Merry Christmas!

What a wonderful first Christmas for Isla! That was just enough snow yesterday morning to make everything look white without any messiness on the roads. Christmas Eve we had lunch at my Grandmas. Isla did really well around people she doesn't see often and was in a good mood while we were there. Grandma, Grandpa, and Mimi went to church with us at 4:00, then I took her and Daddy home and I went back to work in the nursery for the 6:00 service. We didn't have many kiddos though so I came back home around 6:30. Daddy had already fed Isla and given her a bath so when I got home we read Christmas stories, had a bottle and went to bed.

Isla loved opening presents Christmas morning. Her favorite part was eating the wrapping paper. P and I each had to go in to her mouth, digging for paper a few times. She loved her new toy pots and pans and her little backpack looks so cute on her! I didn't realize her little riding push toy would have so many pieces so Santa didn't think to have it put together before Christmas morning. P put it together today and J was pushing her around on it. She LOVED it!! Isla was napping yesterday when her grandparents and our neighbors came over for brunch. After our neighbors left, she got to open more presents. Last night we went to Grandma's for ever MORE presents! She got quite a haul including a ball popping machine from Mimi, books from T and T, a big teddy bear from T and K, a bee pillow pet and doll from Grandma and Grandpa, a shape sorter and a Glo Worm from K and D, and a pillow with blanket and another little toy from K...whew! I'm sure I missed some stuff. Mommy got a Garnet ring (Isla's birthstone) and an opal ring. Daddy loved the calendar of Isla pictures with Winston!

It looks like we may be starting daycare earlier than planned. I need to call tomorrow and see if she can start in a few weeks. The last time I talked to them, they had an opening as of January 17th. Isla has a doctor's appointment that day and will get shots so I don't want her to start that week but if possible, we'll let her start January 24th. Mimi may have to have surgery and not be able to babysit for several weeks. I'm excited about her starting daycare--she's definitely ready to be around other kids to play and I think the schedule will be good for her. At the same time I'm nervous about the change and how she'll do. My mom still wants to babysit some so she'll either continue to come over a couple days a week or pick her up a couple afternoons a week. If we get to start the week of the 24th, mom will plan on watching her the previous week while she's getting over her shots. Mom will also try to start her on the same schedule daycare will have her on. Daycare should make things easier weather wise this winter, but I hope it doesn't mean a winter of sickness. We have been so lucky and blessed that Isla hasn't ever really been sick.

We have lots of new pictures. I'll try to post some in a day or two.

Good night!

So much is going on...

Dear Isla-

There's so much I want to record for you but I'd much rather spend my time playing with you and helping your explore your world than sitting here writing. There's a greeting card I bought for you months before you were born that I still haven't written in for you. There's so much to say, it won't all fit in a card. I also have the journal I try to write in for you, but momma's bad about doing that also so I'm typing a letter to you here.

I can't believe you are almost a year old! I'd been thinking about your birthday party for a long time and suddenly it's time to take action! We're going to have a big party to celebrate our first year together. I have your invitations written, the room reserved, and the menu planned. I'm typically anti-theme, but a bumble bee theme (with some bears) has come about for your party since you're momma's little Isla B(ee). Our cousin C is planning on bringing I and A to the party and will bring some of her pretty cookies too! Momma's going to try to decorate little cake balls to look like bumble bees and I'm going to make you a little bee cake all for you!

Every day is magical these days! You are exploring and learning so much! You LOVE the kitchen cabinets and Grandma gave us a stash of plastic bowls to keep in there for you to play with. Your favorites are the big ice cream pails--you have 2 and you turn them over and push them ALL over the place! Usually you're on your knees when you do this, but sometimes you get brave and push yourself up on your feet. You also love all momma's cookbooks on the bookcase in the kitchen.

You love books in general. Unfortunately you're most interested in eating them these days. I want you to LOVE books and hate to take them away from you so we try to focus on clothe books and other ones you don't destroy by chewing on them. Hopefully we can get in the habit of reading books together soon. Right now you're more interested in turning pages and chewing on corners but we keep trying.

