Pictures from this Weekend

Saturday Picture: 95 Weeks

These are pretty much all the pictures I took this weekend. I didn't get the camera out much, even though we got to our MN home late Thursday and didn't leave until 11am on Monday. This time she remembered the house & where all her toys were. We got to MN around 10pm, but since we had to wake her up (she had only been asleep for 30 minutes anyways) to bring her in the house and change into her jammies, then she got all excited because she remembered where her toys were and her room. So, she didn't get to sleep until around 11pm.

Friday, I went to visit a bunch of friends at OHS. Things are different there now and not in a good way and I should count my blessings that this change was made. Friday afternoon, our friends Rhynda & Charlie came over for a playdate. And then Friday evening, when Isabel was in bed, we went over to our neighbors, John & Cindy, and hung out with them. Our baby monitor is strong enough that we can take it with us and hear her if needed.

Saturday Evening: Bedtime Stories

On Saturday we went to visit our friend Linda, Morgan, Nick, & Preston over the lunch hour. So, more play for Isabel. Daddy went & got the car washed and hung out at the local Harley Dealership, which happened to be having an open house so daddy got free lunch. Anyways, he picked up up at 12:45pm and Isabel fell asleep almost instantly in the car. She did transfer ok and fell back asleep when I brought her in and took almost a 2.5 hour nap.

That evening we met out friends, Carrie, Kyle & Gavin and April, Jason, Kallen & Noah at El Tequila for dinner for mommy's birthday. Then all of us came back to our place for drinks & some chocolate mousse cheesecake we got from Harry & David. Our neighbors, John & Cindy joined us with their nieces they had over. So, it was a big ole party.

Sunday: After Nap

Well, Saturday night ended up not being sogood for Isabel. She ended up puking and there was a lot of laundry to do. We kept things pretty low-key all day until we went to Chuck-E-Cheese. Well, we did go have an early lunch at Timberlodge, but we didn't stay long because Isabel was so squirrely. Since we didn't have any food or condiments at the MN house we ate out quite a bit. We decided to treat our long weekend there as our spring vacation, since due to circumstances we can't afford to really go anywhere else. But it was nice.

Sunday: Before the Meltdown

Well, we only lasted at CEC for about 1.25 hours. The above pictures are taken on one of the little rides that takes pictures. Anyways, we were joined by family (Dave, Candy, Tony & Carol) and our friend Jessi. Isabel pretty much refused to eat anything and just wanted to play. It was not a very good time. By this point she was very irritable and was having trouble communicating what she wanted and there was so many people there and it was so loud. It just was overwhelming to her, on top of feeling sick. So, we had many screaming fits until we decided to call it quits and carry our screaming child out of there. She did have some fun, but that was overshadowed by all the screaming.

She was still really irritable on Sunday morning and the tiniest thing would set her off. But after a while, daddy did get her to finish her breakfast and we finished making the place tidy, and were on our way. We were sure we were in for a miserable trip, but thanks to the power of technology and the purchase of a portable DVD player (after the last MN trip), she spent quiet time watching her favorite videos then taking a 2 hour nap & waking up to want to finish the video she fell asleep to. So, it was a decent trip back. She was still irritable last night, but seems in better spirits this morning. Hopefully that lasts.

Pictures from Today

I just thought I would throw some pictures up here because it will be several days before any more get on here since we are leaving today to take a long weekend in MN. We went to her class this morning and have been packing up the car. It's almost lunchtime now, then nap time, then playtime until daddy gets back. We'll get to MN late.

Playing Catch Up

Tuesday

Well, I've gotten a little behind on posting pictures and text. This is a picture from today. She is listening to her first computer software game as it tells her what to do. I bought her "Clifford The Big Red Dog Phonics" from Think, Play, Learn. Up until this point we only played stuff online and I thought with our upcoming trip to MN we will need to play something on the laptop that does not require internet access. So, we gave it a whirl. It's pretty good, but they talk to much for her. She would rather be interacting more.

Today, we pretty much hung around the house except for going to the Y for my yoga class.

