Happy First Birthday Party!

Isla's first birthday party was so much fun! I can't believe how great she was with everybody and everything going on. Thanks to everyone for coming!! A took some pictures with my camera, but its been acting funny so I don't have many great ones (if I don't figure out what's going on with it soon, I'm buying an DSLR!) She took some with her camera too though and will be sending those to me tonight or tomorrow. My cousin took some also so I will get some pictures posted eventually. Be sure and check out my cousin's blog post on Isla's party....see the Cookies are My Canvas link on my blog roll. LOVE the pictures of Isla eating her cookies! She was not at all interested in her birthday cake, but when momma sat down to eat a cookie, she took it from me and went to town! A huge thank you to A for being my gopher Friday night and Saturday, to J for fighting his carpal tunnel to ice cupcakes and the bumble bee cake and to C for the cookies!!

Meanwhile, momma's been fighting a sinus infection. I felt pretty bad the night before the party but party day I was too distracted to be sick. Saturday night I realized how much my face hurt from the sinus pressure but Sunday I took some ibuprofen and felt great! Isla and her little friends had a play date and that was the ONLY thing I did all day. Then about 4:00, everything caught up with me and all the sudden, the sinus infection beat me. Luckily Isla had a well baby appointment yesterday so I called and asked them to pull my chart so I could be seen at the same time. The antibiotics seem to be working already. I considered going to work this afternoon, but I don't think I'm going to push it. I'll be lazy the rest of the day while Isla is at daycare.

Speaking of daycare, things are going well there. We started earlier than expected because P's mom was having some health issues. She thought she'd need surgery so we went ahead and started ASAP. Mimi's feeling better though and Isla seems to enjoy being around other kids. We cry (ok, usually just Isla, but sometimes both of us) most mornings at drop off. This morning there was a different teacher there for early morning drop offs. Isla seemed to be familiar with her already and she just asked Isla if she needed some snuggle time to start her day. Isla went to her and was cuddling when I left. When I drew attention to the fact I was leaving, she started to pucker up a little, but Miss E just snuggled her tighter and she was fine.

I really like the 2 main teachers in Isla's class also, but I don't get to see them very often because of the way their shifts overlap. I do get to talk to them when I pick Isla up early on Fridays and my mom sees them on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Plus they make notes on Isla's daily sheet. Miss B asked if Isla plays with dolls a lot at home. She just got 2dolls for Christmas and she plays with them but not a lot yet. But apparently Isla likes to mother the little babies in her class. If their swings or bounceys stop, she goes to them and tries to push or bounce them. She wants to help give them their bottles (although she still won't hold her own!) and goes to get a teacher if one of the babies is crying and there's not a teacher right there with the baby. I think this is funny cause if Isla is fussy and we're not in the room, Speckles comes to get us.

Speaking of bottles, we decided Friday night to try to cut out her early morning bottle because she never wanted to eat breakfast. She'd have a bottle at 4:30 or 5, then not want anything to eat, but drink her juice at breakfast at daycare, then not want any lunch, take her after lunch naptime bottle, and then be starving at snack time. We took that bottle away Saturday morning and she did great! So when it was naptime, P took her with her sippy cup to go down for her nap and it worked wonderfully. But the success we had Saturday wasn't repeated Sunday or yesterday. I asked the doctor if we were trying to do too much at once and she said it sounded like we were. So we're going to leave out that early morning bottle so she'll keep eating breakfast. I'm afraid if we pushed her to give up the naptime and bedtime bottles right now, we'd end up with sleep problems and too many tears. Dr. S just says we need to get rid of the bottle by 18 months so we have plenty of time. Isla was ready to give up the daytime bottle before daycare so I expect that once she's had a little more time to adjust to being there, she'll go ahead and let that midday bottle go. Then we'll work on the nighttime bottle. Luckily, it's not really a bedtime bottle. She usually takes it at 6, then goes to bed at 7. We usually try to "top her off" with a couple more ounces of it, but we're going to stop doing that to break the association between sleeping and bottle so much. She doesn't seem to care if she has any more at that point or not anyway.

Whew--big post! But that's what's going on these days in Isla's World. More later.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

One year ago tonight, like down to this minute, I was in the bathroom and called out to P that I think my water broke. A few minutes later, I was still gushing and called out that I was pretty sure it broke. An hour later I was checked into the hospital....15 hours later, Isla Beth came sliding into the world. What a year!

I'm taking off work tomorrow and Isla's staying home from daycare (we started daycare last week--more on that later). Grandma is taking us shoe shopping because.....DRUMROLL, PLEASE....She took her first steps on her own Friday evening! Then we'll go to lunch with Grandma and/or Grandma and Grandpa and go see Daddy at work. Maybe we'll pick up treats to take to his coworkers.

Saturday is the big party. Really I have no clue how many people are coming. I should sit down and make a tentative list soon so I have some clue how much pasta to make and how much salad to order. I'm baking cupcakes and J is going to frost them for me and my cousin the cookie-guru (see her blog on the blogroll) is making some decorative picks for the cupcakes. She's also making bee and bear cookies. So excited--can't wait!!