Four Month Shots

Yesterday Izzie went to the doctor for her four month shots. The poor kid didn't even remember the first time. Sad I know. But first I have to post a couple of pictures.

Here's Izzie playing in her swing. It's amazing to me how the simplest things remain entertaining to her no matter how many times she does them. I often wish I was that easily amused.



Here's Izzie and I on the couch hanging out. I don't know whats wrong with my eye, but if you've been paying attention you will have noticed that Izzie has the same retarded squinty eye problem that I do. Genes are great.


Next we have Izzie wearing a fabulous hat by the great hat maker Mikey T. It's uber cute and Izzie seems to like it. Thanks Mikey T.



OK. Let's get down to the dirty business. Before Izzie had her shots, she went to the park with mom and a friend. It was rather cold and windy, so she was all bundled up in the new outfit that Grannie got her and the cool new hat that Mikey T made her. Is the plug a sweet accessories or what.


Once we got inside and waited the usual eternity to see the doctor, it was time to get weighed and measured.


She weighed in at a hefty 15 pounds 9 ounces. That puts her in the 94th percentile for weight. Luckily she's not too fat because she's also in the 80th percentile for height at 25". The doctor said that she's close to the size of a 6 month old baby which is something that we already knew because of her clothe size.

Here she is talking to us. I think she was trying to explain that she just really enjoys eating and that she was surprised at the 15.56 pounds just as much as we were.


Here we are with the doctor. He's a great doctor. I just wish he was more personable. I guess it's probably a tough thing to do when you see so many people though.




After the doc was done telling us what to expect in the next couple of months (invaluable information to new parents) he bid us farewell. We had a couple of minutes before the doctor came in, so I interviewed Izzie to get a glimpse into how she prepares herself for something as traumatic as having needles jabbed into your legs. Here's the interview:



Then the nurse came in to do the honors. I made a comment when she came in the room that I don't think she thought was funny. I looked at Izzie and said "there's that evil nurse." It was a joke, and I know that Izzie can't comprehend what I'm telling her, so I wasn't worried about falsely convincing Izzie of something. Obviously the nurse didn't think the same way. At least I know next time to keep it strictly business. I guess she has it kind of hard torturing babies all day.

Here's Izzie getting the oral injections.


She fights them, but if she only knew what was next. Poor Lynnell. I can always tell when she is sincerely bummed about something, and she wasn't looking forward to this moment. Last time I took pictures of the event, so this time I decided to take a video. Unfortunately, I'm not going to put it on here. It's too sad. Poor kid. I don't even have anything to say about it.

Here she is moments afterwards with her new Tasmanian Devil band aids.



Now that it's over, things are much better. Izzie's wounds seem to have a little extra swelling this time. I don't know why. Hopefully they go away soon (tomorrow). Next time she gets shots it should only be half as bad because she'll get half as many. As if that matters. The pain is probably still the same.

Sorry Izzie. You'll thank us later for getting your vaccinations done. Love you.

Izzie's Take

We showed Izzie the video of her cousin Bailee laughing.

Here's her response.

Comming Up On Four Months

Izzie's only a few days from being four months old, and she's getting big. VERY BIG. It's crazy how fast she grows.

Izzie can finally reach and grab for things, and she seems to enjoy it because if you leave something within her little arms reach she'll do her best to grab it. Thanks to her new found skill she seems to like playing with her toys a lot more because she can interact with them instead of just watch us do it.



Last week we went for a walk through the neighborhood. It was fairly cold, so we bundled Izzie up for the excursion. She looked like a little hoodlum in her hat. Luckily no body mistook her for a gangsta' thanks to all of the pink she had on.



As always, she was asleep by the time we got home (and dang cute)


Izzie's new thing is chewing on everything she can get her slobbery hands on. When she can't reach something or doesn't have anything to slobber on, she goes for her hands. Lately it doesn't seem like she can get enough of them because she gags herself with them at least twice a day. It's kind of funny to watch, and the noises are even better. I just happened to get a picture of her doing it.


She really likes playing in her little rain forest thing now because she can spin the ... things and make the lights light up and the music play by banging on it.



Most of the time we hang out, read books and sing songs. Izzie's loving it, and Nell and I are too.






Here's a couple of pictures of a squeaky clean Izzie.



Last picture... Devil child. We were teaching her to scare trick or treaters. No... not really. She's smart, but she's not learning that quickly... yet. Besides, I doubt we'll do the Halloween thing anyways.

Izzie Rocket

So now that Izzie knows how to laugh we are continually trying to find new ways to get her to do just that. One thing that I've found is holding her in my arms and lifting her up into the air and then pulling her down. There's not much more to explain. A quick note: watch for the puke. I learned that I can't do this within an hour of eating. In fact the best time to do this is just before she eats but only if she's in a good mood.



If you have been paying attention, you have noticed that every time Izzie laughs she gives herself the hiccups. Watch both videos and you'll notice it if you haven't already.

In case you missed the first video of Izzie laughing, you should check it out.

Izzie's First Giggle

It's a prerequisite to the video in this post.

Izzie Gets Dedicated

We dedicated Izzie on Sunday Oct. 7th. It was a fun experience. Not fun like ha ha, but fun like "thanks God." I know not everyone is familiar with what a dedication is, so I'll do my best to explain the short version.

As Christ followers Lynnell and I believe that it's important to dedicate our children to God. The significance is basically that we are acknowledging that God has blessed us with a child and that she belongs to God (or we are giving her to God). By doing this we charge ourselves with the duty of raising Izzie to be a Christ follower and to live the life that Christ calls her to live. We must be diligent to teach her what we believe and what the Bible teaches us. We must also prayerfully seek guidance from God because, let's face it, raising a child to follow Christ these days is probably going to be difficult.




