Excuse The Mess...We Live Here.

Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps

2012-01-23T18:48:00.000-08:00

Not long ago, JT made some awesome lettuce wraps with ground beef. I was in charge of stopping at Cub to get lettuce on my way home from work. For some reason, I thought two huge bunches of bibb lettuce is what we needed. We used about 1/4 of what I bought.

I decided that tonight was the night to use it up and found an awesome looking Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wrap recipe. My verdict? Super easy to make, but cut back on the lime juice. I love lime, but it was too much even for me. My husband, however, loved it and even ate the last of it up during dinner - unheard of for a guy who loves leftovers more than stuffing himself at dinner. So I guess overall it was a winner and will be made again (with about 1/2 the lime juice).

I didn't think to take a picture of our final product (the one above is from Taste of Home), but I served it with white rice. I mixed in carrots and celery with the chicken but served the shredded cucumber on the side since I don't like it. We had crumbled blue cheese so I made the sauce in the recipe, but regular blue cheese dressing would be fine as well.

The Psychology of Pinterest

2012-01-23T09:29:00.000-08:00

It's no secret that I am one of many who are addicted to Pinterest. Since I've posted a few original pins, I now realize the pure satisfaction that comes out of other people finding your items pin-worthy. It is validation that what you like or did was awesome/interesting enough for someone to want to save it and share it with their friends.

It feels good even if something you 're-pin' gets 're-pinned', but when it is something that originated with you it's even more gratifying. I modified a chocolate jello shot recipe and posted about it recently and have to admit that I love all the repins! 13 and counting. Go, ego, go!

What to blog about?

2012-01-23T09:15:00.000-08:00

My blog is one of those things that I wish I invested more time on. I have lots of things in my head that I often wish I could just write down. Not anything revolutionary or even all that interesting, but I think it is human nature to want an outlet. Someplace to try to sort out all the nonsense. A place to share your story. A way to document memories.

I do my best thinking in two places: the shower and laying in bed at 3am after getting up with Addy. Unfortunately, neither are conducive to hopping on my laptop and pounding out a thought-provoking or entertaining post. Instead, I'll think myself through it in the middle of the night - swearing I'll remember word-for-word and write it out the next day. I never follow through. I never even really remember what I was thinking about.

I'm going to try to be better at writing more. Again, not because I necessarily have life-changing things to share. But because I think it will help me let go of some of the things that clog up my brain and will help alleviate some guilt that I won't remember EVERY SINGE MINUTE of my girls' growing up.

To help with the latter - here's a short recap of our weekend:

All day Fri and Sat, Bella talked about going out to eat for tacos. Sounded good to me, so Sat night we went to El Toro (one of my favorites!). After looking at the pictures on the kid menu, what did Bella decide to order? A hamburger, of course!! She did get rice with it, though.
Going out with the two girls can be hit or miss. We used to take Bella out to eat with us at least once a week. And when Addy was small enough we'd continue to go. But we've been limiting eating in public because Addy is in that middle stage where she wants to be able to run around and be loud. She did really good at El Toro, other than a phase of SCREAMING (with joy) at EVERYONE who walked by. And since we were in a booth by the door, that was a lot of people. Granted, she got a lot of smiles but it still stressed us out as we didn't want other diners to be annoyed.
Sunday we bundled up and played out in the snow. Addy's first time! We tested out Bella's new sled. The sad thing is that one around the yard and more grass was showing than snow. I'm not much for hanging outside in the winter, but if we have to be outside there might as well be snow to play in!
Visited my Grandpa Sunday and had a good time looking through old pictures. Even took one home of my Grandma and Grandpa on their honeymoon and one of before they were married. They look so happy, I just wanted to have it. My Grandpa passed away several years ago, but my Grandpa is 89 and still energetic and sharper than a lot of people half his age. Even though there are the stories he tells over and over, I realized that I don't spend enough time just sitting and listening. He has more stories to tell - he just needs pictures to remind him sometimes. And it's so awesome to hear him talk so fondly of my Grandma and still be so proud of things like her being the lead in her school play or saying things like "I bet you can find Grandma in these pictures. Just look for the prettiest girl". Love it.
Our bathroom is painted! Three years later, there is color on the walls. It's been functional for a while, but in usual Trafton fashion it not only took us a while to decide on a color - but the paint can sat around for a while before it got on the walls. I'll post pictures soon!

How Piglet and Bella Met...

2012-01-18T09:45:00.000-08:00

Bella: "Mom! Do you remember before Addy was born?"
Me: "I sure do. Do you remember before Addy was born?"
B: "Oh yes... before Addy was born I met Piglet"
Me: "Oh? How did you and Piglet meet?"
B: "Well, Piglet lived far, far, far, far away. But she had a motorcycle. A motorcycle with big breaks that she could press really hard."

I was kind of disappointed when Addy interrupted our conversation by trying to put a "pretty" (hair clip) in Bella's hair. Which is completly unacceptable becuase Bella doesn't need clips anymore ...becuase according to her "my bangs grew out while I was taking a nap!". But I digress - maybe I can get Bella to continue the story of how her and Piglet met tonight. I know you are all waiting on the edge of your seats.

Chocolate Mocha Jello Shots [PCL]

2012-01-17T18:47:00.000-08:00

PCL = Pinterest Come to Life

Every year our group of "married friends" has a belated holiday party in January. This year's I made some fancy Jello shots inspired by a blog I found on Pinterest, That's So Michelle. She has a lot of fab jello shot recipes, but I thought a modified version of her Peppermint Mocha Holiday Jello Shots would be perfect for the party.

I. Loved. Them.

I did make some modifications and doubled the recipe:

brewed 2 cups of Keurig coffee - I had Green Mountain Breakfast Blend on hand.
let it sit until warm, but not hot. Then pour into a sauce pan.
sprinkled 2 packages of Knorr gelatin on top and let it sit for 2 min
added 1/2 cup of sugar and stir
slowly stired in 2 cups of Pinnacle Whipped Chocolate vodka. They were pretty strong, so you can add less if you want...or the original recipe calls for Godiva Liquor, but vodka is cheaper!
poured into small cups. I found mine at Walgreens.
let sit overnight. Once ready to serve, topped with Redi Whip and added a chocolate wafer straw (something like this) as a garnish. The original used a mini-candy can, but since it wasn't really Christmas anymore I thought a cookie was more appropriate.

They are best eaten with a spoon and cold. Once they sat out for a while they started to get runny, so put them back in the fridge if you don't eat them all. The above made about 18 shots. And like I said,they were pretty strong... but that's how I like them :) They do have a strong coffee flavor, so if you want to cut that down maybe only brew 1 cup. In the end, I enjoyed them and will make them again!

Broccoli Salad [PCL]

2012-01-16T10:25:00.000-08:00

PCL = Pinterest Come to Life

I made Broccoli Salad this weekend for a party. It sounded and looked SO GOOD....but it didn't turn out as good as I expected. Everyone else claimed to like it, even my husband who I know would tell me the truth. But I thought it was kind of "blah". I expected it to taste like the broccoli salad in the salad bar at Ruby Tuesdays but it didn't.

I don't know what it was missing, or if my memory of the salad I was comparing it to was off...maybe it was the dressing. It just wasn't flavorful. I wouldn't make it again but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try it. I might just be too high maintenance when it comes to broccoli salad!

(no pictures taken, but mine looked pretty much like this picture from That's So Michelle ...minus the fancy bamboo bowl and serving spoons)

My Girls!

2012-01-16T10:11:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to write a post about my girls for a while now, but I have so much in my head I'd love to share about them that it always overwhelmed me. So I put it off. Isn't that silly? I should write it all out now so I can keep updating and capturing these memories/thoughts in writing! So here goes. I'll try to keep it somewhat limited but be warned that I have a lot to gush about :)

Bella
Bella is now 3.5 yrs old and makes me laugh every day. She also can make me extremely frustrated...but honestly, I believe it is because she is too smart for her own good.

Not to brag…but it’s my blog, so I’m going to brag away: About a month ago her preschool did a bi-annual assessment of each of the students. Bella exceeded expectations, of course ;) She not only knew all the colors, letters, shapes, numbers…but could count higher than anyone in the class, identify both capital and lower case letters, tell the teacher what sounds each letter made, read a few small words, tell the teachers WHY each shape was the way it was (squares have 4 sides the same size, rectangles have 2 big and 2 small, etc) and write her name pretty darn well. I am so so proud of her and know that this is because of a lot of one-on-one attention and work from everyone – my mom, my sister-in-law, the teachers at school, etc. She adores rhyming and comes up with the silliest things. She can read a handful of words and knows how to spell words out. The other day we had a bottle of Taco Bell taco sauce on the table and she spelled out “Taco” by herself and already knows “Bell” (because of her name). I never thought I’d be so proud of a kid saying “Hey, this says Ta-ta-c-c-co Bell!”

Bella is also insanely silly. Of course, all toddlers are but Bella’ imagination is just so entertaining. She has a few imaginary friends, but the most prominent is Piglet. Yes, like from Pooh. Which is interesting because she’s not really into watching/reading Pooh stories. But Piglet is always around and “very naughty”. At first, we’d hear about Piglet and her family daily (It’s Piglet’s birthday today! Piglet’s Mommy had a baby brother! Piglet’s Mommy works at Target! Piglet’s family is staying over night with us!). And now I hear how naughty Piglet is – more than once we’ve been called into her room after she’s gone to bed because “Piglet is kicking Roo” and we have to escort Piglet out. Piglet also doesn’t listen and goes on a lot of time outs. The only downside is that she has started using Piglet as an excuse – if she did something wrong she’ll say “but Piglet ….”. We’ve tried to nip that in the butt right away. She has to be reminded that Piglet can still get HER into trouble.

We are working on her being more independent, the one thing that came out of her preschool assessment – putting on coat and shoes by herself, going potty all by herself, getting dressed, etc. She’s getting much better at it and many days wants to do these things by herself, but still has moments where she wants Mommy to do everything. I’m really working on the dressing and potty thing though as that is super helpful for her to do alone with Addy around!

Soon I’ll do an “interview” with Bella (an idea I found on Pinterest) because every day she seems to learn, say, do, experience something new. I want to do a better job at capturing all this because I think she’ll enjoy reading it someday too!

Adalyn

Oh my sweet, Addy! If Bella is by best friend, Adalyn is my little cutie cuddle bug. I can’t get enough of her. Granted, she is starting to get into the independent/”no” phase (just this weekend she started shaking her head for no and pulling things away she didn’t want you to have) but for the most part she is a happy, giggly, snuggly baby-almost-toddler. She’s starting to talk more and more but mostly communicates what she wants by grunting and pointing. She can get her point across quite well this way. I love it when she actually grabs my hand and moves it to what she wants me to pick up/feel.

The past 2 weeks or so she’s started to get all the animal noises down. So she’s in the adorable phase where she sees a monkey and goes “ah ah ah!” or blows raspberries for an Elephant or tweets like a bird. Words she says includes: Mama, Dada, “Bella/Lala” , kitty, milk, knock, book [she loves the hard ‘k’ words], bye bye, nigh night… and will try to mimic just about anything now.

We’re down to no bottles during the day and the past 5 days she hasn’t had a bottle in the middle of the night. Up until this point she was still waking up between 2-3am and we fed her a bottle to get her back to sleep. She still gets a bottle right before bed which will probably have to be cut out soon – but I just love the snuggle time.

Addy adores books. I remember Bella liking books…but not like this. Addy can sit by herself for quite a while just flipping through books. Jeremy and her often spend a good chunk of the evening reading. Addy also loves dolls and anything that plays music. She loves to dance!

There, now I feel somewhat caught up...even though I could write for days about those two. Now I feel like I can add more 'real time' stories, pictures and memories.

Ground Beef Shepherd's Pie [PCL]

2012-01-03T18:10:00.000-08:00

PCL = Pinterest Come to Life

Tonight for dinner I made ground beef shepherd's pie. The beauty of Pinterest is all I had to do was search for 'ground beef' and I pinned about half a dozen recipes to try next time I have a pound of meat without any ideas of what to make.

The shepherd's pie was pretty good and easy to make. I used Idahoan Loaded Baked Flavored Mashed Potatoes for the topping - one of my favorites and so so good. I also used those for the meatloaf cupcakes I made a few weeks back. Actually, the shepherd's pie was pretty similar to the cupcakes except I mixed carrots, peas, celery and onion in with the meat.

Two pluses were that I got to use my new pie pan I got from Santa, and Bella was super excited to eat pie for supper. I should have let it sit a little longer before "slicing" into it, or maybe use less beef broth. So the presentation wasn't great, but it tasted good - which is what really matters!

Overall I rate this as a dish good enough and easy enough to add into our normal rotation!

Frozen Slow Cooker Meals [PCL]

2012-01-02T19:15:00.000-08:00

PCL = Pinterest Come to Life

Quite a while back, I completed my very first Pinterest inspired task - creating several Frozen Slow Cooker Meals. I didn't take a picture of my own, so I stole this one from the original blog.

I tried five different recipes. It was a lot of work to create so many at once, so next time I'd narrow it down to two or three. I went to the grocery store only for the supplies I needed and spent about $175 to make 9 meals. At $20 a meal, I'd say the task was more for saving time rather than money.

You can find the recipes here and here. This is what I made and what I thought of them:

Stephanie's Goulash - good, would make this again
Chicken Curry - would add more curry next time, but overall good and would make again
Chicken N' Cherries - SKIP IT. Flavor is 'off' and the chicken felt sticky.
French Beef Dip - very good, even better the next day!
Orange-Beef Stew - alright...flank steak is more expensive than I'd like to spend for a freezer meal so I probably won't make again.

There are still a few in the freezer, but once they are used up I'll make more. It is really nice to have a back-up plan to throw in the crock pot in the morning. Just leave enough time for it to thaw enough to fit in the pot - take it out right when you get up and put it in the crockpot as you are heading out the door.

Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese and Baked Parmesan Tomatoes [PCL]

2012-01-02T19:01:00.000-08:00

PCL = Pinterest Come to Life

Yum and Yum!

Tonight's dinner was totally Pinterest inspired. Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese was amazing and Baked Parmesan Tomatoes was an easy, delicious twist on a vegetable I normally don't like.

The Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese took a little prep work - chopping and measuring everything - but was totally worth it. So, so good. Not good for me...but next time I may try to make a lighter version. I used canned chicken and made a batch sans hot sauce for the girls.

I'm normally not a huge tomato fan, but the Baked Parmesan Tomatoes were really good. I think I cooked them a little too long, so make sure to watch the time, but just 1/2 tbls of Parmesan cheese on each slice added great flavor. I'd do it again, but I guess Jeremy isn't a fan of cooked tomatoes...the things you learn after 11 years together!

My First "Original" Pin [PCL]

2012-01-02T18:43:00.000-08:00

PCL = Pinterest Come to Life

I put "original" in quotes because I'm sure I saw this somewhere and it inspired me today. I doubt I'm the first to think of this but I didn't have a Pin to repin, so I took a picture and uploaded my work directly. Someone already repinned it!

I was inspired today as I continued to clean up Christmas aftermath. I cut up an empty wrapping paper tube and used it for all of Bella's hair binders, clips and bows.

It's not pretty, but it'll do the job. We'll see how long it lasts. My work already paid of, however, when Jeremy gave me compliments for organizing. He's usually the one coming up with 'solutions' for things...so he was impressed with me. It's the little things in life. <3

Magic Milk Paint [PCL]

2012-01-02T18:29:00.000-08:00

[PCL = Pinterest Come to Life]

Bella and I tried Magic Milk Paint this past weekend. The end result? Eh. It LOOKS cool, but other than that wasn't very exciting.

The "magic" part is when you touch the food coloring with your toothpick dipped in dish soap - the food coloring "runs away" from it. That IS cool. But lasts about a second and then the thrill is gone. After that, Bella had fun stirring the colors around in milk but it ended up being too messy and wasteful for what it was worth.

My advice would be to skip this project. Save the milk for dinner and the food coloring for cookies.

Juice Me!

2011-07-15T06:56:00.000-07:00

I really wish I had a reason to attend The Creative Connection -- how fun does it sound? It's like everything that I WISH I was wrapped into 3 days.

But for now I'll admire from afar. Oh and I'll be wishing that I win a LaLanne Juicer via this contest!

