Monday goals

Today's goals were to

1) wrap presents.  I only have one left (and one that still needs to arrive).

2) Make some Christmas food.  I decided not to make two pans of brownies which ended up being a smart move.  One pan will cover two events.

3) Clean the guest bedroom.  Done - and Isaac and I played some piano tunes too.

Obviously not the guest room.  But there are now some presents under the tree!

Christmas is coming!  It is going to busy next weekend so I'm trying to spread some of the prep work over the whole week.  Here is my very tentative list (besides the normal things)...

Monday - make some Christmas food, clean the guest room, wrap presents
Tuesday - Bible study
Wednesday - clean the basement, vaccuum
Thursday - bathrooms, more Christmas food
Friday - swiffer, pick up

Hmm...that doesn't seem so bad.  It probably will be a little harder than I expect though since there are still other things going on too.

If you're still reading, I have a reward for you.  Ben found a treasure-trove of water bottles under his desk.

This morning Isaac put a cheerio down the vent.  So I closed it in hopes that he would just get bored and never want to do it again.  I'm not sure if I was successful yet or not.

Saturday: Grandma's funeral

Today was Grandma's funeral.

What is there to say?  She'll be missed, but, as evidenced by her Bible, she's in heaven.  It was interesting to hear about some of the things that she had double underlined and bracketed in her Bible.  It reminded me how everyone goes through different trials at various points in their life, and made me wonder about hers.  Along with wondering about her good times.  I only knew her as a grandma, but she (obviously) had a life before that.

Enough rambling.

This is the last picture that I have of her.  :)

Thursday: steps?

After getting into the cat food, not sitting still for a dirty diaper change, and putting his peas in his highchair at lunch, I decided that we should go to the gym this afternoon.

I went on the bikes.  I probably won't be trying everything the gym has to offer, but I'd like to try several of the things.  Last Friday was spin.  I enjoyed the bikes more (they have TVs!), but I probably got better exercise during spin.  I also liked going at 2pm better...at 9:30 the place was jam-packed!  Even after work it isn't that busy.

I went to pick Isaac up and he was crying.  The worker said he had just fallen down right before I got there. She also said, "You didn't tell me he could walk."  Surprised, I said, "He can't.  Well, he can cruise but that's it."  She went on to say that he had walked a few steps and that is why he had fallen down.  I tried really hard to get him to do it at home but he was completely resisting.

Wednesday: a fun day

Today Isaac and I went to a Christmas gathering.  I'll admit that it was completely out of character for me, as I didn't know the host very well nor did I know anyone going.  But it sounded like fun and I knew there would be lots of new toys for Isaac to play with.

He especially enjoyed the trains and the drum sticks.  There was also a puppet show...
Police puppet: What is everyone doing here?
Isaac: DDDttaattdd  TTEHHOOOOO.
Police puppet: some other question that I can't remember
Isaac: BBBaaaMMMEEEAAOOPPPTT
Police puppet: well, I may need to give you a ticket for that.

Later in the day I scared Isaac twice as he was coming around a corner.  He loves it.  There is a look of surprise, but then he bursts out into laughter.

Ben and I played racquetball.  I put up a good fight in two of the games, and my racquet was being unruly for two of the games.  We still got good exercise though.

Tuesday: dancing with joy

Today Ben's grandmother unexpectedly died.  She was having some minor surgery done and there was a complication.  However, I have no doubt that she is dancing with joy in heaven right now.

Somewhat unexpectedly, it has made me miss my mom even more tonight.

Monday: a job

For those of you that don't know, I'm teaching a lab at Hope next semester (CAD).  Today I had a meeting about it with the main instructor.

*They've changed a lot of things since I took the class.  I think they're probably good changes, but it is still a little odd.  The biggest change is that they've separated the lecture and the lab.
*I'm probably supposed to call the main instructor by his first name.  This feels super weird as I spent several years referring to him by his last name.  I'm trying to avoid saying his name, but I'm sure I'll have to at some point.
*Dad kindly watched Isaac during the meeting.  When it was done I found him crawling through the halls (and apparently waving to everyone) like he owned the place. :)

It'll be nice to have a little something to do again.  Not that I don't like staying home.  But I think it'll be good for both Isaac and me.

Sunday: Christmas mailing

A few days ago I ordered two of the exact same thing from a store.  (On purpose.)  That was all I ordered from the store: two items.