You're also chewing on your bed these days. It's a "life long" bed so I hope that we are able to sand out your teething efforts and restain them so that you're not embarassed when you're 14 and your friends see the little baby teeth marks on your furniture.

Speaking of teeth, you have 8! I'm pretty sure at least 7 of them are all the way through. One might still be playing peek-a-boo with us. So far, you haven't had just a horrible, horrible time with the teething but you do drool terribly and chew on everything in site. But I'd rather deal with those inconveniences than have you in terrible pain with the things. You're also getting better about letting momma brush your teeth too.

Grandpa is one of your favorite people these days. You look for him whenever you hear his name and Grandma says you go looking for him when you hear him at their house. You spent the night with them for the 2nd time Friday night. I think they want you to spend the night more frequently but momma likes having you close.

"Hi" is your favorite word and has been for awhile, but "yeah" is gaining ground. You are also starting to mimic sounds--I told you to "sit down" in the bathtub the other night and you replied back "si-dow" several times. You FINALLY said "mommommommma" last night. Once. And once today.

For the past few months, we've been having play dates at our house and you're really starting to interact with the other kids. Last month you took S's pacifier out of his mouth. Today you tried to take his bottle away from him.

Oh--bottles! After how many months of trying EVERYTHING to get you to take a bottle, you've FINALLY decided you like the things. Just when it's almost time to take them away from you. Today, you saw a bottle in your diaper bag and went after it. Then S was on his mommy's lap and you tried to take his bottle. Both times I made you bottles and you gulped them down in no time. A few months ago you showed no interest in them, no matter how little you'd eaten. You still won't hold the bottle yourself very often. That's okay, momma likes holding your bottle for you.

Today you kept taking me and daddy into the bathroom. You'll even go in when it's dark in there! You lead us over to the tub--walking, holding on to our fingers--and stand there. You love your baths! The first time you did that this morning, daddy went ahead and gave you a bath. He let you play until you pooped in the tub. You've done that to momma a couple times too.

It's almost Christmas! You've been so good with the tree. We put it in the dining room this year so it wouldn't be quite so tempting. You've not bothered any of the pretty ornaments so far but there are a couple packages you keep trying to get. I want to start so many traditions--I already have your new pajamas for Christmas Eve! You wore them to see Santa this year and the pictures are adorable! Well, the ones when he walked up behind you are. Once you sat on his lap, you cried. I want to read the story of Jesus's birth to you each Christmas and take you to church Christmas Eve after taking a family picture by the Christmas tree. When you are bigger we will bake Christmas cookies, buy "angel gifts" together for others, and find ways to show others God's love.

Last weekend I found myself calling you "little girl" instead of "baby girl." I can't believe how fast time is going.

I have so many hopes and dreams for you Isla. I want you to grow up loving God and your family and thinking about others. I want you to always know how special and wonderful and beautiful and loved you are. I want you to how much joy you bring to your mommma and daddy and all your family--something I don't think I truly understood until you got here. I look at you and I am overwhelmed with love and I realize that's how Grandma feels about me. I hope you have a little baby someday so you can feel that feeling also.

It's time for momma to go to bed, my sweet Isla. I'll try to write to your more, either here or in the journal.

I love you. You'll always be momma's baby girl.

 

 

 

 

Winston!

 

 

 

 

Movin', movin', movin....

We're officially mobile. We've been scootching and army crawling and such for awhile, but today she really seems to realize she can lay some tracks. Her crawl is rather inventive. One knee stays on the floor, but the other leg comes up next to her and her foot pulls her forward--very crustacean.

Ggggggrrrrr. Apparently I can't post pictures to the blog from my phone. I can post them to a special "mobile blog" and I can post text to this blog but I can't seem to post pictures here from my phone. Bummer.

And a few more pics...

Gotta keep some pics close to the top!

I may have posted about this before, but oh well. My friend A's little boy J likes to see pictures of babies on her phone. At 4:30 in the morning. I try to keep pics close to the top so she can pull up the blog for J quickly. At 4:30 in the morning.

When P came in today, Isla looked at him and said "Daddy!" We could tell that she knows that word receptively for a few weeks, but the last few days it seems she knows it expressively also.

