Uncle Kevin & (unofficial) Aunt Brittany

Last weekend Isla got to meet her first uncle- Uncle Kevin! Jason's brother and long-standing girlfriend, Brittany, finally made their first trip to visit us in San Antonio. What do I have to do to get you to visit, Kevin- have a baby?! I guess so. Isla thought that Uncle Kevin was hilarious. He really had her going in the car.

We had a party in honor of their visit- Open Swim Saturday. As you can see in this photo, the party involved a 5 O'Clock Mommy/ Baby meeting in the pool.

Uncle Joe and Official Aunt Michelle are on their way this coming weekend!

Isla Rose, 2 months old

Our sweet Isla has been a lot of fun lately. She is very smiley, and she talks back and forth with us in vowely sounds and squeaks. Sometimes she looks like she really wants to tell me something, but just can't come up with the words. It used to be her favorite past time was looking at the slits of light come through the window blinds. But now, she is more interested in us. She loves it when I lay down next to her and read her books. I think she favors the brightly colored illustrations of The Hungry Caterpillar. We have become very dependent on our swing, as this is a sure fire way to put her to sleep. The music mode rotates through 7 tunes, and Jason claims that Isla has a favorite, and will skip the other tunes to play that one for her. At first I thought this was purely coincidence, but now I'm starting to believe it's true, she does calm down better to that song. After listening to it for the 100th time, I think I know the reason. That song has a slightly slower beat, and that has a calming effect. We call it the "Zombie Baby Song," because she turns into a zombie and falls asleep.

Our favorite is wake-up time Isla. She greets us with chatter and smiles every morning. If you're lucky, you might even get a giggle. A giggle will make your day. Naps are coming along better, but I still feel like the main objective of most of my days is getting Isla to sleep, or stay asleep when she is tired and cranky. Isla and I try and venture out into the world at least once a day. Unfortunately, this involves Isla crying through at least one leg of the trip. I've gotten used to it, but when Jason is along for a ride, he can't handle it. I joined the Stroller Strides exercise group, which meets on Tuesday and Thursday at the Incarnate Word Headwaters Sanctuary.

Matters of Housekeeping

I have a few housekeeping issues:

If you received a birth announcement, then you also probably received a blatant advertisement for Seatsleaf. Yes, I exploited my baby to get more followers for my blog. I know that the birth of Isla has brought about a spike in followers. At one point I actually had to guilt-trip my mother-in-law and BFF Jenny to check into my blog. But, now that there's a baby... well, I'm not bitter. I would just like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who expressed enough interest in my life to occasionally check into Seatsleaf before it's content included cute baby eye-candy (love you, Mom). You have a special place in my heart.

Speaking of cute baby eye-candy:

By the way, I love all the positive feedback I receive. Apparently, "Not Napping" was a good one. I never know who, or how many people check my blog, so it's always a thrill to hear from you. Comments are encouraged, don't be shy.

If you have not received a birth announcement, and would like one, I would love to send you one. Please email Jason or I your address.

You may have also received an advertisement for Jason's photos on Flickr. I just want to remind you that the Flickr account is Jason's. And, if he does not update it for several weeks, and you crave new Isla photos, please direct your hate mail to Jason- not to me!

Jason informed me that some of you may have been mislead about his photography talent. On the Flickr account, he posted the pictures from the professional photo shoot that was taken on day 5 of Isla's life. Those photos are credited to a talented photographer here in San An, Nikki Loehr, of Moxi Photostudio. We are doing a "growing series" and she'll have a photo shoot at newborn (done), 4 mo, 8 mo, and 1 year. We bought the rights to the photos so we can post them on Flickr, and we and anyone else can print copies.

If you still can't get enough of baby Isla, friend us on Facebook. If you haven't joined Facebook, it's inevitable that you and everyone else on Earth eventually will, so you might as well do it now. Jason informed me that if everyone on Facebook resided in a country together, that would be the 3rd largest country in the world- bigger than the US!

Also, This is blog post #76, and I just want to send a reminder out that Jason promised to be my guest blogger for the #100th blog of Seatsleaf... and it's only 24 blogposts away!

Not Napping

My latest new-mommy challenge has been that Isla is not napping. Many people have come up to us and said how great it is when kids are little babies, because they sleep all the time. But, oh no, I do not get to enjoy the saving grace of nap time. Instead, Isla takes short little mini-naps all day, and then spirals into continuous crabbyness as the day wears on. This crabbyness usually reaches its height around the time Jason comes home from work, and then continues until about 9 or 10 o'clock, when she falls asleep out of exhaustion for 4 hours. Now, Isla is a champ sleeper at night, and has usually will give us a 5-6 hour stretch in the middle of the night to morning. Here are some photos of Isla not napping. Here, you see her in a warrior pose, as if to say, "Ha ha, I have conquered you and your attempts at getting anything done today!"

And here the look of determination in her little eyes- "Oh, are you tired, Mommy? You want to take a nap? Not going to happen!"

'Not napping' brings me to another subject... Thumbsucking. I sensed from early on that this little girl was going to follow in my footsteps and become a thumbsucker. I suspect 'not napping' might have something to do with this. Isla has begun to refuse her binky. She makes a face and pokes it out with her tongue if you try to give her one. I try all 4 binky brands that we have on a daily basis to see if any will catch on. Meanwhile, she fishes around for something to suck on... making sucky-Coy-fish-at-the-top-of-the-pond face at anything that passes by, and sometimes just into midair. Well, this week, she has begun the hunt for her thumb, sucking on the radial side of her fisted right hand. This often frustrates her, as she lacks the finger individualization, and can only have all fingers flexed, or all extended.

Here in this photo you can see she achieved success... this resulted in the one and only .... (wait for it).... 3 hour nap! But, these events have not been reproduced since. While I don't want Isla to have the oh-so-hard-to-quit habit of thumbsucking, I long for the day when she can soothe her self to sleep. And perhaps when waking up after a mini-nap, she can soothe herself back to sleep for a longer nap.