Goodbye...

Yesterday we said goodbye to our dog Jake. Words can not express the sadness we feel and the void that is left in our house today. We know in our hearts the time was right but that didn't make it any easier to say goodbye.

We can smile and laugh at all the memories we have of Jake. We will always remember having to lift him into the Trailblazer because he was too much of a wimp to jump in. We will remember the stormy days of summer where we had to drag Jake down the stairs into the basement so he would be safe in tornado warnings. (Jake did not like the basement stairs!) He was such a good dog and we were truly blessed to have him!

Jake Erickson

Beloved companion

March 4, 2005 - February 27, 2009

We will miss you!

Some videos...

Zach and I finally sat down and downloaded our videos to the computer. There were over 80! I won't put all of them on but I thought I would put the video of Isaac crawling for the 1st time.

I spent my first night away from Isaac on Saturday. My parents came down and watched Isaac while Zach and I spent a night in Des Moines. We enjoyed some time shopping in Des Moines. It was very relaxing and it was nice not to worry about how many hours Isaac would sleep before waking me up. I was ready to come home on Sunday morning though! It's funny how I can't imagine my life without this little boy and how I don't want to be away from him!

Isaac loves the dishwasher! He really loves just being in the kitchen. Which is great but then I have to make sure the floor is super clean and that he stays out of the garbage! I am positive that Isaac ate an onion off the floor the other day. He wouldn't let me in his mouth to take it out but his breath sure smelled like onions!

Today Isaac and I have been hanging out, taking naps and playing. We have a birthday party to go to tonight. Not mine, but Isaac's friend Asher is one today! We bought Asher a gift but I've had a hard time keeping Isaac from playing with it! I think he knows he gets to play with Asher's toys when he goes to the baby sitter, so he doesn't see why he can't play with this toy!

Isaac got stuck between the couch and the end table last week. It didn't seem to bother him. He's been crawling in and out of the bottom more regularly and is actually breaking the table. We are trying to teach him not to crawl in but what can you do when you've been letting him do it for this long? :)

The video below is hilarious! Isaac has been standing in front of our bathroom mirror in the morning while I get ready and this morning he decided to give himself kisses. I couldn't help but laugh hysterically!

10 months!

Isaac is 10 months old today! He has officially spent more time in this world than he did in my tummy! We have friends with boys just older than Isaac and they are turning one this week! Amazing! I think it will be weird to have a one year old.

Isaac's new thing is pulling himself up to stand. He is very good at it now and we often find him standing in his crib in the morning. With this new skill come some pretty good falls. It seems Isaac always has a minor bruise on his forehead. He LOVES to stand up by our bay window and watch the cars and people go by. Sometimes he tries to carry on a conversation with them! He also loves to use me as a jungle gym. He climbs up and usually gives me a hug. It's nice to feel so loved!

Here's a picture of Isaac's top tooth. You can see the other one ready to come in but so far it hasn't appeared!

9 month pictures

As I promised, here are a couple of Isaac's 9 month pictures:

You might be thinking, "oh those are so cute! He takes such good photos." However, most of the pictures look something like this:

Isaac loves the camera at home but I guess professional pictures are not his thing! Hopefully his one year pictures will go more smoothly and we'll have a few more shots to choose from!

Zach got the official word this morning that he is accepted to take his professional engineering test. All the hours he's already studied are not wasted! Now he is extra motivated to study because there is an end in sight. The countdown is on: 73 more days!

And he's off...

Isaac started crawling last Friday. I have it on video but I don't know how to download those yet so you'll have to wait for Zach.

Isaac's favorite place to crawl is over to Jake's water dish. He finds it fascinating and the only way to deter him from going is to give him the remote. We don't usually let him play with the remote but I get really tired of chasing him down and bringing him back to the middle of the room!

Remember how I said it would be a couple of weeks before we had to lower Isaac's bed again? Yeah, the next day Isaac pulled himself up to standing position twice! He hasn't done it in his crib but that will probably happen tomorrow!

We got Isaac's nine month pictures done tonight. That was an experience! I think Isaac thought we were going to give him away because he would not let us put him down and he cried through most of the pictures. We got some where he was taking a break but not many and no classic smiles! I'll post those sometime over the weekend.

I'm afraid our time with Jake is coming to an end. Jake went partially blind over the weekend and tonight I found him down our hallway... a long way from his rug. When I told him to go to his rug, he had no idea where he was. I don't think his eye sight will come back and we don't want to risk him biting Isaac, especially since Isaac is fully mobile now.

Here are some more places I've found Isaac since he became mobile: