Week Seventeen

This week Isaac got to enjoy some serious holiday cheer by attending two holiday parties, meeting Santa, and celebrating Hanukah. First, he got dressed up in his finest khakis to hang out at Sequoia for Bill's office holiday party. Since Jamie's work party was the same night, the two boys got to have a few hours of fun bonding time before we all met up at the end of the night.

Isaac also got to spend an afternoon at the Akin Gump Health Section Secretaries' appreciation holiday lunch where he was a great sport and loved being passed around to everyone (including Colleen) before melting down and sleeping soundly through his visit to the office and a tour of the daycare facility he will be spending lots of time at soon...

Isaac also got in his first visit to the dentist - although the fact that he has no teeth proved a good enough reason to spare him (also Karen came to the rescue and entertained a relatively unhappy baby while Jamie got her check-up, hopefully it didn't scare her too much since she's DAYS away from delivering her own baby!!)

We did finally finish putting together Isaac's Excersaucer and he has really started to enjoy hanging out in there, almost as much as we enjoy having another place to put him down for playtime!!

Isaac met Santa for the first time at Fragers hardware store and seemed impressed at first(although we could swear we heard him whisper to Santa, "You're not the real Santa, you smell like beef and cheese...")

Finally, we celebrated the first night of Hanukah with Isaac and he got to open lots of presents and light candles over Skype with his Grandma, Aunt Jen, and cousins who all sang songs to him and helped him recite the prayers over the Menorah :)

Another great week- we hope everyone has safe travels, Happy Hanukah, a Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year. The next post will have lots of pictures from Christmas in NJ and New Years in St. Thomas!!

Week Sixteen

Week Sixteen was another relatively uneventful week -- the Zantac that the doctor prescribed may or may not be working, we're still not sure. Overall he was relatively happy and seemingly less fussy, so maybe yes??? Isaac started recognizing himself in the mirror and grins when we walk into the bathroom now. He is also working on perfecting his hand-eye coordination and is now able to grab things and bring them to his mouth (sometimes to his ear, but we get his intention...). He sets his sights on anything and everything with the intention of getting it into his mouth - his hands, burp cloths, Wilson's fur, my hair... We decided to enlist his help with our holiday gift ideas, including stuff with baby hand prints - he seemed game at first, although he didn't seem to get the concept of making a handprint in the wet mold, and instead treated it as another thing to try to to pull into his mouth :) He loves staring at the lights of the tree, especially from his Bumbo seat and is still loving the bath, but getting a little big for it (see picture below), and loves kicking his feet out of the water and making a big mess.


We also had a fun day downtown, where Isaac accompanied me on a trip to the doctor for a physical - he was very well behaved for the most part, flirting with the lab tech and expressing his desire to eat loud enough that the doctor agreed to lend us his personal office for that purpose! After the appointment, we met some of my friends from work for coffee, Sabrina and Anne (who is expecting ANOTHER new friend for Isaac in a few months!!) We also got to hang out with Karen (getting closer and closer to delivering Isaac's best-friend-to-be) and her sister Lisa who came by for lunch after Lisa's wedding dress fitting. They got to see Isaac's big grin and were so surprised when he busted out with it that they burst out laughing, which scared him, and led to a hysterical crying fit! (which made all of us laugh even harder!!)

We had a fun happy hour with the yoga girls and their babies at a cool Hill place called SOVA which has a back room that we took over with all of our strollers and baby stuff. It was so perfect that it may be the new location for our bi-weekly happy hour (much to the chagrin of the bartenders, I imagine!)

We had a fun dinner at Josh and Julia's while Bill was still away in California, and, contrary to this picture below (Josh is such a sport!), Ashton and Isaac really did seem to enjoy each other's company!! Finally, on Sunday night we bartered with our neighbors - some wine and NFL package for manual labor in putting together Isaac's new Exersaucer. Unfortunately, the Sunday night football game (apparently the real reason they came over) came on before they finished, and so Isaac will have to wait a little longer to play in it...

Week Fifteen

Week fifteen was relatively low-key. Isaac continues to love his bathtime, and based on my observation of my nieces' baths, he is a bit bizarre in that he only likes it when the water is hot - really hot!! Looks like he'll follow Bill's footsteps on that one. This affinity for heat works to Wilson's disadvantage as Isaac conversely hates the cold. No matter how bundled up he is, Isaac gets very upset when the cold wind blows on him during our walks, which has made them a lot quicker and less frequent. Isaac got his passport in the mail this week, which seems extremely quick, but I guess they didn't have to do much background checking on him!! It's amazing to think that the infant mug shot below will still get Isaac in and out of the country when he is a lot bigger. We also had a fun play date with two of my colleagues from work who had babies a few weeks after Isaac. Coincidentally, we all work in the same section, and all ended up having baby boys by c-section within three months. It was great to see Liz and Adam and Taylor and Silas, even though the babies didn't acknowledge each other. The other boys are better sleepers then Isaac (shocking!!) and continued sleeping even as their mommies positioned them next to Isaac for this photo!

