Happy Canada Day?

Week in Review

Days & Events

• This week M, T, & F she spent mornings at daycare and it will probably be the last time she goes there. Those afternoons she came home for a nap and then played outside.
• On Wednesday we we for a walk (& play inside) with our friend Linda & her daughter Morgan at Riverbend Nature Center.
• On Wedneday, I officially became a SAHM. I am very excited about it, although not looking forward to the Single SAHM part that will happen in a couple fo weeks when daddy goes ahead to his new job and we stay behind to sell the house.
• Thursday morning all three of us went to the library and got some new books and new toys and in the afternoon mommy's friend Rhynda came over with her son Charlie for a playdate.
• Friday was a low-key day. She wentt o daycare for a couple of hours (I paid the time, I might as well use it, plus it gave me time to pack up some stuff in her room.) The daycare lady seemed sad this might be the last time she takes care of here and one of Isabel' little boyfriends there was sad to see her leave. It was cute & sad at the same time. I might see if once a week I can go there with her for an hour or so (after daddy leaves for MKE) and she can play with her friends and I have an adult to talk to.
• Saturday, we met our dear friend Jessi & her nephews at the zoo. We were there for 2 hours and only got through the outside part. They stayed, but we needed to leave because it was pas Isabel's nap time and she was starting to show it. Daddy liked taking her to the petting zoo/farm part and showing her the goats.
• Sunday - is today - I think it will be low-key again. We have no plans. It's supposed to be a gorgeous day. So maybe we'll walk to the park. Our friend Skye is bringing us over raspberries today from her place. That is sweet of her.

New Things

1. She loves trying to figure out her stacking rings and putting them back on the stack. You can just see the wheels turning as she figures out what order they go in.
2. She easily be distracted with linked beads, which she loves to pull off.
3. Our riend Carrie was due to have her baby boy Gavin a few days ago. We haven't heard anything yet, so she must still be waiting.
4. On Monday, she brought herself up to standing without holding onto anything to get here or to stay there. We were amazed watching her.
5. When we went to library and she went to the books, she immediatly pulled out on of her favorites: Do's & Don'ts by Todd Parr. His books are kinda fun. Right now she is enjoying a pocket-size English-Spanish baby words one and a flap book that directs them to find baby's body parts.
6. She has figured out the mouse button(s) on the laptop and take her pointer finger and presses it, causing mommy & daddy to lose their place.
7. She is still very ticklish under her neck. Daddy was trying to clean up crumbs there and she was laughing hysterically. It was hilarious.

58 Weeks & A Trip to the MN Zoo

Today we went to the zoo with our dear friend and one of Isabel' godmothers, Jessi. She brought along her nephews with as well. Jessi gave Isabel passes to the zoo for her birthday and we wanted to go with her to use them. We had a good time. We have not idea who the little girl in the haystack picture with us is. She just stuck her head through.

Friday,June 29th

comments to be added

Cute Story.

At one point today I was sitting on the floor of the living room leaning against the couch surfing the internet on the computer. Isabel crawls over to me and on top of me and buries her head into my chest, pulls it back and does it again. She infrequently does this if she wants to nurse. Well, shortly after the 2nd head bod, something else got her attention and she went to that and then decided to crawl over to the rocking chair that I normally nurse her in, removed the boppy from the seat and then looked at me as she leaned against the chair and started patting the seat of the chair with one had while she grasped the fabric of the boppy with the other hand. It was as if she was saying, "Woman! Get over here and nurse me!" It made me smile and giggle. Of course, I went to her.

Hangin'

Fun Stuff to Do

Here are a couple of things I found to make online:
Kool-aid Fingerpaint (beats paying $5 for fingerpaints.)
Homemade Bubbles (not that bubbles cost a lot, but it's easy to do.)
No Sew Fleece Poncho (Phanie - you could make one of these for Hannah for xmas, it would be cute.)

And not fun stuff to do, but helpful, is this website about using vineger to clean EVERYTHING!

Get that cute butt over here.

I bought this little skirt at a rummage sale on Friday. I thought it was fun. I also picked up the little chair too. She thinks that is fun.

