Isla cooing!? from AlaskaNewZealand.com on Vimeo.

We managed to survive the first week with me at work and Paul and Isla together all day. Isla went all around town and was spotted at various meetings and lunches. Paul did a great job and by Wednesday was a lot more relaxed about the whole thing. School was good, it was nice to be back with my class again and they seemed pleased to see me. They had been giving the substitute a bit of hard time but they were very good all week for me luckily. Leaving to go to work Monday morning was not fun for me, but each day after that was easier. Plus she seems delighted to see me every afternoon when I get home.  Here are a few recent photos. As you can see Evie has discovered that the she can play with the baby after all!

Hello guys,  Today is the third day of dad and Isla time.  April seems to be having a great first week back despite missing our little one.  Isla and I are getting to know each other better.  She has been coming to work with me and is getting quite comforatble at the office.  I am learning when feeding, naping and playing time is and adjusting my work flow to suit.  It’s going great but by three I’m usually frazzeled with working and care giving.  This week will be the hardest though.  Everyday it has gotten easer for both of us.  I have discovered some secrets for a good long late morning sleep, during my most productive time.  While working I came across this photo of my girls being pretty.  Enjoy.  Paul

A teaching frind of mine went to Hawaii over the Christmas holiday and brought back this dress for Isla.  This afternoon Isla wanted to play dress ups so we tried it on. From the flirty expression on her face in the first photo I think she thinks she looks pretty nice!

As you can see from the photo tummy time is now coming along in leaps and bounds! Isla has really started to push herself up on her arms and is now seeing a purpose in the whole tummy thing when she is able to look around from a new perspective.

She is able to sit propped up with cushions for a while, although she gets a bit of a lean on pretty quickly!

Our casino night last night was great fun and it turns out I am quite lucky when it comes to blackjack- unfortunately not as lucky when it came to the raffles at the end of  the night. Aunty Melissa did a great job babysitting and Isla had another great sleep from 9pm-5am.

This morning on our way to church we saw a moose on the side of the road just down from our house, I was so disappointed it hadn’t been there last week when Mum and Dad were here to see it too!

We are about to start my last week of maternity leave before I go back to work so I plan on getting as many baby cuddles and smiling/cooing time with Isla as I can this week!

Here is Isla showing off her skills at tummy time. It still takes her a lot of concentration and effort as you can see from the tongue! She is only just starting to work out that she can use her arms to push up. Lately she has really started to use her fingers to touch things and seems to be noticing the feel of different objects.

We put Mum and Dad on the plane on Tuesday morning so the house has seemed a little empty for the last few days. Isla seemed to miss her grandparents because our first night with no visitors she was very cranky and out of sorts. Luckily last night she was back to normal and had one of her best night time sleeps, sleeping from 9:30pm until 5:20am!! We are hoping this will continue  since I have only one more week of maternity leave and we would really love if she was sleeping so well when I go back to work.

Paul and I have been having a lot of fun over the last few days playing on our new toy- a sewing machine! Mum got us one for a birthday/Christmas present and we are loving it!

February so far has been a very social month, we had a birthday party to go to last night, another one tonight and then a casino night on Saturday. Isla generally comes with us for outings, although on Saturday night she is going to be baby sat by her Aunty Melissa.

After quite a few weeks of very little snow we have had a heap fall in the last few days (about a foot yesterday alone) so now everything is looking very pretty and white again.

Love April, Paul and Isla