- He loves his mommy and daddy. (More on that below).
- He loves his brother, even though he's constantly being harassed by him.
- He loves Elmo.
- He loves tackle football (i.e. running full speed into daddy).
- He loves to pigeon step, pigeon step and then fall down.
- He still loves to eat, although he remains picky. Meat of about any kind still reigns supreme on the culinary list of choices.
- He loves his newest words, which include "hat," "ear," "eye," "school" and the king of them all, "up."
- Speaking of "up," we know he loves this word most of all, because Isaiah loves nothing more than to be held. Morning, day or night, the kid loves to cuddle, and that has held true since he was a baby. He loves to burrow in to your chest, nuzzle in your arms, and just be.
That, my friends, is simply wonderful.
Isaiah is also very bright. This morning, he exhibited what I thought was quite a cognitive achievement, by stringing together several logical sequences.
As I left for work this morning, I picked up (or was already holding, more likely) Isaiah and gave him a kiss. Continuing a recent trend, he started crying and pawing at me to keep holding him. As I passed him to Michelle and went out the door, I could hear the shrieks. As I looked over my shoulder toward the window, Michelle was holding Isaiah, who was visibly sniffling as he waved goodbye.
I went to work. About an hour after I arrived, my cell phone rang. A call from home. I answered, figuring it was Michelle.
Hello?
Silcnce.
Helloooo?
Silence.
I then figured Isaiah was on the line. We had a nice conversation, actually, as he answered affirmatively to whether he was happy, was playing, and had a good breakfast – topped off by saying "school" when I asked him where his brother was.
I asked Isaiah to pass the phone to Michelle, whom I figured had called me about something and stuck Isaiah on the line initially. But she didn't. And then she told me what happened.
Isaiah found the phone, got it and took it to Michelle, who was in the kitchen.
"Da da," he said, holding the cordless phone.
Michelle smiled and placed the cordless phone the counter.
"Da da!" Isaiah said, now more forcefully and pointing at the phone.
So, Michelle picked up the phone, dialed me, and handed the phone to Isiaiah.
A simple story, yes, but did you notice all the cognitive steps Isaiah took to arrive at that phone call?
I'm no child psychologist, but this is my breakdown:
- Isaiah missed his daddy and figured he'd do something about it.
- He realized I wouldn''t be coming home soon.
- So, he got the telephone.
- He knew he couldn't call me himself, so he took the phone to Michelle.
- He asked her to call me.
- When she initially misread what he wanted, he clarified his request by repeating verbally what he wanted Michelle to do and underscored it by pointing at the phone.
I find that remarkable.
And I love him so.
