Cherry Blossoms

Papa Rich and Grandma Sherry were in town to babysit Isaac overnight while Bill and I enjoyed a wonderful night away for Bill's birthday, but first we took full advantage of the beautiful weather on Saturday and headed to the Mall for the Kite Festival and the beginning of the Cherry Blossoms. It was packed with tourists, but beautiful, and we all enjoyed checking out the trees while Isaac could focus on nothing other than the buses passing by every other minute - it never got boring to him, as he yelled out BUS!!! and waved bye-bye to each one...

These are just some cute pictures of Isaac perfecting the art of eating with utensils - he is a big fan of Bill's homemade quesadillas (or "deeyaaas" as Isaac calls them)- and especially loves it when Bill gives him the spatula too! Who needs a fork...

Roadtrip to NJ/PA

We took a roadtrip this weekend to NJ to see the Anderson fam, and most especially to visit with Grandma Roberta who is recovering from double-knee replacement surgery. It was a gorgeous weekend of sunshine and temperatures in the 70's which made it perfect to enjoy the Andersons' great backyard. Roberta is doing great and was up and around following Isaac around with what he thought was a new toy (her walker). He had a great time with Grandma, Grandpa, Great Auntie Barbie. Aunt Rach who introduced him to the magic that is bubbles and took more than her share of turns chasing him down the hill and all around the backyard. The extended fam came for dinner and Isaac entertained Great Grandma Jo, along with Bill's aunts and uncles and cousins. Bill's cousin Sara jumped in as a wonderful babysitter and chased Isaac around all night allowing Bill and I to actually sit and talk to everyone.

On Sunday we stopped in Philly to see Mom-Mom and got a bonus visit with Uncle Jeff, Aunt Marie and Jamie's cousins Jake and Seri. The youth once again stepped in to chase the tireless Isaac up and down the halls and Bill and I actually got to spend time with the grown-ups and to catch up on the chaos that was health reform just in time to see the announcement of the momentum-changing presidential executive order that paved the way to the ultimate passage of the healthcare bill.

19 months

Isaac is talking up a storm and entertaining us to no end with the words and phrases that come out of his mouth. His favorite phrases seem to be "no way" and "up and down" (as he climbs or descends the stairs) and he calls out "careful" and "step" and has become very social saying hello to everyone he sees on the street and blowing kisses goodbye. He seems to associate "love you" with us leaving, so in response to us saying love you, he says "bye bye". He has gotten the Spanish phrase for love you down (te amo), and says "amo" regularly. I'm sure there's lots more he says, but nothing else funny comes to mind right now. He's getting particular about the books he reads and goes to the bin and picks out the nighttime book on his own (the recent favorites are Goodnight Moon, Guess How Much I Love You, and a few Sandra Boynton books). He has definitely taken notice of my growing belly and lifts my shirt exclaiming "belly" regularly and then cuddles with it or kisses it, which just melts me... He's still a very picky eater, the nights he actually eats usually consist of a hot dog or mac'n'cheese although he loves when Bill makes him quesadillas, and yells "deeyaah" repeatedly while it is cooking. We are doing our best to fatten him up though, and at the 18 month check up we were psyched to see he actually made it to the 3rd percentile, weighing in at 21.8 lbs and measuring 32 inches (30ish percentile). There's still hope for him yet...
Isaac has been continuing to enjoy the sites of Washington, DC -- the past few weeks he hung out with the fish at the Natural History museum, played at the building museum with Colin and the Kruses and spent a fun morning with Daddy at the Air & Space Museum.

He also spent plenty of time inside last week being silly and hoping for the rain to stop...

And finally, he has had lots of time hanging with his posse outside this week and enjoying the AMAZING spring weather. Cesi's mom is a nanny for baby Lussa (Isaac's "girlfriend") and her cousin is a nanny for his buddy Cole and another baby. They all take field trips to the library and the parks and spend lots of time together, and Bill and I enjoy getting fun pictures of all their activities throughout the day from Cesi's iphone. Apparently Isaac and Lussa are getting very close- could the picture of them cuddling and listening to storytime at the library on St. Patrick's Day be any cuter???

Colorado

We booked a family ski trip to Vail before we knew I was pregnant, and while I didn't get to ski, we still had a great time hanging for a weekend with the fam in the Schrutt family Vail condo. We went up Friday afternoon, spent a fun afternoon and evening with Mom in Denver at a cool park in Stapleton, playing with all her toys, running around her house and hiding her remote controls.

After dinner we made a late night drive up to the mountains to meet up with Papa Rich, Grandma Sherry, Jen, Max, Jaden, Talia, Arielle, Alli & Chad. In a four bedroom condo each family got a room - so Isaac got to bunk with Bill and I. It didn't go so well the first night between the late night transfer from the car to the pack-n-play and the strange new place and hearing us come in late night, so by 4 am we gave in and for the first time in his life Isaac got to sleep in bed with us. I brought him in our bed after hours of whining and crying, laid him down and he immediately jumped up and said Mama? Dada? and started laughing. We calmed him down and eventually he went to sleep horizontally across the bed with Bill and I holding onto the edges for dear life -- how do people co-sleep with babies on a regular basis??? Needless to say, he did sleep, but it was the first and last time for us...The other nights went a lot more smoothly, between his exhaustion from running around with his cousins, the mountain air and altitude and his obsession with chasing and cuddling Zammy the most kid-friendly and patient puppy in the entire world. Isaac really fell in love with the dog - it was adorable to watch them together all weekend.

Isaac had a great time with his cousins, he was in shock at the chaos of the Schrutt kids at first, but warmed up quickly and rushed to be in the middle of the mix at all times. He especially got along well with Arielle who is only 6 months older than he is - they shared toys, sippee cups, and pushed strollers side-by-side together. It was so much fun to watch and made me sad that they can't spend more time together...

He also had lots of quality time with Aunt Jen and Alli and Papa Rich and Grandma Sherry at the Vail house. Evan and Adrienne stopped by for some cuddles with Isaac before Evan and Bill went skiing and Adrienne hung out with a friend for the day.

Finally, we took all the kids snow-tubing on Sunday which was lots of fun. Isaac and Sherry and I spent most of the time watching since no one thought it was a good idea for the preggars to tumble out of a tube at warp speed. I caved on my paranoia about Isaac though and let him go up with Papa Rich at the end - he probably would have warmed up to it, but was a little unsure about the experience after getting sprayed with snow to the face on the way down. All the others loved it though - and Isaac and I get a raincheck for next time!

On Monday he got some bonus time with Grandma and Kristen brought over lunch so we could all hang out.