57 Weeks

This was a garage sale find for $2. She like to tip the ball in with one hand when you hold it there (since she isn't standing by herself yet.) She giggles when she tips it in.

13 Month Charts

Length: 32.5"

Weight: 24 lbs.

Almost Friday...

Well, Isabel had grandma come & babysit her yesterday & today while mom had to go to work and dad was gone to interviews. She enjoyed spending time with grandma.

I have been participating a lot on a discussion forum on Milwaukee Moms. It is a very nice resource and I am glad I found it.

This afternoon, Isabel & I went to 43rd Street Pub & Grill (it used to be a Green Mill and is still just like that.) It was during happy hour time, so we had half price appetizers of chicken quesadillas and chicken fingers. The waiter was nice and brought some applesauce out for her as well. She ate all the fresh tomatoes from the quesadillas and her applesauce and had some of the appetizers & her juice I brought along. So, she ate a decent meal. As I looked over the menu I realized how hard it is to feed her a balaced healthy meal like I do at home, but I think we did pretty good. And we even had enough left over that daddy gets half of it.

Tonight marks the start of Straight River Days, our local festival.

Nothing new to report. Our house has not sold, actually no one has come to visit in the last 2 weeks. And we still don't know where we are moving to. We should know soon, but then again, maybe not.

13 Months

Happy Father's Day Daddy!

We went & checked out the local wildlife reserve....not much to see....then we took our picnic and went to the park and sat out on a blanket and had a picnic. I figured a blanket was easier with Isabel than sitting at a picnic table. Then mommy & daddy played some bocce ball and Isabel played with her toys, then she & daddy went on the seings & slide and finally we all went to the outlet mall to buy a couple of things. She napped quite a bit today, but needed it after we had to wake her up last night because of the tornado warning & all the sirens. We had to go down to the basement until they cancelled the warning. Luckily, she went back to sleep after that.

Totally Cool. Make a Kid's Carboard Chair for free.

As I was reading through my Natural Home Magazine, I saw a short article on making your own foldschool cardboard chair. Very neat. All the instreuctions are free and located here. They have designs for a stool, chair, & rocker. Guess I have something to do with our moving boxes. I could make enough furniture to fill a whole elementary school, I think. Very cool idea.

June 16, 2007

Just a little slide show of pictures from today. She has been practicing letting go for a second or two and standing on her own. I think the daycare lady was wrong; I don't think she took any steps yet. Anyways, she's standing without support for 1-2 seconds at a time.

Our new little game is from the Toddler's Busy Book. We just put golf balls in & out of the muffin pan.

Fun Times

We put the dog in the castle, but she very quickly figured out she is small and agile enough to jump up and out through the window.

We bought her this Little Tikes castle from Craigslist. We got a really good deal on it (brand new this things costs $350 - yikes!) and there is just a little something wrong with it, but it doesn't affect how sturdy it is or fun. She's still al ittle young for it because she can't see out of the turret (or even climb up to the bench in the turret) or climb up to go down the slide, but she can look on the windows, go in & out the door (& secret door). It's something to enjoy little bits now and grow into it more later.

We went to visit our friends Carrie & Kyle today as well. They are due to have little Gavin in 2 weeks.

Almost the Weekend

Her First Masterpiece

We tried out fingerpaints today. By the end she just wanted to rip up the paper. We pretty much just hung out at home all day. We played outside a couple times and she was obsessed with her sticks in the AM and then in the PM we played with balls on her cube and she thought that was so much fun to roll them down the slide and them throw them over the top of the cube.

I'm trying to change her routine a little bit so that she goes to bed a little later and then gets up a little later too. So, after supper we go outside and play for about 30 minutes and she goes to bed now at 7pm (instead of 6:30pm.)

I did her weight(24 lbs.) & length (32.5") today.

,m n n
b

Isabel typed that last part. She likes to pound on the keyboard.

Stick Lover

Last summer & fall we used to bring her outside when she would get really fussy. She loved looking at the trees. In the winter we would show her the trees through the window (since we were too lazy to get us all bundled up to go outside.) We still take her outside to calm her down, like when she starts throwing a tantrum. She loves being outside.

