Oh, our little girl has been soooo much fun this month. Not that the past 20 haven't been fun, but Bella is now developing such a fun and goofy personality! She is quite the little show-off and performer- if she makes you laugh, there's a guarantee that she will keep doing whatever she did! She is so happy and easy-going (90% of the time anyway- temper tantrums definitely do occur!). Bella is also very sweet and loving- we get lots of hugs and kisses from her throughout the day!
Bella continues to be quite the little chatterbox. And she has started talking more and more around other people, not just Derek and I. So now nobody has to think we're crazy when we say how much she talks. :) Bella pretty much knows the right words for most objects and things. She continues to talk more sentences, and I think she has probably said 4 words at a time. Our favorite saying this month has been "I love _____." That was adapted from the Barney I love you song, but she started filling in the you with whatever was going on or whoever was there. Pizza, Mommy, Daddy, puppy, pop, etc. :) Another cute saying has been "___, where are you?"
Bella also loves to sing! Twinkle Twinkle is still a fav, and the I love you Barney song. Her lyrics to Twinkle Twinkle however vary a little bit from the original- she typically sings "Up a twinkle twinkle star...." She also has started singing Happy Birthday- and she knows her tunes!
Bella very much loves our kitty. She brings him toys, food, books- hasn't quite figured out that he doesn't so much care. :)
She also likes to gives him kisses and hugs. Not sure if his love is mutual, but he tolerates her!
I have started working with Bella on counting, and identifying shapes and colors. Counting progress hasn't been too good- she refuses to go past 2. :) Actually her version is 2, 1, 2, 1, 2... Oh well! She is getting the shapes- she knows a circle and triangle. And she knows the color blue and brown.
Bella has held an extreme love for Elmo, but I'm afraid that may be phasing out. She still likes to watch him, but she has now moved on to some other favorite shows- Dora the Explorer and The Wiggles. I like Dora, so I'm good with watching her. And she is very much obsessed with her! The Wiggles is a little scarier- but the main reason she likes to watch them is so that she can dance along with the music.
I attempted to take pictures of Bella wearing her Christmas dress one morning. Obviously.... it did not go well. Bella is generally a pretty easy going girl, but she was not in any mood to sit for Mommy on that day! Her sad face is pretty heartbreaking.
And here is the best picture I got- where Bella looks quite down.
I even tried bribing her with M&M's, but she just blew me kisses.
Bella loves, loves, LOVES her books. She loves to be read to, to read on her own- digging out books from her bookcase is an everyday activity.
We usually accumulate quite the pile by the end of the day. :) The Llama Llama books are a favorite!
Her "reading" is quite interesting to listen to. She talks about whatever she sees, occasionally even reading the page if she knows the book really well, interspersing it with jibber jabber.
She even reads her books to Tommy!
In terms of eating, Bella has been a super super eater. We had a week early in January where she ate awful. It was very frustrating to me, so I decided to take a new approach. I don't push her with eating things I know she doesn't like that much, and rather I just give her things I know she likes. And then she'll eat it awesome. It has made mealtimes much more pleasant for everyone! Granted, that has phased eating many vegetables out of her diet- just occasional green beans and carrots- but she eats fruits really well so I don't stress to much. Her favorites include pizza, mac and cheese, fish sticks, spaghetti, fried chicken (kinda strange), chicken strips, grilled cheese, bananas, applesauce, strawberries, pasta- typical kid fare. M&M's remain the favorite treat of choice, and a very very weird thing she likes a lot is pickles. If Bella even sees the jar in the fridge, she'll want them. So strange.
Potty training front: I decided to be a little more aggressive with working on potty training. I had just been randomly doing it here and there, and I didn't think that was creating any major interest. So last week, we ditched the diapers and started wearing big girl panties. (Pull-ups don't work for Bella- she just goes in them like her diaper). Last week was actually very successful! She had very few accidents and went in her potty every day. However, over the weekend, we lost interest again. She still tells us when she is pottying, but she won't go sit on the toilet. However, she is getting that feeling of when she needs to go, so I figure that is progress. Now we just have to wait for her to want to do it. But I still feel pretty good about how it is going thus far.
Daddy has initiated a new game with Bella this past month- playing "catch" with a ball. I guess he gets sick of our girl games. :) Catch is actually Bella both throwing the ball and attempting to kick it. She likes to play this game when she has lots of energy and can run around like a crazy woman in the basement!
This picture shows Bella's all-time favorite game- the one she asks to play about 923898239 times a day. Okay, maybe not quite that much, but seriously a lot. It's called "Getcha?"- which is what she says while looking at you with a mischievous smile. Either Daddy or Mommy is instructed to "getcha" at which point she runs off to the other parent and jumps in their arm. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Until Mommy and Daddy can no longer take it. She loooooves it.
Bella also loves to be tickled- and she is super ticklish! She went through a little span of wanting us to tickle her every night after we read books at bedtime.
We had a big change this month as well- Bella's crib was converted into a toddler bed. She is still in the same bed, but we took the front part off and put on a guard rail that came with it. She has now been in it for almost 2 weeks, and I would say it has been mostly successful. She liked being able to get in and out when she was just playing in her room, but she was a little scared in laying down for her naps and bedtime. However, she's now good with it and goes to sleep pretty quickly without crying. Bella also has quit banging on the door when she wakes up- she has learned that she can just play for awhile. Unfortunately, that has meant that I sometimes have a disaster to pick up- i.e., she has taken all the clothes out of her drawers... but she's having fun! The only downside is that she is now sleeping less. Nap time, which has never been a strong suit of hers, has been ending shortly after 1 hour. And she is now waking up an hour earlier in the morning- 7:30 instead of 8:30. I'm hopeful that she will continue to adjust... Derek is not so optimistic. :)
We also shared some very exciting news this month- Bella is going to be a big sister come September! Obviously, she is thrilled about it. :) Maybe not so much when a baby actually comes... She knows that she is going to be a "big sisser" and that there is a "baby" in Mommy's tummy. She'll be 2 years and 3 months when baby does arrive, so she'll obviously have a good understanding at that point. And I think she will be a little mommy to new baby!
I am now 10 weeks along, with an official due date of September 6. Yes, it is going to be a very long hot Iowa summer. :) But we're obviously thrilled about our news and so thankful that we are being blessed with another child. We've had an ultrasound already and saw the heartbeat, so we are pretty reassured that everything is going as expected. I have been feeling really good, just extremely tired at times. It's still kinda crazy to think that we're going to have 2 kids in just 7 months! However, I adore the baby stage, so it will be nice to have a baby again.
