Stories from this week

On Tuesday we had a play date at the park and just one other mom showed up, but Jacob and Dominic had fun together. They were playing on the blanket and I asked Jacob to say 'Hi'. He said it and then grabbed Dominic's hand and started shaking it. Dominic pulled away and Jacob grabbed it again. They kept doing this and I was wondering what Jacob was up to until I remembered that Alan taught him to shake hands. Isn't that just too cute?

Jacob is picking up on things so fast these days! Before we would have to go over and over a sign before he would learn it. Now he just watches his signing video and picks up on them on his own. He knows ones that I don't even know. Every time I would say 'socks' he would do this weird pointing. I asked Alan what the sign for socks was and when he showed me I realized that was what Jacob was doing. Get with the program, Mom! Perhaps I need to pay more attention when he watches his videos.

Today Jacob made me very proud on our grocery shopping trip. I usually grab a cart and load the boys up at the car - Jacob in the cart and Isaac in the sling. Today there were no carts in the cart corral, so I was thinking I would have to carry Jacob and Isaac to the carts at the storefront because usually if I try to get Jacob to hold my hand while walking, he just throws a major fit. That didn't sound like fun. I've done it before, but wasn't in the mood today, so I thought we would try the hand holding thing. He surprised me by holding my hand all the way up to the store! I kept praising him the whole way. One lady was looking at me kinda funny, but I didn't care. I wanted Jacob to know how proud I was of him for being such a good boy. :D

The other day Alan and I were trying to take Isaac's announcement picture while fending off Jacob. Fun times. Jacob just had to get in on the action, so we let him pose on the blanket.



Isaac loves being in the bouncy seat (as long as Jacob isn't pestering him too much). He really gets that thing rocking sometimes. I wish I had been able to get him to smile more. His smile is SO cute, but I haven't been able to capture it very well on camera yet.



This week we have been attempting to get Isaac to take a bottle. Yesterday he took 3 ounces for Alan, but this morning not quite 2. Hopefully we'll get there so maybe Alan and I can go out together just the two of us sometime. Or maybe I could go get a haircut. I am in dire need! :P Have I mentioned that Isaac will NOT take a pacifier? They make him even madder. I so wish he would take one. It may make our evenings more bearable. Ah well.

Yesterday afternoon I was nursing Isaac in the kitchen while Jacob watched a video in the living room. All of a sudden I hear this loud voice with static noise. I thought for sure we were under attack! Jacob started screaming and I flew into the living room to see what was going on. I guess his video was over and he tried to get it to restart. He turned it to an AM station and cranked the volume WAY up. The rest of the day and even this morning he will point at the TV and shake his head 'no'. Guess he won't try that again! At least I hope so because I about had heart failure!

Meet BOB

BOB is the newest member of our family, our stroller family, that is. The sidewalks in our neighborhood are atrocious! They are cracked and bumpy and most of the curbs are not handicap accessible. The double stroller I have just was not easy to use. Whenever I would hit a bump, Isaac would jump and his eyes would pop open. I need something with big, rubber tires and a good suspension. BOB fits the bill! We took it out on its maiden stroll this afternoon and it rides like a dream.

The boys are all set to roll


After the first walk

I went out on a second walk because the purpose of the walk was two fold. First we wanted to try out the stroller. Second, we wanted to try to get Jacob to sleep. He refused his nap this afternoon, so I thought this was a good opportunity to get him to sleep a little. He did fall asleep after the first walk, but as soon as we pulled into the driveway, Homer barked and woke him up. So off I went again!

Good job BOB!


The best part is what I paid for the stroller. We received money as gifts for Isaac, had a bunch of Amazon certificates and the stroller was 10% off. After all that, I paid a whopping $2.10!! That sure made this Dutch girl happy!

Spring afternoon

Yesterday afternoon was just beautiful so we all spent some time just hanging out in the grass.

Isaac isn't all that thrilled with his brother's affections



Taking a little snooze. Maybe he thought that if he slept, Jacob would leave him alone. :P


While Isaac napped, Jacob practiced his rolling







Earlier this week Alan finished putting up the fence to keep Jacob and Homer out of the garden, so yesterday morning he went and got some plants and seeds. We have 4 kinds of tomatoes, bell peppers (green and red), broccoli, cabbage, onions, carrots, green beans and lettuce. Yummy! Can't wait until it is all producing. There is nothing like home grown fruits and veggies! We still have some room in the garden, so the plan is to plant more seeds soon.

