Holiday Recap

Faster daddy, faster!!

30-seconds out of the box, Bella with her new toy!

Cruising around the house.

For me???

Christmas morning

Isabella enjoyed ripping into her Christmas presents and has been loving all her new toys. The trick was to immediately take away the paper/bows/ribbon in her hand so she would continue unwrapping the gift. (otherwise she would become distracted and would be satisfied to eat the paper) She has taken to her "Dora" walk behind car and has been motoring all over the house. She also loved her new wagon...as you can see she has a need for speed.

Christmas is officially over at our house, we had our last X-mas event yesterday, took our tree down and all the decor. The holidays were so fun for us this year, Isabella is so entertaining.

We saw Isabella take a couple steps on her own yesterday so it won't be long before she no longer is reliant on furniture to maneuver in walking fashion, I'm not sure I'm ready for this.

Isabella loves to be chased these days, a little glimmer of mischief will sparkle in her eyes and off she goes crawling at a good clip, occasionally she'll glance back to make sure we are still in pursuit. We are almost done with "baby" food, only one jar left in the pantry and then we're onto finger foods/table foods 100%. This morning at breakfast Isabella very deliberately threw every Cheerio from her tray on the floor, keeping only the banana chunks...how smart is that? Translated, I think she is telling us she is a little sick and tired of Cheerios.

Santa Claus is coming to town...

Isabella met Santa over the weekend. The one smile we got, the photographer didn't catch. Bella is always rather "stone-faced" in front of a stranger/photographer. (As many of you will see when you receive our X-mas card - which should mail early this week!!). On the bright side Isabella seemed to like Santa, especially his beard.

I was able to get a few more names crossed off the x-mas shopping list, but still have a few more to go. It has to be done by next weekend one way or the other. Things seems to be coming together!

Holiday Progress

Well, here we are less than two weeks before Christmas. We picked up a tree last weekend, it currently has lights, no decorations, the Christmas shopping is not done, the x-mas cards are addressed/stamped and waiting for me to include a letter (not sure if that will happen or not) and Bella still needs to go see Santa. I'm ho-ho-hopeless. I intend to make great strides this weekend.

On the Isabella front, she is starting to stand on her own (unsupported) for longer periods of time and has attempted to take a step but so far it only results in a tumble. She is fearless though, so I'm sure she will be walking in no time flat. Bella is also getting better at waving "hi" or "bye, bye" - it is just the cutest thing you ever saw. She'll also mimic us when we smack our lips...super cute also. Isabella's 4th bottom tooth finally is coming in as are two molers. We have been working on the concept of "nice" as Isabella can be a bit of a brut and in her excitement will whack, pinch, scratch us. Not the most lovable of qualities when you are the recipient of the beating.

Newest addition!

I am pleased to introduce the newest addition to our family: Jaedyn Diana Bartell, born Nov. 21, 2007. She weighed in at 6lbs 14oz and was 20-inches tall. She's a cutie!

Congratulations to new parents Rich & Tonya Bartell! We are so excited for you and hope to see you all soon!

9-months

It is amazing to me that Isabella turns 9-months old tomorrow. Where has the time gone? Seriously! Pregnancy is a fading memory...being pregnant felt like such a long process, however reflecting on that time now it seems as if it went by so fast. It is interesting how one's perspective changes with time.

I have so enjoyed watching Bella grow and change over the past 9-months. It is fun to see her little personality develop. It seems that she is learning something new everyday, we are amazed at how smart she is and how quick she learns. She brings us so much joy. She can easily maneuver where she wants to go and is improving her skill in walking next to furniture. She is getting pretty good at feeding herself finger foods, and can hold her own bottle and/or sippy cup although we still offer help.

Here are her 9-month stats:

Height: 29.5 inches (97th percentile)

Weight: 21 lbs. (85th percentile)

Her head is up to the 67th percentile...she's not a peanut head anymore!

So much to be thankful for!

That pretty much sums it up in a nutshell. We had a great Thanksgiving, I ate so much my stomach hurt...yet I still wanted more. Isabella had fun playing with her cousin Dylan and we enjoyed catching up with family.
We were all a bit down and out with a cold over the weekend...hmmm I wonder where that could have come from! (daycare) We did manage to accomplish a little Christmas shopping and crossed a few names off the list. While we were at the shopping mall Isabella learned how to drink from a straw. She LOVED the pomegranate smoothie from Orange Julius...I think she would have sucked down the entire drink if we would have let her.

Dadadadadadada...Mama?

Well all Isabella is saying these days is dadadadada...I keep asking her "What? Did you say mama?" She responds "dadadadada". Oh well, she'll get it eventually. Isabella is becoming a little dare devil. She loves to roll off the bed, or couch, or ottoman into waiting arms. I'll just warn you now that a future blog post may be titled "Bella rolls off bed, cracks open noggin" she loves it though and laughs and laughs. Bella is also climbing the entire flight of stairs after Rocco, it's good she has a playmate for tag (Rocco is always "it"). We are looking forward to Thanksgiving and a nice long weekend. The picture below was taken with Grandma and Grandpa Weber... I thought everyone would like it. It makes me chuckle - they are so cute (the grandparents I mean).

Isabella and I had a great weekend together. We had a little breakfast playdate with the Crandall's and the Kraemer's on Saturday. Isabella liked playing with the kids and their toys. I took myself out to dinner on Saturday night (thank you Applebees carside delivery), and Sunday was pretty low-key, we hit the grocery store in the morning and watched football in the afternoon.

Jason harvested two deer on Saturday and that completes his hunting season, he came home last night. (Thank you God for answering my prayers!)

After much practice Isabella can now clap and play Patty-Cake on her own. She has also started to wave, however this action does not coordinate with someone coming or going. We are cheering her own and waving back none-the-less. I also discovered (as did Bella) that she can climb stairs. Saturday night I left Bella downstairs while I went up to kitchen to make her bottle. I could hear that she must have crawled to the foot of the stairs but I was certainly NOT expecting to see her tackling step #3. Lesson learned: Do not underestimate this very determined girl.

BugaBOO!

We did not venture out for 'Tricks or Treats' last night but we did dress Isabella in her first Halloween costume. May I introduce our little piglet! (note the cute little tail!) The costume lasted all of about 20-minutes before Isabella became less than enthused. I didn't expect much more, she usually starts getting a little testy from 6:00-7:00pm, a combination of tired and hungry.

We had our usual 10 trick-or-treaters and shut the lights off at 7:45pm. Jason came home for the evening from Camp Ripley, it was nice to see him. I think Isabella was missing him too because she started saying dada yesterday.

Happy belated Halloween to all of my faithful blog readers!!

We took Isabella to the pumpkin patch this weekend...forgot our camera though. Darn it! I was so concerned with remembering the diaper bag (which I forget on occasion) that I totally forgot the camera. We'll have to take some fall pictures at home this week.

Jason had to work from 6pm-6am on Saturday night, we needed groceries desperately so I packed up the bug and we headed to Target - great Saturday night plans...ya right! I've decided Isabella is going to be spoiled in a big way. As we were tooling by the baby department I pulled a plush butterfly toy off the shelf and pressed its tummy which made it play 'twinkle, twinkle little star' and light up. I showed it to Isabella, she smiled instantly. In the cart it goes! I'm such an easy target.

Bug update

What's new with Bella bug this week?

Let's see ...she likes cheerios, she's been doing much more talking "bababababababa", she now crawls from the living room to the dining room to the kitchen and back to the living room. She also will crawl right to mama or dada to pick her up. OH! She finally caught Rocco over the weekend (see picture above). As you can see, Rocco wasn't too happy about her victory, he was a good kitty though and didn't retaliate.

On the home front..

We're ready to pack up the swing, papasan chair, activity/play mat. We can no longer use the changing table - so the changing pad is getting packed up also. Now that Isabella is mobile changing her diaper has become a bit more challenging (just when you think you have it down pat). A common scene is her little bare butt crawling away from a fresh diaper in hand. It is a little frustrating but pretty darn cute.

