Milestones

What a week! Saturday was Isa B's first birthday. The party with friends was a lot of fun. We just hung around in the backyard. There were cupcakes and other treats. Isa got lots of adorable presents (2 different pink tutus!!). The birthday girl enjoy squishing her cupcake immensely but didn't really want to eat it. Here are some photos:

her new birthday dress, made by Grandma of course-

there are cupcake buttons on the front which you can't see in the photo

and the fabric of the bottom says Happy Birthday all over it

Mommy & Isa B

playing in the backyard with her buddies

blowing out her candles

hmmmm... fun to play with, not so sure about eating it....

Sunday we down to my parents' house for party #2. Again, a fun day although Isa B got tired and had to take a nap in the middle of the festivities. Uncle John got some quality Isa B time. Once he offered her the string on his sweatshirt to chew on, he was her best buddy. Aunt Karen was also quite fun. We can't wait to see them again and are bummed that it won't be until April. More pics...

opening presents

another cupcake!

Uncle John is fun :) (note her stylish new rainbow Baby Legs)

The milestones continued after Sunday. Wednesday marked the 6 month anniversary of when we arrived home. I can't believe it's already been 6 months and at the same time it feels sooooo much longer.

I checked Isa out of Toukoul 2 days after her 6 month birthday, so Thursday marked the day when she has now spent the majority of her life with me. That was a pretty emotional milestone for me.

In other Isa news, she has now figured out how to pull up on every piece of furniture in the living room. While this is fun for her, for me it means that no surface is off limits. Good thing my mantle is really wide- I think it's going to be covered with "don't touch" items for quite a while..... My guess would be full-on walking within 2 months at the most. *sigh* I just need her to slow down (literally and figuratively!).

It's 84 degrees IN MY HOUSE....

.... and I am baking cupcakes. Nuts? Nope- tomorrow is Isa B's birthday! The big 0-1.

A bit of explanation: we've had exceptionally hot weather for WA this week. Several days in the 90s which rarely ever happens. Since we usually top out around 75 in the summer, very few people have AC. Absolutely no breeze lately either, thus the obscene temp inside.

Back to the birthday....

Tomorrow we are having friends over to our house for the aforementioned cupcakes. Obviously, given my love for all things fluffy and girly, they will be covered in pink frosting and sprinkles. Lots of "1st Birthday Princess" decor. I told folks "no presents" but so far it seems that most people are ignoring that little suggestion (which doesn't really surprise me).

My brother and his fiance are in town just in time for the big celebration. Karen is very allergic to cats and Squiggy is shedding like a mad kitty right now. So we'll be having a second party for family at my parent's house on Sunday. John hasn't met Isa yet and we haven't met Karen, so I'm really looking forward to Sunday.

I'll be sure to post lots of pictures of the birthday girl next week!

Tag- I'm it!

So, the lovely Porter has tagged me for a SAHMBOSS award. What is that you may ask???

In her words, it is "some kind of annoying prestigious hybrid meme/award thing, which now - thanks to Michele’s way with words - will officially be known forever as The Super Awesome Hot Mama Blogger or some shit (SAHMBOSS) meme/award."

Here is how this works:

First, I have to answer a little questionnaire thingy which is pretty much all about ME!

Then I have to choose 7 bloggers who I feel are super awesome hot mama bloggers or some shit (see list below) and I “give” them the SAHMBOSS “award”. They will post their own answers to the questionnaire on their own blog and they will choose 7 more recipients. And so it goes!

Here is the questionnaire:

A. Attached or single? So very, very single (unless attached at the hip to Isa counts)

B. Best friend? Hmm... probably my sister. Autumn coming in close behind.

C. Cake or pie? Cake (although homemade apple pie is darn good)

D. Day of choice? Thursday

E. Essential item? Coffee, coffee and more coffee

F. Favorite color? Orange

G. Gummy bears or worms? Mmmm... I am an equal opportunity gummy eater

H. Hometown? Seattle, WA

I. Indulgence? Chocolate. Sleep. Loads of crappy TV.

J. January or July? Ha- trick question as my birthday is in July!!

K. Kids? 1 adorable daughter. 1 adorable kitten.

L. Life isn’t complete without? The warmth of family & friends

M. Marriage date? Well, Porter set a date, so I guess I should too. I'm going for October 9, 2010 (a lovely fall wedding!)

