Update...and Pics!

First off, thanks to everyone for the comments, e-mails, phone calls, and most importantly prayers! I am glad to say that Isabelle has slept through the night EVERY NIGHT since I posted! I'm not naive enough to think all the problems have magically gone away, but we have been talking a lot about mommy always coming back, we have added lots of stuff to the bedtime routine that Isabelle says "helps Belle", including a butterfly in her bed that she says keeps her safe.

Also, with my aunt's help we got her room looking as much like her "old" room as possible...including putting the letters back over her bed that spell out her name and rehanging the big stuffed parrot right above her head. She seems very pleased about both of those things.

I have also gotten her a Cinderella toothbrush, and she seems to TOTALLY understand that she gets to use it as soon as she goes to bed without crying. Poor thing, you can tell she's trying but just can't do it quite yet! Not a reward that would help with all kids but she's OBSESSED with brushing her teeth :)

I am also wondering if she may not be getting enough to eat at daycare and am working on that piece of the puzzle. No one likes to wake up hungry!

Well, here are a few pics, but Blogger is not cooperating so I'm not sure if my captions are going to fit in with the right pictures...we'll see!

Isabelle has always been a wonderful "pastoral assistant" going along on shut-in visits. My first Sunday at my new church I mentioned it and invited people to let me know if they knew of shut-ins that would like a junior visitor and we had two visits lined up for Tuesday. She did GREAT! One of the women is totally deaf and when I asked her sister how the previous minister used to pray with her she said she just wrote on the white-board that she was going to pray and did it normally and the woman could just "know" she was praying. Sounded good to me.

Well, I told Isabelle we were going to pray, so she went over and took hold of both of the woman's hands (standing in front of her) and the woman started to pray over Isabelle! It was the sweetest thing. She would offer a blessing/prayer for Isabelle and then practically yell "AAANNNNDDDDD..." and pray more. She kept going and going and Isabelle was great. I was having a hard time not laughing and I think so was the woman's sister. Anyway, we finally got her to stop but it sure was funny. Apparently it was a big shock because the woman doesn't usually pray. Like I said, Isabelle is good! Anyway, here's Isabelle in her Santa visiting outfit...



And I'd say we were semi-successful with visiting Santa. Isabelle is pretty terrified of people in costumes, so my expectations weren't too high. She got close, didn't cry, and we even managed an (okay) picture! I put the pic in a "Santa and Me" frame, and she just looked at it, told me about Santa, and then told me Santa is going to bring her Nemo and princess stuff. We had discussed the princess stuff with Santa, but she must have heard me mention to someone else that she's getting Nemo! I'll have to be more careful!



I'm continuing the tradition of taking Isabelle's picture each Sunday in Advent as she "lights" her Advent candle...