Lately when we go in to check on Belle each night she has been sleeping in such funny positions. We just giggle and whomever went to check on her runs to the camera and snaps a picture. I am not the kind of person who can sleep anywhere. I need to be comfortable and warm and in just the right position on my side to sleep even a wink, but Belle seems to be able to sleep anywhere and anyway. Here are this weeks funny sleeping patterns.

This picture wont make a lot of sense right now, It was taken back in July when Belle started putting on weight. It's posted for some ladies I chat on line with. We share pictures of our children and this is the easiest way for me to do it.

SHE CRAWLED!

Last night while I was making dinner Nick suddenly called to me from the arm chair, "look! look! look!" So I took a step to the right so I could see around the arm chair and there she was crawling away! She only took a few um, (do they call them steps when it's crawling?), and then she stopped and tried to plant her right foot. Then she was on one knee with her right foot planted and started reaching her hand up to Nick. He grabbed her hand then the other one and she pulled herself up, apparently tired of crawling and ready to walk again! I hope she crawls a bit more so that I can get some pictures of it! How exciting!

The wonderful world of finger foods continues to evolve at our house. This week we added some cheese and crackers. Belle has mastered the all important pincer grasp, but is still working on getting the food into her belly. For example, she can pick up every piece of cheese on her tray but none of it makes it into her mouth without my help. She held a piece in that perfect grasp and proceeded to stick each and every one of her fingers in her mouth, but the cheese didn't go in! How does that happen! I also thought she ate the two crackers I put on the tray for her to work on. Apparently her lap was hungry. While Nick was making three cheese manicotti for dinner last night I was holding Belle and we were all talking away. I decided to give Belle a taste of the mixture we stuff in the manicotti shells. She absolutely loved it. Right after that I heard an old crotchety lady say "Can't get your kids to leave home- stop serving cheese!".

This is my friend Jana with Belle. I knew Jana in grade school and then she moved away and then we reconnected at CBC. I MC'd Jana's wedding reception and we get together twice a week, once for Bible Study and once for Survivor night, (there are many other people there too, we're not losers). Now Belle gets a date night with Jana and her husband Anthony on Mondays. This coming week will be her last, but I know she has enjoyed every one of them. Anthony is kinda anti-kid right now, and Jana is studying nursing. She hopes to end up being a NICU nurse, so we know that should any tragedy befall our little one and Anthony asks 'Shouldn't someone do something with that thing?' Jana will come along and scoop her up and fix anything that is broken better than either one of us can. Although Jana and Anthony will not be attempting to add children to their lives until 2012, Nick and I have secret plans to use Belle's cuteness to bring this date closer. Just kidding. We are very thankful that they sacrifice an evening out of their very hectic lives to spend with our daughter and know that Belle has been blessed by them.

I have been trying for quite some time now to get Belle to crawl. She gets on all fours and rocks back and forth happy as a clam. Now, I've moved her arms and legs to show her how it's done, I've crawled to her and away from her so she can see it in action, I've put toys just out of her reach so she has to crawl to get them. She just wont do it. She watches me with great amusement. In order to get things she does a push up, hurls her body forward and then reaches out her arm to touch what she wants. Resourceful she is, crawling she is not.


She has always liked to stand however, so we make sure she gets some time on her feet everyday. Some days it's in the exersaucer and some days it's with us holding her upright. The other day Nick decided to hold her hands the way you do when a child is learning to walk but doesn't have balance- and she took off. One foot in front of the other, ten steps at a time, giggling the whole way. Now, she can't pull herself up yet, (granted we don't have much for her to practice on), but once she's vertical she just goes. It's truly crazy. And she giggles and talks excitedly the whole time. We found her the other day in the crawling position, but not trying to crawl. She was trying to figure out how to get her left foot flat on the ground like it is when she walks. Will she ever crawl? I don't know. I know some babies don't, but it's so bizarre to me how she can motor along on her feet. How great. Good thing we started babyproofing the house!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Winter has hit Calgary this week. We had to bundle Isabella up before we took her over to the Olsen's for their Monday night date. Luckily she likes this suit, cuz I know she wouldn't like being cold. It's for an 18 month old baby, so she's swimming in it, but at least it keeps her nice and warm.

Special Saturday Moments.

I returned from papers on Saturday to find my two favorite people all snuggled up in bed. Apparently Belle woke up with a bad dream early in the morning and her Poppa rescued her from her own bed, and brought her in for a good snuggle. Unfortunately when I snapped this picture I woke her up, but c'est la vie. It's always fun to start a Saturday with a stolen snuggle.

FYI

If you see a post on here and you want to jot a comment, you can. Even if you're not a blogger. I changed the settings so anyone can say a quick hello or whatever else is on your mind.

HER LATEST TRICK!

I don't have a picture of this that hasn't come out very blurry. But Belle learned to clap this weekend! My friend Amanda Brown stopped by and was showing her how to do it while saying "clap, clap, clap". Well the next day Belle started doing it on her own! She used to kinda knock her fists together in an effort to clap, but now she's got the whole movement down. It's so cute when she does it because she gets a huge grin and keeps clapping until you clap along or say "Good job!".

This is the best close up picture of Belle we got this month. Doesn't she have the roundest cheeks? She smiles a lot and has already learned that when the camera is out you pose for it. She's so cute!

This is the first toy we've bought Belle. It's part of a fisher price line of toys called Peek a Blocks. There are little clear plastic balls with various things inside them like tiny animal figurines and stuff like that. With this one the balls go in the top, then Belle presses a handle and the balls come down a chute and out the front while it plays music. Belle is great at pressing the handle and loves when the music starts to play. She can grasp the balls in her hand, she even palms them, and we can roll them back and forth to each other. She is still learning to put the balls in the top though. Most times she just grabs the blue rim across the top and starts chewing on it! The little balls go everywhere and it's great practice for Belle as she almost has the hang of crawling. She follows the little balls all over the living room, and usually we have to rescue her from the piece of furniture she has gotten stuck under. There are several other units in this line of toys that look very cool. There is one that she can push like a lawn mower or vaccum cleaner and it picks up the blocks and shoots them out, it will be great when she's learning to walk. I used to think that baby toys were just loud and annoying, but now I'm learning how they help her learn things.

Belle has a tonne of fun in front of a mirror. I put the mirror on the floor when I have things to do and need to know Belle will be occupied. She laughs at herself, plays pat-a-cake with her reflection. She even bursts into peels of laughter when she first notices herself in the mirror. It's a lot of fun. Sometimes I can angle the mirror in such a way that she can also see me while she's playing and I'm working away. I like that it's another way we can be can be in the same room but each do our own thing. I wonder what it's going to be like when Belle realizes that that is here in the mirror. Will she react differently than when she thinks it's a friend? I also hope that she always has a smile on her face when she looks in the mirror, that it never makes her feel less beautiful than she really is.

My baby girl is now a starfish. She finished her first round of swimming lessons on Saturday and brought home her first report card and completion sticker. She got a raving review from the teacher and she passed all the elements she was capable of doing. How fun! So now she's Isabella "Starfish" Franks.

I recently packed up all of the clothes Belle has outgrown, the face cloths she wont use the blankets that barely cover her legs, etc. In doing so I got to delve into the boxes of baby clothes we were given when she was born. Her wardrobe came from two very lovely boys, and so a lot of it wont get worn by her, but some of it is too cute. For example this Beatrix Potter outfit. The angle is bad, but there are two ears on this adorable outfit. Unfortunately I didn't get the box out in time and Belle is already too big for this one. So this, is truly a once in a lifetime moment. She even hopped up and down like a little bunny. Who needs Halloween anyway?

Enough with the updating.

This is a fairly recent picture of Belle and her latest development. She has joined a nudist colony. A nudist colony where they are concerned about their feet, hence the socks. Belle has been able to roll over for quite some time now, but until recently she hasn't done so on her change table. After one particularily heinous poop I stepped to the bathroom to rinse out the washcloth in order to give her one final good wipe. Seeing as she hadn't rolled on her change table yet I decided this would be fine. I came back a minute later to find her like this. So I ran down the length of the house to grab the camera and get a picture. She's just too cute. She spent the next five minutes trying to figure out how to grab the mobile that hangs above her bed and is just out of this picture. So funny. I think she'll enjoy the nudist colony. I'm glad their concerned about the well being of her feet.

Daddy's Little Girl.

Boys you can break,

find out how much they can take.

Boys will be strong and boys soldier on.

But boys would be gone without warmth of a woman's good good heart.

On behalf of every man,

looking out for every girl,

you are the god and the weight of her world.

So fathers be good to your daughters,

daughters will love like you do.

Girls become lovers who turn into mothers,

so mothers be good to your daughters too.

