A Proud Momma...

I'm sorry the lighting is not the greatest in this picture but it is priceless! I looked over at Isaiah yesterday and he was sitting in between Derby's two front legs, just drinking his milk! It was almost like they were spooning! :) SO SWEET!



Amazed at his zoo book!



Playing with his golf clubs!


I just want to take a few minutes to share a couple stories about Isaiah that have made me so proud! First of all, he is 13 months old today....time continues to fly right past us! Isaiah has become the most wonderful little boy! He is funny, charming, sweet, sensitive, precious, handsome, loving....oh, I could just go on and on! He is truly the joy of our lives!

I'll start with a funny story and then move on to my "beaming proud mommy stories"! I was fixing dinner the other night and Isaiah was playing around the kitchen while I worked. When I get in the fridge, Isaiah, too, loves to get in there and pull things out! This particular time, he grabbed a bag of shredded cheese and started walking around with it! A minute or so passed and all of a sudden, he started crying so loud like something had hurt him. I, of course stopped what I was doing to check on him and he had spilled the entire bag of cheese onto the rug. He just lost it! I'm not sure if he thought he was going to get in trouble or if he was sad that he'd made a mess but nonetheless, it crushed his little spirit that he had spilled that cheese! I have a feeling he is going to be sensitive (like his mommy AND his daddy!)

When it is time for Isaiah to eat a meal, I always say, "Isaiah, are you ready to eat? Meet me at your high chair!" I walk over there with his food and continue to say, "meet me at your high chair!" Well, the past two weeks, every single time I say that, he meets me at his high chair! This morning he even got there before I did and waited for me to pick him up with his little arms high in the air! I was so proud!!!!

Also, this morning, I experienced a moment of gratification when some hard parenting was paid off! We have been working very hard on the word, "NO" lately. Isaiah has been hearing that word for a while and has known for quite some time what it means. BUT, it hasn't been until the last couple days that he has actually obeyed us when we said no. And it doesn't happen every time but it's better than it used to be when he would laugh at us every single time we said NO! Within the last few days, I have been implementing the sign for the word "no" when I say it. This morning I was in the kitchen talking to my mom on the phone and Isaiah had ventured off to the office, which is also where Derby's bowls are! For some reason, Isaiah and Eli both love those bowls and seem to go for them as soon as they get in that room. Well, this morning, Isaiah walked in there and went straight for the bowls. He got down on the floor, stopped dead in his tracks and looked at me (as if to say, "hey mom, look what I'm doing!!!") I didn't want to yell since I was on the phone, so I just did the sign for "no". Well, guess what my sweet Isaiah did??? He turned around and crawled AWAY from the bowls!!!! My heart was bursting with joy and love for that little boy! I was so proud that he chose to obey his momma!!!! :) I just pray he keeps it up!

Happy 13 months baby boy! I love you to the moon and back infinity times....


Love, Love, Love those little feet crossed! Does it get any sweeter?

Music Man

Here is a cute video of Isaiah and his daddy making some music!



Isaiah woke up this morning with a slight fever and he's (more than) spit up (but not quite thrown up) a couple times. I don't know if he's cutting teeth or coming down with something but hopefully he shakes it off quickly! Other than that, not much is going on in our world! Daddy's working hard and mommy and Isaiah are spending all our time together playing hard! We are really looking forward to this weekend when Mimi and Pop, and Auntie Jess and Uncle David come to visit!!!! Can't wait to spend time with them!

Have a great Monday!
We love you all!!!!

He's All Boy!

Isaiah's latest "game" is to get in the drawer that has the Ziploc bags, pull the box out and then pull each and every bag out of the box! I have been letting that happen because it allows me time to get things done in the kitchen! :)






I love this picture because it shows off one of the MANY cute things he does! He loves raising his chin like that! I think his Pop taught him that!


A couple days ago, within 14 hours, Isaiah had fallen ONCE and bit his tongue; fallen TWICE and got a bruise on his left eyebrow; fallen THREE times and got a bruise on the middle of his forehead! Now that he is walking, we're experiencing many more tumbles than before! Hopefully you can tell in these pictures where the bruises are! I just couldn't seem to get one of the tongue!





I'm not exactly sure why the one in the middle is in the shape of a "T" but it is!


Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

See ya later, alligator!

