Our First Trip to the Park Since Isaiah Turned 2!

I took advantage of the non rainy day and took Isaiah to the park before his nap time.  He had so much fun!  He played on the climbing structure.  He specifically had a blast walking back and forth over the bridge.  I think he did it at least 50 times before I suggested we to do something else.

 

He also had fun swinging on the big kid swings!  Unfortunately, big kid swings is all the park closest to our house has so even thought I would prefer he ride in the baby swing; he did really well and remembered to hold on tight!

 

He loved being at the park and giving mommy lots of big cheese smiles!

My Little Organizer

It is so fun to see Isaiah love things that I love too!  This weekend I was cleaning my bathroom and he was playing in my room.  I came out to visit him and this is what I found....he was organizing his books!

It was fun to watch him carefully find a specific spot for each book to fit into his display. 

Increasing His Gross Motor Skills

Isaiah is still working hard at being able to climb onto our furniture without help.  However, this evening he successful got on top of his toy box ottoman (without our help) and enjoyed playing with Scout!

So proud of being BIG!

Another Nephew!

I am proud to announce that my amazing sister is pregnant with another baby boy. I am going to be an aunt to two wonderful nephews. I can't wait to meet the new little guy!

The family all meet at Round Table Pizza to hear the big news... they are getting the sign ready to show if the baby is a boy or girl!

Pink paper, but it's a boy!

Yeah for another Willis boy!

In celebration (and being the GREAT aunt I am) I bought Campbell ANOTHER bouncy ball!  Isaiah got a new ball too...but Campbell was WAY more excited.  I can't say his mommy was as excited about another ball as he was though=)

Two Other Short And Silly Video Clips

If I do the same task multiple times in a row it helps me remember how to do something.  Thus, I am continuing to practice putting videos into my youtube account and then sharing them on the blog.

The first video Isaiah is saying go because I had just said Ready, Set, and was getting ready to say go and he said go for me.  I was trying to tell Travis that I was starting to record but instead Isaiah helped me finish my sentence. He cracked us up by doing this.  We are so impressed that he understands so much language so quickly!

The second video is of Travis saying the word cookie in a bunch of different silly voices and then Isaiah trying to copy him!

These are just a couple every day life videos of our amazing son!  We are so thankful to have our baby boy home and I can't believe we have already enjoyed him for 8 whole months!

My first video of Isaiah uploaded!

We have taken several videos of Isaiah since he came home in May, but I haven't shared any of them on the blog because I wasn't exactly sure how to do it.  However, now I think I have it figured out so hopefully I can post more videos of my adorable boy!

Here is a video from tonight after we finished eating dinner.  Isaiah is singing the Amen song with Daddy.  He has been practicing this song for awhile.  I started signing a version of it to him at bedtime and he really liked it and would copy me a little.  Then Daddy found out we were singing it so he started to sing it other times of the day with Isaiah and he now loves to sing it!
 

Yummy Dinner

On Monday evening we made a delicious dinner of Cashew Chicken.  I have included the recipe that we followed in case this sounds like a yummy dinner to make for your family!  We all loved it and I think it will be a recipe we make more often!

 Cashew Chicken

5 chicken breast halves (skinned, boned, cut in small pieces)

2 T cornstarch 

¼ C soy sauce

A variety of yummy vegetables- carrots, zucchini, asparagus, bell pepper, celery, broccoli, etc

¼C oil

Cooking Sauce

2 t cornstarch

1 C chicken broth (I use 1 C water and 1 t bouillon)

Mix soy sauce and cornstarch and add chicken pieces.  Heat 1-2 tablespoons oil in cast iron skillet and add chicken mixture.  Stir several minutes until chicken is done.  Remove chicken to a bowl.

Heat 2-3 tablespoons oil in cast iron skillet.  Add all vegetables (chopped) and stir for two minutes.  Place lid on the cast iron skillet and cook for an additional two minutes, stirring occasionally.  Uncover and cook for another 2-4 minutes.

Return chicken to pan and add cooking sauce.  Stir until thick.  Add cashews.

Serve over rice.

What would a yummy dinner be if we didn't take pictures of us enjoying it!

Travis using the chopsticks that we bought in Korea.

My wonderful husband cooperating as I ask his to take an action shot for the blog!  Chopsticks to mouth...success and he loved the dinner (and ate lots of vegetables)!

At Maintenance Level

On Monday (my extra day off thanks to MLK) I went to visit my friends at Kaiser  I mean I went to get my allergy shots.

To start, I had to check in with Mr. Slow - I still can't understand why the other women can check two people in before he finishes with one person!

Anyways, I put my check-in slip in the box outside the nurse station door and pressed the buzzer button.  I went and sat down and waited to be called back.  Travis and Isaiah were with me so at least I was in good company because I waited and waited...25 minutes before I was called back!  That is a long time and doesn't normally take this long.

When I was finally called back my nurse friend said that I would be getting my first dose of maintenance level!  This means that now I can come to Kaiser ever other week (until this bottle of medicine is finished) and then hopefully I will only need to go once every three weeks and eventually once a month!

She was impressed with how quickly I made it to maintenance level and how much I have grown in getting shots!  If you know much about my past I have had problems feeling light headed and passing out when getting shots.  Now I am a professional because I can get my shots standing up!  I am proud of this accomplishment maybe there is hope for other things doctor related.

