Feb.13th-March 26th, 2006

22 Months

Feb. 13th-Feb. 19th, 2006
Very into requesting songs—he san a verse of “Old MacDonald” all by himself
He has fun finishing the final words of phrases in his favorite books. In the “mi Dinosaurio” book he’ll now say pequeño, nada, cuidado, mil gracias, and juguetes.
New favorite book this week—The ABC’s where the setter “I” says “icecream”
Counting—he tries to go past twenty and its pretty cute to hear his new number combos.
When you spell something he says “Isaac!”—bascially James was trying to teach him how to spell his names but he’s overgeneralizing a bit.
He’ll say “tomar agua” and “drink water”
Phrase of the week, “quieres uno?”
He like’s to play “Donde esta Isaac” or “Where’s Isaac” and hide behind curtains or doors.
Lots of requests lately for the happy birthday song—maybe he senses his is coming up soon.
James had to go to Singapore for work this week and last minute we decided to make it a family vacation because we found a great deal on an airline ticket. On Friday of this week we drove to L.A. and then flew to Malaysia. It was 17 hours to Taibei and then another four hours to Kuala Lumpur. It was some crazy traveling, but somehow we all survived. We didn’t actually arrive until Sunday afternoon


Feb. 20th-26th, 2006
This week we were in Malaysia and we stayed with Sanjiv’s (James’ good friend from school) parents, Anan and Aruna, at their condo in Kuala Lumpur until Wednesday when we took a short flight to Singapore and then we came back to Kuala Lumpur Friday and left for home on Sunday.
One of Isaac’s favorite things about the whole traveling adventure was getting to go on multiple elevators and escalators. He’s now calling elevators “alligators” and he loves to push buttons—multiple times if possible.
He wasn’t too excited about the food there, but Aruna had some chicken nuggets, pbj fixings, rice, and fruit that he ate.
We went around in taxi’s a lot and he learned the word taxi.
He likes saying thankyou and good night to everything these days.
New word combinations that he came up when himself: “uh-oh sleep” when he looked at his port-a-crib being taken apart, and “nice corazon” when he was pointing at a gold heart necklace that Aruna was wearing.
On Saturday Anan and Aruna took us to this amazingly beautiful Hindu temple built into a mountain on the edge of the city. There was a huge statue in front of it and stairs that went all the way up the mountain into a cave area where there were different areas of worship. We also saw a monkey inside the cave and Isaac was pretty pumped about that.
He surprised us by singing the words to “Diez Deditos”—a Spanish song about 10 little fingers—all by himself.


Feb 28th- Mar 5th, 2006
Returned Monday Feb 27th
Jet lag recovery week- pretty rough, Isaac was a sleep disaster waking up to play or want bananas in the middle of the night. Wouldn’t sleep in his crib until we just decided to leave him there and ignore him on Friday.
Even with jet lag he was pretty pleasant during daytime most of the week.
He was very excited to see his old friends and go back to old routines. Especially happy to see Claudia O’Barr.
Called Hymn book “Prayer Songs”
He now calls his smoothies “smoothies” instead of “Ba-te,” although only his parents can tell that’s what he’s saying.
Visited Julia and Co-Jojo’s place on Sunday and had a bonanza throwing packing peanuts all over the place. Probably ranks up in his top 3 happy moments so far in life…
By Sunday the 5th, he’s pretty much adjusted back to the time zone.
He likes to say “be nice!” and on Wednesday night he walked up to the bishop and said, “Be nice Obispo”

Mar.6-12, 2006
Grandma and Grandpa Nuttall came for a visit as well as Clay & Kristen Hargis and their 5 kids so it was a very good week for family bonding. The suegros stayed with us and the Hargis’ stayed at a hotel, but we all hung out a lot.
We went to Sea World twice with the Hargis fam and Isaac learned to say Uncle Clay Aunt Kristen and “cousins”. He has a lot more cousins than he ever realized and he had a blast running around with Clay’s kids
He’s started singing Old MacDonald had a farm all by himself and Old MacDonald has all kinds of interesting things from animals like chickens (in one syllable), horses, cows, and pigs to other things on his mind like balloons, Aunt Julia, triangle, circle, gas, one, two, three, etc.
Bed time has gotten MUCH better. He’s miraculously adjusted to the routine again and he’s actually better about going to bed. We’ve also improved upon the routine and he knows that after Time for Bed and Good Night Moon we’ll sing him Twinkle Twinkle Little star & Estrellita con tu luz to the music of the fish aquarium in his crib and then its time to say good night.
“push button” is his new favorite phrase, he loves to push elevator buttons
“be gentle”
He’s been using the phrase “que paso” in Spanish correctly when something falls or goes wrong
Tortilla huevitos is his new favorite food
He impressed Grandma and Grandpa by finishing the last words in all of the sentences in the “los pollitos” song and showing off his Spanish with his Dinosaurios book
Pronouns—He somehow knows to switch the “you” to “I”—When we say things like “you did it!” or “yes you do!” He’ll say back to us “I did it!” and “Yes I do!”
He puts his toy car together with his green tractor and calls it a choochoo train.
He’s almost weaned!!!! No more day time nursing—He’s a “big boy” now and the only hold out is middle of the night.
23 Months

Mar.13-March 19, 2006
I said Isaac, “you’re so smart” and he said, “I’m so smart” He’s really good at switching the pronouns
Isaac is officially weaned!!! Yippee! The timing was right. He’s actually sleeping through the night better now, and when he wants “milkies” during the day, we just have to remind him that he’s a big boy, and big boys drink “smoothies.” He really loves his smoothies. We’ve even been throwing carrots and oatmeal into his smoothies lately and he doesn’t seem to mind a bit.
He’s using a lot more two word phrases now. For the past few weeks he’s been using combinations like “red square” and “blue fish” and “rana verde” but now he’s added more complex ones like “momma sleeping” or “tomar agua” He really seems to be progressing in both languages really well.
He also seems to get the concept of dimunizations in both languages. He’ll say agua and aguita / perro and perrito as well as dog and doggie, frog and froggie
He is becoming quite the flirt. He seriously gets a bigger smile and shows off more for cute girls, especially at church. He’ll say “Como estas Dana (Mitsy, Lupe, etc)” and “bye-bye Dana” and put on his charming smile.
During sacrament meeting last week after the second prayer he looked up towards the ceiling and said, “bye-bye Jesus, adios JesuCristo”—I can’t remember exactly, but it was really sweet and he looked as if he really was talking to someone.
He’s favorite foods come in combos these days, “tortilla / huevitos” “cereal /yogurt” “pizza /hotdog”
He’ll say hug, kiss, and beso and be really cute and snuggly, especially when he wants to get out of a time out.

March 20-26, 2006
Now that he’s weaned he’s started pointing to mama’s “milkies” and say “that’s for babies”—it’s pretty funny.
His new phrases of the week in English and Spanish are “don’t thow” “no tires cosas” “don’t touch” “no toques”—he especially likes saying these phrases while throwing or touching something off limits. Oh and he also learned “no pegues” and “don’t hit” this week which he also says sometimes while hitting something.
He’s learned the word “stuck” and can now ask “are you stuck?” He kind of overuses the phrase though—he’ll use it when he can’t pass a certain obstacle or his little car gets stuck.
His favorite phrase in Spanish is “Que paso?”
Rocks, dirt, more rocks and dirt please—he loves being outside.
Isaac now knows that there is a baby in momma’s tummy and he likes to give my belly button lots of kisses and zurberts. He likes to say “baby tummy,” but it will become more of a reality when my tummy gets bigger.
He’s turned a corner in the world of bath time. He used to whine when we washed his hair, so we started telling him that he was a little blue fish swimming in the water (a song he learned from Grandma Nuttall) and now he’s usually pretty pumped about getting wet.
Sense of humor development—he pretended to drink a bottle of water with the lid on and he thought it was hilarious.
More cousins, aunts, and uncles!!! It was a great weekend for family. The Taylors (Chip, Jackie, Amber, Beth, Wendy, Adam, Eric, Rebecca, & Jazmine) came Thursday night and Isaac and I spent Friday at Sea World with them. Then on Saturday uncle Timo and Aunt Julia came along with uncle JoJo and Aunt Julia. We tried to teach Isaac the concept that there are two Julias but he was still a little confused. After James told him he said, “two Julias—two doggies!”—he has a number book with two doggies in it so I guess he was making the association, pretty funny. We all went on a hike to Torrey Pines in La Jolla and Isaac had a blast playing with the rocks and sand.

Isaac 18 months and beyond

18 MONTHS

Oct.10-16,2005
A bunch of different new words—yes, snack, juice, cheese, animal, up, water, and vamos!
I was reading a book in Spanish with Isaac and I taught him how to say luna, but since he had just learned moon, he looked up at me and said, “muna!”
Isaac had his first Sunday in nursery at church since he’s now officially 18 months old. He did great, but the main reason there were no separation anxiety issues was because mom stayed the whole time because the nursery leader needed extra help. Sharing is still a tough concept for Isaac (I’m sure it will be for a while), but when he gets frustrated he tends to grab the other kids faces which is not a good thing.
We got a potty chair to attempt the very beginning of potty training—he loves to run around naked after bath time and squat and you know what. Basically it would be nice if we could redirect the you know what into a potty chair as soon as possible.
He uses the Spanish words “bate bate” when he wants a yogurt smoothie and also to sing, because we always sing him the “bate bate chocolate” song when we’re making a drink for him in the blender.

