Watering the Garden

Isaiah got to help Daddy water the garden this evening after Daddy got home from work.  He loved talking to Daddy about the strawberry, raspberry, tomato, and zucchini plants and he kept saying, "yeah helping!"  He is growing up to be such a big boy!

Happy Birthday to my Dear Friend Emily!

When Isaiah made his first Happy Birthday Video for Aunt Kayla (in April) Emily put in her request for a video.  Well, we made several attempts to make the best video possible, but all I can say is I love you tons Emily, even if Isaiah didn't cooperate perfectly.

This video was taken after his nap this afternoon...so maybe still a little groggy and grumpy, but at least he attempted to participate in the Happy Birthday video making for Emily.

The rest of these videos were taken later this evening after our walk and before bedtime.  He was being a little silly.

What?  This didn't sound like Happy Birthday to you?  Weird! I guess the ABC song is just as good.

What? This didn't sound like Happy Birthday to you?  Weird! I guess dinosaur talk is just as good.

Well, finally Daddy was more successful than Mommy and got Isaiah to say Happy Birthday, but still no Emily.  I guess that must mean he needs to see you again Emily!

Emily, I am so grateful that we meet and became friends in college.  I appreciate our friendship and I love you tons!

Sensory Tub

Isaiah LOVES to be outside.  However, our backyard is pretty tiny so I have to be creative in what activities Isaiah can do outside.  Recently I decided to create a sensory tub for him.  The first item in the sensory tub is rice.  Isaiah is having a blast and requests to play RICE pretty much every afternoon!

New Wake Up Routine

Isaiah is 2 1/2 and still LOVING his crib.  He recently started requesting his stuffed animals to join him in the crib once we go into his room to get him up in the mornings or after nap times.  I love that this has become a new routine for us.  It is such a fun way to play with him as he is waking up in his crib.  Every day is a little different so no video will do this routine complete justice but at least this video will help me remember these sweet memories with my boy.

After watching this morning routine video again I think what I love about this is Isaiah's loving and gentle spirit even towards his stuffed animals.  He often gives the animals loves (hugs).

Baby Faces Read aLOUD By Isaiah

"New Park"!

On Thursday evening Dan and Elise had a dinner engagement so we had the privilege of watching our wonderful nephew, Campbell.  He was dropped off at our house around 5pm.  First, we made dinner and I made pigs in a blanket for us, but Campbell just wanted hot dog.  He ate LOTS of hot dog...almost 2 whole hot dogs!  Second, while Travis was doing our after dinner clean up, we played blocks.  The boys loved knocking down towers.  Next, we took the boys to what I called the "new park".  This isn't really a new park for us or Isaiah, but I wanted to name it and distinguish that it would be different for Campbell.  Campbell is an avid park visitor and has many favorite parks by his house...green park, yellow park, etc. thus why I gave this park a name..."new park".  The boys had a great time playing together!

This is one of Campbell's favorite activities at the park.  He wanted to organize them so all the pictures weren't showing.  Isaiah was more interested in just spinning the pieces, which was wrecking all of Campell's hard work. So we had to find a way to distract Isaiah.   We offered he go down the twisty slide.  He said no, but I was standing on the side and Travis was at the top and we just tried it and he loved it!

  I love this picture!  I think Isaiah's smile is so cute.

Somehow after a while we convinced the boys to move to the smaller slide.  Isaiah has never been a huge fan of slides, but for some reason on this evening he was having a blast.  Campbell is also NOT a slide rider, but before we knew it he was going down the small slide and LOVING it too!

After the park, we gave the boys a bath (oops I learned the hard way that Campbell doesn't like bubble baths).  Then, we got ready for bed by reading books and singing songs.  

We had a great evening with our nephew!

I am so excited for warmer weather and many more park trips!  I guess Campbell is too...this is the facebook message I got from Elise the day after our evening with Campbell.

I was just about to post that Campbell had a great time and talked about the new park half the way home....and then guess what he started talking about while we were sitting here having breakfast? The new park! "Isaiah go on the slide again, Campbell go on the slide again? Next time visit Kalina?" Thanks for playing with him!

Isaiah's Passport Has Arrived!

One month and one week after ordering Isaiah's passport...it has ARRIVED!  This is exciting news because it means one more piece of paperwork is complete.  Having his passport also means that we should now be able to use his passport to finish the paperwork of getting his new social security card too. 

Recent Song Recordings

Isaiah is definitely talented musically.  He knows the words to a lot (most) of the songs we sing to him regularly, but it is often hard to actually get him to sing them on command.  Therefore, it is difficult to record them on video. 

Before going to bed on Saturday evening he decided to say the 1-2 Buckle My Shoe nursery rhyme!

