Vacation Pics

Some photos from our winter vacation:

Getting a back massage--because being a baby can be stressful.

First snow! (Apologies to those of you who were caught in the super-crappy commute home that day)

Starry night

Two pictures from our impromptu day-trip to see the abbey at Mt. Angel

Which reminds me, the abbey has a museum. But in addition to religious relics, which account for only a fraction of the exhibits, the museum has an unsettling number of stuffed animals. I'm not kidding, check it out:

Yep, that's right--a friggin' bison.

Why wouldn't you want a stuffed bison in the museum of a religous institution? Or for that matter, a cow with six legs? (Not pictured. And not kidding.)

Boys' Humor

I'm so proud. Isaac has already learned Rule #4 of Comedy: Fart sounds are funny.

(For the record, Erin calls the sounds in question "raspberries." Toe-may-toe, toe-mah-toe.)

Heavy good, light bad

As a kid, I learned a number of "rules" about the contents of presents. Chief among them was the rule that a lightweight present rarely contained anything that I wanted. Usually, it was a button-down shirt, or worse, socks. (Strangely, I'm totally fine with those presents now.)

The following video, showing Isaac casually casting aside an obviously lightweight present, strongly suggests that the "rule of the lightweight present" may be passed on in utero.

Happy December 25th!!

Here are a few pictures from our secular holiday. First, the overly choreographed--yet obligatory--"ten second timer" shot:

Next, the "prop the kid up against an object, and take the picture quickly before he tips over" picture:

We hope you all had a great holiday!

Bath ver. 8.0

Somebody likes Santa. . .

"My parents made me wear it. What's your excuse?"

You Get What You Pay For

I suppose we should be happy that some stranger was willing to take this picture of us, to memorialize our first ever family christmas tree outing (at a former gas station on Belmont Street). But come on, lady! Isaac could have taken a better picture than this! Nevertheless, here it is in all its blurry glory.*



As a side note, we have not always been so lucky in arranging for strangers to take our pictures. In 2000, when Erin and I were in New York City, we were painfully snubbed by some old fart in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"Excuse me, can you please take our picture?" I said.

He took a step toward us, took his hand out of his pocket, and started to reach for the camera and then apparently thought better of it.

"No," he said flatly. And he walked off.


Ouch.


*Bonus points if you can spy Isaac's "extra" appendage.

Reader Contest: Results Show

Isaac is furious with his father. Just when readership of his blog was hitting respectable numbers--just as advertising dollars started flowing in--his father had to go and have a contest, pitting his "fans" against one another. "This is not going to end well," his baby cries seemed to say.

And now I see his point: How can we at Isaac Tales pick an Honorable Mention winner for the contest when the entries are all so good? Answer: Cry not, Isaac! We will simply follow in the footsteps of the Grammys--an award show that offers so many awards that no one is left out.

So without further ado, the results of the reader constest are as follows:

For excellence in sarcastically making fun of Isaac's dad, the award goes to Shannon, with "Seriously dad? Ears?" (To be fair, Shannon, you should be directing your sarcasm at Isaac's mother, who actually bought that nifty outfit.)

For witty financial humor, and the use of phrases that will only ever have theoretical importance in our household, the award goes to Ed, with "Margin call?!? Come on, lemme into my Etrade account * * *. Margin-call my pampers!" (Ed, you should know that, right now, Isaac has more financial prowess than his pitiful parents.)

For excellence in foretelling the Rosey future, Jonathon wins, with, "If I hear one more deluded Beavers fan talk about going to the Rose Bowl, I'm going to lose my lunch." (Scoreboard: 37-33. And what about that Jeremiah Masoli knocking down defensive backs on fourth down? Clutch.)

For excellence in violence, Jamie wins with, "If my daddy wasn't holding me back, I'd be serving you a double knuckle sandwich." (This is actually the most disturbing caption to Isaac's mother in that he is looking as her in this picture. Freud, eat your heart out.)

And finally, for excellence in 80's pop culture--and the only caption to bring a multi-cultural element to the picture--Brittany wins with, "Whattch you talkin about Willis?" (As a side note, I learned the hard way several years ago that the catchy theme song from Diff'rent Strokes was written by none other than Alan Thicke. Turns out, he was a prolific theme-song writer in the 80's.)

Thank you all for your entries!

Reader Contest!

I've stared at this picture for a couple of minutes. But for the life of me, I can't think of a clever caption. Consequently, the commenter (if any!) with the best caption will win an Honorable Mention from Isaac himself.

Tummy time, how you like me now!?

Isaac, working the core muscles

Photo Potpourri

Here's a smattering of pictures from the past couple of weeks. Because they show Isaac in somewhat similar states of inertness, I've added captions to spice them up.

Somewhat disturbing fact: Isaac is an 80's-hair-band headbanger. When he is upset in the car, the surefire way of calming him down is to tune the radio to 105.9, The Brew, so that he can rock out to the likes of Bon Jovi, Quiet Riot, and Foreigner. This is his imitation of Gene Simmons from Kiss.

Isaac, transfixed by a ceiling light.

Post-Bath Bliss

Ok, so Isaac's head looks like a cue ball now. But so did his mom's when she was his age. And now look at all of the hair she has. Awesome.

Rare Footage

The Discovery Channel produced a series called Planet Earth, which has footage of (among other things) wildlife. Each episode has a behind-the-scenes segment showing the sheer number of hours that the photographers had to spend in order to capture about four seconds of footage.

The following video of Isaac is in the same vein. Although his smiles are not extremely rare, live-action footage of them are.

Turning on the Charm

During a seriously grouchy day, Isaac apparently was saving up all his charm for the evening when he hammed it up for these photos.

Brotherly Love

Cock of the Walk

Check out our little chicken. He seemed to love Halloween (or at least the part that he was awake for).

Copy cat? Sort of?

Better Late Than Never

Greetings, and welcome to Isaac's blog!

We know that we're a bit, um, late in starting it. But we figure that Isaac was early--and his arrival required surgery--and so it balances out. Plus, we can catch everyone up in relatively short order:

First, Erin was pregnant. She was pregnant for a long time.

Then, Isaac was born on August 26, 2009, at Kaiser Sunnyside Hospital. He was 9 pounds, 2 ounces. He looked like an old man. Here is a picture of his first bath.

Here are Erin and Isaac in the hospital:

Eventually, we went home. But about week later, Isaac turned yellow, and we had to go back for "medical treatment." Basically, it amounted to a baby-sized tanning bed. Cool, huh?

Then we went home again. And since then, Isaac has learned so much. He can smile, kick his legs, move his arms, kick his legs and move his arms, and say "ooooooh." We like him a lot. And so does Rudy.

Isaac absolutely loves to take baths.

Please stay tuned for more pictures and updates!