Fun at Aunt Erika's

We don't make it up to Aunt Erika's all that often. So when we do, Mommy likes to take a ton of pictures. While we were out on Sunday we ventured her way. In case I don't get around to taking her ten-month pictures, I guess these could serve as her monthly-birthday pictures.

Aunt Erika got a new puppy, Oliver, who is overly happy to see people. He had to go outside and Bella just couldn't quite figure him out.

She made her way to the door to visit him. Poor Oliver.

Happy Girl.

This was the only picture I took where she was some what looking at me. FAIL.

I love this one. She was playing peek-a-boo with Aunt Erika under the coffee table.

Ten Months Already?

Sniff, sniff, sniff...Mommy is very sad. In less than two months my little girl will enter into the world of toddlers. How can it be that ten months has passed since I gave birth to this tiny little creature? How is it that my little girl is already the size of a toddler? I don't know what to think besides sadness. Then I start fretting on how to celebrate her birthday. I mean, after all she was born on New Year's Eve. How do you deal? My dad suggested celebrating in mid January. Hmmmm....NO! I'm not going to let that much time pass, just because it happens to fall on a holiday. I'm half tempted to "celebrate" her birthday at Christmas when the whole family is together. After all, it's the pictures I'm after. I want all of her family there and I don't really care about the gifts. Seriously, we have no where to put them. So I'm open for suggestions and theme ideas....

Moving on, we did her non-official measurements tonight. She turned ten-months-old on Halloween, but it was a busy weekend.

She barely gained any weight since her doctor's appointment, which was October 12th. She's now up to 26 pounds, 2 ounces. As you can see she's still off the chart, but it wasn't as big of a leap as she had been doing in the past. It's very obvious to Adam and I that she's starting to "thin" out. She's beginning to lose part of her baby gut and looking a lot taller in doing so.

Height wise, she may be looking taller, but according to the tape, she didn't grow any. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing? Either way she's still a very healthy little girl.

She has began to refuse to sign back to us. Sigh, she was doing so well with it and then poof, she rarely tells us what she wants. She's moved into throwing fits and I am not liking it one bit. We still proceed with signing to her and hope that she'll start signing back again.

She's added some new consonants, such as r and y. It's funny to hear her baby babble. Courtesy of Daddy she has taken to "flying" around the house. Unfortunately for pregnant Mommy this poses a problem when I try carrying her around. She immediately wants to lay out in her flying position, arms straight out, and it's just too hard for Mommy to carry her. I most certainly am not about to entertain her new habit either.

We've also began weaning her off of baby purees. She's eating more and more table food with Mommy and Daddy which she truly enjoys. It's more apparent every time we try to sneak her baby food. She's flat out refusing some of it, so we get creative and mix table food with her baby food in order to get it used up. She recently discovered the awesomeness that it green beans in their natural state. I suppose this is going to help Mommy lose weight after baby boy is here. After all, she'll be off of baby food and I don't want her eating the greasy foods I did as a kid. So this will be a good thing for us.

She's just an amazing little girl. And WAY TO SMART for her age. She watches us intently when we get into the baby proofed cabinets. She's trying to figure out how we unlock them. She's now begun studying the locks up close. She knows there's a thumb release on the bottom and she'll flip the lock up to study it and see if she can't get it open. She's also figured out that you have to put weight on the gate to the living room to open it. Her problem is that she's too little to do it. That doesn't stop her from trying though.

We have a smart, healthy, and gorgeous little girl. What more could a Mommy and Daddy ask for?

My First Sucker & the "Sucker" who gave it to me

As previously noted, on Halloween Eve we ventured to my parent's house. After Bella Trick or Treated Papa, he was ever so generous in offering her her very first sucker. Fabulous. I swore she wouldn't get any intentional sugar until she was a year-old. Papa did what Papa's do best and gave it to her anyway. Here's a picture story of what happened....

Immediately after her first lick, she glared up to Papa as though he was radiating with awesomeness for giving her such a wonderfully sweet treat. She's also pondering where this thing of beauty came from and why she hadn't had her hands (and tongue) on one before.

After a short period of pondering, she turned to Mommy. Her face begs the question, "Mommy, why haven't you given me these before?" Sigh, because my child, you are too young to be exposed to such "garbage" although your Father and I eat junk like that all the time. We were hoping to spare you from getting a sweet tooth too soon in life. Alas, thanks to your Papa, we have failed you.

Then the culprit and newly found Sweet Tooth Kid pose for a photo together. Later on in life when she asks me why she cannot refuse sweets I will be able to pull out this photograph. I will explain to her how I begged her Papa not give her candy while she's so young and how he refused and did it anyway. She will be able to blame him for her candy addiction and I have the proof right here.

After a while we decided, enough was enough. Although she began to glare at Papa. She knew why he was reaching out his hand. She knew he was going to take the sticky sweetness from her grasp. She just glared and hung on to that stick for dear life.

And in the end...Papa won. She's still refusing to give it up, but after having cherry flavored drool dripped all over his shirt and jeans, he figured it was time to take the sucker away. After all she had cherry flavored drool running down the stick, her arms, and her face. He also knew that should any of that red, cherry flavored drool make it to Grandma's light blue carpet, he would be the one forced to get the carpet cleaner out and fix his mistake. Smart move Papa, smart move.

Happy Halloween *Lots O' Pictures*

For Halloween we had three costumes, two hand-me-downs and one that we won in a giveaway. So on Halloween Eve we dressed her up to go out and do some shopping and then we paraded her around for my parents. They had plans for Halloween and I didn't want them to miss her first one, so we drove to their house. I tried to get good pictures of her, but when in costume she does not cooperate. So you'll have to settle for a hand full of the bazillion pictures I took.

She's a sunflower but Daddy called her a weed. She's growing like a weed, so it was more appropriate. Here she was when she first