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POOP!!!

Well, anyone that spends time talking to us about Isabell probably knows that from time to time she has trouble with the whole pooping process, often creating poops large enough for a 20 year old!  Well, the upside of this kind of poop is that it takes her a lot of effort to get it out, so it’s pretty obvious when she’s going to poop.  Usually she will cry when she is pushing this type of poop out, but not today!  Well, there was a bit of crying, but I think it may  have been partially due to the fact that she as sitting on the potty!  After some encouragement, she actually got her poops out into the potty!  Then she got to flush them down, and oh was that an exciting thing!

We’ll have her out of those diapers in no time!!

Though this was technically Isabell’s second halloween, last year she was just the treat, and we showed her to our friends that came to the door.  This year, we decided to give her a REALY costume, and take her trick or treating to a few houses.  After no thought at all, we decided to dress her up as “Mini Me” to celebrate just how much she looks like her father, we have been talking about this costume for about a year now, and I do have to say I really like how it turned out.  🙂

Isabell wore little tennis shoes, cargo pants, and a plaid button up shirt, just like her daddy wears almost every day.  To top off the costume, she had a REAL cell phone (her’s actually) in her pocket, and a name badge that is an official badge from Nashon’s work.  It is Nashon’s clearance badge, only with Isabell’s picture on it, which his HR director so kindly made for us last week.  Isabell’s costume was topped off with a two toned goatee on her little chin drawn on with eye liner pencil.  Though it’s not real hair, it sure looked good, and came off easily (a must with a toddler). 

Take a look for yourself!  She looks great with her daddy!  She enjoyed going to two houses to get some candy, and even enjoyed getting to eat some chocolate.

This has been a very busy month for us. As many of you know, Nashon’s step mother, Robyn, was diagnosed with cancer about two months ago; she passed away on the 17th following a short battle. We have spent much time up at their house in the past few months as a result, and Isabell has finally begun to warm up to her Grampa. We have also seen some interesting growth in her development in the past few weeks.

Two weeks ago Isabell was sitting on Robyn’s bed while she was trying to eat take out from one of her favorite resteraunts. When Robyn wasn’t able to eat the shrimp, she fed it to Isabell and Isabell LOVED it!! Nashon and I don’t eat seafood (eeewww…gross) but we are more than happy to have other people provide her with the opportunity to try new things that we know she won’t get it home. Still, we were more than a bit suprised that she enjoyed shrimp so much that she ate three whole shrimp, on her own, after having finished off her dinner of chicken fettucini and tomatoes. We also have added to our verbal output.

Her signs now include: more, all done, please, again, milk, eat, open, ni night

Her verbal words now include (in order of aquisition): byebye, mama, dada, hot, nonononono, bottle, balloon. She is using them on her own to request actions and objects, and to refuse.

She is now walking all on her own, and will be running any day now. Each day she amazes us with how much more stable and mobile she is! She is now practicing standing up from the floor without anything to hold onto, and walking around corners and down hallways to find and look for people.

Her first birthday is TODAY!!! Our little baby is now officially one, and she is all of the big girl that she thinks she is. We had her birthday party yesterday with all of Isabell’s favorite people (friends and family), and she got lots of good stuff. Based on her playing last night and today, her favorite toys are the little tikes car from Nashon and me, The step-step kangaroo thingy from Grandpa Dave, and the UW blanket from Auntie Shelly. She was a pro with the cake and though a bit dainty at the beginning, she eventually got the pink frosting into her hair and ears, and thoroughly enjoyed herself in the process. Every time we have to take her away from the car or the kangaroo we get to enjoy the tantruming of a small child, she’ s not a baby any more!!!!

Nashon and I were too busy with party stuff to take pictures, so I’ll post some when we get them from Ammie, Grandpa Dave and Auntie Carrie. Stay tuned for a video of her eating cake!

Words:

“mama” = Mommy!

“dada” = Daddy!

