11 Months Old!

Wow, so this past month has been incredibly busy. It's amazing how quick time goes by when it's actually nice outside and we are able to get out and do things! Bella has had a very big month as well- the most notable difference being that she is now walking! It took her the whole month of April to decide that she could do it all the time, but then at the beginning of May she started to walk more than she crawled. She learned how to stand up on her own at the end of April. Bella is pretty steady on her feet now as well, which I think is why she took so long to walk all the time. She wanted to be good and ready. :)
Our monthly picture- only one more to go! It is definitely a difficult task getting Bella to sit still on a chair. However, it's fun to look back at all her various months, although she hasn't really changed a lot, other than growing bigger. I think even her eyes look the same as when she was a newborn!
New words: Bella picked up on some new vocab this month as well. She started saying ball at the beginning of April after she got some bouncy balls. She then quickly associated any round object with a ball and said ball incessantly anytime she saw it. :) I also taught Bella how to say uh-oh, which in hindsight was not such a great idea. Now when she drops (or throws) toys/food/any object from her highchair/crib/any possible place, she has a phrase to go along with it. Bella 's other favorite word is still mama. However, for some reason, she calls pictures of babies mama as well. Not sure where that association came from!
Bella also knows how to make some animal noises- hiss for a snake, quacking for a duck (her version of quack anyway), growling for a tiger, and bawk for a chicken. I'm still working on meow. :) Bella is starting to become even more interactive with us and understands a lot of what we say. She knows what objects are and goes to get them when we tell her to- like her baby, stuffed kitten, and ball. She also feeds us food when we tell her to, which is a good way to get her to eat! I have her take turns with feeding Mommy and then herself.
Speaking of eating... I'm continuing to work on Bella eating more table food. At the beginning of the past month, it was not going so hot. However, it is much better now, and I no longer think she will be eating baby food until she is 16. She has eaten lots of "big people" food and doesn't just spit it out instantly anymore. She really likes bread, turkey, pasta, chicken, and cheese. Bella doesn't do as well with anything she has had in baby food, although she is starting to do better with fruits. Veggies... not so much. Those get spit out quickly. :) She is also drinking much better from a sippy cup as I found one that she likes.
We have played outside A LOT. Any day that it's nice we go on walks (usually a few) and go roam around in the backyard. Miss Bella absolutely adores it. This picture shows one of her favorite activities- playing with the rocks in our landscaping. We try to distract her away from them, but little miss stubborn doesn't give up easily. So she is allowed to bang them together and make little piles in the grass. Bella is still quite the curious little girl. She digs in any possible cupboard to see what she can find. Here she has discovered grocery bags, which led to a lot of fun! She also likes to turn the light switches off and on. And off and on. Repetitively.
Bella also pushes any object that moves. Here she managed to move one of our dining room chairs into the kitchen. She can also maneuver objects in the right direction if they get stuck in something. I think she's pretty strong because she gives things a mighty yank to get them out of the way!
Bella discovered that she can play peek-a-boo on her own. She holds something up over her head and sits very still while we ask where's Bella? She thinks she's pretty funny.
Bella also started doing the sign for all done when she is eating. I have done some simple signs with her since she is about 6 months, so it was fun to see her start doing it on her own. However, she sometimes starts doing the sign the second she gets in her high chair....
Bella is showing off her new bling- yes, the ears are now pierced. Getting it done was not a very pleasant experience. The actual piercing was just like a shot, which of course entails much crying and unhappiness. But possibly even worse was just getting her to sit still. If Bella doesn't want to do something, then she's going to fight like crazy to get her way (oh so very stubborn). So it was a challenge getting her to sit still enough to get her ears done. But we made it, and they look quite adorable. And she hasn't messed with them at all!

Derek, Bella, and I walked the Klompen Classic before Tulip Time. There was around 2000 people participating, so it was a bit of a challenge navigating our stroller through all the swarms of people. But we made it- and Bella actually stayed in her stroller the entire time! We kept her happy munching on some snacks.
Bella and her mommy on my first Mother's Day... which unfortunately included an unpleasant experience. We were over at Derek's parents for lunch, and Bella was playing with a toy in the kitchen. She was pushing the toy, and somehow the handle snapped right off... thus she fell with the handle onto the floor. She was bleeding, so we thought she just cut her lip on her tooth. But apparently she fell quite hard because she chipped her front tooth. :( I was pretty sad to see my baby have her first accident, and to see blood. I'm taking her to the dentist this week to make sure the root wasn't damaged (teeth can apparently die if they're chipped badly enough). Hopefully that's not the case! And I'm hoping they can fix the tooth with some bondage... otherwise poor Bella will have a chipped tooth until she is like 5 years old.

9 Month Pictures

So a few weeks ago, we had Bella's 9 month pictures taken by a girl from Pella who just started a business with her sister last summer. I had seen some of their pictures on Facebook and thought they were quite adorable. And I was very happy with Bella's pictures as well! They let you purchase the CD with all the pictures, and then you have copyrights to all of them as well. That was great because there were a lot of cute pictures to choose from. Here is a sampling of some of my favorites!
Bella liked the girl who took her pictures, so she gave her some nice big smiles. :) We tried to get her to sit in her pink chair... but that was definitely not happening. The photographer had me take some pictures with Bella so that we could get her to sit still... not an easy task for this active little lady! I think this picture is pretty cute- I have no idea where Bella got her smile from! We definitely started to lose some of the smiles by the time we changed outfits. However, these are all very sweet as well- she looks so angelic!

10 Months Old!

Miss Bella is now 10 months old! Here is the monthly glimpse into Bella's lovely life, along with some cute California pictures.

*Eating- She has been trying some more table food, including green beans, pasta, apples (Gerber toddler kind), mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and chicken. However, for some crazy reason, Bella much prefers to eat her baby food. I don't know if she just gets bored with eating table food or what, but she refuses to eat more after a few bites. Oh well, at least she eats baby food well!

*New Tricks: Bella has learned that you also wave to say bye-bye (so confusing for babies that you wave for both hi and bye!) Another new trick is giving high fives.

*Talking: She says bye-bye occasionally when waving, although that often leads to bye bye bye bye bye! Mama has become the favorite word, which I quite like. :) Bella slept in the same room as us in California, and when she saw us in the morning, we got to hear "Mama! Mama!" She is also still saying dada, hi, and baba (for bottle).

*Walking: Bella is definitely taking more of an interest in walking. She now will walk holding onto our hands, although she prefers to crawl (much faster). She also walks while pushing some of her toys. And tonight, she took 3 steps all by herself! She definitely knew what she was doing too, so it wasn't like she just did it by accident.

*Bella is becoming quite a little charmer. She gives her huge smile to everybody she sees and waves at them. However, she doesn't want guys to get too close to her! She is still pretty scared of men. I thought she had gotten over it, but the fear resumed at her last doctor appointment. Bella is just terrified of our doctor! And since then, she has been scared by several other guys- but only if they get close to her. From a distance, she'll smile pretty. :)

*SOOO snoopy: I know this isn't a change from other months, but seriously- this little girl is so very curious about the world around her. Some days, she hardly even plays with her toys because she is too busy getting into other things. Bella has also started pointing at things- apparently she wants to learn what everything is.

*Persistent: Bella knows EXACTLY what she wants, and there is nothing anybody can do to change her mind about it. She goes "eh eh eh" when she wants something, and if she doesn't get it, a fit will be thrown. I call her a little drama queen when that happens. It's just so funny that a 10 month old can be so persistent about getting what she wants!

*Favorite activities: Bella likes to take things out of places and throw them on the floor. I think she sometimes likes to hear what noise it will make, particularly on our hardwood floor. She also loves being tickled on her belly and neck. That brings big giggles, and she just sits there waiting for you to start tickling her again. Bella's favorite toys right now are her pink purse, her Baby Einstein music toy, and her ball popper- and yes, they all make annoying music. :)

*Silly: Bella has started to dance to music she hears on television or from her toys. Of course, her version of dancing is bouncing up and down, with occasional waving arms. She also tries to put on clothes. Whenever I fold laundry on the floor, she has a fabulous time chewing on her socks and trying to maneuver clothes on top of her head. Bella once got my underwear hooked on her neck- that was a funny sight!

*Very loving: Despite being such an active girl, Bella is still very loving and cuddly. She gives big open mouth kisses to Mommy and to her babies and kitties. However, she likes to tease Daddy and pushes his face away when he asks for a kiss. And she knows that she's being a stinker because she laughs about it! Bella also still loves to be carried around. She raises and stretches her arms up and yanks on my legs when she wants up. I can't resist that, even though she is quite a lug to carry around.

-Height/weight: As I mentioned, we had her 9 month well-baby check a few weeks ago. Bella was up to 20 lbs 2 oz (75th %), was 28" long (60th %), and her head circumference was 17 3/4 (75th %). So she is still growing along her same rate, although she may seem to gain weight a little easier than length. :) But we love her chubby belly and thighs!

-Loving the outside: Now that spring seems to have finally arrived in Iowa, we have been taking full advantage of the nice weather. We go on our playset and take walks everyday. Bella LOVES being outside. She was ready for this nasty winter to be over too!

"Firsts!"

Bella has had some new exciting happenings in the past weeks! Here are some pictures to show what's been going on...
Bella had her first morning with bed head! Despite that small amount of hair, it was standing up into this mohawk one morning- mainly due to the fact that she burrows her head into her bumpers when she sleeps at night. First time that Mommy painted Miss Bella's toes! We amazingly kept squirmy still enough to do this, although it wasn't an easy task. And those pink toes looked very cute! I didn't paint her fingers since she chews on them so much. Fingernail polish doesn't seem like it would taste very good. :)Bella has also had her first swimming lessons! And first time she was really in a pool long enough to enjoy it. Bella absolutely adored the water, which we thought she would. She splashed all over the place, showed her silly smile to everyone, kicked those chubby legs... it seems we may have a little water rat on our hands!There are several kids in her class who are around Bella's age, and some of them were not very happy to be in the water. Definitely not the case for her! Looks like I will be spending a large portion of my summer swimming. Bella also got to go on her very first plane ride! We went to California last weekend to visit Derek's brother and family. I must admit, I was definitely nervous to take Bella on the plane. My ears always kill me on planes, and I didn't know how she would handle it. I also knew it would be a challenge to keep her on our laps for such a long time period! However, Bella did awesome. On the flights out there, she slept for most of the time. The way back wasn't as successful, but she still did well. Our last flight had several other babies on it, one of whom was sitting in front of us- and he was absolutely freaking out. Crying kids used to kind of drive me crazy on the planes, but now all I thought was thank goodness that's not me. :) In California, Bella got to experience some awesome weather! Even though it has been getting nicer here, it was definitely a lot warmer than she is used to. We went to the park one day to let Bella and Cayden play around. Bella enjoyed swinging again!Bella and Cayden swinging together- it also looks like Bella is staring Cayden down. :) She loved playing with a child her size! Sitting in the grass for the first time, which she actually didn't mind. Naturally she took it upon herself to pick up tiny little sticks and leaves and tried to eat them. Bella standing like a big girl! Hee hee, I think this picture is funny. They're zoning out watching our portable DVD player on Matthew's lap. Cayden started watching it, and Bella thought she needed to join in on the fun!Awww, cousin love! As I mentioned, Bella loved being around Cayden and watching him play. They had lots of fun together! She is definitely taking much more interest in kids now than she used to, although she would rather just give them a big smile than actually play. Bella can stand on her own for quite a bit of time now! She has started to take a step forward, but she falls right away. However, the walking will definitely be coming at some point since she has a lot more interest in it.

9 Month Update and New Pics!

So yet another month has passed by, and Bella has now been with us for the same amount of time she was in my belly! Crazy how these 9 months have gone by so much quicker than those 9 months... She continues to be such a good baby (am I starting to sound like a broken record?) and has such a fun little personality! Here are some tidbits about Bella and her life, followed of course by some new pictures.

• She is starting to become quite a Mommy's girl - okay, maybe not just starting. At least now with her mobility she no longer has to cry when I leave the room, she can just follow me along like a little puppy. :)
• Bella LOVES to explore and get into everything she can. Some new favorite places are unrolling the toilet paper in the bathroom, getting into my lotion, playing with my jewelry case, opening cupboards and drawers...
• Thinks animal noises are funny! A kitty, cow, duck, and snake are among her favorite noises. She even tries to imitate the noises at times.
• Bella is loving reading books. I'm getting quite a few of her books memorized already. Her favorite is called "Peek-a-boo, I love you!" She has such a huge smile when she sees the animals behind the flaps.
• She thinks kitties are very interesting! At my parents house a few weeks ago, Bella was loving my cat Tommy. We tried to show her how to gently pet him (and he did let her!) although I think she would rather have given his fur a big yank.
• Bella had her first "playdate" earlier in the month as well. One of our neighbors had a baby boy just a few weeks before Bella, so his mom and I thought it would be fun to let them play together. Trey was very interested in Bella, but she not so much in him. :) I think she was playing hard to get!
• She is becoming a lot more verbal, as our video shows. She says hi, mama, and dada pretty consistently. She has said bye-bye and ba-ba (for bottle) a few times, but we are still working on those. Bella also likes to engage in screaming matches with us. She yells in a high pitched voice, which we do back to her, and it goes on and on! It can get pretty loud!
• Bella is also moving towards the next stage of movement. She can stand on her own for a short period. But as soon as she realizes she is standing, she sits down. :) She is also cruising along furniture. However, Bella is not too interested in walking, even holding onto our hands. So I think we're still safe with that for awhile. She knows that she can get to what she wants by crawling!
• Bella has started eating some table food (bread, peaches, beef, chicken, lasagna). At first she wasn't too interested, but she is starting to like it a lot more. The basis of her meals is still baby food since she eats it so well, but I do want to introduce "big" food so she starts getting a taste for it.
• She has FOUR, yes, FOUR, teeth coming in on the top. Her middle two popped through in mid-February and early March. Then last night, we noticed that her other two side teeth were coming through! You would think that with four teeth popping through Bella would be totally grumpy, but she hasn't been crabby at all.

Our monthly picture update- this picture was quite successful as Mommy played photographer assistance instead of photographer. She must have enjoyed watching me jump around like a crazy person! "Hi!"Bella looking like a little doll in one of her many dresses. Miss Bella with Mommy and Daddy in our matching outfits. Mommy with her little tag-along.Bella loves to hang her head upside down for some strange reason, especially if somebody tickles her neck while she is doing it!Such a big smile! She is now starting to show her silly little personality to other people. When we used to be out and about, she would just stare down new people. Now she stares them down, and then gives them a goofy smile. :)Reading some of her books!A craaazy sleeping position. And apparently she was playing with all of her kitties before she went to sleep. Bella has figured out that it is much easier to get toys out of her basket if she just yanks the basket down towards her. What can we say, she's got problem solving skills already. :)
Bella on her new "mini" chair. Thus far, it hasn't really been used to sit in. However, it has been a good way to get up to things that she previously couldn't reach!
All those teeth! She's going to have a full set by the time she is 1.

"Hi!"

This past month, Bella has started to actually talk, rather than just jabber (I'll expand more on my next post!). Her most common word (and action) is saying hi while waving! She even waves to people when we are out and about, which is pretty funny. Here is a video of the little miss performing for the camera.