Mommy Day!

Isaac and I had yet another lovely visit with our friends yesterday.  It's been so fun to watch all of the baby boys grow.  They are able to play with more toys as they get a little stronger.

They are beginning to interact more with one another, which is very exciting.  Nico and Anderson both played with the Sophie, which is actually Archer's toy.  They are learning to share very young!

Isaac enjoys hanging out with the other mommies now, too.

Allison had the magic touch!

These last 2 are my favorites from the day.  Cash was born April 6 and Isaac was born April 8.  They are starting to be friends!

Jackson and Isaac - funny video

OK, so Isaac is cute, but Jackson totally makes this video.  I was trying to get a few shots of them playing together because Isaac keeps reaching for Jackson.  Jackson thinks this is fun and licks Isaac.  Isaac thinks *this* is fun and laughs.  Instead, this is what I got:

It's amazing that the camera-work isn't shakier because I totally cracked up laughing.  You just never know what you're going to get with a dog and a baby in a video...

MVP

Not much to report, but wanted to share a couple pictures of Isaac in a fun little outfit from Todd's Aunt Jeff:

Visit from "Aunt" Chel

My college roommate, Michele, has been with us for about the last 5 days.  We've had an awesome time together!  She got to meet Isaac for the first time.  (She also spent a great deal of time petting on Jackson, who was very smitten with her).


Chel spent lots of time playing with Isaac.  I am so glad she got to meet him!  I am so used to being Isaac's only company during the day that it was a little challenging for me to realize that sometimes someone else can play with him or hold him, too.  I'm just used to being the one he relies on for everything most of the time.  It was good to have someone else entertain him a little:

After all, I'm not always a good influence:

Sunday, we all went to Six Flags.  It was the scene of this year's National Instruments company picnic.  We had a great time!  Since there were 3 of us, we rotated who rode the coasters and who stayed with Isaac.  It worked out really well.  Isaac got to meet lots of Todd's coworkers, and we got to see their little ones.  Michele was really a champ and seemed to have a lot of fun just holding Isaac and playing with him.

On the way home, we stopped at Freetail for some microbrews and a good dinner.  We joined our friends the Voosens.  Mo had fun keeping Isaac entertained while her little girl played with some of the "big kids."

Isaac and Henry

While I was typing about our Baby Mamas group, I should have included this cute picture of Isaac and his buddy, Henry.  Henry is about 2 weeks older than Isaac.  He's in the 95th percentile, however, so he's much bigger than Isaac is.

The boys are laying on Isaac's favorite play mat.  It's a Snoopy-themed quilt that Todd's mom, Judy, made for Isaac.  It is just the right size for us when we get together with all of the boys.

Ergo Baby

I apologize for the lack of posts over the last week or two.  We've been quite busy!  Last Wednesday, of course, our Baby Mamas group met.  Several people have asked me what we do when our group meets.  Basically, we chat, eat, nurse our baby boys, chat, watch the boys play, and chat.  Last week, we met at our house so we could show off the new floors!  Isaac wore himself out with his hosting duties:

Todd and I have been using a Baby Bjorn to carry Isaac around for extended periods of time.  This has been an awesome thing for us!  The weight limit on it, however, is 25 pounds.  It carries the weight of the baby across your shoulders.  This works fine for Todd, but as Isaac's getting heavier, it's much harder for me.  I borrowed an Ergo Baby Carrier from my friend Amanda.  I LOVE IT!

Last week, the other mommies decided to try it out, too.  Allison held Anderson:

Then Candy carried Henry:

The boys were all comfy and we had fun "playing."  I used the Ergo this past weekend to carry Isaac around Six Flags for the NI company picnic on Sunday.  I have decided I am going to go buy my own carrier now.

Letter from the Prez

My friend and fellow Baby Mama, Stephanie, told us several months ago that mail to the White House always gets a response.  She sent a birth announcement for her son Cash and got a nifty little card back.   I thought this was too good to be true, so I sent mailed Isaac's birth announcement to President Obama back in August.  Today, we got a note back!  Regardless of your opinion of the president, (Dad), this is a great little memento for our son's baby book.   The note has stamps of Barack and Michelle's signatures, but the envelope was hand-addressed.

Stephanie said Michelle wrote hers, but mine looks like it was written by someone younger. I think Malia addressed Isaac's envelope.

