Isabelle and the Alphabet Blocks

Here's a video of Izzy with her blocks this afternoon. I know the quality isn't that great, but keep in mind this is also from my phone.

Happy Memorial Day!

It's been quite a weekend here. Lots of new learning and stuff going on. I finally bought an outdoor toy from a friend having a rummage so Izzy has at least one safe(er) place to climb. She loves it! On Saturday we woke up, Izzy had a head full of congestion and eyes full to boot. We were a little concerned so we took her to walk-in on Saturday....doc said it was just a virus, but she's been a grumpy, teething bear all weekend. However, I peeked in her mouth today and both 1 year molars on top are through, so those 2 shouldn't be bothering her as much anymore.

Isabelle continues to climb everything in sight....this includes Magnum and Dan or I if it's convenient. This has invariably lead to a few bumps on the head, the most recent happening this afternoon when she stumbled on the steps outside....concrete...ouch! She doesn't seem to mind too much though, and just keeps right on going after she gets a hug.

We all went out for lunch on Saturday. Three big things happened there....for one, Izzy started to want the ENTIRE half of her grilled cheese sandwich and take bites rather than eat the cut up pieces. This has gotten more prevalent since then....anything that I can give her whole, she prefers it so she can take bites. However, I have to be vigilant with watching her with big pieces, or she will end up with half a piece of bread jammed in her cheek (or something similar). The second thing was that she learned to drink from a straw. After she figured out how to do that, she simply couldn't get enough of Daddy's lemonade. Thirdly, as we sat down at the table, she pointed at the light hanging over the table and said "light." Both Dan and I heard it....and I believe both of our jaws dropped. Now that I think about it, though, Izzy had been pointing at the lights here and other places, and I've been telling her "light."

Izzy continues to learn and say new things. Newer things to her speech list include; more or 'mo,' MaMa or mom, dog or 'daw,' and ball or 'baw' (I credit this to the big purple ball that we've been so thrilled with since the last post). She understands so more and it grows all the time. She knows what it means to take a drink, sit down, stand up, put on shoes (which she's recently tried doing herself), give a kiss, wave bye bye (but she's stubborn with this one), among others that I can't think of at the moment.

Another cool thing that she learned this weekend while having breakfast yesterday...she learned how to hold, load, and eat off of a fork. She was thrilled with this new skill! It even helped her eat more lunch when she was convinced she was done and hadn't eaten much... (Mom and Dad are so sneaky...)

And today, despite all the grumpiness....we took a walk and then came back and played with the blocks. Usually, mom would build the towers and it was Izzy's job to knock them down. Now, however, she's gained the skill to build towers herself. I watched her build 2 block, 3 block and in one case a 4 block tower! She tried for 5, but it all came tumbling down. Could this mean that sooner than I think I'll have a lego partner? Maybe!

She still loves to take everything OUT of everywhere, but now...sometimes she will put back IN as well. In the routine tornado route that she takes through her room, she emptied all of the contents out of her bath basket onto the floor among the legos and shoes she was playing with as I was stocking diapers as wipes. What was different about this time, is that she picked up all of the items for the bath basked ONLY and put them back in the basket. Just to give her a little crap, I tossed one of her big legos into the bath basket.....it took her a second, but she gave me a look and somehting that sounded like 'hey!' (another new development...the beginning of sass) and took the item that did not belong out of the basket.

Here are some pictures from this week. I haven't had the camera next to me at all when taking these, so they are off my phone. I can never seem to remember to have the camera with me, but then again, Izzy is no longer immobile and we spend far less time in the living room than we used to.

Here is what I found Thursday morning when it was time to 'gettie uppie.' Someone likes to snuggle up when they sleep....

Someone is also more of a morning person than mom is....Our new climbing haven...

I don't think she likes it...do you?Here's Izzy stopping to smell the flowers today. It was a struggle to not pull the flower out and eat it...but we finally figured out that they're to be treated gently.

These boots are made for walkin....

Izzy and her shoes! Sometimes, not just any shoes will do....they have to be RED shoes. She spied a pair of "Dorothy" shoes that I had stowed in the closet for her when she grew into them (which will be soon, I might add). Since she saw those red sparkles, no other shoe will do for playing in the house....those are usually nearby.

I swear she's getting taller. Things on the edge of the kitchen counter are no longer safe. She's ALMOST able to get up on the couches herself as well. Today, watching Dad grill outside, she reached for the door handle and started pulling on it. Soon, soon she will become much more dangerous! LOL. She is already EVERYWHERE.