Back for selfish reasons

2011-04-28T14:16:00.000-07:00

I'm back for a selfish reason - I want to win a prize! Go check out my friend Daphne's blog for your chance to win a cool taggie blanket!

Family Update Part 2 - Adalyn

2011-02-03T04:30:00.001-08:00

Oh Adalyn, Addy, Addy Girl, my Angel... I had every intention of calling Adalyn 'Sweet Pea' but for some reason Angel seemed more fitting and stuck. I'll admit that I find it very cheesy (and no, sweet pea isn't!) but I can't help it. It's what comes out every time I see her. So she is now subjected to me calling her Angel, Angel Baby, Angel Face, Angel Baby Face. Seriously. :) I just look in her face and can't help it!

Addy is already suffering from second child syndrome. I don't blog about her, take way less pictures and set her in the bouncer or swing to sit a lot more than I did with Bella. But I'm trying to get better with it all. Since I didn't blog much about her, and I'm too lazy to look back and what I did write, I'll do a quick recap of the last 2.5 months.

The first month was a blur. I forgot how tough the lack of sleeping was and how much breastfeeding sucks the first 6 weeks. Just like Bella, Addy was (IS) a great baby. She only cried when she was hungry, wet/dirty or tired. Unlike Bella (at least that I can remember?) she wouldn't sleep on her own for the first month. I spent a lot of time in our new Lay-Z-Boy with her. Eventually we got to the point where she'd sleep in the bassinet at night, but even today she only naps on me, in the carseat or bouncer/swing. This is what Bella was like too, though. (Oh yeah, another consequence of second child syndrome is that I'm constantly comparing her to Bella... oops.)

Around 5 weeks we got our first smiles, and boy what smiles! Addy smiles with her whole face - big mouth, eyes, cheeks (she may have a dimple!). You can just tell she is HAPPY. And she smiles so much! As a result, I spend less time showing her books/toys and more time looking into her face talking to her and making her smile. I can't get enough. And the giggles! She's started to giggle now and it's the best. Those don't come as easy, but last night when Jeremy came home from work all he had to do was look at her and she'd giggle at him. I would have video taped it but I didn't want to move and ruin the moment!

On the flip side, she can turn into what my sister likes to call 'angry bebeh'. One thing Bella didn't do was that hardcore, redfaced, can-barley-breath cry. Addy does it all the time - sometimes it means she's wet but most of the time it means she's tired/overstimulated/done playing. Or she wants me. She is VERY attached to me at the moment, again something that we didn't deal with when Bella was this young. Bella was always good about whoever holding her and feeding her. While I see Addy getting better, for the majority of the time she'll only calm down with me. You can also tell she likes to know where I am at all times. Of course it feels good but since I go back to work soon I know she'll have to get over it...

As the weeks march on she's not as gassy or stuffed up, which helps at night. For a week she slept 6-8 hours at at time and now we are back to waking up every 4 hours. I had a feeling it wouldn't last! But 4 hours is better than 3 so we are making improvements.

Other random things - she takes a pacifier to calm down but spits it out right before falling asleep, likes to look at books (one simply called 'Colors' is her current favorite), Daddy likes to sing her 'Teapot' and play 'seahorse' with her (she got a pink, stuffed seahorse for Christmas that plays music and Daddy likes to make it 'swim' in front her face), Mommy likes to sing her songs like "Addy, Addy Give Me Your Answer Do" and "Oh my Addy, Oh my Addy, Oh my Addy Clementine" (both of which Bella also sings to her - oh for cute!), and overall she just brings a lot of joy is a perfect addition to our family. I look forward to her and Bella growing up together and seeing their similarities, differences, breaking up a lot of sister-fights and dealing with girl drama :)

wow, a month and a half...

2011-02-01T18:25:00.000-08:00

I think about blogging just about every day. I have so much going on in my head that I want to write down and get recorded, but yet I never seem to either have the time or energy to do it. I started writing a 'family update' blog a week ago and only got through me and JT. I hope to write about Addy and Bella soon because they change every day! I need to record whats going on NOW before I forget.

I'm also getting caught up on your blogs. I finally found an app for my iPod Touch that allows me to easily read blogs. I'm hardly on my laptop anymore thanks to my nifty little "iTouch". But it doesn't really encourage my blogging either as I don't like to type out more than a sentance or two on it at a time.

But here's hoping I can get recomitted to blogging as I really like it as a way to go back and remember details that are too easily forgotten.

Family Update Part 1 - the adults

2011-01-24T04:50:00.000-08:00

Note - it's been so long since I've blogged that I stole an idea from my friend Jessie and decided to do a general family update. But I started it over a week ago and still am only halfway done. So I'm posting the update on me and Jeremy now and will write about the girls next. There is so much I want to say about them that it's overwhelming me a bit!

Jeremy – Jeremy got a promotion at work last November – one that he really wanted and totally deserved. He is now the Finance Manager for the factory at the Golden Valley Honeywell. Honestly not really sure what his official title is, but that pretty much explains it. The only downside is that the factory employees start work pretty early so JT feels like he should get there early too – by 7am. It’s been working out while I’m on leave as I can take care of the girls in the morning, but when I go back to work it’s going to be tough. He’s still getting home around 6:00pm and if he can’t get there by 7am then he may have to work later… but we’ll work it out.

I will say that when he is home, he’s totally focused on the family. Thankfully he’s not the type to check his work email all night or on weekends or have to take phone calls. Also, no offense to those who enjoy these things …but I also thank god that he’s not into video games or even things like ice fishing. When he’s home, he’s either working on the house or with the family. Although I’ll admit that I wish he’d get on Facebook :}, I’ll accept the fact that he just isn’t really into it.
He has been working on the bathroom as much as possible, but some tile saw drama and the frigid temps have set him back. Now that he has a nice, new working saw it’s hard for him to cut tile (using water!) in the freezing cold garage. Which has been OK because he’s been working on other little projects and helping get things put away/organized from the holidays. Just this weekend he built some much needed shelving for the downstairs play area.

Jeremy is a great dad. Sometimes I think that goes without saying, but I realize I should say it more often. The girls absolutely adore him and the feeling is mutual. No one can make Bella laugh like him, and I find myself laughing at how goofy he gets. Ok, anyone that knows JT knows he’s always been goofy –but to hear the silly songs or games he comes up with takes it to the next level. Yesterday he somehow ended up playing dinosaur hide and see – he was a tyrannosaurus and Bella was a teradactyl….neither of them broke character during the entire game. On the flip side, he tends to be the stricter one when it comes to discipline. I think he just has more patience and refuses to ‘give in’ which is really helpful when I feel like I’m at my wits end.

JT is great with Addy too, but she’s still at a stage where she needs me alot. The two of them will sit and hang out while Bella and I play, but when Addy gets upset I tend to be the only one who can comfort her. This frustrates JT as he felt like he could always calm Bella down when she was a baby, but I’m certain this is a stage that will pass once I’m not home with Addy all day. I explain that she’s just used to me plus I have the ability to default to the no-fail method of nursing her to calm her down and get her to sleep. But he tries to make up for it in other ways – diaper changes, getting up in the night to reswaddle her, etc…

Me – I’m doing great. Honestly. I’ll admit that when Bella was a baby, I didn’t do so great. I was stressed out and overwhelmed all the time. I hated nursing. I was lonely at home. I’d have panic attacks that I was doing things wrong. Around 4 months things got better, but I’ll admit that when I would think back to the time I was home on leave of absence from work I wouldn’t miss it.

It’s totally different this time. A complete 180. Maybe it’s because I’ve done this once before and feel more comfortable, maybe it’s because I talked to my OB about it early on to try to figure out how to prevent the anxiety and panic attacks, maybe it’s because compared to a 2.5 yr old a baby seems so easy to take care of…but I am loving my time at home. Of course it was a tough adjustment at first, but overall I’m just much more relaxed and enjoying the experience more.

My typical day consists of getting up with Addy between 4am-5am and nursing her, then dozing in the chair on and off until I either wake Bella up or she wakes up on her own (depending on what she is doing that day). Then we have breakfast and get Bella ready for the day. I’ll drive her to my Mom’s or my In-laws house and then come back home with Addy. Typically Addy will nurse and fall asleep on me while I play around on my laptop or watch some TV. This is my relaxing time I allow myself with her during the day. After this, I try to be more productive – run errands, clean, organize. Addy hasn’t been going down in her crib for naps, so she’ll either take a long nap in her carseat (if we’ve been out) or bouncer (rare) or take little cat naps on me after she nurses. I was worried at first about her not having a couple long naps, but I guess this is normal – some babies take these cat naps and then have a long nap every few days to make up for it (which is what she does). I then either pack up Addy to go pick up Bella or JT will pick her up on his way home from work. It depends on when he leaves. I don't really mind going back as it gives the family a chance to see Addy, but when it's so cold out it kind of sucks.

I go back to work in 1.5 weeks… I have mixed feelings about it. At first I wanted to quit and be a stay at home mom, then I was convinced part-time would be the only way to go, now that I have to go back full time (no part time option in my current job) I’m OK with it but still not looking forward to it. It’s been so nice being at home and being able to get some productive stuff done throughout the day, but I know it’s only because Bella isn’t around and Addy isn’t mobile. It’d be a totally different situation if I was at home. Since we are lucky enough to have family help with daycare (more on this later with Bella) and I do technically enjoy working (I guess…:P), our situation will work out and I don’t feel TOO guilty going back.

I’ve started a new diet and exercise regimen. I’m using MyFitnessPal.com to track my food intake and I love it so far. Once I hit 6 weeks postparyum I stopped allowing myself to use the excuse that I was still healing to eat whatever I wanted and be lazy. Now I’m working to eat around 1700 calories a day (I get an ‘extra’ 500 for breastfeeding) and be as active as I can. Right now I’m only making it to the gym once a week…but I’m trying to give myself some slack since I DO have a 2month old at home who is pretty dependent on me. I got on my Wii Fit Plus once while Addy was sleeping and hope to work that in more. But in general just trying to be up and moving as much as I can. So far I’m down 10 lbs in 4 weeks so I hope that continues! My goal is to be down 55lbs by my 30th bday on Oct 24. And I’m seriously committed to this…not like other times with Weight Watchers when I half assed it. I WILL get to a healthy weight this year.

Oh and my new obsession is my iPod Touch. Love it. Not sure Jeremy does as it's about as addicting as a Blackberry or iPhone. It's perfect for me, though, as I was always jealous of those with an iPhone but never wanted to pay the extra fee per month for the data plan. I hardly use my cell phone so it seemed ridiculous to pay so much a month for it. But my iTouch as all the functionality of an iPhone just w/o the phone service...as long as there is WiFi available. That is the only catch. No using it in the car (which is probably a good thing) or out and about in non-WiFi areas. But honestly I don't need to be THAT connected. Plus I've been surprised at where free WiFi is available - MG Community Center, Bucas, Childrens Theatre... and what I really use it the most for is tracking my food on MFP.com which I can do without internet. So now I have the benefit of downloading and wasting my time with all the cool apps and obsessively checking my email and facebook without paying a monthly fee!

Elmo Games

2010-12-14T05:05:00.000-08:00

Lately, Bella’s favorite activity is playing “Elmo Games” on my laptop. I log into Seasamestreet.com and let her at it. It amazes me because she knows how to use my laptop (with the touch pad, not even a real mouse!), navigate the site and play most of the games. She knows how to use the arrow buttons to make the screen go up and down, start games over, pick a new game…everything!

It’s nice because it occupies her for as long as I let her play but can also cause drama if she asks to play and I have to say no. She likes to ask to play first thing in the morning or right before we have to go somewhere, it seems! We’ve started using it as a reward system – if she’s good and doesn’t fuss when we get home from work and through dinner she can play Elmo Games after dinner, for example.

What also amazes me is the fact that she can actually play most of the games and does really well. It doesn’t matter what it’s about – counting, alphabet, sorting, patterns, mazes, sounds, etc. She can do it all! The only games she needs help with are ones that require you to move the mouse quickly to click on something that moves. It’s hard to use your finger on the touchpad that fast.

I contemplated getting her a Leapster/vTech handheld game for Christmas but decided to wait until her 3rd birthday. It just seemed like a little too much for a 2 year old. Plus Auntie Lissa is getting her the Tag Jr. Reading System which I think she’ll like a lot.

Of course I shouldn’t be surprised since Bella does know how to use my sister’s iPhone …it won’t be long until she knows more about computers than I do…

Feeling Crafty

2010-11-30T14:43:00.000-08:00

I spent all my "free" time today (aka Adalyn's nap times) making this Advent Calendar for Bella. I stole this idea from my friend Jessie who posted the idea on her blog a few days ago.

Mine isn't as fancy as the sample picture, but it will get the job done. I also colored the backs red and green so Bella can easily tell which days have been used. I forgot to pick up trinkets for it, so part of the fun was scrounging around the house to find a few things to get it started (tootsie rolls, stickers and a "B" star charm). I'd better remember to fill the rest before day 6 comes along!

Bella Update

2010-11-29T03:59:00.001-08:00

I haven’t blogged about Bella lately. I meant to write a Halloween recap blog but now that just seems silly. So all I’ll say is that Bella loved Halloween. She wanted to be three things – a robot, Minnie Mouse and a Scary Bear. We stuck with Minnie Mouse only. On Saturday, we went to Maple Grove to trick or treat at the shops. It was fun but BUSY! It did allow us to stop at the Grandparents houses afterwards though to show off her costume. Since Nana was working we stopped at SuperValu in Crystal to surprise her. Sunday we went trick or treating in the neighborhood – I stuck with it for about 30 minutes and then let Bella and JT finish up. We ended up handing out candy to a whopping 15 kids at our house. But we did pass a lot of neighbors with their younger kids out and about so I bet we just missed them.

Bella loves talking about the holidays and always asks which one is next. Unfortunately, she’ll bring up Halloween here and there and get sad when we say it’s so far away. The good news is that we did let her have some candy (two pieces each on Sat and Sun) but after the weekend she never asked about candy again! We still have a huge bag in our kitchen but it’s like she forgot we even had it. Just yesterday was the first time we busted a sucker out of the Halloween bag for her…otherwise JT and I have been making a pretty good dent in the stash.

Since Addy was born it feels like Bella grew exceptionally fast. I pick her up and I swear she weighs 100 lbs. She talks about things and has these expressions that I never have heard/wonder where it came from. She’s really into pretending and dressing up. One of her favorite games right now is ‘Dr Daisy’ where all her Mickey Mouse characters need to go to the Dr (Daisy). Minnie’s issue is that she has old tap shoes…honestly no idea where Bella came up with that ailment.

She loves to dance. We’ll put on the Wiggles “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” DVD and she doesn’t’ just sit in a trance anymore - she’ll actually get up and do the same dances. It’s nice to see her imitating and learning. She makes up and names her own dances. One she demonstrated on Thanksgiving for everyone that involved stomping feet, shaking your butt and blinking your eyes.

The adjustment to being a big sister is going fine. She gets jealous sometimes and tells people to put the baby down, but mostly Bella goes about her business as normal with an occasional break to look at the baby and exclaim “Oh, look at the baby! She is sooo cuuute!” If Addy is making noise Bella will ask what is wrong or tell us to feed or change her. Also, everyone has been doing a great job at making sure big sister gets as much attention as little sister which helps someone who is so used to being the center of attention!

Sweet Adalyn

2010-11-26T11:29:00.001-08:00

One week down and just like my labor story, the first week with Adalyn has been so different than the first week with Bella. The biggest difference is that JT has been home with us all week. It’s been so nice and I don’t know how I would have done it without him. Because we were in the hospital so long with Bella (Mon night through Friday) and she didn’t even come home until Saturday of the week she was born, it took up the entire week JT had off. So JT was home with us one day before he had to go back to work. Adalyn’s timing worked out much better though.

We brought Adalyn home on Sunday afternoon. JT’s parents and sister came to visit Sunday night as well as friends Sarah and Jason. The first few nights were rough in terms of sleep. She slept on us in the living room and it was the expected unexpected. We didn’t know when she’d want to wake up, sleep, eat, cry, etc. By Wed we decided it was time to get her used to her bassinet and thankfully she’s taken to it well. For the past 2 days she’s gone down for naps in the bassinet and sleeps in it at night! I’m hoping this keeps up as she gets older because it’s nice to lay down in bed at night rather than try to get comfy on the arm chair.