Monday

Yesterday we went to the Y in the morning for my Spinning class and then we stayed and played in the playroom with Mary & Ben. During the afternoon, we met some from our playgroup at the Retzer Nature Center.

Her latest thing now is to come grab one of our hands and bring us to where she wants us (i.e. get a snack, turn Peep on, play a puzzle with her, etc.)

I am trying out some ideas in this book, The Complete Resource Book for Toddler & Twos, as ideas of things to do with Isabel to teach her a specifi theme/idea. I checked it out from the library and plan to use it for a few weeks to see if it is worth making a purchase. I do think it is and I think I may get it, but I wanted to try it out a bit and make sure the choices/activities were do-able and not cost-prohibitive. I randomly chose "Round" as the theme/topic for this week, hence her playing in a basket full of balls. We've also been singing "Round & Round the Garden" (which wasn't in the book, but it was the first thing that popped into my head with that theme and it works so well) and reading "Goodnight Moon" and a The Silly Book of Shapes (plus other books) and doing different activities with balls and pointing out things that are round.

Saturday

Well, I guess the weekend part starts on Friday. On Friday we met some friends at the Children's Play Gallery. We stayed there and played fo 2 hours, then came home for lunch & a nap. Then had a snack and went to Lucy, Luanne & Henry's house to bring them food . We ended up staying htere about 2 hours playing. Then we went back to CPG (since it is a day pass you can come & go) for anotehr 2 hours. Friday was ALL ABOUT PLAY! While we were there, there was a birthday party going on for 2 boys of a lady in Newcomer's Club that mom knows. She was kind to let us crash the party and invited us to have pizza, juice & cake with them. It was sure yummy!

On Saturday, Auntie Phanie came for a visit in the morning. Auntie Phanie, mommy & Isabel went to the Ben Franklin in town to make & take craft time. Since it is National Craft Month they have free make & take crafts on Saturdays in March. We were there to make a Easter Pom Pom Chick. It turned out cute. The picture above is one from that. I cropped myself out because I thought I looked like a dork. Besides, people are reading this blog about Isabel, not mommy.

Saturday afternoon, I left with my friend Carrie for a Girls Overnight to the Chicago area. There was dinner, drinks, dancing, & a hotel. Sounds like a nice romantic evening. Anyways, Isabel got to stay home with daddy for 24 hours. This was the first time I was not there overnight with Isabel & to see her first thing in the morning. And it went just fine. Although, I sure did miss that little girl, even though I did have a lot of fun.

Tomorrow we plan to go to the library for storytime & then meet our playgroup at Gymlingo for our private open gym. She had a ton of fun last time and exhausted herself and took a nice nap that day.

Video of Isabel Babbling & Trying to Fgure out her Lacing Beads

It's not the most exciting video, but she is still cute none-the-less. I took this video yesterday and uploaded it on YouTube and finally got around to embedding it here:



If you can't view it here, you can always go to my videos on youtube and view it there instead.

Today we had our preschool power hour class. It really didn't want to sit much for stuff today. She had more fun when it was free play time. Tomorrow we have a playdate with some friends at the Children's Play Gallery, which will be great for her because she could use a place to run around a little bit & climb. Then in the afternoon we go visit & deliver food to a mom in our playgroup that recently had a new baby.

The Past Few Days

Well, these are some pictures that my friend Carrie took of the kids when she was babysitting Isabel for us. She said Isabel was really good, which is so nice to hear.

Well, Sunday evening the furnace here went out completly. Luckily we have space heaters and an electric mattress pad. The repairman for the furnace came at 11am on Monday, so I took Isabel to the Y in the morning and worked out and came back for our 10-12 time frame. I had the slow cooker going already with supper in it, then I baked cupcakes for playgroup in the afternoon and make Mac&Cheese on the stovetop to help warm up the house while I was doing stuff I needed to do anyways. I also made it laundry day to keep the dryer going & giving off heat. And I had a space heater & candles going in the living room so my little girl wouldn't get cold. I just let her sit on the couch with a blanket over her lap watching her shows while we waited for them to get there and fix it. Luckily it was fixed and by noon we had heat again and I didn't have to cancel playgroup and put on our snowpants. :)

So, that afternoon was playgroup at our place. There was 4 other families there plus us. It was a good size playgroup and the kids made a good size mess, but the moms helped me clean it up, which was greatly appreciated.

