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!