Crawler on the loose!

I totally called it, Isaac is crawling now! Nothing is safe anymore, that's for sure. It's so fun to have him underfoot while I cook and to see him explore the world on his own.

This week a friend took pictures for us to use in our Christmas card. While I will not be posting any spoilers, I will post some fun pictures Brent took on the sidelines.

I'm so excited to send out Christmas cards for the first time. 

Isaac has been eating and sleeping HORRIBLY since he started crawling. I'm up every 1-2 hours with him EVERY night. I am so exhausted, he wasn't this bad even as a newborn! I'm trying really hard to be positive about it, so I enjoy his cuddles all night long, even if I'm half asleep. Naps are iffy, and usually involve lots of screaming. When he does fall asleep, this is his new pose. I don't know how that is comfortable, but to each his own. 

At Garin park! It was a beautiful day on Saturday. It has started getting cold...and I'm such a Califonian now because 'cold' is 63-68 degrees. But Saturday was nice when we were out!

"Quite taking pictures mom!"

Halloween

This has been a fun week! Isaac has become pretty mobile, and I would bet good money that he will be crawling by the end of this week. He is so close right now, but mostly he moves his bum around to different sitting positions. It's so nice now that he can move around because he is happier to be left on his own. 

Brent has been doing well in school. Last quarter he took his first round of National Board exams. We found out of Monday that he passed! It is a huge relief, and I'm so proud of him. He studied for several  hours every day, and I'm so glad we don't have to do it over again.  

Brent and I used to be really good at sending pictures to family, but we've been lacking. So we made Isaac hand turkeys which turned out to be very difficult. We're lucky we got even one good handprint. 

 Isaac is VERY good at sitting up on his own now. Which means nap time takes forever because I have to go back in every 3-5 minutes and lay him back down. Sometimes I find him in funny positions, and this one cracked me up.

I love going to the park with friends. California has some very nice parks, and luckily the best ones are really close to us! 

We have several elderly women in our court that are the sweetest people. They love to sit out on their porches and talk. Isaac recently stole one of their hearts, Sharon, because he will smile at her now. When he meets new people he usually just stares them down. But now that he's warmed up to her he is all smiles. So she brought by a halloween gift for him, which was so sweet of her.

And now for lots of cute pictures of Isaac, I'm not ashamed to admit I'm obsessed with my child. 

All dressed up for our farmers market

Seeing if pumpkin tastes good

Our church put on a giant Trunk-or-Treat activity Halloween night. It was really fun with games and yummy food.

 Brent's pumpkin is of an atlas bone (aka the top bone in your neck). He is such a nerd, so everything in our life revolves around chiropractic. 

Our Halloween breakfast. Brent came up with this idea all on his own! 

Isaac and I go on at least two walks a day around our neighborhood. He loves being outside, can you tell?

Busy but not productive

At least Isaac is still alive. That's what I remind myself sometimes late at night when I'm trying to sleep and my thoughts sift through the days events. How come the undone dishes, the dirty floor, empty fridge, the unsolved problems and dirty laundry is all I can focus on? I'm not a perfectionist. Far from it sometimes, usually I try to be laid back about life in general. But I'm slowly starting to realize I base my success as a mom off the things I get done at home and that's not right.
So tonight, I flip through my phone and laugh/cry at the videos and photos I've taken of Isaac this week. Those sweet smiles just for me, those first steps he takes to crawling, and those little hands that always reach for me.

What an amazing calling, being a mom. It's such a roller coaster of slamming your forehead against the wall as your child protests his nap angrily for the 3rd time that day to those moments when they gaze up at you after eating and reach up so you'll kiss their little chubby hands and giggle. Even though it's hard to get up at 2am to go feed Isaac, sometimes I'll spend an extra five minutes just holding him as he rests on my shoulder, fingering my hair and softly cooing to me, telling me all about his day and how he feels. That reminds me that I did do a lot that day. I took care of Isaac and all his needs, and he doesn't care if the dishes are done, he only cares that I'm there to hold him and sing him his favorite songs.

This week we didn't do much. One of the key founders of a technique Brent is really interested in came to speak at the school, and Isaac and I came to watch. We had Stake Conference this weekend and it's at the chapel right next to the temple. It was wonderful to walk around the beautiful grounds on such a perfect day. I'm so grateful for the gospel in our lives. I truly know that by following Christ's teachings I am blessed. I have tried to be better like my husband and really set aside time to read the Book of Mormon every day. It's amazing how events that happened thousands of years ago are so similar to life now. I learn so much as I gain hero's and recognize how to change and become better. 

Last night Brent took Isaac up to give him his bath before bedtime. As a side note, I have such an awesome husband who never complains when I ask for him to help and often helps before I ask. I finished my dinner and walked up the stairs to hear Brent reading to Isaac about Joseph Smith. I'm so grateful to have a husband who is on the same page as me of raising our children in the beautiful gospel. 

Momhood

Deep moment of the week, (I am loving all these new talks from out General Conference for our church)

I think the hardest thing to accept as a Mother, in my weak selfish times, is that I will never get a break. Even if I wanted to, my body will not allow me to. It is impossible to ignore Isaac at night when he's crying to be fed, no matter how exhausted I am. It is impossible for me to not plan around his schedule and life constantly. My whole world and being revolves around a little child. So when President Holland gave his talk 'Behold They Mother', I was struck by a few of his ideas. The first is this:

"When Isaiah, speaking messianically, wanted to convey Jehovah’s love, he invoked the image of a mother’s devotion. “Can a woman forget her sucking child?” he asks. How absurd, he implies, though not as absurd as thinking Christ will ever forget us."

I have never fully understood Christ's love for me. I struggle with long-distance relationships. I have ruined a few of these simply because I'm a 'here and now' sort of person. I need to be with the person on a weekly basis to feel the connection. So I have struggled with the very long-distance type of relationship with Christ. But being a Mother, and feeling that constant love for Isaac and the need to help him, I understand his love so much more. If I cannot forget Isaac, who I have born, delivered, and carried, how could Christ forget me when he has done the same for me?

Anyway, deep moment of the week. 

Isaac turns 7 months tomorrow. I'm really not sure where the time went, but this doesn't bode well for the next 7 months of his life. They are going to be just as fast I'm sure. 

7 months

Big personality

goes to bed every night at 7, much to his parent's delight

loves his rubber ducky

talks up a storm, especially when tired

eats lots of purees and carrot sticks

sits up really well

Takes 2 naps a day

Loves walks

Hates being left in a room by himself, especially if we are eating in the other room

Has started grinning at me and chuckling at things we do

These pictures aren't great. They're not even good. But they are excellent at showing what torture goes on around here to Isaac. He loves it though and has a habit of clinging to Brent's hands when he's being swung.

He loves his ball but it always rolls away from him. When it does he gets super sad, even after the ball has been returned.

Brent and I have become obsessed with Indian food lately. It is just so good! We have an Indian place right by our house that has a lunch buffet for $8.99. I honestly feel like I'm robbing them by the amount of food we put away, but we love it!

Our attempt at making him crawl. He HATES that we put him just out of reach of all his toys. Not sure if this is going to make him crawl or damage him emotionally for life.

Mom Visit

We got lucky and had back-to-back visits from family. My mother came for a week to help us out and see Isaac. We took her to the Alameda beach by our house for some fun water time.

Then we had the awesome opportunity to tour NASA with my cousin Jonathan who works there. We saw some awesome things and got to even see his lab where they test the robots they are making to go into space!

We had to get all official and bring ID and get passes in order to get in through security.

 This is Mars. Literally. They built this big area with a similar surface to mars so they can test their robots on it.

Hanger 1! It was so cool seeing all the airplanes in the hangers. 

Flight simulator anyone? 

It was my Mom's birthday while she was here.  I made her yummy frozen banana treats!

 She bought us pumpkins and this is Isaac's. He was rather taken with it.