Chitter Chatter

Isaac is quite the little chatter box. He always has been really. But lately his chatter is becoming a little more recognizable as actual words. I wanted to take a minute and document, for my own sake, his ever-growing vocabulary at 13 months:

1st word: Dog -weird since we don't have one but whatever. He would mimic the book "Go dogs. Go!" and then began to say dog when he would see them on the street or from the window of the library overlooking the dog park.

Words he says all the time: Hi, bye-bye, Dada, Yah (for yes)

Words he says regularly but not daily: Mama (still primarily when he's crying, so maybe he is saying that all the time these days. Stupid cold on top of 4 molars coming in...), bath, and baby

Words I've heard a few times: Amen and cheese (super recent and didn't know what it was until he was saying it and holding the bag of cheese at church the other day)

And today I swear he said some version of Thank You. A lady at the store said something about him being really cute and I said "can you say thank you?" And he did. At least we both thought it sounded like it.

I was walking the mall with him today and he was in the stroller smiling and saying "Hi" really loudly to everyone we passed. He's such a social baby.

He also really likes talking on the phone. He prefers talking to someone but still will pick up any toy phone or anything that looks slightly like a phone and jabber away.

This really is a fun age!

We Need a Little Christmas

I am loving the Christmas season at our house so far. It's so fun having a one year old and watching him experience everything for the first time. Well, it's really his second but I'm not sure you remember much from when you are just a couple months old. Maybe that's for the best...

Anyway, I waited about 2 days after getting home from Thanksgiving to deck the halls at the Brunson home. Pretty much just as long as it took me to clean the place up before adorning it. I did wait until Saturday and Sunday to get the tree up and the banister garland strung because I wanted Jacob's help.

Isaac is loving all the Christmas decoration, but for the most part they are out of his reach. We did let him help a little with the Christmas tree ornaments. He LOVED it. I was tying some ribbon on some bells for our annual semi-homemade ornament this year and Isaac was taking them to the tree to hang them as best he could. I was sitting at the dining room table and Jacob was in the organ room with the tree. (We usually put the tree in the living room but the organ room is blocked off from Isaac and newly painted red so it looks pretty awesome there. And I don't have to worry about constantly chasing a toddler away from it.) Isaac would take the bells in both hand and run as fast as his little legs could carry him into the organ room. He would then hold his hands out to the tree and try to hang the bells. Jacob had to help. Then Jacob would tell Isaac to go get another bell from me and he would race back to the table and start all over. It was adorable. You can see in the picture below one hand is trying to hang an ornament with another bell in the other hand.

Isaac is also super excited about the lights on the houses and especially loves our neighbor's house across the street. They have some lighted things in the front yard too. One night after shopping Jacob got him out of the car and set him down in the garage. The next thing we know Isaac is heading down the driveway and to the neighbor's house. So we walked him across the street and let him look at the lights and even touch one of the lights on the bush. He was beaming. So fun!

I have a couple of Christmas countdowns going that Isaac gets to participate in. He doesn't really get any of them but he loves to help out just the same. One is a puzzle of the manger scene with some scriptures to read daily. He likes to pick out the puzzle piece and help me tape it in place on the paper. The other countdown is just a decoration where you change the numbers. But when I point to it and ask if he wants to help, he smiles real big and comes a runnin'. Even if he is in the midst of a meltdown. He likes to take it off the mantle and put it back up after I've changed the numbers.

He also likes his new Christmas church outfit that he wore for the first time last week. Funny sidenote: There are several babies right around Isaac's age in the ward. And at least 3 of them also have this outfit.

Another of Isaac's favorite things to do, take off socks and then attempt to put them back on. Just look at that concentration.

And for some reason he loves to lead Jacob around the room. Usually he doesn't even have a destination but he'll grab Jacob's hand and walk him in circles. He is seriously getting a kick out of it.

And just for good measure here are some photos of the Christmas decorations in our home this year.

I made all these stockings last year when Isaac was still very young. I'll probably always look at these stockings and remember both the sense of accomplishment and frustration I had while working on them. They are really quite simple but took FOREVER! (the stockings were bought and then I cut out the designs and backed them with felt. The names are felt cutouts glued and then stitched on for cuteness). Jacob would come home from work and I would announce either how amazed I was at how much I was able to get done (meaning Isaac had slept well and not in my arms) or how frustrated I was in my lack of progress (meaning I held Isaac most of the day). I remember days where Isaac would fall asleep and I'd set him down in the swing and start to work only to have him begin crying again 5 minutes later. Man newborns are hard! And adorable. And I might even miss it and maybe want another soonish...oh man!

And this is a pretty lousy picture but I realized I didn't really have a good one of the tree. Oh well!

Bring on Christmas! I'm ready!

Mostly.

Thanksgiving in Utah

Is it bad that by the time Isaac is in bed for the evening I am done. Don't want to do anything but lay in bed and watch tv or read blogs kind of done. Especially lately with the 3 molars I see coming in and the sicky cold.

So you can imagine a trip to Utah for Thanksgiving was just the break this girl needed. It was so nice to have Jacob around all the time and also for all my other family members who helped keep track of my busy, busy boy. Sadly I don't have many pictures to show for it. I guess I was too busy having fun to pull the camera out.

Isaac sure loved his cousins. He would have played with them all day and was always a little sad when I would pull him away for a nap or bedtime. He would give Hannah hugs and LOVED her toys (sorry again for all the shared germs).

That's the only picture I have of actual Thanksgiving day. Ridiculous! But the cousin love is a keeper for sure.