We have floors!

After lots and lots of hard work on Todd's part, I am happy to report that we have hardwood floors!  He finished them this morning by laying the remaining pieces in the pantry.  We calculated that we would need 800 square feet of wood.  We purchased 850 square feet.  We have 2 boxes, (44 square feet), left over.  Todd managed to create very little scrap!

The pantry floor:

Transition from kitchen to dining room:

We found a new base moulding at Lowe's today and determined what we would like to do for our door frames downstairs.  Our house is coming together!  We have decided to go with a larger base moulding in order to cover the 1/2-inch gap between the edges of the hardwood and the walls.  The gap was left so the wood has room to expand and contract as necessary.  We
are hoping that the larger moulding will work out well so that we don't have to use the quarter-round on top of the moulding.


Today, Todd began work on the downstairs bath. He got the door hung, so there will be some privacy.

We bought a new vanity today, as well. 

Isaac is officially a Walter now that he's been to Lowe's twice in one day. We originally had 3 bathroom vanity candidates. The first, and most viable, option was the vanity in the original half-bath. That one completely disintegrated when we moved it to the garage a few months ago. The other 2 were from the master bath. We needed to fill a 37" wide space. One vanity was 32" wide; the other was 39". Back to Lowe's!

Finally, the most amusing part of our day. I didn't have a chance to get to HEB today, so we ordered Chinese for dinner. When the driver arrived, she said, "Wow! He was right! The other driver told me to check out your floors." She mentioned that we were still on concrete the first time she came. Apparently, we order Chinese enough that our house is a topic of conversation. I'm not entirely sure I like what that implies about my cooking.

Happy Hour

Isaac and I joined Todd at work on Friday for happy hour.  Our friends, Christian and Elke, are German and just moved to Austin from Munich a couple of years ago.  As you may know, there's a little celebration in Bavaria right now; Oktoberfest.  Christian told us the happy hour was to celebrate the beginning of the Oktoberfest.  In reality, it was also an excuse to get a group together to let them know that he and his wife are expecting!  We had a really nice time and I even got to drink a bit of authentic German beer (but not much as Isaac is still nursing).  Isaac, as it turns out, is also a fan of German beer.  Or at least the bottles:

Dave and Judy, we'll have him singing polka music and chicken dancing before you arrive!

Diaper Cake

There was quite a bit of talk about this diaper cake, so I thought I'd post a picture of the final product.  I was bummed that I couldn't find a lamb to put on top of the cake, but I think it was fine with just the bow.  Tica, the cake's recipient, was happy, with it.  I had fun making this one.  It's different from the ones I normally do.  This one is "cleaner" in that you don't see all of the diapers at first glance.

I wrapped a blanket around the outside of the second layer, then pinned it so you could see the cute little frog and turtle on the blanket.  If you were to look down at the cake from above, you'd see the individual diapers in this layer.  The bottom layer is also covered by a blanket, but I laid the blanket over the whole layer because the diapers made a larger circle.  The top layer is a collection of burp cloths from the baby registry, wrapped in another burp cloth.

Daddy Snuggles

I posted too soon.  I should have included this photo of Isaac snuggling on Todd.  Todd's been working on the floors again this weekend, but took a break to hang with Isaac so I could go to a baby shower this afternoon.

Not Crawling

I tried to get a video of Isaac doing his pre-crawling activities.  I now have a sure-fire way to calm him down when he gets excited.  Try to get a video of it.  LOL  

I did take a few pictures of our cutie-pie over the last several days, even though I didn't have a chance to update the blog.  I tried for a self-portrait:

Isaac attacked Sophie:

As the Hokies have lost the last 2 games, we decided to try to change our luck by changing Isaac's outfit.  He is, after all, the center of the universe, so it should help.  It did!  The Hokies beat ECU today!  (Please ignore my outfit and wet hair)

My Favorite Weekday

Wednesdays are my favorite.  I get to hang out with a bunch of other mommies and swap notes on what Isaac and the other babies are doing, how we're all feeling, how much sleep we are/are not getting, etc.  It's a lot of fun to watch all of the baby boys and see how they are all growing every week.  It's also a really nice break from sitting at home and nursing alone.  Isaac and I also usually learn something new.  Yesterday, we learned that plastic water bottles are tasty!

