Our little Punkyhead!

Sicky-O's

2009-09-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-09T10:49:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-03T08:49:00.001-07:00

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.

We have ducts!

2009-08-31T16:09:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to post a quick entry to let you all know that Isabelle and I went to her post-op appointment today and Dr. Munoz was pleased to tell us that Isabelle's now has perfectly working tear ducts! However I am sure the size of her gigantic "crocodile tears" will remain the same :)

The "BIG" Slide

2009-08-17T12:00:00.001-07:00

Since Isabelle was one years old, I have not wanted Michael...wait, it was more like I have not allowed him, to let Isabelle go down the "big twisty slide" at the park (I think there was a blog entry where I mentioned that previously). She has only gone down this slide while sitting on someones lap or between their legs like a train and I was totally fine with that. Well today, while sitting here at work, the following video is emailed to me....

I called them after watching it and through his laughing, Michael told me that she cannot get enough of it! She was hesitant at first he said, but then followed another little girl up the steps and right down the slide, by herself. So much for Mom's sheltering...I guess they do have to grow up sometime :)

Summer Sauntering

2009-08-14T12:42:00.000-07:00

As you all have read, heard about or perhaps witness it yourselves, Southern California's heat wave started about a month ago and with that comes creative, cool but energy burning activities to do with the little ones whether you are inside or out.

Riding her tricycle before dusk ...about 7:15pm
We are pretty lucky living in the community that we do. It is very family friendly and family oriented with endless activities and groups to be a part of the entire year. Summers are the best times. We have had many BBQ's and swim parties to attend along with indoor mall playground days and play dates at others homes, for a change of scenery and to keep all of us cool. In the midst of preschool and other activities, Isabelle had learned to ride her tricycle and scooter like a pro! Almost every night after picking her up from Preschool or Grandmama's (and weather permitting of course), I let her ride around in front of the garage or we take Bear for a walk and she rides her scooter. She had been eye-balling our neighbor Sophia's skateboard so who knows what is in store for us next.

Chowing down on BBQ'ed corn on the cob

One of our most favorite summer night activities to attend is Concerts in the Park. Every Saturday night the City of Santa Clarita puts on a concert, cover bands mostly, that are free to the public. Some bands are OK and others you need to arrive 3-4 hours beforehand to get a good spot! The usual suspects always get a group together and either carpool or meet somewhere and walk to Central Park; the double seat wagon Isabelle got for her 1st birthday comes in very handy for those nights.

Bravo...Encore, Encore! Isabelle and I hitched a ride with Amy and Mackenzie when we went to see the opening concert featuring The Skinny Little Twits. The girls were hilarious in their car seats next to one another. They got a HUGE kick out of it, giggling the entire way! When we arrived at the park, we were greeted by April and the Pickles (Roxy and Jazzy). The Hovhannisyan's and Price's were all set up right in the middle with a great shot of the stage. And within 20 minutes after getting there, the Magin's and Mangione's arrived to complete our group for the night.

Mackie and Izzy "dog piling" each other on the dance floor.

The Skinny Little Twits played everything! The Eagles, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, etc. and the kids were rocking out like crazy. I took Isabelle and Mackenzie up to the dance floor and there was no stopping them. They were dancing around together, falling on top of each other, playing London Bridges under my legs, just having a great time. We slowly started our way back to our "site", holding hands the entire way. We had a picnic dinner (PB and J for the girls and Corner Bakery for Amy and I) then right back to dancing until the concert was over. We had 2 pooped out little munchkins on the ride home that needless to say, slept VERY well that night.

Mia and Izzy cuttin a rug

Going along the same outdoor evening event theme, our local mall (Westfield) also hosted "Hot Summer Nights"....a month of concerts outside the mall on Tuesday nights. When we first read the line up we know that we HAD to come out for Boogie Knights (70's cover band-all Disco)! Besides all three Owston's getting to go together, to make the evening even more complete we were invited to a private preparty at Sicily (which is a restaurant that happened to be right next to the stage) for free food and drinks! After the preparty we got a table outside on the patio and watched Boogie Knights from there, until Isabelle wanted to go dance.

Debbie taught Isabelle how to suck up spaghetti

Lady and the Tramp style (pic by Tom)
She found her friend Jenna out on the dance floor and those two tore it up! Isabelle would be back and forth from the dance floor and then back into the restaurant for a break. Later on in the evening we all made it out there and were dancing machines! Tom had his new camera and was out there clicking away (a few of these are his-thanks again, Tom).

Izzy and silly Tom

That night must have made an impression on Isabelle because the last few times we have gone over to the mall the first thing she asks is if we will see Boogie Knights? I have to tell her no but we will be seeing them again soon because they are playing the last Concerts in the Park on Saturday, August 29! WHOO HOOO! This will be "that concert" where you will have to be sure to stake out your spot at least 4 hours before the concert.

Silly Papa (pic by Tom)

Look out last concerts of summer...we will be there boogying until you send us home. Gotta love So Cal!

Isabelle dancing to Boogie Knights

The Surgery

2009-08-06T12:00:00.000-07:00

Packing Isabelle's princess purse plus another bag of books and things, getting her bathed and to bed by 7:30, making sure she ate and drank enough to get her through the following morning, Michael and I having a glass of wine before bedtime and setting our alarm for 5:30am...that was how we spent the night before heading out to the hospital at 6:30am for her Isabelle's eye surgery.

Papa and Isabelle walking into the hospital-7:30am
Hitting the road at 6:30am, we arrived at the Out Patient Surgery waiting room at 7:45am on the nose and it was completely empty; we thought the place was closed (not very reassuring to an already nervous Mom and Dad). A few more patients came in and then finally a nurse. YAY! We got Isabelle all signed in and told her to listen for when her name is called and then it will be her turn. Looking around there were people both young and old waiting too. The youngest was a CUTE little boy who was less than a year old who had a severely crossed left eye...made my little one's watery eye seem like nothing.

For the last 4 weeks we have been talking about this day; "Who is your eye doctor?", we would ask Isabelle. "Dr. Nunoz", she would respond (its Dr. Munoz but Nunoz is close enough). Then we would ask, "What is Dr. Munoz going to do?". "Fix my eyes. Make them all better" would be Isabelle's response. She had become very aware of her "dripping eye" and would even tell us when it was dripping. So when Nurse Christina called Isabelle's name and we followed her into the back, we talked about it again. Isabelle was walking and half listening to what we were saying but we could tell that she was very preoccupied in checking out her new surroundings; all the different smells, sounds and of course, the people dressed the same with hats and masks on. Nurse Christina walked us to the very last bed where Dr. Munoz was waiting to greet us. With a big smile, Isabelle said "Hi" to her and something about getting her eyes fixed.

Izzy trying to put a glove on Papa
There were a little pair of pink, puppy dog scrubs for Isabelle lying on the bed that we had to get Isabelle changed into. We placed a blanket we brought from home and Aloha Bear on her bed as Nurse Christina was talking to Isabelle and us, letting us know what all is going to happen. Joel, the anesthesiologist, came in to introduce himself as well as his assistant. They were so on top of everything which calmed both Michael's and my nerves until it was time to get her into her "new jam-jams" (aka: the puppy dog scrubs) and a surgery hat. I don't think I have ever heard our little one cry as loud as she did just then. Not even at birth did she hit that level. She did NOT want to put them on and told us that she wanted to wear her clothes. We told her she would have her panties on but needs to put on the cute, puppy dog jammies while Dr. Munoz fixes your eyes. She clung to Michael with a death grip beyond belief, we could not peel her off of him! We were doing everything to try to get her to calm down so I could finish stripping her clothes off her and get her into her scrubs as well as putting her hospital bracelet on which she wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with. Just as I thought this is not going to happen, I saw boxes of gloves on the wall...BINGO! Remembering our visits to Dr. Diab and Carlo when he was in the hospital, Isabelle always asked for gloves. She LOVED putting on doctor gloves. I immediately asked her if she wanted one and as quick as a wink, the crying and tears stopped and a huge smile spread across her face, "Yes!" she said. From there we got her jammie situation taken care of, her earrings taken out, an oxygen test (they wrap a little thing around her big toe to measure her oxygen levels) and she started chatting away with Nurse Christina and us. No sedative cocktail was needed for this little one.

And one for her... Then 8:30am came around...surgery time. We are sitting there chatting it up with Nurse Christina, playing with Isabelle and her gloves and then Joel comes over. "OK, its time to go" he says. I look at Michael who is holding Isabelle who looks back at me with pain/sadness behind his eyes, who then turns around and in his nervous jokingly way says to Joel, "Here, take her. Fast like a band aid so it doesn't hurt". Isabelle instantly starts crying and yelling "Mommy!" and with smiles through the heartache, we tell her we will see her in a little bit after Dr. Munoz fixes her eye. (Note: I am crying as I type this) As Joel and Isabelle disappear around the corner and the sound of her cry fades away, I loose it. The floodgates opened and I just stood there bawling. Michael hugs me and says, "Welcome to my first day of preschool with her." Nurse Christina comes over and hugs too me saying its alright to cry. She continues saying that we should be poster parents for this ward and she wishes that everyone could do as good of a job as we did. Whether or not she tells all of the parents that, I don't care. It was said at the perfect time and was wonderful to hear.

And now we wait...Michael and I are both updating our Facebook statuses, through tears I am uploading these pics and texting people who are wondering what is happening now. I head outside the waiting room and call Mom and Dad. I couldn't believe how much it hurt! Both times I was telling the story of what all happened up until that moment, I cried. I came back into the waiting room and Michael hands me a vial of eye drops and tells me that its done, Isabelle is doing fine and as soon as she comes all the way alert, we can go in and see her. Music to my ears!! I started packing up all of our belongings once again and as I was putting the last few things away, Nurse Christina pops her head out through the door saying, "She is ready to see her Mom and Dad". As we went through the door, it was almost a knock down race between Michael and I to see who could get back to her bed first! We pulled back the curtain to see a very drowsy, sad and scared little munchkin laying in the bed. Michael went and picked her up, wrapped her blanket from home around her and snuggled with her, standing there smiling from ear to ear.

Nurse Christina let her take a doctor hat home
We were able to leave once the anesthetic wore off which was about 45 minutes later. Upon preparing for our departure, Nurse Christina came over and took Isabelle's IV out of her foot, gave her a doctor's hat and of course, a sticker. I carried her out to the car where we thought she would be so out of it that she would fall asleep on the ride home but didn't. We talked about what had just happened and how we will have to go back to see Dr. Munoz for a check up in a little while. When we got home, Poppy and Grandmama were waiting in the house to see her with a new addition to her stuffed animal family; Tutu Bear. She was running around like she would be every other day but really needed the 3 hour nap she took. So far so good...let's hope it worked!

Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and support. We truly believe that helped us through it all.

POST SURGERY VIDEO OUT TAKES (gotta love the new iPhone)

"Want some?"-Since no liquids had been consumed since 7:30pm the night before surgery, apple juice was a very welcomed offer when Nurse Christina brought it over to Isabelle. The sharing side of Isabelle, we guess or it was the drugs that hadn't worn off yet, thinks that maybe she felt that the cup of apple juice was big enough for all three of us to enjoy.

"The Boo-Boo"-She notices all of her "boo-boo's" and after looking at the ones on her hand then showing us the IV in her foot, she was done....back to cuddling with Mommy.

Our Fish!

2009-07-22T12:21:00.001-07:00

Isabelle is as outdoorsy as her folks. She loves taking walks, playing in the park, games on the grass, riding her tricycle (which she has finally gotten down) and most of all....swimming.

Belly flop!Remember back to 4th of July, 2007...the first time we took Isabelle in the pool. She wasn't all that thrilled with the initial dip into the pool but also wasn't scared about being in it. Then in the Summer of 2008 we started the "1, 2, 3, GO!", blew in her face and quickly dunked her completely under the water and brought her right back up again and not once did she cry. Right then and there, we knew we had a water baby on our hands.

This summer is even better! She is so excited to go swimming to the point that if you had to bribe her to do something in order for her to go swimming, she would do whatever had to be done! She is a little fish! Mackenzie, who is another water baby like Izzy, came over one day with arm floaties and was bobbing around and jumping in the pool to Travis all by herself which is when Michael decided to go and get Isabelle a pair to try out while in Kauai and she LOVES them!

The "Nestea Plunge"-falling backwards into the pool...and with a smile!With Travis off in the summer, Michael, Isabelle, Travis and Mackenzie get together once or twice a week in the morning to go swimming. And from what I hear, with or without floaties, those two are fearless! We also go to the Magin's and Price's for pool play whenever the chance arises. Those Pickles (Roxy and Jazzy) are water babies too!

We are super excited about Isabelle starting lessons at our local Swim4Life Academy. Our neighbor Rose has given us a leftover credit from her daughter Sophia's lessons (thank you again, Rosie) and we can't wait to get Isabelle in! We have a feeling she is going to learn a lot more than the "lessons" (which were more like water play) that we took last summer through the City. We will be heading over to the academy after her eye surgery to get some time in before the Summer is over. Wait a second...at the rate this heatwave is hitting us, that wont be until October! She may know how to do the breaststroke by then! :)

"Playing the pole" with her diving sticks.

Pre-op...piece of cake!

2009-07-15T17:25:00.000-07:00

With only 21 more days until Isabelle's eye surgery, we went to see Dr. Diab (her primary pediatrician) today for a check up. After playing in the waiting room with a few other kids, Isabelle's name was called and as we walked into the doctor's office, my whole outlook on how her surgery is going to go changed right then and there.

Isabelle followed the nurse over to the scale, she asked Isabelle to stand on it which she did without hesitation (she is now 28lbs. in case any of you were wondering). I picked her up to have her temperature taken and to my surprise, I didn't have to hold her head. While the nurse was getting the thermometer ready, I told Isabelle that the nurse is going to take her temperature like Mommy and Papa do at home-in your ear. She held perfectly still and when it was over she asked me to put her down so she could walk. Without holding my hand, Isabelle marched behind the nurse into the room where her check up was going to be done. The nurse asked for me to get her undressed down to her underwear and as I was finishing putting my things down on the chair, I turned around to see Isabelle sitting on the step stool taking her shoes and socks off. Dr. Diab came in a few minutes later and was going over all of her stats (still tall for her age with a big noggin and gaining wait...slowly but surely). He was pleasantly surprised on how verbal she is and that she followed his directions remarkably; I told him that I wish she was like that all the time at home too! He finished with her check up giving her a clean bill of health however, he noticed that she has not had blood work done since she was a few months old and with her being "put under" for this surgery, he wanted to have that updated.

Showing me her "boo-boo"

A hop, skip and a jump away from Dr. Diab's office, with a Batman sticker in hand, we arrived at the lab. We signed in, sat down and a minute later we were called in. Cringing to myself, I pushed open the door and the nurse in direct eye shot was all ready for us. I sat down on the chair with Izzy on my lap as she showed off her stickers to the nurse and admired the ones the nurse had at her station. The nurse told her she could have a sticker when she was finished taking her blood....I joked saying if I make it, may I have one too? :) She showed me how to hold Isabelle's arm; on her wrist and then up at the crook of her elbow. Then as quick as a wink, she was drawing Isabelle's blood. Isabelle let out a cry but it was not even half as bad as I thought it was going to be. We talked to her to soothe her and before the needle was even pulled out, her tears were pretty much gone. She scored with that nurse...3 stickers! One pre-op appointment down and one more to go...I think this Big Girl is going to be fine, its Mom and Dad that I am worried about now :)

Visiting Tia Tara and Fathers Day

2009-06-22T10:23:00.000-07:00

What a whirlwind of a weekend! Mom, Dad, Isabelle and I headed up for San Francisco around noon this past Friday to visit with Tara, see her new place and meet her new beau, Shane. We thought that would be the perfect time to leave since Isabelle's nap time is from around 12:30-2 and that she would zonk out once we got moving. Well after 3 movies in the car and a dozen books being read to her later, Isabelle finally fell asleep....for a half hour!! Yes, a whole 30 minutes but that little energizer bunny was ready to go once we got to the city!

Our 7 hour car almost made it with no accidents, I say almost because while in Buelton we put a pull up on Isabelle just in case she fell asleep and had to go and thank goodness we did. As we were sitting in bumper to bumper traffic on the bridge to get to Tara's place a little voice chimes in saying "potty Mommy". I look around and we still had about a mile left to crawl off the dang bridge. I told her to hold it (if she even knows what that means). She continued to watch Elmo and then 5 minutes later she asks again, this time with more severity. I told her there is no potty, I am happy she asked me and that it would be okay to go in her pull up this time. She started crying and saying, "No Mommy, potty. I go pee pee in the potty." I felt awful! There was truly nothing we could do! I couldn't believe myself but I kept encouraging her to go in her pull up...and all I could think of was the mixed message was I giving her. She finally did go and we finally made it to Tara's new place.

"Pee-pee" stop at Anderson's Split Pea in Buelton With one big swoop, since Isabelle and I were staying with Tara, I unloaded and moved us in; pack and play, stroller, carry-on "toy" bag, my purse, Izzy's toddler tote and a large duffle bag. Sitting in the car for that long, even with the stop in Buelton, got me fired up to get moving! "SUPER MOM", is what Tara called me as she saw me trudging up the stairs to her apartment. I just told her that I don't like making trips back and forth so I get it done in one shot :) After dropping everything off, changing into warmer clothes (it was in the 60's there, compared to our low 90's that day), taking a tour of Tara's new place-which was all of 2 minutes, considering this is the smallest of places she has yet to live in-love you Tia :), we all walked to dinner at a restaurant a few blocks from her place called Savor.

Tia Tara, Mom and Isabelle at the San Francisco Zoo

Isabelle was so excited to be outside and out of her car seat! On the drive up she kept asking to get out and sit with me or with Grandmama. I told her that Mommy would get in trouble if she wasn't in her seat belt and that she had to stay in her seat belt like Grandmama, Poppy and I had to. It worked for the most part but as 2 year olds do, she kept asking just in case I had changed my mind. At dinner I was thinking, this kid is not going to sit still but Tia brought a few presents for Isabelle...finger puppets! She loved them and they kept her entertained but they didn't keep her from laying her head down on the table a few times about to fall asleep. Isabelle got her third wind when dessert arrived; Halva crepes and vanilla ice cream! We got back to Tara's around 10, stopping at a market on the way back to get Isabelle some milk, and had her in bed at 10:30 only to be woken up at 7:30 the following morning...to think I thought we were going to be able to sleep in a little bit!

