happy easter

We spent a wonderful long weekend in VA Beach for the Easter holiday (well, minus the ride down but we won't dwell on that).

I didn't have the camera out too much since we had to be extra mindful of the non-baby proofed surroundings. After living in a baby proofed house its easy to forget what normal living used to be like.

Here's Isabel and her own personal airplane, and the picture doesn't do it justice. Grandpa Buescher made this airplane for Isabel out of paper (with the help of some wire) and added a lot of personal touches. It is called "Guckbucket Air" (something Grandpa calls Isabel), has a picture of Isabel on it, says "sweet pea" (our nickname for Isabel) on the cowling and is just all around super great. The propeller even spins which of course is Isabel's favorite part.


The next series of pictures are just too funny not to show. This is Uncle Romes' attempt to read to Isabel from his Japanese Aircraft book. As you can see, it held her attention for about 2 seconds.

Isabel was quite concerned as to how the Easter Bunny would find her, but sure enough he left a basket full of goodies just for her, which she enjoyed exploring after mass on Sunday.

The Easter Bunny brought her some yummy treats...which Mommy had the pleasure of eating :).

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter too!

Busy, Busy Weekend

We had a very busy, but extremely fun weekend. Although I'd rather be enjoying a bowl of ice cream, I decided to do a few pictures and then make that my end reward :).

This first picture isn't from the weekend, but shows Isabel's "new do." One of Isabel's teachers has been commenting about how Isabel needs a haircut...except I really didn't want to give Isabel bangs. Another teacher knew this and came up with this solution. It normally sits to the side instead of straight up, and is the perfect solution to keeping her hair out of her eyes. She doesn't mess with it either, which surprised me.


Friday evening Isabel and I drove to the Vienna Metro to pick up my Uncle Tim, Aunt Kathy and cousin Angela, who had spent part of spring break in DC proper doing the tourist thing. We spent the afternoon hanging out (while enjoying some beverages) and ended the night with pizza. I wasn't on my best photo game, but did manage to snap a shot of Angela and Isabel. Angela was so good with Isabel and we are looking forward to seeing them all again in June.


Saturday morning Isabel and I were up bright and early (per Isabel's lovely 5:30 wake-up) and started preparations for Katie & Michael's baby shower. Isabel was a great helper and played with her kitchen toys while I whipped up frosting for the cupcakes and made a white bean dip (yummy!). Coelle came over before the big event and everything went off great, and it seems as though everyone had a good time.

Isabel helping by riding around in the sling while we did the final preparations.

Laughing at the silly game, though the picture is more to show Isabel in her super cute outfit that Tim, Kathy & Angela brought. The little capris are just too much...so I decided I needed to do laundry that Saturday morning so she could wear her new outfit to the party.

The mommy and daddy to be.

I'll give you one guess as to what is in those bottles...and no, it is not apple juice.


Sunday was much more of a relaxing day. Anne, Jon and Jack joined us for lunch and we hung out on the sun porch watching Isabel and Jack play together...and by play together I mean play next to one another.
Jack pointing to Geoffrey and "grunting"...which translated to "Geoffrey, build me another tower."

Jack building a tower of his own while Isabel tests out the quality of the yogurt containers (which we have been saving to repurpose for starting seeds...but they happen to entertain children as well)
Isabel hard at work on her own tower.

Later on in the afternoon the uncles joined us at the house. We grilled since the weather was so nice and even lit the fire pit. I cant' even begin to tell you how happy I am that the weather is turning warm and that grilling season is here.

Eric and Isabel identifying animals. As you can see, Isabel loves her red chair. She will be playing away in the middle of the room with a toy, musical instrument etc and all of a sudden get the desire to read. She'll drop what she is doing, crawl over and onto the chair, turn herself around so she is sitting in the chair and just smile and wait whoever is in the room comes over to sit down beside her with a book.

Uncle Kevin playing with the hippo...I mean playing with Isabel and the hippo :)


Not from this weekend, but this morning Isabel was having a great time sticking her feet in her mouth while waiting for me to come and read to her.


And now that bowl of ice cream is calling my name...

Silly Videos

2 posts in one day, I know, something must be wrong.

I took these silly videos today and had them upload while in the playroom. Isabel was fascinated by the sound/video controls on the front of the computer and couldn't reach the keys...and it didn't hurt that I gave her my point and shoot to play with. Luckily its still in one piece.

Isabel thought it was REALLY funny to try and feed me her leftover applesauce. Sorry for the bouncing, but I was shooting one handed while trying to "be fed" at the same time.

And if you a) have a kid and b) have been thinking about a dog, perhaps this video will show you why you might want to consider one. Dogs make the world's best vacuum cleaners. They are fast and get every last crumb. Sometimes you even get a light mopping as well.

Teeth!

Can you see them...probably only if you look REALLY hard...

So here's a closeup!

With all the birthday festivities I forgot to mention a very important milestone that Isabel "reached" on March 12th...just one day before her birthday. A TOOTH. After picking her up from daycare I thought I caught a glimpse of something white. I was able to sneak my finger into her mouth and felt a tooth along the top of her gums. A few days later the "matching" bottom tooth followed, then the other middle bottom tooth and finally this past Wednesday the other upper middle tooth emerged. In 2 weeks she went from no teeth to 4 teeth.

She definitely is exploring her new teeth, and especially likes to make this strange underbite smile. Haven't gotten a picture of that yet. She's also learned that she can now bite...which is helpful for eating and um, not so helpful when it comes to nursing. She is only nursing 2-3 times a day now, and usually its when she is sleepy, so it really hasn't been too bad. She made the switch to cows milk without a problem and loves drinking from her little spout cup. (and I am loving having whole milk in the house, as coffee tastes so much better with whole vs skim). Its so fun (and a bit sad at the same time), to watch her eating and drinking her meals all by herself. Well, at least until she decides to start throwing food overboard, then she gets some help to finish.

We are looking forward to some warmer weather this weekend (even though its supposed to rain) and will be starting our seeds for the vegetable garden.

Happy Spring!

Birthday Fun

The pictures! Well, some of the pictures at least. Most of them speak for themself. If I have time I'll post some more words later, as the little one only napped for 45 minutes this morning, cutting my workout short as well as my blogging plans. Oh well, its much more fun to play with Isabel :). Happy spring!

The birthday girl with dad. Up from her nap and ready to party!



The Grandma/Mamarazi, ready to snap each and every moment of Isabel's birthday present opening spree.
The birthday girl in her new throne...er chair.

Sporting her new sunglasses.

Trying to figure out what the heck these things are. They are actually used for digging in the sand. Dad was pretty excited about them too. Watch out Isabel, if they go missing you know where to start looking!

A penguin hug. (Uncle Eric got her a build a bear penguin)

Monkeys on my back! These sock monkeys are pretty cute. One represents Isabel, Unc & Uncle Eric.

Hanging out with the Grandpas.

1st Birthday - The short version

We had a WONDERFUL weekend celebrating Isabel's birthday. She loved all of the attention and it was nice to have so much of the family together. Unfortunately I was hit with a nasty nasty stomach bug early Tuesday morning and was completely useless yesterday. Geoffrey stayed home to take care of me and watched Isabel. Thankfully it seems the worst is over and with toast in my stomach I am on a mission to rid the house of any remaining germs. Rest assured there are many more pictures to come...but it will probably have to wait until the weekend.

2 days and counting

No pictures this time, but I decided to post a pictureless entry anyways. We are gearing up for the big day, with my parents getting into town tomorrow and then Geoffrey's parents Friday evening. We'll officially celebrate her birthday on Saturday, but we'll do a birthday muffin with candle on Friday, which was a tradition in my family. I just can't believe that my little girl is going to be one. I know that is a common sentiment shared by all moms and dads, but jeez, time really does fly.

In growth/development news, Isabel still is toothless, but its going to be a close raise as to which of her two front teeth come in first. They are just about to poke through and I wonder whether or not it will be before or after her birthday. Lucky for her that cake doesn't require teeth. Isabel stood unassisted for the first time today for about 5 seconds. She looked really pleased with herself until she leaned forward and started to fall. This created a new game where she would stand, fall into my arms, I'd push her up and she'd squeal with delight.

Isabel has been expanding her pallete and we have yet to feed her anything that she really just didn't like (well, there was the buffalo chicken tender that she wasn' sure what to do with). Her favorite foods seem to bread/pasta (whole wheat of course) and brocoli. She is working on her cup skills and can drink from a straw cup on her own and with a spout cup with a little help from mom or dad. She got a little too excited about her straw cup on Friday and went on a nursing strike for the weekend (more than likely it was the teeth causing this) which was tough. Thankfully the strike is over and we can work on weaning at a slower pace.

Stay tuned for pictures and a recap of Isabel's birthday weekend :).