Happy Birthday Daddy!

We had a great day celebrating Daddy's birthday! On Friday morning, Mommy got up when Daddy left for work to get started on his special birthday cake: coconut cake from scratch (one of Daddy's favorites).  When Isaac woke up, he ate a huge breakfast while Mommy kept working on the cake.  Amidst chowing down on a whole kiwi, banana, half a slice of a toast, and an egg (where does he put it all??), he was very fascinated watching Mommy and the mixer in action. 

patiently waiting for breakfast to be served

this is the face he made when I said, "smile for Daddy!"

watching the mixer

After Isaac's morning nap we headed downtown to meet Daddy and his students on their field trip at the aquarium! Isaac absolutely loved it! He was so interested in everything and just stared intently at each exhibit, with his favorite seeming to be the mesmerizing jellyfish. 

After a few fun hours at the aquarium we said goodbye to daddy, his students, and colleagues and headed home for Isaac's afternoon nap.

doing his new "arm thing"

When Daddy got home from work, he opened his gifts and cards and when Isaac woke up we headed out to dinner.  After a few obstacles we wound up at the original Samos in Highlandtown where Isaac was the instant center of attention, getting compliments on his name, his peacoat, and how smart and observant he looked.  While we waited for our table Isaac open-mouth stared at the other patrons enjoying their delicious Greek food.  At dinner we continued to make friends with fellow diners and Isaac enjoyed some Greek yogurt (that we happened to bring with us...not knowing at the time we'd wind up a Greek restaurant), pita, tomato, feta, and beef in tzatziki sauce.  He loved it all! (and made an absolute mess in the process)

 

On our way home we drove by Mommy's old house in the city to show Isaac, then headed home to put Isaac to bed and enjoy some coconut cake.  Daddy says he had a great birthday and we had a fun day celebrating with him!

Mangia!

Between watching cooking shows, and helping plan for Mommom's 90th Italian-themed birthday party, Mommy and Daddy have been craving some homemade pasta.  So this week "we" did a practice run for Mommom's party and made some fettuccine from scratch along with some simple homemade marinara sauce. 

Isaac seemed to have a lot of fun enjoying his pasta.  It was part sensory play, part delicious feast as his explored the texture and length of the long noodles.  This was one of our messiest meals to date with Isaac flinging noodles as he tried to figure out the best way to get the food from his tray to his mouth.  

moments before the mess began...

   

 Isaac was a natural "pasta slurper" which we caught in this VIDEO.

When Daddy got up to get seconds Isaac started raising his arms in the air like he was a student in a classroom, and it seemed like he was doing it to request "more" because when Daddy gave him some more sauce to put on his broccoli, he stopped. He's now doing this motion more often, and it's pretty entertaining.

 

The cleanup after this meal was pretty labor intensive and had to be done in shifts.  After taking his tray off his highchair we did a preliminary wipe down of Isaac, and without the tray obstructing his view, Isaac was able to see the dogs waiting anxiously at Isaac's feet for leftovers.  Isaac was pretty amused by the sight. 

his messy face is no laughing matter...

 

Celebrate Good Times

...come on!

 

checking out his reflection in between giving himself kisses

We spent the last weekend of Daddy's winter break celebrating some fun occasions. On Friday we took a little road trip to the Costco in Newark, DE with Debbie.  We got to stock up on some discounted wine and some other goodies that were really exciting for Costco-obssessed Debbie and Mommy. 

Costco road trips are exhausting!

On Saturday we went to the open house at Reflex Functional Fitness, the new gym Amanda and Reese just opened up. Even though we didn't actually work out we are very excited for them and wanted to stop by and show our support.  Isaac had fun seeing his godmother, doing some step aerobics with Debbie, and checking himself out in the huge wall mirrors.  

Then on Sunday we had a surprise "Toot-Toot!/Congratulations!" lunch for CharliePop who was one year smoke free! (There may or may not be a correlation with his motivation to quit and the arrival of Isaac, but whatever the reason, we're very proud of him!) 

We've been working on transitioning Isaac to the big tub, as he's starting to get quite wiggly in his baby tub leaning out and managing to flip around. He's not quite sure what to think of it yet but we have a feeling once he gets more comfortable he's going to really have a lot of fun splashing around.

Isaac's appetite is growing as quickly as his sweet personality. We don't know where he's putting all the food he's been devouring! He's been breastfeeding as much as ever but he's still been a bottomless pit for pork loin, potatoes, apple sauce, clementines, beef, zucchini, brussel sprouts...anything we share with him! And when his tray is empty of what Mommy thought was a huge portion of our meal, he shows his clear disappointment with grunts, whines, and banging until more food is placed in front of him. 

check out that spiky fly-away hair!

Our new favorite trick is Isaac's hello/goodbye wave and how extra excited he gets when you wave back and say "hello".  

He's also been really steady standing with just a little support, although as much as he loves standing and walking, he still seems a little uneasy about letting go and trying it on his own which is fine with Mommy. She's in no rush for him to take off walking on his own!

Happy New Year!

It has been a busy break so far home with Daddy! We've been spending a lot of time with family and also getting things done around the house.

plaid twins

Daddy got to join us for Physical Therapy this week and it was a particularly fun visit, with Isaac getting to play with some new toys and checking himself out on the full wall mirror, giving his reflection kisses. Lisa his physical therapist says he continues to make great progress and is right on track developmentally. He always takes great naps after working so hard at PT.

We've been working on organizing our basement and closets.  Isaac has been having fun exploring the bins.

 

We also got to spend time with aunt Debbie visiting from Florida, cousin Michelle from London, and cousin Kevin from Reading, PA. After we went out to lunch at G&M with everyone, Isaac was supposed to take a nap but decided to use this time to pull himself to standing for the first time. He was quite proud of himself. 

On New Years Eve we finally got in to see Dr. Beams for our 9 month well visit.  Our growing boy weighs 17 pounds, 3 ounces in the 25th percentile and is 27.75 inches long in the 50th percentile. He also has 3 more teeth coming in, which will bring him up to 10 chompers. Dr. Beams kept saying how social and fun Isaac's personality was and that usually babies his age are a little more timid around newer people. He's also started waving hello and goodbye.

Isaac made a bit of a mess of the exam table

Then we came home to relax a bit before heading out for an early sushi dinner. This was the first time Isaac had Japanese food.  He had some veggie tempura, and also ate ALL of our salmon sashimi (raw slices of salmon) and some of our Alaska roll.  He seemed to really love every bite!

green bean tempura

salmon sashimi

Alaska roll

in between bites, Isaac was busy making friends with the wait staff and other diners

After dinner we went home, put Isaac to bed and watched a movie. Isaac slept until 11:55pm. I guess he wanted to be up to wish us a Happy New Year.  Once 2015 came around, Isaac went back to bed and slept until 5am.  This was the best night's sleep he's had since before he got sick so we're hoping this is a new trend now that our guy is back to normal.

Happy New Year!