Thursday: Happy Valentine's Day

Isaac got a small gift from Dad and Pat for Valentines. He read the card.

And ate some M&Ms.  He loves M&Ms.  Although I tend to only give him half candies because otherwise he has a tendency to drool colored drool and that is gross.

Wednesday: overheard

"My alarm clock is old enough to vote."  ~Ben

Tuesday: success!

Isaac has a few responsibilities around the house.  He (sometimes) has to put away things he's gotten out.  He stands by the correct drawer, I hand him the item, he puts it in...hopefully.  The whole process takes about twenty times longer than just doing it myself.  Isaac also has to put away his clean silverware from the dishwasher.  Usually this happens after he's played with it and I've emptied the rest of the dishwasher.

Today he motioned that he wanted to put the silverware away right away!  (It's in the top drawer, so I pick him up to do it.)  And there were two bottles that I asked him to put away and he did it.  I think the latter one might have been a fluke, but I'm going with it.  He also proceeded to take out a ton of stuff after putting the bottles away, but one step at a time.

Monday: keys, monkeys, and dogs

A few days ago I realized that I had lost my keys for the car I'm currently not driving.  How annoying.  I drive that car when it isn't snowing, so it would be nice to have them.  But since I'm not currently driving it, I had no idea when or where I lost them.  I found them today!  They were in my Bible Study bag.  It took me a while to figure out how they ended up there, but I think they fell out when I put my purse in the bag.
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We've been doing more walking.  He likes to attack the blue monkey.  This isn't a very good attack (or a great video), but it shows that he can walk more.


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We were also reading a book that had dogs in it today and I said "where's the dog?" and Isaac pointed to the dog.  Again and again.

source: Amazon

He can't (won't?) point to Mom or Dad or cats or kitties when questioned, but he'll point to dogs.  How did that happen?  He only sees dogs once in a while.

Saturday: another first

Yesterday morning I noticed Isaac stand unassisted several times.  He has done this a few times with our coaxing, but hasn't been very excited about it.  Yay!

When Ben came home from work they were playing and did it again.  Then he did it and Ben moved his walker forward a little bit...and Isaac took his first steps.  The rest of the evening included lots of standing by himself and trying to walk.  (When he stands he's really cute...he puts his arms up in the air in a "look!  no hands!" gesture.  We clapped every time.)

Today was more of the same, but he's able to go farther.  At this rate, he'll be speeding along within a week. Once again, it's amazing how fast something seems to just click.

Friday: aqua fit

Today I went to the water aerobics class at the gym.  (I finally got a new swimsuit that would be appropriate to wear to such a thing.)  I really enjoyed it.  It wasn't as aerobic as spin was, but probably about the same as when I use the exercise equipment.  The people were very friendly.  There was also some light strength training thrown in, which is something I could use.  And it was fun!  We were switching activities all the time so it didn't get boring.  I'll be going back.

I also met my music teacher from elementary school.  She looked familiar and I had placed her as a teacher but then she came over to see me and see if I went to Holland Christian.  I was really surprised that she recognized me, since I look a lot different than my 5th grade self.  At least, that's what I thought.  (Nathan, she remembers you too.)

Thursday: driveway

Today I snowmanned the driveway.

Isaac and I had gone out to shovel, but the snow was so heavy and wet that I rolled it into large snowballs instead.  The sad part was that I made six snowballs, but only ended up with one snowman because they kept breaking.  I'm not really sure why.

Anyway, it would have been more fun if Isaac was able to walk.  But between a bulky snowsuit, slippery ziplock bags on his feet*, and not being able to walk, he didn't seem to care too much about it.  But I had more fun.



*I couldn't find boots that are actually boots (vs. slippers called boots) for someone his size that were a reasonable price.  Add to that we weren't sure how much we would need boots.  So I just put ziplock bags over his slippers.  He can't walk, so it works for now.

Wednesday: starting young

"A level 1 wizard joins your party."

Tuesday: carrying

I have decided that I am an expert carrier.  Look at the things I can carry all at once...

Yesterday - a random trip to Hope
1. Isaac in a car seat
2. Isaac in a car seat.  It is awkward enough to deserve two bullet points.
3. Teaching supplies bag
4. Purse
5. Empty travel mug

Teaching time
1. Isaac
2. Diaper bag
3. Purse
4. Teaching supplies
5. Toy bag (sometimes)
6. Hot drink (sometimes) (in a safety cup)

Racquetball time
1. Isaac
2. Diaper bag
3. Purse
4. My gym bag
5. Ben's gym bag
6. My racquet
7. Ben's racquet

Racquetball time is about my limit so far though.  I could probably do a few more bags, but it's the non-bag things that get me.  Sometimes I use the stroller just to cart everything around and carry Isaac.

Monday: snowman

Today there was some sun and so the snow got slightly sticky.  Not enough to roll well, but enough to make a snowman.

Sunday: videos

Here are a few videos from the last few days:

Saturday: snow and racquetball

We have a lot of snow here again!!  We probably have about as much as we did before it melted earlier in the week.  Most of it came down last night, so we borrowed Jamie's snow blower for our driveway.  That was really nice.  The snow was light and fluffy, but it went a lot faster with the snow blower.

Then I finally beat Ben in racquetball.  He has a handicap, but even with the handicap I haven't been able to beat him.

Friday: note to self

Note to self:

When your child is still hungry after eating their dinner, remember this wise adage...

"Beans beans the wonderful fruit.
The more you eat the more you toot"

...so that you don't have to change a dirty diaper every three hours the next day.

Thursday: ball

Tonight Ben and I were going to play racquetball.  But all the courts were full.  We got there a little later than normal, but were still surprised at how busy the place was.  Especially since there is a snow storm...I would have expected people to stay home.

Anyway, we ended up playing a game of wally ball.  It was fun, and I didn't embarrass myself too badly.  (The people were pretty laid back, which usually makes it more fun.)  I just noticed that I have a large bruise on my thumb.  Oh well.

Wednesday: 13 months

It's Isaac's 13 month birthday!  So I have a lot of pictures.

With a monkey.  He's taken to wrestling with his monkeys...it's funny to watch.

I brought the walker upstairs and he has been using it a ton!  He's at just the right stage for it...he can't walk by himself, but he can turn it and walk holding onto it in any direction.

I feel like this is what most of the pictures looked like.  Zoom!!

And Ben got me donuts!!!! <3 p="">

Tuesday: haircut

On Sunday I finally gave Isaac his first haircut.  I've been saying that he needs one for about two months, but it has also seemed as though this is a momentous occasion that needs some fanfare.

Well, I just did it.  It went better than I expected.  And today someone noticed!

I took a picture of the hair instead of keeping it like I feel I was supposed to do.  But somehow I doubt that Isaac will care.  And I don't have a physical baby book for him, so I don't have a good place to put it.

Monday: OT

I am happy to announce that today I finished reading the Old Testament.

Phew.

I started about 4.5 years ago.  I was at a retreat and the speaker said that she reads through the Bible.  When she's done, she starts again.  Now, I know this isn't optimal for everyone, and even this weekend in church the pastor recommended against that (for most people.  There's a large context that I'm not going to explain.)  But I had been realizing that there were some parts of the Bible that I hadn't read.  But a "read the Bible in a year" wasn't really going to work for me either.  So I started at the beginning.  Sometimes I read quite a bit, sometimes I could barely make it through a chapter. (The minor prophets were hard.)  There were some periods were I didn't read at all.  But since my only goal was to keep going, I hit that goal.

Next...the New Testament!  Hopefully I'll report back before another 4.5 years have passed.

Friday: spoons

Isaac has been working on using a spoon.  First up was oatmeal.  It's nice because it doesn't fall off the spoon easily.  Then he did yogurt for the first time.  It is nice because it easily sticks to the spoon.  As you can see from the video, he's pretty good at getting the spoon in his mouth but hasn't mastered the scoop yet. The yogurt sticks to the bottom of the spoon.

 

And yes, he tends to put the spoon down between every bite.

Thursday: pictures continued

It turns out that while swiffering with a one year old is fun, he doesn't understand that we're trying to collect all the dirt in one place.  Isaac kept picking the swiffer up just enough to let the dirt escape.

We went outside again.  I needed to shovel the end of the driveway, but Isaac seems to enjoy going out too.

I was hoping that we'd also be able to make a snowman, but the snow wasn't sticky enough.  I made him some snowballs and we made a snow angel.

And...we had a lot of fun with Ben tonight.

Self-portrait

Wednesday: pictures

I realized that it's been a while since I added some pictures, so I tried to take some throughout the day.

It's been snowing!  We shoveled several inches again this morning and I expect we'll have to do it again tomorrow morning.

Lunch time...there are peas in the bowl which I had given Isaac while I finished making the rest of lunch.  It didn't help, he still didn't eat them.  He does like to squish them though.  Also on the menu: peanut butter on toast, peaches, and mozzarella cheese.