Today, we went to the Y for my yoga class, then grocery shopping and then our friend Elizabeth, Sophia, & Thomas came over for lunch and to hang with us for a while. After Isabel's nap we went to the library and picked up some new books. We have been going to the library weekly. Sometimes we pick out duds and return them right away and sometimes we just get sick of reading one so much, and then some books we keep the 3 weeks we can, and there is even one that is due this week that I just renewed because we like it so much. One of the books I picked up today that I really like is First the Egg. Another one I think is cute is Flamingos on the Roof. It has cute poems and neat paintings. I have enjoyed reading Isabel a few of them already.

Tomorrow we are going to playgroup at our friends Jamie, Will & Jack (see Brigger Boys on sidebar).

Daddy's (Isabel's) New Hat

Daddy got a hat at the Bucks game last night and when Isabel saw it this morning she went"Ooooooh! Haaaat!", grabbed it and claimed it as her own.

The other day when cousin Blake's daddy sent us a picture & I was looking at it on the computer, Isabel walked over & saw it and pointed to the picture and said "Blake!" very clearly. I didn't know that she knew how to say anyone's name but mama and daddy.

This afternoon/evening, Isabel is going to hang out with our friends Carrie, Mike, Leah & Ryan. They are going to babysit her while we go out to eat and then we'll return the favor for them soon. Hopefully this will work nice for all of us, as neither of us have a sitter, so this is our way to have a (early) dinner out w/o kid(s). Tonight, we will be dining at the Weissgerber's Seven Seas Restaurant in Hartland.

93 Weeks Old

Well, this afternoon I got a lot done while Isabel napped & stayed home and played with daddy. I ran a bunch of errands and one of the places I went to was Think, Play, Learn to buy her this M&D Shape Sorting Clock. They have a special going on this week of 30% off everything in the store, and if you bring in a coupon from the paper you get an extra 5% off. So, I got the clock for 35% off.

I think this is really going to help her learn her numbers. We played with it quite a bit already and she can put the shapes into the correct spots very easily. I did find out that she knows most of her numbers through 12, but just can't say them yet. But when asked to point to them she got most of them correct. So, now we will work on saying them and accurately identifying all of them. It will also be another way to help her learn her colors. We were working on them this morning with this small abacus I got her. She's got yellow & blue down pat and I think she pretty much knows green. So, we have a ways to go on colors. But she can only learn so much at once.

Daddy is gone to a Bucks game right now. He is out with some people he works with. They were doing dinner at some Irish Pub and then the game and probably drinks afterwards. He should have a good time. Isabel & I treated ourselves to dinner at McDonald's. We were there for 1.5 hours. She had such a blast playing in the climber slide thing. There were a lot of older kids there (she was the youngest), but they were mostly patient and she held her own ground. She had a half a cheeseburger & a whole fruit & yogurt parfait. I had a Southwestern Chicken Salad w/ just salsa on top - no dressing (man, those things are tasty) and apple slices (since she only ate one of them). So, I think we ate as healthy as we could for McDonald's. We both always have water.

Well, it's bathtime now.

New Class

Well, today we had the first of eight classes for Preschool Power Hour at SMLS. It is an hour long and they break it up into 2 sessions. Half go to one and the other half go to the other and then after a half hour we switch. We chose to do singing first.

We sing several songs and a couple of them are about Jesus. There is also a hello song & goodbye song. There is one song we'll sing each week and the kids will get different instruments to try out with that. This week they got to try rhytmn sticks. There was also a time when they played some Bach and the kids danced with scarves. We also had a story about Jesus.

The other sessions is the Gym & Art Time. Isabel loved that the most. We first sang a song and then they played with a parachute. She had never played with one before, but the flowing fabric resembled when daddy & I would play with a flat sheet in the kitchen with her. So, she kept trying to do the things we did (she wanted to ride on it & go underneath it.) They did get to run under it after a while, but not at first. They they had free time to play with the gym equiptment and do their art project when it was their turn at the table. Isabel had a blast with both of those.

Her favorite activty was riding on the scooters. She had never done that before and she thought it was so much fun. She laid on her stomach on the scooter and held onto a hula hoop. I held onto the other end of the hula hoop and pulled her around. She wanted to keep doing that all the time. We wore play clothes, which is good because her legs drag on the floor when on the scooter and got dirty. The scooter time in the gym alone is worth taking the class. It was great for her to have such a big open space to run around & play in.

I think everything about Jesus just went over her head, but over time she will learn.

Learning Keyboard Skills

We needed to take a break from Starfall.com and we tried out a bunch of different online games for her and some were just lame, but she really loves the ABC's Zoo Learning Game on the Fisher Price website. It's great because she pushed a letter and it will say the name of the letter and the name of an animal that can be found in a zoo. This will help her learn the names of the letters better I think. She knows the phonetic pronunciation of all the letters, which is awesome for her age. Plus, since she can push the keys by herself, I can clean up the play room. With starfal she didn't have the accurate motor skills to move the mouse, so I would move it and she would push the button. She loves playing games on the computer.

The picture is actually from yesterday, I just didn't get around to posting it until today. Today we went to playgroup and she had fun there. Tomorrow we'll go to our first class for Preschool Power Hour. And on Friday we are going to the Y to meet our playgroup for open swim. She will love that because she always loves swimming.

Concord Zoo Pictures

We went to Concord Zoo today, one of her favorite places to visit. It was finally warm enough tp spend sometime outside. When I was out & about today I saw a temperature at a bank of 40 degrees. Although, this will be short lived.

Anyways, I took lots of pictures & a couple of videos, so you can see some of my favorite pictures from today (in B&W) and then a slideshow of all the pictures and a couple of short videos. The goose one is very cute.

Concord Zoo Slideshow

There is music to it. A couple of these pictures will be featured on their own, but maybe in B&W.

Concord Zoo Videos

Video of Isabel Laughing at the Geese




Video of Daddy & Isabel Feeding the Goats

92 Weeks Old

This is a picture from yesterday when we went to Sweetie Pie's to hear a local children's author read from her books. It was ok. Isabel wasn't as interested, but she sure did enjoy the cookie we bought for her.

Today we are hoping to get her bundled up and take her to the Concord Zoo after her nap this afternoon. It is supposed to be right around 32 degrees and there is no wind and the sun is out. Funny thing is that this actually feels nice right now. When I wentt o get the paper this morning I brought the dog out with me and we played fetch for a little while (until she lost her stick in the snow), but she was so excited to be outdoors running around and not have it be fridgid. I figure we better enjoy it because they are predicting freezing rain & 6-8 inches of snow on Monday afternoon - Tuesday morning. Bah!

Oh - her first 2 year old molar did break through on Wednesday. So, only 3 more teeth to break through and her mouth will be full.

Yesterday was gramps' actual birth date, even though we celebrated ita week ago. Happy Birthday Gramps!

21 Month Charts

Length

She remains in the 95th percentile for height/length.

Weight

She is in the 81st percentile for weight and has has a generally consistent trend.

Enter to Win....

Well, having a child is not cheap and you can check out the oppotunities to win a couple of items.

First is this wooden train by this company:





Second is this burp & bib cloth set by this company:





You can see all product reviews & register to win these items on this website. I actually read the blog she keeps for her two sons, they are on the aidebar.

TGIF!

Today we went to the Y for our last day of classes this session. Her class is normally 45 minutes, but she got ready to leave after 30 minutes (went & put her hat & scarf on & gave me her jacket) and so we left early. She was just so tired that she wanted to go home. We got home and she ate an early lunch and then went down for her nap a half hour early.

This afternoon we went to the library and picked up a few new books and returned some we didn't like so well and hung out there for an hour and played with their puzzles & toys.

Tomorrow, I plan to take her to Sweetie Pies (restaurant) that is bringing in a local author that will be reading children's poetry from her book. So, that will be kinda neat to hear the author read to her. It won't mean much to Isabel, but someday I can tell her we met that author and she read to her.

Play Day

Today was filled with a playgroup in the morning and then a playdate in the afternoon. It was nice to have so much adult contact today. Isabel on the other hand was a little tired and wanted some alone time this afternoon, so she didn't play too much.

She went to bed early tonight, at 7:15pm. Her bedtime has changed to 8pm over the month. She would have went to bed earlier, but I was busy making meals for tomorrow as it is the day I signed up to being a meal to a mommy with a new baby in our playgroup. And that took a little longer than I planned and then she wanted a longer bath that I hoped for, but she is asleep at last. Daddy is out with his own work friends, so he wasn't around to help out tonight.

Anyways, our playdate was kinda neat because it was 2 families over here. The ladies are the 2 ladies I made friends with on MilwaukeeMoms.com that I started to become friends with through emails before I even moved out here. They both are from the Chicago area and so they had stuff to talk about. I just thought it was kinda neat to have them meet.

So, the above picture is of all five kids that were here. Us moms stayed out of the line of the camera.

Tomorrow we have her last day of the Winter Session I of Giggle & Wiggle. I decided to take her out of it for the next session because I signed her up for Preschool Power Hour at St. Matthew's Church. The G&W program was fine, but I think we'll get a little more from the PPH program.

21 Months

She is 21 months old today. She gained another half inch over last month and is still in the 95th percentile. I took these pictures after she finished eating a piece of her valentine chocolate.

Ooooooh!

We went to the library for storytime this morning. The local library has a new children's librarian, so it was neat to see how she did storytime. She did a lot more singing, which I thought was good for this age group. They need more active interaction rather than just sitting there listening to stories. Isabel was so excited for them to have the puppets come out at the end. She was squealing with delight and yelling "puppa, puppa, puppa!" over and over. She was so excited that there wasn't a person who couldn't help notice and see how cute she was.

Then we went into the library for a while & put together puzzles and looked for a few new books.

Afterwards we went to Gymlingo for playgroup. It is a very clean gymnastics place and she really enjoyed herself. One of the owners was out there with the kids trying to show & help them roll down and incline & do somersaults. I thought it was great that he was interacting with the kids like he did. I do hope we have more playgroups there.

She concentrates so much when she paints now. She is so into it. She gets so excited when I bring out the paints. She loves arts & crafts, which is awesome! She is coloring all the time now. Even a month ago I was asking if she wanted to color and then we would do it. Now she just goes and gets her crayons & coloring sheets or she has made a routine of coloring in her room right after bathtime and also right when she wakes up. The past few days I will ask if she wants to come downstairs with me and she says "Noooooo" and pulls out her chair at her desk and starts coloring away. She has really started to work on trying to color in objects. It's neat to see that she is starting to get that now.

Learning to Share

Today I babysat for the little boy of one of my friends. It was good practice for Isabel to learn to share me and her toys. That was pretty much our highlight of the day because we did stay home all day. Tomorrow I think we may check out the new storytime and then we are going to Gymlingo for an open gym. The past few nights we have been working on the yoga moves from that book I checked out from the library and I have been teaching her how to do a somersault. She thinks those are awesome, but can't go straight when she does it herself; she goes to the side.

91 Weeks & a Birthday Party for Gramps

Here are some pics I took earlier in the day. As I looked at them I thought making them grayscale would be a nice touch.

We had a birthday party here for Gramps. I took three pictures of him & Isabel with the and he closed his eyes in ALL three. Bah! This was the best of them. As a reminder - click on the picture to enlarge it so that you can see more details and read the print.

Today it is raining so far and I guess we have a flood warning because of the rain couple with above freezing temps & melting snow. This afternoon it is supposed to turn to snow and we are now only supposed to get 4-6 inches.

Next week we have another busy week, as always, of playdates, playgroups, & classes.

New Library Haul

Books:
* Clifford's Peakaboo (short book, but she likes it)
* A to Z (Sandra Boynton book, great for practicing letter recognition)
* Touch & Feel Home (she doesn'tc are for this one too much)
* My Very First Book of Shapes (Eric Carle Book, nice, but also a little complicated for her age)
* Little Yoga (I hope to teach her some of the poses, she did one the other day when daddy read it to her)
* Somewhere in the Ocean (very colorful, fun counting book, exposure to sea animals not in other books!)
* You Are My I Love You (sucha sweet book, I love it!)
* I'm a Manatee (By John Lithgow, interesting, exposure to new words)
* How do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? (Nice book)

DVD:
Brainy Babies - ABC's

New Books from Valentine's Day
* Big Pig Saves Vaneltine's Day (flap book, kinda cute)
* Snoopy's ABCs (great for practicing letter recognition)

She recognizes almost every letter now by saying it's sound or name. So, she is doing well on her ABC's. Her learning style seems to be one that has to learn the concept and understand it before she demonstarates it. She has done this with her gross motor, fine motor, social, & communication skills. So, once she starts to get the hang of numbers I think it will be because she understands that numbers are a value. She does not seem to be much of a rote learner (like just saying the ABC song or counting to 10 - but not knowing what it means.)

How to Make Crazy Cake

If you want to find a recipe to print off, just do a search and there are tons of different recipes to follow. I will have to print out another, as she got batter on the recipe I had.

I am not sure I will make this cake with her for a while. Maybe next time it will just be a mix made in a bowl. This was a lot of work for mommy. Although, I think she had fun making the cake.

Today, we had her Valentine party for her class at the Y. So, more pieces of paper with cartoon characters on floating around the house. It just seems like Valentine's Day never ends.

This afternoon we met Carrie, Leah & Ryan at a coffee shop called Milwaukee Street Traders. Neother of us had been there before and we were just exploring new places. They do have some kids toys there and the kids did rather well. It is a pretty big place and VERY nice inside. And she exchanged valentines with them as well.

Tomorrow we are having a lot of family over to celebrate Gramps' birthday (a week early). They are all coming here. Grams, Gramps, Auntie Razz, Uncle Shane & cousin Blake are coming here to visit for the first time. Auntie Phanie & Uncle J and great uncle Henry & cousin Jeff (mommy's second cousin) have all been here before, but that is everyone who is joining the three of us here.

Oh and if you haven't heard - we are expecting about another foot of snow AGAIN on Sunday into Monday. Bah!

Happy (Belated) Valentine's Day!

Well, we started out the morning opening up her little gifts from various people and eating chocolate first thing. Can chocolate first thing in the morning be a bad thing?

Then during late morning we met some friends at the Retzer Nature Center. It was nice to get out and she was so excited to see the creatures.

Then in the afternoon we drove thru McDonald's to get her little treat with the Valentine coupon she got from one of her playmates. Then it was onto Papa Murphy's to pick up our heart-shaped pizza that we called ahead for, but apparently they put the slowest person on the check out for the call ahead line (& wouldn't let us go in the other line.) We had 5 people in front of us (remember - their pizzas are already made, they just had to pay) and we waited for just over 20 minutes. And during that time, 3 people walked in ordered & paid for & got their pizzas. And then when it was our turn, they made our pizza wrong so I had to wait another couple minutes to have them make a new one. It was good though.

Stay tuned for more Valentine's Day fun and for a slide show of how to make Crazy Cake.

Valentine Party Slide Show

Enjoy.

Pictures....

This is what we are bringing today to our Valentine Party for our playgroup. The first is a fruit salad with watermelon cut out into heart shapes & orange arrows. The arrows were actually supposed to go through the watermelon, but I couldn't find skewers at the grocery store, so I made due.

The other is her valentine gift to her playmates. It is a plastic Valentine Cup with a packet of hot cocoa that says "I'm Cocoa For You!" and a Strawberry Shortcake valentine.

Both of these ideas I got from Family Fun magazine.

She will have a Valentine Party for her Y class, but there we are just giving stickers. And then we gave Valentines (or will give) to some friends who are not in playgroup. And with those Valentines they got hair bows that mommy made.

