Happy Halloween!

Isabella had a very eventful Halloween. She ran errands with me in the morning, then we headed to the library to do some early voting. We waited in line for about 45 minutes. By the time we got up to the front of the line, I read a sign saying "voting for Collin County only." We live in Dallas County. Oops. I called David at work and had him look up the correct location. We drove 20 minutes to the new place and waited in line for another 45 minutes. It was worth it though, I know the lines would've been twice as long on Tuesday. Isabella was such a good sport through the whole thing. She was a huge hit in the long lines. We got home in enough time to bathe her and put on her costume (as well as my own). We went to our friends, Marc and Jenn Weinstein's home for dinner and trick-or-treating. Isabella and I decorated a small pumpkin (well, I decorated and she sat and sucked on her hand). Because of the early voting, Isabella missed her afternoon nap. She fell asleep after the pumpkin decorating. She slept through dinner (which helped because David and I ate uninterrupted). After dinner (around 6:30ish) we headed out with Jason and Ryan (Marc and Jenn's sons)and Jake (Jill and Eliot Schuler's son). Isabella slept through the first half of the houses. She finally woke up and had so much fun. In fact, one older couple said we could have every piece of candy in the bowl if they could have Isabella. Needless to say, I declined the offer. Jason and Jake were adorable. They insisted on getting candy for Isabella at every house. They actually told the people they needed "another piece for Isabella." Once they saw the little kitten, they were fine with giving out another piece :). David and I were rolling in chocolate. Thanks Isabella! After that we headed to our second party of the night at Kevin and Nicole Cooper's house. We didn't stay but 20 minutes because we had to get home to feed Isabella and put her to bed. She was exhausted by the time we got home, but had a fabulous time. She was smiling at everyone the whole night. She's definitely a social butterfly.


Here are some pictures of Isabella posing with her cousin Rachel and Ryan Weinstein:



Here's a little video as well:

Playgroup - Halloween

I'd been looking forward to today for about a month. Since our playgroup meets on Mondays, this was our Halloween celebration. All of the babies (at least the ones that could come) dressed up and we took picture after picture after picture. Isabella went as a kitten. She was perrrrfectly (pun intended) happy in the costume, but when I drew on her whiskers this morning, she was not thrilled with me. She got over it immediately, but screamed during the application. Because she squirmed quite a bit, her whiskers aren't even and her nose is only slightly filled in (but it's ok, she looked adorable anyway). All of her friends dressed up as well. Her friend Jeffrey Rubenstein was a giraffe, Kaden Miller was a lobster, Josh Padek was a lion, Jordan Velevis was a ladybug, Sarah Orkin was a bunny, Alyssa Dolman was a butterfly, Andon Chernow was a monkey and both Brody Wolfson and Maya Rothstein were pumpkins (I was shocked there was only one duplicate). Isabella had a great time for the most part and can't wait for Friday so she can wear her costume again.

The Cutest Pumpkin in the Patch!

This morning David and I took Isabella for her first "on location" photo shoot. She was so mesmerized by her new surroundings, she looked at the camera very infrequently. That being said, I still think we got some pretty cute pictures. (You can judge for yourselves, of course!) We weren't sure what our obligation was so we went ahead and bought a pumpkin that will, no doubt, rot by our front door. We didn't realize how inflation had affected the price of pumpkins, but indeed it had. We paid $7 for the second to smallest size pumpkin. There was to be no "up-selling" at those prices...

TGIF

I guess you're never too young to appreciate the greatness of Fridays. Isabella is no exception. She must've known her Daddy was coming home because she was as happy as can be.

If my precious Isabella has a flaw (contrary to popular belief, it IS a possibility), it would be the fact that no matter how much talking or playing she is doing, the minute I want to capture it on film...she stops. She's stubborn like that.

Take a look...

Sooo Big!

While playing with Isabella this afternoon, she absolutely made my day when she showed me "how big" she was. I was, of course, very excited. To make sure it wasn't a coincidence, I waited a few minutes and asked her again. Her arms went up in the air. I waited a few more minutes and asked her a third time - again, she raised her arms above her head. She doesn't do it quite as well in the video, but I did the best I could to capture it. She's not the most cooperative little girl when it comes to humoring me on video. Just as an added bonus, I've included some footage of her sitting up and playing with her toys. Enjoy!

Happy Half Birthday to You...

Isabella is now 6 months old. Can you believe it? I sure can't. Looking back at her 3 and 4 month pictures, she's changed SO much. She looks so much older (at least to me she does). She's a very talkative, active little girl. She has mastered the "barrel roll" and loves to do it in her crib, on the floor...just about everywhere. When she's on her stomach (where she's MUCH happier now) she tries to move. So far, she's to the point where she does a "downward facing dog" (for those of you yoga fans). For those unfamiliar with that terminology, she lifts her tush in the air with her hands and feet still on the ground. I have a feeling she may start crawling fairly soon. She goes to the Doctor on Monday for her 3rd set of vaccines and official height and weight measurements. Her estimated weight is about 14 lbs (give or take) and height is 24", but we'll know for sure in a couple of days.

Unlike previous photo sessions, there are significantly fewer pictures in this series. She is a lot less patient and tolerant of my photo shoots than in the past. Here's the best I could do:

Sitting Pretty

I must admit, Isabella's had a pretty successful year thus far (I know the New Year began Monday night, but we're off to a great start). She is, for the most part, over her tummy-time aversion. In fact, we've had 3 nights in a row where she only woke up for about 30 seconds and went back to sleep until 7 or so. BIG improvement from the past couple of weeks. She knows how to roll from her tummy to her back and proved it to me several times in playgroup yesterday.

The most exciting bit of news, however, is she can officially sit up on her own. We were sitting on the floor together (as we do a lot). Usually, she leans up against me to play with her toys. Today she leaned forward and didn't fold herself in half. I thought maybe I was imagining things, so I moved back a little to see if she'd stay. She did. I was so excited. Of course, the first thing I did was grab the camera...Enjoy!!!