Victoria's Photo Stream

posted Saturday, May 05, 2012 (05.jpg)

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Isabel approves of holidays involving funny hats and yummy foods. I really, really didn't think she was going to want to wear this hat, but as soon as she saw it she went right for it and wore it the entire time I was making dinner (shredded chicken on tostadas and spanish rice) and then some more after dinner too. I'm pretty sure it isn't going to translate into willingness to wear a sunhat this summer, but at least I managed a few pictures for a change!

2012:05:05 20:42:55

posted Sunday, April 22, 2012 (cat.JPG)

Pretending to be a cat

Well, it took a nearly 6 months, but she finally willingly wore the cat-ear hat I made for her. She was pretending to be a cat, and wanted a \"tail\" so after I tied the scarf around her waist, I asked if she wanted to wear the hat and she agreed! In fact, and hour later and she's STILL wearing it. I think this may be a record for indoor hat wearing. So maybe there is hope for the sun visor I just bought her for summer...

2012:04:22 19:44:09

posted Sunday, April 22, 2012 (IMGP8641.JPG)

Dandelions!

We cannot leave the house these days without collecting a big bouquet of dandelions. Fortunately, she doesn't seem to care whether they are flowers, seed heads or even just bare nubs where the seeds used to be before they blew away. Just as long as she gets to pick them!

PENTAX K2000 2012:04:17 09:30:27 1/60 sec

posted Wednesday, April 11, 2012 (IMGP8590.JPG)

Hard Boiled Egg Mouse

We have a kids cookbook with a \"recipe\" for hard-boiled egg mice, and everytime we read the book lately, Isabel has been saying \"maybe I could have that for my lunch\". It never occurs to me to hard boil eggs since I don't like them myself, but with Easter, I happened to have some on hand that had not yet been converted to devilled eggs for John, and with the chives sprouting like mad out on the balcony, we even had the preferred tail material. So I made her one for lunch and... turns out she's mama's little girl! She did tale a few little nibbles of the egg yolk, but she eventually informed me that she did not like hard boiled egg mice. Too bad, he was kind of cute. But then again, I can't blame her!

PENTAX K2000 2012:04:11 09:42:09 1/60 sec

posted Wednesday, April 11, 2012 (IMGP8575.JPG)

A flower arrangement for her daddy

Isabel came home from the YMCA babysitting room on Monday with this flower, which she informed us was \"a flower for your mommy\". The next day, she used a pipe cleaner to bind it to a fake flower stem I was trying to use to decorate the mantle with and declared it was now \"a flower arrangment for your daddy\". And then she gave it to John and insisted he had to keep it in his hand. At all times. Guess that flower arranging book she happened to pick out at the library made a big impression!

PENTAX K2000 2012:04:10 17:08:39 1/125 sec

posted Sunday, April 08, 2012 (04.JPG)

Easter Morning

We started the morning by really making Isabel work for her serving of Teddy Grahams crackers, one in each of 16 plastic eggs \"hidden\" around the living area. After some fun with her new hoola hoop, it was time to dye some eggs. Then off to the Zoo (wearing her new birthday outfit, thanks grandma!) for a picnic lunch (complete with chocolate bunny) and a look at the animals. Then after nap time, it was cookie making time, because I cannot seem to resist a bag of cheap cookie cutters. We didn't actuallly manage to decorate the cookies, but maybe tomorrow!

2012:04:08 20:28:54

posted Thursday, April 05, 2012 (IMGP8482.JPG)

Art Projects

Isabel started play school class this week, and she's been going to the YMCA babysitting too, so looks like we are about to be inundated with 4-5 new craft projects a week. This is my favorite so far! I was not present during its creation, but I'm guessing she had rather a bit of help... nevertheless, once I figure out how to mount a line in her room, I will be clothespinning masterpieces right and left...

PENTAX K2000 2012:04:05 14:57:52 1/125 sec

posted Thursday, March 29, 2012 (031.JPG)

A year's difference

I couldn't help but notice as we were out enjoying the lovely weather on Sunday that this light jacket I got for Isabel last year actually fits now. That plus the short hair and the long legs and she's looking pretty grown up these days! Until next year, when I will marvel at how even more grown up she looks... note also that the picture on the left was taken April 24th last year, when the daffodils were just peeking, whereas this year's MARCH 25th trip to see the flowers yielded only a few dying daffodils and tulips a plenty. I really wonder how the rest of this spring is going to go!

