First Day of Preschool - 2010

Last winter/spring Isabella attended Peachtree Corners Baptist for MMO (mother's morning out) once a week from 9:15am-12:15pm. This school year we decided to enroll her twice a week from 9:15am-1:15pm. This allows Isabella to learn social skills such as sharing, and gives mom a break and one-on-one time with baby Abigail.

She was nowhere near as happy when I dropped her off, as when I picked her up. When I dropped her off she clung on to me with her death grip and high pitched screaming, but it wasn't long before she calmed down. Her teachers said that she was a happy little girl and enjoyed playing with puzzles. This month's theme is eyes, and the bible verse is: I am wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14

Isabella telling me to hurry up and sit next to her.

Here she is in the hallway with Jesus himself! :)

I thought this picture was too cute, had to include it. Let's call it "Isabella in Motion."

Isabella Celebrates 2nd Birthday

On August 30, 2010 at 10:30am, we celebrated Isabella's 2nd birthday a la Elmo. She wore a personalized Elmo dress, which will be worn again to Sesame Street Live as a gift from Auntie Aimee. The party was held at Thrasher Park which is in downtown Norcross. Once again my life crosses paths with Tim's childhood church attendance. I use to live in West Midtown, a little neighborhood called Howell Station. In the neighborhood was a little church called Northwest Baptist Church, where Tim's father use to preach at back in the day. They have pictures of the family outside the fellowship hall. What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? Well another church that they attended was right next to the park. My father-in-law remembered may Sunday nights cooking out after church. Little did he know that he would be there nearly 30 years later celebrating their granddaughters second birthday.

The party started off with open play and everyone enjoying themselves to their hearts desire. The park has a little bit of everything for children of all ages, including a real life train that goes by on the half hour. We corralled the kiddos for lunch where we served chicken nuggets, chicken salad, grapes/strawberries, pb&j, and veggies.

We then served cupcakes for the children, which Isabella completely devoured. We almost didn't have a lit candle as the matches we brought wouldn't light. Fortunately Aunt Laine had a match book from a recent restaurant visit in their car.

The funniest thing that happened that day was with the pinata. I was so excited to have a toddler friendly pinata. See the ribbons hanging from the bottom of the cake? One ribbon was suppose to open a hatch releasing the goodies below. So one by one Isabella and her guest took turns pulling of the ribbons, which was SOOO CUTE; however, no hatch opens. So this pinata was not a "pull" pinata like they sell in Texas, but Tim came in and saved the day by cracking the pinata open. I stuffed it with little toys, bubbles, raisins, jewlery, and fruit snacks. I figured the kids could stuff their own goodie bags, and parents would thank me or not stuffing our babies with candy.

Right before I set them free I tried to line them up for a group picture. There isn't a single picture where everyone is fabulously looking at the camera, but each is funny in a unique way. After a little more play, Isabella opened her gifts. She got all sorts of fun things like Ms. Potato Head, a Cookie Jar, Magnetic Dress Up Ballerina, Crayon Coloring Kit, Play-doh, and dress up accessories.

We're so happy to have such loving friends and family, thank you to all of you who where there in person and in spirit. Below is a slide show of more pictures:

A Walker Playdate

We finally got all four Walker girls together. A few of the morning highlights:

1. Mary Claire and Abigail slept through most of the morning.

2. Isabella tried to get Grace to to join her somewhere, with very little success. Although Grace is already starting to take her first steps, Isabella had a hard time picking her up by the arms. It was one of the cutest moments of the day.

3. Isabella showed Grace where the TV in the play room was.

4. Grace throughly explored Abigail by pointing to various body parts.

We are so blessed to have all these wonderful women in our lives.

Art Class at Gymboree

A few months ago I purchased a Groupon for Gymboree. I finally got around to signing Isabella and her Auntie Aimee up. Aimee couldn't take her this week, so mommy stepped up. Last week I struggled lugging around the two girls and all their gear. This week I was going to do better, so I decided to packed up the double stroller. I struggled for about ten minutes to fold it down, but eventually managed to get it in the car (not having a clue how I did it). The entire ride there I was praying the double stroller would fit in the tiny elevator in the shopping center, which it did.


Class went great! Isabella ate her first Play-Doh, mommy was too busy talking :). We danced, played with dirt, and created a few crafts centered around feet. Isabella is such a little helper, always helping the teacher pick up the crafts. The best part of the class was when she would proudly display our crafts to the teacher and the class, too sweet.

Getting the stroller back into the car was quite the task. I just could not figure out how to fold it down. After I struggled for about 10 minutes a man sought pity on me and came to help. He struggled for a little (yes!!!! it was not just me!), but eventually figured it out. I then said, "Wait a minute you need to teach this fisherman how to fish", so he sat there while I practice a few times. I thanked him profusely and went about my business. Thanks to the kindness of a random stranger I was able to keep myself from loosing my sanity. Something to think about when I am out and about.

Here are a few pictures of Isabella and her proud works of art. Wonder what's in store for us next week.

Abigails first smiles

Abigail has smiled in the past, but most likely because of a physical change like gas. Earlier in the week we suspected she was smiling at us, and now it's official! I am counting these beautiful smiles as her first. We are so pround of you little Abigail!!!!!

Abigail's One Month Check Up - Five Weeks Old

It seems like yesterday that Abigail was born. Since my last post (of her first two weeks), we have gradually ventured out a bit more. Abigail has gone to church, Carter's, Cocktails and Canvas, Target, the Forum, Buford Hwy Farmers Market, and KMart. We're still limiting her exposure; hence, she's mainly been to places that we had errands to run at.

At her doctors check up she weighed 9lbs 2oz (in the 41 percentile), 20.25 inches long (14%), and 37cm (42%) head circumference. A totally normal baby, but completely different from her sister, who was in the 90% in weight and head circumference. It will be so interesting to see how these two gals come into their own.

As for Abigail's milestones:

1. She's holding her head up extremely high and strong.

2. She's following us (with her eyes) around the room.

3. Becoming more vocal every day.

Isabella attended her first art class at Gymboree. The theme was the ocean so she and Auntie Aimee came back with a beautifully painted Octopus and Fish. Isabella continues to be a fantastic big sister, despite her being firmly entrenched in the terrific two's. Daddy took her on a father daughter trip to the Children's Museum. With the exception of the Energy Presentation given by the Energy Vampire....they had a great time.

We had a pleasant visit from my cousin's wife Sarah. It was only for a blink, but it was so nice to see her. Abigail remains to sleep like an angel and give me absolutely no problems. We've been blessed to have friends shower us with meals, so I've been able to focus on our family...for that we are so grateful.

Cocktails and Canvas

Today my very awesome cousin Sarah visited Atlanta to celebrate Abigail's birth. Several months ago I bought a coupon from Groupon.com for an art class. It's a really interesting concept, a social environment where an instructor leads the entire class in drawing the same picture. Today's picture was that of chili peppers as you can clearly tell. They broke it down step by step, so that we come out with something we are relatively proud of.

My favorite sister, so glad she's here in Atlanta to share things like this. :)

Our final product, look who's hanging on her mommy....it's Abigail!!! She was such a good baby, didn't make a peep the entire time we where there. Hindsight I should have gone with a lighter background, but hey you live and learn. Can't wait to do this agian!!!