First Tooth!

Hi everyone! Some exciting news just in - I have my first tooth! It's on the lower left side and it's just starting to poke through. Mama felt it last night - that might explain some of the drool you notice on my chin. First she got all excited and called to Daddy so he could feel it too. Then she got all emotional because her baby has her first tooth already. I pretty much just like chewing on anything and everything and I haven't even been THAT grouchy!
Happy chomping,
Isabel

Five Months and Potty Training

Isabel is now five months old! And she seemed pretty excited about that on the 17th...here are some smiley pictures of our smiley five month old baby! She loves to roll...so much in fact that she feels the need to practice in her sleep...and thus we wake ourselves up every couple of hours...I remember this with Abbie too. Oh well, I scoop her up and we snuggle and eat until she stops wiggling those little buns of hers in the air...maybe one of these days rolling will cease to be so exciting and we will all sleep longer stretches again :-)


Yummy...we are quite ticklish on those rolls too...Mama loves to tickle...

Okay, enough! She was saying, "I cooperated so nicely - it's time to feed me now!"

Auntie Ali came to visit for a few nights and we had so much fun playing! Sadly, she got the flu the second night she was here - thankfully she had Nurse Abbie to attend to her while she rested on the couch the next day...I'm sure she's never had such an attentive, energetic little caregiver! We're glad you're better now, Auntie!

EVERYONE went down the slide...all together...sooooo fun ;-)

Isabel seems to be considering something pretty darn seriously here. Now that we are five months, we are so interested in watching everything - we don't fall asleep in the middle of something - anything - that is remotely exciting anymore...


Peek-a-bee little snow bunny...


THIS is an Abbie-look, I must say...even though the picture is a bit dark, can you see the glint in her eye?!! We were about to head up the climbing rock :-) In other news, Abbie is getting pretty darn good at going on the potty! She has the cutest little itty bitty Elmo underwear that she is so proud of and insists on putting them on herself. She likes to go in the bathroom all by herself and shut the door, go on her potty chair, and then fling the door open and announce, "Tinkle!!" At which point we are all expected to do a crazy happy dance and whoop for joy ;-) No more diapers at home...(except for sleeping - we're not going there yet!!) I must say, we've had some "accidents" in some very interesting places...all in the adventure I suppose!

A swinging video - we are learning how to pump! And Isabel wanted to say "Hello" on her five month birthday as well...:-)

Christmas Part Du

Part two commences with more snow filled fun. We kinda miss it in balmy, green grass Evanston right now.

Grandpa opening an early Christmas present.

Honestly, have a you ever seen a happier grandma?

Can't you hear her little voice? "Out please daddy?" Now?"

Couldn't resist the cute puppy shot...

Yes, this is as still as we could get them to all sit for a photo...

Okay Auntie Robyn and Uncle Ben, bear with us! Upon searching through our stores of holiday photos we realized (gasp!) that this was the only photo we snapped of you two together...I guess that's what happens when you have a cute little son who gets photographed instead :-)

:-)

C'mon now, you would be confused too if someone plopped you on a huge red box with a shiny bow in your face!

It seems a good time was had by all.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for hosting one heck of a Par-tay!

Christmas Part One

Here's a snapshot of the festivities for the first part of Christmas! What a wonderful time was had by all...:-)

A new snowfall made for "wild" winter sporting

Papa getting some Isabelly love

Uncle Mike returning to his childhood

Bedtime story

Gigi's box o' classic toys was a hit for all ages

Seriously, when the was the last time you got to go virtual bowling with your (great) grandma? Gotta love the Wii!!! We had lots of fun "family Wii" sessions!

Grandpa breakin' out the old boxing moves - he was really good!
The obligatory baby with bow photo. Thanks for the great present Katie!
Auntie Ali with baby loot.

Two domesticated gentlemen preparing some authentic holiday cheer. The "folding technique" used for the eggnog was quite supreme - maybe a reality cooking show is in store for Dan and Newton?!New books! Parents get pretty excited about those too!

New Haircut and Rolling Over

Hi everyone! So we have some holiday photos we'd like to post but Alex has been out of town for four days and I've been keeping busy with the girls around here...so here are a few photos of our recent happenings in the meantime! I took Abbie to get her first formal haircut today - she did great, although she wanted me to hold her hand the whole time! The lady told me to keep trimming her hair the way I have been and that she could "just come back when she's three." Hmm...did she think Abbie squirmed too much?!! She actually did pretty well and followed directions when the lady asked her to turn her head, etc. Here 's a couple of photos of Abbie posing for me status-post new haircut :-)

Does this photo say, "enough already Mom!" or what?!

Here is a cute baby in a bowl for you all...she does love her bath! While visiting relatives over the holidays we had to improvise a little bathtub - wet babies can be slippery and we needed a little more stability for our wiggly worm.

Do you spot our best present of all this year? Clue - she's on top of the pile!

GUESS WHAT EVERYONE?!! I CAN ROLL OVER!! Miss Isabel can now roll from tummy to back all by herself (previously Abbie would oh-so-kindly "help" her with this task) But now she does it all by herself and boy, she is proud! She is delighted that she can do this...it's really cute to watch. I'm so proud of you, my Baby girl!!

And one last photo - I was the luckiest Mom around last Wednesday morning when I was served a "cooked" wooden egg by this little waitress who insisted on using a napkin as a pot-holder (she watches EVERYTHING we do!), wearing her backpack (who knows why?!), and carrying around her coloring book while wearing nothing but a diaper. Well, at least she was wearing the diaper...yesterday she climbed out of her crib (yes, we are back to using the crib instead of toddler bed - LONG story) and I walked into the room upon hearing the huge bump to see that she had removed every stitch of clothing while she was supposed to be napping, including the diaper...it was hard not to laugh at that sight :-)

A Holiday Preview

There are plenty of blogable adventunes to post... but not until after we get the x-mas tree down. We had so much fun in such a short trip! Here's a preview... what a lady's man.

-Alex