Isaac's 2nd Birthday Party

For Isaac's 2nd birthday, did a combined party with Isaac's friend who is just 8 days younger (and about 8 lbs bigger). The plan was to tour the fire station and have lunch at the park. But the day of, the weather was like this:

          

It poured buckets as we drove to the fire station! Luckily, I was able to reserve a room in the church and we quickly set up beforehand. And everything worked out wonderfully . . . except for the fact that Isaac was nervous, wouldn't climb on any of the trucks, and tried to leave the party the whole time. I guess the "It's My Party . . . " song fits well here. 

          

         

At least Dad got some time in the driver's seat:

             

And thankfully was the one to chase after Isaac: 

         

             

             

             

Overall, it was a great success! And my friend, Suzanne, got better pictures than I did, so once I get them from her, I will update this post. 

Motherhood Gratitude List

Earlier this year, I started a Learning Circle through Power of Moms, the website that I’m a volunteer editor for. November’s theme was Valuing Motherhood, and our assignment was to answer this question:

What are you most grateful for about being a mother? What has motherhood taught you

or helped you to gain? Make a list of the “top 10” things you're grateful for as a mother at

this point in your life and be ready to share a few things from your list at our next meeting.

So here is my Top 10 List (after being a mom for just under 2 years):

1. I’m grateful for the deep sense of purpose and identity that motherhood has given me. No matter what, I will always be Isaac’s mother. Because of his needs, I have daily purpose. But ultimately, because I helped create his body and am responsible for his care and nurturing on this earth, I have eternal purpose as well. I feel great peace because of this sense of meaning and direction I have in my life.

2. I’m grateful for the opportunity to witness the miracle of human development so closely. I studied child and adolescent development in college, but it never mattered or amazed me like Isaac’s development and progress does. It is truly a pleasure to be a part of it.

3. I’m grateful for the unity and shared love that becoming parents has brought to my marriage. Isaac and Baby #2 are our greatest projects, our greatest hobbies, and no one loves them like we do.

4. I’m grateful for how indescribably beautiful, wonderful, and delicious your own baby is. And I’m grateful that in those baby months I was able to enjoy endless kisses.

5. I’m grateful for the laughter, smiles, and tickle flights Isaac brings into my life. My sense of humor is one of my weaker attributes, but Isaac helps bring it out of me.

6. I’m grateful for the opportunity to, in a small way, taste the love God has for me. The love a parent has for a child is different than any other type of love.

7. I’m grateful for the freedom and fun that comes with motherhood. The reality is that while my husband is in an office at a laptop all day, I sit outside while Isaac plays, occasionally go on fun outings, and have time to work on whatever I want to during nap time (at least until this baby comes . . . ).

8. I’m grateful for the opportunity to teach. I’ve always loved teaching, and now that I’m a mother, teaching is a natural part of my life.

9. I usually don’t feel grateful for the way motherhood challenges and stretches me, but I know in future years, I will be grateful for the creativity, patience, understanding, and coping techniques I will have developed as a result of motherhood.

10. I’m grateful for the love I receive as a mom. Although Isaac can’t express much yet, he shows his love for me in his eagerness to see me and share with me his discoveries, in his need for me when he is distressed, and by his desire to play with me and read with me. In the hectic moments, it’s hard to feel this love, but the overall base level of love in my life has definitely increased with motherhood.

Children's Museum

Houston has a fantastic children's museum, and we went with some good friends in October. Isaac loved shopping for food, pretending to be a Vet at the Pet Hospital, and painting. He still watches the video of himself painting over and over again. It's so fun to go places with him now. He's my little bud.

Time Flies When You Are Feeling Good

We have been having fun in UT, enjoying the holidays here in Houston, and soaking up the gorgeous weather (even if it's "cold" for Houston, it's still gorgeous to me) while we can.

I have uploaded quite a few pictures, so overdue posts are coming . . .

Halloween

Even though Halloween is tomorrow, we feel like it has already passed because we've dressed up, had the party, and even gone trick or treating (trick or trunk). And here are some pictures to show how we celebrated: 

We skipped the pumpkin patch this year and opted for the more local Trader Joe's.

The pumpkins were cheap! Too bad we realized that one was already rotting when we got home...

Isaac with all his friends at Calvin's birthday party

Isaac and his two girl friends at our church Halloween party

Isaac the Builder and the Monson Construction crew.
Baby construction project to be completed in 2014. 

