And she walks!

Isabella gave me the best Mother's day present I could have ever asked for!

She wasn't too happy about it as you can see, but I was overjoyed tonight when Isabella took her first steps! My friend's facial expressions in the background crack me up, we were all so amazed when she started taking not one, not two, but three, four and five steps at a time! I'm on the phone with Tyler trying to include him in the excitement and joy.

Looks like a little shoe shopping is in order...

Happy Birthday Lauren!

One of the girls out of my bible study group had a birthday today! So a few of us got ourselves all gussied up and went to downtown Waikiki to a beautiful Chinese restaraunt. You can't tell in the picture, but it was all over the ocean. Cruise ships were pulling into port and the sun was setting in the background...it was beautiful! The food was amazing, and we each ordered something different then shared. As it turns out Lauren is very fluent in both Mandarin and Chinese, she carried on conversations with our waiter, I was so impressed! it was a lot of fun to hear her speaking in their language. Lauren, the birthday girl, is the one sitting to the right of me.

We all felt so fancy and grown up without our children with us, we had high heels on and I carried an actual purse! I felt very ritzy when I got to valet park my car :) it was absolutely amazing to sit and eat a meal and actually get to taste it.

I left Isabella with a babysitter for the first time tonight! I met this girl in my bible study. Her dad's in the Army and she's lived here with her family for most of her life and attends college on the Island. She is so sweet and patient and gentle, I really like her. I feel like I hit the lottery to find such an awesome babysitter, I'm definitely keeping her number! Isabella did really well until the end when she woke up and realized I was still gone, I ate my cake in one bite and then gunned my engine home to my angry little darling...she tearfully held her arms out for me and nestled her head into my shoulder, rubbing snot all into my nice black top, then fell right back to sleep :)...It was so much fun to go out with the girls...but oh so much better to come home and be needed.

A playdate!

I met another young mom at my bible study on Wednesday, as it turns out, we live right across the street from each other! so we decided to plan a play date. We took a walk and then stopped off at a little playground near our house. She taught me how to put two babies in the swing at a time! I had no idea. Her little boy is 6 months old and is as sweet and good natured as can be. Isabella was completely besotted by him and couldn't quit resting her head on his back and patting his face. At one point she was giving him kisses until he pushed her away. He took her overwhelming personality in stride, smiling and giggling the whole time. While the kiddies were swinging, his mom and I sat and chatted about mommy things, it was a great evening!

My weekly mortification? I was sweaty from the park and very dirty, having just decided that the garbage needed taking out, the floors needed mopping and that Isabella and I should share some chocolate pudding. My doorbell rang. Expecting it to be one of my girlfriends dropping by for a visit I opened it wide and with the baby on my hip and chocolate pudding smeared on my clothes and in my sweaty hair I stared into the rather shocked eyes of a beautiful and classy looking blond lady. Oh dear! it was one of the Pastor's wives from my church! she had brought me cookies and was dropping by to tell me how happy they were that I had chosen their church as my family! I was touched by the gesture...but slightly embarrassed. After the door closed behind her Isabella looked at me, and with her pudding stained clothes and pudding encrusted hair, she gave me a big smile and then giggled trowing her hands up in the air as if to say "What can ya do mom?"

I ate every single one of those cookies, that's what I did.

Funny bunny!

Isabella loves to be silly, she likes to laugh and anytime you laugh at something she does, she hams it up and has to do it even more until she wears out the joke. I was getting her dressed yesterday, or rather, I was TRYING to get her dressed, when she ran away from me in nothing but her bloomers! I started laughing at her and she was so pleased with herself that she began crawling in circles making silly noises. What a little ham!

An update

Well these were waiting in my inbox this morning. Just thought I would share for all of his family to see :) Tyler is currently in Alaska and while he says it is absolutely beautiful there...what he was most excited about was the pink moose he bought for Isabella. That's when you know you're a good daddy. You're out on an adventure seeing the world and the first thing you do is find somewhere to buy pink things for your little girl. What a guy I have!

Tid-bits

Last night when I was at a cook-out at my friends house Isabella showed me her new trick that I had no idea she had learned! We were all sitting in the living room when Isabella, who was crawling around getting into anything and everything, picked up my friend's TV remote control and held it up to her ear like a telephone, she smiled really big and goes "Hi!" with that sweet little baby voice and a southeren drawl ( don't know where she gets that from :-P ) I just about kissed her to death! I'm trying very hard to get a picture of her while she's on the phone with Tyler but so far that's proven to be quite a task!

The last couple of days have been blissfully hectic. I'm marking off the days on my Calender until homecoming which is drawing nearer and nearer! Tyler is currently in Alaska and I can just feel this deployment coming to an end! I think Isabella can too, she's been unusually fractious these days but gets as still and quite as a mouse when Tyler is talking to her on the phone.

Ever since Tyler left in January I've been trying to paint the bedroom...but currently it is still Military Housing White ugh!...it is the most horrendous color, or rather, absence of color. I did however tape the walls today and I vow to paint tomorrow evening no matter how beautiful the weather is or how much the beach beckons me. I finally decided on a color for my kitchen, it's by Valspar and it is called Minnow's Eye it is a beautiful light blue green and it will look awesome with my pink and white theme, I got the paint color out of this month's Issue of Better Homes and Gardens. As for my living room, I have vaulted ceilings and will have to rent extra tall ladders... so that waits for the ol hubby, but I have chosen Martha Stewart's butter yellow which will coordinate perfectly with the kitchen. I'm so excited to finally be nesting into a house that I will be in for longer than 6 months!!! this is very huge for me, since Tyler and I got married almost 3 years ago we have not been in a home for longer than 8 months.

Mother's Day is next week!!! so what shall I give my mother? ironically enough that was the name of my most favorite children's book growing up, it was about a little gray kitten that wanted to give his mommy a present but didn't know what to give, so he ended up just giving her love :) I have something very very special in mind for my mom this year! I'm so excited! the idea came to me this evening when Isabella and I were on our walk. I really have the most wonderful parents in the world They do so much for me and they have successfully created the most amazing sense of family and home and set the standard for how I want to raise my own family. Nothing short of the best will do for either one of them.

As for MY Mother's day? well, I don't want to be smug or anything....but my hubby ordered me a shiny new sewing machine!!!!!!!!! it will be delivered right to my door by next week!!!!!!!!! I'm positively twitching with excitement. I didn't even have to hint! he did it all on his little own.

I feel so full of blessings tonight that I just might pop! What a wonderful way to end a day :)

Goodnight and good morning!

What a busy day Isabella and I had today! The house is all clean and shiny, the neighborhood is asleep, all is peaceful and I'm sitting here getting ready to go to bed, when a thought struck me...right about now my dad is getting up to go to work. This time difference still boggles my mind.

On another note, Isabella and I have been attending a church near our neighborhood and I have to say I'm really loving it. We had a dramatic experience Isabella's first time going into the nursery but after some shirt-stretching clinging, shedding of tears on both sides, and some desperate reaching of baby arms, I was torn away by my good friend and forced to sit through the service...and you know what? Isabella was as happy as could be when I went to pick her up afterwards! now she willingly goes into the nursery with no tears. I cannot tell you how happy that makes me!

A few moms took one look at the stretched out neck of my shirt, my smeared eye make-up, and my nursery bracelet with my number on it, and they gave me a sympathetic smile and a nod, and some even a wordless pat on the arm. I think it was harder on me than it was on Bella, but I told myself later on that the chocolate ice cream was for her...as I ate every bite.

Here are a few pictures from yesterdays milk and toast time, one of her favorite snacks now! I'm so pleased that she has finally gone to the sippie cup, It wasn't easy, and sometimes on bad nights she still wants a bottle, but for the most part we're bottle free! Hooray!