Sachs Press

Dear Great-Grandma Faye,

I hear that you have been having some troubles lately and not feeling so well. I want you to know that I think of you most every day and wish that I could come and see you and wave hello to you and untie your shoelaces. Would that make you feel a little bit better? Mommy and Daddy are busy doing things all the time and they wish they could come visit you, too. They said they are trying to think of a good time to come but they don’t know when it will be. I hope it will be soon.

Well, to take your mind off of your troubles for a little while, I will tell you what I have been up to lately. As usual I have been working very, very hard, and I have made some good progress!

I am sure that what you really want to hear is that I have started walking on my own, but I am sorry to say that is not the case yet. However, I am doing a very good job practicing. I love to walk with Mommy or Daddy holding onto my hands, and sometimes they let go of one hand and I walk that way, although that is much trickier! I walk in circles around our house: kitchen, dining room, living room, hallway, kitchen again. I like to push the kitchen chairs around, too, or actually anything I can find that is about the right height. Today I pushed the laundry basked almost the whole way around the house before Mommy found me and told me I maybe shouldn’t do that because I might scratch the floor.

I love to chase my little blue ball around. Sometimes I throw it or drop it and then go crawling after it. Other times I take my spatula and I hit it. I like hitting my ball with the spatula, but I can’t crawl with the spatula in my hand, which makes it hard to chase the ball. So sometimes Mommy or Daddy will help me walk around and chase the ball so I can hit it with the spatula. They say it looks like I am playing hockey or something. I say it is a lot of fun!

I have learned more about that hand waving thing I told you about last time I wrote. I keep trying it out on people and they always seem delighted, so there must be something in it. Fingers up and down, hand in the air–it’s just hard to get both of those things right at once!

Another useful trick I have found is sticking my first finger out in the direction of something I want to go see. It almost always works! Mommy or Daddy will pick me up and take me to see it. Neat, huh?

Something else that Mommy and Daddy have taught me recently is how to turn a lightswitch on and off. Well, okay, I am much better at turning them off. My hand doesn’t really turn around to make it go back up the other way, but that is okay. Every night, now, when it is time for lights out in my room, Mommy or Daddy takes me to the lightswitch and lets me turn it off! I always think it is so amazing that doing something like that makes the room dark. But then there are a lot of amazing things in the world, aren’t there?

I think that is most of the things I have been learning, lately, and they sure have kept me busy. Let’s see, what are some of the things we have been doing?

Well, last weekend we took a trip in our car. We drove a long time and I fell asleep and then BUMP! All of a sudden I was awake and I wasn’t very happy. Mommy told me later that somebody ran into the back of our car while we were driving and it got banged up. But we are all okay. I didn’t get hurt, I was just scared. I think Mommy was, too, but Daddy didn’t seem scared at all. I think I want to be like Daddy when I grow up.

So after Daddy talked for a whle to the person who bumped us, we kept driving, and pretty soon we got to a place where there were a lot of people, and from there on it gets kind of fuzzy so I will just tell you what Mommy told me, which is: We went to the wedding of one of Daddy’s good friends, in Baltimore. Daddy was in the wedding. So we went to the rehearsal dinner and the next day there was the wedding and then the reception, and then we drove back home. We stayed in a hotel overnight. Mommy says I was very, very good so I guess she knows what she’s talking about. I know there was a lot that happened and I got pretty tired but it was all so interesting that I didn’t have time to get fussy! The reception was at a place called a Conservatory and there were plants all over the place. And people. I kind of liked it, but by the end I was ready to be done and take a nap.

My friend Joseph keeps coming every day and sleeping a lot, but Mommy says he won’t come for the rest of this week because his family is out of town. That’s okay, because I like playing with Joseph but I also like having Mommy all to myself.

Mommy and I went to visit a lady last week. Mommy said the reason for that was because she had to interview the lady for an article she was writing. I just know she had fun toys for me to play with! Maybe Mommy will send you a copy of the article once it is published, if you think you would enjoy reading it. She says it is about the Mennonite Women.

I will try to write again soon, but now I must go to bed so that I can be well rested to practice walking tomorrow. My friend Ethan is already starting to walk a little bit. He is a month older than me. So I have to try and keep up with him! By the way, I have decided that maybe sleep might not be as bad as I originally thought. I have been more cooperative about sleeping lately and I don’t wake up quite as early as I used to. It’s nice not to be tired. But you can bet I don’t sleep one minute longer than I have to!

Give my love to Grandpa Al and to the people who come visit you. And if your legs jump around at night like Mommy says they do, think about me untying your shoelaces and maybe they will hold still!

Love and kisses,

Isaac

Dear Great-Grandma,

I have been thinking about you this week! I got your letter last Monday, and I sat down right away to draw a picture of my hand for you. Mommy helped me hold the pencil. I am afraid it doesn’t look very much like my hand. Maybe if you use your imagination?

Anyway, so I drew that right away, but then I didn’t have any more time to write to you! It was a busy week. I was practicing all of the things I am learning every day: I have to keep on learning to balance, and something else I will tell you about in a little bit. I am learning about picking very tiny things up and putting them in my mouth. I am also learning about the ceiling fan in our kitchen. Daddy lifts me right up to it and I touch it and pull on the cords! Of course he doesn’t lift me up when it is running. That would be scary!

I am also trying to figure out what a certain something is that people do, and how to do it. It involves hands, and they sort of flap around in the air–well, maybe not flap, just wave–and their fingers open and close sometimes, and it seems to be maybe when people are coming and going? I am not sure. So I can move my hands in the air like that, and I can open and close my fingers, but I can’t always do it at once, and I am not sure when to do it, or what it means. Do you know?

Last Sunday we had lunch at church and then Mommy and Daddy’s Sunday School class made applesauce together. Mommy says they made over 100 quarts. Is that a lot, do you think? I hung out in the fellowship hall with all the other kids my age. It was kind of fun because it was a big room with lots of space to crawl around, and there were some new toys to play with. And I have been eating the applesauce, and it is very delicious!

On Wednesday morning we had an adventure, Mommy and I. Joseph did not come in the morning. Instead, Mommy and I went down the street to the church and saw lots of little old ladies and these big cloth tents. I crawled around under the tents and pulled up on the ladies’ knees. They were all sitting with their knees under the tents and they were doing something on top of them. Mommy let me sit on her lap for a while and she had something sharp and shiny in her hand that she wouldn’t let me touch, and something long and bright-colored attached to it. She poked the shiny thing through the top of the tent and then brought it back up again and then did something to the long stuff. I didn’t know what was going on, but I wanted to play with the tent stuff, and she wouldn’t let me. Eventually I got bored so we went home and I took a nap. But it was fun to see all those ladies and smile at them all. Some of them reminded me of you.

Then on Friday, guess who came to visit! Grandma did! It was so good to see her. She played a lot with me while Mommy was doing something else in the kitchen. In the late afternoon we all got in the car and drove to a big open place with lots of people and buildings. We walked around and around (well, I was in the stroller) and we saw all the people and lots of things I didn’t understand. There were horses, there, though! They were pulling something behind them. Man, they were really big! I think horses are something else. Wow.

So Mommy said the place we were at was called the Relief Sale. The different buildings were places to do different things. Mommy dropped off her things at the Bakery building. She says she made bread. (I haven’t eaten any bread yet. Is it good?) There was also a place with lots of pretty things to look at–shiny things, wooden things, cloth things, and TOYS! We spent some time in the toy section, and I saw Mommy give the ladies some money, but she didn’t give anything to me. So I don’t know what happened there.

We met Daddy in a different building and had some supper. Mommy and Daddy and Grandma had food on trays, but I ate what Mommy brought along for me. That was okay with me, because what they were eating looked weird.

Then Daddy took me home, because I was very tired, but Mommy told me about what happened later at the sale. She said I should tell you a few things about it. So I will try, although I didn’t understand everything she said.

She said that lots of people got together in a big hall and they all jumped up and down trying to buy things. Some man talked really fast for a while and all the people jumped up and down and said they would give him money for the things he had. Wait, Mommy says it wasn’t exactly like that. Well, you probably know better than I do how it was. Anyway, some of the things that were being sold were very, very pretty. Mommy says they sold “quilts” and “comforters” and all kinds of other things, too. Mommy tells me that some of the quilts were sold for more than $3000. Is that a lot of money? 

She also wants me to tell you about one special quilt they sold. It cost the nice person who bought it $6100. It wasn’t very big, but it was very special because it had feed sacks in it. Is that what they feed animals with? Why would that make a quilt special, great-grandma? I don’t understand. Wouldn’t it just make the animals want to come and eat it?

Well, anyway, that was the relief sale. I liked what I saw of it, but I think I will enjoy it more next year when I can run around on my own without Mommy or Daddy or Grandma. Then I will be able to see the horses up close.

So remember how I said at the beginning that I was going to tell you about something else I am learning? Well, I should first say that I am still not walking yet. But I have decided that I am going to focus on learning how. So I am practicing balancing a lot more, and I can do it for half a minute sometimes. (I don’t know how long that is. I asked Mommy.) And I am practicing walking while holding on to somebody’s hands. It is a lot of fun! Mommy holds my hands, or sometimes Daddy, and we go across the room, and down the hall, and wherever we want to go! I am really enjoying this.

I am sending you a picture that Daddy took of me today. It shows how I am learning to help out around the house. So in the picture I am going to try and load the dishwasher for Mommy. She didn’t actually let me that time, but maybe soon she will.

I love you, Great-Grandma! Is it getting cooler there yet? Here it is still hot. Mommy says October should be a cooler month, but I am still wearing onsies, not my warm fuzzy outfits, because it is just too warm for them. Anyway, I hope you are keeping cool and enjoying seeing the trees turn colors. They are starting to do that around here and it’s very pretty. I wonder why they do that.

Hugs and kisses, and lots of love,

Isaac

Dear Great-Grandma,

I got your card today! It is so nice to know you are thinking about me. I have been thinking about you too, but I have not written in so very long! Well, I did get to see you recently, and that was so nice. I enjoyed untying your shoelaces again.

So you don’t eat my letters when you get them? My goodness! What DO you do with them? I really thought that was what they were for. I will have to think about that one for a while. I have noticed that Mommy is not thrilled when I try to eat the mail. She has started saying, “Not for eating,” and I usually understand her and sometimes I obey her. But it is hard when it looks so yummy.

Speaking of yummy, I am starting to realize that there is some really good stuff to eat, actually lots better than the mail. Yogurt, for instance. That stuff is amazing! And I like cheese, too. Mommy cuts it up and puts it on my high chair tray and I can pick it up and sometimes get it into my mouth. Mmmm! But sometimes she just feeds it to me. That’s easier. And I can eat it faster!

I should talk to you a little bit about things I should and should not do. I am starting to realize that there are things Mommy wants me to do and things she does not want me to do. One of the things she doesn’t want me to do is play with the little metal things on the floor. They are by the front door and I don’t know what they are or what they are for, but every time I go over there to check them out Mommy stops me and says NO. So I know I shouldn’t play with them but I am just so overwhelmed with curiosity! Sometimes I wait until she is not looking and then I make a run for it, but she always catches me. Other times I don’t care if she sees me or not! I just have to go look! But I never can.

What do you think I should do, Grandma? I just don’t know. What does it really mean when Mommy doesn’t want me to do something and I want to do it? Sometimes I listen and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I don’t think I hear her because what I am doing is so interesting. It is all rather puzzling to me.

I am not walking yet. I think it will be a while. I am still getting used to these legs of mine, and it is all I can do to stay balanced on them without holding onto anything. I can only do that for a few moments at a time. I am getting pretty good at getting around while holding on to stuff, though. If you don’t mind, I think I will just take my time and make sure I have really figured things out before I try any walking.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t do anything interesting! No, indeed. There are all kinds of things I can do.

-I can stand up at the coffee table and shake it or bang on it.

-I can pull open the drawer in the end table or take things off the top of it.

-I can open the cupboards (some of them, anyway–others of them have gotten more difficult lately–they only open a little bit) and pull stuff out. There is one cupboard with double doors that has my stroller in it. I love to play with the wheels and spin them!

-I can pull books off of the bookshelves and eat them. Or look at the pictures.

-I can open the curtains in the dining room and look outside.

-I can open or close any door if it isn’t latched. It is especially fun when I am in my room and Mommy forgets to close the door the whole way while she goes and does something else. I can still get out!

-I can shake my shelf in the kitchen. Except it seems to have disappeared, come to think of it. (I used to have two shelves for toys. Now I guess I only have one, and I can’t shake that one because it’s next to the floor.)

-I can stand by Mommy and Daddy’s chairs at mealtimes and beg for food.

-I can stand at my crib rail and rattle it until somebody comes to get me.

Okay, so now you have a good idea that I can do plenty of stuff without knowing how to walk, so I don’t feel like I am in any hurry to do that. I have lots of things to practice right now!

Oh, I talked about looking at the books, already. I should tell you more about that. I figured out how to turn the pages in books. It doesn’t work for all of them, just some of them. I think the ones with thicker pages work better. Anyway, I can pull a book off of the shelf and open it up and then there is interesting stuff inside it to look at! And if I get tired of one page, I can just turn to another one and look at that for a while! Sometimes I get frustrated if I can’t get the page turned, and eventually I get tired of looking at the pictures, but it sure is nice to have something new to do. I was getting kind of sick of baby toys. They are all the same.

Well, I should go to bed if I am going to get up at 4:30 tomorrow morning like I usually do. It’s a tough schedule but I figure if I’m going to get anywhere in the world, I’d better stick to it! It is hard to convince Mommy and Daddy that this is what I should be doing, but I’m sure they’ll come around.

Oh, one more thing. One time when I got up extra early Mommy took me outside and I saw the moon. I know it was the moon because she told me so and also because I have a book about “Goodnight Moon.” Anyway, I haven’t seen it since then because I am not up late enough to see it and nobody wants to take me outside early in the morning. So could you please say hello to the moon for me? Tell her I thought she was very beautiful and I would like to see her again sometime.

Love,

Isaac

Dear Great-Grandma Faye,

Thank you for your letter! I got it yesterday. The squirrel is very friendly-looking. I did not chew his ears off but I looked at him and laughed. I like pictures of animals. Also, thank you for explaining birthdays to me! I think I am starting to understand now. I will have a birthday in December, right? Mommy says it will be cold then. It is definitely not cold now, so it must be a long time away. Have you really had 83 birthdays? I can’t count that high. Actually I can’t really count at all. But 83 sounds like more than I have had.

Do you really think I will be walking soon? Oh, I hope so! That will be so nice. I can get around pretty quickly on my hands and knees but I can see how much faster it must be to get around on my feet like Mommy and Daddy do. I will probably be able to stay ahead of them then, don’t you think?

And I am coming to see you again! In less than two weeks! And I can untie your shoelaces again? That will be fun. Mommy and Daddy don’t let me play with their shoes very much.

I did learn something new this week. Mostly I have just been practicing what I have learned because it takes so much work to be able to do it properly, but here is the new thing I learned: There are these things in some of the rooms. I don’t exactly know how to describe them because they are all a little different. But the thing they have in common is something to grab onto. Sometimes it is a long skinny something, and sometimes it is a little round something. Anyway, if you grab onto that thing, and pull, then the thing it is attached to MOVES. They don’t all move the same way and that is confusing for me. I never know exactly what to expect. Sometimes it moves towards one side, and out–it swings, kind of. Sometimes it swings the other way. And once in a while, it comes straight out! But then you can always look behind it, and there are things in there. That is the really interesting part.

I haven’t gotten a very good look at any of the things behind the swingy things yet. You see, I can’t get them to stay open. So I must keep working on that until I am able to get them to stay open and look behind them. Wish me luck! I am usually getting stopped by somebody when I try!

Another something that I have learned recently is something new to say. So far I have been saying “Mamamama” and “Babababa” and then lots of “oooos” and “aaahs” and “mmmmms.” But now I can say “Dadadada” also. It’s funny, but Daddy gets really excited when I say that one. I don’t understand why. Do you have any idea?

I have been eating more stuff lately, too. Mommy has told me what I am eating, so I am going to list it for you. 

1. Carrots

2. Sweet potatoes

3. Prunes

4. Applesauce

5. Rice cakes

6. Bananas

7. Oatmeal

8. Teething biscuits that Grandma bought me

Mommy has also tried to feed me peas, but I am discouraging that idea. I think I like applesauce best, but I also like rice cakes because I can do those myself without any help. The teething biscuits are pretty good too. Mommy says I am not allowed to have a thing called wheat because some of my relatives are allergic to it, and she doesn’t want me to be allergic to it also. So if she waits till I am older, maybe it will be okay. Anyway, lots of teething biscuits have this wheat in them, apparently, but Grandma found me some that don’t have any, so I may eat them. Isn’t she a nice Grandma?

You remember that other baby I told you about? Well, he keeps showing up, but I think I like him. The only thing that is annoying is that Mommy won’t let me touch his face. I would like to know what it feels like but she always says, “Don’t touch! Be gentle!” and I don’t know what she means. Oh, well. At least he is interesting to look at. But he seems to sleep a lot.

