One Year Old

Isaac turned one year old on Tuesday of this week. We had his birthday party last Saturday. It was just a small family party, with cake and ice cream. The day couldn't have been more perfectly planned. The party started at 3:00 so that Isaac would have plenty of time to eat lunch and take a nap before everyone arrived. Isaac ate his lunch around 11:45, fell asleep around 12:30, and woke up at 2:15. That gave me just enough time to get everything together and then get Isaac ready for his party.

People brought so many presents. It looked like Christmas all over again. Isaac enjoyed opening his gifts and playing with everything, but seeing him eat his cake was the best. I cut a fairly big piece, thinking he'd probably make a big mess more than anything else. Oh, contraire though. He picked up his piece of cake with both hands and brought the whole thing to his mouth. It looked like he inhaled it as he slowly pushed it into his mouth. And the entire time, his eyes were so wide. If he could talk, I bet he would've said, "Wow, this cake is good! I can't believe I had to wait a whole year to eat it!"

Of course, seeing Isaac's expression was very satisfying to me, since I'd made the cake and icing from scratch. I'd never done something like that before, so I made a practice cake the week before. After I was done, Wes and I tried it and then sent the rest to church so the kids could eat it on Wednesday night. I thought the practice cake looked good, but it was a little dry. So the second time, I took great pains to make sure I followed the recipe for the batter and icing exactly. Some people were shocked to find out the cake was homemade, and everyone complimented me on it. It was much more moist the second time, which made it taste better. My dad told me he thought I might've found a new passion, and several people encouraged me to make some cakes to sell to other people.


Sadly, Isaac was sick on the day of his actual birthday. On Monday night, he had a fever of 102.5, so I took him to the doctor the next day. The nurse practioner saw him and said he had hand, foot, and mouth virus. His blood results weren't clear cut, but she made this diagnosis based on the papules that she saw on his face and legs. There's nothing you can do for a virus, so she didn't prescribe any medicine.

On Tuesday, all Isaac wanted to do was nurse. I had been weaning him the week before, so I tried giving him bottles during the day. I just figured I didn't have much milk, since I had not been nursing him during the day. Isaac wasn't too interested in drinking out of bottles though. In the afternoon, his fever shot up to 104.2. I called the doctor and then started nursing him. I didn't know how much milk I had, but I knew I needed to get fluids in him ASAP. The nurse practioner called me back and told me to give him a lukewarm bath. I did that, and his fever came down.

I stayed home with Isaac on Wednesday too, to make sure he wouldn't get dehydrated. Thankfully, he drank out of his bottles better. He gave me a scare in the afternoon though. I gave him some Motrin around 11:15 in the morning because his temperature was 102.1. About an hour later, after he'd had something to eat, we both took a nap on the couch. When we woke up a couple hours later, Isaac felt sizzling hot. His head was on my lap, and I could feel the heat emanating from him even through my jeans. I checked his temperature, and it was 104.6. I immediately started running the bathwater. (He cried the whole time he was in the tub - poor baby.) After that, I called the doctor, and this time I didn't have to wait for a phone call back. They told me I could give him Tylenol, and they also called in an antibiotic. They said his left ear was full on Tuesday, so maybe bacteria was causing the fever.

Wes and his mom took care of Isaac on Thursday and Friday. Wes stayed home on Thursday, and his mom came over for a few hours in the late afternoon. (I had a big fundraiser at school and didn't get home until 11:00 that night.) Then Wes kept Isaac on Friday morning, and his mom kept him on Friday afternoon. Isaac had a fever all the way up until Thursday night at 11:20, but he's finally doing better now. He's been fever-free since Friday. Now the only problem is some congestion in his nose. I feel bad that he was sick on his birthday, but at least he wasn't cognizant of the fact that it was his birthday.

Now, for some more pictures:

Valentine's Vacation

Last Thursday, we left for Helen, GA for a mini vacation - in part, to celebrate Valentine's Day, but also to celebrate Isaac's birthday. It was a much needed break, and we really enjoyed ourselves. We shopped, hiked, and mined for gems. We went for a horse carriage ride and swam in the pool. On Sunday, we went to church at Helen First Baptist Church. When our time there came to an end, we were not ready to go home.

Isaac was the main attraction everywhere we went. Many of the store owners talked to him, and one man even held him for a few minutes. He was Indian, and Isaac was fascinated by his accent. The man talked to him, and then all the sudden, Isaac reached for him. That put a big smile on his face. He said, "I love children, and they know it!"

Isaac was also the center of attention when we ate in different restaurants. At Helendorf, a German restaurant, we ate upstairs. There were four tables inside, and everyone had their eyes on Isaac. He became quite the flirt too. Isaac kept looking at one girl, who must've been roughly nine years old, and smiling at her. Then she would laugh, which would make him laugh.

When we were at the pool, all the little girls were oohing and aahing over him. They especially did that when Wes would throw Isaac up and catch him, because Isaac had a huge smile on his face. A few of the kids even played with him. I was glad for that, because although I'm at peace about not having more children, it does make me sad that Isaac won't have any brothers or sisters to play with while he's growing up.

Isaac did really well adapting to the new situation. He still took his afternoon nap every day and went to bed at about the same time each night. Sometimes it took him a little longer, but he was able to get to sleep on his own in his pack 'n' play. He did really well with his eating too. We ate breakfast at the hotel every morning. I brought some canned vegetables for his lunch, and we went out each night for dinner. We had to really search, but we were able to find restaurants that serve vegetables.

I'd planned on weaning him soon anyway, but I was forced to do it a little sooner while we were gone. When we were at the restaurants, I couldn't expect him to eat everything without anything to drink. I figured it was better for him to have formula in his cup rather than fill up on water, which has no calories. The first night, I took him to the restroom to nurse him after all of that (I never mastered the art of nursing in public with a blanket draped over the baby), but Isaac wasn't interested in nursing for very long. So after that, I just gave him more formula in his cup and didn't nurse. Since then, I've taken away another nursing session a little at a time, and now we're down to when he wakes up and right before bed. I miss that special time, but I also realize it's time to move on to the next stage.

When we left for Helen, it only took us about five hours to get there. We left close to Isaac's bedtime, so he slept the whole way there. Coming back, however, was a different story. We checked out of the hotel just before lunchtime on Monday, so Isaac was awake. We stopped for lunch, and it took close to an hour to feed him. He napped after that, which was great. Shortly after he woke up, though, we stopped to feed him his snack. Then around 5:45, we stopped for dinner, and it took another hour to feed him that. So all total, it took us about seven hours to get home.

Since we've been back, I feel like all I've done is cook and clean, but I haven't minded it. I cleaned the house top to bottom, in preparation for tonight. I recently took on the role of Sunday School Superintendent at our church, and I invited all of the Sunday School teachers over for an appreciation dinner and planning meeting. I made lasagna, green beans, salad, and cinammon rolls. It wasn't difficult to do, but it involved a good bit of prep work the night before for the lasagna.

Tomorrow, I'll spend some more time cooking and cleaning in preparation for Isaac's birthday party, which is on Saturday. I thought I would make Isaac's cake tonight and then make the icing tomorrow, but I need a break after working so hard the last few days. I'll just do everything tomorrow, in between Isaac's meal times and nap. I'm just thankful that this week has been Winter Break, so that I have the time that I need to get everything done.

Now, for some pictures:

Update

Isaac is doing really well with his new babysitter, Linda. She's been doing a much better job of taking care of him, and I've been happy with her the last couple of weeks. She's a mother too, and it's obvious that there's a tender concern that she has for him that the people in the daycare did not. I definitely think that the way that whole situation worked out was a "God thing."

I'm starting the weaning process this week. Last Friday, my principal told me that she wanted to put two of my sixth grade classes together so that I could teach a math remediation course. I usually spend about 20 minutes of my planning time pumping, and I knew I wouldn't be able to keep that up now that I have four preps. So now instead of pumping twice a day, I'm only going to pump once. Next week, I won't pump at all. I'll just nurse Isaac when we're together. Then when he's one, he'll start drinking whole milk. It's definitely time. Isaac isn't showing as much interest in nursing anymore, and he's even pushed me away a couple times in the last couple of days.

Isaac will be one year old on February 24th. I need to start on the invitations this week. We're going to have just a family party, which is acutally more work than it sounds. If everyone in our family showed up, there would be over 40 people at our house. I want to make Isaac's cake, like my mom did for me when I was a little girl. I thought my mom could just give me a recipe and that it would be easy to figure out. As it turns out, it is much more involved. (My mom actually took a class to learn how to do everything.) My mom and I are going to go to Savannah this weekend to buy all the supplies. Then I'll make a practice cake before I make the cake for his party. I'm actually pretty excited about that. Imagine that, Jennifer Sherrod is excited about making a cake. Having a baby really does change you...