Stella

We realized that we have never posted any pictures of Stella (our dog) on the blog and since Stella is one of Isaiah's favorite things in the world figured we should.

Merry Christmas!

We hope that you all had a lovely Christmas. We enjoyed ourselves celebrating with Cassie's family. Both Isaiah and his cousin, Olivia, are moving around now, so it is fun to watch them play. Isaiah is army crawling and doing a forward launch from his hands and knee position (we think he looks like a seal moving on land). Here are a few pictures from our Christmas celebration.

Sophia helping Isaiah opening his presents.

Isaiah and Olivia enjoying their new toys.

Opening his presents.

Isaiah on Christmas morning.

Michigan

We are finally getting over our colds and settling back into life at home. We had a great time in Michigan and got to see a lot of family and friends. Isaiah had a lot of new experiences while in Michigan; he learned how to drop a toy (on purpose so someone will pick it up), get up on his hands and knees and to creep (he can move around quite well); experienced snow for the first time; he had a "sitter"(grandma)--Matthew and I had multiple trips out together by themselves including grocery shopping, lunch with Grandma Timmer and a movie; met a ton of new people; got his first tooth and went on his first airplane ride. It was a busy week. Here are are a few pictures from our trip. (Click on them to see them larger).

Grandma with Hudson, Isaiah and Jaiden.

Isaiah in his snow suit.

Matthew's cousins get together every Monday morning with their kids.

(Some are missing from the picture)

Playing twister at the Christmas party.

Isaiah with Uncle Joe and Taylor.

Grandparents

Grandpa and Grandma with all the grandchildren.

Isaiah with his Great Grandpa and Grandma Van Hill.

Isaiah and Grandma.

Isaiah talking to Great-Grandma Van Hill

Four generations of Timmer's.

We head back to California in a few hours and Isaiah is certainly going to miss all the attention he got over the last week. He loves to read books and play with his grandma and likes all the noises grandpa makes for him. We are hoping the plane ride will go okay; Isaiah caught a cold and is very congested. None of us got much sleep last night. Here are a few pictures, I'll post more when we get home. Click on any picture to see it larger.

5 Months, yesterday!

We have been enjoying our time in Michigan with friends and family. It has been snowing almost the whole time which has been fun, but Isaiah is not sure about the breathing in the cold air. Isaiah has decided that he loves to be on his hands and knees and is attempting to creep. He also started to cut his first tooth yesterday. I am not so sure I am ready for him to start to crawl, so we're hoping it will take a little while for him to figure it out. Some of Isaiah's favorite things are...baths, seeing how high-pitched he can scream, chewing on things, being tickled by daddy, and looking at other kids.

Isaiah's first time in the snow.

We're off to Michigan!

We leave for Michigan tomorrow morning for 10 days. We are looking forward to seeing family, introducing Isaiah to his Aunts, Uncles, and cousins and meeting our newest nephew, Ryan. Hopefully Isaiah will do okay on the plane.

He finally smiled at the camera (drooled a lot too).

This is Isaiah's new favorite sleeping position. He sticks his butt up in the air and sticks his hands under his stomach. (I know it's a lot of stripes, but most of his clothes are packed for Michigan so we don't have much to choose from :))

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a busy Thanksgiving day with the Strusis family. We started with breakfast with Amy's (Jason's girlfriend) family and ended with a big dinner with extended family. Isaiah got to meet a lot of new people and enjoyed playing with his cousins. Matthew and I found out how much crazier the holidays are with a kid.

We finally got a picture with all three of them looking at the camera.

4 month Appointment

Isaiah had his 4 month check-up today and everything is looking good. He weighed 15 lbs (45%) and was 27 inches long (95%); tall and thin like his daddy. His eczema is still an issue, but we're learning to control it a little better. We are going to hold off on allergy tests for now, but that may be a future step. Isaiah learned to roll over onto his stomach last week (first time he was swaddled in his crib), so he has been learning how to sleep without the swaddle and enjoying his new favorite sleeping position (stomach).

It is a beautiful sunny day (70 degrees) today, so we decided we would take a few pictures by the creek next to our house. Plus, Isaiah's outfit matched the trees so perfectly.

