Lately...

Lots has happened over the last 3 months since I've posted... and the best explanation for all of it is that Baby #2 is on the way!! We're super excited to meet this little one sometime in mid-April. And, now that the first trimester is behind me, I may actually have enough energy for a few blog posts every now and then.

Isaac & I took a quick mid-week trip to Chapin to visit my parents after they returned from China earlier this month. Isaac found a new hiding place.

And we took a boat ride! The weather was beautiful in SC! It's certainly much more gray here in VA. He loved driving the boat. And he even liked the sunglasses. Isaac really doesn't like the sun in his eyes, but he won't normally keep his baby sunglasses on. If the sun gets in his eyes, like when we walk out of a store, he covers his eyes with both hands and says "Bight! Bight!"

Before we went to SC, we enjoyed an Oktoberfest sausage dinner on-campus with Bynum, Katherine, and baby Zemp, or as Isaac says, "Memp". So thankful for time with sweet friends!

Isaac's First Trip to the Beach

We took a trip to Mount Pleasant last weekend to visit Javier's parents. While we were there, Isaac got to visit the beach for the first time! These pictures show a progression of what he thought about it. :) He really didn't want anything to do with it at first...

Doing a little better playing in the sand, as long as his back was to the ocean.

Still not so sure. And yes, the sun was bright, but he refuses to wear his sunglasses & his hat was blowing away in the wind.

Now this is pretty fun... filling the dump truck with sand & water.

 We didn't get a picture of what was next... Isaac got to destroy a sandcastle that was already built. This was the turning point. After that... he loved it!

By the time we left, he was crawling headfirst into the ocean!

First Boat Ride

While in Chapin, Rachel, DJ & Ava as well as Elizabeth & Rob all came down for a day to hang out. We had a great time with not many pictures to show for it! Isaac & Ava got to take their first boat ride, but neither one was a huge fan. I think it was the life jackets. :) Really, Isaac was only happy as long as he was eating a graham cracker. Maybe next time!

The Pool & a Popsicle

Our neighbors gave us a baby pool they no longer use, and Isaac has been enjoying it some this summer. It took him a while to warm up to it, but after a while of sitting on the grass he'll usually get in & start splashing! 

We visited my parents over the 4th of July and Mom made Isaac some yogurt & fruit popsicles. He wasn't too sure about the really cold temperature, but enjoyed eating it all the same!

Isaac at 1 Year

I've been thinking about this post for a little while... I want to capture bits of Isaac at this special landmark in his life, but it's awfully hard to sum up our little guy!

Isaac is so full of life at one year. It's a blast to be around him. He's incredibly BUSY - whether it's flipping through books or pulling out every piece of Tupperware from the cabinet. He's still crawling, no real attempts at walking, but he is fast! He's becoming more adventurous - he'll leave the room that I'm in to go entertain himself elsewhere. He's extremely expressive and becoming more & more opinionated, whether over food or the toy he wants to play with. "Oh" is usually accompanied by his hand pointing to whatever he wants.

Other ways I'd describe Isaac:

• silly yet serious: he can flip between these at the drop of a hat
• determined: Isaac gets a certain look in his eyes that I know means business
• caring: he gives us big hugs when we say "love mama" or "love dada". He also *loves* to make us laugh & smile.
• talkative: we recently counted about 20 words that he says regularly. He also signs "more" & "all done".

Isaac has the most contagious smile & laugh! And super bright eyes that just seem to sparkle. He's becoming more comfortable around other people, although he's really shy around new people at first. Most of the time at the grocery store he'll just stare at people without waving or smiling, although he loves to do those as soon as we leave. :) Loud noises don't scare him like they used to, for the most part.

