Happy New Year

I have no great words of wisdom reflecting back on last year and forward to next year.

I will just post a picture of my beautiful girl, smiling for my new camera! And a great video clip of Izzy on Christmas morning acting silly!

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!

A Very Merry Christmas!!!!

Finally a good Family Photo of the 3 of us!!!!!


Boxes are so much fun!

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas morning!!! Last night we went to my inlaws and had Christmas dinner and then went to church. We then battle kinda yucky roads on teh way home and enjoyed watching Its a Wonderful Life (I had never seen it, little sheltered Jewish Girl I guess) I loved it.

This morning Santa came and brought presents. I got a new camera Canon Elph from DH and my favorite gift was the gift of money to use for the Fitness Class at the gym I have been wanting to take...so I will be a fit/healthy girl next year!!! It starts right after new years and it is 3 times a week. The only bummer is that the only class I could fit in my schedule is 6 am so this not a morning person is soon to become one..monday wednesday and friday for 12 weeks i will be up by 5:15!!! I am super excited though, the class is 2x a week weight training and one day cardio and you meet with a nutritionist once every other week. I am pumped about it!

Izzy had a great christmas a seemed to like her presents. She was awesome at church kept herself entertained but the best part of church was towards the end she was getting sleepy and was sitting on grandpa's lap with her head on his shoulder while he sang in her ear, it was SOOOO sweet it literally brought tears to my eyes!!

Here are a few pictures from last night and this morning

First Potty!

Last night we had a big milestone at our house, Izzy pooped on teh potty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Granted it was about the smallest poop you will ever see she still did it!!!!!!!!!!!! She was tooting in the bath so we took her out and put her on teh potty and she did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I guess I need to get her a potty chair!!!! I realize we are no where near potty trained (or even actively trying to get her potty trained!) but i thought it was a big deal!!!!!!!!!!!! I kept praising her and I gave her some Stamps on her hand (which she LOVES) I was joking with DH that when we are actively potty training our kid is gonna look like a tatoo'd freak if I use the stamp method.

I really am not looking forward to actual potty training, but this was a good start to make me start realizing that we are getting close to starting

Any tips from mom's that have been there would be much appreciated!

Thinking about C

We have not heard for C, Izzy's bm since August. I have really been thinking about her a lot lately. I am struggling with what to do for X-mas for her. I am not required to do anything but I am going to do something. I think I have decided on sending updated pictures along with one of those Hallmark recordable greeting cards with Izzy saying Ho Ho Ho. I may also get her an X-mas ornament with her picture in it. I don't want to spend a ton of money but I think that woudl be meaningful for her. Then for the 2 year update I am going to put together a DVD of pictures/video like i did for her last year. It came out really nice and I know she liked it.

We have a small album of pictures from part of Izyz's first year and in it are the pictures from when we first held her and met teh birth family and Izzy loves to look at these pictures and she really is drawn to C and M's pictures. I just tell her their names because obviously she doesn't really get everything yet. I hope as Izzy gets older that I can do a good job of explaining everything to her. My parents really did a great job at this and I didnt' even know my birthfamily so I think Izzy being able to see/hear stories about them will help her even more.

Where ever C is I hope she is doing okay. She will always be in my heart.....................

Survived the trip

Well I survived our trip to NJ and I will start by saying that Izzy could not have been better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She did GREAT! The flight out there, she sat on our laps and watched her DVD player or ate her snacks. The flight home she slept almost the whole way since she was exhausted from no nap. She really was a champ the whole weekend. We spent a good part of the weekend at my grandma's small apartment and Izzy did just fine (didnt' break anything and was so well behaved) Even her sleeping was pretty good. She refused to sleep in the pack n play but she did just fine sleeping on the bed with one of us. We had 2 beds in our room so DH and I took turns sleeping with her. She even took naps that way!

My Oma looks AWESOME!!! She is doing so well. Other than the fact that she uses a walker sometimes i would say she looks as good as she did last year...which considering how poor of shape she was in two months ago is just amazing. She baked her famous apple cake and made her famous egg salad. Each morning we went there for brunch and spent some time, then went back to the hotel for a nap and then would pick her up and go out to dinner! I do have to say, I LOVE bagels and lox but I ate bagels /lox for brunch 3 days in a row since that is what was served so if I dont' eat another one for 6 months it will be too soon!!!!!

Overall it was a great trip. I managed to not get too stressed out and I didn't snap at my mother too much even though by the end of the trip I was SOOOOOOOOOO done with her. She is just SOOO overbearing it is ridiculous. She hovers over us with Izzy and she must dominate all conversations.....urgh!!!! I know she does not do it on purpose and probably doesn't even realize she is doing it but it is gets very hard to take after a whole weekend.

I think the highlight of the trip for Izzy was swimming, she was jsut squealing with delight swimming at the hotel pool.

On Sunday we had a b-day party for my Oma at my Aunts house so we got to visit with some family that had never met Izzy and everyone kept telling us how amazing she was, and how well behaved and how they just couldnt' get over how happy she is. We are very lucky.

Okay well back to work I go. Here is a grainy picture taken with my dad's cell phone of Oma reading to Izzy. I forgot to pack our camera, and have to get my mom's card so I can get teh pictures off of it.

Random

Okay so now all of a sudden my child is back to her usual go to sleep great and sleep all through the night.....I took her to Dr on Monday to make sure she had no ear infection, and they said nope you should let her cry it out........ so i got all mentally ready on Monday night and had my ipod by my bed to drown out the screaming.....................and now i don't need it? Two nights in a row of back to her old self....... Weird, but I am NOT complaining!!!!!!!

This weekend we are off to New Jersey to visit my Grandma. This is the same grandma who lost her husband at the end of September. I am very much looking forward to teh trip. We have not seen her in a year and she is doing soooooo much better than when my "Opa" passed away. I am glad that we are going this weekend and now know it was a better choice than spending crazy money to make it in for the funeral. It is also my Oma's birthday tomorrow so we will be having a party at my aunts house on sunday. My Oma will be 94!!! She sounds great on teh phone and although I know she can't get around without a walker anymore, I think she is doing great considering. I am sure it will be a bit of a shock to see her though because when we visited last year this same weekend, she was still able to get around fine, cook etc. She is very much looking forward to seeing Izzy! We are traveling with my parents as well so it will be nice to have Nana and Grandpa to help us on the flight etc. I will for sure be bringing the dvd player with lots of Dora! This will be the last flight Izzy will be on our laps. We are flying in Feb to Arizona and for that trip we bought her a seat since she will be over 2.

The hotel we are staying at has a nice pool so I am sure we will make use of that too because there is only so much time we can spend in Oma's small apartment. It should a good trip. And yes I will be bringing benedryl just in case we have a major sleep issue in the hotel seeing that she will be in a pack n play and sharing a room with us........which is not something that goes over well with Izzy. Yes I am one of those moms that will drug her in a situation like that as a last resort.............