A Hope and a Future

Isaac's two year old stats

Isaac had his two year checkup today and since this is his "baby book" I'm recording his current stats here:

Weight: 27 lbs (25th percentile)

Height: 33 inches (50th percentile)

My baby is TWO!

Today is my precious blue-eyed boy's second birthday! Hard to believe but true! We enjoyed celebrating him today; I'm not sure he ever "got" that it was his birthday. I think he was confused since my dad's birthday was yesterday....every time I said "happy birthday" to him he said "dadddaddy's bitay" (granddaddy's birthday).....so cute!

 
 
I love that at two a simple gift of a few balls from the dollar store completely made his day; oh if it would always be this simple:)

We made cupcakes for his birthday and Mom made him his own little separate cake in a bunny rabbit pan she has; he ate almost all of it by himself:)

Here's a few tidbits about my little man at two:

• He LOVES balls. He is attached to a few little balls from a ball popper thing we have and wants to take them EVERYwhere. And heaven forbid one of his siblings takes one of them.....he goes into full-out FIT mode! I'm sure he will end up being attached to the new balls as well.
• He loves books and to be read to. He drives us batty sometimes wanting us to read the same books over and over; he says "weed it" in such a sweet voice it's hard to turn him down! The coolest thing to me is to see how he is starting to memorize some of the ones we have read over and over; he will sit and "read" them to himself and it is ADORABLE.
• He loves puzzles which reminds me of Becca at that age; he's pretty good at them too! Sometime he actually wants to do them and other times just hold the pieces.
• Which reminds me: he has a habit of wanting to hold multiple things at one time: several crackers, several balls or puzzle pieces, don't know what that's all about but there you go.
• Here's an interesting "nature vs nurture" thing: he loves to sing. He sings along in the car and will sometimes walk around just singing random things. Rebecca sings some as well and that is something that Hannah and Samuel very rarely try to do. Genetics at work?
• He is "all boy" in the sense that he is ROUGH! If we are sitting on the floor and he wants to come and get in our laps or hug us, we have to remember to brace ourselves b/c he will come FULL force and throw himself at us:) I also have to remind him often to be "easy" because he just naturally wants to pull hair and pinch not in a malicious way he is just rough!
• He LOVES his Bama and can be found in her lap anytime he can be:) And she is happy to oblige that sweet little voice saying "Bama hold ju". She has been working with him on counting so he can count to 10 and also sort of sing his ABC's.
• He is a pretty good eater.....he loves "noodles" of any kind and fruit. Not a big fan of meat; he is very predictable with a meat/pasta mix b/c the pasta will all be gone and the meat still on the plate! And of course he's always up for something sweet!
• He sleeps a good 12 hours at night and still takes a nap in the afternoons although it is getting shorter (boo!) Usually he naps for 1-1.5 hours.
• He is generally a very agreeable child unless someone messes with whatever he is playing with or holding at that moment; then watch out b/c he will pitch a huge fit! Oh, also if he's told "no" about something he wants. Pretty typical though.
• His vocabulary amazes me: he can communicate his needs very well. I'm not going to attempt a list here but he says A LOT and will at least attempt to repeat anything we ask him to say. Two and three word phrases are often present.
• I have started leading him to pray at bedtime and it is PRECIOUS. I say "thank you for....(all the family members by name) and he repeats after me "tant tu.....(everyone's name)". I do this with all of them now....nothing sweeter!

I'm sure there is more but my tired mama brain won't let me think anymore:) I love you my sweet little "caboose" :)

First big-boy haircut!

Isaac's hair has been needing a trim badly so we took him to our favorite hairstylist, Mrs Darlene! She has been cutting our family's hair since I was about 12 or so and is a great friend. He did so great; sat on Bama's lap and didn't cry at all!

 

And here he is looking much neater and like such a big boy:)

Wa-wah

What a terrible blogger I have been lately! I'm so busy these days it seems like I just can't keep all the "balls in the air" so to speak....I do great in one area and another one slides. As you can tell the blog has taken a backseat to all the busy-ness.

We are doing great here....settling in to our new lives. Still praying HARD for our house to sell; it's frustrating but we know God has a plan. Things are going great here at mom and dad's though and we are incredibly thankful for their grace and love in opening up their home to us.

D's job is plugging along....he has one counseling client so far and is still networking and getting positive responses; it will take time to see any "fruit" so to speak. I love my job and it is neat to be back "out there" taking care of the tiny babies again. Working two nights a week seems just perfect so far; not too much that I'm away from the kids too much and just enough that I get some "grown up" interaction. In fact some nights it doesn't seem like a bad thing when I'm walking out the door just as one or more of the toddlers are screaming their heads off:) Dennis does an awesome job with them; I've nicknamed him "superdad" :)

Love, love, love our church....we are looking at getting more involved and are excited to see what God will do there.

So that's what's going on with us although that wasn't what I sat down here to write. I wanted to share just how CUTE Isaac is getting these days....beginning to put things together and expand his little world. He is SO curious and "into"everything right now. One of his favorite things right now is water (wa-wah)....he says it over and over when he sees any type of water: the sink, the bath, a puddle, the dog's water bowl, the toilet....it goes on and on. I'll have to remember my camera when we go to the pool because this little guy is a FISH....he is fearless in the water.

          

Jessie's water is a constant temptation to him....we usually keep it put up unless we are right there to watch! 

           

Anything that is round and red is an "apple" to Isaac. The other day he pushed a stool up to the counter and tried to take a bite out of one of these tomatoes! Right after I took these pics he scooted over, turned on the water, and started playing in it. He's a mess, I tell ya! 

