I'll Toot My Kid's Horn

Since he doesn't really know how to do it himself, I'll toot Isaiah's horn for him today.

We went in to the clinic for his 18 month well check. The kid did amazing. Seriously incredible. Rediculously phenomenal.

He's in the 97th %ile for height and about 80th %ile for weight. Always consistent on the growth curve my boy is!

Anywho. We got in to the room and I stripped him down and of course he just giggled at being nakie (except for his diaper)! He layed perfectly still as nurse Mandy weighed him, measured his length and his head circumference. Nurse Mandy continued to check him out a bit and then said that there was a student in today and asked if it was ok if he came in also. This frequently happens and I'm ALL too happy to help people learn. So the P.A. student came in and checked out Big Man. Isaiah's ears were so incredibly filled with wax that he couldn't really see in. So then Dr. Nelson came in and checked him out, he continuing to smile and "chat" with them all. Dr. Nelson asked Mandy to do an ear wash on the right ear since after picking out a LOT of wax, she still couldn't see much. So Mandy proceeded to do the ear wash. I had to hold him sideways over the sink while she shot warm water into his ear with this little do-hickey contrapation. He, again, didn't even bat an eye. Just sat there in my arms, didn't even twitch his head. After seeing the really gross products in the sink of the ear wash and seeing how great he did, we did the other ear too. Nurse Mandy finished up by saying to the P.A. student, "That was the easiest ear wash I've EVER done, and it was on an EIGHTEEN MONTH OLD!" She then proceeded to give him 4 shots, to which he got a BIG pouty lip and said, "Owie Manny (Mandy)! Owie!" And then I picked him up and said it was time to go, to which he replied, "Shoes! Shoes! Ouside, Ouside!"

And we traipsed out of the doctors office all smiles! And then we played "ouside" since it was so nice out this morning!

Happy 18 month Birthday Mr. IJK! You are loved!

The Lodge

(My apologies that this is one big huge long paragraph. Blogger is being dumb and won't let me make new paragraphs) Whatever. ONWARD WITH THE POST! ...After MUCH anticipation we were finally able to use our gift certificate (that my mom, dad & brother Richie gave us for Christmas) to go up north to The Lodge- hotel and indoor waterpark! It was one of the most fantastic weekends I have had with the kids on any type of vacation! Isaiah got to stay at Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Rob's house while Jeremiah, myself, Jonah & Aphia jonted off to the north woods. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE my Isaiah-baya-boo, but man was it nice to go do something like this without the constraints of a one year old! We actually got to do stuff we wanted instead of chasing him around. We also got to spend our weekend with some of our best friends- the Pack family (Taylor, Jessica, Julia & Jillian). Jonah is just a titch older than Julia and Aphia is just a titch older than Jillian. They had so much fun together playing and playing and playing! Some of my favorite things were: *Going down the waterslide with each of the children (separately). *Hearing how quiet the kids were in the next room and seeing their priceless faces when I came in to check on them. They had taken a whole bag of jellybeans, divied it up into 4 cups and were ferociously mowing on them. I didn't really care, they had been eating candy all day long, what was another bag of jellybeans?! *Following Aphia around, just letting her set her pace and what she wanted to do in the waterpark. She's quite a little fish. Her favorite thing to do was swim in the plain-old-swimming pool part of the entire place. *Watching the children play "Tangled" on the huge king/queen log bunk bed that looked like Repunzel's castle/tower thingy. Jillian would wrap a long blanket around her head and drop it over the side, while Jonah would climb up her hair aka the bunk bed ladder. SO CUTE! *Letting the kids stay up several hours past regular bedtime because we were ON VACATION!! *Spending great, quality time with great friends! *Relaxing, vegging out, and playing. This really is the summary of the weekend. I cannot emphasize how awesome it was to actually do a vacation with the family. I usually feel exhausted after "vacations" with the kids. This time was quite different and I'm so refreshed and rejuvenated!

Here are some pictures from our adventure. I didn't take too many, I was busy having fun myself instead of being the photographer!

Jones and Daddy coming down from the tube slide

Aphia and Jillian on the little green slide together.

My sing-song girl, singin' a made up song about the pool while in the pool!

Jones loves his goggles so he can swim underwater! He's also somewhat of a fish.

My little fishies sitting on the side of the hot tub.

Mixed Messages

Apparently our third born is getting mixed messages