Blocks, building

Reading 

 

Brown Bear, mesmerizing (and still popular with the older crowd, too).

Couch time

Bernadette is smitten...

You should see the beaming smile she wears when she looks at Isaiah. He is just the most fascinating thing to her. He's been showing a little more interest in her, too. He usually brings a pillow to rest his head on when we're going to nurse, and the last couple of times he's brought two: "One is for Bernadette." Yesterday he brought me a book (Love You Forever) and told me to "read it out loud for the baby."

"Oh," I said. "You think Bernadette wants to listen to this story?"

"OK."

p.s. Bernadette has also been known to fill the room with a big, sunny grin when she sees her sling getting into position. So there you have it: her first and second loves have been established, and she's not even four months old. I wonder when the crush on Daddy will start?

Circus practice

We would never run away, but it's also fun to practice some acrobatics (and Dad gets a little workout in the process).

Tractor! (And trucks)

Pulled out the tractor and dump truck that had been stored away for months. They were very popular. Also went to the small, local Plainville aiport today and saw one helicopter take off and two planes doing repeated takeoffs and touch-and-go landings.

Dialogue

Isaiah: He will take the dump truck and backhoe loader to the Green House.

Matt: You have a very specific plan.

Isaiah: OK.

Matt: Do you just say "OK" when you don't understand what I said?

Isaiah: Yes!

October Ends

Saddled up.
For homemade pizza in Yonkers at Pete and Magda's.
And a final look from a friendly face.

Playing Basketball

Halloween Bat

Isaiah was a bat, at least for a few minutes. Then he started saying help, and we had to switch to a shirt with no wings sewn on.

At the Grown-ups' Table

Tonight Matt invited Isaiah to sit "in a regular chair"; he accepted eagerly, even grabbing his drink and moving it from the high-chair tray to the table. Isaiah climbed into the chair and got settled, took a big bite of his corn, and kicked off the following dialogue:

Isaiah: So how's your day?

Mama: (Trying not to crack up completely.) My day was fine. How was yours?

Isaiah: OK. (Pauses and looks around with a grin.) We are all eating in chairs. We have no experience. We are not at all offended.

Daddy could only laugh helplessly through all of this. Bernadette slept.

p.s. Although we've been reading the Little House books, I've read chunks of them to myself, and Isaiah just listens to whatever part I happen to be on when he asks to "hear more about Laura." Today, however, Isaiah and I finished reading the first novel that he listened to all the way through: Stuart Little. When I closed it, Isaiah said, "Read it again!" So my challenge now is to figure out how to explain that a novel is different from a picture book, that we just spent three days reading the whole thing, and that I'm not going to go back to the beginning and start all over. Or I can do what I did today--divert his attention. Or I can go back to the beginning and start all over. Any ideas?

Siblings

Couch Time

Looking up at the world.

More Personification

(With a Little Onomatopoeia Thrown In)

It seems there's something about a swing that really brings out the bard in our young man. Today, after swinging for half an hour while engaging in our traditional activity of pointing out all the different kinds of trucks that went by, I asked Isaiah if he wanted to play on the slides.

"No," he said. "Still swinging. Still listening to the babble of sweet trucks."

The Little Pumpkin

Fall in Bristol

Isaiah didn't get to handle the knife this year. Maybe next fall.

Notes

Tuesday
Playground in the dark, sliding, swinging under a moon alternately shrouded and peeking between the clouds. Cooling air, accented by wood smoke and dry leaves. On the way home, we raced.

Friday
"Cars and Trucks and Things That Go" has 70 pages. I think Isaiah has it memorized. He just recited 50+ pages to us (he occasionally flipped past a few).

Saturday
Eight pumpkins carved. Lots of snacks consumed. But the best part of the day was socializing and watching the kids running around.

Sunday
The problem with Stellaluna? The new favored form of transport around our house is upside down.

Clear, babbling stream on an overcast fall day. A couple of brilliant leaves peek back at us from the bottom. So do the acorns that hit the surface with a pleasant plunk and then sank when we tossed them by ones and twos.

Grandma Time

Bernadette hangs out with Grandma Tascio in Pawling.

Basketball Practice

I looked over after doing something in the kitchen last night and saw Bernadette had found the basketball (or maybe Isaiah rolled it to her?). She bumped it as she waved her arms, causing it to gently roll back and forth.

Saturdays At The Green House

Isaiah loves the swings. I get to push everybody. Nangelie (foreground) likes to push Isaiah and tries to pick him up, but he's leery of her efforts.


He also likes the trucks and Play-Doh. And sometimes he engages the other kids.

The Young Poet Dabbles in Personification (and a New Cuisine)

This afternoon at the playground, when the wind kicked up and swirled the leaves below Isaiah's dangling feet, he looked down from the swing, pointed, and grinned. "The leaves are chasing each other," he said.

But lest you start thinking he's become a complete erudite before his time, let me add that one of his favorite outdoor activities lately has been nibbling grass on his hands and knees, just to see how it tastes. I admit that today, reminding him of that activity was how I got him to hold still so I could put his shoes on. I'll try to get a picture next time. Please don't have me arrested.

Amusement Park

Notes

Delayed departure for work this morning because Bernadette was sleeping on my chest. I couldn't bring myself to disturb her. Soon enough she woke and started looking for milk.

On a recent evening I was playing with Bernadette on the bed while Marian prepared for bed. The youngster grew tired of our games and began to agitate, with growing vocal distress, for her mother. Isaiah came in to play with his trucks next to us. Fascinated, she quieted down and stared at her noisy brother's driving.

Friday night Isaiah and I went to high school football game. On the way home, he provided this summary: "We had fun. We watched the football game. We ate popcorn. And we ate a pretzel."

Halo Effect

The digital camera is slowly dying. The result: this cute, oversaturated image of the siblings from this morning. Isaiah initially agreed to give Bernadette a kiss, then demurred.

Conversations

Isaiah (pointing to a photo of a blue tractor in a book): That's Grandpa's tractor.

Mama: That's right.

Isaiah: Grandpa will give you (meaning "me") a ride on his tractor.

Mama: I bet he will.

Isaiah: Or on a combine.

Mama: A combine?

Isaiah: Or on a airplane.

Mama: I don't know if Grandpa can fly an airplane.

Isaiah: Maybe Grandma can fly a airplane.

Feeling inspired, Grandma?

And later that same day...

Marian (to Matt): I think you're going to have to buy a shotgun when Bernadette grows up.

Matt: Why?

Marian: Because she's so pretty.

Matt: Oh, if we raise her right there'll be no need for that.

Marian: Yeah...

Matt: She'll have her own shotgun.

Hats On

Bernadette models the new pumpkin top Michelle made and gave her at the Collinsville farmers market.

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.