All about Isla

One of my goals this Christmas break has been to sit down and write about Isla, because I am always busy and I don't write enough down and I want to remember every little thing. So I'm blogging it because typing is faster than writing and I can't find my Isla notebook right now and I would like a copy of this out there somewhere.

So without further ado...

Isla is 15 months old and I can't believe it.
Some of her best antics include dancing---and man does she have moves! She bounces, shakes her booty, slides her feet around, spins, and waves her arms. She especially digs mariachi music, which we discovered when she danced in her highchair for an entire meal at our favorite Mexican restaurant. She had black beans all over...but she did not stop wiggling the whole hour! :)  there is one aisle in our grocery store that you can really hear the music in, and she dances in the cart like crazy whenever I walk down that aisle.

She talks and talks, very insistently and sweetly, but we don't catch a whole lot of it. The words we do know she is saying are: hi, Ty, dad, mom, yeah, yummy, no (but it sounds like nay? Lol) tree, and various animal sounds: moo, quack (sounds like nat), growling, and dog barking sounds. Which I feel is a pretty extensive vocabulary for her age. :)

Isla also has started having bad dreams sometimes and it is hard to wake her up. She will start whimpering and crying softly...it breaks my heart. And Ty or I will rush into her room and turn on the lights but it sometimes it takes a little more effort to wake her up. I don't know what she could be having nightmares about and I hate knowing that she does. :/

Dinner time has turned into "exert my independence" time. Isla refuses to eat bites off my plate and must always have her own plate. She also will not let me help her load up her spoon or fork, she has to do it all by herself.  It's gotten very messy. ;) but I like her attitude. Breakfast and lunch are usually finger foods, so it's mostly dinner when she eats what we eat and we have problems. ;)

Two weeks ago I left her with a very trusted babysitter so Ty and I could go to my work Christmas party. I tricked Isla into letting this lady hold her by giving this lady Isla's stuffed Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Isla went right to her and then realized I was leaving. She started to cry, but I kissed her and told her it was ok, she would have fun. She stopped crying, took several really deep breaths and even though her lip was sticking out and she looked scared, I was impressed by how brave she was being. She's done it since then and I am pretty proud of her. I just didn't realize someone so small could control herself like that.

She makes up games with me and loves to do things over and over. If I make a kiss face at her, she will run to me and stick out her forehead so I can kiss it. She also likes to tease me and pretend she is going to hand a toy or something to me and then run away with it squealing .  She copies everything we do and it is pretty cute. This morning I winked at her and she followed me around squinting her eyes for like twenty minutes. She also loves playing peek a boo with my scarves and its adorable.

We have been dog sitting for my brother for a few days this past week while he went to SD with his (awesome) girlfriend (seriously, I am a big fan of this girl and I've never liked a girlfriend before, so yay!!!!) and Isla would hit the dog way too hard when she was trying to pet her. So I would say "soft" and show her. She caught on pretty quickly. Yesterday she was smacking the glass on the window really hard so I said, "hey, soft!" And she ran over to me and started petting my arm, very softly. I laughed really hard at that one.

Ty loves to roughhouse with her and also he loves getting hugs from her. The first thing he does when we comes through the door is get down on his knees so Isla can come and hug him. He always talks to her and says, "Aw" when she hugs him, and she has started doing that whenever she hugs something. It was adorable on Christmas morning---she got a new stuffed animal and when I finished getting it out of the box she reached for it, squeezed it, and said, "Awwwww!"

Her laugh is a pretty constant sound in this house, and tears are generally short lived. We are pretty much in love with her. I could write tons more, but I want to go play with that munchkin so I will stop. I love being her mama and feel blessed by her presence everyday. I honestly don't understand how or why people can ever be mean to their children. I know Isla will get more challenging as she gets older, but honestly, she is our whole world and has changed our lives so much for the better. Everyone tells you parenting is so hard...but I don't really see how yet. We love her, and even if she is being frustrating or challenging, it just isn't that hard because we love her.