I am a girl

Sorry for the long absence. I feel like I've finally started to pull myself out of the funk I was in for the last month. Isa's doing better behavior-wise (with the exception of meltdowns at nearly every meal), which helps immensely. The rest of my world is slowly falling into place again as well.

Happily for me, Isa has turned out to be a lot like me personality-wise. She's a thoroughly independent and outspoken gal who happens to also be a complete girly-girl. She likes watching baseball and football, but does so while holding a baby doll. I firmly believe there's no reason you can't have a closet full of heels and a basement full of power tools!

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Here she is showing off her feminine side:

Tea parties with Grandma & Papaw

We started Mommy & Me ballet classes, which Isa adores.

Whenever the music stops, she immediately says "More? More dancing?".

I need to get her a leotard and tights but for now the tutu will suffice.

One of her favorite costumes- the tutu and princess crown.

This girls LOVES the phone (both real and pretend).

And finally, here she is showing off several girly-girl skills in a single video. I have to admit that she does a stellar job walking in some fairly tall heels! Once she gets the hang of the heels, what does she head straight for? Her purse, of course.

Exhaustion

I'm currently in the throes of sheer, utter exhaustion of the mental/emotion variety, which inevitably turns into the physical variety.

Crappy things in my personal life in the last month or so. Continued weight gain means nothing in my closet fits. My cat was diagnosed with triaditis (inflamed small intestines, pancreas, and liver) as well as possible pancreatic cancer. Isa continues to "be 2" from time to time and I just don't have the reserves to be as patient about it as I would like. Which, in turn, makes me feel guilty.

So that's pretty much it from here. I'm really hoping that the end of summer will mean the schedule will return to normal, allowing me time to try and dig out from under all this muck.

In the meantime, here are a few, much belated, birthday shots- in slightly random order. I haven't had the time to load the shots another friend sent via email so you may see some more in the future.

We so rarely get good shots of both of us- I love this pic!

Mmmm... cupcake!!!

Can you tell that she enjoyed opening presents?

Blowing out her candle.

Yummy snacks for the birthday girl.

The big 0-2

On Sunday, my baby turned 2. How in the world did she make it to 2 so darn quickly? Didn't she just turn 1? It's just not possible that it has been a full year since then.....

Saturday, I planned a little party for friends here in Seattle. Isa's had some trouble with her final set of molars and was a bit crankier than usual all week. Luckily ibuprofen was working well and I was hopeful that we'd be meltdown free. But, in true Isa B form, she decided Saturday morning was the perfect time for the sh*t to hit the fan. She started by waking up at 5:30. I physically CANNOT get out of bed that early. By 6 am she had raised the decible level considerably and I forced myself up. Ugh.

Her big gift from me was an easel with a chalkboard on one side and a big roll of drawing paper for the other side. I made the mistake of having it out for her that morning thinking she would play with it and leave me free to finish setting up for the party. She went straight to it and within a minute or two was throwing the crayons. The rule in our house remains "if you throw something, it means you don't want it". I take the thrown item and put it up on the mantel. Thus, the crayons went away. Mad about that, she then decided to attack the easel and start ripping up the paper. So, the easel went away to my room as well. At this point Isa started making hideous, non-human sounding tantrum screams. Sounds I'd never heard from her before. She spent the next several hours either flipping out or sitting on my lap with her paci. There was no in between. Medicine didn't make her feel any better. Suffice to say, no shower for me... no party set-up... Luckily Autumn and her fabu husband Ben came over early to help or I would have been greeting guests in my pajamas!

Apparently, having someone other than Mama around snapped Isa out of her crazed state and she returned to her normal cheerful self. The party was really just a big playdate with the addition of cupcakes and presents. Everything went swimmingly. Food was eaten, children ran around the yard, grown-ups chatted.

Isa got very excited when everyone started singing Happy Birthday to her. She blew her candle out, without any help, in one good puff. Then came the presents. She would pull the paper off a present and run around shrieking with happiness just to see the box underneath. It was pretty adorable. After presents, I herded everyone back outside to eat the cupcakes. She enjoyed the cupcake much more this year than she had last year.

The only "incident" happened towards the end of the party, as Isa was playing in the sandbox with her friend Solly. I've worked really hard to get Isa to understand that "sand stays in the sandbox." She was carrying a half-full bucket of sand around the yard and I told her to please go put it back. She walked over to the sandbox and just as I was about to thank her for listening.... she leaned over and dumped the entire load right on her head! For most children, this wouldn't be a real problem. But you've all seen the amount of hair Isa has. Quantity of curls plus the fact that her hair is liberally coated with conditioner each morning means that sand doesn't just brush out. *sigh*

Sunday we had a party with family which was a little less eventful (thankfully) but also very fun. She shares a birthday with my sister's fiancee, so they had a joint birthday BBQ for Taylor and Isa.

And today, she had her 2 year checkup. She is now 32 inches tall and 25 pounds, which puts her around 16th percentile for height and 30th for weight. I was a bit surprised about the height. She's just soooo much taller than she was in the spring. I figured she was going to be at least the same percentile as she'd been at 18 months (30th percentile). But I guess the fact that 2T pants are still 3 inches too long should have clued me in.

And, finally, let me apologize for no pics. I was much too busy to take photos at the parties. I will be getting pics from the friends who did take the time to pull out their cameras and post them- hopefully soon.

A week in pictures

More to come when I have the time but here are some pictures from our (very, very) busy last week or so:

Family Picnic

Playing in the sandbox with cousin Caroline

Being pulled behind Uncle Tim's boat


Dinner with new friends Martha & Eyerus



Playdate with Solly & DeDe

It was HOT! Time to cool off in the pool.


