Appleworks!

We visited The Apple Works near Trafalgar a couple of weeks ago.  It's an apple orchard with a lot of other things, like pony rides, pumpkin patch and a store where you an buy all sorts of apple products.  We went there during their Annual Highlander Festival, so it was pretty busy, but they do a great job of shuffling people around.  Izzy had her first experience with farm equipment, being chauffeured from our parking lot via tractor.  I think she kinda liked it :)

They had a lovely little field of sunflowers.  This one's for my Grandma :)

She was a little bit curious about this little baby goat

Oh cute little tiny little baby cow

Several people that have seen this photo already have commented on how cute it is. And yes, it's cute, but she's actually getting in trouble here for running away :)  I guess punishment can be cute :)

She's trying to be all sneaky here

The fashion police would have a field day with this Highlander

Enjoying some homemade ice cream

And a blueberry pie

And THE BEST DAMN CARMEL APPLE I'VE EVER HAD. 

After our snack we headed over to the stack of hay bales to see if Izzy wanted to play on them.  As you can tell from the following photos, she liked this part a LOT!

And shortly after this photo was taken, THIS happened:

And, since we're trying to teach her that there are consequences to her actions, we had to pack up and leave, but I took this one on our way back to the car.  I love pumpkins.  Hopefully I'll get a bit more help carving one this year :)

The Best Tantrum EVER!!!

New water bottle, tantrum and play

Here are a couple of cute ones..Izzy's playing with her gift bag from the birthday part


I got Izzy a new water bottle, partly because she kept stealing mine, and partly to start working on getting rid of the "sippy cup". Looks like she LOVES it!

until she figured that she could turn it upside down and squeeze all the water out. Definitely have to make sure she uses this on a water-safe floor :)

Immediately after I took the water bottle away from her from the previous incident, a tantrum ensued....





Same day, a couple of hours later...we went out to the front yard to start the sprinkler. She was having so much fun running up and down the driveway.





And it was all fun until she started running out into the road. And we realized how hard it was for her to understand the difference between when we were playing and when we were serious. Joacim was trying so hard to teach her, but sometimes she'd just start giggling and then we would too. We'll get this eventually...




Here's Joacim using his most serious face on her

Seems like it might have finally had an effect....

Holy crap...I'm tired...

This is, literally, the first time I've sat on the sofa this evening. And I'm pooped. And I'm not done yet but I just NEEDED a break....just for a minute.

I had delusional visions of grandeur in regards to everything I was going to get done this evening.

But Izzy's been...oh, how shall I say it? Difficult.

It's not her fault, of course...I realize that. Poor thing has a double ear infection, and this one seems to be giving her more issues than normal. It started Friday at daycare....lots of gooey green eye drainage.....YUCK! But when I picked her up she seemed to in a decent mood, so Joacim and I decided to go out to dinner. The wait was a bit longer than we had expected, and she started getting fussy, so I was feeding her every treat I had in my bag of tricks. Between that and the constant wiping of her runny nose, we were going nowhere but downhill....and FAST. Then she opened her mouth as she threw her head back in a tantrum, and that's when I noticed the enormous hold in her upper gum.....MOLARS! This kid has the strangest pattern of teeth coming in...she's got the 4 in front, 3 on the bottom, 1 in her upper right, and I noticed another molar on the left on Sunday. All in all...not such super news for Izzyboo. All of this ended up in a double ear infection by Monday.

So, I GET that she's difficult, but that doesn't necessarily make it any easier to deal with. Is it bad that I can't wait for her bedtime so I can have some quiet? I mean, the WHINING!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I think she's going through a separation anxiety phase right now too. I mean, she's fine when we drop her off in the morning at daycare, but the moment we pick her up in the evening and come home, she pretty much wants to be held the ENTIRE time. And if I'm not holding her, then she's chasing me around the house with her arms in the air, eyes full of tears, nose full of snot....crying. She's gotten pretty dramatic in the tantrum department too. I hope I get this on video pretty soon...she's walking along, and then all of a sudden she drops to her knees, leans back and then throws herself forward on the ground...again, crying. If it wasn't so pathetic it would be hilarious. Such big-girl attitude from such a little thing.

All I can hope for is a better evening tomorrow. Joacim had some training up in Chicago today, so we've been flying solo this evening. Lucky for me I have a hair appointment tomorrow, so Pappa can get ALL THIS FUN!!!! (insert Dr. Evil laughter here ;)