Thursday, December 10, 2009

We Caved

And by ‘we’ I mean I caved. I gave the go ahead to Aunt Mara and my mom to let Bella watch a little TV during the day. So now she watches 30 min of Sesame Street with Mara and 30 min of Mickey Mouse Club (Hot dog!) with my mom...and football with Daddy on the weekends :)

I’ll admit that part of the reason I gave the OK was because it’s entertaining for me to talk to her about what she saw that day. It’s cute to ask what Elmo did today and have her dance around or see her imitate Cookie Monster shoving cookies in her mouth (which no, we still don’t let her have those!!). She knows Mickey and Minnie and loves Donald “Duh!”. It’s amazing how fast they catch on to these characters. I predict a lot of Disney/Sesame Street licensed products coming into our house for Christmas...

Also, I know it’s nice to have a little break during the day and as long as she isn’t totally addicted to the tube, I know it'll be fine.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Stats from 18 m check up

  • 24 lbs 14 oz -- 50th percentile
  • 32 inches long - 75th percentile (only grew like 1/2 inch in 3 months!)
  • really big head (can't remember the number) - 90th percentile. This is why it took me almost 3 hours to push her out. :)

She got her flu shot and her H1N1 shot. Otherwise pretty standard/uneventful. Dr. Amy did say she was impressed with her 'advanced vocabulary' but I know that really means she is the smartest baby she’s EVER met. Right? ;)

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Where did Oct go?

For real. Time is flying. And Bella is growing way too fast. Every day she amazes us with something new.

She's picking up on words really well. Not stringing any together, but is able to communicate with us just fine. I love having a 'conversation' with her each night. Although every night she tells me pretty much the same thing (her and Papa drew blue snakes, she ate 'fish' for a snack, and sang songs about the sun)...but she does remember things. For example, JT's mom told me that they sang Wheels on the Bus a lot one day and when I asked her later that night "what song did you and Nana sing?" she did the 'wheel' motion.

Simple things like this make you realize that she is a little person with a mind of her own. Which is also clear as she starts to get more independent. For example, she no longer wants to sit in her high chair - it's her booster or nothing at home. She fought a bib for a while but we are over that, thank god. But the trick is to let her choose things now. Let her choose from 3 bibs, let her decide what she is eating for breakfast (Rice Krispies, toast or oatmeal is usually her request), let her pick out her shoes, etc.

While TV is pretty much still off limits, we’ve caved and started letting her watch YouTube videos of songs. It’s so cute to watch her dance along and point out her favorites. I don’t mean to be one of those strict moms, but I just don’t want to get her in the bad habit of being addicted to TV….but I’m thinking for Christmas she can get an Elmo dance DVD. Just no movies or cartoon shows yet. We’ve got plenty of time for those!

On that same topic, we get a little bit of a hard time for not letting Bella eat candy or fried food…but I think it’s been good. So yes she went trick or treating, but no she didn’t get any of the candy. It goes back to getting addicted to things early- the last thing we need is for her to stop eating fruits/veggies because all she wants are fries and cookies!! So still no candy, no fries, desserts are a special treat on someone’s’ birthday, etc. I know it won’t last forever, but her liking apples and broccoli over anything else won’t last forever either – so we are taking advantage of it while we can!

There’s the monthly update. For pictures go to facebook or flickr.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Boy that was hard...

Left Bella for 6 days. The first few were honestly fine, but by day 5 I was really starting to regret leaving for so long. Maybe it was because by that time we were at my Aunt's in Carlsbad and I not only knew I could have brought her there (just not to our 3 days/2 nights in LA) but heard her on the phone for the first time since we left....

So it goes without saying that it was so great to see her again today. I know she was in great hands, but missed the cuddles, kisses and laughs she gives us each day.

In other news, I'm loving the playtime our ECFE offers 2x a week now. Monday nights are for babies and toddlers only, Thurs nights are for babies though Kindergarten age. We've been to several and at first Bella was timid but tonight she RAN into the room and had a blast. It is so good to see her actually interact with other kids (she imitated one boy, actually allowed another kid to play WITH her, and laughed alongside another kid...little things that you don't get to experience when your kid isn't in daycare).