Busy Day

Todd took a shift with Isaac last night.  Right after his 5-month birthday, we got 3 glorious nights of sleep.  I was hoping we were all set for a real chance to catch up on my own rest, but Isaac has other plans, apparently.  Anyway, last night I finally had gotten him settled into bed at 10:45, but he was fussing 5 minutes later.  I settled him down again.  He woke right back up.  Todd offered to take a shift, so I let him.  I went to the guest room and slept until about 1:15 when either I heard Isaac through my earplugs or mothering instinct woke me up.  I nursed him.  He slept until 4:15 (which is 3 hours between feedings and a good step in the right direction).  I nursed him again and he slept until 6:15.  We finally got up for the day at 8:45.

Our night owl:

All of this waking might lead you to ask, as I did, why is the little stinker waking up?  A little background:  we put Isaac to sleep on his tummy, parallel to the bed (in his bassinet).  Two nights in the last week, I've awakened to find him perpendicular to the bed, with his feet where his head once was, on his back, holding his little toes, and smiling at me.  "Look what I did, Mommy!"  I can't get mad at that little face, so I chalked it up to learning to roll over more successfully.  Well...

This afternoon, Isaac fell asleep on my shoulder, so I set him on his tummy in his crib.  He immediately woke up (as usual-I wonder what the heck is in the crib mattress?).  I left him in the crib for a few minutes while I folded diapers.  I figured he could get in a little tummy time and I could get one thing off my to-do list.  While I folded, I kept an eye on Isaac.  And I figured out why he's not sleeping.  He's trying to learn to crawl.  Never mind that he can't yet sit on his own...  He had his legs going a mile a minute and even got his belly off the mattress.  He just can't support the weight of his head and his belly at the same time.  Once he lets his belly down, his head launches right back up off the mattress.  Anyway, he sways his li'l butt in the air when he's moving his legs around, which is what caused him to roll over in his bassinet those two nights.  At least that's my current suspicion...

In other news, my friend Lisa came by this morning, so we took our dogs for a walk this morning.  Jackson and Tank, Lisa's dog, thoroughly exhausted themselves trying to determine which of them was in charge.  They wore Isaac out, too:

We got the dogs home and I decided to put a little water in a bottle for Isaac since we were both so sweaty from the walk.  The doctor told me I could do this when we went to the 4-month appointment.  He has been resistant to taking the bottle for a while because we keep giving him the Zantac, but he seemed to have fun playing with the bottle and even drank about 2 sips of water.

Then he decided to be a ham for Lisa:

Sitting?

While I was eating lunch today, I put Isaac in his high chair. The chair has a fun rain forest tree on the tray to entertain him while I am at the table. On Isaac's right is a monkey hanging down from the tree. Isaac has been trying to grab it for a few days now. Sometimes, Todd or I will push it a little closer so he can at least touch it. Today, Isaac grabbed the little turtle near the base of the tree, pulled himself into a sit, and grabbed the little monkey! He was quite pleased with himself.

Later, during the same meal, he figured out how to prop himself up so he could reach, and spin, the toy bird in the middle of the tree. I guess he will be sitting unassisted sometime in the near future!

Home Improvement Update

Todd has continued to work on our hardwood floors this weekend.  This has been no minor feat!  He bought a flooring nailer several weeks ago to be able to "staple" the floors down.  I don't know a whole lot about it other than it is connected to the air compressor and apparently makes life much easier when it's working properly.  Yesterday, it jammed and stopped working.  It had started to jam after every hit, but finally it quit altogether.  Todd took it back to Harbor Freight, who allowed him to turn it in and replace it with a new one.  He brought the replacement nailer home and, lo and behold, it broke.  I don't think he even used it for a full 30 minutes before it jammed.  In the process of trying to unstick the very thorough jam, something broke, so Todd took it back to Harbor Freight, as well.  They were closed.  <sigh>


Jackson was assessing the progress last night:

Today has been much more successful.  Todd got yet another nailer from Harbor Freight this morning.  He's finished most of the kitchen floors now.  They look so terrific!  He also finished most of the entry, half-bath, and closet downstairs.  The only things left to do have to be glued down, so he is officially finished with the staples.  