Isaac's upstairs play area

Another view of the play area...but here he's pointing at Flurry, who is always fun to chase.

He said Ooo a lot today.  Everything was so exciting.

Tuesday: racquetball

We all braved the cold and snow today to play racquetball.  It was open rball night and so we ended up playing with another person.  (We play 2v1 because I am not good enough to put up a fight in cutthroat.)  Anyway, we were pretty closely matched and it was fun.

Racquetball seems to have a lot of left handed players.  Of the last four people I've played with, three of them have been lefties.

I also shoveled the snow twice today, so I definitively got my exercise   It wasn't too deep either time though (average of maybe 2"), so it was still fast.

Monday: snow

We finally got some real snow.  Not a ton, but enough to cover everything.  We decided to do a quick shovel this morning and so dressed Isaac in his snowsuit to come out with us.  The thing is so bulky that he can't do much except sit, but that did make it easier to watch him.

And it's cold!

Sunday: alphaberry

Bee 1: R U A B?
Bee 2: I M A B.
Bee 1: I M KT, A B.
Bee 2: OK. EZ.
Bee 1: Y?
Bee 2: I C U R A B

How many conversations can you have by just saying letters of the alphabet?

Thursday: content

Isaac didn't nap well today (again).  It makes it hard for me to get a good nap when he does that, but oh well.  Even though he didn't have enough sleep he was really good at entertaining himself today...better than normal.  He went for over thirty minutes in the basement (without even going to the TV to push its buttons) and spent quite a bit of time upstairs playing by himself.

So I thought of a new creed...

"Don't interrupt a contently playing toddler."

I kind of wanted to because I was hungry for lunch, but decided it was more fun to quilt instead.

Wednesday: hmm

Hmm.  Nothing all that special happened today, although it was kind of busy.

I've decided to leave the toaster out on the counter instead of putting it away because I've been using it so much.  (I'll put it away when I want the kitchen to be extra clean, but will consider the kitchen clean even if it is out.)

I started to put a lamp together.

I felt smart and not smart during lab today.  (Sometimes that program is just crazy.)

I didn't take a nap but instead graded homework.  This was probably a smart move since Isaac didn't sleep very long anyway...that was a little annoying.

Tuesday: busy day

Tuesdays are our busy days.  We go to school first thing in the morning.  We go directly to Bible study.  Then in the evening we go to the gym.

After picking Isaac up from the assorted child care, especially from the babysitter at Hope, he is so happy to see me.  He gives the best hugs then.  It almost makes me want to leave him places just so that I can pick him up again.

Isaac fell asleep on my shoulder while I was walking to the car this evening.  I guess he played really hard today. :)

Monday: a quilt

I was taking pictures of a quilt and Isaac came over to get into the action.

The quilt was called "Adding Up Nicely" which is why there is a calculator.

I also went into the whirlpool at the gym today.  It was really nice.  I love hot water.

Interlude: 12 months

I finally got some 12 month pictures (although some of them are more like 12.5).  And they didn't all turn out great, but Isaac hasn't figured out how to sit still and smile yet.

While the large one is my favorite, the lower one with the hands is a close second.

Isaac has completely stopped doing the army crawl and only crawls on his hands and knees now.  He walks well if holding onto someone with both hands, and can walk while only holding on to one hand, but doesn't love to do that.  If we try to make him stand he will sometimes stand for a few second before sitting down.  Isaac also likes to dance.  It is often only with one hand, but it happens many times a day...in the store, to TV show theme songs, etc.

Isaac seems to understand more of what we say, but still hasn't spoken any words for sure.  He is a happy boy and likes to play with his toys.  He goes to other people easily, but is always very excited to see us when we come back to pick him up.  Eating is going a little better, although it might be because he has more food options and so I don't give him the things that he won't eat as often.

Friday: a disaster

Our house has been a disaster the last week.  I don't like it, but I'm also not willing to give up my "me" time in the evening to fix it.  It will have to at least be hidden this weekend as we have people coming over.  (But hopefully it will actually be cleaned up, not just hidden.)

Case in point...here are the boxes from the many packages we've received over the past week and a half.  We missed the last recycle day and it only comes every other week, so even the garage recycle was overflowing and didn't have room for more.  So they just got stacked up and made it harder to use the front door.

Thursday: elevator

Today I went in an elevator, turned 90 degrees (while going to the correct floor), and then got out. I don't think I've ever been in an elevator with doors like that.

Tuesday: teaching

Today was my first day of teaching!

