Big Girl Room Phase 2

(talking on her cell phone hanging out in her room)

Well I am happy to report that Izzy's big girl room is just about done. We are just waiting on grandma to finish the quilt, what I have seen of it is super cute, flowers and butterflies along with traditional quilt blogs. It won't be quite as contempary as the one on your bed now (which i just love) but it will have more meaning and be more of an heirloom since it was all hand designed and hand made by grandma.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE how the room came out. The paint is super cute and bright and makes me happy. This weekend we found this cute cubicle shelf at target and even though it is pink, with the bins i think it is a cute addition to the room and it easily fits all her books and stuffed animals. She insisted on buying the monkey bin that while it doesn't exactly go with the flowers adn butterfly motif, it is super cute and the color is perfect. I still have some wallies flower decorations that I am going to decorate the shelving unit with as well as a few on the wall maybe, but I want to see the quilt finished first before I do it.

Izzy loves her new room and is very proud of it and enjoys showing it off to people when they come over.

I have been so busy that I haven't had much time to blog lately but hoping to get in a izzy update on things she is saying and into soon just so I will have it recorded for in the future.

Tell Me Again About the Night I was Born

We have been reading the book "Tell me Again about the night I was born" to Izzy the last week or so and I think it is really helping tell her adoption story. I was feeling like I wanted to start somewhere adn this book has really helped. I think she gets a littel confused and really thinks the actual book has her in it..dh said last night when they were reading it she kept saying "lets find me, where am I" ...tells me i really need to get off my duff and put together her adoption story scrapbook, something I have only been talking aboutdoing for 2 1/2 years...i think that will help tell her her exact story, but I must say I do love this book for explaining adoptions, it is actually quite humerous and the illustrations are adorable.

Anyone have any other good suggestions on kid friendly adoption books?

New Fav Picture

My mom took this picture with her phone on friday. First of all I can't believe she figured out how to take a photo with her phone let alone be able to send it to me via txt message. Very impressive!!!

I cropped it a little but other than that I didn't touch a thing. It has got to be on my top 10 of izzy pictures. I just love it.

I just love love love it.

Lunch Bunch

My girl is continuing to grow up WAY too fast and she proved it again this morning.

I have her in the "fun day friday" program at the local Y. It is part of their preschool program and it is just an extra "fun" day that they offer in addition to their m/w or tu/thurs preschool. I decided in January that she needed something small to start her on the path of some independence from us and get her interacting with peers/teachers but I wasnt ready to put her in preschool yet . So I put her in just the "fun day friday"

She has done SOOO well in this little program. I have been really pleasently pleased. Every week of the session they have a theme for that friday. Last week was swimming (they go to the indoor zero entry pool) and this week was fitness day. They also have gone to the library, sledding, etc. Well the program goes from 9:30-noon every friday. they have an optional "lunch bunch" from 12-1 which means you pack their lunch and they eat with their friends and you don't have to pick them up til 1. Well normally Grandma or nana pick her up at noon since i am at work...until today

This morning Izzy was very clear she wanted to pack her lunch! She kept saying.."I need to pack my lunch" so I asked her again..are you sure you don't want to eat with nana...she said YES! So we packed her a lunch for the first time.

I just talked to my mom who picked her up and apparently she had a great time eating lunch and even gave one of her "friends" a big hug when she left! My baby needs to slow down! I can't handle it!

So i guess iz and I better go shopping next week and get her her very own lunchbox for her "lunch bunch" because I have a feeling she will be making this request more often!

Big Girl Room Phase One

(Her new bed, gotta love our cat making herself at home)

Well we hit a big milestone over the weekend. Sunday we took apart izzy's toddler bed/crib and put up her twin! I am so excited yet so sad at the same time. It is really starting to set in that we are done with babies, the crib is now in pieces in the basement along with all of our other baby stuff. I know I need to get rid of most of it, as it is taking up so much space but I haven't been able to yet. I know that we are not going to adopt again (unless for some crazy circumstance the Bm came to us and said she was pg and wanted us to take it) so I know that we are 99.9% sure we are done..and I really do feel blessed adn mostly complete with izzy...it just does make me a little sad.

On a happy note her bed is so cute! We put the bedspread and sheets from our neice that she no longer uses and I must say I LOVE IT! So bright and fun. We still need to repaint the walls (purple and green) and replace the carpet eventually. Izzy's grandma (my mil) is actually working on a new quilt for the bed...she loves to quilt and I felt bad not letting her make one even though the pottery barn teen one on the bed now is so cute (it does have some stains that wont come out and it is super thin) So grandma is giong to make a custom one with flowers and butterflies..and regular quilt blogs. I don't know exactly what it will look like but I know it will be more traditional than the one on her bed now which is pretty modern but I know izzy will like whatever she makes. She is also going to make it as a duvet so I can put a down comforter in it.

Izzy has been goign to bed and sleeping just fine in her new bed, she even napped yesterday in it without much of a fight. We got her a new step stool to help her get in her bed since it is so tall. She loves climbing in and out herself and reading stories in it before we go to bed. She doesn't even ask to be rocked anymore since we read stories in her bed. Stories are done we kiss her and say goodnight!

My baby is growing up, I am so proud of her

Successful Trip

Well we survived our florida trip and I am happy to report that it went MUCH better than I could have hoped. Izzy was an excellent traveler..really she could not have been better! Even with missing our flight down there due to terrible road conditions/traffic on the way to the airport.

We had a great time with Stu and Wendy and Izzy warmed up to them pretty quickly. It was nice to see them interact with her especially Stu who I would say is not much of a little kid person but he was great with her. Certain things he did would bring back some childhood memories of mine like when he asked if he could brush her hair. He was always so gentle when he brushed my hair and it was very sweet to see Izzy let him brush her hair (and of course she sat way stiller than she ever does for me :) )

I am actually sad that we won't be seeing them again for at least a year. We hopefully will get oru Skype fixed and be able to see them that way. but it isn't the same...especially since izzy does not cooperate or at least hasn't in the past. Maybe now that she spent more time with them she will actually talk to them but I am not sure. She is not a fan of chatting on the phone much let alone over a computer

I really enjoyed talking with Wendy. We would stay up late every nigth and talk for hours while everyone else was asleep. I got to hear the full story of how her and stu got to emailing and eventually meeting and marrying..it was quite a story.

I am always amazed at different of a person Stu is now than who he was when I was a child. I am sure some of it has to do with that I am grown up so I look at things totally differently but not all of it. I am so happy that he found Wendy and for the first time ever in his life i would say is happy and has truely found his place in the world. I know he really struggled with this before.

We had decent weather, not super warm, not warm enough to swim outside but still plenty warm to soak up some sun and play outside which of course izzy just loved! I don't think I quite realized how much she missed being outside.

The weather is finally starting to get a little better here, we actually played outside a bit yesterday...spring can't come soon enough!!!

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.