Just Say "No" to Finger Food

We got Isaac some of the Gerber Fruit Puffs.  Actually, we got him a *lot* of them because they were at Sam's Club.  He's not such a fan.

When he did finally get the puff in his mouth, he made terrible faces and spit it out as soon as he could get it to unstick from his tongue, where it was dissolving.  It was entertaining to watch, although he didn't seem to find it nearly as amusing as Todd and I did.  Perhaps if we shaped it like a plug or set it in the dog's bowl it would be more appealing.  LOL


Isaac's greatly enjoys standing.  He's still not a great crawler, but can now easily go from a crawl to a sit.  This is new within the last few days.  He has pulled himself to a stand a couple of times in his crib, though not today.  He can easily pull himself to his knees from a seated position and is very proud of himself when he does.  Here's a quick shot of the Isaac "making a stand."

Home Sweet Construction Zone

Todd's been working hard on the master bathroom for the last few days.  He's gotten quite a bit done!  The tile floor is down, grouted, and sealed.  He has cut the holes in the ceiling for the surround-sound speakers.  The vanity is in the room, though not yet attached to the wall.  The counter guy has come and measured, so we'll have a counter this week or next.  There is a door hung in the door frame to enter the room.  Today, Todd tiled the front of the bath tub and cut the tile for most of the "deck" surrounding the tub.  I think it looks amazing so far!  (Parents:  we are keeping the door closed so that Isaac is *NEVER* in the room unless someone is carrying him).

Several people have asked me what Todd and I are going to do when the house is finished.  I generally just want to laugh at this question.  Todd's working on the master bath now - including finishing the tile work on the tub and the shower and installing a toilet.  Then he'll need to put up doors for the master closet and hall closet.  Once that's complete, we need to finish the laundry room because it is about 5 degrees warmer in there than outside.  There's still some minor finish work to be done on the stairwell, plus the trim in the nursery and master bedrooms and under the stairs, in addition to installing shelves and a hanging rod in the downstairs closet.  He's going to set up the whole-house audio at some point since all of the wiring is run and he's gotten most of the equipment.  I believe we would also like to park our vehicles in the garage someday, too, so we'll need to sift through whatever is in there after the indoor projects are complete to determine how best to organize it.


My sister is working on designing a new front porch for us.  It's going to be 2 levels and we'll be able to walk out from the office and the master bedroom.  We're hiring someone to do that.  We're going to have the windows and the siding replaced at the same time.  Hopefully that can be done outside while other projects are still in progress inside.


Assuming all of these things are completed someday, we're going to begin work on an outdoor kitchen/entertaining area.  We'd like to have a smoker and a fire pit.  Autumn is so nice here in the evenings that we expect to get a lot of use out of such a space.


Whenever that is done, Todd would really love to purchase a small plot of land from the park next door.  He wants to build a nice large garage where he can also have a workshop.  We're also thinking that someday we might like to build on over our existing garage.


As you can see, we still have several years' worth of projects in front of us.  This is why I find it so amusing when I'm asked what we'll do when we finish.  I don't doubt that this house will continue to keep us busy for many years to come!

Tile in the Bathroom

Hark!  The tile floor is down in the bathroom!  The tile and the grout are down, but it hasn't been sealed yet.  Progress!!!

Isaac's First Christmas!

Isaac certainly had an enjoyable first Christmas.  He got lots of new toys, some new clothes, and a child-size table and chairs.  His favorite parts were, of course, the wrapping paper and the boxes.  I took several photos of Isaac in front of the tree, per my mom's request.  This was Christmas Eve, before Santa came.

As you can see, Isaac is curious about the camera and what Mom is doing and would rather not sit still for a photo op.  :o)  Our little adventurer...


Here's a little insight into trying to get a good photo pose (after we took away a gift for Todd and swapped it with a gift for Isaac):

This was Isaac opening his very first present, a bunch of stacking cups from Todd's Aunt Nancy and Uncle Rod.  These were a huge hit.

Isaac played with each of his toys as they were opened.  I enjoyed it because I understand that it's only going to be that way for a few years before the excitement is opening the next gift instead of playing with the toy he's just seen.

He decided he needed a nap about 5 minutes after I finished this video.  He opened 4 gifts, took a nap, then opened more gifts.  It was a fun way to draw out the excitement of Christmas.

We had an outstanding feast last night.  I had originally thought I would bake a goose, but reconsidered after reading that I would have to siphon off the fat every 20 minutes and, oh, by the way, goose fat is highly *flammable*.  The ham was great (and low maintenance)!

At our Thanksgiving feast, Isaac was sick.  I remember thinking that we were unbelievably blessed with all the wonderful things that happened this year.  I still feel the same way a month later.  2010 has been the most incredible year!


We ended our day with a Skype call to my sister and her family in Virginia.  We saw lots of people because Dave's daughters were also there and Mom was staying with them.  It was snowing there and we got to see the accumulation through the windows.  They loved the white Christmas and were not-so-secretly hoping the girls would get snowed in and "have" to stay a few extra days.  It was so good to be able to see them as we talked.  The girls are 14, 12, and 11.  Todd and I haven't seen them in 3 years now, though I try to keep up with the oldest on Facebook.  I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all of them, even if I can't get a hug through Skype.

On the Move

Isaac is getting better at crawling every day.  Before I know it, I won't be able to keep up with him!  I'm sure he'd prefer that.  LOL  He currently does a "zombie crawl."  This is similar to a military crawl in that he's on his tummy, but different because his back end is dead weight.  He also does a little bit of "real" crawling, but he's faster with the zombie crawl.


He also pulled himself to a stand in his crib the other day, but not on camera.  This video does not come close to capturing it, but is so cute that I have to share it.  This is Isaac about 5 minutes after he was standing in his crib.  He's very pleased with himself when he learns something new and he was in a playful mood.

