Baby Girl on the Way!

This past month, we had an ultrasound to check on baby #2's development. We were very thankful that everything looked great and is right on progress. We were also able to clearly see that there is going to be another little girl in our household! Yes, poor Daddy is getting outnumbered by his girls. :) We weren't too surprised by baby's gender. I had a pretty strong feeling that this baby was a she, so it was good to know my mommy intuition was right. It was also good for Bella as she was quite insistent that she was going to have a "baby sisser."

Here is a picture of our new little lady's profile. She was pretty wiggly, so it was hard to get any decent pictures.
Definitely a girl. :) We were able to see without the tech even telling us that baby was indeed a girl-she wasn't shy!
A picture of her little foot.
Pella has started doing 4D ultrasounds, so the tech tested it out on us. Definitely a different picture than when we did it at 29 weeks with Bella! We were 19 weeks at this ultrasound, and babies don't have a lot of fat at that point, so it was kind of strange to see. Here is the best shot she could get of her face.

This is obviously her hand.

And here is baby growing inside Mommy! We haven't been very good at taking belly shots this time around... funny how that changes with the second child. I think I was almost 19 weeks in this picture, so it was taken right before our ultrasound. I was starting to pop out a little bit...

And then two weeks later, I am definitely looking pregnant! I have been feeling great and have lots of energy, which is helping me keep up with our active little lady. We now have 18 weeks to go, and that can go by as slow as possible! I remember often wondering during my pregnancy with Bella why it lasts so long. Now I know- it's to prepare you for when you have a second child. :) However, we are super excited to meet our next little girl! We were quite relieved to find out that it is another she as that makes preparing for her arrival MUCH easier. It'll also be awesome for Bella to have a little sister to play with.

Kids Fest!

Way back at the beginning of March, Derek and I took Bella to Kids Fest in Des Moines, which was held at the fairgrounds. There were lots of games and activities for kids to do, so we thought she would have a good time. However, our main reason for going was that a REAL Dora the Explorer was going to be present! And for our Dora obsessed girl, we knew that would be perfect.

The first thing Bella spied was the big inflatable slide. She was a little nervous when we actually got up there, but she faced her fear and had lots of fun. :)

"Hula-hooping," or something to that effect.
There was a separate area for kids under 3, which was nice because Bella could actually go in one of the bounce houses and not get thrown around by the older kids. And she LOVED it in here! I think she made several trips inside.
We also discovered that Bella is quite the little baller, much to Daddy's delight. :) Her tiny little body is able to reach up quite high!
Bella had lots of fun kicking the balloons around as well! However, she took off behind the curtain at one point during this, which caused a momentary freak-out for Mommy.
Waiting in line for the big event with Mommy! We weren't sure if Bella would be initially scared of the "big" Dora since she has never really liked big characters in the past.
However, we quickly learned that was not the case! This is the first thing Bella did, where she stayed for quite some time. It was just about the cutest thing ever to watch her sit there and hug Dora.
We did get her to turn around to look for a picture!
We also saw a real princess. However, after seeing Dora, Bella was obviously none too impressed. :)
She got her first little balloon animal- a lion! I believe at this particular time she was obsessed with watching a lion episode on Dora, so she enjoyed having a lion of her own.
Going down the slide with Daddy.
Bella's love of animals apparently extends to all animals, both furry and scaly! Yes, Bella actually touched a snake, something that her mommy would never even do. She didn't want to at first, so we left, but then she worked up enough and wanted to go back to touch it.
Riding on a train with Mommy.
And before we left, we had to make one last stop with Dora. :) They gave each other some nice hugs again.
And she got to sit on her lap! Almost two months later, Bella still talks about going to see Big Dora. "Big Dora! Hugs? Kisses? Sit on her lap!" is the usual phrases associated with it. So if a real Dora ever comes back around, you can bet that we will be making a trip there! We are going to see Sesame Street Live in May, so hopefully even though Bella's love of Elmo has decreased, she will still have fun seeing big characters again.

March pictures- 22 months!

So I am a little behind (again) on posting some pictures from March, considering it is almost May already! Ooops. :) I'll try to quickly get caught up- here are some pictures from life at home during March!