“baba” = bye bye (paired with waving)

“da” = dog (while pointing at the dog)

“hot” = hot (while pointing at the stove or a mug of hot tea)

“nunununu” = No thank you! (paired with shaking her head)

her signs now include:

milk, all done, more, again, please

combinations of signs include:

more please, milk please

Isabell is trying to be  a toddler, and grow out of the pleasant babyhood that we’ve enjoyed for the past 11.5 months.  Yesterday she got to spend some time at the neighbor’s house, and then we all played together outside for a few hours.  She is so cute when she wants to be a big kid! She practiced her walking with the 5 year old next door, and rode in the little tikes car, and played on the scooter and with the chalk.  The toy she found the most exciting was the big wheels with large bells hanging off of the handles.  She went up to the garage with Nancy and got on it by herself, and walked herself out of the garage and down the driveway.  She drove onto the grass and play with the bells while I talked with some of the other mom’s that were outside.  She was so very very sweet and excited to share the bike experience with me.  Then she chose to get off the bike, and the 2 year old wanted a turn; she was all ready with a helmet on and everything.  She got on and started to ride away and oh my goodness!  Did Isabell complain!  She cried and pouted and pointed to the bike and gave me a look of “how can you let her take the bike mommy?!?”  So we said our turn was all done, it was Joy’s turn, and we said bye b to the bike (Which she did…waved and said byebye).  Then she immediatly pushed away from me, screamed, and pointed at the bike again.  We went though sharing again, and saying byebye  to the bike.  But alas, more screaming.  So I asked if she wanted to go home to finish crying, and she pointed to the house.  So while still crying as if she were being swung by her toes, she said byebye to the neighbors and we started toward the house; where she promptly got quiet and happy and squealed when she saw her own toys.

We’re in for it now!  The toddler is in the house!

Sunday afternoon was a special treat.  Nashon and I bought tickets to WICKED! at the Paramount about six months ago, and the day finally arrived!  So on Sunday we got all dressed up, dropped the baby off at Auntie Carrie’s house, and off we went.  We had a nice grown up meal at the Cheesecake Factory without bibs or cutting things into tiny bites, there was no food on the floor when we were done, no entertaining of babies, no high chairs, and just general nice grown up time.  We then walked over to the theatre where we had good seats in the upper deck right near the middle, and enjoyed a very enjoyable musical about some witches growing up and becoming the way we know them to be in  that silly story about Oz.  We walked slowly back to our car and topped the evening off having dinner with my sister and parents, and playing card games.  Isabell was around for that, but she behaved pretty well, and sat nicely during card playing.  All in all, it was a nice date afternoon with a great finish.  🙂

I don’t know if it was watching Matthew walking yesterday or if it was just the right time, but Isabell is talking 4 or 5 steps at a time.  It takes some encouragement but shes doing a good job at it.

…and into the cloudyness of fall!  We had what is likely to be the last sunny weekend of the season yesterday, and we were out and about to enjoy it!!  We went to the Puyallup fair this weekend with our friend Laura, and enjoyed fair food, people watching, and looking at all of the animals.  One of Isabell’s new tricks is to say “quack quack” when you ask her what a duck says; we had a lot of practice at the fair as we walked through the bird barn.  Here are some pictures from the last few weeks, and isabell’s summer fun!

This past weekend the three of us went to Victoria, BC to celebrate Nashon and my third wedding anniversary.  My how time has flown!  This past year has been a whirlwind, though we do know where the time went; her name is Isabell.  We went through the process of getting a passport for Isabell so that she could come with us over the border, which was an excellent idea, as we all had a blast.  We used our timeshare, which is located right on the harbor in Victoria, and had a 270 degree view of the water, with a private hot tub (which we used in the evenings after Lady Isabell was in bed).  The dragon festival was going on, so we got to watch dragon boat races (think crew), and took some long walks, did some people watching (which Isabell loves to do), and generally just took it easy.  We headed up early Friday morning by driving to Anacortes to catch the ferry, and arrived ready to play by 11am.  We stayed through the weekend and caught a ferry into Port Angeles on Sunday afternoon to spend some time with Nashon’s parents and family that are in town.  Though we didn’t get to go on a big trip like Europe  last year, we enjoyed our time as a family, and can’t wait to head back to Victoria, the condo is beautiful and a nice home away from home. 

Enjoy the pictures!