An Izzy Update

I haven't done this in awhile, and figured I probably should.

Izzy is now 2 years, 6 months and 19 days old. 

I have a 2 1/2 year old. How did that happen?

She's been potty training for awhile now - just some lacksidaisal approach, but now that she's moved into the potty training room at daycare, I've been trying to be more diligent about it.

To help things, she's got new underwear. Dora underwear, no less. Which she loves.

Although she pees in them, which I don't love.

***

She fights bedtime like there's no tomorrow. Why do kids do this? Then she'll wake up (late) all whiny because she's tired. 

***

She's talking. Really talking. We hold actual conversations. Her favorite comeback these days?

"You're not the teacher. I'm the teacher"

To which I reply, "No, I'm not the teacher. I'm Momma"

 

Other conversations:

Momma: I'm tired. I want to cuddle

Izzy: Daddy's not here. Izzy's here. I'm sorry, momma

*

Momma:  Do you want to wear these?

Izzy: NO

Momma: Which one do you want to wear? You pick

Izzy: Ummm.........hmmmmm.........................this one. It has hearts.....and pockets....and it fits just nice.

*

Something I taught her as we went into alternate weekends with her daddy:

Momma: When you miss Momma and you can't find Momma, where's Momma?

Izzy: In my heart.

***

She loves her babies, and will give them story time, circle time, potty time and take them out for walks.

I bought a stroller from a yard sale so she has an outside stroller that she'll use when we go for walks around the neighbourhood.

***

She's a pouter. Especially when she doesn't get what she wants.

She gets over it pretty quickly. Thank goodness. But there are times where she doesn't. And that's not so fun.

***

She loves music, and she dominates the radio in the car. We listen to stories, or nursery rhymes

***

She loves the playground. As do most kids, I suppose. When in the swings, she'll say "Push me, momma. I want to go up to the sky!" 

***

She is the love of my life, my purple sunshine and the biggest pain in my patootie.

And I love her. Very much, indeed

Flowers

Flowers make me happy.

I think I'm going to buy myself flowers once every month.

It looks like it's smiling. And that makes me smile. 

June's Flower of the Month: Pink Gerbera Daisies. (Although honestly, it's part of the sunflower family)

Random useless facts:

• It's the 5th most cut flower in the world (I remember them being very popular in high school where the Interact Club of my high school would sell them to raise funds)
• It's commonly known as the African Daisy, Transvaal Daisy, and Barberton Daisy
• It is attractive to bees, butterflies and/or birds, but is resistant to deer

From You've Got Mail, one of my favorite sappy movies:

Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan): I love daisies.

Joe Fox (Tom Hanks): You told me.
Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan): They're so friendly. Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower? 

Meet Sophie

Sophie has been the recipient of many cast-offs lately

I've been trying to make baby shoes for awhile now, but they always turn out slightly wonky. So they never get gifted. Sophie gets them instead.

The latest ones do match her outfit pretty well though, don't you think? Who knew babies feet were so small?!

My Dancing Queen

She cracks me up =)

And apparently Adele's Rolling In the Deep is "Izzy's song". She wouldn't let me turn the radio off when the song played.

A Moment Captured

I don't get in many pictures with Isabel. Mainly because I'm typically behind the camera. So when I was back home earlier this year, I got my fab friend & photographer to take some pics of us.

And I LOVE them!

I'm planning on blowing them up and having them on a gallery wall.

Thanks so much, Tsen, for being so generous with your time and talent!!!

PINK HOUSE!!!

 

image via luxury & opulence

And a purplish/blue one next to it! Isabel would approve!

Kitchen

On to the next room -- the heart and soul of any home - the kitchen.

There's no dining room in this house, which irks me sometimes as I don't feel comfortable inviting people over for a meal. So I don't. But I suppose an option is to get the island out of the kitchen and replace with an oval one? Painted a pale blue, I think, to match the curtain.

The island can be repurposed by moving it to the study to be used as a craft table. Although don't ask me how it's actually going to be moved, as it's heavy and it can't go through the doorway, unless the top is removed. Which would be a pain in the bum-bum.

And I think the door would look fab if the exterior side was painted the same grey as the chandelier. Hmmmm...I wonder if I still have the paint, and if it's still good....

I like the little corner that we added, although I wished those shelves can handle more weight. I'm not 100% confident that it's strong enough to handle all that it already does now.

I wished we had waited 2 more months prior to installing the cabinets, as the perfect dresser turned up by the side of the street. The best laid plans of mice and men....

Art

I've been looking for some artwork for Isabel and I came across Doodle Everyday through Twig & Thistle. His artwork is adorable, and how cool is this...he's from Puchong, Malaysia. =)

Some of my favorites:

ENTRANCE TO PARADISE

I'M LIKE A BIRD

I'M LIKE A SWAN

Bugger

My daughter went away for the weekend. Buddy and I were quite sad about it

However, instead of moping around the whole time (like what the dog did), I decided to tackle something that was challenging my competitiveness.

The garage is sided with wood, and the paint is peeling off.

6 hours later, under the sun, armed with the scraper and palm sander, the paint is definitely chipped off.

Another 2 hours on Sunday...I think I prefer the 6-hour chipped look

I suppose that's why people hire out...All I got out of it is a vicious tan line

Pictures

To list the house for sale, I had to take pictures of all the rooms. Isabel (and the dog) were my sidekick(s). It was a challenge to get her (and him) out of the shot.

Anyway, I might as well share it the pictures here, since I've never really shared pictures of the house before.

First up is Isabel's room.

I've never been happy with the way this room has looked, ever. Since the time I've had it as my "Closet" to when it was converted to a baby (boy!)'s room. There's something that was always unfinished about it that drove me nuts.

So last week, I finally said enough is enough, and I moved things around.

For now, I'm somewhat pacified. At least, it looks like a bedroom. now.

And I love the dresser. $50 from the thrift store and a coat of paint over it, and ta-da! 

One Year Ago...

My marriage went down the path of no return. Actually, I missed the official date - it was June 5th, I believe.

Even without the realization of the date, it was a long, hard week last week on the personal side. And I'd honestly prefer to focus on the good things.

Things that make me happy and sometimes, makes me jump like a lunatic:

First and foremost is always going to be my baby girl. She is the light of my life, the pain in my neck, my purple sunshine. She's the most intuitive, curious, challenging, loveable, whiny, independent little being and I love her.

I love my sewing. Because it calms me, gives me focus, allows me to put my energy towards something that a lot more beautiful than disappointment and sadness.

Doing "frou-frou" decorating nonsense in the house (quoted directly from my lovely soon-to-be-ex partner in life) because it makes a place home

Reading - always and forever. It allows the space to dream and to imagine and to escape. It gives motivation, knowledge and curiously, hope.

Things that I want to do:

Travel to Paris, and sit at those little cafés, nursing a hot steaming cup of café au lait, and a chocolate croissant (and eyeing those impeccably dressed French ladies and those cute Parisian guys). Oh, and shopping, of course. Girls...??!!!

Go skydiving

Run in a marathon/race

Go on an Alaskan cruise. That was suppose to have been my honeymoon.

Take 2 weeks off and do nothing but lay on a beach in the tropics all day (this is SO going to be my honeymoon goal, if I ever meet someone else)

Have a garden that's full of fresh vegetables and herbs. I'm limited to potted basil for right now, since I don't like trudging out to my crap yard.

Do more charity work - especially those involving children

Be more spontaneous. Explore. Do new things. Strike up conversations with people I don't know.

The funny outcome about this whole drama is that I am somewhat more comfortable talking and opening up to others now. I've never been much of a social extrovert, always much prefering to keep myself to myself. I've always enjoyed/accepted my own company and have the tendency to stick to lone activities. It's lonely most times (but much, much safer). But I'm branching out more. Because life is short. And I've had the great opportunity to be within a great team of colleagues - they have been crucial for my past year's survival, without which I would definitely be less optimistic than I am now.

 Although I'm unfortunately leaving them, back to a group of people that's either much much younger, or older than I am. Perhaps God has a plan. And He thinks that I am now ready to move on to the next chapter of my life, by myself. Who knows. That's the sole way of thinking that helps keep me going.

I apologize that this post is all over the place -- it's slightly challenging for me to try and keep it upbeat, but also not to make light of the devastation of what had happened. Because it truly was a horrible chapter in my life. And the way that it happened was, and still is, very disappointing. And I'm still quite disappointed by how few people from the other side who have outright stood up for me (I think the count is perhaps 2? That may even be overestimating the number)

I have somewhat of a strong personality when it comes to certain things. I don't believe in sweeping things under the rug because I'm afraid of rocking the boat. Not because I want to make people uncomfortable, but because to me, there are things that are ultimately, very black and white. And I like to think that I'm a confident enough person to stand up for what I believe is right, and my mistake is that sometimes, I assume that others are the same way. Hence the road to disappointment.

