New Year's Eve

We have been playing with EVERYTHING today. I even let her play with her box of hairpieces. I really need to go through it because there are baby head wraps that will no longer fit her toddler head and they really don't need to be in there.

We did some dancing, played on her outdoor equiptment in the basement, put together puzzles, read LOTS of books, played some musical instruments, sorted toys (see video), colored, played dress up, changed clothes on dollies, some rough play, played with cars & her Little Touch, watched Peep, took a nap and it's only 3pm. Now that she is feeling better she is eating very well and wants to do everything and has lots of energy.

In a little bit we are going to go to Y to go swimming and then grocery shopping to buy some yummy foods for tonight.

BTW - she gets a little confused with the last shape and it makes me giggle.

Thanks for the Presents.....

We are very grateful to have received so many wonderful presents this year and we love them all, but I wanted to say a special thanks for the ones that people created for us. The time & thought that people put in to making these precious gifts does not go unnoticed. Above you will see the homemade gifts we received this year:

* A nice warm hat for Isabel made by great grandma I.

* A collection of hair bows for Isabel created by grandma.

* An apron for Isabel sewn by grams.

* A charger station for daddy made by grams & gramps (both? or was it just gramps?)

* A beautiful tote for mommy sewn by great grandma I.

* Picture notecards for mommy created by her dear friend Jessi using pictures from her travels.

Thanks again!

Christmas Pictures (Round 5)

This weekend it was Christmas at Grams & Gramps' place. Grams made Isabel this big frosted sugar cookie that was shaped like a stocking. Of course, Isabel shared it with her mama & papa, but she did have quite a bit of it herself. BTW - her hair looked cuter before she took out her pigtails.
While we were there we went out to the barn to see the cows & calves. She was very excited that she recognized the cows and kept yelling "Cow!" They were all mostly afraid of her, but one calf het her pet it and licked her hand. And she was feeding the cows some hay she picked up. They have lots of barn cats too, but they were afraid of her too.

Here she is at present opening time. She got her nice little cleaning trolley from grams & gramps, so now she can help clean things up. She also got an apron, some books, a savings bond, & a very cute outfit.

This is a train that Aunt Razz made out of Sugar Wafer cookies and marshmellows & lots of candies. I thought it was pretty neat and thought maybe we would try this net year instead of a gingerbread house.

Cold Day at the Zoo

Actually, it wasn't such a cold day out. The Zoo was offering free admission from Dec. 26-31, so we thought we would go check us out. The free admission saved us about $20, but we still had to pay parking, which was $9.

I think her favorite was the fish in the aquariums. She did enjoy the monkeys. We didn't see everything because some things were hibernating or not for show during the winter, plus we were getting cold & tired and couldn't make it around to everything. But we did see quite a bit and had an enjoyable time. It was neat to see her recognize the animals (from her books) and use their names.

19 Month Charts

Length

She is now 34 inches. If you look at how she is trending, she is going to be around 3 feet at her 2 year birthday.

Weight

She didn't gain any weight this month. It probably didn't help that she has been sick. Plus, she's a toddler now and doesn't want to sit to eat anymore. She just wants to go-go-go & play.

I entered in her number in the boys chart, just to see how differently the percentiles would be. If she were a boy, her height would be in the 84th percentile, rather than 95th percentile. And for weight she would only be in the 51st percentile, rather than the 73rd percentile.

Just last week she started making the sign for "more" all on her own. She'll use it if she wants more snack or wants you to read more (usually it's the same book again & again, some books she'll let you read it once & be done.) I had periodically done the more sign with her from the beginning of when I did signs with her, but she never caught on (or maybe never had a need for it.) Anyways, she does it now. And what's cute is that if you aren't giving her more (snacks or stories) and she really wants it, she make the sign with more intensity. It's cute, really. Other signs she used to do she doesn't do much anymore because she either doesn't have a use for them or now has words that replace them. She will still do the sign for tired though.

Baby Loves a Massage

Santa brought this massage chair mat for the family. Now, I presume he thought it was going to be used mostly by mama & papa, but Isabel loves it just as much. Yesterday she tried it out for a little bit, then mama & papa had their turns, and as soon as papa got off she ran to it and sat on it and turned it on. Now today, papa called me in to see my baby as she sat on it and got it started and was leaning back saying, "Ahhhhh!"

She seems to be feeling better today than yesterday, but she still has the snotty, runny nose going on and has the chunky cough.

