Isaac loves to play! He says, "Mommy play?" and asks me to join him. What fun!

Playroom!

Snoring soundly... after playing in the new playroom area!

This week Isaac has really been fighting another cold but he is a lot better today. He was coughing a lot Monday and I stayed home with him Tuesday. Wednesday I went to work (I thought he was better) and after a morning call from his babysitter, I got him in to see his doctor. He had a very bad ear infection! Who knew?! He wasn't really complaining and he wasn't pulling his ears. Now I'm on the lookout for similar symptoms. I know "the bad ear look." Scary.

It's raining and very dreary this weekend-- bummer! Brian is also sick.

We had a super inspirational speaker at school yesterday. He was great.

This week we are doing an internal review at our school. I am on the team. We get to go into classrooms and look at student learning and what we could do to improve. I'm excited.

Brian is now a partner at his law firm. Yeah! We are excited!

That's the latest!

Jen

The last posted pictures are me having a hay-day with my new posting discovery. The ice storm pictures at the end are duplicated (I was having computer issues). The pics in-between are my damaged swing (which insurance compensated us for) and us at Brian's high school in Frewsburg, NY, for the Christmas Parade. That day was a warm one for November.
I plan to do better with updates now that I've figured it out.
Jen

This is the dog stuffed animal Isaac saw first when he came down the stairs instead of the train.

Isaac's first xylophone!

Here it is again... by the way, the dates and times are wrong! It's Christmas day!

Do I hear Santa coming?! I love my new train! (Geotrax- stays together well)



Here I am being cute the week before Christmas! (If you look real close, you can see that I am coming down with a cold... don't worry, it was gone by Christmas day.)

I can make this train go with the remote control.

Here I am again before Christmas, these pictures are out of order, mom! I put this funny Santa hat on myself.

Here I am running the windmill switch before the train gets here.

Frosty won't keep his hat on like mine.

This picture is when mom figured out she could post after about an hour.

Yes, it's true! I finally figured out how to post pictures. It's not so hard, and the diagram Andrea sent was helpful. Soon I will post pictures of the ice storm. Have a happy day!

Jen

I got it! Here is the halloween Cardinal! More to come!

Jen's page
Christmas! We started by celebrating at the 5:00 pm children's program at church. Isaac loved the kids! "Kids...ba-bee..jeeshus," he said that night. It was great to celebrate with family and friends before Christmas and on Christmas day. Traditions hold true, it was a holiday to remember.
Isaac news: He didn't really get it. He said, "Preshens, open," but he couldn't get the paper off. It was more fun for Brian and me to watch him. He came down the stairs, and he didn't even see the train we had set up the night before. Oh, well. Next year will probably be even better. We had a great time.

I visited with visiting friends from Colorado (yes-her flight was cancelled and she had to drive), Champaign and California. Old friends are gold.

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve. Resolutions: 1. "Stretches," as Isaac says, 6 days per week. 2. Keep in better touch with my sis, Em (she's going to have another baby!). 3. Eat better.

I love teaching F3 so I'm really looking forward to helping out in 2007. My students will be starting confirmation stuff so I'm anxious to see if I can help out.

I'm looking forward to having next week off of school.

Jen

Jen's page
Santa Train:
On Saturday, amidst the ice and snow, mom and I went to the Santa Train in Monticello. It was the most fun I've had in a long time!
Santa talked to Isaac, and Isaac talked to Santa. He said he wanted a train set. He also told Santa that he couldn't have any of the sack lunch provided because he's allergic to peanuts (and it was pbj, chips and cookies- made in sunflower oil which is still questionable).
Santa told him he'll be sure to stop by Christmas Eve, since he's such a good boy.
The snow-covered countryside was beautiful! Trees are still covered in ice, but the sun was shining brightly and the trees were glistening! The train itself was like going back in time (it must be from the 40's or 50's). Imagine the Polar Express!
Before the train ride, Isaac went to his 3rd Santa parade. He's 3 for 3 in losing it when the bands come by. The loud drums and trumpets throw him for a loop, and he screams for everyone! Unfortunately, he can't have any of the candy thrown from the floats either. Tootsie-pops are a no-no. We will survive.
This morning we visited an allergist and had blood work done so we can know for sure exactly what he is allergic to. No more guessing games after he ate a seemingly harmless did t.v. dinner and broke out it hives last Wednesday night.
We have some of our Christmas decorations up. Isaac loves the lights and the baby Jesus (he says baby Jesus in a sweet little way). I plan to finish up when I stop blogging.
Have a happy day!

