The Marathon

Although we would like to tell you that both Michael and I are going to or have run, walked or biked a Marathon, this post is actually about Isabelle and her Marathon...her "Barf-a-thon" to be exact. (Disclaimer: If you have a weak stomach, do not continue reading. If you need this blog to stop, place one hand over your mouth and the other in the air and we will stop the blog immediately. Don't worry, no gross pictures are included in this entry...just a sad one.

Wednesday afternoon started off as it usually does, minus being at Grandmama's since they are still in Europe. I was working from home that afternoon and decided once it was time to close the home office, that Isabelle and I would take a walk to the park and invite our neighbor Sophia and her cousin Rebeka to join us. We took Isabelle's "princess car" (which I am sure Micheal's wishes we "accidentally left" there) that she rode or pushed all the way there, picking up leaves on the way. We stayed at the park for about 40 minutes and she was as happy as can be! The girls were pushing her on the swing, taking her down the big twisty slide, running around having a great time. When it started getting a dark out, we got ready to go but Isabelle wanted to stay and play more...doesn't sound like a kid who is sick, does it? We got home, had dinner, Izzy took a bath and then her and I kicked back on the couch to watch one of her Signing Time DVD's before she went to bed. Still, nothing she did or didn't do made me think that the night was going to take a turn for the worse in less than 2 hours time.

My friend Vanessa had come over to go walking with me around 8:30pm; I take the video monitor with us as we walk 15+ times around my complex's loop...it amazingly has a pretty for reach. We got back and were chatting when all of a sudden we heard Isabelle crying. I thought maybe she was having a nightmare so I waited to see if it would subside but when it continued and got louder, I ran upstairs and then it hit me...the smell...you all know exactly what I am talking about too! I quickly turned on her light real low and there she was, lying there crying and covered in throw up. It was everywhere! Our poor little girl! I picked her up and held her, hollered down to Vanessa who quickly (and thankfully) ran upstairs and without asking, started getting the nursery cleaned up for me while I got another bath drawn to wash this yuckiness off of her and out of her hair and get her into some clean warm jammies. Little did I/we know, that this was going to happen 5 more times within the course of 5 hours.

I would literally get her cleaned up, keep her up with me for about 30 minutes as she fights trying to stay awake, put her back in her crib and 15-20 minutes later...the cycle started over again. She went through 2 blankets, 3 pillows and their cases, 2 crib sheets and 5 pairs of PJ's as well as taking a total of 5 baths that night. Michael got home from the theatre when we were on Round 4...just as Isabelle just finished throwing up on me while I was trying to rock her back to sleep. He said that he would keep her downstairs with him and told me to get some sleep. She finally went to back to sleep around 3am downstairs with her Papa but only after he got his 2 rounds of the "barf-a-thon". Isabelle was back in her clean, bath towel lined, crib at around 4:30am and slept through the remainder of those twilight hours peacefully.

Six episodes and three loads of laundry later I can't help but think, "this wasn't in any of our baby books".

"The Kiss"

In the glow of the freshly carved jack-o-lantern's light, someone decided to put the moves on someone else. Can you guess who that might be?

While hanging out at a pumpkin carving party at the Wiese's this past weekend, all of the kids were running around doing their own thing and we caught our little one doing this...

The approach: Hi there Cav, come here often?

Scoping things out...thinking over her strategy.

Making her move...going in for the kiss...And SCORE!! MUAH! We have Lip Lock! The happy couple :)

Guns and Roses?

Michael is teaching himself how to play the guitar and Isabelle just loves it! What do you think, hippie/flower child or does she just have a little Axel Rose in her?

Shenanigans

As you have read in past posts, and some folks have seen, Isabelle is a very active, curious and creative thinker (to say the least) who doesn't let a thing get by her but those traits seem to get her into all sorts of mischief. Knowing this, Michael has come up with a phrase to say to her when she is up to something, "I call shenanigans on you!" he will say and when Isabelle hears that, she just giggles.

Isabelle in Palm Springs climbing up onto the chair inevitably, trying to get up onto the table
"Shenanigans" is when Isabelle is into something she shouldn't be into, gets caught doing it and then whines when she is reprimanded. Michael saying "shenanigans" usually stops the whining within a second. This would include:

• Wanting lipstick or a cell phone from someone and she doesn't get it and whining if no one gives them up.
• Wanting out of her highchair after eating 2 bites of her meal.
• While in the car, she may throw her book or toy down on the floor and starts whining for it.
• Whining when Mom/Dad leaves out the garage and the other one is still inside with her.
• Getting into Mom's drawers in the bathroom looking for lipstick and whines when she can't open it (its gloss in a tube that she hasn't figured out yet) even when she knows she is not supposed to be in there in the first place.

