Isaiah - The First Month

Isaiah's original due date was yesterday, so it is interesting to see how much he has grown in the first month of life. Here are some cute Izzy pics!:

Fast Asleep in the NICU the morning he left the hospital.

Hey! Don't take pictures of me while I'm sleeping!

All right...you can take pictures if you insist, but I'm going to make bubbles.

I was born four weeks early! 

I'm getting tired...are you done yet?

I'm hungry. Let's get this over with.

 Oh man! It's boring around here! You guys don't even have cable.

Hold on...I'm not ready yet.

Oww! I can't stand it anymore! I have to eat now!

 

Uhh...Is it my turn yet to take pictures of you?

Dum dee dum...

 

Ok, I'm ready for my close up!

 

Check out this pizazz! I'm cute!

Hi ladies! My name is Isaish. Prepare your hearts to melt at my smile!

Yeah, I know. I'm pretty adorable.

Woah! What was that?

The Dog Side

We slowly learned a few months after getting Louie that he is very clever in figuring out ways to get into trouble. At first I think he was trying really hard to please us so we would let him stay with us. Recently though, he has become much more audacious in pulling off such crimes as sleeping in our bed or stealing Rudy's food. Rudy never gave us this much trouble because he is not as creative as Louie in thwarting our plans. Our lives have become a never ending battle against Louie's cunning ingenuity and Rudy's muscle.

The week before Isaiah was born was especially wild where Louie somehow figured out how to tear down the baby-gate we use to guard our kitchen. He stole some cookies and then ate them on our bed, leaving crumbs everywhere. They literally destroyed an entire can of Spam, leaving only a small scrap of the label on one of their dog beds. The entire house was littered with garbage.

The broken fence

 All that remained of the can of Spam.

 Rudy and Louie: Partners in Crime

Rudy and Louie have been absolutely in love with Isaiah since the moment they met him. One concern that I have is that the dogs will try to recruit Izzy to join the "Dog Side" and assist them in perpetrating crimes in the future.

One of my favorite movies as a kid was the Empire Strikes Back. I really enjoyed the film's portrayal of the battle between good and evil. The film's depiction of Darth Vader and the Emperor's attempts to turn Luke Skywalker, to the "Dark Side" were fascinating to me as a child. I fear Louie and Rudy may similarly try to turn Izzy, our new hope for the future.

It will likely start with simple things, like getting him to share food at dinner time. Eventually it will lead to opening closed doors or the fridge. Ultimately, it could lead to an entire insurrection against any parental control in our home. Dogs and kids will live in a new utopia free of rules and boundaries!

Do you have any ideas for thwarting the impending Doggie Rebellion?

Isaiah "Izzy" Brian Tanner's Story

Izzy asked me if I could share a story he's written so he can tell everybody about himself. So this is Izzy's story:

Hi! My name is Isaiah, but you can call me Izzy! That is my great-grandpa Isadore Perlmutter's nickname. He's a great guy. I was at his 90th birthday party while in my mommy's womb!

My mommy and daddy are Jennifer and Brian Tanner. I love them! They are really nice to me.

My mommy loves me. I love her too! She gave birth to me without any medication. She's really strong!

I was born on March 9th, 2011 at 4:20 AM. My mommy was in labor for a while, but she had a good time singing/rapping for her nurses. Everybody remembers us for the good time we had!

My dad is soo brave! He helped my mom give birth to me, and got splashed with blood when I came out. He also cut my umbilical cord for me. Even hours later, he still had some blood on his pants and shirt.

After I was born, I was really sleepy. It was a lot of work being born!

The doctors thought it would be best if I stayed in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for a few days. I was born a few weeks early, so they wanted to make sure that I'm feeling great before I came home.

I like it when my dad holds me. He's pretty cool.

I like to look at my dad. He thinks I'm soo handsome!

It was kind of lonely in the NICU, so my aunt Kristen got me a friend to keep me company. My friend makes sounds that remind me of when I was still inside my mommy. Whenever I hear it, I fall right to sleep.

I like to eat a lot! In the NICU, I usually ate almost twice as much as the nurses told me to.

This whole eating and pooping thing is still new to me. Sometimes I have to work really hard to get things working right.

Sometimes I make faces that look just like my great grandpa Izzy. I think it is because I have his mouth.

Other times I look like my dad. I think it's because I have his eyes and forehead. You can tell the resemblance when I make fussy faces.

My aunt Kristen helped a lot when I was born. She took care of my dogs for me.

My daddy loves me! He tucks me into bed at night.

My grandparents got me a really cool car seat. I couldn't wait until I could ride in this to go home with my family from the hospital!

My doggies love me! They follow me everywhere I go and watch everything I do. They also always guarding me to make sure I'm treated well.

They were soo worried when my mommy came home from the hospital a few days before me. They would rub her tummy, and then lick my used burp rag, and then stare at her to ask "Where is our baby? He used to be inside there and he smells like this. Where is he?" They were jumping for joy when I came home!

Rudy adores me! He always tries to give me a bath with his tongue, and anytime I start crying, he tries to cheer me up with more licking!

