Is there anyone still out there?

After much prodding from various folks (ahem.... Bekke....) I'm going to make an effort to pick the blog back up.  Right now I'm working 4- yep 4!- jobs and life is rather busy.  So, at least for now, I'm going to just post snippets and a few photos.  Nothing too in depth because I just don't have time for it.  And apologies for those of you with whom I'm Facebook friends, there will likely be lots of overlap.

One of our conversations on the way to ballet today:

Isa: Mama, do you know what "stink" means?
Me: Yes, "stink" means it smells bad.
Isa: No, Mama! "Stink!"
(we then go back-and-forth several times, during in which Isa gets increasingly mad that I'm wrong and then, finally-)
Isa: You know, Mama, "stink", like the dinosaurs are "stink"!
Ahhhhhhh........

And  picture from our recent trip to Disneyland:

Watch out Beyonce!

(And, yes Porter, those are Elsa's old jammies that you gave to us over a year ago- they still fit!)

Recap

So, before I lose the 2 readers who still wonder what is going on with Isa B, here is a recap of the last 2 months:

Isa got sick.
Isa gave up her paci. (see previous post)
I got sick.
Hellacious first week without the paci.
We spent 3 days in the car with my parents driving to Arizona.  IT SUCKED.
We got to Arizona.  Things got better.  We saw good friends and several Mariners' spring training games.
We spent 3 days in the car driving home.  It was much, much better than the trip down.
We tried to adjust to being home.
I worked a lot.
Isa decided to give up naps for good.
I got sick.
Isa got sick.
I got sick, yet again, this time with some sort of flu.

And there you have it.  More to come when I can actually stay vertical for more than 10 minutes at a time.

Barfing and babas and braids- oh my!

Tuesday morning Isa started coughing.  According to my friend Christina (who watches her on Tuesdays while I work), she was tired and whiney all day to go with the coughing.  Wednesday morning she continued coughing but was generally herself until the afternoon when I happened to feel her forehead and realized she was really warm.  Her underarm temp was 101.5.  Yikes!  She slept fairly well that night and I was hopeful that she was going to be better in the morning.  However, Thursday morning she had a coughing fit so intense that she vomited.

I probably shouldn't complain too much because it's only the 3rd or 4th time she's had a fever and the very first time she's ever thrown up.  Even as a little baby, she rarely spit up when I burped her. She's unbelievably healthy and that leaves me completely unprepared for helping a sick little one. It's even tougher because she's still too little for any cold medicine.  There's really nothing I can do but snuggle her.  Luckily "Mama-medicine" is fairly potent stuff!

Today she was doing quite a bit better.  Still coughing but no fever at any point.  When it was time for her nap, we looked all over the house for "baba" (her pacifier) to no avail.  She had hidden it somewhere and neither of us could find it.  I tried getting her to sleep without it but she hemmed and hawed for over an hour.  No major tantrum, she just wouldn't settle.  I searched thoroughly while she was in her room and eventually found baba hidden in a pile of My Little Ponies.  Instead of giving it back, though, I decided it was an ideal situation- today would be the day we broke the Baba Habit!  Cold turkey, just like when I forgot her bottles on a vacation.  I tucked her in for the night about 1/2 an hour ago without a fuss and haven't heard a peep since.  After all of my worry about how difficult it would be to break the paci habit, it was shockingly simple. (Fingers crossed that she doesn't have a delayed reaction later this week!)

And finally braids...  I found a new blog via Facebook today all about styling curly hair.  The little one on the blog appears to have hair identical to Isa and after poking around a bit, I found some reasonably simple but adorable styles to try.  I decided to start with this one, minus the knots.  I gave Isa an early bath, then we sat down to watch Anastasia and make some braids!  I think I did a reasonably good job, especially given how little experience I have with braiding. The parts aren't the straightest and the braids could be both tighter and smoother, but not bad for a first try. I definitely need to figure out a better seating arrangement for our braiding sessions, though, since trying to get at the right angle to do each braid was tricky.

And, on a final note, I haven't ditched Weigh-In Wednesday.  The battery in my scale died the week after my first posting and my brain couldn't seem to remember to put a new battery on the shopping list.  I finally did last week and this Wednesday, my weight was 185.5.  Not much weight loss for 3 weeks but if you've visited my other blog you'll see why it's going slowly.  I need to do a better job of homemade goodness without quite so many carbs and fat.  Sure has been tasty, though!

3 years ago today....

February 11, 2008

The happiest, busiest, loudest, most-sleep-deprived, wonderful 3 years of my life.

Weigh-in Wednesday

I've been meaning to do this post for a couple weeks now.  2 weeks ago I chickened out and last week I was sick.  This week I have no excuse.  (Say it with me: proactive... proactive... proactive... proactive)

I really need to lose some weight.  Well, not just "some" weight- at least 40 pounds.  I am, admittedly, a fan of reality TV and a new season of The Biggest Loser just started.  What's the first thing they do on the show and then the big moment they work towards each week?  Everyone stands on the scale and shows the world their weight.  In the name of being proactive, I've decided that once a week I'll weigh in and post my weight on the blog.  My own little version of The Biggest Loser.  Hopefully it will give me extra accountability and motivation to stay the course. 

It's a bit scary to put myself out there like this, to admit how heavy I've become.  But then I realized that if you know me in person you might not know the number on the scale but you already know how big I am.  If you don't know me in real life then really, why should I care that you know my weight?

Oh, and sorry but you're not getting a photo in a sports bra and spandex shorts ala The Biggest Loser to go with the number.  I'm not that brave!

Here goes:

186.5

Stylish!

Christmas in Pictures

It turns out I have many fewer pictures from Christmas than I thought I had.  Or at least fewer pictures that I ought to post online- early morning, no makeup, in her jammies shots of my sister didn't make the cut no matter how adorable Isa was in in the photo.  Now that's sisterly love!



Bacon jam- homemade presents for friends



Decorating sugar cookies with Grandma- I think more sprinkles went in her mouth than on the cookies

Our traditional Ethiopian Christmas Eve feast

Perhaps the greatest present Santa brought- her own "makeup" case



The new ruffled-tush jammies that Grandma made Isa.  She made me jammies from the same fabric
but I discovered on Christmas Eve that I'd forgotten to pack them.



Oh, the Pillow Pet madness!!!!

It was all too much for Soona-puppy...
Of course, this is how we all looked by mid-afternoon.



The Ousting of Cranky Mom: Part 1 of a Yearlong Saga

(I promise there will be a belated Christmas post with glorious pictures, but I really felt I needed to get this post out first)

2010 was a rough year because whenever I got to a point where things were falling into place, life would implode a bit. I spent the year feeling as though I couldn't ever get ahead. No, scratch that. I spent the year feeling as though I couldn't even stay afloat.

Which sucks. A lot. And has turned me into Cranky Mom. Cranky Mom misses a lot of the joy in raising a talkative, amusing, full-of-love 3 year old. Cranky Mom experiences only the stress, remembers only the tantrums, sees only the piles of undone laundry/toys/dishes. Cranky Mom yells too often. Cranky Mom relies too often on TV and can go for days without leaving the house, even to just play outside. Cranky Mom is stressed out, exhausted, and on auto pilot. Cranky Mom simply reacts to life rather than living it. I really hate Cranky Mom.

Time to oust Cranky Mom!

I've never had much luck with New Year's resolutions and last year's To-Do List was only moderately successful. However I really like the idea of having some sort of motivating principle or goal for the year and a friend suggested the One Word Resolution. Totally brilliant but much harder for an overly wordy person, like myself, to do. After much deliberation....

My word for 2011: PROACTIVE

Sounds a bit strange, but let me elaborate. I am surprisingly good at recognizing my own failings and the things in my life that I most need to work on. However, I never seem to get around to actually doing the work to fix those problems. All those things that make me exhausted and cranky, well, most of them are within my power to change. I just haven't changed them.

Take the 40lbs I wanted to lose for my sister's wedding. I did manage to lose about 15lbs but post-wedding, have gained it all back. I am not a newbie to weight gain and loss. I know exactly how I gained the weight and I know exactly what I need to do to lose it. But have I stopped my excessive nighttime eating? Have I utilized opportunities to add exercise into my routine? Nope.

I've complained about the shambles of my finances to you all before. But have I done anything concrete to try and help myself- made an actual budget, found extra work, made an appointment with the bank to talk about mortgage help? Nope.

So there you have it. The word that I want to strive for in 2011is proactive. As Nike would say, Just Do It. I'm going to stop sitting back and waiting for life to fix itself. In the (spoken all too often) words of my darling Isa, "I do it myself!"

Because I am a glutton for punishment, I decided I needed a challenge this year to really keep myself present and involved in my life. Something tangible that I could use to monitor my progress in taking back control of life. A way to be accountable to the goal of being proactive. Enter the experiment: http://www.myhomemadeyear.blogspot.com/ Follow along as I attempt to revamp my life by going homemade. Intriguing, no?

