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.