Fun day

Sunday, September 30, 2007

I took Isabella to the pool club today and we had such a fun time. She loved "swimming" and watching all the big kids.

Later I took her to the park. She absolutely loves the swing. When I tried to take her out she started crying so I put her back in. We went down the slide and played in the sand.

She's starting to have temper tantrums. Not like an older toddler, but she gets more vocal when she's frustrated. I've seen other babies when she was younger begin to demonstrated frustration much earlier than her. She was always so content. Now she's starting to show when she's frustrated with something not working the way she wanted it to. For instance, she's been teething so she hasn't wanted to eat finger food as much. She started screaming until I gave her soup, which she slurped right up. Then she was playing with those rings that you stack onto a pole and when one wasn't stacking properly she started to get frustrated. So far, it's been tolerable, but I'm trying not to encourage it and to calm her down. Hopefully, she won't turn into one of "those" kids.

Here are some more videos from today:

She's definitely one of us; she loves eating cheese.




I finally caught her saying "mama" sort of. I couldn't get the camera fast enough.



More pictures:

The Phone is NOT a Toy

I captured Isabella with my cell phone just in time. Here she is...

Later in the day, I put the home phone down. Isabella started to play with it and was dialing.



A few minutes later I look at the phone and notice it's been on. I look at the redial and it read "911...." trailed by 15 more numbers. Seconds later I received a call from the Sheriffs department. He told me "the phone is not a toy". We tied up the emergency line for 6 minutes, yikes!!! I was so embarrassed. The phone is back in the cradle where it belongs.

Latest pics

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Here are some pictures from the past week:

"Hello"

Isabella loves to grab my cell phone, put it up to her ear and say "Hello". Isabella has been at her daycare since she was four months old. She has such a good time there. I feel very happy that she has such a place to go. Alexander is a cute little boy that she has made friends with. He's four months older. She now loves to say his name, "Al-licsss." She also has another friend Alissa who is also a happa and is about three years old. Alissa loves Isabella. She always tells me stories of the day when I pick Isabella up. On Friday, she took one step with Vida. Bummed that I missed it. I think I will take her to the community pool tomorrow. I will definitely have to take pictures.

Video: Say Mama

Thursday, September 20, 2007

I took this footage back on August 8, 2007. At the time Isabella loved using strings of "dada". I tried many times to get her to say "mama". She only used my name when she was tired or needed comforting. It's funny to see how much progress she has made in such a short month.

Where's your nose

When I picked up Isabella from daycare she was pointing to my nose. So I asked her where her nose was and she pointed to it. We did this several times and she kept pointing to it. I then asked her where mommy's nose is and she pointed to my nose. Could she actually know???

At dinner, she fed herself pasta, sweet potato sticks, and eggs (leftover from breakfast). When she was getting full, she would toss the food onto the ground and then say "uh-oh". She's beginning to understand how to use the word. I have no idea where she actually learned when to use it. It is an innate thing?

One Year Shots

Monday, September 17, 2007

Isabella had her one year doctor's visit. She cried when she saw the nurse and doctor. She definitely is going through a stranger anxiety. I hope it is short lived. They tested her iron level and it came out normal. She no longer needs iron supplements. She has three teeth growing out. Holding her down was harder this time around. She's so much stronger and more determined to get her way. She wailed the entire time for her three shots and iron test. Good thing it was pretty quick.

She weighs 20 lbs 4 oz. I looked it up on a website and she is in the 30th percentile. The doctor wrote it down but Isabella was crying so loud that I couldn't hear him.

She stands about 29.5 inches and is in the 60th percentile.

The doctor tells me that I should continue giving her the "next step" formula. He says many babies that drink milk drink too much and get too full for food. They end up heavy because of the fat in milk and not getting the nutrition they need. If I do choose to give her milk to limit her intake to 16 oz a day and feed her lots of food to get the iron she needs. We'll try the Enfamil Next Step for now and see how it goes. One thing is for sure, we need to feed her more regular food. I can start her on eggs now too. I will try to do that more. Ed and I eat so quickly at home that we usually do something like a salad for dinner. So this will be a good reason for us to eat real meals. Tonight she ate fresh, steamed carrots and sweet potatoes with jarred vegetable chicken. Slowly, we will move off of baby food.





On Isabella's Development:
She loves to talk and babble a string of syllables that sound like real words. She usually does it when she's playing on her own. Whenever people are around she quiets up. I love it when she says "meow". The face she makes is so funny. I caught it on video today.

She stands up without holding on to anything for longer periods of time. She'll even dance around without support.

Yesterday was the first day she sat facing forward. She loves it. And I love it. I turn back to see her and she starts to laugh.

Isabella's 1st Birthday Party!

Sunday, September 16, 2007

You'd think I was planning a wedding. Saturday was a perfect sunny day for Isabella's birthday party. The house was decorated with paper lanterns and hanging butterflies. Isabella was beautifully dressed in a Parisian white dress that her daddy purchased on his business trip to Paris. Most of her family were there to celebrate her 1st birthday. It was perfect.

These are the invitations that I made and sent out.




Setting the Stage - I decided on a fun take on kid friendly and familiar foods. We served Chinese salad in wonton cups, grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken nuggets, sweet potato fries, fruit kabobs and whipped cream served in a cantaloupe, and veggie tray. We offered kid and grown up versions of basil lemonade.




