Too long

Oh my.  It has been too long since I last posted.  I have so many ideas of moments to share with you all of Isaac's actions in the last month, but I think I will stick to sharing with you some glimpses of his blooming personality.

First, I will say, he has become very fiesty.  I think we've always known this little guy has quite the personality, but he has added a bit of show-off, fiesty, don't mess with me attitude.  I suppose this is actually a good thing.... I am sure he has had this within him all along as he has faced his challenges head on, but we had not seen... or should I say felt it till now.

I will give you an example.  When I am holding him and introduce him to a new person, he puckers his lips, glares at the new face and proceeds to scratch my face!  He doesn't leave marks, except a bad impression and an embarrassed mama!  I am really hoping that this little phase passes soon!

That example was not so cute, however I will now give you an example that will make you smile (or at least makes me smile).

Second, he is a show-off.  If he is in his wheels and someone comes to see him or there are people around him, he starts doing really fast spins in his wheelchair!  After a few fast spins he looks up and grins really big at everyone.  If a new person comes up again, he repeats his little show.  It makes me laugh every time.

He has been getting around any way he can, wheel, crawl and scoot.  And he likes to get away!  The other day I went to get something in the bathroom and he was in his room.  I heard his bedroom door shut, then hysterical toddler laughing.  He had crawled across his bedroom and shut the bedroom door on me!  He thought he was SO big and SO funny!

Third, he is loud.  No matter where we are, he lets us know if he is pleased or displeased with the situation. This is not always great, like at church or the library, but other times, it does help me out like when I ask him if he wants something.  He also gets really excited about things like Elmo, dogs and watching his big brother play Mario Cart.  He wants to be sure everyone else gets excited about these things too.  I can hardly explain his little motion, but he does a small gasp (when he sees something like the above things), looks at you, and turns his head back twice, very fast.  This is often repeated by another head bob, a point and "look!"  I wish I could capture this on camera, but it is always so fast and sporadic, I am just not sure it will happen.

I probably say this at every age, but he really is at a fun age right now.  It is so fun to see all the sides of his little personality emerge.  It is neat to see what his likes and dislikes are.  Even his vocabulary is changing.  Throughout the past 6 months, he has evolved from called his brother (Gabe).... Bubba, Babe, Gabe, Gabey, Gabe Gabe, and now Gabra (I think perhaps his attemps at Gabriel).  He adores Gabe and often wants to do what Gabe is doing.

Despite the small challenges that a fiesty child may cause, I am actually very thankful for his strong personality.  I know it has been within him his whole life, fighting to be his best and showing the world, he is unstoppable!

Bae- Bee

Since Isaac was a baby we have tried everything from the thumb, to multiple types of pacifiers, stuffed animal, blankets, etc, but Isaac didn't really attach to any of them.

Until the fateful day when he played with his cousin Mallory's dollhouse and he became attached.  He became attached to Baby. Or as he insistently loudly states, "Bae-Bee!"  Baby is a toy baby from a dollhouse set.  He played with Baby all afternoon and I didn't think much of it until a month later when he was playing at his cousin's house again.  This time, he found Baby right away and once again played the rest of our visit with him.  Playing with baby mainly consists of holding him and putting him into random placing and taking him out.  We were heading home that day and while I thought we had cleaned up all the toys before we left, it turns out we had a stowaway.  Isaac was guilty.

Isaac had stolen Baby from his cousin Mallory!  With the orneriest grin on his face, Isaac proudly held him up and said, "Bae-Bee!"  I did everything I could to contain my laughter and explain to a 19 month old child the lesson of stealing.  (I know, so silly to do because he had no idea, but I felt responsible to turn this into a teaching moment).  We called Aunt Amy and she graciously offered Baby for Isaac to keep. Now this was Mallory's toy and she is the cousin most close in age to Isaac. They are almost 1 year apart.  I knew they had years of playing with each other in the future and  I didn't want to taint this friendship at such a young age over this tiny toy Baby. Luckily, Mallory was ok with this transaction and had more babies in her dollhouse collection.  (I should note that there were about 5 Babies in this collection and each time we went, Isaac always wanted this one.  The little curly, red haired one.)

Well, since Baby has joined our family, Isaac has been pretty inseparable with him.  If you don't see Baby in the pictures just look at Isaac's hand.  Baby is usually squeezed in Isaac's tight grip.

They eat together.

(disclaimer- there is no medicine in these droppers.)



They ride in the car together.

They go to bed together.

And even when Isaac was waking up from anesthesia last week, the nurse told me the two things he kept asking for.....

Mommy and Bae-Bee.  (Glad I was included in his wants still!)

So Isaac finally found an attachment item.  Not quite what I had in mind, but it will do.... if only I could find a couple duplicates.  I forgot to mention, I have lost track counting the hours we have spent searching for Baby.

Oh yes, and Isaac's new trick is dancing.  You will see in this video his love for Baby and his cool new moves!
Isaac dances

casts

The boy finally got casted for his little pointing feet.  He had a small surgery Tuesday to lengthen the heel cord tendon so that they could move his toes from a pointed position to a flat foot.  They then put casts on him that will stay on for 3 weeks while they make AFO's (ankle/foot orthotics).

 As you can see though, he isn't really bothered by them.  He doesn't fit great in his chair, but for short times it is ok, and he is not as mobile on the floor. It hasn't bothered him too much.  He has just been using his voice more to demand what he wants....

I think the rest of us are more annoyed with them than him.  Most importantly though, his feet will be flat.  He will be able to wear shoes, and who knows, maybe someday he will be standing tall on those two flat feet!  One thing is for sure though, whether he stands or not, he will have on cute shoes!

Happy weekend everyone!

time for a toddler

Well folks, I feel confident in saying, my little baby is becoming a toddler.  It makes me excited to see him change, grow and blossom.  Everyday we see more peeks of what his personality is like.  The best part is seeing how proud he is when he accomplishes something new.... I know he is no longer a baby.  My days of holding and cuddling my sweet little baby are slowly stretching away.  I have been consciously be more aware of the moment and being in gratitude each night I nurse him to sleep in my arms.  At that moment, I realize just how little he still is.  I know his nursing days are nearing an end, and that is ok; he is getting older.  He no longer needs or wants that from me, but I am going to savor each moment that we have left in that journey.

But this post really isn't about me soaking in his last days of a baby, but rather it is all about the trouble that he has been getting into in his first days as a toddler!

His latest achievement is that he has begun to crawl on his belly!  Earlier this week he did it with each of his physical therapists.  He needed a little assistance, but he was doing most of the work. Well, now he is fearless and doing his best to fling himself forward and pull himself towards toys, books and anything he sees that he wants.  Yesterday I ran upstairs from the basement for a moment and when I returned, he was no longer sitting, but he had moved a foot and looked like this....

He was taking every book he could off the shelf and was sooo proud!

Just a couple hours later I heard a thud during his nap.  I ran upstairs to find that he had thrown his book out of the crib and had pull his way upright and was holding onto the rails looking out. I almost ran down to grab my camera to take a picture (because it was pretty amazing to see a child, paralyzed, upright on his body, gripping with his strong arms); but then I realized what a stupid idea that would be and instead snatched him up and cheered with him for being such a strong boy!

Needless to say, that night, daddy lowered his crib.  I can honestly say, I never thought I would need to say that we lowered his crib!

He has been ornery as ever and loves rolling around and getting into things.  He likes to go over to things he knows that he is not suppose to, looks at me, says, no no, then touches it.... like the trash can, the baby-proofed outlet covers and the drawers on our side table.  He is such a stinker.

But perhaps my favorite part of all is the new phrase he has been saying, "look, momma!"

Here is a glimpse of his budding personality.