We had a playdate yesterday. Isla took S's pacifier out of his mouth a few times. I'm not sure what she would have done with it had I not stopped her. I suspect it would have gone in hers. She's been chewing on everything lately. Including mommy. We're going to have to have a biting intervention soon. So far we're trying saying "no bite" and sitting her in the floor away from us. Another suggestion I've read is to "cry" when they do it. Apparently our kid is a sociopath-she had no qualms about making mommy cry tonight. Another suggestion is to push whatever she's biting into her mouth more--this is actually what P used to do with the dogs. We'll see which seems to work the best.

Pictures as promised....

Big Day!

P and I went out of town last night and spent our first night away from Isla. We just went to a little town an hour and a half away, went to a movie, did a little shopping, ate at my favorite Tex Mex place, and ate at a great sushi restaurant we'd never tried before. Our B&B room wasn't anything fancy, but did have a private hot tub--woo hoo!

Isla had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa's and they had a blast too. Isla kept crying whenever my dad would leave the room--I think he was pretty tickled about that. I'd told my mom about how Isla does with the Alison Krauss music but I don't think she really realized what I meant until last night.

When we got home, Isla had 3 new teeth! They're just barely poking through, I'm sure they won't stay out given that the last 2 played hide and seek for 3 months. Still, a big day for a little girl!

We went to look at day cares today. The Grandmas are on duty until springtime, but I think Isla's ready to spend time with other kids on a regular basis. It will be sad not to have her at home all the time, but I know she'll make friends and have fun. There were 2 places we really liked--we agree we'd feel comfortable with her at either place. One is within walking distance of my office and the other is, well, probably technically within walking distance also. The one is a 5 minute walk away and the other is probably 1 1/2 miles away. The thing that may make our decision for us is that one accepts part-timers once they are 2 years old and the other doesn't.

We took the 10 month picture with Winston today. I need to upload pictures this weekend. Gotta keep baby pictures close to the top for little J who likes looking at pictures on his mommy's phone. At 4:00 in the morning. I want to order some pictures from Snapfish or Kodak Gallery this weekend too.

More later-

Hhhhhmmmmm....

Apparently the pictures I tried to post from my phone are lost in cyberspace somewhere. I'll try to post more pictures this weekend, including Halloween photos.

We FINALLY have those top teeth through. Unfortunately they bite sometimes. Not often, but she'd gotten me a couple times.

Isla still loves Allison Kraus. Tonight she was fussing and crying. I sat down, opened You Tube and started playing her videos. Isla immediately calmed and sat here watching the videos until she fell asleep.

Many nights she falls asleep watching slide show pictures on the computer. She likes the ones of that little girl from the mirror with mommy or daddy. She also likes the picture of her friends from playdates. She'll laugh at the computer, smile, wave, etc. There's one picture of her, P, and I standing in front of the mirror at the end of the hallway that she just LOVES even though there's a big white spot in the mirror from the flash. She loves standing and looking at that little girl so that picture is great. Anytime we're carrying her into her room or she's in the bathroom, she leans to the mirror to look at that little girls. She's been playing bashful with her some. She still won't often cry while looking in the mirror.

We've finally got the belly to knees or butt down pat. It seemed to take so long for her to master that movement. Seems like she has to get good and mad about something in order to do new motor tasks.

Time for bed. We're still getting up during the night for a bottle. Our doctor was encouraging me to end that practice--easier now than later--but she seems to just lose those calories and doesn't make them up. I think we may just go ahead and let her decide when to end the middle of the night feedings on her own.

Nite!

Picture pages!

Picture Pages!

High brow humor

Isla loves it when her 9 year old cousin J makes farting armpit noises. Nice.
And she loves Velveeta. Gourmet tastes. Yeah, our kid is classy.

OH--she said "mom" Sunday. Made me all warm and fuzzy.

Momma's little Isla B

It's amazing to see personality develop. Isla is definitely her own person with her own likes, dislikes, and mannerisms. She loves seeing that little girl in the mirror and knows where to find her in the house. She looks for her over my shoulder as soon as she gets out of the tub.

