birthday pictures and a hike....

My mom's new name for Isabella is, Isaac's Administrative Assistant. This is because Isabella is very efficient when it comes to helping Isaac with anything he might possibly need help with. Her role as his Administrative Assistant became even more obvious on his birthday when she gladly unwrapped every toy and opened every card and then because "Isaac doesn't want to play with these", she confiscated all of his new toys. At one point I found his stacking blocks, from my parents, perfectly stacked on a chair in her room "so that Isaac can't touch them." And of course the school bus my grandma sent, and the race car Oma gave to him, and the Thomas Train were all quickly removed from his hands and replaced with....the pink Polly Pocket car. Thankfully, Isaac doesn't care. His favorite toy at the moment is a make-up brush or at times, the pretend french fry. Trust me, he wouldn't dare put a real fry in his mouth but he'll spend an hour gnawing on the plastic one. 

Oh, so you're wondering what happened when we put cake in front of him. The short answer, nothing. He was completely disgusted that we would even consider doing such a crazy thing. My mom put some icing in his mouth and he completely freaked out and was paralyzed to the point where I had to scoop it out of his mouth so that he could recover and instead play with....the birthday candle. He did let Gisela put a couple crumbs in his mouth. And a few days ago while he was playing in his high chair he actually started sucking on a goldfish cracker. I tried to contain my excitement and completely ignore the fact that he was putting a real food item in his mouth, when he happened to bite down and was very angry that this once innocent fish was the real deal. 

Sometimes before meals, Isabella offers to pray and her prayer usually sounds something like this: Dear Jesus, thank you for this day, please help Isaac grow, help him eat and grow big, thank you for bringing daddy home safely, bless this food to my body, forgive our sins and help Isaac grow. Amen. 

I've had to explain to her that though Isaac doesn't like when we feed him, we have to do it, because he has to grow. For a while she was becoming quite distraught and would yell, he doesn't want to eat! Stop feeding him mommy! He doesn't like it! Of course this would just make me feel even more horrible for force feeding my child (even though they say it isn't force feeding), so we've had to share with her how important it is for him to eat and how she can help entertain him and make him happy while he eats. Which usually lasts for two seconds before she gets bored and/or takes the toy we are using to entertain him. She's such a good big sister!

"They say it's my birthday, but I am very confused and grumpy and just want to drool."

Despite disappointment that it wasn't her own birthday, she did receive several gifts and was quite happy about that.

Isaac likes to scoot around while holding things against his face....who knows, maybe he needs his eyes checked...just kidding!

This toy is SO cool! Or at least Isaac thinks so!

It was pretty nice on Sunday, or at least we had a blue sky and fluffy white clouds....

The perfect swing for Isaac...

Oh, and let me just say it again, since I've heard in the past week: 

"Wow, he sure doesn't eat a lot" Um, thank you, now you can be quiet.

"Is he really eleven months?" No, but he's really going to be one tomorrow.

"Really, he's a year old?" Yes, I promise. I gave birth to him and distinctly remember pushing him out of a very small place. 

Isaac is One!

I know, I'm a little sensitive, but I'm allowed to be.