2 hrs and 15min and 13.1 Miles later...

Bell and I after running the Seattle half marathon today. 2:15 was my time, I'm quite pleased with myself...my goal was 2:30. Three months ago I decided I was going to do this and started training although I'm not a runner. It has been a goal of mine to run a marathon for years - so this was my start. I had a great time, and felt really good the whole way. I plan on running the full marathon this summer, so after a short break I will begin training again.

I guess I'm now a runner : )

New Love...

We set up the Christmas tree the other day. Such an awesome feeling to have it all decorated in our first home!! Bella loves kissing all of the decorations. She goes over to the tree says "saaf, saaf" (soft, soft), then grabs one of the decorations and goes in for big smooch.

New addiction...

We let Bell watch Curious George a few weeks ago and now she is addicted. She would be happy if we let her watch "George, George, George" all day every day!! When we are out she talks about George, and makes the sign for monkey all the time... Who knows know long this addiction will last - at least the sound track is cute : )

Happy Thanksgiving!

My mom and dad made me this great Thanksgiving dinner; prime rib roast, lemon green beans, squash puree, roasted potatoes and onions! It looked delicious but all but the only thing I wanted to eat was onions - I'm a strange 19 month old : )

Love, Bell

Smile..

This is what Bell looks like when we ask her to smile....funny little thing! One day she will learn : )

Not cool...

For the past three nights at 6:30, Bell has started spitting in her hand and then saying "gross". Then looks for a napkin to wipe her hands with. How she picked this up we have no idea - but we can cross our fingers that at 6:30 tonight it won't happen : )

Always on her mind

Last week I took Bell to the zoo to visit with the animals. Ever since she hasn't stopped talking about feeding the pac's (alpaca's), so today we decided to take her for another visit. Now she can't stop talking about pac's and the deer! She gets to the point of almost being asleep and then stands up and says, "pac, deer, foo" and then goes to sleep. It is pretty hilarious. She won't feed them herself, she just likes to take the food out of the bag, and then give it to me to give to the animals. We will be getting good use out of our membership.

Number 12

Tooth number 11 arrived today. Maybe that is why she woke up in the middle of the night so many times talking about feeding the alpaca's : ) It was pretty funny knowing what she was dreaming about!!

Hand in hand...

Bell can't seem to stop talking about holding Ben's hand. It comes up every hour or so - hopefully this doesn't mean she will be a stalker later in life : )

Kissing...

How cute is this!!

Dr. Douglas

Would it disturb you if your doctor walked into the exam room wearing her stethoscope around her waist? This is how Bell plays with it all the time. Regardless, of whether or not she is in a diaper, fully clothed or Halloween costume! She sure makes us laugh : )

Look at my belly!

Bell showing off the stamp that she got at school!

How was your day?

I was out with the ladies for my Mom's Night dinner last night - it was great...of course! While, I was out Gabe asked Bell how her day was - which is something he does everyday. She answered back saying she was at Claire's and that they have a cat. He knew that we were going over to her friend Claire's house that day but he had forgotten they have a cat. When I got home he asked if they had one - because she had said they did, and was talking about it all evening. How cool is that - she can tell us about her day!

Tree hugger...

While we were at the park on Saturday (after my 10mile run - that's why I'm dressed that way) I asked Bell to hug a tree. I thought it would make for a funny picture. She wasn't super keen, but Gabe was able to get a couple of shots. Today while we were at the park, she kept on saying "hug, hug, hug"; it took me a while to realize she thought trees were called hug : ) I wonder how long it will take to teach her the correct word?

Play time

This is what daddy daughter play time looks like! Gabe took this video one morning while I was sleeping in back in early September. I usually sleep in on Saturday and he gets Sunday - it is a perfect trade off!

Zoom Zoom

Bella's favourite song today was Zoom Down the Freeway. On our drive home this afternoon it was the only song she wanted to sing. If we started to sing something else it was Noo Noo Noo - until we started zooming again. She sings along and does the hand gestures as well so it is pretty cute!!

Pho - yumm!

Bell may have a new favourite food. This afternoon we had Pho for lunch, and Bell was in heaven! She would use her fingers to put the noodles into the Chinese style spoon, then try and eat the noodles out of the spoon. If she wasn't able to get the noodles out of the spoon with her mouth, she would then take them out with her fingers and plop them in her mouth. A little later on she figured out that if she sucked it would slurp into her mouth quite fast...loved it!! She was even a little disappointed when it was all gone.

New walk...

Bella has been walking for months - she usually runs everywhere she goes. Today, while we were volunteering she was in the classroom and she started doing this strange new walk. She started walking across the room on her knees. She was upright, but walking/wobbling along on her knees, as though she had no feet. Not the fastest mode of transportation, but pretty cute to watch!

