Isaac's questionnaire 2013

I thought Isaac might be ready to start answering an annual questionnaire this year. But during dinner tonight, we took a circular route on several questions and never got conclusive answers. So I'm going to answer them myself for my boy. I'd say I know him pretty well.

Favourite Christmas present: puzzles
When we asked Isaac about his favourite present, he would always pick one of the two toys we suggested, then when we picked that choice and another he would just keep changing his mind. We finally pretended he was opening a present to see what would be inside. "Open, open, open," he motioned to the present picture on our Christmas plate. "What's inside?" we asked him eagerly. "A car!" he replied enthusiastically. Turns out it was a silver car which he proceeded to play with at the dinner table. Note: he was not given a silver car, or any matchbox car, this Christmas.

Favourite toy: cars.

Favourite place to go: toss-up between the zoo or the swimming pool.

Favourite TV show/ movie: Miffy the Bunny / Cars

Favourite place in the world: Purden. Or McDonalds. See below.

Favourite food: Pizza because of the experience (weekly pizza / movie night in the living room). Also cheesy noodles (KD), anything sweet, butter chicken... the list could go on for a long time. And, to my great embarrassment, McDonalds. That place of evilness and deliciousness could suck my son in and clamp him in a chair for all of eternity and he'd be satisfied. It's his happy place.

What do you want to be when you grow up? Anytime I ask him this, he replies, "I don't want to be anything." That's not going to happen on my watch kiddo. You may be a pilot so your daddy and I can fly around the world for cheap.

How would you spend $100? Buy toy cars and ice cream.

Who is your best friend? Mason.

What are you really good at? Mommy bragging moment here. Isaac is an awesome bike rider. After a little friend's birthday party a couple months ago, we all tromped over to the fairly extreme bike park in Abby. My kid ripped up the trail, gliding down a crazy big hill then after a couple rounds, easily clearing ups and downs that kids older than him weren't able to do. It was an amazing moment for me to witness as Isaac is quite often behind other kids in his age-appropriate skills.

Who is your favourite person in the whole world? I wish I could say it was me. But I think even at this early age, Isaac has left me behind in favour of others. Right now, I'd guess it's Grandma. She loves him so much and is much gentler with him than I am when it comes to discipline. Plus, they make cookies together. Who wouldn't love that?!

What has God taught you this year? A tough question for a young age but I would love to see how this answer changes over the years for both my kids.

Other things I want to remember about my boy this year:
He likes to pretend we're at the pumpkin patch, or on a train, or at the zoo. He has a great imagination and I enjoy seeing him embark on adventures in his head and inviting me along. He is an enthusiastic helper in the kitchen and can deftly dump ingredients into the bowl now as well as do a bit of mixing. He loves helping make our pizzas and actually does a good job spreading the meat and veggies around. He's heavy on the cheese still. He likes the playground and going to the store but can be just as happy playing at home. He loves to watch TV, likes to be near me and is showing more signs of kindness to his sister. He is an amazing puzzler, getting better and quicker each time he does them. He has more patience than me for them and initiates his own puzzle time. He's a great sleeper at night, shares fairly well with other kids and loves to go to the preschool room at church. He is more challenging, more exhausting and more rewarding than I ever imagined having a child would be. And I love him to pieces.

Tidbits

We've been using some of the basic signs with Promise for awhile now. The only one she's really picked up on is "All done." She's not consistent with it, but she's pretty good. Tonight, I asked her if she was all done. She looked at me, looked at her hand, quickly shoved the last bite of cookie in her mouth and whipped up her hands to sign "all done."

We were in a hurry to go somewhere last week. Isaac takes forever going down the stairs because there's always some imaginative play involved.

"C'mon Isaac," I say from the bathroom. "Mommy is all ready to go, we need to get downstairs and leave."

"You not ready Momma," Isaac replies. I thought he'd caught my lie as I had yet to brush my hair. Clever kid, I thought. "You don't have shoes on," he concludes. I love it when he's funny without even meaning to be.

Yesterday morning, Promise and Isaac were having a rare moment of mutually-happy play together. H was laying down and she was clambering over him. She bit into his hair.

"Promise, I'm not food," he said with laughter.

This made me laugh this morning

Isaac: What was that?
Me (trying to do three things at once): I don't know, what was that?
Isaac: Did somebody toot?
Me: Isaac, did you toot?
Isaac: Yup.
Me: What do you say?
Isaac: 'Scuze me.

Just keepin' it real around here. I love this boy.

11 Months

My girl,

You are 11 months (and six days) old today. I can hardly believe that in less than a month we will celebrate your first birthday!

You are becoming more of your own little person each day, expressing your likes and your dislikes to us as clearly as you can with the skills you have. You smile and wiggle in excitement when you see a food you want, when Isaac comes to entertain you or when Daddy comes home. You demand attention when you're deposited on the ground so Mommy can get some work done and you're not impressed with that move. You vocalize a lot and I love it. It must remind me of another little girl a long time ago who used to chatter away too!

On Sept. 13, you got yourself up to sitting from your tummy. We were so proud of you! Now, I can barely get out of your bedroom before you are scooting yourself up to look around. Sometimes I have to come back into your room because you get stuck in a corner or your feet are through the bars and you can't get yourself back to laying down. But for the most part, you're doing well with getting yourself up and then back down to sleep.

Last weekend, Grandma said "uh oh" to you and you definitely repeated the sound. You will also wave hello to us and bye-bye. It's very cute and I might wave hello and bye-bye to you about 10,000 times a day now. But you don't seem to mind.

You have four teeth now and a fifth that just doesn't seem to want to break through but we can see it in your gumline.









You love being in the Beco and I and your daddy both love carrying you in it. You ride much better on our backs now and can even catch a snooze depending on how long we're out. We hiked Linderman Lake a couple weekends ago and you slept a bit in the Beco. But for the four and a half hours of hiking we did, you were content in the carrier. You are an amazing little girl and we love how you just roll with stuff like that!

Your sleep is not so good. You still have a morning nap of around an hour and an afternoon nap of an hour to an hour and a half. We put you to bed sometime between 6:30 and 7 pm. Then you wake up anywhere from two times a night to every couple hours, and are up for the day at 6 am. Oh well, we'll get there some day. And you are a very cute face to drag myself out of bed to see.

A very, very rare occurrence. We were out for the better part of the day and on the way home you finally fell asleep.








We love you so much, little one, and I can hardly bear the thought of my baby girl turning one in a few short weeks. Until then, I'll cuddle my baby as much as I can before you become a "number!"

Blueberries!

You are so lucky to have these guys in your life. So's your momma!

You're tired. Isaac thinks you two are playing trains together.

This is a new game of yours. You like to put stuff somewhere else. I had a box of too-small shoes and socks and you spent probably 30 minutes taking them out and putting them on top of the box. You like to hand me stuff now too or drop it in my lap. It's a great game that we both love playing.

Darn my fuzzy iphone pix. But I still love this one of me and my girl. I love you Promise!

These moments

Can I freeze this moment? When I'm cuddling my girl in my lap, her body still warm from sleep and her sparkling eyes watching her brother? When he's laughing as he lifts his foot up to the couch where I'm sitting with her. He waits for her to grab it.

"Promise, grab this foot now," he explains.

She touches his foot, he pulls it away and they both erupt into laughter. He lifts the other foot and the two of them think it's the best game in the world.

Or can I freeze the moment where I get to cuddle my sleeping baby? After she's nursed (for the umpteemth time) and she leans her head back and I can feel her contentment and trust, lying heavily in my arms in her drowsy sleepiness. Can I keep this moment forever?

How about when Daddy gets home from work, and Isaac runs to him with a great big hug, exclaiming "Daddy's home!" And Promise wiggles and squawks and demands Daddy's attention, excited he's home and expecting to be picked up, right now! How do I capture this moment?

There are so many islands of calm and joy in our days of chaos and crying. It's hard to remember them, sandwiched in between the day-to-day normal stuff that happens. But as they happen, I try to take time to appreciate them. I cherish the moment, because it's all I have. Too soon, my baby will be a little girl, running and jumping with her big brother. Too soon my firstborn will be headed off to school, lunch in his backpack and hours without me in his life. Too soon my house will be spic and span and I will cry for the days of cheerios on the floor, poopy diapers and dirty laundry.

So I savour these moments, because I can't freeze them.

Some every-day but special moments recently:

Isaac putting his ears in the water in the bathtub for the first time. He had a blast rolling around on hus tummy and back.

Isaac thought they were doing a train. Promise was just tired, laying on the ground with her fingers in her mouth and occasionally sticking her head up. Made me smile.

Isaac playing train with the kitchen chairs. We usually go to Purden, but sometimes we take the train to the grocery store or the snail store.












These pix are from Promise's 10 month Paku photos. Isaac hops up and starts reading a book with Promise, taking joy in showing her all the vehicles in his book. I love these little people!

Cultus Lake

I never used to be a fan of Cultus Lake. It's busy as heck, colder than a lot of the more lovely lakes of B.C. and always seemed like a tourist trap. But I've grown to like it for a few reasons. Primarily, it's close to our home. From my door to the beach is 30 minutes. The beach we go to, I think it's called Spring Bay, has limited parking spots so it doesn't tend to get too busy. It's in the provincial park so it's free parking. There's a rocky beach, a big grassy area and picnic tables - everything you need for fun in the sun.

Since we've been home from Purden, I've been missing the shores of Purden Lake and the relaxing atmosphere of living the cabin life. Tuesday morning I had planned to meet some friends at Funland. But the kids hadn't quite worked themselves back into a "normal" routine since getting home Saturday night and Promise had a really rough morning. It's the only time in forever that I gave up on trying to get her to sleep. She was not sleeping and not happy about being in her crib. By the time I nursed her, calmed her down a bit and got her back to bed, it was way past the time I could meet up with my friends.

