Our Little Dutch Girl

We decided to take pictures of Miss Bella in her Dutch costume early again this year to avoid having random strangers take pictures. :) It was a good thing that we did since we had absolutely perfect weather this year, and it was sooooo busy! Bella wore the same dress from last year as the lady who sewed it made it so that I could let out seams and it would fit for another year. It fit perfectly, and I think she looked even cuter! :)

Bella was quite cooperative with our photo shoot as she enjoyed seeing (and smelling) all the pretty tulips!
Many many tulips might have been picked and prodded at a little bit... But none were yanked out of the ground!
Our beautiful girl. :) There's actually some hair peeking out from under her hat this year!
Bella also liked wearing her dress as she now refers to any dress as a "princess dress." (Yes, we're moving into the princess love stage). So she was quite eager to look like a little princess!
Our winning smile shot of the day. :)
Yes, she is giving this tulip a hug. Bella has a new obsession with giving everything and everybody a hug, kiss, and high five- in that order. And that includes inanimate objects, such as tulips.
What fun it will be next year when we have TWO little princesses to dress up!

Tulip Time 2011!

Bella's second Tulip Time proved to be much much better than her first as we had perfect weather rather than windy and cold. She had lots of fun going uptown to play, eating poffertjies, dancing along with the Dutchesses, and petting every puppy she spied. Seeing Bella dance like the Dutch dancers was quite amusing, especially since she wanted to get out in the middle and perform for the crowd. I think she'll be a good little dancer! However, the petting puppies obsession was not nearly as cute as Mommy and Daddy had the pleasure of asking a ton of random people if our daughter could pet their dog. :) Oh well, she loves her animals!

We walked in the baby parade just one afternoon this year. It falls right during her nap time, so we only wanted to move around her normal nap time one day. Plus, pregnant Mommy didn't want to wear the lovely dress more than once. :)
We were a little nervous about walking in the parade since A) Bella is not a fan of strollers and we figured we would be carrying around a 2 year old the whole time and B) Bella likes to help push the stroller and often throws a fit if she doesn't get to do it. Both of our assumptions proved true. :) However, she still had fun for a good part of the parade. She perfected the art of waving at everybody and blowing kisses! Here she is waving at Grandpa Doug and Grandma Sheri.
Watching the afternoon parade. She wasn't too interested in sitting and watching the parade as she had too many other things to do, like running around like a crazy lady.
Another reason I was very thankful we took pictures of Bella pre-Tulip Time is that she was absolutely not interested in taking pictures the actual day. We attempted to take a picture before the parade with Derek's parents, but she wasn't a big fan of that idea as she just wanted to go walk and run. Hence the mad expression on her face. :)
Bella did like standing in the big wooden shoes, however, so her picture with Great-Grandma Vermeer was much more successful!
She decided to even take a rest in them. :)
Bella's picture with my mom and dad worked out a little better since she had gotten a chance to burn off some energy by this point. :)

Our whole little Dutch family!

A picture of Mommy and Bella back at home! Daddy had ditched the costume already for some reason. :)

There was a Kids Corner uptown that we took Bella to each day. She had sooo much fun playing with everything. Bella even got to make her first crafts- sand art and painting a rock (with Mommy's assistance so she didn't paint herself). Naturally, one of Bella's favorite things was going down all the various slides!

There was also a little jumping house which she loved as well!

Bella particularly liked being in there when other little girls were present. She is definitely identifying with girls and always wants to play with them.

Jumping in the ball pit! She also found a fun activity by laying in there and swimming in the balls.

Cooking for Mommy in the playhouse. We were hoping she would like this as she is getting an outdoor playhouse for her birthday this year!

We also took Bella to her first night parade this year on Saturday night. Last year, we attempted to bring her, but were unsuccessful. Derek didn't think this year would be successful either since our little lady likes to be on the go. However, I thought she would be interested enough in the parade to want to sit and watch it. Well, without saying who was right, Bella loved watching the parade. :) Seeing the horses, a float that was an ice cream truck, the fire trucks, and the bands were all among her very favorites. We still discuss watching the parade and everything that she saw. All in all, it was a very fun Tulip Time for us!

23 Months Old!

I have had these pictures uploaded for awhile now, but hadn't wrote anything! Oops! So these pictures and updates are from April; figured I better catch up since the big birthday is this week already!

