My baby's a big 2 year old now!

I really can't believe that Isabel just turned 2 years old! It's such a cliche, but so true, time really does go by too fast! We had a very nice day on her birthday, Wednesday the 12th. Jason had most of the day off so we took Isabel out to lunch and to Target to pick out a new doll stroller and a new doll. As you've probably picked up from previous posts, she is very into her dollies lately. Her doll stroller that was a gift for her birthday last year was pretty much destroyed from such heavy use. She loves her new doll, a Groovy Girls doll. I love those dolls, they're like soft normal-looking, non-trashy Barbies for little girls, very cool. Isabel now insists on bringing her new dolly everywhere with her.

We had a very nice party for Isabel yesterday, Sunday, at my Mom and Dad's house. Isabel had a great time playing with her cousins, Rowan and Austin, and of course eating cupcakes and ice cream and opening presents. It was a gorgeous day, rather Fall-like, warm in the sun and a bit brisk in the shade. We kept it pretty simple, just grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and ate lots of yummy corn on the cob and plenty of other yummy food. Some highlights of the day include watching Rowan and Isabel running around with a jump-rope saying "jump, jump" and trying to actually jump with it; Isabel trying to play football with her Daddy and trying to tackle him; and getting to meet the newest little cousin Hannah; among many highlights of the day. I've posted a few pics here to give a feel of the day. Here's the birthday girl trying to blow out her candles.
Here's her proud little face after she blew them out.
And here's Isabel and Rowan really enjoying their cupcakes and ice cream. Looking at this pic I think of what a big difference this is from last year when she was covered head to toe with her cake, it was even in her ears! Thankfully she has pretty much mastered feeding herself now!
This goat puppet from my Aunt Marge and Uncle John was a big hit, it sings a silly song when you squeeze it. Isabel must have made it sing about a hundred times yesterday.
Isabel insisted on showing off her adorable jumper from Great-Gramma to her cousin Austin. Not so sure he was quite as excited about it as she was! Don't you just love his shirt? It says "I make dirt look good." And he does too, so adorable!
Here's Isabel decorating herself in some of her presents from Tasha, Ray, Austin and Hannah. Tasha picked out some great stuff! Isabel especially loves this feather boa and purse and an adorable purple bear. Perfect for my little girl who loves to dress up and look fancy. Just add a pair of my shoes and she's all set to parade around the house with her stroller. Picture her doing this every evening, so much fun to watch.
Doesn't she look so grown up in this picture?! She was pushing her new stroller around in the flower bed and up and down the driveway, over and over again. :)
Here it is, the shiny new stroller and the favorite new doll. These two toys provide hours of entertainment, wonderful!

Labor Day Weekend

We had a great Labor Day. We met up with my parents and Sarah, Mark, Rowan, and Sophia at a lake for the day. The kids played on the beach and in the water while Jason and Mark did some fishing and we all took turns in the kayaks. It was a gorgeous day, in the 80's and perfectly sunny. Isabel spent hours digging in the sand and making and destroying towers of sand. Jason and I were able to take Isabel out in the kayaks for her first time on a boat. She was a little timid at first and she got very sleepy, but she seemed to really enjoy it. She made it a bit harder when she tried to help paddle. :)

The happy family in the kayaks.
See her little hands on the paddle, trying to help! Rowan and Isabel making mud pies and towers.
A couple of very dirty and very happy kids.

These next shots are of a scene I discovered one morning. I had gone upstairs to get dressed and then got a couple of quick phone calls. I was up there for about 10 minutes and came back down to find this mess. Isabel had decided that her baby doll was stinky and was using tons of wipes to clean her up. I thought it was so funny that I had to take a couple of pics. She has been really into her baby dolls lately, rocking them and singing to them and wrapping them in blankets. One night while I was making dinner she lined them up on the floor and put diapers under each of them while repeating "Ugh, stinky babies!".

She would very carefully lift the baby's shirt and wipe her off.
Then she would add the wipe to the HUGE pile and get another one! At least she put them in a nice pile and not all over the living room and they were salvageable! It's just so fun to watch her role-play and use her imagination.

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.

Surviving the heat

It has been ridiculously hot here and the humidity is killing me. I think I could handle the heat if the air didn't feel like soup. Yuck! It's supposed to cool off for this weekend, thank God. Until then Isabel and I will be sitting in our living room next to the new AC unit. Yup, we have AC now! I went to visit my friend Christine on Monday and Tuesday. She lives north of Boston and I hadn't seen her in 3 years! She and her husband sent me home with an extra AC unit that they had sitting in a closet. Life savers!! It was a wonderful visit and my first time away for an overnight by myself since Isabel was born. It was only one night, but it was such a treat.

This past Sunday we met up with my sister and Mark and Rowan at a lake for the day. Jason and Mark went out fishing for a couple of hours while Sarah and I played with the kids on the beach. They had a blast splashing in the water and digging in the sand. I got a wicked sunburn though. I was better at keeping sunscreen on my daughter than myself apparently.

Here's Sarah and the kids.

Really, she did have fun, despite the sour face in this pic!
Rowan swimming with his daddy. Look at that grin!
Isabel and Daddy building sandcastles. This very blurry pic is from the mass migration of tiny frogs across our street last week. Our neighbor discovered them and we all went out to check it out. Isabel had a blast, although I think she smooshed a few trying to pic them up. They were so tiny! That is Isabel's little hand in my hand holding one. Cute!
This is Isabel and Rowan watching Grampa work in the kitchen. They dragged these little chairs from the living room just so they could sit and watch him. We thought it was pretty adorable.
And this is Christine and I and her dogs, Peanut and Brownie. What a nice visit!

