Playing Catch-Up (again!)

Making Dump Cake

Well, I don't have the desktop with my photo editing software, so I just have to upload pictures as they are and can't make collages. This is a picture from last Friday at the MN house. Isabel & I made Dump Cake. It's such a great thing to make with a child. She loves cooking with me and had a blast making this.
Here she is enjoying playing with her Little Tikes Castle w/ slide. We left it in MN since it was too big to haul in our uhaul last fall. So, it was nice to have that available there for her to play with.
This is Carrie & Gavin. They came over and had a playdate with us on Friday. He is almost a year now. He's getting so big. That evening, I went out with Carrie & Cindy to see the SITC movie (after I went to Carrie's for martinis.)
I apologize for not having pictures up sooner. We don't have easy access to Wifi, so I needed to have time to spend some time uploading pictures and writing text. Here Isabel is in MN on Friday and is playing on her trike there. It was actually something we bought new for her a while ago, but we left it there it the box. So, I put it together while we were there. She loved it. I was trying to teach her to pedal. She doesn't quite understand how the pedals work yet.
This is Isabel and her cousin Travis (last Saturday). She had a great time playing with him.

Catching Up......

Well, I am sitting here in the lobby of the Olympia Resort trying to play catch-up with my emails and blogging very quickly (because we still want to go swimming tonight.)

So, we were in MN this past weekend and we had a great time and worked hard. On Friday night I went out with Cindy & Carrie to see the SITC movie. Carrie & I had pomegrante martinis her house beforehand and then made up drinks to sneak into the movie with us. Thanks to the mom bag for having lots of room. It was a lot of fun. Then the 3 of us went out for drinks and appetizers afterwards. It was really a lot of fun.

Saturday was the work day. April & Jason (with kids), Carrie & Kyle (w/ kid), Chris & Lisa (w/ kid), and Candy & Dave all came to help us with trimming bushes, picking weeds, and completly replacing the roof on the 3-season porch which was damaged quite a bit this winter. Thank you SO MUCH to all of them. we got everything done before the rain came in. That night we went over to the neighbors, John & Cindy, for gaming & wine.

Sunday morning was spent cleaning the inside and Isabel & I went our neighbors Mary's house for coffee (that was just for mommy, Capri Sun for Isabel) and ffrench toast & bacon. Isabel totally pigged out and even ate a piece of daddy's bacon we brought back for him. Thanks Mary, it was wonderful!

Sunday we spent driving back and then had to move into our week at the timeshare and clean the lake house rental. Thanks to Lori for watching Isabel so she didn't get in our way/

Yesterday (Monday) we met our playgroup at Concord Zoo. Our heads were still spinning and Isabel had a rough night of nightmares. She woke up at 12:30 with these very high-pitched scream and was sweating & shaking. It must have been scary. I took her temp and there was no fever. Poor little girl. Anyways, Monday afternoon we went swimming in the outdoor pool of the resort and Lori & Rachael came over to join us.

Today, we had Rachael over for the day and as soon as I finish this daddy, Isabel & moommy will go swimming at the indoor pool (too cold to be outside swimming today). We had fun with Rachael and I have pictures from that (as well as this week) that I will get around to posting sometime.

Tomorrow I think we will get to the Y and then to playgroup at April house in the afternoon.

No News Is NOT Good News

So, there is no news on our house. For the last 9 months I have been saying, "Whoever said 'No News Is Good News' had not been trying to sell a house." So, we have our stuff in storage and brought some stuff back to MN, along with the cats who will soon have a new summer home with daddy's parents. One of mommy's friends has the dog. I cried on my way to deliver the dog. I don't even like her all that much, but it's just the whole situtation where we have to give away our animals until we have a permanent home in WI or have to move back to MN. It's great to be sitting here on my leather rocker/recliner typing. It is so comfortable. I miss having all our stuff with us. I like knowing that I can go in the garage and find the tools I need to put together Isabel's trike or that we have an air compressor sitting there to inflate the tires in my jogger stroller (which has to be left here because we only have so much space with us.) I have learned how to live without a lot of our stuff, but gosh darn! when we come back and have it all around us, we shure to appreciate it and miss it.

