When did you first learn how to eat an icecream cone? It's hard to remember... We decided to introduce Isabelle to icecream cones. She's had the soft seve yogurt kind before, but those aren't the ones that cause the problems. No no... it's the hand-dipped ones that seem to be such a good idea when it's a hundred and fifty degrees in the summer in Davis. You wait in line for 20 minutes at Baskin Robbins, make a selection and settle someplace in the shade in hopes that the cool tasty treat won't melt too fast. One lick... yummm Two licks... PLOP!!! Onto the pavement.

We decided to prepare. Isabelle LIKES icecream cones! And she did quite well at mastering the art of eating one!

David is starting to use his hands and arms with a little more coordination and strength. So we are having him feed himself. He's getting pretty good at it. And he's such a character. As you can see in this photo, he's clearly milk drunk.

Yesterday was David's developmental screening at Sutter. They offer it to all preemies just to follow up on how they are doing. We saw a social worker who was very nice, a physical therapist and a pediatric nurse practitioner. The physical therapist was the most helpful, as David is behind in his gross motor skills. We've known that for a while and it isn't that uncommon... Anyway, the good news is that he seems right on target for most things. He picks up things and had pretty good fine motor skills, displays object permanence and also has really good social skills.

The physical therapist gave us some exercises to do with him to try to strengthen the front part of his body. Apparently in preemies, it's common for there to be an inbalance between the anterior and posterior because they develop strength in the womb in the posterior body first. Then during the last several weeks they develop strength in the anterior. Because of all this, even though he can sit up, but has poor balance because of the way he's compensated. His lateral muscles are undeveloped, so his movements are jerky as he tries to keep his balance. The good news is that it's early and we can help him fix the imbalance before it gets to be a big problem.

I also found it really interesting to talk to the physical therapist about her opinion of the "Back to Sleep" program. (I thought that maybe David's imbablance was partially a result of us putting him to sleep on his belly.) In her opinion back sleeping it's not a natural way for babies to sleep and she told me that they see all kinds of term babies that develop problems because of this, and that there's no proof that it prevents SIDS. The more likely reason for SIDS is soft mattresses, (in her opinion).

He's 8 months old now with an adjusted age of 6 1/2 months. The nurse weighed and measured him and didn't use the adjusted age for this. He weighs 22lbs and is still in the 50-75th percentile for an 8 month old. I don't really know what all of that means except that he's continuing to gain weight and grow like he's supposed to. That makes us happy because he's still pretty spitty. The nurse said that as long as he continue to gain weight and doesn't appear to have any irritation from the reflux, they qualify him as a "happy spitter." Bummer for us and all of the laundry we do, but again, happy that it's not worse than it is.

Isabelle didn't get to go to this appointment. Initially, I was irritated that we had to get a sitter for her, but once we were there I totally understood and was glad we didn't have the option to bring her. She stayed home with my friend Diane and they had a lovely time. The went to the horsey park and we're banging on things "making music" when we got back. It's so nice to have someone to jump in when we need to do things like this. And I think as much as Isabelle loves us, she gets tired of our ugly mugs and likes having new people to play with.


Oh jeez... speaking of imbalances though!!! Poor Isabelle did a face plant right into the concrete the other day! We were going out to get burritos and she tripped and fell and bounced her mouth off the pavement. You parents know that sickening feeling... You see it happening in slow motion and there's no way you can get there to catch them in time, then you're hands fly up to your mouth and you hope they don't see your reaction. She split her lip inside pretty good and had a nice big fat lip. She still has a fat lip in fact, but seems ok other wise. I got great advice from another mom for lip injuries, which was to put them in the bath with a popsicle. Pain relief, distraction and no mess!

The other great thing to report is that John's work has agreed to continue with an arrangement that makes it possible for me to be home with the kids during the day and work in the evenings. It's still not the ideal situation for them, but they've been generous in their compromise. With the exercies we need to do with David and the fact that I adore being home with the kids every day, we are so grateful. John gets one on one time with them the three evenings a week that I work and then on Saturday mornings. He's just the best Dad ever! And the kids light up for him like no one else. We're pretty happy with our little family.

