45 Weeks Old

Smile Big!

I think she might be getting the hang of "Smile" again. She back to working on communication again. After weeks of not hearing her "speak" the words she knows she is again back to saying mama and kitty (with silent t's). She was working pretty hard on her gross motor skills and getting mobile before.

Molars?

Those 1-year molars must be trying to work their way it because she keeps chewing on her finger or whatever she can stick way back there.

Just Relaxin' & Snackin'

These few pictures are from Thursday when we went to Sweet Dreams Winery. She was just chillin' the entire time we were there, eating some cheesy flavored snacks.

Winerarita Time!

They sell a mix there (or you can buy one from them made up) to make wine into a winearita. It was pretty good. Daddy & I each had one as we sat out on their large porch & listened to the wind chimes, looked at the grapevines, & dicussed what we were going to purchase.

More Relaxin' & Snackin'

She kept sticking her legs up on the try. Sometimes just one, sometimes both. She has gotten to be a very flexible girl. She can do the splits out the to side and when people see her doing it they are amazed. I have never really seen a baby do that except for when I used to nanny for Erik & Stellan. Erik was always very flexible and could do the splits. I don't know if he still can, but I do know he is still involved in gymnastics.

We're Back & Other Things

After a nice vacation and a flight delay of only an hour (we can't complain because Thursday night the airport was closed because of the weather - never got it in Flint - and people had to spend the night and everything was REALLY delayed) we are back home. It is always nice to sleep in your own bed with your own pillow. Isabel was pretty excited too. She missed our cats and missed her room. I think she liked that she can strecth out more in her crib than in a pack-n-play. Like I said in a different post, she's a bed hog like her dad.

Next weekend is Easter and her baptism. So, her Grams & Aunthie Phanie & Uncle J are coming over for the weekend to stay with us. On Easter we are having a dinner here and invited her grandparents and goparents (with spouses) to join us.

While we were gone there was a city council meeting and they decided upon when the city pool will open, costs, & the swim lesson schedule. They are opening it a little late this year, but maybe the school lets out late. They used to open Memorial weekend, but now they open June 9th and close end of August (they use to close after Labor Day weekend). All the costs remained the same. Maybe this year I will try to go to water aerobics a few times again.

Thursday, March 29th

This is just a short post. I forgot the camera in the condo and didn't previously upload the pictures. We have to go to the activity center to be close enough to use the Internet connection. Anyways, it is thundering quite a bit and I want to get back before it starts to rain.

Today, daddy had to be on a conference call for work, then we took off for the winery. It was really nice. They just opened in September and we tasted the 4 current varieties, they have 3 more coming out soon. We also tasted some bbq/marinade sauce that is made locally. The wine and marinade are all made with only Texas fruits and veggies. He wanted to make sure we knew that because some other wineries will buy fruits from other states and countries. So, we bought some wine & marinade to bring home.

Then we headed back to the resort, but not before daddy got pulled over for speeding (just as we were driving into the resort). The lucky duck got off with a warning. Then we just chilled for the rest of the day.

Tomorrow we get up and checkout, eat breakfast out, return our car rental, & get checked in for our flight and arrive back in MN around 4pm.

Wednesday of Trip

Gramps Will Be Proud

We went to Tyler today and first stopped at the Tyler Municipal Garden. I think we spent more time in the bathroom there than the actual garden. See, the rose are in bloom May-October. So, there were few actual flowers to look at, just empty bushes. There were pretty Azaleas, but you could see those all over town anyways since it the Azalea Festival going on.

So, we headed over to Brookshire's World of Wildlife Museum and Country Store. It is sometimes those unexpected places you visit that turn out to be fantastic. When I went to Denver to visit Jeni it was the candy factory, when I visited Kendra & Tim it was the nearby church & Betsy Ross house. The museum was free and honestly, they should have charged. It was very nice.

Isabel Loves Swinging

They didn't have a baby swing there, so she had to swing with mom. She loves going on a swing. We are going to have so much fun this summer walking down to the park and swinging and playing in the sand and swimming at the pool.

