May update

Case,

This morning you cut your first tooth! It came through over the night last night!

I was laying in bed and Dad brought you in around 7:20-7:30 like he does every morning. Isaac is usually walking ahead of Dad as he opens the door to our bedroom and says "MAMA" loudly and I get to wake to his sweet little voice. (Dad lets me sleep as late as possible before he has to start getting ready for work! Wonderful Dada! He tries (if time allows) to feed you, and Isaac, and make coffee before he wakes me. On MDO days, he makes Isaac's lunch and keeps it in the fridge for me.)

So I held you for a minute in bed, with Isaac crawling all over us, and I stuck my knuckle in your mouth like I do all the time. You shook your head fiercely to help get my finger in your mouth, like a baby rooting for the nipple, trying to help get it in his mouth. When you bit down, I felt something different, there was something poking me for the first time, a little sharp! I ran the tip of my finger over your bottom gums, and sure enough, there was a little tooth sticking out! I couldn't believe it! You instantly became a big boy! I said outloud "Case has a tooth!" Sort of like making it real, convincing myself that it was true! You did, indeed, have a tooth! Only one, the other middle bottom tooth has not quite popped through, but it is sticking up through your gums! I bet it comes out in the next day or two!

You are such a cute, handsome, pretty little baby. You are smiley and happy 95% of the time. You only get fussy when you are tired. You do not even fuss when you are hungry!

Though I don't know why, but you refuse to sleep well at MDO, so you are pretty fussy for them there, because you are tired! You usually only take one or two 20 minute naps all day (there for 6 hours) at MDO! So you are always one tired, sad little guy when I pick you up. I usually put you down to nap as soon as we get home and you'll sleep 1-3 hours at that time!

Isaac is really loving you. Today I took you both to Walmart by myself (I go shopping with you both by myself all the time), so I put Isaac in the grocery cart seat and I wear you on me in a carrier. Isaac kept grabbing at you and me trying to hug us in the aisles! He would grab you (since you were hanging off of me directly in front of him!) and just hold on to you and hug you and give you kisses! 

(I will leave out the part that by the end of shopping, he was being ornery and just trying to act out because he was tired and was trying to hit your head. I would stop him, then he would look at me and deliberately do it in front of me. (I wouldn't let him, though he tried!)

But for the most part, he really loves you. He will often go up to you all on his own while you are in the jumpy bouncy activity chair and hug you or play with you or kiss your head.  :)

You are still very easy to take care of. You are not sitting up yet, and of course far from crawling, except that you do ROLL and ROLL across the whole floor! So I would say that you are immobile (not crawling), but you are certainly mobile with your rolling skills! But you are super easy because if you are fed and not tired, you are happy to lay on the floor and play by yourself and either roll and roll, or just chew on a baby toy!

Isaac has gone a couple of times to a babysitter's house so I can get some work done, but I have kept you home because you do require some care, but you do not require to be entertained 100% of the time, like Isaac does, so I can still get plenty of work/editing done with you home with me. I just have to feed you, change you, and put you down for naps. Of course I give you plenty of love and attention as well. You'll sit on my lap while I edit, or I'll stop for a bit and play with you (often taking your cute picture or video of you!)

You say DADADA all the time. Of course just a sound you know how to make, not actually "Dada" at your Daddy. But it is fun to hear you say consonant sounds! Like a big boy! 

I remember the first time I heard you say it, maybe a month or so ago, it was in the stroller, on a walk to the park, I heard "Dadada" and I thought it was Isaac, until I heard it again coming from you! It was so weird to hear you say a real sound, not just "ooooo" and "aaaaaa" sounds! Like you were actually communicating with me! You'll say it randomly when you are happy, but you definitely say it when you are upset and fussy and tired. Just kind of a babbling sound.

Isaac is still not really talking, and so hearing you say Dada does sound like Isaac's vocabulary! Weird you both are the same at the same time!

Isaac has a few words:

ball

home

Boppa -("Grandpa")

Mama - (also how he says "Meme" for my mom)

Dada

Bubba

choo choo

apple

nana - for Banana - also "nah nah" for "Milk"

ars (for Cars movie)

us (for Thomas the train)

house

*5-23-13: in the car on the way home from MDO for the day, he said "home".... "house".....one word right after the other, like he knew they were the same thing! We say "our house" when we pull in the driveway, and say "home" too.

Today, 5-29-13:

I was feeding you, Case, a bowl of food: mixture of rice cereal/forumla/mashed up pears. (I just took pieces of raw pear (softened from being ripe), peeled the skin, warmed it in the microwave, and then mashed it with a fork! Saved time on steaming them!)

It was the first time you were actually interested in eating! 

I have tried:

 bananas by themselves, 

bananas mixed with rice cereal, 

pears and apples mixed together, 

peas by themself

 rice cereal by itself

You didn't really care for any of that. And it could just be that you are finally getting the hang of swallowing your food. You typically just push it right back out with your tongue, which I know is a reflex that all babies do until you get used to eating and swallowing that texture. 

But today with the rice cereal/formula/pears, you actually opened your mouth for me for the first time for me to put a bite in! Normally I have to shove the spoon in, mashed up against your tongue stopping me from entering your mouth! But today you opened for me!  :)

It was so cute! I hope it was because you liked it! I made what I thought was way too big of a bowl, but you ate it all! By the end of it, you were slowing down and I think sick of the same taste. However, when you finished the bowl, I put it on your tray and you grabbed it and brought it to your mouth, and stuck your tongue out and licked it several times! You turned and flipped the bowl all over, and banged it on your tray a bit! It was so cute to see you playing with it. (I took several pictures!)
 I didn't even know that you could reach out and grab it purposely! When I think about it, you have been reaching for some toys lately I think, but to see you deliberately grab that bowl and then lick it and play with it was amazing to me, to see you getting so big and a mind of your own!