The Party-Goers - Of course the grandparents had first right to Isabella. They swarmed around her like flies on rice. It was adorable.




The Cupcakes - I ended up making two different cupcakes. I was adamant about making the Lady Bug cupcakes out of a chocolate cake batter and making the Coconut Cupcakes. They both turned out very well. Ed even helped me decorate a few of the butterfly cupcakes.




I put a little candle in a mini Coconut Cupcake and we all sang Happy Birthday. Isabella just wanted to play with the cake. She was squishing it between her fingers. I gave her a little taste and all of a sudden she started to devour it.




The Favor - I made such a huge batch of the Coconut Cupcakes I decided to give them away as favors in little takeout boxes with the recipe attached. Though I kept forgetting to remind people to take them so we still have a ton of cupcakes left over. I guess I'll bring them to work again!.




The kids, Jack and Madenn, painted butterfly gliders and went to test them out. We followed so Isabella could take her new car for a spin. Susan, Michael, and Asher sent her a fun little convertible. She loved it! We can't wait to take it out again. We really wished Susan, Michael, Asher, and Leo could have been here too.

PS. can you tell she didn't take her naps? She's starting to look a little glazed.



Grandma was trying to jiggle a smile out of Isabella. It was pretty funny to watch.

I purchased a ton of butterfly tattoos. I was asking everyone if they wanted one. I put one on Isabella's foot and I had one on my left hand. At the end of the night Merah finally let me put one on her. It was pretty funny.



All in all it was a fun day. Isabella hardly slept, but she had a great time. And she received a ton of cute outfits and fun toys. She has a lot of thank you cards to write this week.

Mini Cupcakes

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

It was one of my team member's birthday today so I made mini cupcakes last night. I tried another new recipe. This time I chose Ina Garten's Coconut Cupcake recipe with cream cheese frosting. Both the cupcakes and frosting used almond extract so it gave a twist to the traditional vanilla cupcake. I made half the batch with the coconuts and half without.

One full batch made 72 cupcakes. Because they were in mini muffin pans I didn't have exact directions for time. But I increased the oven temp to 350 degrees and should have baked for about 15 minutes. I ended up leaving them in longer (about 20 minutes) only because I'm stupid and thought they didn't "look" baked. So they turned out a little drier than I had hoped. For some reason, I use the toothpick but don't really trust this method and it always proves me wrong.

Her birthday is on a Saturday, so I don't have a lot of prep time. So I wanted to time how long it took to make starting around 7pm so I knew when to start the project for Isabella's birthday. From start to finish it took about 2.5 hours.

I didn't take pictures of them on their white platters and with a fresh raspberries garnish, but this is what they looked like frosted.

Isabella being Isabella

A few cute pictures to share.

Infatuation with the stairs!

Thankfully we have baby gates. Though Isabella still loves trying to crawl up the one stair.

I'm just going to lean back over here and...hey look, I'm sitting on the stair.

Hey, what's this back here. Climbing up this looks like a lot of fun. I don't think mom would mind.

Maybe, I'll just lie down for a while.

Wow, I'm off the ground.

Doh. Mom caught me.

I'll just give her my cutest smile.

When it rains it pours

Isabella has been sick. What else is new? Babies get sick. She's had a fever of 102 come and go the last few weeks. Last Friday, Vida calls to come get her because she has a fever. I pick her up and take her home. I check her fever and it was 105.3 degrees!!! Under the instructions of the advice nurse I give her a tepid bath and give her baby Tylenol and manage to bring her fever down to 103 before taking her to urgent care. Thankfully her doctor was working urgent care. He describes a few scenarios to me without giving me an exact answer to why she's got this fever and what to do about it. While at the time I was a little baffled (but not surprised) with the doctor's response. But very happy he explained the scenarios because what was to come would have scared me. He said if once the fever breaks there is a possibility she will develop a rash over her entire body. If this is the case, she has Roseola. If the fever continued for two more days then we would have to put a catheter in to examine her urine for a possible bladder infection.

Saturday morning and her fever drops down to 100 and then quickly plummets to a cool 97.3. Ed has been in Paris for the week on business and flew in on Saturday in the afternoon. Isabella was so lethargic it was sad. All she wanted to do is climb in our arms and rest. She managed to make sad moaning sounds all day. All she would do is sleep and moan; she barely drank and refused food altogether.




Sunday morning and she gets a little more energy. Ed and I referred to these moments as "Moments of Clarity". They would last for 3-5 minutes and disappear and out would come fussy Isabella. Those moans now developed into screams. Anytime we would change her diaper she would scream with her feet clenched. We thought it may be a UTI or yeast infection. By early afternoon, we noticed her skin was looking a little blotchy. And then by early evening it was full blown red rash over her chest and back.

Monday morning it was covering her face and creeping down her legs. If the doctor hadn't warned me I would have freaked out!!! I had to take pictures.




I stayed home with her on Tuesday and took her to the doctors again for a possible yeast infection. It was confirmed. She has a terrible yeast infection and bacterial infection. Poor thing. The rash continues to fade.

At the sick visit, Isabella weighed in at 20 lbs. 8oz with clothes and diaper on. She measured about 29".