Thanks

I really am thankful for my family.

It is still small, but I really am happy what I have is mine. I see the achievements my daughter reaches and I know I created that. I am so enamoured with her. She teaches me so much.

Today is Thanksgiving and I can't help but feel a calm joy for being me.
(Then I try to stand up and reminded that I'M PREGNANT AND FAT!)

We had a great day at my grandma's. She gave Isabella a flowering cactus plant. Isabella actually pointed and chose between the salmon colored plant and the yellow one. Now it has become an obsession. Where fowler go? translation: where did the flower go? I then tell her in the kitchen. Then she proceeds to tell us. "My fowler, Bella fowler"

It really is a thankful day. But did you know.. you aren't supposed to thank anyone who gives you a plant. Apparently it is bad luck, according to grandma.

new house

well, we finally found a house..

I enjoyed living with my mom.. she REALLY liked having her granddaughter here.
She got to watch her grow and learn, and pee on her floor.

so, yesterday we started moving into our new home. It is perfect.

We had a little help. My sister and neice came, Patrick's brother came, his mom and dad stopped by to see the place.

We just made trips back and forth from the storage unit with boxes. It was nice to set up my kitchen. The kitchen is small, BUT, we plan on adding furniture to supplement the lack of counter/drawer space.

It was definately a good day yesterday.

We plan on moving in slowly, and organizing as we go. I like this plan. I want to paint a little too. At least the kids' room.

Today will be another box day. YAY! It's like Christmas all over again. We find surprises we haven't seen in months.

Naptime

Naptime is one of super dad's favorite times..
he gets to hear the Bear get scolded just as Isabella did sometime earlier in the day.
he gets to hear her extensive vocabulary to persuade her way out of her bed...
he gets to hear all the songs we have been working on..
he gets to hear how her day was..
he gets to watch all the new acrobatics that can happen in the space of a crib...
he gets to see the Bear then get ostracized from the bed for being naughty...
he gets to see her fine motor skills as she learns to remove her diaper...
he gets to hear her say "I love you" and then hum herself to sleep...

its a wonderful thing

"hmm-hmm"

"hmm-hmm" is what you will hear when my daughter needs to get past you..
"hmm-hmm" is what you will hear if you burp or fart near her and you don't excuse yourself quick enough
"hmm-hmm" is what the chair hears before she moves it out of the way....

no matter how much I work with her, I CANNOT get her to actually say the words "excuse me" it has always been "hmm-hmm". It is with the same intonation you would hear if you couldn't say the words and only the hmm-hmm's though.. hilarious.

MORE new developments

So... Patrick got a new job. In Ann Arbor. He started there July 28, 2008.

It's a decent job. The same pay, worse hours, but there is opportunity for advancement. That was NOT available at Chippewa Hills.

So.. we looked and looked for houses. Then it seemed that God placed the PERFECT opportunity in our lap. We just wouldn't be able to move in until the end of August.
Fine, I can wait for a good thing. Our lease was up August 15th, so what do we do until then? put all of our stuff in storage, and just live with my mom. (yay, who gets to move BACK in with their mother.... *sigh*)

Which, side note.. we would not have been able to do with the worlds BEST FRIENDS!!! a person could ever have. Jeff, Amber, Jason, Dan, Joe McL, Becky, Mike (which there will be a separate blog about these wonderful people), Everett, Brooke, Anthony, Stacey, Ronda, Joe McC. My mom, Lars, Sarah, Patrick's dad. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!

So, we just moved in with my mom and made do here on August 18th. Well, it is now Sept 9th and we are still here.
AND I NEED MY OWN HOUSE!

Just a few things heard along the way...
"moving is good, it keeps things new"

"you'll love Ann Arbor, you'll meet so many new people"

"you'll LOVE your new place, it will give you a chance to purge your excess"

new development

Well,
Isabella has grown and has learned quite a lot already.. She is very excited to point out all the body parts... I have taught her to point to my eye, and say eye... my ear... and say ear.. my nose... and say nose.. my belly and say "baby".

Yes, it is true.. I am pregnant again!!!!! YAY!!!

We are not positive when this one is due, but we think January sometime.. sorry Teresa, you weren't the only one pregnant at the end of the school year! Ronda's instincts are spot on every time. I just didn't know it yet.

