14 Months Old

Can you believe Isabella is 14 months old? The last couple of months have been a whirlwind. We had a big birthday bash to celebrate Isabella's first birthday, students moved in at MC, I started my last graduate school class and Jacob started his third year teaching at Clinton. Since August Isabella has really blossomed. As her grandaddy is Birmingham says, she's really becoming her own little person.

Isabella has a cute little personality. She is very expressive with her face. She'll sing songs from her car seat as the radio plays. And she even likes to dance! Isabella has shown her preferences as well lately. For several weeks we struggled with whining while in the high chair for meals. We are teaching her patience and the meaning of no. :) Currently we are trying to teach Isabella to not get into things rather than "baby proofing". We'll let you know how that turns out...

With the fall weather cooling off we have recently been stocking up on some new items for Isabella's wardrobe. I love the fun clothes they have for little girls now. I've been able to find her some great items without breaking the bank.

Although she may look unhappy in the following picture, she's actually in her element. One of her favorite things to do these days is take books off of daddy's book shelf and "read". Many have asked if she is walking yet. The answer is no. She's working on it. She cruises around from one furniture piece to the next. She is definitely my child because she is very very cautious in walking. The good thing though is that she's pretty resilient if she does fall. She'll get right back up and keep going. Doesn't even cry most times.

We've been adventurous in trying new solids. This girl loves some beans! This is a good things because sometimes she really needs more fiber. Ha! Poor girl has some tummy troubles at times.

Isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen. I'm so excited for we she starts really talking. For now she tells us long stories but I'm not quite sure what "lidle deedle deedle" means. She does say milk, book, mama, and dada pretty well though. At times it really sounds like she's saying "I love you" also.

Lastly, we cut our fifth tooth this week. She woke up three times crying the other night and I just though she was over tired. Silly mama! I should have suspected another tooth considering she had been chewing on things all day and rubbing her bottom jaw back and forth!

Show us your...Dinner Recipes!

Welcome everyone! Thanks for stopping by from Kelly's blog. This week on her "Show Us Your Life" tour we're sharing our favorite dinner recipes. You can check out my recipe for Chicken Enchiladas with Sour Cream Sauce HERE on my recipe blog.

Another one of our family's recent favorites is...

WHITE CHICKEN CHILI

1 pack McCormick's White Chicken Chili seasoning
2 cans of chicken (undrained)
1 can of white beans (or diced potatoes...I prefer potatoes and my husband prefers beans)
1 small can cream corn or regular corn
1 can diced tomatoes

Pour everything into a large pot. You do not need to drain anything. Stir well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Garnish with shredded cheese and sour cream if you like.

Days on the beach - Gulf Shores 2009

First day at the beach - checking out Mommy's book

Worn out after the first day

Day two - content in her pool

Once she finally calmed down for nap time, she was out!

Awake - are we still here?? It's so sandy.


Where are we going now?

I think she was excited to go take a bath.

A little late for the sunset...

Pool Time at the Beach

At the pool

Getting ready with Daddy


Checking things out



Swimming with Mommy


Splashing with Daddy

Learning to Pattycake with Yaya

Moving!

No, we're not moving. Isabella is though! Saturday night we helped my new boss move into her apartment. Isabella sat contently in her car seat until she got hot. I took her out and sat her on the floor of my bosses apartment. She eventually started rolling around like she normally does but then stopped and proceeded to sit herself up. This is the first time she's done this by herself!

Sunday morning I put her down for her nap after church. A few minutes later I walked back through her room to get something and found her sitting up again! Thankfully she laid herself back down and eventually went to sleep.

Jacob and I are so proud of her sitting herself up and now tonight she surprised us with another milestone. I didn't catch it on video the first few "steps" but I got it the second time. Gone are the days of sitting her on the floor and taking my eyes off her!

Cheesy Name - Great Product!

A few of my friends have been asking me lately about baby products that I use. For any of you out there who are considering nursing your baby, I encourage you to invest in this product.

We paid about $40 for this nursing pillow called "My Brestfriend" and it has been worth every penny. I received a Boppy pillow at one of my baby showers so I tried it out for the first week of nursing. After a week I grew very frustrated with the Boppy so my mom went to Babies R Us and got this pillow for me. It's much sturdier than the Boppy and stays in place so that your little one doesn't fall in between your abdomen and the pillow.

It may have a cheesy name but I believe that this pillow has really helped me to stick with nursing for this long.

Messy Girl

Ha ha! Blueberries in her hair and all over her face
after breakfast this morning. Click on the pic to see it up close!

