Happy 18 Months, Isaac!

Happy 18 months to our growing boy!  Isaac is awesome and being his parents is such a joy.  

At 18 months, he is:

• Running marathons around our dining room table to wind down in the evenings;
• Eating like a bottomless pit;
• Having quite entertaining conversations with himself and his stuffed animals;
• On the verge of having conversations we can understand;
• Still enjoying his car seat (as evidenced by 18 hours in it this past weekend with no major troubles)
• A snuggly bookworm;
• Welcoming just four more teeth;
• Amazing us by having pooped and peed on the (big) toilet a handful of times, on his own initiative;
• In love with his grandparents (as evidenced by his first slumber party with them this past weekend)
• Almost always in need of a haircut; and...

…as always, the light of our lives.  

😍

Happy 17 Months, Isaac

Happy 17 months to our beautiful boy!

At 17 months, Isaac:

Jabbers up a storm, although he is the only one who knows what he's saying (about 90% of the time)

Runs, jumps, kicks, climbs

Earned this feedback from his dentist:  "Well, he sure is an active one, isn't he?"  

(Isaac also has nice looking teeth, evidently)

LOVES books, dogs, cars, trucks, buses, vans

Loves to snuggle

Feels strongly about things (hello toddlerhood)

Can reach a pitch on par with an opera singer

And, as one of the YMCA childcare workers put it:

"He is just a joy to be around!"  

Go Brian!

This past weekend Brian wanted to run a 10K at a nearby forest preserve.  I asked him if he was going to try to "race" and he said, "No, this is just a nice Saturday morning run on a trail..."  Well, he went ahead and won his age group!  More importantly, he enjoyed running out in nature for the first time since we left Juneau.  Isaac enjoyed playing in the crunchy leaves, and mama enjoyed cheering on all the racers as they ran by.  Especially Brian!

YMCA

Isaac and I go to the Y most days of the week.  After I'm done with my workout, we hang out in the hallway and eat a snack together.  It's a nice time for him to work out some last minute fidgets before I put him into the car seat, and allows for some social time as people walk by and engage him.  In addition to the snacks and the ogling, Isaac really likes to watch the nearby exercise classes in the swimming pool and the gym.  We sit and cheer for the people working hard getting their exercise in.

In about a month or so, we'll start swim classes of our own!

Isaac & poop

One of Isaac's favorite backyard activities is to point out all of Maude's piles of poop and then go get the pooper scooper and pick it up.  He is not ok with simply leaving the poop there; if it's spotted, it must be picked up immediately.  He's already more responsible than his mama...

Journey to Cleveland

In reverse order, here is a brief chronicle of Isaac's and my recent trip to Cleveland for the CSU volleyball alumni day.

I thought a one-hour time difference wouldn't be a big deal at all, but surprise surprise, the poor little guy had some jet lag.  It could also be because he is cutting his molars right now and our last night in Cleveland was awake from 1:45-5:15am (ouch!).  We enjoyed an early morning drive around Cleveland to calm both our nerves.  This is Isaac asleep on my back while I cook food in our kitchen, the day after we returned to Des Moines.

We stayed with my Cleveland family and got some lovely QT with Laura, Tedd, and I even got to see both the college boys Aaron & Abraham as they were home briefly during their fall break.  I still cannot believe they are now 21 and 18....I started babysitting them when they were 6 and 3.

Laura, Isaac & a sleepy mama

Laura and Isaac take in the beauty of Lake Erie on a sunny fall day.

I got to catch up with my dear pal, Alison and her daughter, Lizzie (9 weeks older than Isaac).

Isaac and Tedd & Laura's dog, Frosty, were very similarly sized.

And the whole impetus for the trip: alumni day!  I got to catch up with some dear old teammates and coaches and loved every second of it.  Go Vikings!

I love this city.

Isaac loved riding the shuttle bus to pick up our rental car.  Riding on buses is very exciting.

Thanks to the book, "Five Trucks," Isaac and I could look out the windows at the airports and point out all the trucks and tractors that help get the airplane in the air.  It was endless entertainment for our little guy (and made it easy on mama!).

Here we are landing in Chicago...

What do you think, will he fit?  :)

Iowa-official

I'm officially an Iowa massage therapist, woohoo!