Eight Months Awesome

Can you believe Isaac turned 8 months old this week? Where did my baby go? This last month has been really busy for him. He started the month by getting two teeth. Then a cold. And a double ear infection and bronchiolitis. And a round of 3 different medicines to help with all of this. Then he decided to learn to crawl. And pull himself up to standing. And he's even started cruising the furniture a bit and letting go to stand for just a second on his own. What happened to my baby?!

Little Ike is still as happy as ever (and really, I'm the only one that ever calls him Ike, and it's pretty rare) even with all the ear infections and colds and what not. Of course, Mommy's not as happy as she could be because the little guys is still not sleeping through the night...and is still sleeping in our room. Both may be my fault. But we are finally getting Eli his big boy bed and Isaac is getting kicked out! Hello first full night of sleep I've had in well over 8 months...I can't wait!

Isaac is also a chatter box. He just makes noise. And sometimes those noises are "Mamamamamama" or "Dadadadadada". It's pretty cool. He's probably been saying both of these for about a month, but I think just this week he's actually been saying Mama on purpose. Like when he's crying for me. It's adorably sad.

Elijah and Isaac are still best buddies, and getting closer by the minute! Eli loves to tell me, "Did you know that Isaac is my best friend?" He also says that about Mike, too. I hope he feels that way forever! We still play the I Love You game with Eli. He says, "Hey mama, guess what?" And I say, "What?" And he says, "I love you!" It's a pretty awesome game that I hope we play forever. We also say, "Do you know who you are?" and then say, "You are a child of God!". I LOVE that Eli loves these games.

Eli seems to get taller and smarter every day. He has learned to get himself dressed and loves to pick out his clothes and get himself dressed every day. I love seeing him try to get more independent and do things for himself. He's learned to drag the kitchen chairs around the kitchen to help him get things. One day he even got himself a cup out of the cupboard and filled it with water...which spilled...but still, he tried!

This little brainiac is amazing. He loves to find letters everywhere and tries really hard to sound out words...yes, the three year old is learning to read! On his own! He can spell Eli, Mom, Dad, and Car. And can even write his name, and Mom and Dad, too. He loves letters and books and has so much fun learning. Eli also has a very good understanding of numbers. He counts really well and loves to count things--especially when he finds three of something because he is three, too.

He is awesome. Isaac is awesome. And we are so lucky!

Candid Camera

I swear the last day or so I MUST have been on candid camera. That is the only explanation. It's just been "one of those days."

It all started out innocently enough. I made the mistake of enjoying a quiet night on Sunday; the boys actually went to bed right away, so I stayed up a little too late enjoying some me time. Isaac knew better. He's still getting over his ear infections and bronchiolitis, and ended up having a bad night. I nursed him 4 times between 1 and 5am...that's just ridiculous.
He didn't magically get better at 5am. Oh no. That's just when Eli decided to wake up, with the sun. He came stomping into my room, "Mommy! It's all orange and blue and pink outside! Mommy, you want to come see it!" While I do think it's good he can see the beauty in a sunrise, I do NOT want to know about it at 5am. Ever. And that is just the start of our fun day.
The morning wasn't too bad, Eli was just really hyper. The more tired he gets, the more hyper he gets, and the more fussy he gets as well. He stayed in a pretty good and helpful mood, until he didn't. He suddenly just hit a wall and he was done. Then the screaming and crying and, unfortunately, hitting (all of this is done by Eli, not me) started. I managed to get him to sit on the potty and take a nap. Phew. I knew he needed sleep and once in bed he was going to sleep all afternoon! Yes!
Of course, five minutes after Eli goes down, Isaac wakes up from his nap. I'm zombie tired and on-duty again with a wide awake baby. Hyper. Energetic. Happy. And crawling everywhere! Isaac and I had a good time for a bit, but I also felt the pressure of getting other things done. The house is a mess. I need to grade papers and submit final grades for my UOP class. I need to make dinner for a friend who had a baby, and book club is at my house tomorrow, I need to start making treats and get my messy house cleaned. 
After a while Isaac is ready for his nap. I can finally tackle some of this house stuff. But first I need to grade papers. That HAS to be done today. And that is when the Internet decides to stop working. I spend nearly an hour trying to get it to work. It does off and on, just long enough for me to think it will work and start pulling some papers to grade, then it stops working. Finally I get the message. The universe is telling me to go take a nap. Done and done!
Not five minutes after I lay down, Eli wakes up. And then Isaac does too. There goes any time or energy I had to get the millions of things done today. Did I mention I'm sooooo tired? Oh well.
I decide to pick up sandwiches for the dinner I had to deliver, so the boys and I head out. That all goes really well, and honestly Eli was really good. I was tired and cranky and I think he knew it. We get home, have our dinner, and as I'm picking Isaac up out of his high chair my hand is all wet. I look, it's covered in poop. For the second time in two days (and it happened again this morning). I should know by now, that's his pooping chair. I scrub up the chair and the baby and just put him in his pajamas for the night.
We all play for a bit, Eli and I practice tracing letters, and Isaac is getting fussy so I go lay him down. All I did was walk back to the room and come back. In that time Eli has colored black crayon all over the table top, table legs, and chair legs. Awesome. I make him clean it up, which really means I clean it up but he has to try and then he has to help me. He's tired and whinny and not too excited about this part. But it's finally bath time!
I get Eli in the bath and decide to take a little potty break as the tub is filling up with water. As I walk out of the toilet I notice the bathroom floor is wet. Really wet. Eli had managed to cover the floor with an inch of water while I was gone. The bath mats are soaked, and several bath towels later I get the floor cleaned up.
The day is almost done! Scriptures and sleepy time for the Eli. But I still have to grade papers, right. As we're reading scriptures a loud BANG! sounds in the bathroom. Seriously, I was scared. I had no idea what it was: either a pipe burst and we've got a gaping hole in the wall or someone is in our backyard and smashed in our bathroom window. Mike goes in to see what has happened and says it was in the cabinet. What? Apparently an old can of aerosol hairspray decided to explode, and take several bottles of lotion and other hair products with it. One giant mess. I wish I would have gotten a picture of it--there were bits of plastic and goop everywhere! I get to scrub a cabinet at 9:30pm. Just what I always wanted. And I still have to grade papers before midnight. I sure know how to procrastinate!
The cabinet finally gets clean and I settle in to grade. Out bounces Eli, who is supposed to be sleeping.  Again. And again. And again. Mike keeps laying him down and he just keeps coming out. But now I'm racing the clock to submit my grades so I can't do much about it. Finally he stays in his room.  We can hear him busting up laughing. Oh well, at least he's in his room. Wrong! Eli comes bouncing out, "Mommy! Brother and I are laughing! Did you hear that? We are laughing so much!" Yep, Eli wasn't in his room, he was in mine. With the light on and his brother now awake. At least they weren't crying. It's now 11pm and not one, but two of my boys are awake. And Eli has pooped his diaper; it's everywhere. I finish my grades and give up. I'm going to bed. Mike takes care of Eli, I get Isaac back to bed and I am done.

But first I do a sweep of my house looking for the candid cameras. The day was so out of the ordinary. The boys (Eli really) did things so unlike them, that I just couldn't believe it was all happening that day. Really, what can I do but laugh...and get some sleep.

Snuggles

One of these boys has been sick all week. Can you tell which one?

Eli wanted me to take a picture of his sad face, too. He's desperately trying not to smile.

Twofer Toother

We've had a busy and not-always-so-fun month.

Isaac started teething. Eli got the flu, big time. Isaac cut a tooth. Thankfully both boys took just enough of a break for us to get some really awesome family pics. Then Isaac cut another tooth. Mike got the flu. Eli got a really bad cold. Isaac gets the really bad cold, and shows signs of yet another tooth trying to break free (Seriously? Cool it on the teething, kid.). Mommy gets the really bad cold. And here we are, just trying to survive it all. I think I've heard Kleenex, Tylenol, and Advil all had record sales this month, thanks to our family! And I'm worried that ear infections are on the horizon for Isaac. Every time he's gotten a cold he's ended up with a double ear infection. He's just getting over his cold this week, and I feel like the Jaws music is eerily haunting the back of my mind, warning me of things to come. Du-duh. Du-duh. Du-duh-du-duh-du-duh!

The exciting part, though, again, not always fun, is that Isaac now has Two Teeth! It's so cute to see them poking out of his bottom gums, but it also makes me a little sad. He's definitely moving on from the new baby stage. I know, he's almost 8 months old and clearly not a newborn anymore. But this just confirms that, and I miss it already. So far he's been really good about not biting, though he does love to chew on my chin still....so weird.

Sleeping

Eli likes to Go, Go, Go! And it is so funny to see when, and where, he ends up crashing.

He actually made it in his bed this time!