My girl's got a brand new ride!

I've been searching http://www.etsy.com/ for a while trying to find a seat cover in a fabric pattern I liked. This was challenge for a detailed person like me because I wanted it to not only be a pattern I could live with but also a pattern that would be gender neutral if we happen to have a baby boy in the (distant) future. And of course Jacob needed to like it too!

Isabella will outgrow her baby car seat soon so I wanted to make sure to have a shopping cart cover for her to sit in on our (almost daily) trips to Kroger. Right now she contently sits in her car seat inside the cart while we cruise the isles. This is the pattern we decided on. We've placed our order and Isabella will get it for her birthday. Shhhh. Don't tell her!





Speaking of car seats, what kind of seats do you guys have for your kids who are over a year old? Jacob's project for this week is to research for Isabella's new seat.

11 Months Old

Isabella has been exploring new textures lately with her food. She enjoys eating things she can pick up herself and often tries to grab the spoon from us when she's being fed. As her one year birthday approaches we have been working on eating "finger foods". She's a pro at feeding herself Cheerios. Lately she's ventured out to carrots, peas, blueberries and even watermelon.

For her 11 month birthday today she tried grapes. As you can tell from the following video, she has a blossoming personality. Out in public people often comment that Isabella is always quiet. But get her home or around people she knows well and she'll "talk" your ear off!

The video is long, but don't miss out on the last minute. She throws in her favorite new noise - growling! She did this the other day VERY loudly while we were walking inside Hobby Lobby. Luckily, no one was close enough to our cart to hear her. Ha!

In a couple of weeks we'll head to the beach and then soon after we'll have her first birthday party. Stay tuned for pictures!

PS - She's pretty funny with her sippy cup. She's on intermittently interested in juice.

Big Girl!

At ten months old, Isabella is growing up rapidly. Look at the progress she's made.

First Swim

Last Saturday morning we took Isabella to the pool on campus. It was great because they recently changed it to saltwater. The life gaurd and many others commented that Isabella did not act like it was her first time in the pool. Isn't she too cute in her new suit? Hopefully she'll get her Uncle Joey's ability to tan. :)

Checkin out the pool.

She loved the water! She kept trying to go under.

Trusting Daddy.


Venturing out.


Learning to float


I think she'll be a pro by the time we head to the beach in July. :)

7...8...9 Months Old

Welcome back to my blog!

I'm excited that Mommy has decided to fill you in again.

Maybe it's because I wrote her a sweet Mommy's Day card.

Ready to read?

What are you waiting for?

Ok...maybe just one more pic of me before you read!

So many things have happened since the last time I posted. When I went to post for Isabella's 7 month update, I typed out a long blog post all about Isabella's first concert experience and then it deleted! And then month 8 came along and went full of business with graduate school for me. I will not make apologies but I will say...it sure is tough being a mom, a graduate student, a wife, a friend and an employee all at the same time. Sorry for not updating sooner. (Oops. I said I wouldn't apologize.)

The second week of March Isabella finally began sitting up on her on. It seems like she's an ole pro at this now. I anticipate that she will start crawling shortly. She loves to stand and can pull up with some assistance so sometimes I think that she may skip crawling and go straight to walking.

Isabella spent her first night away from Mommy and Daddy on my birthday. Jacob suprised me with a "stacation" by taking me a to dinner and a night at the new Hyatt. So, Isabella stayed with Jacob's parents nearby.

Isabella attended her first concert when Jimmy Needham came to campus to play. Her second concert followed shortly after when Dave Barnes came to the crawfish boil on campus.

chatting with Jimmy N.

Isabella also travelled with us on her first Spring Break trip and no trip to Georgia is complete without a stop at the Varsity!

We celebrated Isabella's first Easter and Isabella got her first Easter basket.

I think she was more interested in chewing on her new sippy cup than actually drinking from it.

And you may not be able to see them well in the next picture but Isabella cut two bottom teeth at the same time in April. We had several low grade fevers and one grumpy girl on our hands.

not grumpy any more!

The last couple of weeks Isabella had one bad diaper rash. Thank goodness for something called Triple Paste! Other than that she has settled into a wonderful routine. In the morning she gets up at 9:00. After she nurses she'll have fruit and cereal or sometimes fruit and yogurt. She enjoys the YoBaby organic yogurt. Isabella loves banana, pears, and apples but she's also tried peaches, cranberries, avacado, blueberries, cherries, plums and prunes. The bananas, apples and pears are easiest to make so that's what she gets most often.

