Isobel wishes you a merry christmas

Our little christmas elf says happy holidays to everyone.


She sees you when you're sleeping...

Isobel and food....she's a natural!

Now that she's 5 months old (ok, minus a few days), we decided to start Iso on solid food; delicious rice cereal thinned with breastmilk. A classic morning treat.

We captured this little video of the meal. We were prepared for it to be a happy disaster but instead she chowed down like she's been doing it forever. Amazing!

Laugh it up fuzzball...

It's been a while since we've posted because we are just returning from a four week holiday in the south of France. Tres bien, non?

Ok, we have actually been out of our minds busy while simultaneously dealing with bad colds (Iso and Mom), round two of vaccinations and an ear infection (Iso), mountains of grading (Mom) and studying for our architecture exams (Dad and Iso). We have millions of adorable baby photos to post on our Picassa page and here, however at the rate things get accomplished these days we should have them up by the 4th of July.

Iso was in a sparkling mood last night. Probably something to do with having Mom and Dad around for five whole days. We thought this little video of our evening needed an early rescue from the camera. We promise more will follow soon.

A Halloween Treat

She's already reading!

It has been an amazingly busy month with Iso starting day-care part time, Mom and Dad being sick full time (thank you day-care!) and Mom getting back to work. We'll be adding more posts chronicling our zany adventures in the near future, until then here's a cute video of our little bookworm...

After a busy, busy ten day trip to Massachusetts in September, we are all still getting back to our routine and preparing for a week of new things ahead. First the trip -- Isobel had a lovely baby shower in Worcester thrown by Grandma and attended by all her east coast friends and family -- including her super cute cousins Katharine and Kayla:



Isobel was a great traveller, sleeping for both flights and generally being very patient as we drove her around everyday on what we called the East Coast Baby Tour '07 (we're still working on the t-shirts). We didn't get to see everyone we'd hope to visit, especially Denise, Kevin, Sol and Kai :( but we did have a wonderful time at both weddings we attended (Jonathan and Lauren's in Wellesley and Barbara and Scott's in Worcester).





In addition to relaxing and recovering from the trip, Martin and I took Iso to the park to enjoy the perfect weather we are finally enjoying here in St. Louis...here are a few favorite pictures from yesterday:









On Thursday and Friday of this week Isobel is starting day care two days a week for the next few months so that her mama can try to get back to working on her dissertation. The thought of leaving her for that long makes me sad but there's just no way to get back to work without her there. Her classroom is called the Shooting Stars and it looks like she will have lots of cute baby friends to keep her company.

Iso just woke up from her morning nap so it's time for a diaper change and some food! There are lots more pictures from the trip and we'll try to post them on Picassa really soon. Thanks to everyone (particularly the babysitters) who made Iso's East Coast Tour such a success!

Isobel telling her side of the story...

So the talking thing is new for this week (8 weeks today!) and we couldn't believe our luck at capturing this exchange on video:

Daddy Day Care

To all the Dads out there....
I now understand what you were talking about. This has been an unbelievable experience, from the late nights to the unexpected smiles. With every smile and noise she makes, I feel closer to this little person and I can't wait to hear the first time she says Daddy. Knowing me, I might get a little misty eyed...but it will be a manly sort of tear.

I babysat by myself for the first time a few days ago and it went about as good as it could have. In fact, something happened that really let me see more of her personality. She had been sleeping for quite some time so I whispered to her that she was soooooo lazy and she gave me the cutest little grin, almost as if she knew what she was doing. It was hysterical and I think her sense of humor will fit in well in our little home.

Weeks 5 + 6

The past few weeks have been very busy with Alicia's visit, John and Shannon's baby shower and a playdate with Jessica and Karina in the park. Karina is an adorable baby (as can easily been seen in the pictures above) and at eight months, she is Isobel's guide to her future babyhood. Karina's mom Jessica is Carolyn's inspiration for getting work done on a dissertation while still being a great mom.

Also, we had to post the pictures of Isobel in her new pink hat with the little ladybug button, handmade by Alicia's mom. There's a matching sweater, but given that it's still in the 90's here in St. Louis, we thought we'd stay with just the hat for now. We love our little sherpa!

A few more pictures

Yesterday was six weeks for Isobel and she spent the evening partying away at Dad's softball game (another impressive win for Trivers!). All that excitement must have caught up with her because she slept for five hours straight last night, her longest stretch yet. Woohoo!
I (Carolyn) start back to school and teaching today so the posts might start to be a bit more spotty however Martin has said that he is planning a "Dad's perspective" really soon.
Here are a few pictures from Alicia's visit this past weekend. Gotta love the watermelon butt:

:)

After starting to establish a good sleeping pattern earlier in the week, Isobel decided to stay awake all night last night. It was a pretty bumpy ride for the 'ole parental units but when we saw this face early this morning it was all worth it:

one month, one day and green poo

Yesterday we celebrated Isobel's one month birthday. Our friends Jenny and Pavlo drove down from Chicago and made us an amazing dinner -- thanks guys!!!

