Sachs Press

Dear Great-Grandma,

I hope you enjoyed it when I came to visit! It was good to see you again. I know it is always so short when I see you, and this time we were outside and that was very distracting! I loved those spinning things. They were so very pretty. Do you play with them a lot? I think if I lived with you I would play with the spinning things every day.

Well, anyway, I should tell you what I have been doing this week. After we left your place on Monday we went to see some more people that I remembered. They all played with me too. We ate some chili and blueberries and tapioca pudding. I like tapioca pudding! I will eat it from a spoon. I don’t like spoons but I like tapioca.

After we ate we played some more and then we got in the car and I fell asleep. I guess we got home at some point but I don’t remember. I was asleep! In the morning I woke up in my crib.

The next day it was rainy and yucky and Mommy wouldn’t let me go outside to play. But Grandma and Grandpa came to visit again! They were on their way to another place south of here and they spent the night at our house. I saw them before bed and then again in the morning when I woke up, but they didn’t stay long.

On Wednesday my friend Joseph came back. It was his birthday! He was a year old. Do you remember my birthday? It was a while ago but I remember. We had cake and people gave me presents. Well, we did not have cake for Joseph but he did get presents. He brought one over to my house so I could play with it. I will tell you about it.

It was a big penguin, not quite as tall as me. I could just hug my arms around it. It had a round bottom so if you pushed it, it wobbled, but then it would pop back up again. And then if you turned a switch on the bottom, it would make noise when you pushed it. It played a tune, and the penguin laughed. I liked pushing it and then dancing to the tune. Mommy thought it was kind of weird, though. I don’t know. What do you think?

Anyway, so Joseph was here on Wednesday, and he was here yesterday, and today. Today is Friday. And today was his last day, and he won’t be here any more because his mommy is done teaching at her school. I won’t see him for a long time now! I will miss playing with him, but Mommy says there will be other people for me to play with this summer, so I guess that will be all right.

Did you know we are going on a long trip? Mommy says we will get in the car and drive a very, very, very long time, and then we will be someplace completely new and different. We will stay there for two whole months, and then Daddy and I will get back in the car and drive home, and Mommy will come soon after.

I am not really sure what I think about that. It will be very different. I am a little worried that everything will be so different and I won’t recognize anything. But Mommy says she will bring a lot of my toys and especially the lamby that I sleep with at night, and she and Daddy will be there so that I won’t be too scared. I hope it will be all right. I will definitely write to you when I get there and tell you what I think. We are leaving in one week, next Friday.

Thank you for the letter that you wrote to me. I always like it when you can send me letters. When I get to the new place I will send you my new address and you can send me a letter if you are able to. If you can’t, that’s okay too, because I know you are reading my letters and you love me no matter what. That is a very important thing I am learning–that love is important. I am very little and I don’t understand many things yet, but I do know that when I am hurt I can get a hug from Mommy or Daddy and that makes me feel better. So here is a big hug from me for you, Great-Grandma, and you can take out my letter and get a hug any time you need one. Mommy is sending a hug from her, too. They aren’t quite as good as the real thing but I hope they will do.

I need to go to bed now and get some sleep because I am going to be busy tomorrow. I have new words to practice. I can say “off” and “on” and “up” and “down” and “all done” and “boo!” That last one makes Daddy jump. It is fun. I also have to practice climbing everything. Pretty soon I will be able to get to everything in the whole house all by myself.

Oh, there is one more thing I have to tell you–I got to ride in my bike trailer and I really like it. The only bad thing is I have to wear a helmet and even though I like the idea of the helmet, in practice it is not always so fun because it slides down over my eyes. Mommy says it is a little bit big for me yet and maybe it will fit better when we come back from our trip. But I like going fast behind the bike and seeing everything go past. So I think I will have many enjoyable rides in my bike trailer. I hope Mommy will remember to take a picture so I can send it to you.

I might not write to you again till I leave for our trip, because Mommy is going to be busy packing and probably won’t have time to help me with the computer. So it will be a little longer than usual unless something really exciting comes up. But I will write to you when I get out there. I love you!

Love,

Isaac

Dear Great-Grandma,

I just woke up from a nap and I think I have time to write to you before Mommy and I go run some errands. First we will go to the post office and mail this letter to you, and then we will go to the bank, and then we will go to the bike shop and pick up a bicycle trailer! The trailer is Mommy’s birthday present and I get to ride in it. It goes behind a bicycle and little people like me can sit in it. That means Mommy and I can go  very far without taking the car and wasting gasoline. I am excited to ride in it. I even get to wear my own helmet!

Well, I promised to tell you about my Mississippi grandparents’ visit last week, so I will do that first. They came Thursday night after I went to bed, and they were here all day Friday, and they left on Saturday morning. They will be back again this week on Thursday evening. But first I will tell you what we did together when they were here.

