Crawling into Mischief
Now that Isla is crawling properly she is discovering her full potential for getting up to mischief! Apparently the cat food is really Isla treats conveniently left on the floor for her to sample.
Isla Crawling into Mischief! from AlaskaNewZealand.com on Vimeo.
A Few Birthday Clips!
Isla’s Birthday Party from AlaskaNewZealand.com on Vimeo.
Our One Year Old
Here she is! The one year old! Enjoying her new birthday present from her Alaskan Grandparents.
Giving the new present her approval with clapping.
Checking out all the little gears and buttons that make sounds.
She had a great time opening all her presents and got the hang of ripping off the paper pretty quickly!
She got lots of lovely presents, including this pop up book from her Aunty Emily (this one was popular with the whole family!).
Isla had her little friend Lucy around to play with her in the afternoon and they had fun with the new toys.
I made Isla a special cake for her birthday.
She seemed to enjoy it very well (this was Isla’s healthy version without the cream cheese icing- she had yoghurt instead!)
The rest of us celebrated Isla’s first year with a delicious meal of King crab.
We all had a great day (although at times I think it was possibly a little overwhelming for the birthday girl- especially when everyone burst into song singing her happy birthday!) and are excited about our second year with our little girl!
Happy Thanksgiving, Love April, Paul and Isla xxx
Confessions
A while ago we set up a Skype In number whereby folks in NZ could call a Christchurch number and ring us here through the magic of the internet! April was very happy. Then I didn’t hear much about it and the three month renewal came due and while it wasn’t much I decided to keep this money in pocket. I continued not to hear much about it so felt secretly vindicated. But, April has just learned of this and I got an ear full; “people keep saying that they’ve tried to call!”. So friends I apologize. Our new, 12 month subscription, Christchurch phone number is:
April, Paul & Isla
64 3 669 2415
It is dirt cheap to call so please do, and it will now forward to April’s cell phone. She loves hearing from you guys so please don’t let my skintness keep you from chatting.
Paul Tougas
Some Clips of the girl
Some Clips from AlaskaNewZealand.com on Vimeo.
A few photos from the week
We have had a nice weekend. Friday night Paul and I went to a local beer and wine tasting event at the Sea Life Center. Paul and his homebrew club had a table. Yesterday, Isla and I went for a walk with Lucy and Jessica and had some friends, Erin and Jason, around for a visit in the afternoon. Last night we had Grandpa Howie around for a meal.
Here are Isla and Lucy all bundled up for our walk. 
Isla in one of the singlets Mum knitted her- this one still fits!
Isla finishing stacking her rings independently- pity about that pesky green ring!
Finally, reading her book on her potty (sorry Dad, I know you aren’t going to like this one so much but it was too cute to leave out!)
Have a good week everyone- Happy Thanksgiving!
New Tricks
Isla is constantly impressing us these days with what she is able to do. Suddenly she is doing things that seemed impossible for her just days before. She can now put the rings on her stacking rings toy (we do hand her the rings still though, she hasn’t independently worked out the order they go in yet). We have just started using baby sign language and she has mastered the sign for milk and has started using the one for potty (very handy). She also knows where my nose is! She can’t point to hers yet though.
Here are a couple of photos from the last couple of days.
Isla is still a very keen bather and here she is trying to climb in! (Notice the little bandaid on her leg from her H1N1 vaccine that day)
Waving at all her friends and family in New Zealand!
Standing, standing, standing
Not much variety in the photos these days, but about all Isla is interested in doing is standing. 
Here she is on a second hand toy Paul got at a garage sale recently. She is starting to get the hang of making it rock which is pretty funny to watch her working it out.
Isla has had a fairly social weekend so far. Last night I had some friends around and luckily for Isla there was a friend for her too. Here she is conversing with Chloe (7 months).
This morning she met Isabel (2 weeks), she wasn’t really sure what it was I was holding but she preferred it when I gave the baby back to her Mum Beth! 
Finally, just because there is nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby!
Nearly One!
We are on the count down to Isla’s first birthday! Hard to believe it is coming around already. There have been a lot of new developments this week. She finally started a proper crawl, instead of the shuffle she has been doing up until now. She still prefers to use her shuffle when she is in a hurry. Isla is now holding onto furniture and moving her feet to get to something else she wants (and believe me there is plenty she wants!). And we spotted her going from crawling to sitting for the first time last night- although she acted like she had done it a million times before, so maybe she has been practicing that one in secret to surprise us! When she doesn’t get what she wants she will throw what can only be described as a tantrum- Paul and I look at each other wondering who this child is and where our well behaved Isla has gone when this happens!!
Here are a couple of photos from the week. Paul bought her a new hat this week, all of hers are suddenly far to small!
Here she is on her potty.
First Snow in Seward
This week we had the first snow on the ground for the season. It is snowing outside right now, although it doesn’t look like it is going to settle much. We have the fire going and it is very cozy.
Isla is entertaining as ever. We have a few videos we need to get up from this last week. But her main preoccupation now is standing, pulling up or taking steps holding onto someone’s fingers. She is very vocal at the moment and is getting very clear about what she does and doesn’t want to do. A few new word approximations, mainly kitten and doggie. She absolutely loves Evie and luckily Evie is very patient with her! Here are just a couple of photos from the week. We will try to get up some of those video clips soon!