A silly picture from last night
Homer's newest hiding place is in Jacob's tent.

Sailor Baby

Today I took some pictures of Isaac in a sailor suit that Alan wore as a baby too.

Isn't he just precious?



This one just cracks me up!


I took one of Jacob in this outfit when he was a couple months old too. Now, if we only had a picture of Alan wearing it.


Tonight Alan grilled some flank steak and shrimp and made chimichurri sauce, rice and beans to go with it. It was so good! I only had a few of the beans so as not to upset Isaac, but they were super yummy. The plan was to eat outdoors since the weather was so nice today, but Isaac had other plans. He was fussy during dinner prep and then got sleepy and only wanted to be in the swing. So we ate indoors instead. He woke up right as we were finishing and boy was he in a bad mood! I gave him a bath to see if that would calm him and it worked until I put his jammies on. That really ticked him off! I finally got him to sleep by going upstairs away from all things noisy (meaning Jacob). He is now sleeping peacefully in the swing. Whew. Now I just hope he sleeps well the rest of the night.

Pool Fun

Since it is has been 100 degrees the past few days, we decided to pull out Jacob's pool. Isaac wanted to sleep in his swing, so we didn't get to witness the fun, but it sure looks like Jacob had a blast!






Jacob and Isaac had some fun with the Barnyard Gym today.
Head butt or a kiss??




The rest of the week is supposed to be cooler. Good!

PIcture of the week

This is a result of digging his hands in the dirt and just flinging it around, then wiping it all over his face. Look how proud he is!

We had a pretty good week with lots of playing outdoors, even when it was windy and chilly. Tuesday evening we went to an end of the semester fiesta at the university and it was cold! Yes, it is the end of another school year for Alan already. He gave his exam on Wednesday and turned in his grades yesterday. He is going to work with a research student this summer, but that won't begin until after May term. He has been busy working in the yard these past few weeks. Better to do that now before it gets too hot! Then this summer we (he) can work some more inside the house. There are many projects on hold right now!

Isaac is doing well, although some days are better than others, depending on what I eat. Chocolate and beans are out and I am trying to figure out the other offenders as well. Some nights we sleep on the couch together because the only way he can get comfy is to sleep on my chest. My poor little baby! Some days all he does is fuss, but other days he is perfectly content and will sleep and coo the day away. Perhaps I need to start writing down what I eat each day so I can look for trends. This is so new to me because with Jacob I could eat anything. Even though he is a little on the fussy side (it really isn't that bad - some babies are WAY worse), Isaac is just the sweetest little thing and I just can't help kissing those chubby cheeks! He is growing like a weed and has already grown out of all his newborn clothing which is no surprise because he eats all the time!

Easter

We had such a fun Easter! Thankfully we all felt well enough to enjoy the day. We went to church in the morning and then went over to my parents' to visit with all the family and enjoy a yummy ham dinner outdoors in the gorgeous weather. Jacob decided that 45 minutes was a long enough nap (he usually naps more like 2 hours) so he joined us for lunch. This was after he threw a giant fit for everyone to enjoy. Good grief. That's what happens when you don't get enough sleep, Buddy! After the fit, he only wanted to sit on my lap and was happy to eat off my plate. The best was when he picked up my big chunk of ham and took a bite out of it. Lovely.

After lunch we stayed outdoors and relaxed in the sunshine while Jacob played. I went in to nurse Isaac and when I came out someone told me that I may not want to come out. Apparently Jacob had dumped a bottle of Gatorade down his front. Oh well. That's boys, right? And I didn't need to worry about him being sticky because shortly after that he started playing with the hose and got drenched!

It all started so innocently with Grandpa teaching Jacob to drink from the hose




And Jacob playing with the watering can


Then the uncles gave him the hose and this is what went down

What fun! We all just laughed and laughed. It was so funny to see his reaction when the water got him too much.