Don't worry, for the three of you that still read this blog, I'll still be blogging here about Isa B and the pitfalls of Mama-hood. And, hopefully, a bit more consistently.

Surprise Me Sunday- A to Z Bread

Okay, so this isn't really a true Surprise Me Sunday recipe. I have been baking A to Z Bread for many, many years. It's a recipe my grandma clipped out of a newspaper and has been handed down to my mom, then me. It's a basic sweet bread recipe where you insert 2 cups of pretty much any fruit or veggie. The surprise part is how much flexibility you have with the recipe. I rarely make it the same way twice.

I'm sure you've heard the expression "Cooking is an art but baking is a science." And that probably holds true for many recipes. When you bake following the recipe exactly tends to be very important. But honestly, you cannot mess up this bread no matter how much you mess with it. (Well, maybe you could ruin it if you completely forgot an ingredient.) I make substitutions ALL THE TIME based on what I have on hand or how healthy I want to be. No white flour? Substitute wheat. No white sugar? Substitute brown. Want to avoid the oil? Substitute yogurt, applesauce, etc. Or make it a combination of the two. Batter too dry? Add some milk or juice. Experiment with additional spices. I've done all of those things to the recipe and while it may alter the texture of the finished product some (especially if you do all yogurt instead of oil), it's still very, very tasty. And easy.

It's called A to Z Bread because the original recipe had fruit/veg suggestions for almost every letter of the alphabet. Here are the ones I commonly use. Feel free to ask for additional letters if you want but you're really only limited by your imagination.

Apples, grated
Applesauce
Bananas, mashed (Isa loves to mash them with her hands for me!)
Carrots, grated
Pears, chopped
Pumpkin, canned
Zuccini, grated

A to Z Bread

3c flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1c oil
2c sugar
2c fruit or veg
3 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 325. Grease & flour 2 lg loaf pans OR grease 2 muffin tins.

Sift together dry ingredients and set aside.

Beat eggs. Add oil & sugar; cream well.

Add fruit/veg and vanilla to egg/oil/sugar mixture.

Add dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.

Pour batter into pans/tins.

Bake 1 hour for loaves (until knife in center comes out clean) or ~25 min for muffins.

Halloween

This year for Halloween Isa dressed up as Princess Tiana. My mom made her a costume which looked spectacular, though I am probably a bit biased. I was surprised by how many people had no idea who Tiana was, but I suppose the first African American Disney princess isn't as big a deal to others as it was in our house!


And what "accessory" did Princess Tiana need? Why, a frog prince, of course. We dressed up Papaw as her frog prince, which Isa thought was hilarious. Note the little crown on his hood! (And please excuse the fact that this photo was taken against the messiest wall in my house...)


First we went Trick or Treating down at the shops and restaurants in Columbia City.


Then we had pizza for dinner. I told her she could have 1 piece of candy while we waited and she chose a Tootsie Pop, but then said "all done" after only a few minutes. You can't really tell from this photo, but I'm wearing a Pink Ladies jacket.


After dinner, it was back up the hill and onto Trick or Treating in our neighborhood. Dad and I took Isa around while Mom stayed at our house to pass out candy. Despite horribly rainy conditions on Saturday (and again today), Halloween was totally dry and not too cold. I bought 2 bags of a KitKat/Reese's cup mix (75 pieces per bag) and by 8:00, we were out of candy. Much busier than last year but at least I don't have lots of candy leftover to be munching on. :)

Surprise Me Sunday

I dubbed this month Clean Out the Pantry Month. In that vein, every Sunday I've cooked a meal, entirely unplanned, from whatever I find in the pantry and/or fridge. Thus Surprise Me Sunday. I think it may survive past October because it's turned out fairly well so far.

Earlier in the month I made a falafel and hummus and the following week it was chicken soup with leftover Ethiopian vegetables. Last week it was a spicy lentil soup (I added berbere) with toasted tortilla wedges and quark, which is sort of a cross between cream cheese and sour cream. Tonight's meal was basil stir fry over rice. Had basil, 1/2 an onion, orange pepper and green beans that needed to be used up. Rice in the pantry. Voila. Very simple but quite tasty.

There are several benefits to Surprise Me Sunday dinners. Most obvious, of course, is that the pantry and fridge are slowly becoming less cluttered. Random food stuffs don't get lost in the back of the pantry for years on end and fewer veggies mold in the fridge.


