Winter Isaac

Matt snapped this picture of Isaac right before we went sledding on Sunday.

I love this picture.

I love his crazy hair.

I even love that silly paci in his mouth.

I had decided that I need to start limiting his paci use to naps and bedtime, but every time Isaac is playing he magically finds another paci. I don't know how he does it. I think that a few months ago, he could see the day was coming when I was going to want to limit his paci use so he stashed pacis all over the house - in toys bins, under furniture and behind pillows.

He had a plan.

Like a squirrel hiding nuts in preparation for the winter.

The crazy thing is that when it's bedtime, I run all over the house like a mad woman looking everywhere to try and find two pacis (he needs two to sleep - one in his mouth and one in his hand). I have the hardest time finding them!

Then the next day, Isaac is playing and I look over and he has a paci in his mouth.

He pulled another one out of a secret hiding place.

Like a squirrel.

A squirrel with good hair.

I love this kid.

Noah's Perspective

Noah loves to use our little point-and-shoot digital camera to take photos and videos. Here's some pictures he took yesterday.

 I think it's interesting to see his perspective and what captures his attention.  I love watching him walk around the house with the camera.  He really studies his environment and takes it seriously!  Then, he likes to look at all his pictures on the camera, and he giggles and giggles.  Noah hopes you enjoy his pictures too!

Snow Day!

We did get our white Christmas after all! It started to snow late on Christmas day and the boys had fun watching the flakes. We woke up to a winter wonderland and we went sledding right away. It was Noah's first time really going down a hill on a sled - he wasn't interested last winter and wanted to go sledding in our driveway then. Noah had so much fun and loved the feeling of speed.

Speaking of speed, our suspicions were confirmed that Isaac is a speed demon! We thought that one of us would probably need to go down on the sled with him, but no, that wasn't necessary! Isaac was just fine on his own! He instinctively knew how to lean to steer and balance, and he did the sign for "more" when he reached the bottom of the hill (he's doing it in the above picture). A great time was had by all, then we came in and had hot chocolate with marshmallows. *Sigh*...

Here's some more pictures!

Merry Christmas to All!

We wish you all a Merry Christmas!

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6

We are having a wonderful Christmas at home and we are excitedly watching out the window and waiting for the snow to come our way! We are still dreaming of a North Carolina white Christmas...will we get snow today?

Here's a lot of pictures of our Christmas fun. We hope you're all having a wonderful day also!

First Haircut

Before

After

Isaac's hair has been growing so fast lately! Matt and I had agreed that we should trim Isaac's hair after his first birthday, but that was a while ago and I couldn't bring myself to cut his curls. Then we agreed that we should cut his hair when he starts walking. Well, he's been taking steps for a while now and I still couldn't bring myself to do it. What changed my mind was on two different occasions I was driving the car and I looked back at Isaac and saw that his hair was completely covering his eyes and he couldn't see at all! Poor kid! I thought, "ok, that's enough. The kid needs to see," and I trimmed his hair the same day. I didn't trim too much and he still has plenty of curls, but he can see much better now.

Bucket Truck

One of Noah's favorite things is to play "bucket truck" with Daddy. Noah tells Matt where the bucket should go (up or down) as Noah fixes broken wires all over the house. Noah loves it when we see a bucket truck working along the road, and he giggles the whole time when he gets to do the work himself. After he has a few rides by himself, Noah usually will let Isaac come along for a ride too. Noah has been very interested in electricity, the wires that are inside our walls, wires that are outside, telephone poles, cable TV wires, the list goes on and on...

Happy Hannukah!

Noah has been really enjoying Hanukkah this year. He loves hearing stories about the Macabees and listening to Hanukkah songs. He expecially likes the firetruck menorah that Baubie gave him. It's pretty cool, isn't it??

Sometimes...

Sometimes when you see something you want in life, you just have to get it, no matter what obstacles are in your way.

First Steps

Isaac took his official first steps last week! He likes to find his balance and look around to see who is watching him. After he finds his balance, he claps for himself and fully expects that everyone in the room with him should clap also. He can take about five steps, and he prefers to crash into something at the end of the five steps - something like the couch or a chair, but he'll also just dive down to the floor for the pure thrill of it if no furniture is around. He does all this while laughing hysterically with a wide-open smile on his face. Noah is his biggest walking fan, and he has been cheering for his brother every day.

Lead Weights

This was Isaac's first reaction to having real shoes on his feet! I knew it was going to be dramatic, so I had the camera ready, and he didn't fail to deliver. Right after this picture was taken, he pulled up on the coffee table, marched his little feet up and down a few times to figure out the new lead weights that were attached to them, and then took off crawling. After a minute of crawling, he sat down, pulled the shoes off, and clapped for his success.

We've tried wearing shoes a few more times for the fun of it, and Isaac patiently waits for me to put them on just so that he can pull them off with great efficiency and gusto. It's a fun game! Most of the time we stick with the Robees - they give him some traction when he needs it and he can't pull them off.

Chef Noah

Noah continues to love cooking and baking. He decided to make a carrot cake birthday cake for me, complete with cream cheese frosting! His newset skill is using the food processor to make the cream cheese frosting. Matt is right there to read the recipe and help with measuring, but Noah only needs help once in a while. He takes the whole thing pretty seriously and is a precise measurer. He knows the difference between teaspoons and tablespoons and how to level off the measuring spoons. The cake was delicious! It's great to have a 3-year-old chef in the family!

Vertical Thinker

Isaac is 13 months old today!

He is our vertical thinker. His outlook on life is vertical, not horizontal. Whenever he enters a room, he looks around for things to climb on. He's not walking yet because he's mostly focused on crawling or creeping to his next climbing spot. I'm sure he'll be walking soon - it's naturally going to happen, but it's not too much of a concern to him at the moment. He prefers to spend his time climbing on the kitchen chairs and trying to get up on the kitchen table, climbing up any unattened step stool, emptying out drawers and toy bins so he can climb in them, and climbing up stairs. We've been teaching him how to go down stairs feet first on his belly, and he gets a kick out of that too. He likes to climb up on the ottoman then swing his feet around and slide off on his belly.

We get such a kick out if Isaac's view of the world!

Thanksgiving Day Snuggles

We had a great Thanksgiving at Baubie's house in Atlanta. Isaac enjoyed a very rare moment of stillness and snuggles with Baubie, and that made her day! Noah had a lot of fun snuggling up with Mitzi and trying out her comfy dog bed. Both boys had a blast playing in Baubie's "little kitchen" and serving food and coffee to the family. We were so glad to see that Baubie's health is continuing to improve. It was a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Sewer Man

Noah has re-discovered the tunnel and he is having so much fun with it. He first started out pretending he was the tunnel digger (he's been watching the tunnel digger machine in our neighborhood as it buries cables). That only lasted awhile, and now the tunnel has become the sewer. Noah announces, "Here comes the sewer man!" with great excitement and he goes into the tunnel to clean out the sewers. Sometimes he lays the tunnel on the ground and stays inside it for a while. I ask him what he's doing and he replies, "I'm fixing something in the sewer." It's certainly a game I never would have thought of myself!

The Great Diaper Change Challenge

I'm getting quite the workout when I change Isaac's diaper these days. He's just too busy to be bothered with such trivial things. I usually have to force him to lay on his back by squeezing him in between my knees and power through the screaming and grunting (his, not mine). Once in a while, he wins and crawls away as fast as he can while laughing hysterically. Well, yesterday I had my camera near by, so I waited to see where he was planning on going. He was on top of his firetruck in an instant and made a valiant effort to get on the coffee table before the truck rolled away. Isaac, I apologize to you in advance if you ever find out I've put this picture on our blog. It's just too cute, I couldn't resist!

Counting Letters

Noah has developed a strong interest in spelling words and counting the letters in words. He loves it when I spell words out loud so he can count the letters on his fingers. He's memorized a few words and phrases, and one of his favorites is "I-L-O-V-E-Y-O-U" It's very sweet to have him tell us he loves us by spelling it!!

We made an activity together where I wrote out all the names of his school friends, and he sorted them according to the number of letters that each name has. It's a great pre-reading skill. For instance, he knows that his friend Ethan starts with an "E" and has 5 letters, so when he sees that strip of paper, he instantly knows it spells Ethan's name. Friends' names are great first sight words!

Two Cooks in the Kitchen

Matt and Noah make pancakes from scratch every Saturday morning - it's their tradition. Since it involves standing on a step stool, stirring, and time with Daddy, Isaac decided that he's old enough to help too!

Pure Happiness

I love this picture of Noah. He was running into Matt's arms in Grammy and Yaya's field in Michigan. It's pure happiness.

Our Climber

Isaac has been very busy working on his climbing skills. As you can see, he's pretty happy with himself! He's on the move all the time, and today he learned to get on and off of the little firetruck and climb in toy bins. Yesterday, I walked into the boy's bathroom to find Noah and Isaac standing on a step stool together, and they were both brushing their teeth!

Happy Birthday to Isaac!

Isaac had quite the first birthday!

His first party was with his family in Michigan, and his second was at home in North Carolina.

On the morning of his birthday, Isaac woke up in Grammy and Yaya's house in Michigan. He had so much fun playing with them during our 10-day stay, but we had to say good bye and start looking forward to seeing them again at Christmastime in Arizona.  Isaac then went on the second plane ride of his life.  Isaac has turned out to be a good flier!  He only struggled and fussed while he was trying to fall asleep, but other than that, he had fun looking out the window and playing peek-a-boo with the other passengers.  We arrived home and Isaac took another nap in his own crib, then it was time for dinner and our own birthday party!  Isaac had fun smooching the orange icing on his cupcake, and he even took a couple of bites.

We got ready to go trick-or-treating after our party, and Isaac had fun being a bear cub.  We opened presents the next night, and he had a great time playing with is new toys.  Actually, Noah had as much fun as Isaac did playing with the new toys - they were a hit!

Happy birthday to you, Isaac!
We love you!