growing up...FAST

What a big girl! Isabelle really is no longer a baby and is now a little person. She eats spaghetti, cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, french toast, scrambled eggs, waffles and pretty much anything. She is now drinking whole milk out of a sippy cup and only has one bottle per day. Now our job is to get rid of the bed time bottle, but that could take some time. Isabelle had her 12 month appointment last week, she is 31 inches long and weighs 24 lbs. She has fallen from the 98th to the 92nd percentile. She is completely in love with all of her birthday presents. She playing with her tea sets and her tea cupboard, she also loves her couch and her baby stroller. She really loves books, it is so amazing to watch her pick one out of the pile walk over to me so I can read it to her...what a differnce a year makes!

The big ONE!

It is really hard to believe but Isabelle is now one year old! What a year it has been, and what a difference a year makes. Below is a picture of Isabelle on her birthday. What a big Girl. She had her first birthday party on Saturday and I think she had a really great time. As you can see fromt the pictures she had a great turnout with lots of family and friends showing up to celebrate. Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate Isabelle's big day with us. We hope you had as much fun as we did!

The big girl on her birthday...

Enjoying her very own birthday cake...(and sharing a little with Olivia)

Showing off her snazzy birthday hat

I never thought I would see that many kids in my living room...yikes!

One year pictures

Here are some of Isabelle's one year photos. We went to kiddie kandids in Maple Grove. We were pretty happy with these shots. It is hard to believe that she will be a year old at the end of the week. Amazing. She really started jib jabbing tonight....I have no idea what she was saying but she had allot to talk about.

teeth and the toybox

It is hard to believe that we are only a couple weeks away from one year! Isabelle now has all or parts of 6 teeth and she is about to have her third bottom tooth break through. Having 5 teeth moving at one time appears to be a little "uncomfortable" but what can you do. As you can see below Isabelle has kind of grown fond of the tooth brush, I doubt that will last very long. This weekend she decided that it was more fun to get in the toybox than it was to get toys from the toybox.

Happy Mothers Day

Isabelle had a great first mothers day. She ate brunch with Mom and Grandma, signed her first card and even bought Mommy jewelry. What a girl! Here are some pictures of Isabelle with her favorite lady!

Eleven months already! WOW

It is hard to believe that Isabelle is walking now. Last week she just stood up and starting walking. It is crazy to sit and watch her walk around the house, the garage and even outside. She is such a big girl. Check out the video on our last post for some live action walking video. Isabelle also tried her first smore this weekend, she dove right in and made quite the mess!

Walking video

Isabelle is now walking all over the place...check it out

playing with cousins, four wheelers and golfing...

Today Isabelle took her first walk across the living room. She has been doing really well at 4, 5 and 6 steps but today she just took off from the kitchen table all the way to the chair by the front door. Last weekend we spent some time at my brother's and Isabelle got to play with her cousins and the neighbor kids.

First trip to the pool

This morning we went to the Maple Grove pool with the Ohme's. Isabelle really had a fun time. She wasnt scared and didnt put up to much of a fuss at all. As you can tell from the last picture, swimming is hard work and really wipes a girl out.

swings, reading and watching golf

Boy is time flying. Isabelle is getting so close to a year old, we are already planning her party. She is getting really close to walking around. She can take several steps (5-6) and has even stop and started, her balance is getting much better. This weekend she had a fun time celebrating her first easter and watching golf with Daddy (see picture below). Today we took her to the park and found out that she loves to swing!

Easter hat

Grandma Barb gave Isabelle a hat and sunglasses for Easter, doesnt she look cute in them. Isabelle had a touch of some flu bug last week, she only vomitted once but she had some loose stool. Now that seems to be gone as well. While she was sick she really didnt eat much solid food so we feel like we are back to square one in our effort to get her off the bottle. Oh well, we have 2 months to convince her she should only have 1 bottle per day...

The Zoo, first steps and messy dinners....

Isabelle, Mommy and I took a trip to the Como Zoo and Conservatory today. It was pretty fun. Isabelle stared at most of the animals, especially the giraffe. She did really well in stroller and just likes to watch the action around her. When we got home she took her first "official" steps. While she isnt walking all the way she will now string 3 or 4 steps together before plopping on her bum. I dont think it will be too long before she is up and running, literally. She seems to be pretty tired of baby food, today she was feeding herself mini ravioli's, it was messy!

standing up...

Isabelle is growing up so fast. She isnt walking yet but loves to stand up by herself, see below. This was a surprisingly difficult photo to get by myself so I like it allot. I am pretty sure that in the next couple weeks she is going to take off running around the house. She still loves to babble and hasnt added any words, I hear some "dadas" but I am not sure she knows what she is saying yet. Isabelle has really taken well to the stroller, we can take long walks with hardly peep. I hope the weather keeps up so we can keep it up!

9 month check up

Isabelle had her 9 month check up today (only a couple weeks late). She is still a big little girl. She is 30 inches long and weighs 23 pounds. She is in the 98th percentile for height and 96th for weight. She is starting to eat allot more people food, but we only have 2 months and to get her off of the bottle so she needs to get a little more used to the spoon. Isabelle is really enjoying the weather, she loves taking walks with us (see below). She still loves her movies and the other day she tried to play along with the TV...

Back from the beach!

Mommy and Daddy are back. After spending 5 peaceful days in Mexico, Gina and I are excited to be back with our baby girl. Gina only had a couple of emotional moments, but it was hard being away from Isabelle. Isabelle had a great time with Grandma, Uncle and Cousins while we were gone, she even got to spend part of a night alone with Grandpa Al. Isabelle was really excited to see Gina and I when she woke up this morning, I have to say it was the best feeling yet as a parent. To see the excitement in her eyes was really amazing!

visiting with family

This weekend Isabelle got to hang out with all of her aunts and uncles, both of her cousins, both grandpas and one grandma. The other Grandma will get 5 days with her next week, so I am sure they will get enough of eachother! Isabelle is now nine months old and is getting to look and act so much like a little person. She has her own facial expressions and unfortunately, attitudes! She is getting really brave about trying to stand up on her own, and her forhead has paid the price. She has been a much happier baby since her tube surgery and we all hope that her happiness continues. Gina and I are heading to Mexico this week, we are excited to relax and thaw out, but being away from Isabelle will be hard...