4 Months!

We have had 4 wonderful months with Isaiah; his personality is showing more and more each day. He loves to play on his play mat and talk to and grab all the animals that hang from it. His 4 month appointment is in a week and 1/2, so we'll find out his stats then. His eczema is still giving him some problems. It is pretty bad on his face around his eyes right now and he would like to scratch it all of the time if we would let him. We're still working on trying to find the cause of it. So, Isaiah's favorite things are...standing up (he loves grabbing our fingers and pulling up to standing), baths, reading books, watching Stella (our dog) play, and going for walks in the forest. Here are a few pictures of Isaiah. Click on the picture to see it larger.

Yeah Giants!

The San Francisco Giants won the World Series last night. Matthew has been excited about watching all the world series games (and all the other playoff games leading up to it) and I am excited that it is over so we don't have to have baseball on every night :) Here are some pictures of Matthew and Isaiah watching the game.

Halloween

We went to the annual Halloween party at Frontier Ranch (mission Springs) with a bunch of the local families on Sat. night. It was fun and Isaiah looked cute in his costume. He was a galaxy (easy last minute costume requiring pj's and glow-in-the-dark stars). Matthew was sad we couldn't keep Isaiah out late to see him glow.

Pumpkins!

We went to the pumpkin patch today with cousins Olivia and Sophia. Here are a few pictures.

It's not easy to get a photo of all of them, but at least Sophia looks cute.

Isaiah makes a good ghost, especially with that scowl.

Eczema Update

Isaiah's eczema is finally clearing up. He has been using a steroid cream which is not a long term solution, but should help manage the flair ups. Our goal is to prevent the flair ups which may prove difficult since we have no idea what is causing them. The new skin care regime includes daily bath in lukewarm water (no soap or shampoo) followed by a slathering of steroid cream (in areas with a flair up) or petroleum jelly which is supposed to be applied with in 3 minutes of getting him out of the bath. I am getting better at it, but the boy likes to pee when his diaper is off making things a little tricky. Right now we also have to put a warm compress on his head to help with the cradle cap. Here's a picture of him getting his new "treatment." He is still puzzled by the camera and won't smile at it.

ACROS

We went to an ACROS (Assoc. of Christian Residential Outdoor Schools) conference this weekend in Oakhurst (close to where Matthew worked this summer). We stayed at a beautiful camp up there with a group of about 35-40 outdoor educators from multiple schools in California. It was a fun weekend.

Isaiah needed a break from the car seat on the car ride home.

Family shot at the camp where we stayed.

Group shot at the conference.

Isaiah's infection is healed, but he has eczema that is pretty bad over a good portion of his body and face. It has drastically improved (with a steroid cream), but we need to figure out what is causing it so it won't continue to flair up. It sound like it can be quite difficult to figure it out, especially since they can not do allergy tests on a child of his age. I have stopped eating soy products and we go to see a dermatologist this week. Hopefully, she will have some good advice for us.

3 months old!

Can you believe it! Isaiah is 3 months old today. The time seems to be going so fast. We went to the doctors yesterday because his cradle cap looked so bad (this is the 2nd time we went in for it). This doctor thinks it looks infected, so Isaiah had to start some antibiotics. Hopefully it will clear it up fast. He weighted 13lbs 6oz and was 25.5 inches long. So length wise he is almost out of the 3-6 month clothes, but otherwise they are baggy on him. We're hoping is next growth spirt will be in girth instead of height. He is talking and smiling a ton. He loves to talk to the pictures in his favorite book, Squishy Turtle. He holds his head pretty stable and likes to sit up. His favorite things are blankets (loves to play with them and put them in his mouth), lights (he just stares at them), being outside, the ceiling fan (doesn't matter if it is on or off), and being naked. Here are some pictures of him from the last month.

First Vacation

We went to Lake Tahoe for a long weekend (Thurs.-Sun.) with the Strusis family. It's about a 5 hour car ride (@7 with all the stops for Isaiah). He did pretty well in the car, especially if someone rode in the back and played with him. We had a good time at the lake and relaxing at the house. We had beautiful weather the first couple days and even saw a thunder and lightening storm which made Matthew happy.

Olivia and Isaiah hanging out.

Cousins at the lake.

Isaiah thought the water was a little too cold.

Sunset from the house after the thunder and lightening storm.