David has learned how to clap his hands. It's the sweetest thing... he can sit up now, although he loses his balance pretty easily, and sometimes just sits and claps. He also likes to practice his new skill when he wakes up in the morning. Somehow, it isn't as cute then. He rolls onto his back and , clap, clap, clap squeal, squeal. Flip flop, grab Mommie's hair, smile as she untangles little fingers without waking up Daddy... So CUTE!!!

This morning at 5:30, I finally gave up and decided to get up with him. I get up and get dressed which is apparently enough time for him to roll onto his tummy and go back to sleep. So then, I go lay on the couch. I get all the pillows off, lay down get all snuggled up, nice and warm in the blanket... Ahhhhh... and, Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! He's up again. Being a parent is the BEST!

David is getting pretty good at sitting up now. I know that's a small step, but when you're a parent, you really enjoy these little milestones. He can't get himself up yet (I'll write about that when it happens too), but when we put him in a sitting position, he'll hold it for a while. He also loves to roll around, and look about while on his belly, as you can see from the photo in the last post. I'm sure he's gonna start crawling soon. He sure likes to kick when he's sitting in his high chair or stroller, but I can't remember how the transition goes from kicking legs to crawling legs.

Isabelle is enjoying her brother now a bit more as well. She asks to sit with him on the couch, and they laugh and giggle at each other. Of course, for David, Isabelle is just the most fun thing to watch in the world. He loves us, but he perform many more functions for him. We're more of a necessity. Isabelle is just the bonus, generally more interesting.


Isabelle has a very good eye for caricatures, I guess I would have to say. Every now and then when she's eating oatmeal or crackers, or whatever, she'll stop and say, "Doggie" or "bird." Then we look to see what she's talking about, and if she's looking at her spoon, we'll look there and see the shape of a dog, cat, face, etc.. Of course, when the media is oatmeal, I can't show you her transitory artistic interpretation. Yesterday, she was playing out on the side walk with her chalk. She was drawing faces, circles, and general scribbling, as two year olds like to do. Then she stopped and said, "Horsey." I looked, and yeah, she drew a horse. I think that's pretty cool, since she's never actually seen one, only on the TV.

Well here we are 10 days after the last posting. And that was a very minimal one at that. Let's see what I have to tell you. David continues to be cuter every day as a little more personality develops. He really likes to sing in the morning when he wakes up. It is a really sweet and cute little thing to hear, now that I can write about it, but when he wakes up at 4:30 and starts, it's not the preferred time. Sometimes he's also in bed, in between us, and he starts to roll from side to side. That's all fine until he gets the hands and feet into it. In fact, this morning he smacked me right in the ribs of my back, Whump! At 5 a.m., a whump on the chest is actually quite loud, and a little bit scary.


Isabelle is getting into the copy cat stage. Which is great, 'cause we can see her learning and thinking and practicing words. And now we really need to be careful about what we say to each other or other people when we're out or on the phone, for instance. Now, we are not a couple of foul mouthed sailors, so we don't have a lot to worry about, but the other day she said a couple of things which she must have heard us say, but neither of us remember saying it.

Here's my story, since I can't remember Julie's right now. I had just taken Isabelle out of the bath, and put her in her pajamas. She was drinking her warm milk, and reading a book, so I went back into the bathroom to wash the soap off her bath toys and rinse out the tub. The tub still had water in it, so of course, I started to let the water out as I picked up the toys. All of a sudden, in the corner of my eye, I see Isabelle, and she wants to help. Which is fine. There really wasn't much left to do anyway. But Isabelle still wanted to play, er....help. So she reached in the tub to splash a little bit. Next thing I know, her sleeve is all wet, and I said, "Oh, Isabelle, you got you sleeve all wet."
She looked down, and noticed the wet sleeve, as if it magically appeared. Then she said, "Oh, Darn it!"

Now, I really don't think I say that phrase a lot, or ever. But Isabelle sure learned it, and its context. Which is wonderful. But when did she learn it?

David likes green beans!!

Isabelle's favorite song to sing right now is Twinkle Twinkle Litttle Star. She sings it probably 52 times a day... at random times, in random intonations, at random speeds. The other songs in her line-up are Sweet Child O' Mine (Guns n' Roses), Blackbird (Beatles), Hush Little baby, and You Are My Sunshine. I used to just sing these to her at bedtime, but John downloaded these songs and now we have a little playlist that is requested a couple times a day.

Today at lunch Sweet Child of Mine was the request. Isabelle used to be a little confused by all the guitar work because obviously that's not the way I was singing it... she'd look at us like, is this part of the song?? But now she really gets into it... does air guitar and some drum beats.

Today she surprised me by getting stuck on the part "Where do we go now, ayayayayayayay" It was pretty funny. Then she said "rock on Daddy..." and I said "Daddy's at work, but yeah... keep on keepin' on.... rock on Daddy!" I've tried to teach her to put her goat-head up, but she's not quite coordinated enough to do that.

Then she ends the song with a big smile and says.... "Yayyyy...!" Fun having a little rocker in the house. David on the other hand might be a little raver.... he sure gets happy when John dances around to house music.

David has two teeth on the bottom! I know because he bites me all the time!!! I don't think he will get to wean himself at 10 months the way Isabelle did. Funny how different two kids from the same family can be. For instance with teething, (we HOPE it's just from teething!) David slobbers waaayyy more than Isabelle did. He's a mess! If we don't put a bib on his we have to change his clothes a couple times a day. And he chews on everything... his fingers, our fingers, my hair, shirts-- whatever is within reach. On the other hand, he doesn't run a fever, get a runny nose or wake up at night the way that Isabelle did, so that's good.


Have I mentioned how cute David is? Here's a nice shot with him and his handsome Daddy... Speaking of shots, David had to get one the other day, and got weighed at his visit. He weighs an even 20lbs! We were happy about that because we've slowed down on the introduction of food. Our pediatrition said to go ahead and start at 6 months, but after some time we decided his little system doesn't seem quite ready. He's on cereal and seems to like fruits, but peas are no good and carrots make him hurl. ( Amy, you can appreciate that.)

Isabelle on the other hand, eats anything except for mushrooms. I think it's a texture thing. Tonight she ate asparagus! What 2 year old likes asparagus?! She likes raw green peppers too. She likes most fruits as well, and has a healthy sweet tooth. We know she's ours because she loves chocolate.

She also loves visitors and is looking forward to Jen and Kevin coming to dinner on Tuesday. Today she told us, "no pudding for Jen!" which is something she remembers from Jen's last visit, like 3 weeks ago. Funny, the things they remember...

When I was a little girl and would have bad dreams, I would carefully make my way over the sea of alligators that covered my floor and ask my Mom if I could get in bed with her. She always let me snuggle in... sleepily murmering "it's ok honey, go back to sleep and dream about angels and sweet things..." These are the things you carry over to parenthood.

So now when Isabelle wakes from nap or in the morning I always ask her "How was your nap? Did you dream about angels and sweet things?" Usually she doesn't really say anything about what she dreamt about; she's usually more interested in snack.

Lately she's been having bad dreams and waking up at night, and last night she had a particularly restless night. I think John went to check her a couple more times than ususal. This morning when I got up with her, I said " Good morning Isabelle. Did you have bad dreams last night? What did you dream about?" She looked at me sweetly as we snuggled up with her cup of warm milk and said "Angels..."

Almost nothin' sweeter than that...

Oh yeah, here are some pictures of our day flying the kite. We all went out a day or two after the post I made about the flowers.

I am such a parent now. I have this game with Isabelle, which I started to call 'Japanese Smack Down.' Here's the gist of it, one day I was carrying Isabelle, and I came over to the couch, leaned over, grunted, and dropped her down. Well, she enjoyed that immensely, and ran right back with her arms up. So I plopped her down on the couch again. But this time I didn't grunt, as I held her a little more carefully. After she landed, she looked at me and grunted. So I grunted back, and next time I picked her up for a drop onto the couch, I gave an exaggerated grunt. As this went on, I eventually started to perform a few Sumo moves, i.e. clapping my hands, bowing, and slapping each hand on the corresponding knee.

So after another 10 drops to the couch, I added some Japanese words. I really don't know many, but that didn't matter to Isabelle, as long as I said them with the appropriate Sumo wrestler accented voice. Most of the words I know are for sushi, and konnichiwa, domo arigato, and itashimashite. So as I was exclaiming these fish in Japanese, Isabelle would just giggle, and ask me to "do again! do again!"

The next day, she comes up to me with her arms up, and asks, "Hamachi?" So that is what the game is now called. Yellow Tail Tuna in Japanese, "Hamachi"

The other day Isabelle was climbing up on the arm of the couch, and falling onto the cushions, and exclaiming to herself, "Hamachi!" And here is where the parent part comes back into it. She was having a great time, since she can do this just about any time. But what was I thinking? She's gonna miss the couch and crack her head open on the floor.

David went to the doctor for his 6 month wellness check. He's doing great. Still growing, up to 18.5 lbs (8.4 kilo), and 27.5 inches (70 cm). He had to get 4 more shot though, so he was a little grumpy for a day afterwards. We also started him on his fisrt solid food. Strained Sweet Peas, that old baby standby. He doesn't really like peas too much. Squash and pears are winners though.

David also has his first tooth! He's been very grumpy the last few days, and needs to be held a lot, which we remembered with Isabelle ment teeth or cold. Gladly, David has a little tooth coming up, front center, lower jaw.

It's funny how focused kids get. This afternoon I took the kids to the park, and I brought along the new parafoil kite Aunt DeDee gave us. When they were here, everyone was at the park, and Isabelle loved looking at the kite she saw there. So DeDee bought us a very similar, if not the same, kite. But we haven't had any breezey days yet. Rainy and windy, but not really kite flying days, unless your name is Benjamin.

All was going well as we walked down the pathway to the park, and we are just getting into the first stages of Spring. Along the pathway we saw a few flowers starting to bloom, and a lot of Dandelions, which Isabelle then proceeded to pick, every one she saw! Then she wasn't happy with only having yellow blooms, and she saw the periwinkle and needed the nice contrast to her bouquet. Of course, once she had those, she needed the 'nosemary'. Suddenly, going to the park to fly a kite wasn't the goal anymore.


I eventually got her to the park, and had the kite flying in a few minutes. Isabelle smiled when she saw it, and said' "Kite, kite!" But then she wanted to get some of the pink flowers off of the wild cherry trees. She couldn't reach them, but they were more important than this wonderful kite 40 ft up in the air. I even attached the 8 ft. streamer tail! She couldn't care less about the kite anymore.

I let her play around the park for a while, and she must have collected 50 dandelions, many just a raisin of their former self. But she wanted to bring them all home to Mommy. So I figure she had enough flowers, and I needed to get David home to sleep warm and cozy, instead of cool and breezy, and off we went. Very slowly.
" Come on Isabelle. Let's bring those flowers home"

shuffle, shuffle, shuffle

" Come on Isabelle."

scuff, scuff, scuff

"Isabelle, please don't drag your shoes on the cement. We need to get David home, and start your dinner."

She start walking normally. And then,

"Flower!" she says as she runs over to yet another dandelion which must have sprung up in the last 15 minutes, 'cause I'm sure she scoured this field on the way to the park. Of course, by this time, she can't actually pick up any more flowers, as her hands are full of the afternoon collection already. With both hands clasping dozens of flowers, (most of the periwinkle has shriveled up and fallen to the wayside by now) she bends over, and extends one, then two, pinky fingers to grab the precious golden weed. A few of the other flowers are lost off the top, and I hear,
"Oh No!"

She spends a few minutes getting all the flowers back into her hands, and looked over the green lawn for more.
" Come on Isabelle. Let's go home. We need to leave some flowers for other people to enjoy."

shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, scuff, scuff, scuff

So, John's face has finally healed and I have a day without too much to do and a little sleep! It's been quite a while since I wrote. Hi Everyone!! A few weeks ago my Mom and sister came out as a giant surprise birthday present for me! What FUN we had! They stayed at our house for 4 days, camped out in the livingroom and we just visited and enjoyed each other's company. It was so fun to have a full house to cook for and share the kids with! They also stayed with the kids for a few hours the day before my birthday so John and I could have a nice dinner out together... we went to Mikuni, our favorite sushi place, and then to Rick's Dessert Diner afterwards. It's been ages since we've done that! It felt like a first date! The next day on my birthday we were planning to have Chinese food from my (and I think my Mom's now) favorite restaurant, Noodle Express. That was the day that John crashed and ended up in the ER. It was great that they were still here, as I was able to run off to be with John at the hospital without worrying about the kiddos.