She was my little buddy this weekend, "helping" me out with EVERYTHING that I was doing with the house. Most of the time she had to be BETWEEN me and whatever I was working on so she didn't miss anything. Needless to say, that got interesting for some of the tasks I was trying to accomplish....like cleaning the toilet! Her teeth must have stopped their movement for the weekend or something because she was in the BEST mood all weekend. It's periods of time like this where you understand why people have lots of kids!

Isabelle is turning into a regular goof ball, with a great sense of humor. Her giggle is infectious (at least to mom and dad) and she has this sort of a-HA chuckle when she figures something out....it's hilarious.

I've also noticed that she says a LOT more than I originally thought she did, it was my interpretation and listening skills that needed the honing. She seems to be eager to learn more all the time as well.

Today, Izzy and I were doing the grocery shopping. She had been such a good, happy and helpful girl all weekend that when we came across a large bin of inflated bouncy balls near the end of the store, and she looked at them with wonder... I caved. I bounced out a big purple one and handed it to her. The look on her face said that I had just given her the equivalent of a million dollars! I spent the last 1/3 of the shopping trip talking to a big purple bouncy ball instead of Isabelle because she didn't want to let it go and the ball obscured the view of her upper half entirely. I warned her to keep talking to me so I knew she was still there. She obliged with her favorite phrase of the week... "Dawdle, dawdle, dawdle, dawdle..." After we got home, we spend a good while playing with the ball....inside, outside, showing it to Daddy, and Magnum (who wanted to share it SO badly...ha ha). Dad showed her how to bounce it much to her amusement, Mom showed her how to roll it back and forth between 2 people....what fun can be had with a $3 ball!

Izzy and I having fun watching dad-dee take the boat out for a test run

The red shoes...Walking tall in the sparklies....
Yep! We like 'em!Here's Izzy trying to make a fast escape before bed this evening...

No More Bottles, No More Formula, and 1st Year Molars....Who's Growing Up?

Isabelle, that's who. Sunday night marked the last bottle at the Sperfslage household. We will never again put a sleepy, snuggly Isabelle to bed after just finishing a big satisfying bottle. I will sorely miss that, it was my favorite part of the day. What I won't miss is the cost of the formula every week, to the tune of an average of $100 per month or washing out a sink full of bottles nightly. Whole milk is much more reasonable!

And I thought we were done with teeth for awhile until the incisors would rear their heads at 18 months....NOPE! her one year molars are working their way in, and boy oh boy, those feel like they're BIG teeth comparatively! Her top two are almost through. She's sporting some tender fingers from gnawing on her hands so much. I wish I could take the pain for her, but she's been showing that she's a tough cookie when she wants to be.

It seems like she's working on her climbing and communication skills now, and of course practicing walking everywhere. She understands so much more than I think she does, if I just slow down and watch her and listen, sometimes I can get a good idea of what she wants, what she's talking about, or what's frustrating her.

Her love of shoes is still strong. This morning she brought 2 shoes (mis-matched, mind you) to Dan as he was getting ready. He had to 'try on' each shoe and tell her they were too small before she would accept that she couldn't share her shoes with him.

She's been learning lately to give us things. She's been picking up EVERYTHING and bringing it to either Dan or me lately. I don't know where this came from, but she thinks she's incredibly helpful, whether she's giving you one of her Cheerio's, one of her toys, or one of her 'rock treasures' from outside. If you ask her if you 'can have this, please.' Most of the time she will choose to let you have it, which is much better than trying to take it and creating a power struggle/confrontation. Hopefully this will carry through, but I know that the older toddler years are coming.

In holding true to her independant streak, she now tries to do many things for herself...brushing her hair, brushing her teeth, taking off her clothes at bath time, etc, etc. When we're out on the deck, she will help mom blow bubbles for Magnum to chase. She doesn't quite know how to blow them herself yet....so she will take the wand, dip it in the bubbles and hold it up (VERY BRIEFLY) for mom to blow on it, then proceed to dip the wand again. I have a hard time catching the wand to blow bubbles between her dips, but she takes her duty very seriously!

Recent pics of the growing girl:

Izzy hamming it up outside

Trying things on our head is another new favorite. Could this be tied to trying to get her to wear a hat outside?

Trying on a too-big toothbrush for size

Izzy prolonging...ahem, I mean helping the folding of laundry

Goofball.

We're not quite sure what to do with the crayons yet other than taste them. We'll try again soon.