• Sorry, “later this week” turns out to be “later this month” as we don’t have all the photo’s yet (some are in the mail as we forgot them) #
• Sorry, “later this week” turns out to be “later this month” as we don’t have all the photo’s yet (some are in the mail as we forgot them) #

Sorry, “later this week” turns out to be “later this month” as we don’t have all the photo’s yet (some are in the mail as we forgot them)

Sorry, “later this week” turns out to be “later this month” as we don’t have all the photo’s yet (some are in the mail as we forgot them)

• We came back from a few weeks Europe last week… will post some updates with pix and such later this week, first to get rid of a jetlag #

We came back from a few weeks Europe last week… will post some updates with pix and such later this week, first to get rid of a jetlag

I’m so proud of Isabella, she chews her food really nicely (she eats table foods now) and the sleeping issue also seem to have been fixed =D

Nobody said it would be easy to raise a child, but that it would be this tiring… oh oh oh..

Isabella is currently in a phase where she only wants to be with mommy and daddy, so others are not really allowed near her and she doesn’t want us to be outside her field of vision at any time. Well, that is really tiring. It basically means that from the moment she wakes up, until the moment she sleeps, she is clinging on to us. And we have an even bigger problem when she needs to go to sleep because she only wants to do that in our arms, close to those she trusts. And yeah, it does feel good she feels so good about us, but a bit less wouldn’t be so bad either haha.

To give you an idea, a few days ago she didn’t sleep before 1 AM (and therefore she kept us busy until that time), only to wake up again at 6 AM. Yesterday I was a bit more lucky, she slept around 9 PM but unfortunately she woke up at 3 AM again. Hooray, I was not even in bed (yes, sometimes I go to bed late) and I could stay awake a bit longer. Michelle was in bed not so long but she also woke up from Isabella again. I took Isabella and sat with her on a rocking chair until 4.30ish, when she finally fell asleep again… well, until 4.45, when she woke up again because I placed her in bed… grrrr… Michelle also woke up again, and she stayed with Isabella until 6 AM (I couldn’t bare to stay awake even longer), and then she slept again… until 10 AM…. and that is a bit how the last weeks were

I can tell you that this is exhausting. She doesn’t sleep much during the day either, she has the same problem of not wanting to sleep during the day, but also because of the sounds from outside the house as she is a very light sleeper.

But ok, first we were told to take her with us in her own bedroom, to let her fall asleep like that and to put her in bed after she fell asleep. But, to be honest, I don’t believe this is really working, so I browsed a bit on the net today and usually people were told to just go through it and let her cry… the biggest reason was that, when you allow them to sleep in your arms or even in your bed, they still want to do that when they’re 5 years old. So the best would be to not even start that at all. To make things a bit easier, you could enter the room again after 5 minutes or so, and put her down in her bed again (because she usually stands up straight when she doesn’t want to sleep), then 10 minutes later you do the same again, then 15 minutes and then 20 minutes later again (so not every 5 minutes, but the time in between should be extended)

So I tried that last bit tonight, it is now around 10 PM and she just stopped crying. However, there was a full hour of crying before all this (not continuously, she stopped sometimes). This is so hard to do, really not something one would do for fun. When your child is crying you want to pick her up and comfort her, but if I did that, I would have to start all over again… They say it should all be over within a few days and I certainly hope so because I am really tired of the whole situation.. I lack a lot of sleep right now, and don’t feel completely right, and the same goes for Michelle as well. Hopefully she will sleep through the night tonight, we need to refuel as well.

By the way, if you have tips of how to get through this phase, please don’t hesitate to tell us

I was a bit shocked earlier today. At around 5 PM, Isabella and I were playing in her play area (she is currently in a phase in which she doesn’t want to do anything alone, so I just joined her for now) and all of the sudden I heard *BOOM*, I turn around and see Isabella coming to me (I was a feet or so away from her) with big tears and crying. I took her with me so I could comfort her and at first I thought she fell on her hands as she stood on her knees a bit before it happened, with her face to the wall. But, after I was comforting her a bit, I noticed blood coming out of her mouth.. I can tell you that this was a bit of a shock to me.

