You attended your first marketing ploy Disney Princess party a while back.¬† You nearly lost your mind when I mentioned the Princess party as that week’s reward for getting all your magnets on your responsibility chart.¬† Each night as you dutifully reviewed your responsibilities for the day and placed the correct magnet in its spot you proudly proclaimed, “At the end of the week I’ll get all my magnets and then I am going to a PRINCESS PARTY!¬† I am so excited; I cannot wait!”
The party was a tad overwhelming as hoards of little girls, in various princess garb, descended upon the store and the two brave employees who ran the party.¬† True to your nature, you sort of stood back, took it all in, and decided it just wasn’t worth the fuss and pushing to vie for stickers that were going to come to you if you just waited patiently.¬† Most of the little girls were actually really nice and patient just like you, but the parents were an entirely different story.¬† You would have thought the little jewel stickers were real rubies and emeralds or that if they just pushed their kid far enough forward she might, in fact, become a true princess.
One of the most exciting parts of the last two months has been your growing interest in and success with POTTY TRAINING.¬† You’ve consistently gone at school for quite a while now, spending your day in pull-ups and your naps dry.¬† At home it has been hit or miss until recently…now we find you sans pants and diaper or pull-up sitting on the potty patiently waiting to go potty while other times you’ll stop whatever we are doing, announce your need to go potty, and then take off running to the potty seat.¬† You are so proud of this new skill and always tell us, “Oh, you are SO proud of me, Mommy/Daddy!”¬† You love nothing more than putting on a new pull-up and then helping us dump the potty in the toilet, flushing it, and yelling, “That’s a lot of potty!¬† Bye, potty!”¬† We are still working on the poop phase of potty training, but you’ve had several successes in that area of late, so our fingers remain crossed that you will have this all down by the time baby brother shows up in May!¬† (I shudder at the thought of two in diapers.)
Speaking of baby brother, you are extremely excited about the idea of being a big sister. One day you announced, “Mommy, don’t you think it will be so much fun to have a baby brother?¬† Maybe we can take him to the park sometime!¬† That will be a great idea!”¬† You are also very keen on the idea of taking him swimming.¬† When I asked you what color swimsuit you wanted you said pink and that baby brother wanted pink, too.¬† A few minutes, and about twenty conversations later, you said, “Mommy, I actually think baby brother would want a blue bathing suit.”
You love talking to my tummy to see if baby brother will move and you love giving my belly button kisses because you have determined this is where the baby resides.¬† If only that were true; I wouldn’t have had to endure your big, fat tummy comment nor would I suffer the roundhouses to the ribs every night!
Ever since learning about baby brother you have taken a keen interest in ALL things baby.¬† You acknowledge every.single.baby we see in public with a squealing, “Look at that baby, Mommy.¬† (S)he is so cute!”¬† You’ve started asking a lot of questions about babies too.¬† You want to know what they like to drink, eat, play with, and read.¬† When asked those same questions your responses were, “Milk, cereal, soccer balls, and Charlie and Lola.”¬† You are quite confident that babies cry a lot and when asked why you said, “I don’t know.¬† They shouldn’t cry because they are always with their mommies.”
You continue to learn new and amazing things every day.¬† You now know how to spell yellow and box, know part of your address, and when to and not to call 911.¬† As you love to tell us, “911 isn’t for fun; it’s only for emergencies! If someone has a gun, run away and call 911!”¬† You can recite nearly any book we put in front of you whether you’ve heard it once or a thousand times.¬† You are amazingly good at looking at context clues to fill in the blanks for the parts you don’t have committed to memory yet.¬† We recently bought a set of Princess and the Frog books and I had read through the four books once to you prior to you “reading” them nearly word for word to your dolls.¬† You can recognize lots of letters and their sounds and are very, very interested in what everything says.¬† It really doesn’t matter what the object is, if there is printed text you point to it and ask, “What does that say?” You wait for us to tell you, study the words, repeat them, and then move onto the next line of text.¬† I can remember doing the same as a kid (okay, even now I do it); if there are words on something I want to read them and try them out…you never know when something cleverly written will turn up.¬† I hope and pray your love of books now translates into a continued love of reading and words throughout your life.¬† There are so many good books I cannot wait to share with you and many more that we have to discover together!
You are beginning to understand the concept of time and days of the week.¬† You started out by saying “lasterday” for yesterday but within a couple of days you had the correct version down.¬† Not only do you know the names for the days of the week, but you are shockingly good at nailing down what day of the week it actually is or on what day of the week something in the past happened! This skill alone puts you light years ahead of most of the high school kids I teach!
There is no easy transition into these next paragraphs as they are simply a list of things you’ve said that I want to remember:
One night while snuggling I yelled out, “Brian” a few times to try to get Daddy to come into your room to say goodnight.¬† After a couple good yells with no response from Daddy, you looked at me and said, “Huh.¬† I don’t think he heard you!”¬† I yelled one more time, to which you told me, “He’s in the office, remember?¬† Be quiet, Mommy!”
Another night, after a day that held a rather unlike Izzy fit, you told me, “I was a bad girl, Mommy.¬† Maybe I will do better next year.¬† I will be happy again, Mommy.”
In our continuing task of teaching you manners (thank you is second nature to you, but asking please of Mom and Dad seems to evade you 50% of the time…could this be part of that self-centered toddler world view?) we don’t acknowledge your requests until they are accompanied by a please.¬†¬†¬† Most of the time you catch on and say please but every so often you like to remind us of our true position in the household.¬† You’re a HUGE fan of cereal and so asked Daddy for more after eating a bowl.¬† Daddy asked, “More what?”¬† You said, “More cereal.”¬† Daddy responded, “More cereal what?”¬† You then retorted, “More cereal in my mouth!” and stared him down until he had to look away for fear of letting you know he was laughing!
After a long day of school, playing, and maintaining the busy life of a toddler you told me, “Goodnight, dear.¬† Turn off the light.”¬† Once the light was out, you sighed deeply and said, “Oh, what a day!”
Like most toddlers, and men, you tend to have selective hearing, so I often ask you, “What happens when you don’t listen?”¬† One time, upon being asked that, you said, “I get spanked.”¬† I asked if you liked to be spanked.¬† You said, “Not a lot of times.”¬† Another time that I asked if you remembered what happens when you don’t listen you said, “Not exactly…”
Lest you or your future therapist think we only beat you, remember that we use time outs as well, which for all your wailing and carrying on during your 2 1/2 minute respite you would think we were beating you like a red-headed step-child.¬† After a time out for not helping to clean up I asked what was going to happen when you got out.¬† You looked at me and the pile of toys and said, “I’m going to have to go back to time out.¬† I cannot pick up ALL of those toys.”
You are growing up so quickly, Isabella.¬† Every time I turn around you seem taller, less babyish, smarter, funnier, kinder, and independent.¬† You are turning into a little girl and frankly, I think it inhumane that you don’t slow down a bit.¬† I love watching you grasp and master more and more complex mental and physical tasks, but I do wish that was coupled with the days of snuggling you for hours on end.¬† Then your world consisted of only me and now your world consists of, “Mom, did you see that?” as you run between me and whatever cool thing you are doing or have just discovered.
You would think I would have gotten my act together for something as monumental as your SECOND birthday, but alas, my failures as a mother are many.  This has been a rough fall for me as I struggle to get back in the groove of teaching and reconcile myself with taking you to school three days a week.  I find I devote all my time at work to getting work things done so that I have the freedom to devote all my non-work time to hanging out with you; thus, many other things not required to do either one of my jobs tend to get pushed aside.
But, back to you…so you turned two almost two months ago, which you happily announce to anyone who happens to ask.¬† You proudly hold up your pointer and middle finger and proclaim, “I AM TWO!”¬† Two means so many things to you: sometimes it means you are a big girl and can do anything that’s everything all by yourself and other times it means you are a little girl who will not ever give her Sir her thumb; it means some days you are all about potty training and princess pull-ups and other days you are content to hang out in a wet, steamy diaper all day; it means learning that some things are just for you and other things are meant to be shared; it means hugs and kisses and snuggles and emphatic insistence that, “No, thank you” you would not like a hug or kiss or snuggle; it means that some nights you want to sleep in your big girl bed and other nights your crib is just fine; it means coloring to fill the blank spaces in the coloring book and coloring to fill the blank spaces on your arms and legs; it means talking excitedly about school when you are not there and crying about school when you have to go; it means you named your babies “Brian” and “Mommy” and confuse Mommy and Brian every time you say you want to see “Brian” or “Mommy”- do you want animate or inanimate “Brian” or “Mommy”?-; it means you got your very own seat on our most recent flight and promptly climbed out of that seat onto my lap; and sadly, it means that every. single. second whatever vestiges of your babyhood remain are vanishing and that every. single. second you sprint towards really and truly being a big kid.
Given that you are the first two- year- old Daddy and I have been personally responsible for, we’ve wondered whether the intelligence we see in you was nothing more than the syndrome of proud and prejudiced parents.¬†¬† At your two year well visit our suspicions were confirmed: you are indeed rather advanced for a two year old.¬† When she went through the laundry list of items that a two year old should do we couldn’t help but chuckle.¬† The PA asked if you talked in short, two-three word sentences.¬† Um, let’s see, you talk in entire chapters with words that most of my high school students are unaware exist. ¬† The PA was very, very impressed with your verbal skills.¬† When she came in and asked how you were doing, you replied, “I am good.¬† How are you?” and paused for her response before telling her about what you were playing.¬† Later, when she started to listen to your heart and lungs she gave you a tongue depressor to play with.¬† You turned to me and said, “Look, Mommy.¬† I do my nails” and proceeded to “file” your fingernails.¬† The PA, your dad, and I looked at you in shock.¬† The PA was shocked because of your imaginative play, but your Daddy and I were trying to figure out where you had even seen a fingernail file before because goodness knows the last time a file was taken to my nails was when I got¬†them manicured for my own wedding!¬† Later, while the PA was checking your vagina, you said, “Mommy, she’s checking my diaper.¬† That’s a good idea!”
We talked about the fact that you love books and have been pointing out objects in books practically since day one; you are extremely curious and want to know what everything on a page is called or want to show that you know what everything on the page is called.¬† What I didn’t tell the PA was that you also sit down with books for hours on end and “read”.¬† You have many books nearly memorized and if it’s an unfamiliar book you merely look at the pictures and make up the story, which always ends with “The End.”¬† Charlie and Lola continue to be your go-to book series; we are slowly building your collection- I think you have 15 or so now- and you frequently go around reciting lines or reenacting scenes from the books.
Recently, your Grams purchased you some red, shiny shoes just like Lola’s, and I thought you were going to lose your mind when you first saw them.¬† You immediately sat on the ground and demanded that you wear your new red, shiny shoes, which by the way, are always referred to as “red, shiny shoes”.¬†Whenever you wear them you proclaim, to whomever is within ear shot, “I’m wearing my red, shiny shoes!¬† Look!” (I think you really expect people to kiss those fabulous red, shiny shoes!¬†) For quite a long time you needed them on every waking and sleeping moment, but¬†what especially makes the red, shiny shoes so special is that with them you learned the difference between right and left!
Your Daddy had been occasionally working with you on this, but then Grandma got the brilliant idea to mark the bottoms of the red, shiny shoes with a L and a R.¬† Within the day you learned the difference between right and left!¬† Of course, now this means that the infamous two year old independence rears its head and you demand to put on all your shoes with a “I’ll do it myself” and then a “I got it!” once the shoes are on the proper feet.
About that independent streak: over night you decided that being two meant there really wasn’t much you can’t do on your own.¬† You went from still needing some intervention when drinking from a cup without a lid to demanding you could do it without me, and successfully I might add.¬† You rarely want help except when it comes time to do clean up and then suddenly, you turn into a helpless creature who cannot possible be expected to put all the toys away without aid.¬† I’m on to you, Isabella!
One of your birthday presents was a target gift card from my friend, Shannon.  You were over joyed to see the Target logo as it truly is one of your favorite places to go.  We, and by we I mean Daddy and I, decided to use the card to purchase another princess nightgown because HOLY MOSES if we even dare run out of one of those and have to offer something far less pleasing to THE PRINCESS we might as well beat ourselves with chains for all the guilt via tears and pleading you throw our way.  We also bought a Leap Frog toy that basically tells you the letter and the sounds it makes when you insert a specific letter into the toy.
You are so in love with this toy.¬† Whenever you want to play with it you ask, “I want my letters, please!” as if to imply that all 26 are truly just for you.¬† You have known your ABC’s and the song for quite some time now and can even recognize big A and little a, big B and little b, C, M, O, P, Q, S, W, V, Y and Z when you see them on paper, so I figured the toy would serve to help you hear the different letter sounds and begin to recognize more letters.
When we went to IN a few weeks ago you had only had the toy for a couple weeks, and as it was still new and exciting I thought it would be a perfect toy to bring along.¬† On our flight home we were playing with your letters when you chose “A”.¬† After the toy went through the info about “A” you turned to me and said, “There is an A in Isabella.”¬† I wasn’t too surprised you knew that because I often spell and write your name for you.¬† I followed up by asking, “Who else has an A in their name?”¬† To my surprise, you responded, “Sarah, Brian, Rhiannon, Daddy, and Grams.”¬† I nearly lost it; while you certainly know every one’s names and various roles, we have yet to work with you on the spelling of those names as we wanted you to get your own name down first.¬† Later, you were able to repeat this amazing feat with other letters and other people’s names.
Another new, and oh so exciting, skill you developed of late, is the ability to reach up and turn a light on or off.¬† You love nothing more than to do a sneak attack when Daddy is working in the office.¬† You take off running, turn off the light, squeal and run straight for my arms in the event your Daddy tries to get you!¬† You laugh and laugh and then with perfect comedic timing you wait just until Daddy gets comfortable again and then you repeat the joke…over and over again.¬† And you get quite upset with us if we usurp our roles and dare to turn a light on or off without first giving you the option of doing so.
I am amazed at the stuff you know.¬† I am sure you’ve picked it up from listening to people, reading, etc., but sometimes¬†it really seems you just know things instinctively.¬† Recently, we bought some raisins and as you were eating them you looked at me and said, “It’s not a grape anymore, Mommy.”¬† I knew I had never talked to you about what a raisin really is, and when I asked Daddy he said he hadn’t either.¬† How can a two-year old just know that kind of stuff?¬† Your creativity, humor, temperament, memory, and just general adorableness continue to amaze us daily.
One of your favorite birthday presents this year was the kitchen your Grandma got you.¬† You love to cook up fabulous meals like boiled pizza and baked milk; we never want for a gourmet snack around here.¬† You are also very, very interested in helping me in the kitchen.¬† Whenever I start to cook, you drag a kitchen chair over and demand to help!¬† I’m looking forward to making Christmas cookies with you this year!
