19 Months!

So I'm a little slow on getting a blog done for this past month. I'll blame it on the business of Christmas. Here is Bella's monthly update- Christmas pictures will be following!

Bella remains very much in love with her Elmo. A favorite activity this month was watching Elmo's Christmas Special on DVR over.... and over... and over again. I kid you not, she probably watched bits and pieces of that 75 times. "Elmo Santa" is how it was lovingly referred to.
At the beginning of December, we took Bella to see Santa at Bass Pro Shops in Des Moines. We had a suspicion that seeing Santa wouldn't go so well, but we knew Bella would enjoy seeing all the fish and stuffed animals at Bass Pro. And she definitely did! Here she is checking out the "shish."
Trying to take a dip in the water...
Petting a lovely looking puppy, one of her personal faves.
And touching the big "kitty." Bella also was a big fan of the big moose head! Couldn't touch that one though, it was too high.
And just as we thought, meeting Santa went ever so successfully. We tried pumping Bella up the whole day telling her she was going to meet Santa, and that got her quite excited. In fact, when we first got there and she saw Santa, she wanted to "touch" him. But when the actual moment came, Bella froze. Or maybe a better way of putting it would be freaked out.
Note the look of terror on her face. And he was even a nice looking Santa!
And this is likely our best picture- Bella eyeing him with a weary suspicion. Oh well, it was an enjoyable experience- for us anyway. :)
Bella modeling her new cookie monster slippers, one of her other favorite Sesame Street characters.
We had our niece Dylann's 8th birthday party this month, and Bella enjoyed playing with her cousins like always. Dylann got a new karaoke machine, and Bella thought she needed to plop in on the action by sitting on Dylann's lap. :)
This is where the love for her "cooking" all began. :)
Bella was quite into doing some dance moves this month as well. We had dance parties down in the basement to Christmas music, that often led into Bella being chased. Here she is showing off some of her good moves. :)
We have started introducing Bella to the big girl potty ever so slowly. She knows when she is going and often tells us, but she is definitely not having the motivation to go on the potty yet! Not something we're pushing, but we always ask and have her sit there occasionally. She does like wearing her big girl panties, especially since they have Elmo on them. :)
Since we are stuck inside so much more now, I have tried to think of different fun activities for Bella to do. Finger painting is one that she likes, and she creates beautiful pieces of art!
Color wonder paint is a wonderful wonderful invention. I definitely am not brave enough to let her try real paint yet!
As I said, Cookie Monster is another beloved Sesame Street character. Here Bella is demonstrating how Cookie Monster eats his cookies!
Bella has started using some short (2-3 word) sentences this month. Some of our personal favorites are "happy birthday (some name)!" and "Told ya." (I think I use told you quite frequently with her because she says it now all the time.) Bella also likes to sing happy birthday (which she does quite well!), Twinkle Twinkle, and the I Love You song from Barney. I am not a fan of Barney, but I like singing that song with her because she always gives hugs and kisses during it. :)
Grumpy face:)
And surprised face!
Bella likes to "help" me with chores around the house, like unloading the dishwasher, putting clothes in the laundry, wiping off the floor. She discovered a fun use for the dryer on this day-
Apparently it was a nice little home for her dolls!
Cooking on her OWN kitchen- more pictures to follow of that!
One of the days after Christmas, it wasn't too cold, so we decided to take Bella out to encounter her first experience with the snow. We plopped her in the snow last year, but of course she had no conception of it then. This year she was much more excited! At first, she was a little unsure about it, but then she plowed right into it and fell in love. She especially liked walking through the snow and leaving a path!
We of course had to go visit the farm to see the neighs, Barney the puppy, and the kitty. And they usually follow us home after our visit, so I decided to capture Bella's favorite puppy on camera. :)
We were outside for nearly an hour that day, which is way longer than we planned on doing, but we could not get her to come inside! Note the rosy cheeks...
We set up a few lawn decorations this year for Christmas and picked out penguins particularly for Bella, knowing that she would like them. And she didn't disappoint- everytime she saw them she wanted to go "touch" them. Here she is giving them a kiss!
Coloring remains a much loved activity, and now Bella has her own desk to color at! She is still a little short for it, but she loves to sit there and scribble away.