Adendum to both bed and shoes entries...

I went to get something out of Isabelle's room and found this. I think sleeping kids are so cute and funny at the same time. Here she is flopped in front of the door asleep with her shoes on, (which I did remove before laying her in her bed for a nap) complete with her blanket shoved into her mouth as much as possible.

Bed...Who Needs A Bed?

We've made the toddler bed transition. I wanted to have plenty of time before the baby came so we could go at Isabelle's pace. The first night I set it up and she jumped in and squealed in excitement. I tucked her in and left and nothing. I closed the door thinking, "That was too easy." And then 45 seconds later the shriek came. She's not much of a screamer, but man it was the most scared cry I had ever heard. I went back in to console her and I let her choose which bed and she chose her crib. I was going to let her choose for about 2 weeks and if she still preferred the crib, then I would take it down. After 3 nights of choosing the crib, the next day for nap she chose the toddler bed and she's been "in" it ever since.

Most nights I go in to put her back in her bed because she's somewhere on the floor in her room, but after 2 1/2 weeks, she's now starting to be in her bed when I go in and check on her. I can't believe how big she is!

The unfortunate event that comes along with this is she has figured out door knobs. Amazingly, however, she won't come out of her room until after she has slept. Naps and bedtime, she'll kick on the door or play, but never come out. Then when she wakes up she comes and finds me. I'm enjoying it while it lasts, I'm sure it won't be long before she realizes she can come out before she sleeps. She also hasn't started opening other doors in the house, ie pantry, bathrooms etc. Door knob covers are on the shopping list so I'm ready for the day that my life will change once again.

"Da-ye, I sorry"

We made a practical decision and sold the boat on Monday. It was a sad sad day. Sometimes it stinks making the practical choice. It's not always the fun one. We have had so many fun memories on that boat. That's actually how Mike and I met. We've gotten to spend lots of fun times with friends and family boating and camping. We always had a blast even when the weather wasn't perfect or something didn't go right. Isabelle enjoyed it the couple of times she got to go and has been wearing her life jacket around the house saying, "boat." We definitely will be getting another boat when we are done having kids and they're old enough to help out.

As we watched someone else drive off with our boat, Isabelle so sweetly from the backseat said, "Da-ye (Daddy), I sorry."

Shoes and wipes

I was making breakfast and Isabelle kept herself entertained while waiting patiently. She unloaded the box of wipes and organized them. She then proceeded to "count" them. She really only counts to three, but then kept making up words to count the rest. Then I got her cheesy smile.

Notice the shoes and jammies. She wakes up still in her crib and asks for shoes. She hasn't even eaten yet, but still needs shoes on. Most days she wears shoes all day weather we go anywhere or not. It's even funnier in her footed jammies with shoes.

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day, Mike's extended family always gets together to put flowers on his grandpa's grave and then we go to a park for an afternoon of visiting, food, and fun together. Isabelle was not happy at the grave, but perked up as soon as she got food, mostly chips. That girl loves her chips. We had a great day. Mike played some ultimate frisbee and soccer. I got to visit and play at the playground with Isabelle.

I have no idea whose hat she found, but she was putting it on everyone else. I told her to put it on and this was the face she made. I thought it was funny.


Later cookies, candy, and rice krispie treats came out. She has such a sweet tooth. Mike found a sucker, and therefore, Isabelle found Mike. He shared it with her, but in the end, she got it.



She spent most of her time climbing the table to see who would give her more sweets. Anyone with a cookie was her best friend.

On the way home, exhausted and a tiny bit sunburned, she got ahold of Mike's shoes and was being cute.

The Duck Pond

We went to Layton to spend a morning with one of Isabelle's cousins. We went to this great duck pond. It had TONS of birds! There were geese, swans, ducks, seagulls, and I don't even know what else. Isabelle had a great time feeding them. She was quacking at them all the whole time. It was pretty funny. It was a really pretty park and we had a nice stroll along the huge ponds and river. It was a little chilly, but still an enjoyable day.


There was also a great playground. Isabelle had a blast climbing up the stairs and going down the slide a hundred times all by her self. She has finally decided slides are really fun. We also spent some time in the swings which she has always loved.

Baby!

Announcing, Baby Ward #2 will be arriving at the end of November. We're really excited for another addition to our little family. Isabelle has been such a dream boat of a kid, we're hoping we can be even 1/2 as lucky for our next one.

Isabelle is going to be the best big sister ever. She loves her dolls which she calls babies and even enunciates it perfectly (along with shoes and dress, is she a girl or what?). She constantly has one with her. She rocks them and kisses them, and feeds them her milk and snacks, and wraps them up in blankets, and takes them for rides in her shopping cart and stroller. It's so fun to watch her grow up. She now even has to sleep with her big baby and her little baby and the little blanket, not to mention HER blanket too. Soon, there won't be room for her in that crib. When she's upset, the blanket use to work just fine, but now she blubbers, "baby" until I find her a doll too. Kids are so funny! "Bye-Bye" she's telling me now with her shoes on, ready to go. I told her we were going to go to the store and apparently I've taken too long.

Sleeping through the years...well 18 months

We have been spoiled from day 1 with Isabelle and her sleeping habits. She is her father's child and LOVES her sleep. She can sleep through ANYTHING and ANYWHERE! I found all these pictures we've taken over the last 18 months and found it entertaining. She turns 18 months next week and I just can't believe it. Isabelle is growing up so fast and now she's just a little toddler and no more baby!

Happy Easter!!

I got this super cute picture of Isabelle in her bunny ears, but was bummed I cut off the bottom of her face as she moved when the shutter went. So I tried to get her to do it again and this is what I got....


Being Silly

No luck, so I bribed her with chocolate chips and still had no success, but got some funny pictures anyway.


Our neighborhood has a cute Easter Egg Hunt every year. We finally had a reason to go. Isabelle was a champ! She had no idea there was anything in them so she didn't get distracted picking them up. I told her to clean up the eggs and she went to town. She wouldn't let go of her basket even before the hunt began.



She really enjoyed it. She loved it even more when she found out there was candy in the eggs. At Mike's parent's egg hunt, she would pick one up at a time and eat the candy before moving along. She figured it out too quickly.


On Sunday we went to Mike's parents for their Easter party. We had a fantastic dinner, colored eggs, went on an egg hunt and saw what the Easter bunny left. All the grandkids had a blast.

Isabelle loved coloring the eggs. She like to have lots of eggs in the dye. She kept adding them and adding them. It was really fun to have a kid enjoy Easter.

San Francisco

We got to go visit Mike's grandmother in San Francisco with Mike's parents. We had a great time. We would get up usually late in the morning and head out to breakfast. We would do some sight seeing and then go hang out at Mike's Grandmother's apartment for the late afternoon, dinner, and evening. We were always late getting to our condo. Isabelle was a trooper! I could not believe how good she was. She was really good in the restaraunts and for going to bed at 11pm with no real nap every day, she was a dream boat!

Isabelle's favorite part was the sea lions at Pier 39. We had to call them seals because when she heard sea lion, she would growl like a lion. It was pretty funny. She also loved all the pigeons and dogs everywhere. She was constantly pointing and yelling at the animals. We also went to this really cool music box/arcade museum. It's old player pianos and super old arcade type things. With a dollar worth of quaters (and following others around) we had a great afternoon. Isabelle loved dancing to all the music. It was really cute.


Every night we took the cable car home and Isabelle would fall asleep. She sat so well on the cable cars, but wanted to play all over the buses and trollies. We tried to take the cable car as much as possible. Plus it was so much more fun! I don't know how people there have children. We had 4 adults for our 1 baby and it was crazy. I couldn't imagine being a mom in San Francisco.


The weather was absolutely beautiful. The last day was the only day that could even kind of be considered hazy. We could see Alcatraz and the golden gate bridge every day.


This is San Francisco from Alcratraz. I really enjoyed the tour and found it facinating.


Here we are with Mike's grandmother, Isabel, at Ghiridelli Square. It was a really great opportunity to get to know her better and for her to get to know her great-grandaughter and name sake. Grandmother's apartment is right next to Ghiridelli Square. Numerous times a day we stopped in for a free chocolate sample. I never got tired of it! We had such a fun trip and really enjoyed everything!