August Recap

I truly meant to post our Cozi updates every week or two, but alas, the month has gotten away from me. Here is a recap of some of the highlights from August.

Wednesday, August 3
Robbie's sprinklers were on when we got home from dinner, and Isaac was fascinated. We let him play and run around in the water until it was time to go in and get ready for bed. I loved hearing that happy little giggle as he ran through the water.

Saturday, August 6

I received a package yesterday and left this box out for Isaac to find. When I got up this morning, he had it half filled with random treasures; then he decided that he should climb in too. Such cheap entertainment! We also made a trip to IKEA today to get Isaac an easel. He LOVES it!

Sunday August 7

Apparently we don't know how to hide the crayons very well. Isaac found the Crayola tower (100 crayons) on my desk upstairs and carried the whole thing downstairs (amazingly without dropping them). I think last week's lesson must have sunk in, though, because he was only coloring in his book.

It's good that he didn't make a mess too, because as you can see from this video, I'm such a slave driver! The truth is that he just loves to clean and vacuum. Who needs play vacuums and such when I can have him actually pick up some dirt, right?

Monday, August 8

Bathtub finger paints are so much fun for Isaac (and so easy to clean for Mom)!

Tuesday, August 9

I wrote Isaac's name on his Magna Doodle board last night so that we could start working on recognizing his name in print. He came home from school this evening, picked up the board and said, "Look, Mom! That's my name!"

OK, then, that lesson didn't take long. I guess I need to think of something more difficult now :-)

Wednesday, August 10

It's just too hot to go outside, so while waiting for Michael to get off work and meet us for dinner, Isaac and I decided to kill some time at Petco.

Then we hung out at the Lakeshore Learning Store. He really enjoyed these little animal masks.

Thursday, August 11

Michael took Isaac home after dinner, and when they got home, Michael forgot to get Isaac's school bags from the car when they came inside. He went back to the car to get them, and Isaac followed, of course. As soon as Michael pulled the items from the car, Isaac immediately exclaimed, "Oh, WOW! It's my stuff!"

Friday, August 12

This is the latest artistic endeavor...raindrops. I think he really wants it to rain here too!

This is one of the little tutus I made for the girls in Isaac's class to use for dress up. I converted a target bookshelf into a dramatic play/dress up center for his class at school. Unfortunately, the picture I took of it turned out blurry. I have to try to remember to snap a picture of it in his classroom.

Here's the second

tutu I did. I think it turned out even better than the first. Super cute, and so fun and easy to make. Thanks, Nicole, for the instructions!

Saturday, August 13

We scored a sitter for tonight so that we could go celebrate Andy's birthday. I think it's funny that as "grown ups" our parties aren't really much different than when we were kids - maybe just a little more sophisticated in terms of the specifics: HomeSlice instead of Chuck E Cheese, Hey Cupcake instead of grocery store cake, then ending with a game of Pandemic instead of pin the tail on the donkey. Good times!

Sunday, August 14

We had a little family science fun this morning. We set up a basin of water in the kitchen and had a variety of activities including a game of 'Sink or Float' and a boat propelled by a rubber band motor.

Monday, August 15 - Yee-haw!

Tuesday, August 16

For the past two days I've been working on all the prep work for these fish costumes that Isaac and his classmates are going to complete and then wear to their end of summer performance on Friday.

Friday, August 19

We wondered why he seemed unusually quiet this morning. Apparently he got up too early, and decided to go back to sleep.

2011 Summer School Performance

Unfortunately, this performance is not nearly as entertaining as his Cinco de Mayo performance. He was so excited about his fish costume and we had been practicing his song all week, but you'll see that almost as soon as he starts he gets upset about something. The problem is that the song they are singing along to is actually from a video on YouTube. He's used to watching the video and singing along, so once he realized there was no video, he thought there was technical difficulty that should be resolved before they kept singing. He was still upset about it after the performance, and kept asking, "What happened, Mom?" Hopefully the next one will go a little more smoothly. At least you can see the little fish costumes he and his classmates made! So cute!

Oh, one more thing, the sweet little blond girl next to Isaac in the purple fish costume is Ellie. She is the girl who sent him a love note earlier this year. She has since informed me (and most anyone else who will listen) on more than one occasion that she's going to marry Isaac when she's bigger.

Saturday, August 20

We tried to get out for a bit this morning before it became unbearably hot. We took some bread down to Mills Pond for the ducks. It was so sad to see how low the water is!

Monday, August 22

We usually count to three as Isaac's warning when he is being naughty. Typically I haven't had to get past one before he straightens up, although over the past week or so he seems to be waiting until the last possible moment to stop the undesired behavior. Perhaps it's time to move on to a different technique, especially when this morning he didn't want me to comb his hair. "No, Mom! Stop! 1...2...3 - Go away now!" It was really hard to contain my laughter!

Tuesday, August 23

My battery died when I was at the gas station this morning. I know that I posted this on Facebook, but I think it bears repeating. I know this is totally sexist, but I thought every man knew how to jump start a car! Just a hint to guy jumping my car this morning: if you don't have a clue, just get out of my way and don't act like you know it all because I DO know how to do it! Oh, and when I asked for a jump I wasn't asking for your "expertise" or trying to play the damsel in distress...I really just wanted to use you for your battery ;-)

It turns out that I needed a new alternator. I am so tired of pouring money into this car! I will be so happy when we trade it in - just a few more months. Come on, car, please hold it together until then!

Wednesday, August 24

At the park, lately, Isaac has been chasing the poor little squirrels. He knows they live in trees, and so he thinks that's where they should stay. In this little video, he sees a squirrel approaching our bench and say's, "Oh no. Go away - up a tree!" Then proceeds to follow said squirrel to ensure that he does just that.

Thursday, August 25

Isaac didn't have school on Thursday and Friday this week, so we decided to take a little mini vacation to San Antonio. This post is long enough already, so I'll make a separate post later that includes all the details of our trip.

Monday August 29

This is hilarious! Isaac recently watched a Wiggles movie where they were juggling. Now, he's convinced he can juggle anything. He tries to sing their little song before juggling - that's why it sounds like he's announcing what he'll be juggling (in this case 2 pears, 2 bananas, and 2 chickens - he's trying to juggle his play food). Of course his perception of how many things he can juggle and the reality of what actually happens are pretty far apart! :-)

A Week in Review

Recently I've been trying out a new family list/calendar/planning app called Cozi. I'm still getting used to making it work for me, but one thing I've discovered is the Family Journal capability. It has made it really easy for me to use my phone to quickly note something that happens in our daily life. So, here is the last week or so in review. There's not an entry for every single day, but we have had a lot of fun recording the little bits of our life (mainly the funny things that have to do with the kiddo) so that we can share them more easily. Enjoy!

7/22/2011 - Today Isaac came up to me and asked very solemnly, "Mom, where'd Dani go?" I showed him a picture of her and he said, "That's my Dani. Where'd she go?" I tried to explain that she was at her house, to which he replied, "I want my Dani here now!" Poor kiddo. I hate that he's missing her, but also really glad that he had such a great time on our trip to Kansas.

7/23/2011 - We went to Sonic for dinner. The prize in Isaac's Wacky Pac was a roller skate type wheel with a handle. You had to insert the handle into the wheel, turn it several times, and then push a button to release the wheel so that it would go rolling away. After Isaac had been playing with it for a while, Michael was giving it a try. He put in the handle and then asked (supposedly to me), "Which way do I turn this?" To which Isaac helpfully answered, "Clockwise, Dad."

7/24/2011 - Today I'm making my first attempt at cake balls. After trying to get the cake all crumbled and mixed with the frosting, all while listening to Isaac ask me about every single detail, I thought I was going to be able to finish up and get them into the freezer to chill while he was playing. Then he walked back into the kitchen, pointed to a large cake crumb on the counter and said, very solemnly, "What happened there, Mom?"

7/25/2011 - When I picked Isaac up from school today he picked up the little John Deere die cast metal tractor Papa gave him before we left Kansas a couple of weeks ago. Since then it has been "Papa's tractor". This evening however, he picked it up and said, "Look, our tractor!" I was puzzled by this and asked, "Who's tractor is it? I thought it was Papa's tractor." To which he replied, "Papa's and me's!"

7/25/2011 - Michael opened a new package of headphones tonight. He had it sitting on his desk and Isaac found it. He opened it and then started putting his finger into the openings where the headphones had been then touching his face in different places...first one cheek, then the other, then his forehead. Michael asked him if he was putting make up on, and he grinned and said, "Yeah!"

7/26/2011 - Tonight on the way home Isaac said, "Drive faster, Mom!" I tried to explain that driving faster than the speed limit was a breaking the law, so we couldn't. He didn't understand, so I tried to explain that a policeman would pull us over and give us a ticket which would require me to pay money. He was still confused. In his world, there is nothing better than the idea of seeing and hearing the police lights and sirens, so getting the policeman to come right to our car is bonus. Then we get a ticket (which to him is something that lets him ride carnival rides) and pay money (which we have to do for fun things). The poor kid just kept looking at me in disbelief, as though he still couldn't understand why any of this was a bad thing...

7/26/2011 - When we called my Dad tonight, Isaac tried very hard to say "Happy Birthday, Papa!" It was a little garbled, but he got most of it out. So sweet.