It was definitely an experience that I'll never forget. When we were done I felt this big sigh and all I could think was "thanks God." Hence the fun.

We failed to get a video of it. Obviously in retrospect we should have. Next time we will. I do have the audio clip from Mosaic where we did it though.

Click here to listen

Sweet.

Izzie's Growing

The last time we were in Idaho, we put Izzie in her cousin's jumper play thing. She loved it. Luckily for us Grandpa & Grandma Longley got Izzie one too, so we put it together for her a few weeks ago. She loves it. She gets the baby shakes when the lights start blinking and the music gets going. You know... the arm waving, tense face straight legs baby shakes. I think (hope) that means she likes it. Lynnell informed me that Izzie spun it around all the way today while I was taking a nap. That's a big feat for a three and a half month old baby. I think she's finally starting to get the hang of the coincidence of music and lights to her jumping. It's fun to see her developing in everything.



One thing that I don't get to enjoy all of the time is sleeping with Izzie. Now it's not like I want to have her sleep in my bed all night long. That would suck. I'm talking about that early morning period where she wakes up but could use a bit more sleep. Usually Lynnell will go grab her out of her crib and lay her in bed. She usually falls back to sleep for a while giving mom some more needed sleep. Since I have to get up early in the morning and go to work, I miss out on this on a daily basis. The weekends are the only time I get to enjoy it. The problem there is that sometimes I'm so worn out that I don't feel up to making sure I don't roll over and crush my baby when I'm sleeping on a Saturday morning. So, even on a weekend I'll miss out on this. You are probably asking yourself why it's so fun to sleep with your baby. Well, it's just fun. I can't explain it. It's kind of like when you buy a cool new toy like a TV or an Xbox360 or something new and fun. It's that feeling of anticipation that you get all day because you just want to go home and use it (spend time with it). Or like when you know I have a new post on my blog and you just can't wait to see the new pictures of Izzie. Maybe that's a bad analogy, but that's the feeling. I just want to be close to her and spend time with her. For some reason it's just enjoyable. Plus she's adorable.


Here's me and Izzie playing on the couch. She's to the point now where she starts to laugh and giggle a lot. It's fun.


Right now we are working on what I can see to be an uphill battle. Izzie has discovered the television. When she sees it she locks on like a falcon watching it's prey, and she'll do anything to see it. She stretches pretty hard sometimes. Now I don't need everyone reading this blog to tell me that it's bad for babies to watch TV. I know. I've read the reports and have heard plenty of comments. So, for now, we just make sure that if she's in her jumper or swing that she can't see the tele. Just believe me when I say she tries her best to see it. Here she is with mom trying her darnedest to watch it.


Since Izzie started locking in on the TV we have since canceled our cable. That's not the main reason, but it's part of it. Hopefully we'll (Nell and I) spend less time watching it period.

Izzie is also starting to collect a few toys. She likes the ones she has, so we don't get her a lot of them although I will admit that it is tempting. Luckily we are at a place in our lives where we are trying to live more simply. We realize that there are people out there that are far less fortunate than we are, and we want to be able to help them. To do that we realize that we have to be downwardly mobile (v.s. upwardly mobile). As Americans it's not easy, but as Christ followers it is. We are having fun with it, and hopefully it is something that we can instill in the hearts of our children. Here she is gumming her toys in her sweet little bouncy chair that the Zupans got her. (Yes the toys were made in China. No I don't know if they have lead paint. Do I care...? No. I turned out just fine.)

Izzie Update

So It's been a while since the last Izzie update. Here's a look at what we've been up to:

Izzie is now chewing on everything all the time. She especially enjoys chewing on her hands. I think it's mostly because they are readily available for the gnawing. Despite my dislike for all things germy I let her chew on my finger one day. She loved it. I don't let her do it all of the time, but now when I hold her she tries to grab my hand and pull it towards her mouth. She's figured out that she can do it to mom too, but Nell doesn't let her do it. Here she is gumming my finger.


And then there's always the good old fall-asleep-in-dad's-arms routine. I'm especially fond of this one because she's so precious when she's sleeping. The problem is that she prefers to fall asleep in either her crib or her swing, so when I get the opportunity to hold her when she falls asleep I take it. The one thing that I'm completely bummed about is that she won't lay on my chest anymore and go to sleep. She refuses. It was always my favorite thing, but now I can't do it. Sad.


Here's something that alarmed us when she first started doing it:


I don't know why she does it. We would come in her room, and despite tucking her in nice and tight she would always pull the blanket up over her face. One day I watched her do it, and as soon as she got her face covered up, she relaxed and fell asleep. Obviously our initial alarm is justified. I mean, how is she supposed to breath. The really really odd thing about this is... I do the same thing. I don't know why I do it, but sometimes I can only fall asleep if I cover up my head. ...WEIRD.

Here we are shopping at the mall. Izzie loves to be in the Moby, and she does her darnedest to stay awake in it no matter how tired she is. Then there always seems to be this catastrophic failure point where she just can't do it. She's asleep within seconds. Luckily this time we made it to the car just before that happened.



So, that's it for now. Check back soon for more.

I Missed My Family

On Monday I flew to Columbus, Ohio to meet with a client and do some site visits. I'll be here until Thursday. It's nice to get out of the office to travel somewhere that can't be driven to. I'm so sick of driving.

Anyways, I was totally depressed as I sat in my hotel room. Lynnell called me to tell me that Izzie is laughing hysterically. Sure enough, she was. She was laughing her little head off, and in doing so she gave herself the hiccups.

Anyways, I'm home now. It was kind of depressing to not be able to see Izzie. I'll admit it, I didn't like it. The bummer thing is, I'll be in Texas next week for a few days, so I'll have to do without her there too.

Hopefully this will be the last time in a while that I have to travel.