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.

Isabelle is 8 months (still...barely!)

*In writing this post I confused the birthdates of both of my children MULTIPLE times. I've finally sorted it out correctly, thank you cookie dough for the clarity. Isabelle is not 9 months for another 10 whole days, so this post is still completely accurate.

Isabelle: 8 months.  December 27, 2015 Izzy turned 8 months. At that time, she had just successfully completed her first Christmas and was quite skilled at both opening and eating presents, ribbon, and tape.  She seemed to prefer a lot of her brother's gifts, which worked out because he was pretty interested in hers.  She could army scoot/drag herself everywhere she wanted to go.  She still wakes 2 times a night and takes 3 naps a day. Actually, around this time, she was actually waking up closer to FIVE TIMES per night which turned out to be a tooth (I'll save that savory detail for the 9 month post)

She is an absolute joy, FANTASTIC on car rides, was pretty clingy in the month of December, much to the chagrin of every relative wanting to hold her!  She is around 15-16 lbs, wearing size 2 diapers and 6 month clothes.

John at 8 months here.

Isabelle is 7 months!

Uh oh, getting behind in the blogging!!

Our dear Isabelle Jean is 7 months now. Sitting up like a champ, fairly mobile (although not crawling) and VERY vocal about getting what she wants. Especially if that something is her getting picked up! She is pretty easy going as long as she isn't tired, and loves crackers and yogurt. She also loves her feet. I keep socks on her 99% of the time because she scratches herself with her toenails, but for that 1% of the time she can get to her feet, she chews them, plays with them....is a very happy girl. She wears 6m clothing although will be wearing 9month pajamas soon - my tall girl! No teeth (or signs of teeth) which I prefer at this time. :) She loves to watch her brother and pull his hair, and share in whatever game he is playing. She is especially adept at knocking over any block tower he might build too near to her. Happy 7 mo, Izzy!

John, lately

Man...a kid turns two and loses all his glory!  So, I wanted so share a bit about John these days so when I am much older and more forgetful, I have some history....

John is nearly 27 months.  He loves to sing, especially the ABC song, Old MacDonald, Twinkle Twinkle, and many others. His favorite activities include playing "dance" (music party, everyone gets an instrument), doing puzzles, playing blocks/building blocks, and "painting" his Water Wow books.  He has several types of blocks and each type of block is a different game. With the giant legos, he builds birthday cakes and sings Happy Birthday. (Like every time.) With the large wooden square blocks, he plays "Dinosaurs taking a nap" in which we build a home for the dinosaurs and they each get 1 or more blankets and pillows and all get put down for a nap. Sometimes they also get fed some lunch.  With his normal "blocks" we build towers and normal block things, although lately a lot of couches for the dinosaurs if they aren't napping. And finally his ABC blocks he just likes discussing all the letters and pictures and putting them back away.  And THEN (I thought I was done) his animal Duplos set he got for his birthday, with those we build the different animals that were shown on the box.   Clean up happens a lot around here, obviously, although maybe not as much as I would like!

John is very specific about meals.  When given food in a bowl, he only wants a spoon to eat it. (I've really tried to convince him that a fork is more useful for some foods. He doesn't believe me.) Identical food on a plate? FORK.  Also, if given a divided plate, a unique food must be included in each section of the plate, otherwise he spends most of the meal pointing out the empty square and asking it to be filled. Luckily, he usually suggests peas. Unfortunately, he only eats like 3 of them.

John loves pointing out the alphabet wherever he sees it, and calls my Cal Poly shirt an "ABCD Shirt" because it has the "ABC's" on it. Same goes with anything else with letters.

John is a great big brother and loves to take care of Isabelle, bring her toys, and help her.  She in turn is very entertained watching him.  I've tried to encourage him to read the books he's memorized to her, or to help me read them to her.  He can usually finish most of the pages.  He still loves his books! His attention span is longer than I realize with longer books (sometimes longer than mine.) Despite memorizing books, he doesn't complain when some pages of the more annoying books might be skipped when trying to finish them just a *little* faster.

Isabelle at 6 months!

I'm going to have to add pictures in here later, I got a new phone and they're not available right now.

Isabelle Jean at 6 months - gosh we just adore this girl! She is nothing like her brother, who we are also quite fond of,  and I love their differences.  At her 6 m checkup she was just barely over 13lbs (2lbs smaller than her brother at that age) and 26 inches (1 inch longer than him!).

She still loves baths, her bouncer, and now also loves eating. If you don't feed her fast enough, she grunts and grunts for more.  She is a decent sleeper, 3 naps a day, and nighttime is...managable. She can sit up on her own, hold herself in a stand (if I help her get there), and likes to play John's piano and other musical toys.