What A Fun Fall!

Hello everyone!!! In true Corrie fashion, it has taken me another couple of months to get on the ball and post another blog. Sorry for the enormous # of photos in this one. If I was more efficient with this, I would have category specific posts that include just a few shots. But because I can only force myself to do this every few months, I will be bombarding you with many pictures! Here is some recent information about sweet Isabelle.

She started walking a little bit after her 14 month birthday. It was so amazing to see the progression. First legs spread apart with the arms out to the side. Then the legs got closer, but the knees were still locked and the arms were out in front of her (very Frankenstein-ish!). Then the arms gradually came down, and now the legs and arms move like jello. I love this stage, even though she is in to everything! We have so much fun playing chase and climbing things. She loves playing in the backyard, too. The unfortunate part of this is that I have now assumed the job of picking up the dog poop (Brendan always used to do it) because we are out there all the time and she seems to be drawn to it like a magnet!

We are "practicing" for the arrival of baby brother in just 3 more months. I got her a pretend bottle, and we "feed" her baby doll and rock her. She also is learning to throw things in the trash when I ask her to, and pretty much understands everything I say to her so I think she will be mildly helpful to me once he arrives! :-)

For about a month now, she has been saying, "Bye!" at every chance she gets. First it was "bah bah" while waving, then Ba-ah, and now it's Bye-eee! Bye-eee! Bye-eee! every five seconds. I love it. I could listen to her say it all day. Wait...I do listen to it all day. But it never gets old.

She is a very picky eater, although I like to classify it as "knowing exactly what she wants." No veggies will make it in her mouth, but she loves fruit and drinking water and milk, so I figure she's getting the nourishment she needs from that. Give her a grilled cheese sandwich or a bowl of spagettio's and she's a happy camper. We are starting to learn how to use the spoon, but she needs just a bit more movement in her wrists to be better at it.

Finally, after 14 months of listening to wail after wail at nap time, she actually is enjoying going down for naps! We have a nice little routine. At 11 am while playing upstairs I say, "Want to go have a snack and watch Sesame Street?" She hops up, runs to the steps and we head down to eat a banana and cheerios in our high chair while watching The Street. Then around 11:20 I say, "Want to go upstairs and read a story?" She smiles and runs back to the steps and we head up to her room. We look through a photo album filled with pictures of her, and then I put her in the crib, she looks up at me, says "Bye-eee!", lays down to snuggle with her blankie and goes to sleep. She is still an excellent night sleeper; she goes to bed between 7 and 7:30 and I get her out of her crib at 8 in the morning. I know, I am kind of spoiled here but am hoping with having the same genes her brother will be very similar to her in this aspect!

Here are some pics from the last couple of months.

Playing around in the crib. This was the first time she realized she could stand up in it!!! But since I put her in a sleep sack for naps and at night, she rarely stands up in the crib.



Playing at the park with Meme in Corsicana.

Going for a ride in the baby doll stroller with her cousin Ella, 5.

Brendan's brother Jason and his family and us with Great-Grandmother Barto.


Tori and I showing off our baby bumps.

Some of those precious first steps!


Going for a "jog!"


In the ball pit at Annie's 1st birthday party!


First time walking with Daddy holding hands. So sweet!


Our little pearl sitting in the clamshell at the Heard Nature Museum.


Here she is throwing out her diaper. Big helper!


Feeding the goats at the pumpkin farm.



Halloween fun with cousin Ella. Go FROGS!!!!


Posing with the birthday girls, Ellie and Kate.




She's a big fan of the ring stacking toys!


Isabelle had a sleepover with her buddy Douglas. Here they are reading a story before bed.


Family photo at Douglas' Halloween themed birthday bash!


Isabelle wore her Halloween party dress and posed with her birthday buddy who was a Scottish Golfer.


Right before we took her trick or treating. She actually had a lot of fun being pulled in a wagon with her friend Chase. By the fifth house, she knew to take a piece of candy from the big bowl and put it in her pail. Other than a bite of a rice crispie treat and a 3 musketeers bar, Mommy consumed all the candy she collected. :-)

Isabelle's Birthday Party

Disclaimer:

Forgive my laziness on blogging! After much badgering by friends, I am finally updating this thing. The last few months have been interesting to say the least...I found out that I was pregnant at the end of May, and soon after began the downward spiral of misery that was my first trimester. I could barely transfer pictures onto my computer from my camera, let alone post on a blog! When Isabelle took a nap, I collapsed into bed. When Isabelle went to bed each night at 7, I went to bed too! Then, I felt better around the end of July. And at this point, my sweet baby girl realized I felt better and decided to start moving. She must have known I needed her to be a contented sitting baby during the first trimester, but once that was over she was ready to roll! So the last month and a half, I have been adjusting to the never ending cycle of chasing her around as she cruises on anything and everything. I am still trying to figure out how to get anything productive done while she is awake! Naptime is filled with showering, eating lunch or a snack, folding laundry, etc. So, once I figure that out I could possibly blog more during the day (but once she is in bed at night...mama is done for the day other than watching tv!) But then again, by that point I will probably have a newborn in the house, so let's shoot for 4 postings a year. I think that's fair! Haha!

Onto the big party. My friend Melissa took beautiful photographs that I will share here. You can see more of her work at http://www.houseofimagesphotography.com/.

I made this photo collage to show her growth over the first year.

Favors: Wooden blocks and a purple rubber ducky.