Because I couldn’t see exactly where the blood was coming from, I thought it would be wise to get rid of some of the blood so I removed it with some tissues. After that I could see that she had a cut of about half an inch in her upper gums, about the same width as her lower teeth. Apparently she went with her teeth through her gums, I can imagine that must have hurt.

After this I let her suck on some icecubes first so the cut would stop bleeding and the pain would become less, and it seemed to work. The bleeding stopped and she stopped cyring also. Even though I thought it wouldn’t be so bad, I still went down to see my mother-in-law to check what she thought, if I should call the clinic or not as the cut was pretty big for such a small mouth. I then called the advice nurse and she told me it would be better to check in at the E.R. to see if she needed stitches.

Once at the E.R. we were helped pretty fast, and the nurse who helped us first was really impressed by Isabella’s beautiful eyes, even so much that he asked permission to make a picture of her eyes so he could show it to his girlfriend. Well, I can tell you that those things make a dad pretty proud (even though these things happen quite often, we hear so much nice things about her eyes) But ok, after this we went to an area where a doctor would research her, and after this happned the doctor told us that it would be better not to stitch as the cons would weigh more heavy than the pros of stitching, one of the things was because she was currently teething in the upper side of her mouth, and the stitches could do more worse than good in that case. The doctor was also assured that she would be ok, because she didn’t lose consciousness, and she didn’t cry anymore and the bleeding also stopped, which were all good signs.

She is currently asleep, but she remained a bit sad the rest of the evening. I am glad to know she is ok, but I can tell you it surely shocked me at first when it just happened. I hope she will feel better in the morning

• The day is almost over, but still: Happy Birthday Isabella!! (tomorrow we will post some pictures and a video) #

Isabella just turned 1 year old, what did that time go by fast. A year ago both her and Michelle were in the hospital, Isabella even had to stay for almost a full month as she was born two months too early. And because she was born so early, she had a bigger risk in going back to the hospital (50% more chance than full-term babies).. but, fortunately she stayed healthy as can be, and she is currently catching up to the full-term babies also.

So yesterday, on August 25, she turned 1 year old, but her birthday was celebrated by the family of Michelle’s side (my family is at the other side of the world, so they couldn’t be here unfortunately) about a week ago as there were some family members (who live on the mainland) visiting Hawaii that week and Michelle’s mother preferred to do it in that week so they could join also. Michelle’s mom arranged a Hawaiian buffet, which was very good, and there were about 50 people, it was really nice.

Here are some pictures of that birthday party:

Of course we have filmed a bit with the birthday cake, but you can find that a bit more down

A week later, on her real birthday, Michelle and I celebrated it again, but a bit smaller than the week before First we were on Skype in the morning with her Dutch grandmother. Great invention, about 8000 miles away from each other and still being able to speak and see each other (and free too haha). After that Isabella went for a nap, and after her nap we had to go to the doctor for a her regular checkup…

Yeah, believe it or not, but they planned that nicely on her birthday at the clinic (and we can move the date, but you can easily wait another month before it is your turn again). The doctors visit isn’t so bad actually, but she also had to get 3 more vaccinations…. and that was very sad, to see her cry on her first birthday ..at the clinic they were able to translate it to “getting your health as a present on your birthday”, but we saw it more as a sadist thing, to get the shots exactly on that date… I guess it is just the way how look to it Oh well, fortunately she didn’t cry too long, she is a pretty tough little girl when it comes down to these things.

After the doctor we bought a cake for her, one that was also completely meant to be hers. If we had some left overs after she was done with it, then we could get some, but it was first meant to be hers… well, we found out what she thought about that hahaha!

Before we gave her the cake, we put together a big present for her, in her play area, which she totally loved (thanks grandma and auntie in the Netherlands), and after that we had the cake.. and yes, we filmed the part of the cake, and we made some pictures as well. So, instead of talking too much, here are first some pictures, and below that a fun video.. have fun

Here is the video: