David, Lisa, Kayla & Isaac

I better get this one posted before he turns 6 months (I love that I can backdate posts so it LOOKS like I posted this in Aug 31, when it's really 1/2 way through Sept!)!!

This last month Isaac has really discovered his toes and LOVES to put them in his mouth. If he has socks on, that’s fine too. He’s content to suck on those, or pull them off to get to the goods! He also loves to chew on toys!

Thankfully, he has started to majorly cut down on his spitting up. We still get quite a bit, don’t get me wrong. But one day this last month we made it an entire day with the same bib on! It was AMAZING! That only happened once, and it was likely because somehow his spit made it on the floor or whatnot. But still! It has helped cut back on the laundry I have to do, since I’m not blowing through burp clothes and bibs at such an incredible rate. Any picture you see of him without a bib on is because we took it off for the picture. The only time we ever don't have a bib on him is when he is sleeping!

I keep forgetting to mention.... I've been leaving Isaac at the YMCA since about 2.5 months, and also at the church nursery. With Kayla, I didn't leave her there until she was probably close to 6 months. Part of it was of my fear in general of leaving her alone, part because it was winter and I wanted to minimize the germs she was exposed to, and part of it was because she nursed so often it was hard for me to leave her at all! But with Isaac I figure I'm already leaving Kayla with them, plus any germs he's exposed to she would have been anyways, and he nurses a lot less frequently, so I'm actually able to leave him! It's been nice! He typically goes in happy and is happy when I pick him up.

He started doing the sit-up thing that Kayla did early this past month. Do all kids do this, or just mine? I've never seen any other kids doing this! He'll just squeeze his head up and sometimes his legs too! It's hilarious to watch! Clearly he sees us doing so many sit-ups that he's trying to imitate us, hahaha!!

He scootches whether on his back or on his belly, so while he's by no means mobile, he can move. About half way through this last month he started being able to roll from front to back and also back to front (consistently.... he'd done both more or less by accident previously). As of yet, he hasn't learned that if he keeps rolling in the same direction he'll be able to move somewhere! He's much more content to chill and move 180 degrees rather than rolling over. If he's all done with tummy-time he'll just lay his head down and wait to be picked up rather than roll himself over! This side of his personality is much more laid back than Kayla was!

He is sleeping much better these days, typically going 6-7 hours at night before waking up to eat, and then another 5 hour stretch. During the day he goes about 4-5 hours between nursings. That makes for about 5 times a day that we are nursing, occasionally 6 if he wakes up really early in the morning to nurse. He is still sleeping in the bassinette in our room. We are still unsure of when we'll move him into his crib. It's just so convenient to have him right there where we can settle him practically in our sleep if he requires it (which he doesn't often). This past month I've starting transitioning him from napping in the swing to napping in his crib. He is pretty good about falling asleep on his own, there is minimal crying. He falls asleep best when he pulls a blanket/stuffed animal over his face. I feel like I constantly pull the blanket away, only to have him pull it over again! He struggles sleeping more than 1 sleep cycle in his crib, though, waking after almost exactly 30 minutes.... if I leave him up there sometimes he'll just fall back asleep on his own after maybe 5 minutes, sometimes not. It's still a work in progress.

Also, we’d previously been swaddling him at bedtime and have stopped doing that now. He seems to be ok with it and is sleeping the same amount unswaddled as he was swaddled.

His eyes are still a beautiful bright blue. I forget at what age they can still change, so I thought I'd document that at 5 months, they are blue :)

We took him swimming for the first time at the YMCA, then at the water park at Michigan's Adventure, and then later in the month in Lake Michigan. He seemed to enjoy himself!

He is quite in love with Kayla - they laugh at each other all day long. He continues to be extremely tolerant of her man-handling of him. I love watching them interact, especially when I don't have to play referee.

He basically refuses to take a bottle. He's successfully taken a bottle once or twice in the past, but since I get long stretches between feedings, I don't really have a need to pump and bottle feed him, so he hasn't had many opportunities to try. However, I've started working at the bank again (short term) to help them out on days when David has off, and so he's tried to give him a bottle then. We've tried working on it at other times too, and he still just refuses it! He can hold off 7-8 hours until I am back and able to feed him again! Apparently he has a stubborn streak! He tried feeding him with a bottle, with a sippy cup, with a regular cup and he just refused, refused, refused! Not sure what to do about that problem. Thankfully he is nearly 6 months old and we'll be able to feed him some solid food to help fill that gap.

