Monday: a year in review

I know I still need to do a post on Isaac's birthday, but it's the end of the year.  So here's a quick look at the year in review with a randomly chosen picture from each month.

January...Isaac and Mom hang out.

February...Isaac becomes a sock model

March...Isaac turns two months!  He looks a little scared about it.

April...Isaac eats a duck's face.

May...Tulip Time!

June...Isaac turns five months

July...Isaac really wants some mountain dew.

August...whoa, I managed to not get a picture with Isaac in it!  This is the tetris quilt that I made.

September...Isaac helped model the tetris quilt

October...sitting for one of the weekly pictures

November...having fun with Ben

December...opening a present

Well, it turns out that I took a lot of pictures of Isaac.  But, it's been a fun year!  Hopefully 2013 is as good as this past one.

Saturday: snowmobiles

We played with some snowmobiles today.




Isaac went on his first ride too!

Thursday: watermark

Today we went to an indoor water park. There weren't any slides gentle enough for Isaac to go down, but we went under a waterfall and on the lazy river a lot. Ben and I went on the big slides. :)



It tired Isaac out. I thought he was going to fall asleep, but then he saw one of the toys I had brought and perked up.

I also feel like we had a good time of communication at dinner. He ate the food I prepared for him (yay) and then I got out some left over fruit. He would eat some fruit and then would point at the fruit for more. After a while he stopped didn't point at the fruit and I knew he was done!

Wednesday: driving

Today we did quite a bit of driving. It was a little weird because I felt like I was in the middle range of speeds...usually i'm either faster or slower than most cars, but this time I was both passing and being passed a lot.

We also decided to take a slightly longer route and went through two exits
Looking for food. But the food ended up being too far away so we stopped for the cross traffic and immediately hopped back on the road.

Isaac slept for most of the drive, except for a half hour when he read his books.

Tuesday: Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  Today after church we got together with Ben's family for presents.

Waiting

Opening his first present

Isaac was really not all that interested in opening presents.  He kept crawling away towards the kitchen.  Unlike Scarlet, who was super excited about every present.  (I'll admit, that was much more fun to watch.)

Putting gifts together takes a while. : (

While a lot of the gifts were enjoyed (or will be enjoyed), Isaac really seemed to like his ballapalloza.  He wanted to be part of the action even while we were putting it together.

As a side note, Isaac only took a five minute nap between waking up and 3pm.  But he was doing rather well...as always I think the hustle and bustle energized him.  But I was ready for a nap by that point, so we took one together.

Monday: I scream

...you scream, we all scream for Ice Cream!!

A long time ago we promised Dad that he could be the first one to give Isaac ice cream.  Since we won't see Dad and Pat on Isaac's birthday, today was ice cream day.

The first bite was surprising, but after he got over the cold he was excited for more!

Sunday: horse

Today was a pretty relaxing day.  We took some naps, talked, ate...good times.

We braved the crowds to go get some groceries at Meijer.  It was busy, but not quite as insane as I was afraid of.  We let Isaac ride Sandy, the penny horse, for the first time.

Image from Liz - there's a movie there too if you're really interested

Saturday: Christmases!!

Merry Christmas!

The day started out with a lot of attention for Isaac from Nathan and Liz.  Liz even put a little mohawk in Isaac's hair, although it is hard to see in the pictures.

After a delicious breakfast, it was time to open presents.  Here is Isaac opening his first Christmas present.  He's very happy with the book and showing it by saying "Ooo"

Then an extended family was over tonight.

Isaac was entertained through most of the party by playing with his new pig that he had received in the morning.

Friday: they made it

Nathan and Liz made it! We had a lovely dinner with them, Dad, and Aunt C. And we stayed up late(ish) talking. Three cheers for family!

Thursday: food and sewing machine

Isaac has suddenly become an incredibly picky eater.  His love of peas is gone.  He won't touch cubed cheese.  Carrots and eggs are pushed to the side immediately.  Pasta is a no-go.  Basically, about half his food options are suddenly not options anymore.

I've decided that Isaac should eat his food out of respect for his parents.  If there were only a few things that he didn't like that would be ok.  But to make Ben work for money, have me think about what to buy, go to the store, prep the food, think about what to feed him for a specific meal, and get it ready for him just so that he doesn't eat most of what I give him is unacceptable.

Also, my sewing machine just stopped working.  So much for the last minute finishing of my Christmas potholders.  I'm about to start taking it apart.  Hopefully I won't stay up too late if I can't easily find the cause. :p

edit: it's fixed.  phew.  It needed a good cleaning, but I'm not sure if that was the problem.  What I did discover is that there are a lot of screws attaching the plastic outer covering to the machine, but that the covering still wouldn't come off.  It seemed kind of mean to make me take out all those screws and not have it be worth my while.

Wednesday: oops

Ben and I were going to play racquetball tonight.  I got everything ready and got to the gym only to realize I had forgotten Ben's clothes.  Bother.  I was more mad at myself than I should have been.  And I knew that I was being a little crazy but couldn't help it.

The only good news is that we had to go near the gym anyway to drop off the car for some new tires.

Tuesday goals

Today's official goal was to go to Bible study.  Which I did.  (Although this week I didn't find it very interesting.  Usually we have a lot of interesting discussion, but it felt rather flat this week.)

The unofficial goals were water the plant, order tires, fold the laundry, clean the table, wrap a present, go to the store, send some emails, deal with some food, and make a phone call.  It felt like they were all top priority.  I got about half of them done.  (The easy half.)

I also went to the gym.  That's important, right?

And I helped Isaac put some of the Tupperware away.  He loves taking it out of the drawer so we're trying to  have him put it back in the drawer too.  But he had gotten more out than normal and it was taking so long to put away...so there is still some left.  Sometimes it seems like he understands that he is supposed to put it back in the drawer, and sometimes I think we're just lucky (or unlucky if he tries to play with it again.)

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.