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.