Lots of kids like dinosaurs, right?  They love T-Rex and Triceratops.  They think Stegosaurus is really cool.  Isaac is in this camp too.  But after more than a year of dino fever, he has the T-Rex, Triceratops, and Stegosaurus down pat.  He has moved on to Brachiosaurus, seen here:

But that too is a little staid for our super kid.  In fact, he has also come to embrace the much less well known, but no less fascinating animals that came after the dinosaurs, including my favorite the massive Indricothere.  One day last week we called up an image on the iPad and he walked around all morning showing the beast his breakfast and pre-school rituals.  He even added indricothere to his vocabulary.

So, we have decided that we are getting him this for his birthday in June:

We are ordering it here.  As a parent you have to encourage them to do whatever they love, regardless of the costs, right?

When you are 2 1/2 years old, 2 minutes is perhaps the only time span you can comprehend.  Longer than 2 minutes is just inconceivable.  In Isaac's life two minutes is really important.  It defines two things that he really, really cares about: how long he stays on the naughty step and how long he has left before going some place he doesn't want to go to.  Here is how it works.

Isaac gets in trouble and has to go sit on the naughty step.  It is the bottom step on the staircase between the first and second floor.  We have a small cooking timer and when it goes off, he can get up off the naughty step.  But those two minutes, oh god, those are the longest two minutes ever.  A few tears and sobs come out, but end around 1:30.  Then it is just the wait.  Seconds turn in to hours.  By the time it rolls around 30 seconds he is ready to spring off the steps and I am about ready to just smash the timer.  But then we do the count down after ten and he springs up ready to go.

Then there is the "two more minutes" request.  Usually we go upstairs to go to bed, he needs a countdown.

"Isaac, are you ready to go?"
"NO!"
"We have to get going, buddy."
"NO! Two more minutes please."

We set the same timer and then let is go.  Isaac goes into a fun trance and tries to squeeze the last few hours of fun in a few minutes.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  But when the timer goes off, Isaac knows he got a fair shake and is ready to go.  A few times he has even gone upstairs on his own.  Pretty good kid.  Now, he is so used to the ding, if he DOESN'T hear it he thinks we are cheating him of time.  "No ding yet" he'll tell us.

Isaac loves to go grocery shopping.  Perhaps it is because we usually get a Hot Wheels, or maybe it is because his little belly is filled with bagel.  I like to think it is because we have the whole weekend before us (we do our shopping on Saturday morning around 8 AM).  Dad and Isaac usually goof around and Mom does the actual shopping.  Sometimes we help out and go on missions to get specific things, but in between we like to horse around.

Isaac likes to climb on the stacks of beer cases.  He likes the heart pressure monitor.  He still is fascinated by the lobsters.  But one of his favorite things to do is to drag race in one of the car carts.  Here is a POV video:

And here is a view of Isaac and Dad: