four quatre quattro fier

I cannot believe Isaac is four. That seems really big to me. At the same time, I feel like I have known Isaac forever, so four seems really young. It is weird to me.

Luckily, our annual staff retreat was the same day as his birthday, so while I was unable to take the whole day off, I did get to slip out for singing him happy birthday at snack time, free of guilt for not seeing kids (because it was a non-service day)! And we got done early, so I got to pick him up early. There was actually a reception at work because I guess it was 21 years for my workplace, and they had cake, so I just pretended it was for Isaac and he went with that. The motor team set up an obstacle course in their room and of course Isaac was all about that.

Here are some pictures from Isaac's snack-time party. I have no excuse for not having other pictures from that day, but it felt very busy, with the upcoming trip to California...

I don't know how a post could summarize Isaac at four, but some things about him are that he is so smart and good at remembering words. He is a really sweet boy who loves his little sister so much. He is a gentleman who opens doors for ladies and girls (and others in general). He asks "What does ___(insert challenging-to-define word here)___ mean?" very frequently. He says "hopefully" instead of "actually", as in, "Hopefully I did that already!"

 The remaining pictures were taken by Isaac.

 There were several kids out sick that day.

 Sonia got to come too, because she came to the retreat. She was so happy to be at the party for her favorite big brother of all time.

We love our sweet precious Isaac so much! 

Oh, and a side note - at his 4 year checkup, he was 3 feet 7.5 inches tall (above the 95th percentile, so yes, he is tall for his age) and weighed 38.8 pounds (with clothes on). Still not in booster seat land, I don't think. He had to get two shots, which he cried about. The nurse practitioner said they were pre-kindergarten shots though, so I wonder if that means he won't have any next year? On the off chance that that was the case, and because we haven't decided if he will go to Burkina (or if anyone will) this coming year, I thought it would be better to just get it done.

As a comparison, although unfortunately this is in metric measurements, at two years he was 90.20 cm, at three years 101 cm, and this year 110 cm. At 2 years he was 12 kg, at 3 years he was 15.4 kg, and at 4 years he was 17.6 kg. So, he continues to grow! 

the death of Mila the parakeet

A really really sad thing happened. The day before Isaac's 4th birthday, our pet parakeet, Mila (who is a boy), died. We found him on the bottom of the cage, but he was not dead yet, oh no. He was having some sort of agonal breaths. We stayed with him until the end. Isaac made a little bed for him though and I think Isaac did not think he was dead yet when we left..

 because when we got back he was super upset and cried and cried and cried. I cried too. It is always sad to lose a pet, but it is indescribably sad for your baby to lose their first pet. Or maybe I was just feeling extra emotional that day. I remember what it felt like when Peet, my first parakeet, died after he crawled under a cushion and got sat on.

 Well, I decided, we have done all we can for Mila, and now he deserves a proper burial, as all good pets do. So we went and buried him in our community garden plot. Maybe that sounds kind of weird, but we put him in by the raspberries. I guess our other option was somewhere in the landscaping behind our apartment or back in the little wooded area behind the other apartments, but that might have looked a little suspicious....

So we found a good-sized box. Isaac completely broke down and cried when we wrapped him up to put him in the box. That is actually the part where we both cried. At that moment, it became very real. Mila is really dead and this is it.

 Isaac looks pretty chipper in the above photo though. The choice of the Wheat Thins box may have helped distract him from its contents. 

And that is the story, accompanied by several totally unnecessary photos, of how Isaac's first pet died.

Isaac has been wanting to remember Mila in our prayers. I'm not sure how appropriate it is, but I figure it is an okay coping mechanism, and God looks after all the birds too. He also has a renewed interest in praying for Mr. Troxel. To date his only experiences with death are those two: Mr. Troxel (we actually went to his funeral on Isaac's 3rd birthday...) and Mila. Nobody die next year any time within a month on either side of Isaac's birthday. Got it? Okay thanks. 

Isaac's 4th birthday party

We had Isaac's birthday party the weekend before his actual birthday. It was fun and luckily the weather was nice so we were able to make our park plans happen. Now that I think about it, a consistent theme in Papa and my relationship has been that for social events, we prefer to spend more money on food than the "venue". I would say maybe it was just me, but Papa is actually that way too. He actually fine-tuned the bissap recipe too and it turned out really good. Without further ado, here are the pictures!

Ah, yes, I forgot to mention that Isaac wanted a "rainbow superhero" party. So here is the rainbow spiderman cake before assembly...plus some cupcakes. I made it from scratch to avoid food allergies to soy for one kid, and the Taste of Home cookbook came through for me! It was edible. Hooray!

 Then we had the party and I took about three pictures of Isaac then forgot about the camera. Isaac had a lovely flower crown made for him by one of the moms. We live in Eugene, folks, and we are all flower children here.

 No, but I actually thought it was cute!

 One of the few pictures where you can see the rainbow spiderman cake pre-consumption. Note my total cop-out by just making a spider web with a spider on top instead of a Spiderman picture. Isaac didn't care though.

 In fact, it was kind of windy, and I couldn't light  the candles, so we had Isaac pretend he was blowing them out, and he was a good sport about that too.

 This is not the best picture of me, but I liked it because it has a lot of people in the picture and one day it will help me remember some of the people who came.

 Isaac had fun playing with the kids. I noticed he played a lot with his classmates. It is interesting, because he already spends a lot of time with them. I guess maybe it is like adults - the more you get to know people, the more likely you are to either want to spend more time with them or not spend time with them. Maybe?