In the morning we just played! I showed them everything I can do and told them all my words. I played and played and then I ate lunch and took a nap. In the afternoon we did something special. We went to a park and I rode in the stroller and everybody else walked around this long, long trail together. Then we stopped at a place where there were animals I could ride. They were little metal animals and they jumped up and down, up and down, up and down. Mommy or Daddy could sit on the animal on the other side–Mommy said it was kind of a see-saw–and then when I went up, they went down, and when I went down, they went up! Does that sound confusing? I guess it kind of was! It confused me but I also enjoyed bouncing up and down.

Then we went a little farther down the trail and came to a big wooden castle. It had stairs and towers and slides and swings and balance beams and lots of other fun things that I didn’t understand. I think when I am a little older I will really enjoy that place but for now I mostly enjoyed the swings and slides. I love to swing! I could do that for hours and hours. Sliding is a little scary but I like to try it, at least once or twice. After the park we came home and ate supper and then pretty soon I went to bed. It was a long day, but I am looking forward to seeing them again next week.

I did a few other fun things this week, too. I went to a party for a lady who is going to have a baby. She has a big belly! There were lots of kids there and lots of toys and I had fun swinging and sliding again and playing with the different toys. One little girl was catching me when I went down the slide.

And yesterday, I went to my friend Eleanor’s house and she had two other friends there. We played lots of games together and sang some songs. We sang “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” and “Ring Around the Rosy.” I danced in a circle with the other children and then we all fell down. It was fun!

Something that I learned this week was how to climb onto Mommy and Daddy’s bed. There is a suitcase under the bed and I can pull it out and climb onto it and then I can get on the bed. This is a very useful skill because now I can get anything they put on the bed, and I can also climb up and make faces into the mirror above the bed. I can make a fishy face! I make a fishy face and then Mommy or Daddy makes a fishy face and we kiss that way. It is very funny. Sometimes I am smiling so hard I can hardly make the face!

Well, Mommy says she must change my diaper and then we must go so we have enough time to run our errands. I love you!

Love,

Isaac

Dear Great-Grandma,

It’s me again, Isaac! Have you been enjoying my letters lately? I have been trying to write every week and I think I am doing pretty well. I have some interesting things to tell you this week!

First, I learned to say two new words. Mommy has a little brown spot on her hand and she told me it was called a “mole.” Well, I can say that word! So now I point to everybody’s moles and say “Mole!” It is a lot of fun. The other word I learned because I pointed to something on my hand and said “mole” and she told me that it was not a mole, it was a knuckle. Well, I can’t quite say “knuckle,” but I can say “Guckle!” So that is what I do. I like moles and knuckles. Aren’t those fun words for me to say?

Second, Grandma and Grandpa Gonzol came to visit me yesterday. That was Sunday. They came to church with us and then they came home and had lunch with us and then I took a nap and when I woke up we played and played and then they went home. Grandpa sang to me a lot and Grandma gave me a balloon. Grandpa gave me piggyback rides and Grandma helped me play with the stacking rings. I showed them the new things I had learned, like how to say “mole” and “knuckle.” I can also sing the alphabet song. Well, okay, so I am not very good at that, but I can say “Ah! Eh! Oo! Eh!” and it kind of sounds right. Mommy and Daddy are always very proud, so I guess I am doing a pretty good job.

Oh, yesterday was also Mommy’s Day. I think that is what it was called. Daddy got up with me in the morning instead of Mommy and he also made lunch. I don’t know what else happened. I think somebody said the balloon was supposed to be for Mommy’s Day but I am not sure, because clearly it was for me to play with, not Mommy. Great-Grandma, are you a mommy? What is it like to be a mommy? Will I ever be a mommy?

Well, the third thing I have to tell you is something that has not happened yet. My Grandma and Grandpa Sachs are coming to visit me! They will be here later this week. Mommy says they will come Thursday night after I am in bed, and they will spend all day Friday with me. Then I think they are going somewhere else and coming back here later. I am not really sure exactly. Anyway, I am excited to see them again. I have not seen them since my birthday, and that was a very long time ago! So next week when I write I will tell you what happens when they come.

The fourth thing is that I have been having fun with Joseph this week. He is the baby who comes every day to play with me. It is funny to watch him crawl around and sometimes I crawl, too, to keep him company. It is not so funny when he takes my toys away from me. I get mad at him sometimes, and Mommy tells me I need to share, and I am starting to understand but it is still frustrating. We play with the stacking cups together. Joseph likes playing with my lawn mower and he likes riding my rocking horse but I don’t want him to ride my rocking horse. He may play with my lawn mower but not my rocking horse. My rocking horse is just for me. I hope that is okay with you, Great-Grandma, because I feel very strongly about it.

Joseph is also going to start walking sometime, just like I learned to walk when I was about his age. Well, I was a little younger, but I am very advanced for my age, don’t you think, Great-Grandma? Anyway, he was taking a step or two by himself today when Mommy was playing with him. When his mommy came for lunch he took a step towards her and she was very excited. I remember doing that for Mommy and Daddy! It was scary to let go and not hold on to their hands, but now I can walk so well that I only hold their hands when I absolutely have to. I want to do things by myself now.

There is one more thing I would like to tell you. My Mommy and Daddy like music, and so do I. I like to dance to music but I am not really very good at dancing just yet. I am still learning. Right now I stomp my feet to the music or bend my knees and bob up and down. I think that is a good beginning. Later I will add more things to my dancing. I also like to try to sing. I like the alphabet song because I can pretend to say the letters. When Mommy and Daddy sing “Down by the Bay” I can sing “Bay” for them. (I can’t say any of the other words, just “bay.”) And other songs that they sing for me, I like to sing after them. I don’t usually get the tune or the words right, but they get the idea, so it is fun to do. I think it is the practice and the enjoyment that matter right now. Don’t you think so too? Do you like to sing? I remember you singing to me a few times. It was nice to hear your Great-Grandma-y voice singing to me. It sounded just like a Great-Grandma ought to sound, and I sound just like a baby ought to sound. We are just right, you and me, don’t you think?

Well, dear Great-Grandma, I need to go to bed now. I know Daddy will sing me some lullabies! Have I told you about the lamby I like to cuddle with at night? I think I have. Yes, I think I sent you a picture, didn’t I? Well, I am going to go cuddle with my lamby now and go to sleep. I love you! Good night!

Love,

Isaac

Dear Great-Grandma,

How was your week? Mine was not too bad. I did not have to go to the doctor’s office this week and nobody stuck any needles in me. I got to play outside a lot and help Mommy in the yard. I also got to ride my rocking horse and drive my car and go visit friends. I guess it was a pretty good week!

Yesterday I went to my friend Ethan’s house. We played with his toys and had supper and played some more. He has a really fun toy that I like to play with. Mommy says it is called a “helicopter.” It has something on top that spins around and around, and it also runs along on the floor.

We have something else in our house that spins. Actually, there are two of them. One is in the kitchen and the other is in the living room. They are both way up high on the ceiling, and Mommy and Daddy can make them spin and blow air down at us. I love to watch them spin. They are called “fans” but I can’t say fan so I tell Mommy, “Go! Go!” and she makes the fan go for me. At least, most of the time she does! Sometimes she doesn’t and then I am unhappy. I don’t know why she doesn’t always do exactly what I want.

My friend Joseph is here today to play with me. Mommy says he will be here most days now for a while. I like playing with him. He’s funny. He doesn’t walk yet, he just crawls. I call him “baby” because that is what he is and also I can’t say “Joseph.”

I like to climb. There are rocks in our yard and I climb up on them and stand on them and then I am tall. Sometimes Mommy helps me climb the very big ones and then she helps me jump off of them. That is a big jump! But I can do it (with Mommy) because I am a big boy now. Well, at least, I am bigger than I used to be. And bigger than Joseph and Ethan.

I also like to climb the chairs in our kitchen. I especially like to climb the chairs that Mommy and Daddy are sitting in. I just climb right up the side and then slide in behind them on the chair and look at what they are doing. Well, sometimes I don’t just look, sometimes I help. Especially if they are working at the computer! I like to press the keys and make the computer do things. I don’t know what it does but all kinds of thing happen. There is also a picture of me on my Mommy’s computer, so I always remind her of that by saying “Baby!”

Oh, I should tell you what happened on Friday. Mommy and I went on a walk. Then we stopped at a playground and I swang on the swings and slid down the slide. It was lots of fun. I can climb the slide all by myself and I can sit on the big swings and hold on by myself, too, but Mommy is always very close by so if I let go she can catch me. So I like playing on playgrounds. But anyway, while I was at the playground I found a little green ball. It was about the size of a pea and it was sort of the same color but it wasn’t a pea, it was a ball. So I picked it up and carried it around with me because I really like balls. After we were done at the playground we kept walking and went to where Daddy works. I got out of the stroller there and I still had my ball, so while we were waiting for Daddy to get done working I played with my ball. I would throw it and it would bounce around a lot and then roll and stop, and then I would go get it. I guess maybe that doesn’t sound like fun to you, but I really enjoyed it! A couple of times Mommy and I almost lost the ball, and I would hold my hands out and say “Ball?” and she would say, “I don’t know where the ball is, Isaac!” and then go look for it. And pretty soon she would find it for me. Isn’t she a nice Mommy?

