....and

When we kiss boo-boos we have to kiss each hand. If the ouchie is on her knee, we have to kiss each knee, then each hand. If it's her head, we kiss her head, and each hand. So. Stinking. Cute.

And while I'm here, I'll upload a couple pictures. Cause she's so. stinking. cute.

Something new each day....

I must find time more often to sit down and record what Isla's doing these days. Each day there's something new and different. Not sure why I don't seem to have time to blog--since I've been off work, I've been helping my Dad, cleaned out the storage room and had a huge garage sale, have been trying to keep the house clean, have let P off of early morning get-up-with-Isla duty, and have been going to the gym six days a week. So much of my things-to-do list remains undone and after next week, I go back to work 2 days a week.

Some tidbits:

One night P and I were watching Toy Story 3 before Isla went to bed. She wasn't really paying attention, but when they go to the incinerator scenes, she started saying "Oh No! Oh NO!" while watching the screen. Guess we shouldn't have been surprised when sleep was interrupted 3 times that night with screaming episodes and once the next night. No more Toy Story before bed. She's really started to like television. I hate that, but it is nice that when she's cranky, we can sit and cuddle and have quiet time watching television.

One of her vidoes has "If you're happy and you know it." I tried to get her to do it last week and she wouldn't, but Monday night I was fixing dinner and noticed her clapping her hands, stomping her feet, and nodding her head to the music coming from the other room. They've been doing the song at daycare. It is SO cute. Must get that recorded!

Speech and language skills are improving daily. Saturday she kept babbling, asking for something. She was obviously saying the same thing repeatedly. Finally I realized it was "more rice. babble, babble. more rice." So I got that baby more rice. Yesterday morning she was playing with the little toy where the animals pop up when they turn a little dial, press a button, etc. She'd put the snimals down and look up me, hold up her hands over her shoulders, palms up, and ask "Go?" Last night she sat on P's lap pointing things out as he'd ask here where the window, kitchen, couch, etc were.

She will get a box of cereal out of the pantry and hand it to me. If she wants it with milk, she goes to another cabinet, points and says "bowl." If she just wants it dry, she just gives me the box.

A couple days ago, I was pretty sure she told me something was green. It was. She has a little puzzle set that has a picture on one side and the corresponding piece is primarily just that color. She's been matching those up for a few weeks now. She doesn't know that one is blue, but she knows it's the blue whale. We're trying to identify as much as we can by color. The kid is a sponge.

I'm sure there are other tidbits I want to remember that I can't think of right now. I added a couple of things when I read over this to proof it. There will probably be more little "oh yeah, forgot that" posts in the next few days.

 

 

 

Water fun!

Isla hosted a water party for a bunch of friends over the weekend. Everyone seemed to have a great time! Here are a couple pics I took, as well as a couple that Hope Carroll (www.hopecarrollphotography.blogspot.com) posted as preview pics...

The pre-party setting....

Isn't this ice cream face shot of Ella absolutely adorable??

Isla kicked back in her lounge chair for much of the party...


Jonathan decided to stay for the party and ended up giving wagon rides to the little kids...

I WANT IT!!!! Her first clear sentence. Said while crying. Momma was laying on the pillow she needed. The other one just like it would not do.

Girls and their dolls.....and their tractors....

Can you tell I got some time to myself?

P took Isla on some errands this afternoon so here are some pictures! He bought me a tripod a couple weeks ago so we were playing with that yesterday and I actually got a picture with me in it! The Winston picture is from the 12th--I hadn't even had a chance to download them. It's getting pretty challenging to get a posed picture of her with the bear. In the past few weeks, Isla has REALLY gotten in to pretend-play, especially with the "kids" in her room. Pooh is just one of her kids who moves from the rocking chair to the bed to the floor to the chair....





This post took 2 hours to finish. Guess who realized one of his errands would be next to impossible with the pint sized protege?

One more week....

