Goodbye Adenoids, Hello Tubes

Isabella has been battling her 6th (or 7th? we've lost count) ear infection and the antibiotics don't seem to be doing the trick for her (besides making her have many dirty diapers a day!) She had an appointment to see the Ear, Nose and Throat specialist this morning. He recommended she get ear tubes and get her adenoids removed and.... he said he could do it tomorrow (Friday)! Very short notice, we are kind of shocked, but our little girl undergoes surgery in the morning. We are supposed to get to the hospital at 5:45 am and her surgery is scheduled for 7am. This seems to be a common procedure these days (Mr. Aiden just had it done 2 weeks ago), but I'm not sure how prepared we are for it.

Be thinking of our Lil Isabella!

Little Drummer Girl

Sign this girl up as a drummer in the marching band.....

Tiger costume lives on and on

Grandma Linda sent up pictures of Jeff and his brother and sister in the tiger costume. Turns out the costume is 37 years old!!

John 1971

Jeff 1976

Jillian 1984

Isabella 2008

Night walker

Isabella really likes to walk behind her little push toy and practice her walking. We planned to take her to the park after work on a Monday as it was unseasonably warm. Daylight savings time had just gone into effect, but little did we realize it would be getting dark at 5:15! That is the explanation behind the following video. She wasn't being taken to the park at all hours of the night, forced to hone her walking skills... it was actually around 5:30 that the video was taken.

Isabella's First Halloween

Isabella had fun this Halloween season. We met the Davis's at a pumpkin patch the week before last and got some pictures of the kids with some pumpkins.

A few days before Halloween we carved pumpkins. We carved one for Isabella that had the same teeth as she does - 4 on the top and 3 on the bottom.






She was a little unsure about it and Daddy decided to scare her even more, as shown in this video - poor thing.




On Halloween at daycare Isabella wore her pumpkin outfit. They actually took all the kids out to the nearby businesses to trick-or-treat. Isabella came home with a pretty big bag of candy and the poor girl is too young to eat any of it. (Mom and Dad didn't have a problem helping her out)



On Halloween night, Isabella got dressed up as a little tiger. She wore the same costume that her Daddy and Aunt Jillian wore when they were her age. Isabella was in good spirits that night. The weather was so unbelievably warm. We were able to hang out outside for a bit. Uncle John and Aunt Kristy came over. We were headed to a Halloween party at Abe and Brandee's so they were watching Isabella. We had lots of fun at Abe and Brandee's and we appreciate that we were able to get out while John and Kristy watched Isabella.

Below is a video of the tiger in action.

Happy Halloween

Isabella would like to wish everyone a Happy Halloween in her own special way.

Butternut Squash

The last time Grandpa came to visit he brought some pumpkins and some butternut squash from his garden. We fixed up the squash and I thought Isabella might like it, but I was wrong. I think the texture was different from the baby food she is used to and that was the main reason. Still, I decided to have her try it again and get it on video because her reactions get pretty funny. We also carved pumpkins last night, two from Grandpa's garden (thanks Grandpa!) and one from the pumpkin patch. More pictures to come.

Baby Multitasking

I can increase my playtime productivity if I play with multiple toys at the same time......

Happy 10th Month B-day to our little girl!

Awwww, she looks miserable.....

.... not exactly something you want to her from the check-out lady at Walgreens, but she said it about our little darling. Isabella's latest ailment is pacifier rash. She doesn't even really use a pacifier all that much, but over the last few weeks a little rash on her face has really flared up and started spreading. At her ear infection checkup, the doctor told us to put some hydrocortisone cream on it and then keep putting on the Aquaphor and Vaseline. If it gets any worse, she might write her a prescription for it, but let's hope it doesn't go that far. I think if we just step it up a notch and are really diligent about keep her face dry and her pacifiers clean it might help. We are assuming it doesn't really bother her.... it just makes her look miserable.

Here's a pic with her buddy, Aiden. You can see a little of the rash.

Isabella's current favorite past time

Check out these videos of Isabella practicing her ball handling skills

New tooth and I'm pulling myself up on everything!

During Isabella's rough week we noticed that she has a new lower tooth. We have been watching her two upper teeth as they are coming in, in fact one of them may have started breaking through today. The biggest change in the last few days is that Isabella is pulling herself up on just about all of the furniture in the house. She started off about a week ago pulling herself up on a big block, and that has transformed to pulling herself up on the first step of the stairs. She is getting one of her knees up on the stair, but can't pull herself up to this point (which we are happy about). She has started standing up in the tub and once in her crib. We are going to have to continue babyproofing the house as she is making progress on becoming a real terror.

Rough Week

Antibiotics from her ear infection and a horrible diaper rash had us calling the doctor's office Sunday, Tues and Thurs. Note to self: always determine whether your daughter's antibiotic needs to be refrigerated or not. We missed that detail on the bottle a week ago on Wed. By Sunday, when I went to give her a dose, I noticed the color looked yellowish/off-white, rather than white. Realizing our mistake, I called the pharmacist to figure out what to do. We had to get a new prescription and due to insurance we had to give her more of a lower dosage. By Tues, daycare was calling about a bad diaper rash that had formed. So, off we went to the doctor on Tues night. She recommended a medicated ointment called Resinol, so it was back to Walgreens. Wednesday we hoped things would start looking better. No such luck. By Thurs daycare was calling to say the diaper rash was bleeding. So, back to the doctor she went. This time the doctor gave Jeff a recipe to make Magic Butt Paste (as soon as Jeff told me about it, I kicked myself knowing that Amanda's friend Erica had sent me the recipe a while back and I totally forgot about it) Poor little Isabella has just not been herself. I feel like she kind of gave up the fight after a while when we changed her diaper, no squirming, just crying, it broke our hearts. She finished the antibiotic Friday night and her diaper rash looks a little better. To add to the misery for Isabella the Hawkeyes lost on Saturday and the White Sox have not started out so well in the playoffs(Isabella has a $1 bet per game with Grandma Groves).