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. :)