So, that's it. I will empatically proclaim if we get an offer and close on our house. So, no one has to worry that they won't know. But until then I guess we have to learn to live without even more of our stuff while we try out the hobo lifestyle. Honestly, this is all really hard and very stressful and I just wish it would end and we could just live in one place.

Things I Found Interesting in Parents Mag June Issue

1. Tattoo You Child in Case they get lost. (They are temporary!)
2. The Potty Caddy -- Very cute, kinda funny. Check out the names of some of the "mags" they get.
3. The New Car Seat Rule that recommends being rear-facing until 36 inches and 30-35 pounds. What?!?!?! When we turned Isabel around at a year she was already spreading her legs bow-legged to sit rear-facing. At about 3 feet, but under 30 pounds, where would she be putting those legs of hers?
4. Computer games for autistic children, check out Teachtown.com and Popcap.com (they recommend Bejewled 2 or Chuzzle on here.)
5. 50 Free Prints at PictureWagon (code: PAERNT50), but just as nice is that 4x6 prints are normally 5 cents print. I have used winkflash.com in the past, but their prints are 8 cents a piece now. Although, you only save money with picture wagon if you buying at least 20 pictures because of shipping costs. If you order under 20 prints you could end up paying more because of shipping. Although, it might be as cost effective to order from Wal-greens or Wal-Mart and just pick it up at the store when you go. I haven't done digital print comparisons in a while, so you might need to do some research.
6. Change your AA battery into a C or D battery. This I thought was a great idea. And they are rechargeable too. Look at the Power Pack or Travel Pack. Apprently you can buy this at Costco, although I don't have a membership there.

Not sure if any of this is of interest to anyone, but it peaked my interest. Kinda wish I had one of those blogs where I got money everytime someone clicked on a link from here, but I don't.

Happy Memorial Day!

Playing with a Ball

She was having fun trying to figure out all sorts of games she could play with this ball. One of her favorites was throwing it under the car so she could use the broom to fetch it out. For lunch, Isabel & Mommy went to the local organic beef & bison farm. They were having a baby bison showing, but we got there too late as the bison moved to the farm end of the field. She did get to see a rooster (which she would yell "cock-a-doodle-doo" at) and a bunch of cows (which she would yell "moooo!" at). It was very cute. The local FFA was there selling Bison burgers, so Isabel & I shared a burger & chips & a cookie. Last night we had our friend Elizabeth over (without her family - they are all taking a couple day vacation from each other or something). She mainly came over to hang out & talk with mommy & daddy while we drank wine & ate cheese, crackers & chocolates. Sounds like a nice way to spend an evening. Isabel did get a story out of her, which I think made her miss her own kids even more.

Blowing Bubbles

This is a picture from yesterday. She is obsessed with blowing bubbles. It's one of her favorite things. Speaking of favorite things, she says "I love (fill in the blank)" all the time now. Sometimes it's "I love dolly" or"I love cookies" or "I love pink" or "I love green" (She loves all colors) or "I love bubbles". A few times she has just said "I like (fill in the blank)", mostly she loves things.

We brought a few loads to the storage unit an Andy is still trying to get the car running. He went & bought a new alternator last night and is going to replace that today. We have to get that running soon, because on Thursday we head back to MN & bring some stuff with us and take the cats to their summer home with grandma & grandpa.

Steps

So, I'm not sure it it's one step forward and 2 steps back or maybe vice, versa. So, we were doing good on the potty training while there was a peer here who was potty training. The past 3 days there has been no pooping or peeing on the potty. She goes on there several times a day, but hasn't been able to make anything come out. She has been working on getting herself onto the potty by herself and is doing good at that.

The above picture is what she did with the storage covers. They became beds for her babies & stuffed animals. There are 6 of them spread out. Funny girl. She has also put all her babies at the table for breakfast and lunch today.

And something else she has done a couple times lately is put herself to bed or down for a nap. I was talking to grams today and Isabel diappeared upstairs and put a bunch of dolls & stuffed animals on her bed and then left the room to turn on the fan for white noise (which she turned on too high and it scared her). I came and turned it down and opened her room for her and she crawled into bed and said "Good Night Mommy". She was a little restless as she tried to figure out how to get all her dolls & stuffed animals under her quilt with her, but then I came up and put them away and gave her Dolly and her pacifier and she went right to sleep for 2 hours. She did this the other night for bedtime. Both times I have just been amazed.

Well, daddy is stil broken and so is my car. It's something else now. It's a good thing we got that stimulus check because otherwise we would be in the poor house paying for fixing broken things. Obviously, they are both still broken so we'll hve more money to pay for that. Plus we have a broken roof on the 3-season porch on our MN house that needs fixing. We are certainly on our way to the poor house. Although, like I said the stimulus check is paying for the unexpected broken daddy & broken car and hopefully it will cover all of it for both of them. The broken roof is coming out of our pocket. We are going to fix it next Saturday with the help of some wonderful friends and family (otherwise it would cost us even more to have someone else do it).

Happy Birthday Isabel!

Length

Well, she is almost 3 feet tall. She is 35.5 inches tall, which is a gain of 4 inches over last year. And puts her at the 93rd percentile for length. According to this height predictor, based on her height at age 2, she will be 5 feet 8 inches. There is a 50% chance she'll be .7 inches on either side of that and a 90% chance she'll be within 1.7 inches of that.

Weight

She currently weighs 28 pounds 9 ounces, which is 5 pounds 3 ounces more than last year. She is in the 74th percentile for weight.

Happy Birthday Isabel!

We had a little birthday lunch with two of her friends that like to play dres up to. So, we had a dress-up birthday party. They girls put on tutus, crown, hats, necklaces, you name it, they put it on. We had lunch and they played and we painted fingernails and had brownies. I had enough of cake, so brownies it was and they were very good.

I read somewhere once that for a kid's birthday party you should have one friend for every year they are, so that is what I have done. Although last year the one friend was really two because of siblings. And even though we had a birthday "party" this weekend, that was more for mom & dad and that was when family could come since they work during the week. Her birthday was just an excuse to grill out and have people over, but today was all about her and nothing about mommy or daddy.

She had fun. I burned her birthday candle and since the weekend I have had up her 2-year old poster. I made a life-size poster of a a picture of her both last year and this year and plan to keep doing it through her 18th birthday. Then at her graduation I can hang up all her posters from one year old to 18 years old. And her little party started at 10:21, her birth time. I know - I'm a dork.

Tonight, I think daddy is going to take her out for ice cream for her birthday. Momy has a banquet to go to for Newcomer's Club, so she gets to spend the evening with dad and he can do something special just with her & him for her birthday.

Free Stuff in Parenting Magazines

Here are some things I found recently while reading some magazines.

Want to download a FREE fun song for the kiddos by Barenaked Ladies. It's called 7 8 9. I thought it was fun and may have to buy the CD now.

Get a free skin cancer screen from May through July. Look here to see where participating dermatologists are available. In WI, there are 3, one in each of these cities (Fort Atkinson, Madison, & Monroe). In MN, there was just one in Bemidji.

Get a Free copy of the book "Goodnight Giant"
Send in one Johnson's hair care product UPC and you'll receive a FREE copy of Goodnight Giant(a scholastic book). Send in the UPC along with your name, daytime phone, e-mail, and mailing address to:Goodnight Giant Book, Offer 557, Broadway PO box 711, New York , NY 10012. Offer expires 9/30/2008. Questions concerning this offer, contact P&Cconnects@scholastic.com

This last one is not something I found in a magazine. I stumbled across it about a month ago. But if you buy Arrowhead Mills products - save those UPC's or register receipts and get some free OXO products. Here are the details and form you need.

Playgroup at the Zoo

I forgot my camera at home and just had my camera phone and took this lone picture of our trip to the zoo today. We ended our trip much better than it started. I had to wake her 15 minutes before we left to get her dressed and start eating breakfast. She doesn't do well when she does not wake up on her own, so we had lots of crying in the car and we couldn't figure out why she was so upset and how to help her calm herself. She ended up puking from getting herself so worked up, so we had to pull over and change her clothes and clean up the carseat. Poor Lori cleaned up the puke on the carseat for me (Thank You!) and luckily I decided to bring along Isabel's change of clothes.

It turned out to be a nice trip to the zoo and a great day for it. We ended our little trip with a ride on the carousel. The girls loved it. We carpooled with Lori & Rachael there like we did last time. It is nice to carpool with them.