I carried my tiny green ball all the way home in the stroller and then we got out of the stroller and went to talk to our nice neighbors. We were standing in the ivy in the back yard and I think I dropped my ball. Anyway, we couldn’t find it any more. Did you ever try to look for a little green ball in ivy? It doesn’t work. So no matter how much I held out my hands and said “Ball?” Mommy still couldn’t find it for me. It was too bad. But you know what, I have lots of balls at home, so even though it was disappointing to lose my little green ball, it was okay. It was fun to play with for a day.

Well, it is time to go play outside now! It is a nice sunny day out and I am looking forward to running around in the grass and looking at everything. I hope you have a good day too!

Love,

Isaac

Dear Great-Grandma,

How are you doing? I have a cold this week, but I am doing okay. I chipped a tooth on our driveway, though. It is a very little chip and you can’t really notice it unless you are looking. Mommy says it doesn’t matter much because it is my baby tooth and I will lose it anyway. Did you ever chip a tooth? I think it makes me even more special.

Mommy also says she needs to cut my hair but she doesn’t want to. She likes the curls at the back of my neck and she doesn’t want them to go away. I don’t really care what happens to my hair. It is not long enough to bother me except when Mommy tries to comb it. I guess it does bother me then.

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit me on Sunday. They brought a toy from when Grandpa was a little boy. It was a wooden stick with little discs that fit on it. You could take them all off and put them all back on again in a different order. I had lots of fun playing with it. I also had fun showing Grandma and Grandpa the bubbles in the yard. There are bubbles that grow all over our yard, did you know that? I will tell you about them. They are white and they grow on long green stems. They are all over the place. If you touch them they don’t disappear like some bubbles. They are soft and fuzzy. They don’t taste very good. The fuzzy bits come off in your mouth and don’t want to get back out. But if you blow on them or wave them in the air the fuzzy bits come off and float away, and that is very pretty.

Oh, Great-Grandma, I have to tell you what happened to me on Thursday. Mommy took me to the doctor and he looked at me and asked Mommy some questions and then they took me to another room and they put a needle in my arm and held it there. It hurt and I cried and cried, but then they were done and they put a band-aid on it and Mommy gave me some cookies and I felt better. Why would they do that? Has anybody ever done that to you? Mommy told me that the doctor wanted to find out if I have something called celiac disease that means I can’t eat wheat. Now we have to wait a few weeks to find out. I will let you know what they say.

Yesterday my Aunt Martha was here to visit me. She played with me all morning and I showed her everything I can do. I rode my rocking horse and stacked my stacking cups and threw my ball and bounced my balloon and showed her books and trucks and my car that I ride and we had a good time. Then I took a nap and when I woke up she was gone. It seems like everything interesting happens while I am sleeping. Sometimes I try not to sleep but I always have to give up and go to sleep after a while.

Speaking of sleep, Mommy wants me to go and take a nap now. She is probably planning to go outside and play without me, so I will see if I can stay awake and make her bring me out too. Have a good week!

Love,

Isaac

Dear Great-Grandma,

How are you doing now? I am doing all right. I was up last night for a while because I was confused and scared and maybe my tummy hurt, I’m not really sure. Daddy took me for a drive in the car and when I got home I drank some milk and went back to bed and then I slept in until 7:30. And when I woke up my friend Joseph was here!

I think I told you Joseph hasn’t been coming recently, but he is here for the day and we are having fun playing together. We were stacking cups together for a while. Well, I would stack them and he would pull them down. Then I was playing in his portable high chair. I like to sit in it and pull the tray over my lap and pretend to eat.

Well, I would like to tell you in this letter about what happened this weekend. Mommy somehow got it into her head that she needed to do some cleaning, and so she did. She got a bucket and a rag, and a bottle that sprayed some stuff and a big roll of paper towels, and she cleaned all the windows in the whole house. They look so nice and sparkly now! I can tell just where I put my hands on them because the fingerprints are so nice and clear in all the clean glass.

Anyway, so Mommy cleaned windows and I helped. When she was cleaning the window in the bathroom I pulled everything out of the drawers and put it in different drawers, and then I pulled a whole bunch of toilet paper off the roll, and then I tried to eat the little pretend sunflowers she keeps in there but she wouldn’t let me. I thought that would be a lot of fun but she didn’t think so. Then we went into my room and cleaned the windows in there, and I helped her stand on the footstool to reach the high parts. I also pulled everything out of the cupboards in my room, too.

Then she came out to the kitchen and started washing the patio doors, so I climbed up on the table to see what I could see. I played with all the placemats and the little card with a picture of a bunny on it and then I slipped and fell and I was very sad, so Mommy put me down for a nap and went and did some cleaning by herself. It is too bad I did not get to help her for that part. She says she went outside and washed all the screens and that must have been a lot of fun, so I wish I hadn’t missed it.

After I woke up I helped her wash some more windows upstairs and then we went downstairs and looked at all the spiders in the window-wells. Mommy stuck her hand out there and pulled it back in and said something about making Daddy do that part, and I guess she meant it because the next day Daddy crawled out into all those window wells and brushed away the spider webs and the mud wasp nests and washed the outsides of the windows. Anyway, I kept helping Mommy while she washed the insides, by pulling more things out of drawers and playing with her music box and ceramic puppy.

Later that afternoon, after I pretended to take another nap, we went to a festival and there were balloons and bubbles. I love balloons and bubbles! Balloons are fun because they bob around and go up when you expect them to go down. Bubbles are very pretty and always disappear when you try to touch them.

That was all on Friday. On Saturday I helped Mommy do some laundry and when I took a nap she washed some more screens because there were some that Daddy had to take down for her, so she had to wait till he was home. And Daddy cleaned those window-wells, and Mommy washed a whole bunch more windows outside and so did Daddy. He had to do all the ones that you climb a ladder for. I watched him from inside!

I also helped Daddy clean out our shed outside. I stomped around on the floor in there and it made a wonderful booming sound. I also played in my little swimming pool. It didn’t have any water in it, just cherry blossoms. They are falling all over the place and it looks like pink snow. On Saturday evening after everything was clean, Mommy and Daddy and me and two other people from our church all went and got ice cream. I liked the ice cream but it was kind of cold and I got tired of it after a while. Then I went home and went to bed because I was TIRED!

On Sunday we went to church and I came home and didn’t even eat lunch because I was so tired out from playing with my friends in the nursery, and after I woke up we went to church again and played with a whole bunch of junior high kids. They like me so that was fun. And that was Sunday, and then my weekend was over.

It is rainy and chilly here today. I want it to stop raining so I can go outside and play because Mommy won’t let me go out in the rain. But at least the windows are nice and clean so I can see what I am missing.

Love,

Isaac

Dear Great-Grandma,

I would like to tell you today about some of the things I enjoy doing. It is so wonderful to be able to walk around and do things–much better than when Mommy had to carry me everywhere.

My very favorite thing to do is go outside. I love to be outside and look at everything. There is a big yellow box right outside our back door and when I go outside I go to that yellow box and get an empty milk jug out and I carry it around with me. I’m not sure why, it just seems like the thing to do. Anyway, so I get my milk jug and then I walk around on the patio for a while and look at stuff. We have a beautiful pink tree right now. Mommy says it is a weeping cherry tree and she loves it too. There are also some pretty flowers growing next to the patio and sometimes I pull their petals off but sometimes I just look.

Then when I am done on the patio I go somewhere else. Mommy has to help me climb down off of it but then I take off by myself. I can go look at the bunny in the back yard and feed him dandelions. Mommy picks a dandelion leaf and gives it to me and I stick the end in his cage and he nibbles it up. I squeal when I see the bunny because he is exciting and soft and furry, and I like feeding him.

I can also go around to the front of the house where there are more flowers. There is also another yellow bin and sometimes I trade my milk jug for something else like a juice container or something. Mommy isn’t really thrilled about that but I like looking at the different things and carrying them around, so she mostly lets me. I also like to pull on the little purple flowers. Mommy says they are grape hyacinths. The flowers are made of little tiny balls and I pull them off and rub them in my fingers. There are fuzzy yellow flowers all over the yard too and sometimes I pull them, but they are harder to get off. And they make my fingers yellow.

There are bugs outside that crawl around. I like to follow them and try to catch them. Sometimes I also help Mommy pick up pine-cones and put them in a bag. One time there was a cat that came and played with us for a little while. She was all white and had a bell around her neck and I liked her.

One thing that Mommy won’t let me do is go into the road. I would really like to because there are interesting things on the other side of the road, but she says no. I don’t always listen to her and then she makes me go somewhere else and I get mad and sometimes I have to come back inside and that makes me very upset. I don’t understand why I can’t go in the road. But sometimes she carries me across and I can go exploring over on the other side too, and that is nice.

So that is what I do outside, and it is a lot of fun. I would rather do that than most anything else. But when I have to be inside there are good things to do, too. For instance, I can ride my rocking horse. That is always a good thing to do. Sometimes Mommy sings me songs while I ride, and sometimes I just ride by myself. I can do funny things with my horse, like make him bob up and down instead of going back and forth. Once in a while I stand up while I ride but Mommy doesn’t like that and she makes me sit down, which is okay because it is kind of scary anyway.

But I can’t ride my horse all the time because I get tired, so there are other things I like to do, too. I really like to stack things. I think I showed you the cups I like to stack. I am getting pretty good at them and I can sometimes get them all stacked up in the right order all by myself! I also have some blocks that I like to stack, and those are easier because they don’t have to go in any particular order. Grandma and Grandpa gave me those blocks for Christmas.

I also have a puzzle with shapes and I like to take the pieces out and put them back in. I can mostly figure out where they go but it is a bit tricky. Sometimes I get close but Mommy has to help me get them in. And other times I get totally mixed up and frustrated and that is not so fun. But other times I can put them in all by myself.

I also like to read books. I do like having Mommy or Daddy read to me but sometimes I like to do it myself. I climb up into my rocking chair and pull a book off my bookshelf and I sit and read it. I think my favorite book right now is “Down By The Bay.”

I like to cuddle with my toys, too. Grandma bought me a lamby for Easter that sleeps in my crib with me. I think I showed you that, too. It is big like a blanket and very soft. I look forward to getting in my crib because then I can cuddle with lamby and bury my face in her wool.

Mommy has a puppy that she keeps in her room and I like him, too. I say “Rrff!” and get the puppy off the shelf and then I lay on the floor and snuggle with him. He is a very nice puppy and never scratches me at all.

I also have a bear, and another puppy, and a lion, and an elephant, and a couple more lambies, and it is good to have so many friends.

Speaking of friends, my friend Joseph is not coming to see me any more and I kind of miss him. He will be here once this week, on Tuesday, and I will enjoy playing with him again. I did get to play with some friends this weekend. I went to my friend Ethan’s house yesterday evening and played with him and all his toys. It is always fun to go to a new place and explore all the things to do there. It does get kind of boring at my house after a while when I have already played with all my toys and ridden my rocking horse and I can’t go outside anymore. That is when Mommy starts looking a little funny–sort of tired or something, I’m not sure what.

Oh, there is one more thing that I should tell you about–I like looking out the window and watching things happen. There is a field across from my house and it is called a “baseball field” but I can’t say all that, so I just say “bay-ball.” Mommy knows what I mean! I like to watch them play baseball. They are often out there these days. Mommy says our team isn’t too good, but I don’t mind–they are still interesting to watch. And when the cars go by I say “brrm-brrm” to let Mommy know what is happening.

Well, as you can tell I am busy these days. Those are only some of the things I like to do. And when something unusual happens that is better than anything. Once in a while Mommy will leave a cupboard open that isn’t usually open and that is a good adventure. I can carry a lot of potatoes around! Or she will leave her shoes somewhere and I will put them on. I think they took a picture of me wearing her shoes once, so maybe I will include that for you. Anyway, I have a lot of things I want to do today, so I will just end this by saying that I hope you are feeling better because I heard you were in that place for sick people again and now you are somewhere a little nicer but you would still like to be back with Grandpa Al. So I hope you can get back there pretty soon.

Love,

Isaac

Dear Great-Grandma,

Wow! I can’t believe it has been over a month since I wrote to you. I really need to be better about writing to you regularly or I forget so much stuff that I could be telling you. I am not even going to try to remember everything, because it would just be too much. But I will try and tell you some of the highlights.

I had a birthday! That was maybe the most amazing thing. I am a year old now. I had a birthday cake with a candle and I had presents and everybody came to visit me. It was so much fun. I didn’t really know what to do with the presents. It was fun to just play with the wrapping paper and the boxes, but everybody kept encouraging me to take the paper off and look inside. Grandma and Grandpa bought me a real car that really goes when I sit on it and move my feet. Sometimes it even goes when I just sit there. That is usually when Mommy and Daddy are right behind me. Do you think they have something to do with it? My other grandma and grandpa gave me a little Noah’s Ark with animals. I like the fuzzy manes on the lions. Mommy and Daddy gave me a big black thing with buttons. You can put this shiny disk inside it and the disk spins. Sometimes when I press the buttons this thing plays music, but I can’t always get it to do that. Anyway, I like pressing the buttons.

So I think I am going to like birthdays. The cake was really yummy. I would have eaten more of it if they had let me. Next year I will ask for another piece. I do get another birthday next year, right? That is how this works? You explained it pretty well so I think I remember that. By the way, I liked the birthday card you sent me. Thank you!

Let’s see. We had Christmas and I got presents for that, too. A lot of books and some other stuff. A ball! A really big blue ball! It is almost as tall as I am. I think that is one of my favorit presents. When I first saw it I was so excited I started shaking! I had never seen such a big ball before.

I saw you on Christmas, do you remember? It was so nice to see you and everybody else, too. My aunts and my grandma and grandpa from Mississippi came to visit me later. They spent a whole week at my house, just playing with me. I like it when I get to see them but it isn’t very often.

Then we had some snow, and I got to play in it. It is cold, and it makes it hard to walk! But it is very pretty. Mommy says when I am a little older we will do fun things in the snow. Right now I am a little too small.

