Dance Class

Sofi has been taking dance class on Thursday nights through La Crosse's Park and Rec (they charge about $1/class, so how can we say no?) Sofi LOVES it. At the end of every six week session they give a performance for the parents. Below are some videos of Sofi's most recent performance (she's the one in the black leotard with the magenta stockings... yes, she dressed herself...)

Downhill

We got just a touch of snow last night, but it was enough to put a layer on the drive way and it is cold enough that it isn't melting. So I bundled up the kids and headed outside to get it off the driveway before it became a layer of ice under another snow fall. While I shoveled Sofi got out her sled and went for rides down the small mounds of snow still left in the yard. After I was done we decided it would be more fun to take the sleds to the bigger hill down the street.

Sofi had lots of fun. She went down on her own several times, not her first time ever doing this, but a first for the size of hill that it was. She wiped out at the bottom of her first run, and it was fun for me to see a split-second look of panic quickly change to a look of smiles and bright eyes, which quickly turned into repeated attempts. We even talked about "baling" and she decided to try it, found it to be lots of fun, and decided to do it repeatedly even when she wasn't headed toward a tree (or barbed wire for that matter).

It was Isaac's first time sledding, and he wasn't sure what to make of it. He kept pretty quiet, and never really smiled... which is unusual for him.

Here's a short video of one run....

Isaac's First Birthday

MILESTONES:

• Started cruising
• Took his first steps the last couple of weeks (Resists being set down to sit. When I try to set him down, he tries to remain standing and then wants you to hold his hands so that he can try walking.)
• Started pointing. It's kinda like a game of distraction, as if he's saying "Hey, quick, look over there!"

Along with the above milestones, he continues to climb up onto anything he possibly can. Constantly climbing on the hearth still, to the point that we are starting to realize that he is doing this simply because he knows he shouldn't. He looks at you with the side-ways glance as if to say "Are you watching, because I'm heading towards the hearth, and you don't want me to!" As if he knows and loves that he is doing something he isn't suppose to. Also started climbing up onto the toilets, giving him even better access to everything we originally put on the back of the toilet to keep out of his reach in the first place.

In the same vein, we've started to store our toilet paper and kleenex at higher and higher altitudes, because he has started to unload and unravel whatever he can get his hands on.

He has 8 teeth, perhaps more (he doesn't really let you get a good look at them when you really want to).

We've started brushing his teeth with an actual toothbrush, instead of using a wash cloth (it really hurt when he bit down!). The first couple of times we used a brush he was very still, as if amazed that he was being treated like the rest of us.

Likes to eat mandarin oranges, grapefruit, bananas, cheese, especially cottage cheese.

No longer interested in breast feeding, which Mary has mixed emotions about.

To go along the above, Isaac has now figured out how to hold a bottle on his own, and even how to hold it up so that milk flows down (this latter part had escaped him before).

His ability to wave has turned into the ability to use sign language. But he uses the same sign for EVERYTHING, so it is pretty much meaningless. The sign he knows, because I use it for him quite a bit and because it is a lot like how he waves, is the sign for "all done". But when he wants "more" food, he signs "all done". And when I sign to him to "stop", he signs back "all done".

Mary thinks he's a "Daddy's boy" because he keeps saying "DaDa" all the time. The thing is he says that for EVERYTHING, not just for me. He calls dogs "DaDa". He calls Grandma Ardelle "DaDa". But Mary does have a point... he doesn't use "MaMa" to refer to anything. Sofi was the direct opposite of this... she used "MaMa" for everything.

Like his Dad, he enjoys tech-toys already, especially our mobile phones.

Click here if you'd like to see more of his birthday photos.

If you can think of anything else that Isaac has done/accomplished this past month, or if you would like to reminicse about Isaac's first year, please feel free to add a comment below (for those of you who view this blog on the website)....

The Wave

We were at Come for Supper tonight, at our church, and Isaac waved for the first time. It was to Petunia, a guest at Come for Supper who thought Isaac was pretty cute and waived good-bye to him as she left. I don't think she even noticed, but the rest of our family was excited and impressed.

He is definitely not willing to do this on demand however, and it proved pretty much impossible to capture for posterity. Below is a video of our best shot, but it is hardly anything compared to how he was waving earlier.



The community supper not only hands out a warm meal, but gives away groceries as well. Tonight they were giving away carrots... bigs ones as you can see below. As Mary pointed out, how often do you eat something that is the length of your arm?

