Goodbye to an Old Friend

We bit the bullet and said goodbye to a trusty ol' friend tonight… Mr. Whale… Izzy's infant bathtub. The last time we tried this she screamed the whole time prompting us to put Mr. Whale inside the tub instead of on the kitchen counter. However, since she's been taking her baths inside the tub & Abe was home to help, we left Mr. Whale behind. Izzy didn't even seem to notice. She had too much fun with all the water and extra toys that fit. We will always have fond memories of Mr. Whale until the next time.

Izzy sampling one of her new bath toys.

Isn't this face the best?

Izzy's Week in Review

Just got done snapping some pictures of Izzy to post as it has been a bit since she's been featured on our blog :-) This week has been a bit rough for her though. She developed a fever on Wednesday and it only broke early yesterday. Now, though, she's got a rip-roaring rash over her whole body… got to love the viral infections! But her mood is getting better. I think she's still recovering as her naps are 3-4hrs in length. Poor Izzy.

Otherwise, she's got a full plate these next several months. She's been going to Music Together classes on Saturday mornings (pictures to be posted later) and now back into Baby Splash. All these JP mom's work hard to get their kiddos into the program making is difficult for a working mom (i.e. me) to get her signed up. Once the registration is open, it usually fills in less than a day. It just so happened that I had a morning free, went to go work-out at the place were Baby Splash is held and there were 2 spots open. So were are back into. But she was still not feeling the best and was a bit crabby during some of the activities.

Izzy can no longer stay on the bed when mommy folds laundry because she's a girl on the move. So she is now on the ground. It didn't take her long to find Clay's water bowl.

Look how happy I am when I get to splash in water! Can you see all the mess I made as well?

For a while now Izzy has liked to stand. But she would rather have you hold her hips for support, freeing up her arms to play with things. Here she is just getting over her illness… can you tell by those red, puffy eyes.

This is a picture daddy is proud of… Izzy eating veggies! But not any veggies. When I give her this selection, she goes 1st for the peas, followed by the green beans and lastly the corn & carrots. In fact, if you catch me in the process, I will have cleared off all the green things before I even touch the others. I guess this is one gene she didn't get from mommy!

Izzy & mommy back into Baby Splash. The instructor had to give her a rubber duck to help her as she was having a "rough day"… still not fully herself but loved to kick in the water none the less.

Too funny a picture of Izzy. Last year, she was only able to pick up the little balls. Now she goes for the big ones and can put them in the hoop… with some help letting them go however.

Not only do I like the bigger balls… I can grab more than one of them. I got a couple of "looks" from other parents when she did this like we were hogging them all.

Invasion on Capitol Hill

This year, as part of my training, I am in the LEND fellowship. LEND stands for Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities. The LEND fellows are a group of people from diverse backgrounds including medicine, psychology, Early Intervention, social work, law, research and parents. We meet on Fridays for discussions on issues related to those with intellectual and developmental delays as well as working hands on with many groups including community based organizations. The "finale" is heading to Washington D.C. for the annual disabilities conference followed by group meetings with our congressmen which happened over these past few days. I just got home about 2 hours ago and thought I'd get some pictures from our trip posted. They are in no particular order as I was too tired to organize them that way. Sorry :-) Enjoy.

We landed on Sunday and decided to spend the day on the mall. Our first stop was the Smithsonian museum of air & space. Adrianne, Marette, Michelle & Anjali in front of Kitty Hawk.

Donay & I enjoying some Sponge Bob ice snacks after working up an appetite playing pilot & gunner in a simulated combat mission.

One of the things that I had to see were Dorothy's ruby red slippers. Pictured here is Shey, Michelle, me, Aimee, Donya, Marette, Adrianne & Anjali.

Our group just before speaking to Congressman Lynch's aid. This was the first group to go today so we were a bit on the nervous side. Luckily, it went great.

After spending our day walking around the mall on Sunday, we were a bit tired to walk ALL the way back to our hotel. So we ended up splitting ourselves up between 3 of these petty cabs. Our bikers was a riot and gave us a mini-tour. He hails from Augusta, S.C. with his parents in Aiken and is in D.C. for school.

This is all the LEND fellows from across the country.

On the 2nd night, we decided to go out as a group. This is the old stomp-en grounds for Caitlin. Too fun because the menu had over 300 beers!

On our last night, we went out to eat at a family style Italian restaurant. The group at the end of our table decided they wanted the brownie sunday. Good thing Donya is a triathlete!

Dave thinking that having 300 beers on the menu isn't sooo bad if some of the cans come like this!

At our 2nd visit today... Congressman Capuano's office. Why this is underlining... I do not know.

Our first sight when we got here on Sunday.

Happy Easter!

Today was another 1st for Izzy.... it was her 1st Easter. We did the traditional Easter festivities... attended church, completed an Easter Egg Hunt and then share a wonderful meal with friends. Here are some photos we snapped along the way. We hope you all had as much fun today making memories as we did!

Thank you Oma & Opa for the necklace. But the fake grass was WAY more interesting.

Daddy & his little girl.

The church we attended always has an Easter egg hunt for the children. We were invited. But before they took off searching for eggs, we were able to capture a Barkoudah family photo.

This is one of Izzy's favorite ways to travel. Plus, how much more fun could it get with having an egg to go with it.

Izzy & mommy getting ready to search for those eggs. Too bad all the other kids can over take me. But some nice people at church made sure I got some too.

When Salwa (Abe's mom) was here helping us take care of Izzy while I went back to work, she taught me how to make the Syrian traditional Easter bread. It is alot like the Greek Easter bread. This was my 2nd attempt. The first one I did a big oops with... instead of 3/4 tsp of salt I added 3/4 cups! YIKES! Abe said it was like eating the sea. But this one turned out well and tasted oh so good.

We were able to get another Barkoudah family photo in front of the church. Here Izzy is sporting the beautiful handmade cape that Teta made for her to wear on this holiday. This is also the church one block down were we live that burned down ~5 years ago. They are now almost completely down with construction an opened the inside just a few weeks ago.

Daddy & Izzy hanging out during church.

Look... I can almost stand by myself! Pretty soon I'll be walking. I'm not sure who will be more worried... mommy & daddy or Clay!

Here is mommy trying to get a picture with her two babies.

Shortly afterwards, Izzy noticed that Clay was nearby...

The mouth heading right for Clay!

Here is Izzy's Easter Loot... she was able to attend 2 Easter egg hunts. Not too bad for a baby!

While Abe caught up on sleep (he worked the night before and tonight), mommy & Izzy headed to our program director's house for Easter dinner. Here is a picture of those able to attend. The other little girl, Abby, and Izzy had a blast together.... Izzy loves older children and she loves babies. It worked out well. And, they had an Easter egg hunt just for the 2 of them.

Easter Eggs

With Easter fast approaching, we decided to dye some eggs for Izzy's 1st Easter. She didn't quite know what to do with her egg other than mouth it. But it was fun to watch her enjoy the time. No cries even when daddy & I continued to dye the rest of them. Even Clay stayed off the table so we finished without any major messes to clean up.

This is Izzy's egg. We dyed it yellow and then let her play with finger paints to put her "touch" on it... and herself. This may be a preview for the birthday cake soon to come!

Daddy was extremely jealous of this egg. This one was mommy's work-of-art. Even Izzy wants it :-)

When we first started, Izzy was more into my hair than the task at hand. Why am I not surprised... this is what she does when drinking her bottle in the morning. She sees a piece of hair and goes after it. I'm amazed I don't have any bald spots.

Daddy & Izzy hard at work with the eggs.