I heard you went to the hospital last week. Grandma called us and told us. Guess what–I was sick at the same time! I almost had to go to the hospital, too! Then we would have been in the hospital at the same time. Mommy is glad I didn’t need to go to the hospital, but I don’t know. Is it fun to be in the hospital? It seems like it would be kind of interesting, but maybe it’s not. You should tell me about it the next time you write.

Anyway, I didn’t like being sick. I was very hot and my throat hurt and my head hurt and I was coughing and my nose was running and my tummy hurt. Mommy and Daddy were kind of worried about how hot I was so they kept giving me medicines and then they took me to the doctor. He looked at my ears and my throat and felt my neck and belly and said I was sick. Then Mommy and Daddy took me home and gave me pink yucky medicine. Now every day I have to take that yucky medicine, three times a day. I don’t like it at all, but I feel a lot better.

I am also getting lots more teeth. Right now I have eight teeth, four on top and four on the bottom. But you can also see four more teeth, which Mommy calls molars. They are all sticking out. Plus there are a couple more that aren’t sticking out that Mommy can tell will be here soon. Those are the canines, she says. So all in all I am looking to double my tooth count. Soon I will have sixteen teeth! I think that should be enough, don’t you?

Lately I have been trying a new technique to get Mommy and Daddy to do what I want. It’s pretty simple–I just arch my back and throw myself on the floor and cry and cry. Or sometimes I kneel down and touch my forehead to the floor and cry. Either way works pretty well–at least, I guess a lot of the time it doesn’t actually work, but I think it’s getting there. Anyway I think it’s a great idea so I do it a lot. The only drawback is that sometimes I actually hit my head and that hurts. Then I cry some more and Mommy and Daddy get exasperated.

Something else I have been doing is climbing. I climb up on the low windowsills and look out the window. I also have a cubbyhole in the kitchen that I climb up into and pretend I am a statue, or sometimes I just hide there and play peekaboo with Mommy and Daddy. I can also climb onto some of the sofas and chairs. There is a rocking chair in Mommy and Daddy’s room that I climb up into and then I can sit and rock. I have two little rocking chairs downstairs that are more my size, and they are much easier to climb onto but not as much fun to rock. I also like to climb the stairs, but the tricky part there is coming back down. I am starting to learn to come down backwards but it is easy to forget how I am supposed to do it.

I can play Pat-a-Cake and So Big! I can understand a lot of words and I can say “Ba.” But I mean a lot of different things when I say that. Sometimes I mean ball and sometimes I mean bottle and a lot of times I mean something else entirely. It is just a very useful word, you know? I say “ba” and Mommy does something. It works, and I only have to remember one word. I might not bother to learn anything else.

Is there anything else you want to know about me? If so I guess you will have to ask. I can’t think of anything else to say right now so I will sign this letter and go to bed! I love you and I hope you are feeling better after your stay in the hospital! Mommy sends her love, too.

Love,

Isaac

Dear Great-Grandma,

I got your letter yesterday! Thank you for writing to me again. It has been quite a while since I wrote to you and a lot has happened. But the first thing I have to tell you is that I can walk all by myself!

Well, the first big thing I should tell you is that I went to Mississippi and saw my grandparents and my three aunts. We got in the car one afternoon and we drove and drove and drove and then I fell asleep and every time I woke up we were somewhere else but we just kept driving!!! And then finally when I didn’t think I could stand it any longer, we got out of the car and went into a house and there was my Grandma Sachs! She was so happy to see me. But I was very tired. I took two long naps that day.

Mommy says we spent a whole week down there. I didn’t keep track very well. There was so much to do there, and I learned so much! They had a little tiny horse and a little tiny cow, and I learned what the horse and cow say. The horse says, “Nei-ei-ei-eigh!” and the cow says, “Mmmmmmmm!” And they had a really big doggy who walked around all over the place. She was bigger than me. I liked to try to chase her and touch her fur. And I loved to watch her walk around.

I read a book with little paper flaps that you lift up and there were animals underneath! When I opened the one for the kitties, I made little squeaky sounds like the kitties do. Everybody thought that was really neat, so I kept doing it.

All the people there held my hands and helped me walk all around. It was great! I got lots and lots of practice and I didn’t have to think about trying it on my own.

I ate turkey. I liked it, but after a while I got kind of tired of it.

I went to the park twice. I got to drive the fire engine, and swing on the swings, and ride a whale.

We did lots of other stuff, too, but I can’t remember it now. Then we got in the car again and we drove and drove and drove some more and then finally after I fell asleep we were home. Mommy tried to get me to go back to sleep but I was so excited to be back home that I just wanted to get up and play! Later on I was tired, though.

So that was our trip to Mississippi! I wouldn’t mind if we did it again sometime, I think.