Melting

I am so excited for the upcoming birth of our son! I am totally starting to go baby crazy...Jen almost had to take away the scanning gun from me when we were registering for baby stuff because I was scanning everything!

Tonight was a rare evening where Jen and I were watching television. A McDonald's commercial came on with a father and son eating Chicken McNuggets. I started to get emotional thinking about my baby boy. It was hilarious that I was totally suckered into wanting McDonald's because of such an obvious trap, but I completely fell for it. Jen got a good laugh out of it.

I'm not the only one in the house who is starting to go baby crazy. I think Rudy is now aware that a new pack member is coming, and he is more affectionate than ever with every baby he meets. He hasn't been around a lot of babies in the past, and was normally aloof to them. But anymore, we have a hard time keeping him from giving them baths with his tongue. He loves babies now!

Things are certainly going to be pretty awesome around here in a few weeks. Jen and I are in no rush to have our son born because we want to let him develop as much as he can in the womb. We will get to see him soon enough, but my excitement is certainly growing more and more everyday.

Where We’ve Been

Sorry I haven’t written for a few months. Things have been pretty crazy around here for us. Here’s what we’ve been up to:

• Over the summer, I started interning at the Disability Law Center in downtown Salt Lake City. This job has been a blast where I’ve been working on the abuse and neglect team to help protect persons with disabilities.
• Also over the summer, I took a class on Equality, Liberty, and Civil Rights which required me to write a huge research paper. I wrote on a plan that a few GOP lawmakers have to introduce bills that would keep children born to undocumented aliens from receiving birth certificates. After wading through thousands of pages of legal work, I ultimately concluded that neither the US Congress or individual state could do such a thing without violating the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. When I wasn’t working that summer, I was writing that beast.
• Jen and I were called as missionaries to help teach English at our local Spanish Branch. Ever since we got engaged two years ago, Jen and I have been missionary companions now in three different areas (Spokane, Provo and now SLC). At one point I was pretty good at Spanish thanks to Riverview Jr. High and Murray High School, but now my Spanish comes out jumbled with Tongan. Even though I don’t have time to study Spanish full time, I’m slowly getting better.
• Jen is pregnant with a baby boy. That is awesome! 

  

  When we discovered we had a "little spot" inside of Jen.
  
  

  We are soo excited for this little guy to come fill our home with love and wildness. Louie and Rudy are pretty excited too. “Little Boy” is due sometime around April 6th.

  

  Little Boy

• Jen and I had a fun trip to California in June. We crashed my cousin Katie’s wedding reception, then went to Angelica and John’s in Madera. Jen gave me the tour of Stockton and Fresno where she grew up, and we had fun celebrating our first anniversary at Lake Tahoe.

  

  We saw some cheesy touristy brochure that advertised holding a pine cone on Lake Tahoe. We couldn't stop laughing at it, and though we would recreate it ourselves.

• Jen walked in the BYU graduation in August. She looked really hott, and I am so proud of my wife for graduating.
• Rudy got fat. He gained 20 lbs. this year, and has been put on a diet. My dad also has started coming by to run with the dogs every Saturday. He’s since lost 10 lbs. in two months, which is like losing 30 lbs. for a human.

  

  Rudy before his diet.
  
  

  

  Rudy after his diet started, and minus 10 lbs.

• Fall semester was pretty crazy for us. I was taking 17 credits of classes (Business Organizations, Bankruptcy, Trusts and Estates, Evidence, and Judicial Process) and working, in addition to church and other responsibilities. Basically, I spent every waking minute studying. Jen was also student teaching at Riverview Jr. High while pregnant. Everyday our calendars would be completely scheduled and accounted for.
• The week before Thanksgiving, we all went to Las Vegas and California on vacation. This was a much needed break to allow us to rest for a few days. We went to a friend’s wedding in the Las Vegas Temple, before heading to California. 

  

  Louie and Rudy cuddling while on a roadtrip to Vegas.

  We then spent the rest of the week preparing a 90th Birthday present for Jen’s grandpa. His favorite magazine is Time, so we made a huge book for him with all of the cover stories from each birthday that he’s had. Grandpa Perlmutter later pulled me aside and secretly told me, “Don’t tell anyone, but this is the best present I’ve ever gotten.”

  

  Izzy Perlmutter: Man of the Year

  Louie also enjoyed the sunshine while in California, and got into a lot of mischief when he somehow snuck outside and jumped into the swimming pool. His tail, which normally whirls around like a helicopter, actually went limp for a day from the shock of the cold water. Thankfully, we got our happy lab tail back the next day once he was able to spend enough time basking in sunlight.



Louie loves sunshine almost as much as mischief.

• Once I survived my four tests and two papers, I’m not enjoying my winter break. We spent Christmas in SLC with my parents and at the Marshallese peet party. A few days later, we went back to California for another week to celebrate our anniversary and spend time with Jen’s family. We went to the San Diego Temple and Olive Garden on New Year's Eve before celebrating the new year and our engagement anniversary on Sunset Beach with fireworks.