2012:03:29 20:19:04

posted Thursday, March 29, 2012 (03.JPG)

Spring at the Conservatory

Before we left for our trip the tree branches were all bare and the daffodils were just little 4 inch green sprouts. I seem to remember telling John there was no way they would grow big enough to flower while we were gone, but I was completely wrong. Not only were they flowering by the time we got back, they were actually past peek, and we're well into tulips. Amazing what a week of 80 degree temperatures in March will do! So this Sunday, wanting to make sure we caught at least a little bit of the spring finery, we headed out to the Garfield Conservatory so Isabel could coat her nose in flower pollen as usual. Much fun was had!

2012:03:29 20:11:42

posted Saturday, March 24, 2012 (129_0321.jpg)

129_0321.jpg

On the last day of our trip, Isabel got her hair cut for the very first time. Pretty as the curls were, with all that long straight hair above them they were constantly full of knots, which naturally Isabel did not enjoy having combed out. And when her hair was wet, it would get all wrapped her around her arms. This is much more practical, and pretty cute too. Isabel seems to agree!

posted Saturday, March 24, 2012 (125_0317.JPG)

Our Little Flower Girl

After 2.5 months of worrying about getting the dress made in time and then about getting it to the wedding clean and in one piece, not to mention wondering how cooperative Isabel was going to be, it was quite a relief to see her marching tranquilly down that aisle hand in hand with her co-flower girl in their wedding finery. Of course since their other hands were holding baskets, they didn't actually scatter any petals, but that was a minor glitch! After the ceremony Isabel made up for it by dumping the petals in a pile right in the middle of the carpeted pathway.

posted Saturday, March 24, 2012 (124_0316.JPG)

Ryan & Isabel

Isabel met her cousin Ryan for the first time at her Uncle's wedding, and they sure had a lot of fun running around together and playing. A week later and she's still bringing up his name, so I think he made a big impression on her, and I hope it won't be too long before we can get them together again for more fun!

posted Friday, March 23, 2012 (123_0315.JPG)

Boulder City Picnic Lunch, March 15

Slowly making my way through the photos from our trip. I think I'll post some here, and then when I've got through them all I can start thinking about Facebook and Winkflash... So, to start, here is the first day of our trip, a beautiful day in Boulder City. We had a picnic lunch at the park just up the street with the 3 local grandparents and some surprise drop-in guests: big horn sheep! They come to the park a lot, but this was the first time we've managed to time our visit to see them.

posted Sunday, February 26, 2012 (Arrowheaddress_inprogress.jpg)

First Try-On

First try-on of the flower girl dress! Finally! This is my 4th weekend of work... and I was very pleased to note it actually fits. The bottom is a bit long (she stepped on it a few times) but that is easily fixed. The lining is still loose in there (you can see it wadded up a bit in the middle of the bodice). Now that I know it fits, the next job is to tack that down by hand, then sew on the decorative buttons and the hook closure, shorten it a bit and make the belt loops for the sash (which Jamie & Paul are providing) and I will be done. Okay, that'll take me some time, but it should hopefully be pretty straight-forward now that the hard part is done... two weekends left!

posted Sunday, February 19, 2012 (facepaint.jpg)

Makeup

Cheated on our zoo today with the OTHER Chicago Zoo, since they have free admission in January & February. Lots of fun was had! One of her favorite parts was in the Play Zoo area, where they have a little makeup area with mirror so that you can paint yourself to look like an animal. Isabel carefully watched the other children and then very studiously set about doing her own face, every once in a while pausing to examine her work and break out into a big smile. I asked her what kind of animal it was supposed to be, but she told me it wasn't an animal. She also really enjoyed misting all the plants in the play zoo sunroom with a spray bottle and petting the guinea pig they had there. The big hit outside the play zoo were the seal and sea-lion tanks.

posted Sunday, February 12, 2012 (ValentinesHouse.jpg)

Valentine's Sugar Cookie House

Feeling a little guilty about not letting Isabel do any decorating on the gingerbread house, I decided to make her a Valentine's House. She insists it's a dog house for her little plastic dog \"Three\" but so far has not attempted to wedge him in there. She did have fun sticking the candy on, though!

posted Friday, January 13, 2012 (VID01952-1.jpg)

Snow Bunny!

Thursday, when the snow was still only around 3 inches deep, we went out to park 554 for a little fun. It was still falling, but I heard the temperatures were supposed to drop as the storm went on, so it sounded like a good time for the first snow romp of the year. Maybe this weekend we'll go again, try to build ourselves a snowman in the by now much deeper snow.

posted Friday, January 13, 2012 (YogaGirl.jpg)

Yoga Girl

Ever since she saw some women in the park doing yoga, Isabel has been fascinated. I can't remember what re-sparked her interest recently, but we decided to grab another book from the library for her, and she's been having a lot of fun doing the poses this week.