A white Christmas.

We had a lovely Christmas Eve an Ninny's house. Isabelle and Molly rode John Koch, we unwrapped the traditional Christmas-Eve-pajamas, and played and had a good time (especially since the Chargers won!)






The next day was Christmas and of course, the forecast was rain. Nothing novel in Oregon. And so we woke up and unwrapped presents. Santa brought Isabelle a farm and a letter puzzle and new bath toys. Grammy bought her a music station, which she loves and jammed on all morning. Of course, with her new bath toys she insisted on having a late morning bath (the trumpeting of "BAAAAAATH!!!!" could be heard six houses down).

She then insisted on running about "nudie" and sampling her new things (as well as three pieces of Mama's See's chocolates).





At about 11 am we looked outside and saw just a few snowplakes falling. I bundled my nudie cherub up in a blanket and took her outside. She was delighted and insisted on putting on her clothes so that she could run about (well, really, I insisted in her putting on her clothes). About 10 minutes later the snowplakes stopped. She asked me for more and I explained that Mama couldn't make snowplakes, only the clouds could. She insisted "more snowplakes!" But, alas, they had gone away.

Maybe 20 minutes later a few more snowplakes started to fall. I was still dressed in my jammies, so John Koch and Daddy took her for a walk outside, towards the park. By the time they were headed back, this is what it looked like:

Isabelle loved the snow. It was tasty too.

Today.

Today I love Isabelle because she says "moodles" instead of noodles. She asks "whats it?" when she observes something new. She squeals and runs to meet me at the door, with a cheery grin, as soon as Paul whispers to her "Mama's home." She loves to kick and splash in her bath and devilishly tries to splash me, even though she knows "water stays in the tub." She says "hold you" when she wants to be held. She snuggles when she is tired. I love Isabelle because she can make me smile when nothing else in my world seems right. I love her because she wants to cuddle first thing in the morning and be held. She delights in puddles and "snowplakes" and playing in the sink. She wants to go the the park even when it's 35 degrees and raining. She lays "I love you Mama" is one single word. She smiles and laughs every day, even when she is sick. I love Isabelle because she spins in circles until she is so dizzy she falls down. So many things are new in her world and she is curious about all of them. I love Isabelle today, and every day, for so many reasons.

Pictures anyone?

We went to San Diego for TG. We spent two nights with Shana and Markus and “the boys” as Isabelle calls them, and two nights with Kristine, Steve and Emily. We had TG dinner with my Mom, saw my Dad and Aunt Barbara and Uncle Dave. Little hearts flew out of Isabelle’s eyes at her second cousin David, and had a fun time all in all. And me being me, I took about 50 pictures. I would love to post the pictures on the blog.

Now, my camera is pretty childproof. You have to push two different buttons to delete a single picture. You have to go into the third layer of the Menu in order to “delete all” – something I have never done because it’s too complicated. Have I heretofore mentioned that Isabelle likes to handle the camera? Anytime I am taking pictures of her she makes a huge grin and then comes at me with a very serious look on her little face, saying “hold it.” I usually let her hold it and she has a good time looking through the live viewfinder and we end up with 3985 pictures of the ceiling or my feet or whatever else she happens to be pointing the camera at when she can maneuver her little fingers to push the picture button.

Weeelllll, last week she was cheerfully taking pictures, or doing whatever her little toddler brain finds fascinating with the camera. Shame on me for not downloading the TG pictures immediately when we got back to Portland, because guess who managed to somehow locate the “delete all” button and push it??? You guessed it, Miss Isabelle did and so my Kodak moments are no more. Sigh…

…

So I have never taken Isabelle for any sort of professional pictures (what? Like I don’t have enough of them myself???). So I decided to dress my little hambone up in her adorable Christmas dress and take her to Babies R Us for some shots. Isabelle as you know loves pictures. She mugs so widely for them, in fact, you can usually count all eight teeth she has, but not be able to see her eye color. So I cheerfully set off to Babies with my adorable Christmas Girl in tow.

We got there about 10 minutes early and watched a group of about five girls, all dressed as Disney princesses sit for their pictures. Ms. Busy tried several times to evade my grasp and scamper up the sitting stage to be with them. Then it was her turn. Here is the adorable outcome:



Cute eh? I damn for hope it is. Because it is one of three, THREE out of maybe 30 shots that was taken in which Ms. Christmas was not howling, crying, or braying “MAMA!!!” at me in the longest 15 minutes I have shared with her since she was squeezing her shoulders through my pelvic region. Good lord. I am not sure what demon possessed her, but the picture experience was not fun. I had thought of taking her to see Santa later that same day and now wonder if I will take her to see Santa anytime before she can drive. Ahhh, the joys of the season.