1.5

Yesterday Isaac turned 18 months old so I thought I'd try and record what he's up to these days:

• His vocabulary is exploding right now; he says lots of words and will repeat just about anything or try to anyway. Some of the things he says: hi, bye-bye, please (pease), thank you (tant tu), mama, dada, Isaac (Iza), Hannah (ana), no, hold you (hol ju), whoa, whee, uh oh, baby, fish (sish), ball, can point to his eye and say eye, same with ear and hair
• Animal sounds for dog, cat, cow, horse, owl, chicken, duck, sheep
• Loves to talk and sing: he often carries on entire "conversations" in babble. It is adorable. He will chatter and chatter. Also tries to sing several songs; random ones but we can tell what he's trying to do.
• He is definitely developing more of a temper and an opinion about things. Especially when it comes to his siblings; he used to just passively let them take things from him now he "fights back" or screams about it.
• He is very busy and always into something. He can be quiet about it though. He's the kind of kid that you need to worry about if he's not in the room and he's quiet....he's usually into something he shouldn't be:) Sneaky little guy, that's for sure.
• Has a great appetite and isn't generally a picky eater. Loves fruit and cheese. Will at least try anything that is put in front of him, though.
• Sleeps well at night usually from 7:30pm to 7:00am. LOVES his green blanket....I didn't realize until recently that he is actually attached to that thing but he sure is!
• He is a confident walker now and runs at times. Still pretty clumsy and falls a lot but then again he has a pretty clumsy mama so he comes by it honestly:)
• Loves to be read to and look at books.
• 18 month stats: 23lb 4oz (25th percentile)  32in (75th percentile)

                 

He's finally doing it!

I've been meaning to get a video of this for a couple of weeks now. He has gotten progressively more and more steady and now walks quite a bit throughout the day. He still crawls if he is in a hurry or gets tired of walking but it is SO fun to see him finally walking:)

Also please note that we are outside during the shooting of this video....it was GORGEOUS outside today with temps in the low 70's and it's supposed to be that way all weekend!! Very hard to believe that my last post was about our snow day just a few DAYS ago but that's the way we roll here in the south....gotta love it:)

Getting comfortable at Bama's

                                           

Rebecca has been taking a book to her bed every night and reading for a little while until it's time for Hannah to go to bed; I thought she looked so OLD doing this! I remember last summer watching my cousin's little boy curled up on a couch reading and couldn't believe that Rebecca would be doing that soon....but she is:) 

                                            

What is it with my boys and climbing on tables? Samuel has had points when he wanted to do this same thing! Isaac has just learned how to climb on chairs and today I found him happily playing with the napkins. Boys are SO much different than girls!

We had a blast even though I can't prove it in pictures:)

This past weekend we traveled to the next state over to visit with dear friends from our old church. We had a great time reconnecting and got to see a lot more folks from church than we usually do since we were free to stay and go to church on Sunday (on past visits we always had to come home on Saturday to be at church here). I even got to take Rebecca to the hospital there which is both where I worked while living there and where she was born. The only problem is I failed to take ANY pictures while there.....bad blogger:( Here's the only two shots I have of our trip and they are very random:

                                               

Dennis took this shot while packing the van to leave. Jessie is always VERY nervous when she sees we are packing up because she does NOT want to be left behind (sometimes we leave her home and our friend comes to stay with her). Jessie will take the first opportunity possible to get in the vehicle and just sit there until we leave.....the only door open was the back so there she sat when Dennis came with the next load:)

                                             

Isaac has discovered that drinking out of a straw is very fun. He got fussy at one point so I offered him my water cup to sip (while I was holding it) but he would have NONE of that.....he wanted to hold it himself, thank you very much! He looked so cute holding that HUGE cup! 

                                            

Now this picture has nothing to do with our trip but I HAD to post it. The girls were playing with dress up clothes and apparently Samuel wanted in on the action. He wore this thing around for quite awhile and every time I saw him I chuckled......it was hilarious in person. I'll be sure and show this picture to his first girlfriend:)  

Happy day, happy boy

             

Today was a much-anticipated day around here; the day Isaac got his cast taken off:) He did a great job getting it off; I held him on my lap and Rebecca and I talked to him the whole time (Rebecca wanted to go along to see how they got it off). He never cried only whimpered a bit. When we checked out the receptionist asked if they had taken it off and seemed surprised when I said yes because "he didn't cry!" She must have heard some screamers in the past:)

It was wonderful to put him in the tub tonight and really scrub that leg....ahh, clean baby! I was definitely getting tired of the birdbaths on the side of the sink and he seemed very happy to splash around in the tub.

They did not xray it today but he will go back next week to be checked and they will xray it then. The doctor seemed confident that it is healed and he does not fuss when he puts pressure on it or when I move it around. So far today he has not wanted to put much weight on it and even crawls around with it as if the cast is still on; from past experience (I've broken three bones in my life) it takes awhile to get the strength back so hopefully over the next few days he'll get stronger.

Here's hoping and praying we have no more broken bones ANYtime soon:)  

Baby clothes and doggies

                                   

Rebecca is really enjoying her baby doll clothes....which apparently includes wearing them. She came out the other day wearing a 0-3 mon onesie like a vest and a baby hat on her head:)  Too funny.

                                     

The kids love to get on the couch and the other night I looked over to see Isaac sitting on Jessie! This is the most tolerant dog, I swear. He sat like this for probably 10 minutes and Jessie didn't complain one bit.