Saturday, August 23, 2008

Growing Up

Isaac will turn one year old on Monday. Sometimes I can't believe how fast a year has gone by, but it has been really fun watching Isaac grow up little by little. A few things that were supposed to wait until the one year mark happened a little early.

Isaac has never liked riding in the car very much. Charlie wanted to go ahead and turn him around a few months ago but I refused. I was probably a little dangerous driving around with one arm behind my head trying to hand Isaac toys and pacifiers to keep him quiet, but I still insisted that he face backward until a year. And then two weeks ago I gave up. It was the drive to Palm Springs that helped make up my mind. I planned for Isaac to take his nap on the drive, and sure enough he was sound asleep within just a few minutes after we left. But just 20 minutes into the drive Cracker barfed all over my leg and we had to stop and clean up. That woke Isaac up and the rest of the drive was awful. He was overly tired and did not want to be in that carseat. After awhile all of my usual tricks stopped working and there was nothing I could do to stop the screaming. That felt like a very long drive! So before we headed home, I told Charlie to go ahead and turn that seat around. It has been completely worth it!


He is still no angel in the car, but he is much much better. Of course that might also have something to do with the "Toddler Tunes" CDs we bought at Target recently. See, one of my car tricks that Charlie didn't know about until this Palm Springs trip, is that I sometimes sing to Isaac and it quiets him down. I sing all of the songs from our swim class this summer. And after Charlie had to endure my singing as we drove through the desert, he suggested that maybe we should buy Isaac some music instead. What, is my singing that bad? (I'm pretty sure that it is.)

Some people say that you are supposed to wait until your baby's first birthday to cut their hair. We were trying to hold out. Even through all the crazy hair days...



But it was just getting too long and looking really messy. Charlie said he'd rather cut Isaac's hair himself that take him to one of those kid salons, so I bought us a pair of barber shears and Charlie snipped off Isaac's cute little baby hair. It turned alright... if you don't look at his right side. I am still in favor of the kid salon for next time.




Finally, all the books and websites and doctors tell you it is best if you can breastfeed for a full year. I never thought I would make it that long, but I ended up doing it much longer than I ever planned. I'll admit I was a little hesitant to give it up, but it was also partly because I couldn't get Isaac to take a bottle! And he wasn't too good with the sippy cup either. Finally, about a month ago I found just the right sippy cup for Isaac. Now he is a pro! Within a few weeks I had him completely weaned. And I think we are both enjoying this new arrangement.


Now just a few more days until the Big #1!!!


Saturday, August 16, 2008

Isaac & Cracker- Imitating Each Other

Cracker thinks he's human. He has recently decided that Isaac's car seat is his favorite spot in the car.

Good thing Isaac doesn't mind and thinks its pretty funny.

And Isaac sometimes pretends to be a dog. His new favorite trick- crawling in and out of the dog door.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Swimming Lessons

Today was our last day of Isaac's swimming lessons. We took a two week "Mommy & Me" class. Isaac's little friend, Hudson was in our class too.


Mostly we just splashed and sang songs. The boys were supposed to learn to blow bubbles, kick and do "big arms" but Isaac didn't really understand any of that. I think the class was mostly just to get the kids comfortable in the water. And Isaac loves the water! He is our little fish. He can't get enough of splashing and kicking. He doesn't mind one bit going under the water, and during our lessons I even let him go for a few seconds at a time. I don't think you can really teach an 11 month old to actually swim, but when Isaac is in the water he kicks his arms and legs so much that you'd think if you let go of him he'd just swim away!
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And even though Isaac gets slathered with sunscreen everyday, he's still managed to get a pretty good tan!