Visit to Cedar Falls

On Sat. we drove up to Cedar Falls to see Grandpa and check out the Sturgis Falls parade. We weren't sure if we were going to go because rain was predicted and it has been sooo hot. It looked like the rain was going to hold off and it did. We weren't really sure where we going to sit, so we just kind of parked and walked and saw an opening along the street and it turned out to be right next to Cathy's parents!! It was very nice to see them. Grandpa came and met us at the parade. Isabella was pretty good during the parade. She waved and danced a little. She wasn't too overly excited about the parade, but liked it when she saw animals or babies go by. Jeff thought the parade was lame. My high school class walked by since it was our 15 year reunion. I tried to fade into the crowd, but was spotted.



After the parade, we took a quick drive by my mom's old house since we had heard it was repainted. Here is a pic.



Next, we headed out to Grandpa's house. We checked out his little pond and then went over to the neighbor's to see her 4 big dogs. Isabella acted like her normal self. Very interested in the dogs if they weren't paying attention to her and scared to death when they got in her space.



We hung out at a Grandpa's for a little while longer and ate lunch. Isabella slept the entire way home.

Grandpa keeps tabs on Isabella's teeth

Isabella finally lets Grandpa hold her right before we left. She was fine with it, although she doesn't look like it in the pic.

Bump on the head

Isabella fell and hit her noggin at daycare today. This is the worst goose-egg she has ever gotten and it is even black and blue. The picture doesn't show it too well, but you can see it.

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

That's right. Isabella is a year and a 1/2 old. It seems kind of crazy. She's not scheduled to have her 18 month checkup until the end of July, so we won't have any stats until then.

I think she said the word "no" to me for the first time yesterday. It was right before bed. She went over to get her shoes and brought them to me. I said something like "You don't need your shoes, it is time for bed. You have your pajamas on. Now, please put your shoes away." She looked at me, kind of shrugged, said "no" and walked away.

Happy Father's Day and Happy Birthday, Grandma Linda!

Isabella would like to wish all fathers a very happy Father's Day. She also wants to wish Grandma Linda a very happy birthday! (Next year is a really big one for her!!!) We didn't really do too much special for Father's Day. We went out for lunch at Old Chicago. We didn't know it but they were having a pizza buffet which worked perfectly because by the time we got there it was well past Isabella's normal lunch time. Later that night we went over to Uncle John and Aunt Kristy's house for dinner. We celebrated Father's Day, Uncle John's birthday, Isabella's 1/2 birthday and my birthday - Kristy was just along for the ride. Isabella had lots of fun playing at their house, they have a toy box over there with different toys for her to play with. She's also very intrigued by Bob Sanders, the cat. Isabella also "had a ball" with their exercise ball in the basement. It is about as big as she is. Uncle John gave Isabella a chocolate chip cookie that she enjoyed a lot and got all over her face.


Isabella was also very intrigued as to why her highchair was sitting on the floor. She kept climbing right in and trying to put her bib on and attach her tray.


We noticed there was some drainage coming out of Isabella's left ear. I was surprised because she hadn't really seemed sick or anything. I knew to start using the ear drops for her, because the tubes were doing what they are supposed to. Jeff said we'd better take her to the doctor. Well, Jeff's instincts were right again, she has an ear infection in her right ear (not her left, because it was draining properly). So, she's on antibiotics and we are armed again with all sorts of diaper rash cream, expecting the worst. Isabella's been in really good spirits lately, though. No biting and not too many tantrums. At daycare they said she's become a big helper on the infant side of the room and always wants to help feed the babies their bottles.

Michigan Visitors

On Saturday, my cousin Jeff and family made a spur of the moment visit on their way from Michigan to Minnesota. The last time I'd seen their children, Jacob and Jessica, they were 3 and now they are 5, so that's quite a change in kid years. It was great to see them and the kids had fun playing with some of Isabella's toys. Isabella was content just to watch them play. It was a quick visit as it was in the middle of their long drive, but maybe next some we'll do some pre-planning and have some lunch here.


Sat. afternoon we made our first trip to the pool this summer. We've kind of discovered recently that Isabella is kind of terrified of water. Jeff sprayed a hose at her a few weeks back and she was really upset about it. So, we just took it slow at the pool. She gripped on to me for a quite a while and them we just sat at the edge of the pool. A little while later she got pretty comfortable and started running around, eventually she even was walking in waist deep water.

Time is flying by!

Aghhh! We've fallen so behind on blogging and posting videos and photos. I'll try to be better. Isabella has still been going through a rough phase. Biting and slapping/hitting at daycare. Tonight all she wanted to do was cry, she was just pretty frustrated about something. Here is a video of her eating strawberries from at least a week ago. She's really starting to learn how to use a fork and spoon and on most occasions doesn't want to eat unless she has one (or both) utensils in her hand.

The biter

Isabella is going through a bit of a difficult phase. (better be a phase). She is throwing tantrums and biting. She bit another child at daycare last Thurs and again on Monday. Daycare said they haven't seen her act like that. Both times she was fighting over a toy.

We've noticed a lot more tantrums lately. She throws herself down on the ground or pulls my hair or just grabs or hits at us. She's also been spending a little more time in timeouts, mainly for throwing her food on the floor. We don't use timeouts all that often, but she's been doing self-imposed timeouts as well. We will tell her not to do sometime and then she'll get upset and go put herself in a timeout. Occassionally she'll stop to grab a toy on the way, which isn't really the purpose of time.

On a happier note, she's saying more things. Elbow and bubbles are some impressive, clear words I've her say lately. I handed her a bottle of bubbles the other day and I didn't say bubbles, she did. She's also saying help and has a "help" dance that goes along with it. I don't have a video of it yet, but she says "help, help, help" and raises her arms up and down.