Found this funny site via my sister’s Facebook.  Izzy’s is the best and so true. And Jonas’ will be true when he’s born.

Pretty funny, huh? Get your own at Robot Name Decoder.  There’s also a monster decoder if your more into monsters (although I didn’t think they were as cool/funny as the cyborg names).

As if being picked up and carried everywhere wasn’t enough, Izzy has now discovered another form of transportation (or parental humiliation). It all began when she decided that climbing in and out of things i.e. boxes, baskets and such was fun. She has a little cart we gave her for her birthday. The concept behind the cart is for the child to load it with various treasures and for said child to push it to its destination. What a great concept! She can practice walking by pushing something! She can put toys in it since she loves placing and removing contents of, well, pretty much anything. Great toy. Until she figured out how to climb in it. And Mom in one of her less enlightened moments pushed her around in a loop going, “Choo! Choo!”

“How is that a bad thing?” you ask. Give Izzy an idea, and she runs with it! She deduced that if she climbs in the cart and gives the royal wave, she’ll get a ride. Otherwise she gets a little more demanding. This was fun the first eighteen rounds. However, as I am about to have another kid in less than a month, my back and general physical aptitude isn’t quite up to bending over a child’s toy pushing a 25 pound lump around several times a day. So I did what every desperate parent does when faced with a child’s obsession; I hid the Royal Chariot. Out of sight; out of mind right? Wrong! She takes an idea and RUNS with it! The next day or so, I see her sit on her red food tray (now named the Royal Carpet Glider), give the royal wave, and look at me expectantly. “Mom! I’m waiting here!” I push her back and forth with my feet, while sitting on my medicine ball. My aching back was spared. . .this time.

Downstairs she has a little tray with wheels that holds her building blocks. That tray has not seen its building blocks for many a day now as they are scattered throughout her kingdom. The tray hadn’t received much notice from her, until her agile mind discovered its true calling: a Royal Carriage! Yes, she sat in it, waved, and looked around expectantly. She was pulled around the living room by its child’s length rope and a hunched, harried parent, and disembarked satisfied.

Fast Forward to a couple of days ago with my first post “An Introduction.” As I had been typing, I heard her paging me to another room. I located her in the master bedroom. We usually keep it closed off from her, but the air conditioner works better if the air can flow through the house and I had left the door open. I didn’t expect too much destruction since she is never alone for more than a minute or so. No, not too much destruction; she had acquired a Royal Sled. Izzy had taken the clean clothes out of the laundry basket, climbed in, gave the royal wave, and looked around expectantly. I guess when she looked around expectantly and saw none of her entourage awaiting further orders, she had a moment of panic. Until she remembered how to raise her voice to summon said entourage. I pushed her about six feet, picked her up, and carried her out-closing the door behind us. Oy.

Now she’s on to bigger and better things: walking, trying to talk, and all the while keeping up with her Destruct-O quota! She’s a busy Izzy Bean. . .

The Royal Chariots

From left to right: The Royal Chariot (Original), The Royal Carpet Glider, The Royal Carriage, and The Royal Sled

An Introduction

I’ve never considered myself a writer. When pressed, I can usually turn out a well written assignment. Writing for fun? Never. However, I’ve realized that our little nuclear family has been separated from the rest of our extended family for almost five years. Weekly phone calls aren’t much of a connection. Izzy is almost 15 months old, and her grandparents haven’t seen her since Thanksgiving. So, in an effort to keep everyone in the loop, I’m taking up this blogging thing. We’ll see how it goes. Even if no one reads these, I will at least have chronicled some of the small stuff that is so easily forgotten. I am going to begin with the present (why not?) and wander through memories or past things as I remember them.

Right now, Izzy is just waking up from her morning nap. After changing her diaper, she likes to stand on her changing table and play with the dimmer switch. She’ll pull the switch up or down and look at the light when she does. What makes it really cute is that she whispers, “Wow” in a serious voice as she does this. As we move into her playroom, there are toys galore scattered everywhere. She plays with some of them, but really likes the adult things. The car charger for one of our old cell phones is a particular favorite. Don’t ask me why. She’ll crawl around with that in her hand forever. The remote control for the TV and Juan’s old TiVo unit. She can turn both things on and mess with settings I can’t even access! However, when she wants to watch a movie, fix whatever she messed up, or demand something in general, out comes the Tim Allen impression. You know, the ,”Huh?” that he made famous? Well, imaging that about three octaves higher in pitch coming from a 15 month old dictator.

The “huh?” coming out of her mouth is a request (demand). It is up to us, her minions to figure out what it is and cater to her. She graciously gives us about five seconds to figure whatever she wants from us out. Than the “huh?”s become louder, higher pitched, and closer together; “Huh? HUH? HUH? HUH?!!!!” No pressure or anything. Right.

Speaking of the Baby Dictator, some pretty insistent “huh?”s are paging me to her room that she has been quietly destroying for the last five minutes. She probably wants me to open the closet door because she’s pulled everything out of the drawers and needs new order to destroy. Until the next installment. . .

Ciri

Five minutes later: Quick update: I actually found her in our bedroom. She had pulled the clean laundry to be folded out of the basket, climbed in, and was awaiting transportation in the Royal Chariot. Obviously, I should have used my mind reading powers to deduce that she was expecting me to shuttle her around.  Oy. The Royal Chariot(s) deserves its own post though. I’ll make it the subject of the next update.