5 Months!

Be prepared this is a long post...

This weekend we went down to Medford to meet my family and to go through the Temple with my little brother. We had a lot of fun. We got to stay at my cousin Stacee and, her husband, Jonathan's house and then at my Uncle Dexter and Aunt Linda's house. It was nice to see my parents again and Isabella was excited to see them. On Saturday Isabella passed the 5 month mark, so we got to take her 5 month pictures while we were down there. Here are some highlights:

This is actually before we left, Isabella has been making these funny faces for the last week or so. Every time she does it it cracks me up.

Here's Isabella playing with Grandpa Jerry on the deck of Dexter and Linda's house. They were having so much fun.

Playing with Grandma Sue. We took her Halloween costume so Grandma and Grandpa could see her in it. By the time Halloween comes around it will probably look a little different, but this is the general idea.

She was so excited to see Uncle Grant. He was making her laugh and teaching her to make farting noises on demand.

This is the view from Dexter and Linda's house, it was so pretty.

Here's Isabella on October 25. 5 Months old! She was having fun while we were taking her picture. Dexter and Linda's dog, Katie, was coming up to sniff her and Isabella was very interested in her (I'm sure Katie found Isabella pretty interesting too).

Here are some highlights of the last month:

-Isabella has added veggies to her diet of milk and rice cereal. It has been fun watching her try new things. For the most part she has really enjoyed everything we have given her. She's had carrots, squash, sweet potatoes and peas. Tomorrow we start green beans. She won't start eating fruit until 6 months so hopefully she'll still eat her veggies after she gets something sweet.

-She's mastered the art of rolling over. She still only does it when she wants to, but once she starts going there's no stopping her. She continues to roll until she gets stuck on something. Some times she can roll back, but I've only seen her do it a couple of times. I think she can tell when we're watching her, waiting for her to roll because she just lays there. What is the saying... A watched baby never rolls...? She also loves to stand up (with help), jump and laugh (she loves when people play with her). She has also started sitting up on her own, some times she still tips over, but she's getting better at it.

-She is still transitioning between size one and size two diapers. We had switched her to size two, but I ended buying more size one because the twos were half way up her tummy. So we'll do another pack of size ones and then try the twos again. She's still wearing 3 month clothes (in Carters) and some 3 to 6 month stuff. She can still fit into some of her 0 to 3 month stuff, but mainly that's just the stuff the I like so much that I keep putting it on her. ;)

-She has reached the point where she can entertain herself! Yay! She likes to lay on her play mat on the floor and check out all the toys. She is also able to be distracted by toys. If she's mad we can usually give her something to hold and she quiets down. Some times this doesn't work, but for the most part it's been a life-saver.

-She has gotten used to having a pretty set schedule. She goes to sleep (mostly) on her own at 7pm every night. She wakes up one time at night, usually around 2am (we're working on getting her to sleep through the night and for the last few nights she hasn't been getting up until 5 or 6am so hopefully this is progress toward 12 hours straight). She gets up for the day around 8am, just in time for Mommy to get her ready before I have to go to school on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. She usually gets to hang out with Daddy in the mornings (so Mommy can sleep in) and then spends the day with me and some times our friends.

-She's getting better at hanging out with people without her Mommy. She stays with our friend, Katrina, and her daughter, Lizzy, on Mondays while I'm in class. For the first few weeks she took her nap while she was at their house, but for the last two weeks she's been up and ready to play when I drop her off. So far there haven't been any major blowouts (as far as Katrina has told me) although they did have to play outside today so Isabella would calm down. Luckily the weather cooperated so they still had fun.

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

This week Isabella has perfected the art of rolling over. For the last couple of weeks she would only roll over when she was naked, but now she's rolling even with clothes on! Once she starts rolling she has a hard time rolling back (she only goes one direction) and sometimes once she gets to her tummy she runs out of energy and she gets stuck (though, there have been some exceptions to these last to problems). I have video, but it's too big to upload. If I can solve that problem I'll post it (it's pretty funny).
Today we went to Portland and Isabella hardly cried in the car at all. She was so good. We have to go back on Thursday (why didn't anyone tell me the distribution center is closed on Mondays?). We still had fun shopping and visiting friends, though.

Our child is a genius...

So Isabella and I were outside taking advantage of the little bit of sunshine that we were getting. We decided that we would go over to the swings (not the swings that we usually go to because there were a bunch of older kids over there and they can get annoying, so we went to the swings across the parking lot). We were having fun swinging (just the two of us). Well, this lady pokes her head out her door and see us. So she decides to come out with her son and swing too. So she comes out and starts talking to Isabella and me. I'm thinking 'who are you and why are you talking to me. I don't know you.' Whatever. So she starts talking to Isabella in some other language (Mandarin, maybe?). Isabella starts cracking up. She thought that lady was so funny. I can only conclude that Isabella can speak Mandarin, she could understand what that lady was saying and that she has an excellent sense of humor. I'm telling you, she is a genius.

Sleepy time...

For the last few nights we have been working on getting Isabella to fall asleep on her own in her crib. I do realize that most babies do this much earlier, but hey, what can I say, I'm a push-over. Anyway, we are also working on getting her to sleep through the night. If she wakes up I would let her fuss for 5 minutes then go in there and soothe her (without picking her up) and then let her fuss for another 5 minutes and so on. The third time I go it I pick her up and feed her like our normal routine. Well the last few nights she has fussed for about a half hour before falling asleep and then when she wakes up in the middle of the night I would always have to feed her (I could never soothe her back to sleep). Well last night she slept through the night! I woke up this morning at 6:15 and I couldn't believe that it was already morning. She was still asleep when Dusty went to wake her up at 7am (we have also been working on getting her on a regular schedule since we are both back in school and she needs to take regular naps). Another exciting thing happened about a half hour ago. I put her down to sleep and she only cried for 10 minutes! I am so excited and I am hoping that these good habits last.

Yummy!

At our doctors appointment yesterday our doctor told me that we could start Isabella on some veggies. So last night we gave her some carrots (we'll introduce a new veggie each week starting with yellow veggies then green ones. We won't do fruits until six months). At first she was excited to get something other than rice cereal, but about five bites into it she was not digging them. It was pretty funny. She has definitely reverted back to spitting out more than she eats. And the problem with carrots is that they are much more messy than rice cereal (and Isabella manages to get them everywhere). All in all it is pretty funny to watch her eat.

Happy...Not so happy...
Today when I fed her she took one bite and knew what I was trying to give her. She didn't want to eat any of it. I distracted her and got a couple of bites in, but that was it. After that I gave her some rice cereal and she ate a lot of it.

Dr. Appointment

Isabella had her four month check-up yesterday. She did really good during the whole appointment. When we went to weigh her she wouldn't hold still and the scale was going crazy. So the nurse gave her a plastic cup to play with and she loved it. She held still long enough to get a reading and then laid on the table and kept playing. She did cry when she was getting her shots, but was soothed pretty quickly. Her official stats are; height: 23 1/2 inches and weight: 12 pounds 3 1/2 ounces. She is in the 17th and 16th percentiles for weight and height so she's little, but at least she's little all around. At first the nurse measured her at 22 inches and when the doctor came in he remeasured her (she was a little scrunched during the first measurement). He said that if she was really that short she would have been a "dwarf" on the scale. I'm glad that she really is taller than we first thought. We are still looking forward (or not) to her six month appointment when she'll have her blood tests done.

Re-shoot

Before we left Redding we went and re-shot all of our family pictures. It was a horrible day. We went on a Saturday and they were so busy there were three people waiting to take their pictures at the same time we were (we even had an appointment). There was another couple there that was doing a re-shoot of their engagement pictures. They were just a mad about the whole situation as we were. He has called corporate about the whole thing and was told that all of their pictures would be free. We told the girl working that we were going to get the same deal. So we finally got our pictures done even though Isabella didn't smile in any of her individual (the girl kept saying, "oh, I got a good one, let's move on to the next pose." I knew she was full of crap.). I'm glad it's all over and that we got our pictures for free because they were definitly not worth $70. Here are some highlights...

Isabella peed all over when we were taking this picture. It was the perfect end of a terrible photo shoot. The camera girl was so pissed. I thought it was hilarious.

Looking worried... how cute?
Worried again... nice.
Finally a smile.
Worried again... lovely.
Oh good... two smiles.