Let's get back to blogging...

So, it's been a rough week and a half. For those of you that don't know, we lost a pretty special little boy in our family last week. It's been rough, especially for my sister, Andrea, but hopefully the healing can begin. My sister has been AMAZING...no other words..just amazing, and I hope and pray that time heals the wounds that she and her family have.

Ok, so in the healing spirit, I'd like to focus on something positive, namely Miss Izzy. Wow, has this little tot developed a personality. As Harold, my friend from work, told me the other day, "The worse curse a mother can give her daughter is to be just like her" (or something like that...I'm not good at remembering it EXACTLY). Anway, WOW, was this ever true. Everyone's always said how much Izzy looks like Joacim...Joacim this, Joacim that. Well, I can pretty much guarantee that anyone that is around Izzy for more than an hour will certainly see that she got her personality from me. At least her fiery, defiant, tempermental side. :) This little girl is going to wear me down!!!

I think it's so fun to watch her in a group setting. We went to my friend's son's birthday party a couple of weeks ago, and there were several kids around Izzy's age. She didn't cry, but rather would just sit and watch everyone...like she was just assessing everyone to see what they were all about. And she didn't warm up immediately, but by the end of the party, she seemed totally unaffected by everything, and was crawling over complete strangers on a mission to get a ball. This is where I think she's a lot like me. I know that I don't like to put myself out there in a group of strangers...I like to sit back and wait...watching people...assessing them, and wait for people to approach me.

What else is she doing now...well, she's really crawling (and not the funny little thing with her leg), but REAL crawling (at least when she's not thinking about it;) And the other day, I was lying on the floor and she crawled over to me, pulled herself up using my knee and then let go. I've been "testing" her the last few days to see if she could balance...didn't really mean to do it but we were playing one day and she did it, so I thought I'd try to see how long she can do it. She's up to about 25 seconds right now, and she let's go of my hand most of the time when we're playing to try it out for herself. I don't think she's going to crawl very long at all...which is AWESOME and TERRIFYING all in the same breath.

Ok, I have a LOT of things I need to get done. Joacim is travelling this week (longest time he's been gone since Izzy was born), so we're flying solo. Joacim's become my true 50/50 partner, and I'm acutely feeling his absence..not just because he's not asking me a MILLION questions (heehee), but because I've had to feed her, go to the grocery store, drop off the recycling and put her to bed so far, and then I've gotta do the dishes and still shower. I'm exhausted, and this is only day 1. Waaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!! But I'm going to enjoy my guilty pleasure (American Idol) and eat my bowl of mashed potatoes and gravy....

Ok, enough of this "poor me" stuff...I don't have photos today, but I've got some videos to share. My memory card on my camera is full, so I'll HAVE to work through some of the photos soon, but this will tide you over for now...

Here's Izzy working with the sippy cup:


Her new wheels:


Really crawling now:


Her first visit to the playground:


More raspberries:


More bubbles:


Hopefully you've got a smile on your face now!