Walking Already?!

Let’s start out with some exciting news: Izaak started walking on his own on May 16th and turned 11 months old the next day!! He’s  been standing for awhile with the use of couches or whatever he could use to steady himself but had just started standing on his own less than a week prior (around May11th). By May 20th, he’s already doing some solo jumping in place!! Don’t get me wrong, he’s not particularly good at said activities, there’s still a lot of falling down and crawling involved but we’re pretty excited about his rapid progress! We also haven’t been able to capture any walking on video of course. As soon as the camera comes out, he starts being a goofball and becomes uninterested in walking.

I ended up missing my first actual Mother’s Day, I had to fly to the Seattle/Tacoma, Washington area on the 12th to be with my family after my 99 year old Grandmother’s passing on the 9th. Izaak stayed home with Joe because I figured that it would be too much to keep him in my arms for 8 hours each way, poor kid would’ve lost his mind! I got some nice flowers (lilies!!) from Izaak (and Joe), delivered and awaiting my arrival at home and they also picked up the stainless OXO measuring cups that I had been admiring. Grandma Chickie was a special lady and it’s a shame that Izaak won’t get to meet her and get to know her. I suppose that’s one of the perils of choosing to have kids later in life: the pool of grandparents, etc shrinks over time. Even though Grandma lived a long, full life; death always seems to be a reminder to me to attempt to live life to the fullest. Time goes quickly and even if you do live a very long life, your health may prevent you from doing what you wish. I’m not talking about flying by the seat of your pants with reckless abandon (though I may have tried that out for a couple years in my twenties…), rather being responsible yet spontaneous and enjoying each day. Be forgiving without being a doormat. Allow people to have beliefs different than your own. Enjoy your kids. Say “thank you” when someone helps you out, even if the help is something they are supposed to do anyhow. Remember that everyone has “stuff” going on in their lives so act accordingly.

In other news, we’ve encountered diarrhea = major diaper rash. The poor kid has blisters on his butt and we’ve been going through diapers like they’re going out of style. We don’t know what’s causing it and he has no other symptoms other than about a week of diarrhea off and on. He doesn’t seem to be dehydrated, no fever, he’s otherwise acting normal so Joe and I agreed that we’d take him to the doctor on Monday (yesterday) if he still was having issues. We switched to a stronger diaper cream but the healing process hasn’t been a fast one. It looks like it’s finally starting to clear up but OUCH!!

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it or not, but Izaak is a chatterbox! He says “Da-da” and “Muh-muh” (not necessarily in regard to either Joe or I), “Nooo” is another favorite, and loves to hear his own voice. He seems to have lots of opinions and chooses to voice them often. It will be interesting when he starts to form more recognizable words and begins to form sentences. It is so cool to see him grow and learn new things!!