Sunday Pictures

Well, we had a nice little pary for Isabel today. We had it today because Auntie Phanie was only available on Sunday this weekend. Isabel's actual birthday is on Tuesday and she will officially be 2 years old then, but it's hard to ask people to come for a birthday party during the week, especially when family isn't that close in proximity. We'll do something fun for her that day as well.

Anyways, I made her a Kool-Aid cake for her birthday cake. We had Dora decorations (which I'll use again on Tuesday for her actual birthday). So, you can see her looking at the candles as we sing to her in the picture above. Then there is a picture of her giving Uncle J a high five, and the other picture is of our cousins Jeff & Luz and Uncle Henry.



We started the party outside and played for a while and got most of our eating in before it rained and we had to bring it inside. I made a ton of food and we do still have some left for a meal or two for us. The above is a collage of pictures from Isabel from today. You can kinda see the hair ties I made for her. They are very cute and I received several compliments on them.

Being outside today with all the fresh air was good for us. She took a 3.25 hour nap this afternoon, which meant that mommy & daddy were able to take a nap as well (once everyone had left).

Tomorrow begins another busy week of playgroups, walks, & visits to the Ymca.

Saturday Pictures

Grams came to stay with us yesterday and left today after Isabel's birthday party. We had fun. We opened a bunch of presents from Mommy & Daddy on Saturday and also her present Grams & Gramps. They made her a traveling (roll-up) chalkboard, which will come in handy and gave her some money. The presents Isabel got from mommy & daddy were a big puzzle, a new bubble maker, a few books, a notebook & new crayons, some hair ties mommy made, and a new DVD (plus her rocking horse we gave her earlier).
Here she is with Grams as she watches her new DVD, very intently.

Hanging Out with Rachael

Rachael brought along her fishing pole that has a pretend fish on it that you reel back in. The girls had fun with that.

The girls had their sleeping bags in the kitchen. Isabel closes her eyes when she is pretend sleeping and also does pretend snoring. Whenever we read a book where an animal is sleeping, she also does her pretend snore. She learned that from mommy & daddy.

Which TV Mom Are You?

Which TV Mom Are You?

My Result: Marge Simpson

You are Marge from The Simpsons. You may not share Marge's blue bouffant, but you do share her animated style of mothering. Sometimes the pressures of maintaining a happy home may push you toward the edge, but at the end of the day, you believe in your children wholeheartedly, even when they're being rather, um, spirited.


You encourage your kids' creativity and individuality, whether that means watching them perform the saxophone or helping them raise exotic lizards. You may sometimes say things that sound like old-fashioned parenting clichés, but when it comes down to dealing with domestic disasters, you can be a pretty together, modern mama.

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/jumpto?test=tvmomogt&c=50652

Budding Artists

Isabel's friend Ben came over to spend some time with us this morning. As he was leaving, her friend Rachael came over then. She has been a busy girl with her friends.

This was Ben's first time fingerpainting. He used a brush too after watching Isabel use a brush. It's so neat to watch the younger ones pick up on how to do things by watching older ones. He did such a great job.

It's Happening!

She pooped & peed on the potty several times last night with daddy while mommy was out walking with her friends. She was using the potty chair, but because her friend uses the potty seat on the big potty & mommy & daddy are on the big potty too, that is where she wants to be. That is just as well.

She had a good night with daddy while mommy was gone. Daddy made a little video of them playing/siging music.

Old Pictures

Mommy's friend Lori took these when we had our Mke zoo trip in April and I just got them. I think the one of me hugging her is cute.

More Pictures From Yesterday

Woohoo! Potty Time.

Well, I mentioned that Isabel's friend Rachael is hanging out with us a few days this week. Well, she is potty training and Isabel decided to do what Rachael was doing and so while Rachael was on the potty insert on the big potty chair, Isabel was on the potty chair and within seconds of Rachael going pee-pee, Isabel did it too! That was her first time going pee-pee on the potty.

Then later in the afternoon Isabel went into the bathroom and I went in to check on what she was doing and she looked at me and said "Potty" and so I took off her pants and pull-up and she sat down and pooped on the potty. So, I guess we'll be potty training this week since we'll be doing it with Rachael.

I wasn't planning on it because things will be crazy for us in a few weeks, but maybe this is ok. After the craziness subsides we will only have to worry about getting the pacifier away from her and not both potty training and weaning from the pacifier.

I have more pictures from today that I will post later.