Jenny Visit

The first weekend of October, my good friend Jenny McC came to visit us in San Antonio again. We had a wonderful weekend together. And it was especially great to have her help over a few days that Jason was out of town. On one of those days Isla had her worst teething day ever.

She was a mess, banging her head on the ground, crankyness like

I've never seen before. And this was with alternating Tylenol and Advil every 2 hours. I think I would have lost it if I had been on my own. When we got back from trying to eat out (taking turns eating while the other watched Isla and distracted her with wind chimesoutside the restaurant), I gave Isla a bowl of ice cream.

After she threw the bowl at me and tried to fling ice cream at me like a rabid monkey, I left the room. Jenny helped Isla with the ice cream which gradually numbed her mouth. 10 minutes later they are down there giggling and playing!

Highlights of the were spending a girls day shopping at the Shops at La Cantera, a day at the zoo and Brackenridge Park with Isla, and time loungin' by the pool.

Isla Rose, One and a half!

Chompers. Isla has had is rough over the past couple of months. We've had a lot of crabby days. While teething her 1st set of molars was not any fun, now she can chomp on bigger pieces of foods like a pro.

Hand-foot-mouth. There's been an outbreak of HFM disease this summer, and Isla got this weird disease too. Isla's friend Truman had the illness a couple weeks before her, so we were quick to identify it; and not to freaked out by outbreak of rash, followed by snake-skin peeling of hands and feet, and lastly, fingernails falling off.

Isla is very sure on her feet these days, she can run, climb, and walk up and down the stairs while holding a rail or a hand. For a couple of days she even thought she could walk down steps all on her own, but then she became cautious again, and stopped the "no hands" trick.

We can't keep track of all of the words Isla says anymore, or the signs she knows. The cutest is when she says the name of a friends. Isla's best friend is Sloane, and she gets excited when Sloan comes over to play. For a while Sloan was "shoe" but now she says a much more accurate version. She loves when we pull into the driveway and says "home." She knows a lot of body parts, including tough ones like elbow and dimples. She also knows that she is "Isla" and says "Eye-ya" or sometimes just a long sounding out of "Eye." Isla can draw repetitive circles with chalk and crayons. Below is a photo of Isla and "Mickey." We wanted to look for the rightful owners of this pretty dog we found in the neighborhood, but he jumped over our fence and escaped that same night. If we needed to find him a new home, we decided it would be great to demonstrate he was good with kids- he even let Isla try to put goggles on him.

Pretend Play. Isla has gotten very into her stuffed animals and dolls. She loves to carry them around with her. She has a crew of them in her crib for bedtime and naptime. They go on car rides and trips with us, sit next to her for meals. Sometimes a friend will even ask for a bite, and Isla will offer a spoonful of her food. While her favorites rotate, right now Bunny is the bestest. She holds him and pats him at bedtime. She once snuck Bunny into the bathtub, and had the most-fun bath ever!

The Uncle Trip

Jason and I were overdue for a visit to our brothers- Jason's brother, Kevin, and my brother, Joe. So, we decided to visit them both in an all in one trip to Palo Alto, CA and then to Portland, OR. First stop, California, where we got to spend time with Kevin and Brittany.

We did a lot of fun site-seeing with Kevin, during the day, and then lots of yummy dinners out all together when Brittany returned from work. Here's Kevin and Isla in the California Academy of Sciences checking out some fish (above).

Kevin even got some good snuggles after he showed Isla snakes and lizards (above). And here's Isla and Brittany (below).

Isla and I sometimes wear matching purple fleece.
Here's our family pic at Stanford's campus- where smarty pants Kevin is attending college and getting some crazy degree.

Jason and I missed the Redwoods last time we were in San Francisco, but we made it there this time. We made Kevin carry Isla for the hike. She yelled at him every time he stopped walking, because she did not appreciate her nap schedule being disrupted for a 2 hour time change.

Then we hopped on a quick plane to Portland. Joe and my sister in law Michelle are cooking up my very first niece! Who we called Josephina Michellalina. Josephina Michellalina is due early January. We also got to spend time with JENNY! Here we all are down at the Saturday Market.

We also went to an awesome India Festival and ate yummy Indian foods. Here's Michelle and Isla chowin' down.

Thanks for such an awesome trip, Kevin, Brittany, Joe, Michelle, and Jenny!!!!

Isla Rose, 16 months old

I have been feeling overwhelmed by this blog post. There has been such an explosion in development and personality in the past 2 months, I don't know where to begin.
Duck, duck, duck! Isla can say "ma" "dad" "shoes" "duck" Cats say "Eee-ow" and Dogs say "arf" and "foof" "Hi" "hot" "baf" for bath "Uh-oh". Once Isla learned "up" she started coming up to us many times throughout the day, arms held up, with the request "up." While in Michigan, Isla got out a her rubber duckies and started shouting "duck" "duck" "duck!" over and over just because she was so proud she could.
She started signing a lot more too. She loves to watch the Baby Signing Time videos and can do "Grandma" "Grandpa" "boat" "book" "banana" "baby" milk" "juice" "water" "airplane" "train". Except, she's confused about what is a train, and uses the sign for other things, like her toy truck. Isla will open a book and babble out a whole story while turning the pages. She started to do a cute little dance bounce, and sometimes a leg shake/tap to music.
The above 3 photos are of Isla playing in the water. We have been doing this about every day of the summer- due to the record heat wave. Sometimes, we just let her go nakey.

Isla can sometimes accomplish stabbing food with a fork and inserting it into her mouth. She can climb into couches and chairs, and from there onto the table. She can go up and down one step in the upright position.
Isla loves when airplanes fly through the sky and when she spots one, she just stares and smiles. Isla has a funny way of asking "where" by turning both hands up, and has this questioning look on her face. She is just oozing personality these days, if you can't tell from these photos.