Happy Halloween!!

Hope everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween!  We decided to brave the cold and icky weather and go trick or treating this year.  Granted, we only made it to a few houses, but Isabelle didn't seem to mind.  She was very good about only taking one piece of candy per house, but what she had trouble with was putting her treasures in her bag after picking them up.  So, the entire time we were trick-or-treating, Izzy had candy in both fists.  As we approached the next house, she would reluctantly put ONE of her treasures in the bag mom was holding....watching it the whole time....until a new treasure was had.  We probably would have made it to a couple more houses, but we kept having a wardrobe malfunction...one of her ruby red sparklies kept coming off on her.

We let Izzy be a kid tonight.  She had her fill of a few candies....got her first sugar rush...and subsequently her first sugar crash....it wasn't pretty, but she had a blast.  You can tell which pictures were later than the others by the chocolate on her costume.

Here are a few pictures:

She didn't keep the hat on long, but she was fiercely protective of it.

The Captain Morgan Pose - in miniature. After a hard day of plundering for candy, all hard working pirates deserve a drink. Yar.

 

 Mmmm, a mini-Snickers. This one tastes even better because I snuck it out of my bag and peeled it myself!  Note that Magnum is ready to come to her aid if she would rather not eat her treasure...

 

Here, Izzy is sweet talking Daddy into letting her have one of the gummies that we had for OUR Trick-or-Treating visitors.

 

A pirate and her stash..

 

  Avast, mateys....

 

 Arrr, ye be eyein' me Kit Kat.  This one, I'm savin' fer later....

 

 You can see she is totally pleased with this holiday and her haul.

 

And THIS picture....poor Magnum.  He puts up with a lot.  Not just from Isabelle, but Mom too.  This picture we had to take after Izzy was in bed...she is fiercely protective of her pirate bling and hat.  Note that Mom enhanced this one with a little extra bling....sometimes I am just too easily amused.

 

Messin' Around

Isabelle continues to amaze me with her speech and understanding of things.  Watching her learn and develop is one of the coolest things I've ever witnessed.  I've heard my friends who were parents before me say this, and I believed them...but I didn't realize just HOW amazing it truly was.

Among other things, Izzy now has a VERY good handle on 'No.'  She could say and understand this before, but it sounded more like 'nuh.'   Within the last few days, it has developed into a distinct 'Noooooooo.'  If you're lucky, the 'Noooo' will not be accompanied with a slap away of whatever you are offering her.  What can I say....the girl has sass.  I should not expect any different.  In her defense though, this usually occurs in times of great hunger or great tiredness.

Since she can now say 'yea' and 'noooooo' Izzy now has a lot more power in letting us know what she's after.  There have been many times lately that we've had to remind her that she can, indeed talk, and does not need to whine a point.  To reinforce this, whenever she looks up at me with those big blue eyes, points, and speaks to me seriously, I do my best to listen and interpret....many times I do not get it quite right the first time.  I think Izzy is teaching me just as much, if not more than I'm teaching her.

Now when Isabelle gives you a hug, she squeezes...REALLY squeezes.  Sometimes once she has squeezed you as much as she has deemed fit, she will pat your back like she's YOUR parent or old buddy...twice.  No more...no less.  Her favorite time to hug Mom is right after her bath once she's been lifted out of the tub....naked and dripping wet.  I do believe she is the one person on this Earth that can get away with this and have mom like it.

Izzy is working on counting, shapes, colors, and animal sounds.  We read when we can together and discuss pictures and books, and we count as a distraction sometimes when a melt down seems emminent.  At her sitter, they also do something every day called 'circle time.'  This is a time of stories, colors, animal sounds and numbers as well.  Izzy still loves going there every day and many days does not want to leave.  We are truly blessed to have found such a place for our daughter during the days.

Here are a few recent pictures.  I didn't think I'd write this much because I have Halloween pictures to also post shortly, but as is usual, once I start typing I keep thinking of recent stories and antics.

How can you not smile when you see this face??

Cooking with Izzy

Waaassaaaap?  What'cha doin' Izzy?  Watchin' the game, havin' a sippie...

Izzy and her silly face.  Usually seen when dancing to music or when she's tasted something tart or salty.

Playing in the curtains is a new favorite game.  She'll hide for a few minutes and if you do not comment or come to find her she will call to you.....'Mooooooommy.....MOOOOOOMMMY....'  If SHE opens the curtains, this is what you will find.

If YOU sneak up on her and open the curtains, THIS is what you will find...