I'd already told Isaac we were going there (he loves that place) and I had the car packed. Getting everything ready is the hard part of outings so I wasn't about to waste that energy for nothing! I decided to take the kids to Cultus instead. I felt very brave going by myself. What if I had to go to the bathroom? What if Isaac went too deep in the water while I was busy with Promise? What if I forgot something in the car? Would I drag them both back to the car or just cross my fingers they'd be safe?

Anyway, it was all for naught. Isaac had fun playing in the little river running into the lake. After awhile he ventured into the water up to his waist, rightfully proud of himself. Promise enjoyed grabbing endlessly at everything around her. So I spent my time alternately watching Isaac and scooping rocks out of Promise's mouth.

Promise thought Isaac's lifejacket was a great toy. Isaac thought blocking Promise's view of the water was great fun. Win win, right?

I even managed to take a swim. I waited until Isaac was immersed in an activity. He was sitting on the edge of the culvert, putting his feet into the icy cold water. I strapped Promise into the stroller and gave her an entire orange to work on. I only swam out a little way and back in a couple times so I was never far, but it felt so good. I love swimming!

We were only gone about three hours from the house but it felt like a fun mini getaway. I am so thankful I get to be home with my kids for now and that I'm able to take advantage of the time we have to do fun stuff like this.

Isaac kept running up to the trees and asking me to take his picture. I love this kid!

She was such a handful, I dumped our toy basket and dropped her in it. She stayed for about 10 blissful minutes before she realized she'd been duped.

selfie

10 Months

Promise,

I look at you every day and still marvel that you are mine. I stroke your perfect, chubby face. I watch your eyes that look like mine crinkle with laughter. I wiggle your 10 little toes and give you toys to grasp with your 10 tiny fingers. And I thank God that He let me be your mommy.

It doesn't seem like it's been 10 months. And yet it doesn't seem like you were ever not here, as natural a part of our family as Isaac is. You are changing before my eyes and each day it seems like you're stretching your little skills farther.

While I haven't been diligent with monthly updates, at 10 months here's what you're doing:

You just started "scooching" (how do you spell that?!) around in the last couple weeks. Before we went to Purden (Aug. 2-16), you weren't moving but if I left you in a spot for an hour you would've ended up in a different spot. But you weren't intentionally moving anywhere. Also, I never leave you alone for an hour, just so we're clear.

Reaching for what's out of your grasp, you've started to put many, many things that aren't food into your mouth. Here you're sampling some of the local offerings at Cultus Lake beach. Mmm, rocks, sticks and dirt.

Then at Purden, you figured out how to make a 360 turn on your bum and then started pushing yourself around on your bum. Just today, I put you on the carpet in our living room and went into the kitchen to work. I popped my head around the corner to check on you maybe five minutes later and you'd scooted yourself from the carpet and were playing in front of the heating grate. I've got to say, it's an unconventional way to get yourself from A to B and I hesitate to use the word "crawling" since you're definitely not. But, my girl, you can move. Way to go little one, this momma is so very proud of you.

You are a very content, happy, joy-filled girl. You wake up with a smile on your face and you wiggle your whole body in excitement when you see us. You laugh freely and make all sorts of fun sounds now. While at Purden, you started blowing your lips to make funny sounds and we all love it! You also "talk" a lot, happily babbling to yourself or us while you play.

A couple days ago you grabbed my nose and laughed. It was definitely a game for you and I love to play along.

You're a good eater compared to many babies but you can't beat Isaac's baby eating antics. You have preferences and aren't afraid to tell us if you don't like what's in front of you. I made the mistake at lunch of putting tomatoes on the table but giving you something else. You just kept looking at the tomatoes and squawking until I finally relented and tossed a slice (or three) your way. Your favourite foods are definitely tomatoes, blueberries, pineapple, crackers, avocado and cheese. And did I mention tomatoes? You could probably eat a whole one in a sitting if I would let you.

Avocado!

Sleep. What do I say of this? Some day, perhaps, I will sleep through the night. But since you still choose not to, then I am forced not to. For the most part, I don't mind. I am so happy and proud of myself to still be breastfeeding after all we've been through. I love knowing that I'm giving you the very best start in life that I can. And, at 10 months, we've beat my record with Isaac so every day now is a gift. But. Sleep will still be nice again some day! You still love your index and middle finger on your left hand for comfort and once you put those in your mouth, I know you're ready for sleep.

Isaac calls you "Pomise" and I love hearing him call your name. What I do not love is how very, very mean he can be to you. He'll rip the one toy you're playing with out of your hands. He has pushed you to the ground - hard - multiple times. He doesn't want to share his toys with you and often runs you over or squishes you. Even when he tries to kiss you, he grabs at your head and digs his fingers into you. I know that one is unintentional but it still makes you cry and hurts my heart to see him treat you so roughly. You love Isaac a lot. You smile when you see him and get excited when he comes near. You obviously don't associate bad memories with him and for that, I'm very thankful.

There are lots of times throughout the day that Isaac does play nicely with you too.

We call you "Missy" a lot and have also taken to calling you "Pom Pom."

What else can I say, my little one? You are a joy and a delight. We count every day a blessing with you and thank God for you daily. You bring a happiness to my heart that overflows and I love being your momma. Happy 10 month birthday baby girl!