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Thursday, September 15, 2005

Another update and more milestones to report for our sweet Isabelle. She has now added "bottle" to her vocabulary, albeit a vocabulary limited to "bye bye" and "bottle", but hey, a girl's gotta start somewhere! She also does the sign for bottle when she says it, for added emphasis. She still loves her bottles and I don't see a sippy cup in her near future. She does enjoy trying to see how 'spillproof' her sippy cup is. So far, out of 3, none have passed the test. She is eating more table food and seems to enjoy it. Her latest trick, in her high chair, is that she only wants one of anything. If you give her say 2 Cheerios, she throws one off the side of the highchair and eats the last one. If you only give her one, she's fine. Give her more than a few and you end up with a big mess on the floor. She amazes us with what she will try, she makes the other kids look like wimps! But considering Asher's food pyramid consists of toaster streudel, pb and j sandwiches and cereal, it's easy to do. We do think she's gaining weight steadily and look forward to her doctor appointment on September 27 for the big weigh in. It is a well baby check with the international adoption specialist at Cardinal Glennon. I sure hope she won't need any new shots and I'm sure she does too! The other big milestone Isabelle has mastered is walking. She took her first steps in late August but she really wasn't interested in repeating that feat on her own. At the beginning of September she started to catch on to the walking thing by using her push toy. One day she just figured it out and ever since she got a taste of how walking could make her life easier she's been on a mission. She, I am very proud to say, is now walking all the way across the room! She can even add a 180 degree turn in there sometimes. Everyone gets SO excited to see her walk, I think she's under the impression that she's quite fabulous when she's toddling in her adorable Frankenstein fashion. We just can't get enough of this little dynamo. She has become quite the little troublemaker lately as well. The once non-mobile little innocent has now become a one person wrecking crew. Her favorite is to sneak into the bathroom when no one is around and pull all the toilet paper off the roll. Then she puts it into the potty and splashes around with great satisfaction, occasionally throwing pieces of wet tp across the bathroom. Of course, when I come in and find her there she looks about as guilty as Bambi, as if she doesn't know how that mess got there, maybe it was one of the boys? She also enjoys getting into the cabinet with her bottle supplies. The other day I came in to find her sitting in a sea of bottle liners, 250 of them in all. She had the box in her hand and was thoroughly impressed with her ability to empty it completely. Isabelle's biggest fan club has recently grown by one with the addition of her grandmother as grand poo ba. My mom, known to the kids as G.G., recently spent a week at our house hanging out. I would love to go on and on about all we did while she was here but we really just hung out. It was nice to spend the time together playing with the kids and laughing at all the silly and surprising things they can conjure. Dalton kept her busy with constant requests to either play football or swordfight. Asher and Zach loved showing her all the interesting things they make out of Legos. And of course, Isabelle kept G.G. busy by just being so darn captivating :) Isabelle is showing fewer and fewer signs of separation anxiety. She really was fond of G.G. and would go to her willingly; which was a nice break for my arms while I was trying to get the boys ready and off to school. The days are much quieter during the week with only Dalton and Isabelle at home. I am really enjoying the time with them and it is good for Dalton to have my undivided attention while Isabelle naps. He occasionally wants to play "baby" which helped me realize that he is feeling a bit displaced. I can't blame him, he went from the unsuspecting baby of our family to big brother of a little charmer who gets all the attention now! Fall is in the air these last few days and we are all looking forward to the upcoming season. We traditionally pick apples and pumpkins in October when my sisters come to visit. They plan on making the trip to visit again this year and we are all looking forward to it. I vividly remember last fall thinking "This time next year, we'll have Isabelle here with us!" And here she is! She definitely adds her own special 'stamp' to our family, we just can't imagine life without her now. Recently I was discussing the pros and cons of adding to one's family. One can worry endlessly about "will I have enough love for another?" and "will my other children feel shortchanged?". I even felt that fear creep up occasionally before we traveled to meet Isabelle. But the reality is that by adopting Isabelle we have given our children a sister to love, a heart for those who do not have a family and a new understanding of how God adopts us into His family and makes us heirs of His kingdom. What better gift could there be? Little Ladybug

I can walk!
Silly Sisters Kids with G.G Hanging out poolside Blowing Kisses

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