Isabelle is 10 months!

...in 2 days!

I cannot believe this girl is nearly 1. She is still my "baby." And compared to her brother, still small and babyish. I have very little memory of John at this age/stage, so I have nothing to compare to. But her little personality is really coming out and we just love her to pieces.

I think she's maybe 17 pounds, but long. She is finally crawling, and pretty fast at that. When she spots me sneaking out of the office and into the kitchen, she quickly abandons what she is doing and makes a beeline for the kitchen...saying, "dada!" No really. I'm about 50% mama and 50% dada. She also says ba ba (bye bye) when she waves.  She also signs "all done." John did none of these before 1!)  She loves to eat, string cheese being a big self-feeding favorite and probably also yogurt. She started drinking from a straw cup, so I can pump and give her milk in a cup now.  She is almost at the point of drinking milk after dinner and then going to bed without nursing...but still waking to eat at night...we are working on that! She plays with her ears when she is tired/falling asleep. She still uses the pacifier a little bit before sleep.

She loves to stand up but isn't quite cruising yet. She loves to go outside, and to play with cars. She definitely lets her will be known when she is denied John's toy or activity. She likes to repeat sounds to you make back to you (she used to do this months ago but took a break from it.) She's fun! She's also a bit more of an early riser than her brother...sigh. Oh well! 

John is 2.5!!!

When you are still too young to be in school, I think the half-year marks still bear some significance. At least John as a 2.5 year old is very different than 2, and very different than the 20 month old I see holding newborn Isabelle in pictures. (Really? Did that happen 10 months ago?)

John continues to be a happy bundle of energy.  His favorite activites are doing puzzles (he can do pretty advanced ones without help...if 9 pcs is advanced?), coloring (sometimes), reading, watching TV (this is always a favorite), playing outside, going on walks/park/store, building blocks, playing with his food.  His imagination has totally exploded. I'll listen to him with his 2 giraffes, "Hi Mr. Giraffe. You want to go to the park?" "Yes I do! Let's go down the slide!" and on and on. Not to mention talking to imaginary people in the house, eating and playing with imaginary food...it is fun to watch.  Another favorite, random game -- he says, "You be Ernie and I'l be Bert." And then you both have to laugh like those two characters. (Or any other Sesame Street character he chooses.) Zach can do a great Bert laugh but I always hope to get assigned Ernie. Does anyone even know how Big Bird laughs? I always butcher that one.

Verbally, John seems to have great skills for his age. Just recently he's started saying milk, yogurt, music, and moon all correctly. (Still drinks Nilk all day long though.) And he calls Isabelle "Izzybelle."

He makes us laugh, he makes us crazy, we love our Johnny boy!

Isabelle is 9 months!!!

In true second child fashion, this monthly update is again well into month 9, and again I struggle to recall what was new last month buy OOPS don't include what she is doing now because I need content for 10 month post!!
So in her 9th month Isabelle got her first 2 teeth. Right around NYE, which explained the getting up 7x a night around Christmastime. She became a very speedy scooter and continued to love all food,and mastered a shrill screech for parental attention when she thought John was getting too close.