Isaac - 3 years
Isaac is funny. He definitely has his dad's quirky, dry sense of humor. It comes naturally to him. He says funny things without even knowing it, then he sees us laughing, and then he looks tickled. Of course, I can't think of any good examples right now. Oh, there is one thing.
Yesterday at snack time, he was not liking my rule of "eat everything before you get seconds." We were having boring Saltine's and raisins. He only wanted the raisins. So he said:
"Mommy, can I have more raisins?"
Me: You have to eat your cracker first (referring to his untouched cracker.
Isaac: I don't have a cracker.
Me: Really? What's that brown square thing right in front of you?
Isaac: Oh, that's just a rock.
Me: Then please eat your rock before you get more raisins.
Isaac (takes a bite, and says quietly): It's like a bwown hard wock.

Later, the kids were watering the plants with watering cans.
Isaac: Mommy, I need more water so that I can water the wocks and make the wocks gwow big.

Later, he was eating an apple.
Daddy! Look, I found a seed! Can I put this seed in the gwound and add water and make an apple twee gwow?

Isaac wants to type this: bbhlL'PPPP043R54WRTYY][]\\.NNMCXZ

Keira - 8 1/2 mos
She had tubes put in her ears at the beginning of May because she had 7 ear infections in 4 months. I brought her to the surgery place and forgot to bring her pacifier. The surgery was scheduled for 9:00 which is when she takes her morning nap, and I couldn't feed her past 4:00 a.m., so she was hungry and tired... very crabby. And I had no pacifier! I was so mad at myself. I had tried walking around with her, and that calmed her a bit, and I had toys for her, but they got boring after awhile, and she was getting restless. Finally I found a stuffed baby tiger that she was given for Christmas from one of her grandmas. I gave it to her, and she immediately calmed down, pulled it to her face, sucked on it, played with the whiskers, and was totally content for a long time.

The surgery went fine. It was so quick... only about 10 minutes total.

Days after the surgery, she got her two front teeth, and then she was sick... ah, the life of a baby.

She can stand holding onto something as long as I stay close behind her. She's developing her balance pretty well. She is also kind of crawling. She can scoot all around with her belly touching the floor, and sometimes goes up on her hands and knees. She sits perfectly. The other day, she wasn't napping when she was supposed to be. I peeked in at her, and she was sitting up in her bed, shaking the railing back and forth, and looking happier than I've ever seen her. I thought she was going to propel herself over the edge, she was so happy.

Up to this point, she has only liked vegetables, especially green and orange ones, so green beans, peas, carrots, and sweet potatoes. She also loves rice cereal and baby oatmeal. She has hated fruits or anything sweet or tart. But just over the last few days she has started eating apple sauce and banana, which is great because I was getting bored feeding her the same thing all the time. She loves those baby crunchy things and crackers. Isaac loves to feed her crackers. He always asks if he can give her a cracker.

Evan - almost 6
We just started Evan in T-ball. Yesterday was his first practice. He was very shy. At the beginning, they went around a circle and had to say their name, school they go to, and favorite cereal. When it got to him, he was just quiet. The coach had to coax him to talk, and he said, "My name is Evan, I don't know what school I go to, and I like Trix." Then the coach asked him to pick a partner, and Evan's friend from preschool was immediately snatched up by another kid. Evan just kind of walked around for a long time like he wasn't sure what to do. I finally called out to him and pointed to another kid walking alone, so he went and stood next to him... never asked the kid if he wanted to be his partner. So later I told him the "secret" is to make eye contact, walk up to the first kid you see, and ask to be their partner. He seemed relieved to hear this plan. Unfortunately, Jerry and I were both painfully shy and hated these situations as kids, so it looks like he has inherited this. We don't see this in Isaac at all, so maybe he has the outgoing gene from his papa (my dad) and grandma (Jerry's mom).

Then coach Todd started teaching them to throw and catch, and Evan did that with another kid, and they were both equally inexperienced. Evan threw pretty well but missed most of the catches... but so did most of the other kids. Then coach Todd matched himself up with Evan for the next drill. Todd showed Evan one time how to throw overhand, and almost all of Evan's throws from that point on were perfect. He showed him how to throw and catch grounders with his mitt, and again, they were all almost perfect. He still needs to work on his catching, though. I was so happy at how well he was doing, but at the end, Evan said it was boring, he didn't like it, and didn't want to go back. I finally convinced him to finish out the season, and told him that once they start having actual games, those kids will become his friends, and they'll go to ice cream afterwards. That seemed to help a little.

I think Evan thinks that the game of baseball really just means throwing a ball back and forth, and throwing a ball to some random person that some other random person tells you to throw it to. He doesn't understand the game. At one point, he played first base. He became pretty good at stopping the ball (even if he didn't catch it the first time... he was at least stopping it with his glove or foot, and then picking it up and throwing it). But we had to tell him to throw it to the pitcher, and although he listened, he didn't understand why. So that night I drew him a typical game, named the pretend characters, explained how all this stuff can happen when the ball is in the air and people are fumbling with it and trying to throw it back, and this seemed to interest him... Hopefully that will make a difference. If he's not into baseball, that's OK, but we want him to at least give it a chance.

He is GREAT at karate! He sort of leads the class (though they are all younger) and has mastered all the moves. He just moved from orange belt to yellow and will move next week into a new class with ages 5-11, which I think will challenge him. Right now, the four year-olds will sometimes act silly, and he seems distracted by it, so I think it will be great for him to be challenged by older, better kids. His new class will have a special thing on Fridays where they get to do karate with pretend weapons. He'll love it!

Evan finished his preschool class on Monday and starts kindergarten in July, the week before he turns 6. He had lots of close friends in his preschool class of 10 boys. On two different occassions, parents told me that Evan was the "nicest boy in class," and also that he was artistic and loves to draw. When Jerry dropped him off, all the kids would say, "Evan!" and look genuinely happy to see him. I am nervous about kindergarten... I hope they love him there, too... :)

Isaac's 3rd Birthday

Lots of new things to report!
Isaac - age 3
Isaac has become the family funny guy. He has his dad's quick sense of humor. When he realizes we are laughing at him, he looks proud. And, even though he is 3 now, he still has a cute toddler voice. For example, he calls his PJ's his JABAMBAS.

He has a major stutter though, and we are taking him to get evaluated next month for speech therapy.

He still loves Evan and is a loyal follower, and Evan is becomming more of a leader (read: bossier) with him. The other day, I saw a colored page on the floor, with Isaac sitting next to it (Evan had just gone to the bathroom). I said, "Isaac, did you color that?" He said, "No, Evan did." I asked him if he wanted to pick a page from the coloring book and do his own. He said, "No, Evan will be mad at me." I went to Evan and told him what Isaac said, and asked him if Isaac could color a page from Evan's book. Evan looked very important, marched into the other room, and ripped out a page for Isaac to color. But later, I heard this:

Isaac: I'm done coloring now.
Evan: No you're not! You need to keep coloring.
Isaac dutifully colors more.
Isaac: I'm done now!
Evan: No, no you aren't. Color right there.

I told Evan to knock it off. I had to tell him a few times, because apparently this comes naturally to him now.

When they play video games, and it's Isaac's turn, Evan keeps his finger on the jump button to "help" Isaac. I asked Isaac if he wanted Evan helping him, and he said no. We kept telling Evan to stop, but he just couldn't help himself. His finger kept making its way back to Isaac's game control.

This is a long way from Evan's former meek & mild personality. He used to be the one getting bossed around by his friends. Not anymore.

Keira - 7 months
Last month, Keira started sitting up on her own. Now, when she sits, she can bend all the way forward so that she's completely parallel with her legs, and she sits in this position to play with toys. She is very flexible. She rarely falls over when I sit her down now.

A couple times, she kind of lifted herself onto her knees like she was going to crawl, but she only holds herself there for a second. While Evan and Isaac always seemed to eye a gum wrapper or a bug or a dirty shoe on the other end of the room and were determined to get there, Keira is happy to stare at the thing right in front of her face. If she looks around the room for anything, it's for me or Jerry. She doesn't seem interested in exploring the world yet.

She does like to watch the kitty, though.