My friend Ethan, now, he doesn’t sleep much. He is a lot like me. He came over on Sunday and we played together and that was kind of cool! He would have something and I would try to take it and then he would take it back and then I’d take it again and I guess you get the picture. We weren’t arguing, we just were interested. Ethan was in the hospital last week. He put something in his mouth that he wasn’t supposed to and then it went down his throat and they had to use a machine that looked through his body to see what was inside, but they didn’t find it. He was telling me all about it on Sunday. It made me want to swallow something so I could go to the hospital too and see my insides, but I can’t find anything to swallow.

I think I told you about my jumper the last time, too. Well, since I wrote that time, I have figured out that I was not doing things in quite the best way. I wasn’t bending my knees! Now, if I bend my knees and PUSH, I go flying up in the air! It is tons of fun! I love jumping in my jumper now. Even if I am tired and hungry, I will still jump in my jumper for a while because it is so much fun to go flying in the air. Also I am going to have very strong legs if I keep using it, and then I will be abe to walk sooner, right?

I am going to go play with the little baby. He is awake now so I’m going to keep him company. Have a good week and I will see you soon!

Love,

Isaac

P.S. One more thing that happened at supper after I wrote this letter. Mommy was trying to give me MORE carrots and I was tired of the carrots and tired of the applesauce and really, just tired in general, so I shook my head back and forth and guess what? She didn’t give me any more. I am getting the knack of this communicating stuff. After I shook my head I lifted my arms up in the air but she didn’t pick me up right away. Instead she washed my face and my hands and that made me kind of mad. Why didn’t she pick me up? It is all so confusing. At least I can communicate with you, Great-Grandma!

Dear Great-Grandma Faye,

My goodness, it seems like ages and ages since I have written to you. Where does the time go?? I am seven-and-a-half months old now. Have I caught up with you yet? Mommy is still older than me. I am hoping maybe I will catch her one of these days, but so far no luck.

I am kind of tired these days. There is so much to do and no time for sleeping. Sometimes after Mommy or Daddy gives me a bottle and puts me in my crib, I am tempted to fall asleep, and then I remember that I should really be practicing climbing out of the crib. I can’t do that yet but I am working hard on it. You can see that I need to use every available minute for practicing.

I am getting faster at getting around. Sometimes I can make it into, say, the bathroom to play with the diaper pail before Mommy catches me. That doesn’t happen very often, but more than it used to. I can crawl all around everywhere I want to. I can even get from the downstairs to the upstairs all by myself. It is a long climb, but I can do it–as long as I don’t get too distracted on the way up! So my next big project is figuring how to get around on my feet. Crawling is useful, but I am thinking it is not the most efficient way of getting around. I don’t see Mommy and Daddy doing much of it, and they probably know what’s what, so I should try to follow their example, don’t you think?

So here’s what I do now: I grab hold of something that’s higher than me, and I push with my legs and pull with my arms and then I am standing up. It is a really neat trick. I think I told Great-Grandpa about that a little bit the last time I wrote. But then what happens next is even better. I move one foot, and then I move the other foot, and I move my hands too, and then I keep moving my feet, and all of a sudden I am somewhere else! I always have to keep holding on to something, of course. Balancing is still really tricky and I fall a lot. But I am also getting a good bit better at getting down by myself. It used to be the only way I could get down was to fall down or have somebody help me down, but now I know that if I bend my knees enough and try to get one hand back on the floor, I can sit down again and it won’t hurt. So I am making a lot of progress, I think.

Something really funny happened this week. There was another baby here for a few days. A lady brought him in the mornings and took him away again in the afternoons. Sometimes she came in the middle of the day and went away again. The other baby slept a lot, but sometimes my Mommy would hold him and I wasn’t really sure how I felt about that. Why would my Mommy hold another baby instead of me? Once or twice while she was holding him I made her pick me up too. I know she still loves me, and the other baby is really interesting to look at (although Mommy won’t let me play with him very much), but it is still a little worrisome. I wonder if he will keep coming back.

Oh, I must tell you about the things I have been putting in my mouth lately. I have discovered that some things taste good and they are nice to swallow. I sit in my high chair, and Mommy puts them in front of me, and I pick them up and look at them and then I put them in my mouth. Then what happens is I sort of mush them around in there until they are small enough to swallow and then I swallow them! Isn’t that neat? It took me a while to get the hang of it. At first it felt really funny in the back of my throat and I had to spit it back out, but now I am starting to understand that I need to mush it up really well and then it won’t feel funny. So I am enjoying that!

Also, I have realized that it is not so bad when Mommy feeds me herself, especially if she gives me a spoon and bowl to play with. If she does that, then it is almost like I am doing it myself. At least I can pretend I am. And the stuff she has been feeding me recently tastes pretty good. It is orange. I don’t know what it is called, she didn’t tell me.

Let me see, what else has been going on recently? I am getting better and better at picking things up. Today I picked up something very small, with a hole in the center, and put it in my mouth and ate it. It was something Mommy gave me, so it was probably okay to eat, don’t you think? Sometimes I try to eat things and Mommy tells me not to, so I am starting to realize that there are some things that are good to eat and some things that are not. But I have no idea which is which right now. They all taste funny to me. So I just go ahead and try them all and if Mommy says no, I make sure she means it, and then I guess usually whatever I am trying to eat disappears and it doesn’t matter anyway.

Oh! Something I have been doing sometimes is exploring the patio outside. Mommy follows me and keeps me safe. There is lots of neat stuff out there. One thing I see sometimes is a little black creature. Short and skinny, with lumps and legs. They crawl around outside like me and I follow them and try to catch them. Even though I am mostly faster than them, they are really hard to catch! I think I have one, and then suddenly it is over there and I am not. So I have some work to do if I am going to catch one of them and try to eat it. Do you think they would be good to eat? Is this worth it?