This is one of the bows that I made for Isabel. I made others too to give as gifts for Valentines and other little presents. Isabel thought it was funny to put it on Larry and see how he looked in a pink bow. Today Isabel has a in a bow that grandma made her for Valentine's Day. This picture is from yesterday. I didn't take any pictures of her yet today.

Chilly Day Activities

Well, it was quite chilly today. I am not sure what the actual high was, but it was supposed to be 2 degrees. It was below zero most of the day. And the winds were fierce. I walked down the long driveway to get the newspaper and in the few minutes of being out there it was so hard to breathe because the wind was blowing directly down my throat and it was very bitterly cold. Anyways, needless to say, we stayed inside all day. We had to pay the plow guy AGAIN because we had these huge drifts in the driveway and daddy would have never gotten out for work tomorrow if we didn't call.

The slide show is of our paper bag crafts. First we made & decorated a bunch of paper bag blocks by stuffing them with crumpled newspaper and taping it down. I got the idea from the Toddler's Busy Book and had to wait until I had saved enough bags for us. Then our second craft is a little mask that we decorated & each took turns wearing. She thought it was hilarious to see daddy & I in the mask. And she kept putting it on too.

I also printed of some greeting cards to color. Isabel colored on them this morning. We had a couple of cards to make for up coming birthday/anniversary.

Here is a little video that is just over a minute long to show some of the silliness we created today. This was after the paper bag crafts. We had blown up balloons last night and she always likes to play with balloons. We also got out a fitted sheet and we had her lie down in the middle & daddy & I would swing her in it. She loved that. The we had her sit on it and we gave her rides around the kitchen (there was a lot of re-arranging of furniture today with all our projects/activities.) That was my original idea which was also from the Toddler's Busy Book. And then that sparked the idea of the swinging, which is something we did when we went to try out a Kindermusik class one time. And finally we used the sheet as a parachute and she would go underneath and try to reach up and grab it as it fell down upon her. The we switched places and either daddy or I were in the middle and it woulf fall down on us and cover us and she thought that was hilrious and would try to find us under the sheet.

We also did a lot of reading today, as usual. We also played with some musical imstruments and brought out lots of other toys for her to play with. We watched some cartoons we had Tivo'ed (educational stuff & also the Charlie Brown Valentine Special.)

I also tried making bubbles with the recipe in that book but it didn't really work out. I had glycerin & everything, but maybe my Seventh Generation dish soap isn't good for making bubbles. I will just have to pick some up sometime, as we left our bubbles in MN (I think outside, so they are frozen.)

You really do have to come up with a lot of things to do to keep a kid busy when you are stranded inside.

Tomorrow we go the Y for my class and then we'll go swimming and then after that we'll go meet playgroup at McDonald's playland for lunch.

90 Weeks Old

Here is Isabel eating a Chocolate Pudding Pie. We had some family (Jeff, Lynn, Luz & Uncle Henry) over for a little dinner party tonight. Isabel quite enjoyed the chocolate pudding pie. We had a good dinner. I tried a new recipe (Crockpot Beef & Mushroom - kinda like a beef stronganoff) that was served over whole wheat penne, steamed broccoli, semi-homemade bread, salad & the pie. Why I try new recipes for dinner parties, I don't know. But this was very good and it went a long way. They brought some very yummy wine and we had an assortment of crackers out with Rondel (sp?) cheese spread as an appetizer. So, it was good food, good company, & good conversation. It was a good evening.

Earlier in the day we went to check out a couple houses (no - ours hasn't sold, but we just thought we would check out some open houses). One wasn't for us at all, the other was a possibilty, but the lot was kinda small, so we would probably pass on it.

Week Wrap-Up

Monday: Met playgroup at Stonefire Pizza (see previous post) and went shopping at Michael's Craft Store for supplies for flannel boards. Went to the Y in the evening.
Tuesday: Went to the Y in the morning then to the library in the afternoon.
Wednesday: Stayed indoors all day while we got about 14 inches of snow. Daddy measured 13.5 inches here.
Thursday: Went to our friends Carrie, Ryan, & Leah's house for a playdate. We always have lots of fun with them and our playdates keep getting longer & longer. Went to the Y in the evening.
Friday: Went to the Y in the morning for our classes, then grocery shopping, then home for the rest of the day. Although, mommy is leaving soon to go over to a friend's house to make flannel boards for our girls.
This weekend: Right now the only plan is to have from extended family over for dinner on Saturday evening.

