Loving Life

This is now one of Caleb's favorite things to do. The neighbor has a bigger slide that he also likes to do this with. We have even started bringing a car or two to the park with us so he can do it there too.

I just though Caleb was so cute that I got out the camera and started asking him random questions.

Story and Memorial Day

Story: At dinner the other night Caleb said, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy," really fast. When Derrick turned to look at him, Caleb smiled really big then let out a burp. It was the funniest thing ever. We can't believe he had the self control to hold it in until he got Derrick's attention.
Memorial Day: Lynne's side of the family came over. It was a full house and Caleb loved it. It was so cute to see him smiling so much while running around with the other kids and having the adults pay attention to him and play with him a little bit. I am never more happy than when I see Caleb happy and yesterday he was truly happy.
What surprised me though was when I told him it was time for bed and he smiled the whole time walking to his room and getting ready. Even though he was leaving the fun, he had just been so happy that it carried through until he went to sleep. He is such a happy kid and life is a genuine joy to him. I hope that doesn't change.

Kids

Caleb found shoes to match his pj's:

Here I asked Caleb to roll like a dog:

I love seeing my kids awake and happy near each other. I still find it hard to believe that I have 2 children.

We are borrowing a swing from a neighbor. Brynn likes it but doesn't love it. Here's when she is happy in it:

That kid...

1. At church on Sunday I brought Caleb to nursery. He was the first kid there and I was afraid he would be nervous with me leaving since it was a new nursery and there were no other kids there yet. He quickly found a very big dump truck to play with and when I told him I was going to class he responded, "bye, bye." That kid loves nursery.
2. Good Night Moon is a book we read often. In the great green room there is a clothes line with a pair of socks and a pair of mittens. There is another page with just the mittens on the clothes line. Caleb pointed to the clothes line, looked at me and said, "Socks, go?" I had never pointed out to him before that the socks were missing in that picture. That kid is very observant.
3. Caleb was watching Sesame Street videos on the computer. I told him he had watched enough for the day and we were all done. I then told him I had to go to the bathroom. As soon as I closed the door of the bathroom he calls out, "Lisa, Lisa!" Lisa comes and turns on the video for him (of course she didn't know I said no more videos). That kid knows how to get what he wants.

We're Here

Well, we made it to Utah! After the grueling task of packing and cleaning we're here. Derrick's parents drove the truck rental with my car in tow; Derrick and I drove Derrick's car with the kids. Caleb and Brynn both did so well in the car! Caleb was only fussy outside of the car but almost never in it. Brynn slept the whole time. We couldn't be more lucky. None of us got very much sleep for about a week but that's all behind us now.
We are staying with Derrick's parents for now and the kids couldn't be happier about that either. Caleb loves everyone so much. Whenever Kent walks in the room he says, "Kent" with a smile. He knows Lisa will play with him and says her name well too. Grandpa is also a favorite but he's at work and they don't get to see each other as much as Caleb would like. Grandma is the best at reading books:

Brynn started being constantly fussy early this week but finally, since last night, she has been more content, saying lots of "ooo's" and smiling at you when you talk to her. She even rolled over from tummy to back twice this morning for the first time (6 weeks).

Since Monday, Derrick and I have been running around like crazy working out things to buy a home. We went house hunting on Monday and Tuesday and yesterday we put in an offer on a home. It is a short sale so we won't hear back for a little bit but we are excited about the home we found in Saratoga Springs. We really hope it works out.

We're Moving!

I've done a lot of posts in a row and this one had to get it's own post. We are moving to Utah! Derrick interviewed at a few companies and he got 2 great offers. One at a start up in downtown San Francisco and another for a small but growing company in Utah, Corda. We were completely torn and had a really hard time deciding where to go. At first we accepted the start up in SF because he's always wanted to do one and I wanted to support him even though I did not want to move close to the city.
A week after we accepted the offer, Corda wanted to give us a better offer. Derrick got a call from Josh James, the former CEO of Omniture (a company sold to Adobe for 1.8 billion) and the person who just bought Corda. After talking to Derrick for a few minutes he gave Derrick an offer we couldn't refuse. Not only was it a great offer but Josh told Derrick he would be there for him to help further along his career (that is invaluable). Derrick accepted the offer right there on the phone. It was very hard to call the SF company and tell them we were taking another offer because they had been so nice to us but we knew it was what was right for our family.
Tomorrow (Friday) is Derrick's last day at Microsoft. We will hit the road one week later.
We have felt so blessed in our lives for many reasons. We know that all our blessings come from a Father in Heaven who loves us and we are hoping we can do even more good knowing that we have just been given such a huge blessing.
In conclusion, we now get a good job and Utah! We are looking forward to being near family and buying a home (oh how I shout for joy). Utah here we come!

Gram and Pop Visit Conclusion

All in all, we had fun together. It was nice to have 2 other people to help with the kids too.

We celebrated Derrick's 29th birthday together. Happy Birthday Derrick!

We can't wait until their next visit!

Brynn's Blessing

It was a wonderful blessing day. Our neighbors, Ivana, Isabelle and Cristian came (in the middle of this picture) and Derrick's friend, Abraham, from Stanford came as well (on the left). Brynn looked beautiful and she didn't cry at all during the blessing.

Happy Hollow

My parent's came in town last weekend for Brynn blessing. On Friday they took Caleb to Happy Hollow. He loved it!




At story time Caleb walked right up to the story teller and his hat was on crooked. I think it is so cute! The story teller gave Caleb five.


Caleb never wanted to go home he was having so much fun. He just wanted to ride:

Our Easter

On Saturday we went to a church Easter egg hunt and Caleb picked up very quickly how to hunt for Easter eggs. Derrick took Caleb around and Derrick said Caleb would find eggs he didn't even see. So on Sunday morning when I did a little egg hunt for Caleb he knew exactly what was going on and what would be in the eggs.


In the mid morning Caleb was jumping on our bed. He likes to jump forward and land on his tummy. Well, when he lunged forward he went too far and hit the window sill at the top of our bed and got this scratch:

He cried while it pussed and became a scab. Yesterday he noticed it in the mirror for the first time and said, "nose, nose" while touching it. He knew it was not normally on his face.
We went to church then headed right to Mark and Mary's house for Easter dinner. It was a good day.
Here's a video of Brynn:

Hiller Aviation Museum

This last Friday morning we went to the Hiller Aviation Museum. It was fun to go out for a family outing. We're totally taking advantage of Derrick's paternity leave and the fact that Brynn is portable.
The pictures above are of a portion of a 747. They have it made into a place where you can walk in, see where the passengers would sit (it was a 2 story plane) and then you can go into the cock pit:


There were lots of helicopters and airplanes inside. Caleb had fun but I think Derrick had more fun. He said it made him determined to fly.

Misc.

This is my angel baby:

She sleeps in 5-7 hour stretches...at night! She is so much easier to take care of than Caleb was. She sleeps more, eats easily and has less diapers that leak. The hardships I have with this baby are on my own body. I had a fever one day this week, we think from a small infection on my nipple. But I'm healing. It's slow and painful when nursing on that side but it should all be over soon.
Unfortunately, Caleb is starting to get a little jealous of her. Sometimes, if Brynn cries, he will try to cry louder. He also wants to get into our laps if we are holding her. But I don't think he hates her or wants to hurt her, he just wants our attention. He did hold her the other day and it was so cute:

A Caleb quirk: He doesn't like his hands to be dirty. If his hands are dirty from eating, he will pick up his sippy cup with his wrists. Even more so with the wrists than we show in this picture. For the first time this week he asked us to "keen" (clean) his hands in the middle of a meal. Funny boy.

Caleb's 2nd Birthday

To start off Caleb's birthday we took him to Vasona Park in Los Gatos. When we had Brynn, a lady at the hospital told us about this place and said our son would love it. She was right. Caleb's favorite part was the airplane. The park had a 1950's Air Force Jet that was hollowed out and made into a play structure. He also loved the train and firetruck:


For dinner we took him to Sweet Tomatoes (aka Souplantation) and he loved it, especially the jello. Then we went home and Caleb opened his presents. We tried to do web cam with my parents while he opened the gifts but our computer is having problems so it took a while. Here's what you missed Mom before web cam started working:

Caleb and Brynn

Caleb loves Brynn! He wishes she were awake more often. Here's a few stories of things that have happened:
1. I was sitting on the couch holding Brynn and Caleb walks up to me with arms wide open saying, "hold." We have never asked him if he wanted to hold her before, this was all his idea. We sit him on the couch and he practically grabs her from me as I am handing her over. He was done after literally 2 seconds but it was still cute.
2. Brynn was asleep in her car seat and Caleb walks up to her saying, "Hi Brynn. Baby. Rock." He starts rocking her in the car seat. Then he gently points to her face features saying them, "eyes, nose, tongue." I show Caleb her hands and say can you give her five. He gives her a five to one hand then the other.
3. Caleb knows what her feeding time is now. When I sit down in the rocking chair to feed her he likes to get the boppy pillow for me. He will then say, "Milk. Hungry." We tell him yes, the baby is hungry and is going to drink milk.
4. Caleb was getting out of the bath and asked to see Brynn. He brought two of his bath toys to show her and placed them on her and then said, "Up." He wanted her to wake up so she could look at them. He proceeded to show her one more toy.
Here's a video from yesterday. The only thing she wants to do when she's awake is eat and you will see that at the end of the video. She was checked at the doctor's office today and is already back to her birth weight. I have a feeling she will be a chubby baby.

Brynn Danielle Isaacson

Born: April 7th, 2011
Weight: 6 lbs 12 oz
Height: 19 inches

I went into labor around 5pm on April 6th. Contractions started off really inconsistant but all of a sudden they became close and intense around 10pm. We got into the hospital around 11. It took too long in my opinion to get that epidural. Why did they have to ask so many questions?! This epidural was a huge relief but not as much as it was with Caleb. I actually felt something, how dare that happen :) No, it wasn't too bad once I had the epidural. After less than 5 minutes of pushing she was out at 1:48am. Fast it was!



This picture is funny to Derrick and I because even though she is over a pound lighter than Caleb was, her thighs are thicker. Caleb had chicken legs.

After we were done with the delivery room we found out we could get a private room! That was a huge blessing because when we had Caleb we had a shared room and it was a nightmare. This room even had a fold out bed for Derrick.

Caleb had no idea Brynn was even there when he met her for the first time. I think he thought it was something that was just a part of the new hospital room he had never been in before.

But when we got home he noticed her a little more and it was cute:

We love her and I was so glad I got to come home from the hospital today instead of tomorrow. I've already gotten a 1 1/2 hour nap today and it was so nice. I'm feeling good and am excited to dress up my little girl in all the dresses and headbands I've made. Yes, the flower headband she is wearing on the top picture is a creation of mine out of a ribbon I got from a baby gift. This will be fun!