Thursday, January 31, 2013

Isabelle ~ 9 month Stats

On Tuesday we went in for Isabelle's 9 month check-up (though she is more like 9.5 months).
We still have a long and lean girl....
Height: 27.75 inches - 41st percentile
Weight: 15 lbs 10 oz (in the buff) - 9th Percentile
Head Circumference: 43.6 cm - 36th Percentile
 
At this point in time, here is where Isabelle is at developmentally....
Crawling (no longer a rickety old man....all smooth and fast!)
Pulling up to standing position (Occasionally will take a couple 'cruizin' steps)
Climbs up the stairs
Stage 2 baby food mostly...sometimes stage 3
Eats some table food, such as bread and peas
Can make herself puke
Still has stranger anxiety, but not as strongly as before
Currently in re-training for sleeping through the night, we are making good progress here and she has had one night without waking at all (just completed night 4).
Knows what she wants!  If Amelia or any of us takes something from her she wants, she screams!
Loves all things out of her age group.....Amelia's toys, the humidifier, etc
Says dada, baba, grrrs, squeals
Still such a smiley girl!
Laughs so easily!  Very ticklish!
 
I am sure I am forgetting things, since Christmas Isabelle has been developing so quickly!  Isabelle is such a joy to have as a child!  I think she is going to be my spunky one, keeping us on our toes at every turn.  I love her bright smile, sparkling eyes and her laughter is music to my ears.    We love you so much Isabelle!
 
Before I forget to write them down there are some cherishable moments I have had with Isabelle.....
When I was still waking her at 10:30 to feed her, the heaviness of her body next to mine after I picked her up, but before I woke her.
When I feed her, she loves to put her hand either near my neck or she will reach behind her back to grab one of my fingers.  Its as though she needs that little bit of extra security.  And on occasion she will look at me and as soon as I smile at her she reaches up and grabs my face with a big ole smile on hers!
 

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Christmas at Home

We decided to have our family Christmas after we got back from Gramma and Grandpa's house.  Amelia was thrilled (of course) there were more gifts to open.
 Isabelle gave Amelia a book, which is a great book for young girls.  Its a Karen Kingsbury book about a princess and three knights.  Very good.
 Amelia helping Isabelle open one of her gifts.
 A hippo popper!  I think this was the favorite present.  You couldn't tell who it was for, Amelia or Isabelle - they were both playing with it. 
 Amelia's gift to daddy - the key to her heart.
 A sweatshirt for Amelia. 
 A blankie for Isabelle
 The hippo popper in action

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Pinterest Crafts

I love doing crafts at Christmas time, so during a pre-Christmas visit, Gramma and I decided what crafts we wanted to do. 
 
 These are the ice balls.  I thought they turned out pretty good, some such as the one above - exceptionally cool. 
How did we do it?!  Fill up water balloons with water and a little food coloring.  I think we may have added a bit too much - some of them were not fully frozen after a couple days.  I also thought Amelia would be able to play with them; however, if I would have let her she would have had food coloring all over her - so I would say they are something to look at. 
 We decided to decorate gramma's wall
 
 
 

 Our second craft was sun catchers and mobiles.  These were also very fun.  Amelia was a little too young to create them, but she loved playing with the beads and the individual pieces before we put them together.
 
 
 
Thanks for the fun and memories of our crafting experience mom!

Monday, January 28, 2013

Back in the Day

While at gramma and grandpa's, we did something we haven't done in years....we had a slide show!  I have come to looooove slide shows.  We used to do them a lot at my grandparents house and as I kid, I must say I just couldn't appreciate them like I do now.  What wonderful entertainment! 
It took about 3 nights to get through them all and I didn't take any pictures of the pictures until the last night.  Boy, do I wish I would have gotten some of grandpa or was it uncle Tom or grandpa?!  The pictures were of grandpa, but my mind literally could not translate the person because they looked so freakishly close to uncle Tom right now.  Yes, what a mysterious cliff-hanger I have left you with.  I've never had an experience quite like that - we all kept laughing and asking who was that?!  Even grandpa had to admit it felt like he was looking at uncle Tom.  Anyway, the slide show was fabulous and I can't wait until we can do it again.  Here are a few pictures of me (and some of uncle Tom) back in the day.  You can see if the girls look at all like me....
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 All I can say is look at the size of those eyes!

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Merry Christmas

I will preface this post by saying its long....really long.  Its our Christmas time at Gramma and Grandpa's house.  Instead of doing multiple posts - I decided to just do one reaaaaaallllly long one.  So be fore-warned.
 
Gramma got some of our old toys out and one of them was the sit and spin.  Amelia actually did pretty well getting the hang of it, though I don't think she is quite old enough to appreciate how dizzy you can really get.
Daddy tried the sit and spin, but is just a little big for it.
Isabelle eating her mums.  Other than yogurt - I think these are her favorite things to eat.

