June 2007

June 4-June 11, 2007

Levi has turned into turbo-crawler. He chases balls and other objects around the room, and he’s also started to like to be chased around. The negative side of his mobility is that he spies something he wants to put in his mouth and he’s so fast sometimes we aren’t quick enough to head him off. For example, the other day he was bolting for a dead roach, and luckily papa beat him to it-barely.

Isaac, “can I puh-lease”????

Isaac has a new annoying obsession with the “covers” of movies—it started a couple of weeks ago and now its going pretty strong. He wants to see the “Lion cover”—Baby Newton or the “Vincent the Goat cover” baby Van Gogh or the Dora and the Star cover or Numbers, etc. He likes lining up the covers for the movies and fantasizing about which one he wants to watch in the morning. I’m trying to really limit his T.V. now and just let him watch a little in the morning and when he wants to watch it in the afternoon or evening I just tell him that its family time. He doesn’t give up easily though—he’ll even bust out his Spanish to try to convince me, “Quieres ver una pelicula mama?”

Levi definitely understands his name now and will turn when he hears it.

BEFORE THE BIKE RIDE

AFTER THE BIKE RIDE

WHO LIKE'S GREEN PEPPERS?

June 11-June 17, 2007
We decided to get a membership to the local pool this week because I just had to have somewhere to take the kids to escape the heat. They both love being in the water, but Isaac refuses to wear water wings or a water vest or suit, so he’s either playing on the steps, in Levi’s floatie, or clinging to me. Levi loves the water, but sometimes he loves the water too much and tries to drink it.
When Isaac wants to go out with the bike trailer he’ll say, “let’s go on a bike rider mom”—he likes to go out really far on the trail and never really wants to turn around.
On Friday we went to Beyond Bounce with Claudia and Anna—when I went down one of the slides with Isaac he looked up and said “that was awesome”
Levi seems to live in a hyper curiosity mode where he wants to explore everything and touch and taste everything.

June 18-June 24, 2007
This week Levi’s guardian angel was working overtime. I left him with Amerika and Claudia for a few minutes on Monday while I went and put Isaac in the car. When I came back, they didn’t know where he was and we found him upstairs playing with the toys. He’s gotten a little too fast with his stair crawling but at least he didn’t fall!
Isaac is learning to sing “Book of Mormon Stories” at nursery and now that’s his new favorite song. He can do a lot of the hand motions-including the book, the water, and folding his arms at the end.
Levi has discovered how interesting toilets are and we’ve caught him trying to splash in the water and eat the tp. We’ve got to keep the bathroom doors shut now!
Levi is a big-time flirt
Isaac has been applying the Dora commitment pattern. One day James was telling him they were going to Sister McNeil’s house, and Isaac repeated it, then said “… and that’s how we get to Old McDonalds.” (That’s what he calls McDonalds the restaurant.)

We brought out the "turtle swimming pool" this week and had some great turtle parties. The idea came to me when I had the gets all ready to go swimming and I didn't realize the local pool was closed. They close alot here because it thunders and rains alot here--but it can be pretty frustrating when they close it if there's just thunder and no storm.

June 25- July 1, 2007
I feel like freezing Levi for extra time and the amazingly cute stage that he’s at. He squeals, he squawks, he’s very easily amused and very ticklish.
Levi has now eaten a couple of the taboo baby foods—strawberries and peanut butter. I can’t really say that I’m proud of that, but the kid just has a strong will and really wants to eat what we’re eating. So when I’m drinking my strawberry yogurt smoothie in the morning, he has to take a sip. He also loves floor scavenging and today he managed to grab a crust of Isaac’s pbj before I could finish cleaning everything up.
Isaac—“that’s crazy mom.” Great new phrase
We went to Beyond Bounce on Monday with Amerika and Ava.. Isaac and I had a marvelous time on the obstacle course while baby Levi took a nap. Isaac loves speaking in Spanish with Amerika and he’ll say, “Hola Amerika! Vamos a jugar con los juguetes.”
Mama and a great day
“Hi Mr mom, I’m just locking the door.”—Isaac likes to pick up my cell phone and use this phrase—I think he heard me tell James I was just locking the door and he thinks it sounds funny.
Levi started cruising, he’ll walk if you hold his hand. He also loves being chased- especially up the stairs.
refusing to be fed with a spoon- wants to self feed. Loves fruits/veggies: watermelon, banana, cucumbers, green peppers, tomatoes, grapes, and more.
Levi weaning off breastmilk during the day, and weaning off the binky.
Isaac “Feet- baby Levi” “Are you OK? Estas bien?” Used past tense of catch: “Caught”
Isaac started responding “Yes” to questions instead of just repeating the question.

May 2007

April 30- May 6, 2007
Levi is jabbering a lot lately. Rara and Mama are his favorites. He’s also crawling like a maniac and we really have to keep our eye on him.
Isaac has been suffering from post vacation let down. He wants to go back to the airport and fly to find his family and go on the big boat. “You wanna go find your family on the big boat.”
Uncle Timo and Aunt Julia came to live with us on Sunday because Timo is doing an internship in Houston for the summer. Isaac and Timo have developed new games like high in the sky with the laundry basket and elevator that Isaac just can’t get enough of.

May 7-May 13, 2007
When I was putting Isaac to bed on Tuesday we were talking in Spanish and he said, “Quiere la fiesta” and at first I was confused why he had started talking about parties, but then I realized he was trying to say “siesta” because I had taught him how to say “tomar la siesta” a couple of days earlier.
Isaac still talks in 3rd person about himself in both languages. He’ll say things like “he needs his mother” and “he’s not cooperating” or “quiere agua” or “quiere la comida”
Levi has had some rough nights lately. He seems to get air bubbles in his tummy or indigestion or something that makes him have a tough time sleeping for long stretches.
Isaac has become the master of saying “I won’t do that anymore”—especially right after he does something he shouldn’t do like throw his shoes down the stairs.
On the way to his preschool on Thursday Isaac said without prompting—“vamos a ir a escuela” very cute.
Isaac has learned to use the word “instead” and uses it for situations like—I want the blue one instead (referring to the color of the whip cream can top when shopping at Wally world)
Levi is a lot more self entertained than Isaac was at his age. Now that he’s mobile though I can’t just leave him with a pile of interesting stuff, because he’ll crawl all over looking for more interesting stuff and he loves following me into the kitchen.
I let Levi try some cheerios this week and he’s hooked. I didn’t think he could handle them yet, but he mashes them up with his gums just fine. He can also eat the sweet potato star puffs quite handily. It’s good practice for his hand eye coordination.

May 14-May 21, 2007
On the way home from school Tuesday Isaac woke up Levi which annoyed me at first, but then he asked to hold baby Levi’s hand and said “we’re best friends mom” and that melted my heart.
When saying the prayer for his breakfast Friday morning, Isaac said, “Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, thank you for he goes shopping for his popsicles. . .” Isaac like to add things to prayers that he would like to do.
Levi is just ridiculously cute. He makes the best squeals of delight and has a contagious giggle if you tickle him in the right spots. We’ll have to start calling him lightning Levi because he really gets around fast these days. He’s a turbo crawler and he pulls himself up on every possible piece of furniture, toy, and even tries the impossible ones. Once he pulls himself up he likes to let go and see how long he can stand alone. He can last a few seconds but then usually plops back down. He’s also in the stage right now where he likes to put everything in his mouth. I’ve caught him a few times with random things like the tag from Isaac’s shirt or a sticker and that’s not good! I need to be better at making sure all dangerous stuff is out of his reach.
I was eating some fruit salad tonight and Isaac said, “Mama va a comer ensalada de fruta fresca!”
Levi has his first tooth—one popped out on the bottom.
Uncle Timo’s birthday!! We celebrated by putting a big sign up on our gate and going to Red Robin for dinner. Isaac was so excited about Timo’s birthday that he couldn’t really focus at school.
Thursday was Isaac’s last day of school over at the Catholic church. They have a break until September. Isaac really likes his teachers, Miss MaryLou and Miss Olenka and he’s going to miss spending time with them on Tuesdays and Thursdays (and I’ll miss the break too!!!)

