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Before having Isaac, I didn’t really believe moms who said they had trouble getting their kids to sit still to change their diapers.  I figured it was somehow their failing to get the child to be still.  I mean, how could a little 15# kid best a full grown adult?  Well, I admit it.  I was wrong.  I never had a problem with Ethan, yeah he squirmed sometimes but overall he sat pretty still for that and I could control him.  Isaac is an entirely different child.  He is just about the squirmiest kid I have ever seen in my life!  He rarely sits still for more than a few seconds at a time, and since he has recently started pulling himself up on furniture and cruising around it, he sits even less than before.  So he makes diaper changing time, let’s just say it’s more interesting.  I usually can keep him still long enough to undo his diaper and get it partway off before he starts flipping himself over, not fun when most diapers contain at least some #2 (he also does this more than most kids I’ve ever met!).  The kid only weighs just over 15# (he actually lost about half a pound while he was sick last week, not the best for an already small peanut) but he has the strength of, well, almost of me.  I feel like I’m going to wrench his poor little hip out of socket while I’m trying to keep his legs still to wipe him down!  And of course any sort of restraint just infuriates him.  He doesn’t get it yet that if he would just hold still for a few seconds he would be done and could get down in about half the time.  Instead we spend twice as long trying to hold him still enough to get the job done.  Of course, we knew his squirminess would be an issue from the moment I first felt him move, a full month before his brother, and the intensity of the kicks.   It is fun to watch him get around though, he started crawling around 6 months and has only gotten faster since.  Ryan predicts he’ll be walking within the next 3 weeks, we’ll see!  His health is doing much better now, the final diagnosis was pneumonia.  And he actually did really well for all the nebulizer treatments.  I didn’t think he would sit still for those since they took about 20 minutes each, but he sat still the whole time.  And it wasn’t because he wasn’t feeling well, because except for his cough you couldn’t even tell he was sick!  But now, 6 visits to the pediatrician later, he has been declared well.  Until he picks up another virus, probably tomorrow.

Well, about this time last year Ethan ended up at Children’s overnight with croup and we were back today, this time with Isaac.  Fortunately, his case was not nearly as severe, and we were able to go home after he received a dose of steroids.   Hopefully that will work it’s magic to open up his tiny airways and help him to breathe again.

Otherwise the boys are both doing well.  They both have had colds since we got back from our trip over Christmas, and I’m guessing they’ll have colds off and on until about April.  But we were commenting earlier today that we’re pretty lucky that neither one of them has ever had an ear infection so I’ll take a cold.

Isaac wants so badly to be able to chase his big brother around.  He is already pulling up on the furniture (he’ll be 9 months old on Tuesday) and standing anywhere he can.  He’s trying to stand up in the middle of the room too, but has been unsuccessful so far.  Anyway, one of the things he tries to pull up on is a stack of three bins we have in the family room that are full of cars.  Well, the bottom bin is full of Isaac’s toys so he can pull them out when he wants them, and the top two bins are full of lots and lots of cars.  Have I mentioned before that Ethan is obsessed with cars?  The bins themselves are just plastic and don’t weigh much at all and the cars are mostly small so they don’t weigh much either, and combined they still don’t weigh much.  Certainly not enough to support a small child as he tries to climb it.  And being the bad parents we are, we didn’t think to anchor it to the wall.  Until Isaac pulled it over on himself that is.  Three times.  Don’t worry, it didn’t hurt him at all, like I said nothing in there weighed much of anything and pulling a bin of matchbox cars on top of yourself doesn’t really hurt all that much, but still we decided we should probably be a little more responsible and anchor the bins to the wall.  So Ryan just screwed it in.  Wasn’t what I would have done, but hey, it worked!  I would have gone for something a little less noticeable, a little less destructive, and probably more girlie, but whatever.  And he said as soon as he was done, Ethan went to get his “screwdriber” to help screw it in.  (He has a little problem with “v”s but I think he’ll outgrow it.)  Ethan is very helpful and wanted to make sure Isaac didn’t fall over again.  Though I think his real reason was he was tired of cleaning up all the cars that he hadn’t gotten out himself.

The boys each learned a new skill yesterday.  This season of constant growth and learning is just amazing to me!

Ethan learned how to cut his own food with his fork by practicing on a canned pear at dinner time.  Of course, this new skill did not translate to breakfast and the even easier to cut pancake, but we’ll get there.  I think it may depend entirely on how hungry he is and how much patience he has for said cutting. 

And Isaac learned  how to go from crawling position to sitting up.    We’ve been working on that for the past week or so, and he finally got it on his own.  Of course when Ryan checked on him during his nap time today, he found him sitting up in his crib and trying to pull up on his crib rails.  Oy!  So each new thing may have unintended consequences.  I really need to get working on the side rail covers for his crib before he really can pull up on them and starts acting like a beaver.   Ethan did enough damage the first time around, I don’t want more teeth marks!  Isaac also got his third tooth a few weeks ago and I think he’s working on his fourth based on the runniness of his nose and grouchiness of his attitude.