Jen's page
The last five days have been very trying at the Hair household! On Thursday night, the ice storm the forcasters had been warning about hit Decatur hard. We had no idea it was going to be as serious as it has been. Our power flickered, and then finally it went out. We waited... but it did not come back. After notifying my parents, my dad came and rescued us. I packed as quickly as I could, and when my dad picked us up, we were drove very close to downed power lines. Yikes! We got over to my mom and dad's where we thought we would be safe from the cold-- they still had power, but in the middle of the night they lost power, too. I had plugged in Isaac's night-light and when I woke up in the dark, I knew we were in trouble! We were going to stay Friday night at Pam and Barry's because they still had power, but my parents power came back around 6 pm, so we just stayed there since all of our stuff was already there.
We went over to Pam and Barry's just to visit and when we left, we went by our house to check again-- still no power. The hotels for miles around have been sold out since early Friday morning. We are so thankful to have family nearby that would take us in.
Sunday after church we went out to eat with my parents and their friends (who don't have power), and I saw a friend from school. She lives in Warrensburg, where I teach, and she still does not have power. Her daughter whose kids go to Warrensburg lives in the country near Warrensburg and they don't expect to get it back until Thursday. They are very cold, considering the temperature is in the teen digits. Staying with friends, and even family, is never quite as good as home sweet home. Back in my own bed last night, I slept soundly! I feel bad for all the people who don't have power yet! One little girl who's in first grade had a fire from a candle in her home, and the whole house burned down! People have purchased generators, but they run on a lot of gasoline, and they can only run one thing, such as the heater, for a short amount of time.
It is a blessing that we only have tree limbs down and a broken fence. Oh, I nearly cried when I found out about the other damage we have. My yard swing was crushed by a fallen tree limb, and it may be ruined. We have to wait to assess the damage until it gets a little warmer. I can't imagine having structural damage to your home. We are praying for Decatur families. We haven't had school since Thursday, but I expect we will have it tomorrow.
It will be a better day!

Jen's page
Maybe I have too old of a program. This window does not have the picture icon. I'll keep trying.

http://us.f321.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?MsgId=2230_4126849_18742_1122_3204_0_5284_12779_3563911814&Idx=0&YY=64520&y5beta=yes&y5beta=yes&inc=25&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b&box=Inbox

Jen's page
Toddler bed update: For about 3-4 weeks, Isaac has been sleeping in a toddler bed. The adjustment for the first few nights was hard. He fell out of bed all through the night for a couple of days. Now things are just fine. He doesn't fall out anymore, and he can climb in and out. He's getting to be so independent! Just tonight, he sat with us for the first time in a real chair at dinner. He felt like such a big boy. I'm not quite ready for that, though. We need a booster. Maybe it will make a good Christmas gift.

Jen's page
Halloween bad news... Two weeks before Halloween we got a lovely surprise, Isaac is allergic to peanuts! How could this be?! Well, we're not sure how it happened, but now we know what happens! After an evening in the emergency room and quite a good scare, we're beginning to cope with the lifestyle changes that have to happen with a peanut allergy. Restaraunts often use peanuts or peanut oil in some form, thus we always need to ask. Further, trick-or-treating is now off-limits! Nearly all candy has peanuts in it (at least the kinds most people give out at Halloween). We have a really good handbook, and several Epipens now. It all happened so quick when Isaac reacted. Literally, 5-7 minutes, tops. Isaac was puffy for nearly a week just from peanut butter touching his lips and face. Luckily he didn't like it. We rushed to the ER and all was well in a couple of hours. I'm sure glad it happened to us and not anyone else because it was scary.

On a lighter note, F3 at church is going well. I really enjoy the 5th and 6th graders in the class I am teaching. My attendance has been pretty good; 10-15 kids every week. The lessons are from the Group series, and they are really good. It's great to share my faith with these kids! They are thoughtful and they take class seriously (most of the time).

Small group is going well, too. The group we have joined is made up of about 5 other couples. Starting this Friday, we are going to start meeting on Friday nights, rather than Sunday afternoons. I'm looking forward to it. The group is an answer to prayer.

My grandpa was 85 on Sunday. He's still doing really well, health-wise. It was fun to celebrate with him!

Isaac's hair is curly! We are waiting to cut it until after we visit NY in a week. I wish I knew how to post pictures!

That's this month's news!

Jen's page

My birthday dream present, a porch swing hanging from two crafted A-frames. We've been enjoying the fall in the backyard so far, swinging. My dream for next season is bird feeders in the former vegetable garden, turned rainbow garden, turned overgrown garden. Lilies sprouting everywhere (I planted a bunch of bulbs, so we'll see how it turns out). I'm really not a gardener, but who cares? Maybe I'll even get a bird bath. Maybe I'll make my own birdbath. How would a few bird houses look, hanging from shepherd's hooks? Developing.....

Jen's page
Sunday night. This is becoming a habit! Isaac is asleep and the house is peaceful. I was with my mom and dad for dinner tonight, as Isaac and I often are on Sundays. This weekend was the art fair in Decatur. Some good works, as always. Brian and I had a babysitter for Saturday night and we went to a violin concert. The concert was super. The violinist is the best from Chicago and she was joining the Decatur Symphony Orchestra. She played some solo pieces, too. She has an amazing story: while holding one of her prized Stratavarious violins, the doors of a crowded subway closed on it. She clung to the violin, probably out of instinct, and was dragged for a distance by the subway. She nearly lost her life, and now wears braces to walk. But she is still playing violin-- never stopped. She didn't mention the unfortunate event while in Decatur, not at the concert or the paper, which had a huge spread in the life section on Saturday (Brian works with someone whose wife is a piano instructor at Millikin). The violinist played a different violin at the concert. It was hand selected by Brahms for one of his best students in the 1500's. Wow!
Isaac news: his giggle makes me laugh. He loves to be tickled.
School news: the weeks are already flying by. School is going pretty well.
I finally did it... I cleaned out some of Isaac's toys; the baby ones. He played with them for such a long time, but we needed more space and he's ready for more challenging stuff. I suppose it was time to put up the mobile for the crib, rattles, and such. Tonight for the first time he put his leg up in the crib like he was coming over. I guess it's almost time to convert to the toddler bed. My grandma said, "You know, they often fall out of the crib." Yikes! I don't want to risk that!
Isaac can crawl the stairs because he watched another kid do it (I'm always right there), but just tonight he lost his footing (or kneeing, if you will), and rolled down 4 stairs sideways. I caught him, and he was only slightly shook up. He falls quite a bit. He wants total independence, but he's not quite ready for that yet. I'd say we have at least 17 more years.
Have a happy day.
Jen

Labor Day Weekend
This has been such a perfect weekend! We went to Hannibal on Friday after work, it's just about 2 hrs. away, and stayed in a hotel. Friday night after arrival we went swimming which was very fun (indoor pool). Saturday morning we got an early start. We went downtown to the Samuel Clemens sights. We took a trolley tour and it was really fun. We saw some neat parts of the area. Next we had lunch and then on to the riverboat tour. That was exciting and Isaac loved it! We decided to make Hannibal an annual event because we had so much fun. Sunday was a super sermon, as always, from Pastor Wray about letting other things become your idols instead of God being the center of your life. Great to hear. Today was our nature day. We went on a hike in the woods (Isaac and stroller included) and we decided that we are going to do something in nature every weekend this fall, like a picnic or a hike.
Sadly, Dairy Queen has closed near us! We were really surprised when we tried to go there. We'll just have to go to McDonald's right across the street for a McFlurry instead! I wish every weekend could be a long weekend. I feel so rested!

Jen's page
School has officially begun! Isaac is glad to get back into the routine of going to Dana's everyday. He loves the other kids. I picked him up one day this week and I could hear a stampede as she opened the door (it's really only 4 kids). Isaac was trying to run with the other 3. He got knocked down by them and had a funny irritated look on his face when I saw him. He's keeping up; helping with clean up and now answering our questions, which is really cute. I'll ask him, "How was your Dana today?" and he'll answer, "Nana," which means Dana. (Not to be confused with "Na-na," with slightly different intonation which means banana, his favorite fruit!) He's starting to attempt to answer by saying something jibberish to almost everything we ask.
With teaching, I've almost completed all of my fall testing and I've selected the 7 students I will be working with. Tomorrow is a paperwork day. Slowly, I will start lessons with kids this week. I'm excited. There will, as always, be a few challenges, but that keeps me on my toes.
Small group begins again on the 12th. We are happily re-joining the group we "birthed" from several years ago. We are studying "The Power of a Praying Parent." We went with the group to pizza on Friday without children, and I'm truly looking forward to reconnecting with some young parents and families.
Life is good!

Jen's page
We counted Isaac's words and, even though my brother doesn't believe me, he says between 35 and 40 words. When we were on vacation, Isaac was jabbering gobbledy-gook. Tim said,
"Jen, did you hear that? Isaac just said, 'Mom, I want a cheese pizza for dinner'."
I laughed and so did he.

