Weekend Away

We weren't planning on doing much for our anniversary, but a couple of weeks ago my mom offered to come out and babysit Isabella for the weekend so we could get away. We took the opportunity and went to Sioux Falls for the weekend. It was a great time of shopping, catching a movie, and lots of eating out! We had a lot of fun, but I did find myself missing Isabella. Last night I sat in the hotel room and scrolled through pictures of her on Monte's cell phone, yikes - you'd think it had been weeks since I'd seen her! She was excited to see us today, but had a great time with Grandma.

Five years ago today

I married my best friend! We have gone through so much in the past five years, but it has only made us stronger (Although I don't wish to repeat any major health issues any time soon). I love our life together, and I love watching him with our daughter, what an awesome daddy!

Christmas with three 1 year olds

Cousins and best friends

All the grandkids (I think there's a couple that aren't crying) :)

Hmmm, I think you've got something in your eye, let me help you out with that!

This Christmas was -

exhausting, chaotic, and FUN!

Merry Christmas!

I will be away from the blog until after Christmas, I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Big Day

Isabella called me "Mommy" for the first time today, and has about 500 times since because I praised her so much the first time. Let me tell ya, there is nothing like the feeling you get when your child calls you Mommy for the first time. I'm still recovering emotionally! :)

Signing

For anyone interested, I found this good website about infant signing. I'm excited to start doing this with Isabella. This morning I showed her the sign to have her diaper changed, and she did it right away (she's such an imitator) I'm sure she probably doesn't know what it means yet, but she can do it. I picked out some that I want to teach her besides diaper change - hungry, thirsty, bed, help me, thank you, and daddy. This should be fun!

Growing Up

Isabella seems to really be growing up lately, I still like to think of her as a baby but I suppose she's not, really. It seems like her birthday was quite a while ago, it's hard to believe that the day she was supposed to be born (her due date) was only a couple of days ago! She stands up without holding on to anything and I'm sure will be walking by herself any day now. She's been done with her bottle for about a month now, which I was so worried about, but it was actually a very easy transition. She refuses to eat any sort of baby food and has moved on to all "real" food. She eats all by herself with her little fork, which is very nice for me! We opted to start giving her organic whole milk, as it is not from cows that have had growth hormones. I've never bought so much milk before, she drinks SO much! Another thing that is nice about her getting older is that she can communicate with us much better, I actually know what she wants. She points at everything she wants. She also lets us know when she is all done eating, all done playing in the bath, or just plain all done being up because she wants to go to bed. She does the sign for all done which works so good, I think I should teach her some other signs. Has this worked well for anyone else? I don't really know too many signs, but I'm sure it would be easy to look up on the internet. She says a few words other than her ma ma and da da that she's been doing for months. She now says "baby". However, besides referring to herself as baby, all animals are also babies according to her. She also says "bye bye" and "nye nye" for night night. She gives us hugs and blows kisses, can show you wear her ears, nose, and tummy is, but as much as I love this little girl that is growing up right before my eyes, I miss the tiny, helpless, little baby that couldn't do anything. It just makes me realize I could totally do this all over again.