Less tangible is the boost to my confidence in the kitchen. I am not afraid to admit that I am not a great cook. I don't feel confident in my ability to experiment or deviate from recipes. And while I haven't tackled anything overly ambitious (yet!), just winging it with easy menus helps immensely. Eventually I'd like to make Surprise Me Sunday into a bit of a challenge ala Chopped. Take truly random ingredients and find a way to make them into something delicious. Or at least edible.

So stay tuned to see what surprise meal each Sunday brings!

Gonna do it Glee-style

Here's what happened last time.....

Isa turned 3! It was hot, hot, hot (note everyone trying to stay in the shade). There was a sprinkler and butterfly cupcakes handmade by yours truly.

Isa decided she was finally ready to be potty-trained! One morning I changed her into big girl underpants and she never looked back. Sorry, no photos of that milestone. :)

On a weekend when the grandparents took Isa, I changed her room into a "Big Girl Room" complete with canopy over the bed and a chandelier. It was very well received!

We went to several baseball games with Grandma and Papaw. Isa can sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" all by herself. Now if she'd just do it on camera....

And we went to the Puyallup Fair. There were fake cows to milk and real bunnies to pet.



We attended an event with our adoption agency down in Portland. It was fun to see so many other adorable habesha darlings, as well as our attorney who was visiting from Ethiopia. Isa had a blast at the Portland Children's Museum.

And that's what you missed.....

Not okay

Too exhausted to coherently write anything for the blog right now.

Instead, let me send you here for a great post.

And, even though it probably goes without saying, it's NOT OKAY in my world either.

Busy, busy, busy

As you can see from the date of the post (why does Blogger use the "start" date rather than "posted" date??) I started a draft of this post several weeks ago and didn't get around to finishing it. So here it is. Better late than never, right?

Heritage Camp was amazing this year. Isa was old enough to participate in more events and really interact with the other children. There were quite a few little ones there this year and they all had a blast. We met up with old friends and made quite a few new friends. The weekend in pictures:

playing an Ethiopian drum

Ephraim looking rather pleased with the addition to his harem (Elsa, not so much!)

Smile, guys!

Sawyer was such a good sport

Best buddies :)

Solome & Isa looking lovely in their traditional dresses

Isa hearts Sawyer

Dancing- lots and lots of dancing

Also lots of hugging

Isa admiring the habesha grandma's jewelry

Our travel buddy and big-girl friend "Rusalem"

On the Monday after camp we watched my friend Amanda's daughter Kaylee for the day. Kaylee is almost 11 months and very mellow. The only snag came when she resisted naptime so I put her in the Ergo, bounced and sang to her until she fell asleep.

Confession time: I've been seriously feeling the urge for another baby lately. I blame all my friends and family who have added gorgeous babies recently. I was hoping that having Kaylee and Isa for the day would show me exactly why I don't want another baby anytime soon but she was too darn easy. Having to snuggle a little baby to sleep was so lovely. Way to make it worse, Kaylee! Luckily, there isn't a chance in hell that I'll be able to afford another adoption for many years. If money was no option, I would probably be filling out paperwork right now.

On Tuesday, I was only an hour into work when Christina called to say Isa had a fever. This is only the second recorded fever that Isa has ever had. Given her unbelievably strong immune system, I know that any fever on her means she's really sick. She had a low-grade fever all day Tuesday. The fever was gone on Wednesday, but she was still really lethargic- she even took a 4 1/2 hour nap!

Happily, by Thursday morning she was fine. Which was good because Friday night my sister got married!! Isa was supposed to be the flower girl but, in true nearly-3 year old style, wasn't able to scatter her petals properly after a couple tries at Thursday's rehearsal. Mollie doesn't think that preschooler antics during a wedding are cute, so she decided to relieve Isa of her duty. I was pretty disappointed, but honestly should have known it was going to end up that way. Isa certainly can't be relied upon to do anything properly without a fair bit of practice and even then, because of her age, remains pretty unpredictable. Fortunately, she seemed to forget that she was supposed to be party of the wedding and was a model little one sitting with her cousins during the wedding and the reception dinner. As soon as the dancing started, Isa hit the floor with her cousin Caroline (wish I'd thought to put my camera in the diaper bag so I could show you pictures of those two!). She danced from about 8 until after 11. By the end she was essentially asleep on her feet but if you tried to pull her off the dance floor, she would protest loudly.