I'm so glad Papa took some pictures! It really was a nice day at the park. I am looking forward to a year in the future when Isaac's actual birthday will fall on a weekend again. Those first two years were so convenient! We enjoyed the party very much. If you brought a gift, thank you for not making it too big, and if you didn't bring a gift, thank you for reading the invitation carefully. We really have a lot of stuff in our house and now I will need to go through the toys again and give some of them away - well, the ones we don't use anymore or are not in the best shape...

collector

Isaac has been collecting little rocks and wood chips lately. Little lego pieces inevitably find their way home too. When we are walking, he will stop multiple times and stoop down: "Oh, this is a really cool rock!" He picks it up and puts it in his pocket. I keep finding more rocks in every load of laundry. 

 He just wants Sonia to be his same age so they can play together more. Since she is sitting up now though, she is able to play more than she was able to just a few weeks ago.

"Why is this ball on my head?" wonders Sonia.

In other news, Isaac's bottle is going away now. As in right now. I was going to wait until he turned 4 but he just flicked milk all over the house and, yes sir-ree, that is your last bottle of warm strawberry milk in your life. I hope you liked it.

Chloe is baptized!

Well, first a picture of Isaac's awful rug burn that he got at preschool. It was actually not as bad at this point. Apart from the rug burn, do you think he still looks like Uncle Mikey? I found this picture in a box- Uncle Mikey is about 7 or 8. We'll have to pull it out again in 4 years.

 Isaac's rug burn is now completely gone. He apparently was running in his classroom (which of course they are not supposed to do) and tried to leap for the couch and missed. I suspect he had something in his hands too, otherwise it doesn't make sense that his face caught his fall. He had a bloody nose too. I guess it was bad for 5 minutes but then stopped. I don't know, to me that is not too bad, especially given that Isaac bonked his face on the rug. I got nosebleeds spontaneously all the time when I was a kid. Nana tried to have my nose cauterized twice, with no resulting decrease in nosebleed frequency. So far Isaac hasn't had a ton of nosebleeds, but he has had a few, so I bet he has a little bit of that same issue. The rug burn, though, really caught me off guard when I picked Isaac up that day. The teachers had called and told me about it, so I knew, but I wasn't prepared for how it would look.

On to the next story. We finally got to meet our adorable baby cousin Chloe at her baptism last Sunday!    

All the kids were watching her get ready.

 Beautiful girl cousins! And Ryan, who is definitely not a girl but is handsome.

 Some of Chloe's family

 I like this part in the Eastern rite. Of course my pictures are not great because I was trying to make sure Sonia didn't grab the camera. 

 There is that darling little baby!

I didn't mean to be bad and post my pictures before Erin did, but mine are definitely not as good as hers will be anyway! Plus, the boys have gone on a day trip with Adama and his family to the African store in Portland to stock up on attieke and other fun things, and Sonia is falling asleep, AND I have a little story to go along with it.

Isaac was in the bath Monday night by himself and I was nursing Sonia to sleep. I heard singing from the bathroom: "The baptism of Baby Chloeeeee!" then some more pouring. "Baby Chloe is....A-men!" then "Baby Chloe is baptized. Baby Chloe is baptized." It was really cute. I thought it was cool that he remembered because I didn't think he was paying attention. He is such a good boy. I hope he becomes a priest some day.

Pâques 2013: part 4 - Mass and the AfterMass

Here are pictures from Easter Sunday Mass. Sonia's first Easter! Alleluia!

 Afterwards, we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's for Easter brunch and possibly the most awesome Easter egg hunt ever courtesy of Uncle Dough - ahem- the Easter bunny.

 This picture is so out of focus but I had to include it.

 By this time Isaac was an old pro at Easter egg hunts. However, this one was trickier since some eggs matched the color of their surroundings.

 Papa said, "When we build our house in Burkina, I want this kind of tree." Sounds like a plan, since I am sure it will thrive and grow 30 feet tall in that kind of weather. In Eugene it would just die because of the cold winters.

 I did not know the Easter Bunny could jump that high. 

 We took some family pictures. I think this should be a new tradition. It seems like we haven't had any luck with getting everyone there with our Thanksgiving photo... 

 Uncle Chris is not in these, of course, but I think we may well have everyone else.

 We got a couple pictures of our own little family. Isaac was not being very compliant so this is probably the best one overall, despite my lovely chin lines. In fact, I am probably supposed to make a big copy of this one. :) Just so I can see those chin lines every day. 

 Then at some point, Isaac watched TV. Look at the intense concentration in his face.

It was a very joyous Easter!

Pâques 2013: part 3 - Nana's pre-birthday birthday dinner

Oh look! I forgot to finish the Easter pictures. Kind of like those Christmas pictures that I never posted. Or those jobs in Salem I still haven't applied for. Hm.

Here are some of when we went to dinner on Holy Saturday with most of the family to celebrate Nana's 50th birthday. We went because Boompa and Auntie Anna and Uncle Mikey will all be gone when it is her real birthday. Also that weekend before is our cousin Pat's wedding, so we will get to see lots of family then. We went to Ocean Bleu, formerly known as Gino's. I always felt an affinity for that place growing up, even though we never went there. It was really all about the name. There are relatively few people named Gina or Gino out there, so I really notice when people have the same name. 

 We got to see Uncle Doug! 

 Sonia got to spend some time with Grandma.

 And of course our spunky London was there too!

 The boys.

 Sonia got to hang with Uncle Doug too. She would like him to take her on a motorcycle ride as soon as she can sit up a little better. 

 London, we just love you! Is there really a cuter niece anywhere in the world?

It was pretty good food - not as great as Local Oceans, but still edible and fine. Now we know about another restaurant in Newport! The most important thing is that we got to celebrate Nana's birthday all together!! We love you Nana!