Tuesday: 3 years old

Today was Isaac's 3rd birthday.  How time flies.  He quickly picked up on the fact that he could now tell people that he was three years old.

The "terrible twos" really weren't that terrible.  However, the first day of being three was rather rough.

Here's the normal setup on picture day lately.  I put Joshua out and Isaac runs to get his blanket.

Talking - Isaac is now much easier to understand and has a wide vocabulary, although some of the sounds are still wrong when he speaks.  The odd thing thing is that my name has become "mommy" instead of "mom".  And we even get a few "daddy"s once in a while.  I'm surprised that it went that way, but maybe mommy is easier to yell. :p

Eating - Isaac loves "peanut butter jelly".  It is what he wants every day for breakfast, and every day I tell him it is a lunch food.  For dinner his favorite is chicken nuggets and tater tots, with an emphasis on the tater tots.  He is still a pretty good eater, but is still picky sometimes.  

Photos - He still loves taking pictures of all of us and hasn't quite mastered how to smile and have it look nice.

Below is a set of three that were taken in sequence.  Isaac tooted right before the first one, which always causes laughter.

Comfort objects - Isaac still asks for "wipes" (or burp clothes) when crying and they often settle him down.  He often sleeps with one too.  He also needs EE.  I sometimes forget that EE is so important, but if he isn't in bed with Isaac we will hear about it before too long.

Questions - Isaac has been asking tons of questions lately.  Some why questions, but more how/what/who questions.  "Who made this?"  "How did you make peanut butter jelly?" "What is in carrots?"  (By the way, workers make a lot of things. It satisfies him.)

Lawyering - Isaac is still good at taking me very literally.   The other day I asked him to plug something into a wall.  (It was the first time for him to do it.)  I come in the room a moment later and he tells me that it isn't working...as he tries to put the plug in some random place on the wall.  He also has a new alarm clock that has a green cover and lights up green when he can get up.  So when I asked him today if his clock was green he happily said that it was!  I'll have to watch my wording next time.

Toilet training - we're still getting closer, although we're having a few more accidents than I expected we would be having a month ago.  The good news is that he goes to the bathroom by himself more often than not.  He also probably has four out of seven days a week accident free...I don't think that the holidays helped with all of that.  Today he had an accident and completely took care of it by himself.  I noticed about two hours later that he had different pants on, so while I wish he didn't have an accident I was glad that he just dealt with it.

Joshua - Isaac is still protective of or ignores Joshua.  He calls him "Josh-E-a".  If Joshua is crying Isaac will turn on a song for him.

Monday: 5 months

Joshua turned 5 months yesterday!

He is still a happy baby, although it is hard to capture smiles on camera.  The last few days he's been more upset than normal, but it is probably due to a cold or teething.

The best way to calm him is to rub his head...kind of like you're itching it but with the finger pads.  I'm always surprised at how effective it is.

He's still on the same sleeping schedule as last month: sleeping pretty well at night, a longer nap early afternoon, and some very short naps as needed.

He can roll over from stomach to back, but only when he feels like it.  Joshua is starting to get more easily distracted when eating, but luckily he's still pretty fast so we just go with it.

Sunday: today

Well, we were going to go to church today, but then I slept through it.  I went down for a nap at about the same time Ben was getting up (almost) because I was again so tired.  I'll be calling the doctor tomorrow as this is just not working.  It didn't help that Joshua was up a ton last night again.  I'm not sure if it was a stuffy nose or if he's teething already or what.

I'm trying to figure out how I can legitimately keep Christmas lights up until about April...around the time it doesn't get dark until 8pm.  I suppose I could just leave them there and my excuse could be that I'm "too busy," but it wouldn't be true.