Feeding has been a struggle. I’m nursing and having more pain this time than I did with Bella. It started in the hospital and has resulted in..well, a lot of pain. I won’t go into details but anyone who has nursed may be able to imagine what things started to look like. I’ll admit, it also resulted in a lot of tears and frustration but I am forcing myself to be patient since the reality is that breastfeeding isn’t easy and it does typically hurt. I know that what I’m experiencing isn’t normal, though so I’ve reached out for help. We’ve talked to a home nurse, Adalyn’s pediatrician and I’ve contacted my local La Leche League leader. As of today, things are getting better. Not as much pain and things are healing. I still have thoughts that I’d like to just quit and bottle feed, but know I won’t for a lot of reasons. So now it’s figuring out how to make it easier on me.

Otherwise the adjustment has been going well. I’m much more relaxed with Adalyn than I was with Bella. She sleeps all the time (as did Bella, but I was still stressed out all the time with her). I’m more confident. My hormones seem to be back in check (I haven’t cried for no reason yet today! Yay!) I’ll be keeping a close eye on my hormones/emotions because I let it go on a little too long with Bella before I got help and don’t want that to happen again this time around.

Bella has been adjusting well too. It’s helped that she’s gone to my mom’s or my sister-in-law’s 3 times this week (she was home with us Mon and Thurs) to give us quiet time at home with Adalyn. Plus she loves it. I don’t think Bella would be as happy if she was home with me all day everyday. When she gets home the first thing she’ll say is “Oooh, look at the baby! She is so cute!” and will give kisses and pokes. But then for the most part it’s as if baby isn’t around. She goes about her business and we play. Sometimes she’ll tell me to set the baby down and yesterday we had a mini-meltdown when I had to feed Addy and Bella didn’t want me to. Again, it’s nice that JT is here to help defuse those type of situations.

As I mentioned earlier, Addy sleeps most of the time but the past 2 days she’s had some good awake periods. I love looking at her face and watching her expressions. I still can’t get over that she was in my stomach just a week ago and now she is here. I feel like a new mom again in so many ways.

Big thanks to all our family that has helped us out this week (and the past 2.5 years with Bella!!). I couldn’t have done it without all the help and look forward to the weeks to come!

Adalyn's Labor/Birth Story

2010-11-24T14:08:00.001-08:00

Wed, 11/17 I went to work and started feeling cramps/aches. I knew I wasn’t having contractions because the pain never went away. It wasn’t severe so I continued work as normal, but it was bad enough that when I heard that JT had to work late I invited myself to stay at my parent’s house for dinner. I knew I wouldn’t feel up to taking care of Bella by myself that night.

Wed night after we all got home, I thought I was starting to have contractions but they were mild and irregular. I didn’t want to get my hopes up …but couldn’t help but be excited that something may actually happen soon. The contractions continued through the night (still mild and inconsistent) and woke me up a few times, so I called into work in the morning deciding that I should wait to see how Thursday played out. I went back to bed and by the time I woke up at 10am on Thursday, the contractions had went away completely.

I knew the best thing for me would be to get up and walk around and be active, but I was so tired, felt so big and just didn’t have any energy. So I relaxed most of the day hoping that the contractions would magically start again. Around 2:00 I forced myself to get up and start cleaning the house. About 4:30 I started feeling something, but wasn’t sure if it was just from vacuuming and running up and down the steps… so I went to get Bella letting my in-laws know that I was hoping to be in the hospital soon but not really believing that I would be.

By the time JT got home at 6:00, I now knew I was officially having contractions but they still weren’t regular. I kept track during dinner (hamburgers and tater tots) and they were coming anywhere from 5-8 min apart. I decided to call my parents since they’d be watching Bella the next day anyway and it’d make more sense for them to just take her overnight “just in case” anything happened. Again, I was really hoping baby was coming but wasn’t convinced anything really would happen. But my parents came to get Bella and JT and I continued to track the contractions.

At 9:30pm they were regular at 8 min apart and the pain was still manageable, but was getting worse. I decided to call Labor and Delivery to see what they would say. I was told that I could come in if the pain wasn’t manageable, but if I could wait another 30-60 min the contractions might get closer together. I decided to wait. Around 11:00 they were still 8 min apart but the pain was getting worse. I was going back and forth regarding if I should go in and JT obviously didn’t know what to do either. We finally decided to just lay down in bed and try to get some rest. I figured if something was really going to happen we might as well get some sleep.
The first contraction I had laying down changed my mind. I decided I had to go in. So we got up and started getting ready…then I changed my mind again and thought maybe I was being too anxious. Finally, I decided to call L&D and even though they sounded hesitant they said they’d plan on me coming in. The drive to the hospital (10 min) I second guessed myself but knew I made the right decision when contractions started coming just a couple of minutes apart and I had 3 by the time we walked from the car to the 4th floor of Mercy Hospital.

They checked me in and got me a bed in the triage dept. We could tell it was really busy and nurses were scrambling to find rooms/beds. A nurse came in to check me and made a comment about how she thought I was measuring 6, but she couldn’t really tell… so she called another nurse in who checked and said “Oh, you are an 8 or even a 9! Good thing we didn’t tell you stay home!”.

My first reaction (other than being relived that we decided to come in and that it was really happening)? “Can I still get an epidural??”. I was worried I lost my chance! Thankfully they said I could, but they’d have to get it going NOW. Also, I tested as GBH positive during my pregnancy which meant that I should have been on antibiotics during labor in order to protect baby from infection. Well no one told us that the antibiotics take 4 hours. So they told us that we pretty much missed our chance because there was no way I was lasting 4 hours (THANK GOD!) and while they’d still get it going for me it meant that they’d have to keep baby for a full 48 hours just to monitor her. My next question was if that meant she could still be in our room (because Bella had to spend her time in the Level 2 nursery/couldn’t be in our room with us) and they said she could still be with us (again, thank god!)

Everyone had sprung into action. They attempted an IV four times before getting it in my arm. In that process, they gave me some pain medication to hold me off until the Epi. I can’t remember what it was called, but it was great. I immediately felt light headed and relaxed. So relaxed that I didn’t care what was happening anymore. Unfortunately, it only lasted a short time but worth it. One other comment I remember a nurse making was regarding how I was starting to shake – she said “oh, you’re transitioning! You’re starting to shake”. Which I assume means that I was transitioning to being fully dilated.

They transported me into an actual delivery room and that’s when my body really started reacting. Thankfully they did get the epidural in me in time. Not long after that, I couldn’t stop shaking. It got to the point where I freaked the nurse out, but I couldn’t stop. It didn’t take long until I felt like I had to push, but was confused because it felt more like I had to go to the bathroom than push a baby out.
While my nurse ended up being great, she admitted to me later that she normally doesn’t do deliveries and that she was newer to Mercy. She worked as a postpartum nurse at a different hospital for many years and recently transferred to Mercy. She does labor when they need help. ..and I’ll be honest that it showed. She wasn’t the most confident, but she got the job done I guess. She kept having trouble with the blood pressure monitor and was verbally frustrated. At one point I almost told her to give up on the freaking blood pressure because I had to PUSH, but I contained myself.

My nurse confirmed with another nurse that if I had to push, I should push. She said “the Dr is in another delivery now, and then has a c-section, and then he’ll be in..”. Well crap! That sounds like a long time. But I was given the green light so I pushed while laying on my side, holding JT’s hand and shaking like a leaf. Before long, the Dr actually came in and I realized that this was it. Here was here to deliver the baby! He got things ready and reminded me and JT how to push (wait for a contraction, push while counting until 10, repeat 3x for each contraction). And guess what? 15 minutes later Adayln was born!

With Bella, I pushed for 2 hours and 45 minutes so I could hardly believe it when they said they saw the head. JT saw way more this time than last time and I could tell he was a little squeamish, but he did really well. At one point everyone got a little quiet and JT was still encouraging me to push, but he Dr said “no no, maybe only 50%” so I gave a little push and asked what was going on. The Dr said “take a look!” and there she was! My baby! Less than 3 hours after we got to the hospital, she was delivered, checked out and I was able to hold her. Totally different experience than with Bella.

The rest of the hospital stay went well. We delivered Fri morning and stayed until Sun afternoon. We got a lot of help with nursing from the lactation consultant and nurses and spent a lot of time cuddling with Addy. We did put her in the nursery at night and they brought her back for feedings.

Visitors included Grandma, Grandpa, Bella (they came twice – once each day), Aunt Lissa, Nana, Papa, Clayton (with Melissa again), Great Grandma (with Nana and Papa again), Aunt Michelle, Uncle Pete, Uncle Andy, friends Melissa, Curt (with Reese!) and Jessica.

Overall the staff at Mercy took great care of us and we couldn’t have asked for a better experience!

One more thing...

2010-10-29T20:51:00.000-07:00

Just reading through my comments from previous blogs, and my friend Sarah commented about Bella being perfect in every way. I realize my last post about her (lack of) tantrums also probably made it sound that I feel that way. Well, of course I think she’s perfect … but she does have her moments! She’s becoming more and more independent which is a struggle. In the morning, for example, things have to be just right or else we will be dealing with a crabby toddler way to early in the morning. If she wants a pink bowl and it’s dirty, we wash it for her. If I wanted shredded wheat for breakfast but she tells me to eat Kix instead, I eat Kix. So basically she calls the shots :-P

I’ve been blaming it on my lack of energy due to pregnancy, but she does try my patience quite a bit lately. Again she likes to call the shots and trying to tell her no doesn’t work out too well. So I choose my battles. She watches more TV (Wiggles DVD to be specific) now because after I get home from work I need a little chair/relaxing time. If she was cereal for dinner, I won’t object as long as she had something different for breakfast.

While it’s manageable right now, I’ll admit that my biggest concern is when baby comes. She won’t be center of attention anymore. She won’t be the only grandchild. She won’t be the only one I plan my days around. I think it’s going to be a big reality check for her and the ‘3s’ may end up more terrible than the ‘2s’!

Still here..

2010-10-29T20:43:00.000-07:00

It’s inevitable. I think I’m going to be an active blogger and then I go for a long stretch without updates. Maybe it’s because there hasn’t been anything really that interesting going on. I’m still pregnant. Bella is still cute. Our lives are plugging along.

Bella had her first real meltdown tantrum the other night where we had to resort to a punishment other than time out. I guess that was kind of a big deal. We’ve only done a handful of time outs because she usually gets it – one mention of a time out and she gets the hint. However, this time it didn’t do the trick. It was my birthday night (yay) and we had gotten home after her bed time from dinner with my family. I can’t even remember what started it (don’t the best tantrums start that way) … I think she just didn’t want to put her PJs on. All I know is that it ended up with Jeremy having to put her in time out. She wouldn’t sit. She kept saying “ok, I’ll listen!” but we told her that she still had to sit for the 2 min in time out. She kept getting up and JT kept adding 1 minute each time. By the time she got up to 8 minutes we decided we’d just put her to bed without stories/book time. That was hard. She did listen and get her PJs on (while still freaking out) but kept leaping out of bed to grab books. She kept asking for me because JT was doing most of this since she started the tantrum with him. It was hard to stand back and NOT give in when you hear your 2 yr old say “I just want Mama!”. Eventually, she calmed down enough for us to still give hugs and kisses and sing her a song and she went to bed.
It was stressful and not how I planned to end my b-day, but it worked. The next night she got her PJs on just fine and when I walked into the room she said “Mama! I’m listening!”. In fact, this entire week she’s been proud of herself for listening and doing really good.

Makes me wonder how life with #2 will go. We are lucky right now that we can bring Bella places and, for the most part, she’s well behaved. For example, we went to dinner at Famous Dave’s tonight and she couldn’t have been happier. Maybe it was because we let her eat 2 cornbread muffins and 2 pieces of corn on the cob for dinner….but the point is that she sits nicely to wait for the food and is calm. I know that with a second one at the table we may not be so lucky.

Speaking of baby – the pregnancy is going good. I actually feel better now than I did a month ago. I was having such a hard time sleeping and getting comfortable for a while. Not sure what changed, but I wake up less at night and my back doesn’t seem to hurt as much. I get really tired out walking still. All it takes is a trip from my desk to the bathroom at work and I’m out of breath. Don’t get me started on the steps in the house. Combine this with minor contractions and I’m sure Jeremy is really sick of me being out of breath and whining.

I took a reality trip to Target today. I know that I could have gone to labor already, and at 2 weeks before the due date it really could happen any time. So I stocked up some new born diapers, nursing essentials, pacifiers, and some long sleeved onesies for baby. We are lucky we can reuse Bella’s clothes for baby #2, but many are ‘off season’. I think I have about 50 short sleeved onsies, but only a few pairs of 3M pants. So I bought a few plus found a couple hoodies that we can use over the onesies. It’s just hard to buy clothes not knowing how big/little she’ll be! I know last time there were plenty of clothes that Bella never even wore because she was never the right size.

The next feat is to figure out how to fit 2 girls collection of clothes into one dresser and one closet… wish me luck!

Typical Day

2010-10-16T20:58:00.001-07:00

My friend Jessie inspired me to do this. She typed out a day in her life recently. When I thought about it, I realized that each of my days during the week are scarily similar. The deviation occurs if JT has something going on after work - volleyball (which is done for now, thank god, a work happy hour, or just needing to work late. Usually once a week there will be something and I’ll handle dinner/bedtime – but for the majority of the time here is the day in the life of the Traftons...

5:25 – Alarm goes off. I turn it off and climb back into bed.

5:40 – Second alarm goes off (same clock – 2 alarms). I hit snooze.

5:46 – snooze alarm goes off. I get up and tell JT it’s time to get up. Push him out of bed a bit.

Head downstairs to feed Leinie and shower. JT gets his clothes together and shaves. When I get out of the shower, he gets in (I actually love sharing a bathroom/getting ready together – it’s our alone time in the morning before the chaos of the day). I brush my teeth, start to do my makeup, etc. Put my PJs back on.

6:10 – head upstairs to wake up Bella. Pre-3rd trimester I’d do this myself. Now I wait for JT to join me as I need a little extra manpower with Bella. She greets us with “Good morning Mama and Dad” in her sleepy voice. We take few minutes to get her up and get morning snuggles.

JT carries her down into the kitchen and lets her pick out cereal, her bowl and what cup she wants. I get my own cereal ready. Bella and I sit and eat while JT finishes getting ready. I ask if she had a good sleep (she always says yes) and listen to any dreams she had. I tell her what day it is and where she is going. I start to think about dinner for the night and snoop in the fridge and cupboards to see what we have.

At some point, JT comes back into the kitchen and we swap. He doesn’t eat, but will sit with her until she’s done and I’ll continue to get ready for the day.

Around 6:30-6:40 – Bella is done eating. She gets dressed and brushes teeth.

7:05-7:10 – out the door, even though we always try to leave by 7:00 it never seems to happen. JT takes Bella. I head to work.

7:45 – arrive at work, head straight to the café for a cappuccino (decaf) and a muffin or bagel for my second breakfast (yup)

8:00 – at my desk, connect my laptop, wait what seems like forever for it to power up and connect to email/internet. It’s quiet as many people aren’t at work yet or just quietly working at their desk.

Once email/internet finally loads I check email and my calendar for the day. Decide if there are any meetings that I can cancel or move. Read through new emails and take action on ones I can.

If I have time, I’ll take some time to check Facebook while I eat my breakfast and sip my coffee. Say hello to people as they walk by. Respond to a question from a team member who stops by.

9:00-12:00 – Meetings. If I’m lucky, a 30 min slot of open time for email. Hope that meetings will end early letting me check/respond to email in between meetings.

12:00-1:00 – lunch and desk time. I buy lunch from the cafe and eat at my desk. Get through new emails, check facebook again, read blogs, talk to a team member or my manager if they stop by.

1:00-3:30 – more meetings and desk time when I can manage it.

3:30-4:30 – finish the day at my desk, respond to more emails, answer voice mails, organize my notes/to-do list from meetings throughout the day, make sure there isn’t anything urgent I missed. Leave to pick up Bella.

