Audubon Zoo

I took Isabel to the zoo today and we met the LeCompte girls (Abbey and Ella). We had a wonderful time with gorgeous weather!!! We made it home just in time to watch the Saints win!

Spider Snacks

Welcome October!!!

Isabel was snack sharer at her school the other day and I thought I'd share with you the snack we made.

Ingredients:

Ritz crackers

Peanut butter

Raisins

Lo mein noodles

Put it together and what do you get....SPIDERS!!!

ALMOST TWO

I am holding on to 3 more months. I can not believe that Isabel is almost 2!!!! Where does the time go? She is so precious and talking more and more everyday! She is now putting three and four words together, eats all the time (new foods: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, raisins, grapes, baked lays chips), still loves her baby dolls, and worships her stuffed animal cat! The cat, which I have tried to name a hundred times, goes everywhere with her! "Cat" does everything Isabel does and has to be there for every task (change diaper, get dressed, brush teeth, eat dinner)! Isabel is extremely head strong and knows what she wants.

Here we go TERRIFIC TWO!!! How do you like that positive attitude!

Some recent sayings:

"I sawee momma" I'm sorry momma

"Ungo oweside an sing" I want to go outside and swing

"Ees otay" Is he okay?

"Bye Bye mommy see a ater" Bye bye mommy, see you later

"Ungo tickle tickle you" I'm gonna tickle you

"Go saints"

"Ungo pahty" I want to go to the party

"Wahk me momma" Rock me momma

"Bus here" Is the bus here?

"Sit here"

"Lean back"

New multi-syllable words: alligator, cherrios, airplane, raisins, tick-tock

Time Out

I have been really struggling with deciplinary actions for Isabel. I don't have many rules at this young age as I encourage her to explore her independence, but to name a few...no hitting, no throwing food (on purpose), and no excessive whining/temper tantrums. Most of the time she is delightful and full of energy. But sometimes her head strong personality heads her to the corner. She knows where our time-out spot is, but I'm not convinced that she thinks its all that bad. She craves attention so much that she will do something that she knows is wrong just for me to say..."GO GET IN TIME OUT!" and then for her to say, "I SAWEE MOMMA". Nonetheless, I have started with 1 minute time-outs to give her some space to calm down, let her cry it out, carry-on like a wild woman, and learn that she does not ALWAYS get her way.

Here is a pic to make all you MEAN mommas smile!

The Peru Crew Beach Trip

We spent Labor Day Weekend with the some great family friends. Almost three years ago, these four couples traveled to South America to hike Machu Picchu in Peru. Our friendship was bonded for a lifetime and it was one of the best experiences I've had in my life. We decided to get the families together and start an annual beach trip. Four babies later in almost three years....and here you go! Elle Rountree 4 years, Liam Rountree 21 months, Isabel Jenkins 20 months, Jane Carby 11 months, Carlyle Garrity 10 months. We had another amazing time and the kids had a blast together. Thanks to babysitters Sara and Emily Prudhomme, our vacation was amazing. Here are just a few pictures to show!

Family Shot

Picture Perfect Kiss From Liam Rountree

The Peru Crew

Elle Rountree and Isabel

Isabel and Cousin Jane Carby







Isabel and Liam

Chillin on the Beach with Ice

Carlyle Garrity and Isabel

The end to a very long week...

This week was a mess to say the very least. For those of you that enjoy a good story...read on! It all started with Isabel's snot filled nose on Monday...running green...not such a good sign for us especially with such bad ears. Most often following any kind of nose running is an ear infection, even with our tubes. I get a call from Isabel's school on Tuesday morning...."Isabel is not feeling well...she is not herself at all and running a fever of 101...can we give her Tylenol." My reply, "Of course give her tylenol, see if she will nap and i will be there to pick her up right after her nap to take her to the doctor." My first instinct was "Oh great this must be a really bad ear infection." See the thing with Isabel is that even though she has a million ear infections she never runs a fever...just mild fussiness. It used to be that i never knew they were occurring, but now her ears drain fluid. The weird thing about Tuesday is that her ears were not draining. So, I picked her up on Tuesday....and could immediately tell that she was feeling puny. Off to the doctor we went...and to find CLEAR EARS...clearest they have been in a long time! The doctor says it probably is an upper respiratory infection; give her tylenol for the fever, ear drops for prevention of infection, and zyrtec to clear her up.

Okay....well....later that night the fever boosted up to 104.4 and she vomited twice; Phillips and I were freaking out. We called the emergency pediatrician on call and she gave us one hour to get her fever down....or what, I don't really know. But we did more tylenol and popsicles and it went down to 102.8. The entire night went a little like this fever, fever breaking with enormous amounts of sweat, fever, fever breaking, fever, fever breaking, and so on. I slept with her for apx. four hours and then we were up at 3:00 am watching Barney videos until she finally fell back asleep at 7:00. I knew this was not a stomach virus because she only vomited twice and when the fever was really high. So we are now to Wednesday....fever all day around 101 to 102 even with medicine and then into Wednesday night with fever all night long. I took her back to the doctor on Thursday and that is a totally different blog story...it was unbelievable.

You know those times that you see a mom and their kid is acting out of control and you may or may not pass judgement....but probably say to yourself my kid won't ever act like that cause I wouldn't let them.....well, yes siree I was that mom and my kid was that kid in the doctors office. It was the most embarrassed it have been in a really really long time.

Anyway same thing at the doctor with fever at 101.4, but this time the doctor prescribed the infamous Amoxicillin to kill the bug...whatever it was. Thursday night we had fever back up to 104.8 and then to 105.1 and vommitting. We called the doctor back that night and she said as long as she was drinking fluid and looking alert, talking, and making some sense then there was no need to go to the hospital. So her fever breaks around 3:00 am on Friday morning and she stayed fever free all day Friday and Saturday and Sunday!!!

I on the other hand, somehow came down with the worse case of strep throat that i have ever had...with ulcers lining the back of my throat. Phillips checked me out on Friday and called me in some Amoxicillin and numbing medicine to get through the weekend. I am feeling a little better...but it still hurts real bad to swallow, talk, or move my neck around. We rested all weekend and hopefully we are in for a better week starting tomorrow!

Here are some pics from last Sunday of Isabel posing for me in the sunroom! This sweet face makes being mom...and all that comes with that...so so worth it!

Playing House

Isabel sure does love her babies....we feed them, rock them, sing to them, and throw them around! Here are a few snaps of her motherly instincts.