Well, I hate to say it out loud and thus risk the chance of cursing us.... but it APPEARS that David is now sleeping through the night!! HOORRAYYYYY!!! The weird thing to me is that he didn't sort of "cut down" on getting up at night, he just all of the sudden started sleeping through. That's what makes me a little nervous that it's just a growth spurt and it won't last. For now though, we've slept through the night for 3 days in a row and it's been GLORIOUS!!

He continues to do well. He has such a funny, sweet, snuggly personality while also being persistent and determined. He makes the greatest faces... a very expressive face; and I can tell already that he has a good sense of humor. Nothing too much is new with his development that I can think of. He's eating more and more solid food, seems to have a good appetite and isn't terribly fussy about what he eats. He has five teeth already and enjoys using them!

David has terrible balance, but I don't think he has realized that yet, as he continues to do things that his body doesn't seem ready to do. Right now he has a bumped eye and mouth from falling and looks like a little boxer:>( Today he bumped his mouth and made his lip bleed... again. I am glad not to be queasy about the sight of blood.

Isabelle is her same silly self. Her newest thing is pretending to be a cat. She crawls about on the floor, and particularly when she wants positive attention, she meows at us. The other thing she likes is to ask us to, and of course we do, sing familiar songs like a cat. So she'll say "sing Twinkle Star Kitty-Cat", and that means that we Meow to the tune of the song. It's funny and silly and sometimes irritating, but we do it because soon enough she won't want us to sing to her anymore at all. ( I had a flash of mortality and realization of impermanence today...)

We did have a couple of really bad days as a result of too much sugar. I've said it before, and swear to myself that I won't let her have any, but then we're out somewhere and I think ok, a little won't hurt. So she has some candy and we pay for two days after. She's absolutely terrible!!! She won't listen, she throws tantrums, she's mean to David and to us, she's fussy and moody and horrid to be around. Don't get me wrong, she has her tough days otherwise, but they are nothing compared to when she has sugar.


Anyway... I think that's the update... here's a couple more of her "masterpieces." The one face that's black with male pattern baldness is John. She did draw a sort of similar one today though, and when I asked her what the things were on the sides of the head ( I thought to be hair) she said eyebrows, so I don't think she's drawing hair too much yet.




We're going to the Campbell's house on Sunday for the day, and Isabelle is excited to play with Jordan. We should have some good pictures from that to share on the next post!

Happy Father's Day!! We didn't have a very eventful day, but it was nice. We went swimming in the afternoon, which was the first time this year. Isabelle loved the water again.The first year she went she was 6 months old and LOVED it. Last year it was not so much fun... cold and kind of scary... this year is fun again.

David was not so crazy about the water. I think it felt too cold for him. He splashed around a little, but then didn't seem so happy so I got out with him and John and Isaelle played in the pool. He liked being cuddled up in the warm towel and watching the action.



I am convinced that Isabelle is a budding artist. Do any of you readers out there know what kind of drawing a 2 1/2 year old is supposed to be doing? Isabelle is drawing shapes and simple pictures. Right now she loves to draw "happy sun." I think it's also interesting that in another picture that looks similar to this one, she decided to use a different color for the mouth. I think she's brilliant.



David has his two front top teeth!! He is still drooling like a little faucet and now has started grinding his teeth. It must feel good to him, but it makes our skin crawl. He also is a very very persistent little boy. He used to be obsessed with grass, but now he is facsinated by the bathroom trash, the cats' food and water bowls and the ficus tree. So, the kitchen is now gated off, the bathroom door stays closed and there's a toy baracade around the tree. Good grief... with all the toys around here, you'd think he could find something else to do!!! He's a little explorer at heart maybe.

We went to a birthday party today for some friend's 4 year old son, Benny. They rented a place called Kid's Gone Wild. What a cool gig that was! The party was 2 hours long. The first hour is spent in this big room with these giant inflated slides and bounce houses. Some of them are bigger and/or taller than others, but they all are designed so adults can "help" the kids play on them. We had as much fun as the kids did!

I guess on the weekends this place take reservations for parties and during the week it's pretty much open and you can go in for an hour at $5 per kid (adults are free). Apparently Benny's grandpa takes him there for an hour every Thursday. (Cool grandpa!) I think we'll be frequenting that place, pretty often when the weather is either too hot or too rainy to go to the park.

Anyway, after we bounced around and slid for an hour, we went into another room for pizza and cake and present time. Isabelle was very excited about cake. When we told her we were going to the party and would have pizza for lunch she added, "and CAKE!" How do they figure that out so fast??

Another highlight of the party for her was the GIANT inflatable monkey decorations. She started playing with one at the end and wanted to bring it home. Kelly and Sandy kindly offered it to us, but unfortuinately we didn't have a car seat for it and it had to stay at the party.

I think we've found the site for Isabelle's 3rd birthday party!

It's harder to sit and write for two reasons. David's crawling like crazy. And he's going everywhere... in a hurry. He also doesn't separate horizontal crawling from vertical crawling. It kinda funny to watch, actually. He'll decide on heading due south, and he starts to motor off in that direction. Then, Whump! He hits his head on something, eventually. Then he looks up, as if to asertain the best route without ropes and caribiners. Then he tries to go vertical. He's geting a good routing on the couch and futon, but hasn't summited either yet.

He's is not quite sleeping throught the night yet. He generally sleeps about 4-5 hours at a stretch. Then one of us will get up to feed him a bottle. He only drinks about 6-7 oz at a time. He's always had a weak or lazy cardiac sphincter, so he spits up all the time. Also, until it gets stronger, we can't really fill him up enough to last the night. The good news is that he is getting better at keeping everything down, so now we'll just work on getting his belly a little bigger.


Speaking of David and good news, he had his 9 month physical last week. He is all caught up size wise, and he is developing as expected for a 9 month old. He's eating Cheerios in his high chair, which is a good indication of his fine motor skills. He's also using his own monosyllabic words, waves back and likes to clap. And boy, does he like to put things in his mouth! I don't even think that he picks things up to play with them or to learn how things feel or move. The hands are just delivery means to the mouth.

Isabelle is interacting with him a little more. She'll sit with him and watch one of the Baby Einstein shows, and crawl around on the floor with him. She also wants to 'help' David get up, or bring him over to the other side of the room. As you might guess, she doesn't quite know how to hold babies. The other day I turned to see what the "mmmmph" sound was due to, and there was Isabelle with a choke hold on David. She was trying to get him up on the couch, and realizing he is a bit heavier then a stuffed animal. She also likes to climb into his crib and play with him when he wakes up from nap. There have been a few choke hold incidences during these times as well.
As far as siblings go, they mostly get along well. We are starting to see some rivalry now that David is becoming more interested in toys and is more mobile. And it's hard for her to understand that he doesn't mean to pinch her or pull her hair, so why isn't it ok to push on his head until he falls down and starts crying? And so it has begun...