Alex is TWO

yes, I made him take a bear pic

My little baby boy is TWO! I can hardly believe it! I got my email saying "Your Preschooler" on the day- what?! No more toddler?! (sigh)
There are just too many things I adore about this kid to write them all. You keep us laughing all the time! My favorite is when you have the sillies and laugh really hard...it is contagious! We laugh hard and then you laugh even harder! Its usually something like you saying a silly nonsense phrase.
You are just too sweet to everyone and especially your new sister....even if you spit crackers on her when you are trying to kiss her, or you scream "surprise" right in her ear while she is trying to sleep, or you poke her eye trying to tell me that she has eyes.

Your language has just taken off like a rocket over the past few months and especially since we brought Eliana home. (Not sure if she had something to do with it or if it was just the timing.)
You still cant say words with an M at the begining and replace it with a B sound (Baba for moma, boon for moon, and bore for more, etc)
You know your animals but you make the animal sound instead of calling them by name. You know your abc's pretty well. You are working on colors. You will count in your own way (its the same everytime but not really the numbers).
You LOVE to just run your mouth, like when playing by yourself. Most of the time it is "dadda baba" or "baba dadda" or "dubba dubba dubba". And your favorite phrase is "big big big" or "dadda's har (car)" this was also the first of your two word phrases. When I ask you what you want to do today, your typical response is "Dadda" meaning you want to play with Dadda. You constantly say you want to play cars too.

You have been getting "in trouble" a lot more lately. When we get on to you about something you have started to say "hi" to us to try and break the ice, lighten the mood.
Your favorite food is refried beans. Favorite snack is Pirates Booty. Favorite cereal is Pops. And everything must be in a bowl (for his highness).
You love buckles and try to buckle yourself in the car, booster, and stroller...you are pretty good at it too. Only a little frustrating when I am in a hurry. :)
You hate to change clothes, change your diaper, or basically do anything for me that I really ask you to do. Soooo, we have been playing in our pjs alot lately. The neighbors probably think we are lazy messes. You are OBSESSED with your monster pajamas and ask to wear them every night. We went and got you a second pair to help lessen our pain. I love when you come to show me that you have them on, beaming with excitement, pointing to your chest, and your hair is all wet and slicked back (cause thats how daddy does it). You cry when we try to take them off.

You love music still and have started to sing along...melt my heart with that sweet little voice. You are still a dancer and we have had many a dance parties. We also started having parades around the house (follow the leader, marching, with instruments of choice).
You are obsessed with shoes and saying "shoes"...constantly trying on ours (and leaving them around the house).

You love to play outside and could spend all day out there if we let you. You LOVE to look for bugs and the neighbors butterfly garden has been a huge source of entertainment lately.

You are interested in the potty! We got you one of your own and you like to sit on it (with your clothes and diaper on). You did go once before bath and there was a big celebration :) with marshmallows...your reward of choice! You will do anything for a marshmallow. We are not "training" or anything but just introducing the idea to see where it takes us.
You have been rocked to sleep this whole year for naps and bedtime. Yep, your momma kept you like a baby as long as she could! But for the past few months you have been too wild and we had to put you in bed, cross our fingers, and hoped you would fall asleep. You did really well at night. Naptime is another story. You could stay there for hours just talking to yourself, singing, yelling, rolling around in bed. Luckily for me, you have recently started to fall asleep! Yea!! ;) Naps are usually 2 hours because you wont go down till late and we have to wake you up or you wont go to bed till late... and its a vicious cycle. Honey is still the queen though and is the only one that can still rock you to sleep, in record time too! Your bedtime is supposed to be at 8:30 and you usually get up between 7:30 and 8. (LOVE this with a newborn!)
You now know how to throw your body to the floor in revolt and kick to guard off unwanted touching...basically you know how to be 2 with the best of them. We are working through this together. Timeouts, rewards, and consequences are a daily discussion. If I can talk you into combing your hair and brushing your teeth its a great day!
Your stats are... 24.4 lbs (10%) and 34 1/2 in tall (50-75%)

isnt this an awesome 2 yr old shot...classic

Lil skinny boy can still wear his 12 mo shorts! but they are pretty short so we are moving up...but thank goodness we are out of pants season, the highwaters were getting bad! :) You wear 24 mo shirts.
We will go to the allergy doctor next month and we are anxious to see what else you are allergic too. (More on that on a future post)
This year has been so much fun to watch you grow into your personality. You are full of life love and energy. We could not be more proud of you and love you more!

1 Month Old

She is doing so well...

good sleeper- gives me at least one 4 or 5 hour session at night, and sleeps a lot of the day


loves her pacifier- looks a little like Maggie Simpson going to town on it

is just so sweet- loves to look up at who is holding her with those big beautiful blue eyes and sweet lips

you are such a girl- with a dramatic high pitch squeal when you are not happy with me


you are a grunter- noisy eater and then moan and groan when trying to get comfortable to go back to sleep

I love you so much baby girl! I could hold you and stare at you all day!

