Enjoy a few pictures of her first little baby experience.

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful little girl who refused to go down for a nap.  She stayed in her bed very nicely for about 30 minutes, but just “did a job” instead of sleeping.  She called her to parents when she was ready to get out of bed, “dada!!  dada!! dada!! mama!! mama!”.  Her parents, silly adults that they are, decided that if Isabell was going to see Santa on this day, they would have to go now, as she wouldn’t likely go down for another nap until it was too late to go to the mall.  So Isabell and her parents get all packed up and head off to the North Pole to visit Santa and have a picture taken. Only it turns out that her parents great thought of going to the mall midday on a Monday was better than trying to go on a weekend wasn’t quite true.  Just as Isabell and her parents got to the line of children waiting to see Santa, he went on a milk and cookie break.  So Isabell and her daddy went to get lunch while her mommy held their spot in line for the hour that Santa was away.  When he came back, it was another 45 minutes before Isabell could see him.  She was excited!  She had spent the last hour watching other kids sit on his lap, she waved to him and blew him kisses, and even tried to get to him by going in the “exit” to his picture set.  When it came time to actually sit on his knee, Isabell was VERY tired (from having had no nap), and was a bit apprehensive about this jolly old man wearing red and blue.  Her mommy slipped Santa some marshmellows (a current favorite treat of Miss Isabell) to entice her to stay there.  Santa felt the need to tell Isabell’s mommy that with the marshmellows in her mouth, Isabell wouldn’t be able to smile for the camera.  Her mommy pointed out that if her mouth was full, she couldn’t cry either; Santa just lauged.  But it worked!  She screamed the moment she was put down, and only stopped crying to eat the marshmellows.  Despite her lack of desire to be near the old man that was feeding her marshmellows, the elves managed to get a pretty cute picture.  See for yourselves!!!  Though Isabell didn’t use any words to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas, her mommy and daddy feel that she wants a new car to go with those keys she won’t let go of!  Isabell crashed in the car about 5 minutes before she got home, and slept through changing her diaper and taking off her clothes.

All in all, it wasn’t nearly as bad as her mommy and daddy thought it would be.  She really is a sweet child.  So many people commented “oh, she’s just so cute!”

Happy viewing, and I am still going to pretend I’ll post the cake pictures.  Blame the lack of video on Nashon though!  Videos are his job!

Well, anyone that spends time talking to us about Isabell probably knows that from time to time she has trouble with the whole pooping process, often creating poops large enough for a 20 year old!  Well, the upside of this kind of poop is that it takes her a lot of effort to get it out, so it’s pretty obvious when she’s going to poop.  Usually she will cry when she is pushing this type of poop out, but not today!  Well, there was a bit of crying, but I think it may  have been partially due to the fact that she as sitting on the potty!  After some encouragement, she actually got her poops out into the potty!  Then she got to flush them down, and oh was that an exciting thing!

We’ll have her out of those diapers in no time!!

Isabell wore little tennis shoes, cargo pants, and a plaid button up shirt, just like her daddy wears almost every day.  To top off the costume, she had a REAL cell phone (her’s actually) in her pocket, and a name badge that is an official badge from Nashon’s work.  It is Nashon’s clearance badge, only with Isabell’s picture on it, which his HR director so kindly made for us last week.  Isabell’s costume was topped off with a two toned goatee on her little chin drawn on with eye liner pencil.  Though it’s not real hair, it sure looked good, and came off easily (a must with a toddler). 

Take a look for yourself!  She looks great with her daddy!  She enjoyed going to two houses to get some candy, and even enjoyed getting to eat some chocolate.

Two weeks ago Isabell was sitting on Robyn’s bed while she was trying to eat take out from one of her favorite resteraunts. When Robyn wasn’t able to eat the shrimp, she fed it to Isabell and Isabell LOVED it!! Nashon and I don’t eat seafood (eeewww…gross) but we are more than happy to have other people provide her with the opportunity to try new things that we know she won’t get it home. Still, we were more than a bit suprised that she enjoyed shrimp so much that she ate three whole shrimp, on her own, after having finished off her dinner of chicken fettucini and tomatoes. We also have added to our verbal output.

Her signs now include: more, all done, please, again, milk, eat, open, ni night

Her verbal words now include (in order of aquisition): byebye, mama, dada, hot, nonononono, bottle, balloon. She is using them on her own to request actions and objects, and to refuse.

She is now walking all on her own, and will be running any day now. Each day she amazes us with how much more stable and mobile she is! She is now practicing standing up from the floor without anything to hold onto, and walking around corners and down hallways to find and look for people.

Her first birthday is TODAY!!! Our little baby is now officially one, and she is all of the big girl that she thinks she is. We had her birthday party yesterday with all of Isabell’s favorite people (friends and family), and she got lots of good stuff. Based on her playing last night and today, her favorite toys are the little tikes car from Nashon and me, The step-step kangaroo thingy from Grandpa Dave, and the UW blanket from Auntie Shelly. She was a pro with the cake and though a bit dainty at the beginning, she eventually got the pink frosting into her hair and ears, and thoroughly enjoyed herself in the process. Every time we have to take her away from the car or the kangaroo we get to enjoy the tantruming of a small child, she’ s not a baby any more!!!!

Nashon and I were too busy with party stuff to take pictures, so I’ll post some when we get them from Ammie, Grandpa Dave and Auntie Carrie. Stay tuned for a video of her eating cake!