She is a good eater and likes to feed herself those star crispies that melt in her mouth. She uses two fists to cram them in. She loves sweet potatoes, carrots, green vegetables, and squash. She hates apples and bananas! She makes a sour face and looks like she wants to cry when I feed them to her. She also likes the always-bland rice cereal.

She likes to give me big, open-mouthed kisses on my cheeks, and says, "aaahhh" while she does it. She likes to hold her feet when they are straight up in the air. When she goes to sleep, I give her her dolly, and she stares at the pony tails, picks at the dress, sucks on her face, and basically lets the doll become her sole focus, then she lifts her legs up and wraps her body around her doll, rolls to her side, and falls asleep.

Keira
She is becomming a really good sleeper. She can still only stay awake 1-2 hours at a time... 2 hours max if her previous nap is a good one. When I put her down, I rock her for about 2 minutes, and half the time she is looking away from me, so I don't think she loves the rocking. Then I lay her on her back with her blankie (satin edging so she can feel it), put her red stuffed baby doll on top of her, and plug in her pacifier. Sometimes she spits out her paci to suck on the satin edges of her dolly. Then I pull the string on her crib toy that sings a lullaby and I rub circles on her tummy. If I stop rubbing in circles, she grabs my pinky and thumb like they are handle bars and forces my hand to rub circles. I plug in her paci again, say night-night, and she coos to herself until she falls asleep on her own.

Yesterday she sat unassisted for about 30 seconds for the first time. It was funny because she was sitting so far forward that her chest was almost touching the ground. Her pediatrician said she is extremely flexible and flexible babies tend to sit later because they aren't stiff enough. Although Evan and Isaac both sat at 5 months, he said the normal range is 5-8 months.

She loves to chew on her Very Hungry Caterpillar toy. It is stuffed with crunchy things, and it has hard little feet that she loves to chew on. Some of the body segments are satin and some are velvety... she loves it.

She has been eating solid foods for about 3 weeks now. We started her on applesauce and she made a tart/sour face like she didn't like it. Next was boring old rice cereal, which she seemed to really like. Then bananas, which she also made a face at. Then sweet potatoes, which she really likes, then squash, which she loves. She has since decided that she also likes bananas. I mash them and mix with water, but I can never seem to make it totally lump-free, and she will choke on the tiniest little chunks. So I give her tiny bites.

She adores her big brothers, especially Evan because he laughs at her to make her laugh. She leans really far forward to look at him and smile. They can stare and laugh at each other for a good 10 minutes. Isaac has just recently started to notice her. One time I asked if Isaac would like to feed her, and he said yes, and took about 10 seconds to get the spoon even moderately close to her, and even then, it was about 6 inches away from her face. Then he wouldn't move it any closer, and he seemed scared to go any farther, so I had to take over.

She loves to hang out in her exersaucer (the big toy she sits in). She doesn't lean on it anymore, but sits more upright, so I know her ab muscles are stronger.

Isaac's 3rd Bday is tomorrow, on 3/3. His party is this Saturday.

To be continued...

And...

Happy Sweet 16 to Jillian!!

Evan: "Isaac, you gotta hold on. Mommy has to feed the baby before we leave. She can't feed the baby at the store because no one wants to see her boobs. Isn't that right mommy?"

Isaac's new quotables

Isaac is saying some pretty cute things. I started a new baby in my daycare, named Madeline, who is 4 days older than Keira. They lied on the ground together and held hands, looking at each other. A few times, I was holding Madeline while Keira was sleeping. Isaac ran into the room, saw the baby, looked around the room, and yelled, "MOMMY, WHERE KEWA?" I told him she was upstairs sleeping. Three more times that day, he saw me holding M, and he yelled again, "MOMMY, WHERE KEWA?" He definitely seemed to be worried that Keira had been replaced. I thought it was funny that he even cared, because he usually ignores his baby sister.

At the end of the day, I was holding Madeline again, waiting for her mom to arrive, and Isaac came up to me and said, "Mommy, I just want Kewa. I don't want Madeline." I told him not to worry, that Keira will always be here because she is in our family. He seemed ok with that.

