up from the ashes

Well, we have moved into our new place now. The USB cord and camera are finally reunited, but strangely there aren't that many exciting or great pictures. Maybe there are some videos - I will have to check in a little while, but I wanted to give you the good pictures to look at in case plans change! We really like our new place. It is nicer than our old place although smaller. Since Papa is taking the Versa to work now, we are learning the ins and outs of LTD, which is actually a very nice bus system. I think I've figured out how we can get to the store with the bus now. The benefit of this is that Isaac can just ride on me instead of in a carseat. The goal tonight is to make some quiche Lorraine. To think that this is actually a goal within possibility now is really quite amazing. Just three months ago that would have been impossible to conceive (sp?) of. I'm excited to try it out. Here is Isaac wiping his own face. This explains much of the extra time I have gained.

It looks like all our immediate neighbors (below and beside) are from Chile. How ironic that we had an exchange student from Chile in high school! (Gloria!) It makes me excited to go there someday. She should invite us to her wedding and we will go.

The laundry costs less (25 cents less) here and the machines are better. Score. I just did more laundry in the past 36 hours than I'm sure I have ever done for us. Papa's favorite color really is black, I am beginning to realize. Not that he overwears it, but there are quite a few black clothes that came through.

I finally found the two outfits I bought for Isaac before he was born. I was so excited that they still fit! Here is the pajama outfit. Good thing I took a picture the first night, because when I went to put it on him the second night, I found that the zipper was broken. I guess I'll be keeping it for memories now.

Then here is Isaac in the bathtub in the bathtub. I don't know if we will do all his baths this way from now on, but it's not a bad setup. Maybe this is what Grandma was talking about though when she said it hurts your back. It might after awhile. (update: the Grandma names are still confusing... I haven't made a final decision. Grandmama is a lot harder to say than you would think.)

Here is Isaac when he fell asleep on Julie. And Nathanael in the picture just for good measure. I know some of you may have hated his columns when he wrote for the Barometer. I have random friends and like them all. That's just how it is. It was great to see them.

I think most of the pictures on the camera were just cute ones of Isaac like this, although not as cute or in focus, hence why they are not posted.

And, there are some pictures from Laura's surprise party to come. They need a little creative editing. Hopefully later today I can post those and a video or two. I can't believe August is almost over already! It was fun to have the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang titles. Actually Grandma got us the DVD. Isaac and I are pretty darn excited.

flavor of fruit

On Tuesday, we went to Newport. We picked some blackberries,

cooked 'em up,
strained them,

stirred the juice with sugar,

to make blackberry jelly!

Then of course we made Isaac pose with the canned jelly.

He wasn't pleased by the fifth shot or so.

Look at that sad little face.

While we were making the jelly, Uncle Mikey rocked Isaac to sleep.

And Grandpa played with him and a big, colorful ball with little ribbon tags on it.

Isaac was so tired when he got back home on Wednesday that he could barely keep his eyelids open.

I weighed myself in Newport and I think I'm close enough to pre-pregnancy weight now, given the *ahem* extra tissue that now exists in the food-producing aisle. Yay! Before you react, I weighed Isaac today, since I like to do that every week, and he is exactly 15 lbs now. Before you accuse me of over-feeding him, he also grew 3/4 of an inch (in eight days) and is now 26 inches long. I was so astounded that I had to ask the medical assistant to measure him again. So, I guess he was going through a growth spurt and that explains all the weight transfer. She measured his head circumference in inches too and it is 16 and 1/2 inches. Last time they did it in centimeters and that didn't mean much to me since they had never done it in centimeters before.

