Isabel's Dedication

Bryan and I participated in a 6 week parenting class, and at the end of it we had a dedication for Isabel. The basic idea behind it was that we were making a promise to raise Izzie up to know Jesus, but we also made a family mission statement as a part of the class.  It was a great experience to look forward and think about the type of family we want to have and the type of person we want Izzie to be.  Of course it looks good on paper, but we know we're going to need a lot of prayer and ibuprofen to get there!  :)  The Meyers dedicated Caden and Avery at the same time, so it was such a special day!

Chaos

Our house is in a state of chaos these days.  Izzie is constantly opening, closing, emptying, dumping, relocating, rearranging, throwing, organizing...You get the idea.  If it even resembles something with a loop it is a necklace and goes around her neck.  She ends up with quite the wardrobe these days.  If she can sit in it or on it or by it, she will--regardless of the comfort level.  If she can fit it in her mouth, that's how she will carry it (I'm still not sure where this came from...).

But most of the chaos is due to book explosions you will find in at least three locations on any given day.  The options are to get rid of my books (gasp! not an option!), to torture my daughter by not letting her play with them, or to just roll with it and spend my days tripping over paperbacks.  Not surprising, you may have guessed we have currently chosen option 3.  Please don't judge when you come over to our house.  There will be books everywhere--front entryway, dining room, living room, hallway (all places books are currently flung in my home), etc..   It doesn't matter how often we pick them up and put them back (with Izzie's "help" sometimes).  It takes 2.5 minutes of being home for them to return.  Hopefully there is some osmosis happening while she's flipping those pages and she'll turn into a genius who can buy me a house with a beautiful library someday...

She loves a classic World War II novel.

Wearing an apron, holding two sippy cups,

sitting on the bathroom floor.  Duh.

 One doggy purse + 6 necklaces = Ready for Vogue

Return of the doggy purse necklace.

And a wire basket seat.  Comfy.

C. H. A. O. S.  This seriously took 16 seconds.

 (Somewhere, wherever he is, LeVar Burton is smiling.)

Our Darling One-Year-Old

Isabel has turned into the loveliest toddler.  She has acquired quirks and habits that make her so very charming and sweet.  We find ourselves the parents that (pre-Isabel) used to be worthy of our eye-rolls, as we are quite sure that she is the finest little creature that ever existed.  (Feel free to eye-roll at us.  We are too in love to care.)  That is not to say she doesn't show hints of the child that will one day make us pull out our hair and scream, but for now we can smile and laugh thinking about that day (which will be far from funny when it arrives, but ignorance is bliss.)  For instance, she refused to get out of her new car the night she got it.  I opened the door to take her out, and she shut the door on me and looked at me like, "What are you going to do about it?"  And I had a flash forward of her in fifteen years...


Izzie's communication has developed rapidly, both verbal and nonverbal.  She knows the signs for "more" and "all done" (this is an adapted version of what it's supposed to be, but it suits her).  She now does the sign for "more" and points at what she wants more of (snacks in the cupboard, milk in the fridge, etc.).  And if you give her more of something she does not want (aka, vegetables) when she very clearly wanted more crackers, she will shake her head, point at what she does want, and point at her tray.  "No, Mom.  You've got it all wrong.  Not more carrots.  More crackers.  Put them right here."  We are working on the sign for "please", but it frustrates her.  I think she wonders why in the world she needs to add "please" when "more" communicates exactly what she wants.  We'll continue to work on it...

Isabel says quite a few words now.  Of course "Mommy" and "Daddy" have been around for awhile, but the list continues:  ball, book (buh), more (moh), puppy (pawpaw), milk, grandpa (bampa), hi (hi-eeeee), bye, bottle, baby, and wow (accompanied by shocked eyes and open mouth) are the major ones I can think of now.  She still has long and dramatic conversations with anything that will listen, but we have yet to figure out what she's actually saying.  I caught her lecturing our dogs one afternoon as they stared at her in confusion.

Izzie is in love with books (which makes me the happiest Mommy!).  She will read anything--as evidenced by the afternoons she has spent at Auntie Brittany's house snuggled in a bean bag chair, casually flipping through Callie's chapter books (who needs pictures, right?).  Iz will grab anything with print on it and sit and "read" through it.  She often reads aloud to herself, but prefers a comfy lap to sit in.  This is one of her most endearing habits of late.  If there is a warm body in the room and she has a book in her hand, she will just start backing up.  She looks first to make sure you are there, and then once she starts moving she doesn't look back.  She keeps going until she hits something (hopefully your lap) and then sits.  Sometimes she has ended up in interesting places as a result.  It's impossible not to sit and read with her, no matter what you're doing, because it's so sweet.  Once she backed into my shins and then sat on my feet (I was standing), but continued to sit and read to herself.  How could I not scoop her up?

Isabel's favorite books to read are "Grover's First Day of School" and "The Monster at the End of the Book".  She will hunt through her piles of books until she finds them.  This please me to no end, as I have loved Grover and Sesame Street for so long.  And whether you believe me or not, I have not shown preferential treatment towards these books--it's Izzie that has made her choice.  She hasn't even watched Sesame Street, although we do have a talking Super Grover doll (thanks, Shelley) that she has loved for a long time, so perhaps that has something to do with it.

Izzie plays by herself quite often now.  One night, while I thought she was playing and talking to herself at her kitchen, I found her in her bedroom in the dark, unfolding all of her laundry.  She was having so much innocent fun that I couldn't stop her.  If the worst thing I ever have to do is re-fold laundry, I'll be a lucky Mommy.  When I went back to find her a few minutes later, she was snuggled into the pile of clothes flipping through a book.  Duh.

I could clearly go on forever about this little lovely and her kisses and hugs and cuddles, but you get the idea.  We love watching her grow into her own little person.

The Party

Pictures of the birthday party, as promised.  Isabel wasn't a huge fan of mass quantities of people in her house at first, but she warmed up.  We had all our grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles, cousins, great-grandpas, and a few friends, too.  She's a lucky girl to have so many people that love her!

And she was just the cutest little thing in her polka dot dress!  A friend of mine helped me with the decorations, and we went with the owl theme because owls are cute and Iz could care less.  The biggest hits of the party for gifts were a shopping cart from Auntie Em and Uncle J (along with a baby to ride in it from Caden), a car from Grammy and Grandpa, a slide from Auntie Brittany and Uncle Kevin, and books that read to her in their voices from Nana and Grandpa.  Spoiled girl!

The Birthday Present

I promise I will upload pictures of Izzie's party soon--there are lots of good ones!  But I had to show off the present we gave her.  I saw some examples of play kitchens made out of repurposed TV entertainment centers online, roped my dad into managing the project, and with only a $25 Craigslist purchase later we were off!

My dad and I had so much fun working on this!  He did all the building and woodwork, and I did all the painting and decorating.  I think it came out SO cute!  And of course my dad took all the ideas I had and made them bigger and better--so before you knew it she had every appliance she could dream of!  (He couldn't believe that I wasn't going to include a microwave originally.  Everyone needs a microwave.)

Here was the before... (the Craiglist ad...it specified that the other items were not included.  Darn.)

And here are the afters.  Super fun, right?  (Ignore the sheet--this was still a few days before we gave it to her.)

The oven and stove.  The knobs really turn.  The drawer they're 

attached to pulls out and is where we keep the silverware.

The rack inside of it also slides in and out.

The dishwasher.  100% my dad's idea.  Who

wants to wash dishes by hand, right?  

 The microwave.  With a plexiglass window.  The time

on the microwave is the time she was born.  Sniff, sniff.

The fridge.   Notice the touch light on top.  There is

also one in the microwave and two above the sink.

The chalkboard!

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to our darling!

What a Way to Start the Day...

Bryan takes Isabel to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and stays home with her on Fridays.  So on those days, I don't get to see her pretty little face before I go to work.  My hubby does a wonderful job of sending me pics of her throughout the morning--getting ready, having her bottle, playing at school--so I don't have to miss her too much (or does it make me miss her more...?).  Either way, I absolutely love the pictures.  It's a lovely way to start the day.