Izzy's 2nd Birthday (June of '08)

Izzy loves Chuck E Cheese. It is not a relationship we exactly encouraged, yet somehow it happened, and now we cannot drive past a Chuck E Cheese building without her going bonkers. The most impressive situation occurred when we were driving in North County to Grandpa Rick's house, and I alerted Dan: "there's a 'C.C.' ahead on the right. Let's see how long it goes unnoticed." Now, mind you, only the back of the building was exposed, way up on a hill, off of the freeway. And, wouldn't you know it, as soon as it passed Izzy's window, she exclaimed, "Chuck E Cheese! Momma, Izzy go Chuck E Cheese?" And she gave us her ChuckE pose: an imitation of the mouse's expression (or is it a rat?) on the Chuck E Cheese logo, complete with her hands in a "thumbs-up" sign.

I really wish we had come prepared to take better quality videos of this experience, because it was one of the first times I have ever seen Izzy completely and utterly ecstatic. When ChuckE appeared in costume to sing and dance to her, she pulled out all the stops. Watch the video clip and you can see her taking in all the details-- such as the dance music coming on, the lights flashing, and ChuckE dancing for her. All these combined sensory elements prompt her to suddenly let loose and party!

Izzy loved playing with Owen...dancing with him, playing "chase," etc... she followed him all night.

Emmett and Rigel stayed on the Roller Coaster simulator for 10 minutes, at least--eyes glued to the tracks! ...Must be the "train buffs" in them...

Says Rigel: "Owen's the good guy, and I'm the bad guy."

Dance class friend Fernanda gives Izzy a buddy hug