First steps

We've gotten behind on our blogging lately since we've been busy with our trip to Florida for Thanksgiving.

We wanted to mention that Isabella has officially taken her first steps! It was actually back before Thanksgiving, on the day of her surgery. Since then, she's kind of regressed. She's doing a lot more falling straight on her back and hitting her head and we are not very comfortable with that. Jeff refers to it as her "Crystal Light plunge".

The surgery went well

We are home from the hospital and Isabella is doing well. The surgery started a little after 7am and the doctor was telling us everything went as planned around 7:40. Isabella returned to the room maybe a 1/2 hour later once she woke up. She was hungry and they kept her IV attached until she was done eating. They thought she'd probably go back to sleep after that, but she just sort of hung out, sort of dazed, sort of playing peek-a-boo. We were home a little before 10 and she slept until 11:30. She still seems a little out of it, a little fussy, but overall everything went very very well.

One of the tougher parts was keeping her entertained from 5:45am until surgery time since she was hungry, but not able to eat. Since she likes to people watch, we kept letting her peek out into the hallway at all the busy people working. It was a little awkward, however as there was someone waiting for his surgery in his gown a couple rooms over and for some reason no one was shutting his door or closing his curtain. We hope he didn't mind the little baby peeking down the hallway at him!

We, of course, went through many people referring to Isabella as "he" since they didn't offer a pink gown for her to wear. I think the very younger male nurse who checked her in thought I said her name was Bubba because he kept saying something that sounded like that and then saying "he" until another nurse came in and corrected him.

And yes, you had to assume we'd snap a pic of her in her hospital gown and footies.

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