Growing Up....No. 2

August was also a big month for Drew. On the 25th he turned 10 months old (wow...already)!! We spent the whole month of July trying to entice him to crawl, roll, move somehow....just do anything besides sit and chew on toys all day and then we spent the whole month of August CHASING him ALL around the house as he discovered the joys of being mobile. Here is just a sampling of the many skills he has mastered this past month:

CLIMBING UP & OVER Everything. (the stairs included...we have had a few close calls when the baby gate has been left down).
CRAWLING. He started out alittle shaky the first two days and then suddenly.......

ZOOM...ZOOM....ZOOM! Now he crawls so fast I can barely put him down before he run crawls out of my sight. He especially likes to crawl really fast when chasing Isaac or playing "crawling" with Isaac (as Ike calls it.....Ike gets down and crawls around with baby Drew).

PULLING HIMSELF UP (he could do that for awhile; but since he wasn't mobile; he wouldn't do it very often). Now he pulls himself up on everything he crawls up to....chairs, couch, walls, YOU, etc.And even WALKING behind the walker......

He is getting more daring each day with his cruising and walking with the walker....just today he tried to walk from the ottoman to the couch; so maybe any day we will be posting that he is walking.

Speaking of GROWING; his hair is really getting long. We keep thinking about cutting it since now it often hangs over the top of his ears; but then Jared can't give Drew his favorite hairdo....the soccer rocker! (Besides, we also wonder if it helps hide his head shape).


Also in the past month 3 more teeth popped through....giving him 7 teeth already. Which may explain why he is such a "chewy" kid. His chewiness has added two new nicknames to his repertoire: Chewbacca and Beaver. The "beav" isn't really coming from his relation to uncle Beavis per se but from the pictures below:

HMMM....Hmmmm....hmmmm....what could be causing all those marks on Drew's crib?? Especially all those marks on the rail closest to the door?
Ah HA! Mom caught the culprit in the act one day when she came to get Drew from his morning nap. Over about a week; more and more marks were showing up on his crib. I was pretty sure it was Drew chewing on it and above is a picture of him right after being caught.

So, what did mom and dad do.....lower his crib ALL the way down. Hoping to prevent more crib chewing!!
OH! Looks like it worked.......see Drew can barely even look over the rail by the door! Yeah!

But alas, he just moved over to the other rail.............Nice try Mom and Dad!! Ha, Ha!!
Anyone know the long-term effects of eating varnish??????

Growing Up.....No. 1

August was a BIG month for Isaac......we started off the month with a "BINKY PARTY". It is alittle embarrassing to admit that we had to resort to bribery to get rid of the binkies; but at least we FINALLY did it.

We talked to him about if for a week or so before the party. Isaac LOVES the garbage truck so we told him we were having a Binky Party where he would throw his binkies in the garbage truck and then he would get a present! But, then the binkies would be ALL GONE; NO MORE Binkies. So, we talked it up and he was ready for a present. We went to the store and he picked out what he wanted....then I got it for him later and wrapped it up.

Dad and Isaac the night before the binky party!!
Isaac waiting outside with mom for the "garbee" truck to throw away his binkies.

VIDEO OF THE ACTUAL THROWING AWAY:
The "garbee" truck was later than usual that morning (of course) and Dad needed to get to work....so we resorted to the garbage can. He didn't seem to mind because I had the presents wrapped and in the family room that morning and he REALLY was dying to open them.

Opening those presents...........
And yes the irony of the whole story........what did he pick out at the store as his present???
This "garbee" truck!! What can I say....he is fascinated with the garbage truck right now!!
And now the results of the Binky Party.............Mom had to resort back to reading the sleep book.
We knew the first week or so would be rough; but figured it would pass soon enough. Besides there had been a few nights or naps when the binkies couldn't be found and he went to sleep without them. And in fact, after a couple of days he quit asking for the binkies and when he would ask...we would go over that he threw them in the garbage, got a present and Isaac would then say "and binkies ALL GONE."

