And we're talking...

While Isaac has a said a few words here and there for a while, he's really starting to rev up his vocabulary now. A couple weeks ago he started saying "Whassat?" (What's that?) and "Go?" (Where'd it go?--accompanied by hands held up in an "I don't know!" gesture). This past week he's said color, Elmo, yogurt, Isaac, and thank you. He can also say Grandpa/ma which sound almost the same and are always accompanied by his own version of a sign that's the mix of the sign for each word. Today he said help and nine. And these are just the things he's said more than once. He repeats things, too, but doesn't then necessarily use the word again. We learned a lesson recently when one of us dropped a four letter word and Isaac mimicked it exactly.

Isaac's love of animals now extends beyond cats, dogs and birds to anything that is alive and moves. When he sees trucks he waves, when he hears an airplane he points at the sky and says "Ooooh!", and when someone says "Car" he makes this wild, over-exaggerated version of the sign for car. He also knows several animals sounds, and thanks to his friend Bella, he can fist bump.

In early October, Isaac attended the 41st annual Balloon Fiesta here in Albuquerque. We went to an early morning mass ascension at the Balloon Park, and then for the remaining two weeks of the fiesta he just enjoyed seeing the balloons drifting over our neighborhood and watching them take off on TV in the mornings. As the balloons took off, he liked to wave and say "Hi!" Last week, Grandma Anne and Grandpa Gene flew him to Nebraska to surprise his Uncle Justin. Since he's too young to travel on his own, I was allowed to accompany him. While in Nebraska he went to a pumpkin patch with a giant slide and a petting zoo, saw his Great Grandma Eleanor, many of his great aunts, great uncles, and cousins, and bossed his Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Justin around for a few days. Justin's awesome girlfriend Becca was pivotal in making the surprise a success. Becca, you rock.

He continues to be so, so, so fun, and we love, love, love him.

Ike gets a Bike

Bubba's New Wheels

Mechanic in Training (Ricci 2.0, it seems)

Isaac is now 18 months old. To celebrate, we bought him the raddest bike any 18-month-old has ever, ever owned. No buttons. No sounds. No...peddles. Bikes don't need any of those things. There are, however, three brightly colored balls that roll around inside the front wheel, but they're very quiet. He scoots around the living room on it pretty well. Often he goes backwards, sometimes he goes forward, and sometimes he just hangs out on the bike not going anywhere at all.

In other news, Isaac continues to grow and change. His current favorite book is Lama Lama Red Pajama. His favorite toy is his wooden Toolbox, complete w/ a hammer (featured in one of the bike pictures), screwdriver (red like his dad's), wrench, and various screws, pegs, and little planks. He dances like a maniac to songs he likes, including Maroon 5's latest, "Moves Like Jagger," and Elmo's "Clap Your Hands." If he could, he'd watch music videos on YouTube for hours on end, specifically any Caspar Babypants videos but especially "Mr. Rabbit," as well as Tilly and the Wall singing the ABCs on Sesame Street. And this week he thinks snapping is about the coolest thing he's ever seen.

In the six days, Isaac has visited the Aquarium in town twice. Last Friday he and I went with a friend I used to teach with and her two little girls. He liked the fish but was a little hesitant to get too close to the sting ray tank at first. He warmed up, though, and he especially loved the jellyfish. Today he went with his dad, and while he enjoyed the aquarium he was more interested in running along the paths in the botanical gardens attached to the aquarium. No pictures. Ricci and I both had too much to do keeping up with the kid.

Not much to report in the talking category this time besides his continued use of "Dada", "Mama" and "This." He also consistently says, "Yayyy!" and "Woah." No more teeth lately either. New tricks include climbing up onto the couch by himself, stacking a tower w/ his MegaBlocks, and turning the cable box on and off and on and off and on and off. Playing catch with a ball that bounces can send him into belly laughs, and he can go down slides by himself (but still sometimes likes a little help).

Really Quick

This is a quick post, mostly because we've had some big events that I haven't had time to mention. They need to be mentioned.

1) Ricci Graduated! August 5th was the big day. Pictures later...I couldn't find our camera that day and I don't have any digital copies yet.

2) Ricci passed his PA certification exam. He worked incredibly hard for two years. He studies hard for the exam. And now he's done. Done. Done, done, done!

3) We moved! We're back in the Southwest, and Ricci starts his job as a PA at the university hospital here in the city at the end of September.

Isaac is adjusting well to our new home. He loves the open floor plan of our new apartment and having his own bedroom to play in. He's also enamored with the grassy area outside our building--which often has a group of pigeons to chase--as well as the park at the entry to the complex and the small playground and the pool within the complex. About three times a day, he stands by the front door and whines to go outside. Today he brought Ricci a pair of shoes to put on (actually one of Ricci's shoes and one of mine), so Ricci could take him outside.

Because the move has been so crazy, I also don't have any pictures to post. Instead, I'm going to take the lazy way out and provide the link to some pictures Justin took of Isaac in July. They're great pics and I hope you can view them. I'm not totally up on Picasa yet.

https://picasaweb.google.com/116729168278337004921/July4th2011?locked=true

https://picasaweb.google.com/116729168278337004921/LincolnChildrenSMuseum?authkey=Gv1sRgCOOSwOHAweTqnAE

Beating the Heat

Nebraska, like much of the country, is experiencing a serious heat wave this week. With humidity, the heat index today was around 105. It cooled off enough tonight to at least be outside, and Isaac spent some time running through the sprinkler (sort of, it was actually a nozzled garden hose, but it worked just as well).

