It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

At least in the Erickson house. For the first time we have put up a Christmas tree and we have presents wrapped underneath it. Isaac is mesmerized by the tree and loves to feel it's branches. We took our annual family Christmas photo the other night. We thought having Jake in the picture would be too much of a challenge so this year he's been left out. Having Isaac in the picture was enough of a challenge for me!

We have finished our Christmas shopping, well except me getting a present for Zach. This is the first year of our marriage that we decided to exchange gifts. Typically we just buy something together for the two of us. Zach has tons of ideas for me but I am struggling to find that perfect gift for him.

We will be traveling starting this weekend. We are excited to go up to Zach's parent's this weekend (hoping no one is sick this time!). Zach's sister will get meet Isaac for the 1st time. We will be gone until Monday and then home Tuesday before leaving Wednesday evening for my family's house. We hope to see many of you along the way but if we don't have a Merry Christmas!

Where's Jake?

Winter has arrived and as the weather gets colder we have brought Jake inside during the evenings. Isaac is so fascinated by Jake. He LOVES to look at him! The first night we brought Jake in we set Isaac on the floor while we arranged some furniture to make room for our Christmas tree. Zach and I carried a desk downstairs to the basement and when we left Isaac was carrying on a very loud conversation with Jake. Not too long after I heard Jake bark and that was the end of the conversation...Isaac freaked! It took me a little while to get him calmed back down. I brought Isaac over to pet Jake and he seemed to be okay with him again.

Isaac loves to stick his fingers in Jake's nose. Yes, that is disgusting but we have learned that Isaac does some really gross things. The other day I picked Isaac up from the baby sitter and watched him stick his tongue out for their dog to lick. I had to put my hand over his mouth to get him to stop! Bailey was more than happy to accommodate Isaac's wishes!

We traveled to Austin for Thanksgiving but it was a Thanksgiving we would like to forget! I was sick with the flu on Thursday night and Friday and then Zach and his mom got sick Friday night and Saturday. Isaac and Zach's dad were the only two to stay healthy. We thank God for that! I learned that as a mother, I will never fully recover from sickness before needing to get back to taking care of Isaac. Zach's dad was a great help and I don't know what we would have done if he'd gotten sick too!

Isaac now has 2 teeth! The first came in right before Thanksgiving and the second one came in this past weekend. He is growing so fast, I know if I blink I will miss something! Isaac has also learned to roll...all over the place. I can't leave the room for a second or he will be on the other side. Yesterday I found him under Zach's guitar! Everyone says it won't be long and he will be crawling! YIKES!!! I don't know if I'm ready for that!

Here are some pictures we took at Thanksgiving. We hope to get some more posted before Christmas.

Great Grandpa & Grandma Erickson with Isaac

Grandma Erickson & Isaac

Grandma Beerends & Isaac

Playtime!!

Isaac has many toys but some of his favorites are the really cheap ones. For example, the diet coke bottle or any plastic bottle. If you are wondering what to get him for Christmas, don't make it too expensive! Here are some pictures:

or daddy's cup:

Isaac also loves eating his toes and playing in his exersaucer.

This last picture is Isaac sitting up on his own! He's been doing this for about 5 weeks but we are too slow to get the pictures online!

Isaac has started to roll over from front to back but he doesn't do it often. We've also heard a rumor that he's attempting back to front but I haven't seen it yet. He tries to move his legs when he is on his tummy so maybe he'll get the idea of crawling sometime soon. I think he's just going to go straight to walking though.

We are getting ready to start the holiday traveling again. We are going to Minnesota for Thanksgiving and again right before Christmas. We will be at my parents Christmas day through the weekend. We hope to see many of you along the way! Happy Thanksgiving if I don't get back on here before!

Eating Time

Isaac has begun eating solid foods in the last month. I decided to try my hand at making my own baby food and so far it's gone well. We started with sweet potatoes...yuck! Isaac likes them pretty well and he'd better get his fill now because he will never see them on the table with our meals! Here are a few pictures of his first time eating sweet potatoes.

Here comes the 1st bite!

Another bite...notice mommy is now holding Isaac's hands!

The finished product! Obviously mommy didn't hold the hands well enough!

Next we went on to butternut squash...again yuck! Isaac seems to like these even better but again, I'm not making them when he starts eating table food. Feeding is quite the process. Isaac likes to grab the spoon, clap his hands when the spoon is almost to his mouth, and play in the bowl itself. I also use paper bibs and he likes to chew on those in the middle of feeding. He still likes to blow bubbles in his food too.

We will be trying our first fruit in the next few days. I made pears so we will see how he does. At least he has a chance of eating those again in his life!

We've started giving him a sippy cup. He doesn't understand it's for drinking and not chewing but he does a really good job of holding on to it. Someday he will get the right idea and drink from it but for now I give him the cup and 5 minutes later give him a bottle with a little water to drink.

Isaac loves to sit at the table with us during dinner. As long as he's got something to play with, he's pretty content. Here's a picture of him just sitting at the table with us.

Chickenpox....WHAT!!!!

This was my reaction on Monday after taking Isaac to the doctor for a rash. Isaac hasn't been feeling well since Sunday, not eating well, not sleeping well. But on Monday he seemed to be doing better so we took him to the babysitter and at 2:00 he broke out into what we thought were hives. We took him to the doctor right away because we were worried he might be allergic to his formula but the doctor thought it was the beginning of chickenpox! It didn't make sense because Isaac hasn't been exposed to anyone. We were told to observe the rash for 24 hours and report back. Tuesday morning he broke out again after eating half his formula bottle so we went back to the doctor and found out it's not chickenpox but a virus that causes hives. The doctor had me switch to soy formula too, just to make sure it wasn't the formula. Isaac has been feeling better since yesterday and is almost back to normal eating patterns. I'm supposed to call the doctor again today and find out if and when I can add the milk formula back into his diet. Here's a picture of his rash.

As promised we have finally downloaded the software to get our pictures from our new camera on our computer. The next few days will be full of the pictures I've taken over the last 6 weeks. Since I haven't blogged for a while I will let you know what we've been up to.

This was Isaac's first Halloween and we did buy him a costume but we didn't really trick or treat. We took him over to some friends to show off his costume but he was in bed long before trick or treating was over! He was defintely the cutest puppy we have ever seen!

Daddy and Isaac

Mommy and Isaac

Our puppy dogs!

Asleep after a car ride from our house to the north side of town (approximately 7 minute drive!)

Isaac's costume is a 12-24 month costume but he might be too tall for it next year! We hope he can wear it again but like everything else we buy...we just never know!

Isaac is trying to help me type again and this time it is not going well so I will give more updates later. Enjoy the pictures and I promise it won't be a month before I update again!

Six months old!

Isaac turned 6 months old today! We didn't do a lot but Grandpa and Grandma Erickson spent the day with him yesterday. We decided Isaac needed to stay home and nap today. Our friends came over with their son, who is 2 months older than Isaac. The boys had tons of fun playing together.

We got a new camera and haven't had a chance to download the software. That's why there hasn't been an update for a few weeks. As soon as we get the software on the computer I will upload all the great pictures I've been taking.

Isaac has found a new toy: a Diet Coke bottle. He tries to eat it and then ends up with the cap in his mouth. He gets so excited when we put it in front of him. He has also discovered that his toes can go in his mouth. This is lots of fun when we try to put a diaper on him. He also likes to grab my arms when I'm diapering him. Always a challenge!

We got Isaac's 6 month photos done the other night. It was not an enjoyable experience, not because Isaac wasn't doing well but because the photographer was terrible! He kept scaring Isaac with these jingle bells and we hardly got any poses with a genuine Isaac smile. We managed to find a few.

Look Mommy! I have toes!

Isaac has found his feet and is joyful about showing them to everyone. He hasn't figured out that he can get them in his mouth but he is close.

This week has been rough since I caught Isaac's cold. The toughest thing about being sick is that I don't get enough sleep. Isaac was up 4 times last night, twice before midnight. I think he may be cutting a tooth or he may have had a tummy ache. Hopefully tonight goes much better.

I don't have a lot to write about and Isaac is trying to help me type today. He probably needs to go down for another nap. I got these last photos of Isaac last week in the exersaucer. I thought they were pretty good.