May 22-May 27, 2007
Isaac can express himself pretty well in Spanish now. This morning he said, “esta lloviendo mama, vamos al doctor para ir en los ascensores!” We had to take Levi to the doctor Monday morning to get his shots and Isaac loves the part where we get to ride in the elevators and at the end of the visit we usually go up and down the elevators a few extra times just for fun.
Levi now has 2 teeth on the bottom!! No wonder he’s been wanting to stick everything in his mouth lately.
Isaac has been doing the same thing that he does in Spanish that he does in English—using the 3rd person when he’s talking about himself like “quiere agua” en vez de “quiero agua” / “he wants water” instead of “I want water”
Isaac is always tackling Levi, especially when he gets to close to the TV when Isaac is watching it. Levi is going to be a tough kid if he can survive his older brother.
At church on Sunday we were reading a story in Spanish to Isaac to keep him quiet and when the sacrament water came by he said, “Mas agua mama” and I handed a water bottle to him. He looked at the water bottle and then turned around to the next row where the water tray was and said, “no mama, quiero ESTE agua” It was funny because there is a sister from Panama in our ward who was sitting the next bench over and Olga did a double take when she heard Isaac being so expressive in Spanish.

May 28-June3, 2007

Isaac now has a new sound effect for when he doesn’t want to cooperate. He’ll go “da ta da” and then say “he’s not cooperating” It’s pretty annoying.
Isaac loves going for a walk to meet James when he drives home in the “big red car.” He usually wants to leave as early as possible to do this so sometimes we end up going on a pretty long walk before we “find” papa.
Isaac woke up at 6:00 in the morning on Wednesday and when he came downstairs, he took my hand to go out into the living room and said, “He’s a good waker momma.” That cracked me up even though a was pretty tired. We tell him he’s a good “sleeper” when he takes a good nap or sleeps well at night, but he came up with the idea of being a good “waker” all by himself.
So we’ve had some issues lately with Isaac breaking decorations. He had an incident last week and Amerika’s house and on Wednesday with Trina. He was looking at a decorative ball in the garden and dropped it. Both times I had been talking while it happened so I’m not sure what exactly happened, but he seems to be either trying to get my attention or taking advantage of my distraction.

Its been tempting to make use of his irrational fear of vacuums for our own purposes. We’ve used it to reinvigorate time outs, which had been declining in effectiveness. If anything starts to get out of hand we just have to say something like, “do you want to hug the vacuum?” or “Time out in the closet with the vacuum,” and he snaps to attention like nothing else. We do feel a little guilty for using it this way…
Amerika introduced us to a place called, “Beyond Bounce,” which is a paradise for playing with infants and toddlers. There are several inflatable obstacle courses that adults and kids can use. We went on memorial day and had a blast climbing all over, getting having the same adventure as Isaac. The coolest part is a 10ft near-vertical wall with barely adequate footholds which Isaac has learned to scale with no problem. We’re hoping it develops his motor skills and confidence. If nothing else it’s a ton of fun.
My Mom, My Dad—Isaac likes using possessive pronouns with us.

Disney Cruise

April 23-29, 2007
Disney Cruise!! James’ parents organized a family reunion on a Disney Cruise that set sail out of Port Canaveral, Florida and went to Nassau and Castaway Cay. Hooray for Grandma and Grandpa Nuttall. They also funded the cruise for everyone as a Christmas gift and we can't thank them enough. When we finally got on the big boat, Isaac saw Aunt Julia and Uncle JoJo (Joseph) and he was beside himself with excitement. He really loves being around family.
When we explored the boat, Isaac discovered that he liked the view from the balconies, but when James wasn’t watching him, he managed to take off his shoes and huck his shoes off of the balcony, barely missing a very expensive chandelier.
Isaac loved the elevators and pushing the buttons to go up and down and all of the numbers.
We had fun swimming together and Isaac loved going in the hot tub and then making us get back into the cold water with him.
Levi nibbled on lots of new kinds of foods, but his favorite thing was mashing up banana bread with his cousin Mathew. Levi and Mathew look a lot alike.
Palos—One of the best parts of the cruise was getting all of the adults together (while we had the kids in childcare) and having dinner at an Italian restaurant on the boat called Palo. The food was amazing, but more than anything it was fun to just sit and talk to everyone without being interrupted by kids.
One of the highlights for Isaac was seeing fireworks on the boat. For the pirate party they did fireworks and Isaac thought that was really cool.
James and I went on a fun snorkeling trip on Tuesday morning. I got bitten by a coral shark, but I just lost my kneecap. Actually I just scraped my knee on some coral but it didn’t feel too spiffy.
Isaac, “How do you say “pick me up” in Spanish?”
Isaac is developing his own little sense of humor. He started saying “Lowe’s is orange” on the plane ride home to get a reaction from James (since Lowes is blue ofcourse) He was also doing it in Spanish and saying “Lowe’s es anaranjado”
The night we got home from the cruise Levi started pulling himself up by himself and standing.