It’s also nice to chat with the other parents of course. Potty training has been on my mind lately. I know it’s too early to really start, but I think she’s starting to pick up on the fact that sometimes ‘Mommy has to go potty in the bathroom’ (rather than a diaper) and my mother-in-law told us that she actually warned them she was going to dirty a diaper (pinching her nose for ‘PU!’ before she did it). I haven’t seen that yet, but don’t doubt it. Anyway, talking to this mom it sounds like she started at 20 months and the last time we were at the Dr she said not to even bother doing anything now…so again, I know it’s early but it’s the next big milestone to tackle!

This week should be low key, hopefully… we need to get back into our normal routine and hope that isn’t too tough for Bella, either.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Big Helper

Bella can now help us ...
  • put away dishes - she takes one thing at a time from the dishwasher and brings it to the cupboard where it belongs (yes, she even knows cups go one place, Tupperware another, silverware in a drawer...)
  • "fold laundry" - still working on this but she likes to take laundry from the basket, run into a room (ours or hers) and put it in a random drawer. Pretty cute.
  • put away groceries - if she likes it/eats it, she knows where it goes - otherwise we have to direct her to 'fridge' or 'over here by mommy'

Just need to get her scrubbing floors and weeding the garden - then we'd be set!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Yup, we're still here.

I haven't been checking blogs or writing in my own for a long time (maybe all summer?) but have been getting caught up the past week or so.

Can't promise regular updates. Mostly because I don't think I can keep up with Bella. Seriously, everyday she amazes me by doing something new.

The latest is learning her colors. I'm shocked that she actually can identify black, blue, white, red, etc. She’s not always consistent, but I attribute it to her being stubborn (not wanting to ‘perform on command’) because she clearly knows what she is doing. She even says 'black' - why 'black'? I don't know unless it sounds similar enough to 'baaa' which she does to imitate a sheep.

Words come sporadically. She hasn't really said a new one lately - down, kitty, and num num are still the most common. And 'NO' of course. Thankfully she learned to "say" yes by nodding her head vigorously. It’s a little easier to know we are understanding her as before if the answer wasn’t ‘no’ we just assumed that was a yes.

The new thing in my car is not only for her to ask for music (“mmmmm” and point to the radio), but specific songs. “YUM YUM!” is for “I like to eat, eat, eat Apples and Bananas!” hitting her head for ‘No more monkeys jumping on the bed’ or arching her arms above her head for ‘Mr Sun’. Or sometimes she’ll just make the ‘itsy-bitsy’ spider gestures and we sing it since I don’t have it on CD.

She won’t eat bananas anymore. Burn out? But she’ll still stuff herself with almost any other fruit. She officially doesn’t like potatoes or chocolate. Breakfast in the mornings are usually Rice Krispies, an Eggo or apple oatmeal.

JT and I decided to stop ordering fried food when we go out to eat after we got fed up with all the kids meals in restaurants basically being a plate of fried food (fried chicken fingers w/ a side of French fries for my kid? No way.). We always ask for steamed veggies instead of the fries, but I wanted to follow the rule that if we won’t something to Bella then JT and I probably shouldn’t be eating either – right?

So no fried food [hint hint Grandma! ;) ], but yesterday I decided to get her a happy meal (my first time ordering one since my own childhood!) w/ chicken nuggets and she wouldn’t even eat the breaded/fried part. Good girl! Although, talking with people at work it doesn’t sound like these healthy habits last. The other morning I got informed that soon enough Mac & Cheese will be the staple of her diet – breakfast, lunch and dinner. Fingers crossed that my kid is the exception, right?

So to sum things up, we’re having fun and it still amazes me how Bella can make these ‘minor’ things (like eating breakfast) extraordinary. Who knew I’d get excited about someone eating waffles for breakfast? But it’s so damn cute to see her point to the freezer and then the toaster!

Oh and congrats to my friend Jessie who is pregnant with #2 – reading her blog about pregnancy symptoms brought back some memories, that’s for sure!

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

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?!

Friday, June 19, 2009

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!)

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

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! :)

Saturday, June 6, 2009

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 :)

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Thursday, May 28, 2009

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!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

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 :)

Thursday, April 30, 2009

In one week...

...my baby will be a year old. I always think it is funny that we know things are coming yet they never cease to amaze us. Every milestone is as amazing as if we didn't know they were coming. I knew Bella would start eating food by herself, yet I'm still amazed to see those little fingers pick up a cheerio and make it into her mouth. I knew she'd start to recognize people and animals, yet I'm convinced that she is a genius when she can point at a picture of a chinchilla after I ask which one is Scrappy....or when she says 'meow!' after seeing a kitty (ok, more like "eeee-oow!"). I knew Bella would start walking, but I also feel as though she is the only child in the world to figure out how to stand on her two legs.
In other words, she just flat out amazes me everyday and I couldn't be more proud of her. I look forward to a lifetime of this!














Sunday, April 26, 2009

Not only is she walking...

...but she taught herself to climb up the stairs. Geezus, when will she slow down?!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Updates (orginal title, I know)



I really shouldn’t be blogging. I have so much work to do ….but I have so much work to do that I’m overwhelmed and ignoring it all to blog instead. Go me.

I just realized how long it has been since I’ve given a true Bella update. So here we go




  • Per the last post, she is walking short distances. She’ll walk between people and
    furniture pretty well. Around 7 or 8 steps is the most I’ve seen her do without
    losing her balance, but I think she probably walks more at my in-law’s during
    the day.



  • Her vocabulary is still the standard Mama, Dada, Baba and Kitty
    (kinda…more like “ki-KI!” and every animal is a kitty now…) but she recently has
    seemed more focused/determined with her babble. I feel like she is really trying
    to tell me something and/or she really thinks she is speaking.



  • She still loves books. My god, how this child loves books. Her favorites include Ten Little Fish, Say Ahh! Finley Pig, Mr Brown Can Moo!, Time for School, Mouse! , Princess Baby Night Night, My Big Animal Book and Baby Einstein Mirror Me ....just to name a few. She has dozens more at home but those are the ones she tends to pick out most often.



  • She gives kisses and only on the lips. Kind of odd; not sure where she learned this. But I've tried to get kisses on the cheek and she'll move her head around to try to get to your lips. Sometimes she forgets to close her mouth when she kisses, so those can get slobbery.



  • For sign language, she still uses "more" and I made one up for "all done" at meal times. Otherwise nothing else has really caught on/we aren't pushing too hard. I can tell her to drink her water and she will, but she doesn't know how to ask for it. There is just a lot of pointing around until we figure out what she is pointing at.



  • She is 11 months old TODAY. Holy crap. 11 months...that means she is almost a year. INSANE. Granted, I knew she would age and I couldn't stop it...but a year means she is almost a toddler...and I've figured out this baby business but a toddler?! What the heck do I do w/ a toddler?!?!



  • On that note, we aren't having a big 1st B-day party for her. It'll just be immediate family (grandmas/grandpas, aunts/uncles); we made a list that included all family and friends but once it got to 50 people we put the kibosh on it. That is just too much for a first birthday and we want to enjoy the party, not be stressed about it.



  • She loves outside and can't wait for nicer weather!









  • Her and Scrappy have become good friends





  • She also went to her first birthday parties - one for Eva (3) and Emma (1), friends, and another for Mia (2), her second cousin. I am looking forward to getting to go to many more children b-day parties in the future...but I didn't take any pictures at these ones. What the heck?! They were fun, though!

  • We took pictures at JC Penny again and weren't impressed. They mistook 'Spring' pictures for Easter pictures so most of them were of her in bunny ears or w/ an Easter basket. I didn't realize that they weren't going to take more non-Easter pictures and then all the sudden our session ended. Oh well...the sitting is free and we get a free 8x10 so it's not like we are spending a ton of money there. I'm looking forward to having JT's cousin take her 1 year pictures in about a month!

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Sunday, March 8, 2009

VOTE!

VOTE VOTE VOTE
(I guess we have to wait for the day when Bella is one of the 200 babies to vote for....so if you don't see her today that is why!)

And re: Michelle's comment ---- then you are a bad auntie.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Bella bella bo bella, banana fana fo fella

mi my mo mella, BELLA!

I'm pretty sure we are going to have to get Bella a kitty at some point. Man, she loves those things. I'll wait until she is older and can fully appreciate it (especially since it'll be a sacrifice to mom, who is mildly allergic), but I feel it is inevitable. I don't know if it is normal baby behavior, but she loves all things animals. It's pretty cute when she'll 'steer' me to take her downstairs to see Scrappy. Or when we look though picture books and she'll point out the dog or cat and say "diy!". So, for now, "diy" is dog or cat. She also knows how to play w/ the cat, Milton, at Grandma and Grandpa's. She'll take the cat toys and wave them in front of Milton - or take one and crawl away, looking back to see if Milton is chasing her. So cute...I'll need to get/post some pics.

