Fridays Rock

On Fridays I work a half day from home. I work when Isaac naps, and I get to chase him around the other part of the day. A flexible schedule is one of the great perks of my job, and I love the extra time with the little dude.

Today, we walked to the neighborhood park after lunch.  The playground was very busy with school-age kids (maybe on spring break or there with their school?).  Isaac was very curious about them, but cautious.  We had fun going down the slides together.  He's still a little ho-hum about the swings.

As you know, our wild and crazy guy just loves to get into everything.  He's all about figuring out how objects go together.  We've had our cabinets baby proofed for a while now, but occasionally I'll open the cupboards for him and let him pull out all of the pans and strainers.

One of his new favorite things is to play "one for me, one for you" while eating. Also known as feed the dog or feed the mamma.  When he starts to get full, he drops food on the floor for the dog (or Lodi takes it right out of his hand.... which we're trying to nip in the butt) or he wants to put the food in our mouths. I suppose it's his way of saying he's full...  And, sharing is never a bad thing either!

Isaac vs. the Hose

How did Isaac get like this?

Climbing

Isaac has started to climb (uh-oh!).  He recently climbed up onto the open dishwasher (all by himself). And he got himself into a pickle with the produce bin.

 

Every time he hears the camera beep on, however, he takes a break from his intense concentration to cheese it up with this 3-tooth grin.   Such a ham!

3 teeth with #4 just starting to cut

Carkeek Park

Inspired by Kelly, Chris & Myrna, who play outside in any weather in Sweden, we decided to brave the sunny but cold weather this morning and go to Carkeek Park. It was too windy and cold for the beach, but they have a great kid's play area.  I thought little dude would love the swing... instead he was pretty ho-hum about it.  But he did like going down the slide with me, and riding Dad's shoulders around the park. There were a lot of other kids and families there too. I'm sure we'll have many more memories at the park over the next few months and years!

"The view is great from up here, Dad!"

"Let's do this, Mom"

weeeee?

Playtime, Sleep Update & Lots of New Foods

Isaac is at such a fun age right now!  He is so curious, playful and happy.  He is in love with the doggy.  Anything doggy-related is way more interesting than a regular old baby toy.  Unless, of course it is electronic. In that case it rivals the dog toys in baby-magnetism.

Isaac's sleep is going great again.  There have been some ups and downs.  By 4 months he was sleeping through the night, but from 6-8 months he started night-waking again.... We felt like we tried everything during those 2 months... letting him cry-it-out, getting up to console him, letting him nurse... eventually we stuck with a cry-it-out method, with occasional night nursings when it got really drawn out, or when I needed to be up early.... nevertheless it was getting tiring for all of us!  I am happy to report that for the last month or so, he is back to sleeping 11 hours at night (from 8pm to 7am) with only very rare night wakings.  SO HAPPY (Momma needs her sleep)!!  And, he is going down for naps without much of a fuss, and is on a very consistent nap schedule (much thanks to our wonderful nanny).

Also, Isaac is eating just about anything and everything (except for honey. just say no to botulism). One of his new favorites is peanut butter and bananas!  He also loves proteins: chicken, scrambled eggs, cheese, rib meat, pasta with meat sauce, etc.  He loves to feed himself, which we think is pretty great too.  He's starting to learn to use the spoon, but we need to pre-load it for him.  We're starting to work on a little baby sign language with him too, starting with "more" and "milk".  I love this photo because of the look of joy, and that you can see his teeth and gums.... And lots more photos added to our January Photo Album (click here).