Christmas Pictures (Round 4)

Isabel had fun with her presents from Santa, even if she has been sick all day. She still has this nasty runny nose & chunky cough and I think she has a sore throat, as it looked painful when she coughed a couple times. She didn't eat much for her meal times except fruits & veggies, which I am glad she chose to eat those. And she did eat a good afternoon snack of pretzels, juice, & a yogurt smoothie.

Anyways, as for presents from Santa. He brought her this play "cabin". She loves it because she can go inside & it has Pooh on it. She has developed a fondness for Pooh bear recently. She doesn't care for the fact that she has to duck to get in there. I told her to get used to it because she's tall and she'll have to duck for everything when she grows up. Larry loves it too. He keeps going in there when she is not & going to sleep.



She had fun opening her stocking presents from Santa. I think her favorite stocking present was some punch balloons. She just loves balloons and these have a handle on them, which makes them frun & different. She also got some books & some matchbox cars (which her & daddy made a ramp for and where racing them down that), some chocolates, a train whistle, a christmas bear soap bar and a feather mask to play dress-up with. Santa also got the whole family the new Shrek video and we watched that together today. Here she is wearing her other set of Christmas jammies (they were a set.)

Christmas Pictures (Round 3)

We arrived at our Medford home on Friday night. Our neighbors at the end of the driveway were so kind and made us breakfast both Saturday & Sunday morning, as well as made a crockpot of food for lunch for us and sent us home with a cookie & candy tray. That was just so sweet of Mary! Saturday morning we went to vist out friends Carrie, Kyle, & Gavin for a short while. And in the evening we took our neighbors Cindy & John out for dinner at Buca's. In the pictures above, Isabel is playing with a toy we have left at that home for her to play with. And since it is our holiday home right now, we don't have cable service there & our big tv is here with us, so I had to get out the old 13-inch tv/vcr combo to watch the a couple of cartoons I had on video. It certainly simplifies things when you can't sit in front of the tv (or computer.)

Sunday after breakfast we drove up to grandma & grandpa's house. I am glad we left when we did because the weather got really nasty and the road were awful. We spent the night there and left this morning. Molly was a very good dog the entire time and was very good in the house. Here Isabel is playing with some blocks she got as a present. She does enjoy them. She was also playing with her cousin Travis with them.

Here are pictures from this evening when we opened our presents to each other. Isabel got lots of books, puzzles, & puppets from mama & papa, as well as some new slippers and a LF learning guitar, a bath toy and a new Little Leaps game.

Tomorrow, we'll take pictures as she opens presents from Santa left in her stocking. I am making a nice Christmas dinner just for the three of us. But Christmas won't be over yet, it will continue next weekend.

Christmas Pictures (Round 2)

I took this today as she was sleeping. It was such a long car ride home. The roads weren't too bad once we left MN, but there were still lots of slow downs for cars being taken out of ditches (some probably ended up there yesterday.) She is stuffy & congested and has a cough, so she is kinda cranky and very clingy to mom and the littlest things set her off. She didn't sleep well last night, but she did take 2 naps (60 min & 45 min) on the way home. Thankfully.
She saw my camera and I thought if she is going to grab it & try to get ahold of it, I should at least show her how to use it right and treat it carefully. So, with mommy's help in aiming (she just would look at the viewer & push the button) these are the pictures she tooks with one of daddy's presents. Nevermind my typo I just noticed in the picture. Bah!

Christmas Pictures (Round 1)

These are pictures that grandpa took.

The whole family (minue the ones living in Spain). This is daddy's side of the family.

Nevemind my devil red eyes. Isabel was so tired, as she took an hour nap earlier this morning on our drive up, but didn't nap anymore than 5 minutes in the afternoon. She did go to bed early. We all received some very wonderful presents. I will post pictures later of her playing with her cousin Travis.

Here is daddy with 2 of his 3 brothers. They are goofy when they get together.

Last One for a Few Days

This is the baby Jesus

I just took a quick picture before I needed to get the batteries in the charger. Since we won't have internet access for a couple days you won't see any posts. I might try to put on a post on Sunday or Monday while we are at grandma & grandpa's. So, we'll see.

Anyways, I was telling her about baby Jesus & him being born on Christmas Day. She likes looking at the baby and touching the baby.

In a little bit we are going to go to the Y to go swimming to get her adequately tired. It was kinda a rough night. Well, not rough like it was when she was a baby. But she kept getting up & crying. She did have a good stretch where she slept for about 6 hours w/o getting up (or at least not waking us up.) She is still whiney today and clingy. She is watching Peep right now, so I have a few minutes to type & pack some stuff.