She started off as a very unhappy baby! But once she warmed up to everything, she had a great time.

We had about 35 guests. 9 of these guests were babies under the age of 1! It was so much fun to see them all together.

Libby was a great addition to the gathering.

My favorite pic from the party!!!

My mom and I had this outfit custom made for the party off of etsy.com (a great website of handmade stuff!)
Classic Isabelle yawn!

Everyone was clapping once we sang happy birthday, including Isabelle.

Birthday girl bloomers!


The following pics are of cake time. She was indifferent about the whole thing. I opted to let her be nimble with it rather than smashing it to pieces for her so that I could have extra leftovers of the cake! :-)

Oh how a year flies by! It's hard to imagine having a new member of the family at her party next summer. The party was crazy, but lots of fun. It was so special to be surrounded by friends and family, all of whom love little Isabelle.

April Was Awesome!

April has been a pretty good month! Isabelle went through a really rough patch for a couple of weeks--fussiness, fevers, runny nose, etc, and the doctor attributes it all to teething. But do I see any new teeth???? No! Just those two bottom boys are hanging out. She is still a content sitter of a baby. No attempts to crawl or move around, but loves to sit pretty and play with her toys. Great for me, since I can still go about my day while she sits in one spot. I know these days are numbered, though...

One cool development is her eating. She still gets 4 bottles a day and baby purees that I make, but she is eating more and more table food! Although, she still will not put food in her mouth herself so I have to do it for her. She has had grilled cheese, tortilla soup, 3 types of fish, meatballs, pasta, broccolli, steak, chicken, baked potatoes, sweet potato fries, pizza, cheese, refried beans, turkey, ham, oranges (she loves oranges!), and yes, ice cream. I have gone to Paciugo (Italian ice cream shop) with her twice, and have given her little tastes. I can tell she is going to love the treats!

Here are some pics from the month.

Isabelle is taking her first Kindermusik class with best buddy Luke. Here they are shaking their rice filled eggs together. Kindermusik has been such a blessing--we get to go once a week and sing songs and play with other mommies/babies. It's great!


Our neighborhood had an Easter festival, and the Big Bunny himself was there. Best of all, pics with him were FREE!!!! Hooray!

Isabelle has become enamored with Libby. Libby is a constant source of entertainment for her. She now pets her gently and laughs every time she sees her. Libby is now part of our night night routine. As Brendan rocks Isabelle singing Rock-A-Bye-Baby, I hold Libby like a baby and sing to her and Isabelle gets a big kick out of it.

We took her to the Dallas zoo (Brendan and I had never been) and here she is ready for her big adventure.

I found this horned toad bench outside the reptile exhibit and had to get a Go Frogs! pic in with Isabelle. If I ever get around to it I'll send it in to the TCU Alum magazine to annouce her birth (whoops, haven't done that yet!).

Easter was a fun day. We spent the day in Coriscana with Brendan's family, and Isabelle got to wear a fancy dress in her "signature color" lavendar.

Here she is with Brendan and Poppy. She loves loves loves his mustache!

Isabelle got to meet her cousin Kiera for the first time.

We went to a neighborhood brunch, and I finally got to put this polka dot dress on her! When I was just pregnant, I was visiting my mom in Chicago, and we saw this dress in Marshall's and fell in love with it. I didn't know what I was having yet, so I didn't get it. A couple of weeks later we found out it was a girl, and the first thing did was call my mom and say, "GO GET THE DRESS!!! WE'RE HAVING A GIRL!!!" They only had a 9 month size, so it took a while before she could fit in it.

If anyone was considering a stuffed animal as a gift for Isabelle, please hold off. :-) Sometimes I set out some of her animals while she is playing to see which ones she will go for first, and this day I decided to get them all out and set her in the middle. Her favorite??? The baby doll on the far right.

While visiting Brendan's parents, he put her on this little tricycle and wheeled her around, and she loved it. His mom sent it home with us as a "loaner," and both times we have put her on it, it has ended in disaster. Non-injury falls, but disasters none the less. As hard as we try to keep her on it, it just doesn't work. Yes, we are stupid for putting a 9 month old on a tricyle. We will now be returning it to grandma for use at a later time!

Isabelle began sleeping on her tummy this month. This is fine, but two things occur when she flips over and does not move for the next 12 hours. 1. The runny nose that will not go away becomes crusted ALL OVER her face and the bed sheet, and 2. She wakes up wet from her tummy to her chest because of her diaper leaking! So what does this mean? Bath time in the sink after breakfast! She loves it, and has so much fun splashing and playing in the water. (God, I can't wait to get this girl in a pool!)

Grandma Seal gave us this bath robe before she was born, and this was the first time we used it since bathtime at night involves wrangling her in a towel as she screams from being removed from the tub. I can't imagine putting a robe on her then! So, after our sink baths we get all cozy in the robe. And it sure is cute!!!

Isabelle loves her Dada. We talk about Dada ALL DAY long still! She had a week when she said Mama alot, but we are back to Dadadada. And Brendan is totally in love with her! He can make her laugh like no one else can.

She's not pulling up on anything yet, but when you stand her in front of something she holds on for a good 2 seconds and then falls. But this picture sure gives you the impression that she can stand. :-) This is at Luke's house, and he can book it across the room on this thing! I can't believe two babies that are 6 days apart are so different!

We can't wait to see what May brings! Swimming, maybe some more words and teeth, and even some crawling perhaps???