Ike's New Job

Today, Isaac visited Grandma Anne at work and did some filing for her. His 11 monthiversary (thanks to his Aunty Cara for that oh-s0-useful term) seems to have passed without a blog entry. Isaac and Mommy have been traveling while Dad is doing another away rotation in Southern Utah. Since Valentines day, we've been in Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Tucson, and now Nebraska. More on those travels in a later update. For now, I'll just update you on some of Isaac's recent milestones, habits, and hobbies. I was mistaken in my last update--Isaac did learn to crawl on his hands and knees, and we haven't seen the worm since. He's pretty quick, and his separation anxiety has lessened quite a bit so he's exploring further and further from us. He's become an expert at holding onto someone's fingers and walking around. He's also very adept at climbing up stairs but hasn't figured out how to get down them yet. Just in the past few days, he's started occasionally letting go of whatever he's holding onto at the moment to stand independently. Isaac now has four teeth, including both outside incisors on the top and the front two middle teeth on the bottom. There's still no sign of the top two front teeth, but the fang look he has going on is actually pretty cute. He enjoys emptying drawers and cabinets, but usually he doesn't pay much attention to whatever he's removing. He just tosses it over his shoulder or to the side then reaches for the next thing. He also loves power cords, venetian blinds, and (as always) his Mom's phone. Things that roll, spin, or have buttons are also favorites. Last week he started using his index finger to point at things, and now frequently points at objects, sometimes babbling about them at the same time. He also seems to be able to sign "more" but he sometimes just claps instead. Isaac is a mobile, changing kid, and I promise more updates soon.

10 Months

Today Isaac is 10 months old. The 18^th of each month is always a little bit surprising since we’re convinced we just brought him home from the hospital. Still, he’s definitely turning into quite the big kid, hitting milestone after milestone. He now waves hello and (after the person he’d waving at is out of sight) sometimes goodbye. Peek-a-boo is pretty old hat, and clapping is so mid-November. Two weeks ago, he learned to pull himself up to standing, and that’s pretty much all he does now. He’ll pull himself up on anything that will hold him, and often attempts to pull himself up on things that won’t. While he’s now able to hold himself up for long periods of time, motor slowly along the edge of whatever he’s holding on to, and balance himself with just one hand while grabbing whatever is within his reach with the other, he hasn’t yet mastered the art of sitting down. What he prefers is to freefall back into whoever is serving as spotter at the moment. Sometimes we’re ready for him, and sometimes we aren’t. Almost as nerve racking is his habit of attempting to scale along the wall when he reaches the edge of a piece of furniture. While all this climbing has been somewhat scary for his mom, he’s getting steadier on his feet everyday, and he’s probably only fallen on his head and/or nose about 37 times so far (*sigh*). Last week his first tooth finally broke through. Picture the four top front teeth. His first tooth is the right most of those four. Not the most conventional of first teeth, but Isaac isn’t the most conventional guy. It looks like he probably won’t learn to do a conventional crawl either, but he has perfected a combination of army crawl/scoot that can only be described as that classic breakdance move The Worm.

Two weeks ago at his 9-month Well Child visit, he weighed 23lbs 4oz and was 29¾ inches tall. He’s slowed down a little on the growth chart, dropping from the 90s to the 80s in percentiles for height and weight. The circumference of his head, however, is still in the 95^th percentile. Maybe he’s a genius. Maybe a very thick skull is what has allowed him to bounce back so quickly from all the spills he’s been taking since he learned to climb. His favorite song is still “Little Bunny Foo Foo” but his new favorite book is 10 Little Fingers and 10 Little Toes, which features watercolor paintings of babies on every page. Babbling is another quickly expanding skill. His vocabulary includes “Mama,” sometimes with purpose and sometimes without, as well as “Dada,” and something that sounds a lot like “Heyyyyy” or sometimes “Yayyy.” We call him Bubba (much to Grandma Anne and Grandpa Gene’s dismay) and around Christmas time he was also saying “Bubba.” On Christmas Eve, in a very tired moment, he even looked up at me and in the saddest voice said, “Bubba Mama.” And because he’s Bubba and I’m his Mama, I think I’ll call that his first sentence.

Wild Man:
I don't usually style Ike's hair this way. In fact, I don't usually style his hair at all, but I'd put some lotion on his scalp and couldn't resist. His hair does stand straight up on its own. I just gave it some direction.

Until recently, Isaac refused to sit in the shopping cart. This is the first day he agreed and it turns out he loves to sit in the shopping cart. Go figure.

Naptime.

Climbing the TV stand--his new favorite activity.

First Christmas

Isaac's first Christmas included excitement here at home and at his Grandma Anne and Grandpa Gene's house in a very chilly Nebraska. The festivities started with his first Santa Clause encounter. Most Tuesdays we attend a story hour for the three and under set at the local library (cleverly named "Book Babies"). Santa visited Book Babies in mid December, reading us all a story then kindly having his picture taken with about 40 book babies, approximately 1/3 of whom were more than a little bit scared. While Santa read us The Night Before Christmas, Isaac kept his arm tightly around my neck, but by the time the line to meet Santa had dwindled down to the last few kids, Isaac seemed ready to try out his lap. While not exactly exuberant about the experience, he did at least find Santa interesting.