Isaac also loved playing with Emily, Lauren, and Megan. He loved running around with Lauren and Megan and especially loved the stairs in Grandma's house. he did really well at going up and down. We have tried to teach him a little bit but mostly the stairs are gated off at our house, but he picked it right up at Grandma's. Probably because all the bigger kids were there. Watching Isaac with Emily was so funny. For some reason Emily was not a huge Isaac fan. He would walk near her, not even to her, and she would whimper and cry. She learned is name quickly and any time he was bothering her she'd give a little push or walk away saying "Ishaacs, Ishaacs" over and over again. Adorable!

Matt and Josh were great helpers with Isaac. Josh even helped babysit Saturday morning so Jacob and I could go to the Temple together. Thanks again for that!

And this was the most exciting thing we did, apparently, because I did get loads of pictures of it. Josh had an assignment for school to try and break the world record for the tallest smore. The only requirements were that it had to have all three ingredients showing. I think it was a success!

In usual Carter fashion, the majority of the holiday break was spent playing games and enjoying delicious food. I'm certain I gained at least 5 pounds. We also celebrated Mom's birthday with the traditional turkey enchiladas and family fun. I somehow managed to convince my mom she needed to get a pedicure on me for her birthday. So Diana, Mom and I went to the nail shop and Mom got her very first pedicure, minus nail polish because she hates it. I hope she enjoyed the experience and will pamper herself occasionally in the future.

Isaac traveled beautifully. I couldn't have asked for better. He had one really rough night and the rest he only woke briefly and would go back to sleep if I rocked him. There was one bad mommy moment when I was so sound asleep I couldn't hear him crying in the next room. Karen had to bring him in to me. It did take him some time to calm down after that. Shame on me... But considering the teething and sickness I think he slept pretty well. Now if he could just get back on a good routine since being home we'd be golden.

Isaac also had two sort of big milestones recently.

1. He is now napping only once a day. It just sort of happened a couple days before Utah so I kept it rolling thinking it would be easier to just worry about one nap while traveling than the usual two. And it was. And he slept for a good 2-3 hours most days. He's not napping as well since being home but I'm chalking it up to the worsening of the cold. Poor baby. His throat sounds bad and his cough sounds worse than his throat. I suppose if he isn't improving by Friday I'll take him in to the doctor to make sure it's not strep or an ear infection... Anyway, the one nap, I thought I would really miss having two breaks in the day but as it turns out I really enjoy only worrying about one nap. (I'll enjoy it more when it lengthens again). It has also been a lot easier to run errands since I don't have to try and be home both morning and afternoon. We'll see how I feel about it in a couple weeks though. I do think it will make Christmas easier with all the family in town.

2. Isaac got his first haircut in Utah. I was nervous about doing it without some instruction so my Mom helped out. Jacob has pictures on his camera so maybe I'll post those when I can find it. When we got home I was brave enough to take off a little more up front and trimmed the back curls so he looks less mulletish. Though I didn't want to take too much off because his curly hair back there is so stinking cute.

And that about sums up the trip. I should have taken more pictures. Especially with MaryAnn's kids. Those Dillard girls are so cute and getting so big! They grow so fast. :)

Turkey Shirt

There's been some crafting going on around here. Not a lot. And certainly not many finished projects.

But, this little number turned out pretty stinkin' cute, if I do say so myself.

I found some turkey clip art online and then cut out the turkey body, feathers and beak. I then ironed them on to the shirt with some fusible web and rough edge appliqued then on my sewing machine. After that I added some eyes and legs with embroidery floss.

I like it. So much so that I think Isaac will be wearing as often as it is clean the rest of November.

Trick Or Treat

For Halloween this year we went to Sarah and Kevin's and had dinner. We made chili and Sarah made corn bread. She also made some fantastic caramel corn. Yum!!

Sadly, Isaac was in a bit of a fussy mood for some reason. He wouldn't eat his dinner and then cried while we went to three or four houses for trick or treating. But, at least he looked cute doing it. He did start to cheer up towards the end and even seemed to understand the concept of knocking on the door and then getting candy. I think by next year he'll be a pro. Maxwell was also pretty adorable in his pumpkin costume.

We grew pumpkins in our garden this year. They are supposed to be the smaller, sweeter variety. I hope that is the case. I still need to chop them up and cook 'em. I think I may even try and roast up the seeds. I usually don't think that is worth the effort but it sounds really good to me right now. We'll see what happens.

But, I didn't want to go to the effort of carving pumpkins so we used sharpies instead. Isaac even drew a little on his pumpkin.

Someday I'll Miss This

I know some day I won't have little ones running around my house. And everyone tells me I will miss it.

Isaac will often run (more like Frankenstein toddle) over to my legs and wrap his arms around them in a hug with his little head nestled between my calves. He especially likes to do this while I'm in the kitchen cooking. He usually does this when he is happy and excited but sometimes he also does it when he is sad or cranky and wants to be held.

I love it. Even when it's not necessarily convenient and if he's whiny.

And I already know I'm going to miss that feeling of little arms at my legs.

Leaves Are Falling

Remember that awesome snow storm the day before Isaac's birthday? It looked a little something like this:

Well...the next day our tree looked like this:

Now instead of snow we have about 4 inches of leaves piled on our lawn. It's awesome. Except for the part where we have to rake and pick up those leaves. Usually we get some nice wind that blows a significant portion of our tree's leaves elsewhere. I don't think we have ever had to manage all the leaves before. And certainly not all at once.

That's going to be one awesome leaf-jumping pile!

Anyone want to come play/help?