Sachs Press

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