She loves Speckles--she's the only "person" Isla will kiss voluntarily without prompting. She opens her mouth and leans in for Speckles's nose. I think we've caught her so far and kept the smooch from actually happening.

She loves Alison Kraus music, especially Down in the River to Pray. There have been several times in the car that the song has prevented a major meltdown. I have to play it over and over. And it's the only song I've downloaded on my iphone. One night I played videos for Isla as she fell asleep. As long as Alison Kraus was singing, she was quiet and content. When Brad Paisley started singing at the beginning of Whiskey Lullaby, she started fussing again. Alison started singing again, she was mesmorized. I have to sing Down in the River to Pray a lot also.

Isla can scoot across the floor pretty good as long as no one is watching her. Seems like when she knows someone is paying attention though, she expects to be picked up and placed into whatever position she wants. She still doesn't go from laying to sitting on her own--she did it one night when she was mad and wanted out of bed. She has the pulling up thing down pat--that happened a week or so ago. Up, down, up, down. She's got that covered so now I'm terrified to leave her in a room by herself, especially since we have hardwood floors in our living room. We've taken to playing downstairs a lot more--more padding.

As soon as she mastered the pulling up thing, she went back to concentrate on her verbal skills and started babbling a lot more. She says da-da-da-da-da but usually only when she's upset about something. I haven't figured out if she wants to tell on me, if she wants da-da-da-da to rescue her, or if she's cussing him out. Either way, she doesn't associate da-da-da-da with P yet.

Her receptive language skills are on fast forward now though. Each day it seems like she learns a few more words and what they mean. She knows she is Isla, she knows what a drink is, bite, bottle, puppy. I try to do some signs with her as often as I can but I usually forget.

She likes watching her sign language video. Actually she likes watching tv in general. I know, shouldn't be done, but that would be unrealistic for us so we try to focus on educational programs. She likes Dora and Sesame Street. And it was really funny when Rachael Ray was breading chicken in a paper bag and shaking it the other day.

Sleep's been hit or miss lately. Some nights she'll sleep for 8 hours without waking up, some nights it's every 3 hours. Tonight she went to bed at 5:15 and got up for a bottle at 8:15. I hope she'll sleep until 4 or 5 before she's up again.

We had pictures taken in our Elvis Halloween costume. I'll post soon. I have several pics I need to post, as well as some video of her making a huge mess splashing in the tub this morning.

Speaking of tub, we've been to the pool again--how fun. She's also started taking some of her baths in the tub without her inflatable duck--her little bottom slips and slides all over the place which she thinks is hilarious.

My favorite time of day is as Isla's going to sleep. Some nights she fusses and fights it but there always comes a point when she just lays in momma's arms looking up, smiling, telling me how much she loves and trusts me. I'll stroke her cheek and she'll grin. If I'm looking away and she wants to look at me, she'll sit herself up and lean around to look in my face with the sweetest grin you've ever seen. aaaaagghh. Nothing is sweeter. Then we say our prayers, I tell her "sweet dreams princess" and put her to bed.

Life is good.

Busy momma!

I've been one busy momma the past week or so. One of my maternity leave goals was to clean out/organize the storage room and have a huge garage sale. Six months later....DONE! The great thing was once I got all the garage sale stuff out, the stuff that lives in the storage room permanently was pretty much organized. We still have some stuff in the garage but I'll call Restore about coming to pick up a couple pieces of furniture and K is coming over today to pick up more of her stuff. We got rid of a TON of stuff and helped a few other people get rid of some also. M only brought over K's clothes and managed to sell $140 worth of stuff! The most amusing sale was the guy who asked if there was a way to plug in the breast pump to see HOW it works. I told him I don't have working parts anymore but if I'd certainly plug it in for him so he could try it out. He and his wife had a sweet little girl who was just over a year old and they're due again in a few months. I also sold our bassinet--those were our 2 high dollar items. The girl that bought the bassinet was someone I worked with years ago at Blue Cross. I hope little Noah likes it better than Isla did.

