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!