Violent Ink

I have been remiss

Maddie B and Isaac
Originally uploaded by kicksie.

I forgot to mention that during our Texas trip, Isaac met Maddie, my friend Lori's adorable daughter, and we played photo shoot! They were so cute!!

Happy holidays!!

Lighting menorah
Originally uploaded by kicksie.

Check out our Charlie Brown Christmas tree (I decided wayyyyy too late in the month that I wanted a tree) and a long exposure of lighting the menorah.

We had a pretty low-key holiday this year, which was good. Since we are starting the transition into day care, we didn't travel anywhere (which ended up being a very good thing since Oregon had the craziest snow it's had in a long time). Christmas morning, we opened presents and had my family's traditional breakfast of cinnamon rolls and Lil' Smokies. In the afternoon, we went skating for the Waldmans' annual Jews on Ice celebration. After that, we went home and called all of our respective families to say Merry Christmas and thank you.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and Hanukkah.

We're going to try to get a long exposure of lighting the menorah tonight since it will be all eight candles, but our box of candles was five short, so that might be complicated. We shall see!

Dear Isaac: 6 months old

Dear Isaac,

The past two months have passed so quickly and are so crammed full of milestones that I didn't even have time to write your five-months-old letter.

First off, rolling? Pshaw, you say. That's old hat. You roll like a champ, and not just onto your belly and back. You roll in these giant circles that rapidly increase in size. Left to your own devices, you would roll all over the entire basement. Lately, you have added some more mobility to your repertoire. You get up on your hands and knees and rock back and forth, which is supposed to be a precursor to crawling. You tend to lunge forward or do a belly crawl a la the Marines. But boy, can you get around!

We started working on solids in a low-key kind of way about five or six weeks ago. So far you have had rice cereal(which you like much more now than in the previously posted video), butternut squash, peaches, bananas and oatmeal. You seem to really enjoy eating now, most of the time anyway. We started you out in the Bumbo seat, but lately we've been feeding you in your highchair, and you seem to like sitting in there, too. You can't quite sit up on your own yet, but you hold your own in the highchair, only occasionally slouching over to chew on the edge of the tray.

At the end of October, we went to D.C. and tried to root on Daddy while he did the Marine Corps Marathon. Somehow, we missed him all over the course, but you had such a good time while I pushed you for about six miles all over the city. For Halloween you were an amazing little Superman. We went to a party with your fellow babies from moms' group and it was a costume extravaganza!

Since the beginning of December, you have become more and more interactive with your toys. Suddenly, instead of a toy being something to just clutch or chew (or both), you are figuring out more of the things that they do, like squeaking or rattling or bending. It's so fun to watch you make sense of something.

You continue to be remarkably social, grinning at just about everyone who comes into your field of view. In fact, when people don't engage with you, you seem a little confused. Someday you will learn the hard lesson that not everyone will always like you, and that that is really OK, but it's a little too soon to figure that one out.

You still haven't had any teeth break through, though you continue to drool like crazy. I'm sure they will come soon enough.

A couple of weeks ago, you and I went to Texas. Great-Granddaddy broke his hip, and though he was doing well, it was kind of a wake-up call for me that my leave is running out and so was our time to be able to travel with relative ease. So we flew out and got to see Grandpa Ron and Grandmareen and meet Great-Granddaddy and your other great-grandparents on my side, Peggy and Jim. We also met your great-great-aunt Eunice and great-great-uncle Reno, as well as assorted other Texas relatives on the Kickler side, when we visited with Great-Granddaddy. You also got to meet Kim, my best friend in the whole world, and you looooooved her (and vice versa).

Overall, it's been an amazing two months, my little boy. You are joy in every way, so happy, so sweet, so wonderful.

Love,

Mom