Isaiah's new shirt...

Not fair.

There are lots of things that aren't fair about babies. For example, why is it cute for babies to have rolls of fat but not cute for moms to have rolls? But today I was just thinking how it's not fair for a baby boy to have longer, fuller eyelashes than his mom.

Isaiah is crawling all over the place these days and he definitely keeps us busy! He loves to crawl up the stairs and he likes to be outside. He'll be happy when the weather warms up!

Faith vs. Surgery

This picture is a few weeks ago. This week has been way too cold to be outside. Isaiah is learning new things entirely too quickly. This morning I was watching last night's episode of SVU while Isaiah was playing on the floor in the living rom. I glanced over and he was 3 steps up on the stairs. He's tried stairs before and never got anywhere. Later I went right behind him and he crawled all the way to the top! Right now he's screaming in his playpen. I told him if he played on the stairs he could get hurt and so I'd have to put him in his playpen to keep him safe. He's only 10 months old so I just put him in for a minute or so but he sure gets mad! I guess we'll have to get a gate.

Have I told you that Isaiah talks? Okay, I know he's too young and there's no way he's really talking, but all the time he hands us things and says "Here you go." It's more like "Heergo" and it's always in a whisper voice. But it's so situation-appropriate that I'm starting to get suspicious that he knows what he's saying. He also says "Wherego?" if you hide something or if someone leaves the room. Strange.

I was teaching the older Primary kids on Sunday about faith. There were about 35 kids there, ages 7-11. I told them a story about a time Jerel and I were on the freeway at night in the snow and ran out of gas seven miles from the next town. I mentioned in the story that I was pregnant at the time (although when Jerel and I talked about it after church I realized the timing was wrong and I hadn't been pregnant when this happened.) Anyway, so we were stuck and said a prayer for help and then some nice Mormons stopped and drove us to the gas station, etc. After telling the story I asked the kids what I had to have to be able to fix the situation (looking for the answer "faith.") Instead one of the 11-year-old boys said "a C-section?" and then it was all hysterics and no one learned a thing about faith. The teachers all laughed, and then I laughed while the younger kids asked the teachers what a c-section was. I tried to just calmly say that the c-section came months later and all I needed at the time was faith, but it was all over by then. I love Primary.

An Exciting Night on the Town

We stopped at Subway for a $5 Footlong to split and then headed to a park to eat. It's not really quite warm enough for a picnic yet, but we went for it anyway.

This is Isaiah's first time in a swing. As you can tell he had a really good time. Not so much a fan of the slide, but that's okay. Lately he's a bit of a fraidy cat--he's afraid of the hand vacuum, puppets, and those ever-frightening soccer balls...We'll definitely have to toughen him up.

Isaiah's 9-month Stats

Isaiah had his 9-month checkup this week. He's 30 inches (93rd percentile) and 21 pounds (57th percentile). Yep, he's lost a pound. He decided a couple of weeks ago that he doesn't like baby food anymore. The only things he'll eat are peaches, pears, and cheese-flavored baby puffs (which are basically Cheetos). He mostly just wants to eat whatever is on our plates rather than his. But, as you can see, it's not like he's wasting away or anything! This does, however, make him too tall for his infant car seat so we're now shopping for a convertible one that will fit in my tiny tiny car.

You can't see it too well in this picture because of the sunlight, but Isaiah's hair sticks straight up all the time. You can wet it down flat but as soon as it dries it right back sticking up. People are always commenting on it and asking either what product I put in it to make it stick up, or how his hair got so static-y.

He has four teeth now, which is exciting for me. I'm definitely best with baby-teeth-aged kids. Before they have baby teeth they're just these little blobs that I don't know what to do with. And once they start losing their baby teeth they're sort of like real people (who I also don't know what to do with). So I like the baby teeth phase. We'll have a good 5 or 6 years and then who knows what I'll do!

When the cat's away the mice will play!

Jerel went to Singapore for work and I was too scared to stay home by myself with Isaiah. Not scared of robbers, but scared of taking care of Isaiah. I am so used to Jerel rescuing me at 4 o'clock every day! Anyway, Theresa & her kids, Elise, and my mom came down for a while. This picture is Isaiah and I at the Portland Children's Museum. We took the Max down and Theresa's kids were so excited because they'd never been on a train before. It was fun. On the way back we took the long way so that they could ride the train over the river. It ended up being the extra long way back because I couldn't remember which stop I'd parked the car at, so we ended up passing it and having to get off and wait for a train going back the other direction...oops.

While they were here it was my mom's birthday. We decided to have a surprise party. Never tell a 4 and 6 year old about an upcoming surprise party. We told them not to tell Grandma, but they would say things like "Grandma, we're making a cake for your surprise party...just kidding! We're not having a cake or a party for your birthday!" Mom played along nicely and we all hid in the kitchen with the lights off (those kids are the loudest hiders ever) and she pretended she didn't know we were in there so that we could all jump up and yell "Surprise!" Theresa made her a cake and then us kids all went in on a couple good kitchen knives she wanted.

Earlier that day we went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Theresa spent forever staring at the cheese being made and Mom spent forever in the gift shop looking at all the rooster knick-knacks. Elise spent forever on the phone with everyone to see what they wanted to get Mom for her birthday. Then we stood in a loooong line for ice cream. I've never seen it so busy there, but it was still fun. We even drove through some snow on the way. Of course I immediately pulled over and Theresa pulled up beside me (we didn't all fit in one car) and we both rolled our windows down and yelled "IT'S SNOWING!" and then continued driving.

Elise was a big helper taking care of the kids. She even changes diapers! Wow! She needs to move in with us! Jerel made it home safe and sound and we're so glad to have him back!

ZayZay's first computer lesson

Jerel found some websites made just for babies and since Zay is always trying to play with my laptop he decided to show him how it works. I'm not sure Isaiah really learned all that much. But Jerel & I learned it costs over $200 to get your keyboard replaced after your baby rips the keys off . . .