Izzy at the Playground

In an effort to get out into the fresh air today, we walked over to the park with Izzy. At times, she walked. At times, she was carried. At times, she was picked up quickly as she tried to venture off the sidewalk. But eventually, we made it to the park. When we got there, it was empty, and Izzy didn't really know what to do. Usually, when she is at the park, it is for playgroup, so there are lots of other kids around. She didn't know what to do with all the space.

Today was her first time solo on the slide, and she even did it from the top. Only once did her feet get stuck so that she flipped over her legs and slid down on her knees until she hit the bend and flipped over on to her stomach and slid down backwards (feet first). She wasn't nearly as freaked out as I was.


She also noticed the dog nearby playing fetch, and once she saw him, it was over. She ran over there (I do mean RAN) and when we finally got up the courage to ask if she could say hi, all she wanted to do was get about 6 inches away and look at him. But at least she tried.


Here she is again going to see the dog.


And this is on the way home. By the end of the excursion, the park had filled up, so we took that as a sign to make our departure.


Again, the password is Izzy. In this one, she is trying to jump. She was watching Chris jump, and then tried to do it herself. Her feet never actually leave the ground, but there is definite intention.

Untitled from J Pack on Vimeo.

And here, the password is Izzy again, but it should be Chris, because this 4 second gem shows who really had the most fun at the park. All I can say is "Flip-a-ROO!!!"

Untitled from J Pack on Vimeo.

Izzy can do the Bend and Snap

Please watch this video starting at about 35 seconds. You only have to watch for a few seconds to see the Bend and Snap.


Izzy, being the pop culture genius that she is, clearly already knew how to do it, even without seeing the movie.

Christmas 2008

Christmas Eve...


Christmas morning...she knew something was afoot.


Opening present #1


She got the hang of opening the presents, but often forgot to look at the present, and would just move on to the next one.


In her new chair, Hazel. Thanks, Papa and Yaya!


Sitting in the midst of all her loot. Chewing on her new blocks, Thanks Grandma Boo and Granddaddy Don!

Izzy and her new Teapot

A guy that Chris works with, and his family, stopped by on Saturday with Christmas presents for Izzy. She opened them right away, and got a Singing Teapot (and all the accessories) and a Love Bug. The Teapot combines two of the things she really likes...music and buttons she can press. Unfortunately, the Teapot has a bad english accent, and a really loud voice. There is no volume control, so the Teapot is a lot like Will Ferrell, but not as funny. Anyways, Izzy LOVES her Teapot and has been playing and dancing around with it for the past two days. Here are some videos of her doing just that. Also, please notice that in the first video, Raisin literally runs into the camera. Probably on purpose because he's part (the big part) idiot. In the second video, the whining you hear in the background is also Raisin, simply being Raisin. He's a charmer.

The password is Izzy.


Untitled from J Pack on Vimeo.


Untitled from J Pack on Vimeo.

Christmas photos

A few weeks ago, I took Izzy to Sears to get some pictures taken. I had a $4.99 coupon that got me 36 prints! So, I was going to have her wear her red "HoHoHo" onesie with some random pants, but then I got there and saw all the cute Christmas outfits. I said to Chris before that I wasn't going to get one of those for Izzy because they were impractical, but I fell victim to the cuteness. I picked one out and bought it and changed her into it so she could wear it for her pictures. I've taken Izzy to Sears before for pictures (I Love those coupons!), but they have a new photographer there now. The old one was pretty good, but this one kind of sucked. I mean, the pictures she took were good, but she was kind of slow! Izzy is only 15 months old, so when she hits the pose you want, and even does it smiling, you HAVE to be ready to take the picture. Alas, this photographer was not, and then had the nerve to ask me to have Izzy do it again! Obviously, Izzy makes her own schedule, so we only got a few good pictures, but since I only get to pick one pose with my coupon, I didn't really care. AND, we went to a Christmas party for Chris's work the other day, so we made Izzy wear the dress for the first half. So, we did get some use out of it after all...

Here's Izzy!

Recent Izzy Videos

(The password for all videos is "Izzy").

One of Izzy's new things to do is play with water bottles and their caps. She likes to screw the tops on, and gets the general concept, but doesn't quite achieve her goal. If you watch, she mostly just wiggles her fingers ABOVE the bottle cap.

2008 11 29 Izzy and the Bottle Cap from J Pack on Vimeo.

This one is Izzy, cuddling on Raisin.

2008 12 02 Izzy cuddling on Raisin from J Pack on Vimeo.

And Izzy has figured out how socks and shoes go on, but isn't able to do it herself. Instead, she just lays the shoe/sock on top of her foot. But, she also has developed an interest in all things foot related. Here she is in her crocs (which she never wears). She usually wears soft soled shoes, so these were totally new for her.

2008 12 02 Izzy in her Crocs from J Pack on Vimeo.

Happy St. Nick's Day!!!

When I was a kid, every December 6, regardless of if it was a weekday or a weekend, I would wake up and open up my stocking...it was from St. Nick. So today, Izzy opened some St. Nick presents. Alas, we have no stockings up yet, so St. Nick left them on the table.

Here is Izzy, right after she stole her St. Nick present off the table. I left it there for her to get, but she thought she was being sneaky, so she immediately took off running for the spot between the jogging stroller and the tv, aka her Cubby Hole.


And here she is, running.


She loves to hide in her Cubby Hole and stash her "treasures." We've found clothes, her piano, food, and pretty much anything she is into, at the moment. *She is apparently my daughter.


Here she is, chilling, inspecting her new gift.


And here, Izzy is walking around with her new purse.

This ones for you, Em...

Since you were so antsy about a new post, I thought I'd dedicate one to you. Here's to you, Em. You and your antsy pants.

Izzy's first Zoo Trip!!!

On Thursday, I packed Izzy up, and we went to the zoo in Tucson. We met people from playgroup there, and walked around looking at all the animals. Tucson's zoo is pretty small, but Izzy liked it.

The first thing we did when we got there, was feed the giraffes. We paid $2 for 2 giraffe biscuits (which looked just like Raisin and Eden's fiber treats.) Then, Izzy and I approached the giraffe, sure the keep upwind (just kidding), avoiding all eye contact with the ferocious beasts (kidding again), carefully holding out the treats, one at a time, while the giraffe sticks out his tongue and licks it away. I thought Izzy might be scared, but she feeds the dogs their "Yay, you went in your crate" treats a lot, so we gave it a shot. She, thankfully, fed the giraffe both its treats, but she wasn't quite sure about it. If you check out her face, she looks mighty concerned.




We also saw a lion, which, per the sign, was old and decrepit and probably dying, so it needed tons of medication, and was probably incontinent and senile and thought it was an anteater, or something like that. When we first walked up, the lion was sitting majestically. By the time we got around to really looking, he had flopped over onto his side. By the time we walked away, he was lying on his back, proving he was a "he." But I think he was still alive.


We also saw a "spectacle bear." I'd never heard of that kind of bear, but it was cute. It was also Izzy's favorite! She loved looking at him, and pointing, and didn't want to leave (but that could have been because there was a plethora of grassy leaves that she could reach while looking at him.) Mostly, I think she thought it was a dog.


All in all, I think she enjoyed the zoo. I can't wait until she gets older and actually makes all the animal noises!

Dr. Jin, Scientist woman

I am a strong believer in proven the unproven; finding the hidden truth; uncovering the covered. For example, in the past, I performed an experiment called "Uncontrollable Floppy Neck" where I tested my hypothesis that muscles will spontaneously contract when they expect pain or injury. Of course, because I do not believe in animal testing, I did the experiment on myself. Basically, I sat in the passenger seat of a car while it was moving, and I held the "oh s**t" handle and let my head hang down. When the car turned, I TRIED not to make any move to save my head from smashing into the window, but my hypothesis was confirmed when I tensed up a little bit and instead of banging my head hard, I only banged it a little. So, clearly, I have a solid background as a scientist.

And that brings us to my most recent experiment. This one did involve animals, namely Raisin and Eden. I wanted to test which food they liked better: salami or peanut butter. So, I took them one by one into the kitchen, and let them sniff a piece of salami and a spoonful of peanut butter. Then, I made them sit and wait, and I laid the salami on one side of them, and put the peanut butter on the other. Then, I released them, and watched which food they ate first. They both chose the salami, but of course, finished with a dessert of peanut butter. So, while animals WERE used in this test, none were harmed (unless you count any indigestion that I was unaware of.)

Since my readers all now know that I am a verifiable scientist, I would welcome suggestions for my future experiments.

Our Halloweenie (you know who the weenie is...)

Our day started at 4:30 a.m., when I staggered into Izzy's room to pick her up and drag her into bed with us for her morning feeding. Fortunately, the only thing that needs to be awake for that is Izzy's mouth. Then, we all got up and dressed, and drove on to post for Chris's company family fun run. Izzy was all bundled up in her pink fleece pants and her tinkerbell jacket. She was super cute, and had fun saying hi to Luke, the boxer puppy, and watching Chris do useless army stretches. Then, we all went on a slow 1.5 mile run, allowing the walkers to pretty much keep up. Luke had to stop for "personal reasons" at least 3 times. And by stop, I mean he did a dead stop and squatted right there. It was pretty funny. Then, we all went home and had bacon, egg, and cheese english muffin sandwiches. Yummy! Chris left for work, and Izzy took a nice long nap, giving me time to finish making his halloween costume. By "make", I mean I sewed a jack-o-lantern face onto an orange shirt. Instant costume. Oh, and by "sewed", I mean carelessly stitched in such a way that if the thread broke, the face would fall off. Hey, some things weren't meant to last. Anyways, by the time Chris got home, it was time to get ready for our first family Halloween party with our playgroup. There were LOTS of costumes. There was a family of Legos, and mom and dad dog catchers with a dog child. Lots of cute ones! Our family were the Pumpkin Packs. We were all pumpkins. Izzy's costume had had some dress rehearsals which had ended in Izzy pulling passionately at her costume in an attempt to rip it from her body, so I made some minor modifications to it, severing the bottom elastic, and adding a piece of elastic between her legs, so that it would stay down. In the end, it was a cute costume, but looked a little bit like a bell pumpkin. Here are some pictures of the event:

Izzy and Chris, hanging out.


After some pizza, there was a donut contest. Izzy was super excited by the donuts, but they hung JUST out of reach...


I picked her up to get her a little closer, and before I could say donut, Izzy had snagged one, and was holding on for dear life. The game was to get the donut with your mouth, but tell that to a 13 1/2 month-er. Plus, she had grabbed the donut NEXT to the one we had been working on, but she didn't care. She ripped it off the string, and shoved it into her mouth. For the next hour, she crawled around with half a donut clenched in her powdery little paw, taking nibbles every now and then.


The evening ended with trick or treating in the neighborhood. Izzy would walk up to the people and by the end of the night, even would hold out her bag for people to put candy in.


Towards the end of trick or treating, the bag was so heavy, Izzy would hold it out, and it would slowly drop down, because she wasn't strong enough to hold it up. It was pretty funny.


All in all, we had a pretty good Halloween. We, I mean Izzy, even got some good candy!

Here's where I've been...

Becca came to visit. I was too busy to blog. And before that, I didn't feel like blogging, and darn it, I'm not a slave to blogspot.

In other news, on October 20, Izzy finally started walking. She'd been teasing us for weeks with the "one step and sit" trick, but finally, she just started going.

In other other news, today, while Izzy was walking, she tripped over her own feet and slammed her head into the bottom of the coffee table. She's got a big bump and a bit of a bruise. I called the nurse help line, and Chris picked on me for being so cautious. What else is new...

Izzy's first pumpkin patch

A few weekends ago, Chris, Izzy, and I packed up the car and went out to Willcox to meet people from my playgroup at the pumpkin patch. We went to Apple Annie's farm to pick our pumpkins. Izzy was skeptical at first, but them warmed up to all the nature. We took a hayride out to the pumpkin fields and walked amongst the gorgeous pumpkins. Surprisingly, Arizona can grow some nice big orange pumpkins! Izzy picked out two pumpkins that she liked, and we pulled them off the vine and took them home with us. Here are some pictures of the adventure.

This pumpkin is nearly as big as Izzy, and it wasn't even close to the biggest we saw. She had fun patting it and poking it and walking around it.


Here are some more big pumpkins. We took this picture right before Izzy got really interested in a bug on the pumpkins. Yuk.


The farm had some hay bales set up for kids to play on, so Chris just couldn't resist. Izzy had fun, too.


Chris and Izzy tried hiding behind some corn stalks...


And here's our attempt at being creative and fun.

Banana - the new hair gel

In the mornings, after I feed Izzy some yogurt, I plunk down some fruit and leave her while I go change into running clothes. Usually, it's some peaches or strawberries or grapes, but the other morning it was bananas. She loves bananas, so I had no qualms about what she would do with them (shove them in her mouth one after the other). After I changed, I went to check on her, and lo and behold, she had found a new use for bananas. She had them everywhere! I don't think she ate any of them. She just mushed them all in her hair and on her face and even in her ear.

Izzy, happy as a clam with banana everywhere. (Izzy, not the clam).


Here's an upclose shot of the chunks of banana literally squashed into her hair.


So, when she was done (with what?), I got a wet cloth and tried to wash it out. I scrubbed. I pulled. I rubbed. I even did a squiggle (whatever that is). And this is what I was left with.


Yeah, she was pretty pleased with herself. Now, I don't claim to be the best mom in the world, but I thought I had cleaned her up pretty well. Alas, I was gravely mistaken. About two hours later, her hair STILL looked like this. It had dried to a shiny little banana helmet.

Introducing...Percy!!!

Izzy has been showing an interest in walking lately. And by interest, I mean that she "cruises" (which baby websites define as moving around on two legs while holding on to things.) So, I thought, hey, this is the perfect time for her to get one of those push toys that she can walk with. Oh, and she also LOVES things that move around. A few weeks ago, we went to the gym play area for kids, and she spent a hour pushing around a dump truck. And recently, she has started pushing boxes around the living room. So, with her new progress in mind, we went to Wal-Mart to look at push toys. We saw this awesome one that was a John Deere tractor. And we saw a pretty cool Radio Flyer thing. But in the end, Percy won. He was so cute, and while we were looking at him, he started playing music, and of course, Izzy started dancing, so that clinched it for us. Percy was being liberated.

Once home, we set him up. (By "we," I mean "me".) Immediately, Izzy started playing with him. When she touched his nose, he would play music. And once she new how to start the music, she tried to reach OVER the handle to touch his nose. That resulted in her holding on to the handle and walking behind it, while trying to get to his nose. Ultimately, that did not work so well for her. She basically just ran behind it, and eventually fell to her knees. But it was awesome to see her walking/running. And now, she knows that she can push it while holding on to the handle. She also likes to hide her food underneath the handle so that she can find it later. She gets that from me.

This is Izzy, reaching for Percy's nose.


And here she is, walking behind him.


Pretty quickly, though, she is on her knees, pushing Percy around the room.


And here's a shot of Izzy just about to start running behind Percy, not on purpose.

Where have I been? Let me tell you...

So, once we got home from our vacation, and settled back in, this is what happened:

1. I got a terrible cough that kept me up at night, and even had Chris come home from work because it's impossible to take care of a one year old while coughing so hard that I throw up.

2. Izzy got some sort of head/chest cold, to include a runny nose and a yukky cough and a fever.

3. Izzy popped 4 teeth all at the same time. That includes the diaper rash that often accompanies the teeth.

So, for the past few weeks, I have been exhausted and worn out, and for awhile, I would have sworn that my child was nothing more than one long cry.

But, the teeth are in, the diaper rash is gone, the colds are gone, and I am back. Kind of.

Izzy's Birthday Party

We finally had Izzy's cake party on Monday night after our vacation. I made a monkey cake for her, and we hung up everyone's pictures. The pictures are pretty self explanatory.

I'm a cute monkey cake.


Half me mouf ith gone...but I'm sthill cute.


nnn mmmm...buu immm stii cuuu.


bbbbblllllllhhhhhhhhnmmmm.


After some initial reticence, Izzy really dug in. She had both hands going, and by the end, I think she had some frosting in her hair and cake shoved in her ear.



Here's a pic of Chris with Izzy, and all the party-goers.


And a family shot.


p.s. on a sad note, the cute monkey cake was burned to death after I forgot I was storing it in the oven, and preheated it. Also burned in the sad conflagration, the orange plate that the monkey cake was living on.