-BREAKING NEWS-

Our house is under contract!
I got a phone call from a number that I didn't recognize then another a couple of minutes later. I answered the 2nd one b/c someone really wanted to talk to me I guess. It was from the real estate office. They said that someone was going by our house and wants to look at it today. I said ok, of course, and asked when. They said that he was already there (here) and that the realtor was on her way to show the house. YIKES! I acted pleased when the reality was that the only thing I was pleased about is the fact that I had just fed Isaac and he was sleeping. That gave me some time to clean. I had just made breakfast (the only meal I usually make) so the kitchen was a wreck. I had actually fallen asleep in my clothes last night b/c I was laying down to feed Isaac and we both fell asleep. That bit of TMI is to tell you that I hadn't even done any end-of-day de-cluttering the night before. Dylan had all of the DVDs out in front of the TV which is good and bad. Good that he's in one place watchng a movie, but bad that he's' sitting in a pile of messy DVDs. I cleaned those, threw a bunch of stuff in the trash, put all of the bottles I was sterilizing back in the microwave (I PUMP into them, he's still nursing, for all of you judging blog stalkers). Steven and Andre ordered Pizza last night while they painted the tennant's place. I shoved that pizza box down under the sink next to the trash can since it didn't fit IN it. I piled all of my maternity clothes I was going through to put away into Isaac's bassinette and put a baby blanket over them. Amazingly, Dylan's toys weren't that crazy, so that only took a second. A couple minutes after that phone call, "knock knock knock."

I let them in. The potential buyer went right over to one of our wall units. I had to explain that we just haven't taken the wall units out after getting central b/c we had other priorities. He next went into the kitchen and had the nerve to look under the sink! Why would he do that? He bypassed the child locks just to look at my embarassing pizza box. I'm so glad he didn't look in the microwave! (It's clean b/c I can't STAND a splattered microwave, by the way.)

That afternoon, he gave us an offer. We countered, and he accepted! The funny thing is that he wants to live in the tennant's part and wants to rent out ours! Isn't that crazy? So it's ok that we haven't rented it out yet. The tennant just moved out 2 days ago and we got new carpet in the small bedroom today. The buyer is going to rent from us for the next two months and will close after that.

Then we might be homeless. I was so annoyed when the realty office called. We've had 13 people come look at this house since it's been on the market. We had it listed w/ our realtor for 6 months. February was her last month w/ us and we weren't going to renew. We were thinking of taking it back off of the market. We'd just sit on it 'til the market went back up - knowing it might be years. I thought I was done having to clean so we could show it since the 6 months was almost up. It's crazy that pizza box and everything - the guy still wants it!

It's kinda wierd. Dylan won't remember this house. Isaac's first three months will be here, but that's it. I love Dylan's room. We decorated it w/ Chrissy and Lacey and so many things in there remind me of them. I'll probably do Dylan's room surfing again so I can use the same things they made for him. I may even paint the waves on the walls again. (Probably not though, that's a lot of hard work for anyone besides a nesting mother.)

So - you heard it here first- unless the guy backs out b/c of the inspection or something - we're moving! So Jolyn, tell Dan to start looking for a 4 bedroom a tiny bit north of here for us. We love the area and being by the interstate. My requirements: a driveway, a dish washer, and more storage space than we have here. No need for a dining room:)

Oh Dylan

Dylan says "Oh Ni-nin." It's so cute. It's when he realizes how silly he just was. I should catch it on video, but he does it all by himself. If he asks where his blanket is and it's in plain sight, he'll say it. He has a peanut butter face here. That's when I'll be the one to say "Oh Dylan."
Here's my crazy boy doing some dance:
He's learning how to fight w/ his daddy here. He's got his "dukes" up. It reminded me of the scene from the Jungle Book where Balloo is teaching Mogli how to fight. A big playful bear VS. the little scrawny boy.
Dylan's so lucky. His grandma came to visit and dropped off birthday presents from his great grandma. Dylan calls her "big grandma." It's not insulting b/c she's in no way big. It's just his way of saying "great." She gave him a whole percussion let w/ a bongo and tamberine and other noise makers. My mom was holding Isaac right there next to all of the noise. (He's in a sling that I was wearing. Interesting that my mom didn't want to take him out b/c that might disturb him yet we were not worried about disturbing his little ears.)

Dylan loves all of his toys, like I said before. I turned around to see him scrunched in here:It's fun seeing him remember how toys work and recal things. This morning he clapped his hands then looked at his palms and said "uh Daddy. Bug. Get it. (clap and look again)" Steven had smushed a mosquito the night before by clapping his hands together in the air.

Bath Time

Isaac's cord fell off so I could finally give him a real bath! Dylan helped.

Double Chin

Getting up

Getting up in the middle of the night - Expected and doesn't bother me

Getting up in the morning - never in the mood, but by 9:30, Dylan's awake and I feel bad for letting him just hang out by himself.

Getting up from a laying down position - where the heck did my tummy muscles go?

Getting up and going jogging - 15 min is about my threshold. It's time to get up and get moving though.

I'm sure glad that I go alone b/c anybody else would pass me walking. I push the boys to a park in the neighborhood. I go the long way, but it just takes longer, I don't run for longer. I still end up walking after about 15 min. Dylan says "nun, Mommy, nun." He's telling me to run. We were going to the park for just a short time b/c I was worried that Isaac would wake up or b/c I would be bored of pushing Dylan on the swing. Today I was prepared. I fed Isaac first. I just went the normal short way to the park, and I brought stuff to do. I put return address labels and stamps on a ton of envelopes. Dylan played in the sand and two cute little girls took over pushing Dylan on the swings. After they left, Dylan kept playing by himself w/ the toys I had thought to bring and I fed Isaac. I took good blankets so it wasn't a big deal to feed him there. Nobody else was in the park, so that made it easier. I felt like a pro! Then we walked to the post office. (I gave up jogging for the day.) We walked home, bathed, and napped. That's about how productive I was today. Not that impressive.

Sunday

Steven wanted to look helpful as we walked in fashionably late to church.

My grandma
Don's birthday dinner- everythind made from scratch!
phone book booster seat. Left hand today?

Focusing

The milestone of the day:

focusing! Feb 17th - 2 weeks and a day

Isaac was focusing on the animals above his swing. He also seemed to look in my eyes. It's so hard to pick the date of milestones since it's a phase of learning. Once they're doing it every day, then you know you missed the actual FIRST day.

Milestones

Dylan's un-milestone:

trying to take off his PJs so he can wear shorts. Um, need help little guy? Dylan likes dinosaurs, but he LOVES wearing shorts. Good thing we live in Florida I guess.

Oh, and Dylan's in the 50th percentile for height but only the 25th percentile for weight. He's not in the 2T clothes quite yet.

My baby's 2

Steven worked on Dylan's birthday but we celebrated that evening. Steven asked Dylan what he wanted for dinner and Dylan said pizza. (I wonder if there was any suggesting going on there???) Steven took Dylan to the the video store and let him pick out 2 movies. He picked out a Scooby Doo movie b/c of the "RAAAAA" on the cover. (Dylan likes dinosaurs/draggons and roars when he sees them.) We got a margarita pizza from a local place on Central and put the #2 in it from the night at Chuck E. Cheese. Dylan seemed to like our humble celebration. He knows how to say "dooo" (two) for how old he is. He holds one finger up from each hand for a total of 2 fingers. We then let him eat in front of the movie in his high chair.

Lollipop Kids

For Dylan's 2nd birthday, he didn't open any presents, but he got to spend time w/ his friend, Dylan. First we went to story time at the library then we went to the park. I decided that it was a good day for a sugar rush. I've seen photographers get amazing pictures w/ these huge lollipops, so I thought I'd try. I played around in photoshop for some of the pictures. (not the 1st two).silly face
I desaturated this then painted back in the lollipops. I cropped, rotated, and stroked a boarder on this one then put it on a desaturated copy of itself. no edits. The light is a little much on his right cheek.
I blurred the background here and tried to lighten the shaddows on is eyes.
Isaac slept the whole time in this sling. He's still just a little flexible ball of cute sleepiness.

Valentine's Day

I know it's really late, but I hope you had a great Valentine's Day. We did! It was kinda a lazy day, but Steven suprised us and came home for lunch with yummy sandwiches from a health food place downtown. He also had a box of chocolates and a dozen roses! For Dinner he asked if I wanted to go somewhere. I said NO thank you. Even if we didn't go anywhere special, we'd be ruining somebody else's special dinner. I knew the wait would be obnoxious so Dylan and Isaac wouldn't last. So Steven brought home dinner. Perfect! It was Isaac's first holiday so I kinda wish that I had gotten him a Valentine's Day outfit.

We didn't see Malia that day but I wish we had. Last year we got cute pictures of them together.



Isaac has cute shoes on and I tried to bundle him up tight, but it wasn't working.

Newborn Days

The days are flying by. I can't believe my maternity leave is already half way over. I want to remember every phase of my new baby. Isaac is growing so fast it's like I can see him filling out right before my eyes when I feed him. He's got a double chin now and chubby cheeks. He's growing eye lashes and can focus a little bit.

