Good deed for the day

Borrowed from my friend Bobbie's Facebook page:

Become a Bone Marrow donor, all from the comfort of your home...and it's FREE! Enter the promo-code PIF070109, save your 52 dollars, and possibly save someone's life. Neat-o! https://donors.marrow.org/

I used to work at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where bone marrow transplants where first pioneered and always meant to get typed for the bone marrow registry. When you sign up online they send you a kit with cheek swabs, so you don't even need to give blood to be typed. It's especially vital to do if you're not Caucasian since it is often very difficult to find a matching donor for minority or multi-racial patients.

I'm all signed up. Now it's your turn. :)

Firsts, lasts, and some stuff in between

It's been a busy several weeks around here!

I was gone for 5 days at the beginning of June for a work conference. Everything went swimmingly. Isa and Grandma had a lovely time back in WA, with the exception of the unusually hot temperatures and my lack of AC. Papaw and I had fun exploring New Orleans and stuffing ourselves silly with outrageous delicious food. I was suprised to really enjoy several days with truly free time and wasn't as anxious about the separation as I had anticipated. It was quite a treat to be on a plane without an active toddler! I devoured all 4 of the Twilight books during the trip. Highly addictive stuff......

After only 1 week home, Isa and I took off for MN to visit friends, none of whom had met Isa yet. We stayed with my friends Katie and Chris who have a daughter who will be 3 in September. Isabel was VERY excited for her friend Isa to come visit! Isa, in turn, was thrilled to get to hang out with a big girl. Isabel's potty was quite a novelty as well. No action yet, but at least Isa was happy to try it out numerous times. The girls did a remarkably good job with sharing and taking turns; as only children, it wasn't something that they were used to doing on a consistent basis.

We had a lovely visit although Isa was a bit sniffly and seemed unusually cranky on Saturday. I thought she was having allergies, as the cottonwood was flying as thick as snow. But, when she woke up in the wee hours of Monday morning, refused to fall back asleep and WAILED continuously, I began to get suspicious that it was more than allergies. A few times she pointed at her ear and said "boo boo," so later that morning we headed to Urgent Care. Sure enough, Isa B had her very first ear infection! By that evening, after a dose of ammoxycillin and some ibuprofen, she was, thankfully, almost back to her normal happy self.

As for the "lasts"- smart Mama that I am, I forgot to pack a bottle (she was getting them only before sleeping times). I had been planning to start the weaning process after we got back from vacation but this seemed advantageous. Katie could always pull a bottle out of storage if necessary, but I figured why not try without and see what happens. Well, absolutely nothing happened. I'm not sure Isa even noticed the bottles were gone. I really thought she'd protest the changing of her routine much harder and I was terrified to do anything that would mess up our fairly easy sleep routine. Why fix it if it ain't broke, right? :)

When I spoke with my mom after getting home she said that she was sad to think that she'd no longer get to rock Isa to sleep with her bottle. I, of course, hadn't actually processed that fact until then. Because I hadn't planned to wean on the trip, I hadn't paid much attention to what ended up being the last bottle. I love that Isa is getting older and learning so many amazing things, but with the phasing out of each of the truly baby habits, I get a little sad.

But, now back to happier thoughts and some cute pics from our trip to MN:

holding hands in the car

driving the cars at the zoo

blowing bubbles with a friend at a barbecue

3 of my favorite people!