We have an appointment with our midwives on July 17th...I guess we find out then when we are due.

wish us luck!
thanks,
spread the word,
Erica and Patrick

language, learning and life

It is now summer break and I am home for the summer. YAY!

I have high expectations for this summer....
I want to try potty training.. I wouldn't do this if I didn't think she wasn't ready.. but she has already started to show signs of interest in the potty.. She has a seat that rests inside of the adult seat.. We have such a small bathroom I couldn't imagine giving up part of the room for a chair just for her. Anyway, she will sit down on her seat while we say the abc's and count to ten.. and one time in 10 sits, she will go potty. AND.. she signs potty when someone flushes.

We are working on signs and learning language..
Today Super-Dad was putting on some hiking socks to hiking with his super-neice, and Isabella looks down and signs and says socks.. I had only worked with her a couple times on that one.. amazing how quick they pick it up now!

We saw fireworks for the first time this past weekend.. The annual summer festival has them every year. Isabella stayed awake for them, and really enjoyed them I think. She even clapped a couple times..

(just now she was standing at the kitchen gate, and looked at the windowsill, and said/signed apple. I said, nope..those are tomatoes on the windowsill, so she signed tomato.. amazing)

well, it's going to be a busy summer, I better get to it.

-supermom

Alone

Isabella is down for a nap. Grandma and MarFar stopped by to say "hi" on their way home from "up north" at their cabin (trailer), and woke her up early from her morning nap. SO, afternoon nap came quick.

We finally had her birthday party March 29th, at noon at Winding Brook, and it was great. My mom and Lars came, my sister and neice, all of "the group", which includes people driving from 150 to 200 miles away.. Patrick's brother Joe, his friend from work, two of my friends from my work, all just for my baby's first birthday party. YAY!

Patrick even got them to hang around for a "burger challenge" at the local greasy spoon to see how many burgers or coney dogs they could eat. They all succeeded in getting their name up on the wall there. They had to eat at least 10. Even one of the girls did it!

Anyway, the birthday party was great, it was pot all of "the group"luck and everyone brought something. Which was SO nice! Isabella did NOT get into eating her cake though. She just wanted to stare at it.

I made a 3D bear cake for her, but nope... she just couldn't destroy all of momma's hard work!

That was a great weekend.

Now, this past first week of April totally sucked. It was my spring break and nothing good happened. Well, I take that back, Bella was good, and fun.. but I did NOTHING for myself..yet again, spent all week taking care of sick children and sick people.

anyway, I am alone now, and i think I am going to take a nap.

one

yes, my baby is going to be one.

one year old. this exact day in 2007 it was Sunday, I was making sure everything was ready for the week at work.

I haven't written all the great things my sweetheart can do...

she says:
mama
dada
diaper: biaper
yellow: lellow
Bye bye
Becky: baboo
No

she signs:
mama
dada
want
thank you
yellow
bye bye
eat
more
peas
banana
bed (night-night)


she knows where her nose is, sometimes where her ear is, and definitely where her mouth is

she is still sleeping through the night

is eating everything we give her

and loves it all!!!

she's my little angel

tipping the scales

So Super dad and I have a bet going that whoever can lost the most weight between now and my birthday (May 4) then wins..

yeah, after yesterdays snacks.. we are both WAY off our goal.

AND if I want to get started thinking about baby #2, I have to get seriously back in better shape.

Isabella is learning by leaps and bounds..
she is mimicking all our sounds and syllables. It's amazing. She was doing.. Salsa
"aah-Aha" and diaper "ai-pa"

Amazing huh?
Baby girl you are so smart.

Out with mom

Well, today Isabella and I went out for a bit. We ran to Wal-Mart, the Party Store, and the laundromat and it went splendid. She slept through the laundry, and the start of Wal-Mart. It just shocks me how good she is.

We got to spend all day together on Friday. I had another snow day. We played and played and played.

I must admit she does cling a bit and that is starting to bug me, I never thought I could find anything she does as bad, but when she climbs up my pant leg.. it just drives me insane.

our sponge

Well, many people told us that at 10, 11, 12 months is when the learning explodes.
Isabella is no exception.

Today she turns 11 months.. and she is our little sponge.