Today I took her on a walk to the park and we went on the swings & slide and then went over by the sandbox where we ended up spending over half our time playing with sticks. I wonder what goes through her mind. She's studying them and categorizing them over & over again.

This afternoon/evening after supper we went outside again to play on her cube and towards the end of playtime she was given a couple of sticks.......well, that just dragged playtime out even longer and she kept experimenting with the sticks & throwing them down the slide (of course she would grunt and yell for us to pick them back up and give them to her) and then back to sorting and sorting and sorting.

At one point, we decided it was time to go in and took her away from her sticks. She started to throw a tantrum, so I put her back down with daddy and went to get the mail. When I came back I tried to distract her with giving her junk mail (she loves paper too), but she was not going to fall for it. Finally, we just had carry her away throwing her tantrum. Once we got inside, she was distracted and stopped her tantrum. I don't know what the deal is with the sticks though.

If she had to grow up throwing & piling wood like her mommy, she might not be so into sticks.

Happy Anniversary Grams & Gramps!

Isabel's Grams & Gramps have been married for 31 years today.

Today, Isabel & mommy went to the library and picked up some books & puzzles. And then we went to Kohls' and checked it out. It's been there for 1.5 years and mommy just got there for the first time; it's nice. The only stuff we bought was some Dora stuff for Isabel. Then we came home, played, ate lunch, took a nap, played, ate a snack & played (above pictures, he puzzles are ones we got from the library) and then Isabel, mommy & daddy all went to the city pool and swam for a while. The big pool was warmer than the kiddie pool, so we spent most of our time there. Plus, Isabel loved watching all the big kids in the pool, whereas in the kiddie pool it was just her.

I'm Ready To Go Swimming!

Today she crawled all the way up the stairs twice without having to stop and rest for a second. And she also figured out today how to crawl up in her cube without any help.

She loves getting herself up to standing, but can't quite figure ou how to get back down and gets very angry when she wants to be down again. She'll figure out soon.

First Day of Summer with Mommy

Well, not just the summer......I'll be staying home with her after we figure out what's next for us. I don't know how long I'll stay home with her or whether or not I will stay home FT or PT with her, but I really want to be home with her.

Although this first day was not the greatest, as both mommy & daddy have pink eye. We were both taking her leftover drops and they are working great and fast for mommy, but not so fast for daddy. He got some other drops and also some anitbiotics for his sinus infection (which I think I have one too.) We all went with daddy to the Dr., which in hinesight was not wise as the doctor was slow getting to us, but she did fall asleep in the car as we were leaving from getting groceries & prescriptions and stayed asleep as I brought her in and into her crib (which she has never done before). She took a nice 2.5 hour long nap and woke up all happy & giggly. Then she had some fruit for a snack and we went outside to swim in the pool, play on the cube, and go on the swing. Fun times. Right now she is playing with daddy.

She did crawl all the way from the bottom of the steps to the landing and up the next small set of steps to the guest room. She was very proud of herself for doing that. She was pretty serious the whole time she was crawling (I was right behind her) and hardly cracked a smile until she got to the very top and then was all giggly and couldn't stop smiling.

Tonight we gave her the last little bit of her chocolate bunny from Easter. I her little bits about once a week. This time I didn't break up the piece and just gave her what was left and her eyes got all big and she got all smiley. She knows what chocolate is and loves it, can you blame her.

Hold On...Let Me Finish This Email.....

She goes crazy when we are on the computer and wants to do it too. Of corse she doesn't want the toy laptop I bought her, she wants the really one. I was going to see if she will want our broken one, but I don't know if will like it since it doesn't power on, hence nothing on the screen.

Today we were practicing using a toddler fork. She can't quite stab the food yet, but if mama helps her stab it she will do the rest just fine. She ate quite a bit of green beans today, which was nice. You just never know when she will want some veggies or not.

Nursing/Breastfeeding

So, it was a goal of mine to breastfeed Isabel for the first year of her life. I read a lot of things about the benefits of breastfeeding and there is a real push to breastfeed for the entire first year and that the most benefits are gained early on and through the first year.