Yesterday, I was getting ready to take a shower.  I plopped Isaac into his swing so that he'd be able to hang out in the bathroom and breathe some steam to help him breathe a little better.  I walked out of the room and came back to find this.  He was having the time of his life on this thing!

My dad came to visit us for a couple of days this weekend and I totally forgot to take any photos. I'm pretty annoyed with myself for that...  Ho hum.  We may plan to visit him the next time, though, so we can get some of the seafood he keeps talking about.  Yum!

Sick Baby = No Updates

Isaac has been super-snotty for about a week now.  The poor little thing wants only to sleep in someone's arms and semi-upright so he can breathe.  Today, he fell asleep in his swing while I was in the shower, so I left him in the steamy bathroom.  I have the door open so I'll hear him when he awakes.  Hey, don't judge.  I've been holding him for most of the last 4 days.


He's getting closer to crawling when he will let me put him down to play.  I have started crawling on the floor like a lunatic, which Isaac finds amusing.


This is the monthly picture with Blue Bear.  I took it a few days ago, but this is the first time I've had a chance to blog since then.  The bear is starting to look smaller!  I am sorry the picture is sideways.  I have no idea what's going on with it - it's the second time I've uploaded it because it was too large to fit on the screen the last time.  I've never had this problem before...

In other news, Todd finished all of the trimwork downstairs.  We are counting the stairs themselves as a separate entity.  :o)  He'll finish those in a few days while he's off at Christmas.  My dad is visiting us this weekend, so I am not sure whether Todd will have a chance to work on the trim then.  

Trimwork

I have been meaning to post this since Sunday.  Sorry for the delay!  I know you've been wondering what has happened around the house lately.  Todd has gotten most of the baseboards up, but still needs to do some caulking around them and touching up the paint.  Still on the list for baseboards are the hall closet and the pantry.  He is not speculating when he'll be finished, but I'm hoping it will be by Christmas.  I'm not holding my breath, though, since we've had lots to distract us the last few weeks.  This weekend's priority is going to be baby-proofing since we're soon going to have a crawler...  Here are a few photos to highlight our most recent updates.


The pantry door; first it's closed, then slightly ajar.  This way you can see that it says "Pantry" on the glass part.  The light switch is in the door frame, so it turns on when the door is opened and off when the door closes.

The new 8'-long picnic table that Todd made:

Repairs to the fireplace.  The stones came off the side when the paneling was removed, although I didn't hear exactly how/why that happened.

A comparison between the old TV and the new.  And Todd's creepy mustache from Mo'vember...  I think it was to bring awareness to men's health - maybe prostate health?  We are now onto Decem-beard...

The now painted and finished front door surround.  It looks incredible.  Todd did a great job.

Still Not Crawling...

... but ever closer.  I think Isaac will probably be crawling by this weekend.  He has started to get up on all four, and then rocks backwards and forwards with all of his might (it's actually what woke me up yesterday, since he was doing it in his cosleeper and the whole thing was rocking)!  Now, he pushes way up on his hands and ends up pushing himself backwards.  While this doesn't sound like he's going in the right direction, he actually has stopped rolling to get around as of last night.  Up until last night, that's how he's gotten everywhere he's gone.


Last night, he wanted a cup on the floor behind him.  He looked back over his shoulder, pushed himself back a couple of times, then spun around on his tummy and grabbed the cup.  It was pretty cool to watch him doing  some problem-solving all on his own.  Also, if you look in the background, you will notice there are baseboards in this video!

8 Months!

Isaac has reached the ripe old age of 8 months!  I didn't even realize it was December until last night.  LOL


As a small nod to celebration, Isaac got to eat something sweet as his new food today.  I am not as adventurous as my friend Stephanie, who gave her little man a cupcake on his 6-month birthday.  Of course, Cash didn't eat more than a bite of cupcake, but he also doesn't have Isaac's tummy issues...  I gave Isaac some apples!  He seemed to like them, though not as much as the green beans.  Weirdo.

Happy Birthday, Isaac!

Christmas Photos

I was trying to get a cute photo of Isaac for our holiday letter this year.  My friend, Candy, let us use her son, Henry's, Santa outfit.  It's too small for Henry and it was huge on Isaac.  Isaac was more cooperative during the photo session than I thought he would be and we had a usable photo within 10 minutes.  Thank goodness!  I had set up a little wagon with a sack of toys, and a few of his little toys in it.  He wanted to play with the toys...

And the leaves in the grass...

And then he wasn't so sure about the hat...

But we did have fun playing with the idea of Christmas photos and we got one that I really like, so we'll call it a win.

Green Beans

There are two different schools of thought on green beans between the adults in our house.


Todd will eat them now, but there's a story from his youth that bears repeating.  When Todd grew up, there was a rule in there house that you had to meet as many veggies as you were old.  For example, a 3-year-old had to eat 3 green beans.  One night, as Todd was procrastinating eating his green beans, he looked at his dad and said, "Dad, what does ROT taste like?"


Green beans are, however, my favorite vegetable.  I love them.


What did Isaac think?

A "Peary" Good Eater

Sorry for the lack of recent posts.  There was something wrong with the computer and I couldn't upload any photos or videos from the camera.  Todd messed with it this morning and it seems to be working now.  I didn't think you'd care to read my posts without visual aids...  LOL


Isaac wasn't quite sold on pears the first day he tried them, but by Day 3, he was quite a fan.  He ate every bit of his pears in short order.

Elisabeth's (and Matt's) baby girl, Bailey Ann, made her debut at 1:17 on Thursday morning.  She was 20 inches long and weighed 6 lbs. 13 oz.  By all accounts, she is *perfect*!!!  Congratulations to the new parents!