A Little Thanksgiving & Birthday Love

So...it's been called to my attention that I've been seriously negligent in my blogging.  What can I say, we've been a traveling, Thanksgiving-celebrating, birthday-celebrating family.  We took off on the Saturday before Thanksgiving to spend a week in Baltimore.  Lots of fun was to be had - we hit up the aquarium, played with cousins, got spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa, went to the Ravens game, and had some very good food.  While we were there, we learned that Isla is an absolute fiend for red grapes and has quite a sweet tooth.  There was a pre-birthday celebration for Isla and her cousin Alexa and while everyone got cake and ice cream, Isla was the only kid who ate ALL of hers....every bite.

I can't say that we had great travel experiences.  Despite leaving on Saturday, there was still a high volume of people in the airport the day we left and after standing in the security line for a LONG time Isla finally got fed up and just kept up a steady stream of crying until we were through.  Flight there went off relatively without a hitch compared to the flight home.  Big thanks to Isla for pooping about 30 seconds after they closed the doors. Technically we broke the FAA rules by getting up before allowed, but I'm pretty sure our fellow travellers were ok with it.  Add some crying jags, squirmy children, a dumped puffs container, and some tired kids and I am really relieved that we're not travelling at Christmas.

We were all excited to get home, and thankful that we had two days to relax before going back to work....especially because we had some celebrating to do the next day.  Isla is now officially one, and it certainly made me reflect on this time last year.  We had a very low key Thanksgiving with this little munchkin making her debut not too long after the turkey soup was done.  It was an incredibly fast year - in some ways she's turned into such a little toddler, but in others she's still my little babe.  Isla is quite the mover - walking and climbing and quite adventurous.  She's over her food texture issues and eats A LOT. She loves food she can eat all on her own so we do a lot of cut up blueberries, strawberries, grapes, apples. Any kind of noodle and peas are also hugely popular.  And yet...she still has no teeth!  She still loves having a bottle when she gets up and going to bed, though she's officially taught herself how to use a sippy cup, and absolutely loves to be cuddled.  Lately I have found if she wakes up in the middle of the night, she clings and cries if I try to put her down, and just wants to lay on me tills she's ready to roll off and just lay next to me.  It puts her into the deepest sleep, and the last two times I've felt so bad when I've had to wake her up.

Anyway, such is life.  We had a nice time celebrating Isla's birthday.  She got one present from us - a rocking zebra.  There is a rocking cow at daycare, and she loves the thing...often giving other kids the stink eye if they use it, and standing next to them till they get off so she can then nab it.  She also had some mini cupcakes and pounded two of them before her sister finished hers.  I don't think she dropped a single crumb.

Of course, Sawyer thinks this present may be for her...

It was only till we gave her one of our phones to play with that she allowed Isla to have her toy back.

Demonstrating her new sippy cup skills:

Sawyer hit up a birthday party at a place with a bunch of different jump houses so she was a bit wound up for the at-home festivities.

And with that our little baby is 1 and has celebrated her first Thanksgiving.  She continues to make us thankful every day.  Don't worry, we're very thankful for Sawyer too - 99% of the time.  If anyone knows how to make children listen the other 1%, I'm all ears. 

Next up...is Christmas decorating time!  That's right, it's the most wonderful time...of the year.  As Sawyer and I discussed in the car this week - Christmas makes us happy.