Isa is Finding Her Voice

Hello, Isa here. Mommy finally got a pretty good video of me squealing with delight on Wednesday 6/24/09. I seem to be very vocal - who knows? Another future singer? I'm also getting very good at kicking my feet. I like to make the toys jiggle by kicking.



Of course, too much excitement and expression after eating can lead to this:



And after awhile, I'm not sure if I'm squealing with delight or starting to cry?

Isa's Diaper of the Day #44

"Stinky pants"

For an explanation of these posts, see original post here.

The Kids are With Daddy Again

Now that Daddy is fully in charge again, our days our filled with fun silliness. Here are shots of us from Tuesday 6/23/09.

Once again Xia enjoys Daddy's unique record finds:

And we're not sure how long she was playing with her stickers alone before coming up with this get up!

Isa finds it all rather passe:

And then realizes the hilarity of it all!

Mommy Returns to Work

It was with a VERY heavy heart that Mommy returned to her job on Monday 6/22/09. Luckily, she loves her job and works with great people, but she still hated to leave us. Of course, it helps tremendously that Daddy is a stay-at-home Dad and takes great care of us.

Here is a picture of us in the morning before she left:

And here is a movie of us telling Mommy about our day once she got home:



By the way, those of you who follow this blog will most definitely recognize the pillow Isa is on as Xia spent a lot of her first year on the "magic" pillow also. Mommy just wants you all to know that this gets washed every week if not more often so you don't have to worry about it!

We Always Outdress Mommy

Mommy loves dressing us up for church on Sunday mornings. She has all of these beautiful outfits that have been handed down or given to us as gifts or found at garage sales/consignment shops, and we really only wear them on Sunday mornings. The only problem is, she has nothing to wear to look as good as us. Oh well, people are more interested in looking at us anyway, so no worries!

Here we are on Sunday morning 6/21/09.

First, Isa in a great outfit Mommy got from her boss' family at the baby shower at work:

Next, Xia in a great yard sale find - hmmm, not sure if that was the face Mommy was looking for when she said "Say cheese..."

And here's some more Isa talk for you:

Lancaster Catholic High Carnival 2009

After a very rainy day on Saturday 6/20/09, the skies cleared and we decided to head out to the Lancaster Catholic High Carnival for the evening. It's a good thing we decided to skip the double stroller and go with slings because Mommy and Daddy were covered in mud up to their knees by the time we went home. We had a lot of fun.

Here is Daddy with Xia in one sling:

And Mommy with Isa in the other sling:

Here's a video of us taking in the scenes and lights of the carnival:



And a clip of the fireworks - for those of you who know our Daddy, NOW you know why we trekked out in the mud!!

Xia Was Featured in a Local Paper

Hi, it's me Xia, local newspaper star! Grammy works part-time at the North Museum (of Natural History & Science). In early June, she took me there and we were interviewed for a local neighborhood paper. If you click the image it will be big enough to read.

AND, you can see the article online here!

Some Old Xia Animated Gifs

Xia here. Daddy is the pro at getting good shots of me at each month. He takes a bunch of pictures each time and sometimes he can make cool animated gifs of me from all of the shots. He has to find the time though to create the animations using a software program. Well, he recently finished two of these for your viewing pleasure:

Here's one from my 25 month old photos:



And another from my 26 month old photos:

Isa's Diaper of the Day #43

"WARNING: TOXIC GAS"

For an explanation of these posts, see original post here.

Isa's Diaper of the Day #42

"Food In. Poop Out."

For an explanation of these posts, see original post here.

Isa's Diaper of the Day #41

"Whoever smelt it dealt it."

For an explanation of these posts, see original post here.

Isa's Diaper of the Day #40

"I (heart) my Mommy."

For an explanation of these posts, see original post here.

Isa's Diaper of the Day #39

"100% NATURAL"

For an explanation of these posts, see original post here.

Isa's Diaper of the Day #38

"Got Milk?"

For an explanation of these posts, see original post here.

Isa's Diaper of the Day #37

"Instructions not included."

For an explanation of these posts, see original post here.

Isa's Diaper of the Day #36

"Change this thing... STAT!"

For an explanation of these posts, see original post here.

Extreme Isa

Daddy took some more great close ups of me on Friday 6/19/09:

That should take care of your Isa-fix for the day!

Swing and Rain

Isa here. On Thursday 6/18/09, we had a busy day unpacking, grocery shopping, and getting ready for Mommy's last few days at home before returning to work :-( Right before our trip, we found a great deal at a yard sale - a cute swing just for me. We finally got some batteries for it and I LOVE it!

Mommy and Daddy love it too, it's really helping out.



It rained a lot too. Mommy and Xia decided to take a walk to splash in the puddles (Xia's favorite thing to do). They wanted to try out Xia's rain boots - another great yard sale find:





Oh what fun!

