Just For Fun!

Mommy took a quiz today to try to distinguish your temperament. Here goes:

Isabelle's Personality Profile

Mood
Your baby has a sunny disposition.

Intensity
Your baby has a high intensity, which is wonderful when the emotion is positive, not so wonderful when feelings are negative. Parents and caregivers may have difficulty distinguishing between this baby's cries, whether the complaint indicates mild discomfort or something more serious. Either way, this baby gets attention.

Regularity
Your baby is happiest with a predictable routine, which in turn makes it easy for you to predict her wants and needs.

Activity
Your baby has boundless energy, which can be wonderful and exasperating, depending on the situation. The busy baby needs plenty of opportunities for physical exercise and play, and a parent's eagle eye checking for dangerous situations. (If he won't stay restrained in a shopping cart, for instance, carry him!)

Sensitivity
Your baby is aware of what's going on around her, and yet is not disturbed by sensory stimulation. She can tolerate a little noise and activity, but may have a personal pet peeve, such as disco music during naptime or a diaper that's damp.

Initial Response
Your child is cautious in new situations. The slow-to-warm-up child likes to hang back and observe before getting involved with new people. When your child's situation will be changing--a move to the toddler room at daycare, for instance--prepare the child in advance by visiting the new place and meeting the people involved in the transition.

Adaptability
Your child is fairly adaptable to new situations in the long-term. If Dad takes over a routine that was once Mom's domain, such as giving a bath or reading bedtime stories, your child will be wary at first, but will eventually accept the new order. As much as possible, let your child know what to expect, and as your child gets older, make sure the rules and boundaries are clear. It's easier to be adaptable in a household that has an established order and rules that are firm and understood.

I think this is quite on point with your temperament in quite a few of the different sections!

Water Baby

You are truly a Pisces, Izzy!

Since it was a warm day today, Mommy decided that we should try out the pool. So we got ready, put you in your new fancy surf suit (which is supposed to protect you from all the harmful UV rays with its long sleeves) and rubbed ourselves down with lots of sunscreen. Mommy blew up the new floatie we got you too...you got sooo excited!

Finally we were all ready, we headed to the pool. Mommy dipped my toe in the water to test the temperature...BRRRRRR! The water was freezing cold still! But you, my little water baby, could not wait to get into the water. You kept on kicking your feet and splashing the water everywhere!

So as to not disappoint you, Mommy lowered you down into your floatie, fully expecting you to start protesting about the water's temperature but to my surprise, you were giggling and splashing in the freezing cold water! You are definitely my little Pisces, Isabelle.

Mommy couldn't let you swim for too long today...so we took you out of the pool after 15 mins. But you swam more when we put you into the bath!

We'll have to schedule a pool playdate with your buddies soon.

Love, Mom

All happy in the water!

Trying to swim...

First Dentist Visit

Dear Izzy,

We went in for your very first dental visit today! Boy, was it an adventure. When we arrived, you headed straight for the play area. You had so much fun, playing with the toys and coloring. Then when it came to your turn to see Dr. Robert Smith, you started to cry and clenched your jaw down so tight like an alligator! But Dr. Smith was able to make you open your mouth by giving you a toothbrush to chew on and he checked out the 7 toofers you have.

Mommy was a little concerned about the size of your teeth and asked Dr. Smith if they looked too big for your mouth and he said that right now, your mouth is probably too small for your teeth. With time, your mouth will grow but your teeth will remain the same size and so they won't look too big anymore. Dr. Smith mentioned an underbite because you flashed him your fake smile with your top teeth slightly behind your bottom teeth. He said he won't be able to tell right now and it might just be a habit. What has Mommy been telling you? Don't smile like that! I think you do it on purpose because it looks so funny.

Love, Mom

Izzy and her fake smile...

Happy Mother's Day

Dear daughter,

You made me a better mother
than I ever thought I'd be
You are more than I ever hoped for
such a sweet reward to me.

You have my heart forever
I loved you from the start
It's my privilege to be your mother
Dear daughter, deep down from my heart.

I am so blessed and lucky to be your Mommy. Even though you drive me up the wall most days, I would not trade you for the world!

Love, Mom

14.5 months

Dear Izzy,

You are a whirlwind of activity and curiosity! I am not sure where you get all your energy from but you sure wear Mommy out every day. And you touch EVERYTHING in sight...you really have a pair of busy hands!

You have also started to throw real temper tantrums...and are they ever dramatic! You do it when Mommy or Daddy say "No" to you. You throw your body on the floor and start kicking your legs and screaming. Mommy usually has to ignore you because trying to reason with you is like talking to a brick wall. After a few minutes, you will calm yourself down and go back to whatever you were doing before.

Your language and cognitive development are definitely starting to be very obvious. You always imitate what we say to you when we point out objects. The other day, you took me to the fridge and kept on saying "Pe! Pe!" Mommy didn't get it at first and when I carried you up, you pointed to the pear! Oh, now I know what you wanted...a pear! Silly mommy, what's wrong with me, right? You also know that objects are used for certain purposes. Like when the phone rings, you quickly pick up an object that looks like a phone, i.e. the remote control or my computer mouse and put it to your ear and say "hi!" It's really adorable. And when Mommy or Daddy asks you to talk on the phone to someone, you run to the phone and say "hi" and then run away smiling.

Yes, you are starting to run now. Mommy has to keep one eye on you at all times because 1 second you are here, the other second you are gone! And since you have very busy hands and have learned to open and close cupboards, we cannot let you run around the apartment without supervision.

What a busy, busy girl you are but so much fun.

Love, Mom

Adventures in Toronto

Thank you for being a good girl on our trip, Izzy. For the most part, you were your cheeky little self. Mommy knows how much you value your sleep and when it gets interrupted, you can get quite cranky! But even with the time difference, the bad/missed naps, you were still quite well-behaved, well, for Izzy's standard anyways.

You did well on the plane ride there and back and we have to really thank Uncle Andrew who flew with us from YVR to YYZ. He helped entertain you on the plane and with our luggages because Mommy had so many things we had to bring with us. I think you scared him with the amount of snacks that you ate on the flight!

You had a lot of fun in Auntie Evelyn and Frank's house...playing in their beautiful yard, climbing up and down the stairs and terrorizing everyone in it. The first 2 days we were there, we visited the malls. The third day, Mommy and Izzy ventured out downtown to meet up with one of Mommy's ex-co-worker and her girls. We had a great time! We even met up with Mommy's ex-boss!

Izzy's new obsession...STICKS!

Izzy with her instant girlfriends, Ryleigh (left) and Madison (right)

The next day, we went and saw Daddy at his competition at the culinary school. You were sooo happy to see Daddy because you hadn't seen him for about 3 weeks. Daddy was also delighted to see you. We went there to support Daddy and he did GREAT! Just for you, Daddy won the right to represent Canada in the 2013 Bocuse d'Or to be held in Lyon, France. We will be there to cheer Daddy on!

Izzy running down the halls of the culinary school with Kimberly

Champion Daddy and baby finally reunited!

Since you've been such a good girl and traveler, Mommy is confident to take you on more trips now.

Love, Mom

Happy 14 month birthday!

My dearest Izzy,

So you've turned vegetarian?! You haven't really been eating any meat these few days. Mommy tried to make you chicken, beef and even meatballs in tomato sauce but you wouldn't eat them. You only eat your broccoli, carrots, peas and pasta! Those are your favorite vegetables. You do like your seafood though...you enjoy shrimp and fish. But still, Daddy's going to be very sad if you really turn vegetarian on him because he is looking forward to cooking you many of his recipes from his repertoire.

On another note, you have totally weaned yourself from nursing. A couple of weeks ago, we were down to your bedtime feed and the early morning feed. You phased out your bedtime feed first. You would rather roll around in the bed while Mommy reads your bedtime stories than nurse and then a few days later, decided to phase out the early morning feed too. You used to wake up around 5am and Mommy would nurse you and you would go back to sleep for an hour or so. For a few days, you would wake up at 5am, but push Mommy away when I try to nurse you. So I would just put you back down in your crib. Nowadays you don't wake up at 5am anymore! YAY...you would sleep till around 6-6:30am. Mommy is very glad that the weaning went well and there were no struggles but also at the same time quite sad that our nursing sessions are over for good. My baby is truly growing up.

What Dr. Scott said was true. Once the nursing session stops, your milk intake will increase. You've been drinking more and more milk after you weaned yourself. I think we are up to about 8-10 oz of milk a day now, which is a great improvement! But you still like your milk a little bit sweet (I don't blame you after being exclusively breastfed) so we have to mix it with a bit of yogurt drink.

Trying to run is the new skill you are practicing these days. You can walk quite well now and always want to be put down when we are out. You have extremely "itchy" fingers and try to touch everything within reach. When you try to run, it's funny because you would walk really fast and throw yourself into open arms. You understand so much more words that you can say and can follow simple instructions. The new words that you've been saying this week are "hi", "wow" and "weeeeee".

Since we are in Vancouver, in the mornings when you wake up, you would go into everyone else's room and wake them up. You go to the side of the bed where they are sleeping and scream/laugh and point at them until they wake up and pay some attention to you. You are such a menace! No one is allowed to sleep in when you are around. Also, when Ah Kong takes care of you, you climb up and down the stairs, take dirty clothes from the laundry room and throw them all over the house and sometimes you walk him to the front door and point to it. You do that because you are asking him to take you to the park across from the house! You tire both Ah Ma and Ah Kong out. They are going to have a vacation when we go to Toronto for a week!

You are so much fun now...I knew you were a cheeky one but didn't expect the cheekiness to emerge so soon. Mommy really doesn't know what is going to be in store for her when you enter your terrible twos! Actually, I think it already started!

Love, Mom