-John Mayer-

What's in a Name?

In the delivery room, when I was high on laughing gas and Nick was holding our darling little girl all he could do was walk around the room murming "You're beautiful, so beautiful". I paused for a moment, checking my current status. Feet in stir ups, legs so tired people were holding them up, my nether regions exposed to the whole world, blood and new baby gunk all over my chest, sweaty hair stuck to my forhead, my all too sexy bent glasses. Sigh, I realized I was no longer the most beautiful thing to Nick anymore. And that's when I knew her name. Isabella Sophia.

Upon deeper reflection alone in my hospital room that night I realized how perfect her name was. Together her name means "beautiful wisdom". Now, getting pregnant was not a surprise for us, it was the next thing on our big "to do" list in life, but it did happen a lot sooner than we thought it would. And right after it happened the life that we had been carefully stitching together piece by piece began to fall apart. We began to question if we were doing the right thing, if now was the right time, and in all honesty there are still days when we ask ourselves that.

There isn't a RESP started for Belle who is already seven months old, we recently bought her her first toy and her wardrobe is gifts and hand me downs. We buy whatever diapers are cheapest, (or that we have the best coupon for), I make homemade baby food simply to save money, we haven't had a date since last New Years Eve, our apartment was built when tvs were only black and white and last redecorated in 1975........

Well you get the picture. But now is the perfect time for Belle to be here. She motivates me to get up at 3:00am to do my paper route so we don't have to live in this apartment forever. My play breaks with her keep me going while doing my day job as a dictatypist. Knowing that she's asleep and totally reliant on us will keep Nick up while he writes a paper tonight. Daydreaming of adding siblings to her life helps us not spend money frivulously. And the way she wakes up each morning completely oblivious to our bank account, totally believing that she has everything she needs reminds me that I serve God and not money.

There comes a point where you just have to suck it up and say "God, I totally trust you with my life. I know that you came so I could live life to the full, and for me full means a house full of kids. So take this oh so little that I have and help me to make it much, help me to make it the whole world to this little child." And He does, because He always knows what you need and just when and how to give it to you, His wisdom is beautiful.

And I know you're all wondering the answer to that age old question- "If Belle had been a boy, what would you have named her?" The answer honestly is I don't know. But at the time Nick was pretty stuck on the name 'Cohen'.

Hallelujah we had a girl.

Rolling Journeys

Isabella is a great teaser. This picture was taken on September 11, 2005. She was rocking back and forth, getting up on her side, doing a great job. I was convinced she was going to roll over at any moment. Nope. She didn't roll over for another 4 days. I didn't want to miss any milestones so I took this picture, and many more just like it to make sure I got her first rolling over. When she did roll over, it was Nick who snapped the pics. We moved all the furniture to give her plenty of space and we sat there, waiting on the edge of the couch. And she did it. I nearly cried. We were so excited, I don't think we would have been more excited if she had hit the winning homer in the World Series.

The day that she did finally roll over was quite the work out for her. She started off rocking side to side, then got almost over and took a break. She just had to stop and suck her thumb a little bit, for what I'm not sure, maybe some extra encouragement? Then she got all the way over and announced her triumph by pushing her self up and looking at the world from a new vantage point.

Swimming with Pops

Every Saturday morning for the months of September and October, Nick gets up early to go swimming with Belle. The majority of her class is about 12-18 months old, although they said it was for children as young as 6 months. She's the only one who doesn't stand yet. There are numerous things that Belle simply cannot do in this class: jump off the edge, blow bubbles in the water, even wear a lifejacket. But she loves it. When we put her in her massive swimming diaper and pull on her swimsuit she starts to smile. When we load her in the car, she's simply beaming, and when she and Nick walk into the change room you can hear a little giggle. She smiles pretty much the whole time. She kicks her little feet like she's racing, she swats the water with her arms, she babbles and soaks in all the sites. Last week, the class was being dunked. The teacher encouraged each parent to do it only when comfortable and only as many times as the child wanted, there was no prize for the most dunks. All the other kids dunked once and had had enough. It took Nick until class was officially over to get the courage to dunk Belle, but once he did she went under many times. She didn't even seem to mind. Most people want their children to be doctors or lawyers, famous actors or authors, to play in the NHL or NBA. Everyone says they just want their child to be happy, but we know the truth. In 20 years I'll look back on this and see if I got the Olympic Champion Diver I'm daydreaming about.