Isababa

Isababa? we are not talking about an Arabian Knight, it's Caroline's new sweet call for her little sister Isabella.Our Princesses for the day love to dress up daily in the Cinderella costume. When Caroline is done, she takes it off, sometimes unassisted. Mommy walked in the living room last week only to find her standing on the couch, fully exposed, without an outfit. Everything had come off, including her diaper! (luckily nothing happened).

This week Caroline started pronouncing "appah" (apple), and surprised us with "plane" when she pointed to the Red Bull Can Art Airplane at the Dallas Galleria Mall! Says “cool” at items impressive to her when she window shops. She indiscriminately uses "es hot" and "es cold!" at the open refrigerator door, which ever she feels like pronouncing at the time.

Her longevity in a stroller is shorter than a photo enforced traffic yellow light; the minute we walk into any Mall; she pitches a fit trying to get out and a bigger one when wrestled back in it, if she was not done shopping. She prefers walking and exploring and does not want you holding her hand. She considers herself very independent; a wallet full of credit cards, glasses, heals and a bag is all she needs to go to the Mall. Surrenders her paci when getting out of her carseat, but we keep it handy since her gums still hurts a little from the ongoing teething.

Last week at her Doctor 2 year visit she revealed that she was still holding the 5% girl height record! Our petite beauty is holding steady at 22.5 pounds and stands at 31.5 inches tall (7%). Mommy rewarded her with a Sonic Milkshake after braving the shots with a 2 minute cry at the mean nurse.

Barney is still our living room guest; we caught a glance of her mimicking the show’s children dances with her hands and more of the singing. Music runs thru Caroline’s blood; we bought her the Sounds of Music DVD movie and sat for over half the movie listening to “Maria and the Children” sing and dance. Christmas presents are easy this year: music anything!

When dinner time arrives, she climbs onto her highchair and her meal starts with “where’s rice?” I tell you, if this recession worsens and food prices continue to escalate, our household will not be too badly affected because our little girl, just like our house cat, can survive on a single menu item! we’ve often wondered if there is a recessive Chinese gene in our family? she concludes her dinning with “its mess!” pointing to the grains all over her shirt and a 2 feet radius around her highchair.

Beans, shredded Monterey cheese, and Parmesan cheese are other favorites of hers, just as long as they are in separate mounds on her tray table. Caroline's memory is very vivid and remembers her “playmates” close to her heart; Mommy caught Caroline digging thru her family photo flashcard collection, and ran all daycalling out “where’s Nana?, “where’s YooHoo-Hoo?” with their cards in each hand.

She is very affectionate towards Isabella; every morning wakes up and baby talks to her, hugging and kissing her; Isabella reciprocates the feeling (see pic). A day never goes by when we don't thank our Lord for blessing us with two daughters that can’t keep their hands away from each other; we hope it’s only a reflection of our family upbringing.

Isabella now at 5 months and three weeks officially sits up unassisted and can stand the pushes from her older sissy loving on her! Feeding her is now easy sitting on her highchair or on the table, her back muscles are now strong to hold herself upright. She is still 14.5 pounds, but feels like 25 pounds. Fits loosely in 9 months clothing and growing out of the 6 month old PJ’s.

We tried feeding her puréed carrots (previous post) and with three spoonfuls, she made faces as you have fed her sweetened orange colored avocado, yuk! This week we tried green beans and one spoonful is all she could handle before letting out a frustration cry “why are you doing to this to me?!” so we went back to fruits until Mommy and Daddy come up with a plan to ingest some form of vegetable into this baby girl. Oatmeal-apple, Oatmeal-pears, Oatmeal-pineapple-pears are just about the only entrées she is going to handle, for now...

Isabella redefines drama for ABC and the other Mickey Mouse Network Shows. Her hysterical cries is her way of expressing “yoooouu left me alone in the room!”… last week Mommy walked away and her little jumperoo screamer summoned her presence back in the living room. Caroline makes herself very useful and ran to the rescue… after a couple minutes of silence, Mommy ran back into the loving room to find Caroline had headed straight for the diaper bag, dug for her Paci and“plugged” the screaming baby; that’s my girl!

It didn’t take long at all to get Isabella’s first Passport; now she is ready for her trip to meet Abuelo and Abuela, and the gang this Christmas in Venezuela; only 124 days away!