Some pictures of Isaac and his nana

Isaac - 7 weeks old

Isaac is doing great! He's been giving us these truly cute, lopsided, gummy smiles. The kind where he opens his mouth and then gets tickled by something and then smiles a little bigger, and sometimes does a partial laugh. Sometimes he even says, "ahhh." He is officially cooing. What a sweet boy.

And he's just so pretty. :)

I guess I'm not supposed to say that about a little boy, but his sweetness makes me swoon. He has delicate little hands too. If this web site is still up when he has his first girlfriend, let's hope she doesn't find it.

He has started "standing" when we hold him up. He stiffens out his legs and then lifts his head to explore the world.

He sleeps for about 4-5 hours at night, and when he wakes to eat, he doesn't eat much -- he saves that for the daytime, like a good boy. This is a new momma's dream, except that from a breastfeeding perspective it's not the healthiest thing. So I'm on my second round of medication for a breast infection. This never happened with Evan because he ate every 2 hours 'round the clock.

The daycare is going well, but I'm afraid for my mom to leave in three weeks. Anyone want to be my new helper, send resume soon.

Evan is doing great. Here is a recent conversation:
Evan: Nana, no throw toys. Time out. [He paces around the room with his arms folded over his chest, then looks with seriousness at nana again.] Two minutes! Time out. No talking.

Evan: [Sits by me while I am holding Isaac]: Bad baby.
Me: He's not a bad baby. He's a good baby.
Evan: No good baby. Bad baby.

Isaac - 6 weeks old and smiling... Evan talking up a storm

Isaac is starting to smile, though he's doing it sparingly. This afternoon I was napping. My mom brought him to me, I looked down at him, and he gave me a huge gummy smile. I was so tired and foggy that I hardly realized it until it was over.

Twice now he has smiled at Evan without being provoked. Evan just talks to him in his gruff toddler voice. It looks like they're going to be friends.

Isaac's cry is changing slighly. In the middle of his cries, it sometimes sounds like there is an "ahhh," which I think is the beginning of a coo. He is experimenting with his sounds.

He is so alert now, and lifts his head to explore. He definitely seems to know who I am. I'm waiting expectently for more smiles!

Evan quotables:
We were all playing in the backyard, and Evan is pushing around his shopping cart.
Evan: Evan, go store. Buy food.
Me: Ok. Bye bye.
He walks away from me, stops, rips grass out of the ground, and puts it in his cart.
Evan [handing me the grass]: Mommy, ungry? Eat food?
Me: Ok. What is this?
Evan: Um, grass.
He then walks to the other side of the backyard.
Evan: Evan buy rocks.

We were lying on the floor of the playroom playing with his Little People. He took the polar bear and made it attack the boy.
Evan: Boy, scared. Bear bite.
Me: Oh no!
Evan (taking Pooh Bear and a plastic woman): Mommy and daddy save boy, bear.
Me: Oh, they are saving him?
Evan: Yeah. Go bed, daddy's room. Boy no scared.
Me: He's not scared any more?
Evan: No. No bees... worms... bite.
[Every time he has a nightmare he complains about bees and worms. We rarely take him into our bed, but it is always his hope.]

Evan and I are waiting for water to boil on the stove (yes, really) so we can make "roni cheese". Isaac starts to cry in the next room.
Evan: No baby.
Me: No baby?
Evan: No baby.
Me: You don't think I should feed the baby?
Evan: No mommy feed baby. Evan eat.
I later lure him into the next room with Spongebob Cheez-its so I can make them both happy.

Breastfeeding is going better. I'm just so tiiiiired.

Breastfeeding problem

I got mastitis (a breast infection) because Isaac went a whole night where he hardly ate, which caused a clogged milk duct that got infected. It hurts a little, but the flu symptoms (high fever and body aches) were the worst part. The medication made the flu symptoms go away, but then my milk supply plummeted last night. He breastfed off and on for three hours, trying to get enough to fill himself up, and we finally had to give him formula. He was so hungry. I thought I would have to wean him at 5 weeks.

My milk seems to have come back in this morning, but now he is barely eating. I'm sorta stressing out.

Isaac - 5 weeks old

Isaac is doing great. His gassy phase lasted only a few days, so I'm guessing it was the beans I ate last weekend. No more musical fruit for me. I'm glad I won't need to alter any other aspect of my diet.

Today he looked up at me and smiled a little... both sides of the mouth, and looking very content. He definitely acts like he knows me. What a feeling.

Evan is chasing the kitty.
He's doing lots of other interesting things, too. He used a striped wash cloth as a road for his train, as the stripes made train tracks. Then he used the top of a peanut lid to make his train get "stuck" under. He's also really into making one train save another from falling off a cliff, or making a train run into a mountain of Play-Doh. He literally played for hours today with his trains and cars. At one point, I said, "Hey, Evan..." and before I could finish, he said, "No! Play!" He gets very focused.

He has also started singing his ABC's, Happy Birthday, and Ring Around a Rosie.

Evan adores his baby brother. He smiles at him lovingly, hugs him, pats him, and talks to him in a high-pitched voice. He likes to lie beside him with an arm protectively over his side.

Baby got gas

Isaac has been fussy the last two days. I will not use the "C" word. He is just gassy.
Now I have to start thinking about whether it's something in my diet (milk? nitrites? tomatoes?) and decide if I should change my diet. Evan was allergic to cow's milk protein, which he got through my breast milk, and his colic mostly resolved itself when I cut out dairy.
He's been fussy off and on for a couple hours. Usually he just cries for 5-10 mins at a time, and feels better when we put him on his tummy and pat his back. So he's not inconsolable. But I still feel bad for him.

Isaac - 4 weeks old

I can't believe it's been a month since Isaac was born. He's doing great. He still sleeps a lot, and seems really mild mannered the rest of the time. He's a great baby! Last week, he started holding eye contact for about ten seconds at a time. At around 3 weeks, I went to him in the middle of the night when he cried, and after I picked him up, he smiled at me. It was a very slight smile, but still a smile. Most of the time he smiles on only one side of his mouth. We still haven't seen a really big, full-on smile.



When he hears my voice, he turns his head. What a great feeling.

My mom is here, spoiling Evan (which he is eating up) and holding Isaac a lot. She started sticking her tongue at Isaac, and he repeated it, repeatedly sticking his tongue all the way out.

Most nights he sleeps for a 5- or a 6-hour stretch. But he grunts and snorts so much in his sleep that I often wake up expecting that he'll need to eat, but he'll keep sleeping. So I'm still a little sleepy.

Evan's ABD's
He sings his ABC's like this:
ABDDEFG... HIJK... ELMO P...

He sings Frere Jacques, and it sounds something like this:
Frere Jacques,
Frere Jacques,
Peek-a-boo? (instead of dorme vu?)
Dabe da be da be
Ding ding dong

Here are some recent conversations (after he asked Jerry and I to play trains with him):
Daddy, pick one (offering him two trains)
Jerry picks one. There is then one left in Evan's hand, which he presents to me.
Mommy, pick one.

He takes his plastic Chicken Little toy and wraps a string around him, then makes him hang from the couch:
Chicken Little... hang... couch?
Ok...
Chicken Little upside down.