David was in heaven with 4 extra arms to hold him and I think Mom and Dee were too. He's already woo-ing the ladies with his cuddly ways! He could be held and talked to all day and be happy... snuggle-bug.
Isabelle had a great time too. I think she remembered Grandma Judy from her last visit in September. They didn't do the hokey-pokey this time, but Belle enjoyed bathtime with Grandma and crawling into bed to cuddle with her in the mornings. Isabelle isn't so good at laying still though. She's more of a kicker and a flipper. Grandma Judy didn't seem to mind.
Aunt DeDee probably has Good NIght Moon memorized by now! She had the honor and pleasure of reading to Isabelle before bedtime. She was also instrumental with bathtime, playing fishy, and made a little game with Isabelle which included running into eachother's open arms and then covering their mouths and squeeking at each other. Sounds silly, and it was, but it was hilarious and Isabelle loved it.

With the two of them here, I barely knew what to do with myself! I could take a shower as long as I wanted and cook dinner in a reasonable amount of time! And I don't think I chaned a diaper the whole 5 days! What I wouldn't do to have you two close!
Isabelle is still reminding me to "buckle up for safety" when we get in the car (because Grandma Judy says) and to eat, eat, eat eepples and baneenees!! ( A new funny song we learned on a video Aunt Dee brought.)

I almost forgot about the kite! One day at the park, this family was flying a super cool kite and Isabelle went nuts! It came in this little bag and the guy just flipped it out and it was up in the air! It's all nylon with no sticks or anything; and bright with long streamers on the end. Isabelle watched it yelling "Kite! High in the sky!! OOOOh Woow!" and jumping up and down. A few days after Mom and Sissy left, a kite just like the one at the park arrived addressed to Isabelle. We're waiting for a breezy day to go out and fly it!

As Isabelle would say... "Thank you so MUCH!"

Hello again! Let's see what I have to share with you. We had a review with David and some nice people with the county to see if he has any developmental delays. I think I mentioned it last time, or some time, that he didn't pull his head up very well for a 5 month old, but as I said, he was OK for a 3 1/2 month old. But just to be sure, we got an appointment with the county nurses and physical therapists just in case. And of course, David is doing just fine. He's just in that in-between state.

David, by the way, is now 6 moths old! In hind sight, it has gone by quick. He's also got two new friends he hasn't met yet, as Amy and Paul, and Mike and Heather, both just had little babies. Congrats to all!

Isabelle is so smart, and learning new stuff everyday. And remembering things too! The other day she was in the bathroom to take a bath, and she saw her cow ball, which is just a little kids ball, but painted in the traditional black and white Bessie motif. She grabbed her ball, and asked Julie if she could have Grandma Judy give her a bath. Just like that, out of nowhere. And I don't even think she got to take that ball to the bathtub when Grandma Judy was here, but apparently, Grandma Judy created some kind of memory with that ball in little Isabelle's head. Some of you might remember the giant cow balloon incident a few months back.


Isabelle loves to dance. Every after bath time, she does a little ditty in the middle of the living room. night Isabelle also likes to kiss everyone goodnight now, even the cats. We'll start off to the bedroom, and she says, "kiss Loopy?" So we hold her near the kitties, and she puckers and makes a kissing sound. The cats are not sure what to do with that yet.


Now that winter is waning, we are getting a lot of flower and tree blossoms. She loves to get her nose right in there and smell 'em. The other day, she came in with a big patch of yellow under her nose after smelling a daffodil, ......about 20 times. Yesterday, she picked some rosemary for me to smell when I got back from work. Isabelle calls it 'Nosemary.' She is also very dramatic when she finds something new. Today she picked up a pine cone, and let loose a big "ooOOOOoooo, show Daddy."

Speaking of Daddy, I had an eye exam today. Just wanted to see how I was doing (no pun intended) since I haven't been seeing as well in the last couple of years. Turns out I'm 20/20. Go figure.

