David is going to have little chicken hair, Julie says. Yes, he's losing his baby hair, and the hair that remains is small and fine. He doesn't have that peacock tail like Isabelle used to have. In fact, he looks like he just got a military haircut. The drool isn't very gentlemanly though.
Its so fun to hear him when he's playing with either one of his toys or with us. He gets a big smile on his face, and kinda squeals in a playful way.

Isabelle is getting pretty good with her ABC's and counting. I know, she's only two, she doesn't need to learn her ABC's yet, but almost every childrens video has them included. Along with a little song that gets stuck in your head all day. But the funny thing I wanted to share is her counting to 10. She hasn't quite got it all yet, and she has no idea what the numbers actually mean, but she's pretty good with 1-2-3-4 and 8-9-10. 5-6-7 get a little slured together. It's fun to hear, because of how she finishes. 8-9-10-great!

Isabelle loves to dance. Especially after bath time.
She really likes to run around before she gets dressed, but I haven't got any pictures of that for you. It is pretty funny to see though, as she has that little pooched belly two year olds have.

But after she gets dresed, she still has a grand old time. She incorporates hopping, and kicking, arm sways and some head wobbles. She's quite good at imitating me.

Of course, I have years of experience standing at the edge of the dancefloor, or hanging sure at the bar looking for courage in fancy glassware. And I have a few years just letting it all go and having a good time no matter what crazy move I might come up with, some of which work, so just look silly, but entertaining. I'm sure any of you that remember the wedding in Cabo know what I'm talking about. So sometimes I dance with her, and I try a crazy move, and she imitates it. She's getting pretty good. She'll be at Julliard

Wow, 3 weeks have gone by since the last post. And I think I have said that before too. These little ones don't leave us enough time to do these no critical projects. Sure, this update is critical for you, but for us, it has to fall below diaper changes and laundry.


David rolled over for the first time today. And today also happened to be his 5 month anniversary/birthday. Which is more appropriate for a baby of 5 months? Birthday just seems to mean a yearly anniversary to me, but then again, anniversary seems to be tied to marking accomplishment with respect to a project one initiates. OK, that was way too formal for a blog about kids.
Anyway, David rolled from his belly to his back today for the first time. A little milestone, but a milestone none the less.

Isabelle stumped me with her little speaking style as well. In fact, I needed to call Julie at work to ask her if she could translate. Here's the story, Isabelle came up to me and said, in her little girl voice, "march de celery?"
Of course, I know she didn't want to take celery out for a walk, nor did she want to watch the celery march, although I tried to figure out where she may have seen that sort of thing. Very puzzled, I asked her to repeat herself again, to which she replied, " Idabel march de celery?"

I literally asked her to repeat herself about half a dozen times, and most of the time, she repeated herself multiple times, for a total of about 30 requests, and I really couldn't make heads or tails of it, despite her persistence. Once, she even put her hands on my cheeks to make sure I was listening to her, and asked again. So I called Julie, since this was really something Isabelle needed. Fortunately, Isabelle was in a talkative mood, and didn't clam up when I put the phone to her. I asked her again what she wanted, and she said into the phone, (you know what don't you? Yep.) "march de celery?"

After about five more of those, Julie says, "Watch Cinderella?!?"
"Yeah!" says Isabelle.
"Oh," says me.

Then we watched Cinderella.

This last Sunday, my Mom, Susan, Greg and Joani came up for the second half of Christmas. We had a good visit, although always too short. Isabelle always has so much fun with everyone, after she warms up to them. I don't think she understood that they were coming by that day, until the door opened, and in walked four people with bags of presents. She just stood by the tree, where she was trying to get into trouble by playing with the glass ornaments.

After a few minutes, she started to talk about her morning, with the 'D' heavy vocabulary that no one could understand. Then she was running into her room to get a stuffed animal or two, and tell a story about it or hand it to someone to play with. Which they were glad to do, until it was their turn to hold David. And he was in a very playful mood, lots of smiling and laughing. And drooling. He's starting to teethe, so every now and then, the saliva starts, and he starts to chew on his knuckles. He's not really a thumb sucker, but he sure works the back of his hand.

Then the gift exchange began. Isabelle was a little overwhelmed. So many presents going in so many directions, and then there were the bows. She had fun ripping presents apart, of course, but she also had fun putting the bows on her sweater, then on my shirt, then on her butt/back. She's so funny the way she remembers things sometimes. Right in the middle of opening presents, she remembers playing A-B-C Horsey with Grandma Jeanne a few months ago, and runs over to Grandma and says, A-B-C? And she starts to climb onto grandma's lap.

This girl of ours is always entertaining us with her creativity, and general silliness. One of her
latest stunts was during dinner last night. After her main course, I offer her a little cup of pudding, which is one of her current favorites, and she starts to eat it as you would expect, with a big grin. Then she sees that I am still eating some chili, which I have crumbled up some crackers on top. She tells me she wants a cracker, so I give her one. Then she splits it in half, puts down her spoon, and scoops up some chocolate pudding. Mmmmm, saltines and chocolate pudding. She loved it.

David just had his 4 month check-up. He's doing well. He is up to 14 lbs 13oz (6719 grams) and 25.5 inches (64.75 cm) ! David is growing well for whichever age he should be. He is in the 25th percentile for four month olds, but since he should only be a two and a half month old, he's pretty big. His muscles are not as strong as they should be yet, however, as he really hasn't got control of his head. It's not flopping around or anything, but he's not lifting that melon as a four month old should. But he's probably lifting it just fine for a two and a half month old.

David has really started to talk a lot more now as well. Did I just write that last week? I can't remember. In any case, he is. He's doing more coos and laughs, with an occasional giggle and chortle.

Isabelle is also up to speaking often. However, most of her words are variations of 'da'
"Daddy, da da di durr da Idabell milk do dae?" Yes, she says her name as Idabell. I have a couple of stories about her, but I must postpone them until later tomorrow. My sisters and mom are coming by tomorrow morning for part two of Christmas, since we didn't get to see them on the actual holiday. And I still have stuff to do to get this place cleaned up a bit.