Thursday: limes

For dinner we were having coconut lime chicken.  It turned out pretty good!  Isaac refused to eat it.  I finally got him to eat a little bit by suggesting he dip his chicken on his lime wedge.  He does love to dip!  I felt like I had a parenting win.

Wednesday: water bottles

I woke up rather grumpy.  I finally put Isaac in front of the TV and took a 15 minute nap.  It was a smart move and I woke up feeling much better.

In other pictures, here is our current water bottle family.  It looks much different than 2.5 years ago, although some are still the same.  They don't all fit in the fridge at once, unless we're really low on food.

I also had the white background out and tried to get some pictures of Joshua.  He didn't want his picture taken.  (But he did finally give some smiles to Ben tonight!)

Tuesday: conversations

While at the playground this morning, Lion and Little Lion appeared.  They are basically Big Tickle Monster and Little Tickle Monster, but they roar.  After nap time Isaac was talking about Little Lion and how he needed to wear a shirt so that he wasn't brr.  (I'm not sure why brr is so often substituted for cold.  He drinks brr water too.)
**********
Isaac: Dad, don't eat me!
Ben: Why not?
Isaac: I'm old.
Isaac: Like Grandma.
Ben: oh, yeah?  How old is Grandma?
Isaac: two.
Ben: How old are you?
Isaac: two.
**********
Isaac: Dear God, thank you for dropping things from up high.
Ben: Anything else you want to thank God for?
Isaac: water bottles up high.

We thought the prayer was going downhill at that point.  The first part might have reference the marbles that he played today, so that was fine.  But water bottles up high??  No clue what was going on there.  Speaking of marbles, he wanted to play them today but I told him no because his bedroom still wasn't clean.  (It had gotten very messy over the weekend.)  So he started to clean it and did a really good job...the puzzles were put together and even in the right spot in his bookshelf.  I started to help a few minutes later and we got it very clean.  Only to get it messy with marble works immediately afterwards.  But that's fine with me.  It's at least a controlled mess.

Monday: 5 weeks and loud trucks

Joshua is five weeks old today!

I've seen a few smiles before that seemed real, but today seemed to be the day he really figured it out. I got a ton of smiles! Ben, sadly, only got worried looks.

He also did some tummy time. Isaac's trains did tummy time too.

Every Labor Day there is a truck parade from the nearby city to our city. If you go to the end it is busy and there is food and balloons and such. Or you can park along the route in a random parking lot and just watch from the side of the road.

We met up with some friends. Isaac was so excited that he fell and scrapped up his knees. It was the first time he got band aids. They seemed to help a lot. :)

I warned Isaac that loud trucks were coming, but he didn't really grasp how loud they'd be. We quickly ended up watching from inside the car, but that worked very well. (Another good reason to park along the route.). (Note from Tuesday: Isaac's been asking to watch the loud trucks all morning, so it didn't scare him too much.). I really liked listening to the different sounds/tones the truck horns made.

Extra: a tickle monster conundrum

As we were getting in the car to go to church Isaac starting telling the Big Tickle Monster (BTM) to go away. I promptly told him not to worry; BTM wasn't coming to church with us.

I instantly regretted saying that...after all, church is for everyone! Even BTMs. But at the same time, I want Isaac to run away from bad BTMs, especially since he's only two.

Our solution? Isaac told Little Tickle Monster a Jesus story. (Literally. "A Jesus story" is what he said.). I told BTM about Jesus. But I don't know if he was listening or not.

Sunday: 32 months

Isaac was 32 months yesterday. I know, a weird milestone. But it's easy to take his pictures when taking Joshua.

Potty training - he regressed when Joshua was about two weeks, but I think we're slowly getting back on track.  He likes to take his pants off and I've started to make him put there back on himself.  We've had many tears over it, even though he's really pretty good at it.

Pictures - Isaac likes to be in pictures, but crinkles his nose when smiling for a camera.  We've been working on relaxing his nose, but now he relaxes it while touching it, which isn't much better.  (see above photo.)

The tickle monster has evolved into two tickle monsters.  Big Tickle Monster is still mean, but Isaac knows to tell him to to go "far far away" and doesn't make his super scared face any more.  Little Tickle Monster is basically another Isaac that does the same things as he does.  The other day he was leaving his room and said, "come on Little Tickle Monster, come on!"

Talking - he is still hard to understand (for non-parents), but he has so many words.  He sometimes is getting some new sentence/tense construction which is fun to hear.

Toys - he really likes marbles (although we've been working really hard on getting them to stay in his room).  Duplos are still a lot of fun and marbles and duplos together are really fun.  Play-doh has also been a common toy.  Playing in the sand is always a hit, but we don't do it all that often.

And one last picture - he kept hiding in this Isaac sized box.  Oh, and he's tall enough to reach light switches now.  It's actually kind of nice.

Extra: sleep

When you're tired, what's worse?

1. Getting all comfortable in bed only to have to deal with a screaming baby five minutes later
2. Waiting five minutes to get in bed, only to have the baby calm down immediately. (And so you could have goe straight to bed.)

Of course, the worst is when both happen.