I took the bowl from you, but gave you the spoon and you played with that very happily and licked it and sucked on it and twirled it all around from hand to hand.

Since you finished off that bowl of cereal, I tried some peas.... not the same reaction! You barely got any down! I'm sure going to peas after a sweet cereal was not too yummy.

You've had peas before and usually gets some down, but you've never just loved them! You ended up rubbing your cereal and pea soaked hands all over your face and rubbing your eyes, and got some in your hair. You were a mess! (but still SO pretty!!)

I have not been good or consistent at ALL about feeding you baby food. I have done it maybe 10 times total in your life! I started with rice cereal and oatmeal a few times when you turned 4 months old. Then tried peas, then pears/apples, and bananas next.
First of all, I have to purposely think about it and plan when I am going to feed you baby food, otherwise, we go about our day and I give you a bottle each time after you wake from your nap, and that is easy and fits in to our schedule (obviously have to feed you!), but with having Isaac to care for as well, just giving you a bottle only is so much easier than sitting you in the high chair while trying to keep Isaac entertained. He wants to do what we are doing, and he wants to know what we are doing. He also does not love to see you sitting in HIS high chair. We are not going to buy a 2nd high chair because Isaac is big enough for a booster seat (which we have), and you guys do not eat at the same time right now. So Isaac will just have to deal with seeing you in his high chair!
But so giving you a bottle is simple, clean, and I can do it on the couch while Isaac watches a show on TV or plays next to me.
So that is why I have not fed you much baby food. I've tried to be more conscious of it the past week now, feeding you once a day in the high chair. I know that by now, you should be eating at least 2 meals in the high chair! Isaac was for sure, anyhow, at almost 7 months old! I just feel like it is a new part of our routine, and I have to figure out what to do with Isaac while I feed you, and eventually it will become natural and fit in with our day better, (I know because I do not have a choice!)

I also haven't pushed it because you just spit everything out and do not really get much down! I know that is all part of it and you are learning, and you can't learn unless we practice, but to me, to take the time to feed you feels pointless when you just spit it out anyhow! (I know that is ridiculous to say, and that you need to practice eating!)
I also need to introduce more foods to you. I have bought sweet potatoes to feed you, just have not done it yet.
I feel like there is no rush, and we still have plenty of time (the rest of your life! Ha!) to get you enjoying baby/people food.
(But I clearly remember Isaac having eaten avocados at age 5 months, and all sorts of fruits and veggies that I made/bought by this age.... we are behind with you, Case! We'll get there!)

I can't believe it is time to plan Isaac's 2nd birthday party! He is looking so much like a 2 year old lately.

He loves the movie "Cars", and he *thinks* he loves Thomas the Train. So he grabs at the Thomas movies we have on the book case, he has 2 Thomas toy trains that he does LOVE, and goes around the house saying "choo choo" while pulling his arm down twice, like tooting his train whistle. But then we put on the Thomas DVD movies, or play Thomas from our recorded TV shows, and as soon as it comes on, he starts whining "No!!" He fusses and gets up and runs to the book case and points at the Thomas movies. I try to reason "WE ARE WATCHING THOMAS!!" But he says "NO!" and points/whines/fusses at the Thomas DVD cases at the top of the bookcase. 

It's like he doesn't believe that Thomas can be that boring in reality! He loves his Thomas toys, and he loves to carry around and look at the Thomas DVD cases, but when we put it on TV, he refuses to watch it! He thinks he loves it, and really really wants to love it, but when we put it on, he really hates it and it's like he doesn't believe me that that is actually Thomas. He is in denial and thinks I am not putting it on for him!

There is no reasoning with an almost 22 month old! He doesn't understand!  :(

But does truly love the Cars movie! He'll happily watch that for a long time! Daddy wanted to indulge Isaac's love of Cars and get him his own little Cars toy. (the joy of parenthood, watching your children be happy!) So he took you boys to Target while I was out with friends and got Isaac his own little Cars toy matchbox car, like a Hot Wheels size. (since all other bigger toys were crazy expensive!) Isaac loves his little Cars car! It's a Lightning McQueen.

Tomorrow is the last day of Mothers Day Out for the year at Southmont. Since Isaac has a summer birthday and we can't celebrate with his friends, Daddy and I are going to his class in the morning and bringing cupcakes! I ordered Isaac a Cars t-shirt with his name printed on there, so it is like we are having a mini-sized Cars birthday party for him! I got little red velvet cupcakes to bring to his class, since they are red like Lightning McQueen!  :)

I was going to make cupcakes, but the ones I bought are mini sized, which is good for 2 year olds, and a case of 12 cupcakes was $2! Cheaper than it would cost me to make them, (and who has time for that?!)

It makes me sad that Isaac will never get to have a birthday party during the school year with his friends, but of course we will invite his friends from class each year when it is time for his August birthday. But at least now, while he is still too young to even remember(!), I can have a little class party before the school year lets out with his friends he's been with all year.

We are going to miss his class and teachers! Though, Case, you will get to have his teachers probably at the 2nd half of the year next year, since you are a November birthday, they will probably move you up in January.

For Isaac's family/friend party (real birthday) in August, my plan is a train birthday party. "Choo Choo, I'm 2!"

Since at one time, he did love Thomas! He still loves the idea of trains, so I think he'll have fun with it. I need to get busy planning, invites need to go out in one month! Oy!