Isaac has been such a busy boy this summer. He's learning to crawl, eat finger foods, and babble with consonants to name a few activities. As of a week before his 9 month birthday, he can slither very well on his tummy, can hold himself in a standing position with his arms, can get to a sitting position from all fours, and is starting to try to pull himself up.

Here is a small sampling of Isaac's summer adventures. Like all busy parents, we've started forgetting to bring the camera along all the time...

As many of you know, Isaac completely abandoned the crib sleeping thing back at five months. We've all been quite cozy this summer (thank heavens for air conditioning) in our double bed.

Isaac's Comisar aunts all came to visit.

Isaac likes graham crackers so much, he decided to save some for later.

Isaac is spending a lot more time exploring in whatever room we are in. Things aren't as baby proofed yet as one might hope. Here he has gotten a hold of our memory card reader. His message to us: "Time to update the webpage."

Here is Isaac in his Chinese suit from Grandma Ankrom's recent trip to China.

You want to do WHAT with this thing?! Isaac hates to get cleaned up after dinner.

Friday, July 28th was an exciting day. At 10:30, Wendy discovered a fire in the lab across the hall from her office and pulled the alarm. At 12:00 that same day, Vicky, Isaac's home-based day care teacher, gave Wendy two weeks notice. You may recall that Isaac's first sitter Lisa closed her day care completely after four months of Isaac. Vicky could only take two months before deciding Isaac was too much stress. At least he didn't drive her completely out of business. Deciding that two day cares in six months was too many, we decided to let the moths out of our pocket and call a center. It just so happened that our first choice--on whose waiting list Isaac has been since his first trimester--had an immediate opening. Isaac started at the Jewish community center on August 1st. Thanks to the shooting at the Jewish Federation in Seattle on 7/28, security was pretty tight for his first day.

Isaac's girlfriend goes to the JCC in the bunny room. There was only space in the duck room, however. Isaac didn't mind. Ducks are one of his favorite things...

We thought he just liked the duck because he had a limited selection at bath-time. However, as you may notice in the photo, Mom took Isaac shopping recently for some new tubby toys. (The two of them are enrolled in a diary study at U of M's social work department. They feel free to spend their earnings any way they please.) The duck is still number one. Even at day care, Isaac likes to play with the rubber ducks. A few days ago Craig gave Isaac a duck to play with at drop off to distract him from crying. Crawly kid (known to his parents as Joey and to the teachers at the JCC as "other friends") sped over and snatched the duck. Then the second and third ducks Craig gave Isaac. Sounds like it is time for Mom to teach Isaac all she knows about day care self-defense. (Wendy got her nails cut because she scratched so much and gave one little boy a shiner.) No wonder Isaac's report card says, "Isaac doesn't like when other friends come too close."

With Israel's bombing of Lebanon, we figured art fair was going to be exciting this year. The Jews for Jesus are out molesting Jews on one side of town and the "Israel must go" coalition is usually on the other side. Our Friday visit to Art Fair was pretty peaceful with only one minor assault from the J's for J.

Isaac enjoying his first trip to art fair on Friday.

By Saturday, we discovered the Israel must go coalition had been gathering forces:

The sign in the red says Jews should "Leave Palestine" (these radicals don't even believe Israel has the right to exist)

Isaac and Mom took a break under a tree while Dad hurled anti-Hezbollah remarks to the protestors. Isaac is learning early that being born Jewish comes with a lot of baggage. He doesn't seem phased, though.

Isaac is sporting his German soccer uniform from Oma Susanne.

Isaac posing with the quilt Mom made for his cousin Elisabeth.

Our exchange student Sasha came back for a three week visit to find our lives very different.

Isaac's Great-aunt Mart (holding him) and family came for a short visit. Abby (green tee-shirt) will be starting at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI in the fall. The Schartners stopped by on their way home from orientation. A message for Aunt Mart: Isaac doesn't have any teeth yet. Periodically, Isaac will go through a fussy phase. Frequently, he chews and drools excessively. This leads people to say, "He's teething," like gee, you dumb parents hadn't thought of that. (She asked us to post a note on our website saying that she had correctly predicted that he was teething.) Aunt Mart was only the most recent victim of Isaac's clever ruse. We've given up thinking that the fussiness will end in teeth. He seems to be eating just fine without them anyway.

Isaac loves the pool. Here he is swimming at our Temple's tot pool party. The photograph on the left is the last known sighting of Isaac's Wright State hat. He has learned how to take hats off and toss them. Since he lost one at art fair, we can only guess that the Wright State hat was a victim of the Isaac toss.

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