Brent does not normally look so delirious...but we were all pretty tired that night. 

Isaac "cooking" with the pumpkin pulp

There was a pumpkin growing in our pumpkin!! It was so weird.
Neither of us had ever seen sprouts growing inside a pumpkin before. Anyone else seen that? 

The master carver. Brent kind of sketched it out, but did a lot free-handed.
Most of the permanent marker you can see on there is Isaac's scribbling.  

The final product. I was super impressed because I had doubts during the carving. . . :-)
I should know better than to ever doubt Brent's artistic skills though! 

Isaac loved it!

Halloween isn't my favorite holiday, but it is way more fun with a kid! If Isaac's allergies continue into next year though, I don't think we'll be trick or treating again. He literally cannot eat ANY candy. I brought fruit leathers as a substitute, but he was not happy about that. How he knows what candy is, I have no idea. But we had quite a tantrum on our hands that led to me giving in and giving him a tiny Twizzler. (His allergy to corn is not life-threatening.) Anyway, I think we'll avoid that part of the Halloween tradition for as long as possible. . . 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 

Isaac 21-Month Update

My Justin Bieber Baby at 18 months

There is so much about Isaac at this age that I want to capture in a bottle forever. Brent and I have loved being his parents. He is just so adorable and fun-- and this age especially has revealed a lot of his personality and sense of humor.

He is a good talker, I would say, particularly for a boy his age. I have no idea what his vocabulary is at right now, but he definitely knows more than 100 words. He is comfortable with 2-3 word phrases and is very good at making a wide range of consonant combinations. Some examples are "I got it!", "I see you!", "I fall," "More ______," "Dada work?", "Apple Juice," and "See Bandit?" (when we are doing FaceTime with my parents).

And some of the words he uses all the time are, "See?" (meaning pick me up, I want to see that), "Hold" (pick me up and hold me), "Side!" (Outside or I want to go outside.), "Hun-gy" (hungry), "Dump" (this could mean I'm about to dump my food on the floor or he will also say it while playing quite a bit), and "car", "truck", and "firetruck" are up there with the words that he says most often every day. 

Also, just yesterday, he was "flying" around the house pretending to be an airplane and kept saying, "Crash landing!" and would fall down. There is usually a pause between his words though, so it sounded like " Crash . . . land-ing!" I had no idea he knew how to say that. It was so cute! 

Isaac loves his gummy vitamins and asks for them every day. We have been giving him Calcium gummies for a while to supplement his diary-free diet, but recently I started giving him multi-vitamin gummies as well. When I first introduced the Calcium gummies, I gave them to him right after his nap with his snack. When he woke up from his nap, I would say, "Do you want your snack?" And so, he thought the vitamins were called "snack"-- because I guess he looked forward to them much more than his crackers or fruit.  

So every day he yells, " 'NACK?! 'NACK?!" until I respond and ask him if he would like his vitamin. But recently, when we started giving him the new vitamins, on his own, he noticed the different colored bottles of the two types of vitamins (blue and red). Now he says, "BUE 'NACK?! BUE 'NACK?!" And after he's had that, he says, "RED 'NACK?!" Haha! He is so funny! 

He has also started singing the ABCs --- or trying to. His different versions include, "A, B, double-awch, E." and "A, B, C, Double-P, Double-P, Double-P" He really likes doubling his letters. LOL

And he has a word he made up: dungle-pop. We think it might be a mutation of Jungle Book. But in any case, he uses it in place of something he doesn't know the name of. The other day an apartment manager knocked on the door, and when she walked away, he said loudly, "Bye, Dungle-pop!" Lol. I have to admit, felt just a tad embarrassed. And when Brent was playing a new game with him, swinging him in the air, he said, "More dungle-pop!" until Brent told him he could say, "More swing." Then, he started saying, "More swing."

Isaac is extremely observant. He will sit and look at each page of a book for a long time. And he notices small details in the pictures of his books that I have never noticed-- even after reading them to him dozens of times. He also has sharp ears-- especially for trucks, planes, and helicopters. If he hears and airplane fly over our house (we're not close to any airport, so they are not loud at all), he will stop what he's doing and look at the ceiling with a surprised face and say, "airplane?" 

