Our Family Right Now

Since it's been awhile, I wanted to post a quick update on the status of our family.  This is our most recent family picture, on Christmas Eve, 2015.

Justin is 34, teaching across the street from our house, as he has been for almost 3 years.

Noah just turned 6 on March 18.  He loves Minecraft more than anything and is still super crazy smart.  We're unschooling, but he is so good at everything mathematical, and about two months ago, without ever being taught, he suddenly started reading really well.  If I had to give him a grade level, I'd say he's a grade 2 level.  His skills are about equal to all of the average grade 2 students I taught.  He's so sensitive and loving, and he's super excited to be having another baby.  Yesterday I overheard him talking to Justin and he said "Dad?  At first I was excited that Mom was having a baby.  But then I remembered seeing a video of someone giving birth, and it seems like it would be really painful.  So now I feel really bad for Mom." 

This was Noah on a really beautiful day in November.  So kind of an old picture, but I don't have any really nice more recent ones.

Isaiah is 3.5 years old (turned 3 last September).  He is super enthusiastic about everything. He LOVES super heros with a passion, and always wants Justin to "BE BATMAN!" (said in a yell) and he pretends to be Robin.  He also loves to play with our baby dolls, who he named Okanawa, George, Pink Baby, and Purple Baby.  He is always asking me questions that make zero sense, but wanting me to reply as if they do.  He is so adorable, and is definitely the "baby" of the family.  When we told him we were having a baby he wasn't too happy at first, but he got over that quickly and now he asks to see my baby about ten times a day.  Each time he gently pats and rubs my tummy with this giant smile on his face and says, "Whoaaa, your tummy is so huuuuge!"

He is nothing like Noah was at this age.  He has almost no interest in anything that would be considered "academic."  He still can't reliably count to ten (he starts to mess up around 7), only knows 2 or 3 letters, and still mispronounces a lot of words (particularly using the "w" sound for S and F).  I'm not at all worried, because he is clearly an intelligent human, and I know that Noah knowing all the letters, upper case and lower case, and all their sounds before he was even 2 was not normal.  Isaiah will get there, and when you're 3, none of it matters.

He potty trained almost a year ago when he was about 2 years and 8 months.  It happened later than it did with Noah, but when it happened it only took a day.  No struggles at all.  He is still nursing, but he stopped nursing overnight all on his own last May when he was 2.75 years old.  Yeah, it kind of took awhile, but I didn't have to do anything to make it happen, and I'm all about taking the path of least resistance.  We still cosleep, and he sleeps really well at night now and rarely needs me anymore if he does wake up. Sometimes he will ask to hold my hand, but that's been happening less and less (although it did happen two nights ago).  And it's not bothersome, since he's right beside me.

Both kids love their weekly gymnastics lessons.  The local gymnastics club puts on lessons specifically for the homeschoolers that are the same as they offer to the public, but like half the price.  And they're during the day, so its nice to get things done when Justin is working.  We also do other activities with local homeschoolers, such as field trips, Lego Club, swimming lessons, soccer, etc. 

So that's what we've been up to.  Life has gotten pretty "easy" with slightly older kiddos, and we know we're in for it starting right back at the beginning with another baby.  But it'll likely be our last one, so we're going to enjoy it!

Isaiah at 18 Months

Isaiah was 18 months on March 22, so I wanted to record a few things about him at this moment in time.

-He's 25lbs and just shy of 32 inches tall.

-He still only has 8 teeth.  His molars have been huge bruised "marbles" under his gums for MONTHS, but just now one is actually cutting through so that part of it is through the gums.  The other ones are still just bruises.

-He gets up between 2 and 4 times a night to nurse.  It's just recently he started sometimes getting up only 2 times.  I love those nights.  But I usually end up laying awake for 2 or 3 hours anyway.

-We cosleep, and we love it and have no plans to stop.

-He doesn't talk much, but he does say Mama, Dada, Noah, more, no, yah, ball, block, Papa, Nana, baby, bird, moo, cheep, and maybe a few other things.

-He likes to build now, not just destroy.

-His "lovey" is a panda that Noah built him at Build-A-Bear, named "Pandy".  He ADORES Pandy, which is especially cute because Noah made him for him. I don't think I have a picture of it, unfortunately.

-He hasn't been sick that many times.  4 or 5 times total, one of them being right now (we all have a cold except Justin).

-He's a super smiley, friendly baby, but he is not easy.  He is pretty high maintenance and requires a lot of attention.  But he's a toddler, so yeah.  I expect that.

-I've always said that 12-18 months is my least favourite age (for so many reasons), and literally just in the 1.5 weeks before Isaiah turned 18 months he suddenly got a little easier.  Up until that point he still wanted to be held or worn every second, even while I was cooking, washing dishes, cleaning, etc.  Right before turning 18 months he suddenly preferred to play than to be worn.  Nothing else got easier, really, but that made a HUGE difference.

-He is a MAJOR STINKER.

-He loves to strut around like a peacock on the dining room table.

-He's not a "good eater" even though he always wants to eat.  He just doesn't actually ingest a whole lot, and he's rather picky.  He still gets about 95% of his nutrition from breastmilk, which is fine.  It's healthier than most things he could eat anyway.

-In the tub he is constantly doing this (don't mind the old lady tiles):

-He continues to be a hitter, scratcher, pincher, and biter. He's always done these things, ever since he was an infant. It's usually not even malicious, but it HURTS! We are just finally starting to make some headway with the whole "Be gentle, be gentle" and petting things instead of hitting. And finally when we say "No biting! Just kissing." He will kiss whatever he was about to bite. Up until now those things didn't work. And interestingly, if he's hitting or biting and we just say "No hitting!" or "No biting!" it will make him do it even more. Every single time.

Trying to bite for no reason:

Still trying to bite...

A split second before I yelled "ISAIAH NOOO!!" and he smashed Noah on the head with the old diaper sprayer:

-He's a HUGE gym rat, and pretty much his favourite place to be is in our garage gym.

In short, he's "challenging", but he's a pretty awesome kid!  We like him :)

Isaiah is 14 Months Old!

Who am I kidding, I am not even a "blogger" anymore.  I just don't have or make the time.  However, I don't want Isaiah's baby/toddler/childhood to pass by without me recording ANYTHING.  Even if it's just every couple of months.

So, at 14 months old, Isaiah...

-Weighs 23lbs, which is about 65th percentile.

-Is 30 inches tall, which is apparently 25th percentile.... I knew he was a shorty!  Justin is in denial.

-Has 8 teeth - he just got 2 teeth (the two on the bottom to complete the set of four in the middle) this past month after 2 or 3 months of no new teeth.

-Started talking at 13.5 months old, just like Noah.  He's been saying Dada for a long long time, but he said it even when not referring to Justin, so I don't count that so much.  His first official word was "more" (more food, of course), followed by Mama, no (nah), and Noah (Nah-Nah).

-He also started signing to nurse on the same day he said his first word.

-He actually eats now.  When he turned one he liked the tastes of things but never actually swallowed anything.  He swallows things now.  He doesn't eat A LOT - maybe 3-5% of his nutrition is from solids, the rest from breastmilk - but it's an increase.  He started drinking water from straws and sippy cups, too.

-He still sleeps not so great.  Up 4-8 times a night.

-He naps well.  He went to one nap right at 12 months and that one nap is anywhere from 1 to 2.5 hours long.  Generally it's about an hour and a half.

-He was walking the week before his first birthday, and within about a week was walking totally full time.  He never crawls anymore... *tear*... crawling babies are so adorable.

-He wears 18 month pajamas and 24 month pants and shirts.  He's not as tall as Noah was, and he could fit into 18 month shirts, but I like them to be a little bigger so they don't ride up when he gets picked up.  All our 18 month pants are too short for him though, and the 24 month pants aren't TOO long... If we're going outside I cuff them, but he's not tripping over them or anything.

-This is random, but something I want to remember - He loves to sit on Noah's potties.  LOVES it.  He just sits there and grins, then stands up, sits back down, stands up, sits back down.  It's hilarious.

-He gets into everything.  Just like Noah did.  But he does something Noah never did: When I tell him "No", he says "NAAAHH!"  back at me in this kind of throaty voice.  It's quite funny.  I'm not sure what age that will stop being funny at. haha

-He is such a little cuddle bug.  We still babywear for several hours a day.  We all love the cuddles :)

-He LOVES Noah, and Noah loves him.  The two of them are as best of friends as brothers can be when they're 2.5 years apart.

Can I just take a moment to revel in the fact that It's the 22nd of the month, Isaiah's actual 14 month birthday, and I'm ACTUALLY posting this on the correct day??

I should really post more often.  Life is so full and it's just passing us by with no record of it.  Sigh.

Isaiah is ONE!

