Skip In My Step

Jake and I have been looking for a place to live in the Sacramento area and very little has come up and what does come up ends up getting snatched very quickly. Needless to say, it's been frustrating, exhausting and stressful. This last trip consisted of me driving to San Jose to stay with my sister, picking up Jake late that night and then driving to Sacramento the next morning on the 26th and then driving back to San Jose that evening to have Jake fly out and return to work and I stayed at my sister's before driving home the following day (yesterday, the 27th). Even though the driving went well and we got to look at a few places, I returned to San Luis Obispo feeling troubled.

Today has been MUCH better. Two glorious things arrived for me today:

1. Beautiful flowers with a note

It's funny to get a message from Jake in a woman's handwriting

The flowers smell SOOO good!

This was such a nice gift to have unexpectedly arrive. Jake tends to be more pragmatic and so little romantic gestures do not come naturally. I, on the other hand, love romance and am more idealistic than Mr. Springsteen. So to have flowers delivered out of the blue today was quite a treat and definitely an act that does not go unnoticed! This thoughtful gift put an extra skip in my step the rest of the day. I do have a very loving husband and it's great.

2. My wedding album!

I have been working on this for a long time and so it was fun to finally finish it and have it arrive. Every time I look at the pictures I am reminded of the love that Jake and I share and the fun and specialness of that day.

Then there's this kid

Oh how he makes me smile. It's not a bad job hanging out with him all day (especially when he takes a two hour morning nap! YAY!). 

I look forward to Jake coming home on the 30th. Until then, I will smell the flowers and remember how blessed I truly am.

Isaac Weekly Update: Week 33

My wiggle worm!

Still no crawling, but lots of planking and what I call "the inchworm." He is able to move around and even go forward! He gets up to a plank, puts one knee forward and then pushes down onto his stomach and stretches forward. For the most part, it gets him to where he wants to go, but it is not very efficient and at times he gets frustrated with it. Here's a little video (not the best) of him in action:

He continues to be a good little eater and enjoyed sitting in a high chair in a restaurant! Jake and I took my parents out to Tahoe Joe's this week (one small way to say thanks for letting us live with them). Isaac wanted to grab anything and everything. Thankfully, we brought some food for him to eat, so he was kept preoccupied. Then he got to sit on his Daddy's shoulders.

This week Ike has also gotten louder, or at least makes more loud noises more often. Because of his rolling and inch worming, Isaac no longer sleeps in the bassinet. He also requires more distraction when I change his diaper, otherwise he practically flips off the changing mat!

And my favorite picture from this week. Do you think they're related? :) My favorite boys.

Isaac Weekly Update: Week 32

Isaac's been practicing his plank move this week. Just over the last couple days he has been getting more and more antsy to get moving. He wiggles around quite a bit and is able to move, but rarely forward. He usually pulls himself around on his stomach or pushes himself backwards.

This is him at bedtime pushing against the side with his feet- he did not want to sleep!

Because of all of this activity, Isaac earned himself a night without the bassinet piece to the pack-n-play. The bassinet part was really a benefit for me so I didn't have to bend down as far, but now it's become a safety issue. It may be time to purchase an actual crib...

Isaac usually takes three naps a day, usually around an hour each, though his morning one sometimes is one and a half. A couple days this week he took two, with the afternoon nap being 2 1/2 hours! Wow! Go kid go! The best part is afterward he is so happy and obviously well rested. When he does his three short naps a day, usually he wakes up from his afternoon one yawning and clearly still tired. I’m not sure how to encourage him to sleep longer! Hopefully he'll just do it. :)

Ike continues to eat like a champ. Foods to date are:

Avocado	Carrots	Oatmeal
Peach Sauce	Lentil Soup	Cheerios
Applesauce	Turkey	Cream of Wheat
Chicken	Egg Yolk	Green Beans
Yams	Banana	Pea Soup

Favorites are probably peach sauce, applesauce, chicken, lentils and cheerios

With the increase of solid foods we now have a very obvious increase of solid poops! The other day Jake changed Ike's diaper and said, "His poop smells weird." I told him that the fact that he knows that Isaac has a "normal" poop smell shows that he is truly a father. When Isaac was strictly breastfed he pooped about once every 3 days. Now he poops around three times a day! We are still using cloth (though we use disposable every so often) and thankfully the poop usually comes off the cloth pretty easily. 