5:00 – 5:30 – Pick up Bella, chat with the in-laws or my mom (depending on where she is)

5:50 – home. Get dinner going. Let Bella help me do things like dump water in pots and stirring to keep her entertained and distract her from wanting to eat yet another snack (she typically has just finished one when I go to pick her up, or eats one in the car on the way home). Let her watch The Wiggles DVD or get her settled downstairs to play while I clean up the kitchen and put things away (diaper bag, my purse, mail, etc) and check my email (can’t access my personal email at work) and facebook (yes again).

6:30 – JT gets home. Force, I mean ask, Bella to turn off the DVD or, even better, watch Bella greet JT at the door and ask him to come play with her. Let Bella and JT play for a bit while I wrap up dinner.

Once dinner is ready we eat, talk about the day, answer a million questions from Bella (where does milk come from? What are you eating? What day is it tomorrow? What are you doing now? What are you eating now? What are you doing now?..... Now? Where do beans come from? )

7:00 – clean up dinner. Bella goes downstairs to play with JT. I join them when I’m done cleaning up. JT takes this on if I'm too tired or Bella wants me instead.

We play with her Dora house, we practice trick or treating, we dance to Raffi, Wiggles, Alvin and the Chipmunks and other random nursery rhymes we have on our computer…. Participation from me depends on how I feel – I need a lot of breaks/couch time.

7:30 – Convince Bella to brush her teeth. JT helps her while I putz around on the computer some more. I have nothing to do on the computer, but the important thing here is that I’m sitting yet I can see/hear them in the bathroom so I feel like I’m at least present.

Once done with teeth, Bella gets a horsy ride upstairs from JT. I hobble my way up the steps to her room, by this time of night my body is exhausted so it takes me a while. By the time I get there, they are already in PJs and done with the diaper change.

She decides who picks out books – me, JT or herself. She climbs into bed and we read 4 books alternating between JT and I. Lights out and sing one song (rock a bye baby, twinkle twinkle little star, you are my sunshine or love grows best in little houses)

8:00 – Collapse into my new La-Z-Boy. Kick up the feet. Pull out my laptop to check email (work and personal) and general internet activity.

8:15 – JT hooks up his laptop to the TV and we stream an episode of something good from HGTV.com. If I decide I can handle it, we’ll watch a second episode. Or if something is actually worth watching on our basic cable we’ll watch normal TV.

9:00 – get ready and climb into bed with my book. JT comes in to tuck me in :)

9:15 – can’t keep my eyes open. Set my book down and fall asleep.

10:00-10:30 - JT comes to bed, double checks the alarm and turns off my lamp.

Goodnight!

She knows her ABCs, colors, shapes, can count to 20, spell her name and could sing you any nursery rhyme you want… the one thing she can’t do?

2010-10-04T18:50:00.000-07:00

Take off her own diaper.
And thank god. No messes on the carpet here!

Bella's First Twins Game

2010-09-21T18:42:00.000-07:00

(I can't figure out how to properly format these picture sfor the life of me...so this is just going to be one ugly blog.)

This past Saturday Bella got to go to her first Twins game, courtesy of my brother Andy. I’ll admit that I didn’t really ever think I’d bring a 2 yr old to a game, but she did really well and had a blast. When we got there, we took some time for photo ops.

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Then we met up with my brother and Dad and took more pictures and got Bella’s face painted. She loved this Mickey Mouse statue. She had to see it 3 times when we were there.

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After I signed up for the ‘Good Sport’ program (sign up as a designated driver and wear a wrist band so no one serves you beer to get a free soda and entered into a drawing) we found our seats. We were in section 327 row 13. We were 2nd to the last row in the stadium but the view was still pretty good. The seats were perfect for Bella since we were on the end and no one was behind us. The group in front of us enjoyed Bella and didn’t care that there was an overly enthusiastic 2 yr old behind them.

Bella had to sit in Seat #2 because 2 is her favorite number at the time She cheered “hit the ball!” and “Go Twins!” as loud as she could. She got to eat a pretzel with cheese, chicken fingers and share ice cream (From a mini Twins hat) with Mama.
Uncle Andy had a nice surprise for Bella as well – her name on the big screen!

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About the 6th inning my dad took Bella for a walk/to see Mickey again but they were back in time for the 7th inning stretch. Even though she’ll sing “take me out to the ball game” all the time at home, she seemed confused and wouldn’t sing along.

The Twins won. We had to make a stop at Mickey one more time on our way out. We all had a good time and are looking forward to next time!

Goofy Girl

2010-09-19T19:42:00.000-07:00

This has been in my inbox for a while (I’ll sometimes type things up at work and then e-mail myself to post later) and for some reason never made it into my blog. I figured I’d post as is even though I’ve probably mentioned a few of these already in recent posts.

Bella cracks me up. I know part of it is being 2 years old and having no reservations, but I hope her goofy-ness continues on and she’ll always be this silly and fun.

Below are some random things that Bella is doing these days -

She states that she LOVES everything. “I LOVE the color pink” “ I LOVE to put my own shirt on” ….but it is funniest when it’s the most random thing that she loves. For example, this morning her spoon fell on the floor so I picked it up and rinsed it. She demanded that I dry it off because “ I LOVE it when things are dry”. I’m blanking on other examples, but at she is very passionate about things I guess.

Her and Dada somehow started a random game that makes no sense called “Bubbly Bubbly”. They take turns naming objects and starting by saying bubbly bubbly…for example “Bubbly bubbly shoe” “Bubbly bubbly door” etc. Bella could sit and play this game forever and it cracks her up.

Bella decided that all her spoons and forks are named “Dr Amy” (after her pediatrician) and after meal times she insists that Jeremy sit with her so “Dr Amy Fork” can come out and talk to him. She even does a different voice for Dr Amy Fork and will talk about how she loves to feed Bella food.

Another game of pretend involves playing kitties. Bella turns into a baby cat and speaks in yet another voice (higher pitched) and talks like this “Meow Meow I’m baby kitty meow meow”. I’ll be Mama Kitty and Jeremy is Dada Kitty. Many nights, our entire bedtime routine is spent with Bella as a baby kitty – from brushing teeth, to putting on Pajamas to reading book she’ll stay in character the entire time. It’s hilarious. Or if we are just playing then she’ll want to play like a cat. Or she’ll get Leinie’s toys and want US to play like cats. While I know that playing pretend is common for toddlers, it’s the voice she uses as a baby cat that cracks me up. I’ll have to try to get it on video soon.

Similar to above, she also loves to pretend she’s a baby bird. This started because if JT or I sit cross-legged on the floor it becomes her ‘nest’. So if she’s not pretending to be a kitty, she’s pretending to be a baby bird.

My mom has started doing a lot of crafts and activities with her which has been fun to see. She has a bunch of the Kumon-like books that she’s been working with Bella on so now Bella is a pro at matching, finding what’s different, tracing, finding words that start with the same letter, etc. She’s started cutting and pasting as well. The crafts that my mom does with Bella are cute to see as well and Bella loves to pick out colors or different items to paste on things. I’ve decided to just save everything in a box because I don’t have the heart to throw anything away!

Bella is doing really well at spelling simple words – her name, Mama, Dada, and Cat are the ones that she is best at. But she’s started to get the hang of figuring out what letters start with by sounding it out. So sometimes we’ll just be talking normally and all the sudden she’ll repeat a word by saying “f-f-flower! Starts with f!”. She’s not perfect at this…she insisted that Gorilla starts with ‘B’ the other day but it’s cute to listen to her try.

“Where does that come from?” is the big question in our house these days. No, not in regards to babies (yet) but almost everything else she’ll ask where it came from. This leads to some interesting discussions – for example, the milk discussion I posted on Facebook not long ago. She asked were Milk comes from and I told her cows and she wouldn’t believe me. She insisted that milk was made from string cheese. You put the string cheese in the milk jug and stir it around and it becomes milk. Which, in a way, makes sense since milk and string cheese are at least the same colors. JT and I still aren’t sure how to answer when she asks where the chicken she is eating for dinner comes from… so far we’ve been honest with her and it hasn’t freaked her out yet. Also, how do you explain to a 2 yr old were numbers and letters come from?

Baby T part deux

2010-09-13T16:28:00.000-07:00

I don’t think I’ve mentioned in my blog much about pregnancy #2. It’s still been mostly all about Bella…which is fine for now but all that will be changing (it won't be all about Bella soon!) so I figure a Baby T #2 update is due.

Overall I have felt OK during this pregnancy, not great, but OK. All the things I “missed out” on the first time around have made an appearance. I’m definitely feeling VERY PREGNANT, tired, sore and miserable all the time. Ok, so that might be a bit of an exaggeration…but only a bit. With Bella I felt great. I could have been pregnant for 3 more months and been perfectly happy. Not so lucky this time.

Right around the 6.5/7 month mark I feel like both myself and baby grew to the point where it’s uncomfortable to sleep, take stairs, walk, breathe, you name it. I don’t THINK I have sciatica, but something like it where the lower left of my back HURTS more than just back pain. It’s nerve pain and causes me to be unable to move at times. I always find a creative way to get out of whatever position I’m in, but sometimes it takes awhile and, well, hurts. Wah wah.

I know the fact that I have a 2 year old contributes to me feeling more run down and sore. She wants me to carry her everywhere – up and down the stairs are the worst. I do it because how can you resist a cute little toddler looking up at you saying “mama, pick me up!” or “Mama, I’m too liiiiiiiittle to do it by myself” (meaning go up/down the stairs…which is totally untrue as she’ll take them easily if I’m not around or she doesn’t want to wait for me). Also, pregnancy isn’t new anymore. I’ve done this once before and am not as intrigued by it. I just want this baby now! Nothing against Bella, but I’m more anxious to meet this one than I was Bella. I think there were too many unknowns the first time and I was more nervous than anything. Now I’m more confident and just want to see what this little person will look like and act like.

Here’s how pregnancy #2 has been different than pregnancy #1 so far…

Morning sickness – I had it. All day long. It wasn’t so bad that I was puking my guts out, but I was nauseas almost all the time for my first trimester. It never really stopped me from eating – I thin it would take a lot do that – but was annoying and made me feel crappy.
General pain and cramping – got to the point where I called a nurse because I did not remember having pain like I was experiencing the first time around. Since it accompanied some bleeding, I ended up having an unscheduled ultrasound at 17 weeks. They found a blood clot which contributed to the bleeding and said the cramping/pain was normal pregnancy pains. Well, news to me. But I was happy all was fine
Going to pre-natal appts alone – JT attended ALL of my pre-natal appts the first time. This time he went to the first couple and since then I’ve been going solo. I’m fine with this and prefer it since they really are non-eventful. I get weighed and my blood pressure measured, Dr Kern comes in and we chat for about 1 minute about how I don’t have questions and feel fine, she checks the baby’s heartbeat and measurements and I’m done.
No real cravings – my “craving” for sweets is back but I’m convinced it’s not really a craving and just me allowing myself treats that I wouldn’t have normally. Pregnant or not, once you are used to having something sweet after every meal you come to expect it (for example, I may or may not have just had 2 monster cookies after my lunch…). I didn’t really have strong cravings my first time either, but I remember a fondness for OJ and apple cider. I just haven’t had those same kind of feelings this time around.
No food aversions - last time, I wasn’t able to eat eggs or chew gum. It grossed me out thanks to a few dreams I had. Nothing like that this time!
Less naps – I don’t get to come home from work and nap for an hour while JT makes dinner. Boo.
Braxon Hicks contractions – If I had them with Bella, I didn’t notice them. I notice them now. Sometimes they hurt, but most of the time it’s just the noticeable contraction/tightening of my belly and uncomfortable. I find myself having to breath really heavily to get through them and wonder if other people notice.

I’m hoping that a different pregnancy means a different delivery as well….an easier and faster one. I’d prefer not to be induced again…or if I am for it not to take 32 hours w/ 3 hours of pushing for the baby to come.

Sometimes you feel like a nut...

2010-09-09T19:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we took Bella to the allergist referred to us by her pediatrician. There were no additional tests, but he gave us some good information and helped us understand what happens next.

When her pediatrician ran blood tests, she tested positive for peanut allergies but not tree nuts. However, the allergist recommended avoiding tree nuts anyway. Not only will we never really know if the tree nut (almonds, pecans, cashews, etc) was in a factory with peanuts but it’ll just make it easier. No nuts, period.
She’ll get re-tested again at 4 yrs old. There is a 1 in 5 chance the allergy will go away. But, that’s a 4 in 5 chance it won’t so we aren’t getting our hopes up.

We have Epi pens to use in case of a reaction, however Benadryl can be used for minor reactions.

Baby #2 has a 7% chance of having peanut allergies vs 2% chance the rest of the population would have… meaning a slight increase due to the fact that as sibling has an allergy.

JT seems to think that we gave her peanut products too early at 2 yrs. However, based on the fact that there are no other food allergies in our family it’s totally normal for pediatricians to give the go ahead for peanuts at 2 yrs. In fact, by the time we hit Bella’s 2 yr appt her Doctor basically said they aren’t sure about any of the research anymore and it’s probably fine to give them peanut products earlier. However, now with the increased risk for #2 we’ll for sure wait until 3 yrs old.
We are clearing all peanut products out of our house. No more peanut butter for me …but the allergist recommend Sun Butter which is made out of sunflower seeds as an alternative. My parents and in-laws are also recommended to do the same since she is over there so much. I’m now going to be a strict label reading parent.

No Asian restaurants, ice cream parlors or bakeries for Bella. These are the top 3 high risk areas. The good news is that we’ve been able to go out to eat and stick with Mac & Cheese or hamburgers and she’s been fine. Tonight we enjoyed tacos at El Loro – so she isn’t totally missing out!

Other than all that, life continues on as normal. At first I was really bummed out about the peanut allergy – I don’t want Bella to miss out on anything – but really it’s not that big of a deal. At least it’s only peanuts and not wheat, gluten and dairy as well. As long as we can be stringent about reminding people not to just feed her whatever, I’m hoping we can avoid any episodes!

Fair Fun

2010-09-08T18:33:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, we took Bella to the MN State Fair. We took her in 2008 when she was only 4 months old, but didn’t take her last year. So it was kind of her first experience there. She got to experience the record breaking attendance day. Between all the people, Bella in a stroller and myself waddling around we took 6 hours to get around the fair once. I was exhausted and Bella fell asleep with about an hour to go.

She LOVED the animal barns. Our first stop was the Miracle of Birth Center. We got there earlier, before it was too crowded to move. So Bella got to pet a baby lamb and see piglets. A calf named Pronto gave her a “kiss” (a lick on the hands). She also got to pet baby chicks.

On our way out, we noticed a lady giving out free tattoos to kids. Turns out it was a tattoo of a pig and said “if lost, please call…” and you wrote your phone number. The funny thing was on the way to the fair, JT made the comment that we should have put our cell number on her somewhere…and here was a way to do it! He was mostly kidding, but we got the tattoo and wrote our number anyway because Bella wanted it. That thing is still on her arm as clear as day 4 days and 2 baths later.

The pig barn proved to be most exciting. We saw the 1450 lb pig which was pretty impressive. Then, as we were walking through the isles of pigs, one got loose! I don’t know if they meant to take it out or what, but all the sudden a grown pig ran by us and a guy was chasing him. Bella was cracking up and it’s one of the first stories she’ll tell you about the fair. We also stood in front of an angry pig who was snorting and squealing pretty loudly because Bella found that amusing as well.

Of course the cows, sheep, horses and chickens were fun as well. But just not as action packed as the pig barn.

After the animals we started walking around. JT and I got a Ruben pretzel from the new French Meadow stand. Bella didn’t like it and ate goldfish instead. We walked through the horticulture building and showed Bella the bees – but it was too busy to really look at anything else. For the 5^th year in a row we forgot to bring an apple from the tree in our backyard to figure out what they were.

Then we were on a mission for more food. It was JT’s turn to pick (and nothing else really stuck out to me – weird, I know) so of course it was quite the process. Along our way we passed the kiddie midway and found a ride Bella could ride. Most of the rides she either wasn’t tall enough for or didn’t want to ride. She ended up on a whale that went around in circles and had the time of her life. She was in the front and another girl was in the back who she promptly decided was a “new friend”. I saw her talking to the girl and telling her that they had “5 more minutes” to wait until the ride started…not true, but for some reason she kept saying that. Then the ride did start and she was as happy as could be.

After the ride, JT finally decided on a footlong pronto pup that we shared. Bella was not a fan of the mustard he put on and mostly ate the hot dog part. This was at the same time that we took advantage of the FM107 booth’s kid area. They had slides, puzzles, and other toys to keep kids occupied. While we were playing, Auntie Lissa and Clay Clay showed up! Turns out they had just gotten to the fair and happened to run into us. Bella didn’t seem surprised at all to see them…like she just assumed everyone was at the fair and it was normal to run into them.

After chatting w/ Auntie Lissa and Clay Clay for a bit we kept moving. I got my new favorite – a ginormous beef stick from Smokin’ Joes Smokehouse. We made our way to the dog building…not sure what it’s called…but it was way too packed to see anything.

All throughout the fair Bella had been asking for Ice Cream. I kept telling her “maybe later” since we hadn’t really eaten much for lunch yet. So after the failed attempt at seeing dogs, I told her that if she shut her eyes and took a nap in her stroller for a bit when she woke up we’d get ice cream. It was near her nap time and I could tell she was tired and I was thinking we had a while to go yet, so I wanted to make sure she got some shut eye. She promptly squeezed her eyes shut and I let her cuddle with my sweatshirt…within 2 minutes she was out for real and didn’t wake up at all. I felt kind of bad leaving the fair without giving her ice cream, but I didn’t want to wake her up just for that either. It was nice to have her keep napping in the car on the way home.

But before we left, I got a cream puff which JT didn’t want anything to do with. It went perfectly w/ cold milk. Then we decided we had enough and left.

It was a great family day, but next year we’ll probably leave Bella at home and let her get her fix at the Anoka County Fair. It was just too busy to navigate the stroller, plus next year I’m thinking she won’t want to stay in the stroller and I don’t want to worry about her running off. Nor will I be using a kid leash (although I totally see the benefits of them).

Sound it out!

2010-09-06T19:37:00.000-07:00

Lately, Bella has bee figuring out what words start with by sounding them out. Randomly, she'll bust out with "b-b-Bella! Bella starts with b!" or "n-n-nose! Nose starts with n!". At first, I figured this came from books or songs that try to teach toddlers how to spell out the sounds of words but tonight she amazed me by doing this not only continuously for about 10 minutes but by figuring out words that are less common. "Garbage" or "Fridge" for example. We were in the kitchen finishing dinner, so most of the words were kitchen or food related - fork, light, plate, milk, etc. She got them all right, too! The only one she didn't get right was phone... "ph-ph-phone! Phone starts with F!" Almost! I really need to have the video camera handy at all times because this would have been ideal to record - she was so happy and proud each time she figured one out!

I know what has helped a lot with this is the "schoolwork" my mom has started doing with her. All this means is doing activities from Kumon-like workbooks - matching, figuring out what doesn't belong, putting items by the letter they start with, etc. but she loves it all and loves to show off what she's done. She does a lot of cutting and pasting as well, which just makes her seem too big. The other day she told me "one and one makes two!!!" - my god, math! Slow down, girl!

Another Phone Conversation

2010-09-06T19:23:00.001-07:00

Normally, I pick Bella up after work but yesterday Jeremy had pick up duty. I was at home getting dinner ready when I got a call from Jeremy’s phone. Here’s roughly how the conversation went.

Me: Hello?

Bella: HI Mama! It’s Bella!

Me: Hi Bella!

Bella: Don’t worry Mama, we are coming home now.

Me: Oh good, I missed you.

Bella: I missed you too Mama

Bella: I’M STARVING!

Me: good! I’m getting dinner ready

Me: Is Dada with you?

Bella: Yes. Dada’s driving. Don’t worry I’m safe.

And it continued on from there for another minute or so. I was sure that Jeremy was prompting her with this conversation but he swears he wasn’t. he was driving and handed her his cell phone after he dialed our number! He thought *I* was prompting her somehow but I wasn’t. She’s talked about being starving before, but how she came up with “don’t worry” and “I’m safe” I have no idea. Even though it’s totally common I am still blown away by having a full on conversation with her, let alone over the phone. I love hearing her updates on her day from Bella…even though sometimes she stretches the truth (like telling me she ate shoes for lunch or that her and Mara went to visit a sheep next door…) she can normally recap her day pretty well for me.

I just had to capture what I can remember of that conversation because it both made me laugh and amazed me.

Ring Ring!

2010-07-17T07:27:00.000-07:00

Me: Hello?
Bella: It's me!
Me: Hi Bella!!
B: I'm going tumbling today with Grandma and Grandpa!
Me: I know! Lucky girl! Did you have fun with Grandma and Grandpa last night?
B: Yup
Me: what did you do?
B: Play with kitties!
Me: Play with kitties??
B: Yup
Me: did you sleep good?
B: Yup
Me: did you have breakfast?
B: Yup! Bye Mama! *kisses the phone*

Oh yeah, it’s a girl!

2010-07-07T10:52:00.000-07:00

By now the three people who read this already know that we are having another girl, but in the spirit of documenting things I figured I’d better write about it. So yeah, it’s a girl! I’ll admit, we knew it was a girl since the first ultrasound we had at 17 weeks (due to some of our issues), but the tech was wishy-washy and wasn’t sure so we decided to wait until the official ultrasound to get confirmation. I’m personally thrilled.

Bella on the other hand isn’t as thrilled. I don’t know if it’s because there was a lot of boy talk before we knew or what, but when I told her we were having a baby girl she freaked out - “No! Not a baby girl, either! Baby boy! Baby boy named Olaf!”. Two things to clarify – she’s started to add “either” onto the end of her sentences when she doesn’t want something. Even if we don’t give her a choice. “I don’t want cereal, either” “I don’t want to go home, either”. Little does she know that sometimes it’s her only choice. But it’s pretty cute so we don’t correct her. Second, I mentioned the name Olaf once. In some random story I made up where I needed a character with an ‘O’ name. She clung to it and started naming everything Olaf. Apparently the baby is now named Olaf as well.

Within the past week Bella has seemed to get used to the idea of a baby sister as she doesn’t tantrum when we talk about it anymore, but I wonder if she’s just smart enough to know that another girl in the family means that she really will have to share everything. I would have them in the same room for a while no matter what, but now that there will be two girls they won’t move into separate rooms for as long as they can stand it (not for 18 years though). Her old clothes, baby toys, etc will go to baby. I’m thinking of a strategy to let her pick out 2-3 things that she wants to claim as hers only and then ask that she give the baby the rest to try to avoid her being too possesive, but we aren’t quite there yet.

Other things going on in our world include the wrap up of another 4th of July party. We had a great time and love that everyone comes to party with us. Bella left before the big fireworks which was good this year, but I think next year we’ll let her stay. She enjoyed the small, legal ones that we shot off for the young kids before it got dark.

And the latest thing that Bella is doing that I love is reading to us from books. Any book. It could be one of mine from the library or a manual to an appliance, but she’ll make up a story as she turns the pages. It’s also fun to listen to her read her books and hear how she interprets or remembers the stories being told. She catches on to more details than I would have given her credit for!

Father's Day 2010

2010-06-21T10:40:00.000-07:00

One of my Facebook “friends” suggested that there shouldn’t be Fathers Day and Mothers Day, but just one Parents day. Um, no. I want MY day to be indulged/spoiled and I don’t want to share it with Jeremy! On the flip side, it was fun to force Jeremy to make all the decision yesterday regarding what to do. You’d think he was being asked to decide which child to save from the hungry Ligar. Jeremy is so easy going and is usually up for anything that I end up making a lot of decisions (where to go to dinner, social plans, etc) and trust he’ll tell me if he doesn’t want to do something.

So with a little persuasion he decided he wanted to go the beach yesterday. It was a perfect day for it. Bella was excited to reenact one of her favorite books and we all got some much needed sun and relaxation. Then it was onto the always challenging “what do you want for lunch” decision. After 30 minutes of debate, we ended up at Culvers. No other real significance here other than the fact that it took him way too long to accept the fact that I wasn’t giving him my opinion or helping sway his decision on that one at all.

I swear Bella got the ‘Fathers Day’ concept yesterday as her and Jeremy were inseparable. Lately pendulum of needing Mama all.the.time is swinging back towards the middle and she’s been much more attached to Dada lately. But yesterday was Dada to the extreme. She wouldn’t leave his side and cuddled with him every chance she got. I loved it. And got a little jealous. But hey, it was his day.

Things that Bella does that I love right now -

2010-06-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

She calls her toes ‘piggies’ no matter what. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard her say the word ‘toes’. And she’ll usually follow up a reference to her piggies with some adorable squealing to prove they really ARE pigs

She picked up “hey, hey!” from somewhere. Not the Monkee’s either. She’ll use it like this “Hey, Hey Mama – that’s my toy!” “Hey, Hey Lyly come here for a kiss”.

In the ECFE playtime classes we attended this winter the night always ended with the ‘good bye song’ (“Goooooodbye friends, goooodbye friends, goodbye friends – we’ll see you all sometime!”). She’ll now use it when saying goodbye to anyone – which is cute but also draws out the goodbye as it’s kind of a slow song. For example, if we are leaving Nana and Papa’s house it’s “Goooooodbye Nana, Papa, MoMo, Auntie Lissa, Mil-mil… (anyone and everyone who is there), goooodbye Nana, Papa, MoMo, Auntie Lissa, Mil-mil…”and so on until the song ends. Or until she screws up and has to start over. Y esterday Dada got this goodbye “Goooooodbye Dada, goooodbye Dada, godbye Dada – we’ll see sometime”. She does it all with a slow hand wave that makes it oh-so-adorable.

Everything is her “FAVORITE”. “Apples are my FAVORITE” “Peaches are my FAVORITE. I eat in a bowl and drink the juice ALLLLL UP”. Mostly it refers to food but at her last Dr’s appt she swore the Spiderman sticker she got was her favorite even though we’ve never talked about Spiderman ever. She thought he was a robot.

For a while she’s aked to do things “in a couple minutes” but now she starting to ask to do things for “just 1 minute”. The other day she wanted to watch The Wiggles after dinner. I told her no (because we never watch TV after dinner) and she came to me with a pleading look in her eyes “Watch Wiggles just 1 minute!” complete with holding 1 finger up (FYI, I didn’t cave in). It could also turn into “Just 1 more time” as in “Play with Leggos just 1 more time!” or “Go to Grandma’s just 1 more time!"

For her birthday, she got a bunch of rubber duckies to play with in the tub. Somehow (I blame Jeremy) she decided they need to be fed bread from Cub every time we are in the bath. So now the game we play is pretending to drive to cub, get a cart, find the bread, pay for the bread, go home and give it to Bella. Who then eats it for herself and then tells us we have to go back to get more for the ducks. This is just one example of her imagination. She’s been showing it off a lot lately and I love it.

Everything has to match. I didn’t do any research to figure out if this is a typical 2 year old thing, or if I’ll have an OCD kid on my hands, but god forbid the purple cup be dirty when we use the purple plate because she wants them to match! The real tragedy is that we lost our pink spoon, so she can have a pink plate and a pink cup but has to use a different color spoon. She also does this with her clothes sometimes. If she has pink on she needs a pink blanket and pink stuffed animals with her.

"Where are you…??” I actually like it when things get lost sometimes because she’ll call out in the cutest voice “Where are you red ball?” or if we get home and she wants to see Dada “Where are you Dada?”. Again something that I didn’t even realize we said but she picked up from somewhere!

She picked up on “See you later, Alligator!” and “In a while, Crocodile!” so not only do we get to hear this when we leave sometimes but every night as we put her to bed she’ll call out as we’re leaving the room “See you later, Alligator!”

Reading books by herself…kind of. Meaning she’ll sit and page through a book and tell the story as she sees it or remembers it. Usually she’s pretty accurate but sometimes she gets off track. She might be doing that on purpose though because her and I will often sit with one of my books and I’ll “Read” it to her (make up stories pretending like I’m reading the book)

She prefers Alvin and the Chipmonks in the car over the Wiggles now. Thank god.

That's enough for now.

Bloody nose #1

2010-06-08T19:30:00.000-07:00

Today marked the day of Bella's first bloody nose. I'm sure there will be many to follow if she's anything like her dad. Bella was running around being goofy with Dada (which may or may not have included JT hopping around with bunny ears on), jumped up on the couch and promptly proceeded to smash her face into the arm of the couch. Poor thing!

After several minutes of holding a Kleenex to it and a few stories later (to keep her distracted while we held the Kleenex), it was all better and she was pretty excited that there was blood on her face and hand.

This, of course, was only about an hour after she knocked her forehead on a chair while playing 'all around the mulberry bush' around our dining room table. When did my calm little girl turn into this rambunctious toddler?!

How is it possible to have writers block when you are writing about your life?

2010-06-08T12:50:00.000-07:00

It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged, yet I don’t even know what to blog about. Obviously stuff happens everyday, but maybe it’s lack of energy that is preventing me from actually documenting anything.

I’ll start with the pregnancy. I’ve been feeling better now that I’m in my second trimester (17 weeks as of today!), but still tired as all hell. Not sleepy tired, but just no-energy tired. I feel bad because mowing the lawn used to be my thing (and I really do enjoy it), but I just couldn’t bring myself to have the energy to do it this weekend. That means JT had to spend an hour mowing when he could have been inside working on our bathroom/the million other house things he has to do because I’m not capable of doing them. That sounds really negative, but there are so many home improvement or maintenance projects that have to get done and I feel like I can’t do any of them. So I clean, mow the lawn, etc since that’s what I can do. ANYWAY, the point is that my lack of energy means that there is even more on JT’s plate which makes me feel guilty. But, such is life and it’ll all get done….eventually….RIGHT?

The exciting news is that we have our ultrasound scheduled for June 16! I “get” to have it 2 weeks earlier than last time due to minor complications (really minor). Dr isn’t concerned about anything but said I should try to schedule the ultrasound closer to 18 weeks than 20 weeks. She didn’t have to tell me twice! I can’t wait to see baby and find out the sex. And yes, of course we’ll be sharing (just not the name again).

Bella has been as entertaining and challenging as usual. I say challenging only because she’s become much more vocal and independent. My newest favorite is when she tells us she’s “FINE”. As in “Bella, are you doing OK back there?” “Yes, I’m FINE!” or “Bella, do you need a new diaper on?” “No, my diaper is FINE!”. And she says it with that conviction, too. It’s a preview of the sassy teenage (or pre-teen) years.

It seems giving her choices still works well, though, thank goodness. Usually it’s asking her if she wants Mama or Dada to do something since it’s not her choice IF we do something (put on PJs, brush teeth, change diapers, etc). Or just flat out deception works too. For example, telling her that I’m putting a bow in her hair but really putting in a clip (which works much better).

We found a nest with eggs in a tree out front a few weeks ago, and when we checked this weekend the eggs had hatched! I think I might be more excited than Bella,but it’s cute to hear her tell people about how it happened that there were “eggs in nest, cracked, now baby birds!”.

Bella is still really snuggly which I love. She likes to hold hands (even when sitting and eating or reading books) and will just come up and hug my legs and coo. Cooing is the only way I can think to describe it, but when she’s being cuddly with either a person or a stuffed animal she’ll make a sound like “oooo” in a sweet little voice. The cutest is when she sees a stuffed animal and says “oh, come here baby bunny…little baby bunny…oooo”. I don’t know where she picked this up from, but we must have made sounds like that when talking about baby animals (and they are so cute, how can you not coo about them?! ).

As you may have noticed, she has started referring to herself as “I” or her things as “my” more. She still uses “You” but will mix it up. So she’ll say things like “I’m ready!” “I need my mama” “ I want that”. But if we ask who did something or who said something (and it was her), she’ll answer “you”. So she just can’t get the “I did” or “me!” concept yet, but we’re getting there!

Weekend Fun

2010-05-24T10:18:00.001-07:00

Friday –
After work, I decided I NEEDED to hit up the local chinese buffet (appropratly named Yummy Buffet) to get my fill of pineapple shrimp. Bella enjoyed this as well as she got to eat “strawberry chicken” (some dish that had red looking chicken so she assumed it was strawberry), lo mein and 2 plates of fruit. She didn’t even care that I was getting ice cream when she realized she could pick out any kind of fruit she wanted and have as much as she wanted. Works for me! Then we took a drive around the Elm Creek park/Dayton area. It only takes a few minutes to feel like you are on semi-country roads so it’s a nice relaxing drive.