It's not all sunshine and rainbows though... I think its my worst fear- she doesnt like the bows! Oh no! What are we going to do!?
This cracked me up...Alex must have thought that Eliana needed her doll to sleep with. He did it all on his own and was back playing like he never stopped when I noticed. He loves you so much!

The Reynolds

We were so excited to have a visit from our dear friends the Reynolds!! :)

Paige spoiled us rotten!! ...

with an amazing pot roast dinner... (no picture for this, sorry)

hugs and love...

an ADORABLE bow holder!! that she MADE!! bows and all!!...

and a shaving kit for alex (cant wait to take pics of this!!)

And it just wouldn't be right to leave out their precious lil Ray...he's so stylin! and just too cute!

We miss you guys and cant wait to hang out again!!

Mothers Day

I am so blessed as a mother.

Thanks Kristen for your tip! Alex emailed Travis saying he thought it would be a great gift! ;) I was shocked he went for it! Thanks Babe, you are the best!!

Like this cards says inside ..."living the dream, baby!"

too funny! cause this will be me this summer!
but in all seriousness, I do feel like I am living my dream.

This was my card from Travis.

"Your next diaper order has arrived."
Funny, but yet again, oh so true! (sigh)

We had a great mothers day...Travis took Alex to the park for a little while to give me some "quiet time" and we hung out together at the house the rest of the day. I was torn between wanting family time and alone time.

The other day I realized that I am such a mom...
I noticed the new lights they installed at HEB in the freezer section (and I was excited about them enough to point them out to Travis, he was impressed with my grocery store knowledge)
I also fished a rubber band out of my kids ear. yowza.

A blog that I follow had this post- Love it! Even though her kids are older than mine, I can relate. And I couldn't have said it better myself.
This is one of my favorite quotes from it...Motherhood...It gives you the ability to remember all the words to "Hush Little Baby" and "You are my sunshine" but forget where you put your car keys 3 minutes ago.
Some of her key phrases... Motherhood is full of conflicts. Motherhood likes to befriend worry. Motherhood is about sacrifice. Motherhood is fun. And Motherhood is a gift.

I am also so blessed to have an amazing mother and mother in law. I am surrounded by amazing mothers as friends and family also. What great inspiration and role models to help me be the best mom I can be. Hope you all had a wonderful Mothers Day!

papa!

We celebrated Papa Wes's birthday a few weeks back. Fun family dinner night!! :)

We had a dance party with the music card he got...Alex was in hog heaven! :) Thats all he wants for his birthday!

the dads
happy birthday papa wes! we love you so much!!

Eliana's Birthday

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I finally finished the birth montage...only a month later, but its done! :)

Tons more blogging to come!! We have been busy busy!

Winners Winners...chicken dinners

Well, there are no chicken dinners (and really no prize at all, sorry) but the winners of the Team Isaacson "guess when baby girl is coming contest" are Brandy and Crystal!!!!! Congratulations you smart cookies! Maybe you should head to Vegas!
Brandy is a friend in my playgroup and Crystal is a friend that was a teammate of mine when I was teaching. Both are just stellar girls! Crystal, you were right...now both of my kiddos have birthdays on the 13th! :)


(Totally stole these pics off facebook, sorry girls!)

Q & A time

I am having a hard time finding time to do such things as pictures and blogging (you are shocked I know) but I have a rare moment today (dont worry, it probably wont last) so I thought I would try to answer some of your questions... (like I thought, this was not done in one sitting, and warning, its pretty long- sorry!)