Anyways, all of these pictures were taken at Brookshire's. Inside it is separated into 3 different areas: 1) the Wildlife Museum, 2) the 1920's grocery store replica (very neat!) and 3) the gift shop. Then you can go outside and they have this large playground with all sorts of playground equipment imaginable. They even had real vehicles that kids could play on & in. Those included: a Farmall tractor (top picture), a fire truck, and a train caboose. We only went on the tractor. She really liked holding onto the steering wheel and moving it.

Daddy I Don't Like the Deer

He was trying to make it look like she was kissing it, but she was just afraid. I took lots of other pictures of us with the animals.

Daddy, I Want Your Shovel Too!

They even had a couple of sandboxes there with sand toys in it. She wanted both shovels and when I got daddy and new shovel so she could have 2, then she wanted his new one too. She wasn't too sure about the sand at first because she had never been in sand before. She had to get used to the texture for a while before she started to have fun.

I Can Help.

If we ever get a chance to come back here, we will definitely visit this place again. We would visit the zoo again too. Tomorrow we head to the winery. I scheduled a visit in the morning. Daddy wasn't too sure about tasting wine before noon, but when I set it up I was thinking baby time. The morning is the best time to go out and do things and then after lunch she will take a long nap (hopefully!) and then in the afternoon it is sometimes best to just chill and go with the flow. She likes to nurse and have a snack after her nap and get mobile.

This afternoon we went to check out the pool since it was in the low 80's. Isabel & I went in the pool, but only up to our waists, neither of us wanted to go in much further. So, she hung out with daddy while I went in the hot tub and then we switched.

We did drive down by the lake. Those units are quite a ways away from all the amenities. I am glad they put us in the condo that they did.

Tomorrow is our last full day here. We leave on Friday morning. We thought we would leave a little early so we could eat breakfast out, as daddy really wants to go to a Waffle House or an IHOP. It's about a 2 hour drive from the resort to the airport.

By the way, if you are ever in this area of Texas, you will notice that they have lots of storage places, strip clubs, buffet restaurants, dollar stores, and very nice looking churches (even if all around them is run-down shacks.)

Tuesday of our Trip

Adorable.

I really like this picture. We were patiently waiting for daddy to bring the clubs and balls to us ans she was just relaxing. This morning we saw the movie Hoodwinked in their small movie theater. They play movies that are out on video, but since we have not been to the movies in ages, everything is new to us. It also gave the opportunity to see how she would be for an hour and a half. She did fine, but we probably won't be taking her to a movie anytime soon. This was fine since it was free and it was geared towards kids anyways. I thought it was a cute movie.

Mommy Won.

We played mini-golf again this afternoon and this time mommy won. She was so good through the entire time we were playing, just eating her snacks and watching us. Actually, she has been really good the entire trip. Last night she was crying a bit, seemed like separation stuff again. Hopefully it's not. It poured out last night and this morning, but by late morning it had stopped and we walked to the activity center. By the afternoon it had warmed to 80 degrees. I look awful in the picture, but I had to post a picture that I won since I did it for daddy last time.

Posing.

I had the camera out to upload the pictures onto the computer and she got all excited and kept trying to get my attention. So, I had to stop what I was doing and take some pictures.


Tomorrow we plan to go check out the Tyler Municipal Rose Garden. I mainly want to tour the gardens, but they have a museum there as well in case we want to check that out as well. That's about it that we have planned for tomorrow. It is supposed to be 82 degrees, so we are hoping to go in the pool in the afternoon.

Thursday we plan to go to Sweet Dreams Winery and that's about it for plans for that. It is supposed to be 80 degrees on Thursday. On Friday, when we leave, it cools down quite a bit.

Now I am going to log off and go take in a hot tub.

Trip tp Caldwell Zoo

Those Penguins are Crazy.

She loved watching the animals that moved a lot. She didn't care much for the lazy, sleepy animals. She loved watching the penguins swim underwater and dive into the water.

Can I Have the Birdie Mommy?

They have an interactive bird place there (just like the zoo in Tampa). We bought a seed stick so that the birds would come to us. She kept trying to grab the birds. Daddy loved this exhibit too. It was his favorite at Tampa. This was by far our best zoo experience. We were there shortly after opening today (Monday) and it was like we had the whole place to ourselves. It was just the right size of a zoo too. We were there for 2 hours. We could have been there longer, but some exhibits we didn't stay long at.

Now, Both Daddy & Isabel Want Pet Goats

They had a little petting zoo with a variety of goats in it. Daddy has always had a fondness for baby goats, especially when he watches Planest Funniest Animals and he watches the little goats just jumping around. He thinks that is hilarious.

Yes, Daddy was There too!

We had a good time at the zoo. We even stopped in the gift store and bought her something. We bought her a spider monkey puppet & a couple little plastic animals. I was thinking about a book at first, but her & daddy were playing with the puppet so much and she kept sticking it in her mouth that we figured we had to buy it. We also ate at Sweet Sue's. It was pretty good. It was a buffet that was all homemade.

We were supposed to get rain here today, but didn't. It was really a perfect day out. This afternoon the resort had an ice cream social that we went to. Yummy. Not sure what we have planned for the rest of the week. We'll figure it out as we go.

Having a Good Time

Snuggling & Reading

This afternoon, after lunch she wanted to snuggle and read her books. We brought along three of her favorites. This one is her all-time favorite. We took some pictures with mommy & daddy in them today to show that we were on the trip too and not just baby Isabel.

Tomorrow we are off to the zoo and plan to have lunch out at some place local. We figure we'll go to 2-3 touristy places while we are here, all in Tyler which is really close.

Daddy Won.

They have mini-golf here and it is free to use. It's 18 holes and we played a round today. Isabel came along in her stroller and just sat there being such a good girl and eating her teething biscuit the whole time.

We went to the pool today, but the water in the pool was a bit chilly, so we just went to the hot tub. I went in and we dipped Isabel in a few times. The weather was warm enough that sitting out wet was perfectly comfortable. It was about 77 degrees. It is supposed to be in the low 80's for the rest of the trip and each day there is a chance of either isolated thunderstorms or scattered thunderstorms. So, we're thinking we'll still be able to get out and do things since it is not supposed to rain all day. The weather alert daddy has on his computer says that there is a Tornado watch for the county we live in. Glad we're not there, but I hope everyone & our animals will be ok.

Yes, I'm That Cool.

Of course, little girl doesn't want to wear her sunglasses. They are good for chewing on and getting back in to that molar area.

I think I bought all that baby food at the grocery store on this trip in vain. She is really not interested in eating it. At breakfast I got her to eat a little bit, but she really just wanted to eat pieces of bananas, cheerios, and pieces of buttered toast. Lunch she wasn't very hungry, but at supper she was an eating machine. She ate her baby food and some leftover cheesy mashed potatoes (what we had last night), & cheese. Then she played some and I made dinner for us early and she sat down to eat with us and ate everything we ate (chicken, stuffing, & mixed vegetables.) I even gave her a sip of my kool-aid, she loved that. She has really liked most everything we give her, although she is still not very fond of cottage cheese or yogurt.

44 Weeks & On Vacation

I am Mobile and Getting into Everything!

Here she is playing the floor in the living room at the resort. We have a 2 bedroom place with a full kitchen. Actually, the 2nd bedroom can be private and has it's own entrance from the outside and can be locked from the inside and also has its own kitchenette. There are 2 bathrooms as well. The master bedroom has a king - nice! and the master bath has a jacuzzi - score!

The resort has HSI, but only at the activity center, so we have to take turns coming here to use it while the other hangs with Isabel. Unfortunately, we do NOT have cell service. So, we are a little closed off from our world.

Now that she has figured out she can move on her own she is trying to get into everything and is all over the place. She is such a squirmy bug. It's like since she realized she can move around she doesn't want to be kept still for too long (unless she's tired.)

Today we just checked out what the resort has to offer. They have sooooo much to do and everything is always busy. We've never been to a place where people all the amenities. It was on the low 80's here today. We were planning on going to the pool this afternoon, but our trip to Tyler took longer than expected because we needed to go to Target and then also locate some wine & beer, but turns out the town (maybe county) is dry and we had to go back and past Flint to find a liquor store, which I guess wasn't very extensive.