She has also started saying Tracey and Wendy names "Trace, and End"...

Track star in the making...

A little back story...

I'm in training for the Seattle marathon at the end of the month. I'm only doing the half, but 13 miles is still further than I have run before. If all goes to plan, I will be running the Seattle Rock n' Roll marathon in June 2009 - the full 26 miles!

Why am I writing about this - and what does it have to do with Bella? She has taken to wearing my headband, running shoes, and running jacket around the house! Then wanting to drink my gatorade, while sorting through all of my gu's and powerbars! We have a little athlete in the making : )

Checking it twice...

Bell, is currently sitting in the hallway reviewing all of today's receipts. She is following along each item line with her finger - making sure we weren't over charged : ) Our CFO in the making!!

Swibi Swibi!!

Our girl loves to pretend! Today, I was walking down the hall and found her lying on the floor kicking her legs, saying "swibi, swibi" (swimming, swimming). Swimming in the bath tub is one of her favourite things to do, both on her front and back. Apparently, it is time for me to look into swimming classes, or taking her to the local pool!

Bed Hog!!

This is one of the reasons why we transitioned Bell to her crib : ) She weighs 25 pounds, and is less than 3 feet tall, but she still managed to take up the majority of a king size bed. The other reason we moved her out is because she has started doing tae kwon do in her sleep. We got didn't like getting kicked and punched - a 4am heel in the eye sucks!!

Our Canadian girl

I bought Bell and new touque (winter hat) the other day because it is getting chilly here on these rainy fall days. It doesn't help that she is still bald : ) So now she walks around the house saying "touque, touque" while wearing it and one mitten, trying her best to get the second mitten on....hilarious to watch!

Don't hurt my Mama...

I took Bell to my chiropractor appointment today, she sure doesn't like then my Dr. cracks my back. She was fine while he was in the room just asking questions but as soon as he started to crack my back she started flipping out. So much so that another Dr. came into the room to see if everything was ok...she stopped crying then. As soon as the second Dr. left she started flipping out again. Good thing that the appointments only last a couple of minutes. It's too bad though because our chiropractor is so nice, and she would really like him... He is great about her crying, his daughter screams when he adjusts his wife as well, so thankfully he is used to toddlers...

Number 11

Tooth number 11 arrived today...hopefully that explains the middle of the night screaming last night! All the better to eat her pizza crust with - she sure does love pizza crust!!!

How I love thee...

At toddler class Bell always sits on Teacher Amy's lap when it is time to sing songs. I sit in the circle and take part in the songs, but I think I could walk out the door and she would be quite happy "zooming down the freeway" on teacher Amy's legs. It is a good thing that the other kids don't seem to interested in sitting on her lap, because I don't think Bell would like having to share : ) It's funny Bell doesn't really pay too much attention to her throughout the rest of class, but when it comes to songs and stamp time - Teacher Amy is the best!!!

I tried...

I tried to take Bell to the dentist for the first time yesterday...it didn't go well. A few weeks ago we went with Gabe to get his flipper adjusted. She was fine sitting on the chair with me beside Gabe, and watching the dentist do his work. Today, I sat with her in the exam chair and she freaked out as soon as the dentist put his gloves on. Their was no way that she was going to let him near her mouth. The assistant tried to make her happy with a toy, but no go. She wasn't even happy when he was making adjustments to my night guard.

I made another appointment for 6 months from now - so we'll see how it goes then. The best I can do is brush her teeth and make the appointments : )

First Dance

Eli and Bell dancing at the Halloween party - it was so cute! If only we had video...

Halloween Party

Today was our second annual Halloween party and baking swap with my mom's group. It is always so nice to see all the kids playing together and all dressed up - even better. They looked so cute! We had a cowboy, dog, mouse, snow white, Elvis, panda bear - sadly, our michael phelps couldn't make it : ( Dad's come to this party as well, it is always nice to see them and our working mom's, who can't make our weekly play date! The baked goods of course were delicious - I now feel very ill from eating too many treats...

First of many....

Bell has her first cold of the season...poor thing. Coughing, sneezing, tired, and sounds terrible - we are hoping that she doesn't feel as bad as she sounds. She is sucky, but it's well past her bedtime and she is still playing so she can't be that bad...right??? I tried to put her to bed a while ago but she just danced in her crib, so I decided that she could dance around the house instead... Thankfully, she likes Kleenex and usually lets us try and wipe her nose without too much hassle. Now she is pretending to blow her nose, and then hiding the crumpled Kleenex around the house : )