Silly boys at lunch

Eye Love You

I remember my sister telling me when I was pregnant and anticipating the birth of my first child, "there is nothing like looking into your own eyes."  I took her word for it, but now I know what she means.  There is something deeply magical looking into your child's eyes.  I realize not all children have the same "eyes" as their parents.  Some children don't have the same genes as their parents.  This isn't about the genes or the matching eye color or perhaps not even about a child.  Maybe it is a spouse, friend or niece or nephew.

Looking into eyes can take you to another place. It's like travelling to a sacred place where life's distractions are lifted and for a moment, you have peace.  It's where love runs deeper.  It's where physical differences, abilities and disabilities aren't present.

I hope that when strangers look at my Isaac, they look into his eyes; that they do not stare at his physical differences.  In the same breath; I hope they do not turn away and not look at him at all, for fear they might look too much.  I hope rather, they look into his eyes and see the kindness, orneriness, joy and love that he is filled with.

I hope that people do not assume just because my Gabriel looks normal, that he has no pain or hardship.  For so often, we (as in people including myself) look at the outside of someone.  When they see a well-dressed, nicely manicured and put together person, we are so quick to judge.... that person is so happy, so wealthy....so whatever.  Truth be told, we all have crosses to bear and pain to experience.  I hope that people look into Gabriel's eyes and find out who he is.  I hope they look to his eyes and they will see his love, his compassion, his spirit.  An while yes, that might match his outside.... I want them to know the inside is where the true heart of a being lies.

We all have natural and God given gifts.  We all have Love.  They are within...some are deeply buried, some surfacing like a pot about to boil.  Others are so aware of these gifts that they are exploding out to be shared with the world.  I think that when we look into the eyes of another, we help to bring that LOVE that we all have within, out.

This Valentine's Day, I realized, just how important it is when we, "Eye Love You!"

The brakes are off

Watch out world.... Isaac knows how to unlock the brakes on his wheelchair.  I learned this the hard way today when I ventured out with the boys to the library.  I got Isaac out and put him in his chair and had him beside the car as I got Gabe out.  This was taking me a little while because Gabe had fallen asleep on the way there.  I look over and and Isaac had unlocked him wheels and was heading toward the parking lot!  I am sure I looked like a crazy woman trying to keep on hand on his chair, while pulling a half awake child out of the car telling him, "wake up, we're here... Isaac stop!"  And to add the chaos Isaac was yelling no and pushing as hard as he could to break free from my grip.  

It continued our little scene in the library.  Isaac being the loud toddler who loves books was yelling, " boooo, booo" at nearly every book he saw.  He would proceed to wheel to every book and try to take it down.  I would hand him a book, he would drop it... and the process would start over.  Thankfully Gabe was quietly attached to the computer game, which worked to my advantage  until it was time to go and I had to tell him about 7 times that we had to go.

Ah, but there was a silver lining.  Gabe got a library card! He was pretty proud.  And we all made it home safely.

I guess I will better prepare for our next library trip!

The boy loves......

Books!

He is always wheeling over to his little book basket.  This animal book is one of his favorites.... Is it any surprise he loves the book with dogs in it?!

He wheels around with his books.  (This book is his absolute favorite.  A little books about a girl and a dinosaur that we got from a Cheerios box!)   He has looked at it so much that the cover has fallen off.

He sleeps with his books.  Every time we get ready for nap he yells, "Boooo Booo" until he gets a book.   ( As a side note, we are still working on the ending sounds to his words.

If you try to take his book, watch out.... he has quick hands and a mean face grab.

And perhaps my favorite time to watch him "read" is when we are sitting down for breakfast on a Saturday morning and he flips mindfully through his book while he sips on his pediasure.  He ages himself in that instant by about 40 years!

Lately he has been wanting books in the car too.  It is so cute to hear him flipping through the pages as we are driving along.  I often wonder what he is thinking about when he looks intently at his books.

And just as a side note, I want to thank those who gave me multiple copies of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  You saved me from breaking up what could have been a big battle!