Father's Day and almost Fourth of July

June was a fun month.

We spent our second Father's Day with Pop pop in the hospital. Luckily, it was the last week or so that he had to spend there. (Cross your fingers). We have a few pictures of it, along with cuddling with Gigi.

We also prepared for the Fourth of July festivities with a trip to Fluor Daniel's Fourth of July picnic, surprisingly held at the end of June. Catherine, Isabel's best friend, and her parents Caroline and John invited us. (Caroline works at Fluor.) We had a great time. Isabel rode her first ride with Jeff, and she saw her first Fireworks Spectacular. Quite an evening.

Allergies gallore and so much more

I can't believe it has been so long since I've posted anything. The world has seemed to stop and yet go so quickly all at the same time.

We've been taking care of our Pop pop and Meme since our last post. Pop pop is out of the hospital - thank heavens! And Meme is now cancer-free (she was diagnosed with breast cancer a few weeks ago.) So now, I have time to write about Baby Girl!

Isabel is doing so great. She is running everywhere and dancing every chance she gets, and sometimes when she doesn't even have music. If she is riding in the grocery cart (her favorite), she moves to the rhythm of the wheels. She also is very fond of "singing" with her mother.

Also, she has become a bit of an allergy freak like her mother. I told Jeff that it should be expected, but we are hoping she'll grow out of most of them. Izzy is allergic to milk, egg, fish, dogs, cats and grass... so far. We are also staying away from nuts, just in case. So needless to say, mommy is attempting to cook a lot more and read labels like it's going out of style.

Isabel is also going to be staying home with me. I'm putting her in parttime program in the fall, but she'll be mostly trying to stay sane while home with her mother. Daddy loves the pay-raise we'll be getting without paying for full-time daycare, and I've started my own marketing business to fill in the gaps where I can.

I'm very excited about staying home, which is surprising to me. Never the domestic-type, I'm really enjoying getting to know more about Isabel. Every day is something different, and you never know where she is going to do or say. I'm also going to work on her little "mean" streak. Boy, does she ever like to get her way!

She is now talking furiously to the dogs through the deck windows and french door. (which is as close as she can get to them). She is talking a lot more - mostly in her own language, and she only likes to eat her food when it is on an official plate. We are still trying to figure out the utensils... very dirty job.

We are taking her to the lake this weekend for July 4th, so I'm hoping to get some great pictures of her and her best friend Catherine. I'm also adding some shots of her with her "boyfriend" Will Tindall to this post at Will's family's mountain house. What a pair those two make! Oh, and Izzy is having a Cheezit, because we didn't know she couldn't have it at the time. Oh, how she will miss those.

So many teeth!!!

A lot has happened since our last post. Pop Pop got a new set of lungs and is doing well. More on that a bit later.

When Pop Pop was called in for surgery, Meme and Grandpa were more than happy to take care of Isabel while he was in ICU so that Jeff and I could help mom at Duke. We like to call her stay "Camp Meme." From what I can imagine, she got to do whatever she wanted. She had a stroll with Meme every morning and afternoon. She ate 'til her hearts content and ran wild with Grandpa. All in all, a great time.

I dropped Isabel off that week with two teeth. Since then, she is sprouting them like weeds. She has four on top now, making it a solid six teeth. Then she has four additional molars coming in. I mean, when it rains it pours!

She is also talking up a storm. Her current words are Uh oh, mama, dada, dog, Pop Pop, Grandpa, good girl, duck. She doesn't say them all the time, but we have heard them all said in context. Oh, and she did say Thank You one day too.

Izzy's crying from her nap, so I'll log back on to upload some cute pictures.

Happy Easter!

We spent the Easter weekend with Gigi and Pop pop. I don't think I've mentioned that Isabel's Pop pop (my dad) is active on the lung transplant list at Duke Hospital. They are living in Durham until he gets some lungs, so we went to visit them there. Isabel loves visiting them.

The Easter Bunny made a trip to Durham and Isabel got her basket. Here are a few pictures of the weekend, including some nap time with Gigi.

The Emergence of a Dancing Queen

Since day one - Izzy has been a dancer. She has her mom and dad's rhythm, but don't take my word for it. Look at the evolution of this little mover and shaker.