Izzy's trip to Bounce Planet and the Zoo

It feels like forever since I added any posts to this blog. I've been wanting to add something for a while, but little Izzy's been occupying quite a bit of my time. I feel like my last few posts are more like novels than blog entries, and I'm sure this one will be very similar.

Let's see....where to start? Izzy's recently started trying to sit up in her stroller, which I'll write more about later. She also started laughing. She's especially happy when she's on her changing table, but she genuinely laughed on my birthday while we were outside. What a great birthday present!! She's starting to get really chatty too. We have the greatest "conversations" on our way home from daycare! I wish I could capture these things on video, but Izzy's getting wise to the camera. She hears the beep that the camera makes when I turn it on, and then she stops what she's doing and stares at it.

We're still having some issues with Izzy's daycare, but I'm trying to be hopeful that we'll eventually work this thing out. I REALLY hope so, because worrying about this all of the time is very stressful. She seems to be unaffected, but Joacim and I aren't. Keep your fingers crossed for us on this one!

Last weekend we all went to Bounce Planet for my niece and nephew's birthday party. For those of you who don't know what Bounce Planet is, I've got some photos to show...

This is what one of the bounce rooms at Bounce Planet looked like:


Here's a photo of my niece and her friends going down the slide:


Here are all of the kids after bouncing getting ready for cake and ice cream.


That Bounce Planet is a GREAT idea! The kids bounce for about 1 1/2 hours, then the go in a room with cake and ice cream (which my sister provided) and they even have someone there that writes down what gifts the kids got and who gave it to them! Fantastic idea! Plus, the kids were able to get all of their energy out before the food and presents..

Now, little miss Izzy wasn't near as excited about this as the other kids were, as you can tell in this picture with her Grandma:


Here's a photo of her with her Grandpa. The outfit she's wearing is from a friend of mine at work (thanks Amber!!!). Isn't she absolutely adorable?!?!


Izzy's recently started trying to sit up. She's not a fan of lying down in her bouncy chair so much, and especially wants to sit up when she's in her stroller. Here she is at Bounce Planet trying to do exactly that:


Joacim decided to take some well-deserved vacation days last week, and on one of those days he decided to keep Izzy all day. I was so proud of him! And I think it gave him a lot more confidence than he had before. She looks like she had a pretty good time too, judging from this little video:


We also had our new furniture delivered last week. We ordered it in in early August, but it's been on backorder and finally came in. Our old couch, while big and red and wonderful, is also not very comfortable, and is breaking down in the areas where Joacim and I sit. Also, it's not very comfortable for people to come over, since you can't really sit in it, but rather "sprawl out" in it. I feel so bad when people come over because the sofa kind of "sucks" people in! As time has gone by, though, Joacim and I both realized we really loved that sofa (and so does Murphy) so Joacim figured out a way to keep some of the sofa and still have our new furniture. Let me just say that it's pretty crowded in here right now, and we have A LOT of furniture. Take a look at these:

Here's the new furniture (please excuse the mess!):


Here's the part of the red sofa that we're keeping. It looks nice, doesn't it?:


Here's the Poang chairs that were previously in the sunroom. We're not quite sure where to put these permanently, but this is where they're staying for now.


And here are the pieces of the red sofa that we're getting rid of. Two of the pieces have broken frames, and the corner piece is kinda useless without the rest of the sofa:


Whatta ya think?

Joacim spent last weekend going to the Indianapols Moto GP race at the speedway, so Izzy and I got to spend some quality time together. We did a LOT of shopping (for her, of course :) and on Sunday we went to visit our friend Margaret. I work with Margaret's husband at Lilly. I'd show you his picture but I'm told I'll get in trouble if I do, so here's on of just Izzy and Margaret:


We always have such a nice time at their house. They live out in the country, surrounded by trees. It's almost like stepping into another world...a much more quiet, peaceful world. Thanks for letting us spend the day with you, Margaret!

Guess that's about it for now. Hopefully only a short time will pass until my next post. Take care everyone!!!