While indoors...

Before...

... and after



It only took us a year and a half. Finally we have curtains in our bedroom!

Who asked for a white Christmas?

We haven't seen so much snow since Feb 2003--right after we got married! We've enjoyed being home bound, but we did venture into the backyard to give our little kitten his first experience in the snow. We know he should have had mittens, but what can we say they were lost...

Tulsa & Great Grandmother's

We took a 9 day trip to Tulsa and Texas. In Tulsa Isaac got to celebrate his birthday again with his cousin Kinley who was turning 4! In Texas Isaac got to see his Grandma and Great Grandma Conner. We had a blast!

Birthday

It's taken a while to get these on the website. As all will see from the many posts to be added today (while we are snowed in)... we've been too busy to document our activities.

Our baby turned ONE on November 1st! Party guests included Aunt Catherine and his two best little friends Anna and Frances.

hilarious

for daddy

Fall

It's getting colder here, so Mommy says I have to wear a hat when we go outside. I don't mind wearing this hat, cause I can pretend I'm a wild animal! Don't I look ferocious? What I don't understand though is why it's okay to pretend to be an animal until we get outside, and then Mommy won't let me eat acorns like the squirrels. Daddy even told me he learned as a kid that acorns aren't poisonous--he scared his own Mommy when his Grandpa fed him an acorn. But life is way too exciting to get hung up on acorns. You should see me walk now! I'm so much quicker than I was in that last video!

--Isaac

toddling

Finally captured a little footage of our waddling walker. At the end of the video you also get to see his one footed crawl.

baby step

Isaac's taken a baby step twice now! I still think we are several weeks away from real walking, but watch out mama!

If I can find my flip I'll put a video up of him playing sometime soon. He's grown up so much in the last month or so.

10 months

Into trouble!



And here's a picture of me around the same age. Except for the expression and chubbiness, Isaac looks entirely like his daddy (lucky little boy). :)

Potpourri

We enjoyed a wonderful visit from Grandma and Grandpa Olson and Aunt Natasha and Uncle Tyler.

They joined us for Isaac's baptism on Sunday--a very happy day! If you would like to see the video clip of his baptism, email me (jmc.olson@gmail.com), and I'll send it to you.






Monday we took a trip to Assateague Island. The beach couldn't have been more beautiful, but poor Isaac was coming down with a fever and wasn't his usual cheery self.

Building a sand-castle with Grandpa

Isaac's newest facial expression

Matt's jelly fish that much to my chagrin keeps trying to insert itself into this post

Sleeping under the umbrella

I can dance!

Yes I can dance. This is the "I'm-so-happy-because-mommy-said-that-Aunt-Crissie-will-be-starting-a-blog-soon" dance. Also called "tah!"

-ICO

The ideal toy...

Would be one that is undeniably safe but looks insanely dangerous to a 9-month-old boy. Any ideas?

Calvert Cliffs - 9 month old

How better to celebrate 9 months than a trip to Calvert Cliffs! Mom and Dad got lost, so it took 4 hours to get there, but I'm a pretty flexible guy... At 1.8 miles from the parking lot, it's a bit of a hike, but I am lucky to be carried by a couple of enthusiastic if not athletic parents. I'll have to say that I got pretty tired by the end of it. I am told that I got so tired on the hike back that I even fell asleep on Daddy's chest mid sentence (yes I do talk).

-ICO

Teething

Isaac's cutting his top teeth. Here he is using his favorite teether.

Waiting--a post for Caroline

So after living in a yardless condo for the first 5.5 years of our marriage we finally have a yard! Early this spring Matthew and I had a discussion about plants. He was convinced that nothing could be grown successfully at home from seeds by amateurs such as us--apparently he had a disappointing experience with radishes as child. I remained much more optimistic; I mean all those plants at Home Depot had to come from seeds. If someone else could grow them, so could I! Unfortunately our yard is almost entirely shaded by two beautiful trees, so a huge vegetable garden was not in the cards, and we decided maybe we better start off small. We got off to a late start, but it appears that our tomato and pole bean plants are going to produce at least a modest harvest. To date we've enjoyed about 10 grape tomatoes and 1 green bean, and we are awaiting the maturation of the rest with the excitement that usually can be found with first graders growing their first sunflower. We are having a good time laughing at ourselves--the grandchildren of farmers on both sides marveling over plants grown from seed. We are having so much fun in fact that I'm scheming of a way (and hoping it's not just a pipe dream) to cut down the dying tree in our side yard and to build four small (4'x16') raised beds so I can have a big(ger) garden next year.

National Arboretum

We took a trip yesterday to one of our favorite places--the National Arboretum!

Ping-Pong

Isaac loves the ping pong ball. Guess he inherited my (ie Matt's) big mouth - we didn't quite anticipate this as a hazardous object. Made for a good laugh, but the toy is retired until he can learn to use a paddle.

Parade

This was Isaac's first ex utero fourth of july. Dundalk puts on a large parade that proceeds right in front of our house. As a new development, he was not afraid of the very loud sounds (only a few weeks ago he screamed and cried at a party when everyone was cheering).

My Favorite Toy

She's the best of the toys. I never tire of her. I can pull her tail, grab her ears and legs, and bunch her fur up in my hands and then PULL. She never complains; mommy and daddy are more anxious about how I treat her than she is. Guess she likes me too.

-Isaac

FOUND

She turned up. Who knows where she was. Cordie is much better. She's the one who really cared.

LOST

Ophelia is nowhere to be found... We've checked the attic, the basement, everywhere. Cordie is beside herself. Either Isaac's a lot smarter than we think and has hidden her somewhere or the OTHERS have taken her.

Isaac loves his grandparents

Footage from our trip to Tulsa...


Isaac & Grandma Olson



Isaac & Grandpa Olson (sorry for the camera drops in the middle)



Isaac & Pepa Conner



Isaac & Grandma Conner

Isaac stands

Isaac has been speeding through the milestones lately. During our trip to Tulsa he learned how to sit up on his own, he's been army crawling for weeks now, and last week he learned how to pull to a stand. Just today he mastered the skill in his crib, and you can see how proud he is of himself.

And we made such a big deal about Isaac's first bite of food, I thought an update was in order. Purees = failure; he either gagged on the food or wanted to steal the spoon. Finger foods, however, have been a success. Messy as can be, but he is eating! So far he has loved avocado, banana, mango, peas, carrots, kiwi, asparagus, and Cheerios. Broccoli didn't even make it into the boca because the texture on his fingers really weirded him out. Ha! Here he is enjoying an avocado.

Sisters

Sisters have to be the best thing ever, and I'm lucky enough to have 5! I keep trying to scheme up a way for at least one of them to live near me--so far to no avail. :( But I haven't given up yet! Here for your viewing pleasure is a little surprise video I found on my recorder after my trip home.

I LOVE MY...

Well, we're having a rough start to our first Father's Day. Matt's had an AWFUL weekend on call (he's at the hospital now), and I'm really bummed to be missing the new class at our church on ministries of mercy...

I'm hoping for a slow afternoon. Matt is a FABULOUS daddy and we hope to make his day special!

Update: Matt's continued to have a busy call day, BUT he managed to get us to church, AND we just walked to the store to buy some cream to make cinnamon rolls! :)

Home Again

Wow--we've been home for nearly a week now.

Poor Matt had to stay home and work, but Isaac & I had a great trip to Oklahoma & Texas. Isaac got to see one of his great grandmothers, all his grandparents, and all but one of his aunts, uncles, and cousins--no small feat given the size of both of our families!

I was so happy to get to take Isaac to my favorite place on earth--Bee House, Texas. Here he is meeting his Great Grandmother for the first time.

Fun for Isaac, relaxing for us, and free...

When we had a trip to Chicago in 2004 to see Crissie perform in The Madwoman of Chaillot, we were sitting around the hotel with nothing to do, and Gail said "we need something that is fun for the kids, relaxing for us, and free..." While we got a good chuckle to ourselves at the time, the statement has found so much new meaning the last week as we've found ourselves in need of similar entertainment. While I do not think that we would have succeeded in the cold Chicago winter even if we had been more inspired (more kids, broader age group), we've had limited success here with one baby in warm Myrtle beach - frequent short trips to the pool, the swings at the park, and the good old jumper. Those are tough almost always mutually exclusive criteria though!

PS Matt wrote this; I'm not usually in the habit of calling my mother "Gail," though that is her lovely name. :)

Beach is dreadful - pool is delightful.

Vacation fatigue

Isaac's a little worn out from all the fun; we're going to lay low today :)

More fun on the beach