First Christmas

This year Christmas has become a new meaning to us. It was our first Christmas as a family. We were so excited and could not wait until Christmas morning to see how Isabella would like opening all the gifts. We were curious about what she might like best. We needed to help her a little to get all the presents unwrapped and keep her focused on all the new stuff. I think it was some what overwhelming for her but we tried to give her a good time.

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Isabella on the move

Isabella has been crawling now for about 3 weeks. She is been all over the living room and exploring other rooms, too. she really enjoys it getting around and so do we. She is so much fun to watch when she is crawling around. Once she mastered that skill she moved to the next one: trying to stand up. It is amazing how quickly she has learned that. Now she is using everything to put her hands on and stretch her legs.

On Christmas Day she started taking her first steps. I was holding her by her hands or under her arms and she made one step after another. This was such a great gift!

Finger Foods

I have been struggling to start feeding Isabella finger foods and real foods. I did not know where to start and was to worried that she might choke or was not ready yet. Well, with a few good words from friends I made my first attempts. We started with chunks of papayas and bananas. Half of the food ended up on the high chair and on the floor, but who cares. A few pieces made it into her mouth and some other ones I fed to her. This was twice a new experience for Isabella - new texture and new way of eating. My second attempt were cooked potatoes and carrots. We had the same experience - half on the floor and some on the high chair. We realized that it is easier for her to eat when she joins us at the dinner table and sees us eating, too.

Look at these messy pictures!

Crawling

Today Isabella made her first attempts to crawl. It didn't look very graceful, but there was definitely movement. I almost overlooked it. She was playing on the floor with a toy and somehow threw it out of reach in the direction of Clyde's (one of our bunnies) cage. That's when she started crawling. I started building towers out of her lego bricks in an area out of reach for her. She started crawling that direction to knock over the tower. Right now she mixes it up with rolling around and sitting up - all the wonderful things she has learnt recently.

Luckily we have started to secure the living room and kitchen. So we are ready for her to explore the house! There are still some places we want to keep her away from like the fireplace.

Talking about fireplace - since it has been cooler the last few nights, we had a fire for the first time since we have Isabella. She could not stop starring at the fire and was just fascinated.

The teeth are there!

Isabella's first teeth are now visible. She started teething about a month ago, but now you can see the first two bottom teeth. It seems like the next ones are on the way. She has been chewing on everything possible. So far she is doing ok, but sometimes when she is getting tired or hungry, she gets a little cranky.

Look at these cute pictures showing her teeth. Click on the photos to get a closer look.

Walking

It has been become cooler here in Virginia and I can unfortunately not carry Isabella in the front carrier anymore for my walks. I would have to bundle her up too much and she would not fit in the carrier anymore. Also, she is getting pretty heavy and my back is starting to feel that. But this way I am able to use our heavy duty Bertini stroller. Fancy Italian stroller which works well out here on our gravel roads. Last week when the low for the day time was 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) and heavy winds, I bundled her up in the stroller and went out for our walk. She enjoyed it a lot looking all around and being warm. she still looks so little in the stroller. On our way back from the walk she feel asleep in the stroller. The weather was really nice so I stayed in the garden with her until she woke up.

Go Bucs!

When we went to Florida a few weeks ago, we took the opportunity to get some new Bucs stuff including a jersey for Isabella. Isabella wears Number 80 - Michael Clayton. It's still a little big, but she will grow into it. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are not that great this year, but we still had fun watching the game on Thanksgiving. Isabella did not watch much since we are still keeping her away from the television. She could hear us celebrate (not much) and being disappointed. Oh well, we will have a better season next year. But watch how cute Isabella looks in her shirt!





See Isabella's Chucky Face!

Sitting Up

Since we have returned from our vacation we have been practicing with Isabella sitting up. Since she has been working hard to get moving and learn to crawl, we let her do that and did not focus on sitting up. Therefore she was a little wobbly. We have been practicing it for a few days now and you can notice how steady she can sit up now and can balance herself well.

First Vacation - On the Beach

Sorry for not writing for so long. We went for 2 weeks to Florida for our first vacation with Isabella. We rented a nice beachfront house on Anna Maria Island. My sister Maria came from Germany to join us. We had a great time and the weather was really nice. We made our first attempts for Isabella to go in the water. She did not care too much for that. I think she was scared of the waves and for her taste the water was a little chilly.

Isabella had again the opportunity to see many of her relatives again.

Tante Maria & Isabella on the beach.

Grandma, Grandpa and Isabella - This was the first time for Isabella to meet her Grandpa. When he held her she went immediately for the beard. What a wonderful toy! This is lots more fun than Daddy's goatee.

Cousins Hunter & Ryan in the back, Aunt Ann, Isabella & Mommy in the front. Ann was trying to keep up with Isabella's exercises. She was doing push ups and swimming exercises continuously. I think we did not have any idea how many muscles such a little baby uses and how little we do!

Isabella & Tante Sherri. Sherri came to visit us for a couple days. We had a great time at the beach. Sherri watched Isabella for one night, while Maria, Gary, and I went to Bern's Steakhouse in Tampa for an absolute incredible dinner. We enjoyed ourselves even though this was our first time going out without Isabella. Sherri did not know that she was our first babysitter and we did not leave Isabella with anybody else yet. Everything went well.

Here are some more pictures from our vacation.




We had a great vacation but as usual it ended too quick. I could have stayed for a while. It was so nice.


On the last day of our vacation Isabella cut her first tooth. The way back was not too bad, but we noticed that she was a little bit more sensitive to hunger and sleep. Today we noticed that the second tooth is coming through!

Isabella & her Mommy

Yes, there are pictures of Isabella and me. Since I stay home with Isabella I take a ton of pictures just of her. I grab the camera immediately when I see Gary and Isabella and they are looking cute. Which is very often.

Well, after I told Gary that there are not many pictures of Isabella and me and people start mentioning it, he started taking some more pictures. Also, I found some older ones.

The question is can you laugh at yourself? As you can see, I can! Enjoy!

Introducing solid foods - the saga continues ...

Last Friday I tried for the first time meat. We started with chicken. Isabella had been very good with the vegetables and fruit, but the meat, that was definitely an experience.

See for yourself.

I love my Daddy!

Isabella definitely loves her Daddy! Luckily she can spend every Thursday with Daddy and on the week-end Daddy & Isabella spend a good amount of time together. Of course we try to be together all three of us on the week-end.

See how much she loves her Daddy!

Isabella and her duckie

Isabella loves her duckie. She plays and snuggles with it all the time. It was a gift from Grandma. Thank you, Grandma! Enjoy the pictures. They were taken between September 11 and 20, 2006.