Oct.17-23, 2005
Isaac is figuring out that he can use language to do more than just name things and ask for food:
He’ll pick up keys and say Vamos! and B-Bye when he wants to leave a place. It makes for a good excuse to leave places early.
When we walk around he’ll yell “hi!” to people and keep yelling it until he gets a response- he’s a real social animal and forces everyone around to be social too.
When he wants help getting access to something he’ll ask us to pick him up by saying “up-up.”
When he wants to go see his friend Sage, he’ll go over by the door and say “Hi Sagie!”
Isaac is a little obsessive about some things:
He’s crazier than ever about numbers, and he’ll scream and drag us over to the signs in the hallway that show the floor numbers. When we take him, he gets this gratified smile just looking at them. And on the topic of numbers- he can distinguish 1, 2, 3, and 8 individually.
He’ll demand to hear the same song over and over 5-6 times, and same with a scene on a video. This week’s favorite was the tractor segment on Baby McDonald and he kept yelling Tractor!
When we finish praying, he’ll repeat amen, and then ask for more…
New words this week are zapatos, nine, nose, water, tractor, football and basketball (he can distinguish these 2 sports when watching them)
He’ll clap and say “Yay!” when he figures its time for praise.
Wentzel (one of my mission comps aka Heather Carr) came to visit for the day and we hung out at Sea World with our boys. LOTS o’ fun.
He learned to slap people five a few weeks ago, and is eager to demonstrate. .

Oct.24-30, 2005
Ice cream, daddy, mami, horse- animal differentiation
Mas breakthrough- increase in frequency
Pre-Halloween week. We got serious mileage out of some superman pajamas that we bought at Wally World for the Biz. It even had a cape attached with Velcro.
Awful waffle—James has Isaac saying “awful waffle”
Ee-ii-oo—On the way home from church the other day Isaac started saying ee ii oo and we finally realized he was requesting Old McDonald Had a Farm.

Oct. 31-Nov 6.2005
Isaac can now say one, two, three and uno dos tres –he also recognizes the letter P because its in our elevator and in our parking garage
Lots of new words—he’s becoming a great parrot and loves to repeat things, epecially numbers.
He’s also started to notice letters this week—he loves to point out whenever he sees a letter or a number
The brinca brinca incident. . . .James was away on business in Texas on Monday night, so I took Isaac to a Halloween party at one of our neighbor’s churches (Roberta & Jazeer). They had little games for the kids and Isaac had fun—especially with the miniature basketball hoop. He also loves to say “basketball” now. Towards the end I noticed that one of the brinca brincas (inflated jumping thingy) didn’t have any kids so I asked if Isaac could get on for a minute. He had a blast jumping around, but at the end when I was about to get him out, he got a funny look on his face and tossed his cookies. I got him out in mid-puke and luckily most of it landed outside, but it was still a bit traumatic for both of us. Oops. I guess he’d had too much water before he got in. . .lesson learned.

Nov. 7-Nov. 12, 2005
The counting is getting even better. He’ll count to three by himself in English and Spanish and he occasionally makes it all the way to ten if you help him out. It’s funny because he’ll also mix the two languages and say “one, dos, tres”
At Food 4 Less the other night he was super pumped because he looked up and saw the number four and recognized it as cuatro or “catro!”
James was out of town again in Texas this week and Isaac actually got pretty sentimental when he saw pictures of papa (or daddy).
He’s very into the “old macdonald” song and in the car will constantly request more E I O.

19 MONTHS

Nov.13-19, 2005
Numbers are still his favorite, but he’s starting to show signs of interest in letters. He already knows “P” from the elevator and now he’s starting to say a few more like “A” and “T”
Isaac has also become aware recently that there are different shapes in the world, and his new word is “circle” which for the moment he likes to use for all of the shapes from circle to square to trapezoid. And who can blame him when circles are the coolest shape around.
He’s also calling his rubber duckies by their Spanish name “patos” and he’s overgeneralizing that word for anything that looks like a bird right now.
I think he’s getting the idea the everything has two names since we switch back and forth a lot with English and Spanish at home and when we’re out. Lately he’s been pointing to water and saying “Water. . Agua!” He’ll also pick up shoes and say “shoes” sometimes and zapatos (“apatos”) other times. He’s our bilingual guinea pig, hopefully we don’t confuse him too much.
Turkey hand prints in art class—fun but messy

Nov.20-27, 2005
Happy Thanksgiving! We headed up to Utah for turkey week and spent time with James’ family. All seven siblings came so it was a blast. And with 10 grandkids running around it was blissful chaos.
He got super dry skin and was pretty congested the whole time we were there, but that didn’t keep him from having a good time, but it did create lack of sleep for his parents. Isaac also kept us on our toes by taking up the sport of chucking random things down grandma and grandpa’s stairs or sneaking into grandma’s pantry and making mischief with anything he could reach.
Isaac loved being with his relatives and started picking up on a few names like uncle “Timo” (Tim), uncle “JoJo (Joseph), aunt “Ara” Lara, and aunt Amy. He also got the hang of gamma and gampa (grandma and grandpa)
So little by little Isaac has also figured out that not all animals are called dogs and he can now say cat, horse, cow, and pato (duck). Having Stimpson the family cat and Sarna the family dog around helped him get a clear picture of the cat/dog distinction.
It snowed the last few days we were there and we took Isaac on his first sledding outing in Rock Canyon park. At first he was freaked out, but by the bottom of the hill he was asking for more.
He sat through his first entire sacrament meeting!!!
He was pretty much a breast milk o holic the whole vacation because he was under the weather.

Nov.28-Dec.4, 2005
His vocabulary continues to explode with new words and this week his interest turned to colors. He can say azul, verde, green, and purple. His new favorite book is “Go dog, go” and his favorite page is the one with the green light. He loves to say “green circle”
He’s also learned the word “owie” recently and will give “owies” kisses if he’s in the right mood.
We got him a shape sorter circle and its his new favorite toy. He still calls all the shapes “circle,” but he has learned the name for “star” now too.
“peces”—he’s caught on to the Spanish name for fish.
More letter names—he’s getting more interested in the alphabet videos, and he can say quite a few letters now. His favorite video is the baby Einstein “Neighborhood Animals” video which he calls the “pato” or duck video because the beginning clip has several ducks in it..
He loves candles, and he’ll say “hi candle” when he sees one in a room.



Dec.5-12, 2005
bubbles, farting in the bathtub
More letter names—T, Q, R, F, V, O, C, etc. Now when he wants to watch his ABC video he says ABCD, ABCD!
During church this week he was very vocal about his desire for “mas pan” y “mas agua” during sacrament.
He made it through an hour of sacrament meeting and then he went to nursery for two hours without a problem—a first!
Handprint Christmas trees in art class and the elephant song.
At his Thursday Smart Start class with “Miss Veverly” Isaac got into the “run, walk, jump” song and did some pretty good bouncing—he almost made it off the ground.
“verde” seems to be his favorite color, and circle was the only shape he knew until he learned “oval”
“Tu Mama, Tu Papa”


20 MONTHS

Dec.13-18, 2005
1st week of phrases: “Como estas?” “I love you”, “Hi Biz.”
Tries to sing along with the alphabet song
Trying to jump, and he was a dance machine at the youth dance
Colors! He’s very excited about colors lately. Verde, green, azul, red, yellow, purple, morado
He learned “perro,” but it came out “pedo.” Good for entertainment value.
At Church James had to pick Isaac up after he’d been crying for a while, and it was heartbreaking when he just kept saying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry”
Kisses on the kisser and learning to say “I love you”

Dec. 19-25
This week I was laying on my bed and Isaac came up to me carrying my shoes and said, “vamos, let’s go!” When I put my shoes on, he kept pointing to my feet and saying “owies!”—it was cute because to him having to wear shoes is associated with “owies” and he was concerned about momma’s zapatos giving her owies.
He knows that a dog says “wuf” and a cat says “meow”—he performs his animal sounds very well.
He’s singing even more parts of the alphabet song
We drove to Arizona this week to spend time with my Mom, & Dad and Sheila. We went to Snowflake first with Matt and Lara and then headed to Eagar. Isaac picked up on everyone’s names pretty fast—he has a better knack for relatives names than is dadJ
For Christmas his favorite present was a “peekaboo horse” jack-in-the-box that Grandma Nuttall gave him. We video taped him giving besos to the horse. Pretty darn cute.

Dec.26 2005-Jan.1, 2006
Isaac got really sick this week—New Year’s Eve was pretty much the beginning and it was just the beginning of a rough ride. Vomiting, dirareah, etc.
He learned to say “Corazon” this week and he kept repeating it over and over. I think he just likes the way some words sound and he likes to play around with them.
He also learned “whale” and “ballena” this week—he seems to really dig ocean animals.
Since he’s been sick he’s wanted to nurse a lot and his new way of asking mommy is “come here sweetie” because that’s what he here’s me say to him when I snuggle him.
With the Old McDonald song he’ll fill in the word “horse” almost every time when we get to the animal part.

Jan.2-8, 2006
More bilingual word combos—moon/luna
He reminds us to say the prayer at night by folding his arms and saying “amen”
He definitely misses his San Diego routine and singing Spanish songs at the library. He spent most of the week requesting “San Severino”
Still sick!! He seems to get better during the day, but at night the vomiting and diarreah strike again.
This week I showed him a heart and asked him what’s this? He said, “heart,” and when I asked, “en español?” and he said “Corazon”
He’s starting to fill in more words in his favorite stories (he says “more stories” now). In the “Eye” book he can say “bird” and “bed” and “moon” and “spoon”


Jan 9-15, 2006
Still stick, throwing up and a lot of diarrhea the doctors finally agree that its probably not the flu, and they ask for poop samples to check for parasites. It all comes up negative and Isaac starts to feel better, but not before losing ~6.5 lbs… he’s skin and bone!
Isaac associates pizza and hot dogs with his friends Claudia, Gerald, and Danny, and it shows when he says: DannyGeraldPizzaHotDog… Claudia
Isaac is crazy about the book Go Dog, Go! His favorite is to fill in the colors Red and Green
He has several new words including bathroom/baño, and he no longer asks for “fish” crackers, he calls them “goldfish.”
Isaac can count to 20 in English straight through, but it’s a little spotty in Spanish still


21 MONTHS

Jan. 16-Jan. 22, 2006

Isaac pretty much knows all the major colors in English and Spanish now—his pronunciation isn’t perfect, but its understandable.
New words: Galleta, Ven, snuggles, shopping- his favorite word blend now is pizzahotdog
He’s starting sing along with songs and fill in more gaps in story books.
He blends Buenos Dias and Como estas?, and just says Como Dias.
He’ll point to objects in books when prometed.
Isaac counted to 15 in Spanish during sacrament meeting after yelling for more pan and mas agua.
As he learns some words he still butchers them: he pronounces “pelota” as “popota”
Eating like a maniac to fill back out after having lost weight. Kristy’s using the vitamix to blend/disguise veggies for him to eat on spaghetti noodles.



Jan.23-Jan.29, 2006
He loves his shapes. He can say circle, square, star, heart, diamond, and rectangle pretty well but he likes to call triangles: “circuculs”
We had some friends over on Monday night for noche de hogar and they have a 7 year old boy named Gabriel that Isaac goes bonkers over. Gabriel is pretty hyper and he gets Isaac all wound up too.
His appetite is still pretty huge. James took him to Costco and he pretty much devoured an adult size hotdog
He’s starting to spout out phrases like “vamos a comer” and “let’s go” and “find mama” and “donde esta papa”
For some reason he’s been asking a lot this week to see Aunt Julia and Uncle Joseph (who he calls KoJoJo), and Isaac did get the special treat of seeing Aunt Julia on Saturday night and he showed off his newfound ability to say consonant clusters like the “sp” in spoon.
Shopping and Airplane are two favorite words this week.
He’s a cookie monster but we let him get away with it—we call the oatmeal raisin granola bars cookies or galletas and he goes nuts over them.
He loves the “twinkle star” song and can say “estrella” now too.
He impressed everyone around us at church on Sunday by counting to 15 in Spanish.


Jan.30-Feb.5,. 2006
Isaac is not daunted by the words that sound complicated. This week he’s attempted to say spatchula, trapezoid, pentagon, hexagon, excelente, anaranjado, and columpio.
In addition to “Como dias” he now says “Como noches”
He’s also continuing to develop his talent for learning people’s names especially with people who take the time to talk to him. He’s pretty good at repeating new names that he hears and can even call our bishop “Obispo”
He definitely knows the alphabet really well in English and he totally surprised us this week by singing the end of the alphabet song by himself, “now I know my abc’s next time won’t you sing with me!” pretty dang cute.
We’re getting into discipline: time outs have begun—we’re using the crib or just sitting him in a chair and counting to 30
We’ve also noticed he’s a flirt—he counted to 20 in English in the elevator when a cute college girl stepped in.
Saturday adventure with Uncle JoJo and Aunt Julia—walking along the boardwalk in PB (James and I took turns riding Joseph’s bike) and eating at Soup Plantation
His comprehension in both languages is amazing. He understands if you ask him “What does a cat say?” or “Que dice el gato?” , dog, pig, duck, horse, cow, elephant, lion, bird, fish / perro, cerdo, pato, caballo, vaca, elefante, leon, pajaro, pez, etc.
He loves for his favorite songs to be repeated over and over again. Old MacDonald is at the top of the list and when we pause so he can fill in an animal he almost always says “horse”
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are his new favorite food. He can say “mo’ peanut butter “samich” and is pretty adorable—be he gets pretty messy especially when he decides to open up the sandwich and dive face first into the jelly
He can say cookie monster and he goes bonkers over the small song clip of “twinkle twinkle little star” in the Baby Newton.

Feb.6-Feb.12, 2006
Isaac is obsessed with Baby Neptune this week and dolphins, turtles, fish, and anything in the ocean.
The color pink—he’s been call both pink and purple colors purple and this week he caught on to the idea of pink.
Juggling—James showed Isaac juggling and Isaac tries to copy him and its super adorable. He’ll move both of his arms up and down while holding the balls.
We took Isaac and Lorenzo to Sea World on Saturday morning and Isaac was in heaven with the dolphins, polar bears, penguins, walruses, etc. He wanted to go through the penguin exhibit 3 times. His all time favorite is still the blue mat at the kids play area. Now they have big shapes there for the kids to play with and that adds a whole new element of geometric fun.

Isaac 12 months and beyond

April 18-23, 2005
He’s clapping a lot more now just for the fun of it.
Standing time is getting longer as he gets stronger, and he cruises along the furniture, but speed crawling is still his favorite mode of getting around.
He’s had major mocos this week—lots o’ snot and he hates getting his nose wiped.
Black beans are a new favorite food and he’s also getting used to drinking formula and cows milk in addition to momma’s milk.
Standing up in the stroller is his new favorite trick, he really doesn’t like to be buckled in.
He pooped his first no wiper. Papa was proud.

April 24-May 1, 2005
Now that he’s in a forward facing car seat it’s fun to be able to look back and see him, but he still doesn’t like being strapped in and is becoming the expert back archer.
Diaper changes have become more of a challenge now that he rarely stays still and we often end up having to put the diaper on while he’s moving or standing.
The swings at the park bring out great smiles and giggles—he can go for quite a while and whines when you take him out.
Isaac and I are taking another mommy and me swim class at the community pool and Isaac really enjoys being in the water with all of the other kids. He’s also becoming the master splasher.
I took him to the zoo this week and he’s definitely more aware of the animals now which makes the adventure more interesting.

May 2-May 8, 2005
Grandma Nuttall came to visit for a couple of days, hooray! Isaac loved spending time with grandma and mom and dad loved having a bit of a break in the evenings with grandma’s gracious babysitting endeavors.
Gogurts are a new favorite food.
We went to the Kid City section of the science center with grandma and I saac had a blast exploring everything. His favorite thing was playing peek aboo with grandma.
He’s standing by himself for longer and trying to take steps so the walking could start any day now. We’re in no big rush.
Another set of shots at the doctor’s office. He cried pretty hard in the moment, but was easily distracted by toys in the office afterwards.
Family pictures! We had a coupon for Sears so we went for it.

May 9-May 15, 2005
He kind said “luz” and made the sign for light a couple of times this week. He loves lights and ceiling fans.
Isaac’s bangs got their first encounter with a pair of scissors on Thursday because his hair was getting in his eyes. Mom’s friend Claudia helped and Isaac was semi-cooperative when Kristy and Claudia could distract him enough.
He had Saturday night fever and we don’t mean the disco dancing kind. Mom and dad didn’t get much sleep Saturday night because Isaac had post-vacination fiebre. He also went on a bit of a hunger strike and only wanted liquids.
Family night at the beach on Friday—we all got pretty sandy, but we had fun walking along the shore and watching the waves.

13 MONTHS

May 16-May 22, 2005

“Uh-Oh” was the new word this week—its really cute when he says it and its hard not to want to have him repeat it over and over.
No big news on the mobility front—he still loves speed crawling and pulling himself up on things and cruising along the furniture.
He’s had a cough this week and been a bit out of it and at times downright grumpy. We’re also worried because he’s not eating very well at all. The hunger strike needs to end soon.
Walking through the sporting goods section of Target he impressed momma by identifying all of the balls. He loves saying, “Ball!” over and over. . .

May 23-May 29, 2005
Grocery shopping was fun because Isaac now likes to identify the apples, cantelopes, limes, tomatoes, and anything else remotely round as “BALL!” As papa put it, to he who learns to wield a hammer, everything is suddenly a nail.
Isaac’s appetite is back in action and he was even open to trying some new foods this week like pineapple and parmesan chicken.
Morning time congestion and coughing—allergies maybe?
Stayed with Guadalupe Montesinos on Saturday night so that mom and dad could go on a date—he kept Lupe busy, but he went to bed for her.

May 30-June 3, 2005

He’s started pointing at things now and babbling more.
Monday we went to the beach for a fiesta and he enjoyed fried chicken and mango on the beach.
James had to take off for a business trip to Europe all week and he was greatly missed. Luckily Lori (my cousin) and her kids, Rebecca and Bedford came to visit on Wednesday from Tucson and Isaac was in heaven with other little kids around. Lots of parties in the bathtub and adventures to different places in San Diego. We hit Sea World twice, explored Mission Bay, visited the temple and went to Las Chollas Park.

June 4–June 10, 2005

James got back from his business trip to Eindhoven! Yeah papa’s home!!
Lori, Rebecca, and Bedford were still here for half of the week so the adventures continued. Monday we went swimming, Guadalupe watched the kids Tuesday afternoon so that mom and Lori could have a thrift store shopping binge and Wednesday we went to Balboa Park and spent time at a science museum.
He took his first few steps this week! It started at the science museum on Wednesday and then on Thursday night at church he was little Mister mobility—going back and forth between a chair and mom and dad—doing a very cute toddle walk several times before he would plunk himself down on his butt again and speed crawl.
Isaac has an obsession with any type of door or cabinet these days. He loves opening and closing, opening and closing, etc, etc.


14 MONTHS

June 11 – June 17, 2005
Isaac is now becoming more daring with his walking and instead of just taking a few steps between things he’s toddling out into the open. Right now his record is 17 steps.
He’s had a bunch of falls as he figures out the walking thing but nothing to deter him from trying again.
Strawberries are the big hit this week. Isaac finally decided to give them a try and now he’s a strawberry maniac.
We went up to Lynda Kim’s wedding reception in L.A. on Saturday—we barely made it for the end because traffic was so crazy and we forgot our camera, oops! Lynda and Ryan took us out to a cool Korean restaurant afterwards and Isaac had his first taste of Bulgoki and a few tidbits of other Korean dishes. He also touched the kimchi mom was eating and almost rubbed it in his eye, but Lynda saw the impending disaster and we were able to rush him to the nearest sink to wash his hands and avoid a kimchi emergency.

June 18 – June 24
The record went to 41 steps and then he just kept going from there and there’s no stopping Isaac now. He’s still getting the hang of walking, but he can go for quite a ways and he toddles oh so adorably
I had to take the young women on a big hike to Mission Hills Wednesday morning and Guadalupe Montesinos saved the day by taking care of Isaac.
The back molars are starting to come in!
Cross country travel to Tobi Lipski’s wedding in Michigan. Isaac threw up on the last leg of the journey but survived. He had fun playing with the wedding décor. The flight back was very nice because we sat next to people who entertained Isaac. His favorite new toy is an empty pop bottle with a penny in it so that it can be used as a maraca.

June 24- June 30
Grandma took care of Isaac for most of the week because I had to go to Girls Camp for our church’s youth program. It was rough to be separated, but Marti took great care of Isaac.
Isaac got to take lots of trips to the park with grandma and she says that he’s started saying “Bird” and pointing up in the sky.
Knocking over towers built out of cups was another favorite diversion of the week.
Grandma also discovered Isaac’s love for music and Isaac serenaded grandma with the new chimes she bought him.



July 4-July 10
“MMMmmm” is the “word” of the week. James has Isaac “mmming” when he gets food and he really gets into it.
He’s started babbling a lot more this week and his favorite babble sounds something like “gatagatagata”
He likes to point a lot at everything now, especially lights.
He’s the energizer bunny when it comes to walking all over the place now. He does not like limits and doors
He’s been doing some “head banging” when he gets frustrated lately and it drives momma and papa nuts.

15 MONTHS

July 11-17
He’s starting to mimic some of things that we say and it catches us off guard, and we think—did he really just say that? Like today when James yelled, “Isaac!” he called back “Iza!”
Friday night he said “papa” clearly for the first time and James was a pretty proud Papa when he heard it.
He also said “nana” for banana today—or at least it kind of sounded like nana.
First hair cut! I was really planning on just having my friend Claudia trim it, but there was a slight misunderstanding and Isaac ended up looking like a sheered lamb afterwards. I miss his golden curls, but we saved them for posterity.
Isaac can now officially groove. James plays a rockin’ bagpipe song by the Neutral Milk Hotel when he finishes work and Isaac always gets excited about it, but this week he actually started dancing to it by bouncing up and down and waving his arms.
He had a traumatic experience in day care this Friday—mom had to go back to work to fill in at the school she used to work at last minute. Isaac seemed fine at first, but he cried for a full 3 hours. I guess he’s at the age of serious separation anxiety.


July 18-23
Isaac is so ticklish it’s great. Unlike his mom, he really enjoys a good tickle that makes him laugh from the bottom of his gut.
For a while, Isaac has been obsessed with trying to catch running water in his mouth. He’s always tried to catch water from the shower or water being poured, but this week he reached a milestone by successfully handling the church water fountain stream.
No day care this week (he had one day of day care last Friday and he cried for three hours straight). Instead, he spent time rotating among friends and he was much more comfortable. We couldn’t put those poor day care ladies through that again.
He loves sticky rice, which is problematic for us because he tracks it all over and it ends up smearing in our clothes and on our furniture. Still, we can’t deny him.

July 24-31
Isaac had a breakthrough this week. Until now he’d only had a word for round objects: “ball.” But now, he’s realized that all non-round objects are “dog.” Now when we go around he happily points out whether something is round or not by either calling it “ball” or “dog.” He feels much better about life now. He also likes to combine the two words and say “dogball.”
We took him to the zoo on Saturday and he was amazed to see so many “dogs.” He was pointing at all of the animals and saying “dog.”
Now that walking has been mastered, running is next on Isaac’s agenda and he’s getting pretty good at that too. Mom had to chase him down the frozen aisle at Food For Less on Monday since he refused to sit in the shopping cart.
Mom had to work again this week (I've been filling in as an ESL teacher at a language school for two weeks) during the mornings, but Isaac stayed with Cristina Garcia (a friend from church) and he really had a good time—especially since they have a little dog.


August 1-7
Isaac really responds to physical humor these days. When his mom pretends to get hit by the swing or his dad bonks his head on the glass sliding door, he absolutely loses it. His belly laugh is incredibly cute.
He loves hide-and-seek. Kristy will say “Donde está papa?” and he’ll go look in the office and in the room until he finds me.
He’s learning that there are some things we want him to stay away from. One day he grabbed the plug from a fan and went to try to put it in the socket. I told him it was a no-no, and pretended to get shocked. Seeing me hurt made him cry and since then he points at the socket and says “No-No.”
Isaac has several words now- he has distinct sounds for agua and luz. He’s also started to use the sign for more all the time, and he asks for songs or food.
We got to see Matt, Leslie, and Clive call this week because they were in San Diego for a family vacation. We went hung out at the park and Imperial beach with them and Isaac had fun at the ocean, but he kind of freaked out whenever the water would touch him because the water was pretty cold.

August 8-14
2 things Isaac needs to work on: He is a very messy eater and will not sit still at church. Sure its normal, but...
Isaac’s using the word No all the time now. He’ll point out all the No-No’s, even while he’s playing with them. He’ll also use it when he wants to object to something like when he doesn’t want to be picked up, or when he doesn’t want a certain type of food. No!
He’s entered the realm of compound meaning. For example, he’ll make the “more” sign and say nananana, which means more banana. He also vocalizes “more” by saying momo or mama- probably because we interchange “more” and “más.”
New words are “fish”, and the sign for diaper change
Isaac has liked to play peekaboo for a while, but he’s just started covering his eyes to play. We’ll say “Donde está Isaac,” and he’ll cover his face and grin.
Yesterday we had a fun hike in Torrey Pines state forest with Aunt Julia and Uncle Joseph. There are these bluffs overlooking the ocean where you can hike among some gorgeous formations all the way down to the beach. As soon as we reached the water Isaac started saying “Auhhh,” which is the way he says “agua.”


16 MONTHS

August 15-21
Isaac loves music. A guy did a presentation of music from around the world for the youth at church on Wednesday night and Isaac went nuts when he heard all of the different drum beats, chimes, maracas, etc. He’d let out this huge giggle and totally distract everyone.
Sprinklers were the big adventure this week. We were walking back to the car from visiting someone on Sunday afternoon and Isaac noticed the sprinklers on the lawn so we went over there and let him play in the water for a bit. Pretty soon he managed to get himself soaked and when the sprinkler his was playing with stopped, he kept frantically signing for more. Luckily there was another active set of sprinklers nearby and he got to play for a while longer. It was also a good thing momma remembered to bring an extra change of clothes.
He now says “Ahh” for ombligo (bellybutton) and


August 22-28
Vocabulary brought to you by the letter “D” –Isaac loves to say dog, dos (as in # 2 in Spanish), door, and James has now taught him “dude”
For some reason the number 2 in Spanish and English is a big hit—his new favorite book is Mis Numeros/My Numbers and on about everypage he says “dos” or “two”
So for family home evening on Monday we went to meet one of my previous Italian students at an Italian pizzeria and there was a large tiled water fountain in the inner courtyard. Most logical parents probably would have just steered their kid clear of the fountain but Isaac would not be dissuaded from interacting with the “agua” and we basically caved in, put him in a swim diaper and let him go crazy until a waiter or another patron would walk by and we would act like we were trying to keep him out.
“elbow” “bubble” “uno” are all new words, but his favorite new word right now seems to be “NO!” and he uses it quite frequently.
Trip to uncle Timo’s wedding. The traveling was rough on the little guy, especially since the day before he had a stomach virus and was vomiting. He did allright on the plane but threw up that night and zonked for most of the day and was not the most happy camper for the baby sitters during the temple ceremony. Other than that though, the trip was fun, Isaac had a blast with his primos (cousins) and we are so happy for Timo and Julia! They make an awesome couple—and now Isaac will have 2 aunt Julias.

August 29 September 4, 2005
New words/signs are: Eye (which sounds like “Ahhh,” with a hint of an “ee” sound at the end), and the sign for song.
We had a great long weekend at Uncle Matt’s and Aunt Lara’s house in Phoenix. Isaac spent quality time in turf battles with Cousin Ellie- they mostly consisted of one trying to take another’s toy, followed by a yelling match (NO, NO! back and forth), followed by pinching or hitting from both sides. Isaac consistently lost these, but he still had a good time.
We also spent a lot of time in the pool, and Isaac had a blast being dropped into the water, submerged and all.
Isaac can find his belly button when prompted in English or in Spanish.
One of his new favorite songs this week is “tic toc” the clock song in English and Spanish. He started repeating tic/toc when a sing it and he also says “bate, bate” now for the Spanish “chocolate” song. Pretty dang cute.

September 5-September 11, 2005
New words lately are “hot” “choo choo” “car” “eye” “bubble” “cracker” “tres”
He really likes the word bubble and loves the little bubble machine.
Counting continues to enchant Isaac and “dos” is still his favorite number. He’s said uno and tres and couple of times but they must not be as fun to say as “dos”
His favorite new word this week is “Sage”—the name of our neighbor boy who’s a few months older than Isaac. They really have fun playing together even though half the time they’re stealing each others toys or bonking each other on the head.
Bye, Bye—he likes saying good-bye now and he’ll wave his arm and stretch out the “byyyye”
Isaac freaked me out one night this week because James accidently left the crib down and I heard crying in the middle of the night and Isaac had somehow managed to crawl out of the crib and was standing at the door crying. It felt like a pesadilla. I’m just glad he was okay.


17 MONTHS

September 12-19, 2005
Happy 17 months! Hard to believe, but Isaac is only a few weeks from starting nursery at church
He’s learned to make a fish-face by puckering his lips. He makes it either when he sees a fish or when he wants to ask for goldfish crackers… and he also started to say “cracker”
Late last week we all got colds from the weather turning. Kristy and Isaac are still coughing pretty bad. It doesn’t help that he also got shots this week and that his molars are coming in at the same time. Rough combination!
Although we were sick we got excited that aunt Julia spent the weekend with us, and we drove down the coast to Ensenada, Mexico. Julia taught him to draw numbers in the sand, which was enough to keep him entertained while mom and dad rode horses on the beach.
“Dos” is still his favorite number, and its still what he calls all numbers, although we’ve started to hear traces of other numbers: uno, tres, and ocho. For some reason he’ll only call numbers their name in Spanish, even though we use both.
He can say popó now, and sometimes does the sign for diaper change to let us know that its time.
We’re getting even more compound meaning, like when he wants to play with his friend Sage he says “more Sagie.”
He spends all the time at Sage’s place as he can, and has started to pick up on some Korean words from being over there. He calls Sage’s mom “Ama,” which evidently is “Mom” in Korean. He’ll also call a train both “choo choo, ” and “Kija” the Korean word. Sage, in turn has picked up on some of Isaac’s words, like the sign for “more,” and the number “dos.”



Sept.20-25, 2005

New words: apple, mano, candle, ocho, cracker!!
It’s official. Isaac has a definite preference for what music he wants to hear in the car now. It’s getting more and more tricky to slip in the NPR time.
He pluralized ball for the first time
Shopping is becoming more and more complicated as Isaac often refuses to be contained in the shopping cart and prefers to run hapharzardly through the aisles
Poopoo, yep, he knows the p word now
I started a “smart start” class with Isaac on Thursday mornings and his favorite part was the music. They had a beanbag dance song that he loved.



Sept.26-Oct.2, 2005
He said “Benny” for the first time this week but it sounded more like “money”
Isaac is a social animal now. He’s not content just staying home with mom and dad. He’s always asking to see “Sage” and has a really hard time understanding when Sage isn’t home.
“papa” yep, this is the week of the papa. Isaac had said “papa” before, but never very consistently. When James was out of town a couple of days for work, Isaac really seemed to miss him and all of the sudden started pointing at his pictures and saying “papa” or finding James’ belt and saying “papa” or pointing at where James sleeps and saying “papa”—you get the drift. Needless to say, James was a happy papa when he walked through the door and got a big “papa” greeting.
He says “uno” a lot now, but a lot of times it sounds like “elmo”
He used play dough for the first time at his “smart start” class and once he got past trying to eat it against mama’s wishes, he had fun messing with the texture.
Sea World is much more interesting for Isaac now—especially since he can identify “fish” and “animal” and say “oh wow!” its all really too cute

Oct.3-9,2005
Wow, Isaac’s vocab is growing so fast that it’s hard to keep track of these days! Glasses, ice-cream, animal, etc. He’s getting good at repeating things—so we really have to be careful of what we say eh.
Grandpa Roser, Sheila, Matt, Lara, Sophie and Ellie all came to spend the weekend with us in honor of Sophie’s 4th birthday. Julia and Joseph came down from Temecula on Saturday to hang out as well.
Sea World was the destination on Saturday so that Sophie could bond with Shamu. All of the kids had a blast—especially in the play area with the bouncy blue matt. One of the highlights of the day was actually getting to see one the polar bears go for a swim.
Sophie, Ellie, and Isaac had fun playing together and making mischief. There was a high drama moment on Sunday when Ellie locked herself in the bathroom, but once we got the doorknob taken off, all was well.
We taught Isaac the word “moon” on Sunday night and all the way home he kept pointing at the moon from the car and saying “moon” “moon” its so fun to hear him learn new words.
Isaac painted his first masterpiece with red, yellow, and blue paint in his smart start class.

Isaac's first year

MONTH 1 & 2
Isaac Santiago Nuttall was born at 4:56 A.M. on April 16th at Scripp’s Mercy Hospital to James Paul and Kristyn Michelle Nuttall.
We brought Isaac home from the hospital in a snuggly Winnie the Pooh outfit.
There was some drama with jaundice the first week—lots of blood being drawn from Isaac’s heel, but luckily a couple of days of healthy exposure to sunlight helped us avoid the hospital heat lamps.
Circumcision—an order figuring out how to set this up with the insurance company, but we finally found a doctor in La Jolla. Not a fun occasion, but Isaac healed quickly and after a week there were no problems.
Isaac got to spend a lot of quality time with grandma (Kristy’s mom)
First trip to the beach—we strolled along La Jolla shores with Isaac.
First bath! (May 3) We wrapped Isaac up in his cute duck bathrobe afterwards and then right when we were about to take a picture he went and had himself a little ol accident-a pretty explosive one, but nothing the couldn’t be fixed with jabon y agua.
Mother’s Day! Isaac es mi major regalo.
Isaac got to hang out along with Aunt Jenny and hang out in a lot of dressing rooms around town as we helped Jenny shop and get ready for her msiion.

MONTH 3

August 9-15, 2004

Isaac rolled over half way and then back again! A first.
He grabbed a rattle by himself and put it in his mouth.
He caught a cold and does NOT like getting his nose squeegied.
He’s making VERY cute gurgling noises now.
His favorite toy these days is Mr. Orange / Pumpkin
He got into Simon and Garfunkel this week—Cecilia was his favorite workout song in his “baby gym”


MONTH 4

August 16-22, 2004


Monday was his 4 month birthday!
Big smiles and full on giggles and laughter this week. Isaac is becoming more amused by silly things, especially when his dad plays with him. He loves to pretend to chomp on James’ nose.
A record bathtime splash week—he gave Shamu’s “house of douse” at Sea World some competition with all of his splashing water out of the tub.
We got Isaac a “singing stars” toy for his 4 month B-day and he goes crazy over the music.
Isaac loves being outside—he is more and more alert now and wants to see everything.
2nd set of vaccinations this week, no fun but he survived with a little help from Tylenol.
Isaac is now taking multi-vitamin and iron drops to supplement the breast milk
Aunt Julia watched Isaac for us on Saturday so that James and I could go see a movie for our five year anniversary—Isaac did great and had fun with his auntie.
And finally. . . Isaac said “yow” this morning. Cool new sound.



August 23-29, 2004
Isaac did his first complete roll from his tummy to his back and he received a standing ovation from mom and dad.
This was a big week for books—a coworker of James named Denise gave Isaac a very cute book about bees with lots of shiny material on the pages. Isaac is mesmerized by the glittery colors and loves looking at the book.
Isaac sat up (albeit kind of half way) by himself on Saturday.
Time for the first tooth—we noticed on Saturday that he was cutting his very first tooth. Wow. It’s making him a bit fussy and more prone to chew on everything, especially fingers.
He’s getting especially adept and grasping hair—much to the dismay of his momma who has to clip her hair up if she wants to avoid problemas.
His smiles and giggles just keep getting better and better. He also loves to stick out his tongue and do a triangle tongue frog look.



Aug.30-Sept.5, 2004

Isaac is trying to sit up more and more but sometimes we forget that he can’t sit up for very long alone, and he’ll flop over to the side—whoopsie daisyJ
He’s getting even better at grabbing things. This week he discovered he could grab the shower curtain during bathtime and the newspaper when we’re trying to read it. We also had a close call in Sunday school when Isaac grabbed a few pages of the Bible and wouldn’t let go—luckily his fingers pried loose in time to save the good word.
We took Isaac to the beach a couple of times this week and carried him along the shoreline with the baby Bjourn. The waves splashed up onto his feet and he got kind of startled by the cold water, but he seemed to love watching the waves and being outside.
Isaac got to meet his “uncle Jake.” One of our good friends from Michigan came out to visit us this weekend and he enjoyed meeting Isaac.
Viva Mexico—Isaac got his first trip across the border! On Friday we went to Puerto Nuevo and had seafood at a restaurante by the beach.

September 6-September 12, 2004

Isaac is in love with his feet and toes this week. He loves to lay on his back and grab onto his toes or try to put them in his mouth.
Tooth number two on the bottom is starting to show.
Bubble blowing is another new past time (with extra spit)
His eye-hand coordination is improving—James lowered his mobile for fun and Isaac had a blast taking swipes at and finally grabbing the zebra, elephant, and giraffe that had eluded him for his first few months (we had to move it back up to avoid a safari disaster in the crib).
He has been extra wiggly this week in the baby Bjorn—lots of kicking. He really likes being out and about.
He’s amused by putting his hand in our mouth.
Isaac is getting better about the bed time routine—meaning that we can put him down before he’s asleep and he’ll fall asleep on his own (with a bit of crying sometimes)
Isaac is trying to sit up more and more—he’s getting better at it, but still flops over quite a bit.
He got a new farm exer-saucer this week and he intiated it with a nice poopy blowout.

MONTH 5

September 13-Sept.19, 2004

SOLIDS!!! Yes, Isaac has now entered the wonderful world of solid foods. We fed him his first steak dinner on Sunday night.
O.K, we just fed him rice cereal mixed with breast milk, but he enjoyed it as much as a good steak.
He got his first bib nice and messy and he liked chomping on the spoon, and then decided he wanted to take control of the spoon which led to a brief power struggle between father and son.
He’s full on sitting up now, but still tipping over quite often.
We borrowed a baby back pack from a friend and he’s lovin’ it. He likes the new perspective and mom and dad like the new alternative mode of baby transportation.
Isaac is Mr. Popularity at church where he has wooed many five to eight year old girlfriends who like to tickle his feet and kiss his chubby cheeks. He’s also a romeo with the older women, but his mom keeps a close eye on him.
Isaac is continuing to love the discovery of his feet and finds the taste of his toes intriguing.



September 20-September 26, 2004

Isaac rolled over from back to front this week, but he did it when mom and dad weren’t looking! Sneaky little guy. He was playing under his piano play gym and when I came back he was flopped over doing a mini push up.
Relatives! Marti and Cherie arrived on Friday at a time share condo this week in San Juan Capistrano so on Saturday Isaac got to meet his aunt Cherie and his cousins Blake, Nate, and Dylan. He also got to spend quality time with grandma Nuttall. We went to the beach and Isaac took a long siesta while mom and dad chased after the nephews and got quite the work out.
Some friends let us borrow a baby back pack and Isaac loves this new mode of transportation. He wiggles and squeals a lot—speaking of squealing, he made quite the scene in Food For Less this week as James walked around with Isaac on his shoulders and Isaac got everyone’s attention with his high pitched squeals. If they were annoyed, Isaac quickly won them over with his uncontrollably cute smile.
Friday was a big Mexican Independence Day festival for the stake and the hermanos dressed James up in some traditional garb and painted a mustache on him. When he was carrying Isaac around some of the jovenes (youth) took the paint from James’ mustache and made a mini-mustache on Isaac. The father/son combo was pretty comical.
We took family pics on Monday at JC Penny’s with a coupon we had and Isaac was SO good. He was in an unbelievably great mood and he was a star for the camera people. He even got so excited he christened their black back drop with some nice baby spittle.
I took him to the zoo on Friday and he got to see a baby orangutang and some graceful flamingos.
We tried giving Isaac rice cereal with formula on Saturday and he didn’t want anything to do with it.


September 27-Oct.3

Isaac got to hang out with lots of cousins this week. He saw Dylan, Nate, and Blake (Peter and Cherie’s kids) on Thursday and Friday up in San Juan Capistrano and he got to see his double cousins (Sophia and Ellie) too.

On Friday and Saturday we went to Sea World and the Zoo with Matt, Lara, Sophie and Ellie. Sophie had the most fun of anyone and thought everything was magical. Isaac just loved being out and about for most of the day and traveling in a variety of ways (front carrier, back pack, stroller, etc.)

Isaac went to his first voting party this week and charmed all of the older ladies, especially when James had Isaac do a back somersault from one hand to the other—well actually they haven’t perfected that one yet so he just had Isaac stand on his hands for about two seconds.

James has found new ticklish spots on Isaac this week and he’s gotten some great giggly reactions.

He had the best splashing and kicking in the bathtub fest this week. Good times.

Isaac missed his papa when he was in Texas earlier this week but he left him lots of squeaky messages on the phone to keep James up to date on la vida en San Diego.

He’s getting more hair, we’re hoping that it stays the handsome auburn color that he’s got in the back.



October 4-10, 2004

We had a hard time meeting our “regular” schedule this week and consequently, Isaac sleep performance has plummeted. In other words, he’s had some pretty good bed time crying sessions.
On Monday Isaac did the running man while mom read him a sparkly book story. He’s really loving books more and more.

He’s flipping over more and more and he’s realizing the possibility of mobility. We noticed this week that when he’s laying on his back he can scoot himself backwards by using his legs. When we leave him playing under his gym on his back, he’s often in a totally different position when we return.
He tried carrots for the first time on Saturday—it wasn’t love at first taste, but he did eat a few bites.
Isaac is getting better and better at standing on his dad’s shoulders. He likes having a height advantage.
“W” sounds were a big hit the past few days with lots of “wo, wo’s” and “wa, wa’s” He is also becoming a professional spit bubble blower.
More tongue awareness—this week he discovered the fun of sticking out his tongue.


MONTH 6

October 11-17, 2004

· Happy 6 months Isaac!
· “W” sounds have developed into WOOOWWWAAUUWUUU- A certain partisan friend is certain that the development of the “W” sound is an endorsement of his preferred presidential candidate.
· We call him “Flipper” (unrelated to any political inclination) because its pretty tough to keep him on his back nowadays. He goes straight to his belly and starts whining because he hasn’t figured out how to crawl yet.
· He is much more aware of his surroundings and wants to touch everything, leading to some exciting episodes.
· The ranch dressing incident occurred Sunday night at church. He was very successfully sitting up on his own when he spotted a plate of ranch dressing within reach and went for it. He unfortunately had no plan to maintain control and did a faceplant right into the plastic plate, catapulting some of the dressing an impressive distance.
· He’s on a hunger strike against solid foods this week. He’ll eat a little, but he’s more fond of flesh than spoon.


October 18-24, 2004

· Sitting up has now become less topsy turvy with improved balance and control.
· Solids are back in business—after a cereal strike last week, Isaac is back in the swing of rice cereal and oatmeal. Yummy yummy.
· We set up an arranged marriage agreement between Isaac and Kaiya (the daughter of my friend Gretchen). Kaiya is 5 months old and the two of them had fun doing a little baby talk together. There were a few nose grabs and hair pulls, but never fear, the relationship is still on.
· Lots more bubble blowing and squeals this week.
· Isaac tried out a new duck tub and was a most happy bather.


