Izzie is 11 months old

Today Izzie is 11 months old. I can't believe that in 1 month she will be a year old. Incredible! She is such a big girl. She is very funny and her personality is really coming out. She seems to be even more goofy than Natalie. She seems less shy than Natalie was.

I had no idea how much she weighs and I was very curious. She has not been to the pediatrician since she was 9 months. I ended up having to take Abi to the vet this morning because I was afraid her ear was filling up with blood again so while we were at the vet I figured I could get Izzie's weight checked. So I stood Izzie up in the doggy scale. Her weight was 19.9 lbs.

Izzie was very sleepy today not really sure why. Maybe she is going through a growth spurt but I am not complaining with Natalie in school today I had a nice relaxing day. That is until Natalie got home and then it got all crazy. I was able to get some pictures of the girls today. They like the puppy pjs.

My little tennis star

Natalie has always been interested in watching sports. When she was a baby she would watch soccer with Aaron for hours. This summer she enjoyed watching the Olympics. Aaron used to play tennis before I came along. He enjoys watching it on TV so Natalie watched Wimbledon and the US Open with him. We have some tennis courts in our neighborhood and she saw some people playing the other day so she wanted to go into the courts and play. We let them run around for a bit, no one was playing at the time. We figured we could get her a racket and see if she wanted to play. Aaron was very excited.

So this morning Aaron took Natalie to get her a tennis racket and get one for me and some tennis balls. After the girls nap this afternoon we hit the courts. Natalie stylish as ever with her sunglasses and pink (of course it had to be pink ) racket. Izzie just had fun chasing balls and playing with water bottles. Good thing no one was playing on the other court as the balls were going all over the place and the girls were too. I realized I am not good at tennis but at least we tried. It was a lot of fun and the girls had fun running around. It was very hot so we could not stay for too long (it's almost Oct and it still feels like middle of summer).

Here are some pictures of Natalie & Izzie having fun.

Abi

On Thursday morning Aaron noticed Abi had a hematoma on her ear. She had one 5 years ago. She either shook or kicked her head too hard to cause a blood vessel to break. Either way she needed to have surgery. Aaron dropped her off yesterday morning at the vet. Natalie was very concerned about Abi going to the doctor. She even said she wanted to go to the doctor with Abi. Surgery went well but she needed to stay overnight. We had playgroup yesterday afternoon and we got home after Aaron was home. Natalie thought Abi would be home by then so she started asking about her. We had to explain to her that Abi was still at the doctor. Izzie had no idea anything was different. Parker was very upset. He was very down all day and spent most of the day in the laundry room. He looked really sad last night. I can't remember the last time they were not together.

This morning Aaron went with Natalie to pick Abi. She was very happy to be home. She looks good although she has a whole bunch of stitches on her ear. She has to wear one of those funny collars but she is actually doing well without it. She just needs to be under supervision when she is not wearing it to make sure she does not kick her ear and pull the stitches out.

Yesterday the house felt weird without her. Sometimes the dogs make me crazy but I missed her yesterday. I am glad she is home and she is ok. Hopefully she won't need this again. We are going to try to get her on some hypoallergenic diet and see if that helps her itchy skin and her constant ear infections.

Here are some pictures of Abi's ear.









Also I had to take a picture of this. This is what happens when Aaron dresses Natalie.......

Independent

Natalie & Izzie are becoming more and more independent. Which is good and bad. As far as Natalie goes it is good since she is starting to play better by herself and she has also started "playing" with Izzie. She wants Izzie to play along but poor Izzie has no idea what is going on and what Natalie is telling her to do. Still Izzie likes when Natalie pays attention to her so she is very happy to be included.

Natalie has also started playing with other kids. Before whenever we got together with other kids she just did the parallel play but she is starting to do more pretend playing. She plays with Lillian & Caroline. Lillian will be 2 in October and Caroline turned 2 in July. It is very cute to see them playing together.

