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.