Amelia loved this little snowman that danced - she sat and watched him over and over again.
Isabelle and Harley.  These two shared a bond at Christmas....a bond of not knowing the other's personal space bubble.  But I think they both loved every minute of it.
Isabelle finding out how fun Grandpa's buttons are
A congregating area!
More bonding time
Amelia loved putting the recliners out and sitting with Gramma
Time to build a fort!  Amelia can't quite stay in them as much as make them fall over, but she loves the idea just the same.

Grandpa's turn for the recliner!
Isabelle in her Christmas dress

Sister picture!

Family picture.
Joey decided she wanted to be a part of it.
I must admit, had my photo editor not crashed you would see the heads of our missing family members sprinkled throughout....oh technology.
Grandpa, Gramma and the girls
Our family picture....the girls were pretty much loosing it by this point, so there wasn't much time to get a good one.
One more try
 At church.....oh the church service.  We wanted to go and so we did.  The service was a quiet one and the girls were not....not at all.  Before the service even started Amelia announce to everyone she wanted to go bye bye. "mommy, go bye bye."  Daddy eventually had to take her out of the service, which you would think that would end the embarrassing moments, but no.  Half way through you hear someone knocking on the doors trying to get in!  Yes, that was Amelia.  An usher even came out to let the person in.  Another shade of red.   Isabelle must have felt left out, because then it was her turn and Gramma ended up taking her out of the service too.  So long story short, I hope next year goes better. 

Daddy wasn't feeling the best, so we opened one gift on Christmas eve instead of all of them.  Amelia was so proud of her wrap job for gramma.
Amelia got a vacuum cleaner!  This was great because it has helped her start to get over her fear of the vacuum.  She loves to park it next to the big one and likes to vacuum with me.
Grandpa helping get the vacuum cleaner out.  Grandpa just couldn't go fast enough for Amelia!
Grandpa's gift!  Another superb wrap job.
Isabelle got Belle the doll, which Gramma bought last year before Isabelle was even born (or her name announced!)
Gramma and Amelia drawing.  Amelia learned the fun of holding 2 markers at once.....she was some pretty hot stuff!
Eating Christmas dinner.  Isabelle was quite the little comedian
And all smiles!

A visual definition of boredom!
Amelia vacuuming the couch
 
Everyone had fun hats to wear for Christmas.  This is Gramma's
Amelia in her hat
Isabelle amongst the presents

A couple pictures of the girls, they were so cute sitting in front of the tree.  Amelia was so excited to open gifts.
Who?! What?! Where?!
Take note of Isabelle's squinty face....back in the day Amelia had the bitter beer face.  We have realized that Isabelle's is the squinty face.
Grandpa's hat

Amelia was obsessed with presents this year - in all ways.  I think she was amazed by the whole concept of it.  This gift in particular, was not a new gift...in fact, this is Amelia's babydoll.  She has had her doll for months, BUT she was wrapping the gift she got for Isabelle and babydoll was right there, so she wanted to wrap it too and bring it gramma and grandpa's.  And we did and she opened it like it was new.
Another Isabelle/Harley moment....gotta love the taste of that ball!
Isabelle loved the wrapping paper almost more than anything else!  The crackle of the paper was very interesting to her.
An Amelia smile!
Grandpa got an air-zooka - here he is taking aim!  Watch out!


Some snuggle time with mommy

Gramma helping do bedtime routine
Isabelle really likes to go after things that are not hers.....if they are Harley's - yes.  if they are Amelia's - yes. if they are hers - eh, maybe some other time.
Squinty face 1!
Squinty face 2!
Ta-da!
We made baby Jesus birthday cakes and the concept really resonated with Amelia (of course any cake does with a kid!).  She has talked about baby Ja-Jas cakes for days afterwards.
We sang happy birthday to baby Ja-Jas and then we sang again for Gramma, since her birthday was only a few days later.  Since Christmas, Amelia sings happy birthday multiple times a week.  It is so so sweet.  Here she is singing.....


 
Since baby Ja-Jas wasn't physically there, we had gramma blow out the candles
Yummy cakes!
Hmmm.  Grandpa even taught Amelia how to lick the wrapper - to which she remembers and practices still
Isabelle crawling on grandpa
Strike a pose
Isabelle in her little walker.  This little thing has really helped her whole mobility progress, since it helped her stand and work on her balance

Joey had so much fun at gramma and grandpa's too.  The old dog was even chasing toys, which she hasn't done for years!  I don't think she would have minded staying!

This is a great picture....until you realize Isabelle is actually pooping.
We had some troubles getting a picture without someone goofing around.
The best one we could get
And even more restless girls
Amelia helping gramma pack up leftovers

A moment with Isabelle and Grandpa

We went to a house that was covered with lights!  Amelia loved it!  But it was also soo cold. 
Grandpa and Amelia walking through the lights