18 Months Old!

On December 2, our little girl celebrated a half birthday- yes, she is now 18 months old!

Miss Bella's current favorites:

• M&M's! They have become a major bribing tool in our household. In fact, whenever we tell Bella good job or good girl, she replies back "M?" Not sure if this is a good thing or not...
• All things Sesame Street, particularly Elmo, Mr. Noodle, and Cookie Monster. We think Bella has a slight crush on Mr. Noodle as she becomes very happy whenever he comes on Elmo's World! Kinda scary.
• Animals! Puppies, kitties, horses, the girl loves her animals. Too bad it is not the time for the state fair. Bella would be in heaven!
• Coloring! Not a day goes by that Miss Bella doesn't want to go scribble in her coloring books and play with her stickers.
• Playing Barbies and Little People.
• Music- Bella loves hearing music and singing along to it. A favorite this month has been the ABC's! She also started to develop some pretty great dance moves to go along with her music. Her little booty shake and bounce is pretty stinkin cute. :)
• Talking! Bella is such a little chatterbox. She usually uses real words, but does make up her own little language when playing or reading books. However, don't expect her to be too talkative outside of her own home. She takes awhile to warm up to any performances for outside people!
• Water- Bella loves washing her hands, taking baths, splashing in any water she can find. She also started pretending to go swimming on the floor.
• Chasing and being crazy. Bella runs all over the house and expects to be chased in return. She also likes it when we jump out and scare her, which is referred to as the "boo" game.
• Foods- PIZZA, pasta, mac and cheese, milk. And did I mention pizza? Anytime we go out to eat somewhere, she asks "pizza?" Apparently Bella's Italian-esque name means she loves her Italian type food!

And here are some pictures of what Bella has been up to...

We were able to go outside quite a few days this past month, even though some days it was rather chilly! Bella doesn't care about the cold however- she just loves having her outside time! She loves to push around her baby in a stroller...

And gives her a push down the slide! THAT was a major activity. I'm pretty sure that baby took 100 trips down the slide this month, with Bella following shortly behind.

Another FAVORITE thing to do outside has been to go visit animals. Our housing development is also home to a horse ranch, which is just down the road from our house. Well, one day, Bella saw horses in the field from our backyard. She saw them and naturally wanted to go see them, being the animal lover that she is. My mom was babysitting her that day, so she brought her down there. There are also farm kitties down there, and the owner of the ranch has a Corgi dog named Barney who comes out whenever visitors walk by. So every day after that, Bella asked to go see the "neighs? puppy? kitties?" She is a little wary of touching the horses- I think the size freaks her out- but she does love watching them! Bella is also in love with Barney- she even learned his name and doesn't just call him puppy!

Inside, Bella's life continues to revolve around playing Little People and Barbies. I believe she is putting all the animals "nigh-nigh" in the barn in this particular picture.

Barbie time has definitely been the dominant activity. She is seriously obsessed with playing Barbies. She likes helping them eat, haves them go to sleep, gives them baths, dresses them, takes them swimming... definitely some good imaginative play!
Of course even the Barbies have to get a kiss when they go to sleep. :)

Barbie play can get quite exciting at times as you can see.

As I have said, I was also a big Barbie fan, so I have lots for her to play with. Naturally, all of them have to be out, so we have Barbies scattered alllll over the playroom.

Here is an example of Bella's beautiful wardrobe choices. Shoes are often perched on their feet as well.

Bella enjoyed having all the Christmas decorations brought out at the end of the month. All of my penguins and snowmen get hugs and kisses from Miss Bella, which is what she is doing here. She's quite the loving girl!

We are also now prepared for snow to come, which to my dismay has not yet happened. (And I'm being serious- I like the first snowfall!) But we had to try on Bella's snow attire- thankfully, she can walk in it all!

We watched the Wizard of Oz over Thanksgiving weekend, and Bella showed signs of becoming a lover of the movie just like her mommy. Of course, it might've had something to do with watching the puppy....

Miss Bella has a wide range of faces that she displays. One day, I captured quite a few of them! This is a pretty normal look...

A halfway "cheesy smile.."

a sleepy-just-woke-up-from-a-nap look...

a pooping face...
a strange face... not real sure what that one is!
and here is a grumpy look. Haven't captured the sad face or surprised look yet!

A picture of our family on Thanksgiving Day- and the crazy little girl in the middle is definitely what we are most thankful for! It is so hard to believe that Bella is already a year and a half old, and that she will be TWO in just 6 short months! But it is such fun watching her grow and develop into the little person that she is, and we can't wait to see what the next six months will bring!

Fall Activities

As I mentioned in a previous post, we did several "fall" activities during October with Bella. First, we took her to Carroll's Pumpkin Farm in Grinnell. It was a pretty hot day when we went, but Bella had lots of fun! She kept very busy looking at everything there was to do.

Our attempt at a picture- obviously she was more interested in looking at something else!
Bella as a cute pumpkin head.
Bella loved driving all the tractors that were around, just as she likes to pretend to "drive" our car.
She also enjoyed sitting up on the "moo!"
The pumpkin farm had a big jumping pillow that Bella was very eager to check out. However, when we went on, she was not a fan. There were lots of kids on it, so it was very bouncy and I think it freaked her out a little bit.
Bella also took a ride on the "neigh!" She refers to many animals by the noise they make, rather than the actual name. :)
Peering through a pretend car.
Daddy and Bella on top of a giant turkey haystack.
There was a tractor ride for younger kids, so we decided to take Bella on that. And we found that one of the cows was named Bella! I tried to fit into that one, but it was a smaller cow and there was no way I was going to fit into it.
So we drove another one instead. :)
Driving yet another tractor!
There was also a big corn bin to play in. Bella liked doing this, but Mommy was not such a fan so we didn't stay in there too long.
Posing as "baas" with some cows!
Bella is much easier to take pictures of when one of us can stand to the side and entertain! She liked having her own little "punkin" to hold- that has been a favorite of hers this month as well! She loves playing with all the pumpkins we have outside our house.
The farm also had goats that kids could feed and pet. Bella was a little uncertain about petting and feeding them at first, but she warmed up with Mommy's help.
Feeding the goats some food, which I believe she tried to eat herself. Yum!
After the pumpkin farm, we stopped in Sully at Grandpa and Grandma's house. Grandpa was raking leaves, and Bella had lots of fun walking around in them and hearing them crunch! We don't have big trees at our house, so she doesn't get to play with all these leaves.
Throwing them around with Grandma.
On another Saturday morning, we brought Bella to Center Grove apple orchard. I had wanted to go somewhere to get apples, and this orchard had a lot of activities for kids, as well as apple picking and pumpkin patches. It was bigger than the pumpkin farm in Grinnell, so it was even more fun than that. There was another jumping pillow, and this time Bella loved it! They limited how many kids could go on it, so then it wasn't quite so bouncy.
She thought it was very fun. :)
Jumping with Mommy.
There was also one of the big slides that you go down on a feed bag. This was definitely the favorite activity of the day! Bella wanted to go down several times in a row. Here is Daddy taking a turn...
And Mommy....
And Mommy again!
There were also lots of animals out to feed and look at. Here is Bella getting up close and personal with a goat. No fear from this girl!
Checking out the ducks...
And the wild turkeys! Bella was not in love with the turkeys. They gobbled very loudly, and that made her a little nervous.
There were three little houses set up like the Three Little Pigs. Bella enjoyed going to play in all of these! Here she is in the house of sticks.
And heading with Mama into the house of bricks.
Peeking through a face hole. :)
Bella took part in a tea party with the Mad Hatter (like in Alice in Wonderland). She loves pretend play, so this was another fave.
Posing with a little pumpkin of her own!
There were also ride on tractors. Bella is of course to little to actually ride them, but she had to sit on each and every one. And we mean every single one!
Driving around!
There was also a corn pit like they had in Grinnell, but it was Daddy's turn to take her into that one. :)
Bella had fun throwing the corn all around and getting her feet buried by Daddy.
All in all, we had a very fun time at both of our little outings! I do get a little sad that our baby is growing up so fast, but it is so much fun taking her to kid-friendly places and seeing her excitement.