Sunday: dragon hunting

Isaac went giant dragon hunting this evening.

In order to dragon hunt, you put your "gobbles" (i.e., goggles) in front of your eyes and go around looking for giant dragons.  When you find them, you step on them.  (Yes...you step on them.  It doesn't seem like they're all that giant if you can just step on them, but I guess it's a matter of scale.)

The biggest problem with his gobbles was that he couldn't see anything with them on, so he kept running into stuff.  Ben had a pair of goggles too, but instead of dragon hunting the two of us just laughed a lot.

Saturday: presents

We started wrapping presents.  Isaac happily loved to help and ripped the tape.

He later told Ben that it was Ben's birthday but that it was a surprise.  But then, it's still currently a surprise to Isaac so he wouldn't have been able to tell Ben even if he wanted to.

Friday: more photo shoot

I tried once more it get a good picture of Joshua before I had to return the boxes.  He wouldn't smile for me, but this one isn't too bad.

Isaac wanted in on the action too, so we took just a few pictures with him.  He's in his black shirt.  Black is his favorite color, no question.  Conversations usually go like this.  "[That thing] is black!"  "It sure is." "I like it."  By default, since his favorite color is black mine is white.  Even though I've told him it is blue.  I've kind of given up at this point and just accept that my favorite color is white.

Thursday: a photo shoot

Here's how today's photo shoot went...

Isaac had to be convinced to stand in a box. (Which I proceeded to cut out of most of the pictures, but it kept him in one spot.)

Both boys look at me!  But I cut off Isaac's arm.

Joshua looks at me, Isaac looks at something in the distance.

Joshua decides the wrapping paper is more interesting and ignores me for several pictures.

Isaac is cute; Joshua is still ignoring me.

Isaac decides he's done with this pose.

They switch boxes.  It doesn't work.

Joshua still likes the wrapping paper; Isaac has disappeared.

Joshua looks at me!  Too bad only Isaac's foot is in the picture.

Isaac plays the "don't look at Mom" game while his feet are in the box.  This set up didn't really work.

OH NO!  I realize that Isaac was supposed to have taken off his zip.  All the good ones that we might have had are not going to work.

Back to standing in boxes.  And everyone is looking at me.  This might be the one that gets used.

Isaac got bored of that pose quickly again...back to sitting on the stool.

Joshua decides to put his feet up.

Joshua slips down a bit too much.  Time to move everyone around again.

Joshua has had enough.  Let's try for just Isaac.  He's been making some weird faces.

I think he looks so grown up in this picture.  I wouldn't be surprised if this is the picture where, when looking back at pictures ten years from now, you start to recognize that it is Isaac because it looks like him as an adult too.  Hmm.  That's hard to put in words, but hopefully you know what I mean.  He stops looking like a small person and starts looking like Isaac.

Wednesday: 19 weeks

Oops...I forgot to get Joshua's 19 week pictures.  So I did it this morning and forgot to take his bib off.  Oh well.

Joshua had his four month checkup this week and didn't grow quite as much as expected.  He weighs 13.3 pounds (dropping from 18% to 9%) and is 25 inches tall (50% to 25%).  However, his weight to height ratio was on a good curve, so the doctor wasn't too worried.

He also started talking a ton this week!  Wow, it is like a switch turned on.

Isaac got his blanket out too.

I tried getting some pictures by the Christmas tree in our first round of pictures.  Trying to get both boys looking at the camera with their eyes open and Isaac having a good smile and having it not be blurry is impossible.  Impossible!

And the "all of us" picture of the day.

Tuesday: conversations with Isaac

Isaac: Do you want to go this way [left, toward nothing in particular] or this way [right, toward the Christmas tree]?
Ben: left
Isaac: Which way do I want to go?
Amanda: right
Isaac: What way do you want to go?
Amanda: right, like you
Isaac: No, you want to go with Dad.

Isaac, this time with his hands pointing up and down: Which way do you want to go?
Amanda: Up (as I think, finally, an easy question.  I know I want to go up.)
Isaac: No, you don't have wings.  You can go down.

*************************************
Isaac, coming to find us around 9pm: It's wake up time!  There's no one.
Amanda: no one?  What do you mean?
Isaac: no one.  Time to wake up.
Ben: What are you talking about?
Isaac: There's no one.
Isaac finally pointed at a clock.
Amanda: oh!  No, that's only for nap time.  This is big sleep time.  You need to go back to bed.

It took Isaac about five more minutes to go back to bed as he got stuck several times.  Lately his rest time has started around 1pm or a bit earlier, so I've told him he can get out of bed when there's no 1 on the clock.  He picked it up very quickly.  Very quickly.

Monday: snowmen and holes

Isaac colored this snowman at the library.  It's probably his best drawing yet.  The snowman has two eyes (although they're hard to see) that are circles and in the right spot, a mouth in the right spot, and he mostly colored in the lines.  And he did the I all by himself.

After the library, we went to the doctor's office and, as Isaac says, "Joshua got a little hole."  As normal people would say, Joshua got a shot.  I'm a little annoyed because the records got all messed up and so instead of getting two shots he was only able to get one and we'll have to go back.  Joshua did pretty well for the rest of the day, but once early evening came around he was done.

