Sunday w/ Kendra & Tim

She Loves the Fist in Mouth

Kendra walked around with her today for about 20-30 minutes singing to her. Isabel was so calmed that she quietly sat in her arms. You wouldn’t have even realized we had an awake baby in the house if you didn’t see them walking around.

Finally, a picture with Tim where her fist is not in her mouth.

Tim took a bunch of pictures of her as well. I only was able to see one of them so far, which is of her giving me a kiss. It is very cute. If she wants to give me a kiss she puts both hands on each side of my face and leans in and gives me a big open mouth slobbery kiss. It is very sweet. I look forward to seeing the other pictures he took of her. He was taking a lot of close-ups to get her facial expression. Hopefully I am left out of most of them, as I was still in my pjs and hadn't gotten ready yet for the day.

Time to Say Goodbye.

They were just here for a weekend visit. They fly back to Philly now to go back to work again. We really enjoyed having them come visit. Especially sitting & eating meals with them. Now that Isabel has a fairly predictable pattern and goes to bed around 7pm, we can eat dinner after she goes to bed without one of us having to entertain her. So, it was very nice to have that dinner. I made Gallo Pinto (not this recipe, but a different one that I changed & made my own, but similar -- this gives you history though), salad, wine , and Tilapia with a Citrus Marinade. Tilapia is a very common fish to eat in Costa Rica. For dessert we had a Bing Cherry Swirl Cheesecake (from Harry & David, I didn't have time to cook that too!) and this bottle of Ice Wine from Blue Mountain Wines (which I bought 4 years ago when I was visiting them, it was an expensive bottle and we never had a reason to drink that nice of a bottle, so we thought now was a great time. It is a winery in Pennslyvania.)

Pictures w/ Kendra & Tim

Baby Girl w/ Kendra.

They brought us back presents from their travels. They gave Isabel a sippy cup from Disney in Hong Kong. They thought it might be much later that she will use it, but really she might start drinking out of a sippy cup here pretty soon. Today (Sunday) she tried some of my apple juice (yes, I made sure it is 100% juice) ans she enjoyed that. She probably enjoyed both the flavor and the coolness on her gums.

" Ok, They Can Stay for a Visit."

The stranger anxiety thing has been starting to set in, but she warmed up to Kendra & Tim pretty quickly. They started making funny faces & sounds (sounds she already thinks are funny) at her and she realized that they must be ok.

"He's So Dreamy!"

Kendra said that little girls fall in love with Tim from ages 6 month until 12 years old. She might be starting a couple weeks early. She's a little flirt though; A few hours a week, the daycare lady takes care of her nephew Luis who is 10 days older than Isabel. She says that the two hold hands and play together when they are there at the same time.

Yesterday - 24 Weeks

Weeeeee!!!

Her outfit changed a bit from the morning. Earlier, she was wearing Oshkosh overalls that were part of the whole outfit (onesie, sweater, hat & socks) that came from Sally, a friend from mommy's work. But by time we took pictures for the blog we swapped out the overalls for these new silk TCP pants mommy bought for her. Guess we'll see how well those wash up. And she has her Cinderella slippers on too.

Playing is Sooooooo Much Fun!

Daddy is just happy I am not screaming at him right now.

Her teeth have really been bothering her. She’s been kinda cranky all weekend. You can see both the center bottom teeth there right under the skin. They are sure taking their sweet time to erupt. She was not very good about letting dad comfort her this day.

Almost Sitting Up By Self

She can now sit up with just the little bit of assistance from a boppy around her rear. So, she'll be sitting on her own anyday now. She was having fun playing with an old favorite in a new way.

Tomorrow, Kendra & Tim are flying in from Philly to visit with us and meet Isabel. We are excited to introduce Isabel to them. They are dear friends of ours. We have been managing to see them once a year by taking turns visiting each other. This year it was their turn to come here, next year we go there to visit. What is also nice is daddy has family that live there as well, so we get to visit them too.

You want to know something funny. Isabel doesn't poop at daycare. At least not since she started solids, which is almost 2 months ago now. The other day I was home with her and she pooped twice during the hours she would have been at daycare and then the other days she poops sometime in the evening or before I take her to daycare, and on Saturdays she poops 3 times a day. Why 3 times? I don't know, but that has been her pattern. I don't know why she poops at daycare. The last time that I believe she pooped at daycare was when I brought her home with a dirty diaper & changed it, but for all I know she could have pooped in the short car ride home. So, I don't know - can a 5 1/2 month old control when she poops? If so, maybe potty training will be a little easier when we come to that.

