Isa and Papa at 5 months

Okay, what do you think? Is she a combo of us? Or more like her Papa?

10 months old

Isa has been ten months old for a while now, but we're just posting now. A lot has happened during her tenure as a 9 month old. She began standing confidently on her own, taking up to 5 steps between her mama and papa, and has added some words to her vocabulary including bye bye, this, that, and baby.

We have moved from Pullman Washington and are now staying at Patrick's parents house in Chicago. We are still waiting to hear back about Patrick's job prospects, so a lot is still up in the air about where we will be living and where I will be working. Another update to come quite soon about her time as a ten month old, but a little sneak preview: she is walking at ten and a half months old!

Isa and Mama at 9 months!

What do you think? Do we look alike? Or does she look more like her Papa?

9 months old!

Isa is nine months old!!! Mostly this month she has been perfecting her cruising and crawling abilities, but she's started a few noteworthy new behaviors that are worth mentioning: she has began standing/ balancing on her own two feet for 2-15 seconds at a time, she's been pointing to things, has been handing things to us (especially books she wants us to read), and when I point to something and ask her to give it to me, she does! I guess this last skill usually doesn't show up for a few months on average, but, as always, Isa is trying to grow up too quickly! We don't think walking is too far off for her, but it seems these skills blossom rather quickly after a long period of gestation, so to speak.

She'll be going to the doctor for her 9 month checkup soon and we will update with her new stats once that happens. She gets a break this time from any vaccinations (she won't need another one until 12 months), so she just gets a little poking and prodding from the doctor.

She is developing quite a little personality - she's quick to pick up on our emotions, but also laughs a lot (since we do too). She is good at playing on her own for long stretches, as long as we give her some interesting things/places to explore. She's down to two naps a day, and can last anywhere from 2-4 hours in between naps. We've mostly babyproofed the apartment, but we still need to keep an eye on her at all times.

By right around this time next month, Isa will get to join her extended family in Chicago! We are very excited for this transition - and look forward to everyone getting to know how fun and cool Isa is to hang out with.

Update:

Weight: 26 pounds 2 ounces, 100th percentile
Height: 30 inches, 98th percentile
Head Circumference: 18.4 inches, 97th percentile

8 months old!

Isa is 8 months old! Whew, time is flying by and she is growing and changing tremendously quickly. In the course of the past month she has: learned to push herself to a seated position from lying down, learned how to pull herself to a stand, can crawl like a champ, can cruise around when holding on to furniture, has gotten her four top front teeth, and is signing milk and saying "mama" and "baba" (papa) unquestionably now (and just beginning to wave goodbye).

This was a rough month, losing Aunt Donna took a toll on us and Isa had to deal with a few days of her mama in tears. She gave me lots to smile about though, and always gave me hugs or laughter when the tears were flowing. It was like Aunt Donna's laughter reflecting through Isa - reminding me to experience the joy and celebrate life.

She got weighed recently and is a whopping 25 pounds and we think around 29 and a half inches long. This girl can eat! She is eating 99% breast milk at this point. Any food we give her gets squished around on her tray and hands and not much makes it into her actual mouth. She sits with us at dinner and gets tiny pieces of our food to try, but mostly she gets her sustenance from nursing. Now that she's gotten very mobile in the last few weeks, we think her weight will start to stabilize.

The weather is changing to spring here and we're looking forward to getting outside and enjoying it!

seven months old

Isa girl is seven months old! So much has happened this month that it's hard to keep track. She can get around the room pretty easily by now. She uses a variety of methods such as army crawling, taking a couple of actual crawl steps, or pivoting and rolling. She can definitely get up on all fours easily now, and she's taken to even getting into the downward dog yoga pose quite often. She can now stand on her own if we put her next to something to hold onto, but she can't quite pull herself to a stand or fully crawl just yet.

Just in the past couple of days she's been sticking her tongue in and out as well as rocking her head back and forth like a little rock and roller. There are some videos of these things if you follow the link in the upper right corner of this blog. This month she has also started to truly communicate with us! She has started to say "mom" and  has learned how to sign "milk," two of the more important parts of her life.

Her napping has also consolidated a lot in the past month. She can now stay awake for about 3 hours between naps and she almost always sleeps over an hour per nap. She takes 2-3 naps a day, down from 5 or 6 a month ago. This means we can get out and about more easily in her awake times, which is great!

Lately she's been talking a lot like Gus Gus from Cinderella -- hilarious kid! No more teeth yet, and she won't have another doctor's appointment until 9 months, but we think her weight has stabilized for the past month or so, which is a relief for us!

Enjoy these 7th month photos:

Signing baby!

Even though we're just a day away from Isa's seven month birthday post, I have to report on a small but exciting update: Isa is signing!!

Starting at her six month birthday, we starting signing "milk" and "nurse" to her. We did this about half of the time she was about to eat. We wanted to be more consistent with it, but we are new to signing and didn't remember to do it each time. Well, last night Patrick was home alone with Isa while I was at class and she started to get fussy. When he asked her with the sign if she wanted milk, she stopped fussing and signed milk back to him! When I got home, he couldn't wait to tell me the news, but I hadn't seen it for myself.

But again this morning, right as Isa and I were waking up, we came into the front room and she signed milk to me! So I turned to her, asked her if she wanted milk (again signed it back to her), and she smiled and signed it clear as day right back to me. So I gave her some milk!  Now, we are planning to add more signs to the repertoire. On a side note, she has definitely began saying mamamamaaa when I go out of the room and she wants me to come back. 

It is super exciting for us to be able to communicate with her.  She is talking to us, and we are understanding her, which is wonderful and exhilarating for all of us.