The newest edition to the San Francisco Zoo...baby gorilla "Hasani"

Being up early has its perks though....after a quick bite to eat at Tara's place, we headed down to Dolores Park. Isabelle walked hand in hand with her Tia having a great time singing, galloping, running and screaming like Forest Gump, "Run Tia, Run!" We got to the park and all I have to say is what an eclectic bunch of people! There was a group of about 10 people doing Tai Chi on the basketball court that bumps right into the playground...talk about concentration!! Dogs running around everywhere, people laying out, others playing music. All of this at 9am on a Saturday! Isabelle ran right over to the swing set and met a little girl who was almost 2, Ava. She was there with her father who just happened to share with us that Ava' Mom was at yoga; I think he thought Tara and I were a couple until Tara introduced us saying I was her sister and we were going to the zoo today with our folks. We stayed for a little while until the call came in from Mom and Dad that they were on their way. We said our goodbyes to Ava and walked to a little cafe and people watched till we were picked up.

Our little prariedog!

Again, San Francisco has an eclectic bunch of people living there! Gays, straights, all ethnicity's, fashionistas and granola folks...speaking of granola folks, as we were waiting outside of the cafe, Ava and her Dad were crossing the street over to where we were at. Isabelle just happened to have her huge bag of goldfish crackers out of my bag (a gallon Ziploc bag full) and to work more on her sharing skills, I asked her to ask Ava if she wanted one. Besides us being complete strangers to these people and maybe thinking "we don't take food from strangers", although Izzy had just shoved a fistful into her mouth as Ava was walking up, her Dad said to me/Izzy "She doesn't eat those yet". With a smile, I told Isabelle thank you for sharing with Ava but she doesn't want any right now. We said good bye again and Tara then shares with me, that they probably only eat all organic since most kids are in San Fran and don't eat things like fishies. I laughed and told Tara that it was really a lesson for Isabelle and that I was glad she shared her food without pulling an attitude but seriously, what child doesn't eat fishies! That is a famous childhood snack for the past umpteen years....ok, I am off my soapbox :)

Poppy got this great shot through the fence! Mom and Dad picked us up in front of the cafe and then we all drove to the San Francisco Zoo, the zoo on the beach as I called it. The moment we got in there Isabelle wanted nothing to do with her stroller. We headed over to the safari circle of the zoo to see the zebras, giraffes and the newest edition to the zoo, their baby gorilla "Hasani". Just as we approached the fence Isabelle tells me she has to go potty. I rush off with her in a heated search to find a bathroom and luckily, 10 minutes later, we made it in time. However we weren't so lucky once we got to the petting zoo.

Isabelle petting her new best friendIsabelle has only seen goats, horses, pigs in real life a handful of times; Lombardi Ranch, which she more than likely doesn't remember, and most recently, on our trip to Kauai. However she never got to touch them and at this zoo, she got her chance. As you all know, Isabelle LOVES her dog and to show her love she rolls on top of Bear, gets right into her face and kisses her, hugs her and holds on tight even as Bear gets up to move away from her...very affectionate. Well based on this, Isabelle took it upon herself to sit down with the goats, pet them then tried to grab their necks to give them a hug. We quickly diverted that before one of the goats got upset and butted her or something. Instead of hugs, we found brushes for her to brush the goats and food to feed them with. Then as we were walking out of the petting zoo gate Isabelle says to me, "pee-pee" and I say, "OK, lets go find a potty" but she stops me and says, "I went, Mommy". BAH!

We had a great time seeing all of the animals and through a child's eyes...which didn't close the entire time we were there. The animal Isabelle got the biggest kick out of was the polar bears. There were 3 of them total but in 2 areas; we overheard that one of them didn't get along with the other 2 so they had to be separated. As I was carrying Isabelle, we walked up to the fence saw the 2 bears playing together going in and out of the water. Then we went to the "lone bear" who was sleeping peacefully in the sun. Isabelle noticed that too and said to us, "he's sleeping", I nodded yes and then suddenly out of no where she blurts out, "WAKE UP!" And no joke, the bear opens his eyes, lifts its head and looks right up at us! All I thought about was the tiger incident they had last year. "Time to move along", I said.

Isabelle yelling "wake up" to the polar bear...and he did!

The polar bear Isabelle woke up!

We finished the zoo in about 4 hours; Tara thought it would take 2 hours but I teased her saying that she has never gone anywhere with a 2 year old :) We headed back to Tara's place for a well deserved nap for all before heading out to dinner where we got to meet Shane who got along very well with Isabelle, oh yeah and the rest of the family too!

Grandmama, Isabelle, Mom and Tia Tara Since San Francisco is a walking city and there are lots of streets to cross, Tara and I taught Isabelle when to walk across the street and when we had to wait (never letting go of her hand, mind you). By the end of the night she knew that the "white guy" (which later turned into the "go guy"-we don't want to seem racist) meant its ok to walk and the "red hand" meant we had to wait. We would walk up to a street corner, stop and then ask if we could go or do we wait or she would yell it out to us before we even got to the corner.

Isabelle's wonderful picture taking abilities

After dinner we decided to go and get coffee. We found a little cyber cafe that had one patron and us in there. Isabelle was sitting on my lap, playing with Grandmama and I while Dad, Tara and Shane were talking. We read a few books that I had with me, looked at pictures from the zoo on Mom's camera and she pigged out on a "cupcake" (aka: chocolate chip muffin). In the midst of chowing down, Isabelle stops eating turns to me and says, "Boobies". Not sure if I heard her right I said, "what?" and again she says, "boobies" but this time points at a picture on the wall...an abstract painting of a woman and sure enough, she had her "boobies" showing! We all got a huge laugh out of that.

Devouring a "cupcake" (aka: Chocolate chip muffin) with no hands.

We got back from our dinner/coffee escapade around 10 (late again) and as we walk into Tara's apartment Isabelle announces that she has to poop. Tara takes her into the bathroom, plops her down on the toilet and Isabelle looks up at her and says "Go Away". Tara replied, "You want me to leave?" Isabelle responds with "Go away, and close door" to Tara. So Tara does as she is told and then a few minutes later Isabelle is yelling for Tia that she is all done. Hate to burst my kid's bubble but with no doors at school and I wouldn't do this in a public restroom, our house and at friends/families homes is the only place this new found "independence" of hers will be allowed.

Isabelle taking a picture of her Poppy at Fathers Day brunch. Fathers Day morning we met Mom and Dad for brunch at Savor once more before dropping off Dad at the San Jose airport on our way home. We got back into the SCV around 6:30, a little too late to BBQ so Mom and I went and picked up dinner for all of us and brought it home. Isabelle gave Michael his Fathers Day presents, which were a huge hit :) Besides the handmade "Walk Next to Me", tear-jerker, footprint card and yummy Gorp that Isabelle made for him at school, we also got him the new Friday the 13th-The Final Cut DVD (yes, he requested that) and I framed the following picture of Isabelle for him to hang proudly in his office. (Thanks again Melissa, for enhancing it for me!)

I had another photo in the mix to choose from that I was thinking of also using for Michael's Fathers Day gift. We like to call it....."Penguins Suck! WAHHH!" Happy Fathers Day!

P.S. "The Eye" update

2009-06-17T22:20:00.000-07:00

Isabelle's eye surgery is scheduled for Wednesday, August 6. Although it is a minor surgery, please keep her in your thoughts and prayers that day. Love to all!

Little Miss McGruber/McGuyver

2009-06-17T21:47:00.000-07:00

While visiting Tia Tara in San Francisco this coming weekend, I have a feeling we will be coming home to Isabelle's crib converted into a toddler bed. We knew it was going to happen eventually but didn't think it would be this soon.

Isabelle has been caught a couple times the past few weeks trying to climb out of her crib. We tell her that its not okay and she will get hurt if she does it but yet, she still keeps trying too get out on her own if we are not in her room to get her the first time she calls one of us. As we had mentioned in a 2007 blog entry, we "built" her nursery out of the loft so we could have her upstairs closer to us. Two contractor friends of ours built up the half wall to a full wall and put in a door but knowing how hot it would get in that room with it being upstairs with only a small window to the outside way up high on one of the walls, we decided to add an indoor window on the stairwell wall to get a little more air circulation up there.

Mia and Izzy with "Summer Santa" at Relay for Life

Well this past Sunday Isabelle had awoken from her nap and started asking for me..."Mommy" she would call, as clear as day as if there was no door blocking her voice. I started walking upstairs and as I came around the middle landing I see her peeking out the window saying, "Hi Mommy. I get up now?" I ran in there and there she was, still in her crib but on her tip, tip, tippy toes, leaning over towards the window with her hands on the sill as if she was going to pull herself up there. Michael told me that she has been doing that in the morning too the past few mornings when he comes in to get her; either she is peeking, almost pulling herself out the window or she is standing in her crib with one leg outside of the crib. If she got her other leg over too, she could either shimmy herself down the side of the crib or climb out on top of a little two drawer side table next to her crib with a pretty good chance of falling right off and really hurting herself.

Isabelle's Preschool pic that we didnt know she was having done. Thank goodness Ms. Holly did her hair :)

Then today, I get the following email from Mom/Grandmama:

Subject: Isabelle

Well, about 20 minutes ago, I heard a little voice say "I get up?" and here she was standing in front of the desk where I was working. She now climbs out of the port-a-crib.

It was so cute!!
Grandmama

I came to get her from Grandmama's, since Wednesdays are her days with Isabelle, and she told Isabelle to show me what she did today. Without skipping a beat, Isabelle ran into my parents bedroom, over to her pack and play, tried to get up in it but couldn't so Mom helped her get in then Isabelle showed me exactly what she did today....

I guess our hopes to have her in a crib until FOREVER is not going to happen. We have to get out the babygate again to block the top of the stairs and I am sure there will be many sleepless nights for us when she finds out how easy it is to get to our room once she is in a "big girl bed"...so long sweet freedom! :)

The Eye...not good news

2009-06-15T17:02:00.000-07:00

Today I took Isabelle to her eye doctor appointment with the same opthamologist she saw when I thought (not Michael) she had a lazy eye but this time it was for the constant tearing happening from her right eye only. We got to Dr. Munoz's office and I sat down with Isabelle in my lap in the big chair. I went on describing to the doctor what we have noticed the past few months and she immediately told me that she thinks it's a clogged tear duct. She then did a test on Isabelle that went like this...out went the lights, Toy Story came on the TV in her office for her to stare at, a few drops of yellow dye were dropped into both eyes (I had to hold her hands down so she wouldn't rub them-the dye would come out and it stains clothes), she shined a blue light into her eyes and found that the dye in the left eye was gone but the dye in the right eye was floating in a pool of tears at the bottom of her eye....its clogged she says.

Still a Gogurt Eater....just not as messy :)
I asked her what do we do now; thinking that we will be putting hot compresses on her twice a day, give her an anti-inflammatory nasal spray or maybe some new drops. Nope...she needs to "probe" the tear duct which is a 10-15 minute, outpatient surgery procedure. They will put Isabelle out under a local or general anesthetic, insert a thin metal probe through her eye into her tear drainage passage, poke the membrane at the bottom of the duct and then flush it out to make sure the opening they just made is big enough to drain her tears. After the surgery Dr. Munoz said she may tear a little blood or get a bloody nose but that is it. Not too bad, we just don't like the "putting her out" part of the procedure. She then shared with me that there is a 5% chance that this procedure will not work. If it doesn't, Isabelle would have to come back in and have another surgery where they will insert a little plastic tube into the drainage system that would insure the duct stays open. Let's hope that she is one of the 95%.

What a rash!

2009-06-01T19:56:00.000-07:00

Two days after being home from Kauai, I was giving Isabelle a bath and noticed that her back felt a little bumpy but didn't think it was anything more than the scratches she had gotten from sand getting under her rash guard swim suit top. I dried her off and took a closer look. This is what I saw...

There were small pink bumps ALL over her back, her sides and a few blotches on her tummy. Michael came up to have a look and we both thought that maybe she had an allergic reaction to something she ate. She hadn't had blueberries for quite sometime and we had those with ice cream for dessert and thought maybe they were the culprit. Michael raced out and got her Children's Benedryl just in case. Since I was going to be calling her doctor anyway this week to get an appointment to have her left eye that continuously waters checked out, I went ahead and called first thing this morning to make an appointment for both "problems" and as luck had it, we got a 3:30 appointment today.

She is still a lightweight peanut at 27.7 lbs. but Dr. Diab says her weight is fine and she is growing well (Phew!). He even asked me, "Wasn't she a smaller baby that I worried about?"; glad to know we have nothing to worry about in that department anymore. Although we were in there only a few months back for her 2 year check up, he did a mini-check up on her today leaving Isabelle and I walking out of his office with a Dora sticker, a prescription for 2.5% Cortisone ointment for a heat rash and Amoxicillan that she has to take twice a day for 10 days for a double ear infection! I was taken back by that one since she hasn't said boo about her ears bothering her (we chalk that up to her being in and out of air conditioning and the pool and ocean water while in Kauai). We are also now waiting for the pediatric opthomologist to call to make an appointment to see her for her watery eye. Dr. Diab doesn't think its allergies especially since I told him that we started giving her Children's Claritin a few weeks back thinking that may be the problem. He has a feeling it might be a clogged tear duct but Dr. Munoz, who she has seen before when she was a baby-baby, will check her out to give us a better diagnosis. Until then...yummy pink stuff and "medicine lotion", here we come!

SAYONARA DIAPERS!!

2009-05-14T09:17:00.000-07:00

Although we haven't blogged about it all that much, even though we should have, over the last month and a week (starting the Monday after Easter to be exact) we have been potty training Isabelle and are so proud to say that she has it down...both #1 and #2!

Accessorizing!

We introduced Isabelle to the potty when she was around 18 months old so she is familiar with it and has gone a few times here and there when WE wanted to work with her on it but, we never forced the issue. After her 2n birthday we started working on it some more but she was still in a diaper at least 50% of the time. Before Easter weekend, I spoke with one of Isabelle's teachers about wanting to start potty training her that following Monday and wondering what they do in school (since she is there 3 full days a week) to assist with the process. Ms. Amanda told me that its easy; bring her to school in underwear with lots of extra socks, underwear and pants and they will start her "cold turkey"...no Pull Ups and no diapers (besides at nap time). She also mentioned that there were 2 other kids who just started so the three of them will have a potty team. So with the whole family on board, since we all have turns watching her during the week, we agreed upon no more diapers besides for nap time or long trips.

At Mia's 2nd Birthday Party with Paul

We started with her hardcore on Easter weekend-no diapers besides for nap and bedtime. She had a few accidents on Saturday but all in all did really good. As mentioned in our Easter post, she actually told me during the church service she had to go potty so we figured she was on her way.

Michael took her to school in a diaper the first day of school potty training so when I picked her up there was no report on how her first day of potty training went. He didn't want to chance an accident in the car ride over, which is understandable, but the teacher who Isabelle came into school to that morning did not relay the message to Ms. Holly that today was "P-Day". To ease Micheal's concern, beside having a "piddle pad" in her car seat, he took her to school in a diaper with a pair of panties over them so the teacher would just have to take off the diaper and she would be ready to start her day of potty training.

The first "real day" was insane! I picked her up in clothes that her school let her borrow since she had gone through everything we had brought in-4 outfits! Needless to say we had laundry to do that night. Then the next 2 days were great...only two accidents-one per day! We were shocked on how quickly she took to using the potty and knowing when to go. At home that first weekend we asked her frequently and we have to admit she had some accidents at home (#1 & #2) since we weren't on top of it like they are at school.

Kyle Chapman's 1st Birthday Party-ARGH!

The second week of school she had no accidents on the first day but the second day she had two of them-both #1 and #2. Now #2's were our problem. Isabelle is sent home with reports from her teachers letting us know how/what she did and learned as well as what/how much she ate, if she slept and how long and how many times she went to the bathroom and if it were "p.p" or a "bm". We noticed that for about 3 days (home with Grandmama that Wednesday then back at school for the last 2 days of the week) that she hadn't pooped which wasn't a good sign (WARNING: the following may not be for everyone but it is what it is-POOP). I was starting to worry until over that weekend, she was out on the patio playing and she suddenly stopped and got quiet. I knew exactly what was going on so I quickly picked her up and said, "hold on! lets go poo poo in the potty." I ran her into the bathroom, sat her down on her Elmo seat and nothing! I think I either scared it back in or she had stage fright. We went back out and she continued playing for about 15 minutes and then that same look came across her face...that stare of concentration :) I waited a few seconds, slowly walked over to her and picked her up, told her to keep pushing out the poo-poo and as I sat her down onto her potty seat, she did it...right into the potty and had to push more out! We clapped and praised her as she was waving and saying "bye bye" to her poo-poo as she flushed it down :)

Her third week was a little on the shaky side...she had 3 accidents at school that week and a few at home. We had Mia's 2nd birthday party that weekend and even there she had 3 accidents; within a 5 hour time period! I am betting it on too much fun that she didn't want to stop and tell me she had to go potty because the rest of the weekend was accident free!

Week four was GREAT! No accidents at school (her teachers are shocked on how quickly she picked it up) and only one at Grandmama's-she didn't make it to the potty fast enough. Over that weekend we went and celebrated Kyle's 1st birthday and even there, an unfamiliar place to her, she told me she had to do and she went #1 and #2. But that was also the day I noticed that her right eye was not looking so good. It kept watering and getting bugary (is that even a word?) and the next morning it seemed to have the same thing going on in her other eye.