-Bella continues to talk more and more in full sentences. I think she's probably had some sentences up to 6 or 7 words. And she has had some funny ones that amused us! "I sit here all day" (in reference to not wanting to get out of her bathtub), "Whoa, Bella dizzy!" (after twirling around in circles), "Yes I can!" (when we tell her that she can't do something), "My friends are all here!" (lining all her kitties and dolls up on her bed), and the most frequently said, "I love _____ so very much!" (insert Mommy, Daddy, kitty, nigh-nigh, anything and everything:)).

-Bella also sings songs constantly. She looooves her music! She knows all the words to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, I Love You from Barney, This Little Light of Mine, Mary Had a Little Lamb, and most of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Those are among the favs. :)

-She also loves to recite nursery rhymes! She has a big book with a bunch of nursery rhymes in it, and she can recite every rhyme by herself going through the book. It's pretty impressive!

-Bella has learned the majority of her colors now as well. She counts from 1 to 10, although she frequently likes to start at 2 rather than 1. Who needs 1 anyway? :) This month, she also amazed us by counting from 1 to 10 in Spanish. Thanks Dora!

-Bella has an awesome awesome memory, as evidenced by her memorization of books and nursery rhymes. She also remembers funny things that happened to her, and she continues to talk about them for weeks on end. In April, I took her to see baby chicks at Theisens, but they were all gone. So for weeks after, she talked about "Baby chicks all gone" complete with a sad face. We also had a dead mouse on our driveway one day and a moth in our house. So she talked lots about those and how "Daddy got them."

-Bella is such a loving little girl. She started a new routine in April of giving everybody and everything a hug, then a kiss, then a high five. Not a step can be skipped in this routine, nor a person! Even at Easter, she gave almost my entire Zylstra family her hug/kiss/five routine. I think baby sister will be very loved. :)

Dancing around on the driveway.

As Bella's hair continues to grow, Mommy does new hairstyles. :) Not quite long enough for a ponytail, but getting there!
She thinks she's big stuff.
The pigtail experiment worked a little better, until she yanked them out!
Bella got to participate in several Easter egg hunts this year. Her first one was a De Haan egg hunt the week before Easter, featuring her and her alone. :) It was the first one, so she didn't totally get the hang of it. She was more interested in playing with the toys she found around the house!
Bella did enjoy unwrapping presents though!
We next had a Huyser Easter egg hunt that evening since my brother and his family were going to be gone on Easter Sunday. Here is Bella looking through her Easter basket!
She started to get the hang of looking for eggs a little more this time, particularly since her cousins were around to help her.
There's an egg!
We decided to take pictures of Bella in her pretty Easter dress the day before Easter as we figured the actual day would get too busy. That worked out much better!
Bella cooperated with us to let us get some cute pictures of her! Unfortunately it was pretty chilly outside that weekend, so we had to stay indoors.
She's pretty silly. :)

Great-Grandma Vermeer gave her a little bunny on a motorcycle, and Bella enjoyed having that fly around on the floor all morning!

We let her open her Easter basket the day before as well so that she would have more time to play with her toys.
A Dora bracelet!
Giving her new bunny, which was named Floppy, a big hug. :)
And of course we gave her some books and a Dora paint book. Bella loooooooves her books!
At Grandpa Doug and Grandma Sheri's house on Easter day- Bella was obviously thrilled to take a picture!
We had lunch at my grandparents house and then the rest of our day was free. So we had a final Easter egg hunt for Miss Bella in our backyard. She fully mastered it by this point. :)
Bella is not a huge candy fan, but she did enjoy eating her M&M's! Even her love of "m's" has gone away. Thank goodness she's already potty trained, or we wouldn't have any bribery tools!
Helping Mommy water the flowers with her very own watering can. Or perhaps it was the rocks...
As I have mentioned before, one of Bella's favorite activities is to go see the animals at the horse ranch close to our house. I took my camera one day to capture Bella with her "neighs." However, they were off in a far away field, so we didn't get to see them. But she did get to see one of her favorite kitties- "orange kitty!" She likes to run and have the kitty run with her. If kitty doesn't cooperate, Bella gets upset. :)
Prancing through a field of dandelions. :)