As far as day-to-day things I'll forget if I don't record, he's been sleeping through the night pretty regularly for not terribly long now. Isaac goes to bed around 6:30 and is usually up for good by 6:30 the next morning. He's taking 2 naps, around 9:00 AM and 1:00 PM. The naps have very suddenly become really good naps about a week ago. I've never considered Isaac a good napper & have no idea what's happened but it's nice! We've had a hard time getting Isaac to eat "real" food. I think it's a texture thing, because he eats purees still no problem. We are very ready for him to eat real food & offer him a ton of variety, but he'll only eat a little of it usually. (Bread & cantaloupe being his current real food favorites.)

We love you Isaac & are excited to watch you keep growing over this coming year!

1-Year Checkup

Isaac's 1-year checkup was last week. He's healthy & developing right on track.

Height: 31.1" (57th percentile)
Weight: 22 lbs., 1 oz. (61st percentile)

Isaac's Favorites at One Year

My friend Hannah quizzes her boys every year on their birthdays about some of their favorites. Well, while Isaac's talking a little, I'm not sure he's quite up for a quiz. So, these are what I imagine Isaac would say if he could tell us.

Isaac's favorite word:

He asks for "Day-dee" almost as soon as he wakes up. I love how much he loves Gracie!

Isaac's favorite toy:

Books. I find him flipping through books ALL the time. And he loves to hand them to me to read, although he usually doesn't let me finish one before he's handing me the next.

Isaac's favorite food: Bread. Any type - but muffins are a particular favorite.

Isaac's favorite animal: Sheep. He loves to tell us what the sheep say! "baa, baa, baa, BAA" all day long. He's recently also been able to tell us what the cow, horse, and dog all say, too!

Isaac's favorite place to go:

Outside. Ever since he was tiny, we could cheer him up just by walking out the door. It's been so fun lately to take him to playgrounds & to see him explore our yard.

What does Isaac want to be when he grows up?

 

Well, this is a tough one. Sometimes, a builder. He loves to hammer. Sometimes, a football player. He practices by tackling Gracie. Sometimes, I'd say a motivational speaker, as he practices talking all the time. We'll just have to wait & see!

12 Months of Isaac

A collage of his different looks, hairstyles, and expressions, one for each month.

Happy birthday, sweet Isaac!

It's hard to believe that our little guy turns ONE today!

How did this baby...

turn into this little boy in just one year?!

We love you SO much Isaac and can't imagine life without you!

China: Beijing... Finally

Considering we've been back from China for almost 2 months, and a certain little someone has a big birthday next week that I'll definitely want to blog about, I figured it was high time to post about our time in Beijing!

After the train ride, we spent three days in Beijing. ELIC has an office in Beijing, so we were able to get some help arranging a few aspects of our time there. A driver (arranged ahead of time) picked us all up from the train station and took us straight to the Great Wall. This was a good ways outside of the city, so we got to see a lot on the way, too. The Great Wall was really amazing. We were at the Mutianyu portion of the wall. The whole time we were there we just kept saying "I can't believe we're walking on the Great Wall of China." It just seemed crazy. The pollution in Beijing was pretty horrible (just ask Javier) so our view from the wall wasn't that great, but we can imagine what it would have been like on a clear day. It was also incredibly NOT crowded. Thanks, Em, for planning that part of our trip to be on a Friday!

Happy boy in the van on the way to the Great Wall.

 

In the cable car on the way to the top.

 

Great Wall!! Didn't realize how steep it would be.

 

 

After the Great Wall our driver took us by the MAC (the ELIC office) to pick up a pack & play for Isaac and then took us to our hotel. (We could not find a hotel with a crib... what do the Chinese do with babies when they travel?)

We drove right by the Bird's Nest (from the 2008 Olympics). This really shows the pollution, too.

We then went out to search for supper. A teammate of Em & Jon's had drawn a rough map of the area we were in with some restaurants that he knew were good marked on it. Now, remember that the "names" of restaurants in China are just made up since none of us could read a real name. And really, I don't think a lot of them even had real names like they do here. So, we were trying to find "The White Steps"... but we didn't see a restaurant with white steps on the street where it was supposed to be. We walked back & forth, then finally Javier saw that inside of a covered porch there were some white steps. It fit the rest of the description... so that was it! It had really good (and cheap) food, so we actually went back on Saturday night, too.