I ride my rocking horse almost every day, and also I have been doing a new thing. Do you remember I told you about a jumper, once upon a time? That was a really long time ago, I think. I never figured out how it was supposed to work so I got tired of it pretty quickly. Well, recently I have figured out what you are supposed to do to get it to work. You need to kick your legs in just the right way and you go flying up into the air and then come down and kick again, and up and down and up and down you go. It is actually pretty fun once you get the hang of it. So Mommy puts me in there and then puts some music on, and I jump up and down and try to keep time with the music, although that’s pretty hard to do. I have a nice time and sometimes Mommy jumps with me. Not in the jumper, you understand. She can jump all by herself. It doesn’t look like as much fun, though, except for the fact that she can go all over the room and I have to stay in one spot.

Oh! Mommy just told me that you have a birthday this week! Happy Birthday!! My goodness, everybody is having birthdays except for me. I wish I could have one. I hope you enjoy yours and maybe you could save some birthday for me? If you don’t want all of it? Is a birthday something you can share? I admit I am a little fuzzy about what exactly it is.

I love you, Great-Grandma! Have Great-Grandpa give you a kiss and a hug from me. And do have a happy birthday, and tell me what it’s all about.

Love,

Isaac

Dear Great-Grandpa Al,

Since your birthday is this week, I am writing my letter to you this time. Happy Birthday! But you should still let Great-Grandma read the letter, too. I hope you don’t mind sharing.

It must be exciting to have a birthday! I have never had one. Do you suppose I will, someday? What is it like to have a birthday? Will you have a celebration? Maybe I should ask you what your favorite birthday was like. That would be interesting to hear about. I do wonder what will happen if I have a birthday.

Well, I have certainly been working hard this week. I guess I am always working hard, aren’t I? People are always saying, “Look at that happy baby playing,” and I guess I am playing but it is work, too. It’s kind of nice to have my work be play.

Anyway, guess what I have been working on lately. Did you guess crawling? Yup! I am crawling all over the place now. It’s still tricky, but I can do it, and I am getting better all the time. If Mommy leaves me in my room and goes somewhere else, I start to come out of my room to follow her. Actually I usually get distracted in the hallway so I don’t get very far. There is so much that is interesting to look at, touch, and taste!

Another thing that I have been working on is getting up on my feet. I like sitting up, but I have discovered that you can see a lot more and reach a lot more on your feet. So I have been working really hard to get up there. So far, I can get all the way standing up when I am in my crib. It’s harder to find good things to pull up on when I am not in the crib, though. But I keep trying. Some good places are the dishwasher door when Mommy is unloading it, the bottom step in the basement, the big footstool that is in my room (Mommy says that is what it is called, but my goodness, it is as big as I am! How could somebody use it for their feet? I can’t!) and also Mommy and Daddy. Those are all good things to climb on. Some not so good things: the chairs in the kitchen (I bump my head on all the parts that stick out) and the little shelf that I keep my toys on in the kitchen. It is too short. I should really say that it is the shelf I take my toys off of. I don’t actually put them back. They just magically reappear there, usually when I wake up in the morning.

Let’s see, what else has been happening around here? I keep trying to stop taking naps, but Mommy won’t let me. I personally think I sleep way too much and I am trying to fix that, but every time I do I wind up asleep in my crib. I don’t know how it happens. Once in a while I manage to stay awake for a few extra hours, but then I am back in the crib again, sleeping. It’s kind of weird how that works.

Oh, on Saturday, there were all kinds of people and noises here. I was outside a lot that day in my playpen, and there were loud buzzing sounds, and people going back and forth dragging parts of trees. Do you have any guesses about what was going on? I am still not sure what happened. I do know that I woke up from one of my naps because the buzzing was so loud outside my window. But that was okay with me, because I wanted to come out and see what was going on. It sure was interesting!

About the food that Mommy keeps trying to feed me. Great-Grandpa, what kinds of foods do you like? Could you maybe ask Mommy to feed them to me, instead of what she is feeding me? It is weird and not so good. Well, some of it is okay. But today she gave me this green mushy stuff and boy, did it taste terrible! It looked pretty neat, and I had fun smearing it on my face, but I sure didn’t want Mommy putting that stuff in my mouth.

Well, I do hope you have a happy birthday. Tell Great-Grandma that I love her, too, and give her a kiss from me! I suppose I should go to bed now, but I really don’t want to. Maybe I will just practice pulling up in my crib instead.

By the way, the picture I am sending you this time is me exploring the hallway recently. You can see Daddy’s pretty floors! He is such a good Daddy, to build such pretty floors for me to crawl on. I love looking at them. And you know what, I think he used one of the tools he got from you to build them. He uses that thing a lot. I don’t remember what it is called but it is big and makes a loud whirring noise. I would like to use it too, and he says I may, someday, but not just yet.

Love,

Isaac

Dear Great-Grandma,

Well, I have been so busy lately practicing all the new things I have been learning that I have hardly had a spare minute. But Mommy said I should really take a break this evening and write to you, and I agree. I need a break, anyway! I’ve been working hard!

First of all I should tell you that I am sending some older pictures. I will send newer ones next time. But I thought I should catch you up on old ones, first. I will label them so you know when they are from.

Okay, where should I start? Well, I have five and a half teeth now. The half tooth is one that is not quite through yet but it will be in a day or so. It is on the top. Then I have three more on top, plus the two on the bottom that I already had. So the one that is still coming in is bugging me, but it’s not as bad as last week when I had three coming in at once!

I am still working on this crawling business. It is tricky! I can do it a little, now, but I haven’t really figured out what order I need to move my hands and feet in. So for the moment, it is easier to just get back down on my belly and push with my feet and pull with my hands. I get where I want to go, mostly, unless Mommy scoops me up and puts me somewhere else. That usually happens when I am getting close to something exciting. It is really good that I can finally go places, though, instead of always going backwards. That was so frustrating! I am happier about things now.