19 Months Old

19 Months Old

Here she is putting her play construction hat on Baby Susie and giving her a hug. (Baby Susie is also wearing a cowgirl top - she can do it all!) We went swimming for an hour today at the Y with our playgroup. That was fun. Then she fell asleep in the car on the way home and kept sleeping as I carried her in and took off all her winter clothes and she took a half hour nap. That is the ONLY nap she took today! Something is going on this week with our little girl. I looked up a teething chart and it says she can start getting her lower 2-year old molars at 20 months -- well, she's almost there. She has just been very whiney this week, very clingy, and quick to throw a very emotional tantrum. She has not napped well at all, as a constant runny nose and drooling a lot & taking her pacifier even more and constantly wants to be held. I stuck my finger back there last night (I was brave) and I didn't feel anything on the bottom (I didn't try the top.) So, it may be an interesting drive to MN & weekend.

We opened a couple of presents tonight just because we wanted to have them for the trip. Plus there will be plenty of presents to open this weekend & on Christmas & next weekend. She opened her travel-size magna doodle. She loves it. Although she doesn't get why she can make marks on anything else with the "pen". That will come in handy as an extra car toy these next 2 weekends. She also opened her new baby doll, but that was only because the box got all wet from when I watered the tree and we wanted to make sure I didn't wreck anything. She doesn't have a name yet. When I ask Isabel what her name is, as she says is "Awwwwwwww." And we all opened our new pajamas. I thought it would be nice to wear our new pjs at the start of our xmas celebrations. So, we'll take them to MN with us. Mommy also got to open the present of a car food/beverage cooler/warmer. That will come in handy to store our sandwiches, etc. as we make our journey. I always pack stuff, but if you don't dirnk/eat it right away it starts to warm up and then it might not be as appetizing.

So, tomorrow we head back to MN to our home there. We'll get there early Friday evening and stay through Sunday morning. Then we are going to the Cities to grandma & grandpa's house. That afternoon we are taking cousin Travis to an indoor waterpark with us as part of his xmas present. We'll spend a couple hours there and then we'll head back to grandma & grandpa's to enjoy the xmas festivities there. We're spending the night there and then Monday (24th) morning, we'll head back to WI and do our own xmas thing -- just the three of us. Next weekend we travel north to grams & gramps to do the xmas thing with them.

Ging Her Babies Love

If you watch the You Tube video you will see her giving love to Baby Ella. In the pictures above, she is giving love to Baby Henry. We have three kinds of loving displays in our family, two you have heard of: hugs & kisses. But we also have Bonka. Daddy made up Bonka with Isabel and now we all do it all the time. It is where we lovingly "bonk" our foreheads together. Isabel loves to bonka. Sometimes she just doesn't want to give kisses, but she'll usually give a bonka (it's very gentle!)

You Tube

Well, I put my first video on You Tube. Isabel's grams & gramps have dial-up and have a hard time watching the videos I put on here, but seem to be able to watch You Tube videos just fine.

You Tube seems so much more public than on this blog, since so many people look at it all the time. I might just not put them on there if this proves to be a negative experience. I know daddy checks out You Tube videos and you can leave anonymous comments and be dumb shits about it. I don't want people being like that. So, I will give it a shot and if this turns sour it will be the last time I try it.

Pictures from Friday

These are pictures from Friday. She wore her holiday out that she wore in her 18 months portrait & to Thanksgiving. We have different dresses for the other Christmas events. Mommy took a stab at making a bow for her and you can see the one I came up with. Grandma is making some for her and we'll see those this weekend.

Hello....

It starts out on it's side for a couple seconds, then I remember to turn it horizontal.

The Weekend....so far....

Well, Friday we had the holiday party for our playgroup. It was small because several kids were sick, but it was still nice. That night Isabel did her bedtime routine stuff with daddy and then mommy went out for dinner & shopping with a friend. That was sure nice to get out and not be lugging around baby stuff & a baby. (At alsmost 19 months, is she still a baby? Well, she's still my baby.) But of course, the only thing mommy bought was a couple of shirts for Isabel.

Yesterday we went to the post office to send out some Christmas packages and apply for Isabel's passport. We don't have any plans to leave the country (or any vacation plans at all), but winter has set in and I want to go somewhere in Feb/Mar and if the deals take us to Mexico, then we all need passports. And with it taking 4-6 weeks to get one, we needed to get this done right away. Of course she wouldn't smile for her picture, but she really never does when anyone else takes a picture.

