Isabel Giggles

Little Miss Talkative makes us laugh on a daily basis.  Sometimes we probably shouldn't, but it can't be helped.  One of my favorite things to do is just sit and have a conversation with her.

At dinner time...
Iz:  "How's your day, Mommy?" (a little surprised, I answered that it was good)
       "And how's your day, Daddy?" (laughing a little, he said his was also good)
        After a bit of a silence..."Ask how's my day?"
Ooops.  Manners lessons from our 2-year-old.

Walking through Target one day...
Iz:  "I need a new shirt, Mommy.  This one's pink and I like purple.  Purple's my favorite."  Well, can't argue with that logic.

Please note the pearls, not the food in her mouth.  We get pretty fancy for church.

On our way to a graduation party, our girl says, "It'll be wonderful going to your party, Mommy.  You'll be a wonderful girl and I'll be perfect."  Whew.  Glad she covered that so I didn't have to.

Check out the rain boots!

Getting in T's van one day, she spots Avery and starts singing, "Girl, look at that body.  Girl, look at that body.  Do you work out?"  We can blame Daddy for that one--he's been singing that to her since she was a baby.  Much more inappropriate sounding coming out of a toddler's mouth, however, but much funnier...

"Do you know what's that sound is?"  This is one of my favorite phrases of hers.  It's just right enough to understand what she's asking, and just wrong enough to be adorable.

Trying for a thumbs up

She's really big on complimenting people right now.  Daddy redid a bedroom in the basement to make a playroom for her, and the first time she walked in she said, "Oh, Daddy!  You did such a good job!  It's just perfect!"

Watching birdies with Daddy.  She loves looking at them, but they terrify
her up close.  "Hold me!  They gonna get my toes!"  Even the little ones.

"I like you tummy, Mommy.  It's gorgeous." (Nice to hear, though hard to believe at 28 weeks...)

On the way to another graduation party...
Iz:  "Why is it windy?"
Mommy:  "Because we're driving down a highway and going really fast."
Iz:  "But why is it windy?"
Mommy:  "Because the air is blowing around."
Iz:  "But why is it windy?"
Mommy:  "DADDY?  Wanna take this one?"
Daddy:  "God made it windy, Iz.  Ask him."
Iz:  "Is he gonna be at the party?"
Umm...

"Reading" Mommy's book to herself.  She
gets pretty into it, and is very expressive!

Darling girl had five or six slivers in her shin (no idea how that happened), and so Daddy had to do a little work on her leg.  We explained what was going to happen and that it might hurt a little bit, but that it would make her leg better.  She sat really well and didn't cry until the very end (thanks in part to some expert distraction via bug book by Popper).  A couple of days later in the car she says, "Where's my owie, Daddy?  I can't see it.  Did you fix it, Daddy?  Thank you for fixin' my owie, Daddy."  She's so darn polite sometimes it surprises us!

Iz was over at Caden and Avery's house on Mommy's last day of school.  Caden and Izzie were both in time out, he in his room and her in the hallway outside his room (with the door shut between them).  Out of nowhere, Emily hears them singing "Do you wanna build a snowman?" from Frozen back and forth through the door just like Ana and Elsa do in the movie.  Hahaha!

Daddy graduates!

We had a very exciting weekend this past week. Daddy graduated from UNL with a degree in Construction Management.  We are so proud of him and how hard he has worked.  And we are definitely proud of how well he did, especially considering he had some challenges most other students don't have to worry about--or at least not all at once!  (Like a mortgage, a job, a wife, a 2-year-old and a new human on the way...)  It's hard to believe that this time in our lives is over--we feel like we've been in the school mindset for so long--but it is finally done!

Isabel and I dropped Daddy off with his cap and gown at 8:30, and then we headed to meet Nana, Grandpa, Grammy, Popper, and Gigi and Grandpa Harms for breakfast.  The ceremony started at 9:30, but I figured we weren't in a rush to get there given the fact that I was going to force a 2-year-old to sit through something that most grown adults find to be a form of punishment.  We got there around 10 as the graduates were finishing filing in, so Mommy got a chance to cry at the graduation song (what is it about that song?!).  Luckily, T had staked out a whole row of seats for us--literally furthest at the back and highest point of the arena.  Though it was a trek for this pack mule of a momma to get there, they actually turned out to be perfect seats.  We had plenty of space for Caden, Isabel and Avery to run and  we didn't have to worry too much about our noise level.

The sweetest thing was Izzie sitting on that giant seat, 4 billion feet above the graduates, and pointing her little finger as she said, "There's my daddy!  You see my daddy?"  My darling girl made it through the first 2 hours of the ceremony without incident (thanks to snacks and a build-a-bug app on the iPad), but she was a bit of a wreck for the last half hour or so.  Luckily, Daddy was one of the last to walk across the stage...  So, although she was really excited to look for Daddy at the beginning, by the time he did his dance she was in a crumpled ball on the cement floor crying and asking to go home.  Not quite as charming and sweet as I pictured it in my head, but that's real life for you, right?  Haha.

"He's right there!'

Apparently you don't need sound for movies...

She was still tired, hungry, bored, etc. as we waited for Daddy to come out, so our family picture was also a little lacking in the cute department.  However, I joked with my husband 5 years ago when he started this journey that he would have a screaming 2-year-old and a pregnant wife in his graduation picture.  And here we are...

When Bellie got up from her nap that afternoon, she told Grammy that we were having a party for Daddy because "He went to school and worked hard and now he's done!"  So apparently she listens sometimes.  After sitting through a breakfast and (most of) a graduation ceremony, we then asked this child to sit at a restaurant for dinner.  But this time there was cake and other kids, so that helped.  Bitty girl was up until almost 9:30 partying hard for Daddy, and then gave Mommy the best Mother's Day present ever by sleeping in until 8:45 the next morning!


We are so happy Daddy is done with night classes and homework so we can have a more normal schedule.  And to add to the fun, in exactly one week Mommy will be done with school and is taking next year off--so we will have lots of family time to enjoy together soon.  We are so thankful for the way God has taken care of us through this and blessed us so much--mostly through our amazing families who have supported us and helped us through this whole journey, but also for giving Daddy the opportunity to start a job that he is really excited about and allows him time with us!

The Day My Girl Grew Up...

We have a pass for the Lincoln Children's Zoo.  Grammy and Popper buy one for us every summer, and it is well worth every one of their pennies.  We've already been 4 times this year and it's barely May.  Last year, Iz was too little to interact with it much, but she still enjoyed being an observer.  This year she wants to do everything!

The first time I took her to the zoo this year, she asked to ride a horsey.  I said maybe another day, kind of putting her off in the assumption that she was just saying that to say it.  But she kept talking about it while we were there, so I told her we could but we had to wait until Daddy was with us.  Not long after that, Daddy told me he was taking Izzie to the zoo, and I gave him explicit instructions that she was not to ride a horse without Mommy being there.  She came home without riding a horse, but still talking about it.

Fast forward a week or two.  Isabel told Grammy all about riding a horse.  A big black one.  By herself.  It went really fast.  What an imagination!  I had my doubts about her riding one, since last year she wouldn't even go close enough to pet one's nose, but I was starting to wonder if maybe this really was a big deal to her.  Well, Daddy and Izzie went to the zoo again this last Tuesday.  The first thing she said when she walked in the house -- "I NO ride a horse, Mommy!  Later!".  Apparently she asked again and Daddy told her later when Mommy was with them.

So, today we all went to the zoo.  And she talked about the horse ride the whole way there.  And it was the first thing she wanted to do when we walked in.  There was a bit of a line, and the whole time we were waiting I talked to her about what it was going to be like, and we picked out the horse that she wanted to ride (thankfully the smallest horse there ever was--smart girl).  She told me she wanted to ride the "Mommy" horse, and I assured her that this little black and white pony named Bandit was indeed a Mommy (whatever it took to convince her he was trustworthy, right?).  I had joked with Bryan that at least the tickets didn't have an expiration date, and we both laughed because we really thought she wouldn't do it.

And suddenly it was our turn.  She didn't look nervous or scared.  She smiled and sat on the horse like she does it every day.  She was a little apprehensive when the cowgirl told her to hold onto the horn of the saddle, but she let go of Mommy and grabbed on.   The horse started up and she kept smiling and looking ahead, hardly glancing at me, her bitty little body bouncing around like she was an ant on a trampoline.  "We follow that horse!"  "Whoa, it's bouncy!"  She loved every minute of it.

And when it was over, this Mommy cried behind her sunglasses.  My little Isabel grew up in front of me in just one second.  She wasn't my tiny baby any more.  She was a big, grown, independent, brave girl trying a new thing and doing great.  I was so proud of her!  I'm not sure why this moment hit me like it did--lately I feel like I haven't got as emotional about her milestones--but something about this horse ride did it.  I just got to see all the moments in the future where I am going to be so infinitely proud of her, and got to be just a little sad for the tiny baby we left behind.

On a completely necessary side note, a llama spit in Bryan's mouth while we were there.  IN his mouth.  He blames me.  Izzie always wants to feed the goats and llamas, but is too nervous to actually put the food in their mouths, so Mommy does it.  And Mommy takes issue with the big, greedy animals that push the other ones out of the way to hog all of the food.  So Mommy always maneuvers around to get food to the underdog.  However, in this instance, the head llama was not impressed by this, and chose to show his disapproval by pushing and spitting at said underdog.  The push was successful, but head llama clearly can't aim the spit well as it hit my husband who was standing five feet away.  Did I mention in the mouth?  Bryan was not impressed by my laughing, and still says it's my fault, but I feel like I accomplished a small amount of justice today in the form of llama food.