Dancing is in Isabelle's DNA. With two professional dancing Aunt's, and my girls being the only nieces, they never really had a chance! Fortunately, Isabelle is a natural and sings and dances all day long! This past year, Belle thoroughly enjoyed her ballet and tap dance class. She became friends with all of the little girls in the class and looked forward to Monday's each week. Ben knew this dance business was serious when I delivered him a rather large bill due in full by November for a dance recital he would be attending the following June! After literally practicing the same 2 minute dance for months, it was finally time to get the show on the road! Grammie and Grandpa of course came into town for the big performance and both Aunt Alee and Aunt Tara made a special trip to support little Jelly. Isabelle loved wearing her fancy costume and didn't even flinch when we painted her eyes with mascara. She took the whole event very serious and wondered aloud if anyone would throw flowers onto the stage for her...just like in Angelina Ballerina. I didn't take the time to record the official recital piece since I was busy watching Belle glow on stage, but I did record a rehearsal a few weeks beforehand. We were proud of all of Isabelle's hard work and are sure this was just the beginning of her career on the big stage!
All of the grown Cosby children decided to coordinate their trips to Grandma and Grandpa's home in Dallas this summer for Memorial Day weekend and a little fun in the sun. With cousins living in Massachusetts, Texas and Nebraska the play-dates are few and far between and my girls were excited like usual to visit their relatives! Uncle Jacob decided to get in on all of the action as well this year and proposed to Miss Lauren Anderson not long beforehand, so our Memorial Day "pirate party" turned into an "Ice Cream Meet and Greet Social" as well.
We had such a great time hanging out with all of our Cosby siblings and loved Belle and Livi getting a chance to get to know their cousins even better. Isabelle and Lincoln are only a month apart in age and really clicked this year especially. They had so much fun playing together and compliment each other's personalities nicely! Olivia also got to finally visit with her cousin who is only a month apart in age as well, Levi. He was a good sport to sit nicely and let Livi steal his stuff.
Of course Grandma Ruth had a major Pirate Party planned (not sure where the idea came from?) complete with costumes and a treasure hunt. The kids loved all of the decorations as well as the loot they found. Another highlight was getting the chance to mingle with the newest member of the family, Lauren, and the girls and I look forward to many fun experiences with Aunt Lo in the future.
I am blessed to have wonderful sisters-in-law and never took my camera out of my suitcase knowing Aunt Anna would have it taken care of. Her pictures beat mine any day of the week anyways!
Of course the weekend ended too soon and we were back on our quick flight to San Antonio. The good news was that we knew we would see everyone again very soon for the upcoming wedding, which helped heal the wounds of leaving for Isabelle. If only we all could live in the same city...
Some how the days just keep passing us by and not only are the girls growing and getting older, but surprisingly Ben and I are as well! Although it is sometimes difficult to fully appreciate each parenting moment, especially when you haven't slept much the night before and have run from one child need to the next, but we do our best to enjoy the little things with Isabelle and Olivia. We had a wonderful Mother's Day and Father's Day this year spending time together as a family and celebrating the blessing of parenthood.
Ben and I appreciate our own wonderful mothers and fathers and are so blessed for their support and example. It obviously takes you becoming a parent yourself to fully appreciate the ones who raised you!
Like the old Chinese Proverb states To understand your parents' love you must raise children yourself.
I know it is cliche, but where did my baby go? Miss Olivia is BUSY and I mean ALL DAY LONG. There is nothing she thinks she cannot do and unfortunately for me, there are very few things she can't do! She can jump, climb, talk, sing, run, dance, swim, etc. One of my best friends told me recently that I quit emailing when Olivia was born and after thinking about it, she is right. I quit doing everything when Livi was born and started chasing her 24/7. Thankfully, despite the ear infections, teething, traveling, etc, she has also mastered the sleeping skill as well and most nights is in bed before 7pm and not up till after 7am! It's hard to be so active day after day!!!
One of her biggest skills is the use of her sweet voice. Just like Belle, she began talking very early and as I sit here with my just barely 17 month old I listen to her jabber the following words: Mama, Dada, Isabelle, Grandpa, Grammie, Max, Leo, Alee, Nick, Tara, up, down, uh oh, all done, bye bye, night night, juice, pizza, snack, nuk, baby, car, ride, Elmo, rain, cheese, and the list goes on and on. She is also putting several words together and asks all day long while she shrugs her shoulders Where is Isabelle? She likes to eat a dilla and loves to sing E I E I O! She can bark, meow, quack, baa, neigh, moo and make a fish face and all the while be standing on one leg dancing and twirling. When you add her little voice to Belle's constant singing, I am often left with my ears ringing at the end of the day.
So far, Olivia hasn't shown much fear of anything. She runs straight into the swimming pool until the water is well over her head and loves rides at amusement parks. She is a thrill seeker by nature and looks for something to climb and scale constantly. She has recently discovered ELMO and loves to play peek-a-boo. Livi has a major shoe fetish and loves to notice every one's shoes and try on as many pairs as possible each day. She is a wonderful baby sister to Isabelle, letting her dress her up in costumes most days and follows her around trying to perform just as she is suppose to according to her big sister and boss.
One challenge we are currently facing with little Livi is the fact that we cannot keep a diaper on her! If she gets a split second chance she has freed herself from her diaper and is running away as fast as her legs will carry her with her bare bum hanging out behind her. However, she is kind enough to drop her used diaper in the garbage can as she runs. She says EWW! every time she tinkles and my mom is sure she is ready to potty train. She may be ready, but there is no way this mama is! Can you imagine putting her tiny rear-end on every toilet in the USA?
Olivia is very good to use her manners and always says thank you when she is given something and please when she wants something. This often makes it hard to turn her requests down when they are followed with such a sweet disposition!
Neither of my babies stayed babies for nearly long enough and Livi skipped right over the rolly and chubby phase that most babies visit for a short while and went straight to skinny and mini. I am trying to savor her for as long as I can (and also keep her alive from her daily tricks) and am grateful everyday that she was born into the Cosby family!
Isabelle had a wonderful first experience this academic year at Stone Oak Presbyterian Preschool. She loved each and every one of her classmates and felt a real closeness to her two teachers, Ms. Pat and Ms. Ashley. She learned all sorts of fun songs and skills and looked forward to going...most days. She learned all about getting married on the playground and Ben and I learned too that she is going to hear ALL SORTS of stuff at school! She still looked forward to Wednesday each week when she could stay home and play with mom and Olivia and some school days I had to seriously encourage her to get her out the door by 9:00am, but the majority of the days we arrived close to on time! It was a good "safe" place for little Jelly to get her feet wet being gone for a good part of the day, eating her own packed lunch and navigating through the daily hustle and she grew so much over the year. On her preschool report card her teachers wrote that Isabelle had grown from a quiet and shy student to a class leader who would certainly thrive in Kindergarten. To celebrate the end of the school year, the kids enjoyed a field day full of fun, sun and friends. There was a bounce house, bubbles, face painting, etc. They ate pizza for lunch and watched a movie in the afternoon. We also were thrilled to be invited to a "graduation" program where the PreK class sang 5 different songs and were presented with year-end awards. Isabelle was so pleased when she was chosen as the Mentor Student of The Year! Even though it was just preschool and not even every single day, we are thankful that now it is time to enjoy the sun and pool for a few months and pretend that little Jelly will not be starting Kindergarten so soon. I know for certain that she will be exhausted going to school every day and all day and know that a whole new set of challenges will come our way, but I am also excited for all the knowledge that Belle will gain and the many many ways that she will continue to grow and bloom. She is definitely prepared for Kindergarten, it's just her parents who are not quite ready.
Although it is called "Spring Soccer" in most places this is called "Summer weather." Although it was smoking hot for the last few games of the season and the kids were pouring water bottles on their heads rather than drinking them, Isabelle thoroughly enjoyed another round of sports at the YMCA. Ben agreed to coach once again and this time found his roster filled with 10 of Isabelle's buddies. The Sharks had so much fun together that most of the time they didn't care if they won or lost, they just wanted to run around and chase each other. Mid season Ben feared that we may have a totally "defeated" season, but every once in a while the group decided to really play soccer and then they were great! The last game was so much fun that we stomped the other team with goal after goal all the while laughing and tagging each other as we ran. Isabelle was thrilled to play with a few of her best friends from preschool and looked forward to each and every practice and game. Our proudest moment as parents was after a game where Isabelle had luckily scored a super goal and when we asked her what the best part of the game was, much to our surprise she excitedly proclaimed When I kicked it away from that big tough girl! She was proud of all of her hard work all season and we were too! Of course with such a friendly team we had to end the year with a huge soccer party at the park. We had pizza and balloons and each member of the team was given a special award and medal. Lucky for us, we had the son of a fabulous cake baker on the team so we concluded the year and night with a cake that could have won awards on it's own. Ben did a great job coaching the kids, learning lots of patience and mostly looked forward to his weekly dates with Isabelle. What great exercise and memories for the two of them!
