Post-bath bootie

This post is dedicated to fresh, clean babies. The kind that smell so good, you want to gobble them up. There's just nothing better.

WARNING: BABY BOOTIE SHOTS BELOW!

Spring has sprung

Isaac and I have been hanging out outside quite a bit. Gotta take advantage of the warm, dry days when you get 'em!

We swung at the park, had mini-picnics in the yard and even took the stroller and walked to Dunkin Donuts! Yeah!

In celebration of all the great weather, I got Isaac this puppy dog hat.

Can I just say, I am sooooooooooooo happy summer is coming. No more winter coats, winter shoes, or winter hats that we were wearing weeks ago. Bring on the shorts and flip-flops. Finally!

Rollin' with the homies

Isaac's been tearin' it up lately in his walker.



Pretty good for a kid that can't crawl yet!

Spy kid eats an apple

We had a house showing today.

This means I get to make the house spotless, grab the baby AND 2 dogs and hide away somewhere for an hour. It's a little stressful. Okay, a lot stressful, and takes hours and hours of cleaning and I'm sick and tired of doing it every other day. Forgive me, but I have to vent.

Anyway, our next door neighbors went out of town for the weekend and because we're taking care of their dogs, we got their permission to hang out at their house during showings. I decided to set up our "spy shack" on their porch for the showing because it looks directly at the side of our house. Mwah ha ha [evil laugh].

I equipped our spy shack with all the necessities -- dog crate, dogs, leashes, baby, diaper bag, laptop, toys and lunch and waited. Then waited and waited and waited some more.

About 45 minutes into the operation, I decided to eat my apple. Isaac was fascinated with it and I let him try some. Here's some of the top secret footage:

To continue the story, the entire hour from 11 to noon went by without visitors. Just lots of people walking their dogs and babies in strollers and other fun stuff to bark at. I decided to wait a few more minutes. Finally, realtor, couple and a parent finally pulled up.

We sat tight and tried to act as normal and neighborly as possible. They walked in, we strained our ears to hear what they were saying through the open windows. No luck. Suddenly, realtor and mom walked out mudroom door. Rita barked a friendly bark at them. They gave us a dirty look, quickly scanned the backyard, looked at each other knowingly and the mom said, "Yeah, we're really just interested in that other one." The realtor nodded knowingly in return, gave us another funny look and re-entered the house. In less than a minute, they all walked out, got in their cars and drove away. Total time in house - 5 minutes.

All that work, for what??? Nothing even fun to spy about. Argh.

Nap time

Isaac is a good napper and usually naps 2-3 times a day.


Today, during one of his naps, I went in his room to put some clothes away and couldn't resist taking a picture of him sleeping.

He loves his teddy bear from Justin, Lori and Alec and this yellow blanket from his Grandma Howden, which he pulls it over his face to fall asleep.


After he's asleep, I try to go in and pull the blanket back so he can breathe fresh air. There he is underneath all that blanket!


In the next room, Rita and Roxy trying to be verrrry quite during naptime. Ok, they're actually sitting for me because I'm about to give them a treat, but who's counting?

Fairmount Park

Today after attempting to visit the Philadelphia Zoo -- which turned out to be a complete zoo -- Jill and I decided Fairmont Park was a good alternate way to bask in the sunshine and spend time with the kiddos.

If you're not familiar, Fairmont Park is the largest city park in the United States and is one of the oldest too. It was originally founded in 1855 and encompasses 9,200 acres! So basically, it's enormous, neverending and quite beautiful.

One feature of the park that has always interested me, but I had never seen, is the Japanese House and Garden.

The house was built in 1953 as a goodwill gesture from Japan following the end of WWII. It was originally designed as a model home for the courtyard of the MoMA, but was moved to Fairmont Park in Philadelphia as a permanent attraction in 1958.

It isn't technically open for tours until next month, but we totally lucked out and walked up as a school group was leaving, so they let us take a quick peak. It was so simple and peaceful. What a way to live!


Afterward, we ate lunch in a little gazebo in the park and hung out.

The weather was nice and warm; we even busted out the sun screen for the babies. Hooray!!!! Can I tell you how long I've been waiting for this weather? Much, much too long.

Jill and Allison, the little explorer

When I was looking at the camera, Isaac picked a daffodil up off the step and, naturally, took a huge bite out of it. Lovely. The next couple pictures were trying to extract said flower from baby's mouth with 5 1/2 sharp teeth inside. Ouch.

Jill, thanks for another great outing! I always look forward to our adventures.

Tooth #5

I was brushing Isaac's teeth last night and what do you know, but another tooth had poked it's way through! That's right, NUMERO CINCO!!

Craig tells me it's tooth #D. Don't dentists know that D is a letter, not a number? Just teasing, babe.

Anyway, I wouldn't recommend sticking your finger in his mouth right now. Odds are good that he'll get you with one of those pearly whites.

Grandma Connie Comes to Town

Craig's mom flew out for a few days this week to play with Isaac while I worked. She and Isaac had a great time together.

They played and talked and sang and did all the fun things granmdas and grandbabies do. Isaac even fine-tuned his rooster sound skills. Way to go grandma! I'm pretty sure she had him laughing all day long.



To add to the excitement, Quilley came for a visit the last night Connie was here. He's going to be one of Craig's board patients. Wish Craig luck with his last round of boards next week!!!

And just for fun, video of dad and Isaac playing with the new toy from Connie. Thanks again!

7 months and sittin' pretty

Birthday

My birthday was last week and I had the best day. Craig took the day off and I got to do whatever I wanted! I decided on a road trip.

To start it off right, we picked up breakfast at Wawa.

I had to laugh at their lunch special sign... "all that AND a bag of chips"

We took back roads to Cape May, NJ - a beach town at the southernmost tip of New Jersey.

It's famous for it's beautiful Victorian homes. This was a Victorian style one across from the beach.

Most exciting was showing Isaac the ocean for the first time!

We went on a nice little walk on the beach

and I put his fat little feet in the sand.

When we got home, a friend had left chocolate covered strawberries on my doorstep and Craig made my most favorite cake ever.

What a great day.

Green beans

Another catch-up video. This is from a month ago as well.

Isaac trying green beans for the first time... enjoy!

No worries though, he loves them now. In fact, he loves EVERYTHING food-related. Green beans, peas, carrots, squash, sweet potato, banana, apple sauce, pears, peaches, prunes, berries... you name it, he'll eat it.

This kid is a total "angel baby" as my mom would say. :) I just can't get enough of him.

Poconos

A few weeks ago, we got to spend a night in the Poconos with friends. We stayed in this great house that belonged to a friend of a friend of Ashley's.


The funniest thing was when we showed up we weren't sure we had the right house! The door was unlocked, lights on and there were coats and other signs of life like people had just ran out to get dinner or something. Turns out we had the right house, but it was a little creepy for a while thinking we were in the wrong one!


Reese holding baby Isaac! :)

And Dad taught Isaac how to drink from a cup!

Catch up

I'm a little behind on blogging and somehow missed the entire month of March. Sorry guys!

In March, Isaac turned 6 months old. He grew his 3rd AND 4th tooth, can finally pull his feet all the way to his mouth and last, but not least, he started sitting up on his own! He's a PRO at it now -- whoo hoo!


This video clip is from the beginning of March...



Other than keeping busy with Isaac, we've been working, fixing up the house and trying to squeeze in site seeing. We visited the Adventure Aquarium in NJ, Thomas Massey House in Broomall, PA and the Winterthur DuPont estate in Delaware. So much to see, such little time!