Sicky-O's

The week before Labor Day weekend, Michael started to feel under the weather; with working late nights and not really letting his body relax the 2-3 weeks prior, we thought it was no wonder he wasn't feeling well. After a few days, it seemed like he was progressively getting worse. The theatre had a set to tear down and a new one to put up, follow ups to be made and rentals to be tended to...no rest for the weary. But after about 2 attempts to go into work, Michael just couldn't do it. He was home for a total of 3 weeks, to the doctor 3 times and in the emergency room once an EVERYTHING came back inconclusive. No swine flu, mono, strep throat, xrays came back fine, etc. He was fighting a very high grade fever, body aches, a hacking cough and other wonderful sicky symptoms.

The sicky-o's lying on the couch resting
Isabelle and I stayed clear of him as much as we could and then all of a sudden little one spiked a fever too. Nurse Nightingale (me) now had 2 sickys to tend to but the upside in this situation for Michael was that he could finally cuddle with Isabelle again :) Luckily Isabelle only missed 2 days of school and a weekend. She had a cold with a snotty nose and a seal barking cough, which was partially due to yet another ear infection which she was prescribed Amoxicillan for 10 days. About half way through the day, you would have never guessed that she was sick. She wanted to go outside to play, start rough housing with Michael, Bear or Millie, our neighbor's puppy.

Good news...Isabelle is back in full swing and yesterday was officially 3 weeks since Michael started feeling sick and was chalked up to his first "normal feeling" day, which was perfectly timed to say the least. We attended the 40 Under 40 award ceremony last night honoring him and a bunch of other amazing folks under 40 who have made a great impact due to their exceptional leadership in Santa Clarita and neighboring cities and this is Opening Weekend of "Hounds of the Baskervilles" at the REP. Good times to be had but no celebratory drinks for this one!

The Animal Lover

After coming home early from my girls weekend getaway, Michael was terribly ill, Isabelle and I had to make our own plans for Labor Day weekend avoiding the "house of plague" at all costs.

Izzy watching "Prince Charming" eat
Caryn, Amy and I chatted the night before and after going back and forth about all of SCV's kid friendly places like bounce houses, the library and even the mall's play yard, Caryn came up with The Gentle Barn.

Izzy and Mia buying carrots to feed the animals
The Gentle Barn is a rescue ranch where horses, cows, goats, pigs...you get my point, were on the verge of death, rescued and nursed back to health (http://www.gentlebarn.org/). They are an awesome group of people and volunteers who rely on funding and donations to keep the gates open. We arrived about 30 minutes after they opened, paid our $5 each donation and were asked by one of the volunteers if we wanted to see the cows? And with a "yes" from all 4 of us, off to the cow stall we went...literally! We walked right into the cow stall where 5 cows were herded together eating breakfast and as they were doing that, Mia and Izzy had a chance to pet them.

Izzy feeding a horse for the first time!
While waiting for Mackie and Amy, we bought a bag of carrots to feed the animals with. We were told that a few of the horses were being boarded at the barn due to the "Station Fire". Those horses were pointed out to us so we would be sure not to feed them since they didn't know how the horses would react.

Mackie and Izzy-BFF's!
The morning was spent going from pen to pen, petting and feeding the animals. Amy and Caryn's welcome was by a horse sneezing on them both! It was hilarious! Isabelle and Mackie were all about wanting to "meet" each animal but Mia was a little more hesitant. Luckily Mommy Caryn wasn't and fed and pet them while Mia was in her arms. We had to be careful of the girls and their excitement screams or crying screams because we found out (Mia did the hard way) that the animals will flock to that person crying or screaming to see what is wrong and next thing you know, you are face to face with a goat and a sheep!

The largest pig we have ever seen!
The Three Amigas! The girls were taught how to feed the animals the carrots; open their hand up flat, palm up, put the carrot in the middle of their palm then the animal would take it from them. Izzy would giggle her tush off when they would nibble it out of her hand and then race over to me for another one so she could do it again. She fed the horses, goats, sheep and tried to feed one of the pigs who was walking around but wanted nothing to do with it. She even went over to the carrot that he dropped, picked it up and shoved it back into his face...he just walked away. She probably would have started stalking him if I didn't have her come see the peacock with me. Even more so with her feeding them, all I thought of was her sticking her thumb in her mouth afterwards...YUCK! All of us Moms were quick to pull out the disinfectant wipes when going to the next set of stalls.

