so yum

 Isaac had a fever yesterday, so he got sent home from daycare. Poor Isaac. Actually, it worked out perfectly because I didn't have my externship today so no one lost out. I just thought I would share some different things we have been doing and cute things Isaac has been saying. It was so fun to spend the day together with Isaac.

I was cooking black-eyed peas for a recipe and when I drained them, I think Isaac must have asked "What's that?" because somehow he said, "Beans. So yum!" I was a little surprised because last time I checked, Isaac is not a huge beans fan. So I offered him one and of course he did not want it. But they are so yum. So very yum. Isaac just had chicken and rice instead.

Really so yum.

 We spent a good amount of time inside today (poor Isaac) because Mama was waiting to see if her supervisor would call or not, and it was raining in the morning. Still, it was good for recuperating and finding new games to play.

We played with this stacking blocks set that my cousin Erin got for Isaac. It is really cute, with little vintage-style pictures on the sides. Isaac loved building the tower and knocking it down - especially the second part. There was a picture of a girl on one side of it with a broom. Isaac thought the broom was some kind of machine, but I corrected him, and we talked about the girl. Later, we talked about boys and girls. Isaac had said, "Isaac girl!" I said, "No, Isaac is a boy. Mama is a girl and Isaac is a boy." We argued about it and finally Isaac had the last word that he was a girl and I decided to drop it for the moment. This evening, we checked with him, and he had to admit that he is actually a boy. Glad we have that cleared up. Next, to un-confuse the words "cow" and "pig". (He knows what each animal does but for some reason calls the cow a pig and the pig a cow... I have no idea how to unteach it so probably with time he will figure it out.)

One other cute thing he said this morning (or maybe weird, depending on your stage in life): he pointed to his cheek and said "Broken da cheek." I said, "Really? How can your cheek be broken?"
He replied "Fell it. Take it off." I told him we can't take our cheeks off. They are part of our face and we just have to live with them. Maybe this is related to the "no wanna kisses" stage. :)

In other news, we weaned Isaac at night over the weekend very successfully so far. The only weird thing has been that he's been a little sick with a cough so a few modifications (like water at night), but it worked really well for our set up and I'd love to write about it. I'll just add it here. I just figured out how to use the "jump break" thing so if you don't care you are spared my rambling. Hoorah! 

 I had been going back and forth about how to wean him at night. For one thing, it was mostly fine to nurse at night, except when he would wake up a bunch of times close together. I would get a little crabby at those times, then Isaac would cry loudly because he couldn't nurse, and the neighbor would knock on the wall (don't EVER do this if you live next to people with a baby. Just don't. It's not socially appropriate and it doesn't help the situation.); not a good setup. The main reason for weaning at night had to do with the weight gain issue (which I'll talk about some other day. I might just stop worrying about it.), and he seemed like he was pretty well ready for it. For example, we have been imposing more structure on when he can eat and how long he can nurse (so he will be hungry when mealtime comes around). He complained a lot the first day when he had to have snack first, then nurse, but quickly changed his tune. Overall he is starting to mature a lot behavior-wise. So, I thought it was worth a try. To avoid the neighbor, we went to Nana and Boompa's for the first two nights. I told Isaac the night before we started that it was going to be happening. The way we said it (I think it is a good approach for older kids who can understand somewhat) that "The nyo is going to sleep. Isaac is going to sleep. Mama is going to sleep. We will all wake up in the morning." Then since he's been nursing so well to sleep, I said, okay, we don't have to change this part. The target behavior to reduce was nursing in the middle of the night. When he woke up and asked for nyo, I said, "No, Isaac, the nyo is sleeping until morning, when the sun comes up." (It is better to start this when the sun comes up earlier, it seems.) Of course, the first time he was super upset. But even the next time in the same night, he was less upset. The next night he was hardly upset at all, and we decided we didn't need a third night at Nana and Boompa's. The only fluke was that he put off his nap that day, so took it on the way back and went right back to sleep upon arriving home (so he didn't eat again), so we had to make a midnight run to Safeway for bananas for a "hungwi" boy. I think that is enough detail. The important thing is to be firm and never say, "Oh, it's okay to nurse just this once," because that can be confusing. But on the flip side, it is important to identify the target behavior and realize that you don't have to change everything if you can logically figure out how to modify just that behavior, given your knowledge of your child. You don't have to force them to figure out how to go to sleep in their own crib all of a sudden if you are co-sleeping and like that arrangement. You don't have to stop nursing altogether. Now that we have everything figured out, maybe it's time for that second child everyone keeps asking about. ;) [And if you are wondering when that is, ask God, because He's the only one that can tell you for sure. It's not in 9 months from now, though.]