But actually, I am sort of taking a break from crawling practice right now to do something new: sitting up and getting down again. This is a really neat trick that I figured out just this week. If I am on my belly, I can push with my hands and tuck my feet under me, and all of a sudden I am sitting up! The hard part is actually getting back down again. Sometimes I can do it okay–although my feet get in the way a lot–but other times I mess it up and fall splat on the floor and sometimes I bump my head. That doesn’t matter so much when I am in my room where the floor is soft, but if I am helping Mommy wash dishes in the kitchen it hurts more and she has to stop and pick me up and make me feel better. She is good at that, thank goodness!

I am also learning to eat oatmeal now. I have mixed feelings about it. Sometimes I think it tastes pretty good, and other times I would rather just have milk. My favorite thing to do is slurp it out of a cup. I think it is really fun to drink out of a cup. Not only do I get to bite down on the cup, but there is usually something interesting to taste, too. So I like doing that.

Oh, one of the pictures I am sending is of me on my rocking horse. It is an older picture, so Mommy is standing pretty near so I don’t fall off. She still stands close to me and keeps an eye on me, but she doesn’t have to hold on now. I do that myself and I ride as hard as I can! I love riding my horse. Maybe I told you that before but I thought I would mention it again, because I really enjoy it. I ride it at least once a day.

Another thing that I usually do once a day is go for a walk with Mommy. We walk in the neighborhood, up and down hills, sometimes to the bank, sometimes to a friend’s house. Sometimes she puts me on her chest in the Snugli, and sometimes we go in the stroller. Lately it has been in the stroller more. I think I am probably getting a bit big for the Snugli.

Oh, one more thing about me sitting up. Mommy was so surprised the other day to come get me after my nap and find me sitting up in my crib. It was fun to surprise her! But now I notice that they put the crib rail up all the time. They used to only do it sometimes. How am I supposed to get out, now?

I also help Mommy in the yard, sometimes. I sit and tell her what to do while she pulls weeds or cuts zucchinis. We have a lot of zucchinis. Some good tomatoes, too, and a few lima beans. But we need rain. Everything is very dry, and the grass is brown and crunchy. Mommy’s pansies–the ones I used to love to pull the flowers off of–are not very happy because they are so dry. She is trying to water them more, but she says it is hard to remember to do it often enough. Maybe if I drooled on them? Do you think that would help?

One thing about teething is that it makes me not want to take naps. I am not sure why, but my gums always seem to hurt more when I am tired, and then it is harder to fall asleep. So, I didn’t get enough naps today. I am going to bed early. Good night!

Wait! I almost forgot to say–it was good to see you last week! I liked going for a walk together, and untying your shoelaces, and playing on your floor, and sitting on your lap. I hope I can come visit again before too long.

Love,

Isaac

Dear Great-Grandma,

Well, I am afraid it has been quite a while since I have written to you! We have been very busy for the last two weeks. I have done so many things! But now I can write you a nice long letter and try to remember everything that has happened.

First of all, Aunt Martha was here. I think I told you that already. I had a good time with her. She played a lot with me. Then Grandma and Grandpa Sachs, along with Aunt Roberta, came. That was two Saturdays ago. It seems like a very long time ago already. They came after I was already in bed, so I didn’t see them till the next morning. We all went to church together, and then we came home and had lunch. Mommy made lasagna and other things that sounded pretty yummy, although I didn’t eat any. There were a couple of other people at the lunch too but I am not sure who they were. Friends of the family, I think.

Anyway, that was just the beginning of the week. They were here all week long and we had so much fun! They held me a lot and I played cowboy on their laps (that is a game I made up–I hold on to their hands and then I rock forwards and back as hard as I can, like a cowboy). They also tickled me and smiled at me and told funny jokes, and I laughed a lot. I also rode my rocking horse for them, and I showed them how well I could sit up, and I practiced crawling.

Oh, yes, I am making progress in the crawling department! I still can’t really get where I am going. If I could figure out how to aim when I was going backwards, I might be able to do what I wanted, but I always just seem to go away from whatever I am trying to get. I am very good at going in circles, so if something is in my circle I can get it. But I still only go forward once in a great while, and it is kind of accidental–I mean I can’t really figure out how to do it again. But! But! Guess what! I can get up on my hands and knees now, and I can rock forwards and back. Most of the time I just fall back down on the floor (don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt) but sometimes I flop forwards, and then I am a little bit closer to where I want to be. So, I am getting there. It is just taking a while.

So I practiced crawling a lot while my family was here, except not maybe quite as much as if they had not been here, because they held me a lot. Grandma Sachs held me the most, I think. She did not really want to put me down because she hadn’t seen me since I was born, which is a very long time, if you ask me. So I don’t blame her for wanting to hold me a lot, and I sure didn’t mind. She helped a lot to feed me and put me down for naps and even change some of my diapers. It was nice.

Grandpa Sachs tried to teach me how to say “Grandpa.” He was mostly just joking because of course I can’t say anything except “Ooooo” and “Mmmmm” and “Aaaoouu” and other variations right now, but it was funny to hear him try and get me to say it. He also played with me a lot and made me laugh.

Aunt Roberta wasn’t always quite sure what to do with me because she doesn’t know a lot about babies but she liked me a lot and she played with me too, and she was very nice. I wouldn’t mind getting to know her better.

Let me see if I can remember some of the specific things we did while my family was here. Oh, yes, we went bowling! That was very fun! I liked watching everybody throwing balls down that long place and knocking over those white sticky-up things. It was a little loud but it didn’t scare me. Mommy brought my stroller along for me to sit in but I think I only sat in it for about ten minutes. Everybody just wanted to hold me.

Grandma Sachs and Mommy and I went for a walk one day to the bank and the grocery store. That was nice. Most of the time when Mommy and I walk, she puts me in this thing that holds me against her chest, and I face forward and look out at the world. I like it because I am almost Mommy’s height, and I can see everything quite well. If we are at the grocery store I help her push the cart. It is just the right height for me to do that. Aren’t I helpful? It is the least I can do for my nice Mommy. I also try to hold the plastic bags for her but she won’t let me. I don’t know why not.

