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.

Izzy's Grand Canyon Adventure

Because I am ultra-organized (some people are snickering...), Chris and I planned out things that we wanted to do, and when we were going to do them. Obviously, with a 1-year old, the plan was flexible. But for the most part, we stuck to it.

I have no idea when this picture was taken. Sometime in between Thursday night's ice cream, and Friday morning's hike down Bright Angel Trail. But, she was enjoying a banana with Chris, and also having fun with the sticker on her head (and then on the floor, and then on her knee, etc.)


Here we are, hiking down Bright Angel Trail. It was really fun! People would do a triple take when they realized that Chris did not just have a backpack, but had a BABY in the backpack. We got lots of smiles. We hiked 1 1/2 miles down, and then turn around and came back. It took us about an hour down, and an hour fifteen minutes back, so we were making good time. Izzy fell asleep on the way back, and then flopped around, hanging out of the pack. Good thing she's bendy. But here are Chris and Izzy walking through one of the two tunnels on the path. Bright Angel trail actually goes all they way into the canyon (9 miles). You can camp down there, too. Chris and I want to do that once Izzy is old enough to do it.


Here, Chris is tickling Izzy's feet. Her newest trick is to say "tickle, tickle, tickle" and tickle the nearest person, whether it be Chris, me (usually while I'm nursing), Raisin, or herself. Pretty much whatever is convenient. During the hike, she kept tickling Chris's shoulders, saying "tickle, tickle, tickle."


This is one of the few pictures we have as a family. It was taken at the top of the trailhead when we got done hiking. A nice couple up there offered to take some for us. Note Izzy, sleeping and flopped over.


This is one of the few pictures of Izzy and I. It was taken at Desert View Watchtower, where we went Saturday afternoon. To fill in the blanks, after the Friday morning hike, we napped, then we walked along the rim trail, which was right along the rim of Grand Canyon. Then Izzy napped and we had dinner at the fancy Arizona room, where Izzy was pretty well behaved. Then we walked around and went to bed. But here are Izzy and I.


We were supposed to go running on Saturday morning, but Chris wasn't feeling great, so instead we went to National Geographic Imax, and saw the movie there. It was fun, and Izzy ended up with a Burro and a Howling Coyote (both fun stuffed animals). Then, she napped and we headed over to Desert View Watchtower. At the end of the Watchtower event, Izzy began to lose it. But we always love it when she gets so cuddly.


She perked up when we got some ice cream. She has this thing with her feet, where she loves them to be at the same height as her hands. She loves to prop them up on things. Often, when we're running, I'll look down, and see her foot poking out from underneath the stroller cover.


After the Watchtower, we went back to our room, Izzy pretended to nap, and then we went to dinner at Maswik Cafeteria. And so began the evening of weirdness. It began when Chris chose a table by the cleaning/bussing station, where a woman talked to herself. Talked is an overstatement. It was really more like psychotic serial killer mumbling. So we moved to another table, pretending that the one he picked was too big. There, we kept getting "visited" by the cashier, who kept poking and talking to Isabelle, who kept trying to wiggle away. We couldn't blame her for that. Then, as we were finishing eating, a guy walked by who was giggling and mumbling and may have cackled...all to himself. At that point, we decided dinner was over, and that if we ever stayed at Grand Canyon again, it would not be at Maswik Lodge, home of the weirdos. Of course, the weirdness continued when we got farted at by the mule sign (discussed in a previous post). So, we walked around and called it a night. Of course, Izzy didn't, and refused to sleep in her pack n play, and wanted to sleep sideways in our bed. Ugh. But before we headed to bed, Izzy helped us pack up. What a sweetheart...occasionally.