Wednesday: firsts

It seems like every day Isaac has some sort of first.  Or at least an improvement.  Sometimes it is just being to do something better than before, sometimes it is something that Ben and I decide to do with him, and sometimes it is something really cool.

Today I have several new things to report.

He found his toes.

He sat in a high chair (to eat his fruit).  The only reason he sat in this is because I found it at a garage sale last weekend and cleaned it up today.  It was $8...and I'm pretty proud of my find.  He's pretty small in it.  His feet just barely reach over the seat.

He sat up for a rather long period of time by himself.  Ok, Ok, about a minute.  Ben and I can both see that he is self-stabilizing better.

He reached out for a toy during tummy time!  Before he's always just laid and watched me.

Tuesday: Eight years

Today is our eight year anniversary!

Ben took the day off of work and Cheryl babysat Isaac.  We played some computer games, went to see The Avengers, played Frisbee golf, and read in a park.  It was a very nice day.

After dinner we got Isaac and then went to Jamie's birthday party.  Hurray!

Monday: guest room

Last week I finished up the guest room.

I'm sure you're wondering what's on the wall...It's frogs.  I'm not sure why there are frogs on the wall.  It isn't really my favorite, but I also don't dislike it enough to change it.

Sunday: Mother's Day

Today was my first Mother's Day...and it was a very nice one.  Ben got up with Isaac during the night.  And they got me donuts and flowers.  What more could I want?

We also had a delicious brunch.  Cold peach soup, orange bread, fruit, cheese, waffles...yum.

(If you look closely, you can see our lettuce growing in the pot.  All the vegetables are starting to come up!)

Saturday: diagrams

I found this fun creator at http://www.wordle.net.  You know, the thing that takes the words that you most often write and makes a picture out of them?  I downloaded the blog again.

I find it interesting that Isaac made the list even though he's only been around for 9% of the posts.  I probably need to stop starting the posts with "today".  There are several words that don't really surprise me, but I'm not sure how they got there, such was two, three, minutes, small, and Amanda.  (I don't refer to myself in the third person that often.)

Today I went to the quilt show with a friend.  This was my favorite.  Afterwards we saw the flower arrangements...they were really cool too.  And we watched the Dutch Dancers.

Isaac is eating his elephant's ear; he is sad he didn't get to last night with Ben and I.

19 weeks!

I took a lot of photos from this angle.  It was hard to narrow it down to one, but there are already a lot of photos in this post.  I do like the single finger in his mouth...that started about two weeks ago.

Ben liked the picture of Isaac in the box, but said it was too blurry.  So we tried again.

Thursday: more costumes

Isaac convinced me to get my Dutch costume on today too.  It barely fit, but it did fit.

And my contribution to StemFest:

Wednesday: downtown

Isaac and I went downtown today to have lunch with Brian and Amy.  Isaac was being a little cranky so we didn't stay for the parade.  He has a runny nose.  It was hard to tell because he slobbers all over himself so often, but by late afternoon I was sure.

I'm hoping to get a few more picture in the Dutch Costume.

Cheryl also came by to look at all my plants.  She declared almost all of them not weeds - and could even tell me what almost all of them were.  I was rather impressed.  Now for weeding and making some changes...I expect it will take me most of the summer.  At least.

Tuesday: theme day - things that swim

Today we talked about things that swim!

Isaac wore a whale.  I may have changed his sheet just so that it would be the color of water for the picture.

He also had fish on his feet.  I wore my duck socks.  Ben participated by being the beach (khakis and a blue shirt) since he had to work.

We also saw some fish in the lake!  They were pretty scared of us, but if we didn't move they would come a bit closer.  They were bigger than I was expecting.

Monday: Grand Haven and Boxes

Today Isaac and I went to Grand Haven to have lunch with some of my old co-workers.  Isaac charmed them.  He also charmed some of the tables next to us...it was a good time.

Sunday: Plate

Scene: Dinner time, the food is ready to eat but still in the kitchen, waiting to be served.  Ben is wondering what size plate Amanda would like.


Ben: Big plate?  Little plate?
Amanda: What begins with plate?

Sigh.  Children's books are getting stuck in my head. (If you aren't familiar with the book, every letter starts with "Big A...Little a.  What begins with A?"  Or whatever letter it's on.)

(photo from Amazon)

Saturday: not much

I don't have much to say for today.  Isaac was still not excited about his afternoon naps, but did manage to take two short ones.  He also wore some 9 month pants.  They're a little long, but fit fine due to the huge cloth diapers.  He was wearing 3mo and 6mo pants, but the 3mo pants are now too small.  He didn't have enough 6mo pants and since he's going to outgrown them soon I decided to just go for 9mo.  I know, exciting times, right?

Friday: uff

Today didn't really go all that well.  The morning was ok, but afternoon then rolled around.  I was tired and wanted a nap.  I thought Isaac was acting tired, so I put him in the swing.

Isaac: I don't want to be here.
Amanda: Let's try the crib.
Isaac: That's ok, but I don't want to sleep here.
Amanda: Ok, you're not tired.
Isaac: No, I'm tired.
Amanda: Let's try the swing.
Isaac: I don't want to be here.
Amanda: Ok, let's join Flurry and we'll both nap on my bed.
Isaac: No
Amanda: How many want to sleep on my bed?  Three.  How many are sleeping on my bed?  Zero.
Isaac: I still don't want to sleep.
Flurry: I'm out of here.
Amanda: So are we.  Let's try the swing.  (And follow Flurry)
Isaac: NO SWING
Amanda: Ben, dinner change.  Let's order pizza.
Isaac: Fine, I'll sleep on your lap.
Amanda: Ben's home early!  Hooray!

He is also 18 weeks.  His cranky and happy extremes seem to be getting more extreme.  Which is lots of fun when he's happy, and significantly less fun when he isn't.

Everything goes in his mouth.

We play with blocks during tummy time.  Er, I play with them.  Isaac watches.  The goal is to make the highest or coolest tower without it falling over.  Since all the blocks are the same size cubes, I have to be rather creative when making new configurations.  I've recently been rotating some blocks 45 degrees.  The photo below isn't a great example, but some of the blocks are like that on purpose.

Thursday: my day

Today started out with me startling awake to Ben's alarm.  (And by starting, I mean anything that happens after 6am).  Before I knew what was happening I was sitting up with my glasses on.  Ben told me to lay back down, so I did.  It was nice that Isaac was sleeping in a bit, although it was only because he woke up twice during the night.

We had our doctor appointments today.  I'm healthy.  My weight actually came in a few pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight, which shocked me.  I thought I was about a pound over.  I think it was because it was a different time than normal and I hadn't eaten anything.  But it was still nice to see.

Isaac is also healthy.  He weighed 14 pounds even (31%) and was 25.25" long (60%).  He is doing everything that he should be doing.  He also got his shots.  He did pretty well for a few hours, and then had a few hours where he was really cranky.  If I moved him he started screaming.  So I didn't move him too much, but he wasn't very happy sitting still either.

We talked to some neighbors by the lake because it was a very nice day out.  I also cleaned under the deck (there is a walkout area).  There were a ton of fishing lures scattered about.  Some with large rusty hooks that scare me.  I hope I got all of them, but I probably didn't.

For our dinner side I made some cornbread from a mix (like muffin mix) in an effort to get rid of food that we've had for a while and haven't eaten.  It was disgusting!  Now I know why it was on clearance when we bought it.

Wednesday: pots and burps

Today I planted some beans and lettuce.  Yesterday I quizzed Nathan on growing stuff in some pot on our porch, and he ended up suggesting lettuce.  It is currently planting season, and since it was a beautiful day I ended up just doing it.  (It meant that I took out all of the growing stuff from Exhibit F, but something bloomed in Exhibit E and everyone agreed that Exhibit G wasn't a weed.)

(Insert imaginary picture of dirt here.  It is currently rather boring so I didn't take picture.)

We had dinner with Dad and Pat.  Pat was teaching Isaac to fake burp and Isaac seemed to be doing it.  Now I'm slightly scared that his first word is going to be burp.