Saturday: drowsy

Joshua has a runny nose and was up more than normal last night and I increased the dosage on my medicine, which has a drowsy side-effect.  So this morning Isaac got up.  Joshua went down for his first nap of the day and Isaac wanted to play trains.  I did for a bit.  Then I went to the couch and said he could bring me books if he wanted to.  I made it through the first one, but I think I fell asleep while he was getting the second one.  That's ok...the second one is simple and I thought I could read it in my sleep.  (Turns out, I can't.)  I'm pretty sure I fell asleep between pages.  Isaac got another one and I was determined to keep my eyes open for the book.  They shut on every page and I think I started talking about what was going on in my dreams.

I finally gave up and let Isaac watch TV so I could sleep.  If it doesn't get better by Monday I'll probably call the doctor and get the dosage lowered.

Last weekend: my family

Last weekend Nathan, Liz, and Evelyn came up to visit!

Saturday morning we made cookies.  It was serious business.

 

Evelyn was wide awake and happy to be here.  Her parents, while happy, were more tired after the long drive.

Dad and Pat came over in the afternoon for dinner.

On Sunday Isaac and Evelyn matched for breakfast.  They had the same bib and both ate oatmeal.

Nathan and Isaac made some chex mix...

...while Evelyn played with magnets...

...and Joshua watched.

Then we decorated the cookies!

Isaac chose the largest one to eat, but only ate about half of it.

The next day we opened presents!

Getting ready.

Delivering a present.

Playing with other peoples' presents.

Playing with a present for Joshua.

Isaac and Nathan rocked out on guitars in the evening.

Friday: Merry Christmas 2x

I have a few more pictures...some from yesterday, some from us playing with more toys today.

Joshua's new hangout.

Playing baby marbles.  (Ben got something with marbles in it, so Isaac remembered that he loves to play baby marbles.  It's been a few weeks since they'be been out.)

Isaac loves the crawl space at his grandparents' house.  It's nice that he's big enough that I don't really worry about what he's doing anymore.  Really nice.

While Joshua and I napped this morning, Ben and Isaac set up a train track.

Later Joshua tried out a rocking horse.  Really though, he just wanted to eat the steering wheel.

After rest time Isaac and I played with the train track.  The train would put food and animals on it and deliver them to the zoo.  The animals would eat the food and put the yucky parts back on the train.  Baby Bear likes to eat ketchup.

If we're missing something I'll often tell Isaac that "we'll keep our eyes out for it" because I deem it not too important to take the house apart for it.  The boys were maybe missing a piece this evening so Isaac told Ben, "We'll have to take out all our eyes and look for it."  So close and yet so far.

Thursday: Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  We discovered last night that there was extra Christmas magic and all the barnyard animals in the house came to worship Baby Jesus.

In the morning we opened a few presents with just our family.

Isaac got percussion instruments.  I might regret that choice later, but he really liked them.

We celebrated with Ben's family later in the afternoon.  Isaac loved helping us unwrap presents.

Joshua was super excited about his blender, but rather scared about his tiger humidifier.  (I think I ripped the paper too close to him.)

Isaac played with his new clock a lot while waiting.

The gears were a big hit for Isaac...so much so that he declined going to open his stocking in order to play with them.

Joshua played with a lot of decorations.

Monday: 21 weeks

Joshua turned 21 weeks today!  How time flies.

Isaac, not wanting to be left out of the picture taking, also turned a week older.  But since he isn't changing as much each week, I decided not to tell you how many weeks old he is.  (Nor did I really want to do the math, although it is probably super easy right now.  Ok, ok.  52*3-1=155 weeks.  There, are you happy now?)

Wednesday: sitting

Joshua has gotten pretty good at sitting!

I kind of feel with Isaac I noticed little parts of milestones (like when he could sit for 2 seconds and for 10 seconds and for 30 seconds).  With Joshua the little milestones might get noticed, but then when he hits a big one, like sitting for 30 seconds today, I'm so surprised.

But...we'll try to get more sitting practice in the rotation now too. :)  (And he isn't wearing shorts.  They're just overalls that ride up when he sits.)

Tuesday: grumpy

I was grumpy today.  About many unrelated things.  I just couldn't completely snap out of it, although the short afternoon nap did help a bit.

