"Isaac, please wear your gloves."

"Isaac we are not going outside if you don't put your gloves on."

"You cannot stay outside unless you are wearing your gloves."

Isaac's response:  "No."

Then all of sudden the weather changes, he gains a significant amount of dexterity and we get this kid:

Two weekends ago we got a bike seat for the I-man.  It hooked on easy enough, and newer bikes are marvels of engineering designed to be taken apart, so the seat was on and super secure in less than thirty minutes (well, not exactly thirty minutes, Isaac was fulfilling his destiny as hold it boy and wandered off with a portion of Dad's ratchet set....).  But the seat was on and we were ready to go.  Here is a pic just before our maiden voyage:

After that quick jaunt around the block, last week we went to the grocery store.  Then this weekend, we took a big trip to the playground in Leominster.  It was a slow, long, uphill climb and though it seems impossible it was that way both ways.  Isaac had a great time speeding down the hills with Dad while Mom was cautious and upright the entire time, earning her the name Slow Down Sally.  We are in training for the bike trails of Acadia.

Most of you are familiar with the classic game Peekaboo, but Dad and Isaac have a variant you may not know of just yet.

Isaac is a busy kid, and HATES getting his diaper changed.  It is absolute torture in his mind to be forced to lay on that stupid changing pad while there are toys to play with, beep beeps to watch, choo choos to chase...you get the idea.  So when he was little (like last year) we played a game called Surprise Raspberry where Dad would gently blow on his stomach and then at a surprise interval I would peel off a big old raspberry.  He loved it.  But now he is a little to high energy to lay still for Surprise Raspberry, so it was time to invent a new distraction/game.  Hence the invention of Hardcore Peekaboo.

In this game Isaac lays very still on the changing pad and Dad ducks down beneath the edge, beyond his field of vision.  Isaac starts to giggle and when the giggles reaches a fit, Dad pops up and yells peekaboo.  Isaac exploded into laughter and jumps a mile a high and then says and makes the signal for "More."  Dad obliges and the explosive surprise of Hardcore Peekaboo continues.  He can go probably four or five peekaboos before he is out of his mind excited (Dad's pretty excited too).   It is like the little guy equivalent of the "jump out" surprise in a suspense movie. 

It is also a ton of fun, but then again, what isn't a ton of fun with this kid?