Isa's Diaper of the Day #35

"Hold your nose!"

For an explanation of these posts, see original post here.

Tunnels!

It's Xia again. To go to Indiana PA, part of the trip is on the PA Turnpike route 76. We have to go through THREE tunnels on the way. I love them. Here is a movie of me going through the Tuscarora tunnel, so fun. This was on our way back to Lancaster on Wednesday 6/17/09:

Is it sand or ... ?

Xia here. I just have to say that my Grandma is super creative. She took a big tub and filled it with corn meal to make a 'sand' box. We had a blast with it on Monday 6/15/09.



We also had a big pillow fight, aren't they the best?



That night, we ate at Bruno's - one of Mommy's favorite restaurants as a kid. They serve great Italian food. She remembers the cellar which is where we had dinner. Grapes hang from the ceiling and their are bottles with candles in them. I really LOVED the candles and kept trying to blow them out like a bday cake:

Great Aunt Bobbi and Great Aunt Patti came over to hang out while Marlon and I had fun jumping through a hula hoop:



And Daddy made me laugh hysterically by bopping a ball at me:

Sunday 6/14/09

Hi there, Isa here. We went to church on Sunday morning 6/14/09 and it was a beautiful day. Here are Xia & Kira hanging around Grandma's place in the morning:

We decided to take a nice long walk to Mack Park. Aunt Patti and Aunt MaryBeth came too. What a relaxing afternoon:

Marlon being silly:

Daddy took a movie of me too:



And here are Xia and Kira going to bed. They had a lot of fun on the couch pull out bed - what kid doesn't love a good pull out bed!!

Orendorff Renion 2009

And so the yearly tradition continues as you can see from the previous years' reunions in 2007 and 2008. On Saturday 6/13/09 we all gathered for the big Orendorff Reunion. Grandma was one of 12 kids and Mommy grew up with many cousins and aunts and uncles surrounding her throughout her childhood. We love getting together.

The day began with all of us in bed at Grandma's house. Kira and Marlon stayed there too while we were in town:

Here's a shot of Isa with another newbie, 2nd cousin Grayson (Julie & Nick Brunetto's new little man):

Here are Mommy's cousins Karen and Lisa meeting Isa for the first time:



Here's a new way to play shuffleboard - slide the pieces between little legs:



Xia thinks the shuffleboard pieces are Tubby Toast!



Kelly and Christy Smith even rented a snow cone machine for the day:



Here are our great Aunts - Marybeth, Cokey and Patti looking at old photos:

Boy, Angus (Gus) Smith sure grew up over the past year:

Mommy's Godmother Cathy and cousin Beth:

Xia really wore Daddy out - he chased her all over all day...

Natalie, Emily and Julie Smith:
Xia wore herself out! This is also a good shot of the T-shirts for this year. There are 2 birds at the top to signify Grandma and Grandpa Orendorff (well that would be great grandma and grandpa to us), then 12 branches below to signify the 12 kids, then a bunch of shoots off of those branches to signify the grandchildren and leaves on the shoots to signify the great grandchildren. How cool!

Another new addition, Katherine Orendorff - only 6 weeks old!

Mommy's cousin, Beth, holds Isa:

Another great reunion!!!

Kira Graduates from the 5th Grade

We went to our cousin Kira's graduation from the 5th grade at Pittsburgh Liberty Elementary K-5 on Friday June 12, 2009. Here's a movie of Kira walking across the stage to get her diploma:



Here's the grad:

And her brother, our cousin, Marlon who decided to wear a suit for his last day of school - stylin':

And a shot of Daddy, Xia and Kira and Marlon's Daddy, Ray:

What a nice time we had and we are all so proud of Kira!!

Jimmy Stewart and the Indiana Free Library

On Thursday 6/11/09 we went for a nice walk to downtown Indiana, PA - Mommy's hometown. Jimmy Stewart also called Indiana home for a time. There is a bronze statue of him downtown. Here are Mommy and Xia posing with Jimmy:

And here are Daddy and Xia standing in front of the Jimmy Stewart Museum. No, we didn't go there, the kids would probably be bored. But it is the same entrance to the elevator for the Indiana Free Library where we DID go.

Xia crashed a library program for 5 to 7 year olds, but did pretty darn good keeping up with them:



Then Xia and Daddy played with some puppets. Hmmmm, is the rooster possessed?

Xia 70s Style

Xia here. On Wednesday 6/10/09 we were getting packed up to head to Indiana PA, Mommy's hometown, for a big family reunion. Mommy and Daddy had to snap a pic of me in the midst of all of the packing. They thought my outfit with high tube socks looked like something right out of the 70s. Whadda you think?