On the road to recovery

Just wanted to post a quick note to say that Isabelle is well on the road to recovery. Her seal bark cough has turned into a smokers cough for the past 3 days and we are just trying to get the last of the "gook" out of her. She has not pulled on her ear for the past day and a half so we are assuming that her ear infection is on its way out too. Good thing too, as we are off to Big Bear for vacation next week with four other "made in 2007 families". We will have a lot of pictures to post when we get back so be sure to check back next weekend or the following week. Meanwhile, have a great week everyone!

Sicky-Poo

So we took Isabelle to the doctor yesterday after a weekend of coughing, a fever and a runny nose and come to find she has croup and an ear infection...along with her eye teeth (Dracula fangs as I call them) coming in.

With a runny nose and fever, we just thought that she was teething again. When she lets you look in her mouth, you can see the right one has broken through and the left one is trying to break through BUT when the seal barking cough came about and the Darth Vader breathing, we knew it was time to take her in. She was given a dose of steroids (2 pills we crushed up and added to some applesauce) to help the inflammation of her windpipes/breathing tubes to go down and some Amoxicillan for her ear infection and so far the bark has been reduced to a smokers cough with lots of "lung butter" as her Papa calls that gook! And through it all, except for her coughing fits that kept her up all night, she is still tootling around with a smile on her face. Our only worry is that with this being her 3rd ear infection of her almost 16 months of life, that there will be a lot more of those down the road.

On a happier note, we thought we would share this little clip that I got on my cell phone last week (what would we do without our cell phone video and camera capabilities?). This is the "princess car" that she got from her Godparents this past Christmas. The other day she was on it and I came up behind her and started to push her. Since her feet finally both reach the floor, she began to move them, scooting herself along as I pushed her. I then got in front of her, moved her feet with my hands and told her to do it herself. She got across the carpet on her own and soon found out that it is much easier to get around on the hardwood floor.

Copy Cat

OK...another short post but we just had to share this. To everyone who does not think that a young child of 15 1/2 months is watching your every move, take a look at this!

Last Wednesday when I went to pick up Isabelle from Grandmama and Poppy's house, they were heading out to the Hollywood Bowl for the evening so when it came time to take Sam (my folks dog) for a walk, Isabelle and I decided to join them. Before we left the house, Grandmama told Isabelle to go and get a bag so we can go walk Sam. Isabelle went into their laundry room, opened the "trunk" (its a small wooden box that the bags are kept in), took a bag out and headed for the front door. We started walking down their street when all of a sudden Isabelle stops, bends down and swoops the bag across the grass...she was picking up invisible poop! We were dying! She has watched both Michael and I and Mom and Dad on several occasions picking up after the dogs and now thinks she should too! She did it several times on our walk, including trying to pick up weeds (pic below), and I was able to capture these two pictures of her on my cell phone before the bag had to be put to real use.

Just wait kiddo...you are going to hate this when you are old enough to have "chores".

Frozen Go-Gurt

It sounded like a good idea at the time :)

Concerts in the Park

Let the summer picnics and kids running wild begin!
Isabelle and her Papa "playing soccer" Back in 1989, when I still lived at home-AHH!, the City of Santa Clarita decided to put on "Concerts in the Park" (http://www.santa-clarita.com/arts/concerts), a mix of bands and musicians putting on a FREE concerts from park to park every weekend of the Summer break. For the past, I'd say 6-7 years, the concerts have been held at the largest park in our valley...Central Park. Now the line up this year is not what it used to be (where are the Spazmatics and Disco Inferno) but getting the chance to hang out with friends, dancing and now, playing outside with all of the rugrats, we have fun no matter if the band is good or not.
Travis and Mackenzie WieseThis past weekend, while I was up North for a girls weekend with another Mom, the "single dads" and a few others met up at Central Park to see "No Duh"-a No Doubt cover band. Again, even though they were not all that good, they had fun anyway and continued that fun after the concert with a poker party at our house until the wee hours of the morning!
Roxanne "Roxy" Price chillin on the blanketJasmine "Jazzy" Price....she is sooo her Father's Daughter!
Mackenzie "Makcie/Kenzie" Wiese
I think while Michael is at the theatre on Saturday night, with opening weekend of Hurly Burly (which by the way, he is in), I may take Isabelle and see if anyone wants to join me for Bonne Musique Zydecofor. They sound fun in a weird kind of way!
Isabelle marching along
Isabelle and her GodMother, April (who is also Roxy and Jazzy's Mommy)

4th of July Weekend Celebrations!

