Fun with Isabella!!!

Walking around the house
Originally uploaded by Isabella Youlan.

Walking!!! (okay, with a little help…)
Bella’s kooky auntie Carolyn was sooo much fun and so encouraging that she got Bella very excited to walk!! She is now asking constantly to go walking (when she isn’t eating, that is!). She still needs to hold onto Andrea’s hands, though, and it does HAVE to be Andrea’s hands, so mama is getting a bit of a backache, but it will be well worth it to build up Bella’s legs so she can walk on her own. We keep pointing out to her all the fun things she can do (and the mischief she can get into) once she can walk by herself—what are we thinking?!?!?!?!

Andrea is trying to get her to crawl more as well, by showing her how much fun it is and saying it is walking like a doggie. Bella thinks this is fun, because she wants to be like a doggie. She enjoys howling as well! (see photo album for pictures, sooo cute!)

Dancing!!!
She really loves to dance, either sitting, or especially standing. At Danny and Elizabeth’s they put on some rock music and she got very excited and made a special dancing face, with her lower jaw jutted out, seeming very serious and cool. She will wave her arms or bang on the crossbar on her carseat when there is music in the car. She seems to have a real sense of rhythm, too, and react to different types of music differently, but she seems to like all of it, especially tunes with some rhythm.

Words!!!
Isabella is learning lots of words!! Her first English word was while we were still in China, and was “More!” which she pronounces, Mah! It seems to mean, basically, “Gimmee that food!” We were trying to teach her the sign, but kept saying the word as well, so she just learned the word. Now she also has a few more words, including: Dog, Uh-Oh, Yum, Mama and Daddy, Iris (one of the dogs, and flowers (she likes to smell them). Andrea also taught her the Chinese word for Elephant – Da Xiang, but at first Andrea got it wrong and so she changed it, so now poor Bella is confused and looks at her funny. She tries to say lots of other words when we say them, but I’m not counting them unless she repeats them on several occasions, or on her own.

Signing!!!
She also now signs “Finished” or “All Done/Gone,” “Milk,” “Up” and, somewhat surprisingly, “More.” She didn’t want to use “More” at first, and got frustrated when I showed it to her, because she already said the word and we clearly understood her. After a few weeks, however, I guess she realized that she could sign “More” while she still had her mouth full! Today she signed “More Milk” (after a little questioning from mom). She also does the baby sign (not ASL) for dog, which is panting. She made this one up herself, but it is apparently pretty standard baby sign.

Games!!!
She also loves baby games like Peekaboo, Pattycake, “How big is the baby?” “Soooo Big!!!” and Got your Nose! Especially Got your Nose! Our noses both have a few scratches from having been so frequently gotten. Darn those fingernails grow fast!