Then we went to buy some rock salt for the porch/driveway and finally lunch @ McDonald's. We had not been to a McD's since we moved here. Having that playroom at YMCA keeps us from wanting to go there for a playplace. It was a big open one and Isabel was able to crawl through the whole thing by herself & slide by herself. Mommy went with her the first couple times, but then I thought we'd see if she could do it all on her own and she did. I was so proud of her. Someone there asked how old she was and when I told them they said she was a brave little girl in there.

We spent the rest of the day home, wondering when it was going to quit snowing and if we were going to go broke having to pay a plow guy this year. We had snacks and started watching "Polar Express" together (we'll finish it soon.)

Right now Isabel & daddy are still sleeping and mommy is just waiting for them to wake up so she can make Banana pancakes for breakfast.

Making Snowflakes

Well, since she can't use scissors yet I just had her hold the paper and I would make cuts and then she would open them up. And then I had her hand them to me as I hung them from the light fixture above the dining room table. We stayed inside most of the day. We just ran out to buy some crafting stuff and were home the rest of the day. We did buy a little statue of Mary, Joseph & baby Jesus and I read her some of the Christmas stories from her Kids Bible.

Tomorrow we have our holiday party for our playgroup. That should be fun. She is going to wear her holiday outfit that she wore for Thanksgiving & for her 18 month pictures.

Gingerbread Houses

We had our friends Carrie, Leah & Ryan over today to build gingerbread houses. It was sure messy and the kids ingested a lot of sugar. We had fun though. We used a pattern I found online that used graham crackers and I also made royal icing (the "glue") and we used lots of different candies. I wasn't so sure the kids would eat the lunch I made after all the candy, but they did. You can see our finished product. Isabel handed me M&M's & skittles to use, plus she dumped a bunch of "snow" (coconut) on the house. The icing made it all nice & hard. Now we'll put it out & watch her pick all the candy off to eat.

They had some time to play as well and played with her Little Leaps and also watched a little Peep. When they were watching Peep, Leah & Isabel were snuggled up next to each other. It was very adorable.

We went to the last storytime of the year this morning. She got a little homemade stuffed bear from the library. Apparently some woman makes them every year for the little ones. Storytime will start again at the end of January.

Yesterday

We received almost 6 inches of snow yesterday, as well as some sleet & rain. The roads were awful, most schools were closed in the area, and many businesses were closed or closed early. So, we stayed inside rather than going to the Y for my yoga class (I just did yoga at home to a show I tivo'ed from PBS.) Anyways, we had to play with anything & everything.

Bubble Video

It's a little over a minute long. Just her playing nicely in the bathtub.

Another Sunday

We took her out sledding this afternoon. It was ok until dad dumped in the snow. Then she was mad at him and didn't want to go by him. But he made it up to her by playing her computer game with her.

She is in the dog crate. She put herself in here. It was out because Auntie Phanie & Uncle J put their dog Cyprus in here last night. She just thought playing in there was the best thing. She did good for her babysitters last night. No cries at all, which was surprising. Guess we know who we'll call next time we need a babysitter.

Cool

This is a really short clip. Sorry, it's on it's side. I don't have time to figure out how to flip it. Guess I need to remember to always hold the camera horizontal.

81 Weeks

This afternoon we are going swimming and then Auntie Phanie & Uncle J are coming over to babysit so that mommy & daddy can go to a work holiday party. They will spend the night and maybe will hangout with us tomorrow for a while

Setting the Table

Isabel is a good little helper. Here she is helping me set the table. Actually, she set the whole table. I give her a piece and tell her which spot it goes and she sets it there. She even put the napkins on. Granted I have to straighten it all out, but things are where they are supposed to be and she helps out nicely.

She likes to help with laundry too. She will take verything out of the dryer & put it in the basket. While she does that I put the wet stuff in a basket so she can put that in the dryer. And when we put away laundry she helps put away her bibs & the kitchen towels.

When I do dishes she likes to help too. I have her put away storage containers since they are stored at her level. Other times she will hand me dishes to put away.

She likes to try help sweep & mop, ut sometimes that is just a hassle.

Midwest Twisters

We met her friend Maggie & Drew here today for playgroup. I wasn't sure if she was too young for this, but it was perfect. She knows what she can do and was very good about self monitoring, although I need to be right there by her. She had so much fun. We will definitly go back when it works into our schedule. They have a card that you get stamped everytime you go and after 5 times your 6th time is free, which is cool. It costs $5 for her to go play for 1.5 hours. The have open gyms on Tu, W, & F (but W is during naptime.)