As always Natalie's first friends were Parker & Abi. She just loves playing with them outside. They like it when she is outside with them. She tries to catch them but she can't. She can get to Parker since he gets lazy and stops running but Abi she can never catch her. Natalie definitely thinks she is part of their pack. Not sure who is the leader but I don't think they know either or care.... Last week we had fall like weather. Well early fall like weather. It was great. We played outside a lot. I started throwing the ball to Abi and Natalie comes over with a tennis ball saying "me turn". I thought she wanted to throw the ball to Abi so I waited for her to throw the ball. Nothing was happening until I realized Natalie wanted me to throw the ball to her. So I threw the ball and off she went chasing it in the backyard. She then bent down and tried to pick it up with her mouth, which she could not do (thank goodness). But then she came running back to me holding the ball up to her mouth pretending like it was in her mouth. We did this for about 10 minutes. Her running after the ball. Abi was just looking wondering what was going on.
Later on Parker & Abi were scratching their backs on the grass and Natalie gets off the swing and proceeds to get on the grass and scratch her back too. I have no idea what she is thinking she is but I guess she just wants to be part of their pack.

Natalie is now starting to enjoy the game of chase and hide and seek. There are a couple of things she still does not get, like actually hiding but she will get there. Also since Aaron always ask her "Do you want me to chase you" she thinks the name of the game is "chase you". So if she wants people to chase her she says "chase you chase you".

Izzie is also becoming more independent. Now independence on Izzie means trouble. She is very curious (nice way of putting it) and quite often gets into trouble. Her favorite past time now is to see what she can dunk in the dog's water dish. Her favorite items to put in are shoes, dog toys and Aaron's dress socks. She loves playing with their water and makes a mess. She also is enjoying climbing up the stairs. She had a little mishap last week. I believe she tripped trying to climb up the steps in the back porch. She got a little scratch on her face and a bump in her forehead. She is all healed now but I am sure this was the first of many injuries. She is always going somewhere and she is very quiet about it.

We are doing well, waiting for the weather to get cool. It still feels like summer. I will miss the North Carolina fall with all the trees changing. I don't think there are that many trees here that will change leaves. Also getting ready for Izzie's first birthday. I can't believe she will be a year in 1 month! Time is going by so fast.

Here are some pictures :-)


Here is Natalie in the backyard. She figured out she can use the potty as a step stool to get into the infant swing. She can now get in and out of the swing by herself. She also uses the potty to push herself.




Izzie showing her injuries....




Natalie & Izzie watching cartoons before bedtime.



Check out Natalie's hands... Aaron does the same thing.



Natalie & Caroline playing with puppies

Weekend Adventures

So I figured I will write something even though we have not done much. We had a pretty uneventful weekend. Hurricane Ike was coming to the Texas coast and all week long they were talking here how it was going to rain and we could even get some tropical storm winds. Well we got pretty much nothing. It was just a cloudy breezy day and it never rained. Aaron & Natalie even went to the pool! We took the girls to the park in the afternoon.

We have been cleaning out the storage area. We don't have much space and it is full with baby stuff. Since we are not going to need the baby stuff anymore I have been trying to sell stuff on craigs list so that I can at least get something. So far I have sold a crib, mattress, swing, bouncy and the gymini mat. I have some other stuff and I need to add a whole lot more it just takes some time to take the pictures and write the posts.

Last night we moved the desk that had my computer from the playroom to the guest bedroom and we moved the computer downstairs into Aaron's office. Aaron does not work from home that much so we figured since we have an office we might as well use it. He is not too thrilled to be sharing his office with me again but he will get over it. He is complaining that I am going to make him keep it neat and organized but I think deep down he is not that upset about it. But it was an ordeal trying to fit another computer with all my other stuff from the desk in the office. We have a lot of furniture in one small room. The kids were very excited when the opportunity of playing with office supplies appeared to them. We look over and Izzie has my digital camera, then the video camera. Natalie on the other hand was trying to grab scissors and permanent markers. I can only imagine what she would have done with the permanent markers, she already colored the living room with the washable ones. But the office is done and everything fit. I have the big desk, Aaron has the little one but again he is not here that much. The playroom upstairs looks a little weird without the desk there. We had to move the toys around but there is a lot more room now which is nice. I want to get the girls some big toys for Christmas so I wanted to start making some space.

This afternoon we gave the dogs a bath. Well Aaron did, I was going to help him but Izzie decided to climb up to the back porch and I had to watch make sure she was not going to decide to come down. She has learned to climbed stairs and she loves it.

Natalie is doing very well with her potty training. We did have a little issue today...... She had to go potty and went in the normal potty but apparently she missed. We did not realized she missed until Aaron stepped on it and walked all over the kitchen. So I was trying to help Aaron first off clean his foot to stop getting urine all over the house. Then I was cleaning the trail he left while he tackled the puddle in the bathroom. I left an antibacterial wipe on the floor and next thing we know Izzie is chewing on it. I cleaned her mouth but I was concerned so I made Aaron call poison control. They said she should be ok and maybe would even throw up. She never threw up and she ate her meal without a problem. But now we feel like we have reached a new milestone.... having called poison control. It took us 2 1/2 years. I figured something like this would happen with Izzie, she is a little firecracker. She gets into everything and it's not scared or shy about anything. So different from Natalie.

Izzie has become quite the eater. She eats so much that at each meal we are surprised. She eats about twice as much as what Natalie eats. It is unbelievable. She can be in her high chair for about an hour just eating. It is so nice that she can feed herself. If only we could get Natalie to eat that well.

Well here are some pictures taken this weekend. Enjoy

this morning I found Parker & Abi on the dog bed in the living room together.


Here is Natalie & Izzie outside playing.


Here is Parker & Abi after their bath.


Not sure if Izzie has learned this from watching Natalie but she got Parker's collar and put it in the swing and was trying to swing it. She kept getting hit in the face with the swing.


Natalie giving Izzie a hug



Izzie's latest trick climbing stairs.

Pantry

So our pantry is a weird shape. It is under the stairs so it is very long and narrow with shelves on one side. Izzie loves to go in there and play. Pretty soon she is going to lose a toe because she likes to play with the cans of vegetables. In the last couple of days Natalie has shown some interest in playing in the pantry as well. Now Natalie opens the door and gets Izzie to go in there and then she shuts the door and they stay in there for a while. I had no idea what they did in there. There was always some little mess when they came out but nothing too bad. But today I figured out what they have been playing with....

I was vacuuming (fun Thursday cleaning day for me) in the pantry and because of the shape the pantry is we have a little cart where we keep all the baking needs. We have the sugar, flour, cookie cutters, and other cake decorating stuff. As I was vacuuming I noticed sprinkles all over the floor, underneath the cart. A lot of them crushed into powder. The sprinkles are in the cart but they are in a container to make sure they don't fall out. Well the sprinkles are missing their lid. The sprinkles jar is a huge one, I got it at BJs (like Sams club for those who don't know what BJs is). I have sprinkles for the next 5 years. Well apparently their color was appealing to them and they have been having fun with them. I don't know if they are eating them. I am sure Izzie has probably tried them if Natalie offered them to her since Izzie eats anything you put in front of her. Natalie is more skeptical but she likes them on donuts and cupcakes so who knows how much they have eaten them. Natalie also likes to get Parker to go in there with her so I have to be careful know she does not start feeding him sprinkles. I guess I will have to move them, who knows what they will find next to play with.

Updates

Wanted to share a couple of updates....

Natalie is now officially off diapers and doing great in the potty. She had 1 accident on Friday and 2 on Saturday but yesterday and today she had not accidents. I even took her to Target yesterday and she stayed dry. We went to the grocery store today and she also stayed dry. She even went #2. She was very excited when she went. Aaron and I are so happy we took the diaper genie out of her room. Good riddance.

I forgot to put an update on Abi. She had a urinary tract infection. She had antibiotics for a couple of weeks but she never had any more accidents in the house. She is back to her normal self.

Izzie is back in her room. A couple of months ago we moved the extra crib from Natalie's room to the guest bedroom. Izzie was waking up a lot at night and we wanted to let her cry it out without waking up Natalie. Aaron had a couple of rough nights with her but it seemed to have worked. So as of yesterday she is back in her room.