Cool Baby Clothes: Back in the Groove

Yay for Fall! I am so happy to greet my favorite (or maybe second favorite) season of the year. Fall is a busy season for most people, and especially for me in the cake business. I actually thrive in this fast pace and full schedule, and although I have my exhausted moments, there's some extra adrenaline that kicks in this time of year, keeping me energetic.

Isabelle is loving school. I was originally wishing she was in school 3 days a week, but the schedule is working out nicely and Cici is happily taking on her "gran-nanny" role! I was apparently the only parent IN THE UNIVERSE who did not take a first day of school pic. I made up for it and took a 3rd day picture. By then she knew right where we were going down the hall, (practically skipping along) past her classroom from last year, and didn't even look back when I said goodbye.

My big girl has grown up so much in a year! Here she is, just barely walking, on her first day of school last year at 14 months old. Now she is running, carrying on conversations, and even wearing bows!

Right now Isabelle is in a book obsessed phase. I am guessing it's a phase, but who knows...maybe she'll be a librarian one day. Right now that would be a dream for her. She wakes up and says, "read book?", carries books back and forth from room to room and wants to "read" books constantly. At playgroup just the other week she found a book and sat down in the grass to "read" while the others jumped around in the bouncy house.

I have to admit this "phase" is mostly quite nice. However, she usually demands that I read a book alongside her. I must read it out loud, and the kicker is that she will read her own book and barely pay attention to me. As much as I love reading Curious George and the Dump Truck 5 times a day, when you don't have a sweet little body snuggled up in your lap, looking on attentively, reading kids books is not all that fun. We are also no longer reading books on my lap on the rocker in her room before naps and bedtime. Now Isabelle insists that we sit next to each other on the "big girl bed" and that we both read books together. When I say "last book" it never quite registers and it's often a battle getting her into the crib.

Books come on all walks too.

The other recent obsession has been making forts. Daddy introduced her to this favorite childhood pastime, and since then we have set up a "fowart" (as Izzy says in 2 long syallables) in the den practically every day. Sometimes I wonder why I even put the cushions back on the sofa.

"Where did Isabelle go?" is her favorite game. Lots of hiding under things, and now she's discovered how much fun the closet is. She will hide in her dark closet for 10 minutes, repeating "where i-belle go" over and over and over. Interestingly this is the one time she refers to herself as Isabelle (she skips the "za" part of the name)...she usually calls herself Izzy.