A Long Time of Busy

Well, it has been far too long since I have posted and instead of wishing to post, here I am posting.

Life is good and I feel so blessed. I have so many things to be thankful for: my caring and loving husband, my cute son, my husbands career in the air force, good health benefits, being able to stay at home with my little one, having enough for our needs, wonderful parents and sister, amazing in-laws who I love, a comfortable home, caring friends, a kind ward, a fun calling as a Primary teacher...the list could continue for forever!

Ike has grown so much! He is no longer a baby rolling around and scooting on his butt. He is now a full-fledged walker and is able to communicate with us! He gives us kisses and hugs, lets us know sometimes when he needs a changed diaper, will head to his room when I tell him it is time to sleep. Ike does not talk a lot, but he knows over 15 signs! Ball, cat, dog, fish, eat, cracker, milk, water, more, please, mom, sleep, diaper, all-done, shoe, foot, and some others that I cannot think of at the moment. He is just like a sponge and soaking up everything! One of his favorite places to go now is the aquarium. I leave the stroller in the car so he can walk around and as soon as we walk inside he is saying "ish!" and signing fish over and over again. He loves play group in our ward because he gets to see other kids and adults and he is learning how to play with sand and different things on the playgrounds we go to. I love my little sweetheart.

I know that this post is scattered, but I want to get back into the habit of posting on here again. I want to share the joys and frustrations of raising a cute little boy with others I care about. :)

INSANITY!

I have made some New Years goals for the first time in my life. I am determined to fulfill them all! One big one is to loose 35 pounds. That 35 pounds is baby weight and weight gained from birth control when we were first married. My start weight at the first of the year was 176 lbs. I am proud to say that after a month of working out at least 5 days a week and doing Hip Hop Abs from Beachbody, I have lost 4 lbs and now am at 172 lbs! I am so happy with that visible result! My larger size 10 pants are starting to fit a little looser and I am close to being able to wear my smaller size 10 pants! And I don't have so much flab hanging over the top of my pants since my abs are starting to get tighter.

Well, now comes a very difficult work out program...Insanity by Beachbody. Am I crazy for doing this? Probably, but I am determined to do this! I will do this workout program in full. Just over 2 months of crazy workouts. I can't wait to see what my results will be! I am hoping that I will be back into my size 8 pants by the time I am finished and I want to loose at least 10 lbs during this.

This morning I did the Fit Test...it was hard! And it was just the fit test! Here are my results:

Switch Kicks: 43
Power Jacks: 20
Power Knees: 69
Power Jumps: 14
Globe Jumps: 5
Suicide Jumps: 6
Push-up Jacks: 13
Low Plank Oblique: 17

Most of these were so hard to do! I hope that I can improve on them all by the time my 60 days are finished! Wish me luck!

Four to Six Months

Four Months

 Ike enjoyed to sit up. All the time. The bumbo chair came in handy a lot so I didn't have to hold him upright myself all the time. A friend of mine lent me a couple of her Baby Einstein DVDs and he loved them! They sure reminded me of toys from when I was growing up...

During this time we also discovered that Ike had a love of the television. He was glued to it! When I would go have lunch at Ison's work, there was a TV there and guess what Ike was straining to look at the whole time...the TV. Especially the end credits and the Phineas and Ferb theme song from Disney. If he was cranky and we played that theme song, he would stop crying and stare at the TV.

Ike no longer was eating every 3 hours, but was going for 5-6 hour stretches at least once a night. I was thrilled to be able to start sleeping for longer stretches!

Five Months

Five months old brought better balance and less use of the bumbo and other cushioning for Ike to sit. He still was falling over regularly, but he was getting strong enough to just roll over and deal with it. As you can see, he was still glued to the TV...luckily he is not near as interested now as he used to be.

For Halloween I found a cute orange shirt for Ike that said, "This is my costume..." I thought it was adorable...and it helped that it was 99 cents at Other Mothers. My cat costume I have had for years, so it was nothing really special. Unfortunately Ison could not go to the ward party because he was sick, but he was going to be Superman bursting out of street clothes.

 We started feeding Ike solids this month! After a couple of soupy, not so sure he likes it spoonfuls, the food was thickened up and he ate a lot of it! And he hasn't stopped since! First it was just rice cereal, but we have since given him several other cereals and lots of fruits and vegetables. I was pumping breastmilk for him to have with his cereal, but I got tired of that really fast since he has cereal 2-3 times a day, so now we mix formula in instead. I don't even think he noticed a difference. He is also feeding himself puffs and sometimes cut up bananas.

 This boy is such a joy! He makes me so happy and blessed. Heavenly Father has blessed us so much! I still am amazed that this little boy is ours.

By this month Ike started to sleep through the night! No more night time feedings! Hooray! It sure was strange to suddenly sleep through the night...but I am not complaining in the least.

These smiles are a very often occurrence now every day and it is so much fun to try to make him smile and laugh...he is ticklish just like his daddy!

Six Months

For Thanksgiving my sister came down from Utah and enjoy cute little Ike. And, as you can see, she contributed to trying to make Ike smile for a picture...he just looked at us like we were crazy.

I stopped using the carseat that we first used with Ike because it was just getting too heavy! We were able to get a different carseat that stays in the car all the time now and I like it much more. Here is Ike ready to go somewhere with us in his cute little jacket with his elephant blanket in hand.

Ison really loves Ike. He enjoys being able to chill out with him and play with him...he also enjoys watching TV with him and Duke, our dog. This shot of the three of them was just to cute not to take a picture of. I love my boys so much!

A whole new world of playing has happened for Ike. So many toys to play with! And always looking for mommy if I happen to walk by. He has become a pro at going in circles, but that's it. Nothing forward...he is just taking his time.

Ike loves his Grandpa. He loves Grandma, too, but it sure is cute to watch Ike and Grandpa. We had lunch with him one day and he was so thrilled to see that we were having lunch with Grandpa! And Grandpa was very pleased to see Ike recognized him. I will have to get a shot of Ike with Grandma at a lunch here soon. Grandma...I did give you lunch with grandson coupons...you can start redeeming them anytime...same for Grandpa...*hint*

This boy has the most beautiful smile with that adorable dimple! I was pretty excited when we realized he had one after he was born...I had always wanted a dimple, but I am fine with my son having one.