I have been building up to maintenance level for the last 6 months...which means hopefully I will get the benefits of limited allergy symptoms in the near future!

His Own Personal Fort!

Isaiah has discovered that our kitchen table is great place for his own personal fort!  He loves climbing under our kitchen table with toys and just hanging out under there.  Yesterday morning I was cleaning up from breakfast when I captured these photos of him having fun in his own little world...under the kitchen table!

Laying on his belly under the table spinning the lid to a pan from his play kitchen set.

Proud of his spin!

Watching it go-round and round.

Closely studying the lid.  It is so funny how he gets needs to get his face really close to watch the things he spins.

I love watching my little boy play and discover!  I hope to capture better pictures of his enjoyment in his own personal fort. 

Oops Out of Order Post

I took these pictures on my phone and then forgot to use them on the blog...thus why this is an out of order post.

On Friday, January 7th we took our Camry in to get its 10,000 mile oil change and tires rotated.  Isaiah came with us so when we first went to wait we checked out the kids waiting room.  The kids room was pretty dirty and gross (plus only one adult sized chair in the room) so we decided to not hang out in there while we waited.  However, Isaiah refused to play with his Scout Scribble and Write toy on the low volume.  He wanted it on the loudest volume setting and we felt like we were disturbing the other guests so alas we went into the kids waiting room.  I guess you could say we had the privilege of waiting in the kids room!

Isaiah didn't seem to mind the conditions of the room.  I tried hard not to think about all the germs!  I seriously considered asking them if they would like me to clean the room for them...and then they could give me a discount on the work they were doing-ha if only!

The only benefit of being in the kids waiting room was that there was a huge window where we could look out and watch our car being worked on- so that was pretty cool for Isaiah. 

I am glad our new car only needs these maintenance appointments once a year.  Waiting an hour and half in the kids waiting room was not the highlight of our weekend!

National Championship Celebration

On Monday evening we had my grandparents, parents, and sister's family all come over to watch the National Championship game.  We started the evening together by enjoying taco soup for dinner.

Around half time we dove into the cake Isaiah and I had made earlier in the day.  Ever since we went to Idaho and Isaiah  made a cake with Aunt Jolene that had yummy frosting I wanted to try making frosting. 

The chocolate frosting recipe I used: (found on the back on the Hershey's Cocoa box)

1/2 c butter or margarine
2/3 c cocoa
3 c powdered sugar
1/3 c milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Melt butter.  Stir in cocoa.  Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating on medium speed to spreading consistency.  Add more milk, if needed.  Stir in vanilla.  About 2 cups.

I thought the cake turned out well and for those of you who know how much I really don't like cake-YES, I ATE CAKE!

Unfortunately, the game had a sad ending as the Ducks lost the National Championship.  However, it was a good game and we had a good time with our family!

A Visit to the Children's Museum

This morning we met another adoptive family at the Children's Museum.  We met this adoptive family during one of our HOLT parenting classes.  They were planning to adopt from Vietnam also, but when the country closed they moved their paperwork to Ethiopia when we moved our paperwork to Korea.  Their son came home the end of March and turned 2 in April (a little quicker and a little older than Isaiah).  We had a great time watching the boys play at the Children's Museum.  There were so many different rooms to visit and lots of excitement to be had!   

Here are a bunch of pictures from our morning explorations at the Children's Museum!

Isaiah loves to brush his teeth...so this area was a big hit for him!

Ah, Daddy is trying to feed the alligator Isaiah! Silly Daddy we were supposed to be brushing the alligators teeth.

There was another little girl at the museum who wanted Isaiah to wear the construction outfit...Isaiah wasn't impressed!  He kept the hat on for about 2 seconds.

Daddy built Isaiah a life size Lincoln Log cabin.  He had fun crawling inside.  Then 2 other kids joined him-it was a little crowded inside.  When they crawled out he followed and was done being inside the cabin!

For those of you know Isaiah's love of spinning items it will not surprise you that he tried to spin most of the grocery store items.  However, we were able to distract him from spinning and actually play in the grocery store!

The boys had fun playing together at the grocery store.  It was just their size and so life like.  The beeping scanner was a favorite!

Isaiah loved putting the grocery items down the conveyor belt.

They also had a Pet Hospital.  Isaiah liked seeing all the puppies and kitties!

Guess what he Isaiah is doing in the Pet Hospital?  Yep, spinning a white pet dish.

Say is that a blue pet dish he is spinning now?  Yep!

We were able to show to how to play in the Pet Hospital and he had a good time.  He liked shutting the animal cages!

And he loved rescuing the puppies!

These pictures were taken in the water room.  Isaiah liked this room pretty well but our new friend LOVED this room!

Friends playing together in the water!

Playing music was a great activity for Isaiah!

He even decided his hand was a good drum stick!

At the beginning of the clay room there was a table that said this was alphabet month.  Isaiah loved finding all the letters and showing off what he knows!

The Tinker Toy Room is on exhibit through Jan 23. 

One of my favorite pictures from the day!

Yep, spinning the Tinker Toys!

Checking out a filter system with Daddy!

We had a great time exploring and hanging out with new friends!  We hope to go back again sometime soon!