On Tuesday of the following week, when I was in Orlando on business, she was sent home from school with what they thought was "pink eye"-YUCK! I will have to say, this kid is a trooper. For the 3 days we had to keep her home, and with yucky eyes and a runny nose (we think its allergies but kept giving her the drops that the doctor prescribed her), she kept right on track with telling everyone when she had to go potty. One night she woke up at some point with poop in her Pull Up, took it off, reached through the slats in her crib and put the poopie Pull Up on her bedside table, put her jammie shorts back on (both legs in one hole) then went back to sleep! When he went to get her up for school, her bed was wet and Michael wondered what the heck happened. She pointed to her bedside table and said "poo poo diaper" and he immediately put the pieces together realizing what she had done. Too funny!

Cheesy butt in Vegas!

This past weekend we headed out to Las Vegas and as we mentioned above, we put her in pull ups or a diaper for nap/bed time or long trips and Vegas is about a 4 1/2 drive. Mom/Grandmama, Michael, Isabelle (in her pull up) and I piled into the car for our road trip and with only 2 pit stops, she made it all the way through without going potty in her pull up! We stopped at Jack in the Box in Baker and she went there and also again as we approached the strip. She had no accidents at Leo and Kathy's nor for the ride home except for one time and that was all my fault. We stopped at the outlets in Primm to see about getting Mom a new pair of sandals for Mother's Day. We were in our 3rd shop and Isabelle told me she had to go potty. I told her OK...hang on; as I had flashbacks of that same morning at breakfast and the fact that she said she had to go 4 times and didn't go once when I took her...you all know that game! Well, as Mom was trying on the last pair of sandals sure enough I see Isabelle crouching in her stroller seat in a puddle of pee. OK, lesson learned :)

Potty training was not/is not as bad as we had thought (and dreaded) it would be. Isabelle is still in a pull up or diaper at nap/bed time but more and more frequently she is waking up dry. I am thinking that we may have purchased our last package of diapers a few weeks back :) I also think we may have to dig out some of her 18 month clothes because without a diaper, she has nothing to hold her size 24 month and 2T bottoms up! The End :)

Tattoos...yes, plural

2009-05-09T00:32:00.001-07:00

As most of you know, Michael had Isabelle's name tattooed on his arm for Father's Day last year. Since then, he had been wanting to add to it but wasn't sure just what. He thought about a few different ideas and came up with horoscope signs...Taurus for him and Aries for Isabelle. He went to our friend Steph's tattoo artist, told him what he wanted and this is what he sketched directly onto Michael's arm and with an immediate "yes" from Michael, he tattooed it on.

In addition to finishing his Isabelle tattoo, the guys at the theatre...oh wait, Johnny and Michael and I think Mikee, have this thing that they do; I am sure you can only imagine, right? OK, they draw a mustache onto their index finger and put it right under there nose and start speaking with an English accent. "Booly" is normally the first word that comes out of their mouths. So, completely sober mind you, this picture below is an actual tattoo of that mustache. Yes, Michael tattooed a mustache onto his index finger....and better yet, so did Johnny.

The really funny thing about all of this is that our daughter thinks the mustache is hilarious! If she could get one on her finger, she would. Instead we make due with a washable marker...and its pink :)
Papa giving Izzy a mustache with his "booly" finger..

The things we say...

2009-05-02T10:27:00.000-07:00

A dear friend of the family, "Grandma" Pat joined my Mom, Isabelle and I for lunch last month and as we were filling her in on all of the Isabelle updates, Isabelle would be chiming in with her 2 cents. Some making perfect sense and said with clarity and others that Pat would have to turn to Mom and I to translate what Isabelle was saying to her. Pat then asked me if I had been writing everything down? I told her, well you know we have the blog for her and Pat said does it include everything she says? I sat and thought about it and realized, I don't think I have really kept track of all of the things she says; funny, serious, words and phrases that she says and you have to translate, the times when she goes to repeat what you said but its only the last 2 or last word or even the ones that she can say clearly.

Although I can't remember them all, I immediately started to put together a list of Isabelle's past (the ones I can remember), more recent ramblings and the ones you can understand...bear with me. Some are pretty funny :)

Words that need translating:
Looplops=Flip flops
Burpday Party=Birthday Party
DooDoodle=Magnadoodle
Nem-en-nem= M&M (usually said as she is pee-peeing on the potty)
Bee-bop-bop= Lollipop
Rammama=Grandmama
Merry Miss-Mas= Merry Christmas
Ove-er one= Other one
Fhia=Sophia
Dillo=Armadillo from her Not the Hippopatamus book
Simming Suit=swimming suit
Tum On= Come on
Scharmie=Smartie (she got one of them everytime she peepee'd or poo-poo'ed in the potty)

Phrases:
Go away, B (however when she first started she would say to Bear, "leave alone")
Mines!
Go Wings!
I say, "F is for.." and her response, "FART"
More please
Looking in the mirror she will say, "Cute"
Isabelle's turn
Shoes on/Crocs on
I can do it! (yes...it has started)
Pretending to be calling someone on any phone, "hello, yes, uh huh, okay, good bye"
Ask her who's baby is Amy/Travis, Mike/Caryn, Courtney/Mike and April/JP's and she will match the child to the parents.
Trys to sing the ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Bah Bah Black Sheep, Row Row Row Your Boat and her favorite (as we practice before our trip to Disneyland) Yo Ho, Yo Ho!
Come on!
Lets Outside (forgets "go")
I hold you...instead of hold me
Sit down/LayDown
Cover up, Mommy
I want to do it!
Dinosaur Song (here he comes, from afar...)
PIZZA PARTY!
I go to work now. Bye.
I do______, Mommy or You do _______, Mommy.
You stay here, Mommy (Grandmama, Poppy, Papa, etc.). I'll be back.
Watch this, Mommy (or anyone else).
Mommy and Daddy are coming (she learned that at preschool)
And my favorite...I love YOUUUU!

And her listening skills aren't to shabby either...one afternoon a little while back, a song sung by Joe and Blue of Blues Clues came on and Isabelle stopped to watch it. It was the "Scrub, Scrub" song...all about Blue taking a bath and what she is supposed to wash while in the bath. They start singing the song and naming body parts that Blue should wash then Joe will stop and say, "Ears? Where are your ears?". As interactive as Blue's Clues is (which is one of the reasons I have always loved this show-even when Steve was on, way back when), Blue, Joe and Slippery (the soap bar) stop and stare at you giving you plenty of time to "show them" where your ears are, then they smile and acknowledge it whether you showed them or not. So Isabelle starts showing them where her body parts are as they are asking the question when all of a sudden they ask, "Where are your toes?" Without missing a beat, Isabelle goes into the guest room/her play room, grabs the toaster and a piece of play toast out of her kitchen, walks back to the TV and holds them up saying, "Here, due doe" (aka: here you go). Toes; toast...they sound the same to a 2 year old!

Adios Puerto Vallarta, Aloha Kauai!

2009-04-30T20:36:00.000-07:00

Even though Isabelle knows how to say "hola" and "adios", it was decided that with the "swine flu" taking over we had best reroute the Ilich and Owston families somewhere other than Mexico for our family vacation at the end of May.

Looking through our timeshare catalog, Mom brought up Kauai and as you can imagine...we jumped all over it! We now have 2 one bedroom studios booked at the Kauai Marriott Resort and Beach Club! YAY! Mahalo Mom and Dad, we can't wait! Now we just have to teach Isabelle how to say "Aloha" and "Mahalo" :)

Oh No, Nightmares

2009-04-20T14:44:00.000-07:00

Not sure when they start or if she is having them but for the last few nights in a row, Isabelle has been waking up in the middle of the night crying. It's like she is a newborn again...rushing to her rescue at any noise she makes. We tried consoling her in her room (boy do I miss the rocker) but when that didn't it, and against our rules, we pulled her into bed with us. That got old really quick; she thought it was time to play. Michael and I would both have our back to her with her right between us and she would always manage to find our eyes or nose and poke at them. She has even yelled "wake up!" So back to bed we would take her with a sippy cup of milk, turn on her music and kiss her good night once again. We did find out about 4 nightmares later that if we just leave her be, she will go back to sleep on her own.

Isabelle playing with her Darth Tator

On another note, did you know that Starbucks really knows how to get its brand out there...right into every one's faces, even kids. Isabelle and I were walking around at our city's "Earth Day" event at Central Park and as we walked past the Starbucks booth Isabelle points to the logo on their table cloth and says, "Papa's coffee." How is that for brand recognition!

Our Lil Soccer Player

2009-04-13T17:20:00.000-07:00

Michael read a post on a board at Isabelle's preschool that soccer lessons will be starting; 10am-11am every Wednesday for 6 weeks. So he decided that he and Isabelle would go to soccer lessons before going to Grandmama's house on Wednesdays (since Wednesdays are "her days" to watch her).

Today was her first day/lesson and from what Michael said, she did great. She was the youngest and smallest one of the bunch but she held her own.

She listened to Coach Jay and did everything he told her to do...great way for her to learn to follow directions. She did warm ups, lined up with the other kids and waited for her turn to kick her ball, tried dribbling the ball and even practiced kicking it into the net for a goal.

Michael said she lasted about 30 minutes out of the hour practice and was ready to go home after that. They stayed and watched everyone else for a little while longer then left but when I got home, she told me all about it.

Come June when soccer is over and the sun is back out (even though you would think it was summer right now with the 90 degree weather we have coming this weekend), we are going to start swim lessons again; we being Michael and Isabelle along with Travis and Mackenzie on Monday and Wednesday mornings...Amy and I are sooo jealous but the Dad's and their girls are going to have a great time :)

Birthday Celebration #3-THE END

2009-04-01T23:30:00.000-07:00

8:30am came around very quickly as we were woken up by a pone cal from the bounce house company….all we thought was “they were here to set up Isabelle’s Birthday Cake Jumper already?” OK, let the day begin.

So proud after finally getting in the jumper!

After the jumper was set up on the big grass area we have across the way from us, Michael had to get in to “test it out” and guess what, Isabelle wanted nothing to do with it! “Great”, thought, “Money down the drain. Oh well.” At least she kept the jumper in the back of her mind becuase she would mention it together with anything that had to do with her “Burpday Party" that was repeated all morning as we were getting things out and ready for that afternoon. She was getting more and more excited each time she would mention the party knowing that her friends, whose names were also recited after she said “Burpday Party”, were coming over to play and celebrate with her.

Kyle and Lindalee
Olivia and Lexi

The "Birthday Cake Jumper"

We decided to have the party start at 3:00, right after nap times. Isabelle woke up from her nap around 2:30 with a HUGE smile on her face saying “My Burpday Party?” I replied “yes, its time for your birthday party and your friends are coming over too.” She was so excited that I actually believe she understood what was going on. With Dad/Poppy away on business and Michael at the theatre for the show he was in (One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest-he had the lead role), Mom and I were the hosts and the keepers/watchers of Isabelle.

Mackie and her "Crazy Eyes"

Riley pushing her baby...we know what to get her for her birthday! Friends started to arrive at around 3:15. The freshly painted garage all set up as base camp with tables, chairs, food, coolers of juice, water, soda and beer, snacks and a drying line with clothes pins hanging on one of the walls for anyone who was painting on the easel we had set up. We used Rose and Dominic’s parking spot to set up a little table and chairs for fruit loop necklace making, beach chairs on the grass near the jumper for parents to watch the rugrats from, bubbles and a basket full of balls to play with along with any 4 wheeled or three wheeled toy we had! Didn’t want any of the kids to get bored :)

April with Jazzy painting and Sophia drawing on the chalkboard
The "fruit loop necklace table" (Mia, Sophia and Paul) Everyone was socializing and some meeting new faces like Steve, Rebekah and their daughter Lindalee, Pastor Joe and Barbie and Mark, Kristen and Riley (one of the girls who was at Lisa’s with Isabelle). Mark is actually the one we have to thank for getting Isabelle into the jumper! She was milling around outside the jumper and Riley was inside jumping. I left for a moment to welcome arriving guest (sound like an airline stewardess) and came back to little miss giggle butt jumping around inside with Riley! It wasn’t a waste of money after all…everyone, and I mean kids and adults alike, were in it!

Pastor Joe playing with Izzy and Riley

The Henn Family in the Henn House (Cav, Courtney and Mike)
Auntie Steph, Jazzy and Izzy
as Siad and Casey's with their kid/dog, Caesar, and after about an hour it was decided that this year for 4th of July, we are having a "block BBQ"...jumper and all!

Lindsey and Sue

Sophia and Nate
Ceaser,the party dog

We ordered pizza, since the chef/grill master was at the theatre until 5, and at around 5:30, we opened the “cupcake bar”. I set up the trays of cupcakes with tubs of frosting, sprinkles and other decorative candies for everyone to create their own cupcake. However, after sharing the “Froggy Cake” story from the day before, there were no candles and no singing “Happy Birthday” to Isabelle which was fine because those kids fed their faces and went right back to playing.

The Magin's (Caryn, Mia and Mike)

Izzy and Jazzy

We went inside a little later to open gifts with anyone who wanted to watch, which was everyone except the Dad’s :) As we thanked everyone for the gifts and for coming over, Caryn turned to Isabelle and asked her if we could whisper “Happy Birthday” to her and with Isabelle’s “no” to her, we just decided we would do it anyways. As we started whispering "Happy Birthday" to her, Isabelle crawled into my lap and held my arm until it was finished and as everyone started clapping, amazingly, so did she.

A Star Wars Light saber from Uncle Johnny

What a fabulous way to end Isabelle's 2nd Birthday Weekend!

2nd Birthday Celebration Day #2

2009-03-28T23:09:00.000-07:00

Today is Isabelle’s actual birthday and to celebrate, we had Grandmama, Poppy an Nana over for lunch. Poppy was off onto another business trip the following morning and Nana wouldn’t quite want to be at her birthday celebration we had planned the following day with all of her friends…all under the age of 7 :)

Poppy/Dad picked up lunch from one of our favorite restaurants and Grandmama picked up Nana and also what will be known as the birthday weekend buzz kill…the Froggy Cake!

After everyone got to our house an a little catching up, we had lunch which led to singing “Happy Birthday” to Isabelle. I went into the kitchen, got the Froggy Cake ready, lit a “2” candle ad began to sing “Happy Birthday” to her and between the singing, staring, lit candle and the bug eyed Froggy Cake, our little birthday girl lost it. She started crying and clung to my arm for dear life. The pictures below tell the whole story.

She wanted absolutely nothing to do with the cake…completely traumatized! As we got rid of her birthday cake and brought out tiramisu and chocolate cake that we got for the adults, I packed up “Froggy” for Nana to take home to share with her friends when they came over to play bridge at her house that Tuesday.

Opening one of the many gifts from Grandmama and Poppy
We enjoyed the rest of the celebration opening gifts and then Isabelle was off for a well deserved nap which was also time for Mom and Dad to prepare for her Birthday Celebration #3. Party bags to fill, 4 dozen cupcakes to bake (which reminds me that I need to invest in another muffin pan J) and Michael out to finish painting the garage.

Opening her Dora Magnadoodle from Nana
Playing with Legos that Tia Tara and Scott got her.

2nd Birthday Celebration Day #1

2009-03-27T21:53:00.000-07:00

Thursday night while little Miss was sound asleep, the cupcake angels (aka: Mom and Dad) flew into our kitchen and baked and frosted 24 cupcakes (with reduced sugar frosting-hehe) for our soon to be 2 year old to bring to school and share with all of her friends.

Izzy and all of her afternoon time friends.

When she was in the car on the way over she wanted to eat her cupcakes but Papa, of course, told her she had to wait till later. They came to my office to pick me up so I could drop her off at school with them. From the moment we walked in the front door, she was telling everyone she came in contact with, that she had "cupcakes for school"..."for your class", is what I would remind her (we only slaved over 2 dozen the night before, not 10 dozen).

MMMM...cupcakes and so dainty eating it with a spoon!

We got to her class and as we walked in she pretty much yelled..."CUPCAKES". Ms. Holly greeted her with a "Happy Birthday" as all of the kids surrounded her. Again, she wanted to dig into those cupcakes right then and there but this time Ms. Holly said they would have them a little later. With a kiss and a hug goodbye (and handing over the camera to Ms. Holly to get a few pics for us), we left our little, almost 2 year old to celebrate the first of her 2nd birthday celebrations with her friends at school.

Oink!

2009-03-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

When Scott and Tara came down for Opening Night of Cuckoo's Nest, they also brought with them gifts for "Macho". Maracas and a flute from their trip to Mexico and also a super soft, pink pig puppet-say that five times fast! I caught Isabelle playing with her oinker the other day in the car and just had to share (you may have to turn up your volume).

We are also very excited about something else (no I am not pregnant)...Isabelle's friend Lexi started preschool in Isabelle's class this past Tuesday. Look out Ms. Holly and Ms. Amanda!

Lexi's first day of preschool...thumbs up!

Did You Just Tell Me...NO?

2009-03-20T07:30:00.000-07:00

And so it begins...
I was in Florida for 5 days (I left Saturday after opening night of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, that Michael had the lead role in and is fantastic in) and when I got home yesterday it seemed like my little baby girl grew up even more...more defiant that is. Everyone talks about the "terrible two's" and the fact you will know it when it comes and by George, do you! Isabelle tried out both Michael's and Grandmama's patience while I was gone with the use of her new favorite word, "NO".

Scott, Tia Tara, Dad/Poppy, Mom and Isabelle at Opening Night of Papa's show "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"
While I was gone for those 5 days Michael and Grandmama shared Isabelle Watch (along with one night of assistance from Tia Tara and Scott). Mom actually had Isabelle spend the night at her house on Saturday night (the first sleep over, if you can believe that) since Michael had a show that night then had to be at the theatre Sunday morning to clean and get ready for the matinee.

On Saturday, Grandmama, Isabelle, Tia and Scott had a great time playing with bubbles and her bike in the backyard at Grandmama's and Scott cooked dinner for the four of them (which I heard was awesome). After dinner he and Tara headed off to the movies while Grandmama and Izzy had some alone time however, the first of the "No's" for Grandmama started while eating dinner. Easy scenario: Grandmama tells Isabelle to finish her dinner so she can go play, Isabelle says no. She asks again, Isabelle responds no again but this time decides to throw some of her dinner onto the floor. Sam, my folks dog, liked it but Grandmama wasn't too pleased.

Scott playing with bubbles :)
Potty time was also a hit and miss for her while at Grandmama's, even with the new potty chair she bought Isabelle. Isabelle was excited and pee-pee'd in it the first few times after Mom brought it out but then wanted nothing to do with it. Mom tried and tried and all Isabelle kept telling her was...you guessed it, "No". Finally the day got to her and Isabelle went to bed however at about 2am Mom heard her wrestling around and went to check on her; Isabelle stood up, asked for Sam then Mom told her "Sam is asleep and you need to go to sleep too" and with that, Isabelle laid back down and was out like a light till almost 9am.

Isabelle bubble playing and succeeding

Michael had about the same amount of luck when it came to Isabelle eating and actually following orders to do something, the answer still remained the same..."NO". One morning when they called me to say hello Michael told me he didn't want Isabelle anymore and that she needed to go back. I told him I was sorry but there is no way that she is going back! First of all, she is too big :) He also shared with me that Isabelle now knows that the second step on our staircase is for "time outs". Yup, you heard it right, Isabelle has had her official first time out and she actually sat there until Michael talked to her about why she was there and then let her get up.

We have been on her and have been not letting down with commands that we give her (that sounds like I am talking about training a dog-LOL) and our follow through to make sure it gets done. Sometimes though, we let things slide. Isabelle is lucky she is cute!

Two weeks down...the preschool update!

2009-03-06T08:39:00.000-08:00

It has officially been 2 weeks with Isabelle at her new preschool and what an emotional roller coaster ride that has been! We have had everything from the extreme meltdowns when walking into the school, smaller crying fits when we leave or come pick her up and even having Isabelle saying "NO" as we pull into the parking lot of the school! Then we have the opposite extreme; Isabelle marching into the school like she owns the place and crying a little bit (for show) when Michael leaves. Or when I come to pick her up, I watch her from her classroom window as she is playing outside with her friends in the cars, on the slide, etc. and then the moment she sees me....tears come pouring down her face. Yesterday I told her to stop and that she was fine, which made her "show" stop instantly.

One of her teachers told us last Friday (as Isabelle was attached to her hip, literally, all day) that it would take time for her to adjust, as it does with most children, and she will be fine. Even though we know this already, its always nice to hear once again that it is something that all kids and parents :) go through and everyone survives.

Playing at MyGym at Sophia and Paul's Birthday Party.The first week there, Isabelle got very attached to Ms. Amanda; sitting in her lap, wanting to be held by her, Ms. Amanda got her to sleep at nap time, calmed her down when she would start crying and Isabelle would hold her finger (for dear life) when they were out in the yard. She was Ms. Amanda's shadow and luckily, Ms. Amanda didn't mind much :)

Lisa's girls...a shot from our "photo shoot" as a going away gift for Lisa.

I remember asking Isabelle one day last week in the car after I picked her up, the following:

Me: "What did you do at school today?"
Isabelle: "Cried."
Me: "Why were you crying?"
Isabelle is a soft little voice: "Sad."

OK...did that just break your heart? Because it did mine when she told me that!

By the end of this week, Isabelle has become less and less attached to Ms. Amanda and more and more aware of her surroundings, her friends like Madison, Mya, Katherine and "the boys" (as she puts it) and all the fun she can have at preschool. All in all, she is doing well and we feel it will just continue to get better and better as the weeks pass.

The guys and their girls-Travis, Mackenzie, Isabelle and Michael leaving Red Lobster

Isabelle will have her friend Lexi starting soon in her class for 2 half days a week and hopefully Mackie will start August and if either of them have the same type of transitioning "situation" as Isabelle did, we know she has a finger to lend them :)

The First day...

2009-02-25T08:18:00.000-08:00

Well as we figured, but didn't want to believe, Isabelle's first day at her new preschool went better than we thought it would. As usual, and as I mentioned before, it is harder on the parents than it is on the child. Here is a re-cap of yesterday...

To Michael's chagrin, it was decided that he would drop Isabelle off at school and I would be picking her up (yes, I get to be the "savior") just like we did when she was at Lisa's. Although everything in me wanted to be there for my baby's first day at her new preschool, I felt very strongly about keeping things consistent and again, since Michael had been the one dropping off Isabelle at her other daycare for the past year, I felt that we should continue it that way. She was never dropped off by both of us and with a new school and environment I didn't want her to think that both Mom and Dad were abandoning her. So I sat in my office crying on and off from 7:30am (knowing that Michael's alarm was going off to get her up and ready) until 8:45am when I got the call from Michael that he just left her. However, that phone call from him turned on the waterworks full blast. Here is how the conversation went: I picked up the phone and Michael was silent on the other end and I asked how did she do...still silence. Then he said between teary sobs, "It's not fair...I don't ever want to do that again. You are dropping her off on Thursday." Trying to keep myself composed, I asked what happened? Did she cry? How was everything? Did they have a cubby ready for her? Plus about 10 million other questions. He told me that she walked in fine, started to look around and play a little bit then when he said, "OK, its time for Papa to go. Come give me a hug good-bye.". As he was saying that tears came streaming down her face and she clung to him like glue! He held her tight, not wanting to let her go either. Finally, with tears in his eyes and her bawling, one of her teachers (Ms. Holly) pried HIS arms off of her and took her from him. He said he left and went and sat in the car trying to get it together and watching her through the 2 year old room window where he could see her run off to play with another child. That was it...forgotten in 2 minutes.

Monster's last day at Lisa's

I called around 10, being "that parent" to see how she was doing and the director said that she actually just went in to check on her and was about to call us, especially after the "rocky good-bye". She said Isabelle is doing fine and hasn't cried since Dad left. That instantly put a huge smile on my face and Michael's after I called to tell him.

However not an hour after that phone call, and I think it was on purpose :), Michael had forgotten the check and went back to drop it off. The "two's" were out on the playground and he watched Isabelle outside playing on the slide, smiling. He was careful not to let her see him and called me as he left to tell me the news. He also noticed that she is the youngest/smallest one in that room-which she is but that was by our choice. Another point we made when putting her in this preschool was that although she is not 2 until March 28, we didn't want her to start in the Toddler room only to have her make another transition to the Two-year old room a month later. They were fine with it and so were we. She does have 2 other kids in her class that are "freshly" two so she shouldn't be that far off.

Isabelle's "Letter Art"...she had glue stuck in her eyebrows! LOL!

We both went about our day trying not to think about it but I will have to say, 4:00 couldn't come around any slower!!! At 3:30 I said forget it and left work with Grandmama to go and get her. Michael was going to meet us over there so he wouldn't be portrayed as the "bad guy" who dropped her off and left her at this new place. Mom and I were sitting in the office waiting for Michael and talking to my friend Gretchen, who also happens to be the assistant director, when all of a sudden we hear a crying kid and the door opens with Ms. Amanda (Izzy's other teacher) holding our little one, apologizing to us and Gretchen as she grabs some tissue and not realizing it was me sitting there, saying that when she went to leave the room for a second, Isabelle started crying so she went ahead and just took her with her. Although I wanted Michael to be the one that she would first see coming to get her and even though in her frenzy of tears she didn't realize it was Mom and I sitting there, I couldn't let her cry so I said, "Monkey? What is wrong?". Instantly her eyes lit up, her arms stretched out to me as she tearfully said, "Mom!". I took her from Ms. Amanda and held her tight. It was funny, I had the same exact feeling as I did when she was just born and the nurse handed her to me to hold for the first time...I was in love all over again! I teared up (again) and then started talking to her and Ms. Amanda about her day. Not 2 minutes after that, Michael walked in. Isabelle saw him and went over to give him a big hug hi and I caught a glimpse of tears in the eyes of our "solid as a rock" Dad. We all went to her room and heard more about her day. She didn't nap but ate all of her lunch (spaghetti, salad and milk) and even pee-pee'd on the potty! YAY!

Phewwww! What an emotional day but hopefully Thursday will be better :)

Today is the day...

2009-02-24T08:43:00.001-08:00

Sitting here at work wondering how our little one is doing right now at her new preschool? Is she crying? I know her Mom is. Is she getting along with the other kids? Do her teachers like her? Is she going to eat the food they provide her? All of these questions are going through my head and I just keep telling myself not to call and be "that parent". Seriously, I just have to do what I have told all ALL of the parents that came through my preschool days when I worked at Stepping Stones, Pinecrest and even way back when I worked at the YMCA, "It is worse off for the parents then it is for the child." OK...here I go, practicing what I preach and knowing it will be fine.

EVERYONE POOPS

2009-02-23T11:47:00.000-08:00

An excerpt from one of Isabelle's favorite "potty books"...wait, it IS Isabelle's favorite "potty book", Everyone Poops.

Losing Lisa

2009-02-12T21:11:00.000-08:00

Since she was 10 1/2 months old, every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoon Isabelle goes to a place where she knows familiar faces, has the same routine and plays with the same friends but this past Tuesday....it all changed.

Michael playing with a new application on his iPhone As some of you may have read on my Facebook page, we are going to be transitioning to a new daycare sooner than we had planned. On Tuesday when I went to pick up Isabelle from daycare, Lisa opened the door her normal, happy, cheerful self (I swear she never has a bad day-I am jealous!) but as I walked into the kitchen I see Mark, little Riley's Dad, sitting on the couch and then Lisa proceeded to say, "I have something to tell you guys. We have some news...". Now the statement "we have some news" to me over the past 3 years, and especially knowing that Lisa is married and has been trying to get pregnant for a year, means "Hey, guess what...we have a bun in the oven!". And even looking at Lisa's Mom, Barbie, who said, "I am not going to cry" made me get butterflies in my stomach from the sheer excitement for them . Well, that was not the case this time around. Lisa then proceeds to tell Mark and I that Jeff (her hubby) got a new job and there is going to be a commute. So still thinking, OK a little adjustment but nothing big... it will still work. She continues to say, "We are moving to Florida on February 2oth for Jeff's new job". As I am standing their trying to process what she just said, Lisa then proceeds to tell us about what happened that past weekend; how they were in Ft. Lauderdale for the interview, Jeff was offered the job right then and there and that she won't have to work. At first I didn't know whether to jump up and down with excitement for them since she won't have to work, can concentrate on starting their own family and the fact that Jeff has been looking for a job for months now and finally has one, or to cry because Isabelle is losing her "Yeesah". One look at Barbie and I lost it. So now the search begins. All we know is that no one is going to replace Lisa.

Being a "diva" at the theatre
Earlier this week, we have taken tours of several local "in home day cares" and actual preschools and have pretty much narrowed it down to Tutor Time in Stevenson Ranch. We felt so welcome and comfortable there...unlike one preschool we visited who's director left a child in the office (who was brought in as a punishment while we were there) while she took us for a tour of the school...RED FLAGS thrown right then and there! And their teachers who would have Isabelle within a few months, as Michael so eloquently put it, look and talk like they frequent an old SCV dive bar called Doc's Inn, every night. At Tutor Time, although licensed for a 1 to 12 teacher to child ratio, have a maximum of 1 to 8 with an aide. When we stopped in, besides the room being HUGE, there were 2 teachers and an aide and 15 kids...we really liked that. We have one more preschool to visit that is 2 streets down from my work (and is $40 a week cheaper than Tutor Time) and then its decision making time since February 20th is going to come sooner than we think!

A-B-C's and other musings

2009-01-19T21:53:00.000-08:00

This Christmas brought Isabelle a lot of new toys and games to play with but she always seems to return to her singing, magnetic phonic/letters from Leapfrog. She had originally gotten a set for her 1st birthday however we returned them since they wouldn't stick on our stainless steel fridge. Then one day after our neighbor's 6 year old daughter Sophia gave us her set, I had a brainstorm...we have a metal fire door going out to our garage! So not only is Isabelle out of our way in our already not so roomy kitchen, she is always in plain view from the kitchen, dining room and living room! We have had "her letters" up for a few months now and she also has the "Letter Factory" DVD by Leapfrog (thanks for the suggestion, Caryn) that incorporates the same songs/phonetic sounds that the magnetic letters make along with teaching a few words that start with that letter.

Look at "my letters" Within the past month, Isabelle recognizes and says the sounds for the letters A, F, I, K, M, O, P, S (but sometimes gets it confused with Z), U, V, X and Z. Now she may not get them all the time but when asked, 9 out of 10 times these are the ones she usually knows. Then there are the letters B, E, H, J, R, T and W which she knows the sounds for but not the name of the letter itself. Besides the magnetic letters, Isabelle also has foam letters that she plays with in the bath (thank you Jackie and Randy)...GO L-E-T-T-E-R-S!

Isabell, like any other child, LOVES playing at the park and with Michael at home with her in the mornings, she gets to go 3-4 days a week. They take Bear for a walk up in the hills behind our place and head back home going past the park where he will stop and let her play. Michael is still trying to talk me into letting her go down the big, twisty, covered slide by herself...maybe for her 2nd birthday, while I am not looking :)

Being outside now a day in California also has its downfalls....our wonderful Santa Ana winds that you all read/hear about. I am sure you can imagine what all gets kicked up while we are outside playing? YUCK! Luckily, I am the only one in the family with allergies however Isabelle does get affected every now and then which had forced her to learn how to blow her nose. Yes, I had to note this in her blog since it is pretty dang exciting for us. You say "blow" and Isabelle blows those "boogies" of hers right into the tissue! Hopefully teaching her this so early will incline her to reach for a tissue and not resort to her finger...ewwww!

Isabelle also has a new favorite ritual that started with her Papa around the beginning of December. She loves having all of her stuffed animals (OK not all, but a good number of them) in her crib with her when it is nap time or time for bed and when she lays down for nap or bedtime, she has to give "good night kisses" to each one. But the funniest part of this ritual has to be when she is not tired when 8:30pm rolls around and you listen at the door or go grab the monitor, you will see/hear her playing with her Elmo and Cookie Monster puppets, having them kiss all of the other stuffed animals "good night"! That is our little love bug!

Isabelle with her stuffed animals ready to go "nah nigh".

On that "funny note", we had a friend of the family in town from Alabama right after the new year. And of course after the nickle and dime tour of our office and a little wining and dining, we stopped by the "little theatre that could"...the REP, which he has heard a lot about. While we were there, Isabelle showed Alan around "her stomping grounds"; in and out of the dressing rooms, running down the hall, back behind Papa's desk, up the stairs in the theatre and of course, the stage where our new set was being built. After running up and down the levels on the stage and few times around the bed, there was her finale...

And on that note...Good Night!

I Can Say My Name...

2009-01-12T19:54:00.000-08:00

Since the day she was born, Isabelle has been called everything but "Isabelle"; Izzy, Izzard, Izzy-pop, Cubby, Stinker and so on. Well for the past week, Michael has been working on Isabelle saying her name, not her nickname, and she got the hang of it real fast.

Mind you, she still says Izzy on occasion but anytime our daughter is asked, What is you name?" ..."Isabelle" is her response.

So long 2008...

2009-01-08T20:13:00.000-08:00

While Isabelle was having a sleep over party at our house with her babysitter, Jessica, and the Price twins (Roxy and Jazzy)...here is where Mama, Papa, Isabelle's Godparents (April and JP), Tia Tara and her boyfriend Scott and many others were all night!

http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/7648/

Happy New Year everyone and wishing you all a healthy, prosperous and all around wonderful 2009!

HOHOHO! Merry Christmas!

2008-12-27T16:20:00.000-08:00

What a Christmas our little one had this year and like everyone said, this is going to be a fun year for us watching HER open all of her gifts and seriously, it was so much fun. The whole family agrees that Christmas is officially all about Isabelle :)

Santa pic at Pet Smart but Isabelle wouldn't do it on her own! We started Christmas with Tia Tara, Isabelle and I meeting Grandmama and Poppy at church on Christmas Eve; Michael stayed home to read the annual "Twas the Night Before Christmas" story over the phone to the rest of the family in Michigan. Isabelle was very well behaved at church and we were armed and dangerous with things for her to do. This was the "children's service" with a live nativity play (minus the animals, of course). The highlight of the service was when the narrator of the play, who happened to have white hair and a big ol' white beard, came walking/talking down the aisle and our little one blurts out, "SANTA! HO HO!". We have tell you, it was really funny to everyone in earshot. The service was nice and I didn't cry-unlike the midnight candlelight service where I can hardly contain myself-but instead Tara, Mom and I took turns holding Isabelle as she named things in the church (including "JOE!" when she saw Pastor Joe), telling us whatever she was doing or wanting to do and best of all, tilting her head from side to side when the congregation sang Silent Night...just like the kids do on the Wiggles movie "A Very Wiggly Christmas".

Xmas Eve dinner at Spumoni...mmmmm pasta!

Since we attended the early service we all went to dinner afterwards, picking up Papa on the way, and came home where Tia Tara, Michael and I stayed up talking, placing all of the gifts that we had out of Isabelle's reach, under the tree and debating on opening just a few gifts...we decided to wait.

Xmas morning at our house.
Christmas morning came and Isabelle decided to sleep in until 9:00 so Tara and I (remember I was only 2 weeks into my foot surgery healing process so I had to have someone drive me everywhere) had time to go and find a store that was open to get some breakfast munchies for all-thank goodness for Ralphs! Grandmama and Poppy arrived at our house around 10:30 just as Isabelle, bedhead and all, was tearing into her first Christmas present from Grandma and Grandpa O; one of the ones that were pouring out from beneath our little "slim tree". She then proceeded to pretty much rip open any gift that was or was not hers, even Papa's "Hulk Hands" which were a gift to him from her that she didn't want anything (and still doesn't) to do with :( I had visions of the two of them playing with those for hours on end...maybe next Christmas?

Sniffing her doll's bottom, making sure she doesn't have poop-LOL!

She tore threw the rest of the gifts like a madwoman! We will have to tell you though, her favorite gift from that part of the day was the baby crib from Grandma and Grandpa O. After I assembled it, Isabelle immediately went and got her baby doll, a blanket and her old Detroit Red Wings baby bottle and put her baby into the crib to go "nah night". Her second favorite was a toss up between a new puzzle and her first Barbie doll from her Aunt Ashley. Boy was she (us too) spoiled rotten! Thank you guys again!

Opening Malibu Barbie from Aunt AshleyTia Tara and I Christmas morning at our house.