Isabella, it is hard to believe that two years of your life have already passed.  I can still remember the first time I saw your sweet little face and realized that my life was forever changed- in the best possible way.  Being your mother has been nothing but a blessing and full of fun and adventure.  As you continue to test your independence just remember that you will always be my Little.
One night you went to bed a baby and the next morning you were a toddler.
Now you no longer merely experience the world and people around you, but you carefully consider situations, people and their feelings, and what the correct answer to a question is.¬† You love to tell stories about your day, objects around you, or princesses and Prince Charming!¬† Your stories generally start out with, “Once upon a time…” or “One day…” and end with a comparison of what the characters in your story and you can do, which strangely enough are the exact same things (like walking outside, not being able to go to the playground because it is too hot, or eating food).
I didn’t think it possible, but your love of books continues to grow.¬† We cannot make a trip to Target without also planning for a trip to the bookstore.¬† You are nearly inconsolable if you think we aren’t going to stop in to look at all those words! We tried watching Ratatouille once, but we had to quickly turn off the movie because you became so distraught when the old woman started shooting at the rats.¬† As Remy floated you calmed down enough to ask what he was floating on and if he was okay.¬† I told you he was safe because he found a cookbook to float on and that books are our friends.¬† You looked up at me with tears still glistening in your eyes and said, “I know, Mommy”.
And you really do know as evident by your obsession with the Charlie and Lola series.¬† You talk nonstop about Charlie and Lola, their two best friends, Marv and Lotta, and Marv’s dog, Sizzles.¬† Every time we go to the library we have to look for Charlie and Lola first thing and read through them all a million times as soon as we get home.¬† At this point I think I have about fifteen books memorized, which is not nearly as impressive as your ability to recall the stories.¬† Out of the clear blue you will start reciting parts of your favorite stories, with a perfect English accent because, after all, Charlie and Lola are British.¬† Once when we were snuggling you woke up, grabbed my face, and started telling me “Ten yogurt pots…three hours…”.¬† No, this was not a recap of how much you ate in a given time, but instead, you were telling me what Charlie used to build his special rocket in Whoops! But It Wasn’t Me.¬† After reading But I Am an Alligator you decided you are an expert on what alligators like to eat.¬† Besides frozen shrimps, as Lola so expertly says in the book, you determined through extensive research that alligators simply adore dining on cheese, pizza, milk, yogurt, vegetables, and boys.¬† Reading Charlie and Lola has even helped you decide what kind of birthday sweet treat you want, pink fairy cakes just like in This Is Actually My Party.
While Charlie and Lola do dominate your reading landscape right now, you are also a big fan of your Daddy’s computer magazines.¬† Whenever he brings a new one home he has to hide it or it will soon end up in your little hands.¬† After a recent read, you exited your reading tent with the magazine in hand and declared, “That was awesome!”¬† Seriously, your father could not have been more proud!
You are so expressive and talkative; each day your sentences get longer and longer.¬† Some recent ones include: “I’m having fun!”, which you yelled as you were running up and down the hallway, “Daddy take trash and garbage can.¬† I want to help.”, “I love Uncle Bill”, “I want to go to Grandma’s house.¬† I want to see her.¬† I love Grandma.”, “I want to see Grams and Sir and Rhi Rhi.¬† I want to iChat.”, “I want to wear Nemo swim diaper over Mickey Mouse Diaper.”, “I fall down on tile.¬† I need Tinkerbell band-aide.”,¬† and “Mommy been working.¬† You all done now?”.
Some of your favorite things this summer have been playing in the rain at Grams and Sir’s house, painting (you produce about three original pieces a day, which is really just an amazing outpouring of creative genius!), puzzles, playing in the fountain, shapes, and colors.¬† You are also really into flashcards whether they are about numbers, letters, shapes, similarities and differences, objects, or scenarios.¬† I love when you come up with a box of flashcards in hand and ask, “Mommy, want to do flashcards?”
We took two vacations over the last two months.  In June we went to California for a few days; we went to Disneyland and the beach, which you enjoyed between marathon sleeping sessions.  You started getting sick the day we left, Daddy got sick the day we went to Disneyland (you might have been awake for about two hours while we were there), and I got sick the day after Disney.  It turns out you were fighting the beginnings of strep and an ear infection, but other than sleeping a ton and constant mucus pouring out your nose and eyes you did not let on that you were feeling so horribly.  I felt terribly when the doctor told us what was wrong because I really thought you were teething as all your symptoms are ones that present themselves whenever you cut new teeth.
In July we went to see Grams and Sir in Indiana.¬† You loved the constant attention and spoiling from Grams, Sir, RhiRhi, Rachel, Aunt Mitzie, and Great Gran: there was no living with any of you!¬† You slept in a room with Daddy and me; each morning you would poke you head up over the side of the crib and say, “I want to go to Grams’ house”.¬† We would explain that you were at Grams’ house already, but until we left the room and you saw the rest of the house you didn’t believe us.¬† On this trip you realized that we live in a different state than Grams and Sir and so now you like to tell us that “Isabella lives in Arizona and Grams and Sir live in Indiana.¬† I want to go to Indiana.”¬† You repeated this refrain a lot when we first came home from IN.¬† I am pretty sure that was because it was in the 70’s when we left IN and it was 114 when landed in AZ.
You are such a sweet, funny little girl, Isabella.  I cannot believe that you will be two in three weeks; seriously, slow down, kiddo!
The end of the school year killed me.¬† Between grading a billion essays, reminding flunking kids to turn in assignments by the second, and dodging phone calls, emails, and surprise visits from parents who decided to get involved at the midnight hour I just couldn’t find the time to write a letter to you last month.¬† The upside is, this month’s letter will be combined with last months for an epic tribute to you, my pretty princess.
Princess is definitely the theme of the last two months.¬† We went from a house that only contained several dolls to one that is overflowing with all things princess.¬†¬† We cannot leave the house without one in hand and quite frequently mealtime must involve at least one princess related item (cup, fork, spoon, or plate).¬†¬†¬† You have a Sleeping Beauty doll that sings when you push a button placed on the back of her neck.¬† On a recent drive home from Scottsdale (about an hour’s drive) you pushed the button non-stop for the better part of the drive.¬† I recently made a mistake checked out a princess cd from the library.¬†¬† Anytime we went anywhere you immediately started demanding, while still being polite mind you, “Princess…please…push that” until we relented and turned on the princess music.¬† You were really particular about which songs could be played, however, and would sit back in your little throne (car seat) and dictate which songs were permissible with a simple, “No” (as if to say that simply would not do) until we hit upon just the right tune, which invariably was either Belle’s song or Sleeping Beauty’s song.¬† By the time the cd was due back my poor ears would bleed at the sight of the car.
The upside is that now that the cd is gone you demand that I either sing the Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty song, which is a real joy because both songs are called “Princeth Song” by you.¬† I am generally stuck guessing and choosing one, which on your good days you tolerate and when I am done singing you just say, “More please”, which is my cue to sing the other.¬† If your Highness is in a foul mood, then you become irritated by my course and common ways and say, “NO!” until I switch songs.¬† I fear the day you realize I don’t actually know either song all that well and so make up my own words and , let’s be honest, tune.¬† The iron fist will come down; things will not end well I am sure.
You are also totally into dressing up like a princess.¬† You love to put on one of your dress up costumes, thousands of necklaces and bracelets, a princess hat, and prance around the house while us commoners (Daddy and Mommy) grovel at your feet and beg for a few hugs and kisses.¬† Most of the time you are a merciful queen and bless us with a quick kiss or hug and little tap on the head with your wand.¬† Recently, your Daddy’s softball team won their second straight state championship.¬† You wore a purple princess hat and jewels to that game, which I am confident lent the appropriate amount of school spirit to spur the team onto victory!
