periodically smelling the air, making sure that nothing was burning.  (Does anyone else ever have that?  It has happened to me a few times now...and it sure seems real.)

And the conversation of the day:
Amanda: "Isaac, your tag is sticking out of your pants."
Isaac: "WWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"
Isaac runs to Amanda for a hug.

Hi

Autumn and I say hi from outside the nursery door. It turns out that I have no apps for kids on my phone right now, but she is enjoying watching me type. What else shall we talk about right now? The wall we are looking at is purple. Autumn thinks the wall is blue. Her boots are pink, but she thinks they're green.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Friday: children's musuem

Today Isaac and I went with Dad and Landon to the children's museum in GR.  We had fun. :)  Isaac might still be a little young to get how to play with the stuff (correctly), but he's old enough to enjoy being in a new environment.  And he loved being able to walk around!  He kept walking in and out of a tree house that they had on the second floor.


Making a bridge out of Lincoln logs for the train.

Playing with what are basically giant building blocks.

Looking in a square mirror.

Balls!  This is the one that Isaac played with the best.

Thursday: uncles

Today we ended up with all of Ben's siblings and there was a big nerf gun war going on.  Well, as big of a war as you can get with two nerf guns and some babies running around.  Anyway, Travis was trying to get Jacob.  Ben got the gun from Travis.  Travis ran out into the open.  Jacob came out from his hiding place, and started aiming.

POW.

Ben got him in the shoulder.  The look on his face was hilarious since he completely wasn't expecting it.

The moral of the story: you've got to watch out for your uncles.

Wednesday: spring break

After never expecting a true spring break again, I'm happy to announce that I'm on spring break.  I had a class this morning...I'm sitting in on a class that I'm going to teach next semester on Excel and Access.  There's some stuff that I don't know, but nothing that I can't pick up.  And I'm really sitting in on the class just a few times to see how it is run.

I also had my Wednesday section of CAD this afternoon.  There's only 10 people, compared to Tuesday's 22, so it always feels a more laid back.

Isaac is still walking by himself all over the place.  We went to the library and he realized that he could bounce the metal bookends and that they would make a clanging noise.  After that I basically just skimmed for a few books that looked ok as I followed him around, trying to muffle the noise.

Tuesday: baby-adult

Kitty-cat.
Puppy-dog.
Bunny-rabbit.


Ok, I'm going to admit, this post suddenly derailed.  I was going to say how weird it is that so many animals are called by their baby-adult names, but you never hear of a baby-adult (for humans).  But then I could only think of three examples so maybe it isn't so weird that you never hear of baby-adults.

Monday: there he goes!

So...walking.  As you may remember, Isaac took his first solo steps about a month ago.  I had figured that it wouldn't be long before the walker was just a memory, but that didn't really happen.  In fact, there was about a week were he would only walk with the walker.  (I think it was due to teething.)  And even when he did walk, it was because Ben or I put him on his feet with a goal not too far away.

But then this evening he decided to walk.  By himself, just for fun.  He went across the house and back, and then a few other times throughout the night.  He exhausted himself out.  Balancing is hard work.

(Hopefully it keeps up tomorrow!)
(Quote of the day: Isaac, don't bite the couch.)

Sunday: daylight savings

When Isaac woke up this morning, I looked at the clock and it said 5:45.  Ugg.  Before his wake-up time.  I made him wait 15 minutes hoping he'd go back to sleep, but he didn't.

Then I was looking at my I-pad after getting Isaac up, and it said 7:11.  Whoo-hoo!  It was time for breakfast!  I gained an hour.  Isaac may have thought he was waking up early, but really he remembered DST and got up at the right time.

In other news, I said the following today: "Isaac, don't lick the floor."  I'm sure it will be the first of many supposedly obvious things.