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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!