She was in her exersaucer, and there are some animals on it. She has started to point and ask what these things are.. so daddy showed her the sign for zebra when she pointed to it.
It was repeated maybe 10 times... About 5 mintues later, she pointed to the zebra again, and daddy showed her the sign, and she signed it.. It was amazing.

Then I had the laptop on the coffee table, and I started to shut it.. she immediately came over and peeked down under it to see what was going on.

And now, any time daddy lays on the floor, (which he does quite often) Isabella thinks this is a great time to attack. She crawls over to him, pulls up his shirt and smacks his belly. It is hilarious!

She has started to repeat things we say. Not well, but I say "outside" and she says "bluh-bluh" Its awesome.

Last night we were playing the give it to momma game. I started teaching her this so if she finds anything on the floor then she will immediately give it to me or Patrick. So, she did. She picked up some papers, handed them to me, then 10 minutes later when we were almost out of papers... she picked up one, looked across the room, held it up and said.. "da" So daddy came over and joined our game of give it to mommy, thank you. It was so much fun.

She has her left eye tooth coming in. As well as both eye teeth on the bottom.
She is dealing with it well!!

dinner menu

so for dinner today Isabella had some of my homemade soup. I put a couple bags of frozen broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots together with some broth I had left from a previous dinner of steamed broccoli.
Then I added a couple of basil/oregano/parsley dehydrated tomatoes we made for just such an occasion. I put it into our magic bullet and it came out perfect!
and for a fruit she had some applesauce I added some blackberry juice to.

Isabella is becoming such a daredevil. She climbs up on this pink car/thing and then tries to stand on the seat.

OH and she is starting this gagging thing.. she is gagging herself with her own fingers.. she does it until she brings something up. She finally stopped tonight after I trained her not to do it.

she signed eat for wanting to eat.... and more.. and she signed daddy today, for the first time with a purpose.

until later-

Snow Days

I have had 2 snow days in a row... that means 2 free days to play with my wonderful Bella.

Working is something I always expected to do, but now I look at it as something I don't WANT to do. It makes me sad to think I have to pay someone to play with my daughter when I would give anything to be able to do it for free.

Anyway, today was fun. I got to have her to myself... Daddy had to go to work.
We had pancakes for breakfast. Isabella signed pancake, it was so cool. I have been giving her choices. I show her the food, sign it, then let her choose it by touch. After doing this about 20 times, she ate a bite of her applesauce, then looked at me and signed pancake. I was so excited. She totally got the concept of making a choice. Well, maybe not that complex of a thought, but she decided she had enough of her applesauce and wanted her pancake. So, she signed it!

Our friend Amber has suggested a blog for us to mutually post ideas and thoughts about raising our children and its not a bad idea.

We also want to do a blog or join a forum that has baby food idea/recipes.

I have to get to bed because I have to go to a stupid job tomorrow. A job I really don't enjoy much anymore because I spend so much of my day wanting to be home with Isabella.

Good night world

New Year

Well, it is now 2008

Isabella is learning things quickly now. This morning daddy showed her how to flick her finger over her lips to make a "uh-be-oh-uh-blub-" sound. By this afternoon she did it on her own.

She has been eating many new things. she now eats whole o's (Cheerios)she started this at Christmas. Her friend Luke had some, and apparently wasn't eating them fast enough so Isabella crawled over to his stash and ate them all.

merry christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone.

Isabella had a wonderful time.
We are officially finished with our Christmases. My mom, his mom and dad.. Isabella received many wonderful things. But, I still think my favorite gifts she received were the blocks that super dad made for her. It didn't take long, but he made sure he took time to make the "perfect" blocks for his daughter.

The days have been long for her. She has definately had some busy days. Tiring. Her nap schedule is completely screwed up.
Oh well, we don't see family that often.

Even though her schedule was thrown for a loop, she took it all in stride. She never complained, whined, cried. She paid attention to all the "no's" she got.... such a good girl.
We still can't figure out how we got so blessed.

She has just learned out to blow spit bubbles.. it is so cute! messy, but cute.

anyway, 2007 is soon over, the year of my baby's birth. done. *sigh*

hope all your new year wishes come true.
God Bless

baby steps

Thanksgiving was wonderful.
Isabella took her first steps on Thanksgiving Day! It was amazing!

