Ethan and the Bluejays

Since Ethan turned 3 in April, he is finally old enough to participate in little sports classes offered at the local rec center. We decided soccer was the best for him since he has been obsessed with it basically since he was a newborn. Taylor's younger sister played soccer in high school and she lived at home the past 3 summers that we were here so Ethan got to join her in the backyard many afternoons to kick balls around. The Woodbury's also love going to watch REAL Salt Lake (the MLS soccer team in Utah) games and Ethan has gotten to tag along.
(Isaac with Grandpa, Ethan, Grams, Barbara-who hates pictures but is being a good sport)
It's been interesting this summer to see the differences between Ethan and Isaac. As a newborn, Ethan would sit and literally watch the entire game. His little head would move back and forth watching the ball. I thought maybe all babies were fascinated by the movement. Wrong! Isaac could care less what's happening on the field. He wiggles and is only happy when he's standing up on our laps, turned around backwards so he can smile at the people behind us (who apparently pay more attention to him than we do). Notice here Ethan is watching while Issac tries to steal his yellow card.
Always smiley for the camera! (They're both wearing jerseys from an Irish club team-ignore the beer logo)

So anyway, Ethan joined a little soccer league where there were no practices, just games. I guess at this age they figure no one's really going to learn anyways, so just let them run around and have fun. Which is exactly what they did. It was really funny to watch them all trip over each other, kick the ball into the wrong goal, continue kicking the ball 30 yards out of bounds with the ref whistling and screaming for them to stop, and even occasionally throwing the ball into the goal with their hands (yes, Ethan did this when they asked him to throw the ball in from the side lines. I actually watched his little look of confusion as they said "throw it in" and so of course he took that literal and ran and "threw" the ball in the goal). Various children also spent time laying on the field (it was pretty hot), holding hands and skipping around the field (this really embarrased Taylor when he saw 3 little girls skipping towards Ethan who of course joined hands and joined in), and even flower picking. There were lots of goals because most teams didn't have goalies since the kids who were supposed to stay in the goal just got bored and kind of wandered off. But every game ended with juice and treats and high fives so everyone went home happy!

This is Ethan's team with their cute coach Amy. They chose the name "Bluejays" which Taylor kept saying was so lame, but they're 3 and 4 after all!
This is how Isaac and Taylor enjoyed the games in the 95 degree heat.

Thanks grams for coming to every single game and for cheering loudly! Isaac says thanks for letting him chew on your sunglasses and keys.

Poor Bruised Isaac

After about the first week of crawling, I started to notice Issac doing these little push-ups. It resulted in many painful faceplants for him and lots of tears.
Then he discovered that he could sit himself up from laying on his belly and he has been so happy being able to play with toys without having to be flat on the floor. This new trick has caused a few bumps to the back of his head though as he loses his balance and topples over backwards.
I was okay with these 2 new developments and convinced he at least wouldn't figure out how to crawl on his knees for at least a few more weeks.... and then his cousin Robert came to visit. Robert is almost 4 months older than Isaac and substantially more advanced in his skills as you would expect. Much to my surprise and dismay, I could actually see Isaac's little brain working as he watched Robert crawl around and climb up on things... and then he started trying the same tricks himself!
This is the beginning stages of him pulling himself up onto things (much forehead trauma here as he hadn't figured out how to scoot forward and could only stay in this position until his arms got too tired and he came crashing down onto the floor or the object- fun!)

The next stage was figuring out how to walk his little knees forward (a welcome blessing after 2 days of black and blue forehead smacks).
But he wasn't satisfied with that so he decided to try to balance on his knees (again, many falls and lots of tears).
Every time I try to pull him down or off of something, he looks at me like this: "Just try to stop me."
And once he'd mastered pulling himself up onto small boxes and dog cases and such, he decided he could climb up anything- the back of the couch, a coffee table, even chairs.

And of course he ended up flat on the floor like this most of the time (but usually with a much unhappier face).

