Isabelle still hates carrots. I keep trying though. She doesn’t eat them. She throws them on the floor. So one day I tried zucchini. She liked those so I thought ooh let’s try carrots again. Did she eat them? Nope. She sat there sticking it in her nose.

Go read cute baby #5, eating food from anywhere.

I’ve been a cleaning fool this past weekend. Alan had a weekend without us in Bakersfield for a paintball tournament. So I thought I would surprise him with a nice clean house. I mopped all the floors. And when I finished the last room, the bathroom, I was so proud.

Me and Isabelle went down for a nap and when she woke up, the floor was nice and dry. I stood there and admired the cleanliness. I then went to pour out the dirty bucket and…MISSED. It all went onto the nice clean floor. Sooo stupid! I had to soak up all the water, mop it again, and wait for it to dry AGAIN!

So I’ve been on this cleaning kick. I even tried the whole vinegar in your shower track thing and I HATE the smell of vinegar. Never again! The smell lingered for the longest time and even when it was gone I imagined it there. I hate it so much that next time I will go with nice smelling chemically stuff.

And since I’m on this cleaning kick, today we went to buy some more cleaning supplies. I have a friend who swears by the Swiffer Vac, raved about it. So I called her today asking if she had anymore cleaning tips. Like a better way to mop so one does not pour mop water all over their clean floor. Does anyone else have cleaning tips for this cleaning fool?

Do you ever buy fabric that you don’t love and then you tuck it away at home. Then when you pull it out again you think: what in the world was I thinking?? Well that’s what happened with this. It was more $1 a yard fabric from Joann’s. I pulled it out and showed Alan and he said that’s bright and he likes bright stuff. But then when I cut it out I decided I liked it. It wasn’t this big giant piece of bright orange blinding fabric anymore. It was the start to a cute little smock for Isabelle.

It’s from ISBN 4579110544 again. (Wow I really love that book!) It ties in back.

I made it one size larger this time since we established that Isabelle is a GIANT. I think it looks rather cute on her. What do you think? Cute? Or is it: why is that mother putting that blinding orange bright thing on her daughter?!?

Yesterday we drove down to San Jose. We had to be there at 7 p.m. It takes about an hour and a half to get there. Isabelle slept the entire way. That’s quite a long car ride but it was for a very good reason. We were there to celebrate my grandmother’s birthday. She turned eighty! When we arrived a few minutes past seven my uncle said we were very late. Turns out my mom had told everyone to arrive at 6:00 or 6:30. She told my sister to arrive by 7:30. And when we got there my mom hadn’t even arrived yet, she was the last to get there. Crazy woman!

We had a private room at the restaurant and there was karaoke, of course. I did NOT sing. I had my hands full with Isabelle or food. Yummm…foooood….

Sometime during the very long dinner we started to hear drumming. They had some other event down the hall and there was a Chinese lion dance. We brought Isabelle over to watch for a bit. When we brought her back to our room she would take our hands and pull us back down the hall. (have I mentioned she does that now? Takes our hands and drags us off to whatever she wants to show us. It’s so sweet.) The drumming was really loud but she wanted to be super close to it. I don’t know why. She’s usually afraid of loud noises.

After they were done they had the lion costumes sitting on the table. I brought Isabelle over to look at it. One of the dancers saw Isabelle’s interest and made the mouth move and the eyes blink and encouraged her to touch it. The rest of the evening she was determined to be in that room, even long after the dancers were gone. She kept going over to the table where the costumes were and pointing and babbling.

She finally stopped dragging us down the hall and took quite an interest in the other little girl there. She stood there staring at her and babbling. I was surprised she didn’t give her a loud kiss (also something new she does now. Instead of quiet kisses she now gives kisses with a big mwaaah noise).

We didn’t leave until about 10:30 p.m., another long car ride. Isabelle only slept for half of it but was nice and calm for the remainder of the trip. We arrived home a little after midnight.

It was a wonderful evening. Only a couple of things I wish I could have changed. I only brought my fixed focal lens so couldn’t get a group photo of everyone there. The one I have is only about one table full of people. The other thing, I would have loved a picture of Isabelle pulling Alan down the hall. Oh well.

And today Isabelle’s been playing with all the red envelopes she got.

We haven’t done much of any babyproofing since putting those bumpers on. (Which by the way sucked. They kept coming off and then Isabelle would take off with them.) We did buy some real babyproofing stuff but we never put them on. Why? Well they require screwing in and figuring out where to put them and it’s so much easier to put stuff in the way. Like an under the bed box (which my friend Olinda keeps mistaking for a litter box though I’ve never seen a litter box so damn big) in front of the bathroom sink cabinet. Or using shipping tape to keep the DVD cabinets from opening. (and it works. Even kept Olinda out! ha ha ha!) Or pushing the kitchen chairs in front of the drawers in the kitchen.

Other methods I’ve employed. Putting a laundry basket in front of drawers. Using Isabelle’s massage chair in front of the other cabinets. Tying the coffee table cabinet off with some drawstring thingy Alan has. Putting a paperclip through the locking part of a chest.

They’ve worked. But now we have a problem. Now Isabelle pushes the box out of the way. She pushes the chairs. She knocks over the laundry basket. Does that mean we have to do some real babyproofing?

Go read silly parent #28, stuff down your shirt.