We went to campus today and said hi to Kevin Ahern! Indira wasn't there because she wasn't feeling well, and Dr. Karplus was in a meeting so we'll have to come back some other time. Still, it was nice to go to campus since we are moving so soon.

hush-a-bye mountain

Isaac has changed his sleeping habits somewhat. He still goes to bed at 9:30 ish, but he is now staying awake longer and napping longer in general. I don't know if this is due to the fact that he turned three months old on Saturday or because we keep doing ridiculous amounts of driving. I am pretty sure the USB cord and camera and internet are still not in the same apartment, and for some reason that memory card (from the good camera) doesn't fit in my netbook, so I think there aren't more pictures. Let me go see.

Oh, actually I do have some from the day of moving 95% of our stuff.

They are from my old camera, which isn't as good, but I'm feeling like Isaac's blog is a little picture starved for a person who is so visual at this age.

Tomorrow we are going to Grandmama's house to make blackberry jam. We have instituted a name change. The lady formerly known as Great-Grandma will now be called Grandma, and the lady formerly known as Grandma will now be called Grandmama. Now you won't be confused. Great-Grandpa may become Grandpa.... I'm not really sure. I don't know what that makes Grandpa. Grandpops maybe? Maybe we can just have Grandpa Wally and Grandpa Rex, or Great-Grandpa and Grandpa.

Isaac and Uncle Greg

The Christmas tree trailer that Great-Uncle David lent us to move with.

Isaac and Grandma


Great-Grandpa taking a break

Uncle Craig taking a break

Grandma and Grandpa Wally/Great-Grandpa came over and helped out a ton this last week. We moved more stuff down and did an initial apartment cleaning thanks to them.

On Wednesday, we measured Isaac and he weighed 14 lbs 6.5 oz and measured 25 and 1/4 inches. He's still growing but I guess it may be slowing a little bit. I think we will wait to start him on solids until 6 months because he is kind of big. Luckily, that will be right around Thanksgiving! He can eat some sweet potatoes. I'm getting excited already.

Saturday we went to Portland for a surprise party for Laura. Through divine intervention, Isaac slept all the way to Woodburn so we made it on time. We were the first ones there actually. Unfortunately our Versa is rather distinctive, so I guess we ruined the surprise, halfway. Still, it was very fun! Pictures to come with the reunion of the USB cord to the camera.

Today we met up with some other friends (Nathanael, Julie and Angie) over lunch too, and Isaac was so tired he just fell asleep in Julie's arms. It's like he's really mellowing out or something.

Finally, Isaac's favorite new word: bing.

someone to care for

We are in the process of moving. Thank goodness for family and fictive kin!
Everything is a bit in disarray so I have no pictures for you right now.

However, Isaac has been joining his hands together at midline now quite regularly. Also, he has started suddenly staying awake for up to 2.5 hours at a time before he needs a nap. It's quite a jump from 1.5 hours like he was doing last week. Tomorrow we are going down to Eugene again and plan to stay through the weekend. Hopefully we can go through most of those boxes and start feeling like life is little more organized!

Isaac's new favorite game: mountain-climbing. This is where he takes his little steps (reflexive? It's hard to tell... we don't think so.) and climbs up, up, up your chest to your shoulders. Twice now, he has given a little shriek of joy when he reaches the top. Perhaps I can have someone catch this on video sometime. It is so sweet.

Last night Isaac pinned me between himself and the wall. That little snugglebug. I love him more every day.

my teddy bear

What else have we been up to these past couple of days? Isaac has been enjoying his new little bathrobe after every bath.

He can squat with support now.

He opened his first bank account and got a piggy bank with a dollar.

He posed for the camera with his new Pooh bear.

And learned how to hold on to the swing, with a little help.

Isaac has also been making "raspberries" lately. Those are the ones where you go "bbbbbbbb" with your lips and get spit everywhere. They're pretty fun.

Also, he HATES the garbage truck, just like his Mama. I will actually walk down a different street to avoid the garbage truck, although I don't know why precisely I hate it so much. I used to also hate the sirens in the Loyalty Days Parade when I was little. Anyway, we were going towards Borders for our morning walk and the garbage truck pulled into Carl's Jr and maneuvering around. He started crying and screaming until I crossed the street. So, not only does Isaac prefer flora and fauna to cars, but he has a strong aversion to big, scary, loud trucks. That's alright. I always wanted a little scientist.

If you seek perfection

Isaac got baptised! Father John was the presider that day and that was extra exciting.

We also had our BabyFest, and it was very fun. I won't brag about it more because it's kind of an exclusive party, and you can't go unless you have very young kids, and I don't want anyone to feel jealous. But, well, alright, I'll tell you anyways and you will just have to deal with any jealousy on your own. We had a nice walk to the OSU campus, lots of fun with the babies, and lots of great conversations. Henri made a great dinner. Henri and I didn't do so well at Scattergories, and we proved to be an awesome team when we played Sequence, even though Henri claimed not to understand how the game worked at the beginning. Hopefully we all slept well because the next day was quite fun-filled too, but also busy.

What follows is the largest collection of photos of Isaac in one post to date. This is fitting, because his baptism is probably the most important event he has yet had in his life. So, I will use that as an excuse. If a picture is worth a thousand words, there are 16,000 right here. So, I will try to keep it to captions for the remainder of this post.

Our little Catholic family

Isaac and his parents and godparents, and adorable cousin

Isaac's personal idea of an afterparty.

Some of the guests. We missed Uncle Doug, so hopefully we can go up to see him soon!

The Godfather.

The lovely godparents and a curious Louisa

Touching the baby

And a sweet little smile

Perfecting the stand, while fans look on

Louisa was just so cute. Really, even pictures don't quite do her justice. Also, Mike & Kayleen, if there are any pictures you don't want up, let me know and I can just send them to you and take them down from here. Henri requests post edits all the time, so don't worry about it. I like all the pictures but evidently I don't always have very discerning tastes.

Louisa grabbing Isaac's hair, as predicted.

I thought it was hilarious, but I guess no one else did. Isaac seemed to be unharmed though, and didn't seem to care much.

Isaac was very interested in Louisa. I think he is interested in things that are about his size right now, and Louisa is the first person that is just about his size that he has really had time to get to know. Although, his head still has some growing to do in the next few months. Growing the brain is a lot of work.

Just a random cute photo of Louisa. Notice where Isaac is looking. He was just loving to look at Louisa.

Yes, Isaac has big ol' feet. When he gets into high school, I'm sure this will be a huge financial commitment if he keeps it up.

I don't know if Isaac is kind of anti-social, but the less people were around, the more awake he seemed to get. Or maybe that baptism just wore him out! It's a lot of work being a Catholic!

toot sweets

Isaac and I have spent a lot of time together the past week. It has been wonderful catching up. So wonderful, in fact, that I just barely got that final project done on time.

For anyone who wants to know, apraxia is the loss of ability to execute complex motor sequences, such as dressing oneself, eating, or speaking intelligibly.
Isaac decided to take a cooking class from our chef de cuisine, but I think he'll need to practice a little before he can do it by himself.

And finally, I was taking Isaac's clothes out of the closet to start boxing up the ones he can't wear right now. I was excited to find that this cute sleeper that my cousins sent Isaac is actually a 3 month size. I figured he had better start wearing it now, and it is sooo cute! He looks like a little woodland elf with the hat on! He is going to wear it a lot now. In fact, I might save it after he grows out of it because you never know what the gender of future children might be. And green is kind of neutral. Girls can wear green.

Isaac has had a lot of gas lately too. I'm not sure why that is. Strangely, though, he isn't crying as much as he used to. Today, he was making these high-pitched squeak noises in addition to his usual repertoire. Very interesting.

He is becoming a huge fan of walks too.

truly scrumptious

I forgot to mention before that I went in to weigh Isaac yesterday and he was 13 lb 10.5 oz, meaning he gained 15 oz in 12 days. Also, he is 25 inches long now. His schedule lately has been: wake up, eat, poop, get diaper changed, play, cry, eat, sleep, repeat. I guess all the eating is going somewhere. I just wasn't expecting quite that much weight gain.