Playing after bathtime.  She's a girl, no doubt...see the headband and the bracelet?  However, she's fully aware she has 'tracktas' on her PJ's and she's not afraid to tell you what they sound like....

18 Months Already!

Where has the time gone? The summer? The fall? Has time always moved this fast? I could get into a philosophical conversation about how a person's perspective changes with the birth of their first child and subsequent children and blah blah blah....but I won't. Chances are, if you're here you're curious about Izzy and not the philosophical ramblings of her mother.

Again, it's been awhile since I've posted here. Life has been hectic at best these last couple months for a myriad of reasons. Nothing negative, just...well, the best way to put it is it's just life.

Izzy is now a full blown toddler and a joy at the same time. I know that sounds like somewhat of an oxymoron, but it's really the truth. I've never known one single person (and be it a small person at that) who could so warm me with a smile, hug or kiss... a minute later have me rolling on the floor with laughter... and then another few minutes later have me so irritated and frustrated that I could scream. Living with a toddler is certainly an adventure...and it's one we try to live with gusto!

Isabelle is quite the talker now and mimics anything you say (and do). I now more closely watch what I say and how I say it. If she can't quite say what you're saying, she will at least master the tone almost perfectly. Among her newer words are 'Cheerio' 'diaper' 'backpack' (we love Dora), and 'purple' among many others. Everything is now also "MINE!" when she wants you to hand it to her or she doesn't want to give it up. This isn't too bad yet...but I have a good idea what's coming.

She continues to be a wonderful helper, even if her help does set a person backwards a few steps. I just look at it as she's trying to help, so I'm going to let her! It won't be too long where she probably won't WANT to help. She helps me put trash bags in the empty cans on trash day, put laundry (and many other things now that she can open the door herself) down the laundry chute, she will hand me each dish from the dishwasher to put away....one dish at a time, and she will even help pick up her toys if I remember to ask her before bedtime.

Within the last couple of days, she's taken to carrying around her nighttime friend the cow and a blanket. This started yesterday....and I'm not really sure where it came from or why. I'm assuming it's just another phase and it's pretty cute to see her towing a sippie, a big blanket and her cow around with her....they're like her entourage.

She continues to surprise me almost daily!

Some recent pictures:

Izzy, Mags and I were picking up sticks after a windy storm in the yard. My little helper was right in the mix of it!

Izzy and Magnum seemed to have an affinity for the same stick at one point. Here Izzy is trying to talk Magnum into a different (smaller and therefore inferior) stick so she could have the one she wanted. As you can see, Magnum at this point is not interested in negotiation.

Enjoying some of the afternoon sunlight in the swing...

I swear these two just can't STAND to leave each other alone!

A girl and her shoes.

SOMEONE has been playing cards. I would have thought it was a gremlin...except for the tell tale drool calling card left on the chair.

Pondering the meaning of life over a grilled cheese. The picture really doesn't do the expression she was wearing at this point justice. She was thinking SO hard about something that must have been important!

Tiny Bubbles

It's been awhile since I've logged an entry on the ol' blog! Izzy is growing like a weed and getting into many many things. Small tantrums and whining have started in earnest, leading me to believe that here begins the terrible 2's, even though she's not yet 17 months. I believe a lot of her troubles come from frustration of not being able to say as much as she understands....and what she understands seems to grow sometimes by the hour!

She is an interesting mix of a princess, a daredevil and a comedian. The last 2 portions of her personality are what usually cause her many bumps, scrapes and bruises. These are the parts that make her enjoy wrestling and tumbling around, including but not limited to doing belly flops off of the couch. The first part of her personality is what causes her to present me with her hand whenever anything icky is on it....be it sand, dirt, finger paint, or bath bubbles. This part also lends itself well to her being my mini-hair dresser. If I sit down on the floor with her in the evenings to play, she sometimes will get a few of my hair things from the bathroom and work on fixing me up....either that or she will try to share her dress up shoes with me by trying to put them on my feet...whether they fit or not. Needless to say with the hair dressing and the sharing of dress up things, we are working on being "gentle" and "nice." Anyone that knows a toddler well knows that this doesn't work real well at this age. Even with having her princess personality parts, however...she doesn't seem to mind getting soaked with food or fruit juice or the outside bubble stuff, or having things like ice cream dribbling down her chin. An interesting mix indeed.

As I progress along the growing path with my daughter, little bubbles of memory float to the surface from my own childhood; like a post shortly after she was born referencing the Czech words I suddenly remembered my mom using for things when I was little.

Yesterday another bubble surfaced. This time it was a song that I remember at least one of my sisters singing with me. I won't mention any names....you know who you are! It's been playing on an infinite loop in my head since yesterday afternoon, so I am publishing the lyrics here in an attempt to get it OUT.

