Izzy and Her Play Group

Izzy had her first play date with her meet up group last week. She and the other little ones were so cute. It was a wonderful turn out and we met some really nice people. Auntie Cindy came to help out and also to play. We ended staying at the mall even after play time was over to do a little shopping.

At this age, the little ones don't know how to interact with each other. Most of the interaction consists of staring at each other and just observing.

Izzy has started brushing her teeth a few weeks ago. She is totally good at it and knows that there's a routine every night before we go to bed. She actually has two tooth brushes. One manual one for her to brush and an electric one that I use while she's distracted. There's also the "Brush Your Teeth" song that we sing. It's hilarious!

Happy Halloween!

We couldn't decide what to dress her up as this year and luckily I was in Crazy 8 one day and saw this one piece costume. It was simple and totally her. She's a lizard, dinosaur, swamp monster thing.

Izzy ended up wearing this to school and then to Valley Fair where we tried to go trick or treating but there were so many kids there. It was overrun with kids in costume. I don't know if we're going to go again next year, it was insane!

All she wanted was a balloon and I think she ended up with 3 pieces of candy and some stickers. She was more interested in watching the other kids.

Her school had a parade at 10am that morning and all the kids were dressed up in costume. It was the cutest thing! She's definetely my little monster!

Updates

Time is flying by so quickly. We can't believe that it's the end of October already. We tried taking her to have her pictures taken on Saturday but Izzy ended up just being crabby so we only had about 3 good studio shots. It's so different now from when she took her 6 month pictures. She's so much more aware. About 3 weeks ago we bought her a Step 2 Kangaroo playhouse. At first she couldn't figure out how to climb it so we were okay leavng the second story up but just this past week she learned how to climb up the slide and get onto the second story. Of course when she got there, she couldn't figure how to get back done and would try to just "walk" off. That triggered us taking the slide and the 2nd story off till she gets a little older.

Step 2 makes such cute products that we ended up getting a playhouse for my parents house in Morgan Hill. Well actually it was a gift from my parents that we picked up. It's so cute I have to get a picture! It has a working doorbell, a kitchen, and a phone.

Izzy has 7 teeth now and is eating a ton of solid food. Her favorites are pastas, bread, and cookies. She actually would eat anything we eat which makes going out to eat much easier. We are weaning her off the bottle so now she has her sippy cups during meals and then only bottles in the evening. We end up usually with 2 total which I think is major progress. I'm not totally strict about the bottle and I know that eventually she will just drop it completely so it's not much of a concern with us. She's already pretty good with normal cups too but I think the bottle just helps her out in the evenings before bed time. My little girl is getting bigger by the day!

Pumpkin Patch

This time last year, Izzy was just a few weeks old when we went to the local pumpkin patch. This year, she's totally walking around and has grown up so much. The sad thing is that afterwards, she got totally sick.

She was totally unsure of herself at first. She's not a big fan of grass...

Izzy finally gets into the groove and started to arrange the baby pumpkins. We wanted to buy the ones she picked out but there were way too many. We ended up with 4 baby pumpkins.

Playdate!

Last Sunday we had the Hernandez family over for a playdate. We don't know anyone else with kids so this playdate was really important to Izzy. After a few minutes of shyness, Izzy and Lexy were totally into playing with each other. It was so cute! The last time they were together at Catherine's house, Izzy had just started walking and couldn't really do anything that the big kids were doing. Now, she's all over the place!

The Raider game was on which was more to keep us all entertained.

The two of them speak gibberish and I don't know if they really know what they're saying to each other but it's totally cute watching them. Oh I wish everyone lived closer!

Auntie Cindy

So today was really Cindy's last day with our family. She officially moved to her new apartment in the city and will not be staying with us any more. For those of you that have followed Isabel's Nanny Diaries, Auntie Cindy has been an incredibly important player in this past year. Back in January when I went back to work, Cindy quit her job, moved in with us while she was figuring out her next step and became Izzy's full time nanny. I want to say that since we were 4 years apart growing up, the last few years have brought us closer. In the past year, we have become extremely close. It is amazing to have a sister who is completely independent and head strong but will drop what she's doing at a moment's notice to be by your side. Throughout my pregnancy and even at the hospital, I swear, the 2nd person to Ben was her.

I am SO grateful for everything Cindy has done for our family this past year and her never ending love for her niece. I am very lucky to have someone like her in my life to rely on. Actually I am truly lucky: I have an incredible family around me and would do anything for me. I am very happy for Cindy as she moves on and lives a fabulous life (on a budget of course) in the city but deep down I'm really sad
and hope one day soon we can go on another journey together. We love you Auntie Cindy!

Happy Birthday Baby!

It was Isabel's first birthday today. I can't believe it's been one year already! Time flies! Anyhow, here are some pictures from her birthday dinner. We kept it really low key, just family. We went to Buca Di Beppo since we knew it would be loud and there would be lots of pasta for her to eat. She LOVES pasta

About that shiner on under her right eye... She was throwing down in daycare! Just kidding! No one noticed the bruise until it showed up. Izzy doesn't cry when she gets hurt so it's hard to say where she got it exactly but my suspicion is that it came from one of her remote controls. She loves to wave it around and bang on things with them. She's hit herself in the face while throwing them around. Poor baby!

She's on the phone with Uncle Anthony: "Yea it's my birthday, whattup?"

The royal family with the birthday girl digging into her own little cake.

Our magical nanny Aunt Cindy, who can cast spells and make spoons float. Oh, that's just Izzy throwing her spoon around again.