Pretty in polka dots

Making eyes at her Daddy...

Gigi and the Belle

Gigi couldn't wait another few weeks to see Isabelle so decided to come visit for a few days before I have to go back to work. Isabelle was so happy to see her!

Asheville family photos

Some more photos from our trip to Asheville, courtesy of Billie's photographic genius.

Clean and happy (again)

FuzziBunz!!!

Yay! Isabelle is 11 weeks old today and finally has enough thigh chunk to wear her cloth FuzziBunz diapers. She wore them last night for the first time and slept for 8 hours (!!) with no leaks! Even Quinn likes them!

Lunch with Lindsay and Chandler

Poor Chandler is going to get a complex! Isabelle seems to either be wailing or sleeping every time we try to hang out. Fortunately he's a very mellow (and cute!) little guy and none of it seems to phase him.

Isabelle: "Maa-aaam! You woke me up for this?"

Chandler: "Oh geez, here we go again."

Isabelle: "I'm just going to pretend I'm sleeping and think about this situation."

Chandler: "At least she's quiet. These girls and their drama! I'll stick to my bink."

Isabelle's first crush

Whether it was his crazy hair, glasses, or funny faces, Isabelle loved Uncle Bob-O!

Maybe more pics to come if we get some that Bob and Billie took. Overall, a fantastic, relaxing weekend!

The shades brigade

Aya and Jay were good buds - even if she did call him "John" all weekend long!

Big blue eyes

Gorgeous little Aya.

You're taking me where???

We went to visit our friends Bob and Billie and their (20+ mo.) daughter Aya this weekend in Asheville. It's about a 3-4 hour drive, so we were nervous, but Isabelle did great, despite the look on her face here.

Dinner with the Gerbs

Ryan and Tri brought their five month old son Estyn (and dinner!) over tonight. Both babies were pretty tired, though they fought sleep valiantly, postponing dinner by at least an hour and a half between the two of them! (After finally falling asleep, Miss Belle starting fussing again the instant Jay and I picked up our forks, and Estyn eventually accompanied us at the dinner table.)














It seems the Gerber men are doing better with the posing in this shot... which of the Nameys looks funnier here?!?















The required "babies in a chair" shot. Isabelle started out in the left corner, but leaned her way into Estyn by the fourth frame... at least she's not crying!

Pretty in purple

Smiles of thanks to Camille for sending Isabelle this pretty little dress (among others!).

Jennah and Isabelle

Last night we had dinner with our friends Michelle and Torsten and their two little girls, Jennah and Janie. Jennah (2.5ish) did a great job of holding Isabelle and keeping her calm!

Clean and happy!

Miss Belle had a nice visit to the kitchen sink salon, followed by a coconut oil massage... what's not to be happy about?

Another souvenir tee

Hi Uncle Lee! Thanks for the tee... growing into it just in time for summer.

"I'm not sure, do I like Brooklyn?"

"Yeah, baby, I do!"

Pura Vida

"Hi Auntie Kate and Uncle Ernesto! Just wanted to say that I love Costa Rica!! Hopefully I can visit one day."

I found these t-shirts in her drawer today and realized she'd already outgrown one of them! So after her 3 (!!) consecutive diaper changes this morning, she was a happy girl and ready to model. I also figured that if she decides she's a tomboy instead of a girly-girl she'll need a few bow-less, dress-less, unpink baby pictures! She obliged with her best monkey-face impression, followed by some goofy grins.

Out for the night

All of that playing and smiling gets tiring. She was making us laugh with grumpy old man faces in her sleep.

More play time fun!

More smiles!

Can't get enough of these! Thankfully they're coming more readily these days.

New bows for the Belle

Isabelle handled her shots very well (probably better than we did!). To celebrate, Gigi made her a whole new set of bows for her hair... blue, purple, white and pink bows, and - as modeled here - some little florettes as well. She's got the hair, might as well adorn it!

Gigi and Dodi come for a visit!

They arrived Thursday evening and it didn't take long for Isabelle and Dodi to get reacquainted after 2 months apart - both were asleep within an hour! It was good for Belle to rest up before her first round of shots on Friday.

Mat time

Miss Isabelle is 2 months old today! To celebrate we had some happy time on her activity mat this morning... check out some of these grins! I'm thinking maybe she should wear her "playful giggles" onesie more often.






"Hmm... I think I might like this today, now that I'm a big 2 month old!"















"Yep, I do!"


"I think it's pretty funny even!"











"And I can make these rings move!"

"Amazing."

Childbirth education class reunion

Today was the reunion for the couples from our childbirth education class... 3 of the 5 couples from the class made it and it was fun to see everyone with babies (and minus bellies). On the left is Mitch. He was born on the same day as Isabelle (12 hours earlier) after a very long (50 hour) labor and transport to UNC hospital for pitocin and an epidural. On the right is Elliot. He was born 3 weeks before Isabelle and is up to 15 pounds already! We took a lot of these photos and someone is leaning, drooling, or looking away in each one, so a little assortment...

Birth center mamas

Heather and Elliot, me and Belle, and Kim and Mitch

Cooties!

Well, different boy, same outcome. Didn't matter that Elliot reached out a caring arm... she had him pouting and ready to cry before too long!

Isabelle smiles!

Last night we caught a few of Belle's smiles on "film."






First, a warm up...








Then a full mouth grin...








And finally a real smile!