Instilling princess like manners in you has been one of my priorities as a parent.¬† You got the concept of please down very quickly because you realized you couldn’t have something unless you asked nicely.¬† Thank you took a tad longer for you to adopt because why say thanks if you already have what you wanted, right?¬† In the past two months, however, you’ve recognized the importance behind thank you and you’re welcome.¬† Now when you ask for something you say please, thank you, and you’re welcome all at once and then grin while you wait for whatever you’ve asked for.¬† You are so proud that you’ve beaten me or daddy to the punch!
Another new skill you’ve acquired over the last two months is counting.¬† At 19 months you were counting to five on your own and would repeat after me to ten or twenty.¬† Sometime around the middle of April you realized you didn’t need me anymore and took off counting to ten on your own.¬† I was changing your diaper one night and asked you if you wanted to count; of course, being a numbers nerd, you said yes and so we began.¬† I let you count to five on your own and just as I was about to jump in with six and help you through you said six, grinned at me, and continued counting to ten all.by. yourself! You might as well have just cured cancer; I was so proud of my smart girl! I grabbed you off the changing table and asked you to count again to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.¬† Sure enough, you repeated the task perfectly and clapped your little hands fiercely at the end because you knew you had accomplished something amazing.¬† Your daddy was beyond thrilled when you showed him your new talent later that night.
A few weeks after that you started counting to twenty on your own in pretty much the same manner.¬† I started to help you after ten and you proceeded to continue counting on your own to twenty.¬† I still have to step in from time to time with fifteen and sixteen, but you totally own the other numbers, especially 17-19 because you know that twenty is just around the bend and it seriously must be the best number to yell at the top of your lungs because you always end by yelling, “TWENTY!”¬† Our favorite number to hear you say is thirteen because you say it, “Lurteen”, which has got to be the most adorable pronunciation I have ever heard.¬† You count by adding a lilt to your voice at the end of each number, as if counting were really the best thing ever.¬† I love when we are driving, walking around a store, or just playing at home and your break into spontaneous counting.¬† And boy, do you ever enjoy poking your little finger onto things as you count them off out loud.
You’ve also mastered most of the ABC’s over the last two months.¬† While your Grams was visiting you decided that perhaps she could be persuaded to stay longer if you proved yourself a baby genius and thus you counted to ten and then twenty and recited your ABC’s.¬† She was, of course, more than impressed with your mental prowess.¬† You also recite the ABC’s with a little lilt at the end of each letter and grin the entire time because you are so thrilled to know all 26 letters!¬† We are currently working on recognizing letters, so I am anxious to see how quickly you pick this up and how interested you are in the actual letters themselves.¬† I am assuming you will love letters, like me, because you are so infatuated with books and the words and letters on flashcards.
Your sense of humor is emerging every day.¬† All things indicate we are going to have a little joker on our hands.¬† You love to tease us by putting food on your fork or spoon, holding it out to us, and then putting it in your own mouth just as soon as we go to eat it.¬†¬† Last month you did something that taught us we have new things to fear about just how much of the Woolsey genes and personality, particularly your Grandpa Forrest’s, you inherited.¬† When Grandpa Forrest was little he woke up to find his mom, your Great Grandma, inspecting his bottom for worms, so he turned and said, “What are you doing back there, Nance?”, which has become a favorite family tale.
While Grams and Sir were visiting in April we all went to the Bass Pro Shop, which really means we all tagged along while Daddy lived it up amongst the other redneck fisherman, hunters, and bowsman (is that even the proper term?¬† I pray you will never know!)¬† Daddy dropped something he was looking at and you turned and said, “Bynan”.¬† Daddy and I looked at each other and then Grams and Sir and we all asked, “Did she just call you Brian?”¬† You had and proceeded to continue doing so because you knew you had done something both surprising and funny.¬† Of course, Daddy didn’t want to leave anyone out of the fun and games so he taught you to call me “Jeefie” and also taught you Grams and Sir’s names.¬† You think you are so clever calling us by our first names, which you don’t do all the time for you are far too crafty to make it an everyday thing.¬† Oh no, you wait until we are scolding you and thus, shouldn’t laugh, or when we are out in public and it will have the most shock and hilarity or when Daddy is being especially naughty.¬† Not a surprise, then, that he gets called his first name way more than anyone else does.¬† You did take me by surprise recently and call me “Jen” while we were shopping.¬† I looked down at you and said, “You don’t call me Jen, my name is Mommy”.¬† Of course, anyone within earshot started laughing so you giggled and called me “Jeefie”.
Music is a huge part of your life. If you hear a catchy tune or beat you stop what you’re doing, ask, “What is that?”, and clap when the song ends. As soon as you get strapped into the car seat you start demanding music.¬† You have preferences given the time of day and whether you are tired or not, but it must always be turned up loudly.¬†¬† You’ve also begun to sing the songs instead of requesting to listen to songs or have us sing.¬† I love to hear your sweet little voice as you sing of princesses, doggies, daddy sleeping on the couch, food, milk, and mommy.¬† Your songs are always happy ones and always end with you applauding yourself.¬† Yesterday you started singing, “I know you.¬† I walked with you once upon a dream”, only your version is either, “I knowed you” or “I know a Jew”.
Some of your favorite past times are the park, playing in your sandbox, bubbles, “Pokie”, “Rosey”, “somersaults”, climbing and hanging from things, puzzles, runs, and playing in fountains.¬† You are so busy and so full of life; you have fun wherever we are and for the most part are such a pleasant little girl to be around, Isabella.¬† Whenever we take you somewhere that isn’t traditionally thought of us a place or event for kids I can always hear the collective groan from people who suspect you will be a little terror, and not that you cannot have your moments of total toddler meltdown, but you generally surprise even the most cynical of observers.¬† We are constantly getting comments on how well behaved you are, how happy you are, and how relaxed you are for a little kid.¬† I don’t know what we did to deserve your good behavior and happy go lucky demeanor, but I am so thankful you are a joy for other people to be around.¬† I am glad that others can see the amazing little person you are!
Your vocabulary continues to grow by leaps and bounds.  You are no longer satisfied with one word demands or explanations; rather, you now use words together to create mini sentences to tell us exactly what you want, how you feel, or what you are thinking. You love to recap your favorite moments of the day, week, month, or recent months when we do snuggle time at night.  I love listening to you tell me about all the things and people that have made you happy.  And I am always blown away when you throw in something that occurred months ago.  You still bring up the zoo and seeing monkeys and giraffes with Grandma, which was a few months ago.  When we drive by the zoo you start kicking your legs and naming all the animals you saw there.  You also like to talk about seeing monkeys dancing with Mickey and Mini Mouse, which is your way of remembering our Disney on Ice experience.  I was afraid that perhaps you were too little to even enjoy, let alone remember, going but two months later you still get so excited to bring it up.
Your amazing memory comes in handy, though.¬† If I’ve misplaced something I can count on you to remember where it last was or to find it for me.¬† I keep a bin full of books by the rocker so when it is snuggle time before nap or bedtime we can just grab a couple and read away.¬† Recently you kept pointing to the bin and saying water.¬† I thought you were asking for a drink of water by way or prolonging bedtime so I chose to ignore you, but when I went to put the books away I realized that there was a book about water buried beneath some other crap in the bin.¬† Who knows how long that book had been there as I only recently started using the bin for our nighttime books and the water book had gone missing for at least six months.¬† You must have put it in there when we weren’t looking and remembered its place all that time.
Around your twentieth month you started saying, “I’m gonna miss you, Mommy” while I was at work, so now part of our bedtime routine is to say, “I love you” and “I’m gonna miss you” to one another.¬† It is the sweetest thing to see your angelic face outlined by your blond wispy hair as I bend into your crib to steal one last kiss and hear you say, “I love you, Mommy.¬† I’m gonna miss you, Mommy”.¬† You also love to run up and either tickle my leg or grab it and give me a squeeze while saying, “I got you, Mommy” and you do, Little.¬† I will always be here for you to get!
Like a true princess, you’ve also learned to ask people, “How are you?” and “How do you do?”¬† You are also a hug fan of saying, “We should try that” whenever you see something that looks interesting.¬† Two of your favorite words of late are quesadilla and cappuccino, which, interestingly enough, you say clear as day.¬† You really do pronounce most words either perfectly or well enough that it is obvious what you are saying.¬† I think this is in large part due to the fact that when you are first learning a word you whisper it and practice it quietly until you are confident that you have the word right.¬† You are relatively shy, so I think you are already aware of not wanting to mess up in front of other people.¬† Poor girl; shyness is definitely one thing I hope you do not inherit from either mommy or daddy.
Summer vacation has hit, Isabella.¬† I am so excited to spend two months with you!¬†¬† We’ve already been busy with trips to the park, fountains, play dates, and library time.¬† We’ve read countless books and giggled entire hours away.¬† After a stressful school year I can think of no better way to spend a relaxing summer!
Love,
Mommy and Daddy
Pictures to follow later today; the resident tech nerd is still snoring away the morning hours.  I, however, must put in a few miles before heading to curriculum writing.  Someone has to work to keep the lights on around here!
So, um, yeah…here we are a few weeks after you turned nineteen months old…what can I say?¬† This no prep, raising a toddler, teaching a new class, maintaining a house thing is catching up with me.¬† The wheels are about to fall off the cart that is my life; thus, the delay in this month’s letter.
Each day that passes makes it glaringly clear that you are sprinting away from babyhood to well, toddlerhood, if such a word existed.¬† You, of course, are so pleased with your burgeoning independence and the new skills you pick up every day, but it’s been a little rough on me to acknowledge that each new skill means you are a little less dependent upon me, the lady who bore you!¬† Nothing made this more obvious to me than a recent play date with your BFF Becca.¬† Becca’s mom and I were preparing dinner while you and Becca played in her room.¬† All of the sudden Becca laughed and yelled, “No, Izzy!”¬† I went running into the room to find you jumping on the bed while Becca sat giggling and clapping her hands.¬† As soon as you saw me you stopped, grinned, and dropped to the mattress.¬† You then said, “Back, Mommy…please.”¬† Clearly, I was stepping on your toes and making you look bad in front of your older, cooler friend.¬† It was a tiny, first step towards a time in your life when hanging out with your friends will be preferable to being with good old mom.¬† I wanted to scream out, “Back, Izzy…please!”
You are such a sweet girl, Isabella.¬† Sometimes you will stop playing, come running over, put my face between your hands, give me a GIANT kiss, and run off to play again.¬†¬† One of my favorite questions to ask you is “Guess what?” to which you respond “I love Mommy.”¬† I must ask you this question a million times a day, which I think is only fair since you must ask me “What is that?” at least a billion times a day.¬† You are a good sport, though, and indulge me every time.
You have developed a love for all things princess, which you say with a slight, adorable lisp (“Printhess”).¬† You have¬†a little castle with a princess and prince that you love to play with while chanting “printhess” and “printh”.¬† You love to make them dance and climb the stairs.¬† There have been many near panic attacks as we prepare to leave the house because we do not have “printhess”, “printh”, and their horse.¬† During a recent nap you took while we drove across town you yelled out in your sleep, “Printhess!”¬† You are so obsessed that if you see your princess jammies in the drawer you want to strip down and put them on.¬† They came with a wand and princess headband, too, so, of course, those have to be found and put on to complete your royal getup.
You have also really gotten into playing tea party, which is even more fun when you are dressed up like a¬† “printhess”.¬† You are so good at setting everything up, inviting us to sit (“Sit, Mommy…please.”), and pouring out the drinks.¬† After every drink you lower your cup and say, “Mmm” and pour another round.¬† You are truly a fabulous hostess.
You continue to amaze me with your love of numbers, letters, and words.¬† Now when we count to ten you are not satisfied because you recently realized there are numbers past ten.¬† If I dare to stop there you scream out “TWENTY”, which is my cue to start counting higher.¬† Singing or saying ABC’s is another favorite past time.¬† If you start to get a little restless when we are grocery shopping or wandering aimlessly through Target, all I have to do is suggest we say ABC’s and you settle right in for a riveting round.¬† You love for me to say the letter first and then wait while you say the letter back with the exact same intonation.¬† Q and R are solely yours, though.¬† There must be some French in our ancestry because you put a perfect French accent on both letters.¬† I love to hear those letters come out of your mouth and wish I could trick you into thinking they must be repeated several times before moving on to the S, but alas, you’ll have nothing of it and move me along by touching my face and putting your face close to mine before saying, “T” as if I am the one being taught the correct order of things.
You are a busy little girl, Isabella.¬† You are so full of curiousity about each and every thing and person your encounter.¬† Your little mind is a sponge, ready to soak up anything it encounters.¬† You are constantly on the move, unless you want to read and then you’ll sit still for hours listening to the same books you’ve heard a million times over.¬† Somehow, though, you still get sad when Oliver loses his way and you still kick your little legs when Little Wombat learns how to swim.¬† I love the way you react to stories; you already understand that it is not merely words on a piece of paper, but that books are a way to be transported to another world where Wombats befriend Platypuses and learn to swim and little bears get lost in the woods chasing big yellow leaves.¬† There are so many cool stories out there, Isabella.¬† I look forward to reading them to you and someday with you!
I wish I could bottle up the moments of your life and save it to revisit during the inevitable horrors of your adolescence.  You have always been such a joy, dear one, that when I hear other mothers talk of thisbeing their favorite phase I cannot imagine actually being able to choose.  Each moment of your life has been a blessing and privilege and a constant reminder of the miraculous.  I look at you and I know that this, being your mother and guide through the world, is what God intended for me.
Every day is like a new awakening for you.¬† I blink and you know a new word, have a new trick, and can physically do something just a minute before you could not.¬† It’s so exciting to see you carefully watch our mouths as we talk and then catch you later trying to form your own tiny mouth into the same shapes to produce the same sounds.¬† You are a lover of words and nothing excites me more; I hope you are always intrigued by language and the pursuit of just the right turn of words.
Speaking of words you’ve added more to the list this month: all done, push that (when you want your personalized Veggie Tale cd or any music), orange, guitar (or “teegar” as you say it over and over until Daddy turns on Guitar Hero and you grab your Hannah Montana “teegar”), yogurt, love (with the sign), cold, hot, five, trash (you are obsessed with trash and throwing it away), Tracee, God (you sing it when “God is So Good” comes on your Veggie Tale cd), up, down, pink, yellow, and blue (pink is the color you recognize all the time and the others are still a tad hit or miss).¬† You also love telling every single dog you see or hear barking¬†to sit and no jumping. You are quite the wordsmith!
You are never one to pick sides and therefore, because your Daddy has his own love, numbers, you are equally as intrigued by counting as you are trying out new words.  Last summer I taught you to recognize the number one in lieu of your first birthday.  We have worked on two and three as well and you are pretty good at recognizing them.  You love for us to hold up our fingers and ask you what number it is, and you also love using your little pointer finger to count various objects.  During a recent trip to Target you surprised me with two new numbers.  We were counting cars and after we got to three you said four before I could even say it and then followed that with five.  I thought it a fluke, but when I held up four fingers you could tell me what it was and then did the same with five.  Clearly, you are a numbers geek, just like your Daddy.
You have really developed a love for music over the past couple of months.¬† Anytime you notice an Ipod, radio, or cd player you ask, “please…push that” and clap your little hands with delight when the songs come on.¬† If the volume is not to your liking or you aren’t digging the tunes you ask, “please…push that” again until we turn up the sound or switch songs.¬† One of your favs this month is “If You’re Happy and You Know It”.¬† You clap and stomp and put your little pointer fingers to your face during the song¬†(so dang cute).¬†You are also a big fan of “Ba, Ba Black Sheep”, “ABC’s ” (you ask for by saying “A. B.”), and “God is So Good”.
You also love “playing” “Guitar Hero” with Daddy.¬† You love to strum the cords and sing into your mic while Daddy shreds the strings.¬† When your tire of playing and singing back up you drop your “teegar” and suck your thumb as you lend moral support to Daddy as he tries to survive the expert round.
You’ve grown rather affectionate lately and love to surprise attack us with kisses and hugs.¬† I cannot get enough of your sweet little kisses and hugs, Isabella.¬† You clearly have caught onto this and try to use them as leverage for snacks, milk, or whatever you think you must have.¬† It works every time!
The world is a crazy place right now, Isabella.  We are weathering some pretty rough economic storms, and all we can do is our absolute best to keep our heads above the water.  I worry sometimes what shape our country is going to be in when you inherit it; I fear that the ease and relative luxury I knew as a child will not be yours.  I hope I am wrong.  I pray daily that minds brighter than mine can make sense of the mess and leave things better for your generation.  
We’ve had a rough¬†few weeks¬†in the Woolsey household.¬†¬†A couple weeks ago¬†you came down with the stomach pestilence that seems to be sweeping the nation and oh, what a joy was to be had for Auntie Ray Ray, Mommy, and Daddy.¬† You didn’t spend the entire weekend throwing up, but you were not your usual happy go lucky, active, eat anything self.¬† You refused most foods and liquids and basically wanted to loll around.¬† At one point all the snuggling and inability to do more than ask to be read to got to you and you sobbed for a good thirty minutes.¬† Daddy and I offered you everything we could think of, but nothing seemed to be just the thing you wanted until we asked you if you wanted to go for a ride in the car.¬† You said yes, so we all piled in and drove around the happy city of Surprise whilst you sucked your thumb and glanced longingly out the window as life passed you by.¬† So pathetic! You are just starting to get back to normal again.¬† You are playing more and actually eating more than yogurt and bananas.¬† I miss the snuggle time of your sick days, but I am happy to have my lively girl back!
Your vocabulary is ever expanding this month.¬† Some recent additions include:¬† yes (instead of “da” for yes), saying please and more (while signing), monkey,¬† and What is that?¬† (I thought the questioning stage started later, but you are totally curious about everything and must ask this question a million times a day…including about things you already know the name for.¬† You ask and ask and then stop, as if we have finally told you about the thing you were asking about all along and now life can continue.), “Oliver” (from Oliver Finds HIs Way), but when I asked you if we should name a baby Oliver (no, I am not pregnant) you responded “NO!” despite the fact that you love Oliver and clap away each time he makes it home!¬† You also say “I do, I do!” when asked “Who loves her Grams?”, and now ask for milk and snacks: ALL THE TIME!¬† In fact, they are two of the things you ask for as soon as we walk into your room to get you up in the morning or after a nap.¬†
It seems we are getting closer and closer to potty training time.¬† A couple weeks ago you pointed to your diaper, said “biaper”, and headed towards your room.¬† Your Daddy followed you and asked if your diaper needed changed, you said yes, so he proceeded to change you to see if you really knew what you were talking about.¬† Sure enough; you were wet.¬† The next day you pooped and when we asked you if you did, you said yes, “biaper”, and once again pointed to your room.¬† We have given you a sticker each time you tell us and are right, so you have gotten very good about telling us as soon as your diaper needs to be changed.¬† Sometimes, though, you try to trick us in hopes of getting a shiny Hello Kitty sticker.¬† Whenever you toot you laugh (thank Daddy for that one) and then point to your diaper and say “biaper” like it must be changed because you emitted a little gas.¬† The first time you tried that one I told you you didn’t need a diaper change just because you tooted, so you proceeded to squat down and attempt to force a poo in hopes of then needing a “biaper” change and thus getting a sticker!¬†
You have added a few more animal sounds to your repertoire this month: meow, meow (which you say with your little tongue going in and out of your mouth), ruff, ruff (said in a whispery, breathy voice), neigh, dwack, dwack (for quack), wa, wa (for a baby), and roar (lion’s and tiger’s).¬† You are so proud of yourself and whenever we go through all the sounds you make you get so excited and clap for yourself when we reach the end.
One of your favorite books this month has been Princess Baby.¬† We’ve read this book so much, in fact, that you have the entire book memorized.¬† When we get to the part where her parents are calling her names besides her real name your can fill in the blanks.¬† So, I’ll read “pumpkin” and you’ll fill in with “monkey”, which is one of the names her parents call her in the book.¬† Later in the story Princess Baby pleads: “Please call me by my real name” (at this point you are starting to get very, very excited) “It’s…Princess…” and you then scream Baby to finish the sentence.¬† The book ends with “finally” and you always add your version of “finally” before clapping and asking for more.¬† It’s gotten to the point now that whenever someone says “pumpkin” you automatically fill in “monkey”.¬† Case in point: during a recent breakfast Daddy was playing some music.¬† A new song came on and you asked “What is that?”¬† I said, “That’s Daddy’s music.¬† It’s a band called Smashing Pumpkins.”¬† As soon as I got out pumpkin you responded “Monkey” and then looked at me to finish the story!¬† Too cute!
You have a new princess tent and it has become your favorite place to read books.¬† We put your little chair in there and you think you are sitting on your royal throne when in there.¬† It is not uncommon for you to pull every. single. book off your book shelf and one by one place them in the tent so you can be surrounded by all of them when sitting in your tent.¬† Of course, I have to crawl in there too when it comes time to read.¬† It’s always quite a spectacle to see me or your Daddy fold up into a pretzel to get in there!
You are so much fun, Isabella.¬† You are so curious about the world and are so excited to learn new things.¬† Daddy and I are in amazement of everything you already know and how quickly you pick up new things.¬†¬†We work with you on things, but it seems that most of what you know has been stuff you have decided you want to know and so you’ve set about figuring them out.¬† You truly are the smartest little girl!
Well, goodness, it has been several days since you turned fourteen months old.  A lot has happened between the 29th of October and today.  In one historic day the political pendulum swung from one extreme to another and while your Daddy and I are trying to be hopeful, we are afraid of what this huge shift means for our country.  I hope that in four years time, at the eve of another election, we are able to breathe a sigh of relief that all went well and the historic frenzy half the country is in will have actually amounted to more than the election of the first African American to the office of president.  I hope that these next four years restore peace in our world and prosperity to our nation because no matter which political party holds sway over America my only hope is that the world you are growing up in is a safe and better one than it currently is.
You have grown so much this month, Isabella.¬† I was watching you play with your little friends the other day, most of whom are close to two, and was shocked to realize that you are nearly as tall as most of them.¬† I shouldn’t be too surprised, I suppose, given that your father is tall, but I have always been amongst the shortest of my friends, so it is weird to think you might be tall.¬† You are so tall, in fact, that a cool pair of jeans I have been dying for you to wear have been broken out of the recesses of the closet because all of your other jeans are far too short.¬† Of course, you are not ready to wear 12-18 month in any other way except for length, so you are sporting the sag!¬†¬† All the big kids love to wear their pants low so their thongs or boxers hang out for the entire world to see, so you are just starting a trend with the diaper set!¬† That’s my girl: cutting edge fashionista!
You are obsessed with dogs, which totally breaks my heart given that I loathe all animals.¬† Your daddy keeps trying to get you to say “bulldog” as a way to justify getting a dog.¬†¬†I’m not falling for it, so don’t even think about conspiring against me!¬† As a compromise your daddy bought you a little stuffed “goggie” that barks when you press its ear.¬† You are totally in love with your “goggie”; the first day we brought him home you walked around with the “goggie” pressed into your neck chanting “GOGGIE, GOGGIE, GOGGIE!” as you made your way from room to room.¬† You love to give him kisses by sticking his entire nose in your mouth.¬† Talk about melting my heart, but before you think that means I am caving on the no animal stance, keep in mind that this “goggie” is okay because there is no mess or maintenance required.¬† The world will end before I acquiesce to you and daddy on the dog issue.¬† (Man, I hope I don’t eat those words!)
You are definitely a walker now and are working on getting faster and faster.¬† Daddy likes to play a game with called “Let’s Run” in which he runs around the living room screaming (like a weirdo) and throwing his arms about his head.¬† You think this game is hilarious and start screaming and “running” around too until you just about lose it and slam your hands and head onto the couch cushions.¬† You then take a breather and start the fun once more.
You and I have our own game as well.¬† We just invented it the other night; it’s called “Beep!”¬† You press my nose and I say “beep” and then jump back.¬† We do this a few times until on “beep” I press my nose into your tummy over and over again while saying “beep”.¬† You laugh and laugh like nothing could possibly be funnier.¬† I am pretty sure it is going to be the next big rage with those under two!
Your vocabulary is ever expanding and you are picking up signs every day.¬† Just the other day Daddy taught you the sign for banana, which is absolutely your favorite food.¬† I swear you would eat an entire bunch if we allowed you access.¬† You scream “NANNA” whenever you see one and freak out when you are told no because you’ve already eaten two million at breakfast.¬† You’ve also added “key”, “ok”, “yep” and what sounds like either “Bella” or “belly” to your list of words.¬† You, of course, say so much more when talking “Izzy” gibberish!¬† You carry on full conversations with anyone or anything that will listen!
You are totally smitten with shoes.  One of your favorite pasttimes is to open the shelf part of your dresser and pull out your shoes.  When I dress you I set out a couple different pairs and let you choose what one to wear.  You carefully mull over the choices as if you are weighing not only comfort level but how well they go with what you are wearing.  You always pick out the best pair, too!  Nothing makes me prouder!  Some parents hope their kids will become successful; I just hope you will always LOVE shoes!
As always, Isabella, my heart is so full of love for you.  You are changing so quickly and learning so much each day that sometimes it is hard to remember the tiny baby you once were, but then you lift up your arms for me to hold you and snuggle your little head on my shoulder and I realize that you are still my girl.
I thought the time between your birth and your first birthday went entirely too fast and just like that, in the blink of an eye really, it is time to write another letter to you.¬† Lately, I’ve been a little sad watching you grow up so quickly; daily you shed yet another babyish trait as you turn into a little girl.¬† Don’t get me wrong, I love all the new things you can do and say and I love watching you realize there is more to the world than what you just noticed a few minutes ago, but sometimes I long for the coos, gurgles, little smiles, and well, just baby stuff of former days.¬† (Maybe Mommy’s ready for another baby?)¬† I know that your turning into a little girl means the baby you is no more.¬† I would not stop your maturation to have you as a baby forever, but it would be nice if you slowed it down a bit, miss.¬† No need to rush to your pre-teen and teenage years: they are awkward times.¬† Don’t say I never warned you!
So, since I cannot stop the onward march to toddlerdom, I suppose I should catalog some of your major inroads this past month.¬† Last week you took your first, very tentative, steps towards becoming a full fledged walker.¬† Daddy and I had a bet going about when you would be walking; he said by the end of September and I said by Halloween.¬† Daddy is walking around with his chest puffed out asking for some sort of prize since he won the bet, but I firmly believe that what you are doing now cannot be called true walking.¬† You definitely move your feet and can get from point A to point B upright, but it is still not your preferred method of movement.¬† We have to coax you to walk and you want someone to be at point B so you can lunge (and I think that is your favorite part of walking) into their arms, squeal and then start all over.¬† If you really want to get around you still prefer to crawl or walk by using your push toys, activity table, the walls or furniture or someone’s hand as support.¬† I am still confident that my guesstimate will be the more accurate of the two.¬† (There’s a new book in it for you if you throw Mom a bone!)
Speaking of books, your love of them grows stronger and stronger each day.  When you get up in the morning one of the first things you do is to go over to your book shelf and pull out all of the books.  You leaf through them, find the ones you are interested in and then crawl awkwardly (one hand and one leg on the floor while the other hand holds the book and the other foot is planted on the floor) to me or Daddy in order for one of us to read the books to you.  You snuggle into our laps and eagerly take in the story, pointing at all the cool things on the pages and turning them for us as needed.
We’ve been going to Saturday story time at the bookstore, which is the highlight of your weekend.¬† As soon as you spot the children’s section you start squealing, clapping your hands, and talking a mile a minute.¬† You are so thrilled to see all of the books and the kids!¬† You are the youngest kid in attendance by a good three years, but you are one of the best behaved.¬† You either sit in my lap or on one of the benches holding my hand.¬† You watch the reader and look at the pictures in the book.¬† And of course, you love checking out the other kids to see what tricks you can learn from them.
Last week, Daddy was at the bookstore with us and since I was going to buy something he opted to head out to the car with you.¬† Just as I was leaving the store, he came rushing through the door and placed a little book on the display table and jetted out of the store once again.¬† He explained that he’d gotten all the way to the car with you when he realized that you had a book in your hand!¬† Your first¬† SHOPLIFTING experience.¬† You were cool as a cucumber; clearly, you were not sweating getting caught and figured since you’d made it to the parking lot the coast was clear.¬† Daddy, however, was a nervous wreck!¬† I calmed him down by saying that at least you pilfered a book and not cigs or booze, but we both wondered if attempting to steal a book is merely a gateway to other things…
You’ve started to express your opinion on things by shaking your head no when asked questions if it is something you do not want or do not want to do.¬† At first I thought you were just randomly shaking your head no because you realized you could, but then Miss T said you didn’t like something you had at lunch, which I thought strange because just a few days prior you gobbled it down.¬† I must have asked you a hundred times if you liked your lunch and each time you shook your head no, but when I would ask other questions you would either not respond or smile (if it was something you liked or wanted) or shake your head no if it was not something agreeable (like taking a nap, your lunch, or giving me kisses).¬† So far you haven’t taken to shaking your head no when we tell you to do something, but I know that it is only a matter of time before your new-found means of expressing your wants and desires will lead to outright defiance.
When your Grams and Sir were here for your birthday you discovered a new, favorite athletic event: mattress and pillow flopping.¬† You LOVE standing up on a mattress or on the floor near a pillow and flopping all your dead weight onto it.¬† You laugh and you laugh, roll around a bit, and then start all over again.¬† Of course, Grams and Sir would let you do this for hours whilst making themselves sick from laughing along with you.¬† It was so bad for awhile that you couldn’t be in a room with a bed without wanting to body slam the mattress and pillows.¬† You have now progressed to body slamming your Daddy and me if we are on the floor.¬† Is a career in MMA in your future?
Despite this bent towards violence, which you totally get from me, you are such a sweet, sweet girl, Isabella.¬† You give giant kisses and great big snuggles, which was not always the case.¬† You were not an especially cuddly baby because you were far too busy taking in everything to waste time snuggled into Mama or Daddy, but now you must realize that the world is not going anywhere and a few seconds spent giving kisses and snuggles isn’t going to prevent you from nosing around.
You’ve started using kisses as a way to tease.¬† I’ll ask for a kiss and if Daddy is around you’ll lean in to give him kisses first and then giggle when I make a big deal out of my hurt feelings (again, just like your mother).¬† Then you make sure to give me the last kiss and squeal with delight when Daddy’s feelings are hurt.¬† We, of course, love playing this game.
You and I have also started playing a snuggle game.¬† I’ll hold you in my arms, bounce you up and down a few times while saying, “Where are my snuggles?¬† Where are my snuggles?¬† Where are my snuggles?”¬† On the third time you place you little head on my shoulder, wrap your arms around me and I sway back and forth saying, “Ooh, snuggles.”¬† We do that a few times and then you lean away to signal it is time to start all over again.”¬† I could play this all day, but you only tolerate it for a few minutes before you look at me as if to say, “Okay, crazy lady.¬† I’ve been all lovey dovey, now let me down so I can explore some more.”
Your vocabulary is expanding daily.¬† You’ve said “Dada” for a long, long, long time now (denote the bitterness that my name still only comes out every once in a while), but the past few weeks you have been screaming “Dadeee” from the mountain tops.¬† Seriously, it is like your mantra sometimes.¬† You, of course, say “Dadeee” whenever he is around, but sometimes when you are super excited you will just scream his name…even if he is not in the room.¬† You are also working on pig, which right now is just a whisper of “pi”: so CUTE!¬† You are a huge fan of dogs, unless they are near you, and love saying either “dog” or “goggy”.¬† A new word has started to emerge over the past week, but I cannot really tell what you are trying to say just yet.¬† To me it sounds like “bubby” or “puppy”, but your Grandma thinks you are saying “Barney”.¬† Heaven help us if that is the case!
You are able to use numerous signs now to express yourself even if you do not know how to say those words yet.¬† I love hearing your sweet little voice, but there is something so precious about watching your two little fists come together to ask for more or your hand rub across your chest as you say please.¬† You’ve adopted the sign for thank you to mean thank you, love you and kisses; too precious!
We went to your one year well visit last week; we were about a month behind because I am in the process of trying to find a new pediatrician.¬† We tried a new office, but neither Daddy or I feel 100% about this one either, so the search is still on.¬† You had a great visit and are right where you should be with your development.¬† You got two shots, which did not thrill you, but once I held you you were calm within a few seconds.¬† You were overjoyed at the sight of the Band-aides and had them both ripped off within seconds of being in the car.¬† (Stickers are another new thing this month; you cannot get enough of them!)¬† You currently weight 20 lbs and are 29 inches.¬† You are still in the 25 percentile for weight, but you shot up to the 50-75 percentile for height.¬† Maybe you’ll get some of Daddy’s height after all!
As I am typing this you are starting to wake up.  I can hear you talking to yourself and squealing as you play in your crib.  I cannot wait to get you up and start the day, Little.  You make each one so fun and full of adventure!
You would think for such a momentous occasion as your first birthday I could write this on time, but you see, little one, I’ve been rather busy the past few days preparing things for your birthday jubilee, visiting with your Grams and Sir, helping you unwrap a mountain of gifts, and fighting off the first cold of the school year.¬† Hopefully, you can overlook my tardiness once again!
This past month you’ve added some new skills to your ever growing repertoire.¬†¬† You now sign “Thank you”, “Please”, “More”, “Milk” and what you have decided is “Good job” or “Good girl”¬† (clapping your two little hands).¬† It had been hit or miss for the past month or so with each of these signs, but now not only do you sign them on a fairly consistent basis, you also understand how to use them in context.¬† It’s so cute to see you rub you hand across your chest as you wait for more food or drink or clap your hands to praise yourself when you have done something noteworthy!
You have also started asking for “puffs” when you get hungry.¬† You crawl over to the pantry, point and say “puh” over and over until someone scoops you up, opens the door and grabs the can.¬† You get so excited when you see those flavorless bits of air and would probably devour the entire can if we turned our backs for even just a second.
One of the things I enjoy most about watching you grow is seeing what things truly interest you.¬† Right now you are really into books and your babies.¬† You are now the proud mother of ten and just when I think you are going to buckle under the pressure of such responsibilities you surprise me by planting a kiss on one or crawling over and feeding another her bottle.¬† Just as quickly, however, you toss them aside for whatever shiny thing has caught your eye, so clearly we still have some work to do in the nurturing department, but at least their basic needs are being met.¬† And hey, we can’t all be Supermom all the time!
Daddy and I are placing bets on when you are going to start walking.  Our guess is by Halloween.  You cruise around the house on your feet (as long as someone is helping you) really well now and almost always go into a standing position when placed on the ground or when you are near something you can pull up on.  Recently, you have been doing a funny crab walk instead of a crawl.  At first, you did the crab walk when you had a dress on because the extra material would slow you down, but now it seems your brain is starting to process that you should be able to move without your belly hanging so low and that your hands should be able to come off the floor.  You just have to work on coordinating all the muscles at once so you can pull your upper half away from the ground!
You’ve taken to standing unassisted for a few seconds here and there.¬† Mainly, you pull up on something or someone and let go for a brief moment before grabbing onto the object or person for stability.¬† At your birthday party, however, you surprised us all by going from a seated position to a standing one without holding onto anyone or anything and staying standing (on your own) for several seconds.¬† You then squatted onto your butt and clapped your hands because you knew you had, in fact, done a good job!¬† It was such a cool moment and I am so thankful that we got to share that with family and friends.
You are finally off formula and on to WHOLE MILK.  I wondered how the transition would go, but, like everything involving food, you took to it with no problems.  I am guessing the way you gulp it down that real milk tastes ten million times better than formula.
You are becoming a very independent eater.¬† For a couple of months you’ve enjoyed picking the spoon up off the high chair tray and feeding yourself if given the chance, but the past few weeks you’ve practically demanded that you feed yourself.¬† I suppose I must resign myself to food on the floor and in your hair as you figure this eating thing out; yet another sign you are becoming a toddler!
The past twelve months have gone by too quickly, Little.¬† It seems just a moment ago that we were anxiously awaiting the all clear to take you home and begin our lives as a family.¬† Now, it is hard to remember a time that your sweet little voice and baby smells (okay, those aren’t always so sweet) didn’t fill our house.¬† Isabella, you have made us better people; you have taught us new things about patience, teamwork, compromise but most importantly, love.¬† We eagerly await what this new year in your life holds for you and our family.
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