Big Girl

Our baby is getting so big! I love this picture so much. I've tried for about a month now to get a ponytail or pigtails in her hair and she just never sits still. Finally a dear friend of mine tried, just to see what Izzy would do. She sat perfectly still! So the next day I tried it myself and this was the result. An adorable little ponytail with bow. She even kept it in for about 3 hours. Once we got in the car to go somewhere and she had to lean on it, she pulled it out. I just can't get over that in four months, she will be two. It doesn't seem possible!

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

We took Izzy to see Santa yesterday. Overall she had a great time! There were milk and cookies, ornaments to make, and Mrs. Claus reading a story. But the minute we sat next to Santa, the tears and screaming started. Art and I went up to Santa with her to try and calm her a bit. I tried holding her, Art tried holding her, neither worked. It was pretty much instantaneous. She saw him in line talking to and holding other kids and seemed fine with it, but once it was her turn, it was an whole different story. It's funny too because as soon as we walked away, she was fine. She ate her cookie and made a tree ornament with daddy and you never would've guessed that a few minutes earlier she was terrified. There's always next year!

Chicago Trip

I've been so horrible about updating my blog lately. I just realized how old my last post was. Oh gosh, where to start. Izzy continues to grow like a weed. At her 18 month appointment she was still off the charts for her height (34 inches) and weighed 24 pounds 3 ounces. And boy, oh boy, she is talking up a storm. She's stringing 3-4 words together in little sentences. When we went to Illinois for my grandmother's 90th birthday, I swear, she learned at least 20 new words. She copies what we say all the time, so we have to really watch ourselves! Art and I are also doing very well. We're enjoying some much needed time off from our busy website. It's been a beautiful fall season this year, so we've been spending lots of time outside and with family. Here are some photos of our resent endeavors!

Izzy had a great time with Halloween this year. We went to numerous farms and pumpkin patches over the last few weeks. She had a blast at the party I helped coordinate for the MOMS Club that I'm involved with. She sure does love Elmo!

We had a ton of fun in Illinois visiting my family. A lot of them had never met Art or Izzy. At my grandma's party all of her 12 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren were present. It was quite the family reunion. It was great to see everyone.

We got to do a lot of fun things out there as well. One of Izzy's favorite things was the DuPage Children's Museum.

One of Art and I's favorite things was our visit to Navy Pier. We went on a boat tour through the city of Chicago. We left right as the sun was setting, so we got a gorgeous view of the city at night. We learned so many things about the architecture of the city. It was wonderful.

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip out to Chicago and look forward to visiting again. It's so hard to believe that summer is over and fall is halfway through. The holidays are right around the corner too! I can't wait!

The "Zoo"

So it's been awhile since I've posted anything. Art took his new iPhone for a swim in the pool and that was our primary camera, so I had to break out the older one and get some pictures today when Izzy and I went with MOMS Club to the Swetsville Zoo. So when I first saw that a trip to the zoo was being planned, I was shocked that I didn't even know a zoo existed in Fort Collins. Then I thought that maybe it was more of a farm or petting zoo. I was very wrong. Here are some pictures so everyone can see what I mean!

This "zoo" was a zoo of scrap-metal statues that were all animals and dinosaurs. There were also a lot of creatures there of random sorts. Izzy had such a good time with her friends, so did I!

This was the best part there. It was a bunch of hanging metal pipes and the kids had a (very safe, haha) metal stick with a golf ball on the end to bang them with. Surprisingly, no one hit anyone else!

This dog looked just like the one from Toy Story. Izzy and her friend, Katrina, loved it. When you touched the head, it bounced up and down. We will definitely be going back again, especially since it's free! Alas, all good things must come to and end for the day!

Talk Talk Talk

Pool Party

For her birthday, Izzy got a little swimming pool from her grandparents. We haven't set it up at all yet, but when we found out it's supposed to be in the high 90's all this week, we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to try it out! She loved watching us blow everything up and fill it with water. Once it was ready, she pretty much just looked at it! She started to warm up to the idea after Art got in with her. She liked the slide when we were at the bottom to catch her before she went fully into the water. I think she'll have to get used to it, especially since the water is still quite a bit colder, but she had fun all the same!

It's Summertime

Yesterday was the first day this year that it's hit about 90 degrees. And what better way to celebrate than to go to the pool? It was so much fun. The pool is within walking distance from our house. We went later in the day after Izzy had taken her nap. She loved it! She had a few moments when she didn't really know what to do, but for the most part all three of us had a great time. I have many fond memories of that pool as a kid and it was almost surreal now taking my own child there. I can see us spending lots of time there during the summer!

Updates!

Our Mother's Day trip to the zoo.