October 25-31, 2004

· The zebra, elephant, and giraffe on Isaac’s mobile are no longer safe, he has gotten way too good with his hand-eye coordination.
· Speaking of hand-eye coordination, Isaac demonstrated his newfound talent on Saturday by grabbing the leaves of a plant off of the counter at a store and sending the pot crumbling to the ground. Whoops. We have to be careful to keep his little hands away from leaves.
· Keyboards are his new thing—Isaac loves to hit the keys on Dad’s keyboard while sitting on his lap in the office which can make for some creative word processing operations.
· Sweet potatoes—Isaac definitely got more on his face than in his mouth. He’s still deciding if vegetables work better as personal decoration or nourishment.
· Isaac found the little pumpkin chica of his dreams at the Halloween party we went to on Friday.
· Taco Bell take over. Isaac ruled the roost at Taco Bell by sitting smack in the middle of the table and checking out his surroundings.
·
November 1-7, 2004

· Shopping carts were a big hit this week. We realized he could sit in a cart and hold on without flopping over. He’s thrilled.
· Body control but not quite. He’s getting good at interacting with the world around him, but when he gets excited he’ll thrash around and hurt himself by facebutting whatever object he’s playing with.
· Fun on the playground. Isaac goes crazy on swings. He’s also been down the big-people slide now, albeit safely on mom’s lap.
· His interest in solid foods continues to be cyclical, and this week was another trough. Apple sauce is the only semi-solid food he’s accepting right now.
· He is actually doing push ups now, able to push his body off of the ground. He hasn’t gotten any closer to crawling though. When on his stomach he mostly whines and flails.
· His grip is getting better, which is bad for the favorite father-son activity of shoulder-riding. In order to prevent premature balding, this activity will have to be restricted somewhat until Dad starts wearing a hat.

November 7-14

· Baaa Baaa was the big new sound this week and he even said maa maa a couple of times but he doesn’t seem to be able to make the association yet between the sound “maa maa” and his mama.
· Flying to new heights—Isaac has become quite the little acrobat this week doing flips off of his mom’s lap and becoming airborne while playing with his dad. Sunday night he reached a new record since we were visiting friends with vaulted ceilings.
· Isaac will roll over a couple of times to get close to something but crawling is still elusive.
· His interest in food still varies on a daily basis, but on Friday he ate a whole little jar of sweet potatoes. Bravo.
· He’s becoming a much better traveler and will entertain himself in the car with his mirror and other toys.


MONTH 7

November 15-21

· Happy 7 months Isaac! Another fun month of life is ready to begin.
· We got Isaac a jumperoo this week because he had so much fun playing with his friend Josie's jumperoo that we couldn't resist. He's now a baby kangaroo and loves to jump and jump and jump and . . .jump.
· He has continued interest in computers and gets a big kick out of sitting in the chair and reaching for the keys.
· He listened to his dad read him bed time stories from the Economist on Sunday and he was just about asleep when he woke up in a fury at the suggestion the Tony Blair is simply America's lapdog. He's fairly protective of his English roots.
· Trip to Phoenix on Friday and onto Snowflake. Isaac had a blast with Uncle Matt, Aunt Lara, Grandpa Roser & Sheila. At church people asked if he and Ellie were twins. On Saturday night he and Sophie had a great giggle fest on the couch.

November 22-29

· A good Thanksgiving week. We spent time in Snowflake and then headed to Eagar for Dia de Gracias. Isaac had a ball at Grandma Jo’s house and loved exploring everything.
· On Friday and Saturday he had a chance to meet a whole slew of folks from the Bosen clan that he hadn’t met before. We all hung at Aunt Jackie’s house and then went to a park on Saturday. We played an ultimate Frisbee game of red heads vs. non-red heads—hard to believe there’s that many red heads! We’ll have to see what team Isaac will be on for future games—he’s got a hint of red right now.
· No major developments this week, but he is getting closer to crawling—his cousin Sophie gave him lots of helpful demonstrations and encouragement.
· On the way home from Arizona he got sick with a virus and has had a high fever—no fun at all, he’s been pretty cranky, but we took him to the doctor and she said that he should be back to his happy self soon.



Nov.30-Dec.5
· Nothing much to report this week--Isaac was one sick puppy (he had a virus called Rosieola), but after lots of TLC and plenty of Tylenol he’s feeling much better and we’ve come to appreciate his health more.
· We dressed him up like Santa this weekend and took him to the playground and had a good time on the slide and swings.

Dec 6- Dec12, 2004

· Isaac is definitely not sick anymore. He came out of his funk straight into what seems like a 24 hour/day sugar high. Its pretty cool, everything is high intensity until he just plops asleep. He’s energetic, but not in an annoying way most of the time. He’s usually very smiley, playful, and uncontrollably cute.
· He’s hit a new level of interest in the world around him, and is especially fascinated by ceiling fans, and dangling lights.
· On Sunday disaster seemed near when he reached for the sacrament water tray, but mom was amazed when he benignly grabbed a single plastic cup and got at least 30% of the contents successfully in his mouth.
· Sunday evening he kept getting into the sprinter’s starting position and rocking back and forth, wanting to start crawling. The closest he got to doing it right was pushing the legs and lurching forward- however, the part about moving the hands was always never made it and he kept doing face-plants on the rug. His parents are half-ecstatic about his progress and half horrified at the prospect of added mobility to their little ball of energy.
· Isaac loves to be turned upsidedown and he’ll have giggle attacks if you tickle him under his chin.

MONTH 8

Dec. 13-19, 2005

· Off with the hat! Isaac has figured out how to whip off his hat now, but he’ll still tolerate it sometimes.
· Lunges forward and backward scoot.
· Self-entertained more and especially entertained by his cousins.
· Aunt Julia’s wedding! The reception was marvelous and the temple sealing was beautiful. Isaac hung out with Sofia and Ellie at a friend’s house (la familia Plata) while we were at the temple.
· He’s into veggies and apple sauce, but not cereal alone so we’ve started mixing cereal into the apple sauce, etc. and that works pretty well.





Dec. 20-26, 2005

· Isaac’s first Christmas ! He had lots of fun with the Nuttall clan and getting to know all of his cousins and the pets. He laughed everytime Sarna barked. Mostly he enjoyed the colorful lights and stealing candycanes off of the Christmas tree. He had an especially good time chewing on wrapping paper and bows.
· A lot of movement, but still no full blown crawling. He loves playing on his new plastic car from grandma and grandpa Nuttall!
· We went to church at the MTC on Sunday and he and his cousins got their picture taken with a group of sister missionaries who thought they were uncontrollably cute.
· “Da,da,da” is the syllable string of the week. James hopes that this is a proword for dad, so we’re encouraging the dada “dad” association.


Dec 27- Jan 2, 2005

Happy New Year!
Spent vacation at the Nuttall fun-dome in Provo, including over an hour in the swimming pool. He did really well, and we’re thinking of putting him and Mom in swimming lessons at our community center back home.
While on vacation, he caught up with all the uncles, aunts, and cousins. We were a little surprised to see him start to whine a little when passed to someone else. Up until now he didn’t seem to care who’s arms he was in (when well fed, that is), but there’s starting to be some preference.
Even though vacation was a blast, he was excited to get back to SD and he quickly recognized all of his old toys.
New favorite syllable is na. Na-Na-Na-… his personality can best be described at this point as a giggling jumping bean.
When placed on his tummy he frequently goes straight to the sprinter starting position with his bum in the air, and we’re now realizing that he’s probably not trying to crawl at all, rather trying to stand. That’s a little scary to imagine.
New nickname: Zizzack


Jan 3-Jan 9, 2005

He can move from a laying down position to a sitting up position all by himself. He surprised mom when she went to get him out of his crib and he was already sitting up.
His mobility is still in the realm of rolling and scooting backwards. He’s also perfecting his sprinter starter position.
Isaac’s favorite sound this week is an inhaled screech. Great for getting attention and turning lots of heads.
We found an old riverboat whistle that someone gave us and every time we blew it on Saturday night he would break out into a big round of giggles.
The musical instruments of choice lately are maracas. He digs the endless possibilities for shaking and grooving.
Pink eye—a bit of an eye infection this week. A few good squirts of breastmilk to the eye has worked to clear it up.


MONTH 9

Jan 9-Jan 16, 2005

Happy 9 months on the 16th!
It happened- he crawled. He’d been Oh-so-close for a little while now, and finally Dad’s keys and mom’s cell phone were enough enticement to get him to move his arms and crawl. He’ll still only crawl when baited with something that’s usually off-limits.
He started swim class this week. Every Monday and Wednesday, Mom takes him to a local community center to spend time in the water. His favorite so far is to float on his back and kick (mom holding him, of course)
He likes Mexican food- or at least refried beans- or at least the plastic foam container they were in. Not sure if he actually consumed any of the beans, but he definitely made a mess.
Made 2 new friends on Sunday, Steven and Luke Brossard. They were pretty cool- or at least they let Isaac borrow some cool toys.