We also took Isaac to the Smoky Glens Farm to cut down his first Christmas tree. Isaac's aversion to cold came into play again here, and after a couple minutes of checking out the scene and allowing us to take his picture, he got very upset (can't blame him, it was 30 degrees and snowing!!) which definitely forced Bill to speed up the decision-making process, much to his chagrin. Thankfully, even under the gun, we were still able to pick a great tree. After Isaac and I approved the choice, we went back to the car to get warm while an axe-wielding Bill successfully cut it down and strapped it to the car.

Home safe and warm, Isaac helped a little and then watched the Gators handily defeat the Crimson Tide for the SEC championship from his bouncy seat while we put up the tree, the menorah, and the lights outside. Carl and Kate (expecting another new friend for Isaac in June!!!) came over to help us decorate and have dinner that night.

We ended the weekend with a sad goodbye to Bill who is off to California for a few days for work. Before leaving, Isaac got a tutorial on computer usage, and in return spit up a little on Bill's work clothes to ensure Bill would be thinking of him on his trip :)

Week Fourteen

Week fourteen was Isaac's biggest week yet - he took his first flight from DC to Denver alone with Jamie. While it was a little stressful, the flight went smoothly, other than one diaper blowout, Isaac just slept and ate and was so quiet that the people in the row behind were amazed that there was a baby in front of them when we stood up to get off the plane!

The first stop in Denver was a visit with Grandma where Isaac was spoiled for two days. He got very comfortable at Grandma's because she has so much baby stuff from all her babysitting of Jaden, Talia and Arielle who were very generous in lending us lots of baby stuff from their house too. Isaac had lots of fun hanging with Grandma, meeting his cousins and getting cuddled by his aunts. His cousin Talia was nice enough to help give Isaac a bath - and she talked about the fact that he peed in the bath for the rest of the weekend! He also had his first impromptu pediatrician trip because he was grabbing his ears and we were concerned the altitude might be affecting him - she said his ears may not have popped on the plane, but gave him the green light to go to the mountains (and he weighed in at 12 pounds 9 ounces).

On Wednesday Bill joined us in Colorado, and we all took a road trip to Vail where we got to stay in Jen's in-laws' beautiful condo. There was a big group of us in Vail for Thanksgiving - 6 adults and 5 kids stayed at the Schrutt condo (Aunt Jen and Uncle Max with Jaden, Talia and Arielle; Joey and Zoe (Max's sister) with Julia; and Jamie and Bill with Isaac) and 10 adults stayed in the condo next door -officially titled the "No-kids-zone" (including Papa Rich and Grandma Sherry, Aunt Alli and Uncle Chad, Uncle Evan and his roommate Sean, Chad's parents and Joey's parents). Overall it was a great group and we had lots of chaotic fun hanging out, eating, drinking and preparing for the big Thanksgiving feast. The Schrutt house was a happening place to be in the middle of the night, with the kids rotating (seemingly by the hour) which would wake up crying. The only one with a good excuse for waking up was Talia who had a stomach bug which would make its way through almost every inhabitant by the end of the week!

While the boys were cooking, the girls took the kids for a trip in the snow to the Vail playground to try to tire them out - errr ahhh have some fun :)

We also took a fieldtrip on the public bus downtown to Vail to watch Jaden in ski school and to have some lunch. While we were there the snow started dumping down and Isaac got to experience his first snowstorm! He wasn't such a big fan, but we brought him out in it anyway (don't worry he was bundled up!).

Finally, we all got dressed up and celebrated Turkey Day together where we had a serious feast prepared by Max, Chad, Bill, Joey and Evan. It was a gluttonous amount of food, including three different kinds of stuffing, foie gras, duck breast, sweet potato gnocchi and of course turkey - everything was DELICIOUS and we all basically had to be rolled out of there!

On Saturday morning we headed back to Jen and Max's in what could only be characterized as an odyssey like voyage - there was a full fledged snowstorm, the highway passes were closed, chain laws were in effect and spin outs were all over the place. Plus, while Bill tied the suitcases down on the ride up to accommodate Isaac's entourage of gadgets and accessories, the snow made the roof of the car less appealing. Fortunately Isaac's uncles (and Grandpa) consumed such copious amounts of wine that it freed up additional space to fit all the suitcases in the car. Notwithstanding the snowstorm and a close call with running out of gas, we made it back to Jen and Max's to watch the Gators beat Florida State (or as Uncle Chad calls them - those redneck as&^%*). Aunt Jen was also kind enough to teach Isaac a song about what part of a horse Bobby Bowden (the coach of FSU) most closely resembles. Before leaving we made several attempts to take a picture of all four of the kids, and while it was entertaining for the adults, I don't think we actually ended up with even one "framer" :)

Saturday night we headed to Boulder for another gluttonous dinner at Frasca with Evan, Adrienne, Chad, Alli, and Bill's friend Jim and his wife Brooke. Papa Rich and Sherry were kind enough to babysit while the crew headed out for a delicious dinner with lots more wine.

Bright and early on Sunday morning (4:50 AM to be exact) Jamie, Bill, Isaac, Papa Rich and Grandma Sherry woke up to make the drive to Denver International Airport so that Jamie, Bill and Isaac could catch an 8 AM flight that boarded on time, but took off three hours late. Several poopie diapers later and a couple of tantrums having passed, we arrived in DC safe and sound 7 hours later.

Overall the week and the trip were great and we all had a wonderful time!! Isaac (and Jamie and Bill) were sad to leave and will miss his aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins a LOT...