Let's see, two weeks worth of stories to catch up on. I really need to get better at this. I know, I know, I keep saying that. One of these days it might stick, so please bear with me.

Two wekends ago we met my family in Concord for a Sunday brunch and belated birthday gift exchange. We had lots of good food at Todai. Isabelle had a great time, as she remembered everyone after about minutes, and then she really liked the place, and all the different types of food we had. We are so happy she likes a variety of food. I'm always worried she's gonna want nothing except macaroni and cheese or applesauce. She does love applesauce, by the way. And then there were the balloons. Fun fun fun.

Isabelle always has a great time with my family, since they are all so happy to see her, and want to play with her, she's thinks that is a good deal. And it's great how she remembers things afterward. On Tuesday, she says to us, "Ice cream, cookies, Grandma?" We're going to try to get to see Grandma Jeanne in a week or so.



David has a new little thing he does. When he's happy, and we are nearby, possibly playing with him, or maybe just talking to him, he starts singing. It's kind of a louder coo actually. You could do it yourself if you wanted to really hear what it's like. Say, "yeeeee" with a big smile on your face, and a little bit of drool/slobber in the back of your throat. Add inflections as you like to spice it up a bit. He also does that with his hands in his mouth, gives it that wah-wah sound.

A week or so ago, I had given David a bath, and was headed to the couch were I had placed his clothes. Well, Isabelle ran over and grabbed his sleeper, and ran to the other side of the room. I told her I needed that to get David dressed, and I would really like it if she brought that back to me. She threw it into a chair, and looked at me. OK, "Isabelle, please bring David's sleeper back over here." And this was about the time she suddenly couldn't hear. She ignored me, and played with the sleeper and the chair on the other side of the room.

So I get David dry and diapered, and then go over to Isabelle, I take her hand, place it onto the sleeper, which she grabs, and as I walk her back to the couch, I tell her that this means bringing it back to Daddy. Well, she wasn't very happy about that lesson. As I'm getting David dressed, she looks at me down her nose, as best she can, and waves her arm at me as if to scold me. I told her not to be sassy with me, and she has plenty of toys to play with, not David's sleeper. Well, she does it again, so I say, "Isabelle, do you want a time out?" She stops and is quiet.

About 30 minutes later, she's over at the couch with all her stuffed animals. She picks up each one, and asks it, "Do you want a time out?" Then she sits them on the couch, one at a time, next to each other. Not the desired effect, but it cracked me up.

Now for a good birthday story. Saturday evening, I told Julie that I was headed out to do a computer job, and should only be gone about an hour. Which I was, but my job was just to check the Arrival display at the airport. And pick up Julie's mom and sister. This was all a secret from Julie. So I got back to the house, and went inside. The plan was for me to go to the bedroom, or bathroom, and 30 seconds later the doorbell would ring, and since I was in the back of the house, Julie would have to get the door. But as fate would have it, Julie was on the floor with Isabelle and David in her room reading books. So when the doorbell rang, 10 seconds later, it really wasn't fair to ask her to get up and answer it, especially since I was still walking around. But I told her she needed to answer the door anyway, but I said she had to see who I 'bumped into.' Julie was a little confused, wondering who I could have bumped into, yet not let into the house without Julie's help. When she opened the door, it was a wonderful surprise, and birthday present. We'll try to put a few stories about that visit up here in a few days.

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.

As you have all heard, a picture is worth a thousand words. Here are a few thousand.

Happy Christmas Everyone!

I think Isabelle had a pretty good morning. David, of course, has no idea that today is any different from any other day. But Isabelle woke up about 6:45, as usual, but was a little bit grumpy. Sometimes when she wakes up, she starts singing a song she's heard recently, or tell a story to her stuffed animals. Today she just sat in bed and cried, "Mmmmmoooommmmy." So I went in, which is just as good as mommy. I changed her as Santa placed a trail of candy canes from her door to the Christmas tree.

