Isabel, Isabel, How Does your Garden Grow?

You might remember from an earlier post, that Geoffrey spent a lot of time during his paternity leave working on terracing the side of the house. Once the yard was terraced he brought in bags and bags of new soil, that already had organic matter mixed in, and mulched the beds to prevent weeds. When the weather was warm enough I planted the tomatoes, squash (yellow and green), cucumbers and assorted herbs I had started from seed. We must have done something right as the garden is insane. The squash and cucumber plants are huge, the herbs are growing like crazy and the tomatoes are full of flowers. The squash and cucumbers started flowering a couple weeks ago and tomorrow I should be picking the first of the cucumber. You can't get more local and organice than produce from your own yard. We plan on adding a third row of terrace this fall and next year will expand the variety of plants.

Almost ready to pick!

The squash leaves are HUGE!

The yellow squash still have a ways to go before they will be ready to eat.

This is what we are calling the squash explosion. Last year we had a much smaller garden, and apparently missed picking a squash. It must have rotted and seeded itself, as this spring Geoffrey discovered a mass of baby squash plants growing together. We decided to leave it and just see what happens. It actually has flowers so hopefully it too will produce some yummy squash.

This week has been a crazy one, as we had hardwood floors installed and will be having the steps stripped of their carpet and refinished on Friday/Saturday. We spent a good part of the weekend packing up everything from the closets and inside of all the furniture in preparation for the task. Last week, the floor was delivered (all 79 boxes) to allow it to acclimate. Monday morning a crew of 3 showed up and it was off to the races. Furniture was moved, carpet was torn out and the flooring began. We went with a 3 1/4" wide maple plank in a butterscotch stain with an "Extreme Finish." The finish was developed by a Canadian company to withstand just about anything. I tried scratching it with a key and sandpaper (well the sample) and you couldn't see a thing! The new floor looks amazing and the before/after pictures certainly don't do it justice. The pugs haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but I'm loving it and actually looking forward to cleaning it, as the pug hair and dust should come right off!





What 79 boxes of hardwood floor looks like.

Work in progress.

The finished living room. All of the furniture is sitting on carpet squares until we get felt furniture pads to go underneath everything to protect the floors.

And it seems that Monday is Isabel's day for trying new things. On Monday Eric came over to hang out while his car was getting tuned up and sat and played with Isabel while I packed up the office. He called me to come quick as he thought Isabel was going to roll over...back to stomach, and sure enough, she did! After she tired of being on her tummy she flipped herself onto her back. It was fun to watch and also means that we have to pay extra attention to her, should she decide to put these skills together to roll across the room. It is just amazing to me to see how quickly a baby develops and learns new skills. In addition to working on her rolling skills, Isabel has also become quite vocal and is experimenting with new sounds. Geoffrey and I try to imitate her sounds back to her, which always gets a grin. Even funnier is that she responded back to a recording of her voice with glee, when I was playing back a video I took of her "talking."

Isabel definitely takes after her Dad's love of flying. She makes the happiest noises while swooshing around the dad-plane.

CHEESE!

Bye Bye Grandma & Grandpa

Isabel here again. Mommy has to do some "real work" today, and Dad is working late, so I decided to take blogging over, to make sure that everyone can be updated on our wonderful week. I'm still not sure what this real work is, since I think I'm plenty of work by myself.

Grandma and Grandpa Schaeffer left for Aiken, SC this morning and I was sad to see them go, as I had such a great time with them the past two weeks. On Mommy's work days we always started the day with a walk, and some days I even got to go on two walks! Grandma taught me quite a few new songs, my favorite being "Boop Boop Diddum Daddum Waddum Woo." Mommy kept calling home to see how I was doing, and sometimes I got to say hi. I've been told that Dad will be watching me on Mommy's work days next week and that we'll be getting hardwood floors installed. I'm not so sure that hard floors are a good idea, as they sound pretty uncomfortable, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Mommy's first week back I thought that if I refused my bottle, Mommy might come home sooner. Well, my plan didn't work so well, and by this past Tuesday I realized that the bottle wasn't so bad, and was much better than not eating while Mommy was at work. This seemed to make everyone happy, especially Grandma and Grandpa, who didn't have to hear me get up 3 times at night :).

I'm continuing to work on my rolling skills, and more importantly, have avoided Mommy and her camera for the most part. Wednesday I wasn't quite fast enough and Mommy did manage to capture the second half of my rolling over on video.

Wednesday I went to Maggiano's with everyone. I hear a lot about this place and was hopeful that I might actually get to try some of the food. Mommy wanted to take some pictures, but nobody seemed interested in cooperating. She took some anyway :).

I actually spent most of dinner sleeping, but did wake up just in time for the entrees to be served.

When daddy moved me to his lap I thought for sure the plate was for me. But he didn't let me try any of the food, so I decided to go back to sleep.

Mommy forgot my diaper bag, which had a blanket it in, so she used an extra napking to help keep me warm while I slept.

Well, speaking of sleep, I think its time for me to take a nap, as Mommy just caught me and says I'm acting a bit cranky.

Roll Over...Roll Over

After spending 12 wonderful weeks at home with Isabel, I returned to work last Tuesday. I had been dreading this day for quite some time, but it wound up being easier than I thought it would. Not that it was easy, but after getting used to putting on my "work hat" I was able to focus on my job, and not fixate on the fact that I wasn't at home with Isabel. I even felt a little guilty at first, as I didn't have to worry about anyone but myself while I was at work...a very weird feeling after putting myself second for the past 3 months. Isabel was just as happy as could be when I got home, gave me some smiles and then went back to battling it out with her octopus friend. She is enjoying her time with her Grandma and Grandpa, except for that awful bottle, which she still isn't fond of. Here are some pictures from this past week.

Isabel really enjoys grabbing burp rags and playing with them...including cover up her eyes. She also has figured out she can use her legs to wack all of her sea creatures.

Although Isabel isn't old enough to safely sleep with her duck yet, she enjoys spending time with her during the day under the supervision of mommy and dad.

Isabel figured that if her turtle toy can fit his head into his shell, she might as well try it too.

Naked tummy time! Isabel had a little bit of diaper rash, so we let her enjoy some naked tummy time. She loved it and really started pushing up more than she had.

Isabel also has learned how to email, and surprised Mommy with the following email at work on Friday:

"hi mommy! dad and i are hafing a graet day tooday. i had tummy time and then got to play on my mat with my octipus and wale. i fell alseep after that with dad and he put in my swing, but i woke up and was board in about 5 minits. but then he picked me up again, yay! and i fell back to sleep. i stayed asleep till grandpa came down, and then he held me some. we played some more, and then grandma and grandpa took there walk. i played on my mat some more and then had brekfest about 9-15. i was really really really good and drank 2 ownses. then dad changed me and we watched my airplane mobile--it was realy fun and i laffed and smiled when dad made the airplanes zoom around real fast! then dad read me go dog go. i dont get it. then i played on my mat some more but wasnt real into it cause i was getting tired. so now i think i will go take a nap in my swaddle and crib. bye mommy, i luv you! see you this afternoon!"

We had a wonderful first Father's Day, though mommy was slacking and didn't take many pictures. We started the day with mass, followed by a trip to Dunkin Donuts. Later in the day we watched the US Open, combined with a BBQ and ice cream sundaes. Grandpa Schaeffer started teaching Isabel about golf and Tiger Woods. Maybe in a few years she'll get to give the sport a try when visiting Grandma and Grandpa.

And if you couldn't have guessed it from the Blog title...Isabel is now rolling over! This morning I was getting my cereal together when Grandma and Grandpa called me in. Isabel was on her belly for tummy time and really working her arms and legs. All of a sudden she put it together and flipped over. She did it a second time, and finally I decided to find my camera. Well by that time she had did it a third time and decided enough was enough. She rolled over a couple more times today, but by late afternoon she'd had enough. So a picture will have to wait for another day.

Well, tomorrow is a work day, so its time to go and get those icky bottles together. Hopefully Isabel will become more accustomed to them, otherwise Mommy is in for some long nights of making up for lost milk during daytime hours :).

Stay tuned for rolling over pictures!

Isabel and the 3 Bears

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there lived a little baby girl named Isabel. She spent her days taking walks, listening to music and playing fun games. The land of Vienna was sunny and bright, until one afternoon, the land grew dark and rain poured from the sky. Suddenly the lights went out...a very new experience for this little baby. Soon the house grew hot, so Isabel tried to pretend she was at the ocean, sunning herself.

That was fun, but didn't make her any cooler, so she tried to take a nap with the breeze of her swing.

That worked for a little bit, but the house continued to grow hotter. As night drew near and the house grew dark, the baby Isabel ventured to her Uncles Kevin and Eric's condo in search of a cool place to sleep.

Once she arrived, she thought that maybe sleeping in her carrier would work, but that bed was too small.

Next, she tried out Uncle Eric's bed, but it was just too big.

Finally, she happened upon a familiar sight, the bed she used to use in mommy and dad's room. This bed was just right :).

Ok, so no bears were actually involved, but hey...

DC had some crazy thunderstorms Wednesday afternoon that knocked out power across the region and made for some pretty nasty traffic. It made for a fun adventure for me and Isabel, as Geoffrey was out of town. We joined Anne, Jon and baby Jack for a grilled dinner and luckily Jon sent me home with a head lamp, that made gathering up things at the house quite easy, before heading to Eric and Kevin's. I'm not sure how their condo managed to keep power, but was very happy to hear they had power - and AC. Isabel doesn't seem to like the heat, and it would have been a not so pleasant night at home. Power is back and we'll all be sleeping well (and cool) tonight.

We have a busy weekend ahead, and should have lots to post next week.

Stay cool everyone!