Isabella's First Haircut

On Saturday, July 25, we took Isabella to get her first haircut at a place that specializes in children's haircuts. We were impressed with the place...at first. They have little cars in which the kids sit for their haircuts, and each seat has a TV and DVD player so they can watch their favorite shows as a distraction. They even have video game systems that kids and Dads can play while they are waiting. Above are pictures of IJ getting ready.

The first sign of trouble was when the DVD player did not work. Elmo just froze. Then Isabella did not like her hair being squirted with water. That pretty much set her off. We tried a new chair, but that DVD player did not work either. The lady cutting IJ's hair was not a lot of help. The only weapon in her arsenal for dealing with an uncooperative child was to repeat, "She needs to sit still for me to cut her hair." You don't say! The resulting haircut is OK--maybe a little short. The haircut place has some promise, and we hope they improve their service quality. But, we will probably just take her to Nana.

Elmo has Muscles Too

Isabella loves to show off her "muscles" when you ask her to do so. The other day I asked her to "show me her muscles", and she lifted her arms and said "Muscles!" like she usually does. Then she ran over and grabbed her Elmo doll, bent his arms up, and said "Elmo, Muscles!".

Easter Greetings

Jeff put together a few of our attempts to get Isabella's Easter greetings on video. Hope everyone had a great Easter!

Up...Down

For a while Isabella has known to say "up" when she wants us to pick her up, and then she says "down" when she wants to get down. She has never really pointed up to the sky and said up or pointed to the ground and said down, but today she seemed to make the connection about what up and down really mean. She has been walking around reaching up to the sky on her tip toes and saying "up" and then swatting down and saying "down", over and over and over again. I bet her legs will hurt tomorrow from all of the swats she has done! I still have not figured out what triggered it, but it's pretty cute. Pooh and her ball have also been Up and Down a lot today too.

Song Requests...Already!

Nana and Papa gave Isabella some cds for Christmas. We listen to them just about every day when we are out driving in the car. She tries to sing along with a few of the songs but her favorite is a song about a sailor who went to "Sea Sea Sea to see what he could see see see". She loves to sing the "see see see" parts. On Sunday we were driving, and another one of her songs was playing. She started yelling see see! I realized she wanted to hear her favorite song so we found it and played it for her. As soon as it was over she was again yelling see see! Unfortunately it's the shortest song on the cd and only lasts about 30 seconds, so one time is not enough.
On Monday we were in the car and as soon as we were out of the driveway she started with see see! I played it for her, and she sang, giggled and danced the through whole song. Then we had to listen to it again...and again...and again...and again. She never seemed to get tired of it, but I did so I turned if off completely and turned the radio on. I know, I'm a mean Mommy. She was quiet for a few minutes, and then I hear See! See! Pllleeeaasssseeeeee! from the backseat. Well, at least she's learning her manners! How could I say no to that. :o) We just hope she'll pick a new favorite song some time soon. I never thought I would be arguing with her about what music is playing in the car at this age!

Piggies!!

Isabella's new hairdo...



They actually lasted a whole 30 minutes before she pulled them out. Not too bad for our first attempt.

Little Gym Show

It seems like I was just writing about the end of the Bugs class, and here we are at the end of another semester at the Little Gym. This semester she was in the Birdies class. Isabella loved her teach Miss Lori, and she made some new friends in her class. It's been fun watching her go from crawling to walking all over the place here. Last week was the last class of the semester. Jeff came to watch the class, so we have some video and pictures. For the last class they put on a "show". The show consisted of several activities and then a skill on each piece of gym equipment. Isabella played with the parachute, did somersaults on the beam, played throw and catch with her friends, popped bubbles (well, she watched everyone else pop them. She prefers just to look at them), and hung from the bars and did a flip. There is also a video of her climbing - that was not part of the show. It was just during free time. She LOVES LOVES LOVES to climb, and I think this is where she really learned how to do it. Every week they have free time, and Isabella always hunts out something to climb. We did not think she could climb to the top of this, but she sure proved us wrong! The last video is of her receiving her medal for completing this semester. We are looking forward to another fun semester!

15 Month Check-Up

Isabella passed her 15 month check up today with flying colors. The doctor said she looks great! She got two shots, but there was not a single tear. They were both in her arm. I thought for sure she would let me have it, but she barely moved when she was stuck. I hope all her shots are this easy in the future!

Here are her stats...

Height - 32 inches
Weight - 28 lbs, 3 oz
Head - 18-3/4 inches

Little Miss Chatterbox

Isabella has always been a chatterbox, but now she is starting to say things we can actually understand. She started saying words shortly after her first birthday. Her first word was "baby", and that's still one of her favorite words. She loves to look at pictures or in a mirror and point to the "baby". Her next word was "this" - as in what's this? At least that's how we interpreted it. :) After "this" came "ball". That was no surprise because she loves to play ball. She throws a ball quite well, and she can sometimes even catch a ball. Isabella's next word was "sooock". Every time we put her socks on she tells us "sooock".

I am of course proud of any word she picks up on, but her next word was truly a proud moment for me...
I was getting ready in my room, and Isabella had wondered down the hall. I went to find her, and she was walking down the hall holding my shoes and saying "shu, shu, shu"! She's definitely my little girl! Isabella loves her socks and shoes - really anybody's socks or shoes. One of her favorite games is to pick up the shoes we leave around the house and move them to another room - one shoe at a time. If she finds her shoes laying around she immediately wants them put on her feet, and she'll keep saying shoe until I put them on her feet.

I will not bore you with a list of her other words, but she is picking up more and more each day. She's up to 15 words now that she says consistently (we counted b/c we wanted to be able to tell the doctor). We love the interaction and cannot wait to see what new word she is going to say each day.

Walking Update

I know, I know....it's been forever since we've posted any updates. Rather than delaying it anymore by trying to catch up I'm just going to start with the present. I'll go back at some point and update the stuff we've left out.

I'll start with a walking update...

We posted some video of Isabella taking her first steps in mid-Oct. She spent the next two months making progress each day. She did a lot of walking between Jeff and me and then from one piece of furniture to another. Over the holidays she had plenty of practice walking from one person to the next. Christmas Day she really seemed to take off. With her arms in the air for balance she started venturing from one toy to the next.

Santa brought Isabella a basketball goal for Christmas, and a couple days after Christmas she was not only walking on her own, she was bending down to get the basketball and then dunking it. It may be slow, but it's a dunk. ;o) Her Daddy is teaching her how to hang from the rim and dish out trash talk, like he does to Uncle Jack.

Now she's up, her arms are down, and she's almost running. Isabella LOVES to chase Maggie (or Magg as Isabella likes to call her) around the house and then let Maggie "chase" her. Really, Maggie just stands up to move out of her way, but Isabella thinks she is jumping up to chase her. Isabella will run away giggling the whole time. Then she realizes Maggie is not behind her, so she runs back to poor Maggie who usually has laid back down to try to sleep again and the game starts all over.