Lastly, this last month he got his 2 bottom teeth! The first tooth popped out at 4.5 months and then another tooth came a week or so later. The first one was a surprise: all of the sudden there was a sharp point in his mouth! The second one was troublesome for him. He would wake up in the middle of the night screaming, not wanting to nurse, but wanting to chew on our finger for counter-pressure on his gums, poor kid. With Kayla we really never had any trouble with her teething until her molars came in. So it is a new (and hopefully short lived) experience. It is really sad to hear him scream in pain like that!

Posted by Lisa at 03:55 PM | Permalink

So, I've mentioned before that I had been following the training schedule of a Couch to 5k. I really just did it to get myself in shape after having Isaac. I finished the program in mid-July, but have been continuing to run 30 mins or so several days a week. I didn't start off with the thought to enter a race, but I found out that there was a 5k race on Isaac's 5th Month "birthday", and I thought that it would be fun to run it, since I'd trained for an event like this. I hemmed and hawed for weeks, waiting until the week of the race to register! But, I signed up and planned to run it!

Isaac slept PERFECT the night of the race, letting me get 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep that night, and he woke up to nurse just before my alarm was going off, so that worked out well too! I was REALLY nervous the night before the race. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to finish (which wasn't a valid fear, since I'd been training for it) and I was afraid I'd come in last (which also wasn't a valid fear, since it was a 5k walk or run, surely I could run faster than someone walking it!). Never-the-less, I was nervous! But, the morning of the race I was feeling good. I didn't know anyone at the race, and next time* I think it would be more fun to have someone to go there with (I actually don't really enjoy running WITH someone, I prefer to run on my own.... but it would have been nice to do the pre-race stuff with someone). But the atmosphere of the race was really cool. This was a 1st year event, so it wasn't a huge turn-out (550 did the 5k), which was also nice for my first race! Before I knew it the gun went off and the race started! From reading advice online I started near the back. It took almost a minute for me to cross the start line (it was a chipped race, so it didn't matter). The reason to start at the back is because then you can pass people and feel good about your pace, rather than be at the front and have people pass you, making you feel bad about your pace. Anyway, the beginning of the race was really fun, trying to navigate through people and finding my groove. The race said it was mostly flat, but, it wasn't! I wasn't expecting hills, and there were several! But it was a really fun trail, I enjoyed it. I finished the first mile significantly faster than I thought I would. My pace slowed down for the 2nd mile, but I was still going faster than I'd thought. It was at that point I realized that I started my watch clock when the gun went off, and it took me about a minute to actually start running.... so I was running even faster than I thought! That motivated me to push myself the 3rd mile. My goal going into the race was to finish in less than 35 minutes. That is running approximately an 11 minute mile. I was hoping I could actually run it in 33 mins, but I wasn't expecting to. The week of the race I ran a 5k on the treadmill and ran it in 33 minutes and I felt that I was running so hard I was like killing myself! So.... when I crossed the finish line at 29 mins 30 sec, I was stunned!! My chip time was 28 mins 40 sec... a pace of 9 min 14 sec per mile. I was very surprised and very proud! Not only did I enter the race and run the whole way, but I beat my goal time by a lot! It was such a high! David and the kids met me at the finish line, and it was fun to see them. Kayla was all excited to watch me at the race. For participating, I got a metal. I crossed the finish line in 328th place, 115th woman and 19th out of 54 in my age group (30-34 women). I am very pleased with my results. Clearly there is room for improvement, but what is also clear is that I can run in these kinds of races and no longer need to be intimidated!

* I can't believe I wrote "next time"... I've heard running them become addictive, apparently that is true! :)

Posted by Lisa at 03:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We dedicated Isaac into our church on Saturday, August 14 (yes, Kayla's birthday! We like to be busy around here!). It was the first time both of our families would be in town together since his birth and we wanted to make sure they would both be here for this special event. We actually held it at our house and had our closest friends in attendance. Our church chooses to do infant dedications instead of infant baptisms. Their belief is that baptism is a statement of faith, and they want a person to be able to make that statement of their own accord (as opposed to having the parents choosing to do it for them when they are an infant). The dedication is a chance for parents to make a committment to creating an environment that will influence their child to follow the way of Jesus Christ. Our small group leader, Andrew Moxon, performed the ceremony for us (he played a part in dedicating Kayla, so it was special to us for him to do so with Isaac as well). David and I also wrote a covenant to Isaac that I read to him:

Isaac –

We love you so much. We are truly blessed to have another child in our family; you bring so much joy into our lives. We realize that you are a gift from God and we hold you before the Lord with open hands, knowing that ultimately you are His child not ours. Today, before our family and friends we dedicate your life to God and give Him control.