N. Number of brothers & sisters? 1 of each (both getting married next year, actually)

O. Oranges or apples? Apples - preferably Braeburn

P. Phobias? Spiders. Death (didn't have that one until Isa showed up and now I'm terrified)

Q. Quotes? "It's better to regret the things you've done, then regret the things you haven't done"

R. Reasons to smile? She's currently asleep in her crib

S. Season of choice? Fall

T. Tag seven peeps! (see below)

U. Unknown fact about me? I love typing. I sometimes find myself typing words in the air when I'm thinking- that's how much I love the motion of typing. I always wrote out papers longhand in college as I am no good at editing my thoughts once on computer. The bonus was that I then got to type the whole darn paper all at once. :)

V. Vegetable? Pretty much anything roasted.

W. Worst habits? Nail biting. Stress eating.

X. X-ray or ultrasound? Ummm.... is this a trick question also?

Y. Your favorite food? Pizza- combo loaded with everything.

Z. Zodiac sign? Cancer

(I would like to add that it took me until W & X to realize that each question began with the letter of the alphabet it was labeled with. Until that point I just zipped along answering the odd questions. Yep, motherhood kills your brain cells.)

I’m tagging:

1. Jesi

2. Rebekke

3. Porter (re-tag, 'cuz your totally a double SAHMBOSS)

4. Jocelyn (see above)

5. Kerri

Porter was an overachiever and tagged nine, so I'm going to be an underachiever and tag 5 lovely ladies.

I heart Spoon

Just some fluff for you all today. Here is Isa B with one of her favorite objects- a little rubbery baby spoon (which henceforth shall be known as the Love Spoon).

The bowl of the spoon is a bit too big for Isa to eat comfortably from, but man, does she love to play with it! So, I feed her with another spoon and then pull out the Love Spoon at the end of the meal. It keeps her happy and occupied so I can finish eating. Gotta love the Love Spoon.

The joy is palpable....

Look, Ma! No hands!

Grrrrrrr.

And now for the Spoon Show- live!

Blog Union '08

The Blog Union was amazing! We got to finally meet the adorable Pacey, see the twins again (I'd taken pics of them for their parents when I was in Ethiopia and they were teeny-tiny), and see our best buddy Elsa once more. We also got a mini-vacation down at the beach, which is always lovely.

Unfortunately with so much fun, it was hard to remember to pull the camera out! I got some great pics of Isa playing with Olivia and Ezra and some of our time with Elsa. Lucky for us, Drew is a film producer, so he had a whole crew of people taking still photos and video of our wonderful weekend. For more pics of the BU, go to Drew & Carey's blog.

Isa loved the ocean and (shockingly) didn't try to eat the entire beach. She preferred to smoosh the sand in her hands and never once put it in her mouth. She ate a TON of fruit as well as several tasty Mexican meals. She also decided to finally attempt some more time on her knees. She still commando crawls most of the time, but ever so often will get up on her knees for a few "steps." This means that she's also getting better at pulling her self up. Yesterday she even took a couple teeny little cruising steps along the couch. And this morning I discovered a new tooth (top right as you look at her). So many new and exciting things going on!!!


Here are some of the photos/video that I did get:

Elsa and Isa reading to Porter

Isa riding in style with Olivia and Ezra

After the long BU weekend, Olivia needed a massage!

And finally, a video to show you just how adorable Isa and Elsa are together. We were getting ready for the big Saturday night dinner in our hotel room. Porter was keeping the girls happy by supplying them with Goldfish crackers. She looked over and saw Isa B feeding the crackers to Elsa. How cute is that??? Of course, once I turned on the camera, she wouldn't do it again, but it's still a pretty cute video! (Anything with these two in it is bound to be adorable.....)