18 Months and growing!

I can hardly believe my little baby is already a year and a half. He is just growing up way too fast. Yesterday we had his 18 month check and he checked out really good. Isaac is 21 lbs and 11 oz. and 32 1/2 inches long. He is in the 10th percentile for weight, 50th percentile for height and a little under 50th percentile for his head. His doctor said even though he hasn't gained much weight since turning one he wasn't concerned about it and said he is growing just fine. Some days I can have a little anxiety when he won't eat his food, but I have pretty much stopped worrying about this and have decided to trust that Isaac won't starve himself.

He continues to become goofier each day. He is obsessed with his vacuum, he paces around the kitchen table with that thing for the most part of the day. When we go over to his friend Tyler's house he runs right to the vacuum and the toy broom and does not set it down at all until we leave. Today I took him outside to play and last week I bought him one of those big little tykes trucks that you sit in and pedal around and Isaac was way more passionate about spending his time outside sweeping the driveway with the broom. The other night when Gary and I were eating supper Isaac paced around us at the dinner table with his vacuum and his facial expression did not change at all for about 30 minutes, he followed the same path and he was very focused. I'm going to try and take video of it sometime if he will let me.

Isaac is saying more and more words each day and we have to watch more and more each day what we say in front of him as he is now starting to immitate us and repeat us. He always wants up, up , up...on the couch, on the bed, on the chair, on our laps but he hasn't mastered the word down yet. His shoe fettish is growing more and more each day, he could spend at least an hour entertaining himself downstairs playing with all the shoes. He now signs and says shoe, so every shoe that comes in his sight we hear "shoe, shoe, shoe" for the longest time. The first thing out of his mouth when I change his diaper in the morning is 'shoe' and he gets upset if they don't go on his feet! The other day I was in Target looking at shoes for him and immediatly once he realized we were in the 'shoe' department his excitement took on one compared to if someone gave you a thousand dollars upon entering a shoe store and you were free to buy all the shoes you wanted. The funniest one to us so far is his word for milk and interestingly enough water..."moe-moo". I have been able to tell a difference most of the time because if he wants milk he will sign milk and say moe-moo, but if it's water he wants it's just moe-moo. I'm sure there will be many more interesting words that he will develop, it's such a fun stage to see him learning all these new things of this world.

I'll wrap this up and leave some pictures of his 17th month. Most of them are him being silly, but there are a couple from the zoo, the park and his halloween costume...he's going as curious george.

The Flu is No Fun for Anyone!!!

Well last week I got the stomach flu for the first time in my life and let me tell you it stinks! It all started on Thursday, I was being my normal goofy self we even went to the zoo that morning and I had so much fun. Mom and I were at Walmart in the afternoon and she was checking her things out and getting ready to pay when she looked over at me and saw me throwing up everywhere. Realizing there was nothing she could do she just comforted me and let me finish my business. She took me home and threw me in the bathtub but I just kept getting sick the rest of the night until about 10:00. Mom thought I was feeling better on Friday but during the night I got sick again but I didn't really fuss so mom didn't realize it until the morning she felt really bad. Grandma and Grandpa Malsed came to see us this weekend but all I felt like doing was sleeping. I slept for most of the day on Saturday and Sunday. Then mom got sick on Saturday night so I just cuddled with mom most of the day on Sunday. Grandma and Grandpa thought they should leave early since we were sick, but before they left Grandma got sick and it turns out when they got home Grandpa got sick too! Then daddy got sick this morning, but he still went to work. So we are all hoping this was our round of the flu for a long...long...long time!!!! Thankfully we are all feeling a little better and we hope Grandma and Grandpa are too! Here are some pictures of me bummin on Grandpa when I wasn't feeling well.

If I look like I am picking my nose I am...they were asking me where my nose was and that is my new thing, if you ask me where my nose is I stick my finger up my nose and laugh because I think it's funny.

Where have I been???

I just realized that its been two weeks since I have posted anything and I was thinking you probably all want to know whats going on with me these days. I have just been busy busy. I'm officially 17 months as of a couple weeks ago, I would say I'm almost 18 months but mom doesn't like it when I make myself older than what I need to be, she thinks I'm already growing up way too fast. I am only taking one nap now so in the morning mom and I are usually out doing stuff...going to the gym, a bike ride, park, mall to play in the play area, friends house, etc. Then in the afternoon I take my nap and mommy gets stuff done around the house or whatever it is she does. My molar teeth are finally starting to break through, it's about time because they have been sitting there for weeks driving me nuts! But overall I've handled it very well, I don't wake up at night anymore screaming and I don't lose my appetite as much as I use to. But I don't eat much, I've become pretty fussy about food, I no longer eat vegetables, I think my mom sneaks them into other foods, but that's the only way I will eat them...if I don't know they are there! I waste enough food in a month to feed at least one if not two or three kids from a third world country, but mom is cracking the whip on that.

Lately, I have become very independant and strong-willed. If I don't get my way I scream at the top of my lungs, this approach doesn't work with mom and dad, but I still do it. Infact I went to my first wedding last Friday night and I was quiet for 10 minutes and then I just screamed, so I spent the rest of the time in the back of the church with mom, she said that was the first and last wedding I would be going to for awhile. I guess my extreme cuteness makes up for it. If I'm not screaming to get my way I am a silly sweet little boy, I'm very much like my daddy still.

This past weekend we went to Sheldon to stay with Grandma and Grandpa and see other family. I got to spend a lot of time with Grandma, we both had a lot of fun with that. She played with me, took me for a walk, fed me, gave me a bath and lots of lovin. Mom and dad got to spend some time together just the two of them, they don't get to do that alot. They also took me to the labor day parade on Monday and even me, Mr. ants in my pants sat through the whole thing, mom and dad were proud of me. I got lots of candy, got to see my cousins and even got to watch daddy help a Sheldon cop arrest someone. It was quite an eventful day. I would put some pictures up but mom forgot the camera at home. That's about all that's new with me, I will try to make sure I post things more frequently, should be lots of things to post about for the fall.

With love,

Isaac

I Love Summer...

For so many reasons...

1) Because I get to eat sweet corn!

I ate almost the whole ear too!

2) Time I get to spend with my friends

My friend Hailey (she was my old neighbor), mom took me to Creston, IA to see her on Wednesday and we spent all day with her and her mom Kim.

3) Being in the water

4) Learning to color on the sidewalk with chalk

Peek-a-Boo!

(Remember to pause the music playlist at the bottom of the page)

Branson Vacation

Last week the family and I spent the week on Table Rock Lake in Branson, MO. I got to see all my cousins...all 17 of them, my aunts and uncles and grandpa and Connie. Mom, dad and I started the trip on Friday night, they thought it would be a good idea to break the trip up for me so I didn't have to ride 7 hours straight in my carseat. They thought forsure that I would fall asleep on the way to Kansas City, but I decided I wanted to stay up...until 11:30. Man did that exhaust my parents. I was pretty exhausted too, dad laid me down at 11:30 and I didn't make a peep. The next morning we ate breakfast and then we joined the caravan of 5 cars and we finished the trip to Branson.

The week went really fast and it was really hot, its all almost a blur now but I will try to remember. We spent the first few days mainly on the boat, I really liked the boat and I loved when I got to drive the boat. We would normally head out on the boats by 10:00 and we would eat lunch on the boats, tube, ski, lots of swimming to cool off and of course I took a nap every morning on the boat. By the mid week we had all had a lot of sun and so we kept it mainly to the pool but the die hards went out in the morning and night to take advantage of the smooth water.

On Tuesday we all went to the show "The New Shanghai Circus". It was a pretty cool show, it only kept my attention for about 30 minutes. I got to have popcorn, a sucker and m&m's to keep me content. But then I just got really tired so mom rocked me in the back in my stroller and I fell asleep. I thought being able to put my foot in my mouth and do a headstand made me pretty flexible but you should have seen these people, they could bend backwards and touch their feet to their heads. I got a lot of work to do.

On Wednesday night we tried to have a mexican fiesta but it got rained out so all my cousins tried to line up on the side of the building to eat their food. The rest of us moved inside where it was dry.

This vacation I did notice that people seemed to be dropping one by one. My Uncle Greg unfortunatley dislocated his shoulder wakeboarding, two of my cousins got a fever and didn't feel very good and I think at least four people got swimmers ear. But that didn't stop our fun. We finished the rest of the week going out on the boats and being on the water, it was too hot to not be in the lake. Thursday night we drove all the way to see the dam, I think it was about 30 miles. Then on Friday we spent the majority of the day on the boat and we went cliff jumping. I was way to young, but a lot of people in my family did the jump, even my little cousin Alexa! The vacation ended with a little bump in the road, Greg's boat broke down, then Leon went to go tow them back in and they ran out of gas, so dad and Aunt Rachel got on the jet ski and took some gas to them and finally everyone made it back to the resort around 8:00.

I had a blast hanging out with all of my cousins and just being outside and in the water. Mom can tell I am pretty exhausted this week and still recovering from vacation, but then again so is she. You can see all my vacation pictures if you click on the link to go to my Picasa album or you can see some of them below.

Right Handed??? Left Handed???

Recently, I have started feeding myself now that I am such a big boy! I started feeding myself on vacation with a fork. And now that I am home I feed myself oat bran for breakfast. I'm doing pretty good with feeding myself, but there is one thing I can't quite figure out...which hand I would like to use.

Here I am the other day feeding myself with my right hand...

And here I am today feeding myself with my left hand...

What the heck, if I can't figure out which hand to use I might as well double fist it; gets the job done faster which leaves more time to play with my toys. :)