August Updates!

We had beautiful weather this past month, and Bella and I definitely took advantage of it. It was nice to finally be outside without dying of heat! We spent lots of time playing in her sandbox as Bella discovered the joy of making things with wet sand.
She also particularly enjoyed smashing her creations afterwords. :)
She also spends lots of time running around on our driveway like a little crazy lady, dancing, singing, and chasing bubbles! I also bought Bella a favorite pair of footwear this month- her pretty pink rainboots. It was actually rainy this particular day, but she likes wearing them everyday. :) I like to rub that in to Derek, who said they would never be worn!
This perfectly captures our silly girl's personality. :)
It started sprinkling on this afternoon, so Bella played in the rain for a little bit with her umbrella and rainboots.
We visited lots of different parks this month as well, pretty much on a daily basis! Mommy and Bella have definitely had some good bonding time in before baby sister makes her entrance.

We also started going back to the barn that is near our house to visit the animals. Bella has not wanted to go there in several months because the owners of the barn got a new dog that was a little too friendly for Miss Bella's liking. She is a German Shepard named Zoey, so she is obviously quite big as well! Zoey jumping all over Mommy and Daddy freaked Bella out a little bit, so she didn't ever want to go back down there. Well, last week we decided to try it out again. Thankfully, Zoey was inside, so we were able to visit the horses in peace. :) And we discovered that baby kittens had been born in our absence! So now Bella has wanted to go back down to visit the kittens every single day, despite her slight fear of Zoey. Zoey has calmed down slightly since we last saw her, but she is still quite big, which definitely makes Bella a little nervous. Before we make the walk down there, she tries to reassure herself, "Zoey not outside. Zoey inside the house with her owner." :)

Painting some beautiful works of art on the driveway! She always manages to get more chalk on her clothes than on the actual cement... :)
A picture showing another current obsession of Bella's- lollipops! For some reason, anytime she is outside now, she wants to have a dum dum lollipop. And she barely eats any of it; Mommy usually ends up holding it the entire time. But for some reason it is a new tradition!
Inside, Bella has been into watching movies! I started renting some Disney Princess movies from the library, and that turned Bella into a movie loving girl for some reason. The past few weeks, we have hardly even watched Dora! Our viewings have included The Wizard of Oz, Charlotte's Web, and the princess movies (although she tends to call every princess Cinderella). Then her ABSOLUTE favorites are Alice in Wonderland (particularly for the Cheshire Cat) and the Aristocats (which is referred to as the kitty movie). Those two have been watched A LOT. Obviously Bella has a slight obsession with cats- no clue where that came from! :)
We also started some new little traditions of evening games with Bella, Mommy, and Daddy. Hide and seek, playing instruments in a marching band, Daddy chasing Bella around downstairs, Daddy or Mommy pretending to be a snake/lion/giant/other scary creature, and "baseball" (which is actually soccer) are all among our nightly rituals that Bella wants to play. After her bath each night, she has soooo much energy! Mommy and Daddy definitely do not, but we make it happen for her! Bella also plays her own little game of hide and seek on a frequent basis, which is when she puts her hands over her eyes and asks "Where'd Bella go?" This happens about 20 times a day. :)
We started some fingerpainting and paint with water activities this month as well, which Bella absolutely loved. We have about 10 painted Dora pictures scattered around our house currently!
Riding on her "neigh-" whose name is interchanged between Henry the Horse and Pinto the Pony. Mommy came up with Henry, and Pinto naturally came from Dora.
Bella still has an immense love for Tommy- and he continues to tolerate and maybe even like her! Bella has named several of her kittens after Tommy in fact, so we have quite a few Tommy's in our household.

As far as baby news, we continue to wait for our next little girl's arrival. Less than a week to go until the official due date, but I'm thinking she plans to hang out until then and beyond. :) Apparently our daughters like their little home inside of Mommy's belly! I have had some days of feeling pretty uncomfortable due to my extremely large belly size and contractions, but generally I am feeling pretty good for being 9 months pregnant. We are ready whenever she is, even big sister! Bella talks about baby sister a LOT, so I think she knows it's coming. We will definitely have a good little helper in her, maybe more than we need! :)