Valentine's Day 2011

It was a pretty uneventful Valentine's Day but I worked hard to teach Gabby what this silly holiday is about... we made cards and she gave one to her teacher. As a surprise, I baked a gluten free chocolate cake with homemade buttercream frosting and put red M&Ms on it and pink sprinkles. I also made a gluten free enchilada casserole, which turned out pretty good. Gabby liked it even though it was a bit spicy. That took forever to make! I also got Travis lunch and dropped it off to school. I'm so rad.

Isabelle's Third Week

Isabelle Mae at 3 Weeks Old

Just Hangin' Out

The "Not Happy" Face

My cutie pie...

Chen Ayi

I love this woman!

Just in time for her to spit-up!

Isabelle is getting bigger, right?

This little angel is growing and getting bigger... she literally got plumper overnight. New developments this week... she's making the cutest coo'ing sounds, lifting her head up more and more, and having even longer periods of alertness. When she sleeps, I see her smile a little bit. Bursting with love for this baby!!!

The sleep schedule seems pretty do-able, her last feed is at 9 pm (give or take 30 minutes) and she feeds at midnight, 3 or 4 am and then at 6 or 7 am. Although on Tuesday night she was up from 12-2 am just hanging out and looking cute. I fed her off and on for an hour and tried for the other hour to put her back to bed but she wasn't having it... I was exhausted the next day and I'm crap at taking naps. I don't know why, but it's really hard for me to go to sleep in the middle of the day. 

Travis and I think she has club foot. I know it's common for babies to have their feet be turned-in but her left foot is REALLY turned in. Travis and I both had casts on our feet when we were babies because we had it... we'll see but I'm calling it now.

We also got Isabelle's passport (temporary one) and now we're waiting on the Chinese visa. I'll be going back to Washington for about a month from March 5th-April 5th and Travis and Gabby would come up a week later and be back for three weeks so we can all travel back together. So excited! Nothing is completely confirmed yet but we should be there for Beth and Josh's birthday! Holla!

Naughty and Nice

Gabby wrote all over her Barbie Dresses 

in permanent marker!

Anyone know where to get new ones?

SO ANNOYED!

Gabby came home with this picture of me...

A "thank you" for buying her a nice snow jacket.

SO SWEET!

Isabelle's Second Week

No more umbilical cord!

Isabelle Mae at 2 Weeks

Happy Birthday Papa! 

(Grammy and Papa on the computer screen)

Gabby and Bella's face cracks me up

Eskimo Kisses

Lifting her head up!

Isabelle survived her first doctor's appointment and had a good week with lots of sleeping and eating. New developments include; the loss of her umbilical cord, holding her head up more, and longer stretches of alertness. She's been sleeping well at night (knock on wood) and last night night I had to actually wake her up twice to feed her because my boobs were so full. Our biggest challenge is that she likes to suck on things... In order to deal with this, we introduced a pacifier. It's not my first choice but using our pinky isn't working. She's not a big fan but she'd be on my boob 24/7 if I let her and I really don't want to be a human pacifier. The best part is that she totally knows who mama is... we're bonding well and since Travis had this whole week off she knows who her daddy is as well... so far, so good.

Gabby has been a bit more needy lately and wanting more attention but it hasn't been a huge issue and we expected her to be wanting more attention. Needless to say,  I'm pretty good at feeding Isabelle and reading books to Gabby at the same time. I want to make sure she gets her mommy time too. :)

Gabby is Writing!

Gabby is learning to write! She busted out with these letters on her easel the other day and wrote this without any help from us... Travis and I were super impressed... It's so awesome watching your kid learn. She is also into finding words that rhyme. We overheard her in bed sayign words that rhyme and getting all excited. She called us down to her room to tell us that bike and light rhyme, so Trav had to tell her that it doesn't quite rhyme but it's very close.

She's really interested in dinosaurs right now and has picked up a couple of books about sharks from the library... I think she's inheriting Trav's naturalistic intelligence.

Isabelle's First Doctor's Appointment

Dr. Tu Checking out her Feet

Isabelle Smiling?

Mama's Girls

Gabby is trying to keep her eyes open :)

Isabelle did really well- no crying

The Tebo family took baby Bella to her first doctor's appointment at 10 days old. It's supposed to be at 2 weeks but the nurse who made the appointment for us said everything was full at that time. Baby sister did really well and didn't fuss at all, except for when she got the PKU test. In 10 days, she gained 5 ounces, which the doctor said is very good, so Isabelle is now 7 pounds 11 ounces- almost 8 pounds. Still so tiny... She's also 20.9 inches now (up from 20 inches). All in all, things are going smoothly and it's reassurance for me that the breastfeeding is going well and she's getting what she needs. Yay!

Isabelle's First Week

Isabelle Mae

5 days Old

Gabby is all giggles holding her new sister

Isabelle's First Bath

Poor thing just cried threw the whole thing...

Happy New Year of the Rabbit!

Isabelle's first week was pretty chill... she spent most of her time sleeping and eating, with small amounts of time looking around. The most eventful part of the week was when she had her first bath. She wasn't a big fan and screamed threw the whole thing but dang did she smell so sweet afterwards... awww, I love the smell of a newborn baby after a bath. She's lifting her head-up a lot more and makes this funny sniffing sound when she's about ready to feed. It cracks me up.

What I know about Isabelle so far... she likes my boobs A LOT, she hiccups about three different times during the day (she did this in the womb too), doesn't seem to mind having a dirty diaper, and is a good sleeper.

Miss Gabriella is continuing to be a great big sister. She comes home and everytime asks to hold her "new baby sister" and rarely uses her name. She talks about how beautiful Isabelle is and that she's happy that she got what she wanted (baby sister). She told a bunch of people at school that her name was Isabella so we've had to make some corrections. She told me that she just likes that name better. Gabby is begininng to write her name out and is still enjoying school. Today they celebrated Chinese New Year by watching a dragon dance and visiting some offices to collect a "humbao" or red envelope with candy in it.

This following week is Chinese New Year, which means TONS of fireworks. We're looking forward to hanging out as a family...