He also has ears for the garbage truck. I now know our pickup schedule-- every Mon, Wed, and Friday morning. And we are at the bedroom window as soon as we hear it coming. When he first started watching it about three months ago, he would cry as it drove away, but now he's used to the idea that it will leave and come back again soon. :-)

One of his favorite activities is playing with clean laundry that is often piled on top of the armchair in my bedroom. He will seriously play independently for up to 45 minutes dragging laundry around. It's weird, but I don't mind at all. He also loves to play with random objects which he uses as tools to bang on walls or try to "fix" things. These objects include an old blush brush that I set aside for him to use, un-sharpened pencils, paint brushes, and really anything that is like a stick. He also loves playing with my OXO salad spinner and, of course, my iPhone, if he can get his hands on it. (I don't have any games on it for him, but he just likes to put in wrong passwords until my phone is disabled for 15 minutes.)

As far as conventional toys go, he likes his dump truck and firetruck the best. He also likes a small beanie baby teddy bear and his Teddy which he takes to bed at night. The rest of his toys-- duplos, train set, etc.-- he mostly likes to just dump on the ground and then that is the end of it. He will build towers for about 5-10 minutes, but nothing lasting yet. He much prefers for you to build something for him to destroy. Because of this we sing (to the tune of Bob the Builder), "Isaac the Destroyer! He can wreck it! Isaac the Destroyer! Yes, he can!" 

Here are some pictures of this cute kid over the last few months: 

With more of the Bieber look going on . . . (18 months)

Playing with Sydney --who he called "See-see" until just recently (20 months old)

Watching the gardeners: his favorite Monday morning activity (20 months)

Ready for Church! This boy loves Nursery! (20 months)

California Visit

In August, Isaac and I flew to Los Angeles to visit my family. My parents had not seen Isaac since December, and I was sick and tired and wanted my Mama.

The flight there was smooth sailing:

                                   

Since we last were there, Bryan had grown a ton. Isaac loved watching him and following him around. He also loved Bandit, our family dog, who does not like kids. We kept them separated as much as possible.

Our trip wasn't much of a sight-seeing vacation. We really didn't do anything except for the most important things: spending time with family and visiting with a few friends. I mostly rested as much as I could and was so grateful to have help taking care of Isaac.

Isaac played outside every day, swam, ate popsicles, watered the plants, developed a love for the movie the Jungle Book, and got to know his grandparents really well. I read books 1-5 of The Work and the Glory series-- probably over 1,000 pages of text. So that gives you and idea of what I did: stayed in bed.

While we were there we were also able to attend my Great-Aunt Darlene's funeral service. I'm sure it was really nice. Unfortunately, Isaac didn't behave well enough for me to see it. Below you will see a picture of him playing on an altar outside the church where the memorial was held. That's where we were.

Here are the pictures from our trip.

Isaac and Uncle Bry
**When I sent this picture to my sister Marie, who is serving a mission, she wrote back, "WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE??!!!!"  Yep, they've changed a lot. 

                          

On the way to the funeral 

                               

At the funeral

                               

Reading with "Papa" 

Helping Bry wash the cars

Watching Jungle Book... I just love that face!! 

                                  

Watching Jungle Book Again ...  and I love this face too. :-)                   

More time with the hose

                              

Swimming! In a pool that was cool and refreshing! 

                     

                     

I also have to share this fun comparison. This is a picture of my brother Bryan and then of Isaac--both at 21 months old in the same pool. I think they look so much alike! 

                               

And my mom caught this gem of a picture right before we got in the car to leave for the airport. Isaac's two favorite things: his teddy and his doggie.

                           

The flight home was less than stellar. Isaac sat--more like wrestled--on my lap the whole 3 hours and 20 minutes. I barely survived. Luckily the guy sitting next to us was tolerant. 

Thanks, Mom and Dad, for a wonderful trip! And thank you Brent for keeping up the home-front while we were gone. 

The Last Three Months

For much of the last three months, our small apartment has looked like this:

                                  

And that is because of this:

8 weeks

We are expecting baby #2 in February 2014! I found out I was pregnant in June and enjoyed the thought for about a week, until I woke up one morning and started throwing up until I wanted to die. Luckily, a good friend rescued me with her supply of Zofran, but unfortunately, it did not solve all my problems. I spent much of the next three months curled up in bed watching TV shows on Amazon Prime, trying to distract myself from the horrible nausea. 

Isaac was very good and played happily around the house (while destroying it at the same time). And Brent did more than should be expected of any husband. Working through busy season while taking care of the house, feeding himself and Isaac, and doing the shopping earns him the Husband of the Century Award! 

I also was so blessed to have the help of so many family members and friends. My sister-in-law Emily went shopping for me a number of times and deep cleaned our apartment with her husband Andrew. My friend Caroline also went shopping for me a bunch of times. And I had numerous friends bring over dinner and watch Isaac for me while I was ill. My mother-in-law also came out for a couple weeks to take care of Isaac and help around the house, which was so generous of her! She ironed all of Brent's shirts, tidied up the house every day, and fed and entertained Isaac the whole time. It was so nice! I tried to count up all the people who have helped me--in big and generous ways-- and there were over a dozen. I am SO grateful to everyone!! 

There were times when I wasn't sure if I could make it. Of course I would, but when you feel so awful, your perception of reality gets really warped. 

I am so happy to be on the other side of that trial. And now I finally feel happy and excited about finding out the gender of this baby. We should know in about two weeks. :-) 

**Note: If you have a smart phone and haven't downloaded the Blogger App, I highly recommend it. You can upload photos directly from your phone. AH! I can't believe I've lived without this for so long! 

Allergy Report

On Monday, we took Isaac to an allergist to have some testing done. I had been putting it off for quite some time because I knew it would be expensive and we hadn't touched our deductible yet this year. Thankfully, it actually cost much less than I expected--only $125 (the doctor graciously gave us a 25% discount after I told him we hadn't met our deductible for the year).

But the experience held some surprises I wasn't prepared for. Up until this point, I had seen what I thought to be allergic responses in Isaac to milk, soy, rice, bananas, peaches, oranges, and tomatoes. I was also suspicious of corn. And even though I hadn't seen any reaction to wheat, I was really hoping I hadn't missed something there. So we tested him for these, plus a few other items: peanuts, almonds, and two types of dust mites. There were actually 15 items he was tested for, but I can't remember what the last two were.

The nurses came in and first wrote on Isaac's back with a pen codes for all the different allergens. To help him not freak out, the nurse first drew a smiley face on his hand so he would know what she was doing on his back. That really helped, and he stayed perfectly still and didn't make a peep while she wrote on his back. (Unfortunately, however, I have had to stop him from writing on his hand with a pen multiple times in the last few days. ha ha) Here is the before picture:

Then, as I held him on my lap, they quickly pricked his back one by one with small needles that had been dipped in allergen serum. During the first few pricks--at the top of his back-- he was fine. But as they went lower, where the back is more sensitive, he started to jerk and burst into tears. Soon it was done though, and we had to watch and wait for the results. Within just a few minutes, it was already clear he had a couple reactions. And because the reactions were labeled with codes, we waited anxiously to find out what was what.

It turns out that the biggest reaction was to peanuts. I was shocked. There is no history of peanut allergies in either of our families, and although I've been dealing with allergies since Isaac was born, I haven't had to worry about life-threatening allergies. Peanuts are a whole different ball game.

After fifteen minutes, here is what his back looked like:

The reaction on the upper left is the positive control. I have no idea what they use for a positive control since it has to be something that everyone is allergic to, but he definitely was. The reaction next to F79 is peanuts. Milk is 17 and orange is under that. He also reacted slightly to corn, which is the c in the middle of his back. I was grateful he didn't react to anything else including rice, wheat, and almonds.

The doctor explained, however, that gastrointestinal responses to things aren't signs of allergy, but could be signs of intolerance. So, if I give Isaac rice and it gives him diarrhea, I obviously shouldn't give it to him. We're going to have to just test things as we go along.

The doctor also said that allergy testing for fruits is very inaccurate. He said that it's better to test with fresh fruit. So, next time we test--in about a year-- I will bring in fruit to do a more accurate test.

It was hard for me to tell what was a slight positive reaction and what was considered a negative reaction because every place he was poked turned red. But what the nurses looked for was the redness around the dot. Then they measured the size of the welt and the size of the red rash around each welt/hive. These measurements will be a base for future testing to see if he is growing out of his allergies or not.

After a while, Isaac's rash started to spread up his neck, so I quickly got someone to come. They gave him liquid Zyrtec and wiped off the allergens and sprayed his back with what I think may have been a cortisone spray.  It was amazing that in just a few minutes, all of his reactions were gone.