Jan 17-Jan 23
9 month check up—the vaccinations were no fun, but overall he’s a healthy little guy. We just switched pediatricians to Dr. Nakah ara and she is awesome—a much better fit than the doctor we had been going to.
Isaac is enjoying his newfound mobility this week and getting around the house more. He also is constantly trying to pull himself up to stand now and he can stand for a little bit by himself.
Mom took him to Coronado Park and he had a great time exploring the playground and grassy area.
Those top teeth just keep comin’ in—very cute.
He’s getting more and more interested in finger foods. It’s fun to watch him try to eat a piece of slippery avocado and pick up tiny cheerios that make it to his mouth 50% of the time.
He continues to be quite the little fish in his swimming class--on Wednesday he went underwater (for a split second) a couple of times and did great.
Family home evening at sea world with amigos


Jan 24-Jan 30
Been a good week. Isaac is quite mobile and doesn’t hesitate to crawl across the room toward something that interests him.
He is finally eating more solid foods- yogurt and cheerios are a major hit. For some reason water is too. While we’re excited that he’s developing a taste for solids, the stinky poops that come with the territory aren’t so much fun.
He finds things to pull himself to a standing position, which he is finding can be dangerous, even under parents’ watchful eyes. He’s fallen and bonked his head a few times, and even pinched his fingers when the drawer he was using as support started to close. Very upsetting.
He pulled videos and CDs off of their shelves for the first time. Sure to be more of that.
His babbling is becoming more and more conversational.
There’s another tooth coming in just to the right (his right) of his top front incisors.

Jan.31-Feb.6
Splish, splash. The swimming pool continues to be a big hit with more underwater dunks, and lots of splashing and playing.
The mouthwash incident—I had Isaac all dressed up in his new church clothes and he was sitting in the sink with a towel while I got ready. He was playing with the toothbrushes and I turned away for a few seconds to put on some makeup and when I looked back I noticed that Isaac had dumped almost the entire bottle of mouthwash all over himself. At least he smelled minty fresh, but alas, alack, I had to change his outfit.
Isaac discovered the wonders of the bathroom now that he can stand next to the bathtub. He managed to discover the magic of the toilet—it twirls, it whirls, and you can splash the water. He even tasted the toilet paper, but mom and dad didn’t let that go beyond the Kodak moment.
Wild animal park fun with Benny, Lorenzo, Gerald, and Daniel.
The syllable of the week is da da da da – James was crushed when he realized that dadada was being used for more than just daddy.
Major diaper blowout in the high chair on Sunday . . .no details necessary
Broccoli

Feb.7-Feb.13
The end of the week was rough because Isaac got a flu bug with the oh so fun symptoms of a fever, runny nose, vomiting, and diarrhea.
Latin dance and valentine fun on Friday, Isaac cheered mom and dad to victory in a donut eating contest.
He’s saying mama, dada, and nana, but dada still seems to be the favorite syllable.
We’re trying to do basic sign language with Isaac for things like milk, more, play, mom, dad, sleep, food, diaper change and he’s pretty observant, but no reciprocation yet.
last week of swimming classes

MONTH 10

Feb. 14-Feb.20, 2005
The big hit this week was the dishwasher. Isaac discovered the joy of grabbing silverware (after mom has removed any sharp projectile points) and dropping it on the ground.
He’s also become our professional cupboard sorter and rearranger.
Lots of babbling and giggling. He’ll say mama sometimes when he’s hungry and he’s also getting the hang of clapping.
High speed crawling has kicked into gear as he explores new spaces. He’s also pulling himself up on all the furniture and especially mom & dad’s legs.
Trip to Vegas this weekend—we went to Las Vegas on Saturday and Sunday and visited James’ brother Peter who’s studying law at UNLV. Isaac had fun hanging out with his three cousins Blake, Nate, and Dylan. We also met up with friends from BYU and Isaac got to see his girlfriend Kaiya. They played footsie between strollers, but we chaperoned and kept things under control.
Happy 10 Months Isaac!!!

Feb.21-Feb27, 2005
Isaac’s taking a stronger interest in adult food. There are few real preferences for taste- he generally goes for anything mom or dad are putting in their mouths. He’s a big time moocher.
One big favorite that he’ll chomp no matter what is Goldfish- much to Aunt Julia’s dismay.
After taking a hiatus from the Jumperoo chair, Isaac is back back to 20-30 intense sessions. He really loves it.
He’s more and more exploratory, constantly pulling himself up to a stand, and sometimes slipping and bonking his head. He doesn’t cry much when he goes bonk. He’s taken some hard ones in stride, knowing its all part of the learning process.
The dishwasher still holds great appeal. He’s happy to help unload just about anything onto the floor.
It turns out shower time is almost as much fun as bath time. Especially since, unlike bath water, you can drink shower water.


Feb.28-March 6, 2005
Isaac and mom ferried people to doctor’s appointments and visited a blind lady who just had hip replacement surgery—we have a renewed gratitude for our health. . .
Isaac slipped while he was standing next to the toilet and barely chipped one of his front teeth—you can’t really tell, but at least these aren’t his permanent teeth.
Friday night with Aunt Julia and Uncle Joseph in Temecula. Isaac had a great time and he was especially glad to be out of the car after a grueling 2 hour drive caused by rain and rush hour traffic.
Isaac is crawling all over the place and also getting more and more daring with pulling himself up and then cruising along anything available.
First choking incident—split pea soup down the wrong pipe J It got pretty messy, especially when mom yanked off the high chair tray to get Isaac out and split pea soup went flying everywhere.

March 7-March 13
He loves playing with the blinds—the cords, the slats, etc., always with supervision though. There’s just something magical about pulling a string and letting the sunshine come in.
Isaac is doing a lot of clapping this week—sometimes he does it when he wants more of something, so he might be picking up on that ASL sign.
Fun outing to Imperial beach—Isaac crawled around and scratched and the sand, marveling at the texture and then wanting to head toward the water.
Slept all the way through the night Saturday night!! Yippee skippy.
Isaac’s attention span for books is growing and he loves turning the pages on his own as well as trying to yank off any flaps.
His favorite food this week was a mango yogurt smoothie. Drank it right down and kept clapping for more.

MONTH 11

March 14-March 20
We spent lots of time this week with Isaac’s double cousins—Sophie and Ellie in Arizona. Matt and Lara went to Central America so I helped my mom take care of the girls while they were gone. The kids had a blast together.
Isaac loved the stairs at grandma’s house—he got proficient at going up the stairs, but going down is still another matter.
Shag was a big hit with all of the kids. Isaac kept trying to poke his nose and eyes because he was so curious, but Shag was pretty patient and enjoyed all of the extra walks he got to go on.
Watching Ellie and Sophie run around inspired Isaac to be more daring with his furniture walking and exploring.
Balls were the definite toy of choice for Isaac and Ellie. They had a blast bouncing balls all over the kitchen.
Isaac had lots of great giggle fests with cousin Sophie. She could make him laugh really hard and did a wonderful job of entertaining.

March 21-March 27, 2005
Isaac and I spent the first part of the week in Arizona and then it was back to San Diego. We went to Snowflake to see my Dad and Sheila and then my dad took us back down to Phoenix where we spent our last day there.
A new tooth! When we got back on Wednesday, dad noticed a new tooth that Isaac was sprouting on the bottom row—that’s now a total of 7 chompers!!
Reunification with papa was a very fun occasion. We celebrated by taking another trip! We headed to Arizona for Friday and Saturday to spend time with family.
The new sound of the week is a kind of “rar” r sound. It’s pretty dang cute.


March 28-April 2, 2005
He’s a bruiser, that’s for sure. Isaac has a bruise on both cheeks now from slips while furniture cruising. We try to keep him for taking dives, but sometimes we’re just not quick enough.
He can stand up by himself for a few seconds now before he plops down on his butt.
We destroyed the old record of time with a baby-sitter when we went to a U2 concert in Anaheim (nasty traffic). Some friends from church were angels and took care of him for a full 7 hours.
Isaac really sees the humor in hide and seek. We go into a room and he’ll crawl down the hall and peek in the doors to find us. When he does he thinks it’s hilarious.



April 3-April 10, 2005

He’s getting more adventurous in his standing/walking, and it’s a little nerve-wracking sometimes.
He was always easy to pass to other people, but little by little it seems like he prefers his parents… well his mom really, but dad’s ok sometimes too.
Birthday fiesta for aunt Julia in Temecula. Once more, Isaac got to enjoy the fun of crawling up the stairs and trying out Julia and Joseph’s bean bags.
Isaac is starting to understand what it means to play and share/not share with other kids. He knows where he is on the food chain and can quickly size up from what kids he can take toys, and to what kids he must cede them.
Eggs are a big hit. Who knew?

1 YEAR (12 MONTHS)

April 11-17
Happy one year birthday Isaac Santiago!!! We celebrated with amigos en el parque at Mission Bay where we had the baby shower fiesta. Isaac had a blast swinging on the kids swing, roaming around the grass, and getting frosting all over his face as he tried cake for the first time.
He said his first word beyond mama and dada and it was . . . . antisdisestablishmentarianism. Just kidding. He said, “ball”—his favorite toy. I was bouncing a blue ball with him and repeating ball a few times and he looked up and said, “ball,” but he wouldn’t repeat the performance when dad got home but we’re working on it.
He’s been an amazing sleeper lately. He’s been sleeping through the night better, and we’re finding that the earlier we can get him to bed, the longer he sleeps.
Miraculously, he’s being a better eater and is actually depending on food more that breast milk.