7/27/2011 - We decided to help Uncle Bill celebrate his birthday by going out for Amy's Ice Cream after dinner. Sorry we couldn't take you with us, Uncle Bill, but we thought about you while we ate our yummy ice cream ;-)

7/28/2011 - I went out for girl's night (Grease Sing-A-Long at the Alamo Drafthouse, yay!), so the boys were on their own. They called Granddad to wish him a happy birthday. Isaac is getting pretty good at saying it since he's had a lot of practice this week. :-)



7/30/2011 - This morning we woke up to quite a colorful explosion of creativity. Isaac found some crayons I had left on the bar (I really need to remember that he's super tall now). His abstract creations covered a 10 foot by 4 foot section of the carpet, 7 steps and the walls half way up the stairwell. Thank goodness for Krud Kutter and Magic Erasers. Isaac spent about an hour cleaning up the mess, and we had to help too because he didn't have quite enough oomph with the scrub brush to get the carpet clean. Needless to say we were all tired and a little cranky by the time everything was cleaned up. The good news is that I don't think he'll do it again, and we're also going to get him an easel so that he can confine his creative works to a safe place. He has really taken more of an interest in drawing since our trip to Kansas, where he saw how much Brent and Dani loved it.




7/31/2011 - Today Isaac and I made a big batch of pink, strawberry scented playdough for his class at school, and since our's was getting kind of old, we also made a batch of purple, grape scented dough for us to keep at home.

Isaac Learns to Swim

Isaac Learns to Swim

Many of you already know that Isaac has been taking swimming lessons over the past several weeks. I thought it would be nice to share with you a bit about our experience, and also to share a compilation of some of the video I've taken of his lessons over the past month.

We chose to enroll Isaac in a one-on-one style lesson with Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) instructor, Erika Pellegrino, owner of I Swim Austin. First, just let me say that this woman is simply amazing. She patiently works with each child based on their needs, skills, and anxiety levels. Throughout the process Erika was always a rock of stability and encouragement for him, and he started to relax and listen to her and try to do what she asked him to do. She always ended each lesson on a positive note, after he had performed a particular skill correctly, and praised him profusely. And there were the happy faces, of course. At the end of each lesson, she gave him a happy face stamp on the back of each hand. He started looking forward to each lesson just to get his happy face. Isn't it amazing what a little happy face can do for a child?

If you're not familiar with ISR, it is a highly effective childhood drowning prevention program that has achieved National and Worldwide recognition. Through this program, even very young children can learn the skills to be safe and effective in the water. Essentially children are taught survival techniques that could save their life if they should ever fall into any body of water. I know that we've all at least heard stories of a child who walks right up to the edge of the pool and jumps in, whether anyone is there to catch him or not. His confidence is beyond his skills. ISR training uses their confidence to help them build competence and the skills to self-rescue. And because the majority of children who drown are fully clothed when they fall into the water, ISR teaches children to perform their self-rescue skills even with their clothes on.

OK, back to our experience. I will say that my kiddo was definitely one with a fair bit of anxiety when we first started. For the first week, he cried every day, and didn't want to go into the water - especially since I wasn't getting in with him. The second week he didn't cry, but he refused to kick his feet or move his hands. Just about the time I was wondering if I could go through another week watching him struggle and just not get it, his whole attitude changed.

By the start of week three, he had become a kicking machine. It just clicked one day, and then you couldn't stop him - which was unfortunate, of course, when trying to teach him to float because when he kicked in a floating position it sucked him right under the water. But, again, Erika patiently worked him until he understood what to do.

Then, over the last two weeks, he started putting it all together with a swim/float/swim sequence, and every day his skill and confidence increased tremendously. By the time he was ready for his tests with summer and winter clothes on, he made it look easy. I can't believe how much he's learned and how much confidence he now has in the water.

I simply cannot say enough good things about Erika, and ISR. I know there is never a substitute for close supervision around the water, but we all know how fast kids can be. I feel so much better knowing that if he were to fall into the water, he would at least have a fighting chance - those few precious seconds of being able to get a breath before help can get to him could make all the difference. You cannot put a price on the life and well-being of your child. It was so worth the time spent journaling every day about food/sleep/activity patterns and going to the pool five days a week for six weeks.

I'm completely amazed by and super proud of what my little man has accomplished. Enjoy the video of him in action!

Cinco de Mayo 2011

Today is Cinco de Mayo and since Isaac goes to a Spanish immersion school, they get to make a pretty big deal out of it. Here is a little video of the celebration. I'm sure you won't miss Isaac when his class performs - he's the little red head in the middle of the screen trying to completely steal the show. Even when his class finished, he continued to dance along as he watched from a distance. I think it's funny that he is still so quiet and reserved around new people, especially a large crowd, but turn on some music and he suddenly has no fear!

Bluebonnets 2011

The school playground near our house is full of bluebonnets this year, so we took advantage this weekend. I've been looking at these pictures compared to the ones from last year, and I still can't quite believe how much he has grown and changed in one year!