Tomorrow's a new day.  Hooray.  I also plan on posting about the weekend as my brother and his family was here and we did many fun things, but dealing with the pictures is just too much for tonight.

Friday: cleaning, rolling, smiles

Today was the cleaning day.  It went about like I expected...rather annoying.  But I'm done now, so that's wonderful.  The house isn't in excellent order, but it is sufficient.  The toilets are cleaned, it is mostly picked up, all the presents are wrapped and I pretended to work on the floors.  Also, I got a delivery while I was going outside to bring in the trash can.  The guy said that he was with FedEx and I said ok.  It made sense.  But then as he was coming up to give me the package I realized he was in a Budget rental truck.  "Oh boy," I thought.  But it was too late to hide behind the door.  Luckily, it was a FedEx delivery.  I was surprised that they were so behind on deliveries that they needed to rent trucks, but I guess whatever works!

Joshua started doing a wonderful job rolling over yesterday; a real roll from starting with his hands by his sides.  So I thought that I'd get a video of him doing it.  The first video starts with him halfway rolled over.  The second one goes for a minute without him rolling over.  So...no video today.  Also, after his evening nap he woke up and gave the longest smiles that I've seen.  They just stayed on his face.  It was wonderful.

Thursday: cooking day

Today was our cooking day.  We made banana bread, pretzel/kiss sandwiches, apple puree, and chicken taco.  For doing that and watching two children, I feel rather accomplished today.  Although it is nice that Isaac likes to help.  He did get a very little burn when he accidentally touched a hot pan though.  I warned him it was hot, but didn't move it back far enough (because there wasn't enough room).  We put his hand in water and put neosporin and a band-aid on it...it was the perfect way to learn about hot items.  A small hurt, but now he knows why we always warn him about hot things.

We also went to the store so we could make the above items.  On the way there we had the following conversation.

Amanda: "What do you think we'll get at Meijer?"

Isaac: "Um...Hmm...new knife-es?"

A: "What?  No.  Try again."

I: "Cheese?"

A: "Yes, we're getting some cheese."

It should be noted that I thought he was going to say donuts or chocolate milk.  I've never talked about getting new knives.

Tomorrow is cleaning day.  And, if needed, bran muffin day.  Isaac likes to bake more than clean. :)

Wednesday: Isaac

We learned that Isaac can now open the refridgerator door!  We learned this when he couldn't wait to eat lunch yesterday and I was feeding Joshua.  So I told him to make it himself.  He still isn't great at spreading the peanut butter or jelly, but he got everything out.

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Every once in a while Isaac will give you a big hug and say "I love you so much."  It melts my heart.

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Isaac happily shared his ice cream with me today.  I had only asked for one bite; it was his idea to share the rest.  I wasn't about to say no. :D

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Isaac's been rather bad at being quiet during rest time, so I've decided that if Isaac is awake I really should be awake too...there's no point in trying to take a nap.  But wow, was I dragging around 5pm today.  The goal is to spend the hour doing things I would otherwise do at night (so not necessarily to work) and go to bed earlier.  I'm not really sure how well it's going to work out, but I need to try.

Tuesday: 20 weeks

I took Joshua's 20 week pictures yesterday.

Even though it is winter he goes barefoot in the house a lot.  They just don't stay on!

His hair is just starting to grow back.  And I finally caught a partial smile.

Today we got the rest of his vaccines.  He was extra tired and really cranky around 5:45 (just as Ben walked in the door, of course.)  I decided to give him some Tylenol and I think it helped.  He was smiling again a half hour later.

Monday: candy canes

I now understand why my dad hated candy canes when we were growing up.  Children just get sticky.  And kids crunch instead of savor.  And the cheap ones really don't taste very good.  And they get sharp.

Isaac managed to get a little one and I gave him a little piece of it.  I took a little bit too.  His piece hurt him.  The rest of the candy cane is hiding, even though he wants more.

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.