Pool Time

Today was a great day outside. We played outside in the morning and again in the afternoon. When we went outside in the afternoon I had filled her little pool and she played in there for a while, then we played on her slide again. We made a fort out of the cube, which she thought was hilarious.During the morning playtime our neighbor Cindy came over and gave Isabel her birthday present, which was the bubble blower machine. We played with it again in the afternoon and she thought it was funny. Although she did get mad at me since I wouldn't let her put it in the pool with her (it runs on batteries, so it would have destroyed it.)

She also got some other late birthday cards from mommy's great aunt Mary and mommy's grandparents. Hey, they had money in them, so we'll excuse them being late. :)

She had pork&beans for the first time tonight and she loved it. Good......another veggie I can add in there. She has been very picky on veggies. One day she likes something, the next day she won't eat it.

Have It Your Way.

The crown didn't stay on for long. We went to Burger King for supper. She liked the chicken nuggets, but I know why I don't really go there. I don't care for the food very much.

Doesn' she look so tired.....she is!

We spent much of today packing boxes and giving away stuff and putting stuff aside to sell at our rummage sale. Daddy also painted the deck. Yesterday, we made a hand print of Isabel. Someone gave us this set where you do a handprint every year for 5 years.

Fun Times

Click on the picture to see the images larger. First things first - we listed our house officially on the market today. Wanna buy a very large house? Yesterday was Isabel's 1 year appointment at the doctor's office and they gave her 2 shots and had to draw 6 straws of blood. We were able to distract her during the blood draw by singing to her. Everything looks a-ok!

This afternoon we went outside to play with all her yard toys. We started out with the slide, which is always a hit. I will crawl up inside the cube and she thinks it's hilarious and loves to hang out with me. It's cute to watch her at the top of the little slide. She will scoot her butt to get herself forward so that she slides down. It just amazes me to watch her figure out how to do things.

Then we (I saw we because she just rode while I pushed) were her in her little coupe. She figured out to lift her legs so that I can push her around. She only seems to go in reverse when she powers it herself. She likes sitting in there and grabbing the steering wheel and moving it around, and looking out the back window at me and laughs. She's funny.

Then I thought I would see what she thought of the sandbox (which the lid had blown aside a bit and it got all wet in the rain). Previously, she hate the feel of sand, but not know. She crawled across the cement and started grabbing sand. She must have gotten over the textue because she decided it was fun and was grabbing handfuls of sand and trying to eat it (she figured out that sand doesn't taste good), handfuls smeared on her legs and handfuls poured all over her head. She was loving it.

We took a little break from the sandiness, washed up a bit and she had some goldfish crackers and drink at her little picnic table.

Finally, we had dad put her little airplane swing up in a tree and she swang for a while before we went in for supper, a bath, and bedtime.

Our backyard very quickly turned into Little Tikes central.

Bath Time Fun

Just some pictures from bath time tonight. She loves taking a bath, but for some reasno hates getting out and having to put pj's on.

A couple days ago she had shrimp for the first time an she loved it. I was watching carefully to see if she had any reaction because daddy's grandma has an allrgy to it.

Next week is our last week of swim class. I am waiting to sign her up for any summer classes until I know we'll be here for sure those 2+ weeks. The lessons at our community pool are everyday for 12 days (M-F).

We thought we might be going to Denver this weekend, but they haven't gotten back to us. So, looks like a trip there for an interview for daddy will be put off a little longer. Daddy has a phone interview with a company he really wants to work for tomorrow AM. He has been interviewing at a lot of places, but most of them have been out of state and he is now getting to the point in many of the interview processes that he needs to go there for a face-to-face.

1 Year Portraits

Check out Skye's blog to see some of the pictures she took of Isabel for her 1 year portraits.

What do you think?

Good Website to Research Schools

As we contemplate where we may move to, we are concerned about the school district we are moving into. We don't know if we will live there forever or even long enough for her to go to school there, but we need to consider it. This website is great for looking upschool rankings. When I looked up the rankings for the current school district we are in, it makes me a little glad that we are moving. They have really low test scores on all their tests.

