November entertainments

 Of course the *biggest* event in November was Isabella's birthday. Sadly, we were too late in the game to book any venue for a party with all her friends, but we did manage to get her 3 parties. One gift before mom left, one party day of with Dad, and then another party with Grandma on the weekend to get the rest of her gifts.

As usual, Isabella helped to make the cake. And, of course, add sprinkles. She then ate all the sprinkles, licked off some of the frosting, and had maybe one bite of cake.

Grandma got her a new purple dress for her birthday, along with spotted tights. She now wears "tights with socks" all the time, which helps with the socks and dress warm argument. She wore through these ones so fast (I've already darned one hole in the toes) that we bought 3 more pairs. She has also abandoned her purple shoes for pink ones (that I bought a year ago and she had yet to wear). She will not, of course, wear the long-sleeved shirt that goes with the dress. We got it on her once, but that was pretty much it.

 Ian has decided that he's too much of a big person to sit in his high chair. If he could actually see over the table top, he'd probably not even use the booster seat. He's figured out how to get up and down from chairs and manage the stairs well enough that I don't worry so much anymore. Although he still likes to get the stool and bring it over to the counter and grab everything. Not to mention hang and climb on the oven door - but he's done that once and fallen off and seems less inclined to do that anymore. The kid-sized rocking chair is now in the garage, for obvious reasons.

 We got out the train set. They both really like having the train make noise at it goes under the tunnel. The biggest attraction being the train *box*. It was a bit challenging trying to set up the track faster than Ian could take it apart. Fortunately, Isabella didn't seem to mind so much.

Laundry baskets are another favorite - not sure why, but getting in and out of them and sitting in them (sometimes both kids) is considered "fun".

Also fun is tearing around upstairs - they play tug of war (Isabella pulls Ian behind her, both holding onto the blanket), bounce up and down on the bed, and chase. Had to limit tug of war downstairs when Ian face-planted on the wooden floor and got a bloody nose... they also push each other around on the train.

We had dinner at a friend of Bill's house. Babysitter fell through, so we took Ian with us and dropped Isabella off with grandma for a few hours. Then picked up Isabella, who was cranky until she found a "cape" to play with. Ian turned out to be quite the food critic, but did demonstrate his desire to not be a vegetarian by grabbing the steak off my plate and gnawing off a piece of it.

This ended up being a very late night, followed by another late night the next night (Christmas party for BJJ). That was a very nice set up - they had the UF championships on a big screen, catered food, and (yay!) someone to do arts and crafts with the kids in another room. Isabella made a necklace, a snow man ornament, a ball paddle, and a Christmas tree. We still had to chase after Ian (who really liked walking on the benches) but it was nice to be two parents with one kid, sort of. I think they were both sound asleep before we got home.

Some fun Isabella sayings:

"Dad, you make me very angry when you do that."

"Mom, why do you always make me do things that I don't want to do?"

"Dad, you're not cranky today like you are when you don't have enough coffee and you want me to get in my car seat fast."