I haven't posted in awhile, so just thought I'd update on how our little family is doing. Izzy is now 13 1/2 months old. She's walking all over the place, pretty much running at times. She has started saying a few words. She can definitely say baby, hi, bye, dada, & mama. We're pretty sure that she also tries to say dog, ball, kitty, & Ted (the name of our next door neighbors dog). She is still doing her baby sign language as well, which we're finding to be very helpful, especially when she's eating. Art and I are doing well too! I've joined a Mom's group in Loveland that I've enjoyed attending events with. Gives me a nice outlet and gives Izzy lots of little friends to play with. Art joined the Free Masons not long ago and has become more active in that recently. Overall, we're all doing great! We're so happy that it's started getting warmer again so that we can ride our bikes all around town. We've been starting a little nightly ritual of taking Izzy to the park. She is becoming quite brave and will even go down the slide by herself. It's a fun way to get her nice and tired right before bed time! In other exciting news, we have a new addition to our extended family, baby Lorelei. Not sure what Izzy thinks of her new cousin quite yet, but Art and I sure do like having a new baby niece to hold. Congratulations to John & Noel! It's been an eventful last couple of months & I'm sure that the next few will be just as adventuresome!

Art & Izzy playing with the dog next door.

Izzy & her buddy Eden at our trip to the farm.

And She's Off

It's official, Izzy can walk. After we got home from play group today she hasn't stopped walking. A few days ago the farthest she would go was about 10 steps, at the most. But today...she's walking all over the house without falling or taking a break. She's so funny because she is carrying around things too. Hopefully she'll decide to show off her skills for her birthday party on Sunday! Here is a video of her walking, this is nothing distance wise compared to how far she's been going throughout the day.

Learning Everyday

It's very hard to believe that Izzy's 1st birthday is just around the corner. It seems like we just brought her home from the hospital. She took her first steps a little over a month ago, but since then has seemed to have lost interest in walking. She'll still stand up occasionally, but she won't move those little feet. She seems to be much more interested in "talking" instead. Art and I have taken advantage of this by teaching her to use baby sign language. She most definitely knows the sign for "milk." She's also very good at doing "eat" and she's getting better at "more." This morning she was eating cheese for a snack and I showed her the sign for "cheese" again. And well, have a look at the results...

(Oh and she's got this new little face that she does where she makes her mouth into an O. This is the first time we've actually caught it on video.)

Bazinga

It warmed up really nicely here for a few days and we had lots of fun playing with Izzy in the back yard and at the numerous parks around our neighborhood. Lo and behold, it was 70 degrees two days ago and now we have almost a foot of snow on the ground.
After I've been going to a play group with Izzy once a week, I decided that Izzy has hardly any toys compared to other kids. Although she'd play with a paper plate or a deck of cards all day and be just fine! One of the toys that she loved over at a play group member's house was a little piano. Seeing as how it's promoting music, we had to get it for her. It's an early birthday present.
Our little one isn't so little anymore when it comes to eating. She won't eat baby food anymore. She pretty much has to have what mama and dada are eating. This particular morning I happened to feel ambitious and made pancakes. She liked the bigger pieces better.
And last, but not least, Izzy's fancy hair do. She has lots of hair now and it's very blond like mine was when I was a baby (Art too). I don't know what happened at lunch that day, but she rubbed her gross hands in her hair and her hair felt like it had gel in it. So naturally, I had to make her a little mohawk. It's slightly hard to see, but it's definitely there. Izzy looks like such a big girl in all these pictures, our little one is growing so fast!

New Tricks

Our little Izzy turned 10 months old the day before Valentine's Day and a few days later...she took her first step. She has now perfected going from a squatting position to standing. She started doing that on Monday. Then on Tuesday she took a step. She's so proud of herself after she stands up that she claps for herself most of the time. She hasn't taken more than one step, but you can tell she's thinking about trying it. It just amazes me how fast she picks things up. One day she couldn't stand up and all and the next day she could. Several times today Art and I just sat there and watched her try all her new skills. This evening when we were watching some tv, she even stood up on our bed and jumped. It would be hard for me to stand up on a squishy bed and she did it over and over with no problem. Here is a video of her standing up on the bed. She got pretty close to the edge at one point (as you'll see, I almost drop the camera to catch her)!

Valentine's Day

In Loveland there are lots of traditions around Valentine's Day and one of them is all the hearts that get put up around town. This year I was lucky enough to have my sweetheart get a heart for me. Thanks babe, I love you too!

9 Month Appointment

We had Izzy's 9 month doctor appointment yesterday. She's doing so great! She weighed in at 18 pounds 5 ounces which was in the 45th percentile. She was 29 1/2 inches tall which was in the 95th percentile. She's our tall, skinny girl I guess. The doctor is always impressed with how much she can do for her age. She's going through a bit of separation anxiety right now, so she cried a few times when the doctor was doing his exam, but other than that she was a trooper. It's just incredible to me how big she is already. She's trying to say all different sounds now. She has said "mama" for a month or so and just started saying what sounds like "dada" the other day. Art was really excited about that. It's so much fun watching her grow and change a little bit every day.