Happy Birthday to Isabel!

1st Picture:
Here she is with her birthday cake (version 2). The first version looked the exact same and we used it for pictures yesterday and let her get all sorts of messy. This version she just went for the candle (and ate part of the wax) and we sliced the cake. I also made a bunch of mini cupcakes and put them in the shape of a "1" on a nice serving platter.

For her birthday party, the guests that attended were mommy & dady, Grams, Grandma & Grandpa, Auntie Razz & Uncle Shane, cousin Travis, Uncle Tony, and friends Noah & Kallen with their mommy April.

One the menu was favorites of Isabel's: hotdogs & sausages, fruit salad, chips, pasta salad w/ cheese, ham & peas, cake, & assorted beverages.

2nd Picture:
Here she is modeling some nice shiny & silky scarves that grandma made for her. They also gave her a Little People set, & a Little Tikes Cube Climber w/ Slide & picnic table that grandma picked up on her garage saling fun. Anyways, she loves the slide. She loves sliding & swinging. And later I had her sit at the picnic table. She got a kick out of that. She just gets all giddy when she sits at furniture that is her size.

3rd Picture:

Here she is opening up her Little People set. She is wearing the bow headband that she got from Kallen & Noah. It matches the shirt and socks they got her as well. Very cute. She also got this neat little sorting toy & books from Uncle Tony & Aunt Carol and some nursery rhyme cd's & books from Uncle Chris, Aunt Lisa, & cousin Travis.

4th Picture:

Another picture of her eating her birthday candle.

After everyone left she took a 3 hour nap (she already took a 1 hour nap in the morning) and when she woke up (or at least when mommy woke her up) she pushed a tooth through. Finally that corresponding bottom tooth (2nd left bottom) came through and she has 8 teeth. She was drooling all day yesterday and today. Her teething has been relatively easy for us (she has to make something easy). When she pushes a tooth through (each of the 8 times so far) she takes a nice long nap and when she wakes up there is a tooth there.

52 Weeks (Tomorrow is One Year Old!!!!)

1st picture:

Here she is looking at Auntie Razz & Uncle Shane. They came to visit this weekend with grams for Isabel's first birthday.

We took 1 year pictures today with Skye. It seems like we are always catching her when she is tired. I think there were probably some good ones in there. She took a lot of pictures.

Tomorrow is Isabel's 1st birthday party. We decided to open presents today from us and my family since she will have enough on Sunday. We thought we woukd spread them out a bit.

2nd picture:

Here she is opening a Little Leaps game that mommy & daddy bought her. We also gave her a play John Deere farm and the Radio Flyer trike that I fixed up for her. She seems to like all her presents.

She also pulled herself up to standing for the first time. She did it while Skye was taking pictures in her room. We (mommy, daddy, & Skye) all clapped a lot for her and she was all smiles then.

Third picture:

Here she is watching mom put on a show with some of Isabel's puppets in the puppet theater that grams and gramps mde for her. Right now it works perfect for her on the ground, later it will go on a tabletop (which is what it was made for).

Fourth picture:

Here she is looking at a card from Auntie Razz and Uncle Shane. They gave the cute blue & white skirt outfit. Also pictured near her is the pink outfit from Auntie Phanie & Uncle Jay (they gave her a savings bond too.) Notice how she sits cross-legged. She started doing that a month or so ago and now always likes to sit cross-legged or with her ankles crossed.

Only a Few More Days....

We took a couple of pictures this morning so that we could get one to make a surprise for her birthday. This is not the one we are using. I measured her this evening and she is still 31.5". I'll get a weight soon. She is holding her dolly. She loves her dolly, almost as much as she loves being read to. She got a couple of presents & cards in the mail recently. She got a card with money from her great grandparents on daddy's side of the family and her godmother Jessi sent her a card with a giftcard to Half Price Books (she'll love that, maybe I'll let her pick them out herself and she what she gets) and some passes for all of us to go to the MN Zoo (she gave us 3 passes, but Isabel is under 2 so she's free, so maybe we'll be able to convince Jessi to join us when we go.)

It's So Hot Mommy.

She was trying to chase after me. Silly girl.

Oh - her new thing now is clicking her tongue. She had watermelon & raspberries for the first time this weekend and loves the raspberries (so does mommy!), the watermelon was just ok (for both of us, it's a little early in the season so it wasn't that sweet.) She has been our little reader the last couple weeks. She loves to lay against our chest and snuggle while we read to her, we even have to read her plastic bath books to her in the bathtub.

Mother's Day

Well, today daddy made breakfast for all of us. We had scrambled eggs, toast, oranges, & watermelon & coffee (for mommy & daddy only). We did some small project stuff around the house in preparation for a possible move/sale. Then we went took a walk to the park (we brought the dog Molly along as well) and played there for a while. And also daddy was on diaper duty all day, mom got the day off from any diaper duties.

I think Mother's Day & Father's Day should be about spending time with each other - not buying presents or spending the time alone. Although daddy jokes he wants presents on Father's Day and want to be alone playing video games. I think presents are fine in two instances, 1) they are homemade or 2) they are something that you will do together.

So, it was a nice day.

51 Weeks

Almost a year old

It's hard to believe that is has almost been a year. Next Saturday will be 52 weeks and next Sunday will be a year. Crazy. On Saturday we are taking her 1 year pictures; hopefully the weather is cooperative. On Sunday we will have a birthday party for her.
Here she is looking at the pansy that "they" planted at daycaer to give as Mother's Day presents. How sweet. Today, our friends Carrie & Kyle came over to have lunch with us & see Isabel. Last night, Isabel had a babysitter for a couple of hours while mom & dad went out.

Love

I Love Pasta w/ Sauce

I Love Laying Around

Both the above statements are true for both mommy and daddy as well.

New Stuff

I haven't really typed much the past few days. I just haven't had time and haven't taken any pictures either.

Anyways, Isabel was home with daddy today since daycare was closed and she did a fantastic job. Currently, she is being weaned from breastmilk to whole milk. We're doing it one bottle at a time (well, she only drinks whole milk from a cup, but replacing one bottle of breastmilk.) By this time next week she should be only drinking whole milk, water & juice during daycare. Breastmilk will only be 3 times a day and I will start to phase those out as well. I love not pumping at work. I stopped pumping last week Thursday (was my last time.) And now I only bring my surplus from the freezer to daycare for her.

A new thing she does (well, at least we just noticed it in the last week) is she lets us know when she is done eating her meals and doesn't want anymore. She will throw her hands up in the air and take them down and say "All duh" (or all done.) I would always ask her if she was all done and she must have caught on. I think I must do something with my hands. I am pretty sure I bring them up as you do when you ask a question and I say All done? It's just neat to watch her anyways.

Today I was working with her learning about sorting shapes. So, she might get into that now. She is huge into repetition. She loves The Okay Book by Todd Parr. I picked it up from the library. She giggles everytime we pick it up and start reading it to her. She will grab it and have us read it to her anywhere from 5-12 times a day. She also loves The Very Hungry Catepillar by Eric Carle. We read that a lot too, but not as much as The Okay Book.

I've been reading "Happiest Toddler on the Block" and it separates the kids into three types and also into age groups. Isabel is very much a Cautious child. Most of the ideas it gives is stuff we do with her already, but it is nice to know that we are responding to her in an effective manner. I think we are pretty in tune to her and her needs and have found ways to communicate with each other. Isabel very much like routine and we keep the routine for her, which is one of the things it suggests. I've also been reading The Toddler's Busy Book that Skye gave me and the last couple days we've been singing songs from it. There are a lot of great ideas in that book.

Another things Isabel likes to do it try putting her toys in new places, as if the works is full of different containers. She does have some routine to what she does with some. At bathtime she takes this yellow cup and puts a small turtle in it, then put a small yellow bowl in next. The bowl just happens to fit perfectly. Daddy was telling me she does this while I gave her a bth last night (usually he has been giving them to her) and as he told me she started doing it.

What else....Hmmm....she is pretty much in all 18 month clothes now. There are a few 12 month stragglers in bottoms, but that's it. It has been hitting 80+ the past few days and it is nice to see that she does not break out into a heatrash when it's over 80 degrees like she did last summer.

Forts, Little People, & Swimming

Today was lots of fun for us. We started out playing with some new toys that Skye brought over for Isabel. She can't get enough of the the Little People & their animals. Then we had this great breakfast with Creme Brule French Toast & pineapple, Yes, we let her have some and she loved it (both of them.) Then she took a super long nap while mom went to a baby shower. She got up just before mom came home. Then daddy made her a normal lunch and she ate well. We then buily a fort in the playroom, which is what the pictures above were from. Then she took another nap. Then back to playing with Little People for a while. And then we went to the Great Serengeti Water Park and played. She loved going down the toddler slide with mom & dad. We also swam & went on the lazy river (she was cool about that and relaxed) and played with the basketballs. We had free passes from when it was too cold that day from swim lessons, so it was a free outing. Then we came home & had a good supper. I tried giving her yogurt again and this time she liked it. We'll try a different flavor & texture next time, but this time we have Raspberry Mousse Yoplait Whips.

Last day to vote....

Vote here for Isabel looking all "Pouty in Pink".

Happy Cinco de Mayo

50 Weeks Old

I decided to try doing a collage in Elements. If you click on the photo it will enlarge and you can get a better look at each of the pictures. So here are my comments on each photo starting from the top row going L to R.
Top Row:
1- I thought I would try her in a basket. I put the basket out on the 3-season porch to keep the toys she plays with out there and her ball in, so they aren't just sitting out all over the place.
2- She has this look like she's saying "Uh-oh, I poopied mommy."
3- They made pinatas at daycare on Friday. She mainly tried to eat the paper and supervised the other kids making a pinata for her. We're already training her for a management role.
Middle Row:
1 - "How long do I have to sit here mommy? Did you get the picture?" I bought this little chair so that we can use it for her 1 year pictures in a couple weeks.
2- Everytime I gave her a toy in the basket she would take it out. Then there was no toys in the basket and she leaned over to pick one up and fell over. No babies were hurt.
3- Watching the outside. She likes playing in the 3-season porch (most of the pictures are from playing there this morning.) She was staring out the window just like the cats do. They love it out there too.
Bottom Row:
1- This shot was amazing. She kept moving so much (& away from me) and finally I just decided to put the camera down in front of her without knowing what I would take a picture of.
2- "Mmmmmmm! Giraffe head."
3- "But I don't wanna wear a hat mommy."

Other than make the collage, I did not touch up any of the photos.

Another Beautiful Day

Trust me....

The downside of getting her interested in books is that she insists on playing with them all the time, whether or not they are hers or ours. She loves knocking down books, looking at them, and then moving onto the next book. I picked up some books at the library to read to her and

Perfecting the Cute Side Look

Still keep voting at http://www.americanbaby.com/app/photocontest/vote.jsp?entryId=2033600008 .

You know, I was worried about transitioning her from nurse to bed at night to putting her down without having to nurse. And you know what - she is gradually weaning herself from nursing. Most nights she might nurse for a little bit after her bath, then she will play a little and then we might read a book, but I usually put her down awake. She'll let out a short cry and then in a couple minutes goes to sleep. She used to have to nurse to sleep, but not anymore. This new routine has been going on for a month now. I hope all of weaning her from nursing goes smoothly.

Good Luck Daddy

Both Isabel & Daddy were dressed very nicely today. Daddy has an interview today and is wearing his new suit he bought.