Operation SLEEP

The task has finally been accomplished my friends! Over the last month Isaiah has slowly stopped drinking his 6 oz's at night. He would wake up drink two ounces (obviously not up for hunger purposes) and slowly fuss himself back to sleep. He's not sick, he's not teething, and now knowing full and well he is not hungry we are comfortably able to close our bedroom door and allow the deep sleep of REM its rightful return. It's been two nights so far. The first night it was a solid half hour of crying (midnight-1230) and then two short bouts of fussing at 5:15 am and 6:00am. Last night I only heard him at 4 am fuzzing for a good 10 minutes and then out until seven. We are trying to stick to an eight o' clock bed time as well.

Now to retrain my body not to wake up every few hours. I already feel so much more rested not having to get up out of bed two-three times per night. Taking into consideration that at around six months of pregnancy I would at least have to get up once during the night to use the restroom and now coming up on eleven months of Isaiah finally being able to sleep through the night WE ARE TALKING WELL OVER A YEAR OF NOT GETTING A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP. This is why people age. . .children. BUT HALLELUJAH MAMA and PAPA are FINALLY sleeping at night!!!

Isaiah at Ten Months

-Has mastered standing on his own

-Started saying Mama in mid December:)

-He took his first two steps on his own while up at my parents house for Christmas.

-Everyday he is taking more and more steps on his own. Yesterday he took ten whole steps!!

-His two side teeth of his front teeth are almost all the way down.

-His hair is getting longer everyday. I love how it flips out on the sides.

-Has mastered putting cheerio's one by one in his mouth.

-Loves to chomp on MUM crackers.

-The erratic crying when I get in the shower has stopped.

-It's a riot watching him play with all his "push and pull" toys. He takes his push and pull Zebra all around the house.

-He has an automatic radar to the down stairs gate. If it is left open, he is ALWAYS fully aware and will help himself up the stairs. One day I was vacuuming and thought the gate was closed. To my surprise it was not and he was already half way up the stairs by the time I went to see what he was up too!!

-He also had his first fall off the bed at my parents house during Christmas. That was another "bad mama"moment and fortunately he was alright. I had finally got him to take a nap (on the bed) and needed to run downstairs to let the dogs out. And wouldn't you know the moment I opened the sliding glass door for the dogs I heard this loud thug from upstairs:(. I found him flat on his back and in tears.

-He was an angel while Christmas shopping this year. Jaime or my sister and I were out shopping for 5-6 hour long stretches and he loved every minute of it. He quietly sat in the shopping cart enjoying all the people and commotion-we'll see how he acts next year:).

-Can't stop saying it, "I LOVE THIS LITTLE MAN."

Isaiah at Nine Months

-9 mth STATs: Weight-19lbs 5 oz, Height-28.5 inches

-Loves to crawl under things. Crawls under the coffee table to get to the other side. Crawls under our bed and under the dining room table.

-Has become picky with eating. When I sit him in his high chair to eat he starts to pout and turn his heads away. He never denies his bottle of formula. He drinks 8 oz's if it is a meal or has one 2nd generation pack and then drinks 4-6 oz to wash it down.

-Takes two naps a day. Wakes up at 6 0r 7 am then plays till 930 and takes his first morning nap (2hrs long). Then up for the afternoon then another nap around 3pm. Bed time was becoming later (9pm) but if that 2nd nap gets skipped he is down by 8pm.

-Started to not like his bath. He stands at the edge just waiting for me to pull him out. He will not sit in the bath. He will go on his knees but he refuses to sit on his butt. Come to think about it, he doesn't do much sitting out of the bath either (I need to get some toys in there).

-Started climbing the stairs and loves to climb up on the banister ledge and look over the banister.

-Loves opening all the kitchen cabinets and pull anything I let him get his hands onto out.

-He has quite the imagination. He will discover something new (a lid to a pan, the tousle to our blinds) and spend the next fifteen minutes crawling around with it and chattering away.

-When I start to sing to him especially "AHHHHH SHAWBANYA" from Lion King he will open his mouth wide and with a very serious look on his face start to join in with me with this long drawn our AHHHHHHHH.

-He hates when I get in the shower. He cries and bangs on the shower doors until I am done. Can't wait till he is over this phase!

-His top two teeth are in, along with his bottom two teeth.

-On Thanksgiving night after spending the day/evening with Jaime's family we came home and he finally broke out with the "dada, da da, dada." No mama yet:(

-He gives these delicious kisses when you least expect them. He opens his mouth and softly plants his lips on your cheek. Sometimes they come when I am taking him out of his crib following a nap (LOVE THAT!)

-He loves when I put on the Christmas music. The song he gets most excited to hear is, " You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch."

-We took him to visit Santa and he couldn't stop staring at Santa or all the lovely, festive Christmas decorations. We were able to work a half smile out of him for the photo.

-Likes to pull the ornaments off our tree and unplug the lights, but for the most part if you keep him occupied with other things he will leave the tree alone.

-He has started to stand a couple seconds on his own. He will be holding onto something then let go for a few seconds, smile, then return to holding onto the stable object.

-Still not sleeping through the night. Wakes up once to drink 6 oz around 1230-2am.

-Just getting ready to switch him over to the forward facing car seat.

Outfits

I cannot say enough charming things about my mother-in-law. She sends over delicious home cooked meals seemingly on all those days when there is no food in the house, she helps take care of Isaiah when I go to work, she takes Isaiah on weekends so Jaime and I can go out of town, she even buys Isaiah adorable outfits. It is these outfits that sometimes make me chuckle inside. He looks absolutely adorable, but sometimes they take me by surprise. It was a few weeks ago that I stopped by Grandma Betty's house to pick him up after work. He had these baby blue cotton overalls on with a stripped long sleeve shirt. To top it all off, he was playing by the fireplace that is surrounded by brick. I felt like if Isaiah could talk he would turn to me in an English Accent and say "Hello mummy." I didn't have a camera that day, but the next time I dressed him in this outfit I couldn't resist snapping several shots of him.

"The Very Silly Sheep" by Jack Tickle

I've been reading this book to Isaiah from the time he was two months. At three months I started to notice an indisputable positive response every time we would sit down to read this particular book. I don't even have to open the front page for him to become tickled. As we pull it off the book shelf together he immediately gets this huge grin on his face. There are many other books that are read to him, but nothing captivates his attention like this one. He becomes giddy as I read the TITLE and he starts to coo and aw as I begin to read the pages. I love reading this book to him. I will probably be able to recite it to him twenty years from now because we have read it a million times over:)

ISAIAH JACOB TORRES

On a daily basis I am constantly saying, "Isaiah come with Mommy, Isaiah look who's home (it's Papa), Isaiah be careful or Isaiah do you want to read some books?" Usually I am talking to the back of Isaiah's handsome round head, but recently he has been turning in response to his name. It is such an awesome feeling knowing that he is verbally understanding the name given to him.

It wasn't an easy task naming him, Isaiah. If Jaime had his way he would have been named Dominic. If I would of gotten my way I would have named him Nicholas (the irony is that with either one of those names he probably would of gone by Nick). Anyhow, neither one of us were willing to join the other in their "favorite boy name" so we had to come up with one that we both liked together.

Last Christmas, December 2009, as my Mom, Caleb, Jaime and I were chilling by the fire we went through countless names. And Isaiah was brought up. Who brought it up? I don't remember. Maybe my brother or Jaime with their colossal memories can fill in that part of the story:) But Jaime and I both liked the name right away (which rarely happened). Mom and Caleb were very agreeable to it too. So as days passed and after researching the meaning, the prophet, and the spelling we both felt like this would be a very fitting name for the type of son/man we wanted to raise.

In my personal journal dated (12/31/09) I wrote:

"Isaiah was a prophet in the old testament that spoke the truth (telling of the coming of Christ) when no one wanted to hear/believe him. I hope my son has the same convictions and courage; to be a man that BOLDLY stands up for what he believes in. The prophet Isaiah was a prophet which also means he was a LEADER.I want all these characteristics for my son. We are naming you after a great man-

whether you believe him to be myth or not (I still question) he is recorded in history to be an

honorable, strong, Godly person. To my son-Isaiah I pray you to be these things. I love you

MOM (30.5 weeks)".

I say his name with pride. And this past week as Isaiah has turned to me as I call out to him is a moment I never want to forget.

Isaiah at Eight Months

-His two bottom teeth are completely in.

-Has now upgraded to the Big Boy bath. I put the baby tub away(that sat within the bathtub) and he is loving the plethora of water and new territory to explore. Sometimes I put the shower head on or lay him down on his back to float. It makes him nervous at first but then he warms up to all the fun to be had:)

-Crawls up to either Jaime and I and then pulls himself up to a standing position using one of our legs for support.

-Put the gate up at the bottom of the stairs.

-Noticing strangers but them warms right up to them. Really stares at your face, examining every little wrinkle. . .I mean detail.

-Still eating 2nd generation Gerber food. We have tried to give him the 3rd generation with the little chunks but it makes him gag.

- He loves sucking/chewing on cucumbers, celery, or chunks of meat. Last night we were eating at one of our favorite Thai food restaurants and we gave him a slice of Nom Tuc (steak) and he became entranced with this piece of meat. He through a fit when we had to change it out because he had mauled and sucked the life out of the first piece.

-He is on to his second cold of the season:(. I have to hold him down and suction both sides of his nostrils to get all the mucous out. Last month this task was so much easier. He is getting so much stronger and his arms are becoming longer it is becoming quite an ordeal. It's not our favorite times of the day, but if you saw how he struggles to drink his bottle and breathe you would understand why it has to be done.

-He loves to be read and sang too.

-He loves opening and closing drawers and cabinets.

-He has become very aware of other children and loves to watch them.

-Typically drinks 8 oz's although sometimes he still only prefers six.

-Still not sleeping through the night! Need to make mention how TIRED, GRUMPY, and ANNOYED I am throughout the middle of the night when he awakes for no apparent reason. Last week we thought it was because of his cold and teething so we catered to his every grimace. But now it is backlashing on us because he is know waking continually and expecting our full attention at Midnight, two-thirty, four, and six. I'm wondering now if it has anything to do with him not using a pacifier? As a newborn he never acted that interested in it, so we DID NOT encourage the habit. But he just might be a better sleeper if he used one. Maybe I'll give it a try? J/K!!!!!! I guess I'm fighting my battle now instead of later when most mothers will be having to take the pacifiers away.