Celebrating Nine Months with another ear infection

Isabella had her 9 month appointment today on her 9 month Birthday. Isabella has not been feeling well as of late and was sent home early from Daycare yesterday because she vomited. Dad and Isabella had a lot of fun as Isabella appeared to be feeling much better. At today's appointment we found out she had another ear infection and will be on antibiotics again. She seems to be doing well with this ear infection and recovering from her cold. Isabella weighed in at 20 lbs. (70%), 28 inches tall (75%), and her head measured 17 1/8 inches (40%).
She has been changing a lot the last few days even. Isabella started clapping, dancing, pulling herself up to her knees, and sitting from a standing position. She has really taken off with crawling, she motors herself around the kitchen and living room to different toys. She has a little game where she'll throw stuff out in front of her and crawl after that, she can entertain herself doing that for quite a while. It is really amazing how much she can change in day.

Lil Farmer Isabella

We had a fun busy day on Sat. First, we did the Alzheimer's walk. It was right during Isabella's morning naptime, so she had no problem taking a nap in her stroller. It was a beautiful morning for a walk. Thanks to all of you who contributed to the cause!

Next we headed home, fed Isabella and watched the 1st half of the Hawks/Pitt game. At halftime we headed to the PAETEC company picnic at Bloomsbury Farm. I had never been there before, but it was a really nice place to have a company picnic. Isabella enjoyed herself sitting on a horse for the very first time (Aunt Jillian will love that!!), watching pig races, going on a hayrack ride through a cornfield, and looking at the animals in the petting zoo, and actually walking through a haunted house (we tested it first to see if it would be ok).

We are a little hesitant towards animals right now (a trip to PetCO really frightened Isabella the other weekend), but all in all she did ok. I would totally recommend Bloomsbury Farm for anyone with kids. This video shows Mom being a little more jumpy with the animals than Isabella.

Happy Birthday Gus!

Isabella would like to wish her cousin Gus a very Happy 2nd Birthday!



Here come the terrific twos!

We love you and miss you!!!

Isabella is on the MOVE to end Alzheimer's

This Sat. we are all participating in the Alzheimer's walk with the Pathways team. If you'd like to contribute online you can do so. https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=266678&lis=0&kntae266678=1F36FBD6B8D7426E8E414C7783205E06&supId=232523804

Today an estimated 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s. And with 78 million baby boomers approaching the age of greatest risk for this fatal disease, the need to find a cure is more urgent than ever.

This year, to support individuals and families living with the disease – as well as those who may be affected in the future – we are participating in the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk® to raise funds and awareness for Alzheimer’s disease.

The Alzheimer's Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer care, support and research, and funds we raise will go directly toward supporting their efforts.

Although Isabella is getting pretty fast with her crawling, she'll probably get to relax in her stroller during the 1-3 mile walk in Coralville.

Aunt Nancy and Cousin Gus come for a visit!

As we mentioned earlier, a few weeks ago Aunt Nancy and Cousin Gus visited from NYC. It was a spur of the moment visit and we had a great time. They flew in on Wed and stayed at Grandma's in Cedar Falls before she closed on her house in Friday. It was an interesting stay since Grandma had sold everything from her house and the movers came that Thurs. (more on Grandma's move later) So everyone camped out on the floor and had a fun time. Robin went up to visit Thurs night to see the house one last time. Grandpa took Nancy and Gus to the Iowa State Fair on Friday. It sounds like they had a good time. They spent Friday night in Cedar Falls with Grandpa. Since Grandma had closed on her house, she came to stay with us Friday night. On Sat. Grandpa brought Nancy and Gus to our place.



We had lunch and then we went to the Ped Mall in Iowa City to let Gus play on the playground and run through the fountains.


As a side note, there was a news cameraman in the Ped Mall and every time we looked over it felt like this huge camera was pointed in our direction. Jeff happened to have taped a Bears Pre-season football game and the news was on after that and we were on it. The story was actually about an assualt that had occurred there the night before. So, as they were showing Gus playing in the fountain, they were reporting about an assualt - it was kind of funny. Gus took a break from all the action and decided he needed something from George's Gyro stand and went over to make friends. It made us laugh because George's is most popular with the after-bar crowd in the ped mall. We think it maybe means that Gus will end up coming to the University of Iowa - hooray!



After the fountain we ate outside at the Atlas. It was very yummy. The waitress told us she'd bring us an infant plate while we waited for our food. So she brought it out and sat it in front of Isabella. It had apples and strawberries . Too bad she's not quite eating apples yet with her 3 teeth. Luckily Gus was able to enjoy the "infant plate".

The next morning we hung out at home and Gus helped Jeff make pancakes.


Then we went to Coralville pool. All weekend long Isabella enjoyed watching Gus play. She also would let Gus take toys from her and she wouldn't complain. If we try to do that, she'll get a little angry sometimes. Gus was cute the way he would say her name - "Bella". He also always made sure to offer a little of what he was eating to Bella.

On Monday Grandpa came to take Nancy and Gus to the aiport and Grandma left for Florida. It was a really good weekend and Isabella is really glad Aunt Nancy and Cousin Gus could come for a visit.

Here a pic showing kisses from Gus

Happy Grandparent's Day!

Isabella would like to wish all of her grandparents and great-grandparents a wonderful day. Grandpa Groves came to visit and helped our landscaping (filling in the hole where our dead tree was) We've decided not to plant a new tree in its place just yet. Then Grandpa took us to lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings and Isabella was thrilled with the amount of "magic boxes" (televisions) there and all the action going on.

Isabella can't wait to see Grandma and Grandpa Kellbach who are making the trip to visit her this Thurs or Friday. Happy First Grandparents Day to them.

Grandma Groves is on an Alaskan cruise right now, so Isabella is hoping she'll get to send her love through this blog. They have internet access on cruise ships... right???!!

Isabella Crawls!

Check out this little cutie on the crawl. If she really needs to get somewhere, she'll resort back to scootin', but this getting up on all fours is pretty fun for her. We can tell she gets pretty proud of herself!

Isabella's Baptism

Isabella was baptized on Aug. 10th. We were really glad that it worked out for both sets of grandparents to be there that day. Grandma and Grandpa Kellbach were able to drive from Ohio on Friday and stay with us. On Saturday we did some powershopping at the outlet mall. Isabella was on her best behavior and really seemed to enjoy all the shopping. The next day we had Isabella's baptism at the 10:30 service at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in downtown Iowa City. She wore the same baptismal gown that her Grandma Groves wore when she got baptized. She was good during the service and didn't cry or anything during the baptism. Afterward we went to Blackstone for Brunch. The food was fabulous, but Isabella missed it, she slept through the entire thing, I'm pretty sure she didn't even know we went out to eat.



Afterward, we hung out at our house. As usual, Grandpa Groves got put to work. He helped Jeff take apart our old kitchen table (we now have the dining room table from Robin's mom). Isabella was really curious as to what was going on and scooted over to check it out. We think she really wanted to help! Grandpa also installed the very first baby gate that day. Isabella hasn't been too interested in the stairs yet, but you never know!

In a nutshell

We've had a busy last couple of weekends. Grandma and Grandpa Kellbach came to town for Isabella's baptism and then the next weekend Aunt Nancy and Cousin Gus came for a visit. Hopefully we find time to write a little more details about each of the weekends. For now, here's a taste of Cousin Gus's visit: Grandma, Gus and Isabella dancing. I couldn't decide which video I liked better so I'm posting both. In the first one, I like how Gus starts kicking toys out of the way to make more room to dance. In the second, I swear Gus is just about ready to break out some Michael Jackson moves! I wish I had a better angle on how big Isabella was smiling and I actually wish I had taped longer!

Playdate with Elliot

Jesse and Eric drove from the Quad Cities and brought Elliot over for a playdate with Isabella a little over a week ago. It had been way too long since we had seen him, probably over a year which is horribly too long in toddler years! (Elliot was the little boy Jeff got to babysit last summer) Lots of things make me smile about that evening. Isabella laughed and laughed as she watched Elliot play with the little basketball hoop. Eric pointed out that she laughed even harder when he would miss the hoop. At one point Isabella was chewing on one of her books and Elliot got very serious and told her, "Bella! Not in your mouth!" It was way too cute. It was such a fun evening and we really have to do it more often, we only live about an hour apart!

Two Teeth

As promised, a picture of Isabella's two teeth, probably not too interesting to anyone but us! (Click on the picture for a close up view)

My Friend, Cookie Monster

Hey - Cookie Monster has a tag.... I KNEW I liked this guy...