Happy Birthday Isaac!
Can you believe it’s been two years? What a wild ride. Isaac has grown SO much – he’s walking (and running) and talking (and singing). We went to the zoo this morning and are back and lunched and down for a nap. Mommy wants a nap too, but I did promise to post something today.
To start us off, here’s a video from last month when Isaac escaped from potty time to take a walk around the house in mommy’s hiking boots.
And here are a few recent snapshots:
A trip to the botanical garden
tricycle lessons
backyard adventures with our penguin backpack and mom’s garden gloves
Carkeek Park
Chilling with Grandpa
Four generations of Miller men
Promised birthday pics to the grandparents. Hopefully I’ll be getting those up tomorrow…
Filed under Family, Isaac, Video | Comment (1)Wait for it…
Hold on to your seats everyone! Isaac is about to turn TWO which means we just might need to liven up this website with some updated pictures. Also, little birdies have told me there are still a few die-hard fans checking in once in a while hoping, just hoping there might be some updates. What optimism! And it’s spring after all, so it should be rewarded.
But first, in honor of National Poetry month, a great poem by Sharon Olds:
Looking at Them Asleep
| When I come home late at night and go in to kiss the children, | |
| I see my girl with her arm curled around her head, | |
| her face deep in unconsciousness—so | |
| 4 | deeply centered she is in her dark self, |
| her mouth slightly puffed like one sated but | |
| slightly pouted like one who hasn’t had enough, | |
| her eyes so closed you would think they have rolled the | |
| 8 | iris around to face the back of her head, |
| the eyeball marble-naked under that | |
| thick satisfied desiring lid, | |
| she lies on her back in abandon and sealed completion, | |
| 12 | and the son in his room, oh the son he is sideways in his bed, |
| one knee up as if he is climbing | |
| sharp stairs up into the night, | |
| and under his thin quivering eyelids you | |
| 16 | know his eyes are wide open and |
| staring and glazed, the blue in them so | |
| anxious and crystally in all this darkness, and his | |
| mouth is open, he is breathing hard from the climb | |
| 20 | and panting a bit, his brow is crumpled |
| and pale, his long fingers curved, | |
| his hand open, and in the center of each hand | |
| the dry dirty boyish palm | |
| 24 | resting like a cookie. I look at him in his |
| quest, the thin muscles of his arms | |
| passionate and tense, I look at her with her | |
| face like the face of a snake who has swallowed a deer, | |
| 28 | content, content—and I know if I wake her she’ll |
| smile and turn her face toward me though | |
| half asleep and open her eyes and I | |
| know if I wake him he’ll jerk and say Don’t and sit | |
| 32 | up and stare about him in blue |
| unrecognition, oh my Lord how I | |
| know these two. When love comes to me and says | |
| What do you know, I say This girl, this boy. |
Happy Birthday Isaac!
I really can’t believe he’s a year old today! My goodness. Last night we were reminiscing about what we were doing a year ago. As in ‘a year ago we were just headed to the hospital’… and ‘a year ago I was throwing up that burrito I foolishly ate before heading to the hospital’. I’m glad to say we slept through the ‘official’ 4:37am birthday. Actually, we’ve been sleeping quite a bit better in general lately. Yay for that! And yay for Birthdays!
I will need to get some updated pictures, but here’s some videos from the stash I keep meaning to post. Some of these are probably a few months old… but still pretty cute =)
Motoring around the house…
Isaac pops the popper and then OBEYS mommy… Wow =)
Isaac feeding Daddy…
Experiments in self-feeding…
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)The Ides of March / Christmas Letter
Snow falling in Seattle this morning and it feels a little like Christmas. In honor of the occasion I thought I’d finally finish that Christmas letter I started so long ago. As I watched the snow fall, I thought to myself “Self, it’s not too late! Everyone loves a good Christmas letter, no matter when it comes.” So here we are. This is my make-up Christmas letter. After we missed Christmas, it was going to be a New Years letter, then a Valentine’s letter, now it is an Ides of March sort of thing.