After our train ride the night before & exhausting day at the Great Wall, we all turned in super early that night at the Yongxiang Garden Business Hotel. (Somehow we got a great deal on this hotel... not exactly sure how, but ELIC set it up for us! It was really nice and even had a Western toilet!)

Saturday... we set out early to look for breakfast on the streets. I don't know how to spell what we ate, and really only know the name of one of the things, but it was good. Lots of fried bread type things. Some had onions & peppers in them, some were plain, and the one in the picture was just pretty amazing.

 

No idea what this is called... but I could eat one right now!!

We split up & got two cabs to take us to Tiananmen Square. There were LOTS of tour groups there from all over China (think what it's like visiting Washington DC here), and we were quite an entertaining sight to many of them. Once in particular we slowed down to pose the kids for a picture... and a few people started running over to snap their picture, too. After Tiananmen Square we headed to the Forbidden City. It was HUGE. We felt like we walked forever. It was interesting, but not the best place to have kids.

Tiananmen Square

Javier & his friend Mao

Forbidden City... this doesn't show how crowded it was

 

 

 

There was some really neat traditional Chinese architecture at the Forbidden City.

Then we found some lunch (after walking a really long way to find a restaurant recommended on Lonely Planet) and caught cabs back to the hotel. We rested a bit, trying to get Isaac to nap but he didn't want to, then went to the MAC for a visit. Dinner at the White Steps again, then back to the hotel.

Javier & Jon then figured out the subway to get to the Wongfujiang Snack Street. Apparently there was lots of crazy food there and they had a good time. Emily & I camped out in the hall of the hotel while the kids slept and got some funny looks from Chinese people who probably had no idea why these two Americans were hanging out in the hotel hallway.

Sunday was more sightseeing. We went to the Temple of Heaven, which is basically just a really big park. There are historic structures there that were temples once upon a time but are just monuments now. The park culture in China is incredible. There were tons of people doing different dances or playing instruments. There were people stretching, playing dominoes, knitting, playing cards, doing sports I've never seen before, and tons more. This was really fun - probably our top recommendation in Beijing.

 

This is in the echo chamber - LG is yelling "Echo!" as loud as she can.

"Lovers' clothing" is a big deal in China. You buy matching clothes if you really love each other...

After the park, we ate lunch at The Brown Door, which... get this... actually had the name written on it!! I couldn't believe it, I had just assumed we were looking for a restaurant with a brown door. :) It was right next to the Pearl Market and clearly catered to Westerners - they also advertised their coffee and their picture menu. Still, really great food, with these crazy haystack potatoes. After lunch we went to do some shopping at the Pearl Market. You have to bargain... and I mean really bargain. Prices would always start out incredibly high, then they would ask what you wanted to pay. You'd say something along the lines of "it would embarrass you if I named what I'm willing to pay", so they'd come back with something lower, but still ridiculously high. Eventually we would walk away, and they'd come chasing after you (or yell after you) that they'd take your price. It was quite an adventure. :)

 

Haystack potatoes

 Our last night in Beijing we ate at a nicer restaurant. This was the only restaurant we ate in that had high chairs or plastic spoons & bowls for the kids. And they even had napkins on the tables! We ate some great food and enjoyed our last evening all together. After supper & getting the kids back to the hotel, Emily & I went to Carrefour, basically the Chinese Walmart. It was a really fun experience. There was an elevator ramp that you could ride with your shopping cart (this felt slightly like Ikea), and then the store had all kinds of things. I bought a couple drinks that looked like hot chocolate, but tasted pretty gross. Fun to try. :)

 

 Monday morning we were up & packed pretty early. We got to spend just a little more time hanging out before a driver picked us up for the airport and we had to say goodbye! We are so thankful for the chance to visit the Wylies in China!! And if you want to see some better Beijing pictures (with not nearly as many words), Emily has some great ones on this post.