Whomever dreads going to Santa Clarita Valley's 4th of July parades...oh wait, that would be us...were extremely impressed by the entries in our "not so little anymore" town's 4th of July parade this year.
Mackenzie, Mia and Isabelle waiting for the parade to start

Just as we did last year, we headed over to the REP to get our front row seats on the sidewalk right in front of the theatre. However this year we had it put into the Jaycees email blast for everyone to meet us there! 8am rolled around pretty quick that morning but luckily Michael and a few of the Jaycee crew were there setting up and reserving some concrete for all of us :)
Mia and Isabelle telling secrets The parade must have lasted almost 2 hours and with Downtown Newhall (where our theatre is at) being the staring point, all of the entries were fresh, peppy and excited to get moving. Our favorite entry was from the Northpark Church....they must have had almost 150 people walking in it with dancing, singing, pushing and pulling "floats" and the piece de le resistance were 3 huge, red, white and blue, Macy's Day Parade style star balloons being walked down the road. It was outstanding! Like I said, the parade was really good this year and with my homemade blueberry and cranberry muffins (red, white and blue-hehe) and mimosas flowing, it was a great start to was going to be (and was) a fun filled 4th of July holiday weekend!
Mike, Mia, Travis, Mackenzie, Papa and Isabelle
Thursday night was our friends Kristen and Phillip's rehearsal dinner. Thier wedding was being held the following day, Saturday the 5th, at our theatre so with getting up early for the parade 4th of July morning...needless to say, our early afternoon pre-BBQ schedule called for a nap! The three of us passed out, got up 2 hours later primed and ready to start our 3rd Annual "4th of July BBQ". This year however, consisted of LOTS of swim diapers, pack and plays, taking turns using Isabelle's highchair :) and of course lots of games of Hillbilly Horseshoes (thanks Fefe)!
Papa throwing Isabelle and giving Mom a heart attack
Johnny, Debbie and Jenny hanging at the pool
After BBQ'ing, eating, playing Hillbilly Horseshoes and swimming (which happened to be Baby Kyle Chapman's first time in the pool-just like Isabelle, Mia and Mackenzie last year), when 8:45pm rolled around we all packed up our blankets, chairs, coolers and the dog and headed over to the park to watch the mall fireworks. What a gorgeous show! Isabelle passed out in my lap about 5 minutes before it ended...at least she enjoyed watching them for a little while. All of the rugrats went down when we got back home which left the rest of the evening for adult time....much needed adult time :)
New Daddy, Dan Chapman with baby KyleThe gang getting ready for the firework show
Saturday morning was a busy errand running one. With Grandmama and Poppy on their flight home due to arrive that evening (just making it to the beginning of the wedding ceremony) and Michael at the theatre adding the finishing touches to the wedding decor, I was dragging Isabelle all over the place with me. We got most everything completed and with her being a flower girl in the wedding, we had to do a little reworking of her nap schedule so she would be bathed, dressed, ready and at the theatre for pictures by 5:30pm (the wedding started shortly after 7pm).
Our first glimpse of the bride, Kristen, and her first glimpse of her flower girl

The bride, groom and bridal party were picture perfect and the theatre didn't even look like the theatre. They had worked all week on transforming our 81 seat house into this beautiful venue draped with burgundy, coral, black and white fabric with sprays of flowers everywhere. You may ask why did they choose the theatre? Well our theatre just happend to be where Kristen and Phillip's lives together first began. They had met on our stage during the production of Proof in 2006 and the rest, as they say, is history...well for them, it's history in the making :)
Isabelle tootling around before the guests arrivedIsabelle was asked to be the flower girl with no huge intentions being 15 months and all. We didn't know if she would make it down the stairs or not, if she would be able to hold the basket while going down the stairs or not, etc. Kristen and Phillip said to let her do what she wants to do. Needless to say, when Michael had her at the theatre with him, she would be seen practicing walking down the stairs all by herself. So when the time came for her to march down those stairs on Saturday night, we thought to ourselves; either she is going to be shell shocked with all the people there or she is going to ham it up and strut her stuff. For those of you who know Isabelle's Father, guess how she did? You guessed it, after Phillip's nephew, Jon Paul, and his mom got to the bottom of the stairs, out came Isabelle strutting her stuff right down that aisle/stairway all by herself (but I was following close behind). She strutted her stuff so well that I actually had to coax her down the last 4 out of 8 steps because she would stop at the corner of the seat that she had grabbed to help her step down with, look up at the person sitting there, smile and sometimes even start jabbering at them. She was hilarious and everyone was laughing and clapping for her.
Isabelle drinking her juice, snacking on Goldfish and watching a Baby Einstein DVD on Michael's computer
After the bride came down the aisle (who looked absolutely gorgeous!) and right before the ceremony started, little miss wiggle worm decided she wanted nothing to do with sitting on my lap so before a peep was made, we made our quick exit through the "ring bearer and flower girl preplanned escape route", plopped her back in front of the computer in Michael's office to watch the rest of the Baby Einstein DVD and I ran back and forth to catch as much of the ceremony that I could. Michael was the MC that night and was running the lights and sound so unfortunately, it was all me with our little one which thankfully wasn't bad at all. The ceremony was beautiful and all I have to say is that I caught the best part...the kiss! It was so surreal watching it though; two of our actors, on stage tying the knot. The night moved forward into the toasts, first dances, cake cutting, garter & bouquet toss, etc, ending around 2:30am. Isabelle was a trooper and stayed awake until a little after 10pm, falling asleep in my arms in the office then put into her pack and play for the evening. Michael and I got to have a few dances together and when Isabelle woke up a few hours later she was brought out to the dance floor by her Papa to share a dance with us before I took her home.
Isabelle Anessa, the flower girl
All I have to say is what a fabulous, wonderful and memorable weekend we had! Thank you again Kristen and Phillip, for allowing us to be a part of your big day and here is to a lifetime of happiness!