This morning, I was sleeping so peacefully in my nice, warm, comfy bed when all of a sudden, Eric BURST into the bedroom and said he HAD to show me something! "GET UP, GET UP", he said!!! So he takes me over to the window to show me that we have a large gator swimming in the canal behind our house! AAAHHH!!!!! The first thing we thought was, "well, no more swimming for Derby!" I ran to get the camera and as soon as I opened the back door to take pictures, the alligator froze, almost as if to say, "I see you and I know you're there!" I was able to get a few shots for proof! Weird thing is, just two hours later, I happened to be looking out the window and saw quite a bit of movement in the water down the canal just a bit and my first thought was that the alligator had gotten a hold of something! So I got out the trusty binoculars to check out the situation! To my surprise, it had nothing to do with any gator. It was four manatee playing together! CRAZY! I'm wondering if the storm caused some of the wildlife to be rather active today!




That wooden post is from our dock so that kind of gives you an idea at how close it was to us!



Close-up shot!




I didn't think I should post without a picture of Isaiah! :)



And here is our sunset tonight. Isn't that gorgeous???

Some Busy Days...

We have had some very busy days lately! First of all, we survived Tropical Storm Fay!!! The weather was.........well, it was absolutely fine! There was no surviving involved! :) We were completely prepared for the worst - I ran out and got stocked on batteries, bottled water, peanut butter, and canned foods and made sure our battery-operated radio was in good working condition. We went to stay at Eric's mom and step-dad's house because they have hurricane windows and a generator! We were taking every precaution there is! Last night, I think Eric and I both slept with one eye open. We woke up at every little noise we heard! This morning we woke up to somewhat windy conditions thinking that it would hit later. Throughout the entire day, WE DID NOT SEE A SINGLE DROP OF RAIN!!! If I were being honest though, we both were just a LITTLE bit disappointed that nothing more happened because we were excited to see the strong winds and rain! Even though some may have laughed at how cautious we were being, there is not a single thing I would have done differently! I have always believed the cliche that it's better to be safe than sorry!

In other news, Isaiah offically has FIVE teeth! I'm starting to really dread the molars that I know are inevitably coming!

Yesterday, Isaiah was feeling a bit adventurous and found some paper napkins I have in a cabinet. He walked around carrying them for quite some time and then discovered he could open the plastic! So, once the plastic had been ripped open, there were napkins all over the floor. Once he got one out, he went straight to the refrigerator and started scrubbing it with the napkin! Hopefully that means I'll have a good little helper on my hands one of these days! :)
Scrub, scrub, scrub!!!


What mom? I'm cleaning!


Walking all over his mess!


Isaiah and Derby are just becoming the best of friends! I really feel like they both adore each other! Isaiah is really proving to be such a sweet little boy! He will randomly walk up to Eric and me (and Derby too!) and just give us kisses and hugs! It is so precious and it absolutely melts our hearts! We are so enjoying watching Isaiah and Derby interact! We consider it such an answer to prayer that Derby is so good with Isaiah! He'll let him pull his hair and his ears and he just sits and takes it! We are so thankful!

Isaiah loves throwing balls and here he is trying to throw the ball for Derby!


This morning before we thought the storm would hit, we took Isaiah down to the beach to feel the sand between his toes and just to see what the sky and water looked like (as far as the weather was concerned). Isaiah really liked walking in the sand but one time he went down to his knees and felt the sand on his legs and got it on his hands. He was not too fond of that feeling! He kept trying to rub his hands on his shorts to get the sand off! It was a lot of fun though, to see Isaiah walking in the sand by himself! :)

First time walking ALONE in the sand!



Hmmm....so this is sand???



Precious face



Feet in the sand



Check out that hair!!!


Precious moments with mommy and daddy!

Eating, Helping, Talking, Walking!

Isaiah is one busy little boy! He is all over the place! Here are some pics and a video to show you how busy and precious our little man is these days!

Loving Kiwi! You can't see it very well in the picture but Isaiah was covered in black kiwi seeds! :)




Walking in his jammies!




Helping mommy put groceries away!




Isaiah's new "trick"! :)



I just love his voice in this video!


Love to you all!!!!

One more Indiana post...

On our last full day in Indiana, we had a great lunch with Nana Pat and Ed; mommy's Aunt Carol and Suzanne, and mommy's Aunt Vicki and Uncle David and cousins Ryan and Sean! It was so wonderful to spend time with each of them and hopefully we get to do that next time too! :) Here is a slide show of our time together!