Busy, busy, busy

Life around here has been pretty crazy lately. I started back to work for 2 1/2 days a week this past Monday. It's a big change, but I'm super excited about it. I'm working at the Umass Five College Credit Union. I worked there for about 4 1/2 years before I moved to Wyoming. A lot of the people that I worked with then are still there, so it's not too huge an adjustment. It's so exciting to get out into the "real" world for a couple of days a week and have contact with other adults! I love my daughter, but it's still nice to have this opportunity. Isabel will be spending Thursdays and Fridays with my parents and on Saturday mornings she will have special daddy and daughter time. I'm so grateful to my parents for offering to watch her, otherwise we couldn't afford for me to work at all. They are such a huge help! This past week I worked on Monday and Tuesday attending training sessions and I'll start my real schedule this next week. Of course everything didn't go completely smoothly to start. Isabel came down with a fever, about 101, on Monday, which luckily was fixed with some Tylenol and I didn't need to leave work at all. Then on Tuesday I was sick in the afternoon and had to leave early. Not the best start to my new job, but hopefully next week will be better!

I've just got a few recent pics of Isabel to post here. This first one is from a night recently where she was pretending to be a superhero with a cape around her neck, actually an old pillow case. Not really sure where she picked this idea up from, amazing how their little minds just absorb the strangest stuff! Pretty cute watching her run around the living room with her hands above her head making zooming noises. Up, up, and away!

This is Isabel's favorite new toy. I had been thinking about getting something like this for her birthday. She really enjoys drawing and makes tons of messes with her crayons and paper all over the place. I had looked around a bit at prices, then I saw one outside a house down the street that is up for sale. I sent Jason down to inquire if it was for sale or free and he came home with it for free! I cleaned it up and now Isabel draws on it everyday! Of course now I have to come up with another idea for birthday presents! :) I can't believe that she'll be 2 in less than 2 weeks!
Here she is so thrilled with her new easel. I can't get over how grown up my baby is getting! She's still pretty tiny, but she seems to have gotten heavier lately and she's definitely gotten taller recently. She's starting to outgrow her summer clothes and we had to go buy some new Fall clothes for her since none from last year fit. At least she manages to wear the same size for a whole season so I don't have to buy all new clothes halfway through. But she's always stuck in some pretty funny outfits when the seasons change until I manage to get her some new stuff. We had a stretch of cooler weather last week and she wore tights and skirts for a few days because she had no pants that fit. She was thrilled, she absolutely loves her striped tights and even insisted on wearing them to bed one night. She is such an independent little soul, a very strong-willed little girl. I really love this age. She is completely exasperating at times and challenging, but seeing her creativity and personality and watching her explore her world is so amazing! Plus, it's really nice to go back to work and have the chance to miss her a bit, makes me appreciate even more that I get to stay home with her most days! :)

Welcome Sophia!

Here she is, the newest member of the family! My beautiful niece, Sophia, was born on 8/9/07 at 8:28PM weighing 6lbs 15oz and 20 1/2 inches long. Sarah is recovering well and Rowan is in love with his new sister. Isabel calls her baby Phia or Phi-Phi, she can't manage the whole Sophia name yet. Rowan just calls her baby sister. She is such a little cutie-pie! Isn't she beautiful?
Rowan loves giving her kisses.
Isabel loves babies, but isn't too sure she likes Mommy holding one!
Here's the proud Gramma and Grampa with an adoring Isabel patting Sophia.

Haven't posted in a while...

So I figured I'd better put up some new pics and a couple of stories and updates. We've been really busy lately, although I'm not always sure what we're so busy with. Summer just seems like a crazy time. Today we went to my sister's house and watched the kids play in the wading pool. This past Sunday we met my parents and Mark, Sarah, and Rowan, and also Mark's brother and his family, all at a lake and swam and kayaked and had a great time. Softball is over now so that removes one event from our schedule, but we're filling it up with plenty of other fun things lately, although I really miss playing softball and I'm sure we'll play again next year.

Isabel has been talking up a storm lately and is growing up so fast. Everyday she has new words and is talking in sentences and loves to talk on the phone too. We put her hair in pigtails for the first time today, she looks like such a big girl to me like that! This first one is as she gave a kiss to the camera. She has turned into a bit of a ham and loves to pose for the camera. And here she is in my old sunglasses, also looking very grown up to me.
Isabel and her kitty were chasing each other around in the flowers one evening and Jason snapped this pic. She likes to try to sniff the flowers, but she blows on them instead. She hasn't quite got that concept down yet.
Isabel loves to play with her kitten. These pics are from a couple of weeks ago, he's grown a bunch since then, we think he's going to be a pretty big cat when he's full grown. One of her favorite pastimes is to run around the house with Jasper in the doll stroller. This must be the most tolerant kitten ever! For the record, he climbs in there himself most of the times.
Racing through the living room at top speed! She always stops just before they hit the wall.
Poor Jasper is barely visible below two of Isabel's dollies. She thought he needed company in there.