I got a package from the store a few days ago.  "Great!" I thought, and proceeded to put it, unopened, by the rest of the presents.

Yesterday I got another package from the store.

Yes, the store sent the two items in two different shipments that arrived on two different days.  How weird is that?

Saturday: for Liz

I think she's Christmasy.

Friday: Weeks 48 and 49

Week 48 (well, more like 48.5 because I kept forgetting).  He looks so old when he wears jeans.

Week 49

Thursday: crawling! sitting! running!

Yesterday Isaac really started crawling on his hands and knees.  Then today I bet he was on his hands and knees at least 75% of the time.  It really amazes me how fast he changes.  And since it is much easier to go to a sitting position from ones hands and knees, Isaac also started sitting by himself a lot more today!  Hurray!  I've been hoping he would do that for a while.

And then Isaac started running...


Fooled you?  Ben and I played racquetball with someone at the gym today.  I don't play cutthroat (I can give Ben a good game, but never win.  Against two guys I'm out of my league) so we played two vs one.  When Ben was the one we had him running all over the place.  He got a good workout, but I finally got to win a game. :)

Wednesday: date night

Today was a bit more relaxed for Isaac and I, but I feel like I got a lot done.  Now, whether I actually did or not is up for debate, but at least a lot of little things got checked of my list.

Ben and I went to see the new Bond movie tonight.  It was fun.  Isaac got to spend some quality time with his grandparents.

Tuesday: keys and IDs

Today ended up being a rather busy day.

I got a key to the small building at the church where I'm helping out periodically.

After interviewing some babysitters at Hope I got a new ID card.

Then we started our gym membership where we got pictures for our ID cards.

This post was cooler in my head.  So here's a picture of Isaac.

Sunday: can you clap?

We have proof that Isaac can understand us!  Today, several times, I said, "Can you clap?" without using any gestures.  And he did!  It's a nice feeling...and clapping is so much fun too.

Now...if he would just decide to understand us in regards to the cat food.

Friday: 11 months

Isaac is 11 months today!  I just realized I didn't get the normal shots on the quilt, so I'll try to get those tomorrow.

Here we have him sitting nicely for some pictures.  Some of them include his current favorite toy, jingle balls. Since it was Christmas I put some lights around him too...they turned out well but not quite like I had envisioned.


Here he is with his monkey.

Playing with the monkey

And with the puzzle.


Isaac has started to get a little fussier with food.  I gave him some carrots and bananas the other day and he wouldn't eat them.  He's started throwing them on the ground, which is rather annoying.  However, we've tried some new foods that he has enjoyed (curry with lots of rice, black bean soup) and he still loves his peas and cottage cheese.

He is easily pulling himself up and cruising around the furniture.  He's going up stairs faster and pointing at everything.  He enjoys taking his socks off.

He is sleeping until about 5-6am, wakes up to eat and then goes back to sleep until 7:30-8.  I sometimes feel like we should get rid of that last feeding, but I'm afraid it would mean getting up earlier again and I really like this sleeping in.  Isaac is down to two naps, and they're usually at least an hour.

Only one more month until he turns one!  The year has flown.

Thursday: baby food

Well, I wanted to document some of my experiences with making baby food.  And I thought maybe someone else would want to see.  A "1" is hard or low while a "5" is easy or good.  edit: cost effectiveness refers to making the food vs. buying a similar, premade baby food.  n/a means that there wasn't anything close enough to compare it to.

mashed food and purees.

	easy of making	cost effectiveness	notes
apples	2	3
asparagus	3	n/a
avacado	5	n/a	freezing seems ok
banana	5	5	only from fresh
carrots	4	3	don't bake
cauliflower	4	n/a
chicken and parsnip	3	n/a
pears	2	3
peas	n/a	n/a
plums	2	4
potatoes, mashed	3	n/a	reheat with water
squash, butternut	4	5
sweet potato	4	5
watermelon	2	n/a	too runny
zuchinni and summer squash	5	n/a