Sunday: this and that

Here is Isaac making one of his many phone calls.  He often will also talk about his location, but forgot to do so this time.


Amanda: Who's on the phone?
Isaac: Other CC
A: Ok.
I: This one is loud, k?
A: Ok, we'll be quiet.
I: Hello! Whose [there]?  Oh other CC.  How are you [to]day CC?  Uh, pretty good CC.  Bye-bye.  [Hang] up.

I tried to get Joshua talking too, but he was rather silent when the video was on.

We're borrowing some boxes for pictures...Flurry likes them too.

I gave Joshua a bath tonight and Isaac "helped".  Usually he stays by the bathtub and just plays with the toys, but this time he kept bringing more and more toys into the kitchen and now it is a disaster area.  Joshua also splashed a ton more than usual; I bet about a quarter of the water ended up outside the bathtub.  However, both boys were happy for the time, so I went with it.

Saturday: P

Amanda: we're going to your cousins' house for pizza tonight.
Isaac has a look of great delight!
Issac: I love pretzels!

Friday: Leah and Ethan

We visited our friends again today!  It's so fun to have two boys that can somewhat play by themselves.

Today they played outside with their lawnmowers.

Leah and Joshua spent all of lunch time looking at each other.  Leah left for a few moments and Joshua was so sad.  He was also in a bouncy seat and had things to kick with his feet which he seemed to love.

Thursday: noggin bops

Noggin bops (wind-up toys) have been a big hit in the house...for both boys.  Although Isaac calls them robots.  I suppose they do sort of look like robots.

Joshua tried really hard to grab them.  He succeeded once.  (This was also the time I realized that someone had changed the exposure settings on my camera, which could contribute to why I've been having a hard time getting good pictures without the flash.)

Isaac's two pictures of the day were "of all of us and the robots."

Also, the exersaucer has been great for having the boys play "together" a bit more.  Isaac likes to run around it and play with the toys, and Joshua watches.

Tuesday: 35 months

Isaac is 35 months old.  I know, it's a weird milestone.  I feel weird every time I write it.  But he's still changing so much that it's nice to have a quick update.

Sleeping - he is still nicely sleeping until at least 7:15 most mornings.  We're working on getting him to get out of bed and go to the bathroom without me telling him to do so.  The number of naps is quickly declining though.  At the beginning of the month is was about two days out of three.  Now it's one day out of three.  We still have rest time though!!  And there are a few advantages to him not needing a nap...life is easier to schedule, especially with all the holiday things happening.

Pretend - Little Monster still shows up sometimes and he still does a lot with traps.  I think the biggest thing this month is getting "stuck".  As in, his feet are stuck to the floor when he doesn't want to do something.  He's been doing this for a while, but this month seemed especially bad.  Jumping and hopping tend to get him unstuck.  He also really likes to celebrate birthdays.

Eating - I've noticed that if I change how something is delivered, he'll start to eat things that he wasn't.  Spinach?  Puree it.  Yogurt?  Back in the bowl this month.

Praying - Isaac still thanks God for Jesus and thunder and lightning every time, but sometimes he includes "nothing" too.  "Thank you for nothing."  We're not really sure what to do about it, so we usually laugh behind our hands.

Potty training - not great, but not too bad.  I feel like we're getting close.  He's usually accident free during the day, but the last hour or so is when there is a problem.  But I usually forget to help remind him in that last hour too.

Singing - Isaac has started singing more this month, and often things I didn't realize he was actually paying attention to quite a while ago, including "Pop goes the weasel" and some songs from story time at the library.  His "Happy Birthday" song melts my heart too.

Lawyering - I get lawyered so often.  He was eating the cookie part of his snack and I asked him to go to the bathroom when his cookie was done, so he put down his cookie and ate the rest of his snack first.  Or when most of his body was on the bed and I needed to put his socks on, so I asked him to put his feet on the bed.  He got off the bed and put just his feet on, which really didn't make it any easier to get his socks on.

Monday: 4 months/18 weeks

Joshua is 4 months old!

Sleep: we've gotten into a nice routine - Joshua wakes up around 5am and will usually go back down with a pacifier.  He'll wake up again at 6am to eat, but goes back to sleep in the swing until about 8:30.  He'll take a short (20-30 min) nap around 10/10:30.  Then everyone is supposed to take a nap from about 12:30-2:30.  It sort of works.  Joshua takes two more short naps at 4:30 and 6:30, and then goes to sleep at 8:30.  I'll feed him at 11pm, but he's usually good at sleeping from 8:30-5am.

Eating - he's super fast.  It's rather nice since there are two kids.  When he's done he's done.

Alertness - he's quite alert, grabbing toys and giving smiles.  We've started using the exersaucer so it's nice to have another place to put him.  He watches Isaac a ton.

Rolling - he's started rolling onto his side, which means he spins around his head.  I'll often find him in a completely different orientation than I left him.

Crying - for the most part he is a rather happy child.  But the 5-5:30pm time he's usually rather grumpy.  And if he gets woken up from a nap too early.  He sleeps in his room with the door closed, but that doesn't mean that it is quiet.

(Sorry for the blurriness of some of the pictures - pictures turn out better with the flash but it is so hard to get the right look.  So I put it on burst mode but then the picture quality isn't as good.)