Pictures from Today

We went to the Retzer Nature Center in Waukesha today. We had never been there before. It was just Isabel & mommy on this little field trip. We had a nature center we liked to visit in MN and I was hoping this would be as fun. It was different, but just as fun. This one has a big aquarium with lots of fish. She loved that. And some smaller aqauriums with other creatures (snakes, gerbils, doves, walking stick, frogs & turtles.) They also had lots of "stuffed" animals to look at, a display or rocks that you could touch, many of which had fossil imprints, this little area that represented the root systems of many different plants (I thought that was kinda neat) and a whole area of things that they could pick up, touch & feel. We were there for 45 minutes. They have really nice looking trails and once it gets warmer I think we'll walk the trails a bit & then hang out looking at everything inside. They also had an outdoor picnic area, which could be fun. Next door (within the same building) is the planetarium. We didn't go there, but we'll check that out some other time. Another thing that is awesome about this place is that it is free to attend and park and it's really not too far of a drive from our house. We will definitly be back.

BTW - sorry about the pics. I forgot my camera and just had to use my camera phone.

Cousin Blake

Isn't He Cute!

His daddy sent out this picture today. Apparently he is learning to play solitaire already.

Most of our plans this week have changed due to illness (not ours though) or crappy weather. We did go swimming last night and she loved that. We were practicing her jumping in. I would count to three, but she always jumped in at 2. She was not afraid at all. And she is getting good and moving her arms in the water. We are still working on kicking her feet. She likes to kick her feet when we have her swimming on her back.

Tomorrow, if all goes as planned, mommy will have her class, then Isabel will have her class and then to an appt. and finally in the evening we will go to a pajama storytime at the bookstore. That's a nice little storytime.

Pudding Time

I made some instant pudding today. Pudding is one of the things I just don't care to serve her the per-made stuff. I know it says made with "Real Milk", but really, how much milk is in there? If I make it I know that there is 2 cups of milk in the batch of pudding, so she gets a half cup of milk when she eats it.

Today we had a friend over for a playdate. It didn't turn out the way I envisioned it exactly, but the girls still had fun and moms got to talk.

Tomorrow we plan to go to an open gym time if the weather allows. And Thursday we are going to a playdate with her friends Leah & Ryan and then on Friday we have out classes and afterwards our playgroup is swimming at the Y, so we hope to do that too. But we'll see how she is. Last week she got cranky at the end of her class because she got up too early and was tired.

The Domes Slide Show

This does have music with it.

Pictures from Sunday Morning

This Weekend

88 Weeks Old

I got her some dress-up jewelry, so she was having fun playing with that. Check out all that drool. She is still working on pushing those molars through. Lots of drool all the time.

Getting Ready

I thought they looked cute getting Isabel ready this morning. We comb her hair while she brushes her teeth and them we get in there and finishe brushing. We went out to eat last night tot he Elm Grove Inn (Fantastic!) and got home kinda late, so we skipped the bath in favor of her taking one with mom this morning. It was nice to get out and go to a nice sit down restaurant. The food was excellent! We got a corner booth (it's very old school supper clubish) which meant Isabel could move around between us, but still be contained. It was probably the best location for us. Isabel loved the food too. Mommy had to share her seafood chowder, chicken caesar salad, & white chocolate souffle with her.

Today we are meeting the club at the Domes, so hopefully that is fun. And then afterwards we are all meeting for pizza at Marty's.

Painting Slide Show

You've been waiting for it....and now it's finally here: Her Painting Slide Show. It's just over a minute long.

Updates

A slide show from today will be coming....I just don't have time to create it and type up everything.

So, this week we went to playgroup on Monday and then Wednesday we went to storytime/playtime at the library. The storytime part this week was sing-a-long, which is fun. The kids get to play hand instruments and the library person plays her guitar and we all sing. Then after storytime they bring out a bunch of toys and the kids all can play.

