Isaac's Birthday

We have been meaning to post this for a while as Isaac's birthday was on April 18th. We had my parents and sister over one weekend, some friends over on Monday the 18th, and Regina's parents and brothers came the next weekend. Isaac ended up having 3 birthday parties, which he enjoyed a lot. Below are pictures from some of the parties.

Isaac and Grandpa Leif putting together a barn that Grandpa made for Isaac.
Isaac with his Thomas cake that we made.

Isaac opening a present, a Thomas book.

We had a Easter egg hunt with Isaac and his cousins. Isaac found one!

Isaac found another one! He walked right by this one the first time.

Isaac blowing out a candle.

Caleb looking at Isaac, who is in Caleb's crib.

We have another party to get ready for next weekend. It is Caleb's birthday on May 23rd and we are having the party on the 21st. Should be another fun time. I wonder what Isaac will think when the presents are not for him.

Weekend at Grandpa and Grandma's

This past weekend we went up to Grandpa and Grandma Erickson's house to spend some time with the Grandparents. We arrived Friday, went to Mall of America on Saturday, and then came back on Sunday. Isaac enjoyed riding the rides at Mall of America and going out to the farm on Sunday morning. We all had a good weekend and had lots of fun. Grandpa and Grandma got to see Caleb crawling around all over the place as well (they hadn't seen that yet). Below are some pictures from the weekend. Grandma Mary with her grandsons Isaac with daddy riding a car ride that turns the corner really fast. He really enjoyed this along with the rollercoaster and the train rides. Grandpa Leif with Caleb while Isaac and daddy were riding the rides. Caleb loves his new ball. The boys looking cool in their new sunglasses. Check out the next post as well. I did them both on the same night. They are pictures of Caleb from his 9-month photos.

Caleb's 9 Month Photos

This past Thursday we went to get Caleb's 9-month pictures taken. He is technically 10-months now, but we have had sickness in our house for the past 3-4 weeks and are just now getting healthy. Below are a few of the pictures that were taken.

Check out those teeth

Am I wearing anything?

Nice hat and tie!

We did get a few pictures of Isaac as well. Below is one of Isaac.

Some more videos

The other night Zach & the boys were playing in the living room while I made supper and this was too funny not to video. Who knew...Caleb loves to headbang!

This is a video I shot a couple of months ago. Zach was playing basketball and I was trying to get the boys to bed. After changing Isaac and Caleb, I left them both in Isaac's room while I made Caleb's bottle. This is what I heard from the kitchen!

For those reading this post on facebook you will have to go to our blog to see these videos. zachandregina.blogspot.com.

A new milestone...crawling

Caleb started crawling on my birthday, February 24. He turned 9 months on the 23rd and decided to take off the next day. We knew this was coming as he has been moving backward for a couple of weeks now. It is absolutely amazing to see your child crawl for the first time and even better when it's on your birthday! I remember the day Isaac started crawling and how proud I was at that moment. Tears well up and I realize that my baby is one step closer to not being a baby.

Here are a couple of pictures of the places Caleb has found himself since he started moving backward and now every direction. Each of these places required mommy to rescue him and thus mommy chose to make him suffer through a photo. :)

Before knowing how to go forward, Caleb literally "backed himself into a corner".

And under Isaac's rocking chair.

Here he was going forward...he saw a ball behind the rocking chair and instead of taking the easier, longer road...he chose the shorter, much narrower and harder path...he ended up needing rescued!


He LOVES Isaac's puzzle pieces and when one is under the chair Caleb feels the necessity to go in after it. He knew how to go foward here but chose to back himself in.

Here is a video of Caleb crawling. It looks like he is going after the ball but indeed it is a dirty diaper. It was the only way I could get him to crawl after something so I could get it on video. I did stop the video before he tried to eat the diaper...I am not that bad of a mom!

Some funny stories

For those of you who have spent any time around Isaac you know that he is completely obsessed with tractors. The other night we had supper at Burger King before youth group and while Zach was waiting for our food, Isaac and I were listening to the music playing. For those who know country, Jason Aldean's song Big Green Tractor was playing and I was singing to Isaac..."take me for a ride on your big green tractor." Isaac proceeds to yell "NO! BIG GREEN JOHNNY POPPER TRACTOR!" Zach looks over at us from across the restaurant with a look of "what was that about?" I was laughing hysterically. Isaac got a DVD for Christmas all about John Deere Tractors and the Johnny Popper is the earliest model they have. Every tractor is a Johnny Popper in his eyes. :)

Isaac will be 3 in a couple of months and he understands everything. We went to Chili's the other night to celebrate my birthday a week early and when we were leaving Isaac wanted to put Zach's money clip in his coat pocket. Not the outside coat pocket but the inside coat pocket. He then told us that he was keeping the money and he would pay in the future. He rode home with our money in his pocket! We'd better enroll him in a Dave Ramsey class quick!

Well I suppose I should write a little about Caleb. He is busy backing around the living room, stealing Isaac's toys. He is a funny little boy with an amazing reach! He lays out for a toy and then backs up until he reaches sitting position again. He usually ends up sitting on a toy or two and has tried to sit on the wall or couch a few times. Caleb still will not roll over, although I know he can. He has found himself in a few predicaments, like underneath Isaac's rocking chair or stuck in the corner by the TV and toybox. My favorite thing to watch is Caleb on the kitchen floor. His master plan of backing up to sitting position doesn't work because he can't get any traction so he just ends up sliding and sliding, crying because he can't do what he wants. :) In the past 2 days we have seen signs that he will be crawling soon. He gets about two "steps" in and then falls on his belly.

Okay, quick update on the surgery I had last month. Recovery has been extremely slow and until this past weekend I couldn't bend my leg more than 90 degrees. The doctor decided to send me to physical therapy and the exercises he gave me seem to be helping. It is still slow but there is definitely progress and I think I will be back to normal again some day. I will remember this if I happen to need this done again. Not while I have small children!

Sorry no pictures with this post, I just wanted to give an update and share our funny stories! Hopefully we can do this more often and post pictures when we can.

Caleb's Mobile

There have been a couple of new things happening with Caleb lately. He has started to move around when we set him down. He can go from sitting up to his tummy, then he can move backward and in circles. He has just started to push himself up into sitting position from the backwards moving. He hasn't started crawling yet, but he is getting close, should be soon. Not sure what Isaac thinks of this. Just tonight Caleb moved over to Isaac's box of tractors and took one out. Isaac said, "Caleb stop taking my stuff" and proceeded to move the box away from Caleb. Should be fun once Caleb starts crawling. Below is a picture of Caleb trying to move around.

Caleb has also been teething a lot lately, which means he isn't sleeping quite as well. We think the front top ones are trying to come in. He has the bottom two in already. Below is a good picture of Caleb's two toothed smile.
The last couple of weeks have been crazy around the house. Regina had surgery to remove a bone spur from just above her right knee on January 28th. It was causing her problems in bending her knee. So, I got to stay home and take care of her and the boys for a few days. Regina is starting to walk around but the knee is a little stiff still. I am thankful that she is able to help out again with the boys. We have a follow up appointment in Iowa City on February 10th (we make sure we wear all our Iowa State Cyclone gear). Below is a good picture of the boys in our living room.