She wanted to bring two stuffed animals with her out of her room, White Bear and Superbear, so I took them out of her crib for her, and I went to the door. Keep in mind that these two bears have about the same mass as she does, so as she carried them, she couldn't really see the floor. As soon as we got out of the room, I told to her to look where she was going, and she stopped in her tracks! Didn't she just put all those candy canes on the tree last night? I mentioned they seemed to make a trail, and we should follow it. And she did! About half way by the couch, she dropped the bears, and then a few steps later, she saw the tree, all lite up with about half a dozen shinny, pretty boxes underneath, with her name on them! Ooooooooooo!



Well, we got her settled by the tree, and she went for the biggest box. After tearing apart the wrapping, she saw it was a new barnyard activity thing. Turns out, I didn't even get everything out of the box, and it was going to be a great day for Isabelle already. We had a hard time getting her to open another present after that. Other presents included a couple of books by Dr Seuss and Curious George, a stroller for her dolls/stuffed anmials, a sing-a-long with Elmo book, and a couple other little toys. Then we brought out one of the greatest things ever. We like it, 'cause it folds down flat to about 2" think, and about 14" round. And Isabelle just loves havinbg her own little fort/tent/hide-away.



She loves it so much, we had a little bit of a hard time getting her to come out to eat lunch. But now she's zonked out in her crib, getting ready for round two, with all these great new toys!

OK, we're back! Wow, four weeks have gone by. Thanks for checking back, as I will continue to update. And I hope it will be a more regular interval of just a few days.

So the first story is that we've moved. It took a lot longer then we had hoped. The actual moving day went by pretty well, thanks to the Brady Brothers moving team. But it took us a long time to get everything into boxes, thanks to a wonderfully curious little girl, who would either take things out of boxes (clearly getting ready for Christmas) or get in the boxes. That left us with a couple hours a night, depending on Davids activity. And again, the same on the other side. If you want to know our new address, email us.

After we were here, SBC didn't get us hooked up for a few days, and then almost a week for the DSL to be activated. So that delayed me from writing when I had a little bit of time. Then for the last three weeks, it seems that anytime I wasn't active with Isabelle, I was doing something for David. Not that I'm complaining, not at all, just giving a reason why I haven't updated any posts here.

But I do have a few stories for you Christmas enjoyment. The first is about the little man. One day I was changing him, and just as I had placed a new diaper on him he farted at me. I told him, "Hey, don't fart at me!" Then he did it again!. So I told him, " You save those up for you Mommy." Which, naturally, made Julie laugh. Then he did it again! That's my boy!

David also had an eye exam. At our last appointment with him, the Dr noticed a slight strabismus, so we scheduled an appointment with a opthamologist. He's neither cross eyed nor wall eyed, but his left eye is focusing just a little off center. It's pretty minor, as we didn't even notice. But it looks like it is due to some slow muscle development, and he shouldn't need any eyeware or corrective surgery anytime soon.

Which reminds me of the funniest T-shirt I've seen in quite a while: 'I put the sexy in dyslexia'

Tonite we finally had our Thanksgiving dinner! We've had most of the stuff, we just didn't have a complete kitchen, or a free weekend night. Yeah, when we got here, we had a stove from '73 that only had two working burners, and one that leaked gas. So I disconnected it and we had to wait a week for the new one to arrive.



Of course, I am writing this on Christmas Eve, so I have to tell you a little bit of a Christmas story. Nothing really fantastic, just a trip to get a tree. We used to have a living tree in a pot. But this last year, it shot a root out the bottom into the ground. I pulled it up as best as I could, but after a few days, it was evident I had done irreparable damage, as the tree was mostly brown needles, with a lovely outer shell of green. So we all went one afternoon to the Christmas tree lot behind Longs drugs. We have a nice 6 ft Noble pine. Isabelle was very eager to decorate the tree, which involved placing ornaments on the tree, the taking them off again to play with ( they make neat sounds when you bang them together ). She also likes to touch the lights, even though we keep reminding her that they can be hot. Apparently, I have told her not to touch the glass ball ornaments quite a few times, as she now points to them and says, "Daddy no touch."

We will have a quiet Christmas at home this year. Due to David's risks from the common cold, and too much driving with kids, we can't make it to the south bay this year. Thankfully, everyone understands, and they will be up after the new year, in one, two, or three groups. Happy Christmas, everyone. We now have presents to put under the tree, er, we have to make room for Santa.