Wednesday afternoon we had playgroup at our place. We had a small showing, but it was still fun and we got to spend more time with the people who were there. Today, we met some moms & their kids at Starbucks and that was nice. Isabel got hot cocoa all over her and unfortunately it didn't come out all the way. Guess they are play clothes for getting messy in now.

We had a bunch of fun at home this week too. She did some painting today, which you will see when I complete the slide show.

Today we had to do a few things to finish answering questions on the survey for the Follow Along Program. So, I asked her to try walking up the steps by herself (w/o holding one of my hands) and she was able to walk up all the stairs by herself. I kept encouraging her and telling her how good she was doing and when she got to the top she was just beeming. She was so proud of herself. We also did some drawing. I had to see if she would draw a straight line if I did, and we did this several times. So, I started working with her on drawing circles. She made a very good effort for a 20-month old (they aren't expected to be able to do this yet). They kinda looked like jelly beans that sat out in the sun. There is some resemblence to a oval, which is very good for her age.

That Starfall program has been wnderful for her. Now when she sees letters she will point to them and say their name or their sound. It's so cute when she recognizes a letter. Yesterday when she saw an "L" she said "lllllll" (sound) and today when she saw it she said "L".

We played a lot with her play food and play dishes today. I put a towel on the coffee table in the living room and filled up her tea kettle with water and gave her some cereal in a bowl. They both were mixed into many other dishes.

One of her favorite games today was playing Open the Door. I would knock on the door and she would answer it and then shake my hand. She thought it was hilarious when I would knock on the door and then she would open it and then I was standing there. She also figured out how to turn the knob to open the door (the knobs in the house are a little hard to turn.)

Tomorrow we have our classes at the Y and then in the afternoon we have a playdate. This weekend, I am taking a CPR & First Aid class with some other moms. We will get a 2-year certification. I think it is so important for us SAHM's to be up to date on this. It has been so long since I took a CPR or First Aid class and after daddy took his last year we found out they changed how the CPR is done. Then on Sunday we are joining a bunch of other families in the club and going to the Domes and then out to pizza afterwards. We haven't visited the Domes yet, so that will be nice and it will also be nice for daddy to meet some more of the people in the club & their husbands.

Another Little Video

Just watch what starts happening around 25 seconds in this video. You can tell. You'll know what's going on.

Shake Like Chirp

Here is a little video to watch of her playing a game on Peep (click on Peep on the side bar, then games, then Paint Splat). When you want to clear the paint you turn on the hose and when the hose it turned on, Chrip gets wet and shakes off the water, & Isabel does it too. It's very cute.

Weekend Pictures

This is from yesterday. She & daddy were playing dress up. Well, mainly she was giving daddy a bunch of things to put on, but she was getting dressed up too. Mommy was playing dress-up earlier, but then daddy steped in so mommy could take pictures.

We used one of the canvases that daddy bought for mommy for Christmas today. Isabel painted us a beautiful painting that we plan to display in the lake house rental and hopefully some day soon, a new home in WI.

87 Weeks Old

This picture was taken yesterday. She loves to play dress-up. One of these days I want to have a litle dress-up tea party with some of her friends. I think that would be fun & cute.

20 Months Old

Today she is 20 months old. She spilled water all down her shirt, but that is what toddlers do. So, I took the picture anyways.

The Final Masterpiece

This is her beautiful creation. I just need to figure out how to seal it so that if it were to get wet sometimes it would not become a streaky mess. We used washable tempura paint.

Updates.....