Great Grandma was wondering if when Isaac folded his little hands across his chest the other night if he might be praying. I think that is quite possible. Isaac is such a good little guy.

Tonight we went out to Elmer's to eat, courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa. It was good! Isaac was a little cranky though so we came home early. These other people were there with their baby and he was only one week younger than Isaac, but they were feeding him mashed potatoes! Um... guys... not supposed to do that yet. Anyways.

Also, I don't want to seem single-minded, - but hey, it's my blog about Isaac and therefore about baby things too- I always feel bad for some reason when I see other babies eating/drinking formula. I just feel sorry for them, even though I know sometimes people can't breastfeed for whatever reason. There's just something about breastfeeding that makes you feel like you are giving your baby the best possible start in life, and there is research to back this up. Breastfed babies have less ear infections, and less ear infections generally means less speech delays, and less speech delays helps out even into school age. So, props to those whobreastfeed your babies (I think you probably all do/did). That's what those things on your chest are for anyways. I remember reading that the breast is not mature until you are pregnant and it starts preparing for lactation. It's so obvious, but it had never occurred to me in that way. I guess our society views breasts differently than some other ones, although I'm sure there are many others that also think an exposed breast is really not cool. I personally don't feel like it's all that exposed when they latch on, but then again I can only see it from one angle. I think it's also something you might change your mind about once you have a baby, because I remember not being sure about mothers who breastfed in public before. Then again, not everyone does change their mind. I have also realized that recently, and now am pretty sure it depends on your cultural context. However, I also would give the evil eye to people whose babies would scream and cry or be loud in church and they wouldn't do anything about it. I was kind of a mean kid, I suppose. It is a little distracting, but also nice when everyone just ignores it and focuses on the Mass rather than on everything going on around them. Has anyone else ever gone to Spanish Mass? It always seems to me like the Hispanic community is extremely child-oriented. It's a very good way to be in my opinion. There are many child-friendly people around in general, but there are also a lot who aren't so child-friendly. Those people make me just a little sad, mostly if they are older than me. I can't say I've met too many of them since having Isaac though, so I feel pretty lucky.

I guess the reason I may think about some of these things differently than others is that I am no longer sure of my exact cultural context. I know I am European-American, and am influenced by that. However, our family is also decidedly African in some ways. Overall, we mix and match and make it up as we go. With your first child, I think everyone does that to some degree.

Alright, that's about all for tonight. Now I have to start writing a paper about apraxia, and it can't be about how it affects language/communication. Dangit. That would have been much more professionally relevant, but oh well, I guess we're supposed to branch out or something. Maybe it will help me stop getting apraxia and ataxia and dysarthria all mixed up in my head.

Candy, ice cream, lollipops... and all free, today!

Here's the video I was hoping to put up yesterday, but never got around to.

I finally finished my second final! One more to go and I am officially free until September 21.. from grad school stuff, that is. I actually got this one $1000 award to do research, and I have to revise my budget and probably find a different conference to go to with the award, since it's a little less than expected, but I am confident that it will work out.

I am so excited for Isaac's baptism this Sunday!

He might need it. In case you forgot, it is August 9th at 11 am at St. Mary's in Corvallis (the 11 am Mass). If you read this blog, you are invited. Mike and Kayleen and Louisa are coming down on Saturday, so I am looking forward to our little BabyFest. We will also probably try to set up some food thing for afterwards, but that is not finalized yet.

Look at Isaac's neck extension during his bath last night! Not surprisingly, he is starting to smell a lot less cheesy these days.

Uncle Mikey came over today and Isaac slept on him for quite some time.

And now, on to the last final, which is actually a large final project. Oh boy. At least Isaac is cute and provides rewarding study breaks.