New Words

We have seen a lot of progress with Izzy's speech in the past week. She has a few new words to add to her previous list:

Meme

Nana

Pop-Pop

KK

Baby

Ball

Poo-Poo (didn't know she knew this one, and I asked, "Izzy, did you go poo-poo?" Sure enough, she repeated me. ;-)

Fly

Night Night

Dog

Star

Go

Choo Choo, which she pronounces as caca :-/

Car (sometimes Go-Go)

There are probably a few more I can't remember right now. It's so exciting to see her finally figuring out this whole speaking thing! She started calling us by name in the last week, too, which is just precious. In the past, she would name us if asked, but now she just goes around saying, mama and dada all day without having to be asked or prompted. She mostly says mama, to be honest. And she especially likes to call for mama when she is unhappy or from her bed when she wakes up. I have to say, hearing mama from her sweet little voice has definitely improved my response time. ;-) I'm woking on teaching her how to say "I'm two" in time for her big birthday next week!

Fingers crossed that these videos work...

Hello, my name is Jennifer and I'm addicted to holiday clearance sales...

I went to Target today to pick up some fruit snacks for Izzy's birthday party. This is what I came home with...

Jackpot!

If you look closely, you can see the box of fruit snacks. All the Valentine's stuff was 75% off, so I got a ton of stuff that doesn't necessarily look Valentine-ish. I don't know what it is about these clearance sales, but I just can't resist. I should mention that this photo was taken after I gave my mom a few things I picked up, and that there were a handful of other impulse purchases that didn't make it into the photo like some $1.50 leggings (clearly I'm still hitting the Nutella hard), a clearance cardigan, and a few other random things. Oh, the shame!

These throws were $2.50. I bought 8 of them. The show Hoarders comes to mind...

I'm pretty excited about this. A shower curtain, bathroom rug, and 4 hand towels for $10! Might have to give Izzy's bathroom a makeover. (Not sure why this photo is sideways, and I'm too lazy to figure it out...)
Stupid fruit snacks.

Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

I told myself I wouldn't do this, but after tonight's episode, I can't think of a better place to jump on The Bachelor blogging bandwagon. Michelle being sent home made for the perfect Valentine's Day present. I know this show isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I just can't resist!

We'll start with the ones who didn't get roses...

Britt: Still trying to figure out how she lasted this long. I don't get it. at. all. Yes, I'm sure she is a very sweet person, but she hardly said a word, and on a reality show where you are among 25 women fighting for 1 dude's attention, a voice is kind of a necessity. To be honest, she seemed way too normal to be on a dumb reality dating show. How sad was it when she had to ride the inflatable boat back to shore while Brad watched on from the million dollar yacht? I can't believe they made her walk back to the house and pack her stuff in front of the other girls. Awful! And not to beat a girl while she's down, but aside from this photo, in which she looks gorgeous, she has displayed some very questionable fashion sense. Bad hair, bad make-up, bad clothes, bad shoes, bad heart-shaped accessories. Just bad.

Michelle: Ugh...so glad to see her go. This girl was just mean. Nasty and mean. She thinks she is pretty hot stuff, and I have a feeling we will be seeing more of her in some form or another - let's hope not as a Bachelorette. I think it's fairly obvious from my Bachelorette posts that I'm just about the biggest cynic when it comes to this show, and I watch solely to be entertained, but I will say that I was very happy to hear Brad admit that he knew his strong physical attraction to her would fade and he was scared that things would go down hill from there. I honestly thought we'd have to listen to her nasty attitude for a few more weeks. Thankful for the surprise! Oh, and who mysteriously wakes up with a blackeye for no apparent reason?!?

On to the final four. Next week is hometown dates where Brad will meet their families. I can only hope for some crazy realitives to keep things interesting!