What with 11 months lack of sleep, my thoughts are less coherent than usual, and as I’m in a non-sequitur kind of mood we’ll do the greatest hits of the past year or so:
1) Isaac! What a great kid! We’ve totally enjoyed getting to know him and wondering what he’ll be like as he keeps growing up. Such an active little guy and such a cutie. He is pulling himself up, cruising and can walk with Mom or Dad’s help, though he much prefers following Mom around the house at a fast crawl. He also started saying dada and mama, a nice addition to his two month long love affair with baba. No, he still does not sleep through the night. We even broke down and tried drugging him (at the allergist’s recommendation) with Zyrtec and he STILL doesn’t sleep through the night. I don’t like to think about that part. And so, moving on…
2) A New Niece: Our very 1st Niece arrived in January 2008. Katherine Elizabeth. And hey, what great taste those parents have in picking a middle name. Katie has a great laugh and is quite the spunky girl – she has to be to hold her own against all these boy cousins.
3) A New Sister: John and Amber were wed in a beautiful outdoor wedding in May. Isaac took his first plane ride and met most of the extended family. I like having a new sister, but Minnesota is a long ways away for hanging out, so we’re talking up Seattle as a possible future home. My only complaint (and this is purely selfish) is that I still had most of my baby fat in their wedding pictures. Fortunately for me, with Amber in the picture, no one is looking at me anyways =)
4) A New Nephew: Our 2nd Nephew, James Zachariah was born in July. This kid is the most laid back guy you’ll meet. He’s destined for middle childness. (And we ALL love middle children. They’re everyone’s favorite.) He has the cutest little grin and seems to love just about everyone he meets.
5) Grandparents: It’s been a lot of fun watching my parents become grandparents. I think they weren’t really sure about it before hand, like ‘what’s the big deal? it’s just a kid right?’ But once he showed up they really seemed impressed. And who wouldn’t be? My dad sings him the same song my grandpa used to sing to me, my mom buys him the same overalls (Osh Kosh of course) that we used to wear, they get ancy if we haven’t skyped in a while, and they like to find out his latest tricks so they can compare him to their friends grandkids (here’s a hint – Isaac usually wins (except in the sleeping category)).
6) Rediscovering Children’s Literature. Some of our favorites so far: Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, Charlotte’s Web, Beatrix Potter, Roald Dahl, Dr. Seuss, classic golden books from Cliff’s box of childhood favorites, Eric Carle board books, the Little Prince… I’m always looking for new favorites and would love to hear recommendations from you – what do you love?
7) The Joy of Produce Delivery. For six months or so we’ve been getting fresh organic produce delivered to our door. Every other week a bin shows up on the back porch full of delicious goodies. (Except when the cauliflower comes. Then Cliff says “I am NOT eating that”. Although when I cook it up and put it on his plate he concedes, “this isn’t as bad as it usually is.” Small triumphs.) As an unintended benefit it’s probably a great dieting tool as well, since you have to EAT the produce to prevent it spoiling. And from what I can tell you can pretty much gorge yourself on fruits and vegetables and still be pretty healthy. It’s also re-teaching me how cook – instead of shopping with a recipe in hand, I look at what ingredients we have on hand and figure out what we can do with them. Simpler in so many ways.
7b) Homemade baby food. I didn’t pay much attention to the organic foods issue before Isaac, but after reading up on it, I’ve been making most of Isaac’s food at home. It’s pretty easy and I like knowing exactly what’s in it and that it’s relatively fresh. Also it tastes a lot better than the jarred stuff. I’m not sure if it’s related, but this kid eats like a champ. He’ll eat anything you put on a spoon and most stuff you drop on his tray. Little baby bird just keeps opening his mouth for more.
8) Cloth diapering. I wanted to do cloth diapers for environmental reasons, but I really thought it would be so much harder than it is. I should have known better – I’m sure most of us started off in cloth diapers, and it’s only gotten easier since then. If you’re still doing disposables because cloth is intimidating, call me for some tips. It’s really super-easy. I hardly think about it anymore. We do disposables when we’re out for a day or more, but in our standard routine I really prefer cloth.