The really hard part is that he doesn't quite have the concept of holding on down yet. So most of the time when he climbs up to a table or something and gets the phone or TV remote or one of Ethan's toys that he was going after, he grabs it, immediately shoves it into his excited mouth, and then topples over backwards because he has forgotten to hold on to the table.

So whether it's good or bad, Isaac's on the move. Officially up on his knees exclusively and I just hope he lives through all the falls.

And on the bright side, because he can now sit up well on his own, he gets to join Ethan in the regular bathtub and I get to stop getting soaked trying to give him sink baths! Yeah!

He's on the move!

I was hoping Isaac would be like Ethan and not crawl until 8 months which would conveniently be when we get back to DC and I only have a tiny apartment to baby-proof. Instead, he started doing a little army crawl last week and has been getting faster ever since. Pretty soon he'll be up on his knees and then it's all over from there. Ahhh! The hardest part of baby proofing now is teaching Ethan to keep his toys up off the floor. Isaac has already eaten a few "go fish" cards (just a little extra fiber in his diet right?).

Oh, to have a backyard!

Every summer when we leave Utah, the one thing I miss the most is Taylor's parent's backyard. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy taking Ethan on walks or going to a park so he can play outside, but I LOVE being able to let him play outside whenever he wants which is much more frequent here. I especially appreciate the backyard this year because Isaac can be happy and stay on his napping schedule while Ethan is completely entertained with all his backyard activities.
He's actually figured out how to use the pedals this year and loves riding in circles around the pool.

And he wouldn't be a Woodbury if he didn't love golf. Taylor loves to come home from work and hit a few balls into the pool with Ethan. (Ethan doesn't mind the attention much either)

"Training"

Sorry it's been so long since I wrote anything. The summer has been busy and fun. We spent 2 weeks in Chicago with my parents and then the first 2 weeks of June "training" our kids in various ways. Isaac went through "sleep training" where I broke him of eating during the night and he gradually learned to sleep through the night. He has been great since then and usually sleeps from 7pm to 6am at which point he lets me know he is REALLY hungry and nurses and then goes back to sleep for another hour or so. He also started on solid foods which for Ethan, took quite a lot of training and he never really got good at it (he still isn't and would rather do just about anything else than eat- even sweets! Obviously he didn't get that from Taylor or I). Isaac on the other hand, LOVES solids! He is such a pleasure to feed. He opens his mouth wide and even starts whining if you're not fast enough. Definitely a new experience for us. Ethan used to refuse to open his mouth and we often spent a full hour trying to get 2 tablespoons of food into him. We even resorted to blowing bubbles so he'd look up at them and inadvertently open his mouth and we could shove the food in quickly. So Isaac is great. His favorite so far is carrots.

Ethan spent the first few weeks getting "trained" in several different ways. First, in learning to sleep with someone else in his room (Isaac previously was in our living room since he was getting up to nurse several times a night). So now Ethan has had to learn to sleep through crying. He also graduated to a big boy bed (which he rolled out of twice before we wised up and got a guard rail). He never figured out how to climb out of his crib, so we've been spoiled for the past 3 years. He's somewhat good about staying in his bed but often gets out to play with things. Tonight I heard him playing after I'd put him to bed and went in to find him playing with an empty laundry basket on his head (we've had to remove all the other toys from his room). So he's not fully trained there- but what child is? And the last bit of training was Ethan and the potty. Everyone in DC can tell you how much I procrastinated this one- and mostly because Ethan was so content to stay in his diapers. So I decided to wait until we were in Utah where I could spend most of our days in the backyard and have less cleanup. I have to admit I was really worried it wouldn't work but it was amazingly fast and easy. Ethan had 4 or 5 accidents the first day (all outside!!!) and then the second day he somehow figured it out. Over the past 6 weeks he's probably only had 2 or 3 more accidents so I'm very pleased with that. He also hasn't been afraid of pooing in the potty so that has been a big blessing. It's amazing how these boys are growing and learning so quickly. They make me laugh every day and we have a great time together!