Izzy is 21 today. 21 months, that is. She continually surprises us with new words and actions everyday. The new words are fun like, "You're welcome," "What happened?". The new actions, such as climbing onto the coffee table and balancing precariously on the edge, not so much. As mentioned in the last post, she has joined a gym class so she can practice some of these crazy moves in a safe environment. Last week I smuggled in my camera and got lots of cute pics!

Um, what exactly did you put on my head? I'm not sure this goes with my outfit.

G'day, mate!

Oooooooohhh, give me a hooooooome where the buffalo roam... everybody sing!

Kitty cat hat

Mentally preparing for this most intense routine, Isabella grips the bar with the utmost concentration.

Great routine! Perfect dismount. Let's see if the judges agree: 10! 10! 10! 9.5 (Oooh, Russia seems to have found a mistake.) 10! 10! Wow, Jim, I think we have a gold medalist in contention! This score will be tough to beat!

Here climbing up on stuff is encouraged. I love this place!

Bubble Time! My favorite time!

Glorious hand stamps! Awesome!

Gym class over, now to do some sketching...

My new friend, Red Balloon.

A spontaneous dip in the water play fountain.

Lots of summer fun to be had...

Izzy loves the edamame at Mama Fu's!

Hypnotized by Elmo. Sigh.

Cruisin' the mall.

Completely absorbed in the stickers from Whole Foods.

Minnie Mouse

Running around at the Triangle.

5...4...3...2...1...

...Blast-off!!!

Watching the fountains at the Triangle.

"Hi Tree!"

Tree Hugger

Tree Kisser

Balancing act (check out the ominous sky in the background--a much welcome thunderstorm to ease this summer drought.)

Izzy's favorite "ride" at the bookstore.

Izzy loves these little stuffed kitty cats at the cafe in the bookstore. She grabs all of them, arranges them on one of the chairs and then puts them away. It's a very important and exacting job!

At the Domain mall

Mademoiselle Butterfly

Artist in the making.

Today Izzy had her very first gym class! It's a program designed to get kids moving, tumbling, singing and dancing. Izzy was the littlest in class both age-wise and in stature but that didn't stop her from impressing the teacher with her willingness to jump right into every activity with enthusiasm. We played with jingle bells, hula hoops, and bouncy balls and the kids were encouraged to explore the gym equipment like the balance beam and uneven bars (all designed for little hands and bodies.) Izzy did some tumbling (helped along by mommy, of course) and climbing onto this big squishy platform. At the end of class, the teacher blew thousands of tiny bubbles, much to the delight of all the children. But I think Izzy's most favorite part of the class was when the teacher gave all the kids two stamps, one on each hand. Izzy walked around gazing adoringly at her hand stamps--so cute! We came home and she conked out for her nap--no surprise there! Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera into the gym so I didn't get any pictures of her actual class. I wasn't sure if that was okay to do being newbies and all--but I saw another mom in there and she was snapping pictures the whole time! So next time I'll be sure to get pics of her in class! These next few are in the lobby waiting for class to start and the last one is her after class with her coveted hand stamps.