Hair Design 101

All of you know that Isabella has a good head of hair. Recently, Sam and I decided to play with it a bit. This hair design comes courtesy of Sam, hair designer extraordinaire:




And since she has "big girl" hair, she's also ventured into "big girl" chairs. Now that she's over 20lbs., Izzy B has a new view. Her favorite is when Sam is sitting across the way because he reaches his hand out to her and wacks her fingers. She loves it.

Pismo Beach Fun

Last weekend, the Zimon and Marsh families went on an incredibly relaxing vacation to Pismo Beach. By "relaxing" I mean sick children, sleep-deprived adults, over-eating and, did I mention sleep deprivation?

Below is a comparison shot of gear brought by each family. The Marsh family wins, hands down.

Upon entering our hotel suites, we promptly threw the children on the bed and let them jump because jumping on beds at our homes is not allowed. Nope. No, indeed. At hotels, however, who cares?


We ventured down to the beach and I snapped these shots...

Aunt Teri and Uncle Brandon

Miss Charlotte

Miss Zoe

As I mentioned before, we ate a lot. One evening, we had dinner at a Benihana-like place and we enjoyed a sizzling fire right in front of our eyes...

Sam was mesmerized...

Sam loved this chair...mostly because Uncle Brandon would spin him in it every night and then ask him to stand up. It was hilarious.

The Z girls would come over and play before bedtime. Here they are, playing on Sam's make-shift bed:

Despite the sleep deprivation, we had a great time. We have yet to recover but we had a good time :)

Emergency Room Visit #2 = "Hello, Mrs. Marsh. This is CPS Calling."

Once again, we visited the emergency room this past weekend to get stitches. While Sam and I were driving over to the hospital, this is the phone conversation I imagined having with a representative from Child Protective Services:

CPS: Hello, may we speak to a Mrs. Cathy Marsh?
Me: Yes, this is she. Who is calling?
CPS: Mrs. Marsh, this is Child Protective Services calling in regard to a report that was submitted by doctors at Marin General Hospital regarding your son Samuel.
Me: Yes?
CPS: It's been brought to our attention that your son has gone into the hospital to receive emergency services in less than two months. Is this correct?
Me: Yes but both of them were accidents.
CPS: Yes, Mrs. Marsh, they are all accidents but we must interview the parent in question once a report has been filed.
Me: Parent in question?????
CPS: Mrs. Marsh, can you tell us what happened on July 25, 2009?
Me: Sure. Well, Sam was playing with my Billy Blanks Tae Bo exercise bands and it snapped and wacked him in the head.
CPS: Billy Blanks what?
Me: Yeah, you know, Billy Blanks Tae Bo workouts? They have those exercise bands that attach to your foot and have handle bars and they stretch so when you punch you work out all the areas of your arm.....??? Do you know which ones I'm talking about?

CPS: I will note here that these are rubber. Is that correct?
Me: Yes
CPS: And what was he doing with them?
Me: He was stretching them to see how far they would go. Well, they stretched pretty far, actually. We did it a couple of times and then, all of a sudden, SNAP!
CPS: SNAP?
Me: Yes, the band broke off of the handle and it flew across the room and hit him in the head.
CPS: Flew across the room?
Me: Yes, well, they stretched pretty far...like I said before.
CPS: I see. Just to be clear, were you with him while he was stretching the, let's see, Billy Blanks Tae Bo exercise bands?
Me: Yes. My husband and I were holding the other handle bar side of the band. Good parenting, I know (nervous laughter on my part).
CPS: Interesting. I'll put that in the report. Can you tell us what happened in June when he visited the hospital?
Me: Yes but that was an accident.
CPS: Yes, Mrs. Marsh, they all are.

So, there you have it. Five days and three stitches to the head later, we went and got them removed. According to Sam, and I quote, "These stitches didn't hurt at all and it took like no time to get them out." He actually told the doctor at the hospital that he wanted four stitches instead of three but he was kind enough to tell him that he only needed three. The nurses at the pediatrician's office were cracking up. They said they all giggled a little bit when they saw the report. As usual, Sam told them all about it when he arrived.

And, not suprisingly, guess what he picked as his prize.....

Oh, the joy of boys.

Civilized Company

Yesterday afternoon, we had the pleasure of hosting Annika and Kianna at our place. Let me tell you something, girls are awesome. They are gentle, peaceful, and really good listeners. I wasn't aware life could be like this since Sam is usually destroying something and yelling about it while doing so. Hopefully, they'll come over again because, boy, did I like it.

Kianna, Sam and Annika...

I wonder what Kianna and Sam were talking about.....Clearly, Annika is not interested :)

Someone Get This Girl An Agent!

Here are some delicious pictures of Isabella...I should quit my day job and become one of those agent-mom women who take their kids everywhere for commercial and photo shoots. Just kidding....kinda sorta.