She's been in a great mood. She thinks everything is hilarious. Tomorrow we plan to get in the pool, maybe play a little mini golf, maybe check out a movie in their movie theater. So far, we think we would definitely come back here again. This fall they will have their water park finished.

I Love Ham Sandwiches

She was so excited we had ham sandwiches for lunch today. She loves them. When the sandwiches came out she refused to eat anymore baby food.

I went grocery shopping last night because we will be eating most of our meals here. It's different when you have a kid and they have their own schedule. She's still sticking to her schedule.

She got her 7th tooth yesterday, her bottom 2nd right tooth.

The flight went great. It was a 2 1/2 hour flight and she slept for 1 1/2 hours of it. It helped that the flight was over her normal nap time. There was a baby a bit older than her on there that was crying pretty much the whole flight, poor little girl. There was also another boy a little older than her that was on there, but he had a double dose of Benadryl and was out. We didn't give Isabel any of that. We didn't want to take the chance that it could make her hyper. Anyways, I just made sure I was nursing her at take off and landing. She was a champ.

She's been making "s" and "z" sounds, practicing them, which is a new sounds for her.

10 Month Charts

Length

Baby girl hit a plateau in her height this month. Her length remained the same at 30.5 inches, which is still off the grid. Looks like last time she kinda plateaued she had a big growth spurt the next month. Although, around 1 year of age the growth is supposed to slow down.

Weight

Not a huge weight gain. Actaully, she weighs the same today as she did 2 weeks ago, 21 pounds 4 ounces. Considering that during the last 2 weeks she has been sick and not really eating (just taking in breastmilk and water and I could get her to eat a little baby food for dinner), I am thinking it is good that she didn't lose weight. So, remaining the same is just fine. Her weight puts her at the 79th percentile for weight now. That's the lowest percentile since birth (which was the lowest.)

She is feeling better now, but because her nose has been so runny and she was rubbing it a lot it got all chapped and raw. Looks like it hurts poor baby girl. She is eating just fine again. Just yesterday she started to want to eat al three meals and today she ate like a champ.

10 Months Old

So Pretty, So Tired.

She is so tired this morning. You can just tell by looking at this picture. We had class last night which puts our schedule off by an hour. She went to sleep shortly after getting home but then only slept for an hour and got up and played and talked to herself for 2 hours. Both daddy & I tried going in there several times and rocking her to sleep, but she wasn't buying into it. So, now 2 nights in a row she only got 9 hours of sleep, she usually gets 11-12 hours of sleep. I do hope she make up the time in extra naps today (although she didn't yesterday.)

Mommy, you are so tall!

She seems to be feeling a bit better. Hopefully that continues as we get closer to our trip. The place has a pack-n-play we can use (we have to bring our own sheets for that), but doesn't have a highchair or booster chair. I did get his travel booster seat off of Freecycle, so hopefully that works decent.

Isabel is at least feeling better than some of her friends at daycare. I told you yesterday that 2 had strep throat, but we just found out that a third one had to stay the night at the hospital because she was wheezing so bad and the hospital couldn't stabilize her breathing enough to let her go home.

Jammies Pictures

How's This Pose?

Last night we went to church and Iasbel & I checked out the nursery. We got there early and checked it out with daddy before there were any kids there. There is lots of toys, book, everything a baby could want. The nursery if for ages 0-2. At age 3 they get to go to classes. We had never put her in the nursery before, but this Sunday we was getting really grabby with things so I took her in there and stayed with her to check things out. I was surprised at how many kids were in there. I was thinking it would have been 3-4 kids at the most. It was at least 15 kids. I guess a lot of parents must put their kids in the nursery & in classes, as you see hardly any kids in the congregation during the service.

How 'bout this one?

Tonight was the last night of this session of ECFE classes. There may or may not be another short session this spring. It all depends if enough people will sign up. We did, however, sign up for our next session of swim classes. This time we are going to the AmericInn for classes. Holiday Inn isn't going to offer them again until the fall. My co-worker signed up with her little boy too, for the same class.

