Remember Skebdi?

Remember when Isaiah ate with his hands and food was smeared everywhere? Well, that still happens. But he's also quite adept with his utensils, when he wants to be. Still see some noodles trailing from his mouth in one pic, at least.

Friday Night Lights

Isaiah watches the band at halftime of a high school game in Bristol. The football part isn't that interesting, but running through the crowd is highly amusing to him.

The Readers

Evening

Amid the brown grass and early leaves, Isaiah bends down and picks what may be the last dandelion of summer.

Isaiah's First Chapter Book

I wanted to read while Isaiah was having a snack in his high chair, but I didn't want to ignore him, so I started reading out loud. (My current novel of choice is Little House on the Prairie--yes, I'm a grown-up.) He wouldn't let me stop. After reading about 60 pages, I insisted we stop because he needed a nap. But not before he told me that Laura and Mary "should go play with trucks."

"Trucks?" I said.

"And cars."

Filling Bigger Shoes

Left, right, doesn't matter when the shoes are big enough. This shot came before the big crash, and I couldn't scoot back fast enough to get Isaiah's face in the frame. Sorry.

Wednesday

Walking home after dark, a light sprinkle turns to light rain. Distant lightning grows closer, but still no thunder.

Just Another Day with Isaiah...

He got a little tangled up (or "scattered all about," as he calls it) while I was putting him in the swing this afternoon. After getting settled comfortably...

Isaiah (prompting): Did your knee get stuck.

Mama: Did your knee get stuck?

Isaiah: OK. Now it's not stuck anymore.

Mama: That's right.

Isaiah: And now I can sing "Big Green Tractor."

Mama: OK.

Isaiah: SHE HAD A SHINY LITTLE BEAMER WITH THE RAAAG TOP DOWN...

On the way home from the playground, Isaiah, with his hand down the back of his diaper, announced, "I have an itchy tail. That's an itchy tail."

At home, his mouth and fingers smeared with the blueberry smoothie he was sharing with his mother, he began to sing pensively "The Street Where You Live" from My Fair Lady. Every time a drop fell on his tray or lap, he stared at it and said, "Oh, no! Oh, no!" until I cleaned it up.

Monday Night

Isaiah and I walk on a cool, cloudless early fall evening. We successfully crunch acorns. We unsuccessfully reach for the moon (although it gets caught in a few trees). On the way back, Isaiah on my shoulders has to watch out for the leaves that try to brush him off.

At dinner, I ask, "Isaiah, what did you do today? Did you go to La Leche League?"

Isaiah: "No."

Me: "Did you read books?"

Isaiah: "No."

Me: "Did you take a nap?"

Isaiah: "No."

Marian: "Did you do nook?"

Isaiah: "No?"

Me: "Did you declare it opposite day?"

Isaiah: "OK."

Just talking

Matt (pointing to vegetable on Isaiah's tray): That's squash

Isaiah smashes with his palm

Matt: Do you understand visual puns?

Isaiah: OK.

And this note: Earlier I was on the floor with Bernadette on my chest and Isaiah driving a toy tractor on top of both of us.

Isaiah, discussing his sister, who happens to be wailing at that point: She knows how to cry.

Goodbye Old House

Sandwiches, songs and, of course, onion dip for the chips. Putnam Lake, we hardly knew you.

Listen to the singing

Wedding squeeze

Isaiah checks out the vines at Rick and Eleanor's wedding.

Here's looking at you kid

Notes

Bernadette is very active, looking around at everything when she is awake. She likes lights and contrast, especially shadows on the walls from the sunlight coming through the windows and pictures on the walls. She has been waking early and trying to get us up, too, with grunting. I'm almost certain she's communicating that she's bored with the bed and wants to see something new. The other day I walked through the building with her, and she'd quiet as new lights and sights came into her field of vision. She has a variety of little sounds in addition to grunts and cries that she tosses out. She was very smiley late this week, and we also see fleeting smiles sometimes when she is sleeping. She's getting strong, holding her head up and making herself into a little board when it's time to change diapers or get dressed.

Baby lifts are easier this time around because I have two years of practice with an ever-growing Isaiah.

Everybody likes holding a baby

Truck Day!

Imagine Nation, the children's museum here in Bristol, featured trucks, trucks, and more trucks last night...

The water table is always our first stop, but to find it filled with trucks instead of the usual fish and ducks? Heaven!

"I've never seen such a loader!" (Yes, that is a direct quote.) Too bad his mother, carrying a certain newborn, couldn't help him climb up like the other kids were doing.

The young trucker surveys the asphalt landscape.

Sadly, the firefighter who helped Isaiah into the truck couldn't accommodate his requests to "make it go" and turn on the siren, but Isaiah rallied quickly, even supplying (loudly and repeatedly) his own siren noises.

Group shots

Grandma and Grandpa Friedrichs with Bernadette and Isaiah (distracted from his post-wakeup funk by truck videos).

Magda, Marian and the kids read on the bed in Yonkers.

Father and Son

Our new bedtime routine involves Isaiah nursing on the couch with me for a little while and then going to bed with Matt. A few times last week Matt sat next to us and read a book while we nursed, and when Isaiah decided he had had enough "nook," he climbed off of my lap, put his face on Matt's chest (between Matt's eyes and the book), and said, "Daddy, would you like to snuggle?"

Another night, Matt was in another room while we were nursing, and when Isaiah decided it was time, he climbed down and announced, "I am going to see Matt."

Quotes (all from the smaller man of the house)

Just now, as he was playing: "But the truck driver could not put Humpty Dumpty to rights."

This morning, after I had bought an iced coffee at the bookstore: "Could I have a mocha light Frapuccino?" (Unfortunately for the young cafe afficionado, this was Borders, where they don't sell Frapuccinos.)

Yesterday, as I was reading The Polar Express to him and got to the part when the children open their gifts on Christmas morning: "And then, out of the presents came a truck!" According to this same little man, by the way, the book is actually entitled American Express.

More Baptism

There was cake, and Isaiah ate his share and Bernadette's share.

Marian, Matt, Caryn and Roger with Bernadette.