Well, no pictures today, just text. So, time for some updates.
* Her favorite words recently are "no, no, no" (if she doesn't want something or doesn't want you to do something) or "oh, noooooooooo" (if she drops something, like a snack) or "mama" (sometimes she just says this to see if I wil ansewr her and then she just smiles.)
* We had our second day of Giggle & Wiggle Class. We painted using dry kool-aid sprinkled on freezer paper and used an ice cube as the water & paint brush. She had fun with that.
* She did not cry the two times I dropped her off at kid-care at the Y this week. Yeah for me! I always feel bad that I leave her there when she is balling, even though she is just fine and has fun reading. She is always glad to see me come pick her up.
* The toddler bed is working great. No attempts to sneak out of bed after the first couple days. Actually, she doesn't even get out of bed after naps or in the morning unless I take her out.
* We took a step back from potty-learning. I picked up this book to read on it and decided we would try some more of the pre-training things. Plus, I didn't want her to get to overwhelmed by a new bed & potty-learning. Some of those new things we are doing seem helpful and we'll maybe try again in Feb. or Mar.
* She is still not a huge fan of milk, but loves her yogurt & smoothies & cheese and gets her calcium that way. And she eats loads of broccoli which is packed with calcium.
* She teething. The bottom two two-year old molars are just buldging underneath the gums. So, it's just a waiting game. Today, she was particularly crabby, so I think they must have bothered her.
* We are starting to go into a size 3T for tops & one-piece jammies. Her torso still is long, so we need the length. The width of a 2T fits great, but we just need that length. Her bottoms are a 2T.
* She is going upstairs like a big girl (not crawling) and only needs to hold onto one hand (& we hold it low so it's more for balance and she is making her legs do the work). She hasn't quite figured out going down the stairs like a big girl, but that will come. That's a little trickier.
* She loves to play with her winter hats & scarves. They sit in a basket in the entry/playroom/computer room and she frequently puts them on as she plays.

Play-Doh!

I gae her play-doh for the first time tonight. She thouhgt it was a lot of fun, but play-doh doesn't taste very good (video).

We stayed home all morning and then after nap time we met our friends Carrie, Leah & Ryan at this nice little coffee house that had a little play area for kids. The kids were entertained; Carrie said it was the best cup of hot cocoa she ever had; the conversation was good. Afterward we went to Target and I don't think she'll be coming on Target runs with me for a while. She won't sit in the cart, throws a tantrum when I strap her in and tries pulling all the clothes & shoes off the racks. Not fun for mommy.

Tomorrow we have our classes and then we are staying indoors. We may cancel our plans this weekend because the windchill is just supposed to be too nasty.

Just Every Day Videos

They are uploading right now, but soon you will be able to view them. I have 1 minute videos of her:
1) Playing with Blocks
2) Taking a Drink Break
3) Playing with Puppets
4) Playing with her Pop-Up Toy & Cars

And now our living room is a mess and I need to go pick it up.

Isabel Loves Roses

They are actually for mommy. When Isabel & I came back last night from running errands we saw them on the kitchen table. I think she thought they were for her. She loves them. You notice in the bottom right picture she is throwing a tanturm because I took my roses away from her.

How Tall Will Isabel Be?

Well, I used two different height predictors online and found out she'll probably be 5'8-5'9.

The first one takes into account both parents' heights. And the second one I did uses her height (you pick the age in years & months and then enter the height).

For the first one it said she will be 5'9 and for the second one it said she will be 5'8.

There is a third predictor, but you need their height at age two (which she isn't yet) and then you double it.

Copying Daddy

She was reading the newspaper at breakfast too when both mommy & daddy were. I think it's very cute that she wants to read the newspaper while she eats like we were.

For the most part today, we stayed home, except we did go to the Y to go swimming. It was crazy busy again. Darn people their resolutions. I can't wait for another month and all those people to not be filling the place.

86 Weeks

Yesterday we had our first Giggle & Wiggle class at the Y. It is a 45-minute strutured class. It starts out with some free time while people gather in, then we sing the hello song, then we read a book, then we make a craft that pertains to the book, then they bring out a bunch of toys and there is free play, then we sing the goodbye song.

She loves playing Starfall on the computer. I think it is really helping her with recognition of numbers and especially letters and learning new words. She loves it. We will usually play it for a little while and then when we are done she gets to choose between two coloring sheets to color.

I just thinks she looks funny trying to eat a whole banana. Usually I just give her a half, but today she wanted a whole one. She doesn't want it cut up; she wants to eat it whole like a big girl.

