Busy, busy, busy with Izzy

As the weather is growing colder up here day by day… we have to take part of the times when it is still nice enough to be outside.  So on a rare day when all of us had off, we took a mini-trip to Providence to visit their zoo.  They have the bigger animals that the zoo in Boston does not have including elephants which was Izzy's animal of the week.

Capturing a family picture on the elephant.

 We took a break and went inside the gift shop to warm up a bit.  Izzy & daddy had such a good time.  Between the two of them, I didn't who to tell "keep your hands to yourself".

 Izzy is a stuffed animal fanatic!  She just couldn't get enough of all the animals in the store.

 Yes, we were "that family".  You know, the one where you wish they would just leave because of the mess they are making.  But it was short lived.  Izzy helped clean up after overdosing on the stuffed animals.

Izzy's new favorite thing is pull toys.  We have plenty here allowing her to choose which ones.  She will go round and round the apartment and even enjoys when mommy picks up the other ones and chases her.

Life with Izzy

Life with Izzy is ever changing which I always expected but didn't know quiet how it would play out.  Here are a couple things that she loves to do.  If you try to prevent her from doing so, a little metldown may be happening.

Since Izzy figured out how to feed herself with a spoon & fork, she insists on feeding others as well.  Many times, breakfast is mommy feeding Izzy her oatmeal while Izzy feeds mommy her oatmeal.

 One of daddy's favorites… I think he melts into those big blue eyes!

Last year when Teta & Judo visited, they gave Izzy this robe.  You can imagine we didn't use it for awhile because she was just too small.  However, now is not the case.  And if you forget to bring it when she gets out of the tub, you cannot substitute a towel at all.

Happy Halloween from IzzaBEE!

 Happy Halloween!  This year I decided to put those 4-H skills to work and make Izzy's Halloween costume.  I remember as a kid thinking about how to create the costume you wanted which was half of the fun.  Now I get to do it all over again.  I found several ideas and had Abe take a look.  He thought the bumblebee was the best and so that is what Izzy was for Halloween this year.  Izzy is sitting on the stair with our neighbor's kids, Alex & Phaedra. 

 JP does a great job with Halloween.  The area businesses all provide candy for the kids to trick-or-treat in safety.  And it occurs at times that all ages can enjoy.  We headed out early with Teta & Judo before the evening crankies came out.  Izzy enjoyed all the animals that wear dressed up as well.

 Izzy was somewhat particular about which candy she would take.  Most people didn't mind & just giggled at seeing her.  We also were able to catch-up with my friend / co-trainee Kiran and her daughter Leela.  You may remember that Kiran was one of the seven that was pregnant with me.  Leela was born ~6 weeks after Izzy.  We trick-or-treated together last year as well.

 Friday was Izzy's daycare's Halloween party.  They have all the kids dress up and head over to the nearby park to celebrate with music, food and festivities.  Unfortunately, I had to work and wasn't able to attend.  Daddy did make it though getting all these pictures.  Here, Izzy is dancing with Miss Stacey whom she adores.

 Izzy & daddy waving hi from the party.  Gotta love my fun hubby!  And isn't he a sharp dresser!

Just a few pictures captured at the daycare Halloween party.  Izzy has always loved the music.  And on Friday's a gentleman comes to play the guitar for the children making their Halloween party no exception. 

This is one of my favorites… this is Izzy's class.  The park is only ~1.5 blocks away from her daycare.  But you can imagine what it would be like trying to get that many toddlers safely there.  Whenever I see the rope, it just makes me laugh.  We also get daily reports about her day.  Most of them recently have been saying that Izzy loves their walks picking up leaves.  I guess the rope doesn't bother her too much.

It's finally over!

As part of my training, we are all encouraged to do a "scholarly project" which usually translates to some type of research.  I decided to pick a project that involves looking at a small chromosomal deletion and what it looks like clinically.  My abstract was accepted at the Child Neurology Society meeting that took place this past week in Providence, RI.  This was my 1st time presenting a poster thus I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  All in all it was a great experience.  I even a past medical school classmate and residency classmate that were also attending.

The last night there, fellow Children's Hospital Boston neurology residents and I partook of a night out eating at "The Melting Pot". 

Here I am standing at my poster.

More fun with Teta & Judo

This past weekend, the Barkoudah's headed to the zoo to enjoy a day out since it was in the 80s up here. Izzy had her entourage with her which she fully took advantage of.  Smack dab in the middle of the zoo is the carousel.  We can't get by it without her wanting a ride.  This time, she chose the rabbit.

 The barnyard was alive with new animals.  We had never seen any donkeys before as well as little pigs. And her favorite was the chickens.  I'm trying to convince Abe that we should get a pet chicken now.

Here uncle Wael is helping Izzy drive the truck into Christopher the Lion's area.  

Anytime we do laundry around here, Izzy knows the laundry basket it out and loves to take rides in it.  She is always on the lookout for a certain gray fuzzy passenger that can fit in with her. 

What makes one of my babies happy, makes the other one stressed!

The Beginning of Teta & Judo's Visit

Recently, Teta & Judo (Abe's parents) arrived to stay with us for several weeks.  This was partially because they haven't seen Izzy since she was born and because we needed so "built-in-babysitters" this next month due to our work schedules.  Sine their arrival, Izzy has had nonstop attention which she loves.  Here is just a couple of pictures of our adventures since they arrived.

We decided to spend this past weekend out side since it has been in the 80s.  After that it drops down to colder weather so we might not be as active outside.  Izzy & I took Teta & Judo to Drumlin Farm as she really enjoyed our last visit.  She recognized the tractor right away and waved each time it drove by.

Our first stop was the chicken coop.  This time that noisy rooster was not around and Izzy had a ball with the chickens.  We even tried to leave twice but ended up back there after she realized we were walking away from the coop.  At one end they have a set-up for children to learn about the different size & types of eggs.  At one end the wooden eggs could be weighed and dumped into their respective bins.  Izzy enjoyed collecting the eggs as they fell into the bins with Judo helping.

 Izzy likes to help mommy with cleaning on the weekends especially sweeping.  We were also lucky to nab a couple of snow suits for Izzy at the local 2nd hand children's store.  Here Izzy is modeling her "flight suit" as Abe calls it.

The Barkoudah's are a group of September babies.  Teta's birthday was this past Tuesday while Judo & mine are tomorrow, so we decided to celebrate all 3 of them today with a wonderful ice cream cake from JP licks.  Are you salivating mom?

Drumlin Farm

One of the things that's been on my list to do up here with Izzy is visit Drumlin Farm & Wildlife Sanctuary.  But I wanted to wait until she was a bit older to enjoy all the animals.  This is a live working farm run by the Audubon Society.  They strive to show how one can have sustainable agricultural practices as well as creating awareness for the land and wildlife.  We were only able to visit a substantially small part today.  There were many other areas that we didn't even explore.  I can see how one can spend hours just walking around the many trails.  At the end, you can purchase the products from this farm.  In fact, I'm enjoying one of their carrots right now while I type this post.  One of the more interesting things I wanted to purchase but didn't because of the lack of a cooler was ground goat meat.  I would like to try that some time.

A view of the "Farm Yard"

Taking a break to enjoy playing on the old tractor.

Mommy & Izzy in front of the Red Barn.  Inside we got to see a cow and her calf.  Izzy wanted nothing to do with touching them but couldn't stop staring.  She even wore her farm shirt for the occasion.

Just a few of the many farm animals we were able to see today.  The best was the Poultry House.  You could visit the chickens both outside and inside.  One particular pen held a very loud rooster who liked to "cock-a-doodle-do".  Izzy wasn't too trilled by his loud squawking but didn't let a cry out.  I think she didn't quite know what to do with them.  Some of the pens held more exotic breeds.  I felt like I was back at the 4-H fair grounds!

This whole time I've always wandered what Drumlin meant.  Was it the name of the original farmer?  No.  It is a teardrop shaped hill formed from glacial debris.  This hill sits right in the middle of the farm with many trails around and through it.  The majority of the farm land lays around the hill.  Just a fun filled fact.