A Year in Review

Posted in Family, Holidays and Seasons by teamtradermom

I have spent the day taking down our Christmas decorations. It’s kind of sad, but yet, I’m also ready to move on. Sort of like how I feel about 2010. It’s a bittersweet moment as this year was so momentous for us in many ways, but at the same time, I see so much potential for 2011.

I have thought all week about the best way to send off 2010. I contemplated doing some top 10 lists. I pondered writing a long dissertation on the events of the year. But none of those seemed quite right. Instead, I’m going to keep it simple and jot down a few words that sum up the year and then let some pictures tell the rest of the story.

So, without further adieu, here is 2010, in 100 words or less:

This was a year of learning and growing – for all of us. Watching Isabella grow into her own person has truly been delightful. This was a year of wins (volleyball games, IIBA elections, promotions) and losses (games, weight, consciousness). We laughed, we cried and we mourned (the loss of my grandma). We also celebrated (Isabella’s 1st birthday) and felt gratitude (for dad’s recovery). 2010, you were a great year and one we won’t ever forget. Here’s to 2011 – may it have just as many good times, if not more, and fewer bad times.

Now, if you’d like to review the Trader Family year in pictures, here’s a link to a Shutterfly photo book I created. Just click on the book and enjoy! Happy New Year!!

How would you sum up your 2010?

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Merry Christmas from the Traders!

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31Dec2010

Party!

Posted in Holidays and Seasons by teamtradermom

The Trader’s are ready to par-tay!

30Dec2010

Hats

Posted in Isabella/Munchkin by teamtradermom

Isabella had been really into hats lately – ever since Christmas when we broke out the Santa hats. Before that, she’d worn hats as a necessity, to keep her warm, but I guess she never saw them as fun. With the introduction of the Santa hats, suddenly there was a new toy in town!

Admittedly, she wasn’t all that jazzed about wearing hats inside at first. When we initially put her Santa hat on, she yanked it off and cried. Not exactly the reaction we were hoping for. But we kept trying. Eventually she got in to it and started asking to wear hats. She also insists that we wear them too. So…there are many nights when all three of us would we playing in the living room, wearing our Santa hats.

Then, we introduced her to other kinds of hats – baseball caps, fedoras, CJ’s Kangol hat, a Panama hat, stocking caps, etc. Now, anything is fair game. Here are some of her cutest hat moments:

Wearing CJ’s baseball hat:

Santa hat:

At Christmas trying to make a bag of peanut M&Ms into a hat:

Stocking cap:

Panama hat (how cute it that with her little purple pajamas on!)

And fedora:

The other night, I was unloading the dishwasher and she came in and pulled a green Tupperware lid out of the rack. She ran off with it, which was fine, and then I got an idea. I pulled out other lids of various colors and took them to her. We had fun practicing which color was which and going over the shapes.

One of the items was an accordion container that smooshes up to lie flat when you’re not using it and then expands out to hold food when you need to. I expanded it for her and asked what it looked like. I was shooting for “drum” and she right away said “HAT!” By golly it did look like a hat! Then she thought all the lids needed to be hats so one by one, she handed them to me saying “hat” and pointing to my head. By the end of this exercise, I had a stocking cap and 3 Tupperware lids on my head. CJ got home about this time, looked at me and said, “Well, that’s an interesting look.”

29Dec2010

Woobie–oobie-oobie

Posted in Isabella/Munchkin by teamtradermom

Isabella loves her pacifier (which we call her “woobie”). She loves it so much that she kisses it many times throughout the day. She has always loved it, from the day she was born (well ok, from the day after she was born).

See, that’s where we went wrong. We introduced her to a pacifier too early. We were new parents, in the hospital, trying to console a screaming baby that would only calm down with a boob in her mouth. Well, I couldn’t very well have her attached to my chest 24/7 so we thought, hey, let’s use a pacifier. Big mistake. From then on she was hooked and there was no going back.

She will only use a certain kind of pacifier too. At the hospital, they gave us one called a Soothie that is specially designed for newborns. She loved it and wouldn’t take any other kind. This is problematic when you only have 1 of them and can’t find it. This happened when she was a couple weeks old. We looked EVERYWHERE and it was not to be found. We tried giving her one of the 20 other kinds that we had in the house but she would have none of it. We had to make an emergency run to Target, where we promptly bought up every one that they had on the shelf. We found it later that afternoon. Guess where it was. You’ll never guess, but try…I’ll wait…

It was in one of the candleholders on our wall sconce behind the couch. How it got there we will never know. It must have somehow bounced just right and then got flung 6 feet up and over, landing in the sconce. I laughed uncontrollably when we found it there because it was so unbelievable.

Now that Isabella is 15 months, I was thinking it might be time to start breaking her of the woobie. See, she not only needs it to sleep at night, but she insists on carrying not 1, not 2, but 3 around with her during the day. She doesn’t keep them with her constantly, but she likes to know they’re nearby. She also uses one of her woobies as a security blanket at night – she sleeps with one in her mouth and one in her hand. We often hear her cry out “oobie!” in the middle of the night if she’s lost one of them.

Her strong attachment freaks me out a little because I know that taking them away from her will be painful for all of us (Samson even begged me not to do it). There will be all kinds of screaming and crying and her little woobie-loving heart will break, as will mine.

The doc said it’s ok for her to sleep with one until she’s about 2, which gives us another 9 months or so. But I’m thinking we need to start weaning her off of them during the day. She has so many toys and stuffed animals and other things to do that she shouldn’t need her pacifier with her all the time. So, while I’m home for these 5 days, I’m going to work on it.

Pray for me.

If you hear wailing and screaming coming from the Ralston area, you’ll know what it is. No need to be alarmed. It’s just the Traders torturing their little girl. Or else it’s CJ screaming for more pain medicine.

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