I could probably come up with more… but Isaac’s about ready to wake up from his nap. I’ll post this now and add pictures / videos as soon as I can figure out where Cliff hid them on the computer. =)
Peace be with you,
The Millers
Filed under Family, Isaac, Non Sequitur | Comments (2)Happy V-Day.
As you may have guessed by my lack of updates, Isaac promptly stopped sleeping through the night. He picked up a stomach flu somewhere (one of the pitfalls of putting every object he encounters in his mouth). After a WEEK of sporadic projectile vomiting, he’s back on track.
Here are a couple videos to tide you over until I can finish my real post…
Filed under Family, Isaac, Video | Comment (1)Whoa.
Well, well, well. It has been a long time! Since I can’t accept responsibility for my own inaction, I blame the delay on Skype’s video chat which we have been regularly enjoying with the grandparents Dixon. They were the driving force behind regular photo updates (since they’re not afraid to pester me with multiple requests). Nevertheless I have been meaning to post – more later, I promise.
Right now, since both Isaac and Cliff are asleep, I’m talking to you instead. Big news! Isaac FINALLY slept through the night last night. And I mean like 6:30pm to 6:00am. Whoa. I know. This from the boy who has been getting up 3+ times a night (every night) for EVER. And now he’s back asleep.
I have a lot of theories on the wakefulness, and a lot of theories on what may have now cured it, but I’m actually tired of talking about it. And I have to keep reminding myself that it was only one night. But still, I could get used to this sleeping thing!
So for now, I will just celebrate.
Filed under Isaac, neuroses | Comments (3)
Cutest Baby updates
Disclaimer: In calling my baby the cutest baby ever, I mean no slight against any other baby, past or present. And I recognize that I just might have a biased viewpoint in this matter. The Miller grandparents have welcomed two other grandchildren this year and there has been some concern on the part of the other mothers that we are attempting to make Isaac the ‘favorite’ grandchild (following in the footsteps of his father, the ‘favorite’ child and if favoritism is shown by the quantity of free meat given during a visit home, then I think we do have a winner). Fear not! Isaac is content to be the Dixon grandparents’ favorite grandchild at least until John and Amber give them another.
Also, as evidenced by this video: dscn1604 I am in no danger of becoming anyone’s favorite Aunt. (They left me alone with the quiet smiling babies for 30 seconds and this is what happens!)
Filed under Cliff, Family, Isaac | Comment (1)
Ode to a Pressure Washer
In spite of my environmentalist tendencies I have an unabashed love of power tools. Some of you have heard me wax poetic on the many fine features of my drill, and I’ll bet you 10 bucks I have more drill bits than I will ever be able to use (or lose).
Meet my latest friend: the Pressure Washer.
What madness prompted this purchase? Sheer maternal instinct.
I’ll explain. Our lovely backyard consists mainly of a large deck and an even larger cement pad, aka the Sport Court (yes, it even has basketball hoops on both ends, and no, I don’t want to discuss the irony of someone as uncoordinated as myself co-owning a full basketball court). If it’s even slightly damp both deck and sport court become, as we like to say, slick as snot. Many a Saturday morning tour of the “yard” has ended with an unintentional slide from one side of the cement to the other. No one’s actually fallen down yet, but I know in advance that it’d be a little hard to catch myself with both hands holding a baby. So to prevent cracking open our dear little Isaac’s head we decided to clean it up.
I’ve never owned a gas powered tool before and I promise you right now that I will *never* be one of those leaf blower people. Anything that can be done with a simple broom or rake does not need to make that much noise. Yet the thought of scrubbing and sanding all this by hand was a bit too much for me. (I am planning to sell it when the project’s done so if anyone in the PacNW wants to borrow it first, let me know. I would *love* to show you how to use it.)
Here’s a glimpse of what we’ve done so far.
Unfortunately now it looks even more than it did before like we have a big cement pad in the backyard… I’m looking into concrete stain. Let me know if anyone has any tips.
Filed under DIY, Non Sequitur | Comment (1)