Spring Break

Spring break was a much needed respite from the flurry of activity from the weeks before. Isaac and I had such a great time together, and neither one of us wanted to go back to our normal routine at the end of the week.


Monday and Wednesday were spent close to home, only going out for errands and one day lunch with Wes. Tuesday and Friday were spent in Savannah. On Tuesday, we ate lunch with my mom and also did a little bit of shopping. On Friday, I took Isaac back to the doctor so he could get the next round of immunizations.


On Thursday, we ventured out a bit further, this time going to Jekyll Island. That was the best day of the break. We went to the beach for an hour in the morning, ate lunch, and then went to the beach for another hour in the afternoon. (After that, Isaac was ready for his nap, so we went home.) Isaac was so cute, playing in the sand and walking along the beach. He especially enjoyed getting his feet wet in the water and watching the waves roll in. He enjoyed it so much, in fact, that he bit my shoulder when I picked him up!







Thankfully, the biting has nearly stopped in the last couple of weeks. Occasionally, he'll still try to gently bite my arm, but he's doing it in a more playful manner now. Before, it was an act of frustration, because he wasn't ready to stop doing whatever activity he was involved in.


On Saturday, Isaac went to his very first Easter egg hunt at the church. Three of his grandmothers came to the church for this - my mom, Wes's mom, and my grandma - so he was definitely not lacking for attention that day. There was a separate section for infants and toddlers to "hunt" eggs, while the rest of the older children made a mad dash to see who could find the most eggs in their section. Isaac "found" three eggs, and he enjoyed sitting on the ground and figuring out how to open them up.


Sunday was Easter. We spent a good bit of time in church that day. There was an early bird service at 8:00, and we went to that. It was held outside, which was really nice. Whenever Isaac got too fidgety, I just walked around with him, while still being able to hear the sermon (a rarity for me anymore). Breakfast was immediately after that. Since I'm the Sunday School director, I stuck around for another hour after breakfast for that service too. Then since Isaac was doing so well, I even went to part of the regular morning worship service. At about 11:30, though, he was completely worn out, so I took him home. Not surprisingly, he napped for about two hours. It was a long morning, but a few church members offered to help me with Isaac at different points, which really lightened my load.


Sunday afternoon was fun. Wes's cousin Emily has a two year old named Jacob, and she brought him over so they could hunt Easter eggs together. This time, Isaac seemed like he'd caught on to the whole idea of finding eggs and putting them in his basket. After I showed him a couple of eggs and helped him put them in the basket, he started finding them on his own and pointing to them. He hunted real eggs that I'd dyed and decorated, so at one point he and Jacob figured out that they could crack the shells and eat them. They enjoyed doing that. I have a great video that I made using my Flip camera, but it's saved at work. Hopefully I'll remember to post it later this week.


Now, spring break seems like a distant memory. It hasn't even been two weeks, but things have really picked up at work. Only 23 more days of school left. I can't wait...

Walking, Talking, and Disciplining...Already?

Isaac is walking really well now. Every so often, he'll still reach out his hand to hold onto mine - usually when we're walking around the yard. But, he's getting much more proficient at toddling around these days.

Isaac is also talking. Last week when I was off for spring break, he said one or two new words almost every day. I've lost track of how many words he's said, but let's see if I can remember some of them.

Isaac can say Mama, Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa, Granddaddy, Doug, and girl. Isaac also says yea, no, and ma'am, but I'm still working on getting him to put yes/no and ma'am together. (I really debated about that one. My parents never taught me to say that, but I figure if he's going to live in the south, I better do it. Otherwise, people will think he's being rude.) He also says up, down, dog, uh-oh, bye-bye, thank you, and Bible. Less frequently, he says paper, book, door, bubble, bird, bear, and diaper. A few times, he even said Pooh bear. One morning, I picked him up out of his crib, and he started pointing toward his dresser saying, "Pooh bear, Pooh bear." (There was a picture of Pooh bear on the dresser.) He's also pointed at his high chair and said the same thing, which is a sign of intelligence. Some kids don't know that a sweater is still a sweater when it's moved to another room or a different color.

Isaac's receptive language has also been amazing. He can understand quite a bit. One night, we had started the bedtime routine, and he got really fussy because he still wanted to play. I started talking to him, saying, "Isaac, it's time for your bath now. Daddy's getting your bath ready. You're going to take a bath, read some stories, and then go to bed." He calmed down immediately. When I hold out my arms and say, "Do you want to come to Mommy?" he knows exactly what I mean. And I could go on.

I attribute most of this to all of the books we've read to Isaac, from the time he was in my womb until present. He is a child after my own heart, who has a voracious appetite for reading books. He will bring us books and fuss and carry on until we stop whatever we're doing to read to him. Another contributing factor is all the interaction he gets on a daily basis. I've been talking to him since he was in my womb, and I've continued to talk to him about every little thing we do around the house and when we're out and about. Plus, he is getting almost one on one attention during the day when he's at Linda's house.

I've also had to start disciplining Isaac, believe it or not. (Note: By discipline, I do not mean spanking. Discipline comes from the word disciple, and it means to teach. Spanking has its place, but will be used very, very sparingly in our home.) Isaac has started to show his pretty strong will - and I have no idea where he gets that from ;) - lately, in the form of hitting and biting. These aren't things that happen every day. I've noticed Isaac does those things when I take him away from doing something before he's ready. (And since I've realized that, I've been working on helping him transition from one activity to the next.) Last week, for example, I took him to the beach on Jekyll Island. He really enjoyed standing in the water and watching the waves roll in. When I picked him up, he bit my shoulder! So far, I've just been saying "No bite" and pulling him away from me, which seems to work. With the hitting, he does it for the same reason. Then I say, "No hit. Nice touch," and show him how to touch my face gently. He really started to "get it" by the end of the week last week. Before I could take his hand, he would start rubbing my face very gently.

Then over the weekend, he was around some people who thought hitting was funny, so now we're back to square one. But that's ok. These things are going to take time, and I'm not going to give up. I realize by talking to some very wise older mothers that everything I'm doing right now is setting the stage for how he will treat me later in life. If I let him disrespect me physically now, he'll do it with words later. And if he doesn't learn how to respect his parents, he'll never respect anyone else. I've seen that all too often in teaching.

Now, for the long-awaited one year old pictures. We had them taken on 2/27/09, and they finally came in about a week ago. We had these pictures made by Olan Mills, through Wes's parents' church. So the first picture is a shot of all of us. The second picture is Isaac's official one year old photo, which is now proudly hanging on my living room wall.


Seated, L-R: Wes, Jennifer, Isaac, & Doug; Standing: Danny, Terry




I know I'm a little biased, but...isn't he the most adorable thing you've ever seen???

Stay tuned. There's more to come soon about spring break and Isaac's very first Easter egg hunt.