Speaking of big girl, last night & for her nap today was the first time she has slept in a toddler bed. We were fortunate for someone to give us a Cinderella toddler bed. Her crib was one that converted into a toddler bed, but I was concerned about how high up it still was. So, since someone gave us one we were happy to try it out. She loves her little bed.

At nap time today, she slowly worked herself out of bed & to her toys to play. I went up there and put her back in and told her to stay in bed and take a nap & went back downstairs and we watched her on the baby monitor and after a few minutes she tries again. Daddy tells me to just talk through the door, so I go upstairs and lay on the floor by her door because I want to see a little bit of what she does (I can only see her feet, but he is downstairs watching the monitor) and I say, "Isabel, get in bed." and she jumps back into bed and lays there and shortly after falls asleep. Too funny.

Today we went to watch the Packer game with some new friends. It was fun and we had a good time witht hem.

A Couple of Pictures From Today

This is from when she got dressed up to go to Target & to the library for storytime & playtime. She was really squirrely today at storytime, but I think she had fun.

This was right after she had breakfast. She lined up her dollies on her picnic table so they could eat. She has been playing with her babies a lot today.

Rainy Day

Well, we stayed home all day. It pretty much rained all day (in January in Wisconsin?!?!). Hey - there were even a couple of tornado touchdowns in a nearby county yesterday (in January in Wisconsin?!?!) Most times she is very good about brushing her teeth, although she needs mom & dad's help to really get them brushed good, but she likes her toothpaste, so she likes brushing them. And now that we got a stepstool for the bathroom, she really thinks it's something new & fun. I like it because I can comb her hair more easily while she brushes.

So, what did we do all day. Well, there was breakfast, then sweeping the floors (she helped a little with her new cleaning stuff), getting ready, watching Peep, some computer time with Peep & Elmo, some coloring, some reading, putting together puzzles, playing with her Little People & cars, lunch, more reading, naptime, listening to kid music, playing Starfall on the computer, more coloring, playing in the basement & now she is playing with her dollies. We still have dinner, more reading, bathtime, and a few other fun stuff to do.

I tok four short videos of her playing her outdoor equiptment in the basement. I brought it all in during late fall and put it in the basement. So, now she can swing, play basketball, slide, and ride on her toys during the winter. They outgrow some of those things so fast, it would be a shame not to use them all year long. Each activity is a short video, usually around 30 seconds. The basement is cement floor and wall, it's not pretty, but it's clean and is was a good use of space and a good place to bring her outside toys in. I do have rugs underneath the slides so in case she lands on her butt or something. Happy viewing.

Today is brought to you by the letter C!

Today we ran some errands because Isabel slept in to long and mommy missed her spinning class (we'll try to go tomorrow morning instead), then met playgroup at Mc Donald's for lunch and playtime. Then she took a Loooong nap. I thought there would be a 2 year old molar pushed through, but it's not yet....it's sooo close! We played her Starfall program on the computer and she was infatuated with the letter C. We had to do it over & over again. Then we printed off a coloring page for that letter to color, which she had a blast with. She named everything on there, including the letter C.

New Toys?

Today she thought it was fun to stack the toilet paper & knock it dopwn. So, I went with it and brought them out into the living room so that she could play the actk & knock down game with daddy. They had fun. We went swimming at the Y today and it was very crowded. I figure it is a bunch of people with their resolutions that just joined or have the resolution to spend more time witht heir kids. We still had fun. The new schedule at the Y starts tomorrow, so we will be back into a regular routine for things. We like routine. And then we are meeting playgroup at McDonald's for lunch.

Happy Saturday

Well, we'll start with yesterday. We met some friends at the Y and walked around the track and then had lunch with them while we were there. In the evening we went to storytime at the bookstore. They read stories about winter & we made marshmellow snowman and had hot cocoa. When we got home, Isabel was still not tired (probably from her recent ingestion of sugar) and we had a pillow fight. She definitly enjoyed that.