We believe that God wants you to know Him and know the unconditional love that He has for you. We promise to teach you about Jesus and encourage you to have a personal relationship with Him.

We promise to continually grow in our personal relationship with Jesus, doing so through prayer, reading the Bible, cultivating fellowship, and living by the example Jesus gave us.

We want our marriage to be an example of a godly marriage for you. We promise to be faithful to one another, showing love and affection and having open communication with each other.

We promise to make our home a place where you feel safe and loved. We promise to play with you and have fun together. We want to help you enjoy life and the creation that we live in, finding beauty in all things. We want you to explore and try new things without fear, knowing that in your success or failure our love for you is unconditional. We promise to help you learn to love God, others and yourself.

We commit ourselves and our family to the way of Jesus for our whole lives striving to live by faith. We want to constantly be listening to God’s voice and following His plan for our lives. We realize that life is not easy and things do not always go according to our plans or desires, but we vow to obey His word and find the good in every situation and draw on God’s love and support in times of hardship or need.

Isaac, you are precious to us and we love you.

Mom and Dad

As part of the Taylor/Thorn tradition, Isaac wore the baptism gown for our family pictures. This gown is over 100 years old and was made by David's Great-Great-Grandfather, who was a Swiss lace designer. It is very fragile! In fact, we just buttoned it behind his neck and drapped it on top rather than putting it all the way on! Thankfully, he did not spit up on it! But it was special to have him be part of that long tradition!

Thanks, Brian, for Skyping us so you could take part in this special event, even though you weren't able to travel up here!

Posted by Lisa at 09:46 PM | Permalink

Wow, can't believe my first baby is 3! Time has sure flown by! Kayla is full of energy and full of life and constantly keeps us on our toes.

She knows her numbers and letters and colors. About a month ago she started waking up earlier than normal (normal is about 8), so I told her that if she woke up and the first number on the clock was an 8, then it was ok to call me and get up. If it was not an 8, then she needed to either go back to sleep, or rest quietly in her bed until there is an 8 there. With one exception (when she woke up at 6:08 and said, "there's an 8!") she is actually adhering to that rule, and is calling for me after 8 - yeah! This conversation also prompted her to frequently ask what time it is during the day, so she is starting to get an awareness of time.

Speaking of sleep, she typically is up at 8am. We have a quiet time from approximately 2-4 in the afternoons, but she actually naps only maybe 2 out of 7 days in the week. But she is able to read her books and play with her stuffed animals and in general is able to keep quiet during those 2 hours. Bedtime routine starts between 8-8:30, maybe a tad later on days when she took a late nap.

She is potty trained, really not having accidents at all. She even tells me in the bath if she needs to go! However, peeing in the water apparently is acceptable to her if we are in a pool, the ocean (er, lake) or outside in our bathing suits! We are still working on that (sorry fellow YMCA-ers)! I still put her in a pull-up for naps and at night time. She has a little portable potty in her room and can use that if she needs to pee during nap time or at night (and she often does). She is typically dry when she wakes up in the morning, but I'm not willing to do laundry on the days when she is not! If she falls asleep during nap time, she is only dry maybe 50% of the time.... but since she naps so rarely, it means she's usually dry then too!

She's not a picky eater - she'll typically try almost anything. After trying something new she doesn't always want more, but she is willing to give us a "no thank-you bite". Her favorite breakfast food is by far pancakes (with chocolate chips, oh my!). Whenever we make pancakes (which isn’t all that often) we make a ton of extra ones for her so we can have it for several days. Her favorite lunch options are perogies, chicken nuggets or PB&J as a main portion, and has cheese, veggies and fruits to supplement that. For dinner she eats what we eat, although we give her extra fruit/cheese/veggies/crackers/etc if necessary.

She is a total social butterfly. She is not shy at all and feels completely comfortable walking up to a group of kids and including herself in their play! :) She also has a very small personal zone, so she will happily give strangers hugs and kisses! She likes to ask adults if they have kids, what their mom and dad’s name are, etc. She is starting to ask other kids what their names are (first and middle name - so funny!).

We are teaching her to be polite – saying please, thank-you, no thank-you, excuse me, etc. She typically will say them on her own without being prompted.

When leaving a store or a friend’s house or anywhere when she is holding onto a toy or a box of cupcake batter (for example) that she wants to take but can't, we tell her to give it a hug and kiss and put it back where it belongs. She might be a little sad about it, but she's actually really good about putting things back without complaining!