This is the view of our entry:

This is the kitchen floor:

Dave and Kristin have the same floors in their kitchen, so it's neat to know that we have that little connection.


We just learned that we were incredibly fortunate with all of the crazy wind and rain from Tropical Storm Hermine.  At least one life in Austin was lost and there was a great deal of property damage to many homes in the area due to flooding.  As it turns out, we are remarkably blessed. The next door neighbors had flooding in one of the rooms in their house.  Across the street, our neighbor, Joe, had so much water pressing against his garage doors that he opened the doors and just allowed the water to flow in one side and out the other through the garage.  The neighbors across the next street from Joe (about 2 houses down from us) had 5 rooms damaged to the point of pulling out all of the carpets, knocking out the bottom 4 feet of drywall and replacing all of the insulation for mold remediation.  Their names are also Dave and Judy, like Todd's parents.  Across the back of our house, you can see where there is a debris line from the water gushing across our back porch.  It is a miracle that we didn't have any flooding in our home!!!  This would have been awful given that Todd is still in the process of laying floors  - it would suck to be halfway through and have them ruined.

My previous life...

I had an interesting conversation on the phone with my sister last night. I was telling her all about the wonderful brunch I had with my other Baby Mama girlfriends. One of the topics at breakfast was what we had done "in our previous [pre-baby] lives." She didn't care for the phrase "previous lives". It's a phrase I have been known to use regularly. Granted, usually when I said it, I was at work saying things like' "well, in a previous life, I worked for a custom-home builder" or "in a previous life, when I thought I could rule NYC at the ripe old age of 24"... I definitely think of my life differently now that I have a child. I can no longer look at the world as though I am not a mother. I can't remember what my thought processes were like before Isaac entered my life. So I really do think of the days before Isaac as a previous life. Days when could sleep in on Saturdays, eat out when I liked, and carry a purse smaller than most women's wallets... All that said, her reaction to the phrase did give me pause. I didn't, after all, die (although for a few hours there, it seemed tempting) giving birth. As poetic as it would sound, I was not then re-born with my son.


My career path (life?) has taken a sharp left over the last 2 years! I was never much of a ladder-climber to start, in spite of being very good at my job and rising quickly into management positions. There were nights and weekends I spent in my office and I loved it because I felt like a valuable contributor. There were other nights and weekends that I questioned my sanity doing, literally, exactly the same things. Such is the nature of accounting. Now, my job is to make sure my baby boy grows into a well-adjusted child. This is much more rewarding work. Some days it is much easier than the corporate career I left behind. Other days, I wonder how anything can be so challenging! Thank goodness I am not teaching Isaac values and morals yet!


Anyway, I hope Kristin doesn't mind that I shared part of our conversation on the interweb. I just spent quite some time ruminating on this in lieu of sleep last night. Anyway, a picture of my current boss just because you read this long-winded ramble:

Team Spirit

I got a wonderful treat this morning!  The mommies from my New-Mom's group got together for brunch.  Our husbands took care of the boys, so the girls got a chance to do our hair, make-up, and I even wore a skirt!  Woohoo!  Stephanie and I got very nutritious Bloody Marys.  Valeria, Allison, and Candy opted for mimosas.

Because the Hokies are playing JMU in football today, I got Isaac into some of his Hokie-wear when I got home (as I was already in my Hokie Girl shirt).  I believe this outfit is from Todd's cousin, Doug.  Here is a quick shot of us!  In case you don't remember, this is what I look like when I'm all cleaned up and wearing minimal baby drool...
Isaac is saying "Go Hokies!"

He likes this outfit.  He has a couple of new onesies from VT, as well, but we need to wash them before they can be worn (so don't worry, Aunt Krissy, they're here).

OK, one last picture.  Just for good measure...  :o)

2 Isaac Videos

The camera work on these is a shoddy, but they were too fun not to share.  They are shots of our favorite baby, so hopefully you'll forgive me.

In the last 2 days, Isaac has found this fun new thing...  his tongue.  He is totally hilarious as he sticks his tongue out and back in and tries to figure it out.  I was holding a mirror in front of him earlier today so he could watch his own silliness.

