Princess Tea Parties, Cowgirls and Isabelle's Sunday Dress

As of Thursday, it's just the four of us again. It was a huge help having Bammy with us for three weeks, but now she's back in Japan taking care of Papa Ricky (someone has to feed him, and the dinners Bammy cooked and froze before leaving Japan were beginning to run out).



Maddie's back in school and having play dates with her friends (she had two this week). One was at our house - a tea party. Maddie had very specific costume, food, drink and centerpiece requirements. As you can see, all requests were granted (it's not a great idea to tell Maddie no when she's planning a party, which is a genetic trait she got from her mom, who probably got it from her Nana).



Isabelle is still a "belle"of a baby. She did have one rough day this week - Ally took her for her 4-week appointment with the doctor, where she received a shot and a cauterized belly button. I can't remember the official name of the condition that necessitated the belly button cauterization, but it's kind of like a little belly button hernia. Anyway, her skin was all black, then red and raw post cauterization, and I'm actually surprised she wasn't more out of sorts - even on her worst day (at least so far) Isabelle is a "sweet" baby.


Here's a couple more pictures - Isabelle in her Sunday dress and Maddie the cowgirl.

New Year's Eve, Grandparents, Christmas Dresses, Dress Up and Isabelle Asleep

We had a little New Year's Party at home - just family. The most exciting part of the evening was Twister...we were all asleep before midnight, though Isabelle did wake up for the fireworks.

On New Year's day, we went to the parade, but I don't have any pictures (Bammy has some, so maybe she can post them on her blog). Maddie really enjoyed it, and Isabelle slept through it all. In fact, Isabelle does a lot of sleeping...

Papa Ricky was in town until 3 January 2008. Here's a picture of Isabelle with Papa Ricky.

Bammy will be in town until 17 January 2008. Maddie is having lots of fun with Bammy, as you can tell from the following picture.

Maddie was finally able to wear her Christmas dress to church; Isabelle didn't go to church this week, so she'll have to begin wearing her Christmas dresses next week.

And finally, more dress-up pictures (thank you Grandma Betty)...

Isabelle's Blessing

Isabelle's first day at church was a success. She looked very pretty and didn't cry at all.

The blessing went well - she was blessed by her dad, and Papa Ricky was also able to stand in the circle.

Here are some more blessing day pictures:

Also, here are a couple tub pictures:

Happy Christmas!

It has been a wonderful X-mas at our house...

Maddie attended a X-mas party in one of her new dresses... . We made X-mas cookies for Santa and fondue for dinner. There was a nice X-mas FHE and daddy read How the Grinch Stole Chirstmas. We opened a Christmas Eve present, and...

...we took picture of the girls in their X-mas PJs... .

Santa brought lots of great presents... ...and what Santa didn't

bring we seemed to get from family and friends... .

Thank you all for your thoughtful gifts. Here a some additional pictures to enjoy:

Just Waiting for Christmas

I haven't got any long stories to tell in this edition - just thought I'd post some pictures for your viewing enjoyment.

Bow head:

Mommy's little candy cane:

Nap time:

Just chillin' in my bouncer:

Just before my bath:

Maddie's Holiday Concert and Isabelle - Day 2

Maddie and all the ASL children in the K1, K2 and 1st Grade classes treated parents, family and guests to a holiday concert. All the kids did great, and Maddie was the silliest of them all. She did silly movements to the music, made funny faces while she was singing and kept waving to her Daddy, who was sitting in the audience trying to keep a straight face.

As I've never been much of a performer and am generally quite shy in front of an audience, she must get her stage "flare" from Ally's side of the family. Actually, Maddie's like a cuter (perhaps slightly less goofy) version of Alex. If you don't believe me, check out the clip below.

Noel......Noel.

Isabelle continues well. She's eating, sleeping and doing all the other important newborn things. She get's cuter everyday, and here a another couple pictures to prove it.

Isabelle

Our new little one has finally arrived!

Isabelle Amelie Colton arrived on 17 December 2007 at 8:45 p.m. The following is all the pertinent information - weight: 3.495 kgs or 7.69 lbs; length: 52 ccs or 20.47 inches; other: She has 10 fingers, 10 toes and the correct amounts of every other body part. She looks healthy, is very aware of her surroundings, is pleasant and beautiful.

Our day began at 8:05 a.m. when we dropped Maddie at ASL and continued by taxi to Portland hospital. We were met at Portland's main entrance by a porter, who took Ally's luggage and escorted us to our delivery suite on the 7th floor.

The induction began around 9:00 a.m. We spent most of the morning on our feet, as we were told that a combination of medication and walking would help progress the labour. As Portland is not a big hospital, we did most of our walking outside, which was cold. However, it did give us the chance to do some shopping on Marlebone High Street and to drop by Starbucks for a caramel hot chocolate!

Room service brought us our lunch, which we selected from the hospital's room serice menu, around 12:30. The food throughout our stay was quite tasty! As we were waiting for the doctor to arrive and check Ally's progress, we stayed in the delivery suite after lunch. Ally did a lot of pacing.

The doctor broke Ally's water around 3:15 p.m., which accelerated Ally's contractions. Ally was given her epidural soon afterwards. From that point onwards, Ally's midwife was very attentive, basically remaining with us in our delivery suite until Isabelle was born.

Around 6:15 p.m., Ally was given pitocin to further accelerate her labour. It worked; unfortunately, her epidural stopped working at about the same time. For around 1.5 hours, Ally could feel every pitocin-enhanced contraction; still, I don't think I ever heard her cry out (that's how strong my wife is). Around 8:00 p.m., they got Ally's epidural working again, and the doctor arrived to deliver the baby. Once the doctor got himself sorted, Ally pushed about a dozen times and...

...Isabelle was born at 8:45 p.m.

We spent the night in the hospital. After breakfast, Isabelle's first bath...

...and all the necessary examinations, we checked out of Portland and arrived home around 11:30 a.m. Maddie came home from school at 2:30 and has been taking care of Isabelle ever since.



Enjoy these other pictures! We'll try to post more in a couple of days.