1st Christmas!

Dad shows Isabelle how to run her new train from Santa Clause (one unwrapped present).
Isabelle has taken out two of the balls and is looking to see where the other one went.
Isabelle thanking Daddy for the nifty gift (showing she knows more about Santa than she should!).
Dad made waffles and we had them with mangos and whipping cream. Isabelle enjoyed hers a lot.
Taking a rest break with Dad from all the excitement.

My big Christmas project - baking and decorating sugar cookies.
Tearing paper off the big present from Grandma and Grandpa Hash. Isbre is checking out what the excitement is about.
Wow! A hand-made rocking horse. She's still a little tentative on it, but I know it will grow on her, as much as she likes to bounce.

Dad with his hand-made red scarf and home depot gift card.

Elizabeth with her hand-made head band and gift card to Barnes and Noble. Does my Mom know me, or what.
Isabelle with her new teal hat.
And with her new peach head band (a quick shot before she got it off).
In her new hand-made dress from Grandma Byrne. Someone has very talented grandparents.
Another view of the dress.

Taking a fun break to do one of Isabelle's favorite things, bounce on one of my exercise balls.
Isabelle's dress from her cousin Julie.
Absolutely fabulous set of balls/stacking half-balls from her Aunt Jenni. I've been looking for a stacking, sorting, building toy for weeks but haven't found one I really like. This one is wonderful, and it has so many ways to play with it (Tesla likes the balls, too).
Beautiful St. Nicholas ornament from Bill and Pat, our neighbors.
New whole outfit from our fashion icon, Aunt Deanna.

Whew, Christmas Day is more work when you're making the fun, not just enjoying it. Isabelle got both tired and amped by the end of the day, and wouldn't go to bed until 10pm. But, she did play quietly by herself from 7:30 on, which I think was her Christmas present to her parents, who ate a nice, quiet meal and watched Ratatoulle. It was blissful.

Inventing Croquet

Isabelle is starting to play more, and sometimes she invents her own games. A few days ago, I was watching her as I was doing chores around the house, and she was using a plastic hammer to hit a ball around the livingroom. Neither Robert nor I had showed her this, she just made it up on her own. It's like she was creating croquet.

Anything new in the house that she can put on the floor, she checks for slideability. It as though she lives to body surf around the house on stuff that slides. Last night I have her the plastic insert from an ornament box, and she went sliding around the living room on it. There could be boogie boarding in her future.

Isabelle has been to the top of the stairs several times, and practices on the two stairs below the child gate going up and down them. Once she's at the top of the stairs, she hasn't gotten the idea that she needs to turn around to come down, so she just sits at the top, puts her hand on the edge a coupble of times, and looks down, then either cries or finds something to do at the top. Once I turn her around so she's backwards, she's fine going down.

First Christmas Tree

Isabelle's new punk hair style, thanks to Dad.Sharing fruit with Dad in the morning. I love the full cheek, hangin'-out-with-Dad look in the second picture.We went to Shaw's Tree Farm in Plains to get a Christmas tree. I love going to pick our Christmas tree and Robert cuts it down and hauls it to the truck in no time flat. After we got our Noble Fir (type of tree, not just description), we went on a walk around part of the tree farm, including by some horses. I love horses, and Isabelle thought they were fascinating. After just watching them for a while, they came down to check us out. Even Isbre barking up a storm didn't deter them.After we got the tree, we went to Helvetia Tavern for a burger and fish and chips (the picture is from the display outside). It's a place in the middle of farm land and is full of character. The ceiling is covered with baseball caps. At the table next to us was what looked like a gaggle of teens, but ended up being a family. They looked like they were just goofing around and I figured they would be talking about the usual stuff (latest star in crisis, football, etc). When I listened for a few moments, I heard the two nearest us talking about Africa and why there are chronic food shortages and how the culture functions. I love being surprised by how thoughtful people can be. Isabelle was good for most of the time, but she tends to scream when she feels everyone in the restaurant is not paying proper attention to her. We've gone from blowing on her face when she does it, to putting our hand over her mouth. We like to go out to eat and we want to be able to take her with us, so this one we'll keep working on.


She got a new hair-cut ala Dad, who cut her bangs about an inch up and straight which looked terrible. I was devistated because she is so gorgeous and he had taken away the cute, wispy bang look. Just because it was me who suggested he cut her hair does not take away from the crime. And, worse yet, he started calling her a vulcan and making the vulcan sign at her and saying "Live long and prosper". It was NOT funny! You can see in the first picture how she feels about the new cut. Fortunately, a friend told me how to feather the hair, so I've done that and it's better.

I guess she's exercising with the felt braid (a dog toy). She does that with a lot of things - puts them over her head and then behind it. I thought maybe it was the basic desire to be able to move things off their face, but she does it so often I'm not sure.

Also, notice the matching outfit in the picture. I'm very proud of the outfits I've put together for her. Because she looks good in everything, I get to experiment with colors and patterns in a way I've never done on myself.
Isabelle and Isbre are getting along better, but Isbre is still upset about not being the only child (albeit a fur child). I'm working on teaching them how to play together (throw the toy, pull on the rope) and I hope that works eventually. Isbre does lay on a blanket we put down in Isabelle's room next to her crib, when we're in the room with Isabelle. I take that as a good sign. Isabelle does like to torment Isbre - crawl up to her and pat her and play with her feet and pull on her hair and scream. Isbre will take some of it, then give a little growl and get up and walk away. Isabelle takes Isbre's bone that she's chewing on and then waves it in her face without giving it to her. So far Isbre has dealt with this pretty well, but I saw her start to curl up her nose once (for which she got into trouble) so we've started giving Isbre more Isabelle-free room.

Here we are after a walk on a cold morning. We put reflective strips down the side of the backpack so no-one on Baseline (busy street with no sidewalk) would run us down. Isabelle is wearing the orange sweater my Mom made her, and the booties Esther made her. I get lots of comments on the sweaters Mom made, especially when people see the little veggie buttons down the front.

Back Getting Better

Grandma Hash taught Isabelle that being carried around is really fun. Now she wants me to carry her everywhere and my back has been out. I mean, really, pain-shooting-down-my-leg awful back stuff. And it's taken me a year to convince my doctor to order an MRI. I've been wandering around in a pain-haze for over a week, and am just now beginning to feel a little better. But, I'm still not up to carrying a 10 month old baby around.

Big Turkey Eater

Isabelle has now figured out how to move around and take a toy with her - she carries it in her mouth. She loves to play with metal lids so I've washed and given her several, and in this picture she is taking it with her.
Since Robert and I volunteered for Thanksgiving, we never got a big turkey dinner. So today Linda showed me how to make a big turkey dinner, with stuffing and mashed potatoes and fruit salad and gravy.

Isabelle had some of everything but the gravy, and I thought she would burst. She was shoveling it in with both hands about as fast as she could.

Here she is helping Grandma with the turkey.

Hanging out with Dad.
Robert makes these elaborate towers with blocks we got for Isabelle, and she loves to knock them down.

Here's breakfast with Grandma

Being with Grandpa seems to make her contempletive.

Intel TDE Christmas Party

Today we all (Robert and I, Robert's parents, and Isabelle) went out to lunch, then to the store to get a Christmas outfit (the outfit is Amanda from Antigua's fault because she got me hooked on Gymboree) and then out to Robert's work's Christmas party. There was lots of great food, but Isabelle's favorite thing to do was watch the other children there. For about 20 minutes she was happy just to be held and look around, but after that she wanted to get down and crawl around to the different kids. And, she can really move along when she crawls now.

These pictures are from after the party when Dad was playing with an Isabelle who was getting cranky.

Last night we had some people stop in while Robert was giving Isabelle her bottle and putting her to bed. He gave up after about 20 minutes because she just refused to go to sleep even though she was really sleepy. He said she would almost be asleep, and then she'd raise one foot and her eyes would pop open. So Robert would hold her feet while rocking her, and she would raise one hand and then her eyes would pop open. He finally got her to sleep when he pinned her hands and legs and rocked her. I can tell she's going to tough to keep to a cerfew when she gets older.