"He speaks English!"

"He speaks English!" was Isaac's daddy's pronouncement on hearing the big news:
While on the poddy, Isaac's Omi said, "Clap hands Isaac!" and Isaac clapped those little paws, just like that!

He can point with two fingers too!

Brooklyn Art Museum Proves Delightful for Toddling

I am so small, and these mushrooms are so big!

Isaac began his first ever trip to a museum in a room of enormous puffy white mushrooms. He gave the bottoms of the mushrooms big happy slaps and fell in love with a museum guard named Enza.

Enza and Isaac danced together, oohed and ah-ed at one another, did a bit of walking, and then finally sat down. Enza felt so worked out by the little guy, she had to take off her museum coat!

Enza is on the right

Omi, Isaac, and I said goodbye to Enza, who cried "Oh! You must come again!" (She has 11 year old twin grandsons and misses their babyness.) We walked to the tall and shiny elevator doors, waited for them to open, and were soon flying through space, up up up, to the 3rd floor.

We were greeted by an especially entrancing Rodin sculpture. Isaac wanted to touch the bumpy nakedness and it drove him nuts that he wasn't allowed. I understood because I wanted to touch it too.  We commiserated, and finally toddled on to appreciate portraits of smirking, staring, stately folks dressed in fine robes.

We finished with a visit to the Egypt exhibit and their mummies (very different from our mommies, we explained), an examination of a floor light socket and a shared sandwich in the windowless, hot green chaired museum cafe. We did it!  First ever trip to a museum was successful!

We huddled out into the cold rainyness and then home for a warm supper and bed. 

Guess Who Started Walking Today??

Isaac did, that's who!

The steps were very joyous, and ended with a big fling of his little body into my open arms.

Track team soon!

Bedtime Tonight

Isaac and I were sitting in his almost black bedroom except for one skinny streak of light coming in through the edge of his door. He had already tried pushing me away and jumping off for a daredevil back-dive. He was finally on my lap, all snuggled in.
His cheek was on my chest with his bottom sticking out toward my knees.  We were rocking on his Great Grandma's rocking chair and I was singing him a waltz (doo doo doo, doo-doo.  Doo doo. Doo doo. Doo doo doo doo doo, doo doo, doo doo. and so on), and then a Spiritual, and then a made up song from his baby-hood.
After 15 minutes of this, I heard his baby-voice shine through the darkness, softly but very clearly, "Buliobuliobyabya. Gliogloba. Pha."
I knew he was not asleep.

Pouting: A Fine Example

Today Isaac was a crab-apple boat.

what?

A very fashion forward crab-apple boat.

With Curiosity and Wonder, Isaac Gives the World the Finger

This finger is a blurry because it never holds still for more than the moment it takes to say, "Ba?"

I think he was wanting the little red crab-on-a-string kitty toy we keep wedged between 2 books on the shelf. When I gave it to him later, he grinned a warming up smile like a sunrise, and his arms were outstretched and his palms open like little rays.

Dying and Living

Jeremy just called because Apple Computer's mega-wizard Steve Jobs died. He needs to stay late to report about it. 

My aunt died in December, a little while after she told me that Isaac looked like Alfred Hitchcock.
Grandma Nina died 2 weeks ago.
Jeremy's great aunt died too, before Grandma Nina, but nobody told Grandma Nina because they didn't want to upset her.
My step-brother's grandfather died one month ago.

I keep thinking about how when a person dies, they take nothing with them.
My aunt left her piles of papers behind in her kitchen, high heels in her bedroom closet, a tuxedo cat, her full Bottega Veneta purse.
What did we do with the purse?

Meanwhile, Isaac is living like crazy. Soaking up and sputtering out, zooming and clapping. Here's a video of his latest playground trick: