Preview

Auntie Kate sent me a few of the photographs that her talented friend Ryan Morris took while we were in Tampa... can't wait to see the rest!

Our only pics of Tampa

So as you might expect from a trip to visit Auntie Kate, Belle's paparrazza took over 500 pictures... but Auntie Kate also managed to download all of the pictures to her computer and simultaneously delete them from my camera, so for now, these are the only pics I have from our trip (Gigi took these while we were swimming in the hotel pool).

The good news is that Kate's friend Ryan (see Morris family blog link) is a fabulous professional photographer and agreed to take some one-year photos for us... he took over 900 pics during our afternoon and has burned the best images to a disc that Auntie Kate will be sending us soon... so I'll post a few when I get them!

Isabelle's first flight!

Isabelle and I ventured to Tampa last weekend to visit Auntie Kate... Miss Belle did very well on her first flights, sleeping for half the flight on each of them, and entertaining herself with the armrests, tray tables, kids behind us, and Cheerios for the other half!

A visit from the Dillers

Barb and Kevin Diller and their almost-3 daughter Micaela came to visit us this week from New Jersey! I grew up down the street from Barb, so it was fun to get together as "adults." Barb supervised Micaela's pine cone pick-up activities, and Belle helped to pile them up. Then it was time for a bath! Isabelle's first shared tub-time - fun!

Pretty in pink

"Remind me why we're taking these photos...?"

The Birthday Girl!!

What a difference a year makes! Isabelle's latest, at 12 months:

20 pounds, 12 ounces (45th %)

28 3/4 inches (45th %)

(her head is also the 45th %, but I don't remember the measurement!)

Isabelle is motoring around on her hands and knees or cruising along furniture, but she hasn't taken any steps yet. She's getting better at standing on her own, and she climbs up and down the stairs better than I'd like. Her signing repetoire includes doggy, hi, fan, more, and light. She did something this morning that I think may have been an attempt at banana, but we'll see. Her spoken words are limited to hi and doggy, with some indiscriminate mamas and dadas. She's eating whatever's in sight and seems to like meatloaf (or any ground turkey meal), pasta, and blueberry pancakes the best. She has four teeth (two top, two bottom front) and two visible on top on the way.

Some birthday pics below... the full album is at http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=57f339w1.cr1tamz9&x=0&y=-smp9px&localeid=en_US

Guests!

We kept the celebration low-key this year... just our friends Jessica and Jason. Thanks for helping us celebrate! (Jessica also took about 350 pictures for us - thank you!)

Dinner!

Isabelle entertained us during dinner...