Isaac Anthony Sculimbrene is 9 months old today. About this time 9 months ago his Mommy and I were doing laps around the maternity ward at Worcester Memorial, me in jammies and her in a johnny. We'd pause every once in a while to call someone and tell them the good news. About this time I was explaining to my Dad where the spare key is because my Mom was so crazy excited she no longer understood English. It would be another 12 hours or so until we met Isaac Anthony, so just think about that during your day today. Bianca is a superhero.

Oh and here is a then and now comparison:

then:



and now:



Also, it is almost a certainty that he will retain those sapphire blue eyes.

Isaac and his classmates at the Goddard School regularly do finger painting and Isaac seems to love it. Trying to capture some of the fun at home, we decided to get him some paints and let him go to town this afternoon--a perfect rainy Sunday activity. Dad cut out some shapes and got some paper while Mom got Isaac dressed in old clothes. We all three met in the Sun Room for a little bit of Picasso-ing.

Here is a blow by blow of most of the painting:



The results were, as you can imagine, outrageously messy. Mom broke out one color at a time as the Grandparents watched via iChat. There were some great moments. The first color was blue. He liked it. It was okay. But it was nothing to get excited about. He squished it through his fingers and grabbed some paper. Then he got some green and again it was good but not great. Finally Mom busted out red and he went nuts. He was smearing it around, putting it on the paper, in his hair, and then finally his mouth. After that it was clean up time.

Here are some pictures of the fun:



You know how painters can be, all full of attitude and sass.



Mom got hit with some collateral damage.



And finally, "OOOOO, look at the mess I made"

Finally, a video of pre-painting. He is kinda excited:

Isaac has been fussy at the high chair recently. Starting last Saturday and going through until yesterday he would not chow down in his normal "don't bother me" kind of way. We tried going slower with the food, changing what he ate, and other tricks including "airplane" but none really worked. I hypothesized to Bianca that maybe he wanted to feed himself.

Well, that was it. In the morning he ate like a champ, as he always does. The two later meals it was the same pattern: a few bites, then a pursed mouth, violent head shakes no, and finally the windmill arms of interference, borrowed from The Who guitar player, Pete Townshend. Then we gave him a spoon and the freedom to do what he wanted in the high chair and all of sudden he was eating again. The results were hilariously sloppy. See:



We also have a few photos from the birthday party, though Dad's stomach flu made him less than a shutterbug.

Here is a cute one of Isaac playing around with his Nanny:



and here is one of the birthday people with Myles: