First Giggles

Isabella laughed for the first time on Friday. I was playing with her on the changing table by clapping her hands together and saying "Yeah Isabella." At first, she just had a huge smile on her face and then after a few seconds, the laughs came out. It was great! Later that day, she also laughed for Andy while he was playing the 'up and down' game with her.

On Saturday, Isabella's routine got a little messed up. She was kind of fussy in the morning and ended up sleeping a lot more than usual that day. One of her longer naps happened to occur right before bed time. Still, I wanted to keep her internal clock set to being in bed by at least 8pm. After I fed her that night, I put her in bed. She was pretty drowsy at first and seemed to fall asleep. After a while, we started to hear some cooing sounds coming from her crib. We went in to check on her and the moment she saw us, we received the biggest smiles that we'd ever seen from her. She kept smiling and smiling and smiling. It took a lot of self-discipline to leave her in bed because she would have been so fun to play with at that time. But, she really did need to get some sleep as it was starting to get later.

We took a lot of fun pictures of her this week. Enjoy!

So cute!

Isabella modeling her new hat

Where did she go?

My attempt at a professional-looking picture 

No hat this time

Drying off after bath time  

Looks like we have a happy girl on our hands 

Isabella fell asleep on the couch while doing tummy time. I left her there for a while because she looked so cute - especially with her little butt sticking up! 

Fun in her swing 

Enjoying some floor time 

Laughing! 

Playing 'ups & downs' 

Happy in Daddy's lap 

Valentine's Day/Isabella's first illness

We had a fun Valentine's Day celebration this past week. I enlarged a really cute picture of Andy and Isabella and bought a nice frame for it. Andy surprised me and Isabella with some roses - three for me and one for Isabella. The three roses represented our three years of marriage, the (almost) three months that we've had Isabella, and the three members in our family. It was very sweet and we loved our gift.

Isabella had her first little illness. It was either pink eye or a cold in her eye. Either way, she woke up on Thursday with a really watery right eye. We didn't think too much about it at that point, but after she woke up from her nap, that eye was all crusty and goopy. It continued to look icky throughout the morning and early afternoon, so I called the doctor who prescribed some eye drops. We weren't able to pick up the drops until the next morning. By that point, her eye was already starting to look much better. We still gave her some drops anyway, but whatever it was seems to have gone.

Isabella has moved her bedtime up to 7:30pm. She has just been way too tired lately to stay up until 8pm. As a result, she's starting to get up around 5:30am. I enjoyed sleeping in until 6am, but what can you do? She always goes back to sleep after I feed her, and on days when I'm really sleepy, I go back to sleep too. But usually, things go much smoother in the morning if I just stay awake and get started on my day. Oh well, I'm still very grateful that she sleeps as well as she does.

Isabella was having some tummy time on my lap so Andy got underneath and took a picture of her. We love this face!  

Just chillin 

Big smile!  

Andy with his Valentine's Day gift 

Isabella with the rose she got from Daddy 

We're very happy to have a nice husband/daddy who will buy us flowers!  

The Golackson's had their baby!

Our great friends, Josh and Lindsey had their baby boy on February 13. We are so excited for them! Click on the title of this post to view their blog which contains photos of their little guy! Congratulations Golackson family!

Twins separated by 25 years

Whenever someone sees Isabella for the first time, their usual comment is that she looks just like her daddy. Well, it's very true. I decided to post our baby pictures so that we could do a little comparison. The first picture is of me, the second one is of Andy, and the lower one is obviously Isabella. There is a definite resemblance between Andy and Isabella. I always joke that, at least, she got my hands. :)

3-6 month outfits already!

This week, we started putting Isabella into some of her 3-6 month clothes. She still fits into a lot of her 0-3 month clothes, but she had a lot of wintery 3-6 month outfits that I thought we should bust out before spring time gets here and the weather warms up. She is definitely a long baby. Yesterday, we put her in a 0-3 month outfit that looked like 3/4 length sleeves and capris. I guess we'll have to pack this outfit away. Isabella was so tiny when she was just born. I could not imagine her being big enough to fit into the bigger sizes, and now here we are. The 3-6 mos. outfits are still a little long, but she looks cute in them anyway.

Life with Isabella has been a lot of fun so far. She is a pretty easy baby. Of course, like any baby, she has her fussy times - but even that doesn't seem so bad. She goes to bed and sleeps really well at night, giving us some good couple time. We feel very blessed to have her and have a lot to be thankful for.

Good morning Sunshine! Isabella is awake and ready to start her day. 

Getting ready for another bath.  

Mama and baby playing on the floor 

Isabella's favorite position to be burped in - she loves to look out and really dislikes when we try to burp her over our shoulder.  

Tummy time is much more fun when there's something or someone interesting to look at!  

Showing off one of her new outfits 

Settling in to things

Andy just finished up his first week of classes for this new semester and I have been back to work for a couple of weeks now. So far, everything is working out really well. It helps that my job is only part time and that the folks in my department allow me to bring Isabella to work whenever I want or need to. This has been a huge blessing. Isabella continues to do great. She is becoming more and more interactive and smiles a lot in response to being talked to. She coos a lot and really seems to enjoy being around people.

Content in Daddy's arms