Her gross motor skills are as they should be. She can run easily over different surfaces. She recently learned how to pedal a tricycle. She goes up and down stairs by alternating feet and without using the wall or handles. She can gallop. She can stand on one leg.

Her fine motor skills are pretty good. She can use utensils (although often just eats with her fingers). She likes to use her fork as a knife to cut things into small pieces - oh my! She is starting to color pictures more or less in the lines (as opposed to just the whole paper). She'll actually have a picture where the general body is one color and other things in the picture are a different color. She can also draw a stick person, with a circle head, 2 dots for eyes, a smile and arms and legs. However, if you weren't watching her draw it and tell you what she was drawing, it's very likely you would not see that in her picture :)

She is starting to hate goodbyes. She does not like it that David has to go to work. Every morning she searches our house for him and then sadly says, "He'll come back at the end of the day". When David puts her to bed at night, she tells him that he is not to go to work without her, he needs to wait for her on the couch. So sad! She frequently tells me not to go anywhere during her nap time or when she goes to bed. And this year, when all of our family left after her birthday, she was really sad. She kept asking people, "Will you be here when I wake up?"

We are starting to have lots of conversations about Jesus. She recently told me, "Kayla loves Jesus, He lives in my heart... and if I ever get lost he will come and hold my hand and help my find mommy." I love the faith of a child.

We just had her 3 year check up. She weighed 32.7lbs (50ish%) and is 37 inches tall (50ish%). She is overall healthy and happy.

For her birthday this year we had both sides of our family come in town. We decided to go to Michigan's Adventure for the day - and we had a BLAST! It was such a gorgeous day outside and we had so much fun! Kayla was quite nervous to go on rides at first, but was quite adventurous by the end! Here are some pictures of that day!

She was beyond spoiled with presents. She loved opening them and is still enjoying playing with all of her new toys and listening to her new CDs in the car!

She got to choose 3 balloons for her 3rd birthday and picked out her cake from Costco! She enjoys sharing her birthday with Pop-pop too!

David got all crafty with her and made a Birthday Count-down chain (since weeks before her birthday she would ask, can I have my birthday cake now?!) and then also made her a piñata to break on her birthday!

We go through some rough times with her behavior, as she is stubborn and smart and knows how to push buttons and chooses to push them. But she is such a sweet and loving girl, we truly treasure having her as our daughter!

Posted by Lisa at 01:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Last week I wrote a long blog post that I did not actually post for viewing. After writing everything down, I'm feeling much better! There is something about getting all of my frustrations written down that was very freeing. The gist of the post was that I'm overwhelmed. Completely overwhelmed!

I have a lot of friends who are becoming first time moms this year. In talking with one of them a few weeks ago and in hearing her stories I remember how overwhelmed I was when Kayla was born. Becoming a mother was a huge transition. I remember wondering how you could love someone so helpless and needy so much, yet be beyond frustrated with them due to lack of sleep, finding out reality is different than expectations, not knowing how anything would ever get done (laundry, grocery shopping, feeding myself lunch, etc). Yet with time, somehow I figured it out. And in looking back at it, I wonder what I thought was so hard!

Now I am at that place again, this time with two kids. The specifics I found hard the first time is not what I find hard now. I knew to expect the lack of sleep. I've done the baby thing before and am confident in my mothering skills. However, I am at the stage where I don't see how anything will ever get done! I feel like my life is spinning out of control. And I'm trying to enjoy every minute - even through the chaos - because I know that this time is fleeting and my kids will soon be at different stages. I don't want to wish that this phase goes quickly, because there are so many precious things about it. But, please don't come to my house expecting to see the floor.... it's either covered in toys or in cat hair! Please don't expect my clothes to be neat... no time to iron the clothes that have been left in the dryer for awhile. Please don't expect to see my countertops... they are covered with clean dishes that need to be put away and dirty dishes that need to go in the dishwasher, but the dishwasher needs to be emptied first! Please don't expect to see the kitchen table... it is covered in stacks of paper I piled when it was time to eat dinner! Please don't expect me to be showered (or out of my PJ's for that matter)... that's just not my priority these days! What I hope you would notice is a smile on my kids faces, and maybe one on my face too!!

I wonder at what point I will look back on this stage and say, what was so hard about that?! I don’t expect that to be for a long time!

