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Isaac is turning into a little boy very quickly. Some of his favorite words are Vroom Vroom, CCCKKKUUCC, Whoa (yes, I know these are all sounds not really words, but they count, right?). All of which he says repeatedly whenever we're in the car. Until his recent obsession with anything that moves, he hasn't been a great traveler, but he's discovered a whole new world right outside the window. We might have to make a road trip sometime soon!!!


We've been enjoying the beautiful weather and went to an Art Festival and a Garden Show this weekend. I bought Ella an African Violet today at the garden show. Was that a smart thing to do? Now I have a pot of soil resting on a plastic saucer with water sitting on my 4-year-old's dresser. How many days will it be before the soil ends up all over the carpet? That might be my next blog post!

Off to do some reading...before I hit the sack! Here are a few pics of Isaac enjoying his dump truck at the beach.

Hide and Go Seek

Isaac loves to play the game Hide and Go Seek now. One of Ella's favorite hiding spots is under the desk in the "ploffice" (translated: playroom/office). This afternoon I walked into the ploffice find two little legs sticking out from underneath the desk. As I peeked around to see why he was hiding, I noticed he had my cell phone. So, if any of you received a random call from me, you'll know why!

LOOK AT THOSE CUTE LITTLE FEET (don't look at the dirt on the carpet or the mess beside the desk!)WHO ME???

THE AFTERMATH OF TAKING THE PHONE AWAY

Do Dog Training Methods Work on Children? (We Hope So)

Who knew we'd still be using techniques from Macey's Puppy Kindergarten class 8 years later?! Is it bad that we aren't using the discipline methods on Macey anymore, but on Isaac?

Isaac has started spitting. At first it was cute. He noticed Ella spitting out the toothpaste into the sink and started copying her by climbing up onto the stool and spitting repeatedly into the sink. We all laughed and thought it was funny.

Since he got such a great reaction from the sink spitting he decided to start spitting in people's faces...still somewhat funny. He's even started greeting guests in our home with a little spit in the face. Last week Ella had a little friend over to play, Isaac was sleeping when the boy arrived, so when he woke up he was very excited to see a new face. He walked right up to the kid and started laughing and then spit right at him. The kid, who is Ella's age, started yelling "That's disgusting," and spit back in Isaac's face. Isaac thought it was funny!

It probably doesn't help that most of the time Isaac does his little spitting routine, Jason and I are trying to keep a straight face and not laugh too. A few weeks ago when this first started he had a mouth full of raisins and started spitting. The raisins came flying out like machine gun bullets. Jason and I both about peed our pants laughing. Ella reprimanded us saying "You shouldn't laugh at him...that's GROSS!"

Apparently, we should have listened to her because here we are 3 weeks later and he's still spitting, which brings me to my dog training technique.

Jason came up with a good idea today...using the spray bottle on Isaac when he spits. We used a spray bottle on Macey when she was a puppy to keep her from pestering us at the couch. The trainer recommended we give her a squirt and give her a simple command "Go Away." It worked wonders on Macey and now we're hoping it will do the same with Isaac!

If anyone has any suggestions, we welcome them. Next we'll be trying to get Isaac to sit and stay...I wonder if he will like Macey's dog treats as much as she does :)!

It's been 3 months...

Sorry, blogging friends, but life got a little crazy and I'm not even going to try and make up for lost time. So, I'll just start fresh! It's a new year, right?!

In glancing back at some of my old posts, I can't believe how big my little guy is getting. He's moved from the baby to the toddler stage. Here are a few recent pics. of both of them...

Ella and Macey

Isaac bundled up on one of our coldest days...I think the high was 50 something...cold for FL! He reminded me of the kid from Christmas Story.

Isaac doing one of his latest tricks...climbing. The only problem is, he doesn't know how to get down. I usually hear "Ma," "Mama," coming from distant parts of the house only to find him 3" up on a box looking out of the window and hanging onto the window sill for dear life.

If I had clicked this picture a second later, you would have seen him falling off the table. He was fine. I was hoping a fall might deter him from climbing...it doesn't seem to have worked.

Bye for now...look for my next post in about two months :).

Halloween Festivities

Halloween has come and gone and now all we're left with is tons of candy and some fun memories. If you haven't noticed, Halloween is becoming as much of a celebration as Christmas (kind of scary, but that's for another post).

We started the week of festivities with visits to the pumpkin patches and the neighborhood Halloween party (see previous posts). Here's a picture taken of our little butterfly and duck before the Halloween party:
One of my favorites of the week was my playgroup Halloween party. There's nothing better than dressing seven unwilling, but helpless toddlers and babies in all sorts of costumes. The reaction is priceless. I took at least three of these pictures and this is probably the best of the bunch. I bribed Isaac with Goldfish to get him to stay on the couch. The back row wasn't so willing, notice the mom's ducking behind their little ones. Oh what we'll do to get a picture!

One of Ella's favorite moments was carving the pumpkin. Jason asked her to draw a few designs and then choose which one she wanted to do. After a few "revisions" this is what they came up with...it actually was pretty close to what Ella drew.

Here's the proof that we were here pictures:
Because our street is loving referred to as the retirement community, we decided to walk a few blocks this year and go to a different section of the neighborhood for Trick or Treating. I'm glad we did, because Ella had a great time running from door to door to get her candy. One of the houses had a bounce house set up for the kids and another had a Monster's Inc. playing on their garage door. There were also lots of liquid beverages for the parents...I tried a pumpkin shot...very yummy...I know, I'm getting wild and crazy!!!Here's proof that Jason was not doing a very good job watching Isaac. Can you see Jason in the background? EXACTLY!!! This is not what I call looking after our 13 month old! He kept trying to tell me he was "watching" him! I guess we have different views of what that means.