Today, mommy & daddy took turns going to the Y to workout while Isabel stayed home all day with one or the other. This afternoon she helped mommy make veggie lasagna. Mommy would chop the vegetables and Isabel would put them in a small bowl and then later dump them all in a big bowl. This is what we had for dinner. It was very good. She also watched Peep and we have a short 15 sec. clip of that, sorry for the lack of image, it's more of a sound thing I guess. She loves Peep and always clap when the intro comes on. Sometimes when she is watching it she will start laughing at what is usually going on, that is usually when Quack is falling down or getting hit on the head or something.

No big plans tomorrow. I think we'll go swimming at the Y after dinner. If it is warm & not raining (not raining will be the key) we may go to Concord zoo and feed the animals there. She likes that she can feed them rather than just look. Mommy thinks that is more fun too.

Feel Better Soon Grandma

Isabel's grandma (daddy's mommy) had surgery on her back yesterday. She should be home today. We home she feels better soon.

Daddy had to take in the car today to see what was wrong after someone ran into him (& drove off! F-ers!) He has a side mirror to replace, hubcap missing, & bent tire rim & some dents & painted scraped. I don't think we'll really worry about the dents. Daddy was ok, just shaken up.

I am uploading a video of her babbling onto YouTube, but it is taking a little while longer than normal. So, you'll see a link to it once it is complete. Daddy thinks her babbling is so cute and thought we needed to video tape it to remember it, so while she was playing after lunch I thought I would get some footage, because there was a lot of babbling going on. She took the bow out of her hair, so she has a Beetle look to her today.

She got several puzzles for Christmas. She doesn't have the fine motor skills to get them all the way correctly, but she has the knowledge to know where they all go. Some are a little easier than others, but I am sure she'll have them all figured out soon.

We are working on her saying her numbers. She is particularly fond of "3", but also likes 2, 4, 5, & 6. She doesn't care too much for 8 yet; it's kinda hard to say.

We started trying to learn how to use the potty yesterday. No actual poop or pee made it into the potty, but she did sit bare bottom on the toilet for 10 minutes while we read books. We tried 3 different times yesterday. Today we have only tried once and she popped on the potty. Woohoo! Although, I know she didn't poop as much as she had in her (that all came out in her pull-up after we got back from the Y.) But she did actually poop in the toilet & got hugs & kisses & cheers, which she was very happy about all that. At first she looked embarrassed (after she pooped) like she did when she would have an accident in the bath, but once I started congratulating her and hugging her she started smiling and giggling and I think then she knew it was ok. We bought some new books yesterday that she just gets to read while she is on the potty. And since she loves to read it was a good way to get her comfortable with sitting in the bathroom for a while.

This afternoon we are going to playgroup. It has been a little while since have seen some of the kids and moms due to the holidays & illness. It will be nice to see a bunch of them again. Tomorrow we plan to go to storytime in the evening at the bookstore. They are reading books about winter, making marshmallow snowman & having hot cocoa. It sounds like fun.

Favorite Photo of the Day

This picture is in the slide show, but you can't see it as well in it. I like it.

Second Slide Show

This one is just a short 25 second one. The other one is about 2 minutes long.

Happy New Year!

Well, the new year will bring new things. One of those things is that we are going to begin potty training and see how that goes. I'll put her in a pull-ups when we go to the Y or playgroup, but when we are at home she is going to wear her training underware. This is a whole new experience for me. I never potty trained a kid before. When I was a nanny, I did everything else (well, not breastfeed) but I had experience in most things kid/baby related. To be honest, I am little nervous about this whole thing -- but it has to be done. Once we have her daytime trained then we will convert her crib into a toddler bed so that we can work on nighttime training.

So, I have a couple slide shows here for you to view. They are set to music if you choose to listen to it. I will load the other one soon.



I showed her how to do the lacing & she did it. This was the first time trying that. I didn't get any pictures of that since she was on my lap for that.