If saying "shenanigans" doesn't work, we ask her to use her words where she will then reply with "please" and will either get our help or if its something we do not want her doing, she will try it again and look at us for help where in turn, we redirect her to find something else to do. Sometimes that backfires and she winds up getting into more "trouble". Here are a few examples of straight up mischief she gets herself into:

• Jumping on the couch or bouncing on the armrests. And yes, she has fallen off a few times but has yet to learn that lesson.
• Climbing up onto the coffee table or dining room chairs and onto the dining room table; do note that we have a "friendship" tables that is tall like a cocktail/pub table along with the tall chairs to match. She was caught the other day up on the table eating a blue crayon!
• Climbs onto the chair in the office to "play" on my laptop...more like bang on the keys so that is stopped immediately.

Izzy on the coffee table eating her snack. Then there are the silly, off the wall and fun shenanigans, sort of speak:

• Bouncing on her ball (or dog) and falling off on purpose.
• Playing "BOO" by opening and closing her bedroom door. Trying to do a somersault however she usually winds up in a downward facing dog position and then falling to the side....but she is trying :)
• "Cheers-ing" people with her juice, milk, water and even her food. Imagine her holding up a chicken nugget saying "jeers". Its pretty funny.
• Winking at her Papa which is when she shuts both of her eyes really tight (squishy face returns for that) and opens them back up.

Izzy sitting in my suitcase brushing her teeth and protesting that I don't go anywhere without her. The fun list can go on and on! She is a crack up and is always trying to make people laugh and smile...a lot like her Papa :)

Grandmama and Isabelle in Palm Springs

Let's Go Pumpkin Picking!

OK, so we didn't go and actually pick the pumpkins off the vine but we did "pick" a pumpkin for Isabelle to take home after visiting our local pumpkin patch yesterday.

Izzy in a sea of pumpkins at Lombardi RanchIsabelle's Godmother and one of our best friends, April, and I started talking about going out to our local pumpkin patch/farm a few weeks back and with all of our upcoming crazy schedules between work, fundraisers, business trips and life in general, amazingly this day worked for all of us :)

The Owston Family

So with the Summer heat finally subsiding and a gentle breeze blowing, yesterday was a perfect Fall morning for the Price Family, Granny Aston (April's Mom), the Owston's and Grandmama to head out to Lombari Ranch (half of this ranch was actually burned down 2 years ago when we had our big fires). And can I just tell you, as close as you can get to 9am is the BEST time to go there! We arrived shortly after they opened and hardly anyone was there so we actually got pictures with pumpkins and/or corn fields in the background and not a bunch of passerbyers.

The "Price-crow" Family

We walked around for about an hour and a half being tourists and taking every photo opportunity we could! It was so much fun. Isabelle, Roxy and Jazzy were checking out everything. We saw a cow, pigs, a lama, chickens, horses and all kinds of other farm "mamimals".

Papa and Izzy

Mama and Izzy in jailIsabelle played in the big play yard pumpkins, the jails and the police van and climbed up and down every haystack she could get to. She checked out as many pumpkins as she could and the last one she grabbed and actually carried was the one we took home.

Izzy driving the Police vanThe Price Family; Jazzy, JP, Roxy and April

An explanation for the next 3 pics: Isabelle got the biggest kick out of the little squashes and gourds that were all around the farm. When we first walked in, there was a tractor tire full of them so I picked one up and held it to my ear and started talking into it like it was a phone. After about an hour of being there, Isabelle found another tire full of goodies, picked up some squash, put them up to her ears and said "hi" then looked at us and laughed.

There was music playing near the front of the ranch and when finally made our way back up there to head home. Isabelle went out onto the dance floor with Grandmama and started shaking her thing. She did not want to leave! But after about 5 minutes of dancing with or without someone else, I had to pick her up and carry her off the dance floor as she tried her hardest to wiggle her way out of my arms. Music is strong in that little one's soul but Mama's grip is stronger :)

The Ladies...April, Jazzy, Grandmama (Mom), Isabelle, Me, Roxy and Granny Aston (Sharon)Picking a pumpkinHAPPY FALL Y'ALL!

The New "Doo", Part Duex

Today Isabelle went back to Gumball Alley for her second haircut (her first was back in February right before our trip to Jordan) since we decided no more "Grandmama's bang trims" just to get by. Don't get me wrong, those weren't bad but she needed to have the rest of her "doo" dealt with so today, she got a bob. What do you think?