Miss Bella snuggling with Mommy, most likely watching her faaaaavorite show- Dora the Explorer. Or maybe that's the only show she now watches!
Bella has been very busy playing with her kitchen these past few months. She particularly likes to make sure Tommy has some food to eat of his own. :)

As her end reward for successfully potty training, we got Bella the little cozy coupe car. She loved just sitting in it even before it was put together!
And her favorite activity is still getting in and out of it constantly.
What a gloomy landscape, but such a cute little girl. :)
Any nice day we had, we made sure to let Bella have her outside time. She still loves her slide! It's nice now too because she can climb up the ladder by herself. However, she likes somebody to go down after her, so Mommy and Daddy often have to haul up the ladder as well. And we feel much too big!
Scooping out some sand in her sandbox.
Bella still likes to make very expressive faces. Bet you can't tell what this one is. :)
This face is much better looking!
Bella's hair has been growing and growing, enough that I can FINALLY put a barrette in her hair! It took some work to get her to keep them in (aka telling her she looked like a princess), but we have finally succeeded I think. She was very used to headbands, but definitely not bows on her previously bald head!
Again... kitty is one of her best little buddies. Derek often says that Bella gives Tommy more love than him. This is likely very true as well. He is the first thing she wants to go see in the morning, and she likes to give him hugs and kisses allll day long!
Showing off her pretty curls. :) Which are now becoming long enough that I have to try to tame them, otherwise she starts getting some crazy bedhead!

Swimming Lessons!

In March, we started swimming lessons for Bella again. Once again, it has been a huge hit for our little water loving girl. Every week when we tell her it's swimming day, she is soooo excited and wants to go immediately.

Swimming with Daddy, doing her "reach and pull." She even practices her reach and pull when she is in the bathtub now!
Bella loves to kick and make big splashes too!
Swimming with Mommy another week.
Doing big jumps into the pool might be Bella's favorite thing to do! Here she is pre-jump...
And post-jump. :)

Bella has absolutely no fear of the water. She's had her head all the way under, and it doesn't even really faze her anymore. The girl is definitely going to be a little swimmer!

Modeling her swimsuit before swimming lessons one evening. :)
This picture displays the picnic/food fun we have been having lately... Yes, I get play food dumped all over my kitchen and living room floor every single day. :) It's delightful!

Trip to Oregon!

At the beginning of April, we visited Derek's brother and their family out in their new home in Portland, Oregon. This marked Bella's third time on a plane trip, and this was by far the most successful trip! She was awesome on the planes and enjoyed watching Dora and playing with her toys. She also liked seeing the "big planes" and watching us take off and land in the plane. In fact, she hopped onto some other lady's lap when we landed on one flight so she could see out the window!

We had a lot of fun spending time with Matthew, Melissa, and Cayden. On Friday morning, we took the kids to a children's museum. Bella has now been to several of those, so she is a pro at navigating them! Naturally, the second she saw the water room, she had to go check it out.
We were able to steer Bella away towards some other exhibits as well. She enjoyed doing some grocery shopping, quite similar to how she "helps" Mommy at home. Or maybe it's more of that she picks random items and puts them in our cart... whatever it may be. :)
Always fascinated by fish. :)
And then back to the water room! She made some little friends at the racing table. :)
Splashing around with Cayden- these two didn't to interact a lot at the museum as they each wanted to go their own way. But everybody loves water!
Splashing up a storm with another little boy!
Friday afternoon after the kids took a nap, we took them to a local park. We were lucky when we visited as the weather was nice for a majority of the time!
We tried to get Bella and Cayden to sit together on the slide for two seconds... as shown by Daddy's arm, that was unsuccessful.
Here Bella is looking for bugs on the slide, which was a favorite activity both there and at home. She is quite fascinated by bugs, which are referred to as "bugga-buggas" thanks to a Dora episode. The second she sees a bug, she has to go investigate it thoroughly.
She's a goof. :)
Playing some basketball with Daddy... however, that didn't last too long. The enticement of slides and bugs were too much for her! Bella and Cayden also had lots of fun merely chasing each other around. :)
We were able to get a good picture when we got back to their house. :)
Bella looooved playing with Cayden's recorder, as well as wearing his cowboy hat and glasses.
It was quite the interesting sight!
On Saturday, we went to see a waterfall- which Bella referred to as "big waterfall!" It was a little cooler that day and definitely cold from the mist of the waterfall, but it was very pretty to see! I had a fixed millimeter lens on my camera, so we couldn't take a picture of the whole thing.
Up on the bridge by the waterfall- Bella wasn't a big fan of getting sprayed with water, as shown by the disturbed look on her face.
Much better from a distance!
Here are the boys with their kiddos, excluding the two in utero. :) Not a good picture at all, but Bella was freaking out that Mommy was no longer holding her.

The only unfortunate part of the trip was that Bella was sick on Saturday night. She started acting weird on the way home, saying her tummy hurt. We thought she was hungry, but she didn't even really eat that great. Then when we got back to Matt and Melissa's house, she proceeded to throw up- her very first time. :( Needless to say, we were a little worried about the plane ride the next day! However, all went well and she was fine from then on out. Thankfully that didn't happen until the end, so Bella had lots of fun playing with "Cayd." They actually played together quite well- maybe because most of play time entailed of chasing each other around, a favorite activity for both. :) We'll look forward to the next time they can get together and play!