Isabel at 6 months

It has been so much fun to watch Isabel grow and develop these past few months. She is learning more each day, and it is amazing to watch. We have watched her learn to sleep unswaddled - which admittedly we did a little late (just after 4 months), and it was challenging, but the minute she learned to be OK with having her arms out, she put the middle two fingers of her left hand in her mouth and ditched the pacifier altogether (which she had never really taken to that well). Now she puts those fingers in her mouth when she is tired or needs comfort. Our doctor suspects that she must have done that in utero. We have watched her develop stranger anxiety (which is not always so much fun, but it gives Mommy and Daddy warm fuzzies to know that we are her favorites!). We have watched her learn how to roll from her tummy to her back (no back to tummy yet because she still doesn't like being on her tummy, so she has no incentive to roll that way! Once she is on her back, she is content and doesn't want to go any further!) We have watched her get big enough to use the "standing" toys, like her doorway jumper and her Exersaucer (which I would deem her favorite toy right now. The only thing she gets frustrated with is that she can't get the toys detached to put them in her mouth! She has this funny way of opening her mouth WAY WIDE and pointing her chin toward the Exersaucer toy she wants to put in there, and she gets it as close to in her mouth as she can, sometimes partway in). We have watched her learn to eat solid foods from a spoon. She has liked everything we have given her: rice cereal, pears, peas, green beans, sweet potatoes (too starchy to agree with her system, but we will try them again in another month), oatmeal, carrots, peaches, applesauce, and squash. She is definitely using more energy now, so I am glad to be getting these extra calories in her body in addition to the breast milk and formula she is getting daily. We are still nursing (yay for making it to six months!), and she is getting about 80% breast milk and 20% formula (since I don't get enough while pumping to leave enough for our child care providers to get her through a full day). We have also watched her become an excellent sleeper through the night! Since she was four months old, I can count on one hand the number of nights we have had to get up with her (and two of those were due to the sweet potatoes). She has blessed us in this way, because she is still our "intense" baby during the daytime hours. She will tell us what kind of mood she is in, whether it is happy or sad, in a very loud and demanding way! But we love her just the way she is! She is a little bit of a spitfire like her mommy, and also thrives on routine and consistency, like her daddy. The other thing we love about her is her eyelashes. EVERYONE that we come into contact with comments on how long and beautiful they are. She DEFINITELY gets those from her daddy! Lucky girl! Enjoy the new photos and the video clip...it is pretty hilarious (just taken this past Sunday before church).

Isabel's first Twins game

Today, we took Isabel to her first Twins game! As many of you know, her daddy is a HUGE Minnesota Twins fan (and Mommy is a fan too), so we are starting her young! She already has two Twins pink-and-white outfits, and even though the shorts and skirt are too big for her yet, we put her in the onesie with the Twins logo on it, and pink pants to match. So, she was well-dressed for the occasion!

Isabel's godparents (who are Kristy's godparents too) called us this morning and invited us to go to the Twins/Yankees game because they had a couple of extra tickets. We hadn't been planning to take Isabel to a game for another couple of months because we were not sure how she would do, but since we wanted to see Jayne and Pete and they so graciously offered us the tickets, we thought we would give it a shot! Isabel surprised us by doing amazingly well! We woke her up from her morning nap to go up to the dome, and she didn't cry the whole way there until we got to downtown Minneapolis, and then it was only a few minutes until we parked. When we got her out of the car, she was fine because Daddy put her in the front carrier and she was just fascinated by watching ALL the people walking to and around the metrodome. I took a photo of her and her daddy in front of the dome (with the Twins Territory sign in the background) to commemorate the occasion. Once we were inside in our seats, we gave her a bottle and then she just watched all the activity, people, colors, and lights for the whole game (well, 8 innings, and then we decided to go because we knew she was getting pretty tired!) Usually when she is that tired she cries pretty hard, but it was so interesting for her that she just sat in our laps and cuddled into us (which she rarely does), and watched everything that was going on. She was pretty cute to watch, lots of expressions on her face. A lot of people around us were flirting with her too which helped! At one point in the game a foul ball came flying pretty close to us, and Luke was laughing because I was putting my arms up and trying to shield Isabel from the ball even though he could tell it was going to land one section to our left. All in all, it was a really fun day and we are glad we braved it, because we came away from it with a fun memory of taking our 5 1/2 month old to a Twins game! We look forward to taking her to her next game when Grandma and Grandpa C are here in the beginning of July!