Hot, hot days

We've just been trying to survive the heat here lately. It's been about 95 the past couple of days and tons of humidity too. Yuck! Sarah and I met up at my mom and dad's house yesterday morning to put the kids in the wading pool. They had a great time splashing around and we put our feet in a bit too. Then we went in for lunch and it got even hotter out. After lunch we decided that the wading pool just wouldn't cut it anymore, so we called up some family friends with a big pool and begged to use it. Rowan had been in before and he did great. Isabel had never been in a big pool before and was a little intimidated at first. But after a bit she was having a blast. I think we'll have to do that again soon. Today is super hot again and even more humid than yesterday. We decided to just go to Sarah's house and use the wading pool there. The kids managed to make some mud pies too and make a big mess, luckily it's easy to hose them off and it's so hot they don't mind the cold water. We had a softball game last night in the heat, it was still about 90 I think. It was pretty miserable, but we won, so I guess it was worth it. :)
Here's some pics from the past couple of days. Enjoy!

Isabel loved floating in this, it's sized for babies, but she still fits in it!

Gramma got her arm workout holding onto Rowan in the pool.

Isabel still loves her kitten. I love this expression on her face. They mostly play nicely together, although if you look closely you can see that Jasper is about to nibble on her thumb, he wasn't so thrilled to be picked up in his bucket.

Kissing cousins!

This one was this morning. They were eating goldfish crackers and suddenly they were giving each other kisses. Pretty cute at this age, but we'll probably have to discourage this in the future! ;)

Happy 1st day of summer!

It hit almost 90 here the other day and we still have no air conditioning, so we had to get creative. We also don't have a wading pool or sprinkler yet, but we do have an empty ladybug sandbox. We're a little late on getting the sand too, poor kid! Rowan was here to play, so I took the kids outside and filled up the ladybug with water and sprayed the kids, and myself, with the hose and we had a great time. The kids were completely thrilled and never felt the lack of a real pool. They splashed and dumped water all over themselves and each other. I only got a couple of pics before my camera ran out of batteries. I think we're still going to buy a wading pool at some point, and hopefully some sand for the sandbox. But in the meantime we'll stay nice and cool splashing in the bug. Hope you're all having a wonderful summer!"This is a little small for both of us!"
Brrr, cold water.
"Uh oh, where are you aiming that hose Isabel?"

Busy summer days

Wow, life has been really busy lately, as I'm sure you can all tell from the lack of blogging. We've been playing softball; we won our game today and have games tomorrow and Wednesday this week. Plus I'm still watching Rowan days a week, and I don't know what other excuse I have, life just feels really busy. Isabel likes coming to our softball games, usually my parents come and hang out with her and cheer us on. She wishes she could play I think, she loves to wear our gloves around the house and pretend. I'm loving our new apartment, I get to have a garden! It's not huge, 11x14, but I have tons of lettuce already and my sugar snap peas and snow peas are growing like crazy. I'll have some zucchini and yellow squash also and I have a ton of chives and other herbs. I just love picking my salad for lunch, it tastes so much better than store-bought! Yumm! We also welcomed a new addition to our family on Memorial Day, Jasper the kitten. Isabel loves to carry him around and order him to play. I love that he sleeps on my pillow above my head so I can hear him purring at night. He's a great kitten and a lot of fun. Finally we have a pet! Hopefully we can get a dog next, sometime. That's all the news from here. Hope you're all enjoying your summers! Isabel all ready to play softball with Daddy's glove. I think it's just a little too big.
Our sweet new kitten, Jasper.
Notice his cute little goatee! He was trying to hide from Isabel and take a nap when I took this one, that didn't work out so well for him. Isabel took away his pillow right after I took this. She's not very good at sharing lately, even with her kitten. We're really praying this phase is over soon!

Sunny Days

We've had wonderfully warm and sunny weather lately so the kids have gotten to play outside a ton. Sarah and I took Isabel and Rowan to a playground on Tuesday and they had a blast. Isabel especially loves the slides. We've also had lots of fun playing in the sandbox and digging in the dirt again. I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that my kid loves to cover herself head to toe in dirt and that she will need a bath every single night from now till fall. Jason and I joined our churches softball team and our games start next week. I used to play on the team about 10 years ago. I was a little rusty at first, but I'm having a blast and getting some of my skills back. It's fun to meet some new people and reconnect with others and just be part of a team. I'm really loving it. It's been a pretty busy time around here. I'm watching Rowan 3 days a week this month because my parents, who usually watch him one of the days, are off on a cross-country road trip celebrating their retirement. I get a little stir-crazy when I spend a whole day at home with Isabel, so it's nice to be busy. So here's a bunch of pics from our busy week.

Isabel, Rowan and Auntie at the playground.

Life looks different through the bubble!

Whee! Notice Auntie's pregnant belly in the edge of the frame!
"I don't think this is how I'm supposed to ride this thing Mommy!"

Here's a sad pic:
Rowan broke his wrist this past week when he fell climbing out of his crib. Poor little guy has to wear a cast for the next 3 weeks. At least it's not for longer than that! This is the pose he kept giving me and the sad face when I asked him to show me his cast for the photo.
Here's the kids enjoying Rowan's sandbox. Rowan's a trooper wearing a sock over his cast to keep the sand out. It's definitely not slowing him down at all. He's a tornado of energy. Isabel is very carefully dumping sand on Rowan's leg and shorts; at least she's sharing!
Rowan's cute squinty smile face. What a sweet boy!