Warning- excessive bragging ahead

So, Isa B finally decided she wanted to walk for good (the day after I posted that I was done guessing when she'd start, of course). After a whole week and a half, she is now zooming furiously around:



You can see that, much like her Mommy, Isa likes to talk with her hands. Heck, the girl just likes to talk. Often. Loudly. To anyone who might possibly be in earshot. She walks around all the time talking and waving her hands like that- very entertaining.

Now that she's no longer focused on learning to walk, her vocabulary has just exploded. She had the same four or so words since around her birthday (kitty, mama, duck-duck, and sometimes doggy) and now suddenly she has so many more. In the last week she's decided that she LOVES the word "no". Sometimes she even says "Nope" which is hysterical. And the best part is that she really does use it appropriately. She'll go up to something she knows she shouldn't touch, shake her head, and say "no-no." Of course, she doesn't always follow her own advice..... Other new words include "choo-choo", "neigh-neigh" (horse), "Papaw" (Isa's grandpa, for whom she used to say"dada"), and "num-num" (i.e, "I'm hungry). It's always obvious at the point in the evening when she's ready for bed, but now when I ask her if she wants to go "night-night" she'll respond back with "nigh-nigh". Hmm... lots of word doubling, huh? Here's a clip of her talking- she's saying "Nina" (her godmother), then she pants (which is her usual way of saying "doggy"), and finally a very distinct "no-no."

She has recently discovered her two baby dolls and likes to walk around with them in her arms. It's about 50-50 whether she's smacking the baby's head on the ground or giving her a kiss. We're working on the concept of GENTLE. :) Here's a moment where she's loving her baby.

To add to all the other accomplishments, she's getting better at self-feeding as well. Here she is inspecting a piece of apple and then showing off how great her teeth are at chomping.




Bottom teeth #3 & #4 just broke through. Isa has had several bouts of extreme crankiness in the last couple days and one of her bottom gums feels like a molar is imminent. Fingers crossed that it comes through quickly.

And that's the report from here!

Bliss

Last night, Isa went down uneventfully around 7 p.m.. I planned to stay up and finish my A&P homework, perhaps do my online test for my other class. Instead I got a GINORMOUS headache. The kind where 2 Tylenol make very little dent. All I could do was snuggle up on the couch and rest (more precisely, fall asleep-the best headache remedy I know). My parents were spending the night to watch Isa during this morning's class and my mom in her infinite wisdom sent me to bed at 9 p.m..

And now you're thinking, but wait- this post is titled "bliss"??? What's blissful about a massive headache???

Ah, yes. Isa B proceded to sleep until 6 a.m. That's right. I got 9 (count them-9!!!) hours of sleep last night.

Heaven. Sheer and utter bliss. Almost makes a girl weep with joy.

Randomness (and lots of pics!)

Isa B turned 15 months yesterday and we are approaching the 9 month home mark. Wow, wow, wow- time is FLYING by!!!

As the title suggests, this post is a total mish-mash of randomness.

First off, I finally have a new contract in place. Yeah for money!

Isa still refuses to walk by herself. She's totally capable. Excellent balance and she barely pulls on your hands at all when she walks but she just doesn't believe she can do it yet. I can get her to take a couple little steps at a time, but then she purposefully sits down and crawls. I know that one of these days she's going to take off but have decided to stop making guesses at when!

Her hair continues to grow like crazy. Here is what she typically looks like in the morning:

I'm going to work on being more creative with her hair since I usually just do two barrettes in the front and occasionally 2 not-so-little puffs. She certainly has enough hair to work with, I'm just completely inept. :)

Isa has finally decided that self feeding isn't such a bad thing. This is wonderful! She used to start playing with her food after a few pieces, but now I can put a little bowl of food down in front of her and she'll eat the entire thing. No food being flung off the tray to the floor. No need to actively spoon-feed her. I think she's eating more this way as well. Good all around.

And finally, her favorite new thing to do is kiss people. Particularly other babies. She made sure to get around to all her buddies at our music session yesterday to give them each a kiss. Here she is giving a smooch to her friend Gracie (another beautiful habesha baby!). And then one where Gracie is going in for some lovin'....

ETA- well maybe it won't be that long until she walks after all..... :)

The return of Fav Foto Friday

Well, after a long hiatus, FFF returns to the blog. This week's theme is "favorite family photo." Here are some of my favorites:

our first meeting (look how tiny she was!!!)

at her birthday in August- totally captures her personality

As I've mentioned before, we don't have too many photos of us together. We definitely need to have some professional photos taken!

VOTE!!!

Vote!!! Vote!!! Vote!!!

My usual absentee ballot voting status somehow got changed when I finally updated my address on voter registration this year, so for the first time ever I'll go to the polls and vote. I'm very excited to get my "I voted" sticker... they really need to include those with the absentee ballots.

Of course I would love everyone to vote the way my conscience votes (I live in Seattle- it's pretty obvious how I lean) but regardless of your stance JUST VOTE!!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow will be historic- we'll either have an African-American President elect or a female Vice-President elect. Wow.