First off, we have posted some pictures from Christmas.  There are some cute ones on there so check them out!

Next, the more things stay the same, the more they change.    The change in the old adage seems to fit us better than the original.  It seems like most days are the same, we wake up at the same time, have the same basic routine, eat roughly the same things, and go to bed at the same time.  But every day is filled with something new and different.  Isaac started drinking juice out of a sippy cup today, and Ethan is finally starting to add “may I” to his please requests.  Isaac is pulling up on things and wants badly to be able to stand on his own.  Ethan is still enamored with cars (some things will never change!) and plays with them all day long, from the moment he wakes up to the moment he drops them when he falls asleep.  Isaac is the squirmiest child I’ve ever met and crawls even faster than ever, and actually figured out how to pull himself up a step into the living room last week.  Ethan is talking in longer and longer sentences, though still in third person.  I still love Mops and can’t believe we’re halfway through the year already.  Ryan is working just as hard as ever and has the program he created working on multiple programs now.  And I once again resolve to try to write more frequently.    Hopefully that will be one thing that changes!

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve written and things have changed a bit around here.  You don’t really realize it when you live it, but when you look back you can really see the differences.  Some things are the same: Bree and Trina are still chased a lot more than they would like, Ryan is working really hard, and I’m busy cleaning up after everyone and planning for Mops meetings.

Ethan is growing so fast.  His vocabulary expands daily, and he’s speaking in almost sentences.  He speaks about himself in third person, which is really cute.  I don’t think he really gets that he should say me and I.    At least he doesn’t say “mine” like so many little kids do, I’m thankful to avoid that annoyance!  Instead, things are “Ethan’s” so I hear “that’s Ethan’s” frequently.  Sometimes I have to inform that they are not “Ethan’s”, they are in fact “mommy’s”.  He still loves cars above almost anything else, loves going to church to see Benjin and Mops to see Evan, knows that green is go and red is stop, and has a major sweet tooth.  He loves to eat muffins for breakfast, which he calls “Efan’s uffins”.  He still can’t jump, can’t seem to get that second foot off of the ground, but likes working on mastering the somersault.  He likes watching “moobies” and playing “car games” with daddy.  He’s a typical oldest child boss though, and likes working his boss muscles on his little brother, the cats, and trying to use them on his parents.  He’s also starting to use his imagination and talk to his stuffed animals.  It’s so cute, we made cookies together last week, and he was explaining to Boo and Puppy about the flour, the yummy cookies, and how we had to roll out the dough.  I had to keep telling Puppy not to go head first into the flour jar.    And no, we don’t have a dog.

Isaac is growing like a weed.  He still doesn’t weigh a lot, but he’s getting taller.  He’s an adventurous little guy!  He started crawling about a month ago and really gets around now.  He has mastered the army crawl and ends up in some interesting places sometimes.  He loves to chew on computer cords so I have to be a little more vigilant about those.  He is enamored with his big brother, except for when Ethan knocks him over or steals his toys.  He likes cars too, though usually just to stick them in his mouth.  He eats a TON and is working on getting food into his mouth with his own hands.  It’s funny, he can stick toys in there all day, but it’s harder when it comes to little finger food puffs.  He rarely sits still, unless he’s strapped down or asleep.

We decorated for Christmas yesterday, paring back a little in the places the boys can reach.  I elected to go with just the living room tree this year, no family tree in the family room, since Isaac is mobile but unable to understand “no” just yet.  He just sticks too much in his mouth to be safe.  They are both enjoying looking at the lights.  That’s about all I can think of for now.  See you back here in about a month! 

I had the privilege of getting my first my child-induced bloody nose yesterday, courtesy of Ethan. And it didn’t happen in the way I’d always pictured it. Ethan has always enjoyed a good head bonk, he used to do it to say love you and give hugs (entirely my fault since I inadvertently taught him to) so I pictured getting a bloody nose from a poorly placed head bonk some day. But instead it was delivered after a tickle session in which a flailing finger found its way straight into my nostril. Ethan laughed, I groaned and ran for the kleenex box. Fortunately, it didn’t last long and we were able to continue on as before. I didn’t even stain anything! Well, gotta go, Ethan has declared it to be “quiet time” and I try not to argue with that!

Hi Everyone. Just posted some new photos including some from our Halloween party. Enjoy!