After I finished filming this one, we were being silly while I still had him on the changing table.  I was trying to blow raspberries on his belly.  He LOVES this and will just laugh and laugh as soon as I take a deep breath!  The only problem is that he tends to get a handful of my hair right at the roots.  So I have to keep doing it.  :o)  There are worse problems to have, right?  His laugh is so infectious that I just couldn't resist taking a video, even though it's really not the best film-work ever recorded.

Nestle to the Vet

I took Nestle to the vet this morning.


A few months ago, he started peeing on a section of carpet in the den area.  We attributed this to Isaac's arrival for two reasons:  1)  Nestle very rarely got any attention because he already refused to be in a room with Jackson and now didn't want to be near Isaac, either, and 2) we weren't great about cleaning out his litter box.  So...  Todd pulled up the section of carpet in question and replaced the padding and will hopefully replace the carpet once the hardwood floors are installed.  Nestle was locked in the bathroom for 3 days to get reacquainted with his friend, the litter box.  I tried to clean out the litter box every morning.  Nestle got over some of his avoidance of Isaac and would come around so I could occasionally pet him.  Then, I got tired of Jackson "helping" us clean out the litter box, so I turned the box to make it harder for Jackson to put his head in it.  Theoretically, Nestle should still be able to get into the opening and should like it because it's more of a confined space now (which he generally likes).  In actuality, the shower curtain partially covered the opening.  As Nestle doesn't particularly care for using the box anyway, he decided to use the carpet in our office instead of the litter box.  <<sigh>>  This earned him another couple of days locked in the bathroom with his food, water, and the turned-back-to-its-original-position box.  That was last week.  We have had the office door closed so that Nestle can't get in to further soil the carpet.  Two days ago, we found ANOTHER spot on the den carpet that Nestle recently used.  This one is across the room from his original location.  More carpet cleaning, plus 2 more days in the bathroom until there was time to take him to the vet.  Today, they are checking some things and looking for an infection via some urine samples and blood work.  The total for this is going to be in the neighborhood of $300.  Add that to the cost of carpet pad, the little Feliway refills I have purchased (it's like kitty Prozac in the form of a Glade plug-in), and the amount of therapy I'm going to need from the stress of having our cat destroy the carpet in ANOTHER house...  I am thinking I will ask the vet if they'd like to keep him.

Isaac is 5 Months Old!

Isaac is growing up as fast as everyone warned he would!  Yesterday, he hit 5 months.  He is 25 1/2 inches long, but I haven't had a chance to weigh him yet.  I'm hoping to head to Special Addition here in Austin tomorrow to weigh him.  It's a store I've been meaning to check out.  Supposedly they have a scale there to weigh babies.  If not, I may just call the doctor's office and ask if I can use one of theirs if I promise to clean up afterwards.  Here is our Blue Bear comparison:

We spent some time hanging out with our friends Candy and Henry yesterday.  Henry is a couple weeks older than Isaac.  It's sort of like having a little preview into the things Isaac will be doing soon.  As of right now, Isaac can grab both feet:

I keep trying to get a shot of him attempting to eat his foot, but the camera is just too interesting and it captures his attention.  He really wants to eat the wrist strap attached to it:

Isaac has been sleeping pretty poorly for the last couple of weeks.  I have been told that it was a phase they hit at 4 months old.  My friend Daphne's son drove her nuts that month (he's 1 now).  She said they were beyond exhaustion.  I know what she means!  Another friend, Stephanie, has a son 2 days older than Isaac.  Her son, Cash, has been waking about every 90 minutes for a couple of weeks.  At least Isaac is about every 2 hours - not great but at least a little longer!  Anyway, the night before last, Isaac slept for 6 straight hours.  Hooray!!!  Granted, after that, he  was awake about every 45-60 minutes, but at least Mommy got some sleep.  Last night, however, was terrific.  First of all, Isaac was in a great mood in the evening.  He was awake and playful in his high chair while Todd and I ate our dinner.  After dinner, I nursed him while Todd and I watched a little TV.  Isaac fell asleep around 10 o'clock (he took a short, late nap) and slept until 1:30.  I fed him then and again at 3:30.  Normally, he would then be up again at 5:15.  Last night, I noticed when he started to stir, so I started to pat his back in the bassinet.  He managed to re-settle and drift back to sleep.  That's the first time he has EVER skipped his 5:15 wake-up!  Woohoo!!!  I feel like a million bucks today!  :o)  Our little sleeper: