Smash

Isabel's birthday party was a smashing success. She absolutely loved the company, the cake and the presents... Here are a couple pictures from the incredible Ms. Katie Zeller that she captured while I was busy fending icing from my attire for the day. Once I have a chance to catch my breath from the festivities (probably won't be until she is 20)...I'll download the pictures from my camera and give you more details :)

Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday DEAR Isabel, Happy Birthday to YOU.

My dainty one year old, checking out her birthday cake!

A quick pose before....

...the madness begins!

"Seriously, this stuff is good!"

Just can't get enough!

My little mouseketeer!

We had an outfit change and then playtime with Mr. Finn Pants!

Eleven

Isabel is going to be 1 this week...OH MY! So much to say about that...but I going to attempt to get caught up with the eleventh month first!

Eleven months was fun, busy and a month of some big changes. Isabel started standing up on her own. Typically it was out of distraction... For example...she would see the remote control on the ottoman, grab it and then let go of the ottoman to inspect the remote with both hands. Or...while holding onto her horsey, she would see the cat saunter past and let go to reach out for her. It was pretty exciting.

This month was also big in that Isabel started going to an in-home day care! Since my sister-in-law, Amanda, recently got married and moved away...and my other sister-in-law, Jenny, was only home for a brief time...our "nanny" days expired. We were so so blessed to keep Isabel at home until she was eleven months...and even better that she was with family!

Overall, the timing was right. Isabel really gets excited when she sees other children, so I could tell she was ready for some more entertainment. Plus, August marked the start of my busy season with work...so it was nice to have peace and quiet for me to focus on my intense workload. It was so hard to take her the first couple of weeks, but we both slowly made the transition. I'm still struggling with the fact that Isabel spends more awake time with someone other than myself, but I know she is in good hands and enjoying herself.

Here is the link to all of the pictures from Isabel's 11th month!

This might be one of my all-time favorites...

My little mover...jabbering into her brush...pushing the car. Ahh, the demands of an 11 month old.

Check out my sweet hat.

Giddy up...

My happy girl...someone must have spiked her bottle.

Isabel's newest trend is salivating at whatever it is that we are eating. On this occasion, she devoured a corn on the cob.

Course #2: watermelon...yum yum. The funny thing is that she already ate her own dinner prior to this, but clearly wanted dessert.

And if you don't feed her, she will just find her own food...and make a mess. On this particular occasion, she bit a hole in the zip lock bag and then dumped the cheerios out. Smart cookie...

Just call me Aladdin...on my magic carpet at Meema's house.

One of the month-end out takes...at what age exactly to children start looking at the camera and smiling?!

Miss Investigator

Isabel is such a little investigator these days. She picks up everything, looks at it, turns it over, turns it again and investigates everything. This next series of pictures will probably get me in trouble when she becomes a teenager, but I can't resist sharing.

Here she is investigating everything on the bathroom sink before bath time. What I wouldn't give to have a cute little butt like that again :)