Not Much To Tell

...But I get calls from Nana if I don't post anything for too long.  LOL

This was taken a couple of days ago when Isaac was feeling a little better.  He is normally very vocal, but is apparently camera-shy.  He seems to have a good day, then a bad day, then a good day with the sickies...  He feels a little warm to me today, but that could just be because my hands are little blocks of ice.  Thank God I live in Texas!  It's in the 50's and I am a popsicle.


Unfortunately, even though Isaac seems to be feeling better, I've gotten a cold.  I'm hopeful that it's the same thing Isaac (and Todd) had.  Otherwise, I'm probably going to get the poor little guy sick again...  Today, in an attempt to get out of the house and not have to *do* anything, we went to another Baby Day showing of Harry Potter.  We went with our friend, Maureen, last week, but I loved it and decided to go again today.  Isaac mostly napped through the movie both times, which is wonderful when I'm the entertainment committee.


In other news, my cousin Elisabeth is being induced tomorrow and is already in the hospital this evening.  They are starting her on Cervidil tonight - this sounds a lot like how we got to meet our sweet Isaac nearly 8 months ago!  My thoughts and prayers are with her and her husband, Matt.  I hope things go very smoothly for them and little Miss Bailey makes an entrance sooner, rather than later.

Ford GT (AKA: a Car I will Never Own)

When we went to Rudy's for breakfast, this amazing car was parked in the parking lot.

Todd and I looked it over and saw that it was signed in several places by different people.  Suffice it to say that I'm unlikely to ever own a car that people want to sign...


As we ate breakfast, Todd and I speculated on the owner.  Todd guessed it would be a man in his 50's.  I decided he would be divorced with no children.


On our way out of Rudy's, I stopped to take this picture.  The owner of the car, who was exactly the person Todd and I expected him to be, saw me and told me it would cost $1.00.  I laughed and told him it was a nice looking ride.  He told me I needed to sit in it.  !!!  I didn't need much convincing!  He asked if I had anything sharp in my pockets.  Apparently the seats are $7,000/each.  That's more than the value of my entire car.  LOL

It was definitely an experience!  The car sits really low, which made it interesting to get in and out.  The doors actually open half of the roof at a time, but it makes it easier to get a picture taken.  LOL  The guy said he'd just driven down to San Antonio and written a check for the car when he bought it 5 years ago.  They were originally listed at $300K, but he waited until the prices became "more reasonable."  It still cost more than our house...  It was fun to sit in the car and I will remember it for a long time to come!

Thanksgiving 2010

Let's just say that today did not go at all as planned.  We *thought* we were going to spend the morning at home and then head over to dinner at the Stolpes' house around 2:00.  However, Isaac woke up with a fever this morning (I knew he slept too well last night!).  His temperature hovered at around 101 degrees all day.  Poor little guy.  He wanted someone to hold him at all times and wanted to sleep most of the day.  It worked out alright for us.  We had most of the fixin's in the pantry, so Todd went out to get turkey to complete the meal.  We had turkey, dressing, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and gravy.  It was a darn good dinner; if I do say so myself.  The green bean casserole was the trickiest part.  It had to be dairy-free.  So I used Golden Mushroom soup instead of the standard Cream of Mushroom.  That should have been the biggest change to the recipe.  It wasn't.  After I'd started to put the food together, I realized that I didn't have any more plain rice milk - only chocolate and vanilla.  I had used the last 2 cups of plain milk to make (also dairy-free) potato soup last night!  Oh no!!!  The solution?  Mix some of the potato soup in with the Golden Mushroom in order to thicken up the sauce for the casserole.  It wasn't all bad, actually.  I'm not saying it would be my first choice, but...