What's the labor story? So, I was having contractions that were different that morning. I just felt different. But I hated to say something because I was pretty sure this baby had decided she was never going to come out. Alex and I ran some last minute errands to Target and Hobby Lobby because I had been out of commission for several days sick with the stomach bug that Alex had. Yep, I got it. 9 mo preggo...no throwing up, but I had to fight it! I was not able to escape the other part of the deal unfortunately. It was horrible! But back to the story...So I felt pretty good actually and had more energy that day than usual. I should have known. When I put Alex down for his nap I was having to bite my lip through the contractions but they still weren't consistent enough. I watched and waited over the next hour. When they got really painful I called Travis and told him he better come home. He was at work, an hour drive away. I was so nervous that it wasn't really time but I knew he better come home just in case. The next few contractions and I KNEW it was time. Poor Travis had to drive the hour home anxiously (and I am sure, quickly). I was so thankful that Honey was on her way over to help me with Alex anyway (perfect timing). I showered and finished packing and as soon as Travis got home, we packed up and headed to the hospital. When they checked me I was at a 3 and 90% effaced...thats a go for having a baby! I was so excited!! They got me set up and I said bring on the epidural! :) The rough part about this labor was that the epidural didnt work fully. I had a "hot spot" that never got covered...super. But they pumped the juice so much trying to get it that I was pretty numb everywhere else. They broke my water right after the epidural and that brought on the worst pain of my life. I was not a happy camper about the epidural taking its sweet time to kick in and then not working fully. (I was screaming "10! 10!!!" to tell the nurse what level I thought the pain was at! Eventually, and very quickly, I had the baby! It happened soo fast! My doctor was not on call that night but she rushed in at the last minute to deliver her. I am so honored and pleased that she delivered both my babies! I love Dr. Orth! It was kinda funny because I had my sister by my side (so glad she could be here this time) who is an obgyn, the doctor on call, and then my doctor at the last minute all in the room...how many obgyns does it take to deliver a baby?! :)
Everything went really well with the delivery! Eliana was healthy, happy, and just perfect!
I was doing pretty well but I broke out in a horrible itchy rash on my face and upper body the next day. Not a pretty sight. They have no idea what did it but loaded me up on drugs to help fight it and prevent it. Then I was so drugged up, I was exhausted and a mess! By the following day I was looking much better. The frustrating part is that I still am having these (thank goodness they are smaller)...dont know what is causing them or what to do about them. They are not pretty and I am praying they stop soon.
(I am trying to put together a slideshow of pictures...hope to post soon!)

How do you say Eliana? You say it like the name "Ellie" then "ah-na" but altogether. Hope that makes sense. In French it means "light" and in Hebrew it means "God has answered me"


Where did you get the name? We struggled and struggled finding and choosing a name. I entered a raffle and it signed me up to get emails from a lady named Eliana Owens. So I continued to see it in my inbox. I wrote it on a sticky note with a question mark and left it by the computer. Travis saw it later and said that he really liked it. He thought it was perfect and pretty much sold me on it over the next few weeks. Also, Alex liked it and tried to say it (in the cutest way)...how could we resist that! I have always like the name Faith and it just sounded so good with Eliana, so that part was easy.

going to the doc for 2 wk checkup

How is life going being a mom of two? Well, I have had my ups and downs. I have had so much help from my mother in law and my parents that it made the first few weeks really easy! It has been so nice!! They are lifesavers!!!!! oh, and the fact that Eliana slept a ton helped too! Now that she is waking up more and is a little more demanding and I am on my own more...its getting a little tricky. Lets be honest...its hard. If its not one kiddo, its the other. I am constantly juggling...it gets a little exhausting. I seriously feel that I have no time to get things done (hence, the lack of blogging and pictures). But I realize that I am raising 2 kids, so I do ALOT everyday. I am normally feeding or wiping someones booty at all times. :) I do so enjoy both kids tremendously (who wouldn't be happy with double the love) and it keeps things interesting for sure...but I think for mothers day I will ask for some naps (yep plural) and some time to sew. :) Oh, and thank goodness for a cleaning lady bc the house has become a constant zoo. That won't last too much longer so I am cherishing it for all its worth! I have gotten out with the two of them a few times this week and even though its harder, the trips have been successful! Eliana sleeps well while out and that makes it pretty easy and a lot like when I had just Alex. I did have to put Alex on the handlebars of my stroller today at the outlet mall. I am thinking I may need a double stroller :)
The hardest part of the day is lunch time and then the evening (dinner, bath, bed). We LOVE when Dadda comes home! Its nice that we can each "take one".
But really, I am doing much better this time around. Everything seems a little easier and I am much more calm about things.



How is Alex adjusting to being a big brother? He is just so sweet to her. Always wants to check on her when she cries. Asks where she is. Wants to help when I change her. He brings her toys and tries to share his food with her. If she is laying somewhere, he wants to lay right beside her. He really likes to bring her the pacifier and try to shove it in her mouth. :) Not good when she is sleeping but really sweet. He needs to work on being gentle around her. He doesnt understand how he could hurt her. (we are praying she makes it to her 1st bday) He also loves to get right in her face to talk to her. Poor girl is hardly ever left in peace- I am sure she will need therapy some day. :) She has to sleep through his crazy screaming and playing...not an easy task...so really, Alex hasn't had to change that much in that department. I know he gets jealous of her (whoa the crying fits about nothing) but he handles it pretty well....well, for a two year old. I have to give him some credit, it has been a big adjustment for all of us.
He does have the "terrible twos" and that makes my day pretty hard. But just when I think I can't handle him any more he surprises me with something very mature, like going in the house when I ask him to. (What?! Who is this kid?!) So, its kinda hit or miss these days.


Hope that I answered some of your questions! :)

I want to give a shout out to all the families that have so graciously brought us food (might I add yummy yummy food!) over the last 3 weeks...its been priceless! We are so blessed to have each of you in our lives! Thank you for your help!!