Merry Christmas

Hope this dose of cuteness helps you kick off a fabulous 2018:

We were totally the proud parents in the front row.  

Isaac was the first kiddo to sit on Santa's lap, marching right past all the kids who were hesitating.  He told Santa he wanted a special car for Christmas.  (Santa was our pastor, Scott, who knows Isaac already).  Super cute!

Love this little gingerbread man!

Pre-School Field Trip to Iowa Orchard

(It looks like the last time I did a blog post was before Isaac's 2nd birthday.   He has been two years old for over four months now.  This mama needs to play some catch up!  I think there is a strong correlation between Isaac turning two and my making less time for blog posts.  Toddlers are a lot of work!  That said, here goes...)

Isaac's pre-school class took a field trip to Iowa Orchard this week.  It was a great time as you can see, full of apple snacks, apple cider, sliding down hay bales, digging in the corn, riding on the hayride wagon, and playing with some pumpkins.  Cuteness galore!  

Part of the cuteness that is not pictured (for a dose of reality): I got Isaac there a half-hour late after going to the wrong location first, I forgot his field trip t-shirt, and he had quite the meltdown upon leaving.  Ha!  Despite all this, these pictures don't lie - it was truly a fun time.  

More cuteness not pictured here: While on the hayride I mentioned to Isaac that when we got to where we were going we should be sure to thank the farmer for taking us for a ride.  I said this one time to him.  After the wagon stopped, Isaac didn't hesitate for a second to get off the wagon (not waiting for me at all) and found his way to the farmer and said, "Thank you for bringing us back!"  The farmer couldn't hear him at first and so Isaac said it louder and they had a cute exchange.  I sat back and watched and felt so proud of our sweet boy!

Happy 23 months, Isaac!

Isaac turned 23 months old on May 2nd, and I am finding it hard to believe he is almost 2 years old already.  It's been a whirlwind, that's for sure!  And a joyful one.

At 23 months...

Isaac is speaking like a real little person!  Stringing together 3, 4 and 5 words together.  It amazes us.
"Go see excavator with me"
"Mama put owie oil on it"
"Go sit on couch.  Read about Goldbug."
"Call Maudie in now."  (runs to door, walks out onto porch and yells) "Hey Maudie!  COME!"
"I'm mad.  No reach muffin."
"Fell down.  Feel sad."
"I need help."
"Big snuggles, daddy."
"Daddy teaching.  Daddy no hold you."
"Mama massage (______) tonight" (he fills in the blank with my client's name)

And...

We have finally gotten a Burly wagon to take him on some bike rides.  All we need is a toddler-sized helmet and we'll be all set!

Isaac is my grocery shopping buddy every Tuesday.  We love the free samples Costco has to offer, and sometimes we just splurge for the whole big bag of popcorn when we both just need to sit down and have a breather.  I think this particular photo is capturing just that...sometimes popcorn helps the re-group effort.  :)

We go to story time at the library every Wednesday and I was shocked when Isaac actually sat down for one of the stories!  Usually he runs around, climbs, sits on my lap away from the group, or anything but sitting down and listening to the story.  Here he is, with the red hood!  It was Llama Llama Red Pajama (one of his favorites at home).  Miss Donna, the story time leader, is a saint.

Grandma and Grandpa came for an Easter visit!  They earned their grandparent badges big time with lots of stories, snuggles, walks to the park, and an Easter egg hunt sponsored by G&G themselves.  Please come again soon, Gma and Gpa!

 Isaac sports his new backpack (hand-me down from dear Juneau friends) at story time and the book drop.

Brian and Isaac get to enjoy some quality time together with some hearty midwest lawn-mowing!

We are singing the praises of Alice, Isaac's new "mother's helper" babysitter!  She is a lovely and very mature 12-year old girl from our church and she and Isaac adore each other.  Brian and I are convinced she is worth her weight in gold.  We love Alice!

It's sunny in Iowa and sunscreen is out and on the shelves from now until the fall!  Isaac thinks it tastes good.

Sometimes a plastic owl is just what we need to make a trip to Aldi a little more fun.

We experienced our first Drake Relays!  Brian ran a sub 6:24 mile in the Grand Blue Mile race, and Isaac and I cheered from the sidelines with the real bulldog mascot himself, Grif.  :)

 And, because we had no idea Brian could run that fast, we missed him crossing the finish line!  Instead, we were adoring the University of Northern Iowa Panther mascot.  Oops!

After finding Brian, we got to watch some elite professional racers run for the national championship road mile race.  They are insanely fit!

On a rainy Saturday, I got a massage while Brian and Isaac went to watch some more of the relays. Isaac wore his rain suit and lasted 1.5 hours, until he kept saying to Brian, "Go warm up, Daddy.  Go warm up now."

Des Moines has big shoes to fill, following Juneau!  :)

 Isaac and Mama show off our cool headwear.  Isaac picked up one of Brian's hats and put it on himself like this.  And kept wearing it like this.  So, of course we had to have a photo shoot.

There is a construction site near our house with two excavators working at the same time. This is big news.  This is sit-down-on-the-sidewalk-and-drink-juice-while-watching kind of news.  So, we did.

 These two photos tell us two things: maybe we have a swimmer on our hands. And definitely, we have a smoothie-drinker.

Happy 22 Months to Isaac

At 22 months, Isaac is up to:

Pretty much repeating most of what we say (yikes!);

Actually kind of sort of DRIBBLING a basketball;

Wants to take his basketball with him most places;

Hangs by my side while I do house chores, usually intensely focused on throwing a ball, heading a ball, or kicking a ball;

When not playing with a ball, he is actually sweetly helpful and engaged in whatever it is I'm doing...laundry, taking out the trash, doing the dishes, cooking dinner, etc.  

LOVES his new wagon he gets to ride in with Daddy, up and down the driveway, around our yard, or to the nearby playground.  The meltdowns over not getting to play in the wagon are impressive!

He asks me for massage by going into my massage room in our house, saying "oil, oil mama?" - then he gets my bottle of oil and lays down on the floor, saying "sosh mama, sosh"  At this stage, his "sosh" lasts about 1.5 seconds before he's changed his mind, but I love that he totally gets it and asks for it.  (Be still my LMT heart!)

He can't get enough of Richard Scarry's Cars & Trucks and Things That Go

He continues to be so sweet-spirited and snuggly.  He now knows the word "snuggle" and uses it in ways that melt our hearts more than ever.  

When we come home from (usually) the Y, he likes to "drink tea and look at bugs" - this means I put water in a tiny tupperware container (that's his "tea") and we sit on our porch together with our "tea" and look at the bugs that like to congregate on one corner of our house.  We count the bugs and he just points at them and spouts off any numbers that come to his mind.  It's adorable.  

Today we (Isaac and Mama) were the only ones at the playground on a very rainy day, all decked out in our rain gear (thank you, Juneau).  We slid down the wet slide one time and then for about a half hour we just scooped and dumped muddy sand in the sandbox, while he held his basketball, and at some point our conversation turned to "big pile horsey poopie....BIIIIG POOPIE" (all caps notes a much louder and deeper toddler voice, you know, really from the gut!)  

We are so in love with our boy!