Behind...behind...

I know I am totally behind on blogging. I know in the month of May, we took a TON of pictures, which I will want to post. The problem is...well, we have been busy! We haven't downloaded any pictures at all this month...between Laura and Brett's visit (May 5-15), our weekend in Columbus, then our weekend at the cabin...well - the month just got away from us!

We are slowing digging ourselves out of the rut of things we need to do - so this weekend I will get on posting some new pictures, and maybe I can harass Brian into making another video.

Isaac is going so many wonderful things now. He crawls like a speed demon...pulls himself up to standing...has been exploring new foods - avacado, yogurt and tofu...and he discovered...the BEACH.

Our son loves the water! He has so much fun playing in his little plastic pool! When we were at the beach, we put him down on the sand, and he made a beeline to the water! Lake Huron is pretty cold in May, but he still seemed to be having fun splashing it in! Also, he has a mission to clear the beach of all the sand grass - one blade at a time! It was hilarious.

Anyways, as I promised, I will work on some pictures. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend - and has a fabulous June to come!

Memorial Day at the cabin

Isaac's first trip to the cabin! He loved it! He had a great time in the sand, and totally loved the water!!!

Blogging from Destination Columbus

Isaac and I braved the trek to Columbus by ourselves last night to meet up with Brian, who is working here, and so we could visit with "Auntie" Sarah. We arrived late in the night, and with the exception of a tearful start and a minor "lost paci" incident - we are settled in. It is beautiful outside our window today as we prepare to head to the Zoo with Sarah!

Isaac just woke up and is playing with his stroller right now while I prepare his bananas and cereal. Then - we will be on the road!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!




Here is a picture from a few weeks before when Sarah came up to visit us! Isaac helped us make our wonderful "date night" dinner!

Some pictues from our trip!



Isaac in the hotel



Isaac wrestling with Sarah

Visit with the Aussie relatives...

Brett and Laura came to visit on May 5th. Unfortunately, Brett had to leave on the 7th, however, Laura was able to stay, and we got to spend some quality time with her. While Brett was still here, we took the whole family to the Tulip Time Festival in Holland.

After he left, we spent some fun time shopping, playing Wii and just hanging about. Isaac had fun playing with his Auntie Laura - and it's hard to imagine, next time he sees her, he will most likely be walking and talking!!!

Tooth!

Isaac's first tooth came in yesterday!!!

Slide Show!

Conjuncta-wha?

I got a call from day care today...the day Isaac was to start in Infant 2 - the mobile room.

"We think Isaac has pink eye"

"What? I just dropped him off 3 hours ago..."

"Yeah...you are going to want to come check this out"

I got to the day care to find my poor little monkey with the nastiest eye goobies I have ever seen and the most horrific look of despair...no doubting it this time...Monkey is sick...

One doctor's appointment, an hour at Meijer's pharmacy with a crying child, and two prescriptions later - Isaac, complete with his pink eye and ear infection are at home, trying to play with his toys. This poor little guy...trying so hard to be his cheerful, loving self...but with these eyes that just keep filling with this white pussy yukkie-ookie...and probably a horribly aching couple of ears!

...meanwhile, I am guilt ridden over being "that mom"...the mom that took her sick child to day care (doesn't matter that he was symptom free!)...and possibly started PINK EYE OUTBREAK 2007 at Rainbow CDC. Oh man...I can see my popularity ticker dropping right now.

The good news is, the antibiotics should kick in fast...the bad news is, I am probably going to end up with it too.

Brian has been quarantined. He can't get sick - he has too much work to do these days! He has been banned from touching myself and Isaac, any related toys, pooey diapers and laundry. Sadly, his response? "Oh, I can work more OT then...." and I am pretty sure he didn't say it with any glee.

That's the news in Spratke-ville. Hope all is well and clean-eye free in your neck of the woods.

Props to the Photographer!

Haley, of Hayley Hamlin Photography gave me the digital pic of Isaac that you see on the upper right to use on my blog! WHOO HOO.

You can see more of Haley's work, and information about her services at the Live, Laugh, Love blog link on the lower right!

(shameless plug, I know, but I love her pics!)

**New!!**

Hayley entered a photo in a contest from Isaac's photo shoot - and got second place! You can see the picture at her blog! Congrats Hayley!

Land of the Crawlies

It's been an exciting month in the Spratke household! Isaac has almost perfected his crawl....he sits up like a pro and he has more and more personality each day.

As I write this, Brian and Isaac are playing with a burp cloth on Isaac's head as he is crawling. It's pretty funny.

Isaac is doing great. He eats like a champ - discriminating against no fruit or veggie! And, I am excited to say, we are on 7+ months of successful breastfeeding! I am hoping to make it to a year - and so far, it looks like we will make it!

This past weekend, we had some CMU college friends over for dinner - Cara & Chester, Christine and Jon. Then, Sunday, Isaac had his first "playing in the yard". He seemed totally un-phased by the tickly green stuff underneath him!

April...

It's been a busy month...with Brian traveling, visits to Flint, Easter, Isaac learning to crawl, etc - it's amazing how fast the month has gone by! I realized I had not posted any pics recently..so here are a few!

Isaac with Julia and Isaac taking a bath!

Michael's a pop star!

Michael gets coverage! His friend Doni, a DJ at DC101 - put this picture up on their main page today. I think it's proof even Michael can fall victim to the evils of karaoke. Haha.

Does he get to decide that?

Decision making powers at 7 months old?

Isaac has decided that his favorite blanket is the afghan that was made by my cousin Karen. It is the largest of all his blankies, and the one I cover myself with at night when I am nursing him (which is probably why!). Brian and I noticed lately that he would grab at it when we were rocking him - and now he has decided that he will protest bedtime unless he has the said blankie. So much for keeping big bulky blankets out of the infants bed! (I have been taking it out after he is completely asleep).

And, in exciting news...well, to me...after a week of restless sleeping (teething maybe?) Isaac slept completely from 8pm to 6am this morning. I feel like a million bucks today by the way...ha.

Wii have a crawler

2 monumental moments in the household today. When Isaac was being picked up from Day Care, his teachers had big news. He had been crawling all around the room all day. He was a little shy when he got home, but he definitely is good for a couple of step bursts here and there.

Second, Brian got his Wii. For those of you who didn't know, he was stuck in Florida over Easter, and decide to spend his per diem spending. What more could a guy ask for? Opening night of the hockey playoffs, and a new video game console!!!!

Flint named nation's best walking city

FLINT
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
By Bill Khan
bkhan@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6184

When Flint tops a list in a national publication, it usually sends city officials and supporters into a defensive posture.

There was the famous 1987 Money Magazine article that listed Flint as the nation's worst place to live. There have been other less-than-flattering lists over the years that rank Flint one of the worst cities in America in a variety of categories.

Here's something for which people in the Vehicle City can be proud: A national walking magazine has named Flint the best city for walkers in the nation and the Crim Festival of Races as the most walker-friendly event. WALK! Magazine, based in Columbus, Ohio, made the selections based on nominations submitted by its readers. Flint was listed on more than one-third of nominations for the best city and the Crim on 90 percent of the event nominations, according to the magazine's Web site.

Among the criteria listed on the WALK! Web site were the presence of walking clubs and walker-friendly running clubs; available walking and hiking trails; events that include walkers; walkability; and athletic shoe stores that understand walkers.

"What really impressed us about the nominations we received from Flint is that people who walk in that area really love that area," said Cindi Leeman, editor of WALK! Magazine. "It was just overwhelming the number of people who said the Crim Festival of Races was a great opportunity for walkers. Of all the cities we received nominations for, there was the greatest affection for Flint."

The Crim, which consisted of only the 10-mile run its first 10 years, added a 5-kilometer walk in 1988, an 8K walk in 1990, an 8K racewalk in 1994 and a 1-mile walk in 1999. The 8K racewalk was replaced by a 5K racewalk in 2001.

A separate walking category will be added to the 10-mile race this year.

Eighteen percent of last year's registrants in the various Crim events were walkers. The Crim Training Program has walking groups, as well as groups for runners of various abilities.

"It's really significant, because Flint is usually involved with the negative side of the list," Crim race director Deb Kiertzner said. "This is significant, because it really highlights what we've known at the Crim all along. There's a very large and enthusiastic running and walking community in this area. The people with the Genesee County parks have provided locations for us to use and the City of Flint has wonderful venues for us to use. Now it's come to light through this award."

The Riverbend Striders, a local running club founded in the 1970s by Mark Bauman and John Gault, added a walk division to their local races in the late 1980s.

"We were definitely ahead of the curve," Bauman said. "There are still a lot of races that don't have walks now. We had an active walking community and they asked for it. We put it in and they were able to get us enough numbers to justify paying for the awards.

"Interest is still pretty good. Some years have been better than other years. The Crim adding a 10-mile walk and the Crim Training Program adding walks has helped, too. The Crim and Striders complement each other."

Samantha turns 3!

This is long overdue to post - but in Feb, we were able to be at Samantha's 3rd birthday party! The whole theme was princesses (naturally!) and Sam looked so cute in her new princess dress! Here are some pix!

Double JJ Waterpark

For St. Patty's day - we went to the waterpark and stayed in the suites with a bunch of our friends...here are some pics of some of the kids playing...

Grandpa's New Floors....

For Christmas, the family all pitched in for Tim to put in a new floor into Grandpa's kitchen. In the process, we discovered his living room had wood beneath the carpet! So, Dad and Jon pulled up the carpet, and plans are under way to poly it sometime soon! Tim did an awesome job on the kitchen floor! Here are some pics!

Knees please!

Isaac has learned how to get up on his knees and rock back and forth! It's crazy to watch the progression of learning this task be perfected over a weekend!!!

We had a good weekend. I was a smidge under the weather, but we still managed to attend 3 birthday parties and have dinner with our neighbors!

Last weekend, we visited the Double JJ Waterpark with our Blue Sky friends and a great time was had by all. Isaac did very well despite being a little terrified of the waves and water cannons!

Brian posted a new video on You Tube...if you haven't seen it already and would like to, email us and we will share it with you!

Isaac's 6 month pix

We just had Isaac's 6 month pictures done by Haley Hamlin Photography....

if you would like to see her work visit her site...
http://my.cmsinter.net/hayleyhamlin/

If you would like to look at Isaac's proofs - email me and I will give you the password!

Welcome Emma!

Congrats to our friends, Wendy and Rob and Ben- on the birth of their daughter/sister, Emma Grace!