Budding Artist

Recently Calem drew this picture of me:

I wish someone had told me I was having a bad hair day!

Happy 2nd Birthday, "Baby Isaac!"

Is that the most handsome 2 year old you've ever seen, or what??? Okay, so I may be a smidge biased, but truly that smile can light up a room and turn the hardest of hearts soft.

It's hard to believe this little guy, still lovingly referred to in our social circle as "Baby Isaac," is now a 2 year old on the verge of big boy status.

At 2 years of age, Isaac is a wonderfully independent child. He attacks life with exuberance and takes play VERY seriously. So seriously you can often spy on him talking to his toys and playing with such purpose and so intensely there is a furrow in his brow. Unlike his big brother, Isaac can play for more than an hour without ever checking to make sure he hasn't been abandoned. This is wonderful at home, but scary when we're out in public. The kid has little to no fear, and can disappear in a split second. I definitely have to keep an eye on him.

Isaac has grown into a funny and light-hearted little boy. He loves to laugh and to make other people, especially his big brother, laugh. He has developed quite the little sense of humor, and unfortunately likes to do his stand up routine at the dinner table. Despite the ever-more-frequent tantrums, Isaac is a generally mild-mannered child and perpetually happy.

Isaac loves choo-choos, cars, trucks, cars, cookies, cars, Calem--and cars. So, understandably, we had a car-themed birthday party for Isaac with just a few friends. The kids enjoyed racing cars down a plywood ramp and eating a chocolate race-car cake.

The race ramp was a huge hit, and I have plans to paint it and make it look like a real drag-race track at some point.

These are Isaac's closest friends. He's so lucky to have been fully welcomed into the "big-boy" crowd. It's funny, because some of Calem's friends actually prefer to play with Isaac at times! Ah, the benefits of having a brother so close in age.Happy Birthday, Isaac. Mommy loves you so, so much! But you need to stop growing up so fast.

Snow fun, or 'sno fun?

We had a heat wave on Monday!! 35 degrees. Why, I even went to my MOPS meeting sans coat. (Me, not the boys. I'm still a responsible mom) Crazy how warped our sense of warm has gotten with the weeks upon weeks of endless frigidity and snowfall upon snowfall has made us.

To celebrate the warm(er) weather, I bundled up the kids--which took about half an hour--and headed outside. Isaac loudly protested through the whole process and through the whole outdoor adventure. I guess I don't blame him, since our snow is so deep it came up to his armpits, in certain parts of the yard. Calem warmed up to the idea once he learned to follow the path I'd already made in the snow, making it easier for him to trek through the white stuff.

Calem helped me build a snow man, and had the very imortant job of giving him a nose and arms. I think he looks cute. When Frosty was finished Calem announced he was ready for hot cocoa.

25 minutes, 6 sloppy boots, 10 wet mittens, 3 snowy coats, 2 hats and one very unhappy Isaac later, we headed back inside and made hot cocoa. The end.

Like a Person

The last thing tying Calem to babyhood is gone now.

He was always so happy, so we figured, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." We're talking about the crib. He was so comfy cozy, so content, so good at staying in, even though he could climb out with the same ease we walk through a door. So, we just didn't push "the big boy bed." (And we lacked motivation to actually build the darn thing.)

But Calem's not a baby any more, so we finally took all the pieces out of the IKEA box that had been sitting in our dining room since August and assembled Calem's big boy bed. It's so cute. It is a reversable bed, and can turn into a sort of loft or bunk bed once he is a bit bigger. It has a really cool tent-like canopy thing that makes the bed much more of a "fort" than a boring old bed. It is a hit. He instantly made friends with the new bed and never glanced a longing eye toward the crib. So long, old friend.

That first night he settled right in, tucked himself under the covers just like a grown-up, and slumbered peacefully until morning. When we checked on him before we went to sleep, he looked so adorable. Scott smiled and said, "He looks like a person, now." Hmmm. What was he before, I wonder? Well, yes, as opposed to a baby, he is a person now. A rather unstable "person"--what with the mood swings, temper tantrums and bursts of crazy nonsensical babble--but a person nonetheless.

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas.

We had a wonderful time leading up to Christmas. While not as jam-packed with activities as fall usually is for us, we managed to fit in some festivities:

Christmas Lights at Finwood Estate,

Visits to Santa,

A ride on the Polar Express

Adventures in Gingerbread House Making

And making Christmas cookies with Mommy, Aunt Cheryl and cousin, Heather.

In addition, we attended a children's program at Severance Hall, trimmed the Christmas Tree with circling choo-choo and all, and made plenty of Christmas crafts.

Christmas day was simple and quiet (well, as quiet as it can be with 3 year-old and nearly 2 year-old boys can be). Calem loved the idea of Santa and took the cookies and milk ceremony on Christmas Eve quite seriously. It was fun to watch him wrap his head around the whole concept of Santa, and could be heard quite often after the holidays saying, "but I don't know how Santa could fit all those presents down the chimney."

More importantly, Calem grasped the idea that Christmas is also Jesus' birthday. He asked me once if we would have birthday cake. I know a lot of people do make a cake to have on Christmas, but I opted out this year. We went to the family service at church on Christmas Eve, where kids under the age of 8 EASILY outnumbered the adults 2 to 1, and Calem still remembers that the message from the pastor was that we celebrate Christmas because we celebrate Jesus Christ and Jesus is the light of the world. Everyone at the service was given little glow-sticks, and when they turned out the lights and everyone made their glow sticks glow, it really made an impression on the kids. Calem is a bit of a pack-rat and so we still have the glow sticks. When he sees them he says, "Jesus is the light of the world."

Of course, presents were the highlight and everything they received continues to be enjoyed on a daily basis. It's nice to have some new toys in the mix, and since we play with the train set at least 4-5 hours a day, it's nice that we now have a deluxe train depot, complete with working microphone so they can yell, "AAAALLL A-BOARD!!!" again and again (and again), and that we can build train tracks all the way from the playroom to the kitchen, around the island and back.

This is only a small version of the track configurations we now make, but you get the idea. The possibilities are endless and they have so much fun building, knocking down, crashing trains, rebuilding and going on tiny railway adventures.

We had a wonderful Christmas.

Christmas Cards That Weren't

An apology to anyone (and that's EVERYONE I know) who didn't get a Christmas card from the Nagy family. There were none to be sent this year. I know, appalling. If I had sent them, I think this would have made a memorable card:

"Peace on Earth, Good Will To Men!"
Merry Christmas from the Nagy Family
Scott, Lorie, Calem and Isaac

Well, anyway... Happy New Year!!

He Speaks...

Just in the last two weeks, Isaac has become a bonified talker. Of course, he's had a few choice words here and there for many months--his favorites being mommy, daddy and car. But in the last two weeks he has added more than 150 words to his vocabulary. I tried to keep a list and start writing them down, but I lost track really quickly because the new ones were coming so fast! Calem loves that Isaac is now talking and pends much of the day telling him, "Isaac, say _______." And Calem is trying to converse with him all the time, just like he does with us. It's funny, because Calem seems to understand him better than we do sometimes, and say with excitement, "Isaac just said refrigerator!!" So, Calem is seeing Isaac as a much more viable option for a playmate these days now that he can sort of communicate. Calem loves to instruct Isaac on how to play, an often can be heard bossing Isaac around in the playroom. Isaac's usually okay with that for a little while, but then understandably grows annoyed and runs to me in protest.

Isaac is also stringing words together into sentences. Some make sense like, "Mommy, gimme cookie," and some don't like, "Hi Daddy car choo-choo!!!" All in all, we are happy to hear our youngest tot learning to communicate in this big world of people who like to hear themselves talk. Go, Isaac, go!! Let your voice be heard amongst the masses!