Isaac's photos, installment 2

curated by Mama.

remains of breakfast

 my Papa

 deep fat fryer

 I shared my "do not enter" sign with Sonia.

 Self portraits are a favorite. me and jelly mustache.

 tiny whiner.

 lamp.

 And Sonia fell asleep in her bumbo seat. 

what about me?

Poor Isaac, I guess he has been feeling a little neglected.

The other evening I was taking pictures of Sonia in the Bumbo seat and he said, "Mama, why don't you take pictures of me as much anymore?" So I took some pictures of my handsome boy. Don't focus too much on what I am feeding him. I did get him to finish the cheese-stuffed pizza crust. Yes, it is kind of junk food. And yes it is a huge step for him to eat something with three ingredients combined. So it was a victory. 

I guess I have been trying to focus on taking pictures of Sonia since my siblings all complain that there are not nearly as many pictures of themselves as babies. Since I am the oldest, there are a good two albums of baby pictures of me, and not any full albums of anyone else. Actually I think for Uncle Mikey there may not even be a full page. (Okay, just kidding. Kind of.) But I guess Isaac is feeling left out. So, Sonia, when you get older and wonder where all the pictures were, this is what happened. Isaac asked for equal amounts of pictures. Since you are three and half years younger than him, you just got less. Sorry.

Isaac has recently been playing "Fallout". I think this is a game Uncle Mikey plays. I hope it is not violent. I was kind of tired last time we went to Nana's and not so much into supervising. But Isaac's version is to stand up these trees that are part of his train set. He originally was knocking them over with the end of the stomp rocket pipe, but when I showed him that he could blow them over using the air from the stomp rocket launcher, he immediately adopted that way of doing things. He has been playing it on and off for the last few days.

Mmm, we also had attieke et poisson, which is one of my very favorite things to eat. Not Isaac's though. I think we might have gotten him to try some attieke, without vegetables though. Actually, Papa had him play "Close your eyes, open your mouth." He did eat some of it that way. Mmmmm..

Isaac continues to say the funniest things. Some of them I wrote on facebook. Some I can't remember exactly what was said. 

Yesterday we were driving to church, and Isaac said, "Look, an American flag! And look, below it there's a joke flag. (as in the state of Oregon flag)" I laughed so hard. Then he said, "Sometimes you crack me up too Mama."

He was convinced that some animal footprints near his school were crocodile footprints. I think they were probably dog. 

He also said about a neighbor kid, "She was not talking nice to her mama. And that hurt her mama's feelings. That was not good." What a sweet little guy! 

I was talking about how babies go through stages and something about how it was okay for Sonia to put her hands in her mouth right now because that is how she learns, but how she needs help to hold on to things... can't remember exactly what I said, but he said, "But they can do it on stage in their bumbo seats!" I also started laughing imagining a bunch of babies on a stage sucking on their hands in bumbo seats. 

He is a wealth of humorous comments, that is for sure. After working with preschoolers for a year, I am convinced three is the best best best age. I mean, Isaac will always be fun no matter what age he is. But three is this intersection between greatly increased expression and a still slightly illogical, magical interpretation of the world. I remember reading a book to my kids at work last year in which the lady catches a star. I asked all the kids at the end of the book, "Do you think you really could catch a star?" Most of the younger kids (three year olds) said, "Yeah!" and most of the older kids said, "No, not really." Although, at the same time, the older kids are so smart! It is fun to see them before they are ready for kindergarten. They know so much, it is just incredible. 

Speaking of which, I have been working more with Isaac on pre-reading. He is really into thinking of a bunch of different words that start with the same sound. "Sharon and shy and.... shop and...." he goes on and on (granted, /sh/ was a little more confusing as far as which letter and I told him not to worry about the letters we use for that sound). 

He is also interested in angels and devils. Lots of playing out fights between the angels and devils, where he is one or the other. 

There was another crazy fit/tantrum about watching movies this weekend. I'm not exactly sure what the reason was... but we are taking a break from movies for the next few weeks. Isaac does get too crazy about movies sometimes. It is hard, I suppose, not to be able to watch a movie when you really really want to. Maybe that is what all the fuss was about. Usually he gets to watch two movies over the weekend. He wanted to on Friday, but I told him, no, it is not the weekend. Big fit. Then on Saturday, he tried to watch a third movie. No, you have already watched two. Big fit. I don't think I even had thought about how to react. I think next time he can choose how to calm down and then I will explain, very briefly, why he can't watch the movie. I guess that sounds like a good game plan. We will see how it works. 

Well, it sounds like Sonia is waking up from her nap, so... until next time! 

the little gymnast

Isaac has been taking gymnastics lessons the past eight weeks and I finally took some pictures. He really enjoyed it! I don't now if we'll do another eight weeks. We will see! It might be getting close to time for soccer and I bet he would enjoy that too. It might be nice to have a few weeks off from activities too. 

Gymnastics really was Isaac's cup of tea!

love

cogs

Isaac continues to be a big thinker. He told me yesterday, "rrropes starts with rrrrr." When I asked him which letter he thought "ropes" must start with when it is written, he said "R!"

He knows all his letters except L, and is still a little shaky on J, V, and X sometimes. Some days he knows all the letters, some days he forgets those four. Occasionally he forgets "H", but the good thing is, he knows the sounds the letters make.

Isaac has been biting his fingernails since shortly after Sonia was born. I wonder if he is internalizing some anxiety? He seems pretty happy most of the time though. Or maybe it is just a bad habit that coincidentally started at the same time. Either way, I'm not sure how to get him to stop!

 Today he worked on his snapping skills. He is sometimes able to unbutton too. 

 This was Isaac's idea of "charging the camera battery." The battery is actually supposed to come out of the camera and go in the black part below. Isaac just laid the whole thing on top and plugged it in. It was too cute, so I had to take a picture before helping him out.

 Isaac also distributed some stickers he got on Saturday. This is what I found Sunday morning. An appropriate place for it! 

Little sweet guy. He has a beautiful mind. 

hot dog hot dog hippity har

A few weekends ago we were at Nana and Boompa's. Isaac and London loved playing together, especially in the play kitchen. Here they are with some hot dogs. 

Isaac has a silly song he made up within the past few months that goes, "Hot dog hot dog hippity har, hot dog hot dog hippity har." Or sometimes it is "hippity dar" or "dippity dar" instead. It is cute - I will have to get a video some day.

miscellany

The trio. I had a quasi-mother-of-three experience bringing them all over to Grandma and Grandpa's from Nana and Boompa's. A guy passing by said, "Three, you've got your hands full!" Which was actually literally true because someone detached the handlebar from the bike trailer/double stroller at Nana's and stored it in the pole building. So, I was bent over, pushing the thing by the frame, feeling like some medieval cart pusher and seeing the advantages of only being 4'10" (which, unfortunately I am not). Meanwhile, Sonia was in the Baby Bjorn carrier on the front of me, swinging around a little since I don't think the manufacturers intended people to bend over for extended periods of time while using it. So yeah, I got one little taste of how my cousins who have 3 or more kids get comments, plus I felt totally ridiculous. 

(The guy couldn't really see well inside the stroller or maybe that exchange would have been more awkward, since the second child is clearly from a different father, while the first and third look similar..)

 They are all so cute and squeezable.

Grandpa got us an amaryllis kit, and the bulb was already well on its way to sprouting by the time we opened the box. I think they were intended to be sold for Christmas, that is why they were marked down. The fact that it was so far along was perfect for preschoolers who are not big on waiting forever. And thank you Grandma for the jam! Isaac really likes it, as always.

 Portrait of the photographer

 Kind of like this iconic picture

 Oh, and we made cheese. Twice now. First fromage blanc, the cottage cheese. They turned out okay, but they are a little bland, and I think I can improve on the cottage cheese. Also I need a kitchen thermometer with the correct range.

 Isaac playing with London's bouncy toy!