It's kinda funny watching her poop. She stops whatever she is doing and gets a peculiar expression on her face and sometimes her face starts to turn red. If she's really pushing she grunts and puffs out her cheeks and holds her breath (or at least it seems like she does) ans sometimes she shakes a little. It makes me giggle sometimes. I betcha daddy poops like that too.

Her outfit today is from KO. It has all the hearts embroidered on the overalls. Very cute.

What a Difference 7 miles makes.....

We live in a pretty small rural town (1200 people) that is sandwiched between 2 larger towns (approx. 25,000 people in each). Both places are roughly 7 miles away from us, one to the north and one to the south.

Well, I had signed us up for ECFE classes in the one to the south because I had met some people from it through the Newborn Clinic. I was told that evening classes fill up immediately, as in the same day that registration opens. They offer infant classes here, but I just didn't know anyone from it yet and wanted to go to the other town for now. But I just emailed the teacher of the ECFE classes in our town about letting us know about the next session of infant classes and she emailed back to tell me that they had to cancel them because of low enrollment. Now, I feel stuck. I want to do the class thing again, but who knows if the one in our town will be held. I wanted to stick with our town, as all the ECFE classes here are offered by the same teacher, who is also the pre-school teacher.

When it comes to swimmimng classes in our town, they are cheaper and easier to get into than in neighboring towns. I know in the town to our South that kids get put on waiting lists to be in a swim classes and there are a couple different places they do swim classes at. So, we shouldn't have to worry about getting her signed up for that.

I just lined up our first babysitter that is not family or friends of ours. She is our neighbor's teenage niece. She is a Senior in high school. Well, I asked her about pay and she told me a pretty low amount. I know what some of my friends pay in Owatonna for a teenage babysitter and this amount was low. Actually, it seemed to be what I got paid when I babysat as a teenager, which is quite a while ago. I told her we would be giving her more than what she was asking. It's important to pay your babysitters decent so that they want to say yes to you. She'll be basically coming here while Isabel is sleeping, but she does to bed now @ 7pm, and watching the video monitor of our sleeping one so that we can go out and eat dinner or see a movie or whatever else we want for a couple hours. I set up a date in November and in December. I feel good about finally getting some date nights set up.

In some respects I am glad we live in a very small town, but in other respects it definitly has its limitations. But we live close enough to larger towns that we can access other things we can't in our town. Plus we are only an hour away from the Twin Cities, which is close enough to take a day trip on a weekend to the zoo or a museum or whatever else.

Breastmilk Gives Me Wiiinnnngggsss!

She has a peculiar expression on her face, but you can see her wings sticking up in the back. They normally lay flat because they are made of a thin material, but the edges kinda stuck to the seat and they are out.

Happy Halloween!

I am SOooooooo Not an Angel!

She got me up 3 times last night, but at least the longest time was 10 minutes. But her final wakeup time was 5:15, even though she went to bed later because of class. I wonder if getting up that early was because of the time change or teething.

Class last night was ok. The kids part was about physical floor play & not putting kids into "containers" ALL the time. By containers they meant swings & playpens & cribs & exercausers (you get the idea.) You can still put kids in them, but some parents put their kids in them too much and never hold them and don't allow much for free physical play. The adult part was about flat head. They had a Physical Therapist from the hospital there to talk about it, what to look for and how to correct it and then she looked at our babies' heads. She said Isabel has a beautiful round head.

Earning Her Wings

She seems to like this outfit/costume. She likes picking up the skirt and sticking it in her mouth and playing with it. It's a good way to keep her busy hands occupied. I wasn't sure if this would fit her because it seemed an inch longer than the bumblebee outfit, but it must be cut different so that when it's on her it fits great. It's a size 9 months.

gfn (I typed this.)

I let her bang on the keys of the keyboard when we are on the computer. She likes it.

I sang her a couple of new songs today -- She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain and the Oscar Meyer Weiner Song. I had to look up the additional verses to SBCRTM, and you know what I found -- all the songs I found had the first 3 verses the same, but there are many different versions of the remaining verses. The one I put a link to is the version I had learned. On Top of Spaghetti is a song I tried to sing to her yesterday but I couldn't remember past the second verse.

Daycare Costumes

This isn't all of the kids, but some. This was taken after school when the older kids come home. I picked up Isabel at her normal time and then brought her back for the picture. The girl holding her is the daycare lady's daughter and her son is holding the giraffe. Actually, the giraffe is a neighbor of ors. Thing 2 has a twin who was Thing 1, but Thing 1 didn't want to stay in costume and didn't want to come get his picture taken. And there are a couple 2 other girls that are at daycare; one wasn't there that day and the other had already left and was not coming back.