Anyway, we went for a walk, but we didn’t use the thing that attaches me to Mommy, because it was a little too hot. We used my stroller instead. I have a nice stroller with a canopy that comes over the top and shades me from the sun. It’s good not to get sunburned. I don’t think that would feel good. Grandma Sachs pushed my stroller on the way home.

Another day, Grandma and Grandpa Sachs and Mommy and I went shopping. We went to a fabric shop and bought some things, and we went to a big, big, big store and bought some other things. I sometimes help push the cart there, but it is a much bigger cart than at the grocery store. I am not sure what that store is. I think they sell everything, including groceries, but also these big black flat shiny things with pictures flashing on them, and there is clothing there, and soap, and medicine, and all kinds of things that I don’t know about. We don’t go there very often.

The reason we went to the fabric shop was that Mommy and Grandma Sachs were making some curtains for Mommy’s room. They are finished now and they look very nice. They are gold with little pretty leaves that climb up to the top, and when you pull a string on the side, the curtains either pull apart or pull together. It is very fascinating to watch them move. I especially like when they pull apart, because then I can see outside.

Well, so we had a good time with the Sachses, but on Saturday morning they left to go visit other people in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Saturday and Sunday were pretty normal days, except that I went shopping with Mommy on Saturday and we bought ink for our printer. So now I can print pictures for you again, only not this time because I will have to go to bed when I am done writing this letter, because it is such a long one. But I promise that next time I will send you several pictures to make up for all the weeks I have missed. I have a lot of things I could send you and I will have to decide which ones would be best.

On Monday my friend Ethan came over during the afternoon. His mommy had to go somewhere for a while, so my Mommy took care of him. We couldn’t play together because he had a cold and I didn’t want to get it, but we watched each other. Actually, I watched him and he tried to come play with my toys. He is very active and he can get where he wants to go, so Mommy had to make sure he didn’t get into trouble. Everything went pretty well, and we took a walk in the afternoon. I rode on Mommy’s chest and Ethan rode in my stroller. I helped to push the stroller! After the walk we played some more, and then we both got tired at once, and Mommy couldn’t really put us both down for naps at the same time because there is only one of her and there were two of us, so that was a little sad, but not too much. I finally decided that I didn’t want a nap and after that I was okay till Daddy came home, and Ethan finally decided that a nap would be a good idea so he fell asleep right before his mommy came to pick him up, and he even stayed asleep when she put him in his carseat, so that was all right. Anyway, it was a very interesting afternoon.

On Tuesday we had a normal day except that when it was time to go to bed, we got in the car and drove all the way to Grandma and Grandpa Gonzol’s house! I slept for part of it, but it was just so exciting that I had to wake up and see what was going on. When we got there, I played with Grandma and Grandpa for a while, and then some other people showed up. I didn’t recognize any of them. I think maybe they were friends of Mommy’s and maybe of Grandma and Grandpa’s, too. But they were very nice and so I let them hold me. After a while I had to go to bed, but even though it was a lot past my bedtime, I wasn’t very sleepy. I was too excited to go to bed. Plus, there were all these loud noises going on outside. There would be a loud “bang,” and then something would shoot up in the air and make bright flashes and more bangs. That happened so many times that I couldn’t have counted them even if I could count. But eventually, even with all the banging and the excitiment, I fell asleep because I was so tired.

The next day we spent at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Some other different people showed up. Two of them were Great-Aunt Lucy and Great-Uncle Harold! It was very good to see them again. Great-Aunt Lucy held me a lot and Great-Uncle Harold said “Ride-A-Ride-A-Giley” for me. The other two people who were there were very nice but I didn’t recognize them. Mommy says their names were Charles and Ruth Lehman. Anyway, we had a picnic outside, and I got to go swimming. It was pretty hot, so the swimming was nice. Great-Aunt Lucy has some good pictures of me swimming and I am sure she will show them to you if you ask her.

Yesterday, which was Thursday, we got up and packed up our car and then drove for a long time till we got to somebody else’s house. Guess who was there? My Grandma and Grandpa Sachs, and Aunt Roberta, and Aunt Sarah too! Also my other Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa! They were the ones living in the house. It was fun to see them! I took a nap or two at their house, and played on their floor, and tried to eat their toys, and generally enjoyed myself. Then it was time to go home, so we got in the car again and drove another very long time. By the time we got home I was so tired and ready to go to bed. I wasn’t very happy about so much riding in the car, although I do enjoy shorter trips. It was just so much! I am very glad to be home again.

Well, anyway, I suppose I have talked enough for one letter, don’t you think? I could tell you a couple more things, like how I have started trying to eat that rice cereal stuff again, and how I am practicing with a cup, and about the mirror game that I invented, but I think I have to go to bed now, so I will try and remember to tell you about all that the next time I write.

Oh, one more thing–thank you for your nice letter again! It is always good to hear from you, but I wish that you felt better. I am sorry that some days you just want to go to bed. I think I can understand that feeling. I think it might be like the days when I just want Mommy to hold me. I hope you don’t have too many days like that, but when you do, maybe you can get Great-Grandpa Al to hold you. Give him a hug for me!

Love,

Isaac

Dear Great-Grandma Faye,

I am sorry I do not have much time to write to you today, because I am helping Mommy get ready for Grandma and Grandpa Sachs and Aunt Roberta who are coming this evening. I am looking forward to seeing them for the first time since I was a week old! And I know they are looking forward to seeing me, too.

I have been having a good week with Aunt Martha, who is already here and has been playing with me this week while Mommy does other things. She and I have been having some good times. She thinks I am very cute, and I think she is very pretty. It’s nice to have aunts come visit you!

I heard that Grandma Karen came to visit you a couple of times recently and that you had some nice visits. I also heard that you have something to give me now! I am excited to find out what it is. I am glad Grandma Karen visited you. Isn’t she so nice and kind? You must have done a good job raising her. I hope my Mommy does just as good a job with me, and then I should have no excuses for turning out to be anything but very nice and kind and good.