However, it turns out our great little sleeper.....might have just been laying in his bed sucking on those BELOVED binkies and NOT actually sleeping. Like early in the morning when he first woke up (for maybe even over an hour) or at naptime for awhile before he eventually fell asleep. He ultimately was sleeping....but probably not as much as we thought and probably because he ONLY got the binkies for naps or night he was content to just suck on them and lay in his bed.

So after the first week....all kinds of "new" sleep problems were occurring. Getting out of BED alot.....one morning he was up wandering the house at 5:30am (which woke up Drew...so we all got to get up at 5:30am that day)! Getting out of bed at naps! Lots of crying and whining at bedtime and naptime, etc. Most of you know the story.

So, I decided to give Dr. Weissbluth's suggestion a try (under sleep problems for toddlers).....Sleep Rules. Seemed "ify" especially with Isaac's comprehension level but seemed like a better first alternative then locking him in his room (more so because I was worried he would just trash his room and I didn't want to have to pick it up everyday). So, we made the poster with Isaac's help (as suggested); we decorated it all up with stickers. Put on calendars and told him he got a star sticker and a treat at bedtime and naptime if he followed the rules. It is actually working really good at bedtime; he gets a sticker most mornings!! Naptime is a struggle....but only because of the whining he does in his room for a few minutes when I first leave him. He now knows ALL the rules and we go over them at night and at naps and he says them back to us (it is very cute). Hopefully, the rules start to sink in more and we will start getting TWO stars each day! (And an added bonus....I learned the power of stickers with kiddos...they love them)!
And finally, Isaac started pre-school again on Monday (the 25th). Here he is ready to go......
He goes M-Th from 9:00 to 11:30am. Dad drops him off on his way to work and I pick him up. He can actually ride the bus....but MOM isn't ready for that, yet. We started a new school and teacher closer to home; but it is going really well. A little crying (by him) on the first day and then none today when Jared dropped him off. It wasn't as sad to see him go this time since we did 6 weeks in the spring before school got out. We are excited to see his progress and what strides he'll make in the program!! WHAT A BIG BOY!

Something New

I know, I know it is really time for a NEW post!

So, I thought I'd start off with a picture of our NEW HOUSE:
After getting the run around from our landlord on how long we could continue to rent before he "let the house go"...we decided we had better start looking. So, we found this great foreclosure and made an offer and ended up getting the house. We moved in the end of June; thanks to alot of help from my sister Kim and Jared's parents!!

This SHOULD be our LAST move for ALONG time (or at least for 5 years until the Vegas housing market settles down some). Luckily, we were able to find a house with a third car garage (tandem 3rd car) to store all of our stuff from our Utah basement (since the homes in Vegas don't have basements). Here is a picture of Jared getting it organized after our move.And to go along with the NEW house......a NEW LEATHER COUCH AND CHAIR!!!
This is so BIG; it is actually deserving of its own post......something like "One of these pictures is not like the other....." followed by pictures of our family rooms with the old couches in every place we have lived during the last ELEVEN years of marriage expect our new house in Vegas. But, you know me and posting....so here they are. We finally got rid of the brown, bumpy hand-me-down couches we got from Grandpa and Grandma Cisney when we were first married. After seven moves and eleven years it was almost sad to see them go. Here's to another 11 years with some NEW brown couches!!

Here is a NEW photo of the boys in their matching outfits for the 4th of July!

Followed by an even HOTTER one.....the boys watching the Summerlin Fourth of July Parade. It was pretty toasty at 9am; but the boys did better than we thought. Isaac especially liked the "fire engines" and "motorcycles"!
Drew is really enjoying his NEW DIET courtesy of Grandma Truman and Grandpa Frost!!

For those of you shocked right now, please note that it is at least CAFFEINE FREE Coke that we feed Drew! (j/k the can is EMPTY; I promise)!!

And of course, LOTS of NEW family photos from our FUN TRIP to Utah.

Uncle Jared with the two baby boys...Brody and Drew
Isaac with his cousins Jace and Tyler enjoying the zoo!Our little family at the zoo.Followed by the whole "darn" family at the zoo(well....almost)! Grandma Truman and Drew, Aunt Kimmie and Brody, Jace, Tyler and Isaac on the train at the zoo.Jared and Isaac enjoying the merry-go-round at the zoo.Isaac enjoying the rides at Lagoon....the helicopter ride and........the train ride with Grandpa Frost.
Uncle Jared with baby Hank (as Ike calls him).
Grandpa Frost and Drew.....this is shortly before the Coke drinking!!The Frost Boys (Dan, Colby, Dad, Jared and Mike)
Isaac with his "birthday buddy cousins" : Megan and CarterJared and Crystal enjoying the fabulous BBQ we had.
Finally, I just wanted to note that Drew has become the NEWEST mover and shaker of the family. He started crawling the day we returned home from Utah. And now he is all over the place and LOVES to pull himself up. I won't bore you with the long videos of his first shakey crawls; but thought I would added to all the NEW items.

What's SO Funny?

A few weeks ago I was doing the dishes in the kitchen when I heard screeching from the living (toy) room. I quickly grabbed the i-flip and started recording......



Drew just LOVES watching Isaac as you can see; he already loves hanging out with his big brother. However, we still have some work to do on being "SOFT" with the baby because Drew gets roughed up a bit; but I guess that is what being brothers is all about!! (Or being a Frost brother, at least)

Some Firsts

Since I am not a diligent blogger like ya'll we've had alot of "FIRSTS" happen this last month or so that I thought I would catch up on.


Isaac's first day of school (pre-school) April 17th
Ike started pre-school in mid-April through the school districts' head start program so he could get speech therapy. He goes M-TH from 9 to 11:30am until June 4th. I know he needs it; but it was pretty sad to send him that first day. Boy, times goes fast!! He doesn't seem old enough to go to school already. Of course, he cried a ton for the first week, some the second week and now he just gives us a "Bye-Bye" with a quiver in his voice and a wave!! But, I also get the BIGGEST smile and HUG when I go pick him up!!

Drew's first bites of rice cereal!
The very first day; he didn't seem to mind it. He didn't really pull any faces and he ate it like it was no big deal. However, the next 5 or so times he cried his eyes out or got really mad at me! Not sure why? It seems like I have to catch him in the right mood to eat. We have given up on rice cereal for awhile and have tried: squash, sweet potatoes and peas with some success. Next week we are going to try oatmeal and see if that goes any better.

Isaac's first self-portrait!
While my mom and I were busy taking video footage of Drew's first bites; Isaac took the camera off of the table and snapped a few photos of himself!! This first one isn't too bad; especially for a 3 year old!
Drew's first tooth (followed the very next day by his 2nd tooth)
I know you can't really see his two little bottom teeth....but the first one cut through on April 29th followed by the other one on the 30th. I couldn't get him to stop chewing on things for the picture.........in fact, we still CAN'T get him to stop chewing on everything. It looks like his top two teeth are also pretty close to cutting through. Regardless of teething he seems to be a "I put everything in my mouth" baby....Isaac was never as chewy as Drew.

Isaac's first night in his toddler bed!!
Yes, this is just his crib minus the front rail. (And yes, he was 3 years old and still in a crib...and yes, those are his binkies still in his hands.....and yes, I know I am a bad mother). We ordered the toddler rail for his bed while we still lived in Utah. When it came the move was getting close and we had decided to wait to take him out of his crib until after the move so we left it in the box. Well, when we took it out this weekend to put it on we found out that Babies 'R Us actually ordered the wrong rail. The rail we have doesn't fit on his bed. So, we just left the front of the crib off and decided to try it out! Amazingly, it has gone great so far!! Two days into it and he really hasn't even tried to get out (even at nap time -HALLELUJAH)! In fact, the first morning we woke up to him saying "I want to get out" while we was still sitting in his bed. Very funny!!
First post of the boys in MATCHING outfits!!
The first of many too come. I got lots of great bargains on some matching clothes for the boys at the Children's Place (my favorite kids clothing store).