Toe-fu?

So much as been going on lately with Isabel. We moved to Peru for a couple of months, she's eating solids, she's sleeping through the night (hurray!!!), and as you can see from this photo, she can now suck on her toes. See the full series of pics with her flexible moves starting with this one with her sock still on. What a guilty pleasure.

Queen Isabel's new throne

As promised, here is a (cute!) pic of Isabel in her new throne. We also have a mini version for her dolly (pictures of all chairs in a row forthcoming).

Izzy's first Hanukkah and other news

Tonight was Isabel's first Hanukkah. We lit an electric menorah since somehow I thought that having a baby in the house would increase the risk of my burning it down with real candles. Oswaldo and I both got each other the exact same gift of iTunes downloads (we were both pretty excited about it). Isabel got some finger puppets from us (frankly she seemed somewhat indifferent considering she just loves her little cow finger puppet that she hugs and smiles at).

She also got a little chair (pictures forthcoming) from grandma and grandpa and she loves it! All smiles and giggles as she sits on her new throne. I say new throne because this week we had to retire her papasan. She's too big for it. Her legs are hanging off the end. We have come a long way since we had that tiny little yellow peanut lost in the giant pink papasan.

A couple of other exciting updates while I have your attention. Isabel has started teething (we think??). Everything goes in her mouth. Here is a nice pic of her chomping on a teether. Second, Isabel is finally sleeping through the night. And I mean, REALLY sleeping through the night. Last night she slept from 8pm to 6am. Hurray!

A lot to be thankful for

As many friends and family have reminded me, I have not posted to the blog for a month. It's not that Isabel hasn't been as cute as ever, it's just that I'm getting lazy. So, I've got a lot of ground to make up, starting with Thanksgiving.

We had a great time visiting Grandma and Grandpa in New Jersey and visiting our friends Jody and Sebas in New York. Isabel continues to be fascinated by Aunt Robin's curly hair (we're just wondering when Izzy's curls will start coming in).

Probably the most exciting news of late, has been Isabel's first solid foods. You can see it on her face in the picture here. We started with rice cereal and have moved on to oatmeal. She'll be ready for turkey next Thanksgiving.

Obligatory parental Halloween post

Now just what kind of parent would I be if I didn't post a link to all those cute pictures of Isabel's first Halloween?! Izzy was a leopard princess - very very original.

Test driving the high chair

Izzy's not quite ready for solids, but I thought we'd give the newly assembled high chair a spin. As you can see from her face in the first couple of photos in the new high chair photo album , she wasn't quite sure about it at first, but she definitely liked hanging out there for a while with the new toy that came with it.

Smells Like Teen Mommy

Now that Isabel can roll over in her sleep and we can't use the swaddle, we've been experimenting with other ways of soothing her and signaling that it's sleep time.

I received some advice to use a toy or her "lovey" for this purpose. Our friends Rob and Sloan bought us a dog lovey, and I had no idea what it was. I was told to keep it close to me so that Isabel could smell me when I'm not there. So, for the first couple of months, I pretty much kept it in my shirt when I fed Isabel, but never really used it to soothe her.

Today, Amada (our wonderful nanny) gave her the lovey to take a nap, and like I've done a few times before bedtime, tucked it under her arm. A few minutes later Isabel pulled the lovey over her face so she could smell it. This picture tells it all. I've been told this is safe, but I don't plan on leaving her alone with her face covered like this. For her later nap, she also did the same thing - pulled the lovey over her nose so she could smell it.

Who knew that those hours of my walking around with a little dog blanket under my shirt would pay off?!