The doctor didn't have a lot to say about the peanut allergy, as far has how severe his allergy will be or whether or not he will grow out of it. The truth is, with allergies, it is mostly guess-work. But he did say we need to avoid all foods with peanuts including the "May contain" and factory warnings on foods. And he gave us a prescription for an EpiPen and said we need to keep it with us at all times. (Big sigh.)

On the drive home, I felt pretty overwhelmed.

And I'm still somewhat in denial. I still haven't thrown away the peanut butter in my pantry, or done any online research about peanut allergies, or picked up the EpiPen from the pharmacy (although the fact that I got the stomach flu/ food poisoning yesterday also has something to do with that).

It will be interesting to see what the future holds. But for now, no peanuts for us.

Toddlerhood: A Different Ball Game

Isaac is almost 18 months, and I can't believe how much he's changed just in the last few weeks. He's finally transitioned to one nap a day (usually from noon to two-ish), which frees up a lot more time--time that needs to be filled. Hanging out at home is not his activity of choice. If that happens, I get tortured. :-)  In fact, every day around 9:00 am, he says, "Bye, bye? Bye, bye?" or goes up to the front door and cries. He wants out.

And for a good reason: this kid is filled with energy. He's had running mastered for a few months, so of course he's on to developing the next skill. Unfortunately, that means climbing. Now, all dining room table chairs must be pushed in at all times. And I know it's a matter of weeks until he figures out how to pull them out and climb up anyway. He stomps, he runs, he jumps, he dances, he attacks things. And he now tries to snatch my glasses off my face and has almost broken them. A big no-no.

But the biggest no-no of all is that, yesterday, he hung on the door to the oven (while I was cooking a pizza) and put his feet up, as if to climb up spiderman style. And his weight opened the door to the oven. AHH!!! Luckily, I was standing right there, and it only opened a few inches before I slammed it shut. I gave him a very firm, "No, no," and took him out of the kitchen, but a minute later (when I was not right next to the oven) he did it again. I don't think I've ever heard myself scream, "No!" like that. It was scary. Thankfully, it startled him and he jumped off before the oven fully opened. But that was the end of that. We bought a baby gate that very night. He is no longer allowed in the kitchen whenever the oven is on.

Yesterday he was also quite a terror at the library story time. He threw crayons everywhere and screamed during the quiet coloring time before it began and wouldn't sit still for one minute during the story time part. Instead, he ran around the room laughing and squealing. Even though there was general mayhem during the reading portion, we left half-way through because he was being so disruptive. I guess he's not ready for it. And I'm definitely not.

Never a dull moment with a toddler. And today was no exception: he got his first goose-egg-- right smack in the middle of his forehead right at his hairline. He ran full speed into a corner. I didn't see it happen, but my friend who was visiting did, and her reaction was pretty intense. So, after she left we watched "Bob the Builder" while I fought to get ice on his head for three seconds at a time.

And today we couldn't find any of his pacifiers. His paci has been one of his most treasured possessions since about 6 months old. I've limited its use during the day, but he knows he can have it when he sleeps, and he asks for it. He also asks for it when he wakes up, and I let him have it for the first few minutes to get through that waking-up grogginess. But I couldn't find it when he was crying after hitting his head. And I still couldn't find it at nap time. How they disappear, I know not. We had three just two weeks ago. But I'm sick of buying more, so I reluctantly decided that this would have to be it.

Luckily, he went down fine anyway. It helps that he's just as attached to his Teddy as his paci. But when he woke up, he said, "Paci? Paci?" with a sad, anxious face. And when I said it was, "All gone," he made the sign for "All done," (which he thinks is the same as all done) and wailed, "Ga-gone? Ga- gone?" And when I said yes, he cried really hard. Poor little baby.

He asked for it a few times this afternoon, but tonight--miracle of miracles-- he didn't ask for it. It took him over a half hour to fall asleep, but he didn't cry! He just talked happily until he drifted off. Of course this is just day one, but this is all going much better than I expected! Hallelujah! Now, I hope we don't find it.

To end on a happy note, I must say it is so fun to see him learning. His vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds! Just this week, he began calling his books by name: "Go" for Oh, the Places You'll Go, "Doggie" for Go, Dogs! Go!, and  "Vroom, vroom!" for his book, Trucks. He has also been labeling things a lot more: shoe, hat, key, meow (for a cat), ball, teddy, and of course his paci that is no more.

As much as he wears me out, I wouldn't trade him. He's my treasure.