Eat, Drink, and Be Merry

As Isaac's nearing eight months, I've been easing up on my food phobias for him.  I mean, it's not like I'm feeding him peanut butter or shellfish, but I've been more lenient about what he can eat--especially if he tries to take it off of my plate.  Some guidelines suggest waiting a minimum of four days to wait before introducing a new food or spice, but really--if I were to follow that, Isaac might not get to taste, say, tumeric until his teens.  So I threw caution to the wind over Thanksgiving--the holiday that celebrates over-indulging--and Isaac was delighted.

Here's his Thanksgiving dinner:

We have green beans (which he's eaten before in pureed form), mushroom and leek stuffing, squash gratin (he's had butternut but not acorn), mashed potatoes, and turkey--Isaac had never eaten meat before.  The smiley face wasn't intentional, but it sure did reflect Isaac's mood.  He was thrilled with everything--the gratin and mashed potatoes were a particular hit, and the next night, he kept on stealing squash from the leftovers I was eating. 

Isaac also really enjoyed eating bites of turkey from his auntie.  He's very proud of his three teeth and likes to dramatically chew his food.

Eventually, though, Isaac decided that he needed more control over his eating, so I sat him on my lap and gave him free reign.  That's a green bean in his tiny fist.  And in the next photo, he's happily sucking on the plate.

But by far his favorite thing to eat was pumpkin pie.  We just gave him the filling, and he went nuts.  Seriously nuts.  I guess it's the first time he's eaten anything very sweet (though I do add cinnamon and nutmeg to some of his fruit), and clearly Isaac shares my sweet tooth.  David was feeding him bites from his piece of pie when all of the sudden he crawled over to me and tried to grab my entire piece.

If this is any indication, I think I can understand why my parents had to hide desserts from my sister and I when we were kids.

Murphy's Law

When I spoke to my mom on Thanksgiving, I told her that Isaac was getting very good at pulling himself into a standing position.  She warned me that he would soon be trying to stand in his crib, but I laughed and replied that I thought we had a couple more weeks--Isaac was only pulling up on one chair and besides, Isaac wears a sleep sack (David calls him a bag of baby when he wears it), so I didn't think it would be happening soon.

And then I went to check on him during his afternoon nap and saw this:

Needless to say, David and I have lowered the mattress as far as it will go.  But this kid is a daredevil!  He loves to climb (he was trying to open dresser drawers and climb up them this afternoon), and I think we're in for some crazy hijinks in the future as he becomes more mobile.

Visit with Aunt Jen

Isaac was very lucky because he got to share his first Thanksgiving with his Aunt Jen.  Although we did some fun activities, the three adults mostly just bummed around the house and watched Isaac.  Since Isaac's a little unpredictable with strangers these days--sometimes he flirts outrageously with someone only to hysterically sob when that person waves at him in the next day, I was curious to see how he'd do with Jen.  But either her similarity to me (we are twins after all) or her entrancing presence (hair to pull!  necklaces to eat!) put him at ease.

New hair to pull!

Stop looking at the camera and feed me!

Why hello there.  Who's that green man sitting with you?

I love my Aunt Jen!

Isaac's favorite game to play with his auntie is to scream at her and wait until she screams back; he's become really good with mimicking.  In the morning when he gets up, while Auntie Jen's still in bed, he's been shrieking and then pausing expectantly.  So Jen awakens to his little baby shrieks of joy.  All in all, not a bad start to the day.

While we're of course thrilled that Jen's here, we really wish Isaac's other auntie was here to share the day with us.  Isaac obviously does too: when she sent us a card, he tried to absorb her presence by eating the envelope.  I'm really looking forward to winter break, when we can all be together--and in warmer climes!

The monkey sticker's for me 'cause I'm a little monkey!

Island of Misfit Toys

Several people have been asking us what Iaaac wants for Christmas, so I thought it would be helpful to show some pictures of his favorite toys.

Here he is  playing "drums" with a spatula and wooden bowl.

My little dog-baby also loves to eat shoes--the dirtier, the better.

Daddy's belt is another favorite.

And you can't imagine the almost endless amusement that one canister can produce:

In other words, I have no idea what to get him for Christmas.  David and I are stereotypical first-time parents and buy him all sorts of toys, but he seems to want to play only with things he's not supposed to have. 

I've Got Music

Here's a little equation even an English prof can do:

sick mama + too many papers + date night (!) = no blogging over the weekend.

For the first time in awhile, David and I went out by ourselves--and not just to dinner but to see a show by one of our new favorite musicians.  In theory I was excited, but I was also thinking, "I don't want to drive seventy-five miles to Small City and back again.  I'm too oooooooooold to go to a concert anyway; it's not like I'm going to be moshing."  But I knew David really wanted to go, so I stopped being a Debbie Downer and after I put my angel baby to bed, we left.

And we had a great time.  The drive turned out to be wonderful since it gave us lots of time to just talk and hang out.  We managed to get seats in the balcony, so we were able to listen to this amazing artist while sipping on vodka (or gin) tonics.  The evening turned out to be so relaxing and wonderful.  Honestly, sometimes I forget how amazing my husband is: we have so much to do now that it can be hard to take time out for our marriage.  But it was really great to take a night out just for us--even if I didn't get to sleep until 1:30 and Isaac woke up at five.

The next morning, David was inspired to pull out his guitar, much to Isaac's delight.

Here he is trying to help Daddy decipher the chords.  Look at the intense concentration on his face!

I love Isaac's huge string of drool while he's trying to take the camera away from David. 

Here's Isaac watching me play the one song I know on guitar--"A Horse with No Name."

And here's Isaac showing his daddy the proper technique.  I think we're raising a budding musician: these photos probably will end up being on one of VH1's Behind the Music episodes.

No Evidence

So I don't have any photographic evidence, but yesterday, Isaac pulled himself up to a standing position!  I was sitting on the floor, playing with him while talking on the phone to my mom (a witness!) and all of the sudden, he used my body to pull himself up to a standing position.  Once there, Isaac used my body for support, gnawed on my collar bone for a little bit, and then calmly plopped back down on the floor.

Every day there's something new.  It's a good life.

Daddy and Me

Isaac said his first word this week--mama!  Of course, he doesn't actually know what that means--he says mama to me, David, Amanda, his bottle--but it's been very exciting. 

Except...

Babies are supposed to say dada first: typically they progress from baba to dada to mama.  Isaac started with mama, then baba, and then...nothing so far.  So David hasn't had the joy of hearing Isaac say dada yet.   I mean, we know that Isaac doesn't know what it means; the order of his consonants doesn't symbolically represent anything.  But I still thought this might be a good time to share another Isaac and Daddy post.

Mornings are a special time for Isaac and David.  While I'm at work, they like to hang out, listen to Bob Dylan, and dance.

Daddy also gives the best spiderman kisses.

And Isaac loooooves to be tossed around by Daddy.

Can you believe how much he looks like David here?

P.S.  Sorry I've been bad about posting lately.  Isaac has a little cold right now, which morphed into a terrible flu-like cold when we got it.  So Isaac's very sunny and happy, and David and I are pretty sick.

The Seductive Pumpkin

We got to celebrate Isaac's first Halloween last weekend!  We didn't have to put much thought into his costume this year since my mom had bought him a pumpkin suit last year, when he was still living happily in my belly. 

Now, although a pumpkin outfit might seem perfectly innocuous, as my family knows, it's not a neutral choice.  There's a whole backstory here, tied to a photograph in my office of two little girls standing a living room, ready to go trick-or-treating.  One of them, dressed as a ballerina princess, beams while she shakes her wand gleefully.  The other, dressed as a pumpkin, smiles weakly at the camera. 

You see, one year when my sister and I were kids, my mom decided to make our Halloween costumes (which is probably something I'll never do for Isaac).  She told us that we could be whatever we wanted, and she would make us a costume for it.  Jen decided to be a ballerina princess, probably so she could lord it over all the other ballerinas. 

I wanted to be a triceratops--which, coincidentally, I had also recently chosen as my future career.

 My mom, probably thinking of how impossible it would be to make a triceratops costume, told me that, actually, what I really wanted to be was a pumpkin.  Fast forward more than twenty years later, and now my son is also a pumpkin.  And  I have to say, he pulls it off much better than I ever did.

Look at him, in one of his new favorite poses!  Have you ever seem a seductively posed pumpkin before?

But next year?  He'll probably be a triceratops.