Isobel celebrated her big day by filling her diaper with quite a treat...green poo! After doing a little homework on the subject, we are not too worried but we'll definitely be discussing this with her pediatrician on Wednesday. Not that it hasn't already been a topic of conversation for the past two days at our house. In fact, the frequency of conversations about poo are up about 3000%.

With Iso's ever increasing stretches of alertness, she has graduated to spending time with her first real toy -- an architectural wonder from Ikea that the cats seem to enjoy too:

Isobel vs. the Zebra

The week 3.5 update

The days and weeks have been flying by lately. Even with the sleepless nights, which you'd think would make the days seem longer, time just seems to disappear. It's hard to believe that Isobel is already three and a half weeks old. She is starting to stay awake for longer stretches during the day and she is really starting to focus on faces and her little mobile above the changing table.

Last weekend Martin's family visited from Chicago and Isobel had her Christening. She was very good during the brief ceremony, sleeping through the entire thing. We were a little worried about bringing her out in the heat (it's been over 100 for the past week-- ugh) but she loves being in her carseat and I (Carolyn) love any excuse to get out of the house.

There's lots more to write about but the kiddo is sleeping so it's probably time for the adults to get some sleep too. For now, we'll just post the slideshows from the past week.

The week 2 update

Yesterday was Isobel's 2 week birthday and she celebrated by shedding her umbilical cord stump. Woohoo! Martin thinks he knocked it off while changing her, but I assured him that it was only going to come off when it was ready. Now she can officially take a tub bath.
Our pediatrician said that Iso is gaining weight at a good clip and is back up to 7lbs, 1 oz...only 4 oz to go until she is back at her birth weight and that shouldn't be too long now given what a little breastfeeding pro she has become!
We'd love to add some new pictures but Martin's camera mysteriously broke a few days ago so it is heading into the shop for repair today. We'll have visitors here this weekend (Maritn's family from Chicago), so we'll get copies of the pix they take, especially of Isobel's baptism this upcoming Sunday.

Isobel's youtube debut

Here is the first of many videos that we will be posting.

More week 1 pictures

Here are some pictures of Isobel's many looks.

Isobel is one week old today!

It is hard to believe that Isobel has already been with us for one full week! It is amazing how much she has changed in just this short period of time. After first losing a little more weight than the pediatrician said was ok on Saturday, she quickly gained it back by our next visit on Monday. She is a good eater, though we both still getting the breastfeeding thing figured out. Right now I am mostly just pumping and she is taking milk from a bottle (she's a little guzzler!). I can't thank Denise enough for the breastpump loan...it has been an absolute lifesaver!

Yesterday (Tuesday) Isobel went for her first walk with Grandma and Carolyn. On a beautiful afternoon here in St. Louis (not a given for July), she took her first stroller ride of about 4 blocks and slept peacefully while we had a lunch of fish and chips outside. After returning to the house, we were settling in for an afternoon nap when we saw thick black smoke billowing outside our window. A large autobody shop two doors down from our loft building was on fire! After slightly freaking out I called Martin and asked him to come home from work in case our building was evacuated. Luckily we were allowed to stay, although we lost power for about 6 hours (until 10pm last night). With the breastpump out of commission, it was a good thing Isobel decided yesterday afternoon that she would finally give breastfeeding another try and she did great! Here's a link to the story in the local paper about the fire:

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/CA11F96B94F23D3286257323000DF9B8?OpenDocument

Grandma is babysitting this morning while Carolyn heads to the nursing store to get some herbs that are supposed to help with breastmilk supply. They are called Fenugreek and Blessed Thistle. Sounds like something out of Harry Potter but who cares if they work!

Our apologies to everyone whose calls and emails we haven't been able to return. We know you understand but we just wanted to let everyone know how much we appreciate all the love and support we've received during this wonderful but exhausting time.

We'll be posting more pictures in the next day or two (probably tomorrow night).

First Days at Home

We have had a very busy, but good first weekend at home. My mom (Janet) has been here helping us and she's been keeping us fed, watered and sane. Thank you Mom! Isobel had her first doctor's appointment on Saturday and she's an overachiever already; she lost a full 10% of her body weight in just two days! The doctor said this is normal however, she just needs to focus on eating for the next few weeks. Martin plans to lead by example.

Isobel Arrives!

Isobel came into the world at 11:17 am on Wednesday, July 18th after a short labor and uncomplicated birth (lucky Carolyn!). She weighed in at 7 lbs, 5 oz and of course we thought she was the most beautiful thing we had ever seen. Here's a slide show of our short stay in the hospital (1 day!). As with the other posts, if you double click the slide show, you can see larger versions of the pictures on our Picassa site.

The Nursery and Our New Place

For each of the 3 sets of pictures below, click on the bottom for slideshow buttons or double-click anywhere on the image to see the larger versions on our Picassa page.

Khena and Vivek's Preception, 6/16/07

Gotta love the Nerf dart gun!

Belly Pix at 8 months

Click on slideshow to link to larger images on our Picassa page.

Getting our blog on...

So with (hopefully) only one week to go, we thought now would be a good time to launch our family blog. What better way to start this little test, than with a few pictures of the kitties.