Tuesday: decal

The people that owned the house before us put a few decals on the walls.  Two of them I really like.  But this one...not so much.  The main reason is that the orange doesn't stand out well against the green.  (It says "the essence of life".)  I'm also not sure I love the words.  So we decided to take it down.

At that point Isaac woke up.  I thought, well, I'll try doing it with him.  All the online sites say to warm it up with a hair dryer and then peel it off.  Shouldn't be too bad.

15 minutes later, guess how far I was?



Did you guess?


































I was all done.  While holding Isaac.  It pretty much just peeled off without the hair dryer.  (And the orange was really brown.)  I would be up for putting more decals on the walls in the future.

Monday: 4 months

Guess who is 4 months old?!?

Everything is delicious these days.

I hadn't put a bib on him and during the course of the 10 minutes that I was taking pictures he drenched his shirt.

We were trying for a head up picture

Try 2.  He only rolls over if you've set him up just right.  I'm not exactly sure what that setting is though.

He stared at this elephant for about three minutes straight today.

Sunday: water bottles

We reuse our water bottles.  It results in filling up several per day, and we've been lax about it the last two days.  So almost all the water bottles are empty.  I grabbed the remaining ones from the fridge and had a water bottle family photo shoot.  (Although I lost one at church this morning. :( )

It's kind of funny, but several of the water bottles have stories behind them.

*The middle Nalgene and the Nalgene on the right were a Christmas present to Ben a few years back because Flurry kept contaminating our water by drinking it from our glasses.

*The Metal ones (3rd and 5th from right) were a Christmas present from Mom and Dad Hilldore.

*The two Gaterade ones in the middle were the ones that started the "disposable" plastic water bottle collection.  Ben got them for me when I was sick.

*The one that says Freedom Village (in the middle) was from Aunt C last year when we went up to Cadillac.

*The one with dots on it (6th from left) was from a spa in Las Vegas.

*The one 3rd from left was from a Ladies Night out at Crowne Motors last year.

*The other Gaterade (2nd from left) was from Grandma Hilldore...I think at Easter last year because Ben needed something to drink as we were heading out.

Hurrary for water bottle memories!

Saturday: hi

Hi.

Thursday: time to sleep

3:00am: I woke up and got out of bed, put on my robe, and realized that there wasn't a half baby in the living room that needed my attention.  (Don't ask for details...that's all I know.)  I wondered if Isaac had still woken me up without realizing it, so I went to the bathroom and got some water.  He was still quiet so I went back to sleep.

4:00am: Isaac wakes up hungry.  I was so proud of him...he had slept for 4.5 hours!  While I was changing him the first time he smiled at me...oh no, bad sign.  He's awake.  Well, maybe he'll fall asleep while eating some more.

4:20am: Isaac is awake and wants to tell Ben and I a story.  We don't want to hear it, so we open his door and turn off the monitor.  He just tells us the story more loudly.

4:40am: He finally goes to sleep.

6:00am: Isaac thinks it's time to wake up again.  It takes 20 minutes of convincing, but he changes his mind.

I hope tonight is better.  It's been rather rough so far.  Oddly rough, actually.  Usually he goes down with no problems.

Edit: He's also 17 weeks old!

Thursday: around the house

Yesterday while photographing weeds (or not weeds) I noticed that we can see under the fake roof under the deck.  It is not very well made and Ben and I are hoping to take it down sometime this summer.  Anyway, can you see the wooden boards in the middle of the photo?  And how much they've warped?  If that can even be considered warping.  It might be too severe.

My clothes line!  It sunned for a few minutes in the morning so I put some diaper covers out.  It proceeded to be not sunny and not windy, so they only dried a little bit.

I have a drinking problem.  Or a cleaning up problem.  It looks a little better now.

Isaac wore matching shirt and socks today.  He put the hat on for the photo, but it was a bit small.

The laundry is all unpacked!  Dad came and helped us take the folding doors off today.  While they nicely kept it hidden within the room, one of them blocks the "outer" door from closing if it is open.  So it was a pain because I always had to open and close two doors to get to the dryer.  Or if they were open I didn't have much room to get in and out.

I got a check for one cent.  I will be depositing it, but only because I have another check to deposit too.