Isabelle is ONE!

My baby is ONE!  With tears in my eyes and smile on my face, I am finding it hard to believe.  My tears of sadness are for the baby that is melting away, but my tears of joy are for the blessing of a happy, healthy, amazing little girl.  This year has been full of so much excitement, love, laughter, learning, and enjoyment.  In surviving another year of 'firsts' with our second child, we definitely did less worrying and more simply enjoying our baby.  We have been much more laid back with Izzy when it comes to pretty much everything.  Who knows whether the chicken or the egg came first, but this fact is probably partly because she's our second, but also it must be partly because she was such a different baby than Cooper was.  Weird how a family can have such differences in children! 

Here's what Izzy's last month has brought:

 

Izzy is a WALKER!!  She is getting much more confident about it, so much so that she doesn't need coaxing to take her own steps.  She's figuring out that walking is a way to get places, not just a fun thing to do.  However, crawling is still much faster at the moment. 

 

 

Don't mind my crazy mom-voice in the background!!!!  These little steps are too cute not to share!

 

 

Sleeping very well as compared to the rest of her first year ;)  We regularly get 10 hours of straight sleep.  We would love 12 out of her, but we will happily take 10 over what we had been getting!!

 

She is starting to do lots of imitating--she rubs her hands together when we go into the bathroom to wash hands, puts her shoes toward her feet when it's time to leave the house, and always wants to drink from a real cup.  She even is starting to joke around in her own little way.  She'll 'hide' her fork only to pull it out with a big smile when we ask for it.  She likes to crawl away and look back to see if we call for her--of course giggling like crazy if we 'make' her come back.  And she loves to chase around the house.

 

Here's a peek at Hide & Seek, Izzy style

 

 

She's also getting the hang of letting us know what she wants.  She'll point or reach toward things--we're curious what her next words will be past mama, dada, and wawa (for water...if that even 'counts' as a word)

 

Izzy is loving learning to use a spoon and fork.  If we load the food for her, she loves to feed herself.  She'll even hold the utensil back out toward us when she's ready for more.

 

LOVES reading stories.  She'll grab a book she likes and come over to sit in one of our laps.  And she loves to read the same stories again, and again, and again.  Her current favorites include B is for Bear, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Panda in the Park, and any book that has buttons to push

 

She has just two teeth on the bottom, but we can see the faint white on the right bottom... I'm sure her mouth with explode with teeth all in one short stretch.  We can hardly wait....

 

Our morning routine still usually includes giving Izzy a bottle around 5:30 and getting her to fall back asleep until about 6:15 or 6:30.  She's soooo happy after that little half hour extra chunk of sleep, that she wakes up babbling and giggling.  We'll see what next weekend's time change brings!!!

 

The girl is such a happy baby.  She smiles with her entire face, she likes to goof around, and her giggles are so cute and girly! 

 

She is in size 3 diapers, size 12 mo. clothes, size 2 or 3 shoes, weighs 19 lb. 12 oz., is 29.5 inches tall (both at the 50%ile), and has a head size at the 97%ile.  (Lots of space for growing brains!!)

 

Loves:

Her Nuk to sleep

Her bottle when she's tired, otherwise is proud to use a sippy cup

Meat.  Seriously--all meat.

Also loves all noodles, most fruit, and the cream in Oreos

Her big brother

Playing Hide & Seek

Mommy

Using a snack cup with the plastic 'trap' cover on top (just like Cooper, imagine that!!)

Bathtime

Animals

 

 

Dislikes:

Strangers

Being away from mommy

Loud noises

 

 

To My Sweet Little Izzy,

You are my little sunshine.  I have loved every minute of watching you grow and learn about your world.  You are so stinkin cute, and I love squishing and squeezing you.  You are so curious and want to be a part of whatever action is happening in the house.  I love that you love being mommy's girl so much.  I have been relishing our snuggles, and I hope you'll always want them!!  You make me smile every single day.  Your open-mouthed kisses are the best, and the way you nuzzle your head into my neck warms my heart.  I love being your mom, and I can't wait to see the little girl you grow to be. 

 

Love, Mom

 

Carving Pumpkins

Tonight, we carved four little pumpkins.  I am pretty sure for the next handful of years, Jeremy and I will be the ones doing all the work... go figure. 

Izzy was really curious about what was inside.  The slime and the seeds were fun for her to squish.  And she tried eating the seeds, so that was convenient.  Right.

Cooper really couldn't have cared less.  He did NOT want to touch the 'icky' pumpkin guts.  He spent the hour playing with Izzy's new birthday toys.

