With the exception of the "Great Lovie Loss of 2010," it's been a good month for Isabella.

Last weekend, while I ran a 10K, she and the hubs camped out at the house of one of my friends who lived on the route. Her kids and Isabella ran a water table for the runners, and Isabella had a blast filling cups and passing them out to the runners. I was told later on that she especially liked it when the runners would dump the water over their heads.


Also last weekend, Isabella and I and two of her friends and their moms went to see two plays at a local college: The Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon, which were put on by the traveling theatre group from The Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia. Both were fantastic plays, very well-done, and if you're anywhere near St. Paul, MN, (the company's last stop on the tour) I would highly recommend you check out this show in June. We had a great time with her two buddies and their moms, and we even were able to meet the "animals" after the show, which was a big deal for Isabella, since Goodnight Moon has long been her favorite book, and the theme of her first birthday party too.

Here she is doing her best Olan Mills photo shoot pose before the play.


And with the "young mouse" from Goodnight Moon.


She is getting better at writing her name, but most of the time she flat-out refuses to even try writing the "s." She can, however, figure out the letter that most words start with, and can often be heard walking around the house looking at things and saying, for example, "d-d-desk, starts with "D"!

Her first year at preschool is winding down in a about a week and a half, and while I know she will miss her teachers and her friends, I think she may miss the father of one of her classmates most of all. Isabella has developed her first crush.

One day a few weeks ago, she was eating lunch after coming home from preschool and out of nowhere she said, "I love Keegan's daddy. I think about him every day."

Umm... yeah, I am not ready for this. My daughter clearly has a thing for older men.

I asked her why and she said, "He's a nice Daddy. And Keegan brings Thomas the Train books to school!"

I thought it was perhaps a conflation of ideas in her little mind: Keegan + Keegan's Daddy = Thomas, but a few nights later, as I reminded her that she had preschool in the morning, she said, "I'm so excited I get to see Keegan's Daddy!"

Oy vey.

The Tiny Dictator has been getting up at the crack of dawn (anywhere from 6am-6:30) and this is putting a huge cramp into the way I normally start my day (caffeine and work), but the upside to this is that she's begun taking naps (usually) on the days she's up this early, which sure as hell beats her calling me 52,000 times during naptime, asking me if she can come downstairs yet.

She continues to be a great big sister to the twins, but I've noticed her taking on the "mommy role" with them a lot. This works both ways. She is in one minute sweet and gentle with them, taking them by the hand to play with a toy or read books...

And in the next minute, she's screeching that they're pulling her hair, biting her, or playing with a toy that Surprise! all of a sudden she wants to play with, after having ignored it for months. She also shouts "Bad! Bad!" at them a lot, which is odd because that's not something I ever say to them (I stick with "Shut the f-up, you annoying little sh*t"), so I'm uncertain where that's coming from.

One of her favorite tasks is cleaning with Luci. She loves to tell everyone and anyone about the time she and Luci cleaned up the whole dining room area all by themselves. I heaped lavish praise on her for that one, so hopefully her desire to help continues.

It looks like the birthday theme this year is going to be dinosaurs. Aunt Karrie will be painting another masterpiece like this, this, and this with a dinosaur theme, and probably including a few of her favorites from Dinosaur Train.

In just two months, my baby is turning 4.

Current Likes: Negotiating things to death, flashlights, puzzles

Current Dislikes: Waiting, Luci wearing her old clothes, the letter "S"