More Birthdays!

The first week of 2016 brought some more special birthdays to celebrate.  

The first weekend of the year we celebrated Corey's 18th birthday! We had a great time outside at the bonfire and enjoying the Walking Taco Bar.  Isaac loved being reunited with Kristen and she kept him quite entertained throughout the evening.  Isaac also liked helping Corey open his gifts and cards.   

   

Sadly Daddy went back to work on the 4th. Since Mommy only works Tuesdays until the spring semester starts back up next month, we met up with Daddy between his classes on Wednesday for a nice breakfast at The Corner Pantry in Mount Washington.  Even though Isaac had already eaten breakfast at his normal time, he still really enjoyed his pumpkin pancakes (he's working on his 2nd one in the picture below) and then was happy to wipe up his crumbs when he was finished. We're looking forward to making this a regular thing until Mommy's classes pick back up.  

For Daddy's birthday this past weekend, we enjoyed a catered meal that Mommom won at the Stop Hunger Now silent auction fundraiser. We enjoyed enchilladas, black beans, rice, and tres leches cake.  Ms. Ruthie and Mike (not Daddy, but one of our guests with the same name) were the "caterers" so Mommom suggested we invite them and their plus-ones to make up the 8 guests for dinner. It was a lot of fun with the four couples and Isaac. As the grown-ups laughed and conversed around the table, Isaac joined in with very loud, and very fake HA-HA laughs so as not to be left out.  Mike  is a psychologist and he commented on how sharp Isaac's observation and comprehension is even if we feel he doesn't have quite as many verbal words as his peers (although as of late, each day brings more and more new words!). He also said that he's really pleasant to be around and said we're doing a good job as parents. How nice to hear! With the exception of some bumped heads, Isaac had a great time with everyone and while he was so pleasant we let him stay up past bed time. We were all having so much fun that we lost track of time, and around 10pm, Isaac took himself upstairs to bed! He went down in his crib very easily, but insisted on having his quarter of a lemon he'd been sucking on throughout the evening.  So once he fell asleep, Mommy snuck back in to take the lemon that was clutched in Isaac's hand.

watching a video on Mr. Joe's phone to distract him from his head bump

Sunday morning, Isaac woke up asking for Mommom and CharliePop and pointing downstairs, I guess wondering if the party was still going on. Then he asked for Elmo, so we watched a little Sesame Street and cuddled with the dogs.

"Apple time" is still one of Isaac's favorite times of day.  He requests an apple often throughout the day.  If he's not in his highchair when he has it, he finds a comfy spot around the house to enjoy his favorite fruit. Once he gets settled, Mommy asks if he would like a blanket, and most of the time Isaac responds with his standard, "uh-huhh".  He has also been enjoying quite a few lemons and limes.  Mommy went to get Isaac for breakfast  the other morning and found Isaac happily sucking on a half of a lemon in the playroom.

Isaac's appetite is still pretty ravenous, although we continue to have to be creative with sneaking in veggies.  This week in addition to lots of fruit, Isaac enjoyed some Greek lemon chicken soup with Israeli couscous , turkey quesadillas with hidden frozen veggies and salsa, and very delicious pasta with artichoke-sage cream sauce (vegan).  

  

Friday night pizza "TV Dinner"

someone has learned to squint and thinks it's SO funny

Before & After: notice the untouched veggies.

After some grocery shopping today, Mommy needed a coffee (she was running on fumes after only getting about 3 hours of sleep the night before due to a sniffly and sleepless Isaac), so she decided to take Isaac on a date to Panera so he could enjoy his first bagel, and Mommy could have some caffeine. Isaac loved his whole grain bagel with honey-walnut cream cheese, eating every bite over the course of an hour, and had a blast people-watching and checking out the scenery.  On the ride home he chanted, "bagel, bagel...". So cute!

We pretty often get comments from family to strangers regarding Isaac's "observant nature".  A lady in Panera came up to Mommy and said she had been watching Isaac and was just blown away by how he was constantly looking around and taking everything in and said he seemed to be a very insightful boy. Several other people stopped by to say how much they enjoyed watching/waving to Isaac while they ate lunch. It's nice to hear he brings happiness to complete strangers! He even had his first "celebrity" encounter at Panera when he caught the attention of Keith Mills as he walked by our table and stopped to say hi! 



Isaac continues to have specific book requests to have in his crib for nap/bed time.  Mommy watched him in the monitor the other day as he opened up his large picture book, and then proceeded to snuggle on the page on his tummy and fall right asleep.  Another night he insisted on wearing his hat to bed.  

Speaking of bedtime, we read a lot of books before bed, and each night has quite a range of selection from Isaac. We still have all of our Halloween/Autumn books out because Isaac still often chooses them for bedtime stories. One of his most interesting choices is Baby Led Weaning which is one of Mommy's parenting books for introducing solid foods. At some point Isaac "confiscated" this book from Mommy's night stand, and it has since made it into Isaac's bedroom book collection and he often digs around specifically searching for it, which we find hilarious.  There are only about 3 pages of pictures at the center of the book, but Isaac seems to really enjoy looking at them.

Isaac's week has also been full of fun in the playroom, playing Daddy's drums whenever we come in through the garage/basement, running around in the yard, and visiting with Mom-mom-mom.