Head, Shoulders, Knees, and...

Today we experienced one of those special kid moments. We were all on a tour of a beautiful Catholic Church in Paris. The place was virtually silent except for the low murmur of tourists mulling about. We were standing at the rear of the church next to a large crucifix. It was a basically a life-size statue of Jesus on the cross on top of a pedestal that stood just a few feet off the ground.

Now I should pause here and insert the fact that Isla really loves the song “head-shoulders-knees-and-toes.” But really her favorite part is the “toes.” She would probably prefer the song to be called “toes, toes, toes, and toes.” In fact while you sing the song she will just keep pointing at her toes waiting for you to bypass the “head-shoulders-and-knees” in order to get back to the toes.

So there we are at the back of the silent church attempting to maintain the proper attitude of solemnity and respect, when Isla looks up at the life-sized statue of Jesus hanging on the cross and bellows out “TOES!”

The sound echoes through the church and every tourist stops to look at us. There is our daughter standing at the foot of the crucifix pointing at Jesus’ toes. We quickly try to quiet her down, but she just continues with her little finger pointing and yelling, “toes, toes, toes…”. We whisk her out of the church and into the courtyard, but not before she manages to sound out a few more “toes” on our way out the door.

(BTW the photo is a picture of Isla's toes, I wasn't immediately sure i had a picture of her toes handy so i googled "toes" to snag a picutre off the net, but for future reference i do not recommend this!)

The City of Love

The Presleys are in Paris for the month of August. So far we've only been here a few days, but we've tried to make the most of it.

We spent some time playing in the gardens outside the Louvre, but the fun ended when Isla fell down and skinned her knee. This is the first time she drew blood with an injury!


Though, after a few bites of pear, she felt much better.


You can tell Stephen was a lot of help with Isla!


We finally made it into to Louvre for a bit and Isla feel asleep not long into the tour. Here is us with the Mona Lisa in the background. I guess sleeping through the Mona Lisa is better than the break down in the Sistine chapel. Maybe she will appreciate this when she is older.

On this day in 2001...

Today Haley and I are celebrating eight wonderful years of marriage. The time has flown by and the Lord has been very good to us, but things have not always turned out the way we imagined they would. Then again, what should we expect after our wedding day!

It seems every year on our anniversary we reflect upon the fact that at this point on our wedding day i was headed to the emergency room suffering from severe dehydration. So this morning i showed Haley a youtube video and remarked, "Hey it could have been worse!":

click here to see the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwaJgz_CKmw


Tonight we are celebrating by going out to dinner, which is a rare treat on the side of the pond (especially with kids)!

Happy Easter!!

One little monkey...

So the Presleys have had quite an eventful week to say the least! Thursday Isla had her first injury-causesd doctor visit. She poked herself in the eye and scratched her cornea. As would be expected, it was quite the dramatic event! The doctor put dye in her eye to make the scratch show up and she (surprisingly) did amazing!


Here she is post doctor visit - the picture is a little blurry, but you can see the green spot in her eye where the scratch is. Pretty big scratch! The stuff on her face is the dye. It kept washing out and running everywhere - gross!

First prescription. Some antibiotic eye drops to prevent infection. She was pretty pitiful for the rest of the day, but woke up all happy and puffy eye free the next morning.

So that was Thursday, on I went to get the mail and Isla locked me out of the house!

You see, our mail comes in through a mail drop in our front door, so I don't have to actually go outside to get the mail. BUT we have a double front door - there is the very front one, then immediately following is a second door. Now you have to have a key to open both of these doors - when you shut them they immediately lock behind you. So as I was picking up the mail,I heard a 'click'. I turned around to see the 'second' front door closed behind me.

I was left in no-man's-land with no key - did I mention Isla was on the OTHER side of the door, locked IN the house while I was OUT of the house!!! I freaked out, ran to our neighbors to call Stephen but he didn't answer, so I ran back to check on Isla who was hysterically crying at the door. This actually made me feel a little better since I knew she wasn't just roaming free in the house getting into or climbing onto who knows what. So I tried to calm her down for a bit, then ran back to the neighbor's and used their computer to email Stephen (yes - it was more successful to email than to call).

I then returned to the front door and started singing to Isla in hopes of calming her. It did actually work a little. Her crying went from hysterical, to just a normal upset cry. We sang until Stephen got home with a key and thankfully got back inside with no physical injuries and no major emotional damage! Praise the Lord Isla stayed at the door with me or else I would have had to break a window to get in and get her!

My mind kept racing through all the ways she could hurt herself left unattended, but she stayed right by the door and was just a very relieved little girl when we finally got to her! Don't worry, I will for sure be keeping one foot inside the door from now on when I get the mail!!

So, why would I name this post 'One little monkey...'?? Well, in order to calm any fears for Isla's general health after her eventful week, I leave you with this video taken last night - after all the drama had calmed.

Aquarium and presents

Here are some pics and a video from our trip to the aquarium, plus some of Isla opening a few of her presents.

1 year!

Happy birthday to our little girl! Yes - believe it or not, Isla is one today. We had a fun-filled birthday weekend starting off with a trip to the Edinburgh Zoo. Isla LOVED seeing all the animals! She was exhausted by 1:30 when we left to head home! We decided that many more trips to the zoo are a must for the near future! We also went on a hike Sunday in the nearby Tentsmuir Forest and she had a blast 'hiking' through the forest and singing songs as we walked. Today, we went to the St. Andrews Aquarium. To say Isla liked the fish is an understatement for sure! She LURVED them :) It was so much fun to see her so excited and having a great time. I tell ya, watching this little girl grow up is just about the greatest joy I've ever received. I've posted a few pics of the zoo for now. Soon I'll get some pics (and video!) of our hike and aquarium trips posted, but this mama has to get to bed for now :)