Tadpoles

Sofi is taking swimming lessons at the YMCA again. This is her current class. They are all Tadpoles, which is the third level at the Y. If you look closely you'll notice that it is a small class, only four total, and she is the only girl. That certainly doesn't phase her any. In fact, to be brutally honest, she is probably the most misbehaved of the bunch. Case in point, after class today I had to talk with her about two incidents: 1) spitting water in her teacher's face and 2) not looking when she jumped into the pool, and almost jumping on top of a classmate. And she doesn't listen very well to the teacher, often swimming off when she is suppose to be along the wall.

Having said this, she is also the most eager and energetic. At least it seems that way to me, but I may be biased. But as you will see in the videos below, she often starts behind the other boys, catches up and then passes them.

I've been amazed at what all these kids do at this level, most without hesitation, so I thought I'd share some of it with you here.

In the video above Sofi is swimming in the pool with a life jacket. Not really a first for her, but it is the first time at the Y swimming lessons, and the first time with a more traditional life jacket.



Here Sofi is playing her favorite pool game, Chop Chop Timber... and she is playing it in the deep end.



In this video above she is swimming on her own to her noodle (she does have a float on her back, but she isn't holding onto anyone and she is in the deep end). She then uses the noodle to swim the rest of the distance to the other end of the pool.





In this last video Sofi has to retrieve a starfish toy that the teacher has thrown while all the kids had their eyes closed.

Dancing

Sofi has started taking a dance class through the La Crosse Park and Rec. While I haven't seen the class since it is on Thursday nights and that is when I work at the Coop, Sofi does show a lot of moves at home. Some are actually from the class even!

The Apple Corer, Peeler, Slicer!

Sofi Coring Apples

Thanks to the apple trees at the cabin, and to Mary for going to pick them, we've plenty of apples! Mary's been trying to make apple sauce as much as time allows, and thankfully Sofi has become really good at helping, as the photo above and the video below attest to!

Love of Books

Sofi is getting to this very cool stage where is starting to memorize books. She'll just sit down on her own and page through books for quite some time, reciting to the best of her ability the story for that page. She does a very good job of paraphrasing, and occasionaly gets it word for word. In the video above she is "reading" Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. She'll occasionaly recite entire passages of Dr. Seuss out of no where, without the book. Today she was "reading" a book about Arthur getting the hiccups, and what impressed me is that the book is a library book that we picked up just yesterday, and it has only been read to her two times, and already she is able to recite the basic story line on each page.

Dog Tales

So Jake will be leaving tomorrow. She's been here a total of six days, and has pooped in the house six times, and peed in the house at least as many. The grossest by far was the pile she left on the floor next to my side of the bed, just before bedtime, which I discovered as I was crawling into bed with the lights out and nothing on my feet. Three feet is about how high I jumped, and I cursed pretty loudly too, loud enough to make Mary jump.

Mary thinks we are just missing Jake's cues for wanting to go out. Personally I don't think Jake gives any cues, unless you count managing to see her sniff around on your floor to find a spot to go. That's not a cue in my book however. A cue is a dog sitting at the door barking or whining. A dog sniffing around my house is simply a dog trying to find a way to do it's thing. And there is no chance that I'm going to spot a "cue" as quiet as that when I'm trying to tend to the needs and desires of a three year old and a nine month old.

And then there is the compost pile in our back yard, which Jake discovered one her second day here and has concluded is her own personal buffet.

Oh, and then there is the jumping up on the table. Not just jumping up on a chair and then putting the front paws on the table, but actually jumping onto the top of the table and walking around in search of food. Very gutsy on Jake's part, to be sure.

To read these posts would make one think the dog has been nothing but trouble. To be fair there are some sweet moments, like when the dog is extremely mellow in the afternoon. She fits right in with nap time thankfully. And Isaac has really taken to her, crawling up to her and stealing her toys, which she steals back. And when Isaac sits on her, she doesn't bite, but just lies there and takes it. Here's a video to give you a good idea...



To be fair, I haven't always been the best dog sitter, as there was one day that I thought I was only going to be gone for four hours and it ended up being nine.

None the less, it will be nice to be able to focus on only two kids again. I'm not ruling out dog-sitting in the future, but "Jakie-Brakie" will need to be able to but a brake on the bladder and communicate her need to go outside before she can vacation here again.

Silly Sofi at the Dinner Table

Some video capturing Sofi's laugh, how she enjoys being silly, and also capturing her pick her nose.