goings on

it's been quite busy around here. sort of. i guess.

on thursday, i subbed at forbush. that evening, we went to statesville to pick up a car that we bought. we're getting rid of the element, if anyone wants it. the reason? well, that's a story for another time.

of course, we watched lost when we got back. wow.

today, isaac and i tried to go a consignment baby sale, but decided not to when we got there too early (i mis-remembered the start time) only to find about 50 moms and kids just standing in line, waiting for the best deal. it's crazy.

then, we had a lunch meeting at brewnerds/kernel kustard.
this evening, we went to see derek's mom, aunt and pawpaw. isaac showed off.

and that's the short and sweet (about to fall asleep) version of the last couple of days.

Cheerio Distribution Statistics

While vacuuming today, I began to wonder why I even let Isaac have Cheerios. He throws them, feeds them to Lucy, crushes them, walks on them... anything but eats them. All it really does is creates more work for me. While continuing to vacuum, I amused myself by attempting to estimate what percentages of Cheerios wind up where. Here's what I got:

45% will end up in the vacuum cleaner
25% are eaten by Lucy
10% are crushed into tiny pieces and have found new life amongst the carpet fibers.
10% are actually eaten by the boy
8% are in various locations of the house that I will never know about
2% are in places that I can't reach with the vacuum cleaner and I'm too lazy to bend down and pick them up and I'm willing to leave for either the boy or the dog to enjoy at a later date.

Note #1: These estimates will fluctuate throughout the day. These are only averages.
Note #2: Goldfish crackers have a much higher consumption rate, both by the dog and the boy. And sometimes the mom.

Lego Stuffing

I was cleaning up Isaac's toys today and noticed that the balls for the popper wouldn't go down the tube. Upon further inspection, I saw that Isaac stuffed the toy with lego squares. What you are looking at below is 10 legos and one wooden trough from Noah's Ark. There's two more legos and a ball in the part you can't see.

 

Blogs are the Postiest

I love this video that Noggin shows in between shows.
I make up my own version all the time. Usually having to do with Isaac's temperament or bodily functions.

Happy Feet

Yesterday, at Amy's house, Isaac discovered the wonderful acoustics of his shoes on a hardwood floor. Since then, he's been happy to do a little dance whenever he has on some shoes. Here's a short clip of said dance.

Shortly after this dance, there was a fall and then some crying.

sad cake

Our most recent adventure in the wild and crazy world of cake decorating took place yesterday. Lorena purchased a plain half sheet cake from Costco (since we needed a gigantic one for the mega-party) and brought it over and we went to work.

Sadly, this cake was for a going away party for Ryan, Gloria and Jonas, who are leaving the area to be closer to family. Understandable, I suppose, but I'm still not all that happy about it. Anyhow, we came up with the following creation, to add to our portfolio*.

 

*note: we don't really have a portfolio. it was suggested tonight that we should start one.

Carlye

While traveling from a party (see next post) to Youth Group, I stepped out of the car to grab some stuff in the house. Carlye, who was traveling with me, apparently thought she'd be funny, and take some random pictures. Since she is so enamored with herself, I know she would love for me to post this on the www.

 

Cool Paper Art

I've seen this before, but I came across it again and it is very cool.
Check it out.(There's a lot more).

Too Quiet

While I talked on the phone today with Kristen Boone, I suddenly realized the house was very quiet. Too quiet. I know Isaac well enough to know that this means trouble. I went into the kitchen to find this scene:

 

It's too bad that he doesn't find as much pleasure in restoring things to their original order as he does destroying them...

ride, ride, slippity slide...

 

isaac's girlfriend, cora, spent the day with us today. between naps, we took advantage of the nice weather and had a fantastic voyage around the neighborhood. cora kept slouching and then she'd cry. when i stopped to help her resituate, isaac would cry because we stopped. good times.

it actually was the highlight of our day. the rest was pretty stressful. cora did not like to be put down and isaac did not like her crying when she was put down, nor did he approve of me holding her. it's quite funny, really, because he seems to pretty much care less about what i do, but apparently he has his limits.

i also got to meet the new baby jesse, whilst delivering a meal to josh and kim. he was sleeping which is hard for me to understand, but i hear that some babies do that. and he's quite cute.

so, it was a long day (for me) and i am not sure why i'm on the wide wide world of web instead of drifting off to dreamland. i'll just have to do something about that.... night night.

charlie bit me

thanks to ashley and carlye for telling me about this video, which i submit to you as the best video ever.


and thanks to youtube for directing me to this next video which is also quite fantastic.


what did i do before the internet??

family day at the park

derek, isaac and i went to the park today before lunch. it was packed out. isaac had a great time, despite getting a bloody lip two times. we were able to get a lot of good pictures with both parents in attendance, because one could spot, while the other took the shots.

isaac likes to go down the slide on his belly. except for the one time he landed on his face (bloody lip #1).

 

dad pushed him on the swing for awhile.

 

he played in the tunnel for a long time. before today, he hasn't really been very interested in it.

 

and we went for a walk on the nature trail (to help smooth over the crying from bloody lip #2) and paused to take this picture.

 

and, as always, there's like fifty zillion more pictures on our picasa page.

one happy boy.

a couple of days ago, happy:

 

yesterday, after a trip to the park, happy:

 

today's retro shot

here's a shot of the sleeping monster from one year ago today.

Busy Boy

Here is a video of Isaac that I took on Tuesday. It is a very small slice of what it's like in Isaac's world on a typical day.

Snow!!

We had an unexpected snowfall last night, so after breakfast, Isaac and I went out to check it out. This would be Isaac's first encounter with the white stuff...

At first he wasn't so sure about it, stepping gingerly out the back door:

But, once we were outside, he was happy, snow or no snow. He loves to be outside.

He ran around the backyard a little.

Then he fell.

And he wasn't happy about falling.

And then we went inside.

All in all, he didn't really seem to care much about the snow, other than it was cold and annoying. Well, he's banging something on the kitchen floor and I need to go make sure it's not a cell phone or camera or remote...

Full Circle

We have had a rough couple of days.

Isaac has woken up in the middle of the night for several nights in a row. Whining turns to crying, which turns to screaming, at which point I check to make sure they're no stuck legs or vomit or wet sheets and jammies. Some consoling takes place and the boy (after a bit more crying) goes back to sleep.

He's also fighting naps quite ferociously. He's been taking just one, but on some days I KNOW that he needs another. But, he's not going to let that happen.

Then, this morning, he woke up about two hours earlier than he usually does. Which means, when he's ready for that second nap that I know that he needs, he's going to fight it (and probably win) and it's going to be a bad night. Not for me, but for Derek's parents, who are scheduled to watch this little man tonight while we go to Life Groups. :(

It seems our sleeping problems may have come full circle from one year ago. Here's an excerpt from a post I made on 2/14/07:

Lorena came over today and gave me a (much needed) break from the screaming boy. He didn't sleep ALL morning. She got here after he finally had a nap and played with him while I did a little cleaning, wrote lesson plans and met with a plumber type repair guy who was looking at our hot water heater, to see why the pilot keeps going out.

Strangely, the a/c guy came over yesterday to fix a little problem we've been having with our beloved cooling unit. Lorena did not come over. AND, I did not work on lesson plans.

logo game

a few years back, i was addicted to these types of games. there's plenty of them out there. if you want to find more, just search for "logo game". here's a link to a pretty decent one.

Tom Brady Curse

ok, so remember all the media attention given to tom brady when he showed up at his girlfriend's house [incidentally, not the mother of his child], wearing a boot?

although, i'm pretty sure we didn't see each other during this time in superbowl history, jenn lawson and myself separately made fun of tom brady. i hoped that it was something serious and that this would interfere with their run to perfection. little did i know that the run would hit a wall with or without mr. brady's booted leg.

well, last week, jenn went rollerskating (with kids, not on her own) and suffered a bit of an accident that resulted in her very own boot. you can read her account here. she was quite sure this was payback from her having mocked tommy b.

although i felt bad for her, i had to laugh a little at the irony of the situation, but i was quick to point out that i, too, had made fun of the boot, i was not suffering from any cosmic payback. hahhahahahaha....

then, yesterday at church, i was carrying the little man down some steps. as i approached the bottom, my croc caught on a step. forced to decide amongst: a) catching myself and dropping the baby, b) landing on the soft cushioning of a baby or c) trying to set the baby down safely while my ankle took on the brunt of my awkward fall, i chose c. not really chose. that's just what happened. it wasn't like the headlines you read about where mom's do crazy things for their kids, but it wasn't as if i had a say in the matter, either. my body just did it.

(note, as i sat on the steps in excruciating pain, isaac scrambled off to go up another flight of steps...clearly not understanding the sacrifice i just made for him).

i think it's just a pretty bad sprain. i know i've had my fair share of ankle injuries. they were never for something this lame, though. so, we'll see how it goes today and then decide if further action needs to be taken...

so, it appears the curse of tom brady is upon me. i urge you, if you made fun of the boot, to be on guard!

cross platform toys

Isaac likes to Mix 'n Match his toys. In the example below, he's placed a Little People giraffe into his ball popper. This combination did not give desirable results. The popper will not pop while also providing a home for the giraffe. In related news, the popper WILL blow out cheerios and goldfish crackers, should they somehow find themselves inside the popper.

 

park pics

Here are some shots from our recent trip to the park.

I love this one. I put him down and he was off to the races... so independent.

 

Climbing all over the play structure. It had these perfect finger-sized holes to ease the climbing.

 

He definitely did not want to stay in the "play area", opting instead to venture off into the muddy grass, then shrubs, then woods. He's an adventurer...

 

And just a random, up close and personal shot of the big boy.

 

not happy.

I can't remember what this was all about, but I do know that the little man was not very happy. Can you tell?

 

this week's (un)events

it's been a relatively boring week at our house.

on monday, i got to meet baby livy when i took the barrier family a homecooked meal. she's quite cute and apparently she sleeps all the time. i'm jealous.

tuesday, isaac and i went to the park, since it was very nice out. derek stayed home from work because he was sick, so i got to go to the gym while isaac napped. that was exciting.

wednesday, i took isaac to the gym while i got a little cardio action in. when i picked him up, he was crying pretty hard and i felt bad. then, i tutored and went to life groups.

on tap for today: we're going to pick up some groceries to make some valentine's treats for lora's party tomorrow. friday cake day will probably be moved to my house so we can make a trip to kernel kustard's for the flavor of the day. i tutor tonight and then i plan on watching episode 2 of season 4 of lost. and i'm very excited about that.

and that's an update from our boring house.

GIANTS WIN!!

I am so excited that the Giants won the Super Bowl.
Actually, I'm mostly excited that the Patriots lost.
(Have I mentioned that I dislike the Patriots?)

the great outdoors

Some shots of the little one from last night at Olivia's birthday party (Isaac spent most of his time there on the the swingset outside). And then there's some shots of playing at Derek's mom's house this afternoon in the nice weather.

 

 

 

 

my very own laptop

Isaac is OBSESSED with our laptops, so Derek brought home a retired laptop from work. Isaac immediately went to work removing all the keys (which is why we don't want him "playing" with our laptops).

 

Rashy, Day 2

Isaac is rash-free now, but here's a picture of his rash face on his second day of rashtasticness.

today's exciting adventures...

in the lidbom home today:

one of us smashed their fingers with a rolling pin while the other one of us was reorganizing some cabinets in the kitchen. i'll leave to you to figure out who was who. after this event, there was an overall state of crabbiness by the one of us who smashed their fingers.

therefore, we decided to get out of the house. we had a gift card to toys 'r us, as well as a coupon for $3 off that they sent for the little man's birthday. today would be the day to spend it all. after a few minutes of deliberation, we decided on an 80 piece set of lego duplo blocks. we currently own the GIANT legos and some regular legos (that are safely stored away until someone learns not to eat small objects). the giant legos aren't really good for building stuff, so we desperately needed the in between size. they are currently scattered about the house in various locations.

anyhow. that's our exciting day so far.
ok, maybe it's not that exciting. it depends on your perspective, i suppose.

OH!
and an update...
isaac's rash is much better today. he's still got some on his arms and legs and neck, but it's not hot to the touch and he is in a better mood today. (not counting any rolling pin accidents that may or may not have taken place).