Cooper did think they were pretty cool all lit up, though.  When he came out of the tub, Jeremy had the pumpkins waiting on the table with candles inside.  All I heard was, "Wow!" about five times. 

Hmm... what's this?!?



Hey, pumpkin is kind of tasty!

Ooooohh... cold and slimy!

Cooper kept coming over to see what we were doing, but did not want to dig in

Notice Cooper, aka The Blur.  It is nearly impossible to get a posed picture of him these days.

My Little Loves :)

Happy Birthday, Big Girl!!

Happy Birthday to our sweet little Izzy!  We had a really fun weekend... her official birthday was on Friday, so we let her dig into a 'practice' cupcake.    She LOVED it.

 

 

 

We had her party on Sunday night.  She woke up from her nap to a bedroom full of balloons.  She wasn't really sure what to think... But decided she liked them!

 



 

Now that this big girl is walking, she needed to show off just a little... walking AND holding two pickles.  That's talent.

Cakes, made with love, by mommy

 

 

 Izzy's big brother had fun celebrating, too.  He loved raspberries... on every single finger.

 

 

 Izzy's favorite foods for her birthday meal: meat and potatoes.

 

Cooper helped open some presents

In true one-year-old fashion, she loved the tissue and paper most.

This one certainly got her attention!

Mom, Dad, and Izzy

Cooper helped blow out the candle. 

And... THE CAKE!

 

YES!  I loooooove cake!

So Big!

Already learning to be a good sharer

I'm ONE!

The cake carnage

And a good soak to end the night... thanks everyone for a fun night!!!

Our Little Walker

Well, we are pretty confident Izzy will be full-on walking by her birthday.  This video is from last night, and already tonight, she is taking 6-9 steps at a time, exciting herself!!  I can't wait to catch her walking all the way across the room.  It's pretty cool to see that once she figured out the balance thing, she just kept going!

Here's a priceless little shot of her hesitant little early steps!

Back to the Wilderness

It seems to be turning into our family tradition... Jeremy scopes out a good deal, snatches it up for pennies compared to usual prices, and away we go.

We again stayed at the Wilderness Resort.  It was a BLAST.  Grandma Lori came along, and kept the kids company in the back seat for the 3.5 hour car ride.  Jackie and Brian, as well as Amanda and Dan also made the trip.  It was a really laid-back weekend, and I think everyone would say they had fun.  There was a little something for everyone.

The water parks were the most fun part of the weekend.  Izzy was pretty hesitant at first... it took her a long time to be ready to let go of our hands or arms and venture off a little on her own.  She would just CLING when we tried to put her down to play (especially to mommy!!).  Eventually, her favorite things became the little slides, the swings, a water table contraption, and the waves in the wave pool.

Cooper, on the other hand, was a wild man.  He loved going on the little slides by himself, he had a blast in the wave pool, and he really thought the dumping bucket of hundreds of gallons of water was cool.  He even learned how to hold his breath under water for a few seconds.  He was pretty proud :)  Some memories of his weekend will forever be the long walks to and from the pools, his sweet-talking ways with Grandma, his running all over the pool decks, his barrel-rolling in the middle of our king sized bed all night long, and his sweet little sayings and one-liners.

"I need a little snack."
"I don't think so." (For everything he doesn't want to do)
Standing in front of us while walking down the hallways saying, "How 'bout you carry me?"
"I don't wanna say that."
"Grandma, I need to talk to you." (And then has nothing to say)
"I am a nut."
"You go play with Izzy." (When he wants to be alone or do something himself)
"I can do it myself."
If we remind Cooper that he's a good boy, or that he's really tough, etc., his comment is, "I am." or "I know."

Izzy and Mommy

Grandma was a big help all weekend!

Izzy slowly warmed up to the water

Cooper took no time at all to warm up!!

Family ride on the lazy river

Wee!!

Jeremy and Cooper were quite the adventuresome pair

Cooper got brave and tried this BIG slide

After 50 trips down the slide, it was still this fun!!  (Really, 50 trips!)

I think she loved this so much because it was just her size AND she could have a little 'control' over the water.

A little fruit snack bribery never hurt anyone ;)  It's the only way we could get a family picture!!

Izzy and Mommy

Another fun part of the trip was checking out the arcades and play areas. 

A little air hockey

A couple tries at the giant claw game

And a motorcycle ride for Izzy

The Pumpkin Patch

Little loves

 Trying on his Halloween costume

Big Little Giggles :)

Our little honey loves to jabber, squeal, shriek, scream, laugh, and giggle.  She has definitely discovered that her voice can get our attention :)  I cannot watch this video without laughing myself!  I love baby belly laughs!