And I will be unemployed for the first time since I was 16 years old. Hopefully I'll end up working part-time but for now, I'll have plenty of time to devote to projects around the house and spending time with my baby girl. Our daycare doesn't do part-time enrollment until they turn 2 so for the next 6 months I'll be able to take her there everyday, go to the gym, work on projects, then pick her up after nap time. I figure she'll probably be there about 5-6 hours a day when I'm not working--much better than 10 hours! We're going to have library afternoon each week--I introduced her to our wonderful public library a few weeks ago and she loved it. And I'm going to get a pass to Discovery Playhouse so we can go there one afternoon a week. Grandma's one afternoon, grocery shopping one afternoon....

Then when she turns 2 and I'm (hopefully) working 2 days a week, she'll probably be at daycare all day 2 days a week, then spend an afternoon each week with Grandma so Momma can clean the house. We'll go to storytime at the library, play at the Playhouse, go on picnics in the park.... I never expected to want to be a stay at home mom, but right now, it's my dream job. (Good thing I finished that Masters Degree before she was born! HA!)

I have a long list of projects that I've been writing for weeks (I gave almost 6 weeks notice at work). Now that we're done to just a few more days of work, I'm revisiting the list, trying to decide where to start. We've lived here a little over 4 years now. I've been used to moving every few years and purging as I packed. We have no plans to move so I need to do a thorough cleaning and purging. A big garage sale is in my future. Plus my dad is wanting to go set up and sale at a flea market so I'll go with him and do that a time or two this fall. I've also told him I'll help him clean up a rental house he has that will be vacated in the next week or 2. And I need to finish the makeover on our kitchen. And I have a huge pile of things I want to put on eBay. And self-study projects I want to work on--learning how to use my camera better, Photoshop, bow making, things to sew.... And there are 2 or 3 big ongoing projects at church that I'm interested in. And cooking! I miss trying new recipes instead of just throwing something quick together. And I've joked that I want my dad to teach me how to put in our bathroom downstairs--may not be a joke!! I've wanted to learn how to do more DIY projects around the house for a long time. He taught my brothers how to build houses--he can teach me how to install a toilet!!

But for this week, I work. Patrick is making dinner for us Monday night for my birthday. Tuesday afternoon I have to take off early to take Isla for a test. Then one of the girls from work is coming over to look through outgrown baby clothes and a couple of us are going for sushi. Wednesday my brother and I are taking each other to lunch for our birthdays (his is Saturday). Nothing is going on Thursday and Friday is LAST DAY!!

More aaaaaahhhhhhh.....

I hope you can sing the aaaaahhhhh properly to get the full affect. Really, I need to record Isla saying it and post that on here. If we get on to her for being too rough (especially towards Speckles), she pats toward whatever she was being too rough with and sings aaaaahhhhhhh.

We had our 18 month well baby check this week. Baby girl is finally up to 20 pounds. Hanging on to her growth curve. Our doctor asked if she's using 15 different words and I said she is. The next morning she erased any question about that. In the first 15 minutes she was awake, she told me she wanted "egg," then to add "cheese," and put it in "dat bowl." When I handed her dat bowl, she told me "hot" and started to blow on it. She asked for "milk," told me about "dog" while she was eating and her "shoes" on the kitchen table. Yes, the shoes were on the kitchen table. We actually had to put her shoes on over her footed pajamas. (The shoes are croc-like so very wide). She also told me when she wanted "down." She peppered a few "no's" and "mine's" into the conversation too. So many words in such a short time.

After her bath last night, Isla again wanted the shoes on over her footed pjs. Daddy didn't realize this when he put her to bed. At 5:45 this morning, I awoke to a couple babbles, then "Shoes. shoes. shoes." I looked in the monitor and she was laying on her side, one shoe on, trying to get the other shoe back on over her jammies. "Shoes. Shoes. Shoes."

My heart melts....

She doesn't say momma very often, but today when we'd ask Isla what my name is, she'd say "mine." Sigh. Aaaaahhhhh.

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!

When I ask Isla where momma's little baby is, she sing-songs "aaaaahhhhhh!" Sometimes she'll put the side of her face up against me as she says it. If I'm handling her, I'll cradle her as I ask. She smiles as she gives her sing-song response. Thursday night before bed she crawled up on my lap, laid into a cradle position in my arms and said "Baby? Baby? aaaaaaaaahhhhhh!"

I love that little face....

Gardening.....