Halloween Costume

Izzie decided that she is going as a ballerina this Halloween...

And then pulled this awesome costume out of her tickle truck/play basket.

Halloween Costume, consider yourself done.....by a two year old. Sweet.

Our Easter

Knit up a few easter eggs...

add a felted basket made by the Nana...

Add a note from the easter bunny..

And you have one very excited little girl!

Oh the utter glee that took over our house. Coffee and tea were not even close to being started and we were out the door.

Thank goodness the weather held off. It had rained and hailed the day before, so I...I mean the easter bunny wrapped the eggs in foil.

Izzie found all 5 of her eggs, but found one all by herself.

Do you see the egg?

And all to soon we were all done. All to soon for Izzie, not for the rest of us. We needed caffeine!

So we headed inside where I had set out the easter presents from our extended family. Everyone wanted to shower Izzie in easter love. The rest of the day passed in a sugar induced haze.

Her eggs and basket now sit on our nature table.

And we have all re-read that card to her about a gazillion times now.

Not bad for her first easter egg hunt!

Wordless Wednesday: Pigtails!

And then they were removed by force and with a little bit of temper.

Candlemas

If candlemas day be fair and bright,

winter will take another flight.

If candlemas day be cloud and rain,

winter is gone and will not come again.

From Festivals Family and Food

Taking our first tentative steps towards being a Waldorf home. Happy Candlemas/Groundhog Day to you all.

Happy Winter Solstice

May your day be full of warmth and light and love.

Also, FYI, it is super hard to take a picture while a kitty is in need of love and keeps snuggling your picture taking arm. (Not the kitty in the picture, obviously.)

Hair

We have a pigtail, people!

I knew this day would come, but I was ill-equipped for it! That pigtail is held together by a poor elastic from my "I'm gonna wear pigtails cause it'll make me look cute!" phase. I can't believe it still worked.

Then the pigtail was out. She was far to fascinated with that new development on the back of her head to leave it alone. Izzie 1, pigtail 0, pictures.....tons.

Carving a Pumpkin Toddler Style

Last Halloween I was so behind with my planning that I purchased our pumpkin the night before and carved it by myself. I felt like I'd jilted Izzie out of a super fun and messy time that she would have loved. Well, I swore to myself, not this year. We bought our pumpkin from a pumpkin farm a week ahead...the following is what happened.

First incision complete. Toddler interference run by the Daddy.

I thought giving her a spoon would ease her into it, she was confused.

Interested and still confused as to why I am pulling things out of the orange ball.

Daddy tries to get her to touch the pumpkin guts. Yes, that is what he called it.

Weirded out by said pumpkin guts.

Peering inside and...

Pointing to either the guts or something she'd like us to buy from the grocery store. Who knows.

And she's done. Mommy is much more interesting since she has the picture box. Did I cause irreparable damage to her by denying her her first Halloween???

Izzie's New Sound

Is only heard when she's terrorizing the cats.

Piercing.

Shoes!

Big developments in this household.

Izzie has learned to put on her socks and shoes...all by herself.

They may be on backwards, but they are on! Good job little one!

She is now working on pants, upside down of course.

Izzie meets Nutella

She snarfed it down and then followed me around saying, "More? More? More?" Oh Nutella, I
have unleashed your beastly-ness upon my child.

Maybe not on a spoon next time....

18 months old

Yesterday marked Izzie' s 18 month "birthday." She has grown so much in the last few months that sometimes I stop and am amazed by the young lady she's growing into.

Her fascination with bellybuttons grows.

Found yours!

I informed her that since it is her 18 month milestone, that means a trip to the doctor! For shots! This was her reaction.
So we piled into our bakfiets and set off.
Our neighbourhood is in full bloom! And the worms have stopped dropping from the trees which makes the view even sweeter.
Being originally from Ontario, the sight of vast open prairies makes me feel slightly agoraphobic. The neighbourhood of our doctor is very prairie-ish.
Water break. Also, we were super early so I decided to stop for a bit.
Just before the shots. I didn't get an after because I was a tich busy. But I did get this picture....
...when we stopped at an uber long traffic light on a quiet residential street. Note that the hand is still in the snack trap!
But all was well. Izzie went back to tormenting her little "brother" as soon as we got home.

The Tormentor!

I decided it was also time to get on this potty training thing. Not to force Izzie before she's ready, but to have the tools (step and toilet seat reducer) handy should she want to try.

And she was interested...in the toilet seat packaging.
Oh peanut! Please don't change, I love you just as you are. You goofy monkey.

Sippy Cups are for Babies

That's right, Izzie is drinking from a cup...on her own! Last night during our meal, Izzie grabbed my water glass and started to chug. (It was empty.) Amazed that she had done this and horrified that she would drop the glass glass, I rushed into the kitchen to grab her BPA-free plastic cups. This morning, she wowed me again..
The cup fascinates her. She's more interested in the cup than her peanut butter toast, and does not care that Phil put his Guinness hat on her.

Time for another diaper

After reading a very informative and interesting blog from MckMama on potty training, I realized that it has been a very long time since I gave Izzie any "naked time."

Izzie used to be plagued with many maladies of the nether regions which forced me to change diaper brands 4 times, wipe brands 3 times and diaper cream brands 5 times. Also, it required daily naked time. Time where Izzie could let it all hang out. And since this usually happend in the morning, after she had spent most of the night in one diaper, she usually reserved her worst nether movements for this time. Oh what a joy, what a clean up. And anyone who knows me, knows I hate to clean.

Move to several months later, also known as tonight. Izzies maladies of the nether region are of the past, thanks to gDiapaers, Nature Babycare wipes, and Desitin, so naked time has not occured in a while. Phil and I are striving to keep the -30 degree weather where it should stay, outside. Izzie starts to get a bit overheated from all the heat and her polar fleece top. I decide that maybe Izzie should run around the house naked. (I always think kids are super cute when they're buck naked and running. Love that carefree, couldn't give a damn nature.) The diaper she has on is soaking wet, and she's very warm. Off come the clothes and the diaper. Izzie and I snuggle and play with her feet. We chat, we bounce along to the music, we have loads of giggles. I set Izzie on the floor to roam around.

She pees.

Just a little. I laugh out loud, slightly startling her. She laughes with me. I use the back of the wet gDiaper to clean it up. I tell Izzie that she just peed. I ask her if it felt good to pee. (As MckMama suggest.)

She squats.

Phil and I look on with slight horror. Is she taking a dump?

Nope, she just peed again.

Thatta girl. You show that floor who's boss.

Yup

As I surveyed the room with Izzie in my arms I said outloud, "Man, this floor needs a vacuum. It's pretty dirty."

And Izzie looked me straight in the face and said, "Yup."
Seriously.