Saturday, September 22, 2007

Isaiah's new tricks

Isaiah is one and a half now, and he's continuing to do new and amazing things. He seems to go through little spurts of development, doing lots of new things at one time, then slowing down a bit. Sometimes I have to confess that during the slow times, I often struggle with worry that he's not developing as much as he should be. Then a spurt of development will come and he'll amaze us with what's new.

A friend reminded me the other day that children all develop at their own pace. They all do things a little differently, and that is absolutely OK.


So here's what Isaiah is up to:

His upper body is getting stronger and stronger. He can lift his trunk up all the way off the floor and do "push ups". He's also getting really good at "pull ups". With a little bit of assistance, Isaiah can pull up from the floor and reach something on the couch. We just have to support his knees a little bit. Then he sits on his knees and plays with the hard-earned object.





We're trying to encourage him to be independent in whatever ways he is able. We've been working with him to eat on his own with utensils. Trying to get him to use a spoon has been quite entertaining. It didn't take him long to figure out that he needed to put the spoon in his mouth. As my grandpa said about him when he was eating a waffle with his hands one day, "He sure knows where it goes!" Once he got the spoon in his mouth, however, he didn't seem to know what to do next. He sits there with the spoon sticking out of his mouth, looking at us with a confused expression on his face.

Before we moved to St. P, I was trying desperately to get him to drink from a cup. (A special thanks to those of you who graciously listened to my panicked questions and helped me!) Last week I came home from my language lesson to hear the good news that Thomas had been able to get him to drink from the cup BY HIMSELF! I know that this is a wonderful accomplishment for every child, but this has far-reaching implications for Isaiah. He must drink a great deal of fluids every day as a preventative from UTIs, since he is at increased risk for them due to cathaterization. We have been standing on our heads (figuratively, of course) to get him to drink. Hopefully now that he can do it some on his own, he will drink even more!

Thomas and I have been hard at work studying Russian. Isaiah doesn't want to miss out on all the fun. He loves to look at my Russian workbook. I have to keep a close eye on him to make sure that he doesn't love on the book too much and eat my work! He does seem to understand a lot of Russian though, maybe even more than I do! We go to the park together and the Russian babushkas all talk to him, and they say that he understands them.



I don't have a picture or video of this, but Isaiah is also starting to talk our ears off! As soon as I try to video him, though, he starts posing for the camera and stops talking. I'll have to sneak up on him sometime. We don't always understand him, of course, but he's quite a chatterbox. The other night as I was putting him to bed, I laid him down and he looked up at me and in the sweetest voice ever to be heard said, "Mama". Melt my heart! He still says "okey-dokey" a good bit and "Dada" more and more, and then he has his own language. We look forward to being able to talk with him more and more.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Psalm 139:14,15 I will praise You, for Isaiah is fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works.

Isaiah is right on schedule for how our wonderful Lord has made him. Each development brings praises to the Lord and such joy.

Thanks for sharing to a very happy Grandmother.

Anonymous said...

How great to hear from all of you and to see how big Isaiah is now. Robert and Seth ask often if we have heard from you. They need to see your blog. God bless you in your ministry there.

the Jim Huttons, Tchula MS

Guitta said...

wonderful!!! that little guy could melt any woman's heart.
...such a stud...

love, g

Grace said...

Aww, that's so sweet that he said "Mama" to you! I bet he secretly practices all his words and phrases in bed at night, or when you're away at your own language lessons. Clever boy!

Gail said...

How exciting---crawling well, cup drinking by himself, saying, "mama" AND understanding Russian. Sound to this grandma that he's quite advanced and I'm so proud. love grandma slawson