It actually went a lot better than I was expecting.  My biggest problem was that there weren't enough computers (six of them were down).  I thought I was going to have just enough until two people showed up very late.  Bother.  I ended up putting them in a separate room...not ideal, but I figure it shows that I can be creative.  I would have had people work together but, like I said, they showed up very late.  I'm hoping more computers will be fixed by tomorrow.  Not everyone had the book either.  But enough people had it and were willing to share so that it worked.

I was able to answer all but one of the questions.  Keep in mind that I haven't really done much with any type of AutoCAD software before.  I've taken the class and fumbled my way around in it for a few things.  And I did the assignment ahead of time.  So I felt like I sounded as though I knew what I was doing. :)  And the one question I couldn't answer didn't impede the student's progress - it was just a random question.  And I have the answer now.

After Bible Study we came home and took a nap.  I finally got a picture of Isaac sleeping.  He usually sleeps with his butt in the air.  Often his legs are crossed, although not this time.

Monday: today

Nothing super special happened today.  I went into work for a little bit this morning and Isaac nicely let me get everything accomplished quite quickly.  We took a nap when we got home.  I've been working on taking fewer naps, but some days I just really want one.

Good night.

Sunday: random Isaac things

Isaac has started dancing.  It went from bouncing up when he heard music and down to doing a hand wave, gangster style.

Here's the slide!  He likes to sit on the top and look around.

He also played with magnets on the fridge for about 30 minutes while dinner was in the oven.  I was pretty impressed.

Interlude: more pictures

Here are various pictures that were emailed to me from vacation.

Doesn't this help visualize him eating the cupcake crumb by crumb?

Interlude: Isaac's birthday

About a week ago it was Isaac's birthday.  How time flies!  We did two small celebrations with him.

"It's time to get up!  It's my birthday!"  - at 6am.  He was sure he wanted to get up.

Birthday cupcakes and his alphaberry...it has lots of buttons to push.

 Eating the cupcake!

10 minutes later...half the cupcake is gone.

 20 minutes later...all of the cupcake is gone.  He ate it crumb by crumb.  Just to show off his pinching abilities.  Needless to say, everyone had left the table by the time he was done.

Another present!

This one makes fun noises too!

Saturday: not super exciting

Today was not really a super exciting day.  Isaac seemed extra tired (and/or a little sick).  Then we tried to go out for dinner.  The first restaurant had an hour wait.  The second had 25 minutes...that would have been on the edge, but since we were by ourselves we walked across the parking lot to Arbys.  I wasn't really excited about putting Isaac back in the car seat and trying another restaurant   He goes in the seat fine, but it is still a hassle.

Ben got my computer working after some weird issues.  I still need to download a few things, but it is also nice to start again with a clean slate.

Friday: this and that

Yay it's Friday!

I took some pictures of Isaac on his slide, but then Ben is building my new computer tonight and so I didn't get them off the camera. Things seem to be going mostly fine though, so that is exciting. I think he's done by now, but it was bed time for me.

Isaac had his one year well child visit. He's 18 lb 12 oz (12%) and 29" long (18%). So still small, but staying steady. Language skills are a little behind, but he still communicates with us and understands what we're saying (when it suits him) so the doctor wasn't worried. Actually, I haven't been worried either. Everything else looked good. Except that he got four shots.:(

The little snow that we had mostly melted today.

The Christmas decorations are almost all down. I get a little sad when taking down the lights. They're my favorite part.

Seriously, how go kitchens go from clean to complete disasters so quickly?!? It drives me nuts.

Interlude 2: the first year in pictures

So this video is far from perfect, but I don't really want to put any more time into it.  And it gets the point across...Isaac has grown!

The first half is taken from "far away" while the second half starts over with close ups.  Each picture is about 1.5 seconds long...when I was watching it on the blog it seemed to jump sometimes...it might be my internet connection. :(

Oh, and the pictures were taken once a week.

Tuesday: slide

Today Isaac enjoyed going down his slide.  I'd put him up there and catch him at the end (so he slid a short ways all by himself).  He'd give me a huge hug (i.e., thank goodness I survived) and point to the top again.

Interlude: Weeks 50-52

The last of the weekly pictures!  I'm going to try and do monthly ones from here on out (if I remember).  I'm also hoping to put a video together for the last year, but we'll see how that goes too...

Week 50

 Week 51

Week 52

Tuesday: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Ben and I were just relaxing at our computers and I noticed it was close to midnight.  Then it was 12:01.  We missed bringing in the new year.  Oh well.

Dad and Pat came over to celebrate Isaac's birthday and we went bowling.  It was a good day.