Sunday after the wedding we went to a Mariners game with my parents. Isa loves baseball, primarily because Papaw works at the stadium. Anything associated with Papaw earns high praise in Isa's book!

Up next.... a belated post on Isa's 3rd birthday and our trip to Glacier National Park.

Just to tide you over

A long, juicy post will come tomorrow or Wednesday with all the details of the last month. But here are a few brief nuggets of info.

We have a new car! It's a 2008 Mercury Mariner. I thought I'd taken a pic of the outside but now I remember that the camera batteries died right after I took the first interior shot.

Isa B is officially in print!

We went to Ethiopian Heritage Camp last weekend. Lots of wonderful photos, but I find this one especially endearing:

More to come.....

Preschool Update

Well, after much deliberation and long talks with my parents and then the preschool director, it was decided that Isa will take a break from preschool. All the crazy behavior is shouting that she's just not ready yet for preschool. On many days, there is a single teacher for the 5 children and that means no real one-on-one time. So Isa is misbehaving (in BIG ways!) in order to get that attention. We'll keep in touch with Sprout and maybe she'll be ready to try again in the fall. I really think that this preschool is a great fit for her if/when she's ready for that much time away from me, in a group setting. She did well when it was twice a week but three times a week was too much with everything else we have going. If money were no option, I'd just continue to pay the full price and send her twice a week. But our budget can't take that.

There were lots of tears on my end about this decision, primarily because I LOVE this preschool. I love the director and teacher. I love the other kiddos. I love the location. I love the entire vibe of the school. And while logically I know this has nothing to do with my parenting, it still feels like a parenting failure that my child is the one having major tantrums. It's pretty devasting when your child has such extreme behavior issues and difficult not to take it personally. Plus-let's be honest- there's also a part of me that is selfishly sad to be losing my scheduled baby-free time each week.

The upside is that we'll have more free time again. And this summer is already grossly overscheduled and a little less running around will be good. There are lots of friends that we haven't seen in months because there just hasn't been any time to get together. Without MWF school, there will be more opportunities for my parents to take Isa for overnights. Then today we took my car into the shop for a tune-up and found out that there are some major repairs needed. For example, the left front wheel could have broken off at any point- yikes! It isn't worth putting that much money into the old car, so any saved preschool money will be used towards a new car.

The 2010 to-do list is really turning out to be a bust!

Et tu, Isa B

The last two weeks at preschool have been dicey for Miss Isa B. Last Wednesday she started throwing things and Friday it got so bad that they called me to come get her. She was throwing toys AT the other kids and I could hear her wild animals screams in the background.

After racking my brain, all I could think was that it had been a very hectic couple of weeks. She was going to sleep a little later because of the longer days and still getting up by 6 a.m. So maybe she was harried and sleep deprived (a combination I know well). And she just snapped.

She spent the weekend with my parents and seemed to do well. Monday and Wednesday this week she did much better at preschool. A few minor incidents of throwing or hitting, but easily redirected and no tantrums. Pretty typical preschool stuff. I thought perhaps the previous week had just been a fluke.

Until today. When I got a call that she was again throwing. The teacher would put her in the "take a break" beanbag and instead of waiting until she'd calmed down then rejoining the group, Isa would sneak back into the room, grab something and throw it, then go back to the beanbag.

On the way home today, I asked her about it. Here was our dialogue:

Me: Isa, Miss Rachelle said you had trouble with throwing again today. Why were you so mad?

Isa: (in a sad, soft voice) I want to be with you.

Me: Don't you want to go to preschool?

Isa: No. I want to be with you.

*sigh* It's hard to argue with that. It isn't a necessity. She doesn't have to be in school because I'm working. It's supposed to be a treat for both of us. She's not yet three and she's definitely a Mama's girl. Maybe she simply isn't ready for preschool yet. To be honest, that's exactly why I didn't go to preschool- I wanted to be with my mom instead.

And now, lest this post become too depressing as I think of the loss of my morning free time, I leave you with a goofy picture of Isa, Space Cowgirl. (She's wearing a pseudo-cowboy hat and astronaut vest.)

Are we there yet?

I started a post about how fed up I am with my life at the moment. And everytime I'd type a sentence or two, I ended up deleting them. Too depressing. Too whiny. I felt guilty for even feeling whiny when I know that my life is actually pretty darn good.

I have a mostly great kiddo. This week not really, but in the grand scheme, she's wonderful.

I get to work from home. It can be exhausting to work at night but I like not having to be at work 8 hours a day Monday through Friday.