I've also been getting the hang of this whole teaching thing. I'm starting a new class Wednesday and am so relieved that it's the same class. It was supposed to be a different class than what I had done, but he had an attorney scheduled to teach a public administration class and me scheduled for a law class. Made pretty good sense to switch us. The best thing is I've read the text book already, I've done PowerPoints for the first 7/9 chapters, and I've already done initial discussion board posts. I spent a few hours last night looking through my new classroom to make sure things in there looked they did in the old one. I think it will be a lot easier the second go round.

So what's been going on with Isla B while momma's been so busy? She worked the garage sale a lot. Grandma and Grandpa were there the whole time and Daddy and cousin M were there a lot too so she just kinda went from person to person. She wanted to help momma write stuff. She got a new stroller out of the event. The lady that was my mentor when I started my job had just purchased a stroller from another lady I work with--I'd actually seen it at D's daughter's yard sale and knew it was nice and unused. But it was very pink and J'd daughter found out she's having a boy. I told her I'd trade her strollers if it would help. So K has a blue and gray, unisex stroller for her little boy and Isla has a pink stroller. K also bought our swing base for the carrier and since our carrier is out of date in a couple months, she can take the fabric parts from it in hers to use instead of her pink stuff.

Isla's still working on mobility. She can get to a sitting position from an all-4s position but she tends to get mad and frustrated when she tries to do things like that. Not much progress on the babbling front, but we're getting more kisses these days. Lately she's decided that baby food isn't as tasty and momma and daddy food. We got a new bed that has a wall unit with mirrors over the headboard--she loves to stand at the headboard and talk to that baby. Yesterday we had pictures taken in our Hallween costume--I'll see if I can post a link to those. Tomorrow we're supposed to have our 9 month pictures taken. So busy!

More later--need to go shower and get moving!!

OH--I have a blog entry about Alison Kraus I need to post. I'm not sure what happened to the email I wrote it out in though. I'll find that and add it in a day or 2. Meanwhile, if you hear my baby crying, start singing "As I went down in the river to pray, studying about that good ole way...."

Later!

A splishin' and a splashin'

Guess who went to the pool tonight? Our gym has family hours on Friday evenings and the warm water pool is open for the kids. Isla LOVED it! She got the hang of splashing and seemed to surprise herself when she's splash herself in the face. Daddy dunked her a couple times and she was fine with it. There were other little kids there that she LOVED watching play--she'd watch them and laugh and squeal. It was so cute and she was adorable in her little Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duke swimsuit. (Don't tell Daddy but I also bought her a bikini at a garage sale this morning! He will NOT approve!)

Busy week....

We've had a lot going on the past week. The class I'm teaching is taking up more time than I expected but I really like it. Our church small group started back up--we're reading Radical. Our discussion Tuesday night was really good. Wednesday nights P and I are meeting with a personal training. I really think R was trying to kill us last night and now I hurt.

Isla been a real sweetie the past week--ok, I can say that now while she's in her crib asleep and not screaming at me. She's a pretty opinionated little girl and let's her opinions be known. Still, she's a sweetie. Mom and I are trying to teach her to blow kisses. I guess we only do this when we're leaving though cause Isla has started smacking her lips when she's waving bye-bye.

Our favorite song these days is Down in the River to Pray. The version from Oh Brother Where Art Thou calms her whenever she's upset and she likes mommy to sing it to her as well. Last night I was singing to her and I thought she'd gone to sleep so I reached over the check something on the laptop. She sat up in my arms, leaned around to look me in the face and gave me the sweetest grin. She's also been pretty giggly before falling asleep lately. She giggles when I stroke the side of her face and when I give her kisses as she's falling asleep. Tonight we played a kissing game--she'd lean over and give me a kiss and then I'd give her one, then she'd give me another. It lasted for several rounds until a dog barked on tv and took her attention from me.

We're scooting backward and doing the army crawl. A few days ago, she decided to crawl over my leg and decided to bite my leg as she did so. We have some babbling, but most of her verbalizations are squeals and screeches. She does some /b/ sounds and managed da the other day. Close to dad-da. She also says hi every once in awhile.

The trouble we were having with staying asleep is much better. We found out it we lay her down and she fusses, it will last a total of 10 seconds. One night, there was literally one big "WWAAA-AAAAHHH" followed by two "wwaahs." Then she was asleep.

