New Little Things We Can Do

It's awesome the number of new things Isabelle can do. They come at the rate of about one per day now, or at least it seems that way.

She has found the stairs and learned how to climb them. We ordered baby gates a week ago, and thankfully they will get here at the beginning of this week. She learned this because Robert was sitting on the steps up to the upstairs room and Tesla (the cat) went up to lay beside him. Isabelle wasn't even thinking about what she was doing and took off up the stairs to try to get to Tesla. That's the way she does most new things - to get to Tesla. She almost never gets to him because he takes off, but she tries.

She can clap her hands. That started on Thursday, Thanksgiving day. I think it's wonderful so I encourage her so now she does it all the time. She can also put her hands together and lace her fingers together. She usually does that when she's finished clapping. Now I'm working on teaching her "patty cake". She's interested in it, but doesn't really know what to do.

She reaches out a lot more, with things in her hand and without. It's like she's learning to interact with Robert and I more. She gives us toys. Without anything in her hand, it's almost like she's doing a bear imitation, with a claw swipe and a growly expression. Robert and she use it as their secret handshake.

Thanksgiving Day With the Needy

Yesterday, for Thanksgiving, we volunteered at Trinity Cathedral for the Community Thanksgiving Meal. Actually, to be acurate, I volunteered as volunteer coordinator and Robert came along and took care of Isabelle. It's always a great time and I love doing it. We did it for the first time last year, and since I "took control" of places that needed to be and shifted volunteers around last time, they asked me to do it this time, too. And Kris, who will be taking over from Cynthia next year, asked me to do it again next year. Of course, I said yes.

Everyone loved Isabelle. I dressed her in her Gymboree bright red shirt and leggings with flowers and snowflakes, with bows of red and green with little bells in them. She was adorable and did really well with all the people. Lots of people wanted to hold her and she enjoyed that. She is such an outgoing baby that she loves to be around people. Luis, one of my favorite peope and from Cuba, held her. He was so tentative and then thought she didn't like him. I told him to hold her facing him (so she'd feel more secure and would concentrate on him). He did that, and she brightened right up. His fiance is 7 months pregnant, so he's going to get a lot more practice at holding babies.

I really enjoy all the different people, including all the people who volunteer to help and all the people who come to the meal. There are all different kinds, from people who are shy or stand-offish to poeple who want to be face-to-face talking to people. I like to make the people feel like this is a social occaision (not just a quick meal and they're outta there), so I like to put outgoing, smiley people at the door to greet the guests and show them down to the Morrison Room (where they hang out until the meal is served) while talking to them. When the guests were all lined up waiting to go through the buffet line, I grabbed a basket of pretzels and went down the line offering people pretzels and just gabbing with them.

I took Isabelle around at the end and talked to volunteers and guests and showed off my beautiful baby. She showed off how well she can crawl (like a shot, now, and so cute the way she wiggles her rear when she does it) and how he pulling herself up to standing. Carol Kudoku said it would probably only be weeks before she was walking. Whew, I'm not sure I'm ready for that.

Up, Up and Away

Isabelle not only crawls now, she power crawls. I can't believe how fast she can move. And she follows me from room to room as I go around doing chores. When she first learned to crawl, she would still cry to be picked up and carried when I left a room. Now she just follows me. It's really fun.

Last Saturday Robert and went to a class on child and infant CPR and first aid and we left Isabelle with our friends and neighbors Pat and Bill. This was the first time we had left Isabelle with someone else, but Pat and Bill have lots of grandchildren and are great with kids so I wasn't nervous about it. When we got back Isabelle spotted us through the window as we came to the house to get her, and she broke into this huge smile. It touched my heart.

Well Baby Visit, 8 1/2 months

Today we went for our first well-baby visit in the US. All of her tests at the adoption clinic at OHSU came back fine. Her doctor ordered a test for anemia since one of the pediatricians in Guatemala thought she had a little and her second Hep B immunization. I had forgotten to bring Isabelle's bottle (brought the formula, not the bottle, but it doesn't help) so I was wondering how we'd survive the shot and blood draw. Fortunately they do a great job at Westside Pediatric Clinic. The nurse had her sit on my lap and the blood they got from the cutest tiny pin pricker from her finger. That was all over before she realized what had happened, and a piece of a wagon wheel and playing with the band-aid took her mind off what had happened. And the nurse was really quick with the immunization, too, and did it while she was still on my lap. Even I hadn't realized it was over til it was done. Again, tiny bit of crying and then she accepted another piece of wagon wheel and played with the band-aid on her finger again. All in all, very well.


She's in the 75th percentile with her height, which surprised me. Since she was only 5.5 pounds at birth and so many Guatemalans are short I expected Isabelle to be on the short side, but she's not. I guess I knew that, though, from her clothes because she wears the clothes for her age. She is in the 25th percentile in weight so her doctor wants me to fatten her up. I'm not sure how her cheeks could get any fatter, but I'm willing to try. Actually, she is eating really well. Along with her 8 ounces of formula 3 times a day, today she ate part of a gyro sandwich, blueberries, kiwi, string cheese, whole wheat cracker, carrots and potatoes, and part of a soy dog, and she gobbled it all up. After dinner tonight Robert said she looked like she'd plopped her face in a blueberry patch :-)

It's amazing how much Isabelle adds to my life. It's actually really awesome. watching her grow is both humbling and fascinating. Isabelle has added a lot to both Robert's and my life, in ways that are hard to describe. We have become what I wanted, a bigger circle of love.

