If I wait until I have time to write about the great visit from Todd’s parents, this will never get posted.  Here are a couple new games that Isaac learned with Grandma and Grandpa:

This one, however, continues to be the favorite.  Isaac and Jackson play this several times a day, sometimes for 5 minutes or more.

A cute picture of Isaac in some of his Hokie wear:

And from our fun last night with the grandparents (at a dance hall in Granger).

After Isaac finished eating, I set him on the kitchen floor while I put my dinner in the crock pot.  Isaac is not wearing pants today because it’s in the 70’s outside.  Gorgeous, January weather.  LOL  God bless Texas!  Anyhoo, he seemed to crawl much better on the hardwood without the slick pants he’s been wearing.  I can tell he’s getting stronger and enjoying crawling much more.  Not nearly as much belly-crawling…  He’s also pulled himself to a stand a couple more times.  It’s so fun to see how proud he is of himself when he does it.  Hopefully I will be able to capture it on camera at some point so you can share his excitement.  :o)


In other fun news, even Todd has noticed that Isaac’s laughing more now.  He loves to be tickled and seems to generally be having more fun.  He still gets a huge kick out of me trying to crawl on the floor, too.  He’s such a joy to watch.

Warning:  These videos are much longer than usual.  The first one is 1.5 minutes (if you’re in a hurry, skip to about the 40-second mark) and the second one is over 2 minutes long.


I may have missed my window of opportunity on getting Isaac’s horrible expressions from trying to eat his Gerber Puffs.  I tried, though.  This video will give you a hint as to what his reaction has been to the Puffs.  The funny part is, he’ll make these faces and then stick another one in his mouth!

After this, I fed him some sweet potatoes, but he was still hungry afterwards.  I thought I’d try to give him some banana.

Isaac has started really crawling over the last day or so.  It looks like a zombie crawl and more like a real baby crawl now.  He does opposite arms and legs as he crawls (which is correct, there’s better balance this way).  I had to relearn to crawl to help him learn because apparently adults do it wrong.  If you haven’t crawled on the floor in a while, get down on your hands and knees and try it.  You’ll see what I mean.

Isaac was takin’ a bath…  Isaac loves to take his baths!  His favorite bath toy is his rubber ducky.  It keeps him occupied while I bathe him, so everyone comes out a winner.

He ate some of the bananas, but not all of them.  But then he spit them up 20 minutes later.

We got Isaac some of the Gerber Fruit Puffs.  Actually, we got him a *lot* of them because they were at Sam’s Club.  He’s not such a fan.

When he did finally get the puff in his mouth, he made terrible faces and spit it out as soon as he could get it to unstick from his tongue, where it was dissolving.  It was entertaining to watch, although he didn’t seem to find it nearly as amusing as Todd and I did.  Perhaps if we shaped it like a plug or set it in the dog’s bowl it would be more appealing.  LOL


Isaac’s greatly enjoys standing.  He’s still not a great crawler, but can now easily go from a crawl to a sit.  This is new within the last few days.  He has pulled himself to a stand a couple of times in his crib, though not today.  He can easily pull himself to his knees from a seated position and is very proud of himself when he does.  Here’s a quick shot of the Isaac “making a stand.”

Isaac certainly had an enjoyable first Christmas.  He got lots of new toys, some new clothes, and a child-size table and chairs.  His favorite parts were, of course, the wrapping paper and the boxes.  I took several photos of Isaac in front of the tree, per my mom’s request.  This was Christmas Eve, before Santa came.

As you can see, Isaac is curious about the camera and what Mom is doing and would rather not sit still for a photo op.  :o)  Our little adventurer…


Here’s a little insight into trying to get a good photo pose (after we took away a gift for Todd and swapped it with a gift for Isaac):

This was Isaac opening his very first present, a bunch of stacking cups from Todd’s Aunt Nancy and Uncle Rod.  These were a huge hit.

Isaac played with each of his toys as they were opened.  I enjoyed it because I understand that it’s only going to be that way for a few years before the excitement is opening the next gift instead of playing with the toy he’s just seen.

We had an outstanding feast last night.  I had originally thought I would bake a goose, but reconsidered after reading that I would have to siphon off the fat every 20 minutes and, oh, by the way, goose fat is highly *flammable*.  The ham was great (and low maintenance)!

At our Thanksgiving feast, Isaac was sick.  I remember thinking that we were unbelievably blessed with all the wonderful things that happened this year.  I still feel the same way a month later.  2010 has been the most incredible year!


We ended our day with a Skype call to my sister and her family in Virginia.  We saw lots of people because Dave’s daughters were also there and Mom was staying with them.  It was snowing there and we got to see the accumulation through the windows.  They loved the white Christmas and were not-so-secretly hoping the girls would get snowed in and “have” to stay a few extra days.  It was so good to be able to see them as we talked.  The girls are 14, 12, and 11.  Todd and I haven’t seen them in 3 years now, though I try to keep up with the oldest on Facebook.  I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all of them, even if I can’t get a hug through Skype.

Isaac is getting better at crawling every day.  Before I know it, I won’t be able to keep up with him!  I’m sure he’d prefer that.  LOL  He currently does a “zombie crawl.”  This is similar to a military crawl in that he’s on his tummy, but different because his back end is dead weight.  He also does a little bit of “real” crawling, but he’s faster with the zombie crawl.


He also pulled himself to a stand in his crib the other day, but not on camera.  This video does not come close to capturing it, but is so cute that I have to share it.  This is Isaac about 5 minutes after he was standing in his crib.  He’s very pleased with himself when he learns something new and he was in a playful mood.

Yesterday, I was getting ready to take a shower.  I plopped Isaac into his swing so that he’d be able to hang out in the bathroom and breathe some steam to help him breathe a little better.  I walked out of the room and came back to find this.  He was having the time of his life on this thing!

My dad came to visit us for a couple of days this weekend and I totally forgot to take any photos. I’m pretty annoyed with myself for that…  Ho hum.  We may plan to visit him the next time, though, so we can get some of the seafood he keeps talking about.  Yum!