Saturday: alone - ish

Today I went to the big quilt show in Grand Rapids.  I went all by myself, which really ended up being quite wonderful.  There were a few times in the days leading up to it were I found myself thinking about logistics with Isaac in tow, and then happily remembered that he wasn't joining me on this occasion.

Most of the quilts were splendid.  A few were ugly.  I usually find myself most intrigued by the ones that I think that I could make, if I took enough time.  (Basically, this means pieced quilts and not applique or art quilts.)  But there were a few of the other kinds that I really liked too.  My favorite parts were probably the guild challenge section and the miniatures.  The guild challenge gave a theme that the members were supposed to design a quilt around, such as "under".  There were quilts with under bridges and under blankets and down under themes.  It was interesting to see how different people interpreted the challenge.  The miniature quilts were amazing because they had a gazillion pieces in about a 12" x 12" square.  A gazillion pieces in a bed quilt look amazing, but in a small square they were especially stunning.

I went through the vendor area in search of some good sky fabric...not too dark, not too white, not too patterned.  I found some perfect sky, along with a few other good pieces.

Thursday: looking up

Isaac and I laid with our heads on the bottom basement steps and looked at the ceiling this afternoon.  He looks at ceilings a lot more than I do.  They're kind of interesting, but I tend to ignore them.

Here was our view.

Wednesday: castle park

Today I finally managed to see the Castle that is in Holland.  (I find it a little weird that it doesn't have a name besides "the Castle".  But then, as far as I know, it's the only one in the area.  I just looked up castles in Michigan.  There were 19 on the list and this castle wasn't included.  The closest was Kalamazoo, which really isn't that far away, especially when you're talking about castle density.)

Situated in Castle Park, there are lots of "no tresspassing" and "members only" signs around the area.  In high school some friends and I had tried to go find it after seeing it on a post card, only to be intimidated by the signs.  It was a very disappointing day.

But a friend of mine was vacationing in the park, so today I had a valid reason to go see it.  Hurray!  Legend has it that the Wizard of Oz was written in the area and the Emerald City was inspired by this little castle and surrounding area.

We also took a short walk on the beach, but the small kids weren't really enjoying it.  Well, Isaac might have been since I put him on my shoulders and he was messing up my hair, but that wasn't really the point of the walk.

Tuesday: 10000 steps

I finally had a day were my pedometer was over 10000 steps.  Phew.  It turns out that walking around the house just doesn't really get you that far, so most days I get embarrassingly few steps.  I think I've had a few days since getting the pedometer that have also been over, but I don't wear it every day and sometimes it gets put on a little late.

To accomplish this amazing achievement, I walked around the lake (trying to get Isaac to take an early nap - it worked), played racquetball (although we didn't play as long as normal), and mowed the grass (I don't have anything interesting to say about the grass).

Monday: rain

It was a beautiful rainy day today.  Isaac and I went to Target, the Pet store, and Meijer.  Afterwards Isaac took a nap while I listened to the rain, too enlivened by it to sleep.  I don't feel as though I was incredibly productive during his nap, but it was still nice to get a few things taken care of.

Friday- Sunday: cottage

This weekend we went up to Dad and Pat's cottage.  Isaac experienced so many new things!  Sparklers, paddle boats, marshmallows, corn on the cob, bottle rockets, new toys, and a 360 swing.  It was a very nice weekend.

Thursday: one more

Isaac seems to have picked up "one more" from some where...probably from me.  He holds up one finger while doing it.  I take this to mean that he can count to one, but again, he's probably just copying me.

This morning he kept telling me a story, clapping, and saying one more.  He would proceed to tell the story, in very soft but audible tones, clap, and again say "one more".  I know it was a story because I clapped before it was finished once and he just looked at me with a confused look...we weren't at the end of the story, so why was I clapping?

Then we were at the park late this morning and he decided that he can go down the slides by himself if he goes on his stomach and feet first.  (I've been trying to get him to go down by himself for a while.  This was also the first time that I didn't actually have to physically slide down with him but could just hold his hands.)  He would get to the bottom and as he was climbing the stairs he would say "one more."

Wednesday: interacting

We had some friends over for dinner tonight.  It's always fun to see them.  Then we went on a walk to wear the boys out.  (Their son is about the same age as Isaac.)  It was really fun to watch them interact...they uh-oh-ed to each other and ran together.  The other boy tried tickling Isaac to no avail, but Isaac had earlier tried being the follower in follow-the-leader and that didn't really work out either.

