March Catch Up

I finished getting all the pictures from my memory card since the birthday and tummy time post, and grabbed my favorites to post below.

Geoffrey is currently growing a beard (not that it was hard to miss), as he is taking part in a "beard off" with some of his co-workers. The field started with 7 or 8 guys, but now has been reduced to just a few, mainly because some of the guys wimped out. Since Geoffrey is home on paternity leave, he was allowed to email a picture since he wouldn't be in the office. He received high marks...though I'm not sure it was completely due to the beard :).

Each day Mia is having more and more alert time. Here she is enjoying the view from Daddy's shoulder...

2 weekends ago we had some really nice spring weather. The uncles came over early for some corn hole fun and Isabel decided she too would play the game.

She also enjoyed gathering up the bean bags and bringing them back to Uncles Kevin and Eric.

Geoffrey has been doing a great job of taking care of me and Mia, but also making sure the house stays in order. When it came time to vacuum last week, Isabel rode around in the Ergo with him, as she has developed a major fear of the "purple vacuum."

Daddy and the 2 girls

Uncle Romes stopped by for a very quick visit last Thursday. He brought Isabel a copy of The Butter Battle Book which he started reading to Isabel.

I brought out another costume yesterday, a lion suit, which Isabel wore for the entire afternoon. I didn't put up the pictures, but she only wore the lion suit and a diaper, refusing pants and a shirt.

Mommy and Mia taking a little rest while Isabel "pretends" to sleep as well.

We are all doing well and I can't believe that Mia has been with us for almost four weeks. Time is just flying.

In other news, Isabel slept in her big girl bed for the first time last night. Isabel has had a full-sized mattress in her room since she has been born, that she knew would someday be hers. Back in January she requested to sleep in the bed, but that only lasted about 15 minutes before she asked to move to her crib. Over the weekend she mentioned "the purple bed" (it has lavender sheets on it) and last night asked to "go sleep in purple bed." So I read her 3 books from the bed and she went to sleep. We did make the mistake of not putting the side guard on and she went THUD in the middle of the night, but was in such a deep sleep it didn't phase her. Geoffrey asked if she wanted to go back in her crib and from our room I heard, "purple bed" where she slept for the remainder of the night. She sure is growing up and I think its time for me to hurry up and finish her quilt, since it seems like her purple bed is going to be the bed of choice and it might be time to say good bye to her crib.

2 Girls Doing Tummy Time

Eric commented on Sunday that I hadn't updated the blog recently...so I told him I'd work on it Tuesday while our new windows (yay!) are being installed. I am amused that Eric was the blog requester, since he and Kevin see Isabel and Mia at least once a week.

A little over Mia's 2 week birthday her cord fell off and tummy time began. So far she tolerates it better than Isabel did at this stage and Isabel also enjoys partcipating. Whenever she and Mia are doing something together (tummy time, sitting with mommy etc) she refers to herself and Mia as "the two girls"...so here are the two girls doing tummy time.

Kisses from Isabel. Isabel LOVES to kiss her little sister which just melts my heart each time she does it. I know that at some point there will be some jealousy, but until then I'm going to enjoy the fact that Isabel has nothing but love for Mia.

"2 Girls!"

French Fries, Cakeballs, Pizza and Milk

We enjoyed a wonderful birthday celebration for Isabel this past Saturday. Although she still doesn't quite get what a birthday is, she did enjoy opening presents and getting to dine on her special birthday dinner - all picked out by Isabel with the exception of the peas I added to "round" out the meal. It just goes to show how good the memory of a young toddler is, as pizza, french fries and cake balls are something that rarely make its way onto our plates...and even less often to Isabel's plate.

I currently have Mia sleeping away on my chest (I'm enjoying a few hours of quiet time with just her), so I'll keep the words brief.

We almost didn't make it through the rest of the presents after Isabel opened the big bin of blocks from Grandma and Grandpa Buescher. At least every five minutes she would stop what she was doing and ask "play with blocks?"

What is this frilly thing?
A tutu! Made for Isabel by Mommy. She kept talking about Katy Duck, who is a character in one of her favorite books who has quite the collection of tutus.

Duck and flower window decals that of course had to be opened right away and placed on the nearest window.

A set of heart shaped bracelets...

...all of which had to be placed on her arm before the festivities could continue.

A set of butterfly hair bows...that all four had to be placed in her hair and on her dress.

A baby "ergo." It is really meant to be a front doll carrier, but since Isabel can only relate to riding on our backs, we made it work for coffee baby to ride on her back. My guess is once she sees Mia riding around in the Ergo on the front, coffee baby will also move to her front.

We got Isabel a little sleeping mat/combo for when she no longer sleeps in a pack-n-play on trips. Of course she had to try it out, but it doesn't work too well while wearing a baby on your back.
This works a little better...
Uncle Eric is pretty excited about taking Isabel for her first Chuck E Cheese experience and gave Isabel a voucher for "a fun filled afternoon of pizza and games with Uncle Eric on Chuck E Cheese." I'm oh so glad that Eric is excited about this and I can avoid a visit there for a while :).

Unc's gift of a dancing Brobee (a character from a show called Yo Gabba Gabba which Isabel had never seen since she doesn't watch TV) started off ok...

..but once it started moving, talking and swinging his arms she became quite scared...
...backing herself into the corner while whimpering "all done, all done, put away, put away." Luckily on Sunday and Monday she enjoyed watching the Brobee dance from the comfort of Mommy or Daddy's lap. I'm sure eventually she will learn to love dancing with the Brobee.

At least she didn't keep a grudge with Unc and was happy to play blocks with him while Mommy got dinner ready.

Isabel is really into hearts, so I made that the "theme" of her birthday. It helped that valentine's day was near her birthday so I stocked up on all things heart related - a hearts table cloth, heart dishes and bowls and heart straws. I'm sure with two little girls these items will see lots of good use throughout the years. Isabel was delighted with everything and loved the heart tablecloth.

Unc especially enjoyed drinking beer through his heart straw.

Since Isabel had requested cake balls, I made a small cake for the more traditional birthday cake.
Isabel got very sleepy during dinner, so blew out her candles after getting into her PJs.

MMM, cakeballs. Happy Birthday Isabel!