June 3rd

Mom came out to visit again. A short visit, this time, but now Isabella is fun to play with. She's almost learned to wave - I don't know if it's on purpose, but she'll hold her hand out and turn it back and forth when looking at someone new. She's also discovered b- and m-, and is making great use of them at all volumes. It's really funny. She's especially vocal in the morning (poor Bill keeps trying to sleep in...)

We're getting a lot more of Where's mom? So while Grandma and Dad can keep her entertained, I still have to be within reach...

Grandma took her for the afternoon while Bill and I *gasp* went to see the Pirate movie. It was so odd to see a movie without being constantly interrupted (I haven't seen much of anything in the last four months). We then topped it off with Shakespere in the park with Robert and Andrea. It went ok, although she just didn't go to sleep, which made for a very cranky baby by the time we got home, and an endlessly long nurse session before she fell asleep. She did seem to actually watch the show, though. Lots of loud noises and cowboy costumes.

She's starting to associate voices with people. She got very confused on our flight to Philly because there was a voice coming out of the ceiling, but no person. She kept looking, and looking for a person. She also got confused when I played one of Amy's videos of Zoe (where's the baby?)

We all went down to the climbing gym on Sunday. Mom made it up the wall! Baby was still a little short of sleep and was crankier then normal. And very vocal - constant happy, loud baby noises, including the b's and m's. The other baby, Jimmy, was there - he just sat in his carrier and watched the world go by. Sigh.

Isabella picked up a bit of a cold - I think I brought one back from Philly. So she's got a runny nose, and is maybe a bit more cranky. I've been cheating and nursing her to sleep for her naps.

We've had a few, very few, longer nights of sleep, like 6 hours. One 9 hour stretch (!) But she's still waking up every two or three hours. She sometimes thrashes around and will go back to sleep on her own, but it does wake me up. The last couple mornings she's been opening her eyes, looking for me, then reaching out a hand then going back to sleep.

Today was the first longer-nap day in a while. I was getting spoiled by the longer naps, which went away for the last two weeks. But it's probably just because she's sick.

Her favorite toy at the moment is her toothbrush. She's starting to get some object permanence. Her toothbrush in the sink was gone when we went into the bathroom, and she reached for where it was, and got upset when it wasn't there.

Mom brought another set of clothes. These are more outfitty, and kinda dressy and cute. She actually looks pretty good in them. Although now we've run out of space. I shipped off many of the last set of clothes to a woman who's due to have triplets, and gave some of them to Wendy. And don't ask me how many sweaters I have!

Isabella helped mom and me do some weeding today. Well, she uprooted a lettuce plant. She really wants to be hanging onto whatever I have in my hands. She's made quite a mess out of my papers.

The high chair is a great thing. We can stick her in it and give her some frozen fruit in the mesh feeder, or watermelon, and she's entertained for long enough for us to eat dinner. Although, silly me, I took her out of her high chair because she was fussing and set her in my lap. First thing she did was make a two-fisted dive into the noodle bowl. What a mess!

She's very cute with food. She can maneuver it into her mouth (and she's really good with the mesh feeder) but often she wants you to hold it while she holds your hand and chews on it. We had an apple and some raisins at the Botanical gardens. The raisins came out in pretty much the same shape they went in. She's getting pretty good at mushing up watermelon, though, although she's still a bit confused about the chewing thing. She tries to "nurse" the food. She's good with the sippy cup, though.



Dad (and mom) took the baby out for a walk the last couple nights in the stroller (she likes the stroller now). She happily goes ba ba ma ma the entire time, so much so that she's nearly hoarse with the cold. Poor dad, though, had just got her to sleep when the fireworks went off and woke her up again. Took an hour of nursing and some rocking to get her back to sleep again.

Took her down to the Saturday market with mom. Ran into two people from work and my yoga teacher. Isabella happily watched everyone go by, but wasn't so happy about sitting in her stroller. She started to fuss as we left, so we peed her in the grass (hee hee) and she was dry when we got back.