As I was walking down the street one dark and dreary day
I came upon a billboard, and much to my dismay,
The sign was torn and tattered from the storm the night before.
The wind and rain had done its job and this is what I saw.

Smoke Coke-a-Cola cigarettes, Chew Wrigley's Spearmint Beer,
Ken-L-Ration Dog Food makes your complexion clear!
Simonize your baby with a Hershey's candy bar
And Texicola beauty cream is used by all the stars.

So take your next vacation in a brand new Frigidaire
Learn to play piano in your winter underwear
Doctors say that babies should smoke until they're 3
And people over 65 should bathe in Lipton Tea!

This....I can remember all the words to THIS, and yet forget so many more arguably more important things? (Jen....if you're reading this....I can also still remember about 80% of the words to "One Week" too....where as with others that I should remember, like from SCHOOL...I have to look up.) I can't decide if I am excited to teach my daughter these things on car trips or in preparation for camp when she's older, or if I feel a bit sorry for her....that I'll be teaching her all these kooky things.

Here is a picture of my bruiser. Followed a stroller right off a step and into a corner at the sitter...having fun, chasing the 2.5 year old she plays with there.

For awhile, Izzy was convinced that Magnum was ALWAYS wet and needed drying off. She probably got that idea after we had quite a bit of rain a few weeks ago.... here she's helping dry her buddy off:
You can just tell Magnum HATES the attention, can't you?
Mom helping Izzy make her first 'mud pie' cake. This is a recipe that my Mom used to make with me all the time. It reminds me of home, summer....and baling.
I'm hoping Izzy will like to bake with me as time goes on. It's one way to have something to do together and be able to discuss things.
And here is my handsome fur-boy. He puts up with so much, and loves us completely anyway. He LOVES the new carpet by the way....hopefully that will be enough to cuddle with and lay on so we can keep him off the new couch when it comes in!

The TODD Ride

This last weekend Dan, Izzy and I got together with some friends and rode a 27 mile trail in Des Moines, IA. Not only was it awesome to see quite a few of our old friends again, but the experience of the ride itself was great! Honestly, I wasn't sure how I would do over that distance. I admit that it was tiring, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Izzy was a pretty good sport about the whole trip. It was a LONG trip to IA on Friday...about 8 hrs worth. By the time we arrived in Ankeny we were ALL ready to get out of the car. On the ride, she did pretty well too....sleeping quite a bit and taking in the sights the rest of the time. There were portions of whining, of course, but that is to be expected when someone her age is restrained over a period of time. She seems to be saying 'I've got no stinking time for this, let me out!'

Here Izzy is playing with Kylie. Kylie was kind enough to show us around the playground at the trail head. The girls had a great time exploring and giving me things they found. At one point we found a group of geese to harass a little too...

The park pretty much rocked!

Here we are at the starting point. Note we're all fresh and smiling....ha ha. Izzy already has her helmet donned....obviously awaiting a wild ride.

The Sponge Bob MagnaDoodle says it all...and yes, she had help writing this...Finish line was El Bait Shop in downtown Des Moines.

Group finish shot. Note we are all looking a bit more subdued here. We've just finished 27 miles on the hottest day of the summer....and now we're having a beer! (minors excluded)

Who Flipped the Toddler Switch?

At 15 months, to the day, it seems...Isabelle has reached another dimension. A dimension of sight and sound... That's right, she has seemingly entered *dum dum duuuum* The Toddler Zone.

Ok, that's cheesy, but the switch seems true enough. Izzy is now into things that I would think she wouldn't be yet. (Believe me, I am learning fast to not underestimate my little smarty...the knobs are now off the stove to nip that curiosity in the bud until she can understand what it means....) She is BIG still into mimicking...that isn't new. What's new is our realization that she sees a lot more than we think she does. For instance...our dishwasher has a control panel that works intermittently, much to my disgust. Well, the other day, Izzy was helping me take clean dishes out of the washer. When it was time to close the door, she helped me push it up, we latched it, and then she proceeded to smack the control panel....just like she's seen mommy do in moments of weakness. SO! Obviously she sees and hears everything. Guess it's time to pay more attention to what Dan and I say when we're talking about work frustrations or other things that get us riled up.