I really wish that I had a resident photographer like Lacey here to capture what I'm going to forget. I'd much rather that then a nanny or a maid etc. I have a regular camera that's perfect for most things since it's water proof and compact for my back pocket, but I covet big cameras that can focus where you want them to focus or let as much light in as I would want. Steven said I should start a website to get donations to help me buy a camera. I'm not sure if that's his way of telling me that it's not in our near future or that he feels my pain. Any get rich quick ideas?

My aunt is starting a photography business and came and took free photos for me. They're really good except Isaac was WIDE awake the whole time and was still a little cross-eyed. I didn't get what I had envisioned. The pictures are great in general and I'm using them for my birth announcement, but I wanted more. Here are some from my Aunt Robin.

Sweet sleeping baby

I want to cuddle w/ him!
Opening his eyes and discovering
warming back up with Mommy
tiny on a platter

I went to a portrait studio for more. Babies are only truely newborns for the first 10-14 days. They're still all scrunched up (face and legs/body) and sleepy (so I thought) and have peely skin (not much for Isaac) and still have their cords. I am so happy with both of Isaac's photo shoots. I spent more money than I had anticipated, but have no regrets. It really isn't that much money, but it's hard when I'm not making any at the moment.

I wanted naked baby pictures but the studio had a policy where they had to leave the diaper on. I should have maybe kept his clothes on b/c when I took them off, he woke up. At least he's not cross-eyed any more!

So thise were taken on his 2 week birthday - the last day of my true newborn. His cord fell off the next day.
my scrunchy baby
little yawn
sparkel in his eyes
perfect fit
looking at my rings

I love how the camera captured his fuzzy hair. I've been trying to get it. They also used that blue satin fabric. Dylan would have been in heaven! I wonder if Isaac will like silky blankets too. I had wanted to do a picture of him on a stack of towels but had given up on the idea. I was going to ask Lacey how to make it look like a tall tower like she did for Abbey. Look what they did with the blankets - no trick photography! They also did a cute creative pose with his feet, but I'm using that on the announcement. The one of him on my hand turned out much better than I thought it would. he had just opened his eyes and started trying to scarf down my hand. He decided he was STARVING and kept turning his head and shaking it back and forth so fast. He looks calm though. The photographer let us take a break so I could nurse him. I didn't feel rushed at all and yet I was in and out of there in about an hour - WITH prints in my hand! I reccomend both my Aunt Robin and Portrait Innovations.

Thank you, Aunt Robin! Your leg was in a cast and you didn't complain at all about all the poses I wanted to try out.

1 week before and 1 week after Isaac

Contrast

What a difference between my two boys. I've always known that newborns just sleep all the time, but it isn't until I have the two side-by-side that the contrast is real. Isaac was sleeping or eating on my lap and Dylan was running in circles . . . literally! I grabbed my camera and got the end of it. He was doing this for quite a while. He's a big ball of energy and fun.

my baby boys

I still call Dylan my baby. Then I wonder if I should stop now that I have another baby who really is my baby. What do you think?

Isaac's sweet face

I keep thinking that Isaac doesn't look like himself in the pictures. He does in the scrunchy face one w/ the Stetson hat, but here's one that I think looks like him. I know that may not make sense, but I like this picture. Maybe it's the angle I see him at when he's eating.

Happy Birthday Month, Dylans

Dylan's friend, Dylan, turned 2 last Thursday. We decided to let them celebrate their birthdays together at Chuck E. Cheese's. We had balloons, presents, pizza, one party guest (Isaac) and one cake. It was perfect. This may be the last year that I can skimp on his birthday. I didn't want to plan a party b/c who knew how healthy Isaac would be or when he'd be born. Don't tell anyone that I had Isaac out at just 1 week old in this germy place. We did have the hand sanitizer as our centerpiece though. It was used lots and lots.

We did two #2 candles so they could each blow their own out. It's still just two candles on the cake - so it's perfect!
They were really good about taking turns blowing out their own candlesDylan picked up the whole piece at once.

After playing there, we went to our house to play in the fun new ball pit from the Szasz family. We also got out the basketball goal. The boys had so much fun wrecking the house. Then it was snack time and we put on the Jungle Book movie for them (and the dads). Dylan likes the Disney cartoon one, but he also likes the one w/ real people and animals. They played and played 'til late. I don't think Dylan thinks we skimped on his birthday at all AND his real birthday isn't even 'til Friday! I think we're going to get him shoes and PJs. That's what he needs, not more toys:)