Picture with Santa

We went to visit Santa with some friends this year. Most of them went ahead of her and were very brave while sitting on his lap. Bell was pretty nervous but warmed up a little bit after he Santa gave her a present. She looks like a deer caught in headlights, but at least she isn't screaming in terror this year.

The silly things we do as parents... We tell our kids not to talk to strangers, but at Christmas time we convince them to sit on a strange man's lap and smile for the camera :)

Gingerbread House..

Bella and Eli had a fantastic time decorating a gingerbread house, and were happy playing for more than an hour. Asking for more "glue" for them to be able apply the candies with - periodically we would spin the house so that they would decorate more than one spot. They even managed to keep the area pretty neat and tidy...I was thankful for the easy cleanup :)

What was most surprising about whole morning, was that these little 2 1/2 year olds played with candy all morning and neither one ate a single piece.

It's a...

On the drive to the ultrasound appointment, Gabe and I were talking how sad it would be to not see all of Bella's clothes again if this one turned out to be a boy. I have felt different this pregnancy so thought maybe it could be a boy, but I really have no idea. We would love to have one of each, but would be happy either way.

After a long wait at the office the tech and doctor confirmed that this little one is a girl!!

Bell can't wait to meet her new baby sister. Gabe and I were a little sad for maybe 30 seconds or so knowing that we wouldn't have a boy, but that passed quickly knowing we will have a wonderful little girl - plus getting to see all of those cute clothes again..

Baby girl looks healthy as can be, and is measuring in the 50th percentile. At 20 weeks Bella measured in the 50th percentile as well, but ended up in the 97th when she was actually born. That could have been because of all the Swedish fish and Gummie Bears I ate in my last weeks of pregnancy though :) We'll just have to wait and see if we have another chunky monkey on our hands...

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween - Love Miss Bella Bee!

Thanks for much for the fantastic costume Kris and Tony.

Play group Halloween Party

Our Halloween / baking swap party was at Caroline's this year. The parents and kids had a fantastic time - of course : ) Poor Ben, had a fever so we are missing our ghost.

We asked the kids to line up, but apparently they thought it was for a police line up, with them all evenly spread apart. We asked them to get a little closer and this is as far as we could get them... Soon enough Grace and Bell will be fighting the boys off : )

Costumes -
Issac - a Dragon
Grace - a Green Duck
Peter - a Fireman
Sawyer - a bottle of Ketchup
Bella - Woody (from Toy Story)
Eli - an Elephant (not shown is the fantastic padded butt of his costume)

Why..

Bell has started questioning everything..."why, why why." We thought this had started a couple of weeks ago, boy were we wrong. Then, she would question something and be done with it for the most part, and this would happen a couple of times a day. Now, it is a constant "why, why, why"... My strategy in dealing with it, without making myself crazy it to; on the first "why" I answer the question, and then on the second "why", turn it around and ask her "why." Her standard response is "I don't know" - I thought I had a couple of years before we started getting that response to everything :) Wish me luck not going off the deep end in the land of why's...

Purple Make-up

Bella loves make-up, she is quite the girly girl! Almost everyday she asks for either the purple or pink make-up I keep in my purse. "Mama, purple make-up please". She has her own "make-up" (chapstick) that she is allowed to use anytime, but of course Mama's is way better.

Kiss Baby?

Bell asked to "kiss baby" in my belly today, I told her that Mama didn't have a baby. How weird is that, I'm only a couple of weeks along - how does she know already? I'm not sure if she was just asking because of Aunt Karen's baby in her belly, or because of all of my pregnant friends. I don't think she could have overheard me telling anyone, seeing as we haven't told many people. I wonder if she is just an intuitive cookie???

We passed...

So this morning I felt a little funny, so I thought why not take a pregnancy test and see. I was super confused by the results though. The control line showed up super dark, the negative line a little lighter but the line that would make up the plus was super faint. I showed the test to Gabe and we were both "uhh I dunno". We looked at the package instructions to see they were going to be of anymore help - but nope. I didn't have another test, so we would just have to wait a while. This afternoon I bought two more tests, from a different manufacturer. I took the second test and failed miserably, the control line didn't even appear! Seriously, who can't pee on a stick correctly? Apparently me : ) A couple of hours later I took the third test, and what do you know I passed! So it looks like Bell will be a big sister this Spring! Needless, to say we are pretty excited. The due date is March 30th, Bella's birthday - so hopefully it will be a little late so they don't have to share a birthday.

Wait for me!

Bella's latest phrase is "wait for me", sometimes it is "wait for me, guys". She says it at the funniest times as well; jumping into the shower, leaving a room, or just her line of sight... It is so funny, we have no idea where she got this one.

What are you trying to say?