Izzy and Caryn/Mia feeding the sheep.
The ranch is very clean and well organized and we couldn't believe how many volunteers they had, both young and old. The volunteers must have gotten a script before starting because they knew all of the animals names, how they got there, how long they have been there and were able to give us back stories on almost every single one of them, like the one of "Surprise" in the picture below. Surprise was literally a surprise, none of them knew the mommy cow was pregnant when they rescued her. It was really great 1 1/2 hours and I know this is something I am going to look forward to Isabelle volunteering for...what a great time!

Izzy brushing "Surprise" the newest edition to the Gentle Barn family.

The Week of New Beginnings

This past Sunday, Isabelle and her friend Sophia started Sunday School class at our church and loved it. Proud Grandmama shared this moment via email with the Reverend in Jordan who baptized Isabelle a year and a half ago:

"----- Original Message -----
September 03, 2009 3:12 AM
Subject: FW: First day of Sunday school

Dear Pastor Azar,

We wanted to share with you the little baby you baptized at River Jordan in February 2008. Isabelle ( the blonde) is now 2-1/2 years old and has started attending Sunday School at Christ Lutheran Church in Valencia, California – our church since 1978.

Sincerely,

Karen Ilich
(Proud Grandmama)"

Sophia and Isabelle showing off their stickers from Sunday School And here was his response:

"Dear karen,

That is very kind of you to email me with the picture of Isabelle. Indeed I still recall to wanderful event we had at the very site Jesus was baptized. I was a great privilege and honor for me to carry out this Holy Sacrament for your Grandson Isabelle. May she grow up in wisdom, stature, and grace.

I value a continued link from time to time and you graciously welcome to visit us again in Amman. May be Isabelle one day will choose to have Jordan as her venue for her marriage ceremony.

Best Regards to her Grandpa and her parents and a hug to Isabelle.
Rev. Samer Azar"

We hope that one day we will be able to return to Jordan with Isabelle, when she is a little older, and retrace our footsteps to share with her what all we did and what all she experienced when she was only 18 months old.

Amber and Isabelle at the video arcade-Dance Dance Revolution! Another new beginning happened today. We withdrew Isabelle from her other preschool and enrolled her into a new school, Tutor Time. This one is not far from work and home but not as close as her other one was. However after visiting Tutor Time twice, both Michael and I felt that this school offers more structure, planned curriculum and activities for our growing, ever so curious little one. Isabelle is going in as a "Prepper"-a 2 to 3 year old child who is potty trained and ready for bigger things than what the "Twaddler" class has to offer. She waltzed right in there, took Miss Gina's hand (the Director), went to her class to drop everything off and started playing. All of the other kids were outside so we all went outside. I said my good byes and with a few tears, Isabelle said good bye to me then to Papa and then back to Miss. Gina but now with no tears whatsoever. I called to check in on how she is doing and Miss. Gina said, "she is a perfect little angel and is doing awesome!". YAY! Hopefully there is no "honeymoon" and she will be the same way from here on out.

Isabelle at Venutra Beach with PapaWe were also very lucky to find out last week that Isabelle was accepted into a parent/child class on Mondays with Mia...Miss Stella's class. This is a parent/child participation class that Michael will be taking her to on Mondays from 10:30-12:30 which is truly VERY difficult to get into but once you are in, you are in. A lot of the children in this class have been together since 6-12 months old and the waiting list is huge but lucky us, Caryn added us to the list early on and to top things off, we found out that I actually know Miss Stella and her daughter! Tara went to school and was in Girl Scouts with her daughter Christy, who has seen NUMEROUS pictures of "Macho Nacho" that Tara has posted on Facebook. Such a small world I tell ya! Well this past Monday was her first day however Michael did not get to take her. He has been battling a nasty bug (and still is) and with me at work, Caryn offered to be the "surrogate mom" for us in class that morning. I came to pick Isabelle up to take her to her eye doctor appointment and when I got there she was telling me all about what she did; she had shared 2 toys with her classmates, did 2 art projects, ate snack, played bean bag toss, read stories and sang songs...all in 2 hours! Again, a more structured environment that we are so pleased she gets to be a part of.