Okay, I have to go now. I am going to help Mommy do some laundry, and then she is making chili for tonight, and lasagna for tomorrow, and I am not even sure what all she is doing. Anyway, we have work to do so I had better help her get to it!

Love,

Isaac

Dear Great-Grandma,

Today was a cold, rainy day, so Mommy and I stayed inside mostly, except for a trip out to get the mail and look at the plants. Do you remember about the sunflowers that got nibbled off? Well, three of them are growing anyway! Two are getting nice and tall and out of bunny-nibbling range, and the third one is hanging in there, but it should make it. Mommy and I are excited. The four really big sunflowers are going to have flowers pretty soon. We can see them starting to grow on top. Then they will be so pretty! We will have to take a picture of them and send it to you.

Speaking of pictures, I am sorry to say that I still don’t have any pictures for you, because the printer is still out of ink. I do hope they get some soon, because I have all kinds of pictures I want to send to you. However, I hear that Grandma might bring you one when she visits tomorrow. (I guess she will have been there by the time you read this, though.)

Well, I promised to tell you all about how the weekend went, so I will. Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us on Friday afternoon, right before I went to bed. After they came, and Grandpa sang to me a little, Mommy put me to bed and then Mommy and Daddy left for a hotel. I woke up at 4:00 as usual and I was a little sad that Mommy wasn’t there to hold me like she usually does, but Grandpa has good holding arms, too, so it was okay and I went back to sleep. In the morning Grandma got up with me and gave me my breakfast and played with me, and later on I got a nap, and I also played a lot with Grandpa. He took me outside and I watched the leaves on the trees blowing in the wind. It was fascinating!

Around lunchtime Mommy and Daddy came home again, and I was very happy to see them, and they were happy to see me, too! So I guess we missed each other some, but we were okay being apart for a night. So that’s all right.

In the afternoon, I got to go swimming! Grandma and Grandpa brought a swimming pool for me that is just the right size for me and my friends! I like swimming a lot, and I have had two pool parties since then. For the first one, my friend Ethan came over. For the second one, Ethan and his friend Joshua came over. I don’t know Joshua very well but I have met him a couple of times. He is the same age as Ethan. Anyway, we had lots of fun splashing each other and batting at my rubber duckies. Ethan and Joshua splashed a little more than I did, probably because I was so busy watching them that I didn’t think about splashing very much.

On Sunday, Mommy and Daddy left early for church while I was still napping (they didn’t want to wake me up–wasn’t that nice of them?) and Grandma and Grandpa got me ready for church and brought me along in time for the service. My dedication was pretty close to the beginning of the service, which was nice, because my attention span is not very long and I get kind of antsy towards the middle of the service, usually.

I liked my dedication. The pastor people stood up front with me and my parents and my friend Eleanor and her parents, and they said some things that sounded pretty nice, about people helping to take care of us and teach us about God. Mommy and Daddy talked about what they promise to do for me, and they showed me a little lamb that they picked as a symbol of that promise. I don’t remember exactly what they said but it was kind of them and helped me start to realize how much they love me. Then they sang a song with the congregation, while one of the nice pastor people carried me around and showed me to everybody. They all reached out their hands and some of them touched me gently, to show that they love me. I looked at everybody and I was so happy to have such a big, good family! The last thing that happened was that they gave Eleanor and me each a silver cup with our names on them. I haven’t drunk anything out of mine yet because I am not very good with cups, but someday I guess I will.

So that was my dedication. Oh, yes, I forgot to say that another great-grandma and a great-grandpa came to the service too, and they stayed to lunch afterwards. It was good to see them. They are from Baltimore.

Well, let’s see. My teeth are still growing in. They feel kind of funny in my mouth and sometimes I run my tongue over them just to make sure they are still there. They don’t hurt anymore, now, so that is good and I am less grumpy. I am also still trying really hard to get around. I can go around in circles pretty well, and I can push up really far and sometimes even get all of me off the ground, except for my hands and knees of course, but only for a moment. And instead of making progress going forward, I am only going backwards! I can’t tell you how frustrating that is. I try and try and try so hard and then I look to see where I am and I’m always farther away than when I started! Do you have any advice about what I can do? Mommy mostly just laughs at me. I don’t think that’s very nice of her.

Oh, one thing that I am much better at now is sitting! Especially just today, I was sitting by myself for a couple of minutes at a time. I am still pretty wobbly and my back gets tired quickly, but if I start to fall over I can correct myself a lot of the time, and that is really neat because it means Mommy doesn’t have to catch me or hold me up. And I used to always fall forwards and try to eat my toes, but now I can put my hands down and stay up.

Speaking of toes, I have decided that mine really taste good. I put them in my mouth any chance I can get. I even pulled my socks off one time when Grandma was changing me, because I was trying to get my feet in my mouth and just got hold of the socks, so they came off. That was fun!

One more really fun thing that I discovered this week is the rocking horse we have. It was Grandpa’s when he was a little boy, and sometimes Mommy and Daddy sit me on it and bounce me up and down. Well, this week, I grabbed the handles and held on, and do you know what? Mommy let go of me, and I still held on! All by myself! (Of course she was right there to catch me if I did let go.) And then, I thought it would be good to try and eat the horse’s mane, but when I tried to lean forward to get it, the whole horse moved, and me too! That was really fun, so then I leaned forward again just so I could feel the horse move. Now I know why it is called a rocking horse, not a bouncing horse! It is lots and lots of fun, and I can do it all by myself! I can’t wait till I am big enough to climb up there by myself, too, because then I will do it a lot.

Okay, now it is time for me to go to bed, but I have a sort of a request before I do. Maybe you could ask Mommy if she would please let me eat the things that come in the mail. Today there was something bright yellow and it looked so good, but she wouldn’t let me eat it, but if you asked her, maybe she would.

Love,

Isaac