Pictures of the Cutie

Hats made by Grandma Byrne.

This Picture shows that Isabelle is not always photogenic. In fact, we get a lot of pictures like this because she is always moving.

How to Turn a Samoyed into a Cuddle Dog

Isbre, our Samoyed, has never been a cuddle dog. Firstly, she gets too hot when she cuddles, and secondly, she is too independent to want to sloow anyone that much control over her.

But since we've brought Isabelle home she has been a cuddly, need to be petted all the time dog. Or, at least when Isabelle is up and taking our attention (when Isabelle goes to bed she goes back to her laid-back self). She continues to remind us that she is our first (furry) child. Often she will get between one of us and Isabelle, even squeezing her way in.

She is getting used to Isabelle now, and accepting her as part of the pack. When Isabelle cries (not fusses, but really cries and wails) Isbre has started howling and sticking her nose in Isabelle's face to see what the matter is. This is great most of the time because often Isabelle will stop for a moment to see what the problem is with someone else. Every once in a while, though, if I'm feeling tired and harrassed the two of them going at it together will drive me to the brink of insanity. Overall, though, I'm glad to see Isbre accepting Isabelle and being concerned about her.

Tessla (our head-strong orange and white cat) still spends a lot of time outside, and has been doing that ever since we brought Isabelle home. In the last few days he has just started to decide that she isn't leaving and he might as well get used to her. It's the same reaction he had when we brought Isbre home. Tonight though, for the first time, he rubbed up against her, claiming her as something of his. Granted it was a really fast rub so she didn't have time to react and reach out for him, but it was a bonafide rub. We're becoming a whole pack/family again.

How Does She Grow That Fast?

My little girl is growing! She's getting bigger, which I notice when I trim her nails and when I hold her in the shower. And, she's getting more mature. She crawls around like a speed demon, she plays on her own for 20 minutes or so at a time, and she smiles a lot. We have conversations in babble-speak.

I find I'm still amazed at having her here. I've wanted a child for so long that I'm used to wanting one but not having one. To have Isabelle around and be able to watch her interact with the world around her is amazing. It's an awsome blessing and just plain fun.

When she crawls, it's like a Frankenstein's monster crawl, with straight arms slapping at the floor as she goes. Very cute. She's also like a swimmer doing the crawl; her head is down and she veers off course, so every so often she looks up and corrects her path. It's a blast to watch.

She is eating all kinds of foods now. She always wants a little bit of what we're eating, like tonight we had to find things off our salad for her to eat even though she had raviolies and banana and potato and sweet potato and spaghetti with tomato sauce on her plate. And she will yell to let you know that that's what she wants. Sometimes she is an eating machine, which I love.

She has gotten much better about not playing in the dog's water dish or messing with the cd player in her room. My strategy has been to tell her no, and then move her to some toys she can play with. I've also tried to give her more attention when she is doing good things as when she is doing bad things. I've read that for children good attention is great, but bad attention is almost as good, and much more attractive than no attention. I'd thought that sounded odd, but now that I've watched Isabelle it makes sense; her survival depends on getting attention from her parents, and so there is a strong drive within her to be sure she is getting attention. It makes sense that things she does that get attention are repeated and things that are ignored are often not (unless they have their own reward, maybe). I'm trying the same strategy with her screaming (the girl does have a healthy set of lungs). I just ignore it. But I clap and smile when she smiles at me or drinks out of her sippy cup herself. I will report on how it goes.

She has also quit playing with the books and CDs and I'm not sure why. I have put boxes of her toys in front of the book cases, and also other small caches of her toys around the house, often in little boxes or paper bags. And I try to spend at least half an hour a day playing with her using her toys and Robert often spends more than that with her in the evenings. I'm still waiting to see if this is a momentary lull in getting into the bookshelves or if what I'm doing is working. So far this discipline thing is still a work in process.

One of my big issues is food. Food should be fun. I love food (as you can tell by seeing me around it) and enjoy making it and eating it. I don't force Isabelle to eat anything. That doesn't mean she can eat whatever she wants because I'm the one who gets to decide what her choices are. But, I don't push food on her that she's not interested in, I just try something else that I'm interested in having her eat. So far this effort, too, is just in the beginning stages, but it seems to be going well. I've noticed, too, that often she won't want to eat something if I feed it to her, but she will eat it if I let her feed herself. She's an independent little cuss ;-)

We're Pulling Ourselves Up

Isabelle is pulling herself up on chairs, the coffee table, and us. It's scary because she's so much taller when she stands and that means more child-proofing for us. She is also moving right along when she crawls. It's hard to believe she only started that a few weeks ago with a tiny tentative step.

She is definitely teething, working to get in her two top front teeth. They haven't broken through yet, but she is really sensitive on that part of her gums and she stops crying a few minutes after I put orajel on the area. Thank goodness they made it tasty so she doesn't mind it. She had us worried this evening during dinner because she started just screaming like she was in terrible pain.

Last night she had sauteed chicken and stuffing and corn with us. She adored it. We needed to be sure we cut the chicken up into little pieces, but everything else was fine as it was. Isabelle had driven Robert crazy that morning because she wouldn't eat any breakfast and spits out her food with a raspberry when she doesn't want it.

More Teeth

Isabelle seems like she's trying to get teeth on her top gum.

Moving Around Like a Pro

We Don't Know What She's Saying, But She's Talking

Yesterday Isabelle started talking, or at least sounding like she is. She looks right at us, gets very serious, and lets out a string of serious-sounding words.