Snow Day Fun

Monday we had our second snow day this winter. This was the first one that fell on a day that I don't work so Izzy and I spent the day together at and around the house. Let me start by saying I was EXHAUSTED by the end of the day..between shoveling and keeping her busy (with no nap) i was pooped.

We at started the day by getting out her water table and bring teh snow inside for some fun before heading out to play in it. This was the first time I had done this and while she liked it and had fun with it, it didn't keep her as independantly entertained as I had hoped it would....(we struggle with this, she really doesn't play by herself..ever, always wants you to entertain her or sit with her etc..part of having an only child i guess)

Then we decided we would head out and enjoy the snow outside. We got buddled up and had a blast, I quickly gave up on teh shoveling, the snow was so heavy it was ridiculous. So we played and then went next store to see if her neighbor friend who is a year older thna her wanted to come out and play too. The neighbor prefered to stay in but asked izzy to join her. So we ended up spending majority of the day at their house while the dad (my friend K) and I tag team parented..worked otu well. He snow blowed, I watched the kids and then he let me run to my house to get laundry switched and a few things done while Iz stayed over there.

It was a fun day. We are so lucky to have such awesome neighbors that we love to hang out with both with kids and without. Here are some pictures.

A little nervous...

Well Izzy and I leave for Florida thursday morning. We are going to spend some time with my brother who lives there, and some of my other family that are all renting a 4 bedroom house.

I am starting to get very nervous for lots of reasons. Reason number 1, DH is NOT coming with us. He is goign to stay home and do some projects around the house(i hope!) because when we first booked this trip we didn't want to spend the extra money on the plane ticket plus he didn't want to take more time off work....so he isn't coming with us. So i am anxious about the flight solo, but I know we will be okay. My biggest concern is just being able to lug everything through the airport solo...and hoping izzy will ride in teh umberella stroller...I am going to go to the store today and buy a few new books/activites to keep izzy busy on the plane, that along with the dvd player we shoudl be okay.

Reason #2 I am anxious is there will be a little family tension. I have kind of a complicated family history, my parents divorced when i was 5...then my mom (and dad, lets call him Stu) both got remarried when I was 7. The amazing man my mom married Gerry, is who i call dad and who I work for and have a wonderful relationship with. My 1st dad Stuart, well that is where it gets complicated. He gave up his parental rights when I was 14 to both my brother and I because bascially he was sick of fighting my mom with child support amoungst other things....so he ended up moving to hawaii then austraila after meeting his 3rd and current wife....as you can imagine those events caused a bit of trouble/hurt feelings in my childhood(too put it mildly). I have since made peace with Stuart. We have discussed the events of the past and moved beyond them, however I would still not call the our relationship a father/daughter one, but he and his wife Wendy clearly love me and Izzy VERY much. My younger brother however has not made the same peace with Stu and is still angry, and resentful and chooses not to have any sort of relationship with him.

So now my grandparents (stu's parents (who my brother does have a relationship with) and Stu and Wendy decided to rent this 4 bedroom house for 2 weeks and it is located about 20 minutes from where my brother lives..... My brother has decided that he is willing to visit Stu and wendy but only out at a resturant not at the house (where izzy and i will be staying) So I am already stressed about trying to manage visiting enough with my brother and not making him or anyone too uncomfortable. That combined with knowing Izyz and I are staying with Stu and Wendy (and my grandparents ) for 4 straight nights with no DH as support or buffer I am getting stressed. At least I will have my own car so if we need to get away for a while we can...but I am just hoping it goes well and that not only cna i see my brother but that all that "bonding" time doesn't feel akward. I haven't seen stu and wendy in a year and even then we didnt' stay with them, we stayed at a hotel so we didn't seem them 24/7.....

Okay now that my blood pressure is high from typing and thinking about all that I need to take a deep breathe. It will be okay. It will work out. It is Thursday-Monday how bad can it be..and hopefully the weather will be decent, so far it doesn't look great for swimming weather but at least it will be a lot warmer than here.

Wish me luck!!!!

Valentines Day Fun

Yesterday was a "mommy day" for me and izzy and after her swim lesson I wanted to do something fun and different for valentines day. I am not really very creative and I don't do enough activities with Izzy so after seeing this craft idea on another blog i thought it woudl be a fun and easy one to do.
(finished craft, couldn't get the stuipd picture to move under the paragraph below)

So after swimming Izzy and I made sugar cookies (yes I cheated and used store bought dough that we rolled out and used the heart shaped cookie cutters). On as an aside on the store bought dough, Izzy totally called me out on it. She pointed to my kitchen aid mixer that sits on teh counter and said " You are suposed to make cookies in there, with eggs and sugar and flour"! Can you tell she makes lots cookies from scratch with Grandma?

We decorated them and then put them in baggies and took them to our neighbor friends. Izzy was very helpful at cutting out the cookies and then shaking large quantities of suger on them. Here is a picture of her sitting in front of the oven watching them while eating the piece of bologna i said she had to eat before she could have a cookie. I thought the finished cookies came out cute even though they didn't hold their heart shape all that well.


The finished cookies, each friend got a big one and a little one along with tinkerbell store bought valentines





Then later in teh afternoon after her non-nap. We made some handmade valentines for her two sets of grandparents and for daddy. This craft I saw on Journey to Josie, a while back and thought it was so cute, creative and most importantly easy. So I painted izzy's hands and then we made the prints in the shape of a heart. While I finished them with the writing, izzy painted pictures with the paints. I think they came out cute and she had a lot of fun doing it with me. I really need to make more of an effort to do more stuff like this.

3 year well check

I took Izzy to the pediatrician on Monday for her well child visit. I wanted to capture her "stats" before I forget them.

She weighed 30.2 lbs
and was 37" long

I would say her growth has slowed quite a bit from last year to this year. She used to be in the 70th percentile and now she is about 48 percentile. Doc said she is very proporationate and weighs just what she should so that is good news. She was very happy with izzy's progress.

She did say that she may have to be on teh Mirilax for a couple years even, that it won't hurt her. To just stay consistant with giving it to her, don't bug her too much about going poop on the potty and she will do it when she is ready.

She didn't need any shots, but did get her second H1N1 nasal mist. All in all it was a succesful trip to the doctor. Hopefully we won' t have to go back for a while, which would mean she stays nice and healthy!