It was a fun week and now I have to get back to eating more candy :)!

Recipe for Disaster

1 Tablespoon of way too hot for costumes weather (humid and in the 80s today...yuck)

2 tsp. toddler who does not like costume or anything on his head

3 cups of todder who missed afternoon nap

1/2 cup preschooler freaked out by scary costumes

1 nut of a mom who decides to go to the neighborhood Halloween party by herself with two kids

Mix together and you get a recipe for disaster!

Went to the neighborhood Halloween party tonight, wished I hadn't wasted the $. I'm not knocking the party, just my poor judgment based on the the circumstances. Oh well, I really didn't feel like fixing dinner...next time I think I'll order take out :). The look on Isaac's face pretty much sums up the night.

BTW, it rained this morning so no pumpkin patch! One of these days I'll get the covetted pumpkin patch picture and if I don't I'll just enjoy others!

Pumpkin Patch Visit

I've always loved the photos I've seen of children in pumpkin patches. I don't know what it is, maybe the colors. Ella's preschool class took a visit to the pumpkin patch today. I was hoping for a cute photo of both of them together, but it didn't happen.








Ella's really not a fun kid to take pictures of, because she either makes a really cheesy smile or pretty much refuses to have her picture taken. Her latest tactic seems to be closing her eyes. This combined with the cheesy smile makes it really annoying to get pictures of her. Why do I even try?! Getting a Christmas picture this year should be fun!





I did get one good candid of Isaac. Better luck at tomorrow's pumpkin patch visit (yes, we are going to another pumpkin patch tomorrow for the sole purpose of the covetted pumpkin patch photo...not really, but I'll give it another shot!)

What Kind of Ball is THIS???

We had Isaac's 1st birthday party last weekend up at the pool. I had been anticipating his reaction to the cake all week. He's a kid who is SERIOUS about his food, so naturally I assummed he'd dig right into his cake and chow down. I was WRONG.

This picture says it all...

I decided to do a "ball" theme for his party, since he loves them. I had his cake made into the shape of a baseball (it turned out really cute...thanks to Super Target). Anyway, I guess he didn't like the fact that the ball got all over his hands when he tried to pick it up. He was so upset that he didn't even want to try a taste of the cake. Oh well!

Happy Birthday Baby!

Our little guy turned one last Wednesday! I can't believe it. In one year, how can they go from this:

To this:

First Steps

I've had this little walker out for about a week in the playroom. A few days ago, out of the corner of my eye I noticed Isaac pushing it. He took his first steps and I almost missed it!

I was so excited and so was Ella. She immediately ran to her bedroom and grabbed her pom poms and began cheering him on (notice Ella with the pom poms running behind him). It was too cute! Somedays I wish I had someone running behind me cheering me on!

More Evidence!

Did I mention Isaac's into everything. Of course, it would probably be more effective to tell him no instead of grabbing the camera and taking a picture!

Here are his top 5 favorite things to get into:

1. Macey's Dog Food - I caught him in it the other day and he had 3 piece in his mouth...I was able to retrieve 2 1/2.

2. The Dishwasher

3. Toliet Paper

4. The Bookshelves

5. The Trash Cans

He's into EVERYTHING

Literally! I was putting the silverware away this morning and Ella started yelling..."Mommy, look!" I turned around to find this...

He's Crawling

Here's some video of Isaac crawling. I like the end best...is it wrong to think it's funny when your child wipes out?

Isaac's New Trick and Saying Da Da

I was doing something in the kitchen yesterday and Isaac was sitting in his exersaucer (thanks Matt and Bran). Anyway, I heard this smacking noise and turned around to see Isaac doing the funniest thing with this tongue...it was cracking me up, so of course, I grabbed the video camera.

Oh yeah, and he's been saying Da Da pretty much for everything, so I'm not sure if that counts or not. As a friend of mine said, he hasn't learned about "pregnancy" or "labor and delivery" or I suspect he'd be saying another word!

Little Big Man is 7 months!

I'm 7 months old
Getting a quick work out in...which way to the locker rooms?
Sitting up
Falling down

I can't believe it, Isaac turned 7 months old yesterday. He's trying to sit on his own or should I say I'm trying to get him to sit on his own. He's like one of thoses weeble wobbles. Everytime I sit him he slowly starts falling. In the last week he started doing little push ups...so cute. Maybe next month we'll have a crawler. I'm not as excited about it as I was with Ella (oops, did I say that out loud?). I guess I just know my days of laying him on the floor and knowing that he'll be close to the same spot when I return are almost gone!

Kaleidoscope

I took this picture of Isaac the other day. He was laying on a quilt at my parent's house. Doesn't it look like he's in a kaleidoscope?

Picture Day!

Today was picture day. I decided to try and get some shots of the kids up at the lake, but that didn't turn out so well. I did get some cute ones of them on the swings.

After our park adventure, we went the the mall to see the Easter bunny. It turned out to be a really fun experience. I ended up buying the CD of pictures (sucker). Really, I was just so excited that these people were able to get a picture of Ella and Isaac together smiling at the same time!

Tomorrow we embark upon the Easter Egg hunt marathon...Ella has one at school, one in our neighborhood on Saturday and one at church on Sunday. If I am not in a sugar coma, I'll post pictures of the egg hunts. There will be plenty to get pictures at!