Michael and a Special Edition Sports Illustrated Red Wings edition

Once Christmas morning at our house was over, the three of us got ready and headed over to Mom and Dad's to spend the rest of Christmas day at their house...with Grandma (Nana) too. As soon as we got there, out to the garage went Poppy and Papa to turn on the deep fryer (more "deep fried goodness" just like Turkey Day), out came the eggnog and under the Christmas tree Isabelle went! Between opening gifts, dancing around and entertaining us, this little one was just about done.

Finding just the right gift for herself

Frosty? It was around 1:30 when we started opening gifts so at about 2:00, since there had been no afternoon nap yet, Isabelle was grabbing a spot on the blanket next to her dog ready to head off to "la-la land". While she napped, we sat down to dig into our Christmas dinner....deep fried pork loin, cheesy grits, green bean casserole, sauerkraut and dumplings and the finishing touch...Michael's Grandma's "refrigerator rolls"-MMMMM!

Nah Night little one

After stuffing our faces and finishing off dinner with some date nut pudding and cool whip (everything is better with cooohl whhhhip), Isabelle woke up and was ready to go and finish opening her gifts...it was like we had 3 Christmases! She loved the piano that Nana gave her (which is staying at Grandmama's house) and the little table and chair set she got from Grandmama and Poppy. To end the evening we hopped into the car and drove around for one last look at one of Isabelle's favorite things about Christmas...the Christmas lights.

A house in Northbridge...one of the winners for the Signal's (our local paper) contest.

Merry Christmas one and all!

Isabelle serenading her Papa

Ring Around the Rosie

2008-12-23T22:12:00.000-08:00

Even though the literal meaning of this song is awful to think about (as Michael kindly points out to us when we sing it)...it is one of Isabelle's favorite games :) She is even starting to sing the end of the song with us..."Ashes, Ashes (pause) DOWN"!

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-22T11:59:00.000-08:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Chatty Cathy

2008-12-13T16:17:00.000-08:00

Little Miss Isabelle is on a roll repeating EVERY word you say to her, which Michael is getting a HUGE kick out of. One of his favorites is when she is done with the shower or is upstairs just getting up from bed (be it nap time or if he gets her in the morning when I am home) he has her yell, "MOM" to get my attention. Or, for any "Wedding Crasher" movie fans, he has her say,"Mom!" then she says, "Meatloaf!", which makes me laugh every time!

She says over 80 words now (some clearer than others) and knows what those words mean. She still at times correlates animals to their sounds (ie: cat is "Maow", Elephant is "brrrruuuhh", etc.) but then says what they are after she makes the sound. At Halloween she would see a witch and say "witch", a pumpkin and say "peinkin", a ghost and say "boo"...she never really got the word ghost. Now as we come into the Christmas season, she is saying everything as she is told what it is...Santa, Angel, Frosty (since she can't say snowman very well), lights, tree, deer and the best one is Merry Christmas or "Mais-miss-miss" as Isabelle would say. Take a listen...

Christmas Lights

2008-12-12T22:06:00.000-08:00

Since Thanksgiving weekend, Christmas lights have been pointed out and brought to Isabelle's attention whether we are on a walk or in the car so being that we are home for Christmas this year, Michael has decided to become Clark Griswold in Christmas Vacation and decorate the house for his little one...hopefully no cousin Eddie's will be stopping by to celebrate with us too :)

One day while I was at work and Isabelle was at daycare, Michael unloaded not only the Christmas lights we had at home but also the ones from the theatre and like Spider man, he was hanging from our roof all day creating the best decorated house in our complex! Our neighbors across the way are known for their blow up Santa which can been seen from the main street (Arroyo Park Drive) so Michael decided that we should have a snowman (Frosty) up on our garage roof and a Santa on our patio roof above Frosty, waving hi to Santa across the way and to other passerbyers on the main street. Well little did we know that when this was completed, a light war had begun. Our next door neighbor actually overheard our neighbor's son from across the way say that "Michael has more lights than we do and their house looks better than ours". That night, 2 more blowup snowmen were on their roof along with some light up reindeer by thier garage. Unfortunately, Michael and his 1,000+ lights still had them beat and is telling them to just wait for next year. All I have to say is they had better be afraid...be very afraid.

Papa getting our house ready for Xmas!

Speaking of Christmas lights and sharing with you just how much our little one loves them, it was decided that I was going to take her to our city's 24th Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony at the local hospital, which happens to be in walking distance from our house. So while April and Michael were hard at work, Jason came over with Roxy and Jazzy, we loaded them up in their strollers and made our way down to the hospital.

Jazzy, Roxy and Isabelle

When we got there, it was packed! They had a train ride, arts and crafts, groups singing and dancing (that brought back memories from when I was in show choir) and best of all, Santa! With Isabelle's new found infatuation with lights, we have also found out that she loves Santa. When we pass by Santa's House at the mall, regardless if there is a child sitting on his lap, she stops at the railing and says, "Hi Santa, Hi!" and usually gets a wave back so when I found out Santa would be at this ceremony, I thought this would be a great photo opportunity and best of all...it was free! Well when the time came to go and see Santa at the hospital shindig, here is what we got; she saw him, said hi and then the minute I sat her in his lap and backed up to get a picture, she lost it! The tears came flowing!

Isabelle and SantaAfter that and when she calmed down, she said goodbye to Santa and we headed through the crowd and over to the tree to wait for the ceremony to start. We stopped by a booth to get Isabelle a cookie, admired kids projects that were being made at other booths...I think she will have more fun next year when she can participate in those, stopped and saw the firemen and firetruck (Santa's ride that day/night) and listened to some high school choirs sing holiday songs. We had a few comments like, "you guys are going to have your hands full" and "three debutantes?" to JP and I when we kindly told them that Isabelle was mine and the twins were his and our spouses were working. After waiting for about 15 minutes and no one speaking, when the Christmas tree lights were abruptly turned on without warning, we do have to say...it was very anti climatic but definitely beautiful.

Before they "hit" the lights...
OOOOH, AHHHH!

After oohing and ahhing for a few minutes, we headed back to the house to meet up with the spouses for dinner and a movie. If any of you have not seen "The Amateurs", put it on your list along with pizza and a red wine called Masquerade. MMMMM, it makes for a great night!

Heading home...

Happy Turkey Day!

2008-11-30T19:35:00.001-08:00

What a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend we had and so much to be thankful for! Our health, family and great friends but most of all the outdoor, electric deep fryer!

We started off the night before with a sleepover at our house...for the kids :) It was Mama and Papa's turn for a night out and with Grandmama and Poppy in South Carolina for the holiday, we were forced to hire a sitter for the night. We were quick on the draw and got the most popular sitter amongst our friends, Jessica, two weeks prior to Thanksgiving Eve. So when the weekend before rolled around 2 others called on her and quickly found out that she was already booked. It was decided then, since we were all going out to the same place that night and for the same amount of time, we would ask Jessica come over to our house with a friend to babysit all 4 kids...Isabelle, Mackenzie, Roxy and Jazzy. The night went off without a hitch, the kids were great, we all rode in a party bus to Mulligans, which was a blast, and we had our babysitters back to Jessica's house by 1:30am....don't worry, I was the responsible one that night :) We wound up having a sleep over of our own with the Price's in the downstairs bedroom with their girls and Mikee, Amber and Johnny asleep in the living room on our new couch and one in the recliner! It was too funny!

Vanessa, Amber and Mikee getting the "deep fried goodies" ready.
But let me tell you, 8am rolled around really quick and we were up and at 'em with scrambled eggs, bacon and donuts to start Thanksgiving off right! Out came the deep fryer, crock pot and industrial mixer for the Owston contribution to the Thanksgiving feast. We had so much good food and people came prepared to deep fry. We had mozzarella sticks (deep fried string cheese), zucchini, rolls, bananas, sweet potatoes, onion rings, pears (thanks Tara), mac and cheese, these Puerto Rican rice balls, a 13 lb. turkey and 2 turkey breasts that were infused with all sorts of spices and to top of the end of the night....chocolate cake (nasty)! Isabelle wanted nothing to do with the turkey or stuffing but loved Auntie Nessa's (Vanessa) macaroni and cheese, my crock pot sweet potatoes and the deep fried ones, corn and of course, Papa's rolls.

Papa deep frying Vanessa's macaroni and cheese....mmmmm, good!

We had people coming and going all day but ended up with 13 people over for dinner. A bunch of "theatre orphans" (aka: our extended family) and some others plus Tia Tara. Isabelle was mingling with everyone and having a blast but when 8pm rolled around, that little one was all tuckered out and ready to go to bed..and so were her parents!

Tia Tara and the turkey

Friday we hung around at home so Tia Tara and Isabelle could play together while we got the house back together. And for the rest of the weekend, we did a little Christmas shopping and hung out with friends and ended it with a welcome home dinner with my folks on Sunday, yet another thing to be thankful for...safe travels home :)

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday too!

The Turkey Day Gang

The Nay Sayer

2008-11-25T20:07:00.000-08:00

The look....so sweet and innocent, right? From her big teethy grins to her "wuv wu's", little Isabelle Anessa has everyone fooled! The time in Isabelle's life that we have been dreading has finally arrived; the day when the word "no" becomes a staple in her everyday vocabulary. From asking if she wants help down the stairs (since she has mastered going up them on her own) to what she wants to eat...this one has become a very opinionated little girl. Which is still kind of funny but oh buddy, I am sure we will not be feeling the same way a few months from now.

Here is how the stair scenario goes:

Isabelle starts down the stairs by herself but holding onto the railing.

Me: "Mommy help you?"
Izzy: "No."
Me: "Please, Mommy help you?" as I grab for her free hand.
Izzy: "No! Izzy." As she pulls her hand away from me and I go down to the step in front of her...just in case.
Izzy, as she bends over forward on the stairs and touches the step she is on (insert Mom having a heart attack): "Stair."
Me: "Yes, stairs."
Then we round the corner where there is no rail to grab.
Me: "Mom help?" Izzy actually gives me her hand for 2 steps where there is no rail then is off on her own again.
Izzy: "Sock" as she stops on a step and lifts up one of her feet to show me her sock.
Me: "Yes, Izzy's sock."
Izzy, as she points to my feet: "Mama's sock."
Me: "Yes dear, Mama's sock."
Izzy: "Du, tree!" (translation: two, three) As she climbs down the last few steps.

Then there is "the stool". Mom/Grandmama and I bought her a stool for each of our homes to assist Isabelle with getting on the potty, washing her hands, etc. which she now moves around everywhere and climbs up onto it to reach everything. She brings it into my bathroom to brush her teeth (although she cant quite reach the top of the sink yet), she brings it to almost every light switch downstairs so she can turn them on and off, she uses it as a toy to jump off of and of course sits on it when she is all pooped out at the end of her day :)

The Stool
Speaking of "pooped", we are still working on potty training but we have to admit, not consistently. She does however let us know when she has a poopie diaper and lately, she says "poo poo" before she goes. So we are able to share with you that we have had one success story with going #2 on the potty! YAY! She loves being in the bathroom, sitting on her Elmo seat and reading all of the "bathroom literature" we have in a basket for her; "Got to Go", "Once Upon a Potty", "Everybody Poops" and a few other books that we hope will inspire her to "go. We will be sure to let you know!

Papa and Isabelle's Morning at the Park

2008-11-20T07:15:00.000-08:00

Since Jenna and Jeff couldn't make their Wednesday morning play date yesterday, Michael and Isabelle had a morning to themselves and decided that they would go to the park and play anyway before heading off to Grandmama's house.

Slides, swings and sand...what more could she possibly want?

Looks like they had a great time with one another but I know they are both looking forward to next week's play date :)

P.S. Michael thinks it's time she goes down the "big spiral tube slide" by herself but has to wait until 2 people are there...one to send her down and the other to catch her at the bottom. YIKES!

Halloween Shenanigans: a follow-up video

2008-11-13T15:52:00.000-08:00

A glimpse at what all goes on behind the scenes of getting 9 kids, all under the age of 2, to sit, look at the camera and smile. Enjoy!

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=46376764

Thanks Trish and Dan (their son is Kyle, the little lion)!

So much more than I imagined...

2008-11-11T12:27:00.000-08:00

With me being gone 7 out of the last 14 days, each time I come home Isabelle seems to have a new favorite toy, a new antic and several new words all thanks to Michael, Grandmama and Lisa. Without those three at home with and for our little one, I would not feel as comfortable traveling as much as I have been/do. Now don't get me wrong, I would much rather be at home than traveling but duty calls and luckily its not every month, although recently it seems to be that way. You all know how much I rave about my Mom, Grandmama, and Lisa but I have not yet raved about one person who deserves it most...Michael, aka: Papabear.

Isabelle at the theatre with her Papa... "Is this thing on?"Michael is an awesome Dad when we are all home and even more so when I am gone. Not only does he do a great job holding down the fort when I am away (not that I am Captain of the house or anything...wait, who are we kidding here? I am the Queen! LOL!) but part of Isabelle's and his morning routine, whether I am at home or away and whether I can answer my cell or not, includes calling me to say "good morning", "I love you" (which is actually "wuv woo") and "bye bye". Needless to say, this perks up my morning instantaneously. And at night, I always get a phone call right before bedtime so Isabelle can say "nah night" to me. Here is a message that was left on my cell phone this past Monday morning while I was at a meeting in Delaware, which I shared with my Dad and our client at lunch and it brought a smile to their faces too:

http://2.recordertheapp.com/2af5481f5e308d74db79

To add to my morning calls, that I save on my cell phone for those little pick me ups that I need every now and then, during the day he sends along pics of her too. He will send a pic and/or text that he is "on a date with a beautiful blond" or that "it", yes that is another one of Isabelle's nick names, "is attacking him". When I am away it makes me miss her more but I don't want that to stop him from sending them!

Don't you just love the outfit...yes, I was away :)

Michael started a play date with a friend from the theatre and his little girl, Jenna. On Wednesday mornings at 10, they meet at the Summit Park to let the girls run around crazy...OK, so it may not be totally crazy just yet but they are having a blast!

He has stayed up all night with her when she was sick and I wasn't home and stays up with her even when I am home so I can get some sleep. He keeps her busy all the time, teaching her all sorts of new things which frankly, I am surprised those 2 haven't gotten into tons of trouble yet...I am just waiting for that. She is his little "Padawan" or "Jedi Apprentice" that he is taking to the dark side unless I can help it :)

Isabelle and Jenna on their first "play date"Michael,
Although at times it may go unsaid, I feel so grateful to have you in my life and thank you for being such a wonderful Dad and husband. I love you.

Halloween 08'

2008-11-05T07:49:00.001-08:00

Sitting here on my plane ride home from Nashville, it occurred to me that I haven’t written anything since Isabelle's "barf-a-thon" last week and all of you might be wondering how she is doing. Well good news, Isabelle is up and about and feeling 100% better than she did this time last week. However being the great share friend that she is, Isabelle decided that her Papa should have the flu too so Michael had his own "marathon" this past Sunday and Monday but he too is feeling much better now...thank goodness Mom/Grandmama was home from her trip to help watch Isabelle!

Roxy and Jazzy-the prettiest flowers I have seen.Mia-the Purdue CheerleaderWe decided to keep Isabelle home from daycare both Thursday and Friday last week, since she had a low grade fever on Thursday and we wanted to make sure she was all better for trick or treating let alone the annual Halloween “photo shoot” with her and all of her friends on Friday. To add to the low grade fever on Thursday, right before bedtime Isabelle slipped off her stool and knocked her chin on the corner of the coffee table leaving a nice cut and bruise for Halloween pics! What a day Thursday was…no sleep, no appetite, still feeling a bit under the weather and then ending the day with a bonk. Maybe we should have had her be a boxer or a hockey player for Halloween instead of a ladybug :)

The "owie"

Like we mentioned, we kept Isabelle home from daycare on Thursday and she was all fired up when Friday's Halloween shenanigans came along. After trick or treating at Nana’s house, the 2007-2008 babies all met at the theatre for our photo shoot. This year we knew we were in for it! With only 2 non walkers, there was a lot of chasing and running around going on. We did manage to get one group shot, minus Mia, before escapees or meltdowns occurred. I think the video footage of all of the parents may be even funnier than looking at the photos we shot of the kids! Look out school recitals!

The recital picture

Check out the escapee sequence below which literally happened all within 2 minutes...

(featured in the pic: Cavenaugh, Sophia Mangione, Kyle Kempfert-Chapman sitting in Paul Mangione's lap, Isabelle, Mackenzie and Roxy and Jazzy Price behind them.

Watch "Cow-venaugh"...the escapee
Up he goes...
I am outta here...See ya!
And, we lost them...
That night after chatting with our neighbors in our complex, we headed over to the Wiese’s for their annual Halloween Block Party. What a blast that was. They had 2 bounce houses; one big one for the older kids and a smaller one for our rugrats, ordered in Mexican food and chairs lining the driveways and they even blocked off that section of their street to any traffic. The girls were all over the place and Super Dad (literally, that was Michael’s costume equip with his red “Super Dad” shirt, camo pants, tool belt with all of the dad necessities including diapers, wipes, Lexi , a sippy cup, a baby blanket for a cape and of course, a flask of Jack!) was throwing them in and out of the bounce house all night. They couldn’t stop laughing.

Echo (our neighbor's daughter) and Isabelle

We took Mackenzie and Isabelle out trick or treating the easy way...in push-able cars J The “bonnet” served as the candy collection place while the girls were seat belted in, cruising around being a bunch of lookie-loos. Then Amy and I decided it would be fun to play bumper cars with them and race up and down the street. The girls loved it and so did the other trick or treaters we ran by and we are sure that some of the older adults thought we were a little crazy but we didn’t care. The kids were in bed by 8:00 allowing for some adult Halloween time until around midnight when we headed home before turning into pumpkins.

The girls
Trick Or Treat!

We hope that everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween!

The Marathon

2008-10-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

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"

2008-10-29T09:24:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-10-27T09:08:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-17T14:12:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-13T14:07:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-11T23:31:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-05T14:55:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-02T14:46:00.000-07:00

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!

Time flies...

2008-09-29T11:08:00.000-07:00

and next thing you know, you have a one and a half year old! And looking at the blog entry from this time last year, the weekend was almost exactly the same; going to the Canyon Theatre Guilds Cabaret fundraiser, Street Arts Festival in downtown Newhall, etc., all except for one addition...

WELCOME LUCAS WOLFE MOLLOY!

This past weekend not only did we shake our heads at the fact that Isabelle is now a year and a half years old, celebrated my 29th birthday (again) but we also we welcomed a new friend to the pack. Our friend's in Philadelphia, Marty, Meredith and their daughter (aka: Big Sister) Elise Molloy, welcomed a baby boy into their family yesterday-Lucas Wolfe Molloy. Mom and baby are doing fantastic (as well as Dad and sister). We are so happy and excited for them all! Congratulations again guys!

Isabelle at the Street Arts Festival

Back to the weekend. So as I mentioned in the intro, CTG had their Cabaret fundraiser once again over Isabelle's "half a year birthday" and my, this is the last year we are celebrating, birthday :) It was a nice adult evening with all of our friends and family from both theatres. Mike and Caryn (Mia's Mom and Dad) watched Isabelle for us that night so the girls got to hang out for awhile and get into their own kinds of trouble at their house.

Isabelle's favorite drawing at the Street Arts Festival

On Saturday while Michael was at work during the Street Arts Festival that is held in front of our theatre, Mom, Isabelle and I went and picked up Tia Tara from the airport. We made a quick pit stop at Toys R Us on the way home for Isabelle's 18 month/one and a half year birthday gift...my Mom has been told that she is not allowed to make a habit of this :) I convinced her to get Isabelle something practical, something she will use and not grow out of too quickly and what better gift to fit that description than a potty seat! Yup, we have officially started working, OK that is a little strong so how about, introducing Isabelle to potty training. We figured at 18 months and since she will say, although not all the time, when she has poo-poo or pee-pee, we went ahead and got two Elmo potty seats (the ones that sit on top of the toilet seat); one for our house and one for Grandmama and Poppy's. So far nothing has happened but she doesn't mind hanging out in the bathroom having a story or two read to her or song sung with her. She finds it very amusing especially when she is "done". Isabelle will get up and flush the toilet then take the potty seat off and thanks to Tia Tara, she will put it on her head like a hat or a necklace. Although it was pretty funny when Tara did it, that part of the potty routine will soon be forgotten, as I reminded Tara how nasty that is going to be once Isabelle actually starts using the potty.

"It wasn't me"
That night we went to dinner at a local restaurant with the family and friends that were visiting from England and then to my folks house for birthday cake and gifts. After we were done there, Mom took Isabelle back to our house to babysit her while Tara and I went to our theatre to see Of Mice and Men...what a phenomenal production (and that is not said just because I am sleeping with the director; Michael that is-hehe). Anyone who is reading this blog that are from SCV or close too or who may be coming in for a visit, go see it! It really is a wonderful production.

Sunday morning, a group of my bestest girlfriends, which includes Mom and Tara (April had to work otherwise I would have had all of them there), and I headed out to LA for the Soroptomist Fashion Show/Bras for a Cause fundraiser...yes, our town if full of non-profit groups and fundraisers. We shopped, laughed, drank, gossiped and laughed some more. The morning flew by so when we got back into town, and knowing the Dad's had the kids, we headed over to the Elephant Bar for a few more birthday cocktails and munchies.

(Back) Courtney, Amy (aka: the floating head), Me, Diane, Tara, (front) Stephanie and Caryn.

After the birthday shenanigans with the girls, I went home to wait for Isabelle to get up from her nap so we could go and hang out with Michael at the Street Arts Festival. Well that little one was tuckered out from her morning and afternoon at the festival and theatre with her Dad that we didn't get out of the house until around 5:30 and the festival ended at 6. We were still able to see all of the chalk drawings completed (which were amazing) and checked out a few of the vendors that still had their booths up. Isabelle saw a bunch of dogs, got 2 balloons from friends who work for the City and best of all, all the ice she could eat. She was in heaven!

Dad and Isabelle hanging out in Down Town NewhallIt was a pretty long weekend and we have an even busier week and weekend ahead of us (the Loose Goose Wine Festival is this coming weekend) so we went out for a quick birthday dinner and then home for the night. Phewww!

Our friend Vanessa was the artist chosen/asked for the Child Family Center's square...great job!

Bubbles Everywhere

2008-09-24T21:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday when I picked up Isabelle from daycare, and after chatting with Lisa and Barbie for about a half hour :), Isabelle wanted to play with bubbles. Remembering exactly where Lisa puts them from the time before, she asked "bubbles, pleessee". Now who could resist that? Lisa got the bubbles down and after blowing them for a little while Isabelle decided that she wanted to hold the wand so Lisa had Isabelle come sit in front of her and within 2 minutes, Isabelle was blowing bubbles! Now we just need to teach her not to lick the wand :)

NEW YORK, NEW YORK!

2008-09-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

As an 87th birthday surprise for a dear family friend of ours, Isabelle, Poppy, Grandmama and I flew to New York last Tuesday to join in for the birthday celebration. Michael had to stay home since the show he was directing (Of Mice and Men), opened Friday night and they were in tech all week.

I will have to say, 3am came around very quickly that morning as we got the 3 of us and our half asleep little one together and onto a 6am flight out of LAX. Being in New York for only a couple of days, and with the weather being so nice there was no need for bulky clothes, wouldn't seem like it would call for a lot of things...boy were we wrong! Knowing we didn't want to check anything in, into the airport Grandmama, Isabelle and I went (Poppy was on another flight) with 2 pieces of rolling luggage, my computer bag, a diaper bag/backpack, a stroller, a "snack & entertainment bag", a car seat and of course....Isabelle! Can you get a visual on that one? Luckily we had three seats on the plane so they couldn't stop us from bringing everything on and it was a direct flight there and back so we unloaded once and when Isabelle fell asleep, it was uninterrupted :)

Alex (the birthday boy), Judy (Alex's wife) and Isabelle The dreaded 5 hour flight with a 17 month old turned out to be wonderful! Isabelle was in her car seat a majority of the flight or in Grandmama or my lap. We/she read books, played with some little toys we brought along, ate, slept and watched her Elmo and "Mamimals" (the Baby Noah DVD from Baby Einstein that features all kinds of animals) DVDs. We decided that unless she looses it and nothing else would soothe her, we would keep all of us confined to our row and not walk Isabelle up and down the aisle. Our thought was that it only takes one time for her to realize that she wants to do it the whole flight and neither of us wanted that job for 5 hours :) Thank goodness she was in good spirits the whole time. When we landed we waited for everyone else to get off the plane and then schlepped all of us off. Poppy met us with a car waiting to take us to the hotel to freshen up and get right back out for Alex's birthday dinner...the second part of the trip that I was dreading.

Isabelle "cheers"-ing Judy (Teta)Since Isabelle didn't have a nap and had been couped up on a plane for 5 hours, we were all a little unsure on how she was going to behave at dinner. I brought a few books, a magazine that has kid products and Halloween costumes in it (that she loves-I should laminate it!) and stuff to munch on in case she didn't want what we ordered her at the restaurant. Low and behold, she was awesome! This was the first time Alex and Judy got to meet her so a lot of the conversations that were had included her, literally. Judy (who we now call Tata) enjoyed chatting with Isabelle, looking through the costume magazine with her and she even shared her dessert with her! That night Poppy also taught her "cheers". She got the biggest kick out of that! With a day like that, when we got back to the hotel and got her ready for bed, she was out cold within 5 minutes and slept all through the night.

Alex, Poppy and Isabelle The following morning we were "up and at em" to head out to see the Big Apple. We had breakfast with Poppy before his flight to Orlando and then the three of us (Grandmama, Isabelle and I) started our journey through the city. We both LOVE New York (actually the whole family does) and are very familiar with where to go so we walked over to Rockefeller Center and then to Times Square to let "the monster" loose in the 3 story Toys R Us!

Grandmama and Isabelle at Rockefeller Center Mom and Izzy in Times SquareWe must have been in there for a little over an hour just walking around looking and playing with toys and books, making a mental Christmas list for Isabelle and we rode on the Ferris wheel. Isabelle was pointing and saying "I see" to pretty much everything that came into eyesight. However one of the biggest things, literally, that caught her attention was a HUGE Jurassic Park mechanical dinosaur that was breathing and moving it head around and every 10 minutes it would let out a loud ROAR! She thought it was the funniest thing. Grandmama bought her a new puzzle with pieces shaped like "New York things" (the Statue of Liberty, a taxi, a big apple, etc.), a "Melmo" (Elmo) book and her now most favorite thing of all times...a "Maow", a little orange and white stripped, stuffed cat.

Grandmama...I want that Barbie elephant, please.Mom....is that for real? The huge Jurassic Park dinosaur at Toys R UsMom and Izzy on the Ferris wheel at Toys R Us

We headed back to the hotel so Isabelle could have a nap, stopping in at McDonald's to get her a Happy Meal for the walk back. When we got back to the room, she was wired! It took her almost 40 minutes to finally fall asleep and she only slept for an hour...guess she didn't want to miss a thing.

Dining out on the corner of 54th Street

Isabelle and her "Maow" going Nah Night after a very busy day

Thursday morning we were up and out of the hotel by 10am, knowing we had to be ready to go to JFK by 4pm and that we had a day of fun ahead of us! After a quick breakfast we took a walk to Central Park to see the horse carriages, people watch and most of all, go to the Central Park Zoo. On our way to the zoo and being that it's Central Park, there were a few transients asleep on benches and as we walked by each one Isabelle would say, "Nah Night". It was pretty funny.

Entrance to the Central Park Zoo

Once we got through the gate, and knowing we have a 5 hour flight and probably an hour drive to the airport in rush hour traffic, we let Isabelle out of her stroller to wander around. The very first "mamimal" we saw was a seal. Isabelle was fascinated by him and kept wanting to follow him as he swam around the tank. She would giggle as he popped his head out of the water when he went passed us.

Her favorite animal at the zoo-the seal

Isabelle looking at the seal through the tank Besides the seals and although the zoo is not that large, we saw a good variety of animals. Everything from birds and reptiles to penguins and polar bears and, the zoo was very well kept and clean. A lot of folks had the same idea as we did on such a beautiful day. There were lots of other families and a ton of nannies with kids there but it wasn't crowded by any means.

Heading into the Penguin and Puffin exhibitPenguin denIsabelle wanting to check out the polar bearsSee the one in the corner?After about 2 hours at the zoo and on the way back to the hotel for Isabelle's afternoon nap, we stopped and checked out the horse and carriages and also popped into a little restaurant called Serendipity. Mom had read about this place in either OK or People (one of the gossip magazines) and how stars bring their kids there to celebrate their birthdays and such so she thought it would be fun to stop in and hopefully bump into someone famous or if anything enjoy one of their famous treats...ice cream sundaes! YUM! They actually have a HUGE sundae that you have to order 48 hours in advance AND it costs a measly $1,000! All I have to say is that there had better be some gold treasure buried in that sundae!

The horse and carriage rides at Central Park We got back to the hotel and Isabelle did not want to sleep (imagine that) so she watched cartoons while we packed everything up. We arrived at the airport with her wide awake and ready to go and as we were standing in line at security, Mom took Isabelle out of the stroller and held her so we could get everything up onto the belt and within a minute of her being in Grandmama's arms, she passed out cold. Thank goodness we had an hour before our flight left so she was able to get in a little nap which will prevent her from turning into a grouchy butt :)

One pooped-out kid waiting for her flight home from JFK All in all, the trip was wonderful and although I was dreading it, I am sooo glad we went. Another one for her scrapbook!

The BIG Table

2008-09-13T14:42:00.000-07:00

Have you really stopped to think about just how great the highchairs at restaurants are? Seriously...those highchairs teach your child to sit and eat from the "big table" yet they still keep them from being free to roam, sort of speak, like they could in a booster seat.

So for the last week we decided to ditch the tray on Isabelle's highchair (hers is not an actual highchair but a highchair seat with a removable tray on it, that locks onto a chair-perfect for smaller spaces like ours) and scoot her into the table like she does when we are out to eat. Meal time is a whole new fun experience for her. I have also noticed that she seems to eat more which is what we, and Dr. Diab, want. Then there is the GREATEST "must have" for all parents who are teaching their kids to eat on their own...suction cup bottom bowls and plates (Gerber and Munchkin brands make them)! They truly do help in building your little ones self confidence as they are learning to feed themselves plus make your life a whole lot easier. Since the bowls and plates aren't sliding around the table having to be held in place, you can actually sit and enjoy your dinner with your child. Imagine that! Just a suggestion...these make a great 1st Birthday gift :)

Isabelle eating at the BIG table at home

"Was Dat?"

2008-09-06T15:13:00.000-07:00

For those who have kids, have hung around kids or have overheard kids, you will notice that "What is that" is one of the most common phrases a 1-2 year old will say. So curious of everything going on around them seems to trigger that question. Of course it has nothing to do with the child hearing Mom and Dad say that to them over and over again when they point to something and then, the parent tries to get their child to tell them "What is that?". Well, Isabelle has officially started the "Was Dat" stage in her life, pointing at and questioning things she knows but again, we ask her to tell us what something is that we know she knows what it is. What a vicious cycle but it is so much fun at the same time :)
"
Was Dat?"...with her frozen yogurt mustache

The past few weeks have flown by and the Owston household has been flying around with them. Weekends, even the 3 day holiday weekend, came and went and we still feel like there is not enough time in the day. What is next? Blink and Isabelle will be going into Kindergarten? OK, I won't get too ahead of myself :)

Tia Tara and Isabelle

Speaking of holiday weekends, lets back things up a bit and recall Labor Day weekend. First and foremost, Tia Tara came out that Saturday morning to spend the weekend with all of us. Mom and Dad picked her up from the airport while Isabelle and I headed out to Cavanaugh's 1st Birthday party! It's always a fun time to get all the rugrats together and run amok! Isabelle wanted to be outside as much as she could in the 90+ degree heat, running around in the grass and playing in the little bounce house. Thank goodness Grandmama stopped by to give hers and Poppy's birthday wishes to Cav. She and I traded off with the "backyard duty" :) Unfortunately, we had to cut the party short since we had to pick up Tara, to dinner and do the Izzy swap with Michael at the theatre so Tara and I could see Suburbia; the AWESOME show that was running at our theatre when Tara was visiting which just closed this past weekend.

Sunday morning came and Mom was feeling a bit under the weather so we scratched our plans to go to the Santa Barbara Zoo and instead, Michael went to work and Tara and I took Isabelle "malling" at the Northridge Mall (one of the bigger malls in the valley next door). We were there for probably about 2 hours and had a blast...who would have thought you could have as much fun as we did in a mall? I think it may have had to do with the whole, "seeing it through a child's eyes" thing. That really does turn ordinary, run of the mill things into something pretty cool.

Isabelle playing at Northridge Mall As we were walking around the mall, we would stop at the play centers (the "cesspool of germs" as Michael calls it) and let Isabelle play. She and Tia had a blast but we were sure to wipe both of them down with Wet Ones after they finished playing...never leave home without them cuz you never know when you will need them! That goes for both children and adults :)

The next stop was the Pet Store. As some of you may know, Northridge Mall is about one of the only places that I know of that actually have various pets there besides the typical, "available at every Petco and Pet Smart", birds, snakes and fish. Isabelle's face lit up and she squealed with delight when she saw the puppies in all of the windows. She didn't know which one to go to first but we made sure she saw each and every one of them before leaving the store. While she was perusing all of the windows, she spotted a pair of puppies asleep on one another and as Isabelle walked up to their window you heard her say, "Nah Nigh". It was too cute!

I want that one, Mom
While we were at the pet store, Isabelle got to see her share of fishies that she just stared at, birds that she "tweeted" at, cats that she "mauw-ed" at and snakes that I had her quickly walked past and she even got to pet one of the bunnies but, the puppies were the ones she wanted to go back to. A true dog lover!

Isabelle pointing at the "TEET TEET"

That night the family headed to Spumoni once again where Isabelle feasts on their garlic bread twists, penne and carrots meanwhile, entertaining us and a few of the servers. Up until now, Isabelle loved taking Michael's and my phones and opening them or turning them on to see a picture of her smiling face but this night, Isabelle came to realize that her picture was in almost all of our family's cell phones when she flipped them open or turned them on. Here is a little clip we caught of her reaction, after licking the garlic schmotz off her hands, turning on Michael's cell phone and then "shush'ing" me:

OK, is she Michael's daughter or what? That is pretty much the reaction she gave each time she opened or turned on any of our phones at the restaurant or otherwise. All I have to say is, look out Papa! Because as much as you don't want her to, I think your little angel may be on stage instead of backstage!

Our Morning Laugh

2008-08-30T08:42:00.000-07:00

This morning around 8:15am, we hear Isabelle tootling around in her crib. Thinking nothing of it, we laid in bed for a few minutes longer getting our bearings before going in to get her. Well all of a sudden we hear one of her newer phrases, "uh oh" and then not a second later another "uh oh" is heard and then again and again. Curiosity got the best of me and I cut my "bearings finding time" short and I went and took a peek at what our little one was up too. As I peeked through her door I saw all of her toys and books that were in her crib, on the floor and her standing there in her crib with her pillow in hand hanging it over the edge of the crib and as soon as she saw me, she dropped it and take a guess what she said....yup, "uh oh". Then she sees Bear and it turns to "Hi, B". We both started laughing. What a great way to start our Saturday!

Missing her...

