Happy to Me!

Isabel is two years old! Bring on the embarrassing public tantrums, the high-pitched shrieking, the demands to get her own way! She seems to have grown overnight into such a big girl, sometimes speaking in full sentences, using new words every day, expressing new ideas and curiosity about the world. These things make the tantrums a small price to pay (although I may be singing a different tune the first time she has a meltdown at the grocery store).

We first celebrated her birthday quietly at home. I woke her up by singing happy birthday (the first of many times she heard that song during the day), and the rest of the morning she kept shouting, "Happy to me! Happy to me!". That night we had some strawberry shortcake and gifts.

The next day I took Isabel to the doctor for her two year checkup. She wanted nothing to do with strangers. She's been nervous at the doctor before, but this time she screamed and cried at everything... the weighing, the measuring, the ear checking, the stethoscope... only the princess sticker they gave her at the end of the appointment met with her approval. She was screaming and wiggling so much during her measurements that I am very skeptical of the results: 30th percentile weight and 80th percentile height. My guess is that it's more like 50th and 60th, respectively.

At last it was time for the party. We kept it smaller than last year's, but it was still pretty crazy! We were lucky to have lots of out of town visitors: aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. Since Isabel is nuts about princesses, we made her a castle cake. I think it was a hit! The kids entertained themselves, speeding around the house, jumping on the furniture, and chasing each other. Isabel has really gotten the hang of opening presents! After most of the guests had gone home, the adults (and I use that term loosely) played with Kevin & Kristy's new Wii.

So all in all, the birthday was a blast for everyone. I just can't believe she's two! When I look at some of the early posts in this blog, it's amazing to see how much she's changed and how fast two years have gone by.

Here's a few highlights, more pictures are here.

Mean or Nice?

As Isabel sees more and more of the world, she seems to be trying to find a way to classify the things she experiences. Obviously she is very intelligent as this is, in essence, what great thinkers like Dmitri Mendeleev (inventor of the periodic table) and Melvil Dewey (of Dewey Decimal System fame) accomplished.

But I digress. Isabel's system of classification du jour is called MoN, also known as the "Mean or Nice taxonomy". Basically, every person (and sometimes object) she sees is put into either a mean or nice category. Puppies? Nice. Ursula, sea witch from Disney's The Little Mermaid? Mean. Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz? Nice. The Wicked Witch of the West? Umm... also nice. Isabel seems to believe the Witch has just been misunderstood and needs a hug.

At the same time, Isabel is learning the power of words. She likes to point to someone who is clearly nice and say "mean", then giggle. In fact, she did this today at school, pointing to me and saying "mean"... in earshot of the school director. Child Services will probably be beating down my door now. I made a sad face, and she said, "Sorry. NICE".

Random Acts of Cuteness

Here's a few good pictures that didn't really fit with the other posts... First, a trip to the "Kid Zone" at the COSI science museum in Columbus. They provide adorable raincoats for the kids to wear when playing in the water area. And second, Isabel had the bright idea to use socks as mittens.

Vote for Edwards

I'm taking advantage of the fact that my Republican* husband is engrossed in the OSU vs LSU championship football game to write this commie pinko bleeding-heart liberal post.

I don't normally discuss politics on the blog, but this race has me very excited because of the wealth of Democratic candidates. My choice (as he was the last time around) is John Edwards. I like his passion and the issues that he's chosen to campaign on, and heck, he's an NC guy with a wife that I like a lot (check out this transcript where she confronts conservative polemic Ann Coulter).

So do me a favor and give him a look: http://www.johnedwards.com/issues/
And don't forget to vote, whoever you choose!

* My darling R-voting husband took an online quiz to determine who to vote for and the answer came back as Obama. Guess I'm rubbing off on him after all!

New Year's Resolution

I know, I know. It's been a while, huh? I've been nagged and nagged about the blog and the lack of recent activity. The last pictures were from Halloween, sheesh! I admit that's pretty bad. So my New Year's Resolution is to update the blog more frequently.

And now for the good stuff. What have we been up to in the last few months? Well, there was Thanksgiving...

Then we decorated for the holidays...


And then our camera broke... right before Christmas. We had to use a disposable camera for the festivities at our house (so no digital pictures there). Luckily, we were able to borrow another digital camera for our trip to Texas to visit the Pandos.