* * *

After naptime, I sat all the kids on the potty. Isaac had gone in his pull-up at naptime, so wasn't able to go in the potty. He said, "Mommy, I can't go pee pee. My pee pee is all gone. I just need to drink some water because {giggle, giggle}... water has pee pee in it!" I explained that water is just water but turns into pee pee in his body, and that seemed to make him happy.d

Keira loves me

Everything is going well, but Keira seems to have separation anxiety. Technically, separation anxiety begins "as early as 6 months," so I guess what she has is called something else, but it looks an awful lot like separation anxiety. When the sitter held Keira the other day, she cried and looked around for me. Today I handed her off, and the sitter walked her back and forth while I did the dishes. Keira screamed the entire time (I let her cry for a bit, hoping that time would solve things), then I went to go get her (and give the poor sitter a break). Keira was bright red, screaming, and had tears streaming down her face. She calmed down as soon as I took her.

She also seems tense sometimes when Jerry holds her. He can make her laugh and coo, but she's a mama's girl right now.

I'm flattered, but this stresses me out. Our anniversary is this Friday, and we plan to leave her with my friend, who also has a home daycare, and is very good with babies. We'll come back and get her if we need to... but she does need to learn to go to other people. I'm thinking of starting to leave her at the church nursery (instead of staying with her in the cry room). Maybe having short bursts of time with other people who are interesting will help her realize that other people are nice too.

The boys are good. Evan is obsessed with Star Wars, and Isaac is picking up on it. Today, Isaac said, "Mommy, you are Count Duku, and I am General Grievous, and you are the boss." Evan has taught him so much.

One other thing. When she wakes up from her nap crying, sometimes I take a minute or two to get to her. Today, when I got there, she continued making the crying noise, but looked at me and started smiling... while still crying! She is so cute. Sometimes when going to bed, she'll have her pacifier in, and I'll pat her belly while she's falling asleep... she'll realize I am still there and I can see a smile start to form behind her pacifier, and then it will fall from her mouth and she'll give me a huge smile. She's just so sweet.

Me: Evan, you have nice red hair.
Evan: It's golden.
Me: Well, it's really considered to be red.
Evan: No, this hair is gold. My hair is golden.
Me: Ok.

Later.
Isaac: Mommy, you're the best mommy ever.
Me: And you're the best brown-haired boy ever.
Isaac: No, my hair is gwey.
Me: No it's not. Look in the mirror. It's brown!
Isaac: No, it's gwey.
Me: Ok.

What is everyone's preoccupation with their hair color?

Tonight in the bath.
Isaac: Look at our penis! They match!

Keira is doing little baby situps. She hates to be flat on her back, so she is constantly doing these crunches, with a look of straining on her face. She is so determined! She is also attacking everything with her hands. She grabs things, holds them right in front of her face, and squeezes or eats them. Her hands are very busy.

I have been trying to give her a bottle, but she mostly gnaws on the nipple. She looks really surprised when the milk comes out, like she just expects it to be a pacifier. We'll keep trying... we need her to take the bottle so that we can go out on our anniversary next week!! It will work.

Keira - 4 months

She is such a happy girl! She has started gurgling to say hi to us. The second I look at her, she smiles, drool covering her chin, and then starts gurgling. It's precious.

She hates her bath time, so I gave her a bath in the kitchen sink. She seemed to like it a little better.

She eats her hands constantly. She's doing really well with holding a toy and manipulating it. She's not so passive anymore.

More picts

I love these pictures because she has just learned how to play. She can grab the rattle toys and bat at the spinny toys, just before her neck gives out on her and she face plants.




Isaac after being told to please lie down next to his sister. Normally he avoids her.




At Christmas Part V, we let the boys open the huge present, which was a pinball machine from grandpa and grandma. We basically could have bought our kids zero gifts, and they still would have been spoiled.





Cutey.






Evan wanted to help give Keira a bath, but didn't want to take a bath himself, so somehow that meant he should go in in his underwear. When I got Keira out, he wanted to help do the snaps on her PJ's. I said sure, that was fine. Then he said, "But then can I get back in the bath? And can I put my underwear back on?" He was happy when I said it was OK to wear his wet undies again. By the way, this was the first time that Keira did not cry in her bath, and she is almost 4 months old!