My baby is one!

This sweet little thing had her first birthday! We celebrated with a combo party for her special day and the 18 de septiembre, the Chilean independence Day.

And maybe the happiest part of the celebration was that, appropriately as the official first day of fall, it was finally cool enough to enjoy being outside!! You can come out of your houses, everyone in San Antonio, the summer is finally OVER!

Watermelon is definitely a favorite of this one-year-old.

Did Faye just steal my food?

We had fun looking at pictures of Isla from newborn to one as we ate meals the last couple of days. We also decided that she really doesn't look much different from when she was tiny. It helps that she has no teeth or hair still! We made her a whole wheat chocolate zucchini cake (and then topped it with some cream cheese, sugar-filled frosting, oops) and also served yummy strawberries and cream flowers.

And ohhhhh is this perfection or what? My version of heaven has Chilean empanadas all over the place. A Chilean friend made these and brought them over! Amazing!

My mouth is watering right now to have a repeat of this meal!

Isla and her amiga, Amelia.

This is actually yesterday, at Isla's one year check-up. (Waiting outside for an hour; how did I get the appointment wrong on my calendar??) She's playing with her new baby from Grandmama.

Although can you guess who has taken over the care of her baby? Faye keeps saying she'd like to trade her baby for Isla's.

So, sweet Isla did great at her appointment, despite missing her morning nap and being poked five times. The shots were bad enough, but then we had to wait forever to get her blood drawn, and at this doctor they draw blood right from her arm like an adult rather than a little finger prick! Holding her down for that was awful!

Isla weighs 19 pounds, so about the 20th percentile. Her height was more in the average range, and her head has actually always measured big. (I always say she has a tiny head, but I guess it's just narrow in the front!) She now only walks; we miss that monkey crawl! She says "mama" for sure, sometimes to mean "more," but mostly just repeating us. And she's said some other words (dada, ball), but not very consistently yet. Isla climbs. The other day I ran in from the car to get her to find her on top of the bathroom sink vanity. She mastered going down the stairs super quickly; Faye and I showed her a couple of times, and then she could do it! Isla has never had an ounce of separation anxiety. She's happy for anyone to hold her or to go anywhere without me. She likes playing at the nursery at the YMCA. She finally has two tiny teeth coming in her bottom gums. Isla currently takes a morning and an afternoon nap. She's still my least consistent nighttime sleeper! Usually she does a good 12 hours, but I'm still confused why occasionally she wakes up at night or really early in the mornings. Isla is a content, happy little thing, and we love her so.

Faye girl got to leave the appointment early thanks to a friend having an appointment at the same time and taking Faye home for me! (What are the chances?? The one and only Army friend I have here. Hi, Rachel.)

The big, pretty hospital where daddy used to work.

Back to the birthday party/Chile fiesta. The cake is ready!

She was too curious about the cake to pose for any pictures...

...but then she just picked at it a little bit and signed "all done." I've never had a kid actually go crazy eating cake on their first birthday!

Aaand the after party clean up, courtesy of Rick. (The fridge is chalkboard paint!)

Back to school.

These boys get out of bed and hit the showers each morning at 6:30 a.m. to make it to school on time. They are doing great! Carson has Mrs. Guyer for Kindergarten, probably the most caring, friendly teacher there is. He has informed us that he now sits at a special table with a naughty kid so he can be the example. He brought in his piano music to play during music time. He wishes there were more homework with less coloring and more multiplication problems. (The GT teacher actually recently tested him, and the school is working on finding some ways to challenge him.)

Everett has Ms. Bellah for pre-K, a program we are able to do since Rick is Active Duty. Everett gets a little tender when he goes to school, and he still has me walk him all the way in to his classroom and help him hang up his backpack. But he comes home on the bus three hours later happy as a clam. He says his favorite thing at school is to play in the pretend kitchen. Ha.

This picture cracks me up. This would be a typical scene if it were Carson on the couch with a chapter book, but I walked in and was surprised to see these two like this. (And pretty soon I found out Faye was copying Everett just to bug him. Last night Faye informed our dinner guests that her favorite thing to do is to bother her brothers.)

I caved and bought them school T shirts. I guess since they do wear them once a week for spirit day I get my money's worth!

Everett's first homework! Took me a minute on the favorite food... the G is a soft G, which I guess is how he says, "strawberry." The "I like to... answer is on the back..."

Ski in the dirt. That's my Everett.

Faye gets together with a cute little Spanish-speaking friend a couple of times a week for a mini preschool.

Que linda!

final days of summer.

We're still hitting 100 degrees around here, so I don't feel like I can really call these pictures the last from the summer. But the pool is officially closed, school is in session, and we're baking pumpkin bread anyway, so here is the summer wrap-up.

Carson got mad at Everett for something he said and threw a small rock at him. Smart Everett quickly ran inside and shut the sliding door to avoid getting hit by the rock. Instead, the rock shattered the glass of the entire sliding door. When Carson gets his first job, I think we should collect the first few hundred dollars he earns to pay for the replacement door. (Although I wanted french doors anyway, ha! Although since we like to put big purchases off, we still haven't gotten new doors yet and this happened about a month ago...)

Rick and I tried to go on a date one night (since we never go on dates) playing tennis at our neighborhood courts. Even at 8:30 p.m. it was close to 100 degrees, and I will admit I was a total party pooper and done after 20 minutes. Rick really wishes he had someone to play tennis with, and I am not the one.

Sunday afternoon spying on the neighbors.

We seriously miss Avianna, the sweet girl who used to come play all the time. She moved out of her grandparents' house.

Sometimes everyone plays in Isla's crib.

Baby girl learning from big sister.

She took a lot of her first few steps at the pool. So much open space!

Faye is always admiring dogs in people's cars. This sweet Latina lady got out of her car and brought her dog over to Faye, suggesting we take a picture. Well, sure, I guess!

There is a park we often drive by (about 3 miles from our house), and we discovered that if we jump on the running trail it is only one mile away. So one Saturday morning we packed up some bagels and took a family bike ride/jog down to play.

Faye and I went on a date to buy the wood to build her a big girl bed. Rick and I built the frame, and now it's sitting in the garage waiting for me to stain it. (And I am majorly stressing over bedding. Pattern mixing is hard!)

Please note flip flops on the wrong feet, hair done by herself, and baby taking a nap on the cart. Shopping with Faye is the best.

I got a Groupon for Faye to do gymnastics for a month! I have waited for this moment all my life!! Seriously, I think I got a little emotional when we entered the gym. Too bad it's so expensive; I will have to have some major self control when the month is up and they ask if I want to sign her up for good!

So there is this storm drain (is that what you call it?) between our house and the mailbox, and the kids have always been curious as to what's down there. I told them they could walk down and see. They all had this look of fear come over them, and after several failed attempts (and maybe even a few tears; I refused to help them), they finally walked all the way down.

Carson instructed everyone to plug their ears. You can never be too careful.

This summer was our first real attempt at a vegetable garden. We stunk at taking care of it and got a few tomatoes before everything died. I started over with some plants and flowers in the front and am going to really try to keep this one alive.

Goodbye, summer days! Now, cooler weather, please!