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Milestones

I’m taking a break from my mad packing (OK, I’m kinda lying… Chris is doing all the mad packing), to share my proud mom moments with you.

Last night I was hanging out at Fervent, talking with the girls.  We were right in the middle of discussing something fun, when I felt a little hand tapping my knee and I heard a little voice saying, “‘Scuse, Mommy, ‘scuse.”  My son said “excuse me” to get my attention while I was talking!  I was so shocked… all my hard work at nagging him to be civilized was paying off!  I was so proud of him!

We have been trying to convince Isaiah to poo-poo on the potty.  He has always refused, choosing instead to do his jobs in his pants.  So every time that happens, we’ve made a big deal out of how disgusting (“‘gusting” as he says) it is.  Today, Isaiah came out of the bathroom saying, “That’s ‘gusting, in the potty!”  We went and checked and sure enough, he had done a little poop in the potty, not his pants!  This was the first time he accomplished this, and I had despaired of it ever happening.  We got so excited that I think we scared him a little, until he realized we were happy-excited!  He got a special train for his set to commemorate the happy occasion.

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It’s cold in Wisconsin!

Family is forever, but it’s a good thing vacations only last for a week. We’ve been visiting my family in WI for the past week and my son has been terrorizing their house. I’m sure my parents are glad that they have their home back to normal.We had a great trip! It was Leah’s first airplane ride, but it was something like Isaiah’s ninth time. He’s a pro! Leah slept the whole way there. Isaiah wiggled a lot, but we made it.

Of course, Wisconsin was freezing. We thought we’d be all tough, since it’s only been two years since we’d lived there, but I guess we’ve gotten used to our nice California weather. We were so cold! I actually bought gloves! The upside of the cold is that it snowed while we were there! Isaiah got to go outside and play in the snow a little and he thought that was great.

Isaiah loved being at his Grandpa and Grandma’s house. Aunt Emmy played with him and Grandma helped him build tunnels for his trains, but his favorite part was Grandpa. With Isaiah, Gran and Grandma and even Mommy are nice, but Daddy and Papa and Grandpa are the best! He really likes the men in his life. Before we left he said he wanted to take Grandpa home.

My mom made all my favorite meals and we went to all my favorite restaurants, so I probably gained a bajillion pounds. Food is never as good as you remember it. And, because every day I had one of my favorites, it kind of took away the impact. A favorite once in a while is a treat, but a favorite everyday makes them all not as special. But it was still fun… because I love food!!!

We visited our favorite WI Mexican restaurant. Of course it isn’t as authentic as the amazing taquerias we have out here in Cali, but everyone who works there is Mexican, which is an important criteria in our minds! One of the ladies that works there remembered us and couldn’t believe how much weight Chris has lost. She made her husband come out and see Chris, because he wanted to lose weight but didn’t believe in diet plans. Chris is such a walking Weight Watchers advertisement!

Everywhere we went, people didn’t recognize Chris. They’d say hi to me and then look around a little and realize Chris was with me and then they would figure out who he was. The funniest was when we stopped by the Wal-Mart where Chris had been personnel manager. His old boss walked right past him and even greeted him in a generic way, thinking he was a customer. Chris’ old assistant was with us and she had to stop the boss and make him look at Chris again before he realized who he was.

It was fun to see family and friends that we haven’t seen in a couple years. Isaiah went to a Children’s Museum. And we got to shop at Buckle. Buckle is our current favorite store and we don’t have one very close to us. It’s kind of sad that we live in California and we go to Wisconsin to shop!

I had a cold when we left for WI and I still have it! Isaiah caught it half way through the trip and now Leah has it too. Leah is the saddest, because she has this little baby girl cough that would melt your heart. She was feeling really yucky yesterday and she slept a lot to try to get over it. She started smiling again last night, so I think she’s feeling a little better.

Chester is glad to be home. Poor guy, he’s been staying at the puppy hotel. He’s nice and skinny again, because he doesn’t get people scraps at the puppy hotel. He was pretty excited when he came home, but now he’s happy to go to sleep on our couch.

Isaiah is starting to tell us when he has to go potty (thank the Lord!). Today he even went in the bathroom and went potty all by himself, of his own free will. There is hope in sight! My son will not be 14 and still wearing diapers!

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Our Christmas

Our family had a great Christmas! Chris spoiled me. As in “I can’t decide which is my favorite present” spoiled. As in, “It’ll take me weeks to finish wearing everything just once” spoiled. The kids got spoiled too, both by us and by their grandparents. Isaiah actually got overwhelmed opening presents and in the middle of everything begged to go watch one of his new movies. So he had two present opening sessions!

All of this gift giving made me realize again how the Lord has blessed us. I love how the Bible says, “I have never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging for bread,” (Hannah’s paraphrase). This has definitely been true in our lives. Even when things looked like they were going to be tight financially, Jesus always came through and made sure we had just enough!

We went over to our Pastors’ house on Christmas Eve and we had a few nice people invite us over for Christmas day also, but we decided to spend the day with just our family. We had been so busy in the weeks leading up to Christmas, that we all needed to just stop and enjoy each other. I’m so glad we decided to do that, because we had the nicest, most relaxed Christmas!

Isaiah had a great time playing with all his new toys. Chris helped him set up his new train track. I had fun trying on all my new clothes and jewelry. Chris even watched White Christmas with me… well, the last 20 minutes or so. He said he really liked it, once it got going, which in his mind was only the last 20 minutes of it!

I’m not a great cook yet, so I didn’t even attempt a holiday meal. We had grand plans of going to Denny’s (since it’s one of the only things open on Christmas), but when we pulled up, it was packed! I guess I wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to cook. Isaiah was begging for a “toy” (meaning a happy meal), as if he hadn’t just opened enough toys! So we took him up on his suggestion and went to McDonalds instead. It may not sound like a great Christmas dinner, but Isaiah was happy!

Leah is talking more and more. She’ll lay on the floor and kick her feet and coo! She’ll let out little happy shrieks and smile at her toys. I know I’ve said this before, but I can’t get over what a happy girl she is! She is always smiling. We love it!

Leah is getting more control with her hands. She can rub her eyes, suck on her fist, and she even bats at her toys a little. She got an exersaucer for Christmas and she’ll play in that for short periods. She still has a hard time holding her head up by herself, so she tires out quickly, but she does seem to like it.

Isaiah is doing great with potty-training. He can hold it really well, and sometimes even tells us when he has to go. We still have a long way to go, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

He’s so smart and he carries on such interesting conversations. Usually he is just trying to get me to give him candy or let him watch a movie, or he is arguing about going to bed or sitting on the potty. But last night when I went in to re-tuck him into bed, we had the nicest little conversation about the little things that interest him. It was so sweet. I love watching him learn to communicate!

Speaking of growing up, Isaiah seems to have a girlfriend. There is a little girl in our church that he really likes! We were over at her house a couple weeks ago and he was really upset to leave. He kept asking to go back to “A-E-ahna’s.” He shares food with her. He’ll get a cracker, take a bite and then give her the rest (Thankfully, her mother isn’t a germaphobe). Last Wednesday, I heard they were holding hands and hugging in nursery. Just a minute ago, he brought me an advertisement for DVD’s. He pointed one out to me and said, “That’s my A-E-ahna’s.” This is all very cute… but what are the next 15 years going to be like, if we’re starting all this now?!

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The Kids

Wow! Have we ever been busy! Lots of birthday parties and Christmas parties. Last night we had our youth Christmas party. We cleared out all the chairs in the sanctuary and put up a bounce house in there! It was pretty fun and of course Isaiah loved it.

Chester even had a birthday! He is a big 2 year old now (that’s 14 in dog years). He got some bones and a new collar. It is red and looks really nice against his dark fur. Surprisingly, he got really excited when we pulled out his presents. I don’t know how he understood, but he knew he was the center of attention and he loved it!

Isaiah is working on potty-training. I think he thinks a potty-TRAIN is some really cool train he gets for learning to go on the potty. He doesn’t volunteer when he has to go, so I just have to make him go every half hour or so. It’s pretty exhausting. And he refuses to poop on the potty… I think he is scared to do that. Being almost 3 is very traumatic!

Leah is such a girl… obviously! She is really sensitive about how we pick her up. If we don’t hold her close to our body as we lift her up, she gets upset. She doesn’t appreciate her head being bumped, even if it is a very gentle bump. If a bunch of people hold her, she has a meltdown when we get home. I don’t remember Isaiah doing any of those things. He took it all “like a man!”

Another thing I don’t remember Isaiah doing is smiling all the time. Leah loves to smile, laugh and talk. We’ll go in her room to get her out of bed and she give us a big grin. She smiles when we change her, she smiles when she is eating, she smiles when she is playing on the floor. She’ll even smile at any random person that is holding her. We love having such a happy baby!

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