18 months...crazy!

Where has time gone? I cannot believe our little peanut is already a year and a half! She has sure started to show her personality more and more each day!

Here are her stats from the doctor:

                     Weight: 20.4 lbs. (4th percentile)

Length:31.5 inches (41 percentile)
Head: 47.7 cm (81st percentile!)

Here are some highlights for Izzy now that she is a year and a half:

*Naughty....testing.....grrr Izzy has been testing her limits a lot to see what she can get away with. We have started to do time outs because she has started to hit and throw things. Thankfully, a few days of time outs have helped her test less often. :) 

*She sleeps from 7-6:30am with a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoons from 12:30-2:30/3.

*She is chatty and doesn't stop talking. Her favorite words are: puppy, daddy, doggie, beep, beep (car), owl, Hoo, hooo, baby, hi!, buubye, blankie, Lmo (Elmo), Mama (rarely), all done, more, and please, and Izzy. I am sure there is more, but these are her favorites. I swear she learns a new word or two each day.

*She has a partner in crime a daycare, Eleanor. They get in trouble a lot and they had to separate them during naptimes now. Great...class clown in the making.

*She eats anything and everything. Her favorites are still mac and cheese, hotdogs, yogurt drops, GoGurts, pasta, and anything mommy and daddy are eating. 

*She is still suffering from her C-difficle, we are working with the doctor to figure out how to get rid of it! It isn't as bad as it was, but she is still dealing with too many nasty diapers. 

*Playing with babies and her Elmo doll is one of her favorite pastimes, along with playing with her new kitchen.

Riding the big pony at Costco.

Izzy loves her new kitchen and has been getting all of our empty food containers to fill it up. Everyday she finds something new.  

Helping Daddy untangle the Christmas lights.

Busy cooking and making messes. 

Izzy loves to help me vaccuum. When it was "mommy's turn", she would sign please over and over again until I would give her a turn. Nana got her a matching kids Dyson so she can be my cleaning partner in crime in just a few weeks.

Izzy picked out this headband at Target this weekend. 

We have to hid the baby wipes from her because she will pull out at least 10 of them at a time and wipe her babies noses. 

Izzy loves to put herself in the laundry basket, but can't figure out how to get out. Here she is saying, "All Done" so someone could get her out.  Of course, her babies had to come in the basket too.

Wow, Christmas lights!

"Izzy, Izzy"

Izzy is quite the artist, don't you think? She loves to color!

I turn my back for one second and hear her giggling in the bathroom. Naughty!

Pat lost his ring this weekend and thought it was in the bags of leaves he picked up in the lawn. Sunday morning, Izzy found it and was very proud of herself for doing so!

Chef Izzy

Well, leave it to Pat and I to give in and give Izzy a Christmas gift early. :) In fairness, we have no place to store it with Pat working on the shutters in the garage. Also, we have to enjoy one more year where she doesn't know when Christmas really is and we will be in Mexico for Christmas. Not to worry, we have other presents (that of course, I ordered last night) that will be under the tree for her to open before our trip. We found this adorable kitchen set on Craigslist and couldn't pass up the deal. Of course, being a teacher, I had to add a magnetic board so she can use her letters. She woke up this morning and was super excited to open every door and "hide" her letters. She kept trying to turn on the faucet too. I think this will be her new love. Nana got her some play food that she'll get in a few weeks at Family Fun Day, so she will be a chef in no time. :)

Busy, busy

We had a fun weekend, but it was busy as usual. We got our house painted blue this past week, so we had some runs to Maynards to find a new front door and figure out new shutters as well. Leave it to Pat to make us our new shutters and save us a ton of money, while making our house look awesome. I'll share a photo of the painted house and will give you an updated photo once all of our fun additions are added like a new front door, window planter box (thanks Tim and Julie), a new mailbox, and some planters. It is amazing what a difference paint can make. Izzy had a fun weekend too. She got to have a sleepover with Nana and play with her cousins so we could continue to organize my dad's garage condo. She was pooped and took a nice long nap for us when we got home.