Saturday –

After Jeremy made us a breakfast of ‘fancy toast’ (French toast) and fruit smoothies, Bella and I heading off garage-saleing. I’ve never done this as an adult/on my own free will but realized there is something very satisfactory around the hunt of a sale. First you have to spot a sign and then you have to attempt to follow it. I was amazed at how many dead ends I ran into because people would place a sign on the main road having you turn into a neighborhood but to follow up with any additional signs. Even though I stuck to our general Champlin/Brooklyn Park area I still don’t know all the street names. SO just telling me an address doesn’t help!

Bella got into it after our second sale which had a ton of kids toys and clothes. There was another little one toddling around, so she had a good time running from toy to toy to try things out. After that her motto was “one more garage sale!”. The best buy of the morning was ‘If You Take a Mouse to School’ for 25 cents. My splurge was $6 on Little People Animals and playmat which was sold by a couple of adorable kids in their front yard. Their neighbors were having a sale so they set up shop in the front with a handful of toys and some free kool-aid. I couldn’t resist them and I know Bella will like the animals.

We ended our excursion when it started to rain and got home just in time for me to be holding Bella outside when the thunder started. Last year she was too young to care about it, but this time I got the “WHAT THE EFF WAS THAT??” look and the death grip. I tried to explain how it was just a loud noise – like the blender or the vacuum cleaner but she wasn’t comforted. Thankfully the thunder calmed down enough for her to take a nap.

After nap time, Auntie Lissa and Clay Clay came over to watch Bella for a few hours while we met or friends Mel and Curt for dinner. It worked out well because Mel and Curt have a 6 month old and her parents live right by us. So they were able to drop off baby Reese with them and we enjoyed dinner on the patio at Mavericks. We were home by 7:15 just as Bella, Lissa and Clay Clay were coming home from the park. Bella had such a good time that when I mentioned going to the park the next day she insisted that Auntie Lissa and Clay Clay come over to take her.

Oh, and the big news from Saturday was that Bella used her “big girl potty” for the first time! We were all in the bathroom area getting ready or doing whatever and she looked at Jeremy and said “You have to go potty” (remember you = me). Jeremy told her to hold it, helped her get ready and seated and after a few seconds she did was she was supposed to do! The kids potty we have has a sensor on the bottom that plays a tune when something hits it. It’s funny how thrilling that sound can be. Unfortunately, she didn’t repeat this at all this weekend but it was an encouraging sign!

Sunday –
We met friends (Crystal, Joel and 1 ½ yr old Jonah plus Rachel and 5 yr old Olivia and 1 ½ yr old Rylan) at a park in Coon Rapids. The playground was great as it had 3 different areas and even the biggest one was Bella-friendly. Actually, it was mom friendly as it didn’t have any tunnels or tubes that would require parents to squeeze through to follow their kids. We played, had lunch and enjoyed the overcast sky (kept it cool) for 2.5 hours before going home to nap. Of course, that’s the time the sun and heat started which meant that my nap-time activity of mowing the lawn was hot and tiring but it still felt good.
After nap time we busted out the kiddie pool at Bella’s new sprinkler she got for her birthday. She let me and Jeremy put our feet in the pool and made us run though the sprinkler with her a million times. It was fun, but holding a 27lb kid and running didn’t last too long for this out-of-shape 3.5 month pregnant chick. So I made Dada take over.

After a lot of sun and a lot of fun we were all worn out, but it felt good to be able to get out and enjoy the weather!

“I lobe [love] you too, Mama.”

2010-05-21T08:06:00.001-07:00

She'll say this even when I don't say it first. It makes every stressful/frustrating moment worth it!

The Birthday Blog

2010-05-17T10:21:00.000-07:00

It was inevitable. My baby was going to turn 2 and officially be a toddler. It happened last Friday, May 7. I’ll be honest that there were a few tears from Mama, but mostly we had a lot of fun and laughs.

Friday – May 7
Grandma and Grandpa took Bella in the morning so I could finish some last minute errands and start cleaning for her birthday party the next day. Then we met for lunch at Ruby Tuesday and had some good food and a ‘kids birthday sundae’ the size of my head. This started a streak of sweets for Bella which will not be repeated. As I’ve mentioned before, we really try to limit her sweet intake. We don’t have cookies (other than animal crackers) in the house nor do we ever do dessert. So desserts are usually only on special occasions like holidays and birthdays. This weekend was one big special occiasion, though, so we let her indulge a bit.

After lunch we went home for a much needed nap and more prepping for her party. Jeremy got off work ‘early’ (was home by 5:00) and we had a nice night of pizza and presents. It was fun because she wanted to play with each thing after opening, so she didn’t even get through all our presents that night. We picked up where we left off in the morning

Purple and pink plastic trike (that’s too big for her… not sure if we’ll return it or just keep it for when she can use it)
Crayola Art Studio Easel
Mr Potato Head Silly Suitcase (“Matato head!)
Lets Go Fishing Game
Play-doh accessories
Bubbles
Piggy Bank
Hello Kitty Jumbo Coloring Poster Pad
Mickey Mouse Cell Phone
Pink Hello Kitty Water Bottle
A Twins shirt

Saturday, May 8
After finishing presents, cooking and cleaning and a nap (for Bella), family started arriving for Bella’s birthday party. The Hajders came first - Grandma, Grandpa, Great-Grandpa, Aunt Michelle, Uncle Pete, Uncle Andy and Aunt Jessica came over first. Grandma brought the Mickey and Minnie mouse cake. Bella was totally spoiled

Grandma and Grandpa – tumbling classes at the Little Gym, puzzle and clothes
Great-Grandpa – funds for her bank account, a chick that sings and a magnetic Pooh book
Michelle/Pete – Drum, tambourine and other music maker, kitty sticker book (or was this andy/jess?)
Andy/Jess – Twins shirts, bracelets, kitty sticker book (?)
Great Aunt Marjie – Lamb purse, sunglasses and a stuffed puppy

Then the Trafton side of the family came – Nana, Papa, Great Grandma, Great Aunt Cindy, Uncle Justin, Aunt Mara and Aunt Melissa and we ate until we were stuffed. Jeremy spent the night prior and all day preparing and smoking babyback and short ribs. He also smoked chedder cheese for an appetizer. We also had Nana’s 7 layer salad, Grandma’s calico beans, chips and fruit. Oh and cake and ice cream, of course.
After eating, the Hajders left to make it to the Twins game and we opened presents from the Traftons. She was once again spoiled!

Nana/Papa – funds for her bank account, rubber duckies, bubbles
Aunt Mara and Uncle Justin - Elmo Live Doll and Elmo Cell Phone
Aunt Melissa and Clay Clay - Mickey Mouse Hot Dog Dancer
Great Grandma – shirt and jeans
Great Aunt Cindy – Elmo’s Tickle Hands \

After more hanging out and playing with new toys, the guests left and Bella got to wind down by watching the Mickey Mouse show on DVD because Mom and Dad were tired too!

It was a great birthday and I look forward to celebrating many more!

Sunday, May 9

Mother's day came at a great time. It was a good reason to not plan any more 'work' for the weekend and relax. We met my family for brunch (tried the Good Day Cafe, but headed to The Dover in a DoubleTree for an awesome buffett with GDC told us it'd be an hour wait). Went to the Mpls Farmers Market, napped, and went to the in-laws for dinner. Of course brunch and dinner included dessert, which makes this weekend the time that Bella ate more sweets in a span of 3 days then in her 2 years combined! Not a habit we are getting into!

Yup, she still has a big head.

2010-05-12T10:34:00.000-07:00

Bella had her 2 yr check up today (detailed post about her bday coming later) and it went really well. Here are the highlights

26.5 lbs (50th percentile), 31 inches (50th percentile) and a head that is still in the 90th percentile
Dr. Amy said she was the most cooperative 2 year old she’s seen. Whether or not she was just saying that to make us feel good, we’ll take it. Bella was very calm and attentive and did everything Dr Amy asked her to do.
Bella talked the entire time, impressing Dr Amy who said her vocabulary is at a 3 yr old level. At one point she said “seriously guys, I don’t know if you know how impressive this is!” so that felt really good.
The pre-survey (where you mark yes or no to a series of questions regarding what your kid is able to do) confirmed that her cognitive/language skills are advanced (sorry, don’t mean to brag but come on…they marked that a 3 year old should start to identify colors and Bella’s been doing that for months!) but most of what we had to answer ‘no’ to was physical (jumping a distance, balance, drawing a straight line, etc).
We need to start working on having Bella dress herself. One of the questions on the pre-survey that we marked ‘no’ to was in relation to her dressing/undressing herself. Bella can talk off her socks and pull her pants down, but doesn’t take them off or doesn’t take off/put on her own shirts.
She can start eating peanut butter! :D But note to family….we want to be the first to give it to her so wait for us to give you the go ahead :)
She got two shots and two very cool star band aids. There were tears but she recovered quick enough to pick out a sticker. We then had to go to the lab for a finger-prick blood sample and I expected more tears, but Bella didn’t flinch or make a peep. She sat totally still and watched the entire time. No tears or fussing or anything! She got a special toy from the lab tech and an Ernie sticker for that.

The next appt isn’t until 3 years, which is kind of a bummer since it’s fun to go and get her stats. But we’ll be back before then with #2. We found out our pediatrician is pregnant and due on Monday, so we are glad we made it in to see her before she went on leave.

Bella's Story

2010-05-04T06:48:00.000-07:00

For some reason I was thinking about it this morning and it made me smile. So I wanted to document it.

A few nights ago we were finishing up dinner and Bella started saying “go to park!”. It was getting kind of late so we had to tell her no, that it’d be dark soon so we couldn’t go to the park. She took it OK since we promised to go another night. Not long after, we were in our bed reading “mama’s books” (Bella likes me to “read” to her from my books…which is just me making up stories and flipping though the pages of my book pretending like I’m reading it to her). Bella stopped me and said “you read!” so I handed her the book and asked her what her story would be about. She said “A lady”. Here is her story –

“Lady brings pizza. Mama and Dada and Baby eat pizza. Baby needs a paci[fier] (at this point I ask the baby’s name and it’s Barbara – the name of her cabbage patch doll). Baby sleeps in stroller. Mama, Dada and Baby go to park. Baby plays on Choo Choo Train (at Andrews Park by us the playground has a train to play on). Mama and Dada are on the train. Choo Choo!”

So apparently she was wanting to go to the park to play on the choo choo train. And she wants pizza.

There has been a lot of pacifier talk lately. I think it’s because I told Bella that when she’s 2, she won’t use a pacifier anymore. She is always telling me that she uses a pacifier at Grandma and Grandpas to go night night (she does at Mara’s too). She fusses for one every once and a while at home but when I remind her we don’t use them at home anymore, she comes back with “Paci at grandma and grandpas, go night night”….like she’s telling me “fine, I’ll just get one at Grandma’s house!”. Which is fine, but not for much longer! :)

Also last night we went to see Jeremy and his brother (Uncle Justin) play volleyball at Mama Gs. It was a little chilly, but Bella had a great time. She was squealing, laughing and cheering during the first game and would repeat “bump, set, spike!” with me. But 1 game was enough for her and we spent the rest of the time running around and playing with Auntie Lissa who came to watch as well. Then we went inside with everyone after the game to warm up and Bella saw the pull tab booth. She pointed at it and said “Money!”. Thinking it’d entertain her and me for a few minutes, I bought $5 worth. I handed one to Bella and she knew exactly what to do with it! She pulled back the tabs like a pro! I’ve only played pull tabs a few times in my life and never with her, so that was kind of funny. And no, we didn’t win big.

Mama hold hand

2010-05-03T07:25:00.001-07:00

Bella is really into holding hands lately. Mostly MY hand, which is totally fine. The sweetest is when we are eating and she’ll reach out towards me and say “Mama hold hand” and hold my hand while she eats. This past weekend we were attached at the hip – literally. Mama had to do everything and carry her everywhere. We were running errands yesterday and I was getting tired so I asked JT to buckle her in the car at one point and she freaked out because only Mama could do it. And she’ll only brush her teeth for me now. Brushing teeth used to be her and JT’s thing. I didn’t even have to be in the room. But now I have to be there and be the one who brushes. Again, it’s fine, but I kind of miss the little breaks I would get when JT would take over and do something. I’m sure it’s a phase and it’ll pass….and once it does I’ll miss it.

On that note, when we were eating dinner yesterday we were talking about her birthday (again) and what she was going to do at her party. She said the normal stuff about having cake and playing with toys…then she said “and get bigger, and bigger, and bigger!” as in SHE will keep getting bigger. Well that was it. I lost it. I don’t want her to get bigger!! I don’t want her to go off to college! What are we going to do when she leaves the house forever?? I had a minor panic attack that I party blame the pregnancy hormones for. But hearing her say how big she’ll get was just too much. I’m over it now (kind of) and am looking forward to everything that comes with having a kid grow up, but she needs to stop talking about getting bigger and pretend like she’ll stay 2 forever.

Playtime

2010-04-30T08:01:00.001-07:00

On Thursday nights I’ve been taking Bella to Family Playtime though the Anoka Hennepin ECFE. It’s $2 per night and no formal registration required. The flexibility is nice for nights we can’t make it. However, I try to go as much as possible because Bella really enjoys it. She calls it going to “play with new friends”…even though we’ve been going for a year now. When she was really young I took her Monday nights to baby playtime (birth-2 years), but ended up enjoying the family playtime better (birth-6 yrs). Here’s the schedule for the night

6:30 – sign in, get name tags, wash hands, pay, say hello to the teachers Ann and Nancy
6:30-7:00 – playtime in the general playroom. The playroom includes some standards – a kitchen with play food, little people with houses and cars, random toys, a playbox that has something different in it each week to scoop/play with (sand, water, rice, chick peas, etc), art tables (painting, playdough, stamps, coloring, crafts, etc) and an easel for painting.
7:00 – move to the gym for parachute time. Bella’s favorite! She talks about this parachute all week. She loves to “pop” animals in the parachute and sit in the middle while the adults spin them around
7:05-7:30 – we usually stay in the gym to play for a bit. They have balls, riding toys, a slide, a tower to climb, swing, etc.
7:30-7:50 – back into the playroom for more general playing
7:50 – circle time to sing songs. Bella loves this part too, although she’ll often just sit and listen and not sign along/do the hand movements. For 1-2 songs she’ll participate, otherwise she is content with observing.
8:00- time to go home!

The amount of kids can really vary. In the winter there could be 10-15 kids (plus 1-2 parents for each) so it’d be really busy. But last night there were 4 kids total! So once the weather gets nicer I think it’s a smaller group. That’s fine with me as it gets me some one-on-one time with the teachers. Last night I was able to have a good conversation about how to handle Bella’s tantrums (thankfully they support my approach of ignoring her until she calms down and that time outs aren’t effective when they are this young. Also gave me some good tips to handle fussiness at meal times when she doesn’t want to eat what we’re eating).

It’s also nice to connect with some of the other moms, but it can be touch and go. There are a few that are friendly and a few that seem to have no interest in talking to anyone outside of the few people they already know. They usually have the most annoying kids too because mom isn’t watching them and they’ll do things like hit Bella and I’m the one that has to say something. Poor Bella doesn’t have any concept of hitting or pushing people around so she just gets confused when this particular bully of a girl is around …but I guess it’s a way to learn the realities of life!

A couple of the other moms are pregnant with #2 as well or have 2 young kids already, so it’s really nice to talk to them about that. My biggest concern right now is getting Bella used to the idea that she’ll have to share everything once baby comes, but I know that’ll be an adjustment no matter what we do to prepare her!

April Update

2010-04-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

I’m so hot and cold with this blog! I tried using a different site (Shutterfly or maybe it was Snapfish?) because I could upload my photos to print right on the blog, but our internet is so slow at home that it takes me all day (literally 8 hours) to upload 100 photos. So I’ve given up on that for now. So here I am back to blogger because I really want to keep documenting the goings on of Bella Boo!

Before I begin, I’ll note that she still refers to herself as “You”. She doesn’t refer to anyone else as “you”. So anywhere in the below you see a Bella quote that contains “you” it really means her…

Tantrums
I’ve said before her terrible twos have begun but now they are in full swing. Last night’s drive home consisted of Bella freaking out/having a tantrum the entire way because I wouldn’t let her drive. I don’t know where this came from, but for the first time ever she didn’t want to get in her own seat. In her own words “No Bella’s seat. Mama’s Seat. You drive!!” when I tell her no, that only Mama gets to drive her car she freaks out “yeah, yeah! Bella driiiiiiive!!!”. Reasoning doesn’t even work with a 2 year old. She doesn’t care that she couldn’t reach the pedals.

These freak outs now turn into all night events. She’ll calm down and be fine then the littlest thing will set her off. Once we got home she was perfectly happy because I let her watch The Wiggles while I made dinner. Then JT got home and we got ready for dinner…god forbid JT push her chair the table so she can reach her food “No, too close!! Sit back!!”. Another tantrum because she wanted to be 2 feet away from the table. Finally we got her situated, had dinner and went upstairs to play more. Earlier in the night she found some short sleeved PJs with shorts. So I let her wear them while she watched TV and ate dinner (to avoid a freak out…I choose my battles) but told her she had to wear pants and socks to bed. Well the pants were fine but the socks were just too much for her and freak out #3 of the night occurred. Then she wanted to take her socks off but put her shoes on. What goes on in those little heads? So JT made a good parenting call and decided it was bed time.

The good news is that she always admits when she’s tired and will often tell us when it’s time to “Go sleep. ZZZZZZZ” (she makes the snoring noise with it). So once she calmed down enough to talk she agreed she was tired and we put her to bed. But I just can’t help but wonder what we are going to have to deal with down the line with this drama queen!

“Go Gramma’s House!”
While it doesn’t usually end up in a full out tantrum, at least 3 times a day I hear this “Go Gramma’s house! Yeah, yeah, OK…Gramma’s house”. As if HER saying “yes” and “OK” seals the deal. But seriously, this girl needs to go to Gramma’s house everyday! And this is my mom and dad’s house only. Not that she doesn’t like JT’s parents/Nana and Papa’s but she goes there 4 days a week for her ‘daycare’ so I think my parent’s house is more of a treat. Sometimes it’s the first thing she says when I wake her up in the morning “Ready to go to Gramma’s house!” but mostly it’s when I pick her up from Auntie MoMo’s (Jt’s sister, Mara) “No go home. Go Gramma’s house!!”. If she keeps this up or keeps increasing how often she says this I’ll be ready for her to move in w/ Gramma and Grandpa soon.

B-E-L-another L-A!
She can spell her name! She never ceases to amaze me and this is the latest “trick” she’ll do for me : ).

No more paci
She’s given up her pacifier at home! She is still using it for naps and Auntie Momo’s and my parent’s house, but she no longer uses it to go to bed or take naps at our house. We started one day when we were in her room getting ready to go to bed and I told her “uh oh Bella, we don’t have a paci. Can you go to bed without one?” She did and from there we just told her that she didn’t need one at night anymore. Initially she told us to “buy more pacis at Cub!” thinking we ran out, but eventually she gave up on that too. Just within the past couple of weeks I stopped giving one to her at nap time and she’s been fine. Every once and a while when she’s getting tired she’ll ask for one if we are in the car or out and about, but a reminder that big girls don’t use pacifiers usually takes care of it.

Like I said, she is still using them for naps during the week/when she’s not home I’ll probably ask family to stop that w/ her 2nd birthday coming up.

Outside play
It’s so nice that the weather warmed up early this year. Bella loves to go outside and play in her car in the driveway, blow bubbles, draw with sidewalk chalk and water our plants. She LOVES watering the plants! I know she’ll be a big help in Papa’s garden this year!

Potty Training – not yet!
We have the ‘big girl’ potty out in our bathroom but it’s been used as a stool for the past 2 months rather than a potty. Every once and a while she’ll ask to use it (her: "You go potty!" me: "what? no, I don't have to go" her "no, YOU GO POTTY" me: "oooh yeah, you is you"), but never really needs to go. While I’m sure if we tried right now we could get her trained, but we are holding off for a few months until she seems really ready. She’s not quite dry all night yet anyway. Also, I’m not sure if I’M quite ready for that yet. I actually don’t mind diapers. Everything is contained and there is more control over when you make a stop to change her. I’m not really looking forward to running to the bathroom at Target to try to make it in time or cleaning up pee off my bathroom floor!

Catching Up w/ Random Thoughts

2010-03-06T21:55:00.001-08:00

It's been a long time since I sat down to write about what Bella is up to. I've been meaning to catch up. Especially after this blog was so helpful when catching up w/ Bella’s baby book. I did a good job documenting her first year and want to try to get as much of her second year down as I can. So below are random thoughts from the past few months. Things that I think I’ll want to remember in a somewhat stream of consciousness style..

Bella is talking away. Every day she seems to get more and more articulate. Up until Christmas it was sporadic words. Right around Christmas time is when it really picked up. She spoke her first ‘sentence’ on Jan 25 – “Dada read book” and since then she’s been stringing words together frequently. Recently she’s gotten a hang of ‘and’… What’d she have for dinner? “noodles AND applesauce” (not just “noodles. Applesauce”. She’s also starting to combine two concepts - what should we do? “get dressed and go to Mara’s house”. Sounds so simple, but they make her sound so grown up!

That’s also when she really started getting a hang of her ABCs. She quickly learned all the letters and the ABC song is now one of her favorites to sing while walking around or in the back of the car. For about a month now, she’s been able to tell you what letters stand for – thanks to all our awesome ABC books and Sesame Street. ‘M’ is for Mama, ‘C’ is for Cat, ‘I’ is for Ice Cream.
One super cute thing is that her answer to us being out of anything is to “go to Cub and buy more!”. She knows Cub is where to go get more food, so if we run out of string cheese “go to Cub and buy more cheese!”. The other day we went to Rainbow instead of Cub and she refused to acknowledge it and called it “Green Cub” instead (since the Rainbow sign is green and Cub’s is red).

She’s known all her colors for a long time, which was actually kind of a bummer come Christmas because so many of the ‘age appropriate’ toys seemed not appropriate for her. We worked on shapes and numbers and she also picked up on those quickly. By 21 months I’d say she was proficient in letters, numbers, colors and shapes.

She’s still a great eater – loves loves loves fruit. She’ll eat an apple or pear over anything else. She also loves ham, peas, carrots, goldfish, bread & jam, Krispies, macaroni and cheese, just cheese, (making) pizza and so much more!

The terrible twos have kicked in…or at least I hope this is it and it doesn’t get worse! We try to let her choose and make decisions whenever possible, which we can sometimes use to get her to do what we want (“do you want to go to Grandmas house or stay home? If you want to go to Grandma’s, we have to get dressed!”) but it can also backfire when she thinks she gets to decide if she gets to brush her teeth or not or if we clip her fingernails. The other day she threw a tantrum because I wanted to put her hair in ponytails. God forbid!

Today we went to the Auto Show and Bella had a blast looking at cars. She loved sitting in the front seat and pushing buttons and being free of a carseat. We let her run around and she was a very good listener when I would tell her to “stop!” or “go the other way”. I don’t know how thrilled everyone else was to have a toddler running in between the cars, but she was having a blast and actually was able to stay out of people’s way. She didn’t like it when we had to get out of a car to “share” with other people (“no share! No share!”) but got over it quickly when she saw the next shiny new car.

Bedtime routine is this – get jammies on (favorites are pink and white striped Minnie Mouse, pink Santa and Snowmen or blue monkeys) and play for a little bit longer. Then we get a pacifier and sit in her room to read 4 books. She gets to pick a blanket (her current favorite is Nana blanket which JT’s mom made for her) and 1-2 friends to sleep with. She doesn’t always sleep with the same stuffed animal or toy. Last night it was Ike, the monkey. Tonight it’s a snowman and an Elephant. Her baby, Barbra is common but so is Pikachu or a stuffed puppy that used to be bigger than her.

She gives lots of hugs and kisses and is starting to give cuddles away without having to ask for one. I love it when she is in a cuddly mood. Tonight we went to dinner at Space Aliens and were in a booth. Bella was on the side with me and every few minutes she’d reach over to me and say “hug” and give me a big hug around the neck or “kiss!” and “muah!”. I also got lots of butterfly kisses. Daddy was a bit jealous!

Without us provoking she started saying ‘hi’ and ‘byeeee!’ to Scrappy and Lyly. It started one morning when we were getting ready to go somewhere, I wasn’t quite ready yet and it made Bella upset. So she started fussing and YELLING “BYE SCRAPPY DOWNSTAIRS. BYE LYLY” like that would convince me to be ready faster. I got the hint she was ready to go but also couldn’t stop laughing. Especially since we don’t talk about scrappy too much, but now he’ll always get a ‘hiiii!’ in the morning and a nice goodbye.

We Caved

2009-12-10T14:52:00.000-08:00

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.

Stats from 18 m check up

2009-11-11T10:52:00.000-08:00

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? ;)

Where did Oct go?

2009-11-08T18:30:00.000-08:00

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.

Boy that was hard...

2009-09-28T20:08:00.000-07:00

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.

Big Helper

2009-09-16T04:21:00.001-07:00

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!

Yup, we're still here.

2009-09-13T15:33:00.000-07:00

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!

Toothbrushes and Tantrums

2009-06-30T09:52:00.001-07:00

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...

2009-06-19T10:14:00.001-07:00

"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

2009-06-17T10:28:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-06-06T06:24:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-05-30T08:49:00.000-07:00

Last Night

2009-05-28T06:53:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-27T15:35:00.000-07:00

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 :)

In one week...

2009-04-30T02:18:00.000-07:00

...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!

Not only is she walking...

2009-04-26T19:37:00.000-07:00

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

Updates (orginal title, I know)

2009-04-07T10:19:00.000-07:00

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!

Holy shit she's walking!

2009-03-31T18:46:00.001-07:00

enough said.

I am one lucky girl!

2009-03-17T04:03:00.000-07:00

VOTE!

2009-03-08T20:27:00.000-07:00

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.

Stop growing so fast!

2009-03-06T13:48:00.000-08:00

Bella bella bo bella, banana fana fo fella

2009-03-01T07:46:00.000-08:00

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.

We are still here

2009-02-17T14:47:00.000-08:00

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.

BRRRRRR it's cold out, Mama!

2009-01-16T14:35:00.000-08:00

Look at her go:

My baby LOVES...

2009-01-07T04:09:00.000-08:00

......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!

Busy Weekend/Busy Baby

2008-12-14T15:09:00.000-08:00

Bella is moving more and more! Not really 'crawling' but scooting around the floor. You can tell she gets a little frustrated by not being able to really go where she wants. The best part? She will almost always turn and scoot towards Mama! :)

She loves to stand, though and prefers it to any thing else. I have a feeling she might just skip the whole crawling deal and just start walking. She loves to pull herself up using your hands and bounce around on her legs.

She is also"talking" alot - Mamamamama and baabbababa are her favorites. It's super cute. Even though I know she doesn't know what 'mama' means, it is fun to pretend like she is really asking for me.

This weekend was super busy. Wee went to the xtended Trafton Xmas party on Sat night - where Bella got her first christmas gift.

On Sunday she was baptized at St Stephens church in Anoka. Jeremy is catholic and I was raised Lutheran. I would not consider myself a religious person, but do like some of the values that the church teaches (and am a little weary of others, but that's a whole other topic) so I always knew I wanted to have my child go to church and have the opportuntiy to learn the Christian faith. I have some really great memories from my own experiences being involved with my church and met some of the best friends I have now becuase of it.

I am learning more and more about the Catholic religion and am lucky that Jeremy is open to my scrutiny of it. Honestly, I didn't have the best experince with the Catholic church when we got married so I was a little hestiant this time around but knew it was important to Jeremy and his family to get Bella baptised Cathloic (JT prety much had to since he agreed to it when we got married). Thankfully, we have found St Stephens to fit what I was looking for in a Catholic church - something more contemporary and welcoming of everyone. They don't care if you aren't really Catholic, they just want everyone to come together to learn and celebrate. I actually enjoy going to the services becuase the sermons tend to actually interest me. The reason why we waited so long to get Bella baptised was becuase we were looking for the right church - we went to several and St Stephens was the only one that I felt comfortable attending as a non-Catholic.

Again, I don't fully back everything that the church preaches, but the overall values of "loving they neighbor" and giving back to the community are strong and that is what is most important. It'll be our job to help Bella understand that faith is there to guide you in your choices, not lead your life entirely - so you have to take what works for you and leave what doesn't.

Ok, enough of that - on to what is really important...pictures of Bella on her 'big' day.

Baptismal outfit from Nana

A Daddy decorated cake (we didn't get to Target in time to order one!!)

Happy to be the center of attention

With godparents - Aunt Mara and Uncle Justin (JT's sister and brother)

Picture Tagged

2008-12-05T13:17:00.000-08:00

Per Jessie and Jessica's posts, I was tagged with the following task... take the sixth folder on your computer and pull up the sixth picture and describe it.

This is Mel. These are Jessica's sunglasses (right?). We had gone out to celebrate Mel and Curt moving back to MN and decided that everyone needed to try the sunglasses on and get their picture taken.

See?

I'm not tagging anyone else to do this, because I'm pretty sure everyone already has been or will be by someone else.

And it begins...

2008-11-27T08:42:00.000-08:00

Bella has started pulling herself up on "all fours" and pushing off... we are in trouble! Pretty soon she'll be scooting all over the place. Also, this morning she mananged to pull herself up to standing using me as support. And so it begins...

Other accomplishments include her first concert:

And she won a fight with a hippo for rights to wearing the tu-tu:

Happy Thanksgiving, ya'll!

Apparently she didn’t like my cooking

2008-11-24T17:01:00.000-08:00

After several days of trial and error (mostly error), I’ve seemed to have success with squash and bananas mixed in oatmeal (but not both the same time!). One of the mom’s I met at parenting group suggested I try store bought food first, and sure enough she is taking to it much better than my ‘cooking’.

I’ll give her another week or so of Gerber, then try making her food again. I won’t be heartbroken if she doesn’t take to it. I was doing it mostly because it sounded cheaper and somewhat easier in the long run.

Otherwise, not too much new to report in the world of Bella. As I type she is in her jumper squeezing out a ‘present’ as Grandma and Grandpa would call it. I’d better change her diaper before we make a mess. Lovely visual to leave you with, right? To make up for it, I’ll include some cute pictures here….

Chubbers

Terrifying her friend Jonah

New favorite

Who is this?

Hey, she's cute!

Finally figured out videos!

2008-11-17T10:48:00.000-08:00

(this was try #1 on Saturday... try #2 on Sunday didn't go so well either. We'll try again tonight!)

THEETHERS!!

2008-11-15T13:58:00.000-08:00

She's got 'em. We can't really see them yet, but we can feel the bottom two teeth that have come though!

6 Month Stats!

2008-11-12T19:33:00.000-08:00

6 Month Stats!
Weight: 17 ½ lbs = 75th percentile (up 2.2lbs from her 4 m check up)
Height: 27” = 90th percentile (2” longer than her 4 m check up)
Head: 17.5 cm = 90th percentile (.5 cm larger than her 4m check up)

Teethers are coming in! The Dr saw a couple of white things popping through.

We get to start feeding her ‘real’ food now! This weekend I’ll start by giving her sweet potatoes and we are supposed to introduce new foods about once a week to watch for signs of allergies. Call me crazy, but I’m going to start off making my own baby food. Although time consuming, it seems easy enough and at least I know she is getting pure fruits and veggies. We’ll see how long it lasts. J

We finally got everything for her room décor! The room has been ‘done’ for a while, but I still needed to hang pictures, valance, and I ended up getting a crib bumper (I don’t care what anyone says, it’s NOT going to fall off and suffocate her and I’d rather prevent her arms/legs from getting caught). I forgot to take pictures to post, but will soon… I’ll probably wait until my latest craft project is done and hung up.

Everyday it seems like Bella is making new noises and even more alert than the day before. I swear she sings along with us now. Especially when she is ‘dancing’ with Daddy and he sings the songs on the radio to her. She’ll start to sing (ok, screech!) along!

