So Big!

In Sept we took a trip to Atlanta for a Georgia Tech football game. We got to visit several friends and some family while we were there. One of our stops was to see Aunt Laura and Uncle Craig. We were we were showing off Isabella's new skills for them (something I swore I'd never do, but it's hard not to when you are a proud parent). Isabella showed them how she could clap first. Then I asked "how big is Isabella"? Expecting to have to lift her arms for her as I said "So Big", I was quite surprised when she lifted them above her head all by herself! I guess she was saving that new skill it for an audience. We're glad Craig and Laura got to be a part of one of her firsts. And here's the video (this is a more recent video since we did not get the first one on video)...

Peek-a-boo with Uncle Craig.

And Craig wonders why Isabella is sometimes not so sure about him. ;o)

Fun at the Pool

We've spent many days this Summer at the pool trying to keep cool. Isabella has loved the water since day one. Her favorite water activity is splashing around (i.e. soaking whoever is holding her). Here she is having fun with Granddaddy at Nana and Papa's pool.

Labor Day Weekend

Cathy, Brett, and Andrew came to visit us over Labor Day weekend. We had a great time going to the beach, hanging out at the pool, shopping, and relaxing. Isabella had fun watching and playing with Andrew. She loved to just sit and watch him run from thing to the next to the next. It was live entertainment for her! Isabella and Andrew also had fun at the beach playing in the waves and the sand. Thanks for visiting us!

Ahhhhh, matching hats!

Isabella had her first taste of sand. We should have guessed her hand was going in to her mouth at some point. She was not half as horrified as her Daddy was! ;o)


Lucia, Sarah, and Cathy. It was great to see you Lucia!

Clapping

Ok, here go the updates for the last two months....

Friday before Labor Day (Aug 29) Isabella starting clapping her hands by herself. Ever since we started working on getting her to do this, she would just grab our hands and clap them together. After plenty of practice doing that she got it on her own!

She clapped normally for a week or two and then she went through a phase of pounding her fist in to her other hand when we asked to clap - like someone was about to get it. I still think Daddy taught her to do that, but he denies it. She's finally back to clapping with two open hands, so she's not scaring off the other kids anymore.

First Steps!!

I have a lot of catching up to do, but I wanted to post this before it's a month overdue like everything else. :o) I'll try to catch up this weekend and post pics for Isabella's 1st birthday party and a few other things. Anyway, on to this week's excitement...

On Tuesday night Isabella was sitting on the floor next to Jeff playing. His leg was stretched out, and she was down by his foot. Out of no where she dropped her toys, pushed herself up and took two or three steps toward Jeff! We were so surprised. She has been walking around the furniture for the last few weeks, but she has not had a whole lot of interest of walking away from the furniture, even with us helping her. Well now she's very interested. Today she's been walking a quite a bit with some help of course. She is so proud of herself (as she should be!) and giggles and laughs most of the time she is stepping on her own. Here's some video of her taking some steps on her own. Oh, and that is a remote in her hand in the last two scenes...some things never change. :o)

Little Miss Safety

It's hard to believe Isabella it going to be 1 in just a few weeks. One of the things we have been looking forward to is her being old enough to go on bike rides with us. For our birthdays, we bought a bike trailer for her to ride in. Since her Dad is Mr. Safety, we of course had to get a helmet for Isabella. Jeff wanted to get one for her when she started crawling, but I held him off until now. Now if I can just convince him she does not need to wear it as she is learning to walk. ;o) Here are some pictures of Little Miss Safety showing off her new head fashions...

It's Game Day!!

Here’s our little cheerleader getting us all pumped up for the game...

1..2..3..4..5!

5 teeth! Isabella's fifth tooth made an appearance today. Now she has 3 on the top and 2 on the bottom. Sorry there's no picture to prove it, but she was not really in to us holding her mouth open so you could see it. :o)

Rain, Rain Go Away!

Isabella made it through her first Tropical Storm last week! We were very fortunate to not have any flooding at our house. There are many areas around us that are still completely flooded. The only issue we had to deal with was having a 10 month old cooped up inside for 4 days straight. We did alright the first two days, but on the third day I could not keep Isabella away from the door. She and Maggie would sit and look out and bang on the door in hopes I would let them out. :)

Silent Night

Anyone who has been around Isabella when she sleeps knows she needs three things...her pacifier, her bear, and her sound machine. Isabella had a hard time sleeping for any length of time when she was born, so we gave white noise a try. It always seemed to calm her and help her sleep for more than 15 minutes. For weeks we tuned in static on the radio while she slept. It's actually hard to keep static on a radio all night long. We'd be woken up to random programming coming through the station in the middle of the night. After a few weeks of that, we finally went out and bought a sound machine for her. It has a waterfall setting that sounds just like static. Ever since then we all (I say all because the noise comes through the monitor) have slept with static. Last night we decided to turn it off, and she did great! Much to our surprise we did not hear a peep out of her all night. The only reason I kept waking up was because I kept thinking the monitor was off. I'm not used to no sound coming out of it. She also made it through her naps today without it. And we thought she'd be carrying the sound machine with her to slumber parties. :o) I hope the pacifier is this easy to give up!

Vacation

After 10 months, Jeff and I decided we were ready to try a vacation without Isabella. Before heading to St. Augustine for a few days, we dropped Isabella off with her Nana so she could begin a vacation of her own at The Villages. She spent the first part of the weekend with Nana and Papa taking golf cart rides and partying on the square.

Papa taught Isabella how to appreciate music. She took this opportunity to show off some dance moves. I wonder where she learned those moves. ;o)

Isabella spend the second half of the weekend with Grandmamma and Granddaddy. She was reunited with Maggie as well. Maggie was especially happy because Isabella frequently feeds her from her high chair. Here Isabella is relaxing at Lake Sumer Landing with Grandmamma and Granddaddy. She enjoys watching the line dancers that come out in droves when music is playing on the square.

Isabella also enjoyed spending time with the Duanes and Ditmores. Here she is dancing with Karen.

Isabella had a great time with everyone! We missed her a lot, but we appreciated the "time off".

The Little Gym

Isabella and I have been going to the Little Gym every week this Summer. Today was the last day of Summer classes. We've really enjoyed the classes, and she's learned lots of new things. It was also Isabella's last day as a "Bug". She's graduated to the "Birdie" class next semester. Isabella was so excited that Daddy got to join us today for her last class.

Taking a ride on the parachute.

This was supposed to be leg exercises. Isabella was playing her own game.

Hanging from the bar. She actually hung by herself with Jeff's hands on top of hers.

The biggest event of the day, which of course we did not have the camera ready for, was her beam routine. The instructor helped Isabella step side to side down the beam and when they hit the middle she did a somersault on the beam! Miss Jackie started to flip Isabella upside down, and Isabella put her hands down and tucked her head all by herself. We've done somersaults, but never on the beam. We were so proud! Isabella was also proud of herself. When I took her from the beam Jeff and I both heard her say "I did it". Really, that's what it sounded like. :o)

Isabella crawling away from us without even a little look back to see if we were coming too. She was on a mission to get to her friends (well, them and and the bells Miss Jackie had).

Isabella and her teacher, Miss Jackie.

Picnic

This weekend we took Isabella for a picnic in the park. She loves being outside, so we thought we would take advantage of the "cooler" temperatures on Saturday (it was only 90). She had a great time watching everyone in the park and actually sat still for more than 2 minutes! Isabella also had her first ride down a slide.

We have Lift Off!

Tummy lift off that is. Isabella has been army crawling for a few weeks and this week she's got her tummy off the ground and is fully crawling. She's getting faster and faster each day. Here's some video of her crawling.

Her tummy is not the only thing she's gotten off the ground this week. Isabella's two favorite things to get her hands on since she has been crawling are the outlet covers (I thought those were supposed to deter babies from plugs!) and of course anything electronic. We thought the computer was safe and out of her reach on the chair, but she has quickly proved us wrong...

She decided not to give us any time to get used to her crawling. She wanted to do it all in one week. Isabella's pulling up on anything and everything. Hopefully we'll have some video of her walking some time soon. :)

Welcome

We decided it was finally time for us to join the world of blogging! It's been a big week for Isabella, and it's made us realize how quickly she is starting to achieve major milestones. We figured we better start getting these written down somewhere before we cannot remember when they occurred. When asked to comment on the new blog, Isabella stated the following: