His emotional side has erupted, and he loves to give hugs and open mouth kisses to just about anyone now. He doesn't like to be left alone and is happiest when he gets to walk around by holding our hands. He still idealizes his brother and loves it when Isaac plays with him.
He has the same wrinkled nosed funny face that Isaac had as a baby. I see Isaac in him each time he smiles and makes this face.
Isaac @ 11 months
Levi - 8 months
He is picking up and eating cereal and pancakes and loves to feed himself. He still only has his bottom 2 teeth which he got at 5 1/2 months, but will gnaw away at anything I give him.
He sits up on his own very well now and loves to scoot around to anything he can get his hands on. He even has begun to crawl up stairs and pull himself up on us and things like the laundry basket. Just today, I captured this photo on the video monitor of him standing in his crib. Amazing how the milestones just happen in an instant!
Isaac has been improving on his ABC's and counting. He had picked up recognizing so many letters and numbers and giving examples of what they are for. For example, M is for Mommy, I is for Isaac and itchy, Dad is for Daddy, L is for Levi, J is for jump and jellybean, 8 is Daddy's number, N is for nose...just to name a few.
He has begun to use scissors with lots of assistance, but he enjoyed cutting paper into lots of pieces and gluing them on paper.
We also enjoyed Thanksgiving activities, which included making some turkeys.
Made from Mommy and Isaac's hands and Isaac's foot
I'm sure it's not the only turkey that felt this way this Thanksgiving.
He seems to be finding more and more independence each day. I feel like I say this in every post, but he still likes to test his boundaries and see how far he can push. Sharing and taking turns are on the top of my parenting priorities right now. Even after coming back from the library the other day, I noticed the theme of books I check out all related to being a big brother, sharing, and feet are not for kicking (even though that hasn't been an issue).
Carving Pumpkins
Surprise, surprise...Daddy had a brilliant idea once again. While Isaac was napping, he carved out the pumpkin guts of both pumpkins, carved Levi's and put a scoop of pumpkin guts back in for Isaac to "scoop out." So, with little mess to deal with, Isaac and Daddy only had to carve Isaac's pumpkin when he woke up from his nap. Isaac requested circle eyes, triangle nose and a happy mouth.
Trick or Treat Street
Arvada West High School has a free Trick or Treat street fundraiser for the community each year where all the different sports/clubs/organizations dress up and decorate a section of the school and you can walk through a maze of different themes and get candy from high school students. Isaac (2) was a hoot to watch this year. He began by walking with his head down past the cheerleaders. I walked him over to the girls and put his bag out to get the candy. After a little while he began to realize that people keep putting things in his bag. So he began walking to people, putting out his bag to them (still as serious as can be). Then we progressed to saying "Trick or Treat" when approaching the high school students. Then. It. Happened. A Dum Dum sucker was placed in his bag and he saw it! He realized what was happening. All of this stuff for the last hour was...CANDY! Oh my! There was no saying "No" to having the Dum Dum at this very moment. It was hilarious to see his progression of what this "Trick or Treating" stuff was all about.
Isaac (Brobee) and Eli (Elmo)
Trick or Treating at Home
Isaac picked up the whole idea of "Trick or Treating" very quickly. He would say "Trick or Treat" before anyone even came to the door and "Thank you" upon leaving. Joe even commented how old he feels watching his son going door to door for Halloween. Isaac was dressed as "Brobee" from the show "Yo Gabba Gabba." We had never seen the show before, and it was a borrowed costume from a friend. But other kids sure knew who he was. Levi was a cutie pie in his brother's hand-me-down monkey costume. We came home, and Isaac LOVED to answer the door and put candy in the kids' bags. He thought it was so neat, until he was scared by a 3-year-old Incredible Hulk. He didn't care for that one. The little kid walked away with his older siblings saying, "See, I told you I was scary." Hilarious.