She crawled over to me, stood up, had her hands on my shoulder then turned around and looked at her super dad, then just started walking towards him!

She started reaching for us. When family would be holding her, she was fine, but then we would walk by and she would throw her hands out to us!

So now.. everywhere we go.. we are taking baby steps...

up up and away

So, she's standing up..

she's cruising..
she's doing so much

just tonight she started throwing some balls around then chasing them, she's never done that before.

I guess you are supposed to be feeding 8 1/2 month old babies finger foods.. I am so nervous about that..

Isabella is sleeping through the night now... well, she was before, but now she sleeps from 8-5:30.. before it was 10 pm to 3 or 4 then eat then back to sleep.

I can't believe how much I love her, I just can't give her enough kisses.

OH yeah, I can't believe I forgot to mention it.. she talks in her sleep.. while she is falling asleep, she just opens her mouth and says; Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh... its so cute

she signs 'more', 'eat', 'mom', 'dad', 'banana'.
she says mama, dada, bye-bye
she waves bye-bye..

I love her...

"TAP, TAP"

This Sunday, October 21st, we were in a restaurant with Uncle Joe, Grandma M, Grandpa M, super-mom, super-dad and a friend. Uncle Joe was holding Isabella while feeding her for the first time.

They were sitting next to super-dad. She was eating carrots and apples. This was the first time Uncle Joe fed her, everything went well, she ate great! Uncle Joe had her sitting on his right leg, and her arms were free to do whatever they needed. Apparently that meant that for every bite, she would reach out and tap daddy on the arm. It was hilarious. Spoon in food, mouth open, bite in mouth, "TAP, TAP" on daddy's arm. Most of the time, she wouldn't even make eye contact with her target. She would just reach out and "TAP" daddys arm.
We couldn't figure out any reason for it. But she ate about 1/2 of a 2.5 ounce jar of carrots, and about 3/4 of a 2.5 ounce jar of apples, and for the whole of her meal, she felt the need to "TAP" daddy's arm

QUICK UPDATE:
We can:
wave goodbye/hello
say "bye", say "hi"
say mama
pull up to standing
dance
sign more, eat
make faces (copy your silly faces)
comes to you when you call her

catching up

let's see, last log-in was September 19th Bella had just pulled herself to standing.

we thought she was saying mamamamama

and just overall being way too smart for her own good.

Today is Sunday October 7th. Bella is still pulling herself to standing, BUT she has definitely improved her dismount. Now she can let go of the object she is using to hold onto and land on her butt instead of her head. Super dad is still being a super dad and putting pillows behind her just in case. Of course today, the one time she flubbs her dismount and, no pillows. OH well, I didn't raise no wuss.

We thought we saw her sign "more" last weekend at the St. Marys Fall Festival, then again last Tuesday, then we KNOW she is signing more for food. We were outside and letting Bella explore the leaves. She really wanted to eat them, but we did a quick training session telling her no, that leaves aren't for eating, and let her play with them. Every time she would put a leaf to her mouth to eat it, we tell her no, then she would sign "more" as if that would give her permission to eat it since she is asking nicely. IT was so damn cute. Every time that leaf went to her lips it was the same cycle...
"No, Isabella you can't eat the leaf."
"more?"
"No, Isabella you can't eat leaves."
"more?"

Eventually she stopped putting the leaves to her lips and just looked at us and signed "more"....
Then we told her, "No, Isabella, brown leaves from trees are not food."

Also today, she had pulled herself up onto the edge of the lazyboy and could look over the edge at me, and I started prompting her, "Say mama"
"say mama"

after about 5 "say mamas", she did!! She copied me, mouth movements and all, sometime she would add voice to her movements, and sometimes she would just copy my mouth. It was the cutest thing.. we got it on videotape, I am so excited.

Then it was really funny, we started prompting, "say daddy", "say daddy"
she just looked at us like we had stalks of asparagus sticking out of our heads.
Eventually she started mimicing the mouth movements for daddy, but no voice.

It was so sweet to hear my baby say mama. I am sad for super dad though. Daddy usually comes first.

anyway, gotta get to bed.
I love you Isabella.