You didn't know that my child is a genius? Oh, well now you do.

She loves black beans...here she is asking for "more" (the sign is putting your fingers together and moving them together and apart). She hasn't quite mastered the sign yet, but she is getting there. We have to work on the 'all done' sign next. I know they say babies aren't supposed to over stuff themselves, but I swear that some nights this girl eats more for dinner than I do!





She has an outtie belly button just like her daddy :)


Swimming was fun - but I think it was more fun for Mom and Dad. I don't think she quite knew what was going on. I was too nervous to take her out and hold her in the water, so we left her in her floatie for most of the time.



More teeth are coming in to add up to 6. We need to be better at the brushing routine. She loves it, which is a little bit of a problem since it can take 10 minutes by the time she is done playing w/ the toothbrush. It's fun to see her try to figure out how to do it herself, though. I think she is starting to do that with spoons, too. She just needs to realize that once she puts it in her mouth she has to take it out again...not just sit and chew on it.


Tuesday, February 17, 2009

We are still here

I don’t know what we are busy doing, but we are just busy I guess. I don’t even know where I left off…but the most recent things Bella is amazing us with include
  • Pulling herself up on everything
  • Standing by herself for seconds at a time
  • DEMANDING to take your hands to walk around. She only crawls if she has to.
  • Increasing her vocab to include “nananananana” and “doy doy doy”
  • Eating more solid food like shredded chicken, cheerios, chunks of potato and fruit, etc…and making a BIG mess in the process
  • Getting diaper rash so bad it blistered :(
  • Getting her first bad cold (then giving it to mommy, then to daddy, then to the grandparents)
  • Using a sippy cup by her self (this one is scary to watch…it makes her look so big!)
  • Having her 9 month check up – 28 inches and 20lbs 3 oz
  • Growing out of clothes to the point that Mom and Dad actually had to go buy more
  • Going swimming for the first time


    And I’m sure much more. All I can say is that my favorite part of life right now is being able to go home after work, feed Bella (and JT) then have a good solid chunk of family playtime. The only thing that tops that are weekends where we can have hours on end of family playtime. All we have to do is let her loose with some of her toys and it is hours of entertainment. I can’t imagine it getting much better than this, but I know it does – which makes me very fortunate!

    If you want to see pics check out my facebook page or flickr page. Flickr isn’t updated with recent (swimming!) pics yet but will be soon.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

My baby LOVES...

......water?? Seriously, she can't get enough. We've started giving her a sippy cup at dinner with her cereal and veggies and all she wants is the water! She can't quite handle the sippy cup on her own, so if (god forbid) JT or I put it down to eat some of our own food she gets royally pissed! It is OK though, becuase it is, of course, very cute.

Other updates from the most amazing, talented and intelligent baby ever?

  • She's crawling all over the place, but prefers to "walk" using your hands for support. She is so proud of herself when she stands up (using your support).
  • She talks all the time and has added a 'nanana' to her vocabulary (which also includes mamama, bababa, dadadada, and screaming in joy).
  • Her laugh keeps getting heartier - that's the best word I can describe. There is nothing better than a good, hearty baby laugh.
  • She's eating "finger food" (gerber puffs) and loves to shove them in her mouth but hasn't quite realized how long to keep them in there. The puffs end up falling out of her mouth in a pile of mush before she can swallow, but she's working on it!
  • She is starting to mimic and remember things. If we show her something on a toy, she'll lead us towards it/crawl to it and do it herself later. Sounds so simple, but it is so amazing to experience considering a few months ago all she did was lay (lie?) and look at us.

Christmas was amazing and fun, but will be even more fun next year when she knows what is going on (and how spoiled she is).

I’ll try to get some pics up later. Just think of the cutest baby you’ve ever seen and then multiply the cuteness by 100 – that’ll be Bella right now. (And yes, I’m being this obnoxious on purpose!).

Also, we are super excited because our good friends Emily and Eric had a baby GIRL on Jan 3! This is the first other girl in the group that will be close in age to Bella. Of COURSE they will be required to be BFFs! J We welcome Madilyn Sophia and can not wait to meet her!