Fashion accessories

For the last several mornings Isabella has gone and fetched one of her jackets and asked for it to be put on. Maybe she's cold? Maybe she thinks she's more stylish in jacket, pajamas, and slippers? (The mocassins are new; got them from Hanna Anderson in my recent buying splurge.)

Thanksgiving was fun, if a bit frantic. The bird was bigger than expected, and, was, well, still a bit frosty coming out of the fridge, so dinner was an hour late. But everyone just hung around and helped set the table, finish prep, and played games. We had 7 people over, and way, way too much food - we'll be eating pie for a long time.

Chris and I played a couple games of backgammon. After watching for a while, Isabella came over and picked up the dice rolling cup and tipped it over for me. Then she picked up the dice, put them back in the cup, and did it again. She did this several times, with a bit of coaching from me to get the cup the rightway round, before she got bored and wandered off with my dice. I lost the game, btw, by one piece... thanks, Isabella!

With all the people over Isabella was quite entertained. And was up from 1pm through until 9pm. Yikes. Slept poorly - we're going through another rough patch again. Although at least last night she only woke up a couple times... I think we're also transitioning from two naps to one. All she had was a one hour nap today. Eeps!

Another purchase of mine - play silks. Little orange ghost! She thinks this is just the greatest thing - I think it kept her occupied for about half an hour.

We've moved her bath to just before bed, with clean up before bath. I was hoping she would help clean up - she picked up a piece of trash today and put it in the trash can - but mostly she just went around and took whatever I'd just put away back out again. Sigh.

She's been eating less for lunch and dinner, although still a lot for breakfast. Seems to only want to eat what we're eating or what she's had before (like mac and cheese). And nursing a lot. Maybe a growth spurt?

In da poop report, she's mostly been pooping in the potty, although she pees in her diaper most of the time. We've had a few snatch and grabs. She was sitting on her play mat - the baby one with the hanging toys - and got really mad when I tried to move her onto the potty, even though she had that look on her face. Had to wait until the action was almost starting before whisking her onto the potty. And there was one where she was standing, and she pooped, but her diaper was so loose that I was able to just undo it and push the poop-shaped things into the toilet. A quick wash down, and off she went. She seems to be back to two poops a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, both a lot smaller than they've been in the past. Don't know if it's because she's eating less, or getting more efficient...

She's decided she likes her baby swings now. She keeps asking to be lifted into them so she can sit and swing. I'm hoping that they won't just break in half - her feet stick out the bottom and her head out the top! She also likes pushing the big blue ball around and banging on it.

At day care, Courtney and Sarah have been trying to get the other older babies to say more instead of signing it. Of course, when they ask the other babies to say "more" Isabella pipes up with "more, more, more..." just in case they aren't sure what they should say. Well, our darling has decided to start signing "more" when she says it now, just to show them... she also signs, but doesn't say, done. Go figure. Although at least I finally figured out why she would occasionally grab my two fore fingers and make them touch each other - she was making me do the "more" sign! And "bubble" is definitely in her vocabulary now, although it seems to apply to bottles, too.

We can also get her to follow us now, sometimes, instead of picking her up. Handy.