October 2006

Oct. 2-Oct.8, 2006
• At dinner Wednesday night Isaac looked over at James and said, “Hey Papa, what’s goin’ on?” He sounded so grown up we both had to laugh
• I took Isaac to my prenatal appointment and the nurse was really cool about letting Isaac “help” listen to the baby’s heartbeat and measure my tummy.
• James and I asked Isaac if he liked the name Levi or Timo better for the baby and he didn’t really seem to be paying attention. Then a few days later he said, baby Levi, baby uncle Timo? Baby Levi’s coming. I told James that it’s a sign we should name the baby Levi, but he’s not totally convinced.
• More full sentences these days like, “Who’s hiding behind the window?” or “It’s dark outside, “ or “It’s nighttime.” “Lets go see the new neighbors”
• He recognizes how many fingers are being held up, at least 1-5. He’s trying to do it himself, but so far he’s only able to do 1 and 5.
• I found a used double “sit-n-stand” stroller and Isaac seems to like it—he calls it the “super babies stroller” because it looks like the one in the Dora cartoon.

Oct.9-Oct.15, 2006
• He really likes pointing out the difference between daytime and night time—es noche.
• When he wants to ask what something is called he says “English?” or “Español?” What’s funny though, is sometimes he’ll point at people and say “English?” wanting to know their name and they’re pretty confused. For example I walked into the little child care center at the gym and saw Isaac pointing at another child and asking him “English?” We’ll have to start practicing “What’s your name?” 
• At Gymboree this week the theme was being a postal carrier and Isaac had a lot of fun pretending to mail letters through a little slot and sending play packages down a slide.
• Isaac has been really good about staying in nursery at church and at the gym. He repeats the mantra to himself, “momma always comes back” A couple of Sundays ago the nursery leader had to bring Isaac to me during Sunday school because Isaac had a poopy diaper and right when he saw me he yelled at the top of his lungs matter-of-factly, “Momma always comes back!!” It was pretty cute.
• I found a Dora CD at the library and now he wants to listen to the “grumpy old troll” song over and over and over. . .
• He’s usually pretty good about separating Spanish and English but the other day after I had just read him a counting book in both languages, he turned to the page with # 8 on it and said “ocho babies eating galletas”
• Isaac loves accompanying me on my visits to see the doctor for “baby tummy” and listening to the “baby’s heartbeat” He really likes participating and the nurses have been cool about letting him “help” and measure my tummy and be a part of the check up.

This is now the combined Nuttall family journal

Oct.16-22, 2006
• Isaac has been into a show called “Blues Clues” lately (we’ve just gotten a few random episodes on video from the library), but he calls it “Blues Plues” which sounds really cute. In the show there is a big chair they call the thinking chair and now Isaac calls our blue sofa the “thinking chair.” He’s also learned the song about mail from the show “We just got a letter. . . “ and likes to sing it when we go get the mail.
• Very adorable prayers this week—he’s been thanking Heavenly Father for his body/cuerpo lately because they had a lesson on being grateful for their bodies in nursery.
• We’ve been teaching him not to put his hand in his diaper and so when he does we say, “don’t do that or you’ll get very sick.” Well, he started to put his hand in his diaper today and then he stopped himself and said, “don’t put your hand down there—just mommas and pappas. . .”pretty funny
• Grandma Jo came to stay with us on Saturday night and I started having contractions that continued to get longer and stronger. There was a bit of a break mid-Sunday and we thought maybe things were going to slow down, but then the contractions started up again around 3 in the afternoon and we took a long walk along the bayou. When we got home my contractions were getting very painful and lasting almost a minute so around 8:30 we left for the hospital. When we got there the nurse checked me and I was already dilated to 7 centimeters—hooray!! I couldn’t believe that I had already progressed that far. They asked me if I wanted an epidural and I said YES!! It was a miracle because I didn’t get any contractions while they were administering the epidural and then the drugs kicked in almost immediately and I felt a lot calmer and in a lot less pain. The epidural didn’t slow things down too much either because I was able to start pushing around 11:00 pm and Levi was born at 11:22. Unfortunately I tore in two places and had to be stitched up, but most importantly Levi was born without any major complications and he’s a happy healthy baby. James got to cut the cord which was pretty cool. The timing of his birth was also miraculous because I didn’t want to go into labor until my mom was here to stay with Isaac, but I didn’t want to have to be induced on Monday. So basically Levi arrived during the perfect window of time—Sunday night! I feel VERY blessed. Levi Mateo Nuttall weighed 7 pounds and 15 ounces and measured 22 inches. His hair color is the same as Isaac’s but it looks like he’ll have darker eyes and his own distinct little nose. Isaac came with grandma on Monday to see his new brother and he was very excited about baby Levi—and even more excited when he found out that the hospital provided a “sibling cake” to celebrate the birth. We told Isaac that the cake was from baby Levi. We also had a little tricycle waiting for Isaac when we brought home baby Levi that was a present from his brother.
• Levi’s Homecoming on Tuesday—we dressed him up in a cute Beatrix Potter outfit.
• Lots of sleeping and eating and pooping and peeing going on for baby Levi. He likes falling asleep on Grandma Jo’s lap.


Oct.23-29.2006
• Isaac is doing a pretty good job of adjusting as a big brother. He’s been pretty gentle with Levi and likes to point at him and say “baby Levi!” and then say in Spanish “bebe Levi” Levi is also very tranquilo and holds up pretty well with all of the slobbery kisses.
• Isaac’s a good helper with Levi’s diapers and loves to run as fast as he can to the trash can to throw away the dirty diapers.
• Isaac has had fun going with Grandma on little trips to our local thrift store and has found some cool treasures like a little farm and some fire truck shoes.
• On Friday I got an Elmo dvd at the library about birthdays and that is Isaac’s new favorite movie. He’s always asking for Elmo and the birthday party and he loves the slapstick comedy routines in them by Mr. Noodle. He likes to say “Silly Mr. Noodle!” and have mom rewind certain parts over and over and over again.

Oct.30-Nov.5, 2006
• Halloween! Isaac has a new favorite day of the year. He was in heaven when he realized that if he just put on a silly tiger suit, he could ring ANYONE’s doorbell and get free candy. He picked up on the “trick or treat” and “Happy Halloween” phrases really quickly and he and his little friend Michael made an absolutely adorable duo going around our neighborhood. Michael was dressed up as Mickey Mouse.
• His prayers are getting more and more adorable. He sometimes likes to pray in both languages and also throw in random things like “bless the fan.” He’ll bless things he’s excited about twice like strawberries and cream. . .
• Isaac and my mom went on lots of fun excursions to the “troll bridge” down by the bayou trail and they also went to the little thrift store over at the Catholic church complex. We actually found a few cool thrift stores this week and got some great books, videos and other assorted randomness.
• Levi:
• His belly button cord fell off on Wednesday—yeah!! It was looking pretty yucky. His circumcision has also healed nicely.
• Lots of cute facial expressions in his sleep.
• He’s a snuggler—loves to sleep and my tummy and snuggle up beside me and be carried around.