Front view

Back view

Side view

Back view again

18 Month Stats

Have you ever gone into the doctor's office and as you are sitting in your room waiting for the doctor to come in you hear a child that has been crying from the moment they get into their room until probably the moment they get outside into the parking lot? And although your heart goes out to that child and its parents, you just wish the crying would stop? Well we would like to start off this entry by saying that we will NEVER schedule a doctor's appointment for Isabelle between the hours of 12 noon and say...4:00pm, ever again as that crying child we just spoke about was Isabelle yesterday.

We arrived at Kaiser at 2:00 for her 2:15 appointment. We were not taken back into a room until 2:45 and then not seen until almost 3! With Isabelle's nap time normally being at 1:30, by 3:00 things took a turn for the worse. We stopped at the scale on the way to our room and Isabelle got right up onto it for the nurse no problem (23.6 lbs-38th percentile, still a little peanut). But when it came time to have her height (32 1/2" tall-72nd percentile) and head circumference (48 cm-52nd percentile) measured, she wanted nothing to do with being touched by anyone but Mom. Not even Papa would suffice this time around! That my friends, is when the "18 month check up meltdown" began.

We got Isabelle undressed and she finally started to calm down and started smiling again especially when Michael showed her "Jared"; this stupid, singing happy face application that Michael has on his iPhone that I was actually glad to see at that moment. Dr. Diab came in about 10 minutes later and although he was light hearted and playful with her, as soon as he wanted to look in her ears, the floodgates opened once more and out came the tears....huge crocodile tears. He did a quick check up while having her sit in Papa's lap instead of on the table but still every time he touched her, she'd cry. Through the sobs and tears, we were quizzed on how she is doing and developmentally, Dr. Diab said she has meet and exceeded all of the 18 Month goals/milestones.

Then came the fun part...the HEP A and the Influenza shots and worse off, it was my turn to be the bad guy and hold her while she got them. The nurse came in with Tylenol, which was extremely hard to get down a crying, wiggly child but we did it, 2 syringes and a new book for Izzy to distract her (which failed miserably) and then, boom-boom (enter Isabelle's screams here) it was done. By the time we got Isabelle dressed and ready to leave her tears were gone but that heart tugging, semi-sobbing, catching your breath after a long hard cry shudder was still there and remained with her until we got home. As soon as we got her home she was whisked upstairs to bed and within 2 minutes after laying her down, our little one was fast asleep.

Pee Pee!

Well by the title I am sure you can guess what miraculous event happened this morning. Yup, you got it...Little Miss Isabelle went pee pee on the potty! YEAH :)
Just sitting here passing time...
OK, we are really excited but do have to admit that it was not a full stream like she did on my lap last weekend not 15 seconds after I took her off the toilet because she wasn't going, but there was some in there this time.

"May I have some privacy please?"
While Michael was getting ready to got work at the wine festival this morning, which by the way is already a HUGE success, I had Isabelle sitting on her potty seat on the toilet, talking to Papa and reading books to her when all of a sudden we heard a tinkle (for lack of a better term)! "Yeah", we said as we clapped our hands, "you went pee pee in the potty!" She clapped too and with a big grin on her face said, "pee-pee potty". Who knows, maybe we will be asking for big girl underwear, or at least Pull Ups, from Santa this year!

EYES

At a follow up we had with Isabelle's primary doctor, Dr. Diab, we expressed some concern with Isabelle's eyes and told him that we think she may have a lazy eye. We explained that with both sides of our families having horrible eyesight and other problems; macular degeneration, cross-eyed, lazy eye, far and nearsightedness, and although he told us that cross eyed and lazy eyes are not hereditary, we didn't want to chance anything.

So after about 2 months waiting for her appointment, yesterday we took Isabelle in to see the Pediatric Opthomologist at Kaiser Woodland Hills-the medical center adjacent to the hospital where she was born (we hadn't been back there since her 2 day old "great start" check up). The doctor had Izzy sit on my lap and not 2 minutes after the first look at her, she said she was not worried about her eyes at all. She then showed pictures of other children who look like they were cross eyed or had a lazy eye when in reality, their eyes are normal. The doctor performed a "light test" which consisted of her shining a light at the bridge of Isabelle's nose to make sure that the light that reflected was symmetrical or shined in the same spot on both eyes...which thankfully, it did. The doctor then explained about pseudostrabismus. She said that the width of the bridge of Isabelle's nose, the gap between her eyes, causes an optical illusion and the white part of her eyes sometimes do not show equally when she is looking slightly to the left or right which makes it seem like one is "floating". She said that once Isabelle grows into her face (sort of speak) everything will look normal. While we were there and with our families optical history, the doctor went ahead and dilated Isabelle's eyes to test for farsighted and nearsightedness. That test showed that she is a little farsighted but equally in both eyes. Again, this is normal and is something she will more than likely grow out of.

Be sure to tune in next week for her 18 month stats!