I remember being a little sad when I had to pack up Bella's 0-3 month onsies...well that was 3 large storage containers ago, I have no idea where we are going to store all these things - or if we should store them for that matter. Jason wants to build another garage...as fast as things are accumulating we may have no choice. Kids sure are expensive! :-)

Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!

And I'm not singing the Mazda commercial! Isabella is zooming all over the house. Rocco seems to be a significant motivator in Isabella's increasing speed - she wants to catch the cat sooo much. Bella also pulled herself up to stand next to her toy basket a few times yesterday and when we hold onto her hands she is taking numerous steps...very deliberate in her movements. I'm not sure if she'll be walking anytime soon but if desire and determination mean anything I'd guess she'll be walking by Christmas.

Things are going good for me. I continue to enjoy the work and people at Lifetouch. My contract has become open-ended, with no set date to expire. I worked from home yesterday, it was nice skipping the commute - even one less day a week. I'd like to do this more often, nothing set in stone on this though.

Jason is spending next week at Camp Ripley. He will be training a new batch of cadets in firearms/shooting etc. In other news Jason will be going to Green Bay in November to work the Vikings/Packers game. I'm sure it will be quite the experience, I hope for his sake that it isn't a freezing blizzard as he stands on the sidelines guarding the coach.

We are looking for a couple who might be interested in going on a 10-day sailing cruise around the Virgin Islands in March. We have a 45-foot sailboat with accommodations for four couples booked. I found out yesterday that one of the couples cancelled, they are going to Splitsville instead. Let me know if you are interested and I'll send you the details.

R&R

Jason and I returned yesterday from a nice long-weekend trip. We flew into Las Vegas, drove out to the Grand Canyon...a road trip that turned into a much longer experience than we'd anticipated, and then spent the rest of the time at a condo in Mesquite (about 1-hour NE of Vegas). We had a wonderful, relaxing time...a much needed break from the daily grind.

A big shout out of "thanks" to Grandma B. and Auntie Sue and Auntie Kris for taking care of our girl while we were away. We know she was in good hands...despite our daily calls. We were eager to see our baby girl and she was overwhelmed with emotion at the sight of us...big tears and everything. On one hand it is sweet that she loves us and missed us...on the other hand it will make it even harder for me to leave her for 10-days in March.

While we were gone Bella continued to practice her crawling...she was chasing Rocco all over the house yesterday :-) Isabella is also saying mama, however indiscriminately...this is still going down in her baby book as her first word!

Now I lay me down to sleep...not so much!

We went to a barn dance on Saturday night. This annual event is hosted by friends of my Uncle Pete and Aunt Kathryn...only a few miles from our house. Isabella loved being outside, watching the musicians on the stage and listening to the music. We stayed until 8:30, she was so content the whole evening. We had a great time.

Now that Bella can sit up on her own we've hit a little snag at nap time. She won't stay laying down...that creates a bit of a challenge! We had to move the crib mattress down a notch so she won't be able to climb or fall out.

Isabella turns 7-months old this week and she has officially started crawling! She made her way across the family room last night...a good 6-7 crawling motions, to get at a power cord of all things! It seems like she is learning something new everyday.

No, No, No!

Our silly girl has started to shake her head as if to say no, no. Obviously she doesn't have any intention other than to entertain both herself and us. Isabella also learned how to go from prone to a sitting position this week. She's already become amazingly proficient. I still think crawling is right around the corner, once she gets the arm motions down we're in trouble. I think we'll make a trip to the baby store this weekend and purchase a gate for the stairs, more electrical plug covers, cabinet safety latches...etc, etc. I'm sure we'll need them all soon enough.

Quality Family Time

We all took the day off yesterday. We had Bella's 6-months pictures taken in the morning - not the best session in getting her to smile, but we'll wait on the verdict until we see the proofs next week. It was also Jason's B-day yesterday so we spent the day together just bumming, no set plans. It was a great day, we stopped for coffee after the photo shoot, went for a nice walk, did a little shopping, and then Grandma took care of the girl for a couple of hours in the evening while Jason and I had a nice dinner out. (Thanks Mom!) It made us realize that we should really plan these type of days more often.

Bella was pretty wiped out but oh so cute last night. Our version of Peek-a-boo is called "Where's Bella?" and last night Isabella was actually doing all the work. She would pull the blanket over her face and wait for us to say "Where's Bella?" and then she would pull the blanket off her face and smile. At first we thought it was a fluke, until she did it 5-times in a row. What a little smarty!

Overall great weekend!

We visited with the Crandall's Friday night, Fish Fry with the Bartell's on Saturday and Sunday Bella & I had a relaxing day at home, Jason worked at the Vikings game. He didn't meet any celebrities this week - a couple weeks ago he talked to Denzel Washington. I'm not someone that finds themselves in awe of celebrity - but that is pretty cool I must admit.

Bella was a little off this weekend with three top teeth coming in (and probably a fourth not far behind) she was a bit cranky. Her nose was runny, she was running a low-grade fever some of the time and chewing on everything. I spent most of my time rotating teethers in the fridge or freezer so we'd always have a cool one available. Someone should really invent a teething ring that stays cold for longer than 3-minutes!

Isabella is becoming fun to play with, she undoubtedly wants whatever we have and is not into sharing. If I start playing with Giraffe she wants Giraffe, if I play with Elephant, well then she drops Giraffe and wants Elephant. It's pretty comical! I also thinks she made great strides over the weekend in the area of sitting unsupported. The majority of times I left the room, she was still sitting when I returned. Yay!

6-month update

Jason took Isabella to her 6-month well check-up this week. Here are the latest stat's for our darling girl:

Height: 26 1/4" (75th percentile)

Weight: 17 lbs, 5-oz (75th percentile)

Head: (10th percentile) -- Still a peanut head

Isabella has four teeth, the two bottom front, two top laterals. I detect something on her gums where the front top teeth will be although nothing has broken through the surface yet. Given this mouthful of chicklets she wants to chew on everything and is often full of drool.

Bella is rolling over (back to front and front to back) and rocking back and forth on all fours - it's amazing how much she can move from where she starts. One would think crawling is right around the corner, however her latest fascination has been standing. She holds on to our fingers and pulls herself up into a standing position at which point she smiles, a mixture of pride and amazement I think. Isabella can also sit on her own for longer periods before losing her balance and rolling off to one side or the other.

She's been introduced to all her veggies - so far she's liked everything. She is a great eater and gobbles down mouthful after mouthful. We'll start to introduce fruit this month.

Nothing close to mama has come out of her mouth...although we think she's said 'Hi' and daycare has reported her saying 'Baby'. Mostly she just babbles and blows spit. She's a pretty quiet girl most of the time, it will be interesting to see if this characteristic holds true as she gets older. She is a little sweetheart this much is true.

Now Showing...

Tooth #3! After her two bottom front teeth came in a couple months ago, the next likely candidates for teeth were the two top front, but Isabella is taking the non-traditional route as we see a pearly white showing through next to where the front teeth will be. We like to call it the "s" tooth. "s" stands for snaggle, or side tooth, either way she's going to look more like a 7-year old than a 6-month old. (Well, except for the baldish look she has going on)

On that note, you'll be happy to hear that hair is coming in albeit slowly. I don't see us needing to buy any clips or other hair accessories anytime soon.

I have a terrible cold right now and have been doing my best not to kiss Bella as much as normal. I was up last night coughing for about an hour...Jason moved to the couch to try to get some sleep. Hopefully it will clear up soon AND neither Jason or Bella catches it.

Baby news

My post today is inspired by the newest addition to the family, little Anna Catherine Crandall was born early this morning and we had the opportunity to see her today.

Motherhood has to be one of the most amazing experiences a woman can have. This girl of mine, well she is absolutely the light of my life. I wish I could hold on to every moment, every feeling... already my memories are fading...those first few days in the hospital, our first few days home seem like a lifetime ago. I'm amazed how much Isabella has changed, she barely resembles the girl we brought home from the hospital. To my great satisfaction Isabel is starting to resemble me more every day...sorry Jay!

Holding baby Anna reminded me far we have come, and how much we have enjoyed the journey thus far.

Has it been a month, really?

Yes, I know my regular blog readers are wondering whether I'm ever going to post again. Well, better late than never. The past few weeks have been busy to say the least, plus our computer went ca put. I started work at Lifetouch - this is a photography company - they photograph preschools, schools, churches, all Target and JCPenney photo studios...that is all Lifetouch. I'm working on some market research projects for the preschool division. It is going good, enjoying the people, enjoying the work. The commute you ask? Well, not so much (but I'll survive).

We had Isabella baptized a couple weeks ago. The picture is Isabella with her Godparents. It was a wonderful day with friends and family. Bella is 5 1/2 months old, I can hardly believe how fast the time has gone. She is growing so fast, too fast I think. I predict she will be crawling soon - she gets up on all fours - just hasn't quite figured out what to do from there. We've also introduced squash and green beans.

Jason has been working a lot over the past couple weeks. He was called out due to the bridge collapse, was out of town all last week and most of this week. How am I surviving? In big part it is due to my niece April who has been coming over at 6:00AM every morning to help out with Bella in the morning routine. It has been a life-saver.

Baby steps...for momma

Only a week after introducing rice cereal, Isabella has become well accustomed to eating from a spoon. In fact, I think she really likes putting her little chompers to work - evidenced by the little bite marks on the bottoms of her spoons.

We had busy weekend with a SRT (Special Response Team) pool party in Eden Prairie on Saturday and family picnic in Spicer on Sunday. It was a great time, the girl didn't nap well though - so I was glad to get her back on schedule this week.

Jason is headed north for the next couple of days for the annual State Patrol golf tournament. I will be working hard at home getting my life in order before heading back to work next week. Yup, next Wednesday I'm starting a new job! It's a 3-month contract with the possibility to extend or become permanent. Right now I'm just focusing on the 3-months and will cross the bridge for the other opportunities when the time comes. Am I happy? Yes. Am I sad? Yes. I'll just take it one step at a time.

Twooth

Yes, Isabella now has TWO teeth. Only a week ago she had a toothless grin, crazy how fast things change. She has also learned how to roll over this week, the last two nights she has woken us up in the middle of the night, she talks and talks, I imagine she's saying HELLO? PLEASE COME LOOK AT ME! She is all grins and laughter when I've gone in to check on her. Thankfully after a quick diaper change and laying her back down she's amazingly gone right back to sleep. What a little bugger. I'm not sure if this is what I should be doing or not...obviously I don't want it to become a habit, should I let her talk until she falls back to sleep on her own...or should I go in and flip her back to her tummy (normal sleeping position)? Mothers please advise.

In other news we've attempted rice cereal this week, I say attempted because I'm not sure she's actually eaten any yet - seems to me most of it ends up on her face.

We had a wonderful getaway this past week at the cabin, it was great spending time with family. I am still in job search mode, I had an interview yesterday for some freelance work. We'll see what materializes, I'm enjoying the amount of time I can spend with Bella, I will surely miss it when I go back to work...so no rush! :-)

Isabella: 4-months old

We had Isabella's 4-month doctor appointment this week - she's growing like a weed. (but a pretty weed, the kind you let grow and don't pull out :-) - more like a wildflower actually!)

Height: 25" (75th percentile)

Weight: 14 lbs, 2 oz. (75th percentile)

She still has a little peanut head only at the 10th percentile - but we think her head looks normal as can be. No worries. Everything else checked out good - the shots were the worst part, thank goodness it is over - next time Jason can go with her, he's much better at the shots than momma.

In other news - we officially have a tooth coming in - one little white spec on the bottom is clearly visible. Isabella is continuing to be more alert, loves to be held and walked around and is starting to take an interest in some toys. Much to our dismay, she loves TV and we occasionally let her watch it with us. She is a very content girl most of the time, naps well with little fuss during the day and has been sleeping about 11-hours at night. It is so wonderful to be sleeping through the night. We're thankful Isabel seems to enjoy sleep as much as her parents! Our girl is becoming much more expressive when she talks now - both in pitch and volume, she even lets out a little screech now and then. I have officially been able to make Bella laugh and she'll even do it with some consistency when I bounce her on my knee or play airplane.

Rocco is a little attention starved - he now lets strangers actually pet him. All in all he has been a good cat and keeps his distance from Isabella. We couldn't ask for anything more!

Bath-time at the Bartell's

I successfully gave Isabella a bath all by myself yesterday. This was an intimidating task - she's a slippery little bugger. She only started to cry briefly when I had to wash under those chins - other than that she was all smiles. I was just thinking this morning about how much I love taking care of this girl - not a bad gig at all, one smile or one sleeping baby in your arms pretty much puts me on cloud nine.

Jason is in Nebraska this week getting re-certified to teach other law enforcement officers to whoop ass. I had an interview at Target last Friday - hoping to hear back this week, also I just scheduled an interview for this Friday at a company called Digital River, they are down in Eden Prairie.

We have Isabella's 4-month doctor appointment on Thursday - hopefully I'll survive the shots!

Daddy's girl

We had a wonderful weekend spending quality family time together. It is so nice to have Jason home this week. I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful, thoughtful and loving husband. According to Jason, Isabella has started to laugh, I have yet to see/hear it though. Apparently Jason is much funnier than me - I guess I'm not surprised since Jason makes me laugh pretty regularly too!

It should prove to be an interesting week with follow-up to all the interviews of last week plus at least one new interview lined up. I'm sure the perfect opportunity is right around the corner.

TGIF

It has been another busy week, I had a job interviews everyday M-TH. Yesterday I had an interview at the St. Cloud Technical College for a Sales and Marketing Instructor, I had to give a 10-minute teaching presentation. Overall it went fine - especially considering I've never been a teacher before. The 6-person interview panel was much less intimidating than I imagined. Next week brings more interviews and hopefully some follow-up appointments.


Jason was up in Duluth all week putting on an active shooter training for the troopers and other law enforcement officers up in that area. It is basically training on how to deal with things like school shootings. I'm happy he's home today, I need a little Jason time. Thankfully he is not traveling next week.


Isabella is dealing with a bit of constipation (poor girl), I've been giving her a ounce or two of juice to help work things out. She is also starting to drool and constantly chomping on her hands/fingers - makes me wonder about teeth. Could she be teething already at 15-weeks? We have her 4-month doctor appt. in a couple weeks, I can't wait to see how much she's grown in the past two months. One thing is for sure - my love for her grows by the day.


I have a 1-year MBA class reunion today on Lake Minnetonka. I'm looking forward to seeing my former classmates. Other than that we don't have any big plans for the weekend, Jason is working overtime for a few hours on Saturday, I'm hoping to find some good garage sales this weekend and buy some cute clothes for the girl. I'm sure something is on the calendar for Sunday (Father's Day) but I can't remember what exactly. Should be a great weekend!

Busy week

OK, first I just want to say, is this not the cutest picture of Isabella yet? I swear she grows cuter by the day. The latest news with Isabella is her strong desire to sit up or stand up, try to lay her down and she'll cry, she'll grab onto our fingers and pull herself up to sitting and be happy as a clam. Of course she is still mighty wobbly and needs mom or dad to hang on to her or she'd fall right over.

Jason is in Connecticut working this week so that leaves us girls to manage on our own. We are able to do this just fine of course - but we will be very happy when Jason returns on Friday.

I am busy with interviews this week - three new prospects. I've been spending time writing my book, trying to carve out an hour everyday. Strangely this is easier said than done. Progress is being made none the less.

Speaking of progress, I need to figure out that video posting capability because that is seriously cool. Must keep up with the Jones' or in this case the Weber's!

Memorable Memorial Weekend

We spent a very relaxing weekend up at the Cabin this past weekend. The weather was better than expected and we even enjoyed a nice campfire. We were a little concerned that Isabella would not sleep well in her pack and play, but thankfully she slept and napped just fine. Last night in fact she went to sleep at 9:30 and slept until 6:30 am - YES! 9-hours!

Things have seemingly slowed down on the job search, I'm playing the waiting game. With my new found time off I've started working on a childrens book, it has great potential.

Sooo Big

It's hard to believe Isabella will be three months old this week. Time sure flies...we're already a quarter of the way to table food and no more bottles. Here is my summary of the first three months of parenthood:

Month 1: Surreal - can it even be possible that this little girl grew inside me for 9-months? I am a mommy? Unbelievable. Outside of feeding her every 2-hours and changing diapers what seemed like more often than that we spent the balance of time just holding Isabella and staring at her precious face. We were simply amazed by every little expression. We especially loved the smiles, they were surely just gas but we received an early glimpse of the sweet smile we know today.

Month 2: Learning how to take care of our girl became second nature in month two. We spent a good portion of this month establishing a schedule of eating, playing and sleeping. We successfully introduced a bottle and formula to Isabella's diet. She loves to be talked to and walked around the house - so we spent much of our time doing just that.

Month 3: By the end of this month we have now switched entirely to formula for her 6-feedings per day. Isabella started daycare - so far so good, and has proven able to sleep through the night - albeit not consistently. Isabella is becoming so strong - enjoys tummy time and now weighs 12.5 lbs - almost double what she weighed when she was born. She smiles when we talk to her and "talks" to us everyday.

It is very hard to imagine our lives without this precious girl!

Interviews

This is a week of job interviews. I had one yesterday all the way in Lake Elmo - seems the job itself has some flexibility for the location - so I wouldn't need to make a daily commute to - well it's basically Wisconsin. The interview went well, although it sounds like the first step of a long process. I have another interview tomorrow in Plymouth...plus I'm hoping to get a third interview lined up for later this week. It's nice that things are happening - I'm starting to get worried though that I may find a new job faster than I'd like. (Don't mention this to Jason) :-)

On the Bella front - well she's back to waking up in the middle of the night. Crappity! Hopefully we'll get this sleeping through the night established soon. I of course still love her to bits - even at 2:00 a.m. And can I just ask, are all babies so happy in the morning...all smiles, you can't help but smile too.

The attached picture is from my very first Mother's Day...I'm so lucky!

Huge Milestone...

Hopefully by writing this down I do not jinx myself but here goes... Isabella slept through the night last night. She actually did this on Tuesday night too - but I thought it was due to a later than normal evening feeding. Last night however we were right on schedule, I fed her at 10:30pm , heard a couple baby sounds at her normal wake-up time (2:30am) and then again at 5:30am but she drifted back to sleep each time. I finally had to wake her up at 6:30 for breakfast. Now I know she is 10-weeks old and it's probably just a coincidence - but I think this is her Mother's Day gift to me - what a thoughtful girl. I'm crossing my fingers that this is a lasting change.

In other news...

Jason is working up in Detroit Lakes today - what a beautiful day to be on the shooting range. I attached a recent picture of Jason during a training drill for the SRT (Special Response Team) - this is the state patrol's version of a SWAT team. I'm sorry - but this picture is hot - look at those arms, yummy.

I had another phone interview today, it went okay until I found out the job is in Lake Elmo. I looked on the map and to my dismay Lake Elmo is east of St. Paul. Okay people don't post your job location as Mpls if it's really St. Paul! Oh well, good experience I guess.

A little sad...

Today I packed up Isabella's 0-3 month onesies and sleepers. Already my little girl is growing up - sigh! Other parents always say their kids grew up too fast - well this is already too fast - they are right. In other news... I think Isabella has a little cold - poor thing. Hopefully she'll rebound quickly.

On the job front, my phone interview on Friday went well - I will know more next week.

What I Know...

This is what I know; life is full of change. Just one year ago Jason and I were a family of two, now we are a trio. Just two months ago Isabella was born - she has already grown 4-inches and gained 4-lbs. Just a few weeks ago I was gainfully employed, now I am a stay at home momma. (at least for now) New this week...

- Isabella has apparently hit a growth spurt based on her increased dietary requirements.

- Isabella started daycare part-time last week, I'm happy to report it is going well.

- I am busy with the job search and have a preliminary phone interview tomorrow.

- Jason has been busy with work - this will probably be a constant theme in the Bartell family blog.