We also had a bit of a surreal experience this morning.  I was afraid of going stir crazy because Isaac wanted to be constantly held, he was tired, and I wasn't sure how fussy he was going to be as the day wore on.  I suggested we go for a walk as a chance to get out of the house a bit.  Isaac is generally calmer outside and I thought he'd be less restless on a walk.  As we left the house, it was 76.8 degrees.  I had on a tank top and jeans and even suggested to Todd that he trade his jeans for a pair of shorts before we left.  There were some dark clouds overhead, but we figured we'd walk the 1.5 miles quickly enough that it wouldn't be a problem.  For those of you familiar with our neighborhood, we walked out across the bridge behind the house and through the wooded area into the next section of our neighborhood.  We'd only gone about a block after the woods ended (less than 1/2 mile from the house), when the wind started to pick up.  As we walked into the headwind, there was a sudden cold burst of air.  It lasted maybe 3 seconds or so.  It was odd - like that feeling when you're swimming in a lake and hit a sudden cold spot.  Then it was gone just as quickly.  Roughly 20 seconds later, another cold wave of air washed over us.  This one just kept going and it was really cold!  The wind never warmed up again.  We actually only took a few more steps before deciding to turn around and go home the way we'd come.  We were gone less than 20 minutes.  I checked the temps when we returned home.  It was 63.2 degrees!  WOW!!!  It isn't every day that you get to feel the temperature drop almost 15 degrees in as many minutes!  It's now in the 40's outside and is supposed to get into the 30's tonight.  We have freeze warnings in effect for tomorrow evening.  It finally feels more like Thanksgiving weather, though, and Todd lit a wonderful fire in the fireplace for us this evening.


I hope Isaac enjoyed his first Thanksgiving with us.  Todd and I certainly did.  Even if it wasn't what we had planned, it was one of the best ones I think I've had!  It was a reminder to be thankful for our family and the chance to spend the day together.  Todd took a break from his many projects and we got some good, quality family time today.


Now, for the part you really wanted, a video of Isaac.  It's a couple of days old, but he really didn't do anything you'd want to see on video today.

Funksgiving 2010

Funksgiving is, without a doubt, one of my favorite annual celebrations.  Each year, on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, we gather together with close friends, a deep fryer, and some alcohol to celebrate.  It's an awesome celebration for a lot of reasons.  We have a lot of the same crowd each year, but we always introduce a few new people to the fun at every celebration.  I also do VERY little cooking for this as we ask everyone to bring a side dish or dessert  - we offer the location, at least one turkey, and stuffing.


Last year, we celebrated at our house.  To give you an idea of how far we've come, these are pics from last year's celebration:

The top picture was taken while standing in the living room, looking into the kitchen and, past that, into the dining room.  (I look enormous because I'm about 5 months pregnant).  Our friend Robert Jackson helped to string the holiday lights from the ceiling just before the party got started.  We did all of our "kitchen" work in the laundry room, which was our temporary kitchen.  The floors where everyone was standing were all exposed concrete.  The only walls downstairs with wallboard on them were in the laundry room and the den.  The walls in the den were not painted and had "Panel" written on all of them to denote that paneling was to be added there (we had torn down the paneling a few weeks prior to the party).


In addition to having a proper kitchen this year,

we also had a totally new group of friends!

The guys still spent most of their time outside hovering around the fire and the turkey fryer.  It was in the 70's and overcast most of the day, so the weather was just about perfect.

And the Walter family managed to get its "Funk" on.

Happy Funksgiving!!!

Settling In...Still

Last week, we got a little more settled into the house.  Isaac "helped" me unpack a few more boxes in the master bedroom.  There are only a couple of boxes left in the master, then we get to move on to the much more challenging guest room.  I am donating to Goodwill every couple of weeks as I clear out more things that we haven't seen/used/needed in over a year...

Before the Funksgiving festivities started on Saturday, Todd got the pot racks hung in the pantry and we were finally able to clear the floor and counter space of pots, pans, and lids.  Hooray!

I have been asking for a picnic table for a few months now.  Especially with the cooler weather rolling in, I'd like to be able to eat dinner, and maybe even a few lunches, outside.  I was thinking we would buy one, but Todd, of course, had other ideas.  He found instructions to make an 8' long table.

One of the next steps will be baby-proofing.  Isaac is more mobile every day!  It's a good thing Todd has a 4-day weekend coming up because I think we're going to need it to make the house a little safer for the mini-man.

Boys, Boys, Boys!

Yesterday Isaac and I hosted our friends.  We had a great visit with Allison and Anderson, Candy and Henry, Valeria and Nico, and Stephanie and Cash.  This group is the original group of mommas and babies that started meeting back in May.  My, what a long way we've come in a short amount of time!  Nico and Anderson can crawl anywhere they want now and Anderson even took a few steps for us yesterday!  At one point, I put Isaac in his ExerSaucer so I could work on lunch for the mommies.  When I got back, Nico and Anderson had joined in on the fun.  Henry was not to be left out, so we have a little video of all of the boys playing around the toy.  Isaac is, of course, in the middle of the toy.  From the left are Nico, Anderson, and Henry.  Cash hadn't arrived yet when we captured this quick moment of fun.

Our gatherings have gotten much louder over the months.  Now that the boys are more mobile and more chatty, we are a much noisier group!  We also finish far fewer sentences - we'll start to talk about something and then get distracted when one of the boys moves to close to another or steals someone else's toy.  It's a much livelier group!  I am so glad we can look forward to this each week!

Sitting Up!

Isaac has really gotten the hang of sitting up in the last few days.  He was sitting pretty well before, but now he's better able to right himself if he starts to tip over.

I did manage to give him a bath by myself yesterday.  I put less water in his tub and turned him in it so he faces the other direction.  This gives him better back support, so he's less apt to end up with his face in the water.


Isaac has also started a great deal more babbling.  Not that our house was all that quiet before, but now it's even less so.  I am having fun with it because he's making "M" sounds, so some of it sounds like Mom or Momma.  I was just telling Todd last night that it's funny that I'm so eager for him to say Mom.  In another few years, I'll probably be sick of hearing the word!  LOL  I can remember the following exchange from when my sister and I were kids:
Kristin or me:  "MOM!!" (for the bazillionth time that day)
Mom:  "She changed her name."
Kristin or me:  "What did she change it to?"
Mom:  "I'm not telling you."

Isaac's First Allergy Test

Isaac and I went to the pediatric allergist for the first time today.  She had the results from his earlier blood tests.  It shows he is not allergic to dairy, but is allergic to eggs.  This is good and bad.  Isaac is lactose intolerant, even if he's not allergic to dairy products, so I am still not able to add them back to my diet.  I am a little bummed to hear that he is allergic to eggs, too, though.  This makes things like flu shots more challenging if we choose to get them.  I haven't completely eliminated eggs from my diet, nor do I intend to do that.  I will just try not to eat them too often.  I am already reading all of the labels for milk products and I avoid them completely.  I just don't think eggs cause quite as severe a reaction, so I'm less worried.  The allergist ordered some additional blood tests, so we went upstairs to the lab and he had to have his arms stabbed.  Again.  Darn it.  The tech at this lab was MUCH better, however, and Isaac didn't shed so much as a tear.  He was quite a little champ!


The doctor also prescribed Isaac a new lotion for his eczema.  She said there are no steroids in the cream, which was a concern for me, but that it can be used to prevent some of the flare-ups. I forgot to get the scrip filled on our way home (3.5 hours after we originally left the house!), so I'll have to let you know how that works a little later.


In other news, autumn has definitely arrived in Austin.  The trees in our front yard are changing colors and we're bundling up in jackets when we go out.  We went for a family walk (minus Nestle) on Saturday morning.  Isaac's new hat was just what he needed to keep his little bald head warm!

He also got in some play time with Dad and Jackson in the afternoon while Mom and Dad watched some football.  Jackson is getting a little more interested in Isaac.

Auntie Kristin and Uncle Dave got Isaac a "Hug-A-Bible" for his baptism.  Isaac is totally captivated by the soft cover on the outside of the book.  I've read him the stories, but he also just enjoys playing with the cover on it.

Baseboards, Part 1

Todd got started on the baseboards this past weekend.  It really finished out everything very nicely.  We are eager to see the finished product!  It really looks nice so far.  He's gotten most of the kitchen in place and still needs to touch up the nail holes before a final paint job.

He's also gotten the bottom molding put in place around the cabinets.  It really looks sharp!!

Just Another Day

There's not much to report from Austin today since I managed to get 3 posts up last night.  Isaac is currently sleeping, although I forgot to give him his Tylenol, so we'll see how long it lasts...  We went to Crawlers/Toddlers yoga this morning and he crashed for a really good nap in the car on the way home.  I just had to take every back-road available to make sure he was in the car long enough and didn't wake up the second I walked him into the house.  When he woke up, I gave him some milk before feeding him some squash.  I guess I'd fed him too much before this because he doesn't normally make as big a mess as he did today.  He had fun with his squash.  I got some cute pictures that I just have to share.