As you can see from the picture above, she got into it with the markers. The last picture shows you that the markers won. She got her hand pinched when trying to push the cap back on.

Library Haul

To help pasas the time with the snowy weather (it's still snowing as I type), we went to the library and checked a bunch of stuff. Here's what we got:

DVD's
Signing Time's ABC's
Brainy Babies: Colors & Shapes

Books
Clap Your Hands (not recomended for bed time, requires a lot fo activity, but a fun book!)
Hide & Go Peep
Zoe & her Zebra (fun, learn ABC's, names & kids from all cultures)
A Very Patchy Flap Book
Pigs on a Blanket
Yum!: Flip a Shape (good book to learn shapes)
Count to Ten Piggy Wiggy (fun counting book)
Milk & Cookies
Emma's Vacation
The Three Bears
Everyone Poops (great book!)
The Gas We Pass (fun book that teaches you about the bodily function of passing gas, funny)

And last Friday we went to pajama storytime at the library and bought a new book: Dora Saves Mermaid Kingdom

Stonefire Pizza (Monday)

Here are some pictures of Isabel and a couple of her friends at Stonefire Pizza yesterday. She had a blast. Unfortunately I didn't get the camera out until we were almost ready to leave, so I only got a few pictures. Today, we went to the gym so mommy could take her spinning class she missed yesterday and then we both went swimming. Later we went to the library to pick up books & video to keep us busy tomorrow sinc we are supposed to get anywhere between 10-20 inches. We are in the thickest band, so they are expecting 12+ inches. It is snowing right now and it's supposed to snow for almost 24 hours. Yuck.

Happy Groundhog's Day (or Not.)

Often, she enjoys playing with her winter hats, scarves & sometimes mittens. I have tried to put them away, but she gets upset and wants to put them on. She puts them on and then plays. Silly girl.

Well, what new things can I tell you about Isabel. Or at least things you haven't heard before.....

She has taken to making her Leapfrog Fridge Farm play songs and then she dances around in a circle. She will sometimes take it off the fridge and keep making it play songs as she walks around the house with it, as if it were her little radio or something.

She noticed this afternoon that her pillow has letters/blocks on it (as does her fitted sheet) and she was pointing at all the letters on it and telling me the sounds they make. She did A, T, L, P, Q, B & C accurately. Actually, those were the only ones she showed me and she did them all correctly. I asked her about Z and she wanted to show me a different one, but I know she knows it.

She does screw up what a pig is. She always says it is a cow and we always correct her. This evening we were playing with her see-n-saw & it asked which animal makes the sound "oink, oink" and she pointed to the pig and said "cow" of course. Other farm animals she gets correctly, just not a pig. I don't know what it is about that darn pig.

This afternoon I was feeding her lunch and noticed she was trying to eat her chicken nuggets with the wrong side of the fork, so I took a little video. She actually can eat rather well with a fork and a spoon, even though it doesn't look like it in the video.

Pooh might not have seen his shadow, but Phil did. Damn that cursed groundhog. I am sick of winter. I took the above pic with my phone so I could send them to daddy who is out of town for work this weekend. He's not that far away though, he's in the good state of Minnesota.

This evening I thought I woukd try doing the signs for please & thank you again for her and she did them in her own toddler way. You can see that video here.

We did get out of the house a little bit today and went to the library to pick up some books (btw- their video selection sucks!) and one of the books we got was Everyone Poops. She made me read it to her at least a half dozen times already. A friend is going to lend us The Gas We Pass. She will prbably make read that to her a lot as well. What are we teaching ?!?!?

Tomorrow we are going to a Super Bowl party at the house of the same family we had Thanksgiving with. It should be fun. There will be other kids there, including hers, which I think are Isabel's little boyfriends.

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.