Jacob playing in the bouncy seat while his clothes were in the dryer. Uncle Jeff had strapped him in and he didn't like that, as you can see from the look on his face


Now, isn't this just a lovely Easter picture? We didn't get any nice pictures of the family so this will have to do. :D


Isaac and Oma with the stocking she made for him


These aren't Easter pictures, but I wanted to share them because they are funny. :P
Jacob wanted to play with Isaac's little bed the other day


I love the look on his face in this one!


And this was when Jacob could actually fit in the bed. Man, they grow up fast!

The Stats

Today was Isaac's one month check-up and he weighed in at 10 lbs, 12 oz and was 24 inches long. The doctor said he is doing just great. No shots today. We are holding off on the HepB until his next appointment since he has a bit of a cold.

Yesterday Jacob and I played with chalk on the driveway. He didn't do a whole lot of drawing. He was more interested in taking the chalk out of the bucket and putting it back in, eating the chalk and throwing the chalk. :P


Like the chalky bum? He was covered in chalk by the time we were done.


One thing Jacob likes to do is help me unload the dishwasher. He's pretty good at it too. :) He did figure out how to open it and one day Alan found him taking dirty dishes out unsupervised. So, off to the store I went to get a lock for it.


One of his obsessions lately is brushing his teeth. He is constantly pointing at the bathroom door and doing the sign for toothbrush. He doesn't really like us to brush his teeth, though, and of course he doesn't do a proper job, so it can be a bit of a battle. Now I give him another toothbrush for him to use while I use his to do the real brushing.

Oh, and if I have to read 'Mother Goose' one more time, I think I'll scream. I've read that book about 500 times the past couple weeks and some of those rhymes are just weird. But, Jacob loves it, so I'll keep reading it. :D

Rotten Germs

Sickness has invaded the DeWeerd household. Jacob started with a cold last week, then Alan and I caught it earlier this week and now even little Isaac has a stuffy nose and is coughing and sneezing. Yesterday was the worst and none of us got out of our pajamas all day. The worst part is that I still have family visiting from Michigan, but we haven't been able to spend any time with them because we are all so germy. Hopefully by Sunday we will all be well again and can spend Easter with them.

Today Isaac is one month old! Part of me just can't believe that a month has gone by already, but another part feels like this past week and a half has felt like a month. Tomorrow Isaac sees the doctor for his one month check-up and I am interested to see how much he has grown.

Jacob has learned some new words and signs in the past few weeks. He now tries to say 'Homer' (our dog), but it sounds more like 'Momer' or 'Mama'. Its real great when he points at the dog and says, 'Mama'. Ha ha! He also says 'baa' and 'meow' (which sounds more like 'mau') when you ask him what a sheep or cat says. We still have to prompt him most of the time by saying it first, but its something! He also says 'uh oh' all the time and yesterday he started saying 'hi'. His new signs are 'night night', 'hat', 'coat' (kind of), lotion (which looks a lot like bath) and 'baby'. With baby he hasn't quite gotten the hang of moving just his arms, so he pats his chest and rocks his body. We know what he means though!

Jacob is also becoming quite proficient in using a spoon. Before we would have to put the food on the spoon for him and then hand it to him and he would put it in his mouth. Now he can scoop the food himself. He even did pretty good with yogurt the other day. I did load it with fruit to make it less soupy, though. :P

We haven't taken many pictures in the last couple weeks, but here are a few.

We have been trying really hard to get Jacob to wear a hat while he is outdoors. We finally got him to wear it most of the time.


Helping Alan water the plants


While Jacob was sitting at the counter the other day, he discovered the potatoes and just HAD to have one. He carried that thing around for a long time. There were lots of bite marks and a few chunks out of it. Yum. Raw potato.


Isaac hanging out in the highchair


Yes, Isaac is sleeping on the table. Like the salt and pepper? I am having a hard time finding a good spot for him to sleep during the day. It has to be out of reach of Jacob, so the swing is out. He doesn't always like sleeping in his carseat, so that is not always an option. I would have him sleep upstairs, but he has problems when he sleeps. He grunts, gags and thrashes and it makes me nervous to have him that far away from me. We do have a monitor, but I would be constantly running upstairs all the time, so I really want him downstairs. He seems to like this little bed, so for now that is what we are going with. Maybe I'll have to move the pack-n-play downstairs and he can sleep in this little bed at night. I don't know.