I did take the spoon away when I got concerned that he was going to either choke or impale himself on it.  :o)


After the squash explosion, of course, I had to give Isaac a bath.  This was an interesting experience because we took out the little piece he used to be able to "sit" on in his little tub.  I seriously thought he was going to drown himself.  With me there.  Holding on to him with both hands.  He scared me half to death, although he didn't seem to notice.  He is able to sit up well enough in the tub - unless I'm rubbing soap on him.  That makes him a bit wobbly and then he just tries to put his face in the water.  As you might imagine, I'm not such a fan of that.


Isaac is pushing up ever farther on his arms.  Today, he managed to push himself backwards some with his arms, so he's starting to realize he can use them for mobility.

Here's a quick video.  He was quite the energetic little fellow this afternoon.  (Mom, for the record, Nestle walked by just after I turned off the camera, so Isaac started gunning for him, instead).

Daily Elvis

Isaac turned 7 months old on Monday.  I can't believe how quickly my little boy is growing!

He's gotten so much stronger over the last few days and weeks it's really incredible.  This one is for Nana - Isaac can get his foot into his mouth.  Proof that he is my son as I am notorious for putting my foot in my mouth!

He is able to sit for longer periods of time, usually without too much wobbling.

He is learning to make new expressions.

Isaac is also much more able to move himself around and get to his toys.  My brother-in-law, Dave, has estimated about 2-3 weeks before we have a crawler on our hands.  We have a LOT of baby-proofing to do between now and then!

Isaac's teething has made things a little more interesting at our house.  First of all, there's been very little sleep for the last few nights.  I talked to Mom tonight about Isaac needing a change of activity every 15 minutes or so and she suggested that I dance with him.  A tangent:  one of my sister's coworkers has a theory that Elvis is so ingrained into our culture that we are exposed to something Elvis-like every single day.  We refer to this as the Daily Elvis.  This was my Daily Elvis today:

Wednesdays

I am sure I've mentioned this before, but I'll say it again.  Wednesday is my favorite day.  Last week, we met for our moms/babies group at my friend Marielk's house.  It was a lot of fun to see the older boys (Isaac and Henry) playing with Jackson.  Jackson's about 6 weeks younger than Isaac, but he's learning a lot of the same skills that Henry and Isaac are mastering.  Pretty nifty!
They are all learning to roll to get somewhere.  Henry's pretty much an ace on this:

Jackson's not far behind, though:

It's also good because the boys generally get in a little nap at some point during our meetings, but the mommies are still able to hang out and talk.

Unfortunately, a couple of our members have recently returned to work.  One of these members is Marielk, who hosted last week with her sweet little Christopher.  This week, we were back to Stephanie's house, which is always a fun place to gather (since I take over the biggest, comfiest chair)!  Isaac was "bullying" Henry for the toy Henry was using by trying to beat him up with another toy.  It sounds like all of the boys are teething now, too, which makes for some interesting playtime.

They did eventually get better... Or maybe we just decided to separate them after a few little encounters.

Cash showed off some of his new dance moves:

And Henry crashed for a really long nap.

All of the "original" group of boys are able to sit up now.  The other girls were able to get a few shots of Isaac, Henry, and Cash all sitting together, but I wasn't quite as quick with the shutter as they were.  Here's a quick glimpse of Isaac and his pal, Henry, though.

Godparents

Isaac was baptized on November 7, 2010.  My sister and brother-in-law agreed to be Isaac's godparents.  They arrived for the blessed event late Friday night.  They immediately set about spoiling him rotten (not that they weren't already doing that with their nephew)!!

Isaac wore a sweet little linen outfit that Judy and I found.  It was just perfect because the rector's (priest's) assistant had called to tell me not to put him in a hot, satin gown for the baptism.

The baptism itself was a wonderful event and the service was beautiful.  Isaac was baptized by Susan Barnes, the same priest who conducted our premarital counseling 8+ years ago.  Todd and I were happy about this because we've felt a stronger connection to her over the years (even if we haven't been regular churchgoers).

After the service, we had a shindig at our house with enough food for an entire army.  Dave Baum stepped up to the plate as grill-master and the food was great!

In a fun twist, Dave and Kristin were supposed to leave for Virginia on Monday afternoon.  As it turned out, a bird flew into their airplane as it was landing in Austin, so their flight was delayed and they ended up staying another night.  What a great bonus!!!  They got a little more time to spend with Isaac and then left Tuesday morning.

