Forty one weeks

No picture for now as I have no means of loading one...if I am ambitious, I will try to add one from the proper day upon our return.

This week has been full of firsts, particularly in the category of new foods consumed. It has been super fun (not to mention much easier!) to offer her nits of whatever we are eating, with some discretion of course! She has enjoyed her first veal, duck, turkey, pork, ham (as in prosciutto), foie gras (in the form of sauce on my beef entree which she couldn't get enough of), fig, baguette, tomato bisque, radish (!!! Best facial expression yet), pickled asparagus, ratatouille (and therefore zucchini and eggplant). It's amazing what she can eat without teeth! She wants to eat whatever we are eating and expresses much frustration when we don't allow her. She has also grown very particular about doing things herself so we've been working on teaching her to use her spoon.

This week is the first time she has really experienced hot weather so her poorly little head has been a sweaty, curly mess of hair which I find rather cute.

Isla crawled for the first time on Monday, June 7th, shortly after we arrived in the Dordogne region. Her motivator was a little red crab toy and she figured out to move her hands and legs just right to get to him.

Isla is SO close to clapping. We have been trying to teach her for a long time but she always preferred grabbing our hands to copying us. We've had a lot of time on our hands to practice with our long drives and she finally figured out how to extend her fingers and put her hands together but not clap them just yet.

I brought a small selection of books to read to Isla before she goes to bed. I have set them out for her to pick one and 6 out of 7 times she chose "Pat the Bunny
" which was also Graham's favorite childhood book.

We also brought along Isla's animal book and she LOVES it. She likes the pages with the kitties and dogs the best and always lets out her inhalation squeal of excitement. She has really taken a liking to dogs! We always knows when she spots one because we'll be pushing the stroller along and hear her sharp inhale. Sure enough, there will be a dog in sight. She seems to understand what the word "dog" means because if we see one first and say "Look Isla, a dog!", she will immediately start scanning the ground.