 

Nana: "Can she have....nevermind, why am I asking, I will just give it to her when you leave anyways." Izzy enjoying her chocolate covered pretzel and puppy chow, something she doesn't get at home. What are grandparents for, right? :)

 

Izzy loves guacamole and Chipotle as much as I do. It wasn't easy for me to share, but with her, I'll share anything. 

 

Izzy and Stella are little detectives. Our neighbors dog came by to visit and they were on top of it. 

 

The new blue house, Pat is making shutters and other goodies to add more white to it.

 

It snowed today, Izzy walked out and was in complete awe. I couldn't get her into the car for daycare, she wanted to play. 

 

She is busy, so we are busy finding things to entertain her. Her new favorite, coloring and "sorting" pom-poms into an ice cube container. 

 

All tuckered out from a day with her cousins and Nana. She had so much fun.

 

Izzy eating her new Elmo's eyes. Thanks to Mary for giving her some Halloween money, Izzy picked out her favorite, Elmo. 

 

Loving wearing Daddy's new hat from Erin and Andy.

 

She loves books where you have to "peek" under the flaps. 

 

In complete awe of the snow falling. 

Thankful!

Tis the season to be thankful, right? Well I figured I'd better say a few things that I am thankful for in this post to keep up with the season. 

1. I am SO thankful and grateful to have had 30 amazing years with my dad. I know it seems he was taken from us too soon, and I miss him everyday, but I also realize that there are plenty of people who have lost their father at a younger age and/or never knew their father. I am thankful for the years, the memories, the love, and the fact that Izzy got to meet him and spend a year of her life with him. I miss him so much everyday, but am so thankful for the time I was given with him. I will never take that for granted because 30 years is still a good amount of time and the truth is, even if it was 60 years, it would never feel like enough. 

2. I am thankful for my amazing family, whose strength has been incredible during this difficult time. If we didn't have each other, we'd all fall apart. We have had to do more things in the past few months than we had ever imagined, but we have done it together and have given each other the strength to get through it all. I know we don't say it enough, but I love you all!

3. I am thankful for my mom, who is always willing to hang with the grandkids when we have things we need to do. Who has been a pillar of strength for all of us, not only now, but throughout our whole entire lives. She has modeled what it is to be a strong person and how to continue on and power through the hardest of times. I am also thankful for all of the love and care she gave my father throughout his life and up until the end. I am thankful for everything she did his last four months when he needed her the most. I am thankful for  everything she has given us in life and how she has always put us first. Love you mom!

4. I am thankful for my loving husband! He has given me the support and strength when I have needed it most. He always puts Izzy and I's needs first and will do anything for us. Even when he was on crutches, he was hopping around trying to be helpful and clean the floors of the house or carry the laundry upstairs so it was one less thing I had to worry about. I am thankful that he is a doer and when he puts his mind to something, he'll get it done right away. I am thankful for his love, care, compassion, and understanding. I am forever grateful that he made me a mommy and for what an amazing father he is to our little girl. Thank you Pat, I love you!

5. I am thankful for friends, in-laws, and extended family. It is amazing the things people will do for you when you need them the most. They come through in ways you didn't know you needed them to. They'll do things you didn't know you needed done and will do so without giving it a second thought. I am thankful and welcome the distractions they provide for us when we need to get our minds off of everything and for the laughs we share with them. Love you all!

6. I am thankful for our little Izzy, the most precious gift we could have by been given. The one who makes us laugh, when it seems like an impossible task. The one who can make us go crazy in the same second that she has made us laugh by being naughty. I am thankful for everyday with her and seeing how much she learns every single day, even naughty things. I am finally at a point where I am thankful she didn't know what was going on when she lost her Papa, because her smiles, laughs, and hugs were just what we needed to get through. 

7. I am thankful to have a job that I truly do love. Is it exhausting, most definitely so. Am I making a difference? I'd like to think so. Some days I don't want to get out of bed, but who does. However, once I get here, the kids keep me going, motivate me to be a better teacher, and help keep my minds off of the things in life I don't want to think about. I am also thankful for my coworkers. They have helped me stay strong and really helped surround me in the support I needed when I first returned to work. I am thankful that they are not just coworkers, but also friends.

8.I am thankful for everyday, health, food, home, family, and friends. I am thankful to have something to look forward to this Christmas, instead of completely dreading it without my dad, since we will celebrate him in Mexico. I am thankful to my sister-in-law for getting married in Hawaii so we can travel there this summer and to my mom for keeping an eye on Miss Busy Izzy. I am also thankful for Pat, who is such a hard worker, and will probably win us another trip to Hawaii in April. :)

So much to be thankful for and so many things I am forgetting. I am trying to stay positive and realize that everyday is a gift. I think I am on a soapbox now, but life is to short not to tell people you love them and to thank them for what they have done for you and/or mean to you. 

Here are some pictures of the best thing we have done with our lives, our little stinker of a peanut:

 

Trying out cereal with milk like a big girl. She just liked stirring it, not eating it.

 

Our new playtime at the table. She climbs up on the chairs, so we put this little booster seat up to help keep her in one place. 

 

Haha, I am naughty and I know it. 

Buddy the Elf, I mean Stella. She keeps eating Izzy's little pom-poms, weird dog! 

Thankful this little lady has started to figure out how to clean up after herself. She spilled her milk, got her wipes, and started cleaning it up for Daddy. 

 

Playing with Papa's old phone.

 

Exploring with pom-poms.

Executive in training. 

Catching Up

Well to say life has been a little crazy lately would be an understatement. I apologize for my lack of posting. I have been taking pictures, but haven't found the time to post them. You see, Pat was scraping paint off of our house and fell off a ladder, leaving him with a broken heel bone. Which meant, a week of caring for both Pat and Izzy. Thankfully, Pat is now in a walking boot and can do a little more, but not without causing him some pain. Poor guy.

Then, there is Miss Izzy. Poor little baby hasn't been well for a MONTH! We thought we had it all figured out and had her on medication. We noticed improvements and were hopeful it was the end of C-difficile. However, after finishing her medication, symptoms slowly started coming back. The doctor said that happens and the first medicine they gave her doesn't always work, but the alternative has a lot of side effects. So, onto the scary new drug. However, after two days, Izzy spiked a fever of 102.7 at daycare and was walked home, since Pat can't drive. :) We had her in her costume once she seemed to be feeling better and then it happened, she started throwing up. Poor baby. The doctor told us this could be a side effect of the medicine. We get to go in this afternoon for more testing to see if this is a side effect of the medicine or if there is some underlying thing going on like an ear infection or a viral infection. We just want her to get better, so we are hoping we'll get more answers today and that she'll be back to herself in no time.

Izzy got her passport a few weeks ago, this is the picture they had us use. Apparently they can't smile. :) We got her first passport, but they had her birthday wrong so we have to send it back.

Our little froggy in the bathtub.

Cutie with her pigtails. 

Wearing all these layers for the cold weather just makes Izzy want to sleep in the car. :)

Izzy got a pillow pet Puppy, she LOVES it. She sleeps with it every night and asks for her puppy.

Just getting some work done, don't mind me. 

 

Pat getting the best care for Dr. Derek (our friend's boyfriend).

She still smiles even though she isn't feeling well.

Loves to splash and get crazy in the bathtub.

Izzy's new hobby, making us put diapers on her babies. I didn't fully think this one through when I first did it for her, now we take them off and want them back on NOW. :)

Being silly with daddy and the cereal boxes in the recycling.

Smiley before bed.

Who knew the treadmill was dirty? Izzy took care of that. Not to worry, it wasn't on. :)

Always busy at work.

Izzy's pumpkins.

Pat's pumpkin, compliments of a drill. He always has to show us up. :)

Feeling terrible, but still will give a cheesey smile. 

She has a fever of 101 at the time, but still managed a smile for us.

Our sick little owl.

Hoooo, Hoooo!

I love that she wanted her costume on with her glitter boots, no pants. And twenty minutes later, she threw up. 

Clearly she has been sick too long, she is wiping her dogs nose with a Kleenex.

And checking herself with the thermometer for a temperature. 

Here is a little video of the Owl Hooooing!