16 months

Well, this is a very overdue post! Isaac keeps me busier and busier, I guess. He is now 16-months-old, and a total big kid in so many ways. He can, and does, run and seems to get faster every day. I'm sure in a month, though, I'll look back on this post and think, "That wasn't running," but he seems pretty fast right now. He also sings more, plays by himself for longer stretches, and is very steady when he lowers himself off a bed or chair. His climbing is also improving, and Grandma and Grandpa had to remove a bench from their TV room and hide it in a closet so he didn't fall off it onto his head. He likes kid size chairs, and especially likes to climb onto them and stand. He did so just tonight on a small rocking chair that belonged to me when I was little. When he's excited, he often stands on his tip toes and sucks in his still sizable belly.

For a while, he was saying "Don't!" and "Stop!" but he seems to have tired of those words. For the past few days he's been saying something that sounds like "this" over and over. He can also say "ball" and occasionally says, "catch." Most of those words are missing their final consonant, but we all get his point in context. His consistent words continue to be "Mama," "Dada," and "No." The others come and go. At my most recent count, he had eleven teeth. He has three molars that came in bang, bang, bang in the space of a month. There were definitely some tears and lots of drool, but overall he's weathered them pretty well.

On our last trip two trips to Salt Lake City, one at the beginning of June and another a couple weeks later, Isaac became completely enamored with Aunt Connie and Uncle Pete's dog Cali, a dog he's known his entire life, but hadn't fully appreciated until now (might have been all the licking holding him back before). He loves that Cali can catch a ball and enjoys throwing tennis balls at her, and he also loves that she likes it when he feeds her from his highchair. For the record, Pete and Connie, owner of said dog, taught Isaac that last trick, not me. More recently he's become interested in a wider variety of animals. When we go on walks he points and babbles happily when he sees dogs (unless they bark--he's wary of those), cats, and especially birds.

Isaac and I have been in Nebraska since the end of June while Ricci does his last clinical rotation, this one in Las Vegas. This is the third six-week rotation we've spent in Nebraska, and this is the most excited Isaac has been about Skyping with Ricci. When Ricci is on the computer screen, Isaac smiles, laughs, points, and says, "Dadadadada." Dada graduates from PA school on August 5th, and Isaac is very, very, very proud. It's a pretty big deal :)

With Grandpa Gene after Cousin Jasper's wedding--he's cracking up

because Grandma Anne is blowing bubbles at him.

Notice the previously mentioned teething drool.

"What do you mean I can't have any more cake?"

(Also at Jasper's wedding, 6/24/2011)

Walking and Other Tricks

New things Isaac can do: Walk! Spin in circles. Make the sign for "milk." Say "nana" (banana). Wash his own hands (sort of). Open the front door.

Isaac officially began walking on May 4th. One minute he was walking just a few steps between us, and the next he was walking much further. He was still pretty wobbly until just the past week, but now he walks just to walk. I set him down and off he goes. He still falls a lot, and I feel like whenever one bump on his forehead starts to heal, he gets another, but he's a total trooper and generally gets up and keeps going. Last week at Book Babies he walked from parent to parent, smiling until he got a smile in return and then moving on to the next adult he felt he needed to greet. This week, he insisted on dancing at the front of the room where everyone could see him rather than on his carpet square where he should have. A few days ago, I gave him my iPod nano which has decent sound even without headphones. He's obsessed, and with music playing he walks from room to room, grinning and pausing occasionally to briefly dance or spin. He's also figured out how to play one of the games, tipping and turning the nano to move a ball around the screen.

Isaac has always loved to be outside. Even when he was just a few months old, if he was crying all I needed to do was take him out on the front patio and he almost always calmed down immediately. His enjoyment of the outside has turned into a full on obsession. Sometimes, he'll stand by the front door and pound, whine, yell, cry and otherwise demand to be let outside. A couple weeks ago, after quite a bit of trying, he was able to get the door open. We were watching, so no escape, but we're watching even more closely now. Luckily he can't open the patio gate, and he won't get far if he does get the door open again. Our apartment complex has lots of sidewalks and grassy hills, and he loves to walk around outside. We also have lots of kids living in the complex and Isaac tends to walk right up to them and just stand there smiling at them. The kids that live right around us are all really nice and lots have younger siblings, so they're very sweet to him. They know his name and my name, and I'm learning theirs. Living here is as much fun for me as it is for Isaac.

With his new found mobility, he's gotten even better at tucking his (and our) belongings in strange places. All in one day, for example, I found the baby monitor in the laundry basket, a purple plastic ball inside a mixing bowl in a kitchen cabinet, and his green sippy cup, which had been missing for a couple of days, jammed behind the rice steamer on a shelf that is exactly at his eye level, but definitely not at mine.

Isaac's favorite book is Goodnigh Gorilla. He likes to point to the red balloon in Goodnight Moon, and he likes to sit in laps and look through books in general. His favorite food is still black beans, but he also loves pasta, Gerber animal crackers, and any sort of meat we've so far put in front of him. He continues to intensely dislike having his face and hands washed, but he does like to take the washcloth from us and wipe his own hands. His favorite songs are "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," (both with hand actions which he joins in on occasionally). Often we hear him singing to himself, and sometimes it sounds a lot like "Twinkle Twinkle..." Currently, his soccer ball is probably his favorite toy. While he can't throw it very well, he loves to chase it around when someone else throws it for him. As always, he rocks.

Playing in our backyard.

Enjoying tortilla soup.

Being a big kid.

Happy Easter

We staged a mini Easter egg hunt for Isaac at Aunt Connie and Uncle Pete's house this afternoon. His eggs contained new binkies and Gerber Yogurt Bites, two things he loves very much. As you can see, he's excellent at standing on his own, even bending down to pick up the eggs on his own. He still isn't walking more than a few steps without holding on to someone or something, but hopefully soon. Happy Easter from Ike!