Teeth!

Isaac has been a little more needy for the last couple of days.  I honestly attributed it to having 6 adults doting on him instead of just the usual 2.  Yesterday, we couldn't do any activity for more than about 15 minutes before he started getting fussy.  I was actually much more patient with this than I normally would have been, though, which is good.  I didn't even get a shower until Todd got home about 6:30, though...  Anyway, last night (as well as the night before), Isaac woke up about 45 minutes after I'd put him to bed and would *not* go back to sleep.  Both nights, I rocked him and nursed him and played a little, but nothing would get him back to bed.  So he ended up staying up a couple of extra hours both nights.  Finally, around 10:15 last night when I was doing a final attempt at getting him to bed, Isaac leaned back from nursing and sort of stretched.  I put my finger in his mouth and felt his 2 bottom teeth coming in!  No wonder he's been so out of sorts!!!  I'll see if I can get some pictures with the Moms' Group meeting today.

Games with Grandparents

We had a wonderful visit with Todd's parents as they were in town for the last week and a half.  They left yesterday morning to get back to Maryland before heading up to Pennsylvania.  Isaac had lots of fun with both of his grandparents.  Todd's dad introduced Isaac to a tickling spider:

Isaac also mastered sitting up while Todd's parents were here.  What a difference a week makes!!!  We couldn't believe his progress.  It's now much more interesting to try to give Isaac a bath because he wants to roll over and/or sit up in his little tub.  (He also wants to roll across the counter when I set him on it post-bath to apply some lotion and put his diaper on).  He is able to sit unassisted for a minute or more now, but not long enough that I can actually take his little butt rest out of his tub.  Maybe in a few more days...  This is his must-get-out-of-tub testing yesterday.

Anyway, he sits better than this now, but here's a fun little video from Saturday where he was just getting the hang of it.  (And let's face it, video of him sitting still isn't nearly as fun).  It's now possible to see measurable differences in his skills from one day to the next.  Unbelievable!

Grandpa wasn't the only one who got Isaac giggling, either.  Grandma also got in on some play time and some sweet snuggles:

Finally, Jackson also got some attention from the grandparents.  What a relief!  The poor pets have been so neglected over the last 7 months.  It was good for them to have a little love lavished upon them.

In addition to purposely playing with Isaac, we played a great deal of Mexican Train (dominoes) while the grandparents, and then also godparents, were in town.  Isaac helped Grandpa by knocking all of his tiles down with one of his toys.

Give Peas a Chance

Isaac sampled peas for the first time today.  It was definitely more of a success than his last "green" food!  It sure beats avocado.  It almost makes me wonder if he can really be my child - I love avocado and I totally hate peas.


I apologize for the shaky video.  I set the camera on top of Isaac's high chair tray and he kicks the tray when he's excited.

Fun Weekend

Last weekend was super-busy!  First, Todd mounted Isaac's swing on Saturday morning.  Grandma and I kept Isaac occupied while Dad and Grandpa mounted the swing.

After the swing was hung, we all went to the Tour de Fat.  This is a beer festival hosted by New Belgium Brewing (makers of Fat Tire).  They visit several cities each year and Austin is on the list.  We haven't been in a couple of years.  The last time Todd and I went, we attended with our friends Kyle and Mo, whose daughter was only about 1 month old at the time.  Thankfully, we were able to meet up with them again this year for Isaac's first beer festival.  Isaac spent most of his time hanging out in his Ergo and even took a little nap on his daddy.

Once the festival fun was over, we headed over to Chuy's for some grub.

Then we went home and Isaac got to play in his new swing a bit more.  (Don't worry, Todd didn't let go of him while he was this high up)!

Sunday was the big day, though.  Isaac's first (and our 9th) Wurst Fest!!!  For those of you not versed in the awesomeness that is Wurst Fest, it's a 10-day celebration of sausage.  We had a great time!!!

Isaac was a little champ during Wurst Fest.  He napped on both Todd and me throughout the day.  He wasn't fussy and he didn't mind the loud music at all.

As evening turned into night, the weather got a bit cooler, so we put Isaac into his Halloween costume.  I added a hat to my own wardrobe, as well.  For warmth, of course...