"Are you sure about this one, Mom?"

Next was his first Christmas present, a package from Grandma Jenny. Isaac would like Grandma Jenny to know that he misses her lots and lots and can't wait to see her in Arizona in February. The weather is very cold here, and he hopes the sun is shining at her house.

Opening his package from Grandma Jenny, Anthony, and Vanessa

Christmas in Nebraska, which lasted from 12/21 -12/28, included lots of time with Grandma and Grandpa, and a ridiculously fun weekend with Uncle Justin and his girlfriend Becca. The beginning of our week was pretty quiet, with Isaac spending a lot of time happily pulling the books off the bottom shelf of Grandma's bookcase, exploring at Grandma's office, and going for coffee with Grandpa and his buddies at the local cafe. By the end of Christmas Day, however, he was so overly-amped I had to take him downstairs at 11:30pm to prove to him that nothing exciting was happening without him. His sleep schedule (and with Isaac I always use the term "schedule" pretty loosely anyway) didn't recover for about a week. I don't have any pictures of Christmas morning to post yet (but I'll get some some soon, I promise). For now just know that there was lots of paper (and Isaac LOVES paper), a giant--and already much loved--copy of Goodnight, Gorilla, and some very exciting bilingual maracas (exciting enough to distract him from all the paper--and Isaac LOVES paper).

Tolerating our near-constant need to dress him up and take his photo

Merry Holidays!

Snowflake With Style Holiday

Shutterfly has elegant holiday invitations for your party.

View the entire collection of cards.

First Thanksgiving

Isaac spent his first Thanksgiving at (Great) Aunt Connie and (Great) Uncle Pete’s house. Both Cousin Eric and Cousin Jill where there, and the food was amazing. Isaac wore his special Thanksgiving shirt (the shirt I’d been pining for since I first saw it last Thanksgiving when I was pregnant). We actually do call him “Turkey,” so it turned out to be very appropriate. Isaac napped through the first part of the meal. While he was sleeping, Pete’s brother Jeff and dad Dick arrived. When Isaac woke up and joined us at the table, he got the chance to meet both of them for the first time. He was delighted to meet Dick, but Jeff, who has a full beard and a booming laugh, was another story. For a while, Isaac just sat in Ricci’s lap, looking at Jeff warily. But then he burst into tears. Jeff took it well, and by the end of the evening Isaac even started to warm to him a little, but only from a safe distance. We will mostly likely not be introducing him to Santa Clause this year. Not only did he have his first interaction with a bearded man, he had his first taste of pumpkin pie, which he loved. He also loved Pete and Connie—enough that he even stayed home with them twice during the weekend, once so Ricci and I could go to a movie, and once so we could go to the mall. He didn’t even seem to notice when we left, though he was pretty happy to see us when we came back, but in a “Hey! Look who’s here!” kind of way, not the crying, blotchy-faced, “Where have you been?” kind of way he’s treated other babysitters in the past couple months. (Sorry Karen!) When we got back to our house and he demanded to be carried around at all times, we realized the full extent of the kind of attention he’d been getting. For about three days he wanted to be held and walked around. Sitting in the rocking chair was barely tolerated, and putting him down on the floor started a full-scale revolt. He’s back to his old self, scooting all over the place, and we’re now looking forward to his first Christmas.

In his Thanksgiving outfit.
He can sit up, but I had to tip him off balance into the pillow to get a shot of the shirt...

With his buddy Uncle Pete

Enjoying what continues to be his favorite food, pureed
sweet potatoes from a jar (even after trying pumpkin pie).

Happy Reunion

As I've mentioned, Ricci's clinical rotations for PA school have kept him away from Isaac much more than either of them would like. For his last six week rotation, Ricci was home with us from Saturday morning to Monday morning. Last week, that rotation finished, and Ricci surprised us Friday with his early return. When he walked in the door Isaac was crying because he was mad at me for changing his diaper and putting on his PJs (I know--I'm awful). When his dad walked in, however, his demeanor changed completely, and he practically jumped out of my arms and into Ricci's. Isaac then continued his "Welcome Home" by attempting to eat Ricci's face. Ricci's current rotation is here in town and some version of this happy scenario is repeated almost daily.

To quote some famous Wild Things, "[I]'ll eat you up [I] love you so."

Isaac telling Dad about his week.

Isaac making sure Mom has also noticed that Dad is home.

Happy Halloween

Because this was one of the only Halloweens that Ricci and I would be able to choose Isaac's costume, he went as Yoda. For someone who wasn't even old enough to really trick or treat, he had a lot of social engagements including a party at our housing complex, the Bootacular on the University campus, and a baby Halloween party hosted by one of the mom's I know for story hour. By the final party, he'd had enough of the robe (which was just way too big) and, in what amounted to a blue track suit, looked a little bit like Yoda retired to Florida.

Yoda and Dad

At the Bootacular with Little Red Riding Hood (Claire) and a ghost (Douglas).


A happy Red Riding Hood and a smiling Yoda


Yoda-Retired-to-Florida