Now.... maybe one of these days I'll be caught up on my posts. :)

Posted by Lisa at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So... it is hard to get out of the house with 2 kids! I typically try to nurse Isaac just before we go somewhere, so I have the maximum time out without having to nurse him (then I don’t have to worry about wearing a nursing shirt, finding a place to nurse him and figuring out what to do with Kayla while I nurse him!). So, after he's done I put him in his car seat. He immediately spits up so I put him in with an extra bib in my hand because I know I will immediately have to change it. Sometimes he spits up so much that I have to change his outfit too. I buckle him in so he's ready to go. Then I get Kayla to go to the bathroom before we leave, have to fight her to put her underwear back on, then have her put her shoes on as I pack up a drink and a snack for her (thank goodness she is at least able to go to the bathroom and put her shoes on all by herself!). When I turn my back, she’s climbed into the car seat and is hugging Isaac and trying to give him toys. I remind her to put on her shoes. I do her hair, do my hair, and then make sure the diaper bag is stocked with wipes, diapers, burp clothes and extra bibs for Isaac and a change of clothes for both kids. Then I have to tell Kayla to switch her shoes because they are inevitably on the wrong feet! Then Isaac fills his pants and I have to pull him out of the car seat, change his diaper and get him back in (at which point he spits up again, thus requiring another bib change). And by this time, Kayla has taken her shoes back off and pulled the bow out of her hair and we have to start the process again! :) Obviously it's not always like this, but sometimes I feel like they gang up against me so that it's nearly impossible for me to get out of the house!

Can anyone else relate??!!

Posted by Lisa at 03:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There's not a ton of new things to report this month, it seems time is just flying by!

He is started to laugh more and more. Kayla gets him to laugh more than David and I can combined - he is just so in love with her, and she with him! She is so cute with him, although she daily/hourly/every! single! minute! struggles with how to be gentle with him. My goodness it is so frustrating for me! I am constantly saying things like, "Kayla, don't lay on top of him... Kayla, don't put your fingers/that toy in his mouth... Kayla, don't push on his belly..... Kayla, don't do that, just leave him alone, just stop touching him for 10 seconds!" Sometimes I tell her that if I have to scold her again for not being gentle then she'll need to take a 5 minute break from playing with him. Whenever that happens she just breaks down in tears and promises to be more gentle and says she just loves him and wants to play with him. It doesn't help that he rarely, very rarely ever does anything but laugh, smile and goo* at her, even when she is man-handling him. He is so laid back and easy going, which is great! But it doesn't make my threats that she's hurting him very credible with her!

* We used to call it coo-ing, but Kayla picked up goo-ing and says, "Isaac is goo-ing at me!"

Here is a video of them interacting and another!

He is still at 7 feeding each day, typically up once at night. Sometimes his 1st morning feeding is early enough that it's almost still in the middle of the night! So, we have good nights and bad nights, but the good outweighs the bad by far. He is still being swaddled and still in the bassinette attached to our bed. I love the way he stretches when he is unswaddled!!

He LOVES his swing, and I LOVE his swing. He currently takes most of his naps in there. Just recently I've started to have to strap him in because would lean over and be laying almost half out! My goal in the next month or so is to transition him to his crib to take naps... I do realize he can't nap in the swing forever! But it is nice that he sleeps so well in there, I'm not anxious to give that up! Hopefully he continues to nap well when I transition him into the crib - we'll see! He isn't in any sort of schedule/routine yet... he eats and sleeps whenever. Ideally, when he is consistently napping 2-3 times a day he'll be able to take some of those in his crib. We'll see :) He's starting to crave attention and will "chat" at us to get us to look at him, smile at him, pick him up! Every day he is getting more and more interactive and fun! He loves peek-a-boo, loves to play with toys, loves to put everything in his mouth (specifically his fingers and his bibs!). He's motivated to try and roll over but isn't hugely successful yet. But he can scoot on his back and also turn himself 90 degrees so he can't be left near anything dangerous anymore! Several times I've left him on his back and had to run into the other room and when I come back he is on his belly! But mostly he just rolls from side to side.

He enjoys tummy time these days and is getting better and stronger every day (er, every day that I remember to give him tummy time!).

At his 4 month check-up at the Dr he weighed 14lbs 3oz (50%) and was 25 1/2 inches long (75%) and had a head circumference of 16 1/2 (50%). He is staying on the same growth curve since birth, so that is good! He got a great report from the doctor. He (not surprisingly) disliked the shots. And oh how I hate the cries babies give when they are given these shots and can't be warned of the pain about to come! Thankfully, he stopped crying almost immediately after I picked him up. Then he slept most of the next 48 hours! Apparently those shots made him really really tired!

Posted by Lisa at 07:04 PM | Permalink