Storm Evasion

Well, you've probably seen the news... there's a nasty storm headed our way. Dan has to stay here and, if we are evacuated, will be on base with his students. No, this is not some type of hero complex that Dan has... this is a government mandate. Very fancy! He even has a special card that lets him drive back, into the storm!

I, on the other hand, will be flying to Minnesota with Isaiah on Sunday morning. We'll be there until Friday, at least. If the airport in Gulfport is underwater at that point, I think Ron and Linda will keep us a few more days.

They are not expecting this storm to be as bad as Katrina. As you watch TV over the next week, keep in mind that the worst part of the storm is the East side. So, the good news is, they are expecting Gustav to run through just West of Gulfport... the bad news is, we'll still get whipped. It's expected to be a Cat. 3 storm, so we're expecting to find our home in one piece when we return. We're also expecting some water damage or a broken window. We're up about 12 feet from sea level and we're behind other buildings... so we'll see.

Dan is glad that we will be safe and I am glad that we get to have such a wonderful visit allowing Dan to focus and stay safe. I'll have my phone. Call with questions.

Updated Photos

Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks. I've finally taken some time to update photos and get them online. Take a look at the last few months. He's super cute!

This is a picture of the "big bottle." Dan had this 32+ oz sports bottle. It's usually full of Propel, but it really doesn't matter.... Isaiah loves drinking out of it. As soon as he figured out how to make the straw work, he can't seem to stop. It's very cute! If you ever see a picture of him totally soaked, it's probably because of this bottle! He gets most of it in, but every now and again he stops drinking and forgets to swallow what's in his mouth. So that ends up all over the floor, his shirt... you get the idea. We're currently looking for a smaller one, but somehow I don't think that would be nearly as fun.

With the rest of my "free" time I've been monitoring eBay for an Instinct cell phone. My current cell phone is trash!! And I really don't want to extend my contract. AND it would cost me about $100 just to get a new phone! So, I'm looking for the closest think to an iPhone without having to pay to get out of my contract with Sprint. I know, I can probably find something more important to do with my time... but... I need to check on my bids.

Pink cheeks, super hot, and all druged up.

No, not some supermodel or actor... Isaiah!! He started running a fever last night. It was apparent that he was cutting a few more teeth, so I gave him some Motrin and put him to bed. At 5 am he woke up with such a fever. More drugs, fed him, back to bed. It's a rather stressful thing to know that he feels so crummy and there's really nothing I can do about it.

Isaiah slept until 9:30a and felt much better when he got up. More drugs at 11 then off to a play date with Jagger. He had a super-fun afternoon... then, about an hour before he could have more drugs his fever spiked. 103.7! I happened to be on the phone with his pediatrician's nurse at the time, so she gave me the dosage and schedule to get his fever down. You wouldn't think this would be so complicated.

Isaiah just woke up (11pm), felt like a normal little boy - finally! He ate, now he sleeps. We'll see what he feels like as the night progresses.

Oh... and now he has 6 teeth and 2 more on the way! And, of course, this new milestone was discovered by Andrea while we were over at her place. :-)

Our First Birthday Party

Well, Jagger turned 1 today! So we went to our first birthday party. Andrea and Jagger are often mine and Isaiah's playmates. It was a very strange feeling... 20 some adults and 4 kids. Jagger was interested in playing with the toys, but not really interested in opening them. No worries, one of the other children (about 6) was more than willing to help. Isaiah and another friend (about 3) watched from very close. I felt bad that Isaiah was always in the pictures... but Brian and Andrea were super gracious about it.

We will be stealing a few ideas. For example, the balloons were a big hit. We are also having Jagger and his folks over for Isaiah's party. Maybe I'll get a few pictures of that one.

Butter and Cheese on everything?

It's been an eventful week. We've gotten a chance to hang our with friends, have lunch with Daddy, and watch Isaiah take a few more steps. We also had Isaiah's 1 year check-up.

I know, it's a little early, but the appointment people and the doctor people don't communicate really well. So, we went in on Isaiah's 11 month birthday. All is well, except he's a little lighter than they would expect! First I'm instructed to eat DQ Blizzards to gain weight while pregnant, then the doc want me to pack a few more points on our little guy!! Now, keep in mind, Isaiah can eat! And we feed him, plenty!! But he also eats SUPER healthy... fruit, veggies, a little meat, yogurt. Dr. Helo's instructions: put butter and cheese on everything. :-) Now, this is our regular doc, and he knows me rather well at this point, so he knows that this will translate into a slight increase in the amount of cheese Za gets, not an all out dairy extravaganza.

So, Za had a cheese tortilla for dinner (with green beans)... and we finally figured out how to get him to drink formula (he's still short a feeding of milk from me)... we put 2 oz of whole milk and 2 oz of water with the powered. Happy baby bay. He gets more calories AND gets to see what's going on.

We go back in a month for shots and to have him weighed. If he's still light, we'll do some evaluation at that point. With the way he eats, I think we'll be fine.

New foods: Mac and Cheese (eaten with his hands... very messy), taco meat, clementine, nutra-grain bar, montery-jack cheese and 1/4 of the chocolate part of an Oreo cookie (where did he find that??)

First Steps... "Clover Field" Style

I don't know if you've seen the movie "Clover Field." It was done from the perspective of someone carrying around a handheld camera. So, there are a number of things you can't really see because they're just out of frame.

Well, Isaiah and I were over playing with Andrea and Jagger yesterday. (We were there for ever! I'm so surprised she did just kick us out after a while.) :-) She was sitting on the couch and Isaiah was walking around her when she said... he took a step! Sure he did... Wendy tried that one too. Then, a few minute later, Isaiah took a free step from the couch to me! Ok... now I believe you!

He did it a few times and when Dan came home he did it again. Now, Jagger has also taken a few steps between his folks, so I'm sure that it was just all the advanced walking mo-jo in the house.

We'll keep trying to get a proper video.