*She waves! She's been waving for at least three weeks now. She waves "hi" and "bye." Sometimes, we remind her to say hi to someone and she'll wave. Other times, she just does it on her own. Every now and then, she plays the shy game and won't wave. Instead, she'll give this little shy smile and bury her head in my shoulder or her Daddy's shoulder.
*She speaks words! Sure, she's been saying "Dada" and "Mama" for at least a month or so now, but she's added more words to her vocabulary! She's said "Hi," "bye," and "hello." She also says "thank you." What ten and a half month old that you know of has manners like that! She tries her best to say "Angel" and "doggy" when the dog is around, but it never quite comes out right. We're working on it, though.
*She now has 4 teeth. This last tooth to come in was absolute torture. She went on a modified nursing strike for 4 days. It was horrible! She would only nurse at bedtime, in the middle of the night, and first thing in the morning. Otherwise, she would scream out in pain and arch her back all the way backwards. Hubby to her to the pediatrician to have her ears checked because it was the same behaviors that started the first ear infection. Her ears were completely clear, it was just teething pain. Thankfully, by Thursday, the tooth had fully broken through the gums and seemed to be no longer a pain for Isabella. She's back to happily nursing and laughing instead of crying throughout the day.
*She crawls...backwards. Yes, she still doesn't crawl forwards. She would rather try to walk than work on crawling. She doesn't walk on her own, she holds my fingers and walks, pulling me along behind her wherever she wants to go. This is not a good sign, she'll be walking on her own before I know it. I think she's going to walk before she crawls forward. But we'll see. Maybe she'll crawl for a day before she walks. Who knows!
*I'm STILL breastfeeding. I know, the girl who swore she'd NEVER EVER breastfeed is the same girl who after ten and a half long months is still going strong with it. My long-term goal is 18 months. With each tooth that comes in, I've survived the biting (Isabella only bites when a new tooth is breaking through the gums), the nursing strikes, the ear infections (poor/frustrating nursing sessions), and the pinching. I am over halfway to my goal! I can't believe I once said I wouldn't ever do this. I would have missed out on so much beautiful Mommy-Daughter time. I cherish my moments with Isabella when I can cradle her while nursing and just look into her bright blue eyes. Gosh, I love that girl! There's not a whole lot of things better than just being able to look into those little blue eyes that I thought I would never get to see.
*Summer break is almost here! There's one good thing about being a teacher and that's having the summer to spend with my beautiful daughter. I'm so excited to spend this summer with her, teaching her lots of new fun things. She's going to walk, hopefully crawl, and maybe even learn some simple sign language! I'd love to have a child who can communicate better and not be as frustrated when I don't know what she wants.
That's about it from this world. As we speak, Sesame Street is coming to an end and Isabella is getting frustrated about not being the center of Mommy's attention. So I'm going to end this blog post here with a few pictures of my Isabella from the past few weeks. Enjoy!