finger food

	easy of making	eating	cost effectiveness	notes
apples	n/a	n/a	n/a	haven't gotten soft enough yet
avacado	5	4	n/a	messy
banana	5	5	4
black beans (from soup)	5	5	n/a
blueberries, fresh	5	5	1
blueberries, frozen	5	1	4	too red… ok with quinoa
carrots	4	5	5
cottage cheese	5	4	n/a	messy
kiwi	5	5	n/a
peaches, fresh	4	5	?	bake to remove peel
peaches, frozen	4	3	?	kind of hard
pears	2	4	2	messy from frozen
peas	5	5	5	canned
plums	2	1	?	too red
raspberries, frozen	5	1	n/a	messy
rice	3	3	n/a	keeps Isaac busy, only half ends up in mouth
shredded cheese	5	3	n/a	keeps Isaac busy, only half ends up in mouth
spagehtti	4	3	n/a	keeps Isaac busy, only half ends up in mouth
squash, butternut	4	5	5
sweet potato	4	5	5
zuchinni and summer squash	5	3	n/a	one batch good, one batch skin too hard

Wednesday: shopping for Isaac

Today Ben went shopping for Isaac.


It looks like he found a good one. :)

Monday: Ben

Tonight we celebrated Ben's birthday.

We went to Wild Chef for dinner.  Isaac seemed concerned about the flames, but didn't have any problems.

Sunday: yesterday

Yesterday we put up the Christmas tree and I haven't taken a picture of it yet.  Isaac was rather uninterested in it.  While it was kind of disappointing it will probably be a blessing as he won't try to yank it down.  Also, the little amount of snow that we had all melted today. :(

Saturday: more pictures

Ben's aunt took some great pictures for us on Thanksgiving...

Friday: weeks 45-47

Isaac is still growing!  It's harder to get pictures of him some weeks...he moves too much.

week 45:

week 46:

week 47 (pajama day!  It meant he couldn't take off his socks, although he still tried a few times.)

Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  It has been a week of reflection for me...and feel amazingly blessed by God.

Today we had dinner with Ben's family.  As always, Isaac was amazing.  He completely missed a nap but stayed very happy.  He seems to enjoy being around people.  (Although he was thrown off a little bit at night due to a late nap.)

Isaac thoroughly enjoyed Thanksgiving food, especially the fruit.  I went back for seconds three times!  Where does he put it all?  He also had a little bit of turkey, some mashed potatoes, and a roll.  He tried sharing his roll with his cousin, but since he had already put the piece in his mouth we discouraged it.  We'll have to work on what is appropriate to share.

With Great-grandma

Trying out his basketball moves.  Ben did a quick let go a few times and Isaac hung on to the hoop by himself. :)

Tuesday and Wednesday: quilts and stairs

I made a quilt for Grandma and we delivered it yesterday.  :)  I'm hoping it'll help cheer up her room for a little bit.

Today Isaac crawled all the way up the stairs (twice)!  I guess something just clicked because last week stairs didn't work for him at all.  Today he just scooted on up...he was chasing a can of black bean soup that I kept moving one stair higher.  

Monday: Ben and Isaac

First we have a video of Ben and Isaac doing random things.


Then today Isaac was watching Ben practice drums for quite a while.  (Also, do you know how hard it is to get a non-blurry picture of a baby and a drummer???)

Sunday: ramblings

Today was a pretty normal Sunday for us.  We went to church.  The last several weeks have been about social injustice.  The reality of how much we have, take for granted, and think we need has really hit home.

After that we bought some new shoes.  No, the irony of sitting through a church service talking about how much we have and then buying new shoes was not lost on me.  (Is irony the correct word?)  (We also made Christmas lists tonight.  I've been thinking of things all year and trying to do a better job of writing them down when I thought of them so I felt like we had longer lists (i.e., more to choose from) for once...but again, here was a list of things that I would like when I don't need any of it.)

Isaac and I took naps, Ben and I played darts, we all played together...fun times.

Saturday: water buffalos

Last week I picked up a "Silly Songs with Larry" (VeggieTales) DVD from the library.  The songs are still regularly coming back to Ben and me, including "Everybody has a water buffalo."

Today Ben sang, "Everybody has a water bottle-o" as Isaac was playing with a water bottle.  Isn't he funny. :D

Friday: happy baby

This morning I went to a little quilting thing.  There were several people there that were going to take classes or quilt all day, but with Isaac I decided just to go to the short opening meeting.

The ladies from the quilt shop held him for most of the meeting and wouldn't give him back. :)  I went up to get him once and came away empty handed.  But Isaac stayed happy and enjoyed the attention.