I saw this Hopscotch Mat on Martha Stewart Crafts (I decided it might be fun to start watching that.) She's too young for it, but it would be something fun to make for her when she gets old enough.

Christmas-y Day

Well, today was St. Nick's Day. Last night Isabel put out her letter to Santa & we talked about how Santa was going to come check on her last night to make sure she was a good girl and if she was she would get some treats. So, this morning she checked her stocking and there were a few treats in there (some chocolate, a juice box, & a matchbox car). She loved all of it.

Today we went to the Cookie Exchange for Newcomer's Club. We came home with 12 dozen batches of bookies/candies. My favorite so far is the Chocoalte Covered Peanut Butter Balls. I think Isabel & Daddy have the same favorite (so far) of the Pinwheels.

Tomorrow we plan to go to Midwest Twisters with another mom & her kids (maybe some others) for their open gym. Isabel is just learning to jump, so she will have so much fun I think. And then in the evening we are going to go to the Erock concert at Books & Co.

Elfin' Around

We turned into Elves. I sent this to come family & friend and now you can enjoy it too if you have not seen it yet. Daddy doesn't like it because he doesn't like seeing his baby girl as a big girl.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow.

Well, I really don't want it to snow that much, but that verse was in my head.

We went outside for a little bit today. Not too long, otherwise I would have put snow pants on. And I couldn't find her sled that we brought along (just found it though), so I knew we weren't going to stay out too long. Just long enough to do a little exploring.



We were homebound today. I had 12 dozen cookies to make. Well, 12 dozen for the cookie exhange tomorrow and then a couple more dozen. I still probably have another couple dozen in dough left. I just got tired of making the same cookies after 3 hours that I finished when I had enough. I made Chocolate Crinkles. I also did a lot of laundry & cleaning today as well. I still have more of each to do.

New Things

The last few weeks she likes to put a napkin on her chest/lap. I don't always do that. Sometimes the napkin sits by my plate, but she has learned to put a napkin on her lap and loves to do that.

You can see the orange marker all over her hands. I left it out accidently and now there is orange marker all over the step stool too. Luckily it is washable.

Tonight I was watching her play with this wooden Melissa & Doug containers I got her. They have tops that are magnetic. I gave them to her quite a while ago, while we still lived in Medford. She had her own way of playing with them then, but now she is matching them up based on color. There are 5 different containers that have labels on the front & have cap the color used in the label. The colors are yellow, blue, orange, pink & purple. The first 2 & the last 2 have matching top sizes (so there are 3 different sizes). So it's not like she is matching size; she has to be matching color. This is really the first evidence I have really had that she can see color.

The other thing I observed her doing was accurately matching the animals halves in her Leapfrog Fridge Farm Magnetic Animal Set. That was really neat to see her doing that. I can't even tell you how many words she can say now. She says new words everyday. It's truly amazing to watch her learn.

Isabel Meets Santa

Well, it didn't go as well this year as it did last year. She had her "stranger danger" alert going off. We had been reading Santa stories and she likes the picture of Santa on this big poster cutout and she liked the real Santa when he fist walked in the door and was 30 feet away from her, but by the time he was 5 feet away she was scared. She was already crying before she sat on his lap.

We went to tne Community Center in Dousman where their Chamber of Commerce sponsored this Children's Christmas Party. It was all free and was very nice. It was nicely decorated and the middle school band was playing Christmas Carols. Isabel loved the band and clapped right after every song. Instantly when the song was done she started clapping. She would clap and giggle and have a huge smile on her face. Daddy waited in line for Santa (they actually had these staggered rows of chairs, which I am sure parents appreciated.) Anyways, while daddy waited in line we sat at a table and colored. They also sold food and xmas cookies there. It was nice. They also gave each child a stuff xmas character (she got Rudolph), a candy cane, & a sugar cookie.

Where's Isabel?

First Saturday of December

Here she is trying to figure out the remote. She stayed home all day with daddy. I only got out for a bit to go grocery shopping (which I hate doing during December - I stocked up so I hopefully don't need to go for a week or two now, except maybe to Kwik Trip for some basics.)


We got her an Advent Calendar (although, is it really an advent calendar with Santa on the front.) She wasn't sure about the chocolate at first. I don't think she knew what it was, but after daddy took a bite she was all over that. We'll see how many days before she catches on and is asking for it other than after dinner.