And even if someone is not sure if they want to breastfeed or not, they say that any amount of breastfeeding is beneficial, especially if you breastfeed during the first two weeks when it's colostrum (or a mix with milk) that the baby is getting.

Now the first year has come and gone and I have to say, I never once thought about quitting it. It was really hard, REALLY HARD, sometimes. Plugged ducts and mastitis is painful and very uncomfortable, but I pushed through it. It sucked having to get up in the middle of the night (many, many times) because she needed to nurse or at least needed the comforting that nursing from mommy brought. It was very frustrating and worried me a lot when she wouldn't take a bottle for so long. It was really not fun leaking all over the place, and for the first 4 months I did have to wear nursing pads all the time and then again when I got mastitis. And it was inconvenient having to go to my office to pump twice a day. And it was frustrating sometimes that I couldn't go out & have a drink after work with friends because I was going to nurse her soon or that I couldn't play volleyball because that game schedule interfered with Isabel's schedule.

With that said, I never once thought about quitting breastfeeding. I believe all the benefits they say breastfeeding has and even if they all don't prove to be scientifically true, I do know this; that Isabel & I have this wonderful strong bond. She has a great bond with her daddy, but I have all those special moments of just the two of us nursing and no one else can have those moments with us. Even though night feedings were not on the top of my fun list, I loved knowing that I could provide nourishment and comfort to her. The plugged ducts & mastitis were even less fun, but she had to nurse more to help free the blockage and I liked knowing that she could help me as I helped her. It was to give & take like that.

And even though it was inconvenient to pump twice a day, I was able to pump enough so that we didn't have to supplement with formula and then at around a year we started giving her whole milk. And the stifling to my social life, actually saved us money and if I am being honest, after spending all day away from her I didn't want to spend any more time away from her. And if I am being really honest, I probably enjoyed spending more time with her.

I am still breastfeeding her, but only three times a day, right after she wakes up, at nap time and at bedtime. Although, last night she was so tired, she went to bed after just being rocked for a while and not nursing. I am not sure exactly when I will completely wean her, but for now I think we both still need it. With moving and all the changes, we both need the comfort and something that hasn't changed yet and since there is no more pumping, no leaky breasts, and no getting up in the middle of the night, and she's drinking milk, water & juice from a sippy cup -- it's all good now.

So, that's what I have to say. I have had people ask me when I am stopping or seem surprised that I haven't stopped yet. I have received encouragement that I was still continuing from one person, which was nice. I don't know when we'll be done, I guess when it's right for both of us.

55 Weeks

Watching Dad Mow Part of the Lawn

"I Want This Many Pieces, Please."

Isabel now has 10 teeth. It is just amazing. Her 1-year molars are coming in right now on both sides on the top only.

Yesterday we went to see our friends Jason, April, Kallen, & Noah. It was a very nice time. We like getting together with them. It was fun to watch the two babies chase their cat around. It was cute to see Isabel get all excited about "new" toys to play with. They had this one where the balls blow through a tunnel and pop out and stuff and she was just fascinated by it.

We had our rummage sale today. We made decent money, but it's a lot of work. I think in the future we may just donate it (since you always end up with stuff to donate anyways) and take the whole tax deduction on it. Last time we had a rummage sale was when we were moving as well. Wasn't fun then either, and then we had about 10% of what we had this time.

Tomorrow if the weather cooperates, we may walk to the city pool and go in the kiddie pool.

Next Tuesday is Grams & Gramps' 31st wedding anniversary.

Not Appropriate Reading Material for Babies

She was going through the stack of books I set aside for the rummage sale we plan to have on Saturday. This was her first choice to pick up. It's a pretty funny book.

Every Day Stuff, again (I used this title before)

Well, because we are packing to move, doing small projects around the house and repainting rooms I have not really had much time to take pictures. But I thought today that I would make a little time.

Whoever said no news is good news apparently was not waiting to find out where their husband was getting a job at and where they were moving to. People keep asking me for updates, and well, I have none. I wish we did. I also wish someone would just waltz in and buy our house so that was over & done with too.