This evening I was trying to get a recording on his knowledge of letter sounds, but instead he decided he was more interested in singing his ABC's.  This version does seem to be missing a couple letters, which he doesn't normally do, but none the less I am a proud mommy!

Last Friday's Nap Chores

Normally I have Isaiah help me pick up his toys before I put him down for a nap.  However, last Friday I wanted to make sure he actually took a nap, so once he got tired-upstairs we went for nap time!

After putting Isaiah down for a nap this was the downstairs mess...toys everywhere!

The counter and sink were a mess too...full of dishes that needed to be washed!

Within several minutes of chore time...the toys were no longer everywhere,

but instead the toys were neatly back in their places!

The counters were also cleared and the dishes were washed.

After completing those two chores the next task on my to do list was to sweep and mop my downstairs wood floors...

I couldn't believe the amount of gunk on my poor floors!  This chore was clearly OVERDUE!

Isaiah did wake up from his nap a tiny bit before I was done with the chore.  I was still in the mopping stage of cleaning the floor, but he happily sat in the chair and read books while I finished my chore.

Isaiah LOVES to wake up SUPER SLOW, and I love this about him.  I love his in a daze, waking up state.  I like this picture because it captures his sweet zoning!

Nap Count Continued

Wow, I can't believe it has already been a week since I blogged about our nap count.  Well, to update...last Friday was a success!  Here is the picture I took last Friday of my sweet boy all snuggled in my arms taking his much needed nap.

Our nap count continued on a good streak this week as we were 5 for 5! On Monday (Memorial Day) I even trimmed the hair over his ears a little WHILE he was sleeping and he didn't wake up! This afternoon I decided to make an improvised bed for nap time (no crib) because they are doing construction in our neighborhood (details about our construction in a later post) and it was too loud in the front of the house (where his bedroom is) for him to get in a good nap.  I think he like his little bed too...he slept for a little over two hours and woke up super happy.  He told me all about his pillow and blankets once he woke up!

I am so thankful that Isaiah is such a great sleeper!

Nap Count For The Week

Monday- Yes!  Isaiah didn't fall asleep in my arms like normal, but he fell asleep pretty quickly after he was transferred to his crib.

Tuesday-Yes! Isaiah took his nap at Nonna's house, but he fought the nap.  We were laying on the guest bed pillows and reading books.  Isaiah was squirming around a LOT so I told him he needed to lay down and close his eyes.  After several minutes of continued squirming I help him in my arms.  He was not happy...LOTS OF TEARS!  Again he didn't fall asleep in my arms like normal, but AS SOON as he hit the crib sheet he was asleep.

Wednesday-No!  I started rocking Isaiah, reading books, and singing songs (our normal routine) around 1:15ish and this probably lasted 15 minutes.  Then I told him to close his eyes and I did too.  I believe I feel asleep from about 1:45 to 2, but not Isaiah. At 2 when I discovered he was still awake I asked him what was wrong.  He said, "diaper" so I checked it, but it wasn't dirty.  I decided to put him in his crib and came downstairs to watch a DVR show.  After 5 or 10 minutes I checked the monitor and Isaiah was standing up...this normally means he is dirty so I went upstairs to see.  Yes, dirty!  After changing his diaper I held him in my arms for a few minutes and then laid him down in his crib and I returned to my DVR show.  Within the next 10 minutes I could hear him screaming and crying...so I went back upstairs and SOMEHOW his blanket was outside of his crib and he was VERY sad.  I laid him down and he requested to go downstairs.  Since I wanted to watch the end of the show I said I would rock him downstairs...what was I thinking?  Of course he didn't fall asleep so I tried laying him in his crib one final time.  After at least 2 hours I gave up on the idea of a nap and went to get him from his crib and ...ah he was dirty again!  NO NAP!

Thursday-Nope!  I had made plans to meet up with my friend Sarah and her daughter Lily to run a few errands (Babies R Us and Costco) together.  My plan was to run the errands and have Isaiah sleep in the car on the way home.  Well, after our two errands together I guess I pushed my luck by running into DSW shoes to do a return.  As we were less than seconds away from DSW shoes Isaiah closed his eyes.  I told him to wait to fall asleep because I needed to run into one final store.  It was quick, super quick.  I would have loved to go to Bed, Bath, and Beyond or the Storables store to look for a kitchen counter file organizer, but I decided not to because Isaiah was tired.  However, once in the car I drove ALL the way home and NEVER ONCE did Isaiah close his eyes.  Ah, No NAP AGAIN?  At least we had fun with our friends!  Thanks Sarah for taking this picture of our cute kids playing on the toy isle!

Friday- Let's hope Isaiah takes a nap tomorrow!

