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.

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!

Maybe she IS listening

One of the rules in our house is "no throwing." It's the rule Isa hears most often because whenever she's tired or frustrated or cranky, she likes to chuck toys (or anything else she can get her hands on) across the living room floor.

When a toy is thrown, I put that toy into a time-out up on the mantle and she doesn't get it back until the next morning. Since she often just moves onto the next toy to throw, I wasn't sure that this approach was actually teaching her not to throw.

This afternoon, Isa put an old-school Little Person on her finger (yeah for the toys from my childhood that my parents saved!). Then she flicked it across the floor. Before I could say anything, she turned to me and said "no throwing." Then, she picked up the Little Person, walked over to the mantle and held it up for me to put in time-out.

I sat there with my mouth wide open. Hurrah for self-disciplining! Now if she'd just remember the rule and apply it BEFORE doing the action......

New Orleans or bust

In the wee hours of the morning on Sunday I leave for a work conference in New Orleans. I'll be gone until late Thursday night. It's the first time I'll have been away from Isa for more than a single night. I'll admit to being a bit panicked, although also fairly excited about the idea of 4 nights in a row of uninterrupted sleep!

My dad is going to tag along with me- he's always wanted to see New Orleans and this is his chance for a free room at the Sheraton in the French Quarter. My mom is going to come up at stay with Isa at our house. I've put together a bunch of ideas of how to spend the time here at home- directions to the closest playground and a nearby beach, how to get to the Arboretum, directions to the zoo since I know my sister is coming up one day to do that with them. Now that the weather is finally nice, there's always the option of just walking up and down the sidewalk, playing with rocks (her current favorite activity), and the sandbox and little slide in our own backyard. Doesn't it look like todder paradise in our yard now?

I know that she'll be fine. I think the days will actually be harder on my mom than Isa. :) I guess I'm more concerned about the fall-out once I get back home. Extra-clinginess? A few more meltdowns? Who knows?

And we won't really have time to do much recuperating. The following Thursday, we're flying back to MN for a visit so that all of my friends from college can finally meet Isa. We're staying with my friend Katie who has a daughter, Isabel, who will be 3 in September. (I know, funny isn't it? Katie & Isadora plus Katie & Isabel) While I'm not looking forward to the plane trip with a now very active toddler, I know Isa will have a BLAST back there. And I can't wait to show her off.....

On that note, here's a belated birthday wish for Katie in MN (with a little improv at the end):

Isa-bot

Sometime in the last couple weeks, some evil doer stole my darling, sweet Isa B and replaced her with a constantly short-circuiting Isa-bot.

She goes from happy to wailing in 2 seconds flat. For no obvious reason. And then back to happy again when you aren't looking. This is especially apparent during meals. She has gotten very adept with a spoon or fork, so she's mostly feeding herself lately with utinsels rather than fingers. She can be in the middle of a bowl of food that she's enjoying, suddenly throw the fork across the table and start sobbing. Why? Who knows?

Another sign that the Isa-bot is obviously malfunctioning is her erratic sleep schedule. Today, for the second time in as many weeks, she slept until 9:30. That's right- 9:30 a.m.- 3 hours longer than normal. Even after this morning's sleep marathon she was ready for a nap by 1 and has been asleep for 2 1/2 hours.

Granted, her last 3 incisors are tthhiiisss close to breaking through her gums and in the last month (based on clothing fit) she's had a HUGE growth spurt- she's grown at least an inch, likely more. So perhaps everything from her mouth on down just hurts from all the outward/upward progress. That would make me cranky, too.

Or maybe I do have an Isa-bot on my hands. In that case, anyone know a good robot repair shop?

ETA- Final total for today: she slept an extra three hours this morning, took an almost three hour nap, and went down like usual at 7. CRAZY!

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.