Well, we decided to have godparents for Isabel and have asked those respective people. They accepted.

Isabel is still feeling under the weather. She's still struggling with a stuffy nose and a cough, although I think it's getting better. A couple of kids from daycare found out today that they have strep. Last Monday, when we took her to Urgent Care they said she did not have strep after they did a test. I called the nurseline today to ask if they thought I should bring her in. They said that strep is rare in kids uner age 2 and if they do get it is is usually accompanied by a fever. So, they said unless she gets dehydrated or gets a fever again I don't need to bring her in and to just let the virus work through the system. I like that there is a nurse's line to call. So, if I have questions I can explain the symptoms and they can tell me what to do or not or if I needed to have her (or myself) seen right away.

We leave Friday for Texas - that's exciting. Isabel is 10 months old tomorrow - that's exciting. It's still hard to believe it's been 10 montsh already. Guess that about sums it up. Stay tuned for a 10 month picture tomorrow.

43 Weeks Old

You Lookin' At Me?

Isabel & mommy have been sick all week. We've been trying to shake a virus and we had a quiet day at home today. We want to try to get better before we get on a plane on Friday. Mommy is feeling better than Isabel though. Isabel still has a nasty cough and a runny nose.

We almost didn't get any pictures done today as there was lots of napping going on for Isabel. So, right before bathtime & bedtime we thought we better get her weekly snapshot.

So Big!

She was playing So Big! with daddy. Looks like her diaper is starting to fall off.

Chillin' with My Dad

She is always so excited to hang out with dad these days. Although, as soon as she gets to him she wants back to mom, then back to him and so forth.

Watch Me Knock These Over.....

Isabel w/ a Vase of Beautiful Roses

Daddy got mommy a dozen beautiful smelling & looking roses for her birthday today. The three of us also went out for an early dinner a Timberlodge. It is so much easier to take Isabel out these days. We tried a few times during the early months and it rattled us so much that we just didn't go out. Now she loves to go out and watch everything/everyone. Daddy made me a wonderful booklet card from him & Isabel. I like it so much better than a store bought one. Daddy & Isabel also got me a mini-muffin pan and some muffin mixes & ice cream treats too. But the best gift I got was seeing her crawl a couple of (steps?) this afternoon. She stopped as soon as she heard/saw me get all excited. She's still kinda sick; has a nasty cough and runny nose and still doesn't want to eat much at all. Although, she will drink plenty of breastmilk and water. She loves those.

It was a nice low-key birthday. No one trying to be funny about me turning thirty. I got lots of nice calls and messages and emails and well wishes at work too.

Godparents??

We are struggling with deciding upon godparents, how many? If any. Or if we are just going to ask that all present to witness the baptism vow to help spiritually raise Isabel. Sometimes I feel we are working to hard on this issue. I guess we are looking for some guidance and so I emailed one of our ministers at the church community we attend. This is basically the email (with some changes) I sent him because these are all the thoughts running through my head.

I think part of the issue is that daddy had named, but non-existent godparents. They were part of his life, but they were did not seem to take on the spiritual role as godparent because they already had other roles in his life. I had a great godmother who did a wonderful job helping guide me spiritually as I grew up, but a godfather that should have never been asked (but how were my parents supposed to know this - how are we supposed to know who might turn out to be a deadbeat for Isabel?)

I feel a push from family to choose godparents and feel that the expectation is that we would choose family members to be the godparents. Seems like we struggled a lot with the same stuff on deciding on having a baptism.

The next part of the issue is that my family lives so far away that can they really help spiritually guide her and help raise her if they live 6 hours away and only see her a few times a year.

I have been researching baptism online and I am confused that if we choose godparents/sponsors, do we choose 2 or 3? I always had believed it was 2 growing up, but knew people who had three. I am not sure why three was a custom in some religions. I understand if there is three it is 2 of the same-sex as the baby and 1 of the opposite-sex. Why was there three? Could a person just have one godparent?

The only really congruent thing I found everywhere is that no matter how many godparents there were or what religion they were baptized into they had to all have been baptized themselves. Some websites I looked at had detailing that specific religions required that 1 or more godparents be baptized into that particular religion.

