Izzie's Growing

The last time we were in Idaho, we put Izzie in her cousin's jumper play thing. She loved it. Luckily for us Grandpa & Grandma Longley got Izzie one too, so we put it together for her a few weeks ago. She loves it. She gets the baby shakes when the lights start blinking and the music gets going. You know... the arm waving, tense face straight legs baby shakes. I think (hope) that means she likes it. Lynnell informed me that Izzie spun it around all the way today while I was taking a nap. That's a big feat for a three and a half month old baby. I think she's finally starting to get the hang of the coincidence of music and lights to her jumping. It's fun to see her developing in everything.



One thing that I don't get to enjoy all of the time is sleeping with Izzie. Now it's not like I want to have her sleep in my bed all night long. That would suck. I'm talking about that early morning period where she wakes up but could use a bit more sleep. Usually Lynnell will go grab her out of her crib and lay her in bed. She usually falls back to sleep for a while giving mom some more needed sleep. Since I have to get up early in the morning and go to work, I miss out on this on a daily basis. The weekends are the only time I get to enjoy it. The problem there is that sometimes I'm so worn out that I don't feel up to making sure I don't roll over and crush my baby when I'm sleeping on a Saturday morning. So, even on a weekend I'll miss out on this. You are probably asking yourself why it's so fun to sleep with your baby. Well, it's just fun. I can't explain it. It's kind of like when you buy a cool new toy like a TV or an Xbox360 or something new and fun. It's that feeling of anticipation that you get all day because you just want to go home and use it (spend time with it). Or like when you know I have a new post on my blog and you just can't wait to see the new pictures of Izzie. Maybe that's a bad analogy, but that's the feeling. I just want to be close to her and spend time with her. For some reason it's just enjoyable. Plus she's adorable.


Here's me and Izzie playing on the couch. She's to the point now where she starts to laugh and giggle a lot. It's fun.


Right now we are working on what I can see to be an uphill battle. Izzie has discovered the television. When she sees it she locks on like a falcon watching it's prey, and she'll do anything to see it. She stretches pretty hard sometimes. Now I don't need everyone reading this blog to tell me that it's bad for babies to watch TV. I know. I've read the reports and have heard plenty of comments. So, for now, we just make sure that if she's in her jumper or swing that she can't see the tele. Just believe me when I say she tries her best to see it. Here she is with mom trying her darnedest to watch it.


Since Izzie started locking in on the TV we have since canceled our cable. That's not the main reason, but it's part of it. Hopefully we'll (Nell and I) spend less time watching it period.

Izzie is also starting to collect a few toys. She likes the ones she has, so we don't get her a lot of them although I will admit that it is tempting. Luckily we are at a place in our lives where we are trying to live more simply. We realize that there are people out there that are far less fortunate than we are, and we want to be able to help them. To do that we realize that we have to be downwardly mobile (v.s. upwardly mobile). As Americans it's not easy, but as Christ followers it is. We are having fun with it, and hopefully it is something that we can instill in the hearts of our children. Here she is gumming her toys in her sweet little bouncy chair that the Zupans got her. (Yes the toys were made in China. No I don't know if they have lead paint. Do I care...? No. I turned out just fine.)