Growing up

Yesterday afternoon we took away Paci. The thought has been in my head for awhile now, but wasn't sure when to do it. Izzy loves his paci and it broke my heart to think of taking it away, but it was also wearing me out hearing him whine for it all the time. We have tried really hard from the very beginning to not let him have it unless it was absolutely necessary, or it was bed time. Then he got older and got sick, and then he started asking for it. Not that gave in all the time, but sometimes (I will confess) I got so tired of hearing him whine, that I gave it to him for a few min. Yesterday I let him have it for nap time, but after he got up, I told him it was time to put paci nigh-night, which he did with a very good attitude. He was great all afternoon and only asked for it a couple times. I had talked to my mom about it, and of course Joel, so all afternoon I was praying that the Lord would give me wisdom to know how and when to do this. Yes I pray about how to take pacies away! We played, ate dinner, got ready for bed...all without paci. I read to him, and then decided to see what would happen if I didn't give it to him to sleep. He of course asked for it, and started looking for it in bed. When we couldn't find it, I told him to lay down with diti, and he did. He fussed for a little bit and then was mad when I told him that they were all gone, but calmed down realy quickly and went to sleep. Today he has been so good, and excepting that they are all gone, but nap time was a little rough...for me. I hate hearing him cry. But it wasn't even five minutes and he was out. Hopefully this goes well, and we can be rid of these wonderful but addicting things.

Hide Heart

I know that I have mentioned the Hide'm In Your Heart DVDs and how wonderful they are. My son, 1 1/2, LOVES them! And when I say Loves them, that is probably an understatement. This past week he has figured out how to say it. It surprised me when I heard him ask for Hide Heart. The only thing that keeps me from letting him watch it all day everyday, is because well, he needs to do something other than sit in front of the tv with his diti and paci (diti being his blanket). But other than that, I am THRILLED that he loves these because it is just scripture put to song. I he quotes the scripture and the reference before each song. Joel and I have the songs memorized and the order in which they come. But my prayer is that as he gets older, these songs will penetrate his heart. The scriptures says that God's word will NOT return void. These are great songs/verses and I am so grateful that he is going to have these hidden in his heart. Friday afternoon I realized that he had a low temperature, and Saturday in climbed to 103 degrees. We lost track of how many times he watched Hide Heart Saturday and today. It is the only movie he asks for. We have definitely gotten our moneys worth. Now...if we can just figure out how to get them on our iphones!

Goodnight Moon

I am sure that all of you have heard of the book Goodnight Moon. It is one of my favorites especially since my mom read it to us. So now I get to read it to my son. But...there is a special way to read it. There are certain voice inflections that must be followed while reading the list of things to say goodnight to. The first time Joel read it, it just didn't sound right. It almost ruined the book for me. So now I am teaching him how to read it the right way, and he is being such a good sport. I am so gald that he understand or at least humors me in this area. Tonight he was reading it to Israel, and he looked up and asked "am I doing it right?" I told him he was getting better. I know it sounds silly, but I am sure that all of you have something like this, whether it is a book that needs to be read a certain way or something else. What is one of your peculiar or special request?

Grape Thief!

Israel LOVES grapes! He gets a small glimps of them and he goes crazy. Well, today after I got home from grocery shopping, I was putting away the groceries. Of course I had the fridge open and my little helper was "helping" me. At least I thought he was until he peeped around the fridge with his mouth full of grapes! He had figured out how to open the grape container and was helping himself tho them. It was so funny! Anyway, he is evidence of the grape thief!

Izzy tidbits at 15 months

Israel is 15 months old. He is growing up so fast, and I am enjoying every minute of it. Sometimes I stop and am in awe at how big he is getting because it seems like we get going about our lives and then all of a sudden he is bigger! He is saying so many words like "no" , "yes", Thanx", "Bible", "Bubble", "Ball", And various other words that we can't fully understand. His newest word is "Cool Dude!" and he says this when he puts on his cool sunglasses.

He loves to eat with a fork and his newest thing is popcorn! Oh does he love it. And he doesn't just put one piece in his mouth, he takes a handful, throws his head back as he puts it in his mouth like daddy does.

He loves his blanket and calls it "Diti." Every morning we walk in and he immediately holds up diti and wants out. He now finds it along with his paci when he wants to be held and cuddled. I love it! I love that he has something that comforts him. 

We are in the process of transitioning away from the morning nap and that has been okay. It is a lot easier when we have errands to run or something to do to keep us busy. It is hard when we are home all day and I have to come up with things to keep him occupied and not cranky. But we will make it.

He loves to play with the pots and pans. I think that he just might grow up to be a cook of some sort. He loves to color (only for a few seconds though), loves to play ball, and LOVES the park. We go there a lot! His best buddies are Melody, and Levi and it is always a treat to see them.

We have started using cloth diapers and so far it is not that bad. If I think about it too much when I am rinsing out a diaper I think I might throw-up, but if I just do it, then I am okay. I will not be doing this for the rest of my life right?

We are loving this stage. We love to cuddle, listen to music and sing Snuggle Puppy.

There are millions and millions of toys out there. And the toy industry wants to make us think we need all of them to keep our kids happy. Well, sorry to bust there plan, but I am here to tell you, that no, you do not need all the toys in the world. All you need is a coffee can and a blender lid. Maybe some pots and pans, and a spoon to stir the imaginary food! For the past few days these have been Izzy's favorite toys.

 He will play for HOURS! I love it! I open "his" cabinet in the kitchen and he gets out his favorite things. Actually for the past several days he just follows me around and finds interesting things around the house and plays with them. He still loves him books, and his music, but the other toys he can do without. Maybe he will be a chef!

Weddings are exciting things. Especially when you first get ingaged. Romance is in the air. People are congratulating you, and offering to help with the wedding, you and your fiance are communicating well, and you can't imagine EVER having an arguement. The start of planning even goes well, and you enjoy picking out your flowers and finding THE dress. But then the week before the wedding arrives and everything changes. That is where we are right now with my sister-in-laws wedding. Thankfully she came to town last weekend and we found out how frazzled she was and that she could really use the extra help. Amazingly enough I was able to find a place for Izzy so that I could leave with Juls on Monday to help be her brain. We have gotten a lot done, and we just finished moving them into their new house...but it has been the last week of the wedding if you know what I mean. Emotions are hight, things are tense, and if you say "call the minister" one more time, she might bite your head off!!!

We look forward to all the hustle and bustle that starts tomorrow as guest start coming in, and flowers are picked up and the party begins!!

"Whew!"

The past two weeks have been SO busy! I have been helping a dear friend of mine declutter her home for the past 2 weeks, still stay on top of mine, take care of Izzy and Joel, try to get ready for a garage sale (4 families) and take care of piano business as well. Yesterday I had a melt down. Joel was so sweet, and took us out to dinner so that there was one less thing I had to worry about. Today I was so looking forward to Fifth Night at Utica Square and a relaxing dinner with our little family. We got there, found a perfect spot unloaded and I began to feed Izzy. Joel had gone to the bathroom so when he returned I left to go get something at Pottery Barn and left my half of sandwhich on a plate and next to it a couple bites let of Izzy's sandwhich. I said to Joel as I left "those are Izzy's bites." As I walked away the thought entered my mind that I should tell him that the other half was mine, but I didn't and just hoped that he would think about it. Well he didn't, because when I returned it was gone! He had fed almost the entire sandwhich...my dinner...to Israel! I couldn't believe it. Once he found out he went to Wendy's and got me a salad and chicken nuggets. He got back and exclaimed "all better!" I thought it was until I started unloading the food and realized that I was going to have to eat my salad with my fingers because he had forgotten the fork! Oh well, all silly mistakes and none that were worth ruining the evening. Plus a yummy cold Starbucks drink made it all better! Thanks Babe!

"Delightfully Delicious"

Today we had our first family outing to the donut shop! One of Daylight's Donuts slogans is "Delightfully Delicious" and it was! It was fun to see all the old men coming in who come everyday. One gentleman said that he had been coming everyday for 30 years! I don't think that we will be doing that. But it was fun for a Saturday morning, and Izzy loved the blueberry donut!!!

Chitown

Okay, this is take two of this post, because after I had spent like 3 days writing and posting pics, I lost it all!

So here it goes. Vacation this year was a trip to Chicago! It was a vacation from our every day lives, but it wasn't that restful. We had a blast though, and boy did we fit a lot in.



We arrived in Chicago on Wednesday June 9th. We stepped off the plane and onto the train into downtown. We stepped off the train onto a platform that only had stairs. So Joel with 3 bags of luggage, and me with a stroller and a baby, we made it down the stairs....I don't know how really, but we did...Oh, I carried the stroller down WITH Izzy in it, and somehow Joel made it down with 2 roller bags and a duffle. Joel didn't know which way to go exactly, so we headed out one way, then thought we should turn around. So we did, then he dicided that we were going the right way the first time, so we turned around again, and finally made it to our hotel. That afternoon we loaded up the stroller and hit Michigan ave in awe of the tall buildings and nice fancy shops! We saw the old water tower, stopped by the Hershey's store ate some chocolate, walked some more, went in and out of stores, oohing and ahhing over the very high priced items, and of course, visited the Drake hotel.

We were taking pictures and then a bell man came up to us and in all seriousness said "we have a policy...that when we see a pretty family, we have to take a picture." The policy part scared us. We thought that we were in trouble.

After the Drake, we headed to the lake. It was a warm day, so Izzy and I waded in the water while Joel took pictures. It was gorgeous. It is a lake that looks like an ocean.We at at Uno's that night after waiting an hour for our pizza to cook, and Izzy didn't have enough patience, so he fell asleep.


Thursday we hit the road runny pretty early and headed to the train station. But not without stopping by one of the many Starbucks. We took an hour train ride into Lake Bluff where my mom grew up. It is a very quaint little town that you could walk through in 2 hours. We saw both houses that she grew up in, saw the lake again, and took lots of pictures. We had a great time!

Lake Forest was another stop, where we walked around the cute little square and had lunch in a quaint sandwich cafe. By this time the weather was moving in, so it was getting a little cool. Then we missed our train. We were actually there at the station, but on the wrong side of the tracks! So we killed another hour before we took the hour long train ride back to the city!

Once back in the city we hit the library, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography that left us completely depressed, but we were quickly cheered up by Degas, and Monet at the Art Institute. Dinner was at the Italian Village where Frank Sinatra supposedly ate. It was good, but we were all tired, and Israel wouldn't stop moving. We dropped dead that night.

Friday we woke to the whole city in front of our hotel. There was a parade for the hockey team who had just won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 49 years. We had to walk a little farther to catch a bus to the zoo because of it! We missed our Starbucks that morning, so we were a little sluggish at the zoo, but it was still a good time. The next stop was Wrigley Field, and to get there we had to walk a little was, and then wait for a bus that wasn't already full. We found out that the Cubs and White Socks were doing an exhibition game and it was the first one. Wrigley field was alive and hoppin'. It was so much fun. We took the El back to the city to visit the man eating lions at the Field Museum. On the way back to the hotel we walked through Grant Park and then saw the Bean. We then took a sheet from the hotel, stopped and picked up some Chicago hot dogs and headed back to Grant park to enjoy some Blues with thousands of other Chicago poeple. It was so much fun!

Saturday it was raining, so in between the rain we finished up seeing the sights, and taking pictures and eating yummy burgers at the world famous Billy Goat's Tavern. Then we started the long trek home which ended at 10:00 that night!

We had a blast...came home tired, but we miss it already!

Rocket Crawler!!

I have a pro rocket crawler! I went to the store today to look for some clothes for Izzy. It was lunch time, and he was tired, so I didn't feel like putting up with him stuck in a shopping cart. The floor is all carpet, and it is a consignment store, so a little more layed back, therefore I thought it was okay to just set him down on the floor and give him something to play with. but he wasn't down on the ground 5 minutes when I look away for a second, look back and he is gone! I look under the rack of clothes both ways, and see him about 10 fee away looking at a book. It was like he flew over there! So the whole rest of the time I was chasing my little crawler as he scurried here and there, crying when I had to try some shoes on him, and laughing when I had to chase him down. I was so embarrased! I probably looked like one of those mothers who I swore I would never be, and swore I would "train my child so that he would be perfect all the time!" Ha! How silly I was...when I didn't have a child. I think I will put up with the shopping cart next time so that our visit to the store isn't a show.

A week to remember

A week ago today I headed out with my Izzy to brave highway 75 all the way to Texas! All. By. Myself. I took along with me my trusty helpers, the Hide 'm' In Your Heart Steve Green DVDs that Captures Israel's attention for the full 30 min. They were a life saver! He did a wonderful job, even though he didn't sleep as long as I would have liked at first. But it all turned out well, and we made good time.

I was going to see my friend who has a daugter 6 weeks older than Izzy. They spent Thursday afternoon getting to know each other and trying to figure out how to share their toys. We had a great time together, and even managed to get away for the evening by ourselves because Hannah's husband (yes we have the same name) offered to stay home and watch the sleeping babies. But our good times were quickly over when I woke up Saturday morning throwing up. This was not good since this was the day that I was supposed to make the treck home. Hannah and her husband were wonderful and took care of me and Israel until I could somewhat function again. Hannah's family lives in Texas too, so she took the kids over there to play for the afternoon while I rested. So instead of coming home Saturday, we left Sunday morning and made it home just in time for me to collapse in bed for a long afternoon nap. While I was gone though, Joel and his dad were hard at work here putting in new windows!

The day after we got back: Monday, and Tuesday and Wednesday...Israel has been whinny and cranky and not much of an eater. I think he is teething again, but haven't seen anything yet. I am hopeful for today, even though he went to bed at 9 last night and woke up at 6:30 this morning. We will see where that leads us.  But thankfully he is a strong growing boy (59th percentile in height and weight, 10th percentile in head) And we are loving him.

moment worth recording

My dear husband, bless his heart, was getting breakfast this morning while I was feeding Izzy. He was making us both toast with carmel apple jam. All of a sudden I heard: "This doesn't look like the jam....it is BBQ sauce!" He had put BBQ sauce on his toast! Anyway...I thought it funny enough to share with you. Hope you got a laugh out of it!