Happy Birthday Isaac

October 7, 2008 (above) and 2007 (below)

Isaac celebrated his first birthday pretty quietly with our family. No cake tonight since he had some yesterday and there will be more tomorrow. But he opened a couple presents from us--a new pair of walking shoes and a book. He was all over the place tonight, so I had a very difficult time getting a picture of him that was in focus. Here's one of the less blurry movin' photos.

Brother and sister for the first time, October 7, 2007

Best of friends October 7, 2008 (and very wiggly)

We went out for dinner tonight to celebrate Isaac's birthday. Our first choice was closed for remodeling, so we went to Ken's, a Japanese/Chinese restaurant. Yum, yum, yum it was delicious. I had udon soup for the first time since we lived in Japan and it was very tasty. Carly and Isaac shared a plate of chicken fried rice and practically licked the plate clean. Shawn had chicken and beef teriyaki. Here's Isaac with the three fingered stuff.

Learning to use chopsticks

Before dinner, we took Carly to her first swimming lesson. She'll have eight sessions total, but tonight was the first. At first I was annoyed that we had to have the lessons in the evening, but now I'm glad because Shawn can come with us and help with Isaac. I don't know what I would have done with both of them in the locker room at the same time.

Despite our last name, Carly didn't exactly take to the water all that well. She didn't cry or come running to me out of the pool or anything like that. But during the actual lesson she did not look relaxed and comfortable. If I had to pick just one word to describe how she looked it would be nervous. The good news is that Carly said she had a really good time with the lesson and was very up beat after wards. She told us over dinner all the things she had learned. (Of course, we had watched the entire thing.)

She has two teachers, Amber and Nick, but she seems very reluctant to let Nick help her with anything. She'd rather wait for Amber. I think it's just her thing against men she doesn't know.

The other good news is that there are seven more lessons ahead and that will give her time to get more comfortable with it all. I must admit though that I had a true "mom moment" watching her. I had to hold myself back a little from the urge to shout out some encouragement or jump up and tell her that she can do it. Encouragement is a good thing, but I knew if I did it right when the thoughts came into my mind I would distract her and make it even more difficult for her. So I just watched. But WOW, it was so hard for me to watch her struggle. And I realized that it's just going to happen again. I won't be right there to hold her hand and help her when she starts school, or high school, or college or whatever struggles she might face ahead. All I, and Shawn, can do is train her so that hopefully--Lord willingly--she'll stick close to God and let Him guide her as she attempts to kick her way up and down the pool of life.

So it was a good swimming lesson for Carly and a good lesson for me. And more good news, she's excited about the next lesson. Maybe the "Phelps" name will help out a little more in future swims.





And yes, the goggles were her choice. I know she looks a little silly, but I think they actually helped since she hates getting water in her eyes. If nothing else, they gave her a little confidence.