The Halloween costume is almost ready. My mom has the jumpsuit done, I just need to add some bedazzling to it. M found us some little blue suede shoes to wear with the jumper. Can't wait to post pictures!!

Lots to do over the next few days. Tomorrow I work until 11, then I'll come home and get Isla. We're having lunch with J and M at Pasta House. Then we're going to go see K and probably get groceries. Saturday we're going to MOPS for the first time and Saturday night we're having friends over for us to try out some Thai recipes on them. No plans Sunday. Next weekend we're having a garage sale so I need to finish getting stuff together and priced.

Lots of stuff!

We had a couple rough nights over the weekend. I think baby girl intended to take a late nap and was unhappy when mommy and daddy thought she should be down for the night. We kept her up later last night and things went a little better.

Saturday night she was rather insistent that she should be up and managed to take herself from her tummy-butt-in-the-air position to a seated position to raise her arms up for momma. She hasn’t done it again since, but she’s been working those legs around going from a seated position to her tummy.

Last night she was laying in my arms as we were winding down for bed and I ran my finger over her neck, just above the collar of her sleeper. TICKLE SPOT! She giggled and giggled. So mommy had to keep doing it. I love when she’s winding down for the night and gets really playful. She’ll lay in my arms smiling at me when I make faces at her, she’ll play with my hair, put her hand on my face.... Smile. Sigh.

Speaking of tickle spots, this baby giggles but I have yet to hear a real belly laugh out of her. Maybe because she doesn’t have much of a belly. One thing that tickles her is when Grandpa rubs the bottoms of her feet against his scruffy face. My dad has a 5:00 shadow 10 minutes after he shaves—he always has stubble. Anyway, one foot is ticklish and she’ll giggle and pull the foot back. The other foot apparently isn’t ticklish—she leaves it there.


I sorted through all Isla’s winter clothes this past weekend. We have SO many. Of course that didn’t me from buying more at a garage sale I went to. Or from going through a bag of stuff P’s coworker sent him for me to go through to see if I wanted any of. Now I need to go through her closet and pull out the summer sun-suits. We’re still having 90 degree days, but it’s too cool in the mornings and evenings for her to wear them. When I put stuff up I want to sort the 9 month clothes from the other stuff—she might be able to wear some of it next spring, depending on when the warm weather comes and how much she grows.

We’re having a garage sale in a couple weeks. I have so much to do to get ready. I started pricing stuff last weekend. I’ll continue with that and P and I will clean out the garage this weekend. It’s not too bad—I’d wanted to have a garage sale in the spring and cleaned out the garage then. I also have a bunch of little projects started that I want to work on. This class I’m teaching is taking up much more time that I expected, but I do like it. I think I’m starting to get in a pattern of what I need to do when and I’m starting to feel more comfortable with the computer platform. Good thing—midterm week starts tomorrow!

Pictures, pictures, pictures!

I uploaded some pictures tonight from Sunday's playdate with E, T, S & T's big brother O. Those had to load as a separate post. They were so cute together. There was actually some interactions. T is really laid back and didn't care when someone took his toy's from him. Isla wouldn't let anyone take her bucket. S is younger than the others and grinned at the little girls. E is so much more independent than Isla is. That mobility makes a lot of difference. T seems to talk more than Isla does--he was saying "ball," well, "bah" anyway. Isla has the yoga baby moves down--she can fold herself over and right herself.

We're still working at the crawling thing. I know one of these days she'll just take off and there won't be any stopping her. She's also practicing standing on her own.

Isla's doing really well eating puffs. For awhile she'd just pick them up, hold out her arm, and let them fall in the floor. Speckles loves her. Now she's getting them in her mouth.

We seem to be sleeping more soundly this week. I've been leaving music on in her room. I've also stopped getting her up for a bottle before I go to bed. So far so good with her eating totals.

The other pictures below were also taken Sunday. I love this month's Winston pictures--she was being a little ham. Later Sunday afternoon we went to the park to play a little bit.

Gotta go--have to check the discussion boards for my class.