Isaiah turned one on September 22!  It's so strange how it feels like he was just born, but at the same time it feels like he's always been a part of our family.  Since I haven't posted in forever this is going to be a mash up of what he's like now and what's been going on with him in the past few months.

At one year old...

-Isaiah weighs 21.6 lbs (weighed on our digital scale).

-He's only 29.5 inches tall, but that was with him standing up and I'm sure he wasn't totally straight, so it's possible he's a little taller.  Still, that's 2 inches shorter than Noah was at this same age.

-His head is 19 inches around, which I believe is exactly what they hope a child's head circumference is at 12 months old.

-He finally got teeth around.. eek, I'm kind of forgetting here.  Okay I just checked pictures and it was around 9.5 months.  I know it was definitely after we moved, and we moved when he was 9 months and one week old.  

-He is not a good teether.  With Noah we hardly ever knew he was teething.  Seriously, even molars, they just appeared.  No distress, no nothing.  With Isaiah?  His gums swell and bruise, he gets blood blisters where the tooth is trying to come through... He even had a hanging flap of skin when his top left tooth was cutting.  It was horrid.  And of course he's cranky from all that - who wouldn't be?  

-He got 6 teeth pretty much one right after the other between about 9.5 and 10 months - the top four and the bottom two.  He hasn't gotten any since, but he's started teething again just int he past week.  His bottom lateral incisors and his top cuspids seem to be on the move.  I can't tell what will be first. 

-Oddly, his first tooth was the top left lateral incisor (I had to look up what it was called... it's the tooth next to the top middle teeth). 

-He started walking just before his birthday.  Literally, in the week leading up to the big day it was like he knew it was coming and was determined to be "walking" before he turned 1.  I thought it would happen after his birthday but he suddenly made big leaps and bounds in that one week, and he is a walker!  He probably spends equal amount of time walking and crawling right now, but each day he walks more and more, and he really enjoys himself while he's doing it.  You should see the little stinker smile he has the whole time he's toddling around.

-He doesn't eat ANYTHING.  He is still exclusively breastfed.  We do baby led weaning and started giving him things to taste at about 9.5 months.  This is how that went:

This was actually his very first taste of something and it was strawberry.  He kept licking it and then making lemon-tasting type faces.  It was very amusing.  In general he really enjoys tasting things, but he will not swallow anything unless it's by accident (and then he chokes and gags it down).  I don't do the puree thing but I have tried giving him pureed food a time or two, and while he's fine with tasting it, he pushes it right back out of his mouth.  It actually seems that he hasn't lost the tongue-thrust reflex yet.

-He also doesn't drink from a cup or bottle or anything.  I am literally his only source of nutrition.  But hey, he more than tripled his birth weight and he is a really healthy baby (waaaay healthier than Noah as a baby) who has only been sick 3 or 4 times in his year of life (pretty sure Noah was sick like 13 times in his first year of life).  So there you go.

-After learning that breastfeeding is his only source of nutrition, it probably doesn't surprise anyone that he's up 3-6 times each night nursing.  Blaaah.  One day this will all be a distant memory...

-We cosleep, of course.

-We still babywear for hours each day.  Isaiah has finally been in a stroller (once) when Noah wanted him to go in one.  He thought it was like an amusement park ride and shrieked and cried every time we stopped moving.  He did the same thing when I took him and Noah on a wagon ride.  And the few times I've sat him in a grocery cart next to Noah (just for a short time during the grocery trip because Noah was asking for Isaiah to be next to him), he's gotten so hyper and excited.  It's funny how these things are novel experiences for him.

-Isaiah's favourite toy is... anything Noah is playing with.  And vice versa.  Really though, Isaiah really likes anything big that he can push around.  Walkers, bikes, ride ons, brooms, whatever.

Okay, it's 9pm and I have a doozy of a cold (I basically haven't been sick since Christmas so I shouldn't complain), so I want to go to bed.  First, a few pictures of the cutie...

9.5 months:

This is on his 10 month "birthday"... I can see 5 of his 6 teeth, which is how I knew he got them all between 9.5 and 10 months.  Otherwise I honestly wouldn't have remembered.

Just a few days before he turned 11 months old:

About a week before turning one:

Hahaha....

The day before his birthday... he keeps climbing in the warming drawer in my stove!

(don't mind the ugly floor, our kitchen is finally getting reno'd this month!)

Isaiah's 1st Birthday!!:

I liked the little smile he had once he realized what this present was:

"Noah, back off!"