2008-08-28T22:53:00.000-07:00

I am sitting on the plane right now on my way home from Toronto Canada, waiting patiently for the captain to come over the PA system saying something along the lines of, “Ladies and Gentleman, we have turned on the fasten seat belt sign in preparation for our descent into Los Angeles”. So I figure what better way to burn time than to write a blog entry on the whereabouts and whatnot's of the Owston family this past week that I can just cut and paste into an entry tomorrow or later tonight. You’ve just got to love technology :)

My week: As most of you know, Mirko (aka: the Boss, Dad and Poppy) were in Chicago and Toronto Canada on business the past 5 days while Mom/Grandmama and Michael were juggling Isabelle duties (thank you both from the bottom of TTI’s heart). We spent 1-1/2 days in Toronto and 3- 1/2 days in Chicago, where we did get a little time for ourselves. The first night in Chy-town (as Michael calls it), Dad and I went over to a friend’s (who happens to be a previous employee of Traveling Times) new house to have dinner with her and her hubby, who was the reason for them moving back there so he could open up a Charter School…a dream come true for him! Colleen and James’ place was great! And after the grand tour, I went ahead and claimed Michael's and my room when we get out there for an “adult weekend” for a few days. We got caught up on everything and thanks to this blog, they were all caught up on the ins and outs of Isabelle. I do have to mention for those who have yet to try REAL Chicago Deep Dish Pizza, put it on your list of “must do’s” because it is AMAZING! I seriously can’t wait to go back for that!

The "Bean" at Millennium Park in ChicagoWhile we were in Chicago and before all of the meetings started and before heading off to Toronto, it was highly suggested by James and Collen that Mirko and I should go and visit Millennium Park where Cloud Gate or "The Bean" is. It is amazing! Here are a few pics off of it that I took on my cell phone and a link to a web page that will explain all about it: http://www.millenniumpark.org/artandarchitecture/cloud_gate.html This is a definite must see if you are ever in Chicago. Check out the skyline reflection in it...crazy!

More of Cloud Gate
Can you find my Dad and I? Check out the buildings skyline! Isabelle/Grandmama/Michael's Week: With me being gone for 5 days, I have become homesick and am missing my family a lot right about now. I called home every night and during the day I received random calls from Michael letting me know that Isabelle did something or another; like beating up on her dog, instigating a pillow fight with her Papa or the very worst thing for me to hear long distance….giving away FREE KISSES! This is a very big deal in our household right now. Isabelle doesn’t give her kisses away for free all the time anymore. We have to work for them which usually means we have to attack her and hold her down as she tries to push our faces away from her. Yeah, it’s a game we started that I feel sort of backfired in our faces. Oh well, she will overcome it one day and it makes each kiss she gives us "for free", just that much more special.

Another Isabelle "Go-Gurt Escapade"
She was awesome with Grandmama at night when Michael had rehearsals for Of Mice and Men (the next show at our theatre that he happens to be directing). They went to the park, played at home, walked the dog every night and even went out to dinner a few times. And just like with me, she was in bed by 8:30 every night. Way to go Grandmama! :) She sent along a few photos too (above and below) via cell phone which made me extremely happy each time one arrived.

Isabelle at Off Broadway Bistro in Valencia
When I spoke with Michael earlier today, he was telling me that they were driving around town running errands and all of a sudden from the back seat he hears “nah nigh”. Guess who was ready to go home for her nap? You got it…Isabelle. He said that she has been telling him or Grandmama when she is ready for bed by saying “nah nigh”, that is if they don’t get her upstairs before then. I can’t wait to see if she does that for me tomorrow night or if she will just play away until I tell her its time to go “night night”. I will let you know how it goes. All I know is that I cannot wait to get off this plane, out to the curbside, hunt down Mom’s car and hop into the back seat and smother my little Stinkadoo with kisses…even if she isn’t giving out free kisses!

Watch what you say!

2008-08-26T12:00:00.000-07:00

For the past few months I have been very conscious of everything that comes out of my mouth and out of others mouths (making them aware of what they say), knowing that one day soon Isabelle will be repeating whatever she hears. Each time I think about that all I can imagine is the movie Meet the Parents and the scene with "Little Jack" and his "first word"....do you remember that one? "A**-hooooole". Yup, that sure was funny in the movie but I don't think it would be so funny if it happened in real life. Nothing like that has happened, do I dare say, yet? So I am trying to take precautionary measures at all times in hopes that it never does happen with our little one.

Right now Isabelle's vocabulary, that is understandable and you do not need a translator like myself, Michael, Lisa or Grandmama for, consists of:

Buh Bye
Bubble
Mama
Papa
Ball
Jazzy
Hi
"B" for Bear
Bath
Done, and she signs "all done"/"finished" as she says it
Ice
Eat, and signs it as she says it
Ice
Baby
Eyes

And these are the words she says that you have to listen closely to and may need a translator for:

"Ahhsh" for wash, as she rubs her hands together like she is washing them
"Melmow" for Elmo
"Malk" for milk
"Juiss" for juice
"Moh" for more, and she signs it as she says it
"Nah nigh" for night night
"Peas" for please, and she signs it as she says it
"Duggie" for doggie or "ouf ouf"
"Ot" for hot
"oxy" for Roxy
"Ock" for sock
"Dink" for drink
"Nana" for banana
"Bahple" for apple
"Ush" for brush and then she pretends to brush her teeth
"Teef" for teeth

I am sure I left some out but these are the ones I thought of at the moment. She also is great with making the sounds that animals make as well as knowing all of her body parts (eyes, nose, ears, legs, fingers, hands, hair, teeth, etc.). She even knows where her butt is -hehe- I taught her that one :)

And now, without further ado...let's hear Isabelle speak! I was driving so I couldn't get a good shot of her face as she spoke but at least you can hear her little voice :) You can hear her say "buh-bye" and blow a kiss (listen closely for "MUAH").

Just a funny clip we had to share

2008-08-19T21:41:00.000-07:00

Did you catch how after yelling at whomever on the phone, she plopped herself down on the pillow? It kills me! :)

More teeth!

2008-08-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

Just when you think you get a break...something else pops up! In this case, it's Isabelle's teeth, AGAIN!

Isabelle with a lollipop in Big BearOnce again our little one woke up in the middle of the night last night two times, but she was whining instead of crying. She was a little warm but who isn't at night in California, 90+ degree in the daytime and still lingering in the nighttime, weather? We tried giving her milk in her sippy cup (no more bottles at night or for her naps, as of two days ago) and she wanted nothing to do with it. Isabelle only wanted to be held. So I finally got to have her sit with me in the glider/rocker! Why the exclamation point you may ask...well I don't think I ever noted this in the blog but ever since returning home from Big Bear, rocking Isabelle in the glider has been something of the past. Now, she basically "tells" us when she is ready to go to bed. When she looks tired and we ask her if she wants to go "night night" (that is if its before 8:30 otherwise we will just per her in bed at that time) and if she is, she walks right upstairs to her room and points to her crib, wanting nothing to do with her Mom or anyone for that matter, rocking her. Last night though, she snuggled with me like she used to and went back to sleep after about 10 minutes of me rocking her. This morning when Michael got her out of bed he noticed two new teeth coming in; her bottom "Dracula fangs". I swear, we think she will have a mouthful of teeth before Christmas!

Just Me and My Shadow

2008-08-12T13:31:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday while Michael was at work, Isabelle and I went over to the Price's pool for some R&R and to beat the heat! We got slathered up with sunscreen, swim diaper on (just Isabelle-hehe) bathing suits on and got right into the pool. However when we got in, Isabelle noticed we had a visitor...her shadow!

Big Bear & Weekend Visitor Surprises!

2008-08-05T08:22:00.000-07:00

WE ARE BACK!! What a wonderful vacation and weekend we had! As you all know, we headed to Big Bear this past Monday with 4 other families making a grand total of 10 adults and 6 kids in a five bedroom, 3.5 bath, 3 story "chalet" (http://www.bigbearlp.com/details.php?RECORD_KEY%28Listings%29=idnum&idnum(Listings)=158). Some of you may read this and think, that is NOT a vacation but the Owston, Price, Henn, Wiese and Magin families all beg to differ! (Just a forewarning...there are going to be a lot of pictures posted in this entry so don't tell us we didn't warn you in advance that you may be here for awhile :)

The view from our deck
And now, to introduce the other superstars of the week that you will be reading all about in the Big Bear portion of this blog entry...

Cavanaugh Henn-son to Mike and Courtney AKA: ("Little Man" or"Man Sandwich")

Roxy (front) and Jazzy (back), daughters to Jason and April (AKA: "The Pickles or "The Girls")Mackenzie, daughter to Travis and Amy (AKA: "Mackie"," Mac Attack" or Macalicious")
Mia, daughter to Mike and Caryn (AKA: "Mommy", "Mommies" or "Princess" )
We started off for Big Bear Monday morning at 10am with a beautiful drive up Pearblossom Highway (the road we take to get to Vegas, baby!) then into the San Bernadino Mountains. It was about a 2 1/2 hour caravan with one pit stop at McDonald's. When we arrived at the house, we unloaded everything, unpacked and decided who was going to cook their dinner on which night. Each family brought enough fixings for one night's dinner for everyone which worked out beautifully!

The "AAA (triple A) Threat" plus one (Amy, April, Roxy and me)

We designated the family room as "the playpen". All of the kids toys were thrown in there with the kids and blocked off by the couch and a large coffee table :) They loved it and so did the Moms and Dads! Needless to say, Monday was our stay at home day to relax and get everyone into "vacation mode".

"The Playpen"

On Tuesday we got up and the guys fixed a huge breakfast for everyone. We pretty much did nothing until the late morning and finally decided that we would take a ride into town to check out what Big Bear has to offer....especially the local hangouts so we could have first hand knowledge on where we want to go for "Girls Night Out" and "Guys Night Out"). We found a place for a snack that deep fries everything; oreos, snickers, etc. plus everything else that is supposed to be deep fried like chicken strips, funnel cakes and other yummy treats AND they served beer!

Isabelle at the front door and playing her favorite "upside down-flip" game

Of course we headed back to the house for nap time and more "vacationing" chill time. The Henn's made dinner that night-carne asada, yum! We got the kids bathed and off to bed early as the adults enjoyed the rest of the evening talking outside under the stars and then watching, get this, Superbad. What a movie! LOL! This night was originally supposed to be the "Guys Night Out" but the guys weren't up to it so they postponed it till Thursday night. The girls however, were getting into gear for the following night, Wednesday night...that was our night out!

Mackie and Isabelle taking a bath-they took one every night together. Isabelle blew bubbles in the bath for the first time on Tuesday night and has been doing it ever since. This pic was from Wednesday night while the Moms were getting ready, Travis and Michael gave the girls a bath :)

It was decided on Tuesday night that we would get up the following morning and head out for a family hike by 10:15am sharp and if you can believe it, because we couldn't ourselves, we actually made it out the door by 10:08am! The trail head was about 4-5 miles away from the house and there was parking on the side of the road. With our Adventure Passes (a pass that you are required to have to park at all national parks) hung in our car windows and our hiking packs on, we were all set for our 2.4 mile hike on the Castle Rock Trail.

The Families ready to go

Although it was not a long hike, the elevation gain is 500 feet, making it a steep climb by any means...especially with a kid on your back, or your fronts in the Price's case.

The Price family Us :)Break time! Catching a breather. The Wiese FamilyThere were 2 viewpoints on our hike; the first one Michael and Mike Henn (with Cav on his back) bouldered up gave a breathtaking view of the lake and another that only Amy and Michael got up to with an even more breathtaking view of the lake and the adjoining mountains on the San Bernadino side. However, we all agreed that the best part of that hike was that is was downhill all the way home.

Mike and Cav at view point

The view from Michael and Mike Henn's look out pointWe made a pit stop back into the Village on the way home to get some ice cream...we all needed and we all deserved, ice cream :) While we were there, Mike Henn and Michael went to the tattoo shop, since they have a good reputation, to check out what they had to offer however, no one "got inked" on this trip.

Isabelle chowing down on Mom's ice cream! "Girls Night Out" was a blast! Michael dropped us off at Chad's Place (a local biker bar) around 8:30pm and we hung out there till they closed. Well unfortunately for us, closing time was at 11:30pm....it was after all Wednesday night. But for those 3 hours we had so much fun! We played darts (which I won every game) and pool while drinking pitchers of Miller Lite! Classy ladies we were that night! LOL! As 11:30 rolled around, none of us were ready to go home so we walked around the village in hope that we would find another place to hang out at or even get a bite to eat at but our luck stunk. We walked for miles, at least it seemed like we walked that much :), and nothing was open. Around midnight, we finally stopped looking and called the guys and had them come pick us up. But when we got home we stayed up once again, chatting, playing games and falling asleep to Team America (don't you love the flicks we chose to bring with us on this trip?). I will post a few pics of that night a little later...once I get them from Courtney :)

Isabelle, Mackie and Mia-Mia was forced into this one...she is not a big fan of bathing with others. We are just glad we got this shot of them :)

Thursday was another stay at home and chill day for all of us but Michael got cabin fever and wanted to get out to take a stroll around the lake. So Courtney, Cav and the three of us got into the car and set off. After driving all around the lake and finding nothing but boat docks/landings, huge rocks and no beach, we stopped at a little spot where people were fishing and got out to check out the water. Isabelle had started her one and only melt down of the trip about half way around the lake. So when we pulled off at a spot where there was a little sand and thought that would cheer her up. At first she cried and carried on (see first pic) but as soon as she saw the water, her day brightened up. Although it was freezing cold, we took off her sandals and let her stand in the water. While in the water a duck swam by which she would have loved to have dove in right after!

Little Miss CrybabySomeone sees a duck!

This night was "Guys Night Out". Their first thought was to head out right after dinner (this was our family's night, well Michael's night-hehe, to cook) and hit Happy Hour then come home however, they found a little place called Murphy's Pub that had karaoke going all night and needless to say, this is where we picked them up from hours later (pics of their night will be posted later too). Some stayed up till the wee hours of the morning, trying to soak in every last breath of vacation that they could while others (like me) hit the hay when the guys got back.

Courtney and Cavanaugh at the "beach" Friday morning we got an early start, packed up and headed out by 10am. Michael had closing weekend of Hurly Burly that weekend and a show that night so we wanted to be sure he could get a nap in before having to run off to the theater. Meanwhile, my folks were driving to the airport to pick up Dickie (Michael's Dad) to surprise him that night after the show ended. My Dad and I were texting each other trying to get all of the details worked out without Michael knowing.

Grandpa O (Dickie) and Isabelle hanging out at the house.
We had a babysitter all set up for Isabelle so when Michael left for the theatre, the parent folk came over, I picked up the babysitter and off we went out to grab a bite to eat and to the show. They had been hiding Dickie at their house since his flight came in that afternoon and we weren't going to chance anything ruining this surprise. Dickie was staying clear of the dressing rooms at the theatre and we made sure that anyone who saw me, didn't tell Michael I was there because he would wonder why and who is watching Izzy. After the show the cast gathers in the lobby to chat with everyone and let me tell you, the look on Michael's face when he saw his Dad was priceless! I wish I had a camera with me. Michael did a double take and said "what the heck are you doing here?". We surprised the heck out of him...it was great! We got home that night and sat outside not too late since Michael had to be up and back to the theatre at 9am for auditions for Of Mice and Men, the next main stage show at the theatre that he is directing.

Grandpa O playing with Isabelle and her Incrediblock Saturday brought another visitor to the Santa Clarita Valley...a client and friend from Toledo Ohio, Karl. After Dickie, Isabelle and I hung out all day, we got ready and went over to my folks house to join them and Karl for dinner. Karl had not seen Isabelle since last September at a conference we were at in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida so needless to say that when he saw her, he couldn't believe how big she had gotten.

Isabelle and Karl After dinner we took a walk down to the playground. Karl got some great shots of all the fun we had (thank you again for sharing them, Karl).

Poppy and Isabelle playing on the slide
Michael had closing night of his show that night so after dinner Dickie, Isabelle and I headed home and waited for him to get home. When Michael got home, he and Dickie went out to Mulligans for the cast party. They had a great time! Sunday morning my Dad came by and picked up Dickie since both he and Karl were on the same flight home. We were so glad that not only did Michael get to see his Dad but that Dickie was able to see Isabelle. We did miss Marebear though (aka: Grandma O).

Dickie and Sam chilling on the bench at the playground in my folks community. Sunday morning, Isabelle had just gotten up in time to see Dickie off however, there is no rest for the weary. Micheal was off for the second round of auditions for Of Mice and Men and Isabelle and I were up getting ready to head over to Nana's house to see yet more visitors in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Isabelle playing Cinderella with ZoeMy cousin Mark and his two girls, Zoe and Sadie, were in from Wisconsin from being up north in Placerville this past week visiting with my Uncle Steve (Mark's Dad) and Aunt Vicki. Amy, their Mom/Mark's wife, had to take an early flight back to Wisconsin out of LAX on Saturday morning so Mark and the girls decided to stay at Nana's house until their flight on Monday morning.

Isabelle wanting a piece of Sadie's roll....she did say please though and Sadie shared :)This gave Isabelle a chance to meet the girls and the girls a chance to meet Isabelle. We were over at Nana's for a few hours catching up on things with Mark and watching the three girls play. Surprisingly enough, despite the age difference, they got along really well. Zoe was very careful with thier things and making sure Isabelle didn't get a hold of anything too small. And Isabelle shared the few toys we brought her as well.

Mark and Isabelle playing naptime Mark wanted to take the girls to Marie Callendars for a piece of pie (that he so fondly remembers when he lived in California) so since I had to get Isabelle down for a nap and our place is on the way there, they followed us home. They were here for about 20 minutes and then, with it being almost 2 hours past her naptime, Isabelle started loosing her charm sort of speak. Again, it was a short visit but we are glad everyone got to see everyone, especially since the girls had never met Isabelle and vice versa. Sunday night I think we were all in bed by 9pm. What a busy but fun week we had but loaded with lots of wonderful memories!

On the road to recovery

2008-07-26T15:34:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-23T14:37:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-21T08:55:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-18T18:07:00.000-07:00

It sounded like a good idea at the time :)

Concerts in the Park

2008-07-15T09:09:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-07-07T14:36:00.000-07:00

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!

Walking the dog...

2008-06-30T14:45:00.000-07:00

Lately the easiest exercise for both Michael and I is taking Bear and Isabelle out for a walk. We have either the hiker backpack, the wagon or the trusty jogger or stroller that Isabelle rides in. As we have mentioned, Isabelle loves the outdoors, she loves her dog and now, she loves to walk her dog. I have started something new with her that has so far been great...thanks to a wonderful, gentle dog who actually stops if her leash drops.