Shawntel: I think I like her. Still not exactly sure why she talked at length about her job as a funeral embalmer on her one-on-one date with Brad a few weeks ago - awkward! She seems fun though, and I'm so jealous of that shopping spree she got. Didn't you love how the girls were hating her when she got home and showed them all her designer purchases? I know I would have been hating right along with them. I think of all the girls left, Shawntel seems the happiest, and she doesn't create much drama, which is nice.

Chantal: She has been one of my favorites all along, but I cringed as I watched the scene with her crying after Ashley got the rose on the group date tonight. This is not the first time she has had an emotional breakdown with Brad. Pull it together, girl! One thing I like about Chantel is that she is not stick thin. That's refreshing to see. Can't even imagine having to be on television in a bikini...scary thought!

Emily: Super pretty, very sweet, great clothes, but I think she is going to bail soon. I'm okay with that though, her dates with Brad are kind of boring.

Ashley: Don't really get this one. She is another emotional wreck. She and Brad had a one-on-one date early on, and they seemed to have bonded over the fact that neither of their fathers were ever in the picture. They appear to still have a strong "connection" - quite possibly the most overused word on the show - but I just don't really see it so much. I will say that she won some points with me when she put on her swimsuit and yelled, "no boobs" with her arms in the air. Now, that's a girl I can relate to. ;-)

It's That Time Again...

Get your calendars out, friends: March for Babies 2011 is Saturday, April 16th at 9 a.m. I hope that you will join us again in the fight for preemies! Here's the link to join our team, Izzy's Angel: http://www.marchforbabies.org/team/t1501113



Another date for your calendars: The 2nd Annual Golf for Babies Tournament is scheduled for the morning of May 14th. I think I've avoided scheduling on the same weekend as any major holidays, so we're already off to a better start than last year, right?

Please help us spread the word about the golf tournament. We are in need of hole sponsors, t-shirt sponsors, goody bag sponsors, etc., as well as raffle prize donations. If you have any contacts or leads, please let us know!

Here are the details:

I'm so excited to see what we can do for babies this year! I may be a huge nerd (I'm pretty sure of it, actually), but this kind of stuff just feeds my soul! Thank you in advance for your continued support!!

You know you have a problem....

....when your mom gives you this as a gift. Yes, my friends, that is a yard-sized tube of licorice.

Success!

Just a little update on my workout schedule. I am happy to report that I got all of my workouts in for the week that I posted. Yay me! I had to adjust the schedule a bit to accomodate a child who refused to stay in the gym childcare center and a husband who was out of town all week, but I still got 6 workouts in, and I was pretty proud of myself. I only got 5 in last week - just couldn't pull myself together enough to run on Saturday. Trying for 6 again this week. Gonna work on drinking more water and adding weights to the mix next week. No more boring schedules though, at least not for now. Word.

Big Girl

Everyone was right when they said that time goes by so fast when you have kids. I honestly don't know how it happened, but my baby has turned into a little girl. She is such a sweetheart, and she brings so much joy to my life. She loves to give hugs and kisses, and it's so sweet when she pats your back while she's giving a hug. She is also a very stubborn and opinionated toddler, so I won't pretend that every moment is rainbows and lollipops, but her sweet moments definitely outnumber the ugly moments.

Izzy visits her Speech Therapist at a Cooks outpatient facility twice a month. She has made a lot of progress in the past month. Not sure if the progress is credited to the therapy, or just time, but we are happy either way. She jabbers all day in a language we can't understand, but she does have a list of words that she can say pretty clearly:

Dada

Mama

Bye-Bye

Hi

Uh-Oh

Clock

Dog

Ball

Duck

Papa (my dad)

Bubba (Lane)

Brrr

Dare = There

Dor = Dora

Boo = Boots

She also points to things and kind of grunts or says "dat" as if she is asking, "what's that?" Her therapist said that she usually sees a speech explosion after kids start asking you to label things like that. I have a feeling I won't be able to shut her up pretty soon. That's okay though. There's nothing sweeter than the sound of her little voice.