But that's ok. Because it is what it is. And life goes on. That's the beauty of it, I suppose.

Discussion

We've recently listed the house for sale. On Wednesday, the sign was up in the front yard. It was huge. And it tore up my grass, so I was slightly annoyed with that.

Isabel was curious about it
 

Isabel: What's that, momma?

Momma: That's a sign, so we can sell the house

Isabel: You want to sell my house, momma?

Momma: Yes

Isabel: My house broken?

Momma: Yes, the house is broken

(talk about a perfect metaphor!)

Isabel: Oh....you buy a new house, momma?

Momma: Yes, we'll buy a new house for Izzy and Momma

Isabel: Oh, ok......................................I want a pink house.

Surrender

Isabel has been bugging me for awhile to paint her nails. This past weekend, I finally gave in. Probably because I was bored, and she was driving me up the wall.

For awhile, it looked like the pink stood a chance. But she's a predictable little creature when it comes to colors.

Can you guess which color she picked?

Yep. Purple. 

(And yes, her eczema flared up again. It's fine now)

She knew exactly what she had to do and put both hands on the table, fingers apart, without me having to tell her. Don't ask me where she picked it up from, cause I don't know

When it was all done, she was excited and said "Go to daycare? I want to show Katie my purple nails"

Vain pot.

And I still stand by my thoughts that I don't like nail polish on toddlers. So she's probably not going to have another manicure for the next 8 years.

When I'm Bored...

1) I take out the scissors and cut my daughter's hair

2) I rearrange the furniture

3) I make silly faces in the mirror

Good stuff.

P/S: Like my new glasses?

Circus

The Ringling Brothers Circus came to town during Mother's Day weekend. As a treat (and because I love the circus), I immediately bought tickets.

Honestly though, I think the circus that I remember going to when I was young seemed much better. The tricks were somewhat "eh". Isabel was entertained most of the first half, then it just got too long. And there were too many clown acts.

Here's her take on it:

My favourite were the elephants too. And just for the record, there were 9 elephants - two of which took a BIG dump during the act. It was the best part of whole 2 hour long show, in my opinion - and to hear the "oooooohh..." of the crowd who were facing the elephants' posterior made it even more amusing =)

So Izzy got a stuffed baby elephant and I made an elephant hairclip for her to commemorate

This...

Is what I feel like right now:

I want to just go to bed and wake up only when things are better and life is starting anew again, in my OWN house, where I can lock the door and say, "You are not welcome here"

I usually shop my blues away (shopping therapy reigns high on my list of "Cheering Up") but funds are locked because I'm single income now. How now, brown cow? =(

What's In My Bag?

I"m a bag person. Always have been, and probably always will.

I remember being 10 years old and driving my mom crazy trying to find a backpack - I was really looking for one that would be a perfect replica of Prada's nylon backpack. Yes, my obsession for designer goods apparently started way back then. I probably bought like 5 different ones that all never did quite fit the bill. So I really learned early on that it's best to splurge on the bag that you really want, instead of wasting money on lackluster bags that really don't quite fit the bill and will end up unused and eventually thrown away. =)

Anyhoo...so I love bags. And I love what's kept in it. And I love knowing what other people have in their bags. Probably because I'm nosy.

Isabel has a bag that she carries around with her, so I decided to nose into it and find out what's important to her:

Clockwise from left:

1) Bead necklace from the MS walk we did with our neighbour and her family

2) Giraffe notebook for her to jot her thoughts down

3) Heart bracelet from her friend Mandy

4) Lipbalm from her friend Mandy - and she will look for it to put it on too. "Where's my lipbalm, momma?"

5) Fruit snack - always important when I need to behave. Yes, I bribe.

6) Izzy's Butterfly Bag  - when we go out shopping, she is allowed to get 1 thing. It was between this, and purple slippers that didn't fit her feet.

7) Wipes

8) Cards from a kid's meal from Wendy's

9) Crayons from Cracker Barrel

10) Bear mittens from Grandma Millard

Important stuff. 

And I may want to think about getting curtains for that window in the study...If anyone was passing my house that night, they'll see me in my PJs, standing on the chair, taking a picture