Baby Yamane

and this clip came after about 10 minutes of story telling.  We wish we had the translation…

I cannot stand how cute these early days of walking are.  His first independent steps were with the walker and he would make car noises as he went.  Now he marches along and hunches up his shoulders and stretches his hands out to get there faster. He is SO expressive in his face as he goes, furrowed brow in concentration or grinning with accomplishment.  I wish we could just pause here for a few months…

Is it bad that we bait him with remote controls?  Their magic power still draws him in.  I can’t imagine what it will be like when he actually watched tv.

Isaiah barks.

I was holding him in the living room the other morning and Dave was doing some work on the computer.  He started printing and Pablo started with his usual bark-fest at the printer.  Isaiah then began chirping in a high pitched way, matching Pablo’s pace.  Dave and I made eye contact and started cracking up.  We have always joked that Isaiah might bark before he talked, so we were only off by a few words.

And, just to solidify the behavior, we were at Costco later in the day and Isaiah saw two little fluffy dogs waiting outside.  We went over to say Hi and Isaiah started barking at them also.

Gramma Caren came to visit and brought with her LauLau and Poi.  In a true homage to Dave, Isaiah ate them both readily.  The LauLau was not a big deal (basically spinach and pig), but Poi is known to be a very acquired taste.  He ate a whole bowl full.  Daddy was so proud

Some videos of the boy cracking up

First of all, I missed the nine month posting so there is A LOT of stuff that the kid has been up to.  All you you parents know that babies do something new almost every day.  I am still amazed at the pace of development.

Isaiah has taken his first steps!  We are both thrilled and terrified.  He still prefers crawling, as he can cross a room in 2.5 seconds, but with a little hand holding encouragement, he will try taking steps across the room.  He also practices balancing and then remembers he isn’t supposed to be standing on his own , so he sits down. I love walking him around only holding one of his hands because he just goes in circles.  Apparently his stride gets shorter on the side being held.  Hysterical.

He has started with his first few discernible words.  We are sure about dada and mama (which only comes out occasionally).  He might have dog, but I usually call our dogs puppies so I’m not convinced about that one.  His sitter swears his vocabulary includes airplane, Lorelei, tickle, and ten (spanish for ‘take this’).  uh, maybe…

He has started pulling out his books and ‘reading’.  I have to say that I LOVE that he does this.  He also insists on turning pages while we read to him.   He really likes the books with real pictures of faces and 10 chirpy chicks (thanks mom) and Jamberry.

He still eats anything put in front of him.  I feel like we might be raising a caveman because we let him figure out the self feeding most of the time.  He has no interest in the spoon, only to toss it to the dogs.  The rest of the time he alternates between putting food in his mouth, taking it out again, sometimes putting it back and actually swallowing it, and sometimes putting it safely down by the side of his thigh.  He has not really figured out that feeding the dogs is an option and we are trying our best to keep it that way.

He is becoming more and more snuggly, with us and with any fluffy blankets that might be in his path.  He will be in the middle of playing and if he runs up on a fluffy thing he flops down on it and just lays there.  It is adorable.

He has also found his laughter more often.  He cracks up at peek a boo with unique variations, like covering our eyes with his feet, or hiding behind corners, or the dogs, or baseball caps.  He cracks up when I roll around him on our exercise ball.  He cracks up when the dogs wrestle (we are creating a true Ceasar Milan).

He loves when Dave lifts him up to examine anything above him.  He is always checking out the ceiling, the sky, the trees, etc…

He has 5 teeth.  The bottom two came first, then the top (not the center but the two outside that) and then the left center top.  The right center top should be out shortly.  Teething has not been fun and so also sleeping through the night has not existed in about a month.

All in all, I have to say that each and every day is getting more and more fun.  To quote Nicole “I love this age”! I love getting to know more of who he is and how he thinks and what matters to him.  and we are just starting to scratch the surface…

The growth stats:

Height- 31 inches (97%) Weight 20.5 lbs (36%) Head 46cm (59%)

and some pictures that make me melt

We had the wonderful opportunity last weekend to celebrate my Grandma’s 90th birthday. 

It is so wonderful that all 4 of Isaiah’s Great Grandmothers are still with us, sharing joy and love and wisdom with our family.  For this occasion, almost all of Grandma Schweizer’s descendants gathered in Arizona and threw her a bash.  There were friends and family, lots of food and a very cool multimedia family history put together by her kids.  She even spent time during the party salsa dancing!  Isaiah was the youngest Great Grand and he was very entertained with the madness of the other 15 Great Grands running around.  We had a wonderful visit and hope to enjoy many more birthdays with you Grandma!

Isaiah waved his first official good bye.  He bestowed it upon the checker at Trader Joe’s with the snap front cap and the stretched earlobes.  Checker guy waved bye and Isaiah reached his arm out toward him.  The irony of this goodbye is that my mom and sister spent three weeks trying to elicit this gesture and he waited to show his skills until Trader Joe’s.

(Son, I get it.  TJ’s has some really good food and the cashiers are very personable)

We hadn’t planned on doing the Santa photo this year.  Especially since Isaiah can’t express the specifics for his desired Christmas loot yet.   My sister convinced my it was necessary, and I’m glad she did.  He didn’t freak out at all, he was just very intent on studying the large fluffy man holding him. 

Christmas break was so very wonderful.  First of all, because I had 3 weeks off so we got to spend lots of good quality family time with the family in the Bay Area.  Secondly because it was Isaiah’s first, so everything we did had the “awh…It’s his first (fill in the blank)” Like first santa hat, first ornaments to hang, first packages to open, etc.  All the pomp of a proper X-Mas and he will remember none of it.  Thank the heavens for digital.

Nana’s Baby tree.  Dressing up the kid in crap he won’t stand for next year.  Her dog Dot in the background.  Isaiah LOVED Dot.  Mostly because she didn’t try to lick his face with toxic breath like Pablo and Gisele.

My favorite family photo (of everyone but me.  welcome to the sacrifices of motherhood)

Auntie Shan and Nana on Christmas morning, with the Christmas poster child.  How could we not be merry with this adorable baby covered head to toe in christmas duds.  and really, green monkey pajamas?!  what is more festive than monkeys?  They were a gift from Auntie Ann Marie and they were perfect.

He has just opened his present from daddy.  His very own remote control.  Funny that he obsesses on ours already and we don’t ever use it for TV in front of him! It’s like he knows there is some special power contained within and maybe if he pushes enough buttons, it will be revealed to him.

Anyway, now he has his very own to drool on.