Sometimes I wish I could just freeze time and savor the moment. Today she was sleeping beside me and woke up, looking at me with her large eyes. I started stroking her hair, and she fell asleep again with a smile on her face. She almost never falls asleep without nursing or sucking her thumb, but this time she did just from lying close to me, and with me stroking her hair. I wished I could put the memory in a bottle ...

August 16, 2007 --- FIRST WORD! (ok, not really ...)

Today was a very full day. First, Isabella went swimming this time with her Papa! Martin took the afternoon off from work, and I went along to take pictures :).

While I was changing her into her swimming diaper, she took a look at the other mom who was sharing the changing table with me, and then started bawling. Wondering what was wrong, I picked her up and she immediately calmed down. Then I put her down again to continue changing her, she took another look at the woman, and then started bawling again! The other mom said she thinks Isabella's starting to react to strangers. It seems a bit early, though ...

At the end of swimming class, she again looked at the woman, started to cry, but then decided to look away. :)

Later that day, she said her first word. Michi was talking to her and suddenly she said it: "Hallo!" Nothing before it, nothing after, just a clear "Hallo!". We were all so shocked the room was suddenly quite. We then all started looking at each other, asking "Did you hear that?!?! Did she just say hallo?!?!"

August 14, 2007 --- 360 degree rollover!

Today she did it! After a month of rolling over from her back to her tummy and then whining when she got tired, she finally discovered how to get herself back on her back again by herself.