A Lazy Day

Little Miss Avery had her 2 month checkup, so Caden came over to hang out with us for awhile.  We had a lovely, lazy pajama day.  One of my favorite things about Izzie growing up has been watching her develop relationships with the other little people around her, like her cousins and friends at school.  It's fun to see her personality come out as she interacts with like-minded munchkins. 

Caden is no exception--these two have become, as he puts it, "Best friends, right Izzie-bel?"  She can actually play with him now, and he loves having her around.  In fact, he wants to do everything she does just the way she does it.  They were both at my mom's the other day, and he told Grammy, "I want she to sit right here, right by me" for lunch.  He also thought they should share food ("Maybe her chicken, but not the beans"), and he cracked Izzie up when he put her bow in his hair.  They both laughed really hard, and then Caden got sad when he had to give it back and asked Grammy, "Why won't you just find me one, too?"

Iz still doesn't pay much attention to TV, but she

was really into "Follow That Bird" with Caden.

And I enjoyed their choices of seating.

 

I can't keep this girl's hair out of her face.  This day, she brought one of my

headbands to me to have me put it on her, and of course this is the one time

that she actually left something in her hair.  Probably because it looks so good...  

 

The preferred method of transporting her Little People.  They fit perfectly

in her mouth.  She also likes to lean over and transport them to other people's

mouths to share (other people being Bryan and I).  Weird little Munchkin.

I believe I mentioned the toilet paper before.  If she has

been quiet for a little too long, this is where you'll find her...

A Busy Izzie

Moving.  Moving.  MOVING.  She walks all the time now.  Crawling is only for emergency situations.  And when she goes, SHE GOES.  I turn around and suddenly she's in the other room tearing apart toilet paper or taking all the clothes out of her hamper.  She's into everything.  And she's hilarious.  She seems to understand us more and more everyday.  And she is getting very cuddly with Mommy and loves giving Daddy kisses (we figure it's a trade off)...

 

All of these pictures were taken one day after school, literally within the first three minutes we were home.  She had taken pictures off the shelf, grabbed one of mommy's books to read (a math one, woohoo!), dug a magazine out of the trash, attempted to de-organize daddy's schoolwork and pouted when I wouldn't let her, etc.  Busy girl!  And you can really see her teeth in that last pic!

 

Izzie at School...

This chickee loves school.  She goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 to 4.  Her teachers, Miss Abbie, Miss Denise and Miss Alyssa are just the loveliest ladies there are.  And after picking Izzie up during naptime once, it became very clear that they do not get paid enough.  Anyone else want to put 7 kids ages 0 to 18 months down for a nap?  At the same time?  In the same room?  Whew.  I was stressed just watching them, and they were (of course) the picture of patience. 

The newly mobile Izzie gets to participate in more activities at school now.  I went to pick her up on Tuesday and Miss Alyssa said, "Izzie's in the gym."  That cracked me up.  But there she was, walking laps around the gym with Miss Denise while the other toddlers whizzed around in cars and played on the slide.  And apparently she walked the whole way there!  Her note from Tuesday also said she really liked pushing other kids around while they sat in the big cars. 

We love that she has such a wonderful place to be with friends and learn new things.  Cousin Avery is now in the same room as Izzie (though neither says much about it...) and Caden pops by to say hi to them once in awhile.  So nice to send her somewhere that's full of people we love!

11 Months Old!

 

 

Here's our big, grown, 11 month old Izzie.  Her personality is coming out more and more lately, and we just can't get enough of it.  Isabel is laid back and loud (which seem like they would contradict each other, but the result is her chillaxing in her rocking chair while yelling about the ball she's holding), hilarious one minute and sweet as pie the next minute, fiercely independent and very soft hearted.

Some new things as an 11 month old:

• She says "ball" very clearly (and likes to repeat it over and over and OVER)
• She waves "bye bye" unprompted when someone leaves the room or says "goodbye".
• She hugs stuffed animals (but not so much her parents--remember that independent part?)
• She loves to look at books.  She concentrates really hard on the pictures now.
• She lays flat on the floor (stiff as a board, arms straight) when she's getting sleepy.  But she'll pop right back up and play for a few minutes before taking another breather.
• She likes giving high fives.
• She WALKS.  Everywhere.  All the time.  She's just a real little person now.

Here she is using those front teeth to their full

advantage chewing up something at dinner.

And look at those beautiful blue eyes!

When you can't talk yet, you let Mommy and

Daddy know you're done with dinner by

running your sticky fingers through your hair.

This was funny (and not just because of her hair...but really, this chick clearly

already has issues with that!).  Iz had a ball that she stuck inside of the macaroni

and cheese box.  She couldn't get the ball out of the box, but she didn't want to let

it go either.  So she played with a box on her hand for awhile.  Makes sense.

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas.  Izzie's two front teeth popped through the weekend before and after that she was a happy little clam for the rest of the week's festivities.  Of course she got lots of gifts and loved opening them, but the tissue paper was clearly her favorite part.  We absolutely loved this Christmas--this sweet little girl made it the best one yet! 

We had Christmas with Bryan's extended family on Saturday (which I forgot

to bring my camera to!), and with my extended family on Sunday.

 

Eating at the kids' table.  They loved feeding her

crackers...she was like a little pet for them!

 

Spending some time with my lovely cousins.

 

 I told you she liked tissue paper!

Probably her favorite present--Aunt Linda made her a

 jingle bell which she sucked on for the rest of the night.

We spent Christmas Eve morning at  home, and then it was off to church.  We

opened presents at the Daniels on Christmas Eve, and then off to the Rahns

on Christmas morning.  Busy, busy!  And as you can imagine Isabel was

spoiled everywhere she went!

 



Going to check out the gifts on

Christmas Eve morning...

She got a baby doll, my old cradle and rocking

chair (which my dad repainted), and a truck.  Perfect!

All dressed up for Christmas Eve service.

All dressed down in our matching jammies from Grammy!

Christmas morning at the Rahns...

Checking out a remote with Uncle Brandon

 

Sneaking into people's presents when they aren't looking...

Taking a walk with Callie.

My Favorite Ornament Maker

This sweet little Munchkin brought home a present for Mommy and Daddy from school.  It is a little Christmas tree covered in ornaments--which she made (with a lot of help I'm sure) out of her tiny little fingerprints.  It is now my favorite ornament.  Hands down.

 I felt like we were lacking in some up close and personal pictures of this little face lately, so here are some good shots (don't mind the food and snot covering her face--that's just how we roll some days).  We had a SNOW DAY at home together on Thursday.  It was a pajama day full of lots of naps and play time and looking outside at the beautiful snow.  Early Christmas present for Mommy, for sure.

 

Practically Upright...

Little Miss Isabel is now 10 months old.  I got a card in the mail from the company that I used for her birth announcements.  It was a coupon for me to use on her 1st birthday invitations.  WHAT?!?  She's a baby!  She can't have birthdays!  Ridiculous.

Anyway.  Izzie now has two teeth on bottom, plus a snaggle tooth on the left side (her second tooth came in before the front ones).  This has caused Bryan to dub her Baby Herman.  "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" lovers will get the reference, everyone else see picture below.  The same tooth on the other side is almost poking through, so she will soon be vampire baby.

 

Izzie also holds conversations that are very elaborate and detailed with a lot of hand movements.  In fact, her notes at school one day said "Izzie had the whole classroom enthralled today as she talked to us about the cup she was holding in her hands".  :)  Too funny.  Because she has yet to say real words---aside from Mama, Dada and other things that we pretend are words--but she is pretty sure she is saying something.  The look on her face is so serious sometimes that it's hard not to giggle.

Izzie is really fond of pointing at things with her index finger, thumb in the air.  Sometimes is inquisitive when she sees something new, sometimes it's happy when she sees someone or something she loves, and sometimes it's indignant like she can't believe something just happened.  Whatever the reason, it's pretty cute.  A few weeks ago, she pointed at the lady behind us at Target, held her Ritz cracker in the air and yelled "Eh!".  "What do you think of that, lady?  I got a Ritz cracker!"

Newest are Izzie's developments in mobility.  She walks along things, pushes her Ride-On around the house, and can stand up by herself and take a few wobbly steps towards us without holding onto anything.  It's hilarious how proud of herself she is.  She took her first few hesitant steps weeks ago (from the coffee table to a toy), but she's really start to catch on now.  It's only a matter of time before this baby turns into (gasp!) a toddler.  Yikes. 

It's just amazing how fast she is learning new things.  Everyday she does something new that she wasn't able to do the day before.  She's figuring out how the world around her works at a pretty quick rate.  Last week she picked up Bryan's iPhone, and when it didn't turn on she grabbed his index finger and put it on the screen--"Come on, Daddy!  Do that thing you do that makes it turn on!".  We don't even let her play with it, but she's still got us figured out.  We love this girl.

Daddies are really good at playing cars

Not so good at headbands

And she's off!  We have to hold the front of the Ride-On so

that she doesn't face plant when she hits the wood floor,

but the walking she does completely on her own.