My Baby Bumblebee

Bzzzzzz.....

This costume fit perfectly. Not too short, just a little extra length so she could do some kicking. And easy enough to put on & off frequently. She also wore it to class. It was a small class last night, only half the kids showed up (which is 4) and only 1 other dressed up. He was a cow.

A Runny-nosed Bumblebee

Can you see the wings here? They are black with small polka dots on them. Kinda hard to see. The hat is really cute. We can take the striped vest w/ attached wings off and she is just wearing a romper all day. The bottoms of her feet say Buzz.

The Bumblebee Song

(This is the version I learned.)

I'm picking up a baby bumblebee,Won't my mommy be so proud of me, (Cup hands together as if holding bee)

I'm picking up a baby bumblebee,Ouch! It stung me!(Shake hands as if just stung)

I'm squishing up the baby bumblebee,Won't my mommy be so proud of me,('Squish' bee between palms of hands)

I'm squishing up a baby bumblebee,Ooh! What a mess!(Open up hands to look at 'mess')

I'm licking off the baby bumblebee,Won't my mommy be so proud of me,(Pretend to lick hands off.)

I'm licking off the baby bumblebee, Oh, I don't feel so good. (Put arms over stomach and lean over like you are ill.)

I'm puking up the baby bumblebee, Won't my mommy be so pround of me. (Pretend to lean over and puke.)

I'm puking up the baby bumblebee, Oh, What a mess! (Look at the floor.)

I'm sweeping up my baby bumblebee, Won't my mommy be so proud of me, (Pretend to sweep the floor.)

I'm sweeping up my baby bumblebee, Now my mommy won't be mad at me. Hi mom! (Wave to mom.)

A Visit from Grandma & Grandpa M.

Grandpa M.

Today Grandpa & Grandma came to visit. They are daddy's parents. (Mommy's parents are Grams & Gramps.) This is Isabel with Grandpa. He makes funny sounds and faces like daddy does, but not quite as silly as daddy.

Grandma M.

This is Isabel with Grandma. She had been waiting a long time for a girl in the family. Daddy was supposed (hoped) to be a girl, but he ended up being the 4th boy. Isabel has two boy cousins. Today she is wearing an outfit Grandma bought from Toys'r'us; it has ballerinas on the front.

Isabel seemed to have fun showing them how to use her toys. She needed to warm up to them a bit, as it had been a while since she had seen them. She has a picture of them in her "Who Loves Baby" book, but I don't think she made the connection. Actually, she probably just looks at herself in the pictures and ignores the others who are with her. She likes to look at pictures of herself.

Tomorrow is the Halloween party for daycare and also for our ECFE class, so she will have a couple of places to wear her costume. I have to go into work super early (an urgent matter just came up & I need to be there @ 7am), so I don't know if I will get a picture taken (& on here) before I go.

We had to work all day to stretch out that hour we gained. I hope it worked and she is on schedule. As an adult, I love gaining that extra hour, but as a parent -- well, it just screws things up. She got a little fussy at times because I was trying to get her back on schedule, when her body was on a different schedule. Luckily, it was bath night and that helped stretch it out that last little bit. She seems to forget about being hungry & tired if she takes a bath.

Daddy and I have now finally figured out how to make that "after" bathtime more pleasant and free of crying (or at least minimal). Well, first I get the space heaters going in both her bedroom and in the bathroom to make them both nice & toasty. Then when it's time to get out, daddy comes to get her. But before he takes her I dry off her face & hair with a handtowel while she is still in the bath (she doesn't mind it much when she is still in the water) and then daddy wraps her in this new super soft towel I bought her and brings her to her room and talks to her while he gets her dressed and then mommy comes in after she gets dressed to help finish up. It's quite a process, but it works and she has been tear free the last 3 times -- so we're not going to screw with it.

Playing in the Nude

Sputtering Nude

Yes, the funny expression is because she is sputtering. I decided to let her play nude. She thinks it is fun.

It was a hard night & morning for me. She got me up 5 times -- yes, 5 TIMES! And finally on the 6th time she wanted to stay up because it was 5am. I knew she was going to want to get up then, since her internal clock doesn't know we put the clocks back an hour. It should be an interesting day. Maybe I can get an extra little nap out of her because of it. (*wishful thinking*)

The thing that sucks about those 5 times is that I had to do them. Daddy would have, but she just starts screaming when he comes in at night. Personally, I think he goes in and pinches her to make her cry so mommy has to come in and mommy just decides is best that mommy always goes in. She didn't want to nurse all those times, just be held. I tried shhhh! her back to sleep with my hand on her belly, but she got more upset until I picked up up. When she wakes up at night, it seems being held by mom is all she wants, which is ok once a night, maybe twice a night, but 5 times is exhausting!