Oh, and these PJs that Grandma H bought her were supposed to be too big/ones she’d never grow into…. Time flies!

I will leave you with a sleeping bear who loves her monkey:

2008-11-08T05:15:00.000-08:00

New to the World

A few weeks along

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months

Five Months

SIX MONTHS!

Happy six-month/half-birthday to my little Tator Tot, Lovebug, Bella Button!!!

2008-11-07T09:13:00.001-08:00

I'm a Journalist

2008-11-06T13:30:00.000-08:00

Took this from Jessie!

2008-11-06T03:44:00.001-08:00

1. How long have you been a Mom? Six months tomorrow!

2. How many children call you Mommy? No children yet – just my husband when talking about me to Bella (Mommy or Mama).

3. Girl? Boy? or both?: Girl

4. Did you know what you were having? Yes

5. How old were you when you became a Mom? 26

6. How long were you in labor? It is hard to say! I was in the hospital for 30 hours before she was born…but ‘active’ labor was maybe 15-20 hours?

7. What’s your favorite thing about being a Mom? When Bella smiles at me. Nothing beats it!

8. What’s your least favorite thing? The constant worry

9. Do you want more kids? Sure! At least 1 more. Maybe 2 if we can expand our current house or move to a bigger one.

10. Do you plan on having more soon? Not within the next year or anything…

11. How many times have you been pee’d on? Peed on, never. Pooped on, maybe twice. Pretty good, huh?

12. Barfed on? Actually just once and it was the other day when I went down the stairs too fast after feeding her.

13. Is your child named after anyone? Not unless you could the country Ireland as “anyone”

14. How did you come up with their name? JT made a list. I made a list. We compared and narrowed it down to 2 choices. Isabella was on his original list.

15. When your child gets in trouble, who is the bad guy? I don’t think Bella has gotten in trouble yet!

16. What is the longest you have been away from your children? A full 24 hours at least. I don’t experience separation anxiety, thank goodness. Maybe because I know she is in good hands when we are away.

17. Bedtime routine? There isn’t really one…we can just tell when she is getting tired so then I nurse her and we put her to bed. It’s usually around 8:00-8:30.

18. Are your toes painted? Yeah, bright pink from Halloween

19. Last movie you saw in the theater? No Country for Old Men – I hate seeing movies in the theatre

20. One thing you will not give up just because you’re a mom? Going out and having a good time with friends!

21. One thing you did give up now that you’re a mom: sleeping in on the weekends, I guess. Otherwise I can’t really think of anything.

22. Best Mom perk: I NEVER EVER thought I’d say this…but yes, I think it’s a perk that I can nurse. Its come to be a calm, relaxing thing between me and Bella.

23. Snack, you sneak bites from your child? Gross. No.

24. When the kid is napping, you are: either holding her while she naps or just getting stuff done around the house (what kind of question is this…what is expected? That I’m training tigers while she is napping or something?)

25. Where is your child(ren) now? Back to sleep in her crib after an early morning breakfast.

26. Favorite place to buy maternity clothes? My favorite clothes came from Motherhood Maternity

27. If I could do it over…I wouldn’t have gained so much weight with my pregnancy

28. Did it turn out the way you expected? If “it” means my baby, then yes…she is perfect.

Rawr!!!

2008-11-03T10:35:00.000-08:00

It's snowing!!

2008-10-26T08:54:00.000-07:00

I swear that Bella is ready to take off. Although I know it's a long time away, it feels like she is ready the run the way she kicks her feet! But, when we have her on her belly she is starting to lift her butt up and wiggle a bit...as if she is starting to figure out how to balance herself.

As of now she still only rolls back to belly - no belly to back yet! Last week I took her to a playgroup fun by ECFE on Monday nights. One of the Moms from the New Parent Connection I went to at Mercy Hospital has a baby 1 week younger than Bella, and he was rolling ALL OVER the place at the play group. People aren't kidding when they say you can set them down one place, turn for 2 seconds and the baby will be across the room! It was so crazy to see this little guy roll and scoot himself around. I'm actually kind of thankful Bella isn't do that yet!

We are still feeding her just rice cereal - nothing else until her 6 month check up on Nov 11. I'm still nursing but will wean soon. My goal was to nurse for 6 months and I'm ready to be done. I'll miss the quiet time with Bella, but it's starting to become a lot of work and stressful. Now that she eats 8 oz of formula in one sitting, I just don't think she gets enough milk from me. It's hard to keep up. I always feel better when she has had a bottle and I know exactly how much she ate.

I'm excited to start feeding her new foods, though. My mom got me a baby food 'cookbook' for my bday. I'm going to at least try to make most of her food rather than buy premade baby food. It seems simple enough and I'll feel better knowing exactly what she is eating.

Other developments include Bella starting to know when Mom and Dad are leaving - she seems to fuss a bit now when we drop her off for "daycare" in the morning. The cutest? She's starting to reach for me - and only me! :) For example, this morning she hung out with Papa while I made breakfast - after a while he brought her into the kitchen and she reached out for me. I grabbed her and she cuddled into me. It's the best! The fact that she has only done this toward me makes up for the fact that she'd only laugh for Daddy for a while.

I'm also going to start sign language soon. Another mom in the playgroup uses it with her 9 month old and echos what I've heard before - it helps ease frustration for baby who WANTS to tell you what they want, but just can't. We'll see how it works out!

No pictures since I'm on my laptop...but trust me, she is still the cutest.

Update...

2008-10-19T07:41:00.000-07:00

Isabella is still the cutest!

In control

My god, she lovess this monkey!

Wizard?

I can haz pumpkin?

Cutie!

Two little monkeys

Big girl in her high chair

Seriously, Mom?

Tounge

Ready for church

Nakie playtime failed...

2008-10-13T10:30:00.000-07:00

Just an update that naked playtime promptly ended after Bella reminded me that the garbage bags were there not only to protect the floor from #1, but from #2 as well… thank goodness we were in the basement and near the washing machine.

That was the first and last naked playtime session. Like I mentioned, she didn’t seem to enjoy it enough for me to deal with that again!

Experimenting with nakie playtime...

2008-10-12T16:24:00.000-07:00

...which involves garbage bags on the floor, a blanket over them, and a naked baby on top of that. Supposedly babies love naked playtime. So far she seems indifferent.

No, she isn't happy ALL the time

2008-10-09T19:59:00.000-07:00

Just almost all of the time.

Annoyed

2008-10-04T04:50:00.000-07:00

I tried posted about the Duluth trip, including a bunch of pics, but it takes so long to load and then I lost all my text....

so instead just go to my Flickr site and look at the pics. There will be a set for the Duluth trip soon.

I will say the cutest part of the trip was when we were at the zoo. We were int he area where you can feed the animals and we were watching some little girl feed the baby/pygmy goats (whatever they were...they were small goats). The mom of the girl said "Oooh! She's loving this!!" and she was talking about Isabella. I turn around and she was ALL smiles and wiggling around in Jeremy's arms (he had her facing out). So damn cute. But, of course, impossible to catch on camera.

Put the Moby to good use this weekend

2008-09-28T19:19:00.001-07:00

Took Bella to Duluth - will write more about it l8r

Just plugging along

2008-09-27T00:26:00.000-07:00

Go Vikes!

Not much is new other than the fact that Bella is growing bigger every day. It’s harder and harder to leave her/not come home to her because I don’t want to miss anything! But our days get so busy so quick – it seems like during the week there is always something that prevents either JT or I or both of us from coming home after work. The nights that both of us get home by dinner time are the best – it gives us time to play with Bella and enjoy the evening together.

Don’t get me wrong, we are usually out doing fun stuff (happy hours, dinners, Twins games, Wiffle Ball...) but nothing compares to being able to hang out with Bella and make her smile! So, if I decline and invite during the week don't be offended....I just need my Isabella fix!

The nice thing is that her nursery is pretty much DONE...I know, 8 months later...the only thing we need to do is get a new shade for the window and get the valence and pictures up. It looks so great - I'll post pictures soon. So now JT is able to focus on other things. Of course, there is always another project for him to move to. Next it will be our railings/stairs. And in between that we are going to get our basement cleaned out - it's become a dumping ground for all the 'stuff' we had to move out of what was our office and is now the nursery.

Anyone need/want a full size mattress and box spring? We have one sitting in our basement, right next to the computer, that drives me nuts! We don't have an extra room for it (our 3rd bedroom houses more random stuff but eventually will be our 'workout' room again) so it's just hanging out in the way of everything. I've never been one who hates clutter, but this is starting to get out of control. How can 2 people and a baby take up so much space?? My family grew up in a house smaller than ours and we never seemed to be cramped.

Bella's newest love is her jumper. We haven't used it a ton since we only see her for a few hours during the week (and we want her in our arms/on the floor playing with her) but she has one at Grandma and Grandpa's that she uses, too.

And yes, I am posting this at 2:30am....but this time Bella didn't wake me up. I've found that in my old age, certain beers/liquors put me to sleep for a few hours and then leave me wide awake. I think it's the sugars. So last night I enjoyed a couple of Surlys @ Palaminos after work and then a couple of Sam Adams later on... I was snoozing by 10:30, but then woke up at 1:30 and here I am. Miller Light doesn't do it to me, but damn Miller Light doesn't taste anything like Surlys' Bender!

At least it is the weekend so I'll be napping w/ Bella as the day goes on.

Yup, it's 4:30am

2008-09-22T02:27:00.000-07:00

Isabella woke up at 3:30 needing a pacifier fix, and I haven't been able to get back to sleep since. Normally I can fall right back asleep without any problem, but every once and a while my thoughts keep me up. Rather than lie in bed for another hour I figured I'd get up and be productive (and blog?).

Yesterday, my friend Carol and I walked as a part of the LGLM5K. It was a great day to meet up and walk the lake, meet Matt and Madeline, and see everyone gather to support them.

The crowd

Me, Bella, Matt and Madeline - I'll let you insert your own witty comment about Madeline and Bella here.

All smiles

She pretty much did this the entire walk

Carol and Bella

I was a jerk and didn't offer to take Carol's picture with Matt and Madeline, so here is her Matt picture (that's him in the background being interviewed by Ch 5 news)

Oh, Hai!

2008-09-15T10:11:00.000-07:00

I am walking this on the 21st:
http://www.mattlogelin.com/archives/2008/09/09/liz-goodman-logelin-memorial-5k-walkrun/

Note that I said WALK - I couldn't run .5K let alone 5K...and I'll be bringing Bella. I'm meeting my friend Carol there, but if anyone else wants to join me let me know.

If you haven't visited Matt Logelin's blog yet, start here (be warned that you will cry, you will laugh, and you will probably become addicted):
http://www.mattlogelin.com/if-you-havent-been-here-before/

Playtime Progression

2008-09-10T19:07:00.001-07:00

What's happening?

Oh! This is fun!

Tickles from Daddy

Daddy's the funniest!

Where'd he go?

Ahhhh! He's back!

Rolly Poly

2008-09-05T06:54:00.000-07:00

She rolls over! From her back to her belly. It's so darn cute....and kind of odd to see this little thing that has been totally immobile able to move around by herself. Granted, she doesn't really go anywhere; but it is the first sign of independence for her....and I'm already ready to lock her up in the house and never let her leave!

What has Isabella been doing?

2008-09-01T07:40:00.000-07:00

...showing off her feet (doing lots and lots and LOTS of this - her new favorite thing to do. She ALMOST got a toe in her mouth the other day)...

...maintaining a pretty sweet mullet...

...playing with new toys (given to us by JT's coworker...so sweet!)...

...helping Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Andy pick horses (wasn't very good at this)...

...sleeping in 'big girl' crib in an (almost) finished nursery...

...having fun at the State Fair (she had bacon on a stick [gross] and Daddy won her a frog)...

...staying at Grandma and Grandpa's while Mom and Dad went away for a night to celebrate their anniversary...

...and catching up on some reading (her list will be on Goodreads.com soon)

dread

pic free post (sorry)

2008-08-28T15:17:00.001-07:00

I know pictures are what makes posts fun, but this one will have to be picture free. I’ll play catch up with those later.

So what has been going on? I’m back in full swing at work (is that the right term?) – not a thing has changed. That is not a good thing. I would have thought that after 3 months a few things would have either gotten finished up or figured out. I swear, the world DOES stop when I’m not around! (I kid, I kid…)

Now I’m trying to figure out a good balance between work and baby. Luckily I can leave whenever I want (no timeclock to punch) but I then I also deal with the repercussions of work piling up. For the most part, I’ve been out of here and home around 6:00. Jeremy’s job/hours are similar. I swear, I do not take for granted the advantages we gain by having family watch Bella. There is NO WAY Jeremy or I could leave work and pick up from a daycare by 5:00 everyday!

I get a lot of questions at work about how I feel about being back. The only way I can describe it is that it’s nice to have a routine again. It’s nice to get up, shower, put clothes on that aren’t PJs and go somewhere that isn’t the mall, parenting group, my mom’s house, or for a walk around the neighborhood. I miss Isabella like crazy, but am happy that she is able to spend time with family during the day. I know (hope?) they enjoy it, too. So really it is a win-win, right?

Also, I really don’t want that coming off as though I enjoy my job. I really despise it right now. There are so many reasons why that I won’t go into it. It’s an OK job, but I guess the best word really is ‘despise’. This is why I’m actively looking for/interviewing for other jobs (within Target). Keep your fingers crossed that I’ll find something that makes me happier soon!

Back to Isabella. She is perfect. Seriously. I don’t know how else to describe her. We moved her into her room and her crib and she didn’t even seem to notice/care. She’s still sleeping all night every night. She’s “talking” more than ever. She loves to lift up/hang onto her feet. She’s almost rolling over. Jeremy can make her giggle up a storm (but still only Jeremy!). I don’t think I’ve heard her CRY (as in all out screaming) in over a week. She goes in to get her pictures taken for the baby search contest thing next month. She has about the best temperament of a baby anyone could ask for. Just perfect.

The only thing that I worry about is her eczema – we’ve started putting stronger stuff on it but it seems to be getting worse. Especially on her face. Poor thing… I don’t really know how much it bothers her, but I can’t imagine it feels good.

This weekend Jeremy and I will be celebrating our 3 year wedding anniversary pre-baby style. Bella will stay with Grandma and Grandpa and JT and I will be staying at a hotel in Maple Grove – we’ll enjoy some wine, the cable TV (TLC and Discovery are big deals to non-cable subscribers!), and the hot tub in our room. Oh, and Sat we might even take Bella to the fair!

SURPRISE!!!!!!

2008-08-19T19:11:00.000-07:00

And a surprise it sure was!

Staged pic (duh)- no camera when we arrived

This past Saturday night, my husband threw me a surprise graduation party! He did great. I had absolutely no clue. Turns out he's been planning for months. I thought we were going to dinner with his cousin and her wife; his parents were going to watch Bella. Sounds normal, right?

We pull into his parents driveway to drop off Isabella and I notice:

1) my friend Jessica's car in the street (along with many others, but Jessica's stood out - or could it have been a friend of his sister's that had the same car?)

2) my sister and her husband creeping into the back yard (WTF would they be at my in-law's??) and

3) a guy I'd never met in the garage under a 'Congratulations Graduate' banner (he was JT's uncle's new wife's son that i never met...got that?)

I don't even know what was going though my mind...then we get out of the car and my friends and family start streaming into the garage! I started crying I was so overwhelmed! It was fantastic - I had no clue and so many people came! Even family from out of town! JT did an amazing job.

he's a sneaky one!

The night was so fun. We played yard games, drank from the keg (no keg stands, though), I clobbered a pinata, we played flippy cup, and...

First a shot - then pinata time

Isabella had her first sleep over at my parent's house! JT and I crashed at his parent's house (in his old room...weird). It was both relaxing and lonely to wake up and not have our Bella Baby there with us.

Bella and her friend, Milton

So, thank you to everyone who came. Thank you to everyone who couldn't came but wished me well. I am an official graduate with a Communications and Cultural Arts degree from Metro State. It only took me 8 years (with a 2 year break in there) but I'm satisfied. After getting my AA degree from North Hennepin, I'm glad I took the time to figure out what I wanted to study/what the right school was so I didn't waste time and money on something that wasn't beneficial to me.

All I know is that after this weekend I feel like a very lucky girl! :)