Up until a couple of days ago Bell spoke so clearly that it seemed very seldom that I didn't understand what she was trying to say. Lately, it has been a lot more difficult, she has added a new twist to her English language skills. Adding IE to the end of almost everything she says; soothie (soother), campie (camping), juicie (juice), bathie (bath), tubbie (tub), cuppie (cup), milkie (milk), etc... Thankfully, we have figured out this new code so we are having an easier time understanding out little Linguist.

My make-up

Aunt Karen was here this weekend, and was using a lip gloss that Bell was very excited about. Up until this point I have only let Bell play with chap stick. She calls chap stick her make-up and plays with every morning while I do my own make up. When Karen left she gave Bell the lip gloss - best gift ever as far as she is concerned. She takes it with her everywhere! She is so crazy about her make-up that, she won't leave the house without "my make-up, my make-up" and won't go to sleep without clutching it in her little fist. Now, chap stick is nothing in comparison to the amazing newness of lip gloss.

788 days later...

788 days in and finally Bell stayed in her bed until 6am today! What a dream, who knows how long it will last but at least it happened...maybe this means it will happen again sometime : ) She still woke up a couple of times before Gabe came to bed. Asking for water and needing to be tucked in again, she goes back to sleep so easily then, that is barely counts. Plus, I'm asleep then, so it really doesn't count for me : ) We are feeling so grateful with our current sleep situation, normally she just crawls into bed with us anywhere between 2 -5am. Now, if it is only going to get later and later in the morning - Fantastic!!

"Like Daddy"

Warning: Kind of a gross topic.

Gabe has a bad cold right now. At times he is a little phlegmy so needs to clear his throat and spit. Gross, but whatever he's sick and he doesn't do it around me, so no big deal. Apparently, he has done it around Bella though. She now makes a gross noise, like she is trying to clear her throat and then tries to spit. Thankfully, she hasn't perfected the art of spitting because I think that make this new trick a little too gross. Once she is done, she says "like daddy".

Oops, whould have been better...

We don't say "opps" enough at our house. Apparently, we use other expletives, and they have passed through our little girls ears, and now her mouth.

Setting the scene:
Me standing in the kitchen making dinner.
Gabe walking into our bedroom.
Bella following Gabe to the bedroom.

This is what I hear: Bella having a big "huff" then "F**king Christ"!

Gabe and I look at each other "did that actually come out of our 2 years olds mouth"? Neither of us said anything, we figured it would be better to just ignore it, and pretend it didn't happen. I burst out laughing two minutes later though, I couldn't hold it in any longer.

Not our proudest moment at parents, but at least it wasn't in public. Now, if we can just make sure she doesn't say it again. I guess it would help if we watched our mouths a little better :)

Number 16

Tooth number 16 poked through sometime today. Gabe said that it must have been the explanation for all the wake ups last night. Now, that she is sleeping in her own bed it is Gabe who deals with the evening wake ups most of the time, so I knew nothing about them. Which I have to say is a beautiful thing : ) Too bad she didn't tell us that her teeth were hurting her though, we would have given her some Tylenol for the pain.

Mama's like daddy

We recently shaved our heads and donated it to Locks of Love. Gabe did his a couple of days before I had mine done. Which is why Bell now says "Mama's like daddy," and comes over and rubs my bald head.

It is funny to think that Bella has the longest hair at our house now. We'll see how long that lasts : )

It is very liberating. Although, I do sometimes forget that I'm bald and wonder why people are staring at me. Kids give me some odds looks at the play ground these days : )

Matress fun..

Playing "fort" with Uncle Drew

Bell loves when we have house guests. Not only does she get the extra attention from whomever is here to visit her, but she loves to play on the air mattress that they sleep on.

Early in the morning she comes out and snuggles with in Uncle Drew and Aunt Karen. Later on in the day they play "fort" with the mattress. Which means they crawl under the covers and tickle each other, with Bella giggling and squealing while saying "more, more".

Sometimes it is tough to tell what makes her sadder to say goodbye to, the guest or the air mattress.

Backpack baby

Grammie made this fantastic backpack carrier for Bell to use with her babies. I carry Bell using this same style of carrier, so loves pretending to be Mama. She sings her babies the backpack song - which of course is adorable. "I'm a backpack baby, yes I am" and repeat. Thanks for the great gift Grammie!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Baby Bell! We love you more than you can imagine.

Good to bad fast...

One of Bell's favourite things to do these days is to draw on the sidewalk with her chalk. After they finished drawing, Nana and Papa took her to an open house across the street - which is one of their favourite things to do : ) While they were looking around the house, Bell let out a man sized burp. Apparently, my mom thought it was my dad with no manners - nope that was our Bell. A couple of seconds later she started throwing up all over the place - poor thing! My dad came rushing home with Bell covered in vomit, to get her cleaned up. While mom stayed behind to clean up the mess. Thankfully, it was on the hard wood and not carpet. We are hoping that she just ate too many banana chips, and that it isn't the flu.

