Bella's Nursery

When Stephanie was here she helped us put the finishing touches on Bella's nursery. Here it is. I love it!

Kinda Cool

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One Month and Smiles

Today is Izzie's one month birthday. I can't believe it's already been a month! She smiled for the first time on Thursday, since then we've gotten a few, it takes her so much work, she doesn't do it too often. Frank said that it must have been gas, because she promised him she wouldn't do it while he was at work.
She weights 11.6 lbs (I think that's almost 9 oz.) and is 24" long. She is almost out of all her 0-3 month clothes, we are putting them all on her now so she can wear them for another week.
She has huge yawns that make her look like a hippopotamus opening it's mouth.

Johnny Appleseed

Frankie has a new project. I think I've mentioned before that Frank is very passionate about anything he sets his mind to, almost obsessive once he gets an idea in his head.

One day he was browsing Craigslist (something he does often that leads to his brilliant ideas) and he found some giving away a free apple tree. All you have to do is come dig it up. He talked about this tree for days, sent me pictures, asked me over and over again, if I wanted an apple tree. Talked about the tree, where it would go, how good apples are, finally I said, if you wanna dig up the tree and spend all day doing it, I don't care.

So he calls the nursery goes there buys 100 lbs of compost and everything he needs to transplant this tree. He gets up early Saturday morning and digs a hole half way from here to China, because the hole has to be twice the size of the root ball and it's a ten foot tree, so it must be really big. Then he drives 45 mins. to the people's house and spends two hours on his hands and knees digging the tree out (he can't use a shovel because you don't want to damage the roots), then has to drive back, it takes an hour to drive back because he has a tree in the back of the truck.

Now keep in mind, our backyard goes straight up a mountain. It's terraced and the first level has real stairs, but the second level has rocks precariously placed to replicate stairs (thanks to our landscaper, that's another novel). We have decided to plant the tree on the second level, by time he gets back with the tree it only about 6 feet tall with a few small branches because he trimmed it back so much, so carrying the tree up the hill isn't the problem, he has to carry 100 lbs. of compost and another 300 lbs of the dirt that came with the tree. I'm not exaggerating when I say 300 lbs. He managed to get my friend's boy friend to come help him drag that up the hill. Two guys in very good shape could only lift this bucket of dirt one step at a time while trying to not fall back down the hill, the steps aren't made for two people and a bucket, they are barely made to fit one! So he gets everything up the hill that he needs and gets the tree planted. It's a cute little tree.

That's not the end, I guess he decided (really the nursery told him) that the tree needs to be protected from the harsh sun until it is established, so then he erects a canopy to go over the tree. Since he's planted this tree, the minute he comes in the door he goes straight out the back door and up the hill to check on the tree. Well, today he decided the dirt around the tree has formed too hard of a clay so as I right this, he is in the process of digging the tree back up and replanting it with something to make the dirt not clay. I hope this tree lives!!

Happy Father's Day Frankie!

It's Frankie's first father's day and although he's only had 3 weeks experience he's already an amazing father! He gets up with me in the middle of the night when I have to wake up to feed Isabella, he changes all the diapers in the middle of the night (and a lot of them during the day), he's been waiting on me for the last 3 months at least with absolutely no complaining. I love how Frank gets so excited and passionate about everything, whether it's his baby girl or an apple tree (I'll explain that story later). He makes me laugh every day. That's definitely something that I love about it. I never have to doubt that I won't laugh every day of my life! Thanks for being an amazing husband and father, Baby! We love you lots!

Sisters

What a fun weekend! Stephanie came to visit and see "Baby Lella" (as her 2 year old calls her). We had a great time. We drove to Half Moon Bay on Saturday. Along the way we stopped at a farm stand and got the best fruit and veggies. The top picture is of the very yummy raspberries that we picked up. We were going to go walking at Half Moon Bay but it was VERY windy and cold so instead we drove along the coast down to Santa Cruz. Stephanie helped us put the finishing touches on Izzie's nursery (that's what she's doing in the second picture), she got my share of the creative genes so we appreciated her helping us with that!

It was so fun to have her visit. As we were talking about all the joys of pregnancy, child birth and breast feeding and the crazy things that happen to your body, my mom pointed out how lucky we are to have sisters to talk about that stuff with. I have to agree. I think there is no relationship like a sister. They are my best friends. They are someone that you always know will be there for you and love you, no matter what. You can fight and argue and complain to each other, about each but you always make up and love each other. I feel really bad for people that don't have sisters.

Fun with Photo Editing

This is what happens when your mommy and you are very tired and you are waiting for your baby to wake up and eat before you can go to bed.

The papparazzi won't leave me alone

Izzie is only 17 days old and she has close to 1000 pictures already. Unfortunately, she doesn't do much so all the pictures are about the same. My sister is here visiting so she helped us set up a "photo studio" and take some more poses.
Enjoy!

First Bath

Izzie had her first bath last night. Frank thought she wasn't going to like it because she was asleep (when is she not?) and he thought there couldn't be two people that liked baths as much as I do. She absolutely loved it! She woke right up and just wanted to relax in the water. She liked it so much, she cried when she had to get out.