She had blood tests done at her first year appointment and they were supposed to call us iwhtin a week-- they didn't. I needed to call them and then they called us back a bit later with the results. She doesn't have any lead in her blood - good news! - but her iron count was low. So, I need to go buy some vitamins with iron in them and make sure whe is getting iron-rich foods. She actually eats quite a bit of meat, but maybe the meat she's eating doesn't really have iron in it. And she will eat pork & beans, so I may have to give her that a little more often. And she did eat creamed spinach when I served it the other day, so maybe that will become a weekly side dish. They also said she was fighting a virus - well, duh! I could have told them that. She & I have been sick for ovr 2 weeks now.

First Steps, Pink Eye, & Crankiness

Well, the daycare lady told me that today she took her first steps without holding onto anything. She said that as soon as Isabel saw her watching her she stopped and sat down. Yesterday I just saw her take steps with the walker and stand alone for a few seconds, so now I am excited to see her take steos for us.

She was super cranky today. She didn't nap much, which always leaves her cranky.

I had to take her to urgent care today and found out she has pink eye. So, now we have drops for that for three days. Some kids at daycare had it last week.

Fun at a Hotel

All three of us stayed at a hotel recently and they are shots from jumping & playing on the bed. Isabel was all excited when we walked into the room and she saw the big fluffy bed.

Like most kids, she thinks jumping on a bed is the most fun in the world. It doesn't help that mom plays around with her because then she just thinks it's the best.

The hotel had a crib for her to use and she did fine in there. She has been pretty adaptable in different situations & locations as long as she has mommy (& daddy) with her.

We also recently stayed at Aunt Phanie's & Uncle J's house. Isabel woke up early in the night a little scared because she was alone in the dark (we should have put the night light on, but I forgot - she might have done fine then.) So, she ended up sleeping with mom while dad slept on the couch. She is a bed hog and tosses & turns A LOT! You never know what position you are going to find her sleeping in. She also got to see Grams & Gramps again. It had been quite a while since she saw Gramps. She has sure changed a lot in 6 months.


Some new things this she has done......well, she figured out how to climb up steps when we were visiting a new library and was showing that off to daddy today. Climbing steps is really making her work at pulling her self up more. She is so proud of herself now that she can do steps.

She has been trying new foods all the time. Today I gave her pieces of turkey sausage (from the Old Wisconsin store, w/ the casing removed) and she loved it. I thought she might think it was too spicy or something, but she very much enjoyed it. She has raw tomatoes and raw cucumbers the other day. She's still not sure about cucumber, but kinda liked the tomatoes. She didn't care for black olives at all (they were all topping from her sub.) I don't think there has been a fruit yet that she won't eat. She does certainly have preferences, but she seems to love fruit overall. She still on a bit of a veggie hiatus, but I keep trying new things to see if she will eat them or I try to sneak them in. She is definitely a carnivore; there has not been a meat she has eaten that she hasn't loved.

Oh, she learned how to drink from a straw today. I had a drink with a straw in it and she really wanted to be like mommy and put the straw in her mouth. So, I let her and we just watched as the drink would inch closer and closer up the straw and then finally she got some. I think it surprised her at first, but then she had to do it again and again. She also had to take the straw out and inspect it, then take the cover off and inspect that and inspect the inside of the glass and then try to put everything back together.

The top she is wearing was part of a present from her friends Noah & Kallen. We have a play date with them this coming Friday.

54 Weeks

Hre she is just before bedtime, brushing her teeth. We started brushing her teeth as part of her bedtime ritual at a very early age (6 weeks) so that there would hopefully be less of a struggle when she got older. It has gone ok and at times when she is pushing a tooth through and her gums might be a little tender she doesn't always like getting her teeth & gums brushed. So, then we do a little thing called "Brush mommy's teeth (and I do so), Brish baby's teeth (and I do so.)" She thinks it's fun when we do things with her like that; she is much more agreeable when she might not otherwise have been. (Don't worry, she wasn't going to fall, daddy was right there while I took the picture.)

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.