Tuesday: no more vacation

Vacation was done today. :(

I brought goggles for Isaac to use in the pool for "swimming lessons."  He wanted to "hang out on the steps."  Sigh.  I really thought they might help.

Joshua is getting so big.  I can't believe he's almost a year old.

Monday: 49 weeks

Joshua is 49 weeks old!  I think the sun was a bit bright so we didn't get great pictures today.

He started giving kisses today.

Isaac wanted his picture taken too...183 weeks old.

Joshua came over and gave Isaac a hug.  Sort of.

Zach and Jenny left around noon.  It was an excellent visit.  Then everyone except Ben took long naps.  Lovely!  I was rather tired.  Joshua hasn't been sleeping well.

Sunday: vacation continued

This morning we went for a little walk.  Isaac brought his squirters and they helped motivate him to keep walking.

"I'm only squirting some of the weeds."

Ben played peek-a-boo with Joshua while he was in the carrier.

Joshua enjoyed being by Zach.  He's apparently pretty silly.

Zach and Jenny made a cake.  While Zach was making the frosting, Isaac was in the kitchen doing stuff.  So Ben said, "Let me know if he's bothering you."  Isaac said, "He's bothering me."

Saturday: Happy 4th!

We went to the neighborhood picnic.  They supply hot dogs and side dishes and ask everyone to bring a dessert.  So there were lots of delicious desserts.

We took some 4th of July pictures.  Mainly because both Ben and I remembered a picture from Isaac wearing the same outfit.  Here's Joshua (11 months)...

And here's Isaac (6 months)...

...turns out I was wearing the same shirt too.

And one of the whole family.

After rest time we went outside with various squirters.  The funniest was when Isaac had the hose and Ben had a tiny squirt bottle.  But Isaac also enjoyed the sprinkler and squirting himself in the face.

Friday: friends

A fun day with friends!  It's rather late, so here is the summary in pictures.

Thursday: errands

Our fun activity was to go to DeGraaf Nature center.

He didn't understand how to use the binoculars.  After trying to explain it, I gave up.

We did a fast walk through the trails.  Isaac's hair bounced up and down and Joshua's legs bounced up and down.

Then we went to the quilt shop.  Kelly said that he could play with the beach toys, but he just made himself at home in the pool.

Isaac also gave Joshua some of his "bread."  Except it was cake.  It was just crumbs so I let it go.  But after so many times of saying "no cake for Joshua" I was thwarted by my three year old.

In the car on the way to the gym we learned the life cycle of a buttbow.  Buttbows turn into puppies, which turn into peoples.  We learned about life cycles at the nature center.

Zach and Jenny showed up!  Here's to a fun weekend.

Wednesday: 11 months, 42 months, balloons

It might be a long post...

Joshua is 11 months!

 Eating: He enjoys his fruits, Cheerios, cottage cheese, yogurt, and sweet potato.  He does not like green vegetables.  While I'm trying to get him to sign, it is pretty obvious when he doesn't want anything because his hands go in front of his face and intercept the spoon.  He still nurses well and we're still at six times per day.  Some of those get interrupted if he finds anything else interesting.

Sleep: He sleeps at night from 7:30/8 until about 6am (with one feeding before I go to bed).  I feed him once and he will sleep for another hour.  He seems almost ready to drop his morning nap, but I usually encourage at least a short one.  He then naps from about 1:30-3, although a bit longer if he didn't take a morning nap.

Playing: He loves balls and balloons (well, really anything that rolls).  He also likes playing with anything in Isaac's room, especially the percussion instruments and the duplos.

Moving: His scoot has gotten pretty fast.  He stood up (using my arm) two days ago and then let go, and stood for a few seconds all by himself.  When he wants to be picked up he'll wiggle both arms and legs.

Attitude: he's still pretty serious with other people.  He laughs regularly, but not all that frequently.  He has a shriek that he's found recently to get attention.  He is happy to play by himself.

Language: he clearly understands his name. (This might be old news.  I can't remember).  He also understands "no" and will often obey after one or two.

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Isaac is 42 months!

 Attitude: Isaac is still excitable and laughs at everything.  He loves playing.  He getting teary when things don't go his way, but getting his wipe usually calms him down.

 Playing: his favorite things right now are play-doh and duplos, but he also really likes playing in the sand and running around.  Reading is considered a playing activity...some days there is a lot of reading and some days there is not.

 Potty training: continues to go pretty well.  There are still some accidents.  For a while he was wearing underwear to bed, but he's been back in a pull-up lately.  (Mainly because I don't do laundry fast enough and don't want an accident with no clean sheets.)

Choosing: When I give him options, he will often say, "I don't know, you choose."  After I choose, he always chooses the opposite thing.  This came back to bite him this afternoon when he didn't choose a vegetable for lunch.  So I did.  It was the wrong one, but had already been plated.  Maybe he'll learn.

He was so excited about his paints yesterday.  So he painted the fire engine today.  Surprisingly, it wasn't all black, his favorite color.

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We popped the balloons today since we have guests coming this weekend.



Here are the pretty left overs.