Month by Month Growth Chart

Look at my baby grow! I love that we tracked her growth monthly in the same sweet outfit and frame. Good thing this little frilly outfit stretches! It sure was snug by the 11th month! My favorite is month 7 such a chunk!! I love you Isla Rae.

Show and Tell!

Isla got to participate in her first show and tell yesterday. I held up several toys at home and she chose Buttons! I’ve posted about this special stuffed animal before as this was my FAVORITE childhood toy. I took Buttons with me everywhere. She rode in the basket of my bike, went on vacations or overnight stays at my grandma’s and slept with me every night. 

Buttons was actually handed down to me from a lady my mother knew who had grown up. Now that I can hand her down to my daughter she is getting additional love all over again. It sort of reminds me of Andy from Toy Story. She’s been sitting in a box for years and finally getting to come back out, get dusted off and squeezed everyday from another special girl.

When the teacher held up Buttons at Show and Tell, she said Isla stood up from the circle, ran over, grabbed Buttons and gave her a big hug! It’s so cute to see her love for one of my all time favorite things.

Isla – 13 months

Favorite toy – Her Minnie Mouse train. She loves to get on it and scoot around the house. She also loves when we push her. She holds on to the steering wheel tight and moves her body back and forth as if saying, “faster, faster!”  When we walk in of the evenings, it’s the first thing she goes to.

Favorite outfit – dresses. She is a girly girl already. She’s very dainty and loves anything that’s frilly, has tulle or is a dress. I’ve started giving her two choices in the morning and letting her pick which one she wants to wear. I’ll hold up the outfits up and she always picks the dress, grabs it and hugs it as if she loves her choice. It’s so cute.

Favorite animal – BELLA! She loves Bella and to say “daw” which is dog. I think it might be her favorite word too.

Some other things she loves right now is shoes… she loves all shoes. She will carry them around the house, try to put Joel’s shoes on, and clap them together. She loves her little chair that’s just her size, building blocks, her Thomas the Train ball, going outside, playing in the water and all her cousins.

Making the most of your time together…

Once you become a parent, let’s face it… your marriage takes a backseat to get through the first year. You’re both up running around in the middle of the night searching for something to help soothe your little one or walking the halls bouncing, swaying and cuddling the babe back to sleep. Your days are just as hectic with everything from sanitizing to bottle prep time to bath time… needless to say there’s definitely not as much marriage time than before your bundle of joy arrived. And at first you are both in survival mode. You take things you’ve learned from your own parents, grandparents, family and friends. You go off of your instinct, gut feelings and things you’ve read and you PRAY – you pray a ton! 

Now that we officially survived the first year of parenthood, we realize more than ever the importance of cultivating and nurturing our marriage. 

Here are a few things we do to make sure we are making time to stay connected in our marriage while also making sure we are maximizing our time with our daughter:

Day dates – these have been great for us! Working close by or with your husband definitely has its advantages. It’s been so nice to plan out our days and know when we can take a lunch date together, take a long stroll outside together or just run errands and be with one another – just the two of us. We also get to carpool together and there is a lot to be said while stuck in traffic on I-485.

Nap times – Isla doesn’t always take 2 hour naps, but when she does we make the most of it! We use this time to reconnect, communicate and catch up on what’s going on, plan our day or the next date and listen to music together. Something that has always been a shared interest between my husband and I is our love for music… while we don’t get to go to as many shows as we once did, we still have time together to check out new bands, talk about the music we love and share a new found artist.

Planned date-nights – this one was really hard for me to come to terms with and really due to Isla’s colic and just me being an overprotective momma bear… my husband and I didn’t have a lot of one-on-one time away from our daughter until more recently. I will say though, it is so nice to be able to plan an exciting date for your significant other and surprise him/her…and since we cherish this one-on-one time now more than ever, it makes it that much more exciting!

What’s New with the Bradbury’s?

So lately, it’s become increasingly harder and harder to find time to blog! It’s astonishing how much our lives have changed since our baby girl has transitioned into toddler-hood– we are constantly on the go!

In addition to chasing Isla around the house, we are also working on a ton of home projects everything from changing out the hardware on our kitchen cabinets to choosing new paint colors for the inside and outside of our home. And when we’re not working on the inside, we’re slaving on the outside, finishing a porch swing I originally made in my wood working class in high school, pulling weeds and landscaping (we finally caved and got some professional ideas for this one). 

All these tasks were difficult to get accomplished along with the daily/weekly chores of laundry and cleaning before we added our precious joy and now they are monumentally hard to accomplish, but I love the teamwork that our family has had lately to get things done. Even Isla pitched in over the weekend and started wiping down surfaces with her washcloth and “helping” fold (and unfold) the laundry.

I know when I look back on these years decades from now these will be the golden the years for our family. Days of pure joy and laughter among one another, dance parties and dinners with endless giggles. Stress? Sure, but accompanied with laughter and bliss that makes it all worthwhile. 

Besides home improvement and family time, I’ve also been extremely busy at work, studying for tests and working on a side project with my friend Kristen for a new party planning blog. Looking forward to providing more details on this exciting new adventure soon!

Isla language!

Recently, I’ve noticed Isla has a language of her own. As soon as she sees me she starts ‘talking’ or jabbering as fast and as much as possible for her little voice can go. She points, laughs and yells ‘words’ as she is jabbering away. Joel and I find it hilarious and Isla looks at us like we should know exactly what she is saying.

While she is jabbering a ton, she is also actually using words too. 

She loves to say…

• da-ddddy (always with a special emphasis on the ‘ddy’ part) and dada
•  dog or “daw”
• bubble
• baby
•  car
• yellow (this one is impressive and so cute!)
• Papaw/Papa
• Mama and mo-mmmmy (again the extra emphasis on the ‘mmy’ part)
• Book – or booooo

Her voice is the sweetest and my heart melts with each and every new word she learns and says – especially her newest, “AMEN!”