Jen's page
Howdy! Today is the last day of July and I never posted in June! Yikes! I'll do better!
We have had a super summer. It has been very relaxing just hanging out with the boy. He's fun. We gave up the bottle before b-day 1 (yes!), and he started walking during his birthday week. I tried to give up one of the naps, but after talking to someone about it, I decided to keep both and it's been going really well. Isaac loves to sleep and this is good! He now knows the routine and even asks for the door to be closed once he has his pj's on at night ("door"). My goal has been to get the routine down so that I only have to lay him down and he goes nite-nite on his own. GOAL ACHIEVED! He does have a small security blanket that he needs to have when he goes to sleep. I'm sure as I head back to work-school, it will take a few days for him to get back into the routine.

I'm looking forward to going back to work and having my own space this year. I'm sure it will be a good change. I can hardly wait to set up my little space.

I wanted to enjoy these last few days and do some cooking. Today I made a recipe and I'm planning one for tomorrow, too. I have a few errands to run tomorrow, also. I hope to get an early walk in, too, before it's 80 degrees.

Have a happy day.

Hi, everyone! It's great to have such super weather for this long weekend! One more 1/2 day of school, yeah! I can't wait for the lazy days of summer! Today my brother, Tim, is working for the first time. He is working the front desk and concessions at a pool in town,"Fairview". He called because he wanted my mom to bring him something to eat. It was funny, he was thinking Subway or some other fast food, she made him a plate of what we were having for lunch at the cookout (pork chops, broccoli, rice, etc). My dad caved and went and got him the fast food. Tim would have cracked up if she brought him the plate (I would have liked it:).
Isaac doesn't stop asking questions! He was saying "what's dat?" on the entire walk we just went on every step of the way. It's almost humorous!
We released the turtles yesterday. They were loving freedom, as they swam very quickly to the middle of a very large pond. We gave them one last meal, thinking that they might have trouble at first, but I don't think they will have any trouble! Actually, they might miss the safety of a rather small aquarium and dependable food. Well... maybe not!
Here are the plans for the summer not working: 1. Take Isaac to the pool at the YMCA at least 3 times per week. They have parent and child swim from 11:30-12:30 everyday. This should be just enough swimming to get Isaac really tired, so he'll nap in the afternoon (right now he's taking 2 naps and I've got to get him to take 1 long nap this summer). One day per week, I'd like to take him to BabyTalk. It's a fun playgroup. They meet every day during the week at different locations. I'm not sure which one we'll go to, probably a few of them to find the right one. This only lasts 45 minutes, but a teacher does fingerplays and reads books and the kids play with toys. Everyone discusses parenting issues. It's really fun! We're going to do the summer reading program at the library. They have weekly programming that's neat, and a kick-off June 1 or 2nd (I'll have to check). There is also a weekly lapsit at the library in Warrensburg that we'll go to and see some friends with babies from work. That's all so far :) I'll keep you updated.
New funny Isaac-isms:
Isaac tries to do "Where is Thumbkin?" He claps and tries to do his fingers.
Isaac is standing, but not walking. I'm quite sure he could do it if he wanted to.
Isaac gives everyone the sweetest kisses. They're funny; he doesn't quite get it, but we love it!
He is a really fast crawler! Too fast!
He definitely throws things down all the time to see you pick them up again.

By the way, we love the disposable sippy cups called take-and-toss. They're really great. He can hold them on his own. My goal this week is to stop laying him down with a bottle. I do this 3 times a day, for naps and nite-nite. This is bad!
That's all my news!
Jen

Spring is here! Yea! Isaac is getting bigger every day! He is such a silly boy-- he has a fun personality! Whenever he sees Brian or me the first thing he does is start asking questions. "What dat?" We say, "It's a fan. You pull it, and it goes woo, woo, woo!" Isaac gets a big grin on his face. Then he asks again. It's a little game :) The Wiggles sing a funny song: Do the Monkey. Isaac loves that, too. If you can imagine Mom as a monkey going "Ooo, ooo, ahhh, ahhh...ooo, ooo, ahhh, ahhh..." That's the scene. It's very funny. Mom and Dad do little dances to all the songs. Our favorite is Dorothy the Dinosaur. "She's a really friendly dinosaour, she works so hard in the garden...she's mowing, she's mowing, she's mowing!"
For Mother's Day I'm making dinner for my mom on Saturday. Only 10 more days of school... Yes!
Have a happy day!
Isaac says:
birdie
da da
mom
done
what dat?
bye-bye
tree