Amazing Korean Man

On Monday evening Isaiah and I went to dinner with Nonna and Pops at Subway before going to look at a house in Newberg and property in Newberg.  While we were at Subway there was also some Asian people dining in the restaurant.  Unfortunately, I am still not very good at telling whether someone is Korean, Chinese, Japanese, etc.  I have to admit that I was drawn to watch them and listen to their language.  I noticed that one of the men in the group was also drawn to watch us.  After the man walked by us several times he decided to stop and talk to us....it ended up being perfect time as we were just finishing our dinner so Isaiah wasn't distracted from eating. 

Here were the highlights from our conversation (perhaps not in the exact order it occurred, but pretty close.)  The man asked if Isaiah was a boy or girl.  I think it is obvious that he is a boy, but I kindly said boy.  Then he reached out and touched Isaiah's cheek and said, "he hoped he lead a happy and healthy life"...it was such a sweet blessing for him to give Isaiah.  He said he looked very strong.  He also asked where Isaiah was from and I said, South Korea.  He responded by saying, "Oh my country!"  He asked my parents if they had been to South Korea, and they got to say yes that they had traveled with us to get Isaiah.  My mom said it was such a blessing to go to Korea and that it was such a gift to have Isaiah.  The man then said, "thank you for adopting him."

We learned that this man and his family were in the states to attend his son's high school graduation, but before the graduation they were seeing the west and golfing. Wow, it was so amazing to get to speak with this Korean man!  He was so kind and loving to Isaiah and our family.  I was so impressed with how Isaiah did too...he let the Korean man touch his cheek and neck a LOT, and only at the very end did he say no (and I am hoping that the man didn't really hear him as it was said softly).   

What a reminder of how much I love the Korean culture...people are so genuine!  It makes me want to travel to Korea again...soon!  I hope we raise Isaiah to be a gentle and kind young man. 

Song Performance

On Monday evening Travis was getting his dinner ready before he headed to class and he and Isaiah were singing songs.  I was able to get a video recording of Wheels on the Bus!  Sorry the video is a little dark and the volume isn't great, but I was trying to not let Isaiah see that I was recording him, or he might have stopped singing!  This version also seems to have the Mommy's saying "move on back" which he doesn't normally say, but oh well...it is still cute!

Warmer Weather=Outside Time Post 2

My class had another field trip.  This week on Thursday we got to go on the Portland Spirit.  Right now our class is studying bridges, specifically Portland bridges so we got to take a boat trip on the Willamette River to view the bridges.  It was amazing weather and we had a great time.  Unfortunately...  my poor skin had too good of a time.

Oh no, redness=sunburn!

Yes, please!

Warmer Weather=Outside Time

We finally had warmer weather on Wednesday and Thursday (and today too).  It has been in the 70's the past few days, which means we can actually enjoy time outside!  Isaiah LOVES his time outside.  He always wants to take Sophie out to go potty and he has learned to YELL (not sure why he needs to yell at poor Sophie) but he loves telling her to "Go Potty!"  He also loves to talk about and label items (fire pit and barbecue) in the backyard.  Isaiah has also enjoyed helping us plant our garden plants.

Yes, Isaiah just gave a love (hug) to our fire pit!

Here are several pictures and a video of our evening of planting trees, (as Isaiah calls our new garden).

 

I can't wait for yummy produce this summer...strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, and zucchini!

Monday Drive to Dinner

Travis has class on Monday evenings which means Isaiah and I normally get to hang out with Nonna and Pops.  This past Monday afternoon Elise had a doctors appointment so we got to hang out and have dinner with the Willis family too.  Nonna, Campbell, Isaiah, and I picked up Pops and then we met Elise and Dan at Chiptole.  Campbell, Isaiah, and I (I mean I) were a little squished in the backseat! 

I Love Nap Time

I love nap time because it means cuddling with Isaiah!  Last week I rocked Isaiah in our downstairs chair and my silly boy insisted on holding his phone while falling asleep.   

Field Trip to Franz Bakery

On Monday my class went on a field trip to Franz Bakery.


Our field trip consisted of a brief history of the Franz Family Bakeries.  Our first rotation was a half hour tour of the facility.

This is a picture I got from the Franz website because we were not allowed to take our cameras on the walking bakery tour.  However, this picture does have our amazing tour guide-Becky!

Next, our group visited the interactive learning centers where there were books to read and mind teaser work sheets to do.

This was a neat activity that the kids seemed to enjoy.  The goal was to pick 12 items off the shelf and then practice restocking the shelves.  They had to make sure to put the bread packages back in the right location, with the label showing, opening facing the wall, etc.

Finally, we enjoy a snack of bread, butter and apple juice and are given gift bags to take home.

 We got a tiny loaf of bread in our gift bag!

 We got these fun bread hats!

And we got a new magnet...can you spot it among the gears?

I had a lot of fun on this field trip!