The other week Isabelle was in the hiking backpack and half way through our walk she started getting fussy and the camel pack nozzle (which she knows how to use and usually needs to be refilled along with her diaper changed when we are done with our walk-hehe) nor the keys were making her happy. I happened to hand her the keys with Bear's leash in my hand and of course, that is what she wanted. I gave in and gave it to her. With Isabelle holding on tight to the leash, I chanted "walking the dog, walking the dog" (think of it being said in Beavis and Buttheads voices, "breakin the law, breakin the law") as she bounced in her seat. Its pretty funny and besides the leash rubbing the side of my neck when she is in the backpack, she does a great job walking Miss B. Perhaps I will just stick with her in the stroller until it gets cooler and I can wear something that will cover my neck. Yeah, that may happen in early December....if we are lucky! This next picture I like to call "Isabelle's Amish Buggy" :)

Swim Lesson Pics

2008-06-24T09:13:00.000-07:00

Grandmama met up with us at the park for Isabelle's swim lessons yesterday so, without further ado....here is our little fish,Isabelle!

Although it seems like she is having fun when Olivia (the lifeguard) has Isabelle on her back, that is actually her least favorite "lesson".

Today....

2008-06-19T17:10:00.000-07:00

Need we say more?

Little Fish

2008-06-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

Isabelle had her first swim lessons today at the Glen Park in Valencia. This park just happens to be one of the parks that I used to race at when I was on swim team, go to while at Summer camps and swim at when I was with a friend who lived over in that direction. What fond memories it brought back! But I do not remember our lifeguards being so young!

Lifeguard Olivia, who looked like she was still in or fresh out of high school, was in charge of our group down at the shallow end of the pool-of course. We meet for 2 weeks every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 5:45pm-6:15pm. In our class there are 8 kids between the ages of 8 months to 2 years and yesterday, 12 parents in the water. We practiced kicking, paddling or "scooping ice cream with your hands", blowing bubbles which Isabelle did not do but loved watching me so much that she would push my head down to do it again, lay/float on your back, superman glides to Olivia and back to me and of course, going under water! Our little fish did very well and I am sure is super excited to get back there on Wednesday. Hopefully Grandmama or Papa will be able to come with so we can get some pictures.

Meanwhile, here is our little fish in action at my friend's Baby Shower this past Saturday. Since I didn't bring her bathing suit, I let her put her feet in the pool but as I was chatting away, in she sat. Isabelle is definitely a water baby and boy oh boy, Huggies diapers can sure hold water (check out the last pic...J-Lo ain't got nothing on my baby!)

New Layout?

2008-06-12T10:25:00.000-07:00

This template was added to Isabelle's blog just for MARTY, I mean Michael :)

A little late but...WAY TO GO WINGS!! Congrats on winning the Stanley Cup! It is back home where it should be. (Do you see the Stanley Cup? LOL!)

Rub-A-Dub-Dub

2008-06-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

....2 girls in the tub!

This is how Isabelle and my night turned out last night after walking with our neighbor, Rose. Rosie and I didn't quite finish our conversation so we decided to take it into her house. So a glass of wine and an hour or so later, Isabelle and I were getting ready to head out to get my little one in the bath when Rose came up with a great idea. Since Sofia needed to take a bath or shower too, why don't we just throw both girls in the tub and continue our gossip session?

I ran back to our place to get a diaper and Isabelle's pj's and when I got back, the tub was full of bubbles and ready to go. It was great fun and now Rose and I are all caught up and bonus....we had squeaky clean girls all ready for bed :) Thanks gals!

Number 4!

2008-06-06T12:56:00.000-07:00

Isabelle was in bed just before 9 o'clock last night when all of a sudden at 2am, BOOM! she woke up crying but this time Michael and I knew that cry and exactly what to do about it. Out came the Tylenol, Motrin and teething ring.

In the midst of getting her to settle back down (and praying that the Tylenol would set in NOW), she decided to play "That?". "That?" is a new game that Isabelle has been playing for the past two weeks that I am sure you can guess how it goes...she points at something, says "that?" and we proceed to tell her what every item she points at is. Now this can turn into a 15 minute ordeal so I cut it short and started ignoring her. She slowly realized that Mama did not want to play and started to head off to la-la-land so I put her into her crib but as soon as I closed the door, the crying started up again. Dad's turn! Now, 30 minutes after she was given Tylenol and armed with a bottle and her bedtime music, off to sleepy town she went in her Papa's arms.

Hopefully this will only be for one night this time around. After all, it is only ONE molar...we hope!

First Molars BITE!

2008-05-30T12:36:00.001-07:00

Isabelle is a very happy baby with one of the most cheerful dispositions (so we have been told) that a 14 month old could ever have but that disposition has been leaning more towards Bi Polar the past few days...ever since those molars of hers decided to officially cut through and show themselves.

Since we were all blessed with Isabelle having a pain free teething process for her first 8 teeth, three days ago we did not think that she was hmmm lets call it "moody", because she was cutting her molars. Now she had been drooling quite a bit but she wasn't gnawing on her hands, furniture, her dog, sidewalks, trees or anything else that really triggered us to think that this is what it was. If anything we thought that her ear infection and cold she had 2 weeks ago might be coming back!

On Tuesday she hadn't eaten much all day but again, that didn't ring any bells since she is not that big of an eater to begin with. She was sort of clingy, playing with her ears a bit and was getting easily frustrated when her toys wouldn't "work" for her. Later that evening I noticed that she felt really warm so I took her temp; 102.6 in one ear and 101.9 in the other so immediately I started pumping Tylenol in her. That night we could have sworn we were back to having a newborn in the house. I put her down just before 8pm and she was up every hour to two hours just sobbing. We would give her more Tylenol as soon as 6 hours passed, and even tried Triaminic in case it was a cold, but still nothing seemed to soothe her. I would be rocking her in her room with lullaby music playing and she would be crying with her eyes closed, tossing and turning in my arms just trying to get comfortable to go back to sleep. Michael and I felt completely helpless and just wanted our baby girl to feel better. After a 2:30am wake up, she finally went down and stayed down until 6am. Since I was already up getting ready for work, I got her and put her in bed with Michael. So with a bottle to fill her belly and her Papa at her side, she fell asleep for another 3 hours and woke up as her usual chipper self....like that night of pain never even happened.

That day, Wednesday, she was with Grandmama all day and was running all around her house as usual but about 2 hours into it, the fussing started up again. Mom gave her some more Tylenol and a bottle (again, she hadn't eaten much) and Isabelle went down for a 2.5 hour nap. We thought about taking her to the doctor but decided to wait it out. Mom brought her back to the office for the hand off and then Isabelle and I headed to the store so I could get her Motrin to take in conjunction with the Tylenol, since she still had a low grade fever. We got to the store and grabbed the Motrin and some more Tylenol and as we headed for the cash register, Isabelle started crying, I mean huge crocodile tear sobbing. Again...helpless! Nothing I did would make her stop...car keys? my wallet? the Motrin box? Nothing :( The guy in front of us gave a consoling smile and told her it was alright and when I told him that we think she is cutting her molars and may have an ear infection, he said he did not envy us a bit. Needless to say, the moment we got to the car I couldn't get the Motrin out fast enough. The every four hour Tylenol/Motrin switch seemed to work (thanks for the suggestion Caryn), along with chewing on Otter Pops. Her fever broke completely and that night she only woke up twice. However after the second time, I pulled her into bed with us. She tossed and turned a little bit and fussed a few times but it was so much easier to put a hand on her back and "shush" her back to sleep before she woke herself up completely.

The next morning I called and got her a doctors appointment just in case it was more than just her teeth. In a very good mood, Isabelle went to daycare for a few hours and when Michael picked her up to take her to the doctor's, she had eaten, took a good nap and didn't fuss once. The doctor gave her a clean bill of health and off we went. That night she was in bed at 8:00pm and slept till 8:30am the next morning...right back to her old routine :)

Now when you get a really big laugh out of her, you can see three out of the four newest editions to her mouth. Did you all get that? Three out of four...yes, we still have one more of that set to go plus whenever the other molars and her eyeteeth decide to come in! OUCH!

HOUSTON...

2008-05-20T11:03:00.000-07:00

We have MOLARS! Do you copy? Isabelle Anessa has her first molars coming in! Over...

Little Miss Independent

2008-05-15T12:49:00.000-07:00

Here is a very short video clip of Isabelle feeding herself the other night. Sorry about my babbling and "yeah's" in the background but she was so excited and proud of herself when I said "yeah" that she would want to give herself a spoonful again and since she is "underweight", I am all about her eatting more :)

She is becoming more and more independent with each passing day (and more and more stubborn like her Father-hehe) and I will have to say that although I am proud of her leaps and bounds, I am not ready for her to grow up just yet. Please slow down just a little bit, baby girl.

Mothers Day Weekend

2008-05-12T09:12:00.000-07:00

First off, Happy Mother's Day to all of my fellow "mamas" out there! We hope that sometime during YOUR weekend you were worshipped, pampered and treated like a queen...as all mama's should be :)
My Mother's Day weekend started on Friday at 2:30pm when Isabelle and Michael came to the office and kidnapped me for the rest of the afternoon. They took me for a drive up to Ventura so we could reenact Michael and Isabelle's "week before an Opening Weekend at the theatre" routine. The two of them will drive down to Ventura in the morning and drop off the theatre's postcards at our mail house for the show that is opening the following weekend.

From there, they drive out to the pier and have lunch at a restaurant called Erik Erickson's where Isabelle just loves their bread and rice (go carbs!) and her Papa orders jalapeno fish and chips. We did a little bit of strolling on the pier. It was windy overcast and chilly but it didn't matter since we were together as a family. Isabelle was enthralled with the seagulls and the fisherman so I grabbed my camera and started snapping away.

At dinner, I tried the jalapeno fish and chips and they were to die for! I can't wait to share that "routine" with them again :) We had such a nice family afternoon together and Michael took the evening off (double bonus) so we got to just hang out, which we haven't been able to do in quite sometime. This was the best start to a great weekend.

Bright and early Saturday morning, Mom/Grandmama came over to have Isabelle's big girl car seat put in her car by Michael (so long infant carrier!) so she could be comfortable for our 2.5-3 hour drive up north to Avila Beach, near San Louis Obispo, to meet up with Tia Tara at a spa called Sycamore Springs (http://www.sycamoresprings.com/). A girls weekend was all set!

Like I mentioned, it was a 2.5-3 hour drive. Um yeah....for those of you who have toddlers, especially ones who are walking, I am sure you can imagine how our drive went. Isabelle was fine for the first hour and a half with looking at books, dancing in her car seat to her kids songs, listening to Mom and I talking and listening to us when we were talking to her. But then...boredom set in. She wanted nothing to do with the car seat anymore and she wasn't going to nap like we thought she would. She was fussing a bit, wiggling around and pointing at things that we thought she wanted and when we gave them to her she didn't want them anymore. So we stopped for about 5-10 minutes at a rest area and let her wander around, check out the dogs and of course, check out all of the flowers and plants (our little nature granola girl). With a little over an hour left to go, we plopped her back into her car seat and low and behold, her books became interesting again and about 20 minutes before we got to Avila Beach, she fell asleep...nice timing.

The spa was beautiful all tucked away back in the mountains. Mom stayed with sleeping Isabelle while Tara and I went and had our massages...our well deserved massages. When we got out, Tara literally ran out to the parking lot to get her "Macho Nacho" and to let Mom go in for her massage, since our room was not ready yet (everyone was busy with the VIP guests-"The Girls Next Door" were filming an episode while we were there). So Isabelle, for her second time, Tara and I went walking around to check out the grounds. We played chase on the grass, looked at all of the flowers and leaves and had a little snack while we waited.

When we finally got the keys to our room, we loaded up a golf cart with all of our stuff and were driven out over a bridge, that is over the main road, and into the boonies to our suite. This was definitely a Natural Spa! We were staying in "Mellow" or Suite 11...one of the handful of prefabricated houses on stilts! It was crazy! The guy driving us to our room told us that they had a flood about 4 years ago and a river was running right where we were driving. I guess in that case, stilted rooms are a good idea. At least they can stay open during a flood or bad rainstorm and they wont get shut down for flood repairs!

We unpacked, played with Isabelle and waited for Mom to get back then schlepped ourselves out to dinner in Avila Beach on a pier (yes, another pier) at a restaurant called Olde Port Inn (http://www.oldeportinn.com/) for another great fish dinner! Tara had Isabelle out of her highchair most of dinner, reading her ABC 123 book that Isabelle absolutely loves. Tara taught Isabelle what a doggie says, "woof woof" which is more like an "uhf uhf" when Isabelle says it. And Isabelle told Tia Tara what a tiger says, "roooaaahhh" :) We surprised Mom with a birthday cake and sang her Happy Birthday with Isabelle clapping right along. On our way out, curious little Isabelle was pointing at the boats in the water so we stayed awhile longer looking at the boats and then noticed 2 things in the water...sea lions! As we started back from the car, there were a few people standing by a stairwell looking down so we went over to check things out and here is what we saw:

Isabelle was so excited to see this big ol' sea lion and didn't want to leave but the shopping Outlets were calling our names! We did a little shopping there and then decided to head back so we could get Isabelle to bed and chill for the rest of the evening. The next morning we got up, played around with Isabelle on the bed, got ready, packed up and were on the road by 11. Mom and I stopped at Coco's for breakfast where we all, including Isabelle, had a good breakfast which almost lasted us the entire way home. About 40 minutes after we left Coco's, Isabelle fell asleep for a little over an hour. When she woke up she seemed fine but then starting to get fussy again. Mom tried playing with her, reading to her and then all of a sudden, up came breakfast! Needless to say, a 30 minute pit stop was in order. We got her and her car seat all cleaned up (except the smell-yuck) and continued home. She was back to her old self after that!

When we got back home we had dinner al fresco with "the Dad's" at one of our favorite Italian restaurants and my favorite dessert....Golden Spoon frozen yogurt! That was a craving I had through my entire pregnancy and still do today. What a memorable Mother's Day weekend with the family! Thank you, Mi familia!

WHOOPSIE!

2008-04-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

Following in the footsteps of our friends the Molloy’s (http://www.eliselmolloy.blogspot.com/) , Isabelle also had a nasty fall however, it was not a sound that could be heard around the world but instead a sound that could just be heard at Grandmama’s house.

It was April 15th, Tax Day and two "Grandmama Wednesday watch days" ago (yes this post is a little late) and as her and Isabelle were having their last few minutes of play time outside before coming back to the office for the hand off, Isabelle’s feet got going a little faster then she could handle and SMACK….down she went. Now Grandmama said there wasn’t a blood curdling scream but there were definitely crocodile tears. She took a look at Isabelle and saw no bumps or scrapes, wiped her hands off and got her ready to go. When I came downstairs at the office to get her I asked my Mom what had happened to Isabelle's nose? It looked like she had on a pair of sunglasses and someone hit her in the face. She told me about the fall but didn't see anything accept for dirty hands. I said that it looked like she broke her fall with her face! At least Isabelle was in good spirits, squawking away and getting into everything...you know, her normal self. But for precautionary measures, I gave her some Tylenol when we got home and right before she went to bed.
When Michael saw her the following morning he was sure it was broken and that she would get a black eye or two but when he touched and moved her nose, she didn't mind. As the days went by she luckily never got a black eye and the bruise faded to yellow and then was gone.

Just like the Molloy's, we could only imagine what others thought...especially those without children. I am sure the best is yet to come with Isabelle's "oopsies" but for right now, this one tops the list.

I Love My Dog...

2008-04-20T13:13:00.000-07:00

And my dog loves me!

Much like an older child, Bear was our first "baby" and admittedly, was spoiled rotten. So when I got pregnant it was only natural for us to wonder how having a new baby in the house would affect Bear. We have heard horror stories about animals getting so jealous of the child that they actually turn on them. We read up on everything and did everything we could to get her ready for Isabelle's homecoming. We had a bag of diapers opened for her to sniff at, one of her beds in the nursery (where she actually did sleep from time to time), etc. The day came to introduce Bear to "her sister" and we were as prepared as we thought we could be. Bear sniffed around at her for a bit, accidentally tromped on her a few times (nothing that hurt Isabelle), went through a pouting stage but then we think she realized that Isabelle is here to stay and that we love her so she'd better embrace her too.

Over the past few months when we are out on our walks, Bear has become very protective of us...well, Isabelle. When other dogs walk by, Bear's tuff goes up and she walks right next to the stroller until it passes. I swear, we were so lucky to have found her and are forever grateful to whomever was crazy enough to give her up. What a great catch! As you can see by the pics, she and Isabelle are real buddies and we honestly don't ever see that changing.

She's got it!

2008-04-11T07:38:00.000-07:00

After two weeks and sporadic "driving" in the house (yes inside) or outside, our little Punkyhead has got the "go button" on her ATV down to a science. Our friend Sarah caught this clip on her cell phone yesterday of Isabelle riding her quad outside.

While rocking out to the music in her head, check out Isabelle's one legged trick!

OK, so we know she didn't mean to do that but it sure is funny! Next time though, the helmet goes on.

STATS

2008-04-05T08:26:00.000-07:00

We had Isabelle's 12 month "well baby check up" this past Monday (March 31) and although she is excelling in pretty much everything, she is still lagging in one department...her weight.

Here are her stats: Isabelle is 29" tall (52nd percentile), her head is 46.5cm (80th percentile-imagine that!) and she has met and exceeded all of the milestones for a 12 month old however, she is only 19 lbs which puts her in the 17th percentile for weight. Dr. Diab joked with us saying that at least she is going up and not down (she was in the 12th percentile at her 9 month check up). We were so sure that she would be over 20 lbs since we have changed her diet and have been feeding her more but we are guessing that with all of her walking, she is just burning those calories right off (not good now but she will love that later, if it stays that way). He advised that we keep feeding her what we are eating and more often (no more baby food) and also start giving her a Pediasure supplement once a day which he is positive will help chunk her up. We shall see. Meanwhile will be waiting another month or so to flip those car seats. Better safe than sorry!

P.S. She hated the strawberry Pediasure so we are going to try chocolate tomorrow. Fingers crossed!