More Firsts For Izzie

Izzie's First Banana.



Izzie's First Egg.



Izzie on Danimals Yogurt.

Izzie Watching Baby Einstein

Izzie Playing With Her Toys

Izzie Laughing Her Head Off

No explanation needed, but I would like to know what is so dang funny about this. Maybe someone can explain that.

Pictograph Cave State Park

Last weekend we went to Pictograph Cave State Park just South of Billings. I didn't have high hopes for it being anything great because I had already checked out the website for the park and there wasn't much there. But, it was a beautiful weekend, and we needed something to do. Since it was something we had never gone to see or do, we decided that it would be a good candidate for filling the afternoon.

Here's Izzie waiting in her stroller waiting for mom and dad to get the show on the road. That's Ghost Cave just above her head. That's where we headed first.


Here's the inside of Ghost Cave. I don't really know much about it because I didn't read any of the plaques about it. What I did learn is that it really should be called a cave. It's more like a hole in the cliff. Izzie agreed.


On our way over to the main cave we stopped under a tree for a family photo moment. It didn't turn out as great as I thought it would, but I'm sure there will be plenty of other opportunities in the future.


Here we are checking out the main cave (it's just a bigger hole in the side of a cliff). It was cooler than I thought it would be. As I stood there thinking how anticlimactic and lame the whole thing was I realized that I would probably learn more and enjoy it better if I quit being so cynical and just started reading the information about it. After all, you can only get out what you put in. After I engaged myself I began to find it quite interesting and educational.



Here is a picture I took of the sign that tells you what all of the paintings used to be or still are. There are 106 scattered across the walls of the cave, and the picture following the sign is of the most prominent ones that you can plainly see in the cave. Just a note: I didn't resize the picture of the paintings on the sign so that you could get a good look at them, so the file is large (hope you have high speed internet).



If you look North from the main cave you see Ghost Cave.


Here's Izzie and I walking back to the parking lot from the main cave (Nell took the picture). I'm coming to the realization that pushing a stroller down hill is more like being pulled down the hill by the stroller. It's a huge pain in the butt.


Here's the main cave from the parking lot.


Here's Ghost Cave from the parking lot.


And here I am giving it a two thumbs up, but only because I had fun with my family and had the opportunity to enjoy an afternoon with them.

March 2008

The last few posts covered some of the major highlights for March, but I thought I should share the rest.

Izzie's new thing is standing. She loves it. At the beginning of March she wasn't too sure what to think, but I'm guessing that seeing mom and dad do it all of the time kept the motivation going. Now she's a champ at it. She loves to stand by the coffee table and just check stuff out. Here she is sometime in the first week of March balancing and tasting my hand.


Blocks are still fun. We continue to build sweet new towers and anything else our imaginations can create.... OK. It's my imagination, but I know Izzie is learning.




And of course I have to post a video of Izzie's triumphant defeat of another one of dads awesome creations.



Here's a big one: Izzie upgraded to a big girl car seat. Well, sort of. It's a big girl car seat compared to what she has been in. We headed to Target one day and picked up a sweet chair that she can use until she graduates college. No, not really, but the hope is that she can use it long enough that we don't have to fork out cash on another one. They are expensive. Here we are sizing the straps before I go put it in the van.



And of course we had to go test drive it once we got it installed. I mean, why wouldn't you?

Here's another big one: Izzie got her first tooth in March. It was her bottom right tooth in the very front. Yes, it was just as painful for Lynnell and I, but with the help of Tylenol, we all made it through just fine. Here's Izzie eating a teething tablet. For some reason she thinks they are the greatest. Every time we whipped the bottle out, she would flap her arms out of the sheer joy of eating something that doesn't taste like anything and disolves into nothing in mere seconds.


I tried one of them in the name of science. You know, testing for a placebo a.k.a. my money being flushed down the toilet (or thrown out in a diaper... I guess). Surprisingly it made the roof in my mouth go numb, but only barely and only in the spot where I crushed it with my tongue.

I know what you are thinking; Post a picture! Well, I'll explain. I refer to the tooth as "The Elusive Tooth" (you have to read that with a big booming voice coming from nowhere). It's kind of like Big Foot or the Loch Ness Monster. If I try to take a picture of it, I spook it and the picture turns out fuzzy and the tooth looks all obscured. If I try to pry Izzie's mouth open to see inside, I inadvertently unleash the beast, and it's not my favorite thing to do. So, be patient. A picture is coming.

Third big event: Izzie got her very own high chair. She actually got it on the same day that she got the car seat. If you want to get specific, we spontaneously bought it on our new-car-seat test drive. I guess we were in the mood to spend money. We had the good sense to get the cheapest one that WalMart had, so I didn't feel bad about it. Here's Izzie riding in the cart back to the van with her sweet new high chair.


Here she is sitting it the next morning for her first high chair meal: apples and bananas and then freeze dried strawberries for dessert.



Last major item for the month: Izzie is starting to phase in normal food. It's really cute to watch her try new things. Her faces are priceless, and of course, she still gets the shivers for some of the more odd things (like fish and ketchup). It's funny to watch her try to figure out the food thing too. She plays with it sometimes and stares at it other times, but most of the time, she pounces on it lit a cat on a mouse and scarfs it down like a dog eating steak. She loves food.





Here's a couple of videos. The second one shows her mad skills at drinking from a cup.





Anyways, that wraps up March's events. Things are starting to move fast, so I'll do my best to keep on top of new developments.