Here are some more recent "Isaiah happenings"--again, in no particular order, and lacking any moral lesson...

Isaiah had his one-year check up last week. He weighed in at 21 lbs 1 oz, was 30.5 inches long, and had a head circumference of 49.5 cm. These measurements were all in the 25th, 75th, and 110th percentile, respectively. As we suspected, he is turning into a nice lollipop-sized little boy.

He is walking more and more now, and is becoming less intentional about it, which means he will walk on his own without us propping him up and making sure he doesn't fall along the way. He will still solicit people for their hands so that he can reach his destination more quickly, but can manage pretty well just by walking now. He won't go more than 5 m on his own yet before plopping down on his rear, but to me, that is a lot given that he just took his first steps last week.

He has lots of toys that are thrown haphazardly into the playpen in our living room so that parental units don't injure themselves stepping on them, but lately, his favorite activity has been playing with the puzzle he got from his Grandma and Grandpa Sharda. It has six pieces, each with a big peg on the front for easy extraction. Isaiah will take the camel, the elephant, and the hippo (he has little interest in the monkey, tiger, and lion most days) and work intensely to hold all three of them in one hand. Because of the pegs, it is difficult to stack the pieces efficiently, but he has accomplished this several times.

He also LOVES to flip through books--big books, little books, picture books, boring books that Mom is translating, and man, would he love to get his hands on those slippery pages of those Bibles which are always confiscated once he shows an interest. (we have to draw the line somewhere). Otherwise, he will sit down and entertain himself by flipping through the books, sometimes even 'reading' to himself. Hopefully the nightly ritualistic reading by Dad has helped him develop a love for books. Thanks to his Grandma Murchie in Japan, we have recently expanded his library with some Japanese fairy tales and other stories in Japanese.

Yesterday we went to Wegman's, our favorite grocery store in the world, to get dinner (14 inch subs for $8, and these are STUFFED) and do our shopping. We were waiting in line for our subs, and Isaiah was just checking out all that was going on around him--people coming and going, talking, all the many details of the store. This is not uncommon (he is very observant), but Dan (who was holding Isaiah) nudged me and pointed out quietly that Isaiah had been subconsciously stroking Dan's beard for a few minutes while he observed all of this. Very cute.

This morning as Dan was getting ready for school, Isaiah came right up to my chair and perfectly and clearly made the sign language sign for 'milk'. We are trying to somewhat move toward weaning, but this is the first time that he made such a clear sign regarding what he wanted without me prompting or suggesting it to him, so I had to comply. I think we will have to learn a few other signs, maybe "up" or "read" or "go outside". I must admit I haven't been doing the best job of introducing him to sign language. I know the benefits are enormous in terms of the kids learning to communicate at an early age (and apparently reduce the number of tantrums they feel they need to throw), but it's hard to get in the habit of speaking another language to your kid, especially when you don't speak it very well anyway. Success this morning has given me a little more inspiration, however, so I will try to do better.

Isaiah met another little playmate yesterday who recently moved to State College. Peter Tyreku Greer was adopted from Ethiopia by some of our friends here in State College. He is a strapping little linebacker-to-be at 14-15 months, and although is the same height as Isaiah, outweighs him by at least 7 lbs. I think they're going to have a blast together.