It's oh so quiet

In an effort to provide me with a little more time sans Isa, my parents graciously offered to start taking her for an overnight once a week. We dubbed it "Grandparents' Day" and today is our first one!

This morning they drove up and swept Isa away. They have outfitted their backyard with a climbing toy of some sort as well as a sandbox. They'll spend today playing at their house and then she'll spend the night with them. This will be the first time she's ever woken up without me there, but I think the combo of Grandma and Papaw will be more than enough to keep her happy. Tomorrow they have another fun day planned playing with my sister, who Isa adores. I'll drive down in the afternoon and we'll likely spend the night again before coming home on Saturday.

As I mentioned, I've never had a night off in the 14 months or so that we've been a family. I just wasn't ready until now. I was also waiting until Isa was reliably sleeping through the night because it just wasn't fair to force anyone else to watch her until then. I'm a bit apprehensive- not about whether she'll have fun or about my parents watching her or any of that. I'm worried that I'm going to be too lonely without her constant chatter all day. Silly, no?

I have a list about 4 miles long of things to do. After they left I took a shower- with no one else in the bathroom but myself (gasp)- and now have a mud mask on my face. Extravagent! It's highly probable that I'll paint my toenails at some point today and I expect a nap is also in my future. Shocking! Tonight I'm going out for drinks and dinner with my friend Autumn as a late birthday celebration for her. Scandalous! And I know you'll all be surprised to hear that tomorrow morning I have no plans on getting up at 6 a.m. :)

Of course, there are also plenty of chores to be done around all the fun stuff as well. I do an acceptable job of keeping the house picked up but it could really use a deep clean and full-on organization. I hope to get some extra work done to try and catch up from the missed work when we were in Kansas City. Laundry is a never-ending job around here as well. I expect to get a fair number of those things done, too.

But for now, I'm going to wash off my mask, pour myself another cup of coffee, and watch The View in my now silent living room.

Happy, happy, happy

Isa's favorite new word is "happy."

Two little videos of her from today using her new favorite word. As you can see, she decided her socks were better suited as gloves.

Almost famous

It's probably not a surprise, but people tend to comment on Isa when we're out. "She's adorable." "She looks a little doll." etc.... (And then she starts "talking" in her not so delicate voice and the image is shattered!) I have to admit that it's quite fun to bask in her reflected glow. Honestly, when I go out by myself it's a bit disappointing, as no one pays any attention to me whatsoever.

I even get to experience a little bit of fame from time to time. Last summer/fall we walked into an Ethiopian restaurant with another adoptive family for lunch after church. As we walked in a mom at one of the tables seemed to be staring at Isa. Since her family included a beautiful habesha baby, I assumed she was just pleased to see some other adoptive famlies. Not quite. She said "That's Isa B!" and told me that she followed our blog. Seriously- what are the odds?!? Turns out they live in the same town as my parents, which isn't too terribly far away. So, fame has it's rewards- we've had several play dates with this family since then and adore them.

But perhaps, in the not-so-distant future, we'll be experiencing a little fame beyond our tiny pie of the blogging world.......

Another comment that I got on a fairly regular basis was that Isa should be in modeling. I certainly wasn't going to go out and get head shots or such nonsense, but the idea of perhaps a little extra income just for Isa being cute wasn't a bad idea. So, on the recommendation of a friend, I signed Isa up with a local modeling agency. Nothing crazy- just emailed some of my own photos to the agency with Isa's stats. They said there wasn't a big market for infants/toddlers in this area, but they'd like to keep her info on file. Fine by me.

Well, they emailed last week to get updated stats and called today because a client is interested in seeing Isa! Unfortunately, the go-see (yes, I watch America's Next Top Model and have all the lingo) is on Thursday, when we'll be in Kansas City. Keep your fingers crossed that the client is interested enough that they'll wait and see Isa next week.

I'll keep you posted.....