I have also been learning quite a lot of things. I already told you that I learned what some animals say. I also have learned that you can put things “in” and take them “out.” I like to practice with things like laundry baskets, or cups (I put my socks in and take them back out) or drawers. I also can put things “on” other things. I put my books on the shelf, or a toy on the table, or the windowsill, or anywhere I can reach, really. I can also turn knobs! I can’t quite reach the doorknobs, though. Soon.

I am learning about words, too. I say “dat” and “light” and “duh” and sometimes “dada” and every once in a great while, “mama.” I am not really sure what all these words mean but I am practicing them. I am pretty sure that “light” is those bright things in the ceiling, though.

And of course I can walk now. I should tell you about how that happened. The day after we got back from Mississippi, a big new toy showed up at our house. It was something I had to stand up at to play with. (It plays music when I press a button! I love pressing buttons and I love music. I like to dance to it.) Anyway, I was playing at this thing but not really holding on to it. All of a sudden it started to move away from me, so I took a few steps so I could stay close to it. (I wasn’t really paying attention to what I was doing.) Steps! All on my own! And it wasn’t upsetting. When Daddy got home that evening, I took a few steps towards him. It wasn’t too scary.

All that week I took a few steps every day. I practiced stepping, but not too much. I didn’t want to be scared by it. Then, a week after I started taking steps, I found myself without any shoes on. Usually I am wearing shoes because it is chilly and I slip too much in just socks. But for some reason I didn’t have any shoes or socks on. And I took a few steps, and then a few more, and it wasn’t too hard! I could get a better grip on the floor with my bare feet. I started walking all over the place, all by myself. Kitchen, hallway, living room, dining room, kitchen again… I made it all the way around, all by myself!

So every day that week, I got better at walking by myself. I started on a Monday and by Thursday I was walking pretty much everywhere. And now I hardly ever crawl at all. It is much more efficient to walk. Plus, I can carry things! I pick up a coaster or a bookmark in the living room and carry it to the kitchen. I put them down and pick up a toy and carry it into the bathroom and drop it in the tub. I open a drawer in the bathroom and pull out a washcloth and carry it into the hallway. I put it on the bookshelf and pull a book off. The book falls on the floor because it is kind of too heavy for me. So then I pick up a toy in the hallway and carry it into Mommy’s room, put it on the windowsill, and pick up a sock. The sock goes to the living room… do you get the idea? Sometimes I don’t think Mommy is very happy about me rearranging her house, but mostly she just laughs, so that is okay.

Well, I decided to only take one nap today, so Mommy says I must go to bed early. I will wrap up my letter. But hopefully I will see you very soon, Great-Grandma! I love you and Great-Grandpa Al!

Love,

Isaac

Dear Great-Grandma Faye,

Thank you so much for your last letter and the stickers. And also your advice! So you think I should just listen to Mommy. Well, I am thinking you might be right about that. So far she seems to know what’s what. Maybe I will find out differently later but for now I will try to listen to her. It’s just that sometimes I forget, or I don’t understand.

Well, anyway, I am doing pretty well. Did you know they put an extra hour in the day on Sunday? Let me tell you, that really mixed me up. In fact I am still mixed up. This morning I woke up at 3:00 and I thought it was time to get up. I haven’t done that in a long time. Eventually Mommy came in and convinced me to go back to sleep, but I was still pretty tired this morning. I was ready for my nap by 8:00 instead of 9:00.

I have to tell you something else. This walking stuff is really hard, and frustrating too. I thought it would be easy! Mommy and Daddy make it look so easy to do, but when I try it–well, actually, the truth is I am scared to try it on my own. I just want Mommy and Daddy to help me walk around all the time. That is lots of fun! But when they tell me they are busy and can’t walk with me just then, I get so sad and frustrated, because I really want to learn to walk and I just can’t do it on my own yet. They gave me something to push to practice with, and that is all very well, but I can’t steer it and I get stuck.

Okay, on to more cheerful things. You know how I was telling you about light switches? Well, those things are everywhere! And lights, too! Since I have realized that they are all over the place, I have been helpfully pointing them out to Mommy and Daddy so they can see them, too. Isn’t that nice of me? I just think they are so fascinating, it would be a shame to miss them.

Grandma and Grandpa both came to visit me this week, only not together! Grandpa came last Tuesday, and Grandma came on Saturday. It was really nice to see both of them. It had been a long time since I last saw Grandpa. And in two weeks, I am going to see my other Grandpa and Grandma, down in Mississippi, and my three Aunts. I think that will be lots of fun.

I am sorry this is such a short letter, but I have to go play with my friend Joseph now because he just woke up and Mommy needs my help. However, I am sure I will be writing to you again very soon to tell you that I am learning to walk on my own. I will let you know as soon as I am brave enough to try it!

Love,

Isaac