Ethiopian Heritage Camp

Three adorable girls- Amara, Elsa & Isa

Ethiopian nursery rhymes

Best buddies :)

Best buddies in their lovely Ethiopian dresses

New friends

Crazy wrestling time!!

Letters from my past

I know I'm mentioned before that I am a pack rat. Capital P, capital R, card carrying member of the Pack Rat nation. Unfortunately I happen to live in a very small house- just over 1000 sq ft. When it was just myself it wasn't too bad. But now there's a toddler running around with all the necessary toddler stuffs. Plus I work primarily from home, so there's a big computer desk in the livingroom and piles of work materials. I'm starting to drown in clutter. And you know if a pack rat thinks it's cluttered, then things have gotten BAD.

So I've resolved myself to clearing things out. Last night I thought I would start with an easy task- a hatbox full of old letters and cards. It turned out to be much easier to toss the majority of them in the recycle bin than I had anticipated but what a trip down memory lane! Amid all the old Christmas and birthday cards, there were several gems. Here are some of the things I found (of which I did keep a few):

- postcards my grandparents sent me when I was as young as 6
- the note from a friend who had just "stolen" my 8th grade boyfriend, begging me to still be her friend (I was one of her "most cherished" friends but, apparently, she never considered just not going out with Josh)
- letters my mother sent me- one every day- when I was away at camp for the first time
- a letter my sister sent me at camp which is just plain hilarious (I think she was about 10 at the time)
- notes sent back and forth during middle school where my friend Melissa and I did our best to think up crazy, intricate folds
- quite a lot of letters from the Australian students we hosted for a week each year in high school
- several letters from the boy I have, not so secretly, been in love with since I was about 13 (yes, a good part of me is still in love with him, but I think he's getting married this weekend)
- the first letter my mom wrote me after dropping me off at college freshman year and the letter my dad wrote me after driving me to college the following year (both of those made me cry)

I guess being a pack rat does have it's upside now and again.

Confessions of a lax parent

Anyone who knew me in real life, pre-Isa, (including myself) would have sworn that I was going to be a very uptight, type-A, generally frantic parent.

In some areas, I have exceeded my own expectations. I will fully admit to being a top-of-the-line "hoverer". I rarely let Isa out of my sight in the first months, even for a few minutes. I got all nervous and edgy when my sister carried her away at a family wedding. I knew she was safe, but still.... We didn't spend a single night apart until this spring, more than a year after she had come home. I'm working on this particular fault, but it's a tough habit to break.

And so, I was shocked to discover that when I compared it to others, the totality of my parenting is actually quite lax. I submit the following:

- Isa is a pacifier kid. So much so that early on, I bought a clip and have kept it attached to her nearly constantly. She drug that thing around, clipped to her chest, I'm sure picking up loads of germs. (I like to pretend now that her iron-clad immune system is due to this particular lazy behavior of mine.) We have ZERO plans to eliminate the paci anytime soon.

- I didn't discontinue pre-sleeping bottles until last month and only then by accident. Admittedly, I was planning to do it this month, just squeaking in under the 2 year mark.

- I hadn't planned to co-sleep, however we did just that for well over six months simply because it was easier for me to throw her in my bed when she woke up at 2 a.m. than try to get her back to sleep in her crib. It wasn't an attachment thing- it just garnered me more sleep. She even rolled out of my bed twice (landing reasonably softly on a suitcase by the bed both times) because I never put up a bedrail.

- I think I made a total of 2 baby food meals ever. The rest came from jars. And it wasn't even always organic.

- On that note, I think she first tried french fries at the tender age of 10 months. Isa would probably tell you that her current favorite foods are quesadillas (we eat a lot of those, and yes, she can say it) and pizza (which we don't actually eat often but Isa has become fixated on). We love carbs.

- I've never even considered getting her own seat on any of our many flights despite all the safety stats. In the beginning, I knew that she'd prefer being held and now I'm just too cheap. Sadly, only one more flight left before I'm forced by law to ante-up.

- She watches TV. Probably too much TV. But there is no other way that I can survive getting up at 6 a.m. everyday. Thank God that Sesame Street comes on at 7!!

- I still have a baby gate up in the house because it's easier than baby-proofing the bedrooms, bathroom, and hallway. Getting very tired of stepping over that, though, so I may be forced to stop being so lazy on this particular point.

- She doesn't always brush her teeth each day. I'm trying to work this into the bedtime routine, but I find I sometimes forget it.

- Her carseat is still rear-facing. I can pretend that this is because it is so much safer, but a big reason is that I really don't relish having to wrestle the Britax into the forward facing position.

And finally, photographic evidence of my laxity. A photo taken a few weeks ago. You can clearly see that she is chewing on a small plastic wand (almost certainly made in China and thus toxic), pacifier clipped on, and it's hard to see, but those are Halloween jammies in the middle of June.

Mish-mash

A random mix from the last couple weeks:

in her loverly princess crown

Super Isa!! (the towel cape goes so well with her fabulous morning hair)

loves, loves, loves to swim

Here's a pic of my very first attempt at braids. Very, very, very simple since I am completely inept at hairstyling. Isa loved them. A couple times she grabbed them and pulled herself around like they were handles. It also allows you to see just how LONG her hair is when the curls are pulled straight. We'll do this 'do several more times, then maybe I'll attempt multiple braids in the ponies and move from there. Not sure she'll sit still long enough for much more than that at the moment.

Several years ago I saw a cartoon of a mom looking in on her sleeping children. She was telling her husband "I wish I could think of them as sleeping and not just recharging." Well, ever so often Isa wakes up from her nap FULLY RECHARGED. She bounced around like this for at least 45 minutes the other day. She doesn't want out of her crib, she just wants to play like a maniac in there.