birthday snow, again!!

i am a very lucky thirty-two.

happy birthday, little girl!

happy one to my lovely little girl!

noah and i took isla on a birthday adventure to fairhaven, where we hit up the bookstore, the toy store and the pastry shop. then we had a leisurely playtime at boulevard park and a nice walk home. it was a beautiful day to turn one!

the birthday princess waits for the bus

on the bus

much fun at the park

noah tried out the pirate's life

new birthday ball

crab crawl along the boardwalk

an attempt at candle-blowing-out

noah took over candle-blowing; this is hilarious

she's a fan of the cream cheese frosting, not so much the cupcake

new birthday artwork
(see http://www.idapearle.com/)

oh happy one!

messy party fun

noah's birthday party on saturday was lots of fun. it was a "messy party," an idea which we got from an old issue of mothering magazine. (the sub-heading for the article was, "in a world of no, the messy party says yes.) actually, the party wasn't really all that messy, though there were lots of opportunities for mess and general disorder.

aaron set up a few stations around the yard for digging in dirt, sandbox play, water play and slime play. the water station was definitely the biggest hit; it involved pulleys (boat hardware), buckets, pipes and pools. the whole thing is still set up, which is fun for noah but a bit of a hassle for the mailman.

aaron and i got noah a little wheelbarrow and some garden tools for his birthday, and on that note we asked people to bring plants as presents. we've been working on planting starts and seeds this week, and noah has really been enjoying digging, raking, watering, dumping wheelbarrow loads, etc. also finding worms. i'll post more garden pictures soon.

a big crew at the sandbox worksite

maryka and isla, not messy at all

nessa doing some chalkin'

jessa and evan at the digging station

grayson sliming it up

elliott and pearl and the water station

jessica, noah and grayson in a cardboard box/house

happy three, noah barnes!

happy half year

isla has been on the outside now for half of a year. what a happy half year! it's impossible to remember what life was like without her. she is a happy, easygoing little girl with the brightest blue eyes, the faintest red hair and great big squishy cheeks, belly and thighs. really, she is a little person all of a sudden. she listens, she jokes, she steals, she yelps, she licks, she laughs, she snuggles, she toots... she is big and strong, still topping the growth charts and doing all the things a person of her size is meant to do. how lucky we are!

this weekend she began to sleep with her brother instead of her parents. what a big change! so far the transition has gone fairly well. she still wakes plenty in the night to nurse, but i just go to her and nurse her in her room, and lay her back down. she and noah don't seem to wake one another very easily, which is a relief. and noah loves having sleepovers every night! he is so sweet to her, and says, "good night, isla," or "it's okay, baby isla" if she cries. it's fun to imagine them giggling together in the dark as they get older.

happy half birthday, little girl!

a great birthday

the theme for my birthday weekend seemed to be delicious food! aaron and i did go to the tapas restaurant on friday night, and sampled a few small but very tasty dishes. the waitress was really thrown off by the fact that aaron got sangria and i had a beer. not very gender typical, i guess, but i enjoyed my manly drink.

saturday i did get my hair cut, and i went crazy and had the hairdresser style it straight! i've never done that before, but it was fun. it took her about half an hour, three products and two different devices. i'm guessing it probably won't happen again until i get my hair cut next. here's me with my kiddos and my straight straight hair.

then saturday night some of my lady friends came out for a yummy supper at d'annas, my very favorite italian restaurant. it was very festive and extravagent--i even strayed from my usual spaghetti and meatballs and ordered a steak! lily said since my hair was straight, i wasn't obligated to do anything i'd usually do.

here's dorothy, irene and sarah

and here's lily, maryka and me... in the SNOW! yes folks, i did get my birthday snow. it began midway through dinner and was a delight to walk out into in the evening. sarah, irene and i continued the magic with a viewing of the northwest ballet's "nutcracker" at wwu. it was a really fun performance without the promised russian but with lots of cute little kids. both sarah and irene felt like the moves they were watching should be reasonable to replicate, but upon trying a few out during intermission, realized that was not true. good thing they're nurses, not ballerinas!

then sunday morning isla shined as little baby jesus (or LBJ, as aaron kept saying) at our church's christmas pageant. she didn't cry a peep, though she was napless and a little restless. the young mary tried holding isla for a while, and many of the older church ladies were on the edge of their seats as isla flopped about. but all went well, and we got many congratulations for having the best baby jesus ever. who would have known?

here's isla in her baby jesus outfit, a lovely little white cardigan and pants from our friend andrea. no swaddling clothes, as i knew she'd bust right out of them.

mary and child

the pageant finale, with isla in the rickety manger on stage. (sorry it's so hard to see! i didn't want to be one of those annoying stage mothers who marches right up front to take pictures.)

we finished off the weekend at aaron's parents' house, where we had a greek feast and wherein i was presented with the aforementioned awesome new digital camera. aaron, uncle kevan and noah also spent a bit of time playing in the snow, trying to sled on a torn apart bandstra moving box. (not a big success.) isla watched them out the window.

thank you to everyone for your happy birthday wishes! it was a wonderful weekend.

there's the bird!

noah and aaron made this awesome birthday card for me, with animal cutouts from a national geographic kids' magazine. by happenstance the big elephant's ear ended up hiding a little bird. noah loved the peek-a-boo aspect, happily exclaiming "there's the bird!" every time he lifted up the flap.

there's the bird!but here's my real birthday present: a new nikon digital camera with ten megapixels! aaron organized his whole family to go in on it together, but he did the choosing. he was so proud of himself for navigating the tricky world of electronic lingo. (he said he had a very helpful guy at bestbuy.) we've loved our old camera (thank you, alan!) since we got it for our wedding four and a half years ago. it had the cool feature of being water-resistant and extremely durable. but it also only had 3 megapixels and very slow autofocus, which meant often blurry and sort of unclear pictures. the new one is super fast and very clear, and has a big screen on the back, which is really cool. (especially for two-year-olds who like to see the pictures of themselves immediately after they're taken.) i'm very excited to put the new camera to work.

here's my first product:

it also helps to have a super cute little girl!

birthday snow!

who would have thought i'd get my very greatest birthday wish?

SNOW is coming to bellingham!! this rare treat is supposed to begin tonight and last all weekend. accumulations up to two inches--a joke to you new englanders, but enough for me! i'm very excited, and i know noah will be excited too. who needs a white christmas when you can have a white birthday?

this weekend will be full of birthday fun for me.

1. tonight aaron and i will go on a date! the first since isla has been born, and maybe long before. lily will babysit and noah is very excited to hang out with her and for "friday night movie night," wherein he'll watch a few thomas the tank engine episodes. aaron and i will go to the tapas restaurant we like in fairhaven, and then peruse the bookstore, where hopefully i will find something worthy of my 31% birthday discount.
2. tomorrow morning i will get my haircut. i may even get bangs.
   
3. tomorrow afternoon i'm hoping to entice my family into attending the waldorf school holiday faire with me. aaron is a little suspect of all the fairies involved in waldorf education, but who doesn't love fairies? and i'm just interested to check out the school, which sounds absolutely lovely. and they do offer some financial aid, so maybe someday...
   
4. i'm hoping i can also entice my dear family into going baby carrier shopping with me at portable kid downtown. i'd like to use my birthday money on a lovely new beco carrier, so my little girl can travel in style. (i know, i have an addiction when it comes to baby carriers. but this is something that gets used EVERY DAY. it might as well be comfy and pretty too!)
5. tomorrow evening i'll eat the best spaghetti and meatballs around at my favorite italian restaurant with some of my favorite lady friends. and then we'll go see the nutcracker!! i love the ballet so much, and have been sad to be far from the student rush tickets at the boston ballet. this performance will be at the WWU performing arts center. it can't compete with boston or new york, but there will be one russian dancer.
   
6. then sunday morning is the christmas pageant at church, wherein our very own little isla lou will perform the role of baby jesus. she did fantastically last week at the rehearsal, meaning "no crying she made." hopefully sunday's performance will go just as smoothly. (meaning also that young mary doesn't drop my little girl.)
7. and finally, sunday afternoon we'll have a delicious lunch in ladner with aaron's family. this means great food, relaxing atmosphere and an eager grandma who even changes diapers. what more could i ask for?