One year!

yes, isabella celebrated her one-year birthday this past weekend. how did one year pass by so quickly?! i had heard that the more kids you have the faster it goes, but i just didnt' think that could be true until now! here are 12 fun things about isabella . . . and some fun pictures from her birthday celebration. (big sister emma picked out all the decorations, party hats, etc. i think she has a future in party planning!)

oh, when i asked emma what was her favorite thing about isabella now that she's one . . . emma responded . . . "cake."



12 fun things about isabella . . .
1. her laugh - she loves laughing, and if you've ever heard her laugh, you know what i'm talking about . . . a deep, very funny, from the belly laugh
2. her kisses . . . when she kisses you, she gives a full mouth, sloppy kiss, but when she hears you make a kiss sound, she'll pucker up and smack her lips making a kiss sound back
3. she crawls really fast, and when she really gets going, she'll look where she wants to go, put her head down (very aerodynamic) and start crawling
4. the way she is always saying, "tickle, tickle" . . . it kind of sounds like "ditka, ditka"
5. she can say woof, woof . . . she kind of grunts!
6. her rhythm . . . she hears music and she starts rocking and dancing
7. when she gets excited, her legs and feet and arms and hands start shaking like crazy
8. she is pulling up on everything and walking around all the furniture . . . i'm sure walking on her own is coming soon, especially now that she has all the walking toys from her birthday
9. she loves to look out the windows . . . she especially loves watching out the front windows and seeing the cars and trucks go by
10.she is full of giggles when we take the girls up for bed and she sees emma following behind
11. she loves looking at books and will help turn the pages when we read . . . her favorite books are the ones that have real pictures in them, not the animated graphics
12. the way she scrunches up her face and breathes in and out through her nose

Staying Home

yes, i've made the decision to stay at home and be a full-time mom. at the end of may, i will be staying home full time . . . not working anymore! wow, it's a huge change. i'm looking forward to having some more time with both of the girls, and to having some alone time with isabella that i haven't been able to have. i'm also hoping to feel a little less overwhelmed. i, admittedly, am a little nervous about finances, but we've been taking steps that will hopefully help as we make this transition. mostly, i'm excited to step into this new chapter in our lives!

any other moms out there who left work to stay home full time with any tips or thoughts? would love to hear from you!

Painted faces

today we went to a local festival. they had several kids' activities - emma loved jumping in "her castle" and sliding down the big slide, and she had a great time with the different crafts. she also really enjoyed face painting. she got her face painted twice. at the second table, the man painting faces was being funny when emma sat down and started telling her what he wanted on his face. emma laughed, and he kept going a little more. he was, of course, being funny, but . . . when he asked her what she wanted on her face, she looked at him totally serious and said, "no, i want to paint your face." the gentleman was so sweet and continued to play along with her and let her paint his face. of course, he had started out joking about it, and i laughed and said, 'you've asked the wrong person that question (about painting his face).' this is emma . . . i knew she was taking him literally. in the end, they both ended up with painted faces. it was very funny!

oh, and i was given a new list for tomorrow:
1. emma wants juice for breakfast
2. emma wants rice milk in the morning
3. put the swedish cinderella book in her backpack for swedish class

Write It Down

emma has started something new. she'll tell me something, and then she asks me if i can write that down. she wants me to take notes for her . . . it seems to be to remind us both.

tonight she gave me three things:
1. don't drink all the juice (meaning 'i want orange juice in the morning, so be sure we still have some.')
2. i want to sit on the edge (that's the head of the table where isabella's high chair is . . . lately she likes to sit where i normally have isabella sitting :) )
3. don't eat all the waffles (meaning, 'i want waffles for breakfast, so make sure there are some left for me.')

it totally cracks me up. she's very serious about it, and she'll ask me several times to be sure that i'm going to write this down. she reviews everything for me too, so it's very helpful. i'm not sure how it started . . . maybe she just noticed mommy's forgetfulness, and thought i needed a little help remembering things!

Get Checked

if you aren't regularly seeing a dermatologist for a mole check, i highly recommend it. i went today for my annual mole check, and i actually went in a few months earlier to have the dr look at a spot i was concerned about. she checked me out . . . moles looked good. the spot i showed her was "not concerning to her," but she did want to treat it. she said it was from sun exposure and was definitely a spot that would be considered precancerous, but the good thing is that we caught it early. she sprayed liquid nitrogen on it. it stung when she did it and felt tender for awhile after. now, it's a little swollen. she said that the skin will dry and flake off over the next few days.

all that to say, please get checked. makes me even more aware of using sunscreen on the girls too. and, why was i thinking it was so great to lay out all day when i was growing up, using little to no suntan lotion, and holding aluminum foil under my face to get a better tan?!

Chicken or the Egg???

so, emma was saying to me today that she was created by God and i was created by God, and so was isabella and pappa. then, she looked at me and said, "well, then who created God?" (i don't think i was asking those questions when i was four years old!) it lead into an interesting discussion after that. just hope i helped her four-year-old mind grasp all there is to grasp in that question and answer.

anyone have any thoughts?

Black Eye

so, looks like we'll have a black eye for school pics at preschool tomorrow. i'm guessing it's not going away before then. what do you think? do i cake on the coverup tomorrow?!