Pooping, eating, naps and developmental milestones. This really is what life with a baby is all about and it's amazing how much thought and effort can go into these things! Overall, I love it. I mean, look at that face! How could I not?!

Week 31 / 7 Months Old!

Yesterday marked Isaac's 31st week of being outside of the womb! :) During week 31 Isaac turned 7 months old!

He has his 8 teeth and is liking food more and more. He sits in his Summer Infant Support-Me 3-in-1 Positioner, Feeding seat and booster (a favorite item of mine). It's a super handy, easy to move chair for him to sit and eat in. His favorite food this week was my mom's lentil soup. He also likes chicken and continues to love Cheerios. I considered trying the "baby led weaning," but got nervous about him choking, especially since he has so many teeth! He's just able to bite off big chunks, so that makes it a little more scary to have him feed himself bigger pieces of food.

Isaac sits up really well now and is able to sit and play with toys easily and often goes into the tripod pose in attempts to move, but no actual forward movement; if anything, I find him pushing himself backwards.

We traveled again this week to Roseville and Ike did really well up until the last hour and a half. We desperately searched for a song or a toy to help calm him (sleep really was the answer as it was his bedtime). "The Crow Song" from Music Together and "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" from Mulan momentarily stopped the crying along with his indestructible book and elephant. However, stopping and taking him out, feeding him and getting back on the road ended up being the real remedy. Even with that hiccup, I still claim that Ike is a good traveler. :)

He still sleeps in the bassinet part of our pack-n-play, but now he can flip onto his stomach and is beginning to pull himself up once in a while, so that probably won't stay for much longer.

We also went to the beach for the first time this week. Sadly, little Ike got his ankles bit by (I think) a bunch of tiny sand fleas. It didn't hurt him, but it looked terrible! :( The waves didn't seem to phase him much. I want to take him again sometime, but I will be on high alert for those little pests!

And I will leave you with a video of Isaac enjoying his lentil soup...

Isaac Weekly Update: Week 30

This week started off with us flying back to California from Michigan on the 1st. Isaac again proved to be an excellent traveler. He ate and slept for the first two hours and then was up for about an hour- happy and bouncy and then slept and ate as we landed. For the last month or so Isaac has been pooping every two to three days, but when he does poop it’s an event. On the 1st he decided the Spirit flight would be a good place to have his “event.” When Jake and I travel in the car many times I end up changing Isaac on my lap; my long legs provide a comfortable place for Ike to lay down (though he is getting a little long for this!). After a diaper check and some discussion it was agreed that I would try to change Isaac on my lap in the airplane. Now Spirit airlines is not known for having ample leg room, if anything they hold the record for fitting as many seats as possible on a passenger plane, foregoing comfort for profit. So here we were, poopy baby and little space at midnight. and the outcome? SUCCESS! This was, however, the only time Ike got upset on the plane, though Jake and I agreed that it was valid since his head was pushed up against the tray table while I worked on cleaning him up.

Isaac is still teething, though now all four top teeth and four bottom teeth can be seen poking through his little gums. He likes to rub them together- a habit I hope he grows out of! Isaac also started making a face this week where he scrunches up his nose. He first did this on our walk a couple days ago and then he breathes through just his nose (reminds me of a cat sniffing something with their mouth open or a dog with a foxtail caught in their nose)! It's pretty funny looking. He does it often enough that I am sure I will get a picture of it soon. In this pic he is just coming out of making the face:

Isaac started eating Cheerios this week which has thankfully been very successful. I think he's finally getting into liking solid food. I also gave him some cauliflower the other night which he happily put in his mouth. The dogs are also enjoying the new food introductions, especially the Cheerios. You can find all three dogs huddled under his chair. :)

Here's  a little video I took for Jake the other day. It's our morning chatty little boy:

As a side note to the importance of the day- today marks the 14th wedding anniversary of my brother and his beautiful bride, Kate. Congratulations to them! They make a great team and continue to make a gorgeous family. Love you both to the end of the earth and back.

this picture is from my wedding (Sept 2013)