I have a really wonderful support system. Case in point- my parents are taking Isa this weekend so I can have a few days off.

And yet, I'm having a week where all I can do is look around and think "Is this it?". Because I feel like we're just scraping by with so many things and I'm tired of it. In the great American tradition- I want MORE. More for both of us. And quite honestly, more from myself (which would probably result in more for Isa).

I don't want a life full of different people or places or experiences. I guess I just want to rearrange all the pieces into a more appealing picture. More vibrant. More awake. It's a rather daunting task and I have no idea where to even begin.........

(And now I'm hitting publish before I can erase this entire post as well!)

This week in numbers

(Warning- this is a post where I brag rather relentlessly about my child. Read at your own risk!)

2 - more photo shoots for Chasing Fireflies (this time for the holiday catalog)

18 - approximate hours spent driving to/from those photo shoots

7 - hours slept by Isa in the car on the first day

2 - hours slept by Isa in the car on the second day (guess which day was an easier drive)

3:30 - a.m., time we left the house on Wednesday to get to the shoot

3 - adorable outfits modeled by Isa for the upcoming holiday catalog

2 - dinners from McDonalds eaten this week

630 - dollars earned by those two photo shoots (woo-ha!)

20 - number of fabulously healthy and now super clean teeth that Isa has

This week Isa was called for another shoot with Chasing Fireflies. The shoot was down on Mount Hood in Oregon, a 4+ hour drive from Seattle. Wednesday's call was at 8:15 a.m. and I decided the easiest thing to do was simply drive down in the wee hours that morning. Otherwise it would mean driving down late Tuesday, paying for a hotel, and hoping Isa fell back asleep after getting her from the car to the hotel. It was just easier for me to get up at 2:30 and pack her into the car where she, as anticipated, went right back to sleep for the majority of the drive. When we were released Wednesday afternoon I assumed that meant we were entirely done. But Thursday morning the agent called and said they wanted her back. By that point it was too late to make it down on Thursday, so on Friday we made the trek one more time but with a more reasonable call time of 1:00 p.m..

The room adjacent to the work area was open for families and in between Isa's shots, she got to play with lots of other children. Everyone had toys and food, which kind of became communal property for keeping all the children happy. That's actually where most of our time was spent and not on set. On Wednesday, we were there for a total of 4 hours but less than an hour of that was actual "work." Same thing on Friday- 3 hours there and less than 1/2 an hour working. A pretty easy way to earn money!

All the shots were outside in the snow, which should be gorgeous, but conditions were pretty miserable with blowing icy snow. The crew did an amazing job holding up umbrellas and scrims to keep the snow away from the kids. I'm not sure that Isa even noticed she was outside in the cold as she was hamming it up, singing songs for the crew and saying silly things to get laughs. On Friday, her shot was with an older girl (in little sister/big sister holiday dresses) and Isa totally upstaged her! After shooting them together, we had the girls wrapped in blankets waiting to do individual shots. The photographer asked who wanted to go first. I was all prepared to do the Mama thing and suggest Madeleine go first so Isa could warm up a bit more. But, no- Isa threw the blanket off her shoulders and declared it was her turn. And then all through Madeleine's solo shots, Isa continued to sing and dance.

I cannot wait to see the final shots in the catalog! I'm trying very hard not to turn into a Stage Mom, but it's hard not to be excited and proud. At the photo shoots she did such an amazing job. I hadn't expected her to be quite so easy to work with and get a good picture from- she certainly isn't that way when I take out my camera. She stood where she was supposed to, smiled nicely, and was incredibly entertaining. When the photographer tells you that your child should have her own TV show, it's hard not to glow with Mama-pride. Who knows if/when she'll have another casting, but she did a really good job this time and also had lots of fun. (And, let's be honest, money is tight around here and $770 this month for her simply looking cute is pretty fabulous!)

In other news, on Thursday morning, Isa had her first dental appointment. Again, she was a total rock star- sat there in the chair, opened her mouth when asked, closed it when asked, let the hygienist do everything (cleaning, flossing, fluoride treatment) without any fuss. I was very impressed. The dentist said that we needed to lose the paci in the near future. I almost hugged him when he added "which I know is easy for me to say." I'm contemplating strategies and timing now but am very apprehensive about actually discontinuing it!

No photos from the modeling gigs, obviously, but here are some shots from the dentist:

ETA- Okay, I have tried about 12 times to fix the messed up paragraph formatting/spacing. For some reason what I see in the draft is not what Blogger publishes. *sigh*