Thursday: racquetball

Tonight Ben and I started a three day trial at a local gym.  The only other place besides Hope that has racquetball courts.  It was really nice.  They have really nice amenities and classes.  And child care.

But they're more expensive than Hope.  And at Hope Isaac would get to see Dad and Ben more. It might be a difficult decision.

What a rough life we have. :p

Wednesday: sleep

Ah, more sleep stories from our household.

Isaac slept until almost 8am this morning.  It meant that I woke up all cheery and proceeded to talk Ben's ear off.  First we talked about my elbow that I had really banged on the door frame last night while going to check on Isaac.  It didn't bruise, but it hurts enough to feel like it should have.  Then I told him about my dream about saving a short (~2foot) person from drowning in a sink.  And this random person that thought I should be wearing more make-up.  She said she spent 45 minutes to 4 hours getting ready.  I thought that was hilarious, but she proceeded to cake on her make-up.  Then she painted her ankles with makeup.  It was with a clever paint roller that managed to get paint smoothed on even with all the bumps in ankles.

Then Isaac took a 2.5 hour nap.  He woke up after a half hour and so I had to go help. :(  We ended up napping on the couch for the rest of the time.  The couch is really comfy for sleeping with a baby.  It fits just right.

Of course, he had a hard time getting to sleep too.

Tuesday: first snow

Last night was our first snow!  There wasn't much this morning, only a dusting, but it was still the first.  I was really happy because the weather forecast didn't have any precipitation in it for the next ten day and I was sad I'd have to wait for snow.

Monday: groceries

Do you have a bored Isaac?  Give him some groceries to play with.

(This was from a month ago.)

(This was from today.  He pretty much ignored me for a half hour, even when I got down to play with him at one point.  Unless I started to put the tea bags back in the box.  Then he paid a lot of attention to me.  But I was just trying to help him so he could take them out again!)

Sunday: Bagger Daves

Today we went to Bagger Daves for lunch as it is a new burger place in town.  We figured it might take a little longer than normal because it's only been open for a few weeks, but it ended up being ridiculous.

We waited for about forty minutes, after being told it would be 20-25 minutes.  They took forever to get our order.  They took forever to bring our food.  They took forever to bring the bill.  We ended up leaving two hours after we got there.  (As always, Isaac did amazing though...he was very hungry when we sat down overdue for a nap but wasn't too cranky ever.)

But...the food was good.  Not two hours good, but still good.  We filed a complaint on the website and might go back if they're nice to us.  Once the opening rush slows down.

Saturday: racquetball

We played racquetball again today with Dad.  I took some pictures of Isaac at the gym so that if he does decide to go to Hope he can have pictures of himself there as a baby wearing his Hope socks.  I'm sure he'll care.  Maybe it'll at least be a conversation starter.

Friday: Dad's so funny II

Ben and Isaac watched the following gif last night.  http://www.quick-break.net/c/2012/09/26/Water_balloon_pops_on_squirrel.gif  (If you don't watch it, it's just a squirrel breaking a water balloon.)

Then Ben started narrating it.


I said the same thing today a few times and got the same reaction.  Apparently it was really funny.

Thursday: ahh

Yesterday it felt like for every step I took forward, I took one step backwards.

*I got dressed!  And realized that I needed to do some wash.  But I didn't do any wash.
*I laid down for a nap!  But was sleeping with Isaac because he had a little cold so didn't sleep very well.
*I got groceries!  But forgot to get the prescription at the same store.
*I made dinner!  But then the kitchen was a disaster.
*I made Isaac's dinner!  But found out that the new cottage cheese I got wasn't sealed properly.

Today was much better.  Things got accomplished.  The kitchen is cleaner.  The wash has been started.  I returned the cottage cheese only to find that the new one I got has the same problem.  I'm annoyed, but I suppose I'll survive.  It'll just be added to the errand list tomorrow. :)

Wednesday: rball

Today we got back on the racquetball courts.  Dad played with us, so whomever wasn't playing could watch  Isaac.

It was good exercise.  The first two games I played weren't very close (scorewise), but then the third one was 15-17.  I almost won.

Tuesday: election day

Isaac and I proudly displayed our "I voted" stickers.

...until Isaac tried to eat them.

Monday: a matter of perspective

Is the cat trapped behind the door?

Or are the kids held back by the door?

I think they watched each other for about five minutes...an eternity in kid time.

We also had our annual ham and squash, which for some reason I always take a picture of.