Izzy is in the middle of a language explosion. She's picking up many new words, even though it seems like me, Dan and the sitter are the only ones that understand most at this point. Also, now when she's babbling, EVERYTHING has inflection when she responds to you, and 9 times out of 10 they are what you would expect. If you tell her something that she doesn't want to hear or re-direct her to somthing she should have as opposed to something she shouldn't (which is quite often these days) she will whine something at you that sounds like 'noOOOooooooo' with the rise and fall in the tone. This, now also has become accompanied by the dreaded LIP. Yes, the lip that if it would stick out much farther, birds might perch on it. I have yet to catch the LIP on film...I hope to catch and preserve it at this early state....for embarrassment when she's 16, of course.

Here are some things that she says aside from the usual Mommy, Daddee, and Dodger...she will try just about anything if you catch her at the right time:

• Landon (the sitter's 2+ year old she loves to play with)
• Banana (sounds more like na na na....sometimes she gets the b in there...sometimes it comes in the middle...lol)
• More
• Emily (a 2+ year old girl also at the sitter she loves to play with...sounds like ma-lee)
• Baby
• Ball
  
• Magnum (work in progress)
• Grandpa (work in progress)
• Grandma (work in progress)
• No no no! (work in progress)
  
• If you sing or babble to her in a musical way, she will mimic your notes as well or at least something very close to

Here are some recent pictures:

Isabelle and Magnum are good buddies....until she pulls on his ears. Remember that toddler thing I was telling you about? Here they are playing with a stick together. Through it all though, Magnum is never far from either one his girls if he can help it.

Enjoying life and time outside. What does the gesture mean? It's anyone's guess.

Miss nosey pants very concerned with what Magnum is up to, but not quite enough to step off the deck and into the grass.

Izzy seems to be saying, "HEY! You're not supposed to be taking a picture of me in my swimsuit!!!"

My bathing beauty getting her squirt toys ready for the swim. LOOK at that cute butt!In this picture, I see the coy mischief of Grandma Mabel. Anyone else see it too? Notice that in ALL these pictures, MOM is the only one in the pool. We haven't had warm enough weather to naturally warm the water for too much swimming in our shady backyard.

Random Recent Pictures

I don't have time to write a proper update this evening, but thought I would share some pictures from a couple of weeks ago to catch up:

Playing with some sparkly Chuckies that she was very fortunate to get from cousin Erin....straight from Disney! They're too big, but....we don't care so much about that because they're SHOES, they're PINK, and they're SPARKLY! (She shows a preference for mom's red leather boots as well as her red dress shoes... a girl after my own heart.)

More of the same...for some reason, this picture reminds me of Flashdance...something with her arm position, the silhouette thing that's sort of going on, and she looks like she's lost in her steps. I don't know...some days I think I'm a little too easily entertained.

Singing herself to sleep in the truck. Sometimes she will sing and sing and sing and then not more than 2 seconds later she's fast asleep. If only I could fall asleep that fast!
What's that, momma?Always with the camera! Then again...it IS red. Am I sensing a pattern here?

Play-doh and the Little Helper

We decided to revisit the Play-doh this week. Once Izzy got over the fact that I wouldn't let her eat it, she decided the playing with it just might be kind of fun! Mostly she would tear the big pieces into smaller and smaller pieces and then try to slip them in her mouth if she didn't think I was watching too closely. If she happened to pop a piece in, I would receive the innocent 'What? I'm just sitting her minding my own business and looking like an angel' face. Long name....one expression. I see it more and more these days. ;)

Other than that, Izzy insists on being involved in whatever she can. Her helping isn't usually much of a help, but we include her on everything we can. It's how we learn, right? She still loves "helping" with the laundry and putting Dad's socks down the laundry shoot...

Here are some pictures of my little helper:

Mmmmmm, home-made play-doh!

Isabelle and her grilled cheese. No longer happy to have pieces, she now takes both whole halves at once and slowly, deliberately dismantles them...sometimes while enjoying nature through the skylight. Who says kids can't multi-task?

Isabelle helping with the *ahem* laundry...

Isabelle helping Mom fill the pool.

Izzy pretending to drive a Ferrari. So young for such good taste...

Isabelle's First Trip to the Zoo

At the end of June my sister-in-law and her family came up for a visit over the weekend. We decided to take the kids to the zoo. What a great trip that was! Being Izzy's first trip I was curious to see how she would respond. She seemed to love it! Her favorites were the monkeys and the fish. I swear if we'd spent much more time near the monkey exhibit, my sis-in-law and I would've had Izzy saying "monkey." By the end of the day there, it was a long day for her, but still SO worth the trip.

Izzy ready to start checking out the zoo.

Daddee and Isabelle checking out the giraffe exhibit.

Isabelle cashed out after a long day of seeing the animals....dreaming of monkeys and fish, no doubt!