Double Blue Eyes

I don't know where the time went but somewhere between returning from our trip to Oregon, hosting company in our home (Lee), organizing VBS, and trying to squeeze in every possible summertime activity when the weather permits (there's often not much notice in Juneau), I forgot to post these portraits that we had taken of the kids when we were in Oregon. Grandma's, your paper copies will be coming soon--I pretty much completely forgot about these.

So I figured I'd take this opportunity to give you a little recap on what the kids are doing lately--a sort of "latest and greatest" segment.
At almost 3 1/2, Carly is doing very well. She is such a good helper and big sister. Sometimes she's a little too good of a big sister, but I can understand the pressure. She's convinced that if she has to obey, it's equally important for Isaac to obey too. And if she must, she'll make sure of it.

Two times recently she has said, "my favorites are corn dogs and fruit." At least she included fruit. (But seriously she's had probably one corn dog in the last 3 months.)

She's learning so much lately. The other day she was making a picture for Shawn's birthday and she started drawing stick people--which I'm told is quite advanced for her age. Today we started working on writing her name and she was very excited about that. She also likes to "skip" as often as possible.

Baking cakes and pies in her little kitchen are still popular things to do. As well as play dough, helping momma in the kitchen, and taking care of her baby dolls.

She's also becoming more and more independent. Tonight after she got into her jammies--by herself no less--she told me that she was going to get into bed and go to sleep all by herself. So I asked her if I could help her brush her teeth. She said ok, and off we went to the bathroom. After the teeth were done, she headed for her room and her bed (she had already "turned down her bed"), but I thought she wasn't serious about doing it by herself. So I told her she could read books or look at puzzles while I put Isaac to bed, which is a fairly common routine in our house when Shawn is working. She said, "I don't want to read books, I just want to go to bed by myself." I was a bit surprised and felt a little unnecessary. So I asked if we could say a prayer together like we usually do and thankfully she agreed. Then she snuggled into the covers and gave me a kiss goodnight, and that was the last I heard out of her. Talk about "Miss Independence".

Isaac is 10 1/2 months old and so adventurous and sweet. He's still crawling with one foot and one knee (kind of like in the picture below), but he is super fast. Occasionally he does a kind of crab crawl with two hands, two feet and his bottom straight in the air--especially if he's outside. He can get around the house very easily. We have to keep the bathroom door closed because whenever he sees it open it's as if he sees a land flowing with milk and honey. He speeds down the hallway, and I have to literally run to beat him to the door. I don't know why, but he thinks the bathroom is so cool--but really it's not! Yuk, I don't need a baby crawling around in any bathroom even my own.

He's pulling up to stuff, but not really cruising. He's taken a few steps along the couch--hanging on all the while--but not much more. He hasn't stood himself up without support...yet.

Last week, he signed "more" for the first time. Carly and I were sharing a frozen yogurt berry sundae from costco and Isaac was upset that we weren't sharing with him. So I gave him a few bites and then made him work for it. He finally signed more two times. And in related news, I've recently discovered that he maybe lactose intolerant. Which I understand is fairly common for babies and they usually grow out of it. More research still needs to be done, but I'm going to start experimenting with lactose free cheese and yogurt to see if there are different results. (He hasn't had cow's milk yet.)

And last week--maybe the best baby first to date--he learned to give kisses. They are very wet, but so sweet. He just makes my hear melt everytime. Today before Shawn left for work, he gave Carly and me a kiss and Isaac was sitting on the floor with his mouth open ready for his kiss too.

And finally, yesterday I noticed tooth #8 has broken through. Now we get to move on to the incisors and molars! (I'm not really as excited as the exclamation point might make you think.)

Hope you enjoyed "catching up" on where our kids are at. They are both LOTS of fun. Very different, but very similar. And I don't think I mentioned yet that they love to play together. I hope that doesn't change too soon. But I'm sure that if it does, it will be too soon no matter when.