We’ve had a lot of snow this past week.  A lot of snow, between 17-20 inches of snow.   Which actually wasn’t as bad as it sounds really since the roads actually stayed pretty clear.  And most of it is gone now, which I love about Colorado weather.  As soon as it gets sunny, the snow melts quickly.  Much better than Indiana!  Anyway, it snowed a lot which meant I was stuck at home for a few days with the boys, Ryan was in the basement but since daddy was at “work” that doesn’t really count as having him home.  I try to get out  most days of the week because otherwise I go a little nuts, and a nutty mommy is not a good thing.  So we tried to do a few new things since the whining was really getting under my skin and I’ve decided that really the only person that can change my behavior is me, as hard as it is sometimes, so I’d better get happy or no one would be happy.  So Ethan got to make his first loaves of banana bread this week; I’d measure out ingredients and he would dump them into the bowl.  He’s fascinated by the big mixer, it goes “round and round”.  He really enjoyed the process, and it was fun to talk to him about it instead of just yelling at him to stop touching things.  He did get a few yells, particularly when driving his cars a little too close to the bread batter, but much fewer than usual.    Some moms are much more patient than I am, but I’m working on including him in the process instead of just acting like he’s in the way.  I want my kids to be included, not feel like they are a bother.  Anyway, that’s way beside the point, he had fun making the bread and then fun eating what he’d helped to create.

Another first for him this week was going sledding.  Like I said, we got a lot of snow, and fortunately a few weeks ago I bought a sled, so Thursday we opened the back gate and went sledding down the hill just behind our house.  It’s not a huge hill, but actually pretty good for sledding, especially with a two year old.  The best part was being able to just walk up it the last time and go straight into the house.  Kind of like ski in ski out, only with sledding.  He really enjoyed that, more so the second day since the snow drifts were a little smaller and he didn’t get stuck as often.  Isaac went out with us too, but he didn’t get to go sledding.  He did look funny in his snow suit though, very A Christmas Story.    Ethan was also introduced to the wonders of hot chocolate, since that is a must after any sledding adventure!

Tonight was another first for Ethan, he got to go trick-or-treating for the first time.  We weren’t going to take him, but he was so excited about the kids coming to our house that we decided he should really be able to go too.  Ryan took him around while I stayed home with Isaac to give out candy.  Ethan was a very cute pirate, I will get around to sorting and posting pictures eventually.  Ryan said he had a great time, though he usually said trick or treat way before people actually answered the door.  He was very excited to get some candy, but fortunately is too little to realize we just gave it all away to the kids that came to the door later.  Like we really need the candy!  Don’t worry, he did get one packet of gummy bears. 

So overall, it was a pretty good week.  I’m sure now it will probably warm up and give us a nice Indian summer, which would be great, but we’ve enjoyed our first tastes of winter.

Can you believe Isaac will be 6 months old in less than 2 weeks?!  I can’t believe he’s that old already, but I also can’t remember not having him.  He’s such a sweet little guy, he has a great laugh.  He’s finally sleeping 12 hours straight at night, most nights anyway.  He’s eating solid foods, and like most kids definitely prefers the fruits to the veggies.   He can sit up on his own now though he still flops over when he overestimates his reaching ability.  He still adores his big brother, except when Ethan’s pushing on him or pulling on him or sitting on him.  He’s getting in his first tooth, I can feel it but you still can’t really see it.  He immediately rolls onto his belly when we lay him down, regardless of the “back is best” campaign.    He rolls all over the family floor, ending up in some strange places sometimes, and Ryan wants to teach him to crawl but I think he gets into enough trouble without the increased mobility.  Of course, Ryan isn’t home with him all day!  He loves to laugh, enjoys tickles, wakes up more like his mom than his dad, and gives the biggest smiles just after eating.  He also loves to be held upside down.  He doesn’t like green veggies unless they are mixed with fruit,  does not approve of being left in his exersaucer while everyone else is at the table eating, and loudly protests being stuck in his car seat to run yet another errand.  It’s amazing how much personality such a little guy can have.    I love to snuggle with him and just squeeze.  That has had a few consequences for my clothes more than once, although he does tend to spit up more on dad than mom.

Ethan is also doing very well.  He loves to sing, and regularly sings along with the radio in the car.  He can say almost the entire abc’s, recognizes quite a few of the letters in books, still is obsessed with cars, and is generally pretty good with his brother.  He is a capricious sharer though, frequently giving Isaac something only to take it away within seconds.  He’s working on his polite words, and actually will say “thank you” without prompting on occasion and “bless you” even more than I do!  He still cleans up on his own sometimes, throws himself on the floor in a fit sometimes, and melts my heart all the time.  When Isaac is crying, Ethan will often say “it’s ok brother” and try to make it better.  One of his new favorite phrases is “what’re you doing?”, which is completely adorable coming out of a 2 year old mouth!  The first thing he usually says in the morning is “get dressed”, often the second you open the door.  He still loves Boo and Puppy, mimics everything (including me rubbing salt off of my hands after giving him goldfish), and is a chocolate fiend.  He loves playing with his friends and often asks for Evan and “Benjin”.  He had his very first sucker tonight, which made a disaster of his nice white shirt, and threw a fit when he dropped it on the floor and it had to be thrown away.  Bree and Trina are fascinating, including their water dishes, and their cat tree must really just be here for him to climb.  He’s definitely two, with his own thoughts and opinions, and I can’t imagine my life without him.

So those are my boys right now, hard to believe how fast they are both growing and changing and capturing our hearts.  I don’t think a day goes by when Ryan and I don’t say, “I just love my baby” about both of them.