Grabbing Feet Nude

It's so much easier to play with your feet when you don't have a diaper on. She was just loving it.

Yesterday, daddy fed her breastmilk out of a cup. I had noticed when we take a bath she is always trying to drink the water out of the dish I use to pour warm water on her. So, then I brought smaller dishes/bowls into the bath for her to play with, and what do you know, she was trying to drink the water, although she hasn't quite figured out how to hold it ad tip it herself. So, I told daddy to try feeding her from a cup (actually, he used the same small dish she was using in the tub) and he was able to feed her. He also tried feeding her with a bottle ans she didn't want any of that. He's going to try the cup again today. Mommy is pretty excited that daddy can feed her milk now and not just solids. Maybe this will mean mommy can get out a little bit, and not just to work when Isabel is at daycare.

Today Grandma & Grandps M. are coming to visit. I'll wait to take pictures of Isabel all dressed up today until I take pictures of her with them. They bought her the outfit she is wearing. It's a 6-9mo. outfit and the top fits great, the pants length is great, but the belly is a little big. Good thing she has a diaper on, otherwise it would slide right off.

23 Weeks

A little outfit from KO and a Gymboree head wrap mom bought. She's having fun playing today and getting a lot of attention from mom & dad.

The Wal-Mart Portrait

She's not smiling, just like I told you before. If you can see the picture bigger, you will see the droplet of drool on her chin -- very cute! Since that is what she's all about now. We're going to try the Wal-Mart pictures again, but this time when daddy can come with and sit at her side so that mom can try to make her smile from the front. Those who get pictures from me of her, will be getting them as soon as I see you or have time to mail them out.

Frog Sitting

Yup, that's what they call it. She just started frog sitting this week without falling over on her face. She sometimes gets a lean going, but she can hold it with a lean. It won't be long until she sits all the way up on her own.

Too Early to Be Up Typing a Post....

It's before 6 am. She got me up around 5am and I was just hoping it was for a quick nursing, but it wasn't. It was a long one that she does in the morning, accompanied by playing. She was not a good sleeper last night. She got me up 3 other times. I am going to really be dragging today.

Last night when she took a bath with me she farted twice in the water. OMG! Those stunk something rotten. What am I eating? Just because she's cute, doesn't mean she can't smell foul from time to time.

Her outfit today is from KO. Some jeans she has worn before and a Halloween t-shirt. The little barrette in her hair came from the daycare lady. She gave Isabel a set of ribbon barrettes and a headband that says Boo! (It's a little big, it will be better for next year.) as her Halloween gift since she is too young to have any of the candy the others will have. Which reminds me, I need to get together the Halloween prizes Isabel is sharing @ daycare.

A Couple More Playing Pictures

Little Baby, Big Couch

I'm trying to encourage her to play with some toys in here, since this will be her play room on the main level of the house. Up until this point the cats have been enjoying having a couch to lay on in a south facing window. Although I have hung out with Isabel in there too; she loves looking out the big window at the trees. She really loves the outdoors. If she starts getting cranky we just need to take her outside for a while and she calms a bit as she looks at the trees.

So, Is This an Orange or What?

"It doesn't matter; I'm going to eat it either way."

We have to pay attention to what toys of hers are left around when the dog is in the house. The dog loves chewing up balls and torturing stuffed bears. Guess we'll have to make sure things stay picked up or that we are keeping a careful eye on what the dog is doing when in the house. She's not allowed in the baby's room (although sometimes she sneaks in if we are all on the main level doing something), so as long as we keep toys in ther eor in the toy box in the playroom we should be ok.

Playing With Isabel

Crinkle, Crinkle

Well, now that she is getting older she finally has interest in some of the toys she has. Here is a Baby Einstein book I bought her. The pages crinkle and she seems to love that. And she can grab the rings (& chew on them) and there are 2 flaps that she can chew on as well. And there is a squeaker in the middle (on the duckie page).

Jingle, Jingle

This toy I picked up at a rummage sale this summer. I think it is by Lamaze. But now she finally has the strength to pick it up and toss it around. She liked holding it when she was younger and liked some of the sounds it made, but it was too heavy for her. Now Super Baby is strong enough to toss it around.

Counting is Fun!

This is the squeaker page. She wasn't as entertained by that as she was by the crinkling.

Check Out My Balls.

She has bigger balls, but they are hard to hold. She's not into rolling them back and forth yet. She just likes ones that are attached and she can push & roll. This whole section of the post could draw a lot of negative attention, couldn't it.

Mmmmmm....Bear Meat.....

She's not at the age where she cares much about just holding a stuffed animal or doll. They all go in her mouth. Actually, if you had a lineup of toys, it would probably be the last thing she chooses, except the Care Bear Grams and Gramps bought her. It's a smaller version and is a bright aqua. I think she likes the bright color. She tries to bring it in to suck on its head.

Isabel's Charts

Weight Chart

Length Chart

Hmmmmmm.....consistently a tall girl.

5 Month Measurements

Can I BE Any Cuter?

Today I took her to the County Family Clinic and had her weighed.
Weight: 17 pounds 10.5 ounces
Length: 27 inches
Head Circumference: 17 1/8 inches
The County Family Clinic was pretty decent. It is a free program that just started in March. It is for family and kids of all ages. They have tons of literature and nurses are staff it that can answer any questions you have. Plus it is available every Wednesday from 12-4pm and is walk-in. They even have snacks and juice there for kids. And they had a bunch of toys out for kids of all ages. They even had a carboard box fort - neat! Isabel had some fun playing with some new toys. And I guess they will have educational topics & discussion depending on if there are enough people sticking around. So, you don't have to just drop in and leave right away. I liked it, not just because the hours worked for us, but I did like going to the newborn clinic during the summer. It gave us something to do once a week and I got out there to see other moms & kids. I got the impression from the moms that were there that many of them come every week. They were very friendly. So, I don't know how often we'll go there during the school year -- at least once a month to get a weight, but in the summer we might go more often.

My Normal Smile

Today's outfit is her second one. This one is a vintage Gymboree top I bought paired with KO jeans she has worn before. She stayed home today with dad. He was feeling under the weather and we weren't exactly sure we wanted her to go to daycare anyways. Yesterday 2 kids were sent home -- one with impetigo and another with pink eye. Then that evening she told us that she took her daughter to the doctor and she has pink eye as well (her daughter plays with the other girl a lot I guess.) She didn't have to close daycare because it wasn't an airborne contagious thing, even though it is extremly contagious and her daughter is there. But it is only contagious through contact or being in contact with something the infected person was in contact with. Her daughter was going to be quarantined to the basement tv room, away from the other kids. But we feel better knowing that she will have had antibiotics for 24 hours before Isabel goes back. She's going back tomorrow.

Funny Baby

Pink Bunnies for Everyone!

She was standing, but those pictures didn't look as nice. She kept thrusting her hips forward as she stood, not sure what that was about. She must have realized that she can move her hips on her own while she stands. I suppose that is a good thing because then she will hopefully start picking up her hips more when she's on her tummy.

At last night's class they kids did oatmeal play, just as it sounds, dry oatmeal in a pie tin. She seemed to like it and was grabbing the oatmeal and dropping it and rubbing her hands in it. I just read today that when you want to let you baby play in a sandbox, but are afraid they will eat the sand, then fill the bottom with some cornmeal.

She starting to learn how to play in the bathtub. She likes kicking the water and trying to catch it as I pour it. She doesn't splash much yet with her hands, but that will come. Right now she just tries to gather toys in to her in order to be able to pick them up and eat them.

Today's outfit is a Funny Bunny onesie and pink pants with a ruffled bottom from KO. The sweater is one we've seen her wear a bunch of times. I dress her in layers, just as I dress myself. Then it is always easier to be prepared for any type of temperature. She has a little barrette in her hair; it's a pink bunny. Isn't it cute. I hadn't actually planned that out. After she was dressed I decided that she need a hairpiece and I looked to see what I had. This is actually something that I had growing up.

She was in such a good mood this morning. She wasn't interested in eating, more interested in playing & talking. It was good for daddy to get some happy baby time in with her today.

I think tomorrow after work I plan to take her to the County Public Health Family Clinic to get a 5 month weight for her. I can't make the newborn clinic now that I am back at work, so we'll try the family clinic. It's free, so that's cool. And it has a longer time every week that also includes time after I am done with work, so that's very cool.

No other plans this week or this weekend. So, we are right back into ur normal routine, which is good for her. She really likes keeping routine. It keeps her happy, and if baby is happy then we are more likely to be happy.