Toothbrushes and Tantrums

Is it wrong that I think Bella’s tantrums are pretty darn cute? This weekend she had two almost in a row and I found myself almost happy because I was able to giggle/smile at her getting ‘mad’… Maybe because both times were at Daddy.

Tantrum #1 - She loves her toothbrush. She knows where it is and how to open the drawer to get it. While I’m happy she is excited about good dental hygiene, it has resulted in a few tears when we have to force her to put it away. For example, we will not let her run around the basement with it in her mouth or try to brush Leinie’s teeth with it. So one of her tantrums was because Daddy made her put it away when she wasn’t ready to be done.

Most of the time, tooth-brushing goes off smoothly. We get our Elmo toothpaste and sing the ‘brush your teeth song’ (when you wake up in the morning and it’s quarter to one, and you want to have a little fun you brush your teeth - …). She wiggles her little butt and dances as we go though all 5 verses (when it’s quarter to five and you JUST CAN’T WAIT TO FEEL ALIVE!). Then we are done unless she decides to ‘brush’ extra good and we have to go though the song again.

On that note, her top two molars are almost though and the bottom right molar just started. Poor girl is in some pain, I think. But she handles it well.

Tantrum #2 – Daddy wouldn’t let her hold the bubble soap (because she would have spilled it). This resulted in an all out “I’m not even going to look at Daddy” tantrum. Where do they learn this stuff?!

Oh the Wonderful Things Bella Can Do! She Can Go...

"Daddy" or "DaDa"
"Mama"
"Kitty!"
"Down"
"Nana" (banana)
"Leinie" or "Lili"
"ball"
"eh" (I think this means yes)
"nononono"
"eeee-ow" (Meow)
"mmmmmm" (moooo!)
"oooooAAAooOOoAA" (Ooo-ah ah! Monkey!)
"pfffff" (elephant noise...she actually doesn't make any noise but she pushes her lips together and tries!)

my baby ate peas for breakfast

Her newest thrill is feeding herself w/ a spoon or (baby) fork. So this morning she had cut up strawberries and a blueberry bagel in front of her, yet she kept pointing to where we keep her Gerber blended food until I took out what she wanted. So sure enough, she had blended peas for breakfast.

And of course, whatever Bella wants, Bella gets! :)

naptime...must resitst...

It's been great how easily Bella has been going down for bed and naps lately. I was a little worried since up until about 11 months, she only napped on me or JT at home (snuggling in a chair or on the couch). I knew we were creating a bad habit but it was just so nice!

It was nice to have a reason to just sit and relax. We could watch TV while she snoozed ,read a book or even nap ourselves. Now when she goes down in her crib she'll sleep for 2-3 hours and I feel forced to be productive. Booo! What I'd really like to do is go nap myself!

Everyone is really enjoying Leinie, the kitty. I think I finally 'get it'. I get why people are 'cat people'. I even have dared to call myself one. Maybe I should give it more time, but so far I may be a convert. Yes, I even tried convincing JT that we should go back to Chetek and get his sister (and name her LuLu!). Always the reasonable one, he helped me see how that might be a little too much right now. I have to agree - even though he is small that little thing needs a lot of attention and care! Totally worth it though :)

The Zoo!

Last Night

I feel compelled to blog again. Go me!

First, I got called out already for my last post when I said this year was my first Mothers Day. It wasn’t. We brought Isabella home from the hospital the day before Mother’s Day last year. So that was my first. I guess this year maybe felt like my first since last year I was in a daze and not sure what the hell I was doing?

Last night was a good night. Even though I got home late and JT was at a work ‘thing’, Bella and I were able to have dinner together. Then JT came home and took her outside to play while I got some stuff done in the house. I love, love, love looking out my window and seeing Daddy and Bella having fun together. It is such the stereotypical suburban family scene and I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Another thing I love is that Bella now has a ‘lovely’ with her at almost all times. Her top three are Ike the monkey, Dublin the frog, or Finely the pig. I should get pictures of her with each of them at some point. But the cutest is when she goes to bed and snuggles with one….then when we go to wake her up she is still clinging to it. It is such a common thing for a kid to do, but for whatever reason when it is YOUR kid it is just the cutest thing ever! I think it is because we’ve watched her develop from not really knowing what the heck these stuff animals were, to starting to recognize them, to picking out her favorites and then using them as comfort items.

That’s it from last night. No, I won’t be blogging daily…just when the mood hits!

May 2009

I’m horrible at this blogging thing apparently. So what has been going on in May 2009?

Bella turned 1, of course (on May 7). So I now have a one year old kid. No longer a baby… so sad yet so exciting. The year mark has brought many exciting things including



Not just walking but RUNNING away from us…which has also included trips and falls and bumps and bruises

• Climbing up and down stairs





• More words…kind of. She’ll look at us and talk like she really thinks she’s saying something. I swear I heard her say ‘ball’ the other day and think ‘no’ isn’t far away.


• Happy screaming. :D The best.

• Not-happy screaming/whining…not so great. I’ll just say she is getting quite the personality…



• Outside toys!! Grandma and Grandpa Hajder got her a slide and car that she (and mom and dad) has had a lot of fun with (water table fun to come in warmer weather).





• Food – she can now eat just about anything we do (exceptions are peanut butter and shell fish). It’s fun to be able to share our food with her. She is learning to take ‘bites’, too, which means I can break off a chunk of banana or slice of tomato and she’ll be fine with it.





• Milk – no more formula for her! We’ve also gone about a full week without any bottles. Using milk instead of formula is so nice/much easier….but I do miss “baba bedtime” L It was a nice snuggle time with her. However, we have seemed to replace it with a good 10-15 minutes of snuggle time when we get home from work.

• No more baby carseat...we upgraded to the next level and turned it front facing. I guess recently the recommendation is to leave it rear facing but it just doesn't work in my two door car. I figured if it was OK a month ago to have her forward facing then it’d be OK now.
  
  
  
  

At her 1 year appt she was 75th percentile for both height and weight and 90th for head.

My first mother’s day was great. Bella planted me an herb garden and got me a nice lawn chair for relaxing in the sun (let’s hope I can actually use it).

We baby-sat Jonah (8 months) and I saw first hand the difference between a ‘daycare kid’ (Jonah) and my non-daycare kid. She was not too happy about having someone else play with her toys. At one point, when Jonah was paying attention to JT, Bella got up and literally ran to her room. What a brat :)

She loves to feed Scrappy and does it once a day.

For Memorial Day, we went to the Como Zoo for the first time (pictures to come) and had a bunch of people over on Sun and Mon for brunch. No pictures of that though… hmmm…I’m slacking.

Sorry if this format is all wonky...but I did what I could :)