What is also interesting is that there is no mention of godparents in the bible (per a couple websites I visited) and thus godparents are not required. I guess the historical origination of godparents came about when adults were converting to Christianity and their own parents were not Christians, they needed to ask people to be their spiritual parents (or godparents) and guide them through their conversion. Later on it was adapted to infant baptisms, but it seems that each religion, church, family has different beliefs about the role of godparents.

We are also not looking at the godparent as the guardian in the case of our demise, which I understand has been a role historically.

We feel that today godparents seem to be mostly an honorary title, but we don't want it to be a one day thing. We want to pick people who want to help us raise Isabel and care about her and her spiritual well being. How do we convey that message to someone if we choose to ask them? Or do we fore go having godparents? How might that choice affect Isabel in the future. Am I thinking about all of this way too much?

Baby Sign Language

Apprently, baby sign language is HUGE. My hits each day have nearly doubled because people are coming to look at the link to this Baby Signing Cheatsheet.

Plus, this Baby Einstein video - My First Signs was just released yesterday. I pre-ordered it on Amazon. It looks like it has not shipped yet, but I am supposed to get it next week.

Anyways, I had previously asked the daycare lady to do some of the signs with her and she did a little bit and thought it would be nice to teach all the kids. So, she went to Target last night to buy it and start showing it to the kids. It would be so neat to pick her up and see her making the mommy sign to me.

I hope its a good video that we both can get a lot out of. I am sure it will be nice that she already knows some of the signs. She still has not done the signs herself, but does understand when I do then.

Cute Little Pigtails

This will be a short post as Isabel has shared her virus with me and I feel awful. But I thought she looked so darn cute in the pigtails I had to take a picture. All the girls at daycare got pigtails today. She slept A LOT there today. 2.5 hours in the morning adn 2 hours in the afternoon. Just drank her milk, didn't eat anything. But no more high temp, which is great news.

9 Month Picture Comparison

Isabel

We stopped at Wal-Mart today to pick up our portraits after we finished with our visit to Urgent Care. She started running a temp last night and all day today. No ear infection, no strep, just a virus that we have to ride out. She just likes to be held and cuddle when she doesn't feel well. She just likes to nurse and doesn't really eat. Obviously, we didn't go to ECFE class tonight.

Mommy

So, do we look a like? There have been a lot of people telling me that she looks so much like me the past few days when we have been out & about.

Differing Camera Phone Pics

Medford

We spent all day here at home, except we did walk to the park to go on the swing for a while. She loves swinging. The place we are staying at in Texas has a children's playground. I hope they have a baby swing on it. We also went over to the neighbors' house for about 45 minutes. She just looks so adorable in this picture. It is now my background on my phone.

Miami

Daddy sent us this picture when he finally got to the beach. He said it is so busy and impossible to find parking, even the lot for $30 was full. We're glad he is getting out a little bit and enjoying Miami while he is there for work. Sounds like he has had some fantastic food too.

Sunday Pictures

We're just hanging out at home today. I think dealing with daylight savings is enough for one day. We'll see this afternoon/evening how things go. So far they have been ok. We only had to move up lunch by 15 minutes. Hopefully she takes a nice long nap this afternoon.

She insisted in going in the infant seat this morning. She saw it and got very excited. She nearly leaped out of my arms to get there faster.

Stuff to do with Baby in the Cities

Here are some places to go in the Cities with baby:

Open Gym (0-Kindergarten) @ Gleason's
Movies for Mom @ Crown Theatres (Downtown) (On Wednesdays)
Nature Tots @ Bell Museum (First Thursday of every month)
Toddler Tuesdays @ MOA
All sorts of class listings
Parent-Tot Chess Classes (for 3-5 year olds - this was featured on the news)
Baby Loves Disco (seems kinda pricey, $12 a person) (this was on the news too!)
Music Together music classes (sounds kinda like Kindermusik, they do have classes in Mankato & Rochester too)
Free meals for kids on the Twincitiesmoms.com website
Events @ Creative Kidstuff

I kinda wished we lived closer to the Cities so that we could do more of this stuff. I like to go out and do things.

For some reason I just felt like looking all this stuff up.

Momtalk.com

I heard about this on the radio. It seems like it is pretty new. It looks like it reaches as far south as Northfield, but we frequently go to the Cities. Anyways, if you scroll down the left side and click on Coupons there is a member sign-up and you can get free passes to one of 2 waterparks in the Cities, $10 off a spa treatment, or free appetizer at a couple places. So, that's pretty cool. I signed up for some waterpark passes in Brooklyn Park. I figured we might go see grandma & grandpa and go there.

42 Weeks Old

Sitting Pretty

So, I measured her this morning and her length is still 30.5", which is what it was 2 weeks ago. So, I guess that blows the growth spurt theory out of the water.

For the first time (that I know about) she got herself from laying to sitting. One moment I was watching her on the video monitor and she was sleeping, then somehow while I was folding a load of laundry she woke up and got herself sitting. I wish I would have seen her do it, but I imagine I will see her do it later.

She's working on the crawling thing. She figured out how to move her arms forward but haven't figured out to get the legs moving too. So, she starts crawling with her arms and goes as far as she can until she gets flat on her belly again. Funny. And while she is on her belly she will pick up her chest a little and pull her body forward.

Standing Pretty

We went to the safety fair at the high school right before lunch time. I really wanted to get fingerprints done, but as I look at them they seem really smeared, so I am not sure they a good set. I got a DIY fingerprint kit, so I think we'll have to do that one of these days She also got a play fireman's helmet from our local fire department. She just likes to chew on it rather than wear it. When she get's a little older it will be nice to take her to something like this again so that she can see how all the demostrations work.

Depending upon what time she gets up from her nap, we might still try to go to the Whole Living Expo. If we don't get there, it's not a big deal, but I would like to know what is available in our area.

I tried feeding her cottage cheese a second time and she really does not like it. I thought she would because she likes cheese and likes cream cheese. Maybe she doesn't like the texture.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Cream Cheese Face

Every morning mommy has to share her bagel with cream cheese on it with Isabel. She loves it. The good thing is that I eat the nice high fiber bagels and she likes it, so she doesn't have to get used to white bagels and then fight with her later on to eat a healthier bagel.

Pictures for Daddy

I was taking pictures with both the digital camera and my camera phone. I wanted pictures for the blog and to send to daddy this morning.

The Good
We went to the ECFE rummage sale with Carrie this afternoon. The clothes were fill a bag for $5, so that's what we did. We got 20 pieces and they were all really nice that I picked out. We also got 5 books (they were 5 for $1) and some big lego type things for $2, and a learning Elmo for 25 cents (it's the kind that has a zipper and a buckle and a snap and a crinkle spot, etc.) I spent a grand total of $8.25 and got some really great items.

The Bad
We miss daddy.

The Ugly
So, little girl got some naked baby time in the crib before bathtime. Undoubtly she will take a pee or a poop if we take her diaper off. This time she pooped out these two huge logs on the laps pads I had in there. Ok - easy enough to quickly clean up. Then she took a little tinkle, not a big deal. Then I went to get the bath started, check my email quick, take my clothes off so I could take a bath with her and I was gone maybe 5 minutes and I didn't hear a peep. Finally I heard one loud grunt and went in there and saw the bumper, the sheet, her lovey, her baby doll, the rattles she was playing with, her pacifier and her all covered in poop. It was disgusting. The only good thing was that I was already naked so she wasn't going to get anything else dirty. I have to say again, it was disgusting! Everything is either in the washer or the dishwasher right now. Gross!

Other Stuff: Tomorrow we plan to check out the Whole Living Expo in Northfield and if time allows we plan to stop at the co-op and pick up some groceries, and if time really allows we plan to go to the Safety Fair at the local high school. It is geared towards families and they are doing fingerprinting there. Although, baby girl has been sleeping a lot the last week or so. She has been taking 2 long naps (1.5-2.5 hours) a day at daycare and 1 short one (30-45 minutes) when she gets home with me. She must be going through a growth spurt or something with all that sleeping.

She is getting closer to crawling and standing up on her own. She pulls herself up to her knees and is starting to pull a little further. And now she gets her stomach and butt completly off the floor onto all fours, but that is as far as she goes she doesn't know what to do then and is working on holding it. So, though large muscle groups are really starting to get a workout.

I'll probably try to measure her tomorrow to see if her length has changed much in the past 2 weeks. Tomorrow she is 42 weeks old.

Kindermusik Class

Well, we went to Kindermusik class tonight; it was a free preview class. So, here are my thoughts:
* It was a workout for mom, as at this age there are a lot of movements that go with the songs that parents need to do/help for their child. That was a good thing; mom needs to workout.
* It's pricy. If it were just the cost of the program I might possibly consider it, but each group classes has materials you need to purchase that cost around $40. The cost of the class with the materials makes it quite expensive.
* There was some education parts of the program (for the parents); what I mean by this is that she would explain the benefit certain things have on the child's learning & development. While this was nice, we've also learned this at our ECFE classes (& we do a lot of singing in our ECFE classes too.)
* There was a grandma there with her granddaughter. I thought it was neat that a grandma was taking her granddaughter to this class. I don't know there story, but I thought it was neat. Isabel's grandparents live too far away to do a weekly class with them, but maybe someday she can do a one-time class with grandma.
* Isabel seemed to enjoy it, although we have always done a lot with music and dancing with her at home and she has really grown to love it.
* We met another mom & her daughter (who is just 9 days older than Isabel) who were also previewing. Turns out we took our childbirth classes together. We exchanged phone numbers & email addresses and might try to get together with the girls. So, that was neat that we were abkle to connect. Maybe Isabel will have a girl friend, everyone else I know with babies her age have boys, which is totally fine because babies play the same no matter what sex they are.

So, I am still not sure if we will take a class. I still have to wait & see what our summer starts to look like as we plan trips and visits. Although, I think I am leaning towards not taking it. That might change in the future, but we'll see.

Camera Phone Pics

Daddy is traveling for work the next five days, so we've been sending him pictures today. The top picture was at breakfast and the bottom picture is right when we got home this afternoon.

Some Pictures to Enjoy

How Come?

How come nothing comes out of this bottle?

A bottle and plastic bib came with this doll she got for Christmas from Grams and Gramps and Isabel doesn't quiet understand that it's not for "her" and she can't get anything out of it. She thinks it is perfect for her little hands.

Be Nice to the Baby

I didn't have this toy out for the past few months as I choose to rotate toys for her. It is kinda realistic looking and for the most part she tries to interact with it and explore it like she would with other babies, except for the toe sucking thing. I have not seen her pick up any other baby and gnaw on its feet.

Mmmmm...Hot dog.....

She was really enjoying the pieces of hot dog I fed her tonight. I always start out feeding her fruits & veggies and rice cereal and then after that if she is till hungry she will get cheese (she loves cheese slices), puffer snacks and/or crackers, and some kind of meat. She had hamburger the other day and enjoyed it. Today at daycare she had some roast beef sandwich and liked that. She is kind of a light breakfast eater and prefers to snack in the morning, but she will eat a decent size lunch and then a big supper.

She has such blue eyes, doesnt she?

I am so good at picking things up.

It's so much fun to watch her learn new things every day and perfect the skills she already has. She is growing so fast. Today I took her to the County Family Clinic for a weigh-in and she now weighs 21 pounds 4 ounces, which means she gained 6 ounces in the last 2 weeks. The nurse at the clinic said her growth will slow down now.

Today I went to Target and bought her some more onesies. I had to buy 18 month onesies because of her length. If you only look at the weight, I should have bought 12 month onesies, but once you consider the length I need to go up to 18 month. Such a tall girl. She wears onesies underneath her pajamas every night and they are kind of loose fitting around the chest and stomach because she needs the length rather than the width of them.

Infant (Cat) Seat

Larry really liked this when I got it before she was even born and we tried to keep him away from it and we did a good job until just recently. She is kinda big for it so we don't really use it anymore. I should really store it away.