Isabella loves to play after breakfast. Sometimes she will just sit and "talk" to her toys. Piglet must "talk" back the most because she always seems to have the most to say to him. At 11:00 Isabella goes down for her nap and sleeps till lunch at 1:00.

Lunch time is usually when Isabella tries a new food. I try to introduce something new every few days. Lately she's been trying meats appropriate for her age. She's had pureed turkey and pureed lamb so far. At lunch Isabella will also eat some veggies. Her favorite vegetables include peas, butternut squash, sweet potato, potato, and carrot. She's not too fond of broccoli or green beans but she'll eat them. She'll even eat a little asparagus. Cauliflower literally makes her gag and spit up. I'm not sure if this is an allergy or just a texture thing.

After lunch Isabella and I will usually run errands. They know us all to well at Kroger! Some days we'll take a walk around campus or go up to the residence life office to take care of a little work.

At 3:00 she naps again and then gets up around 5:00. Daddy usually feeds her dinner while I make dinner for the two of us. Dinner usually consists of more fruits and veggies. Sometimes she'll have yogurt if she didn't have any at breakfast. Other times she'll have a biscuit made of barley if she didn't have cereal at breakfast. She loves these biscuits. She just started having them when she turned 9 months. I hope they will help with the soon transition to more solid type foods. After dinner Isbella attempts to drink some watered down juice, apple or pear, from her big girl cup (see Easter picture). We're still working on that one.

After dinner Isabella hangs out and plays until bed time. Some days she takes a bath during this time. Other days baths are in the afternoon. She nurses at 9:00 and then goes straight to sleep.

All in all, I think she's doing pretty well. She is a blessing and a joy and I can't believe she'll be one in a few short months.

Recipe Blog

Here's my new recipe blog. Check it out!

http://kirchnerfamilyfavorites.blogspot.com/

Happy Mother's Day to Me!

Ten months later! This afternoon I redeemed my gift certificate for my prenatal massage at Aqua the Day Spa. Don't get any thoughts. No, I'm not pregnant. Last year my sweet husband bought this gift certificate for me for Mother's Day. Well, between working, moving to a different appartment, preparing for a new school year and having a baby I never made time to actually go get my massage. Luckily enough the nice people at the spa let me get a Theraputic Deep Tissue Massage instead of the Prenatal one.

It was 60 minutes of wonderfulness. :) Afterwards they provide you with an amazing bathroom to shower in. I think I used every free Aveda product in there. I wish I could shower there every day...

Afterwards I got to have dinner at Keifers (Greek gyro place) with my best friend Kristy. It was great to just sit there for over an hour and talk. After dinner I ventured to Old Navy. I didn't buy anything but of course spent more time in the baby section than I did in my own area of the store. I just can't help but want to take care of my sweet little girl even if she's not with me. Even if it's her fashion needs!

6 Months Old

Isabella turned six months old on February sixth! The day before, she and I visited Dr. Penny for a check up. I was hoping that we would have some new skills to show off for this appointment, but Isabella has not yet mastered sitting up by herself.

She weighed in at a whopping 15 lbs and 12 oz and measured at almost 27". That's 50th percentile for weight and 90th for height. My long and lean girl!

Taken after a bath the day we went to the doctor. And yes, those are slippers.

Although Isabella hasn't mastered sitting up, this past month has been filled with several firsts.

Two Sunday nights ago Isabella was especially irritable when we came home from church. Jacob and I both noticed that she seemed quite warm. We took her temperature and discovered that she had her first fever. :( It didn't take us long to realise that she was finally cutting her first tooth. Although there's not a whole lot showing yet, it has definitely broken through the gums. Our sweet girl was so sad that night. I hated that she didn't feel good, but I sure did love holding her with only her diaper on while she snuggled up against me.

As seen previously on here, a few weeks ago Isabella tried cereal for the first time. This past Saturday she tried her first vegetable, pureed Butternut Squash. I made a whole batch of it on Friday night and couldn't wait for her to try it. She was pretty iffy about it at first but groans with delight as she eats it now. I've never heard a kid make such dramatic sounds while eating!
first taste

On Saturday Isabella also received her first two Valentines. She woke up to this from her Mommy and Dadddy...
I love it Mom!

And then later on in the afternoon, this showed up at our door...
This handsome little man is Michael Tremonte, son of our dear friends Molly and Ben. He got her the cutest little giraffe valentine.

Isabella's weekend was rounded out with her first Phase Ten game. She even helped her Yaya win! Please note her seriously cute Valentines outfit from her "uncle" Scott.
Uncle Scott and Yaya came over Saturday night and let Jacob and I go out for Valentine's Day.