Vacation, all I ever wanted....

Our first vacation of 2010 is just days away, yippee! We're heading back to Tampa (with Ed this time, but WITHOUT LAPTOP)! With a 10-day forecast of mid-80s and sun sun sun, we think it should be a perfect getaway.

Our plans include a visit to the brand new "Sesame Street Safari of Fun" at the Busch Gardens in Tampa. We're going to head out on a boat ride with Aunt Kim, Uncle Chris, and Ronan. We're going to hit the beach to show off those new swimming skills. And we are going to RELAX. Time for a jump start on that summer suntan! Hasta la vista!

Easter Fun

This was the first year we kinda actually "did" Easter, sort of, kinda, not really. Isabelle got to participate in her first Easter Egg Hunt at Selby Beach, our community association organizes it. She also got an Easter Basket (I wasn't going to do one but then got chastised by several friends so I had to make her one). We also cooked an Easter Ham. But we didn't make it to Mass...tsk tsk, I know. We're really going to start trying to get there in earnest starting next week (fo'real).

Because Isabelle's birthday is just a month before C'mas (which is kind of a bummer for a kid), we have decided that we'll do gifts for Easter every year. It's kind of the half-way point for her so we can get her some Spring-time gifts. Like this year, the tricycle. It would be kind of silly to get her a trike in November and make her wait 5 months to ride it, no? And I can't justify an expensive trike "just because".

We had beautiful weather this weekend, got to enjoy some beach time, and some good fun relaxing family time.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

We start "real" swim lessons tonight! The last 6 weeks was the baby/toddler class where one parent gets into the over-chlorinated 95-degree cesspool with their kid. Because Isabelle is so tall for her age, and mastered all of the baby steps that made up the intro class, they are letting her go into "Level 1" which is normally reserved for 3+ year olds.

Tonight is our first class, we're both going to go to see how our girl does without any M&D in the pool with her. After this week, we'll probably take turns the remainder of the class. I mean, it's not like she's going to be doing the backstroke next week or anything, hehehe.

No Way, Jose!

When I was getting Isabelle dressed for school today, she asked me if she could have a cookie (at 7:45am). I laughed and said, "No way, Jose!".

Her face scrunched up in what I thought was about to become a temper tantrum attempt to get her way. But there was no tantrum, she just distinctly explained to me, "No, Mommy, I'm not Jose. I'm IZZI!"

You are my sunshine

When Isabelle was born, I frantically scattered to try and remember the classic lullabies that I was supposed to sing. What were the words? How did that melody go? I only knew the old standby "Rock-a-bye Baby". If you know the words, sing it to yourself right now..........I'm waiting...........

It's NOT a happy song. A baby falls out of a tree when the wind blows. Ummmm, what? Is that supposed to put a baby peacefully to sleep? Or give a new mother any warm and fuzzy feelings when she tucks her newborn in at night?

It wasn't working for me. So I scattered a bit more and came up with the "You Are My Sunshine" song. (just in case you don't remember it...you make me happy, when skies are gray, you'll never know dear, how much i love you, oh please don't take my sunshine away....).

So Isabelle now knows the song and she sings it often. Singing it to her can sometimes make the difference between a temper tantrum or a near-miss situation. She loves it and I still love to sing it to (or with) her.

Recently, she decided (quite creatively) that she could substitute ANY word or item for "sunshine" in the song. So tonight we had...

you are my SOCKS, my only SOCKS, you make me happyyyyyyyy, when skies are gray......

It makes us laugh and it's such a cute game we play now. But, it does become a bit odd at times like yesterday when Ed told her to put her arms into her shirt, she started to sing the song with "arms" as the substitution word and the last line became a bit morbid when she hoped....

"...please don't take my arms away..."

We have bubbles!

We switched our swim class from Saturday mornings to Wednesday nights. Last night was class #3. This was my first time in the pool with Izzi during class (Ed went into the pool the first two lessons).

The Instructor came over to us gals during the lesson to inquire about Isabelle's age. After I told her that Isabelle just turned 2 in November, she told me that Isabelle was ready to move to Level 2, but they don't let them take Level 2 until they are at least 3 years old.

So we'll skip signing up for future sessions this year until Fall. We will probably take the session that ends in early November so she can be acclimated with the whole 'pool thing' before we head to swimmer's utopia in beautiful Puerto Rico. Then we can jump into a Level 2 session after the craze of the holidays are over.

But last night, just 3 lessons in, Isabelle decided to try the full back float. Success at Level 1 includes full ear submersion, head back, chin up to the sky, belly up, and legs straight. She was floating on her own! (So take THAT Uncle Sean!!!).

She also astonished me with the bubbles. She still won't put her full face in the water on her own (forehead and hairline have to be submerged), but she will put her mouth/nose into the water and blow bubbles the whole lesson if we asked her to. She doesn't mind being dunked completely, if we're playing a game, and loves to jump off the wall from a seated position (on my own, Mommy!).

I look forward to the day when she can swim out of my arms and across the width of the pool on her own. Ed & I were water babies who loved to swim so I look forward to Isabelle getting to that comfort level as well.

The Going to Bed Book

Sandra Boynton's classic, "The Going to Bed Book", has been a favorite of Izzi's since we first started to read together (a few hours after she arrived home). Reading a book is still one of our favorite pastimes, thus the burgeoning vocabulary she has at a mere 28 months.

She started to finish the very last page of the book (they rock, and rock, and rock to sleep) on her own when she was about a year old.

Tonight, she 'read' the book in it's entirety to Ed as the rocked and rocked and rocked to READ. She obviously didn't so much read the book as much as recite it from memory. But it was still a precious thing to overhear.

Granted, that was at 7:30pm tonight and it's now 9:37pm and she's STILL AWAKE, so she certainly didn't comprehend the meaning of the story!