I'm a big girl now!

For the past couple of weeks Bell hasn't been interested in sitting on the potty. Previously, she wanted to sit on the potty every time we changed her diaper. Which was great, no pressure, we just wanted her to have fun, even though she still hadn't produced anything.

Today things seemed to be a little different. Bell and I were taking a shower together this morning; she was making a strange face and playing with her bits. I asked her if she wanted to use the potty, "Ya"! I called for Gabe to bring us the potty. She sat on it in the shower while playing with her wall paints, and Gabe and I signing song with her. "I peed Mama"! She may never pee again, because she won't always have the fun of the shower, songs, and art :) Who knows what will happen, no pressure...

They grow up so fast!

Part of my conversation with Bella this morning:

Bella: Money please, Mama.

Me: Here you are Bella. (Hand Bella my purse containing money, and keys)

Bella: Thank you Mama. Cards please, Mama

Me: Here you are Bella. (Hand Bella some old gift cards)

Bella: Ok bye, bye Mama. (Waves, signs I love you, and walks to the door)

Me: Where are you going?

Bella: Coffee with girlfriends! (Looking at me like I should have known this all along)

At least she knows what she needs to take with her when she meets the ladies : )

Mama, I fell...

"Mama, Mama, I fell, I fell" is what I woke up to at 4:15 am this morning when Bell came strolling into our bedroom. She was calm and happy as can be, and seemed rather pleased with herself. I jumped out of bed, very confused with how this happened with my hearing about it on the monitor! I went to her room to see if she had thrown her blanket, dudes, and pillow out of her crib. Which is normally what she does when we take too long to come and get her. Nope, everything was still in it's place. She appears to have just woken up, decided she wanted milk and found her own way to come and get it....SCARY! My response to this is - No, Bella you climbed, you climbed....not cool!

We have now taken the rails off one side of her crib and we'll see how that goes. I'm not looking forward to her hopping out of bed all the time...I guess this is what happens when we let them grow up : ) We have a queen size bed in storage waiting for her if this crib conversion doesn't go as planned.

Finally!

Bell has been trying for weeks to put her jacket on while only wearing a diaper. She ends up with it on backwards as though it is a straight jacket, and is confused as to why it isn't on correctly. Today, she finally got it on correctly - now if she could only get that pesky zipper.

Papa needs a hair cut.

Bella loves to play "Mama", which means she walks around the house with my purse, keys, gift cards, and has now decided to add real paper money to the list. I don't usually carry cash with me, so the first time I gave her some it was a $5 or $20. I quickly decided that I needed to start carrying $1's, it would suck to lose more than a dollar or two at at time.

The first time she really looked at the one dollar bill she decided that George Washington was Papa, Papa, Papa! I'm taking that as a sign that Papa might need a hair cut : ) It is too cute, when she has the bill in her hand - she says "call Papa, call Nana and Papa". This happens quite often around 7am which is much too early to call. Which then turns into repeated "Nana, Papa seeping" for the rest of the morning!

Silence...

While, I was on the phone today with "Kole" (Aunt Nicole), Bell was in the background chatting away, dancing, singing songs, and asking if she could talk to Kole. As soon as I gave her the phone she was silent and had know idea what to do. It's quite entertaining that she will pretend to talk on the phone all day long, but now when I give her the phone she is mesmerized and can't seem to remember what to do. She gives the phone a SMOOCH, says "bye bye, see you" to the person, signs "I love you" - and then hands it to me saying "Mama talk!"

Yesterday, she did the same thing. She asked me to call Nana so that she could talk - had nothing to say once we got on the phone. SMOOCH, "bye bye, see you", I love you - but then wouldn't hand the phone back to me. She needed Gabe to talk to Nana even though he has his hands full putting up shelves.

Kuse me!

This morning Bell sneezed, and I said "bless you", she then went on to say "kuse me (excuse me)." What a polite little girl we have : )

Tomorrow Tomorrow!!

We took Bell to her first play tonight, our friends son was in his school's production of Annie. We weren't really sure how she would do, because it didn't start until 7:30 - which is usually when she is in bed. She was sitting on our laps - so she was comfy as can be : ) After each song when the lights would go down she said "more, more"! About half way through when her friend Conor came on stage, she started trying to dance along to the choreography! It was so cute to watch her have such a great time! When the play was over, the people beside us said they couldn't decide what was more entertaining the production or watching her. Looks like we will have to search out some more kid friendly productions.