Both boys walked most of the way around the lake, so it was probably just shy of a mile.  Or maybe a bit over a mile by the time you account for all of the zig-zagging that they did.

Tuesday: today

Early, early this morning Nathan and Liz left. :(  We had an excellent day with them yesterday too and it is always sad to separate.  But Christmas isn't really that far away.

The rest of the day Isaac and I hung out...we took a walk to Joann's to get a spool of thread.  It seemed like kind of a long walk for a tiny item, but Isaac likes strollering and I should walk more.  We cleaned up a little bit, took a nap, played, and just did the normal stuff.

We had dinner with Ben's family which was nice as always.  Sometimes I feel like Isaac is interacting with them more, and sometimes he's completely oblivious.  Like when his cousin gave him a good-bye hug...he just kept looking at something on the back of a car.

edit: Isaac also ate more pizza than his grandpa.  He was putting it away!

Sunday

Today was a very nice day with Nathan and Liz (and Dad and Pat).  In the afternoon we went for frozen yogurt and took a walk around Hope, marveling at how many things have changed.

Saturday

Dr. Nathan and Master Liz are here!  Woot-woot!

Friday: yesterday

I finished my puzzle two days ago.  I decided not to do the borders because 1) they were boring white and would have been difficult and 2) my table wasn't quite big enough.  Isaac helped me take it apart and he was really good at that part.  :)

Today kind of felt like it dragged a little bit.  One reason might be that Ben gave me my birthday present early and I was excited to use it tonight.  He got me a pair of cordless headphones.  I've had such trouble lately with my corded ones...they keep tangling in the chair as I go back and forth between the sewing machine and iron.  And so far they've been awesome!

Wednesday: 19 months

Isaac is 19 months today!

He also got a haircut.  It's a little sad, but he really needed one.

He's doing great with sleep and the average time he's waking up seems to be pushing a little bit later.  He also wakes up happy, so I have a little bit of time between when he wakes up and actually getting him out of the crib.

Isaac really enjoys his B words, including ball, blueberry, bubble, elBow, baby, and burp.  He will also say/sign thank you now when prompted, and we're not sure where he learned that because we didn't teach it to him.

I'm not sure what else is new this month...I think he might have some more teeth.  He sometimes asks where Dad is in the middle of the day.  He's gotten really good at puzzles and duplos.

Tuesday: racquetball

Good evening!  Today is Isaac's 19 month birthday and I took pictures "all" afternoon to have a post ready.  But I just don't feel like dealing with the pictures and I do feel like talking about racquetball, so maybe you'll get the pictures tomorrow.

I was really doing well during racquetball today.  My placement of the racquetball was awesome and I had Ben running all over the court during the first game.  I exhausted him so much that I won the next game!  (Although to be fair, it is handicapped in my favor.)  The third game went back to Ben, but I was still able to hold my own.  Something just worked for me today.

Monday: It's Monday

Nothing all that exciting happened today.  While I enjoyed VBS, it was also nice to have my morning back; I felt like I got quite a bit more accomplished today than I did last week.  It may have helped that Isaac played really well by himself today too.

I guess the "funny" thing of the day was when Isaac had a melt down over the fact that I wouldn't give him a third graham cracker for his snack.  He never gets three.  On top of that, it was only about 30 minutes until dinner was ready.  (I was a softie and let him have a snack anyway.)  But I guess that is a more advanced concept.  The boy does love his grahams.

Sunday: praying

Today was VBS Sunday, so we brought Isaac in with us to "big" church for the first part of the service.  Isaac was sitting on my lap, and one of the pastors did an opening prayer.  Isaac folded his hands, and surprisingly kept them folded.  It could have been that there were some giant mice on stage too.

Anyway, the point of this is that I also had my hands folded and they were right under Isaac's.  It was an awesome picture that I don't want to forget.

Saturday: employee picnic

We went to Ben's employee appreciation picnic this evening.  They put on a wonderful festival, with some carnival games, a few rides, normal games, food, and prizes.

Here's Isaac with the animals that Ben and I won (although he immediately claimed them) and his balloon dog.  It did get rather cool...it was in the low 60s when we left.  A very surprising temperature for late July, but much nicer than the super hot temperature at last year's picnic.

Isaac enjoyed looking for rocks in the way way outfield of the baseball field.  Can you see the rock in my hand that he found?

Friday: 13.8

Today was the last day of VBS.  I'll admit, by the end of the week I decided that 5th graders weren't so scary.  They are mostly just excited.  Excited to do everything.  Sing, play duck-duck-goose, pass out the pencils, make the craft, have a snack, and run around the sanctuary.

One thing they were excited about was trying to break the speed record for the memory verse.  We went around in a circle and every person said one word.  For the record, the Bible verse is "For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgement." 2 Timothy 1:7.  Two days ago we did it in 19.2 seconds.  Yesterday we got to 19.1 seconds.  Today we beat that twice, ending with 13.8 seconds.  If I'm saying it by myself I say it at a normal speed in 8.2 seconds...but it's harder with more people.  The last time we went around was really pretty smooth.  I stopped it there, because I really didn't think we'd get much faster and I wanted to end on a win.

Wednesday: running

Pretend you're in the beginning part of VBS this morning; the part were the whole auditorium is filled with kids singing to God while standing on their chairs.

Leader/Pastor/Barker Frank: "Ok, I need the teacher of a fifth grade group to volunteer your group to run around."
All the kids: "Oh!  Oh!! Us! US!"  (Yeah, probably all kids from third grade on up, really.)
Barker Frank, looking around: "Where's your teacher?"
Kids: "Here!  Here!"

So, pretending that I'm a teenager and not an adult I stand on the chairs too and wave my hands for his attention.  We're picked!

Kids: "We got picked! We got picked!"
Barker Frank: "Ok, run around the front here and pretend you're a roller coaster while we sing this next song."

Off we go.  Except that we don't just go around the front.  No, we go all over the sanctuary, running full tilt through the aisles, slapping hands, cheering.  It was tons of fun for the first three minutes.  Then I was tired.  I don't run that much.  I took a break and one of the kids told me that this was nothing.  I told her to start running again.  :P  I started again a minute later and made it almost to the end of the song.

I like to pretend I'm younger than I actually am.  I see myself as only a few years older than the kids...just old enough to give instructions and command respect, not old enough to almost be their mother.  They probably don't see it that way, but they're nice enough not to let on.

Tuesday: today

Today pretty much flew by, but nothing really stood out.  VBS in the morning, nap time, and lunch time brought us to about 3pm.  I filled out some paperwork, watched some George with Isaac, made some rice and got the racquetball stuff together and it was 4:20 and time to head out.  I stopped by the day care that Isaac will be joining and then went to the gym.  After racquetball there was dinner, a short bath for Isaac, and getting ready for tomorrow.  Then I worked on the puzzle and sewed and now it's almost time for bed.

Monday: VBS

Today was the first day of VBS.  I'm a teacher for the fifth grade orange group.

The morning went quite a bit better than I expected, actually.  The biggest problem was that the craft took two minutes of the allotted twenty minutes.  We ended up playing duck-duck-goose.  All the groups ended up playing it and it looked a little funny, with seven small circles duck-duck-goosing.  The Bible study time was probably what I was most nervous about.  But the kids interacted with the lesson very well...and they all spoke up and answered questions.  Phew.  I'm always worried that I'll end up with extra time because the lesson flopped.

I was caught in one of the pictures.  I knew the guy had the camera, but someone did something funny at the same time.  So it wasn't completely a fake smile.

Minnesota pictures

We got all of the pictures that everyone took from our Minnesota trip a few days ago.  Here are (many) of my favorites.  There were lots of cute ones of the other children too, but if I included those I would have too many pictures.  So these are the highlights that mostly include Isaac.

Day 1:

Day 2:

 

Ladderball was a hit with the boys

Isaac liked playing with the girls though too.

Day 3:

Smoothies are delicious!

Isaac loved dumping rocks in the water.

Day 4:

Tired out after the zoo.

Day 5:

Can't forget a foot and arm photo!

She smiled every time I showed her my frozen yogurt.  Until it was gone.  Then she got grumpy, but who can blame her?

Day 6:

The boys in red, all looking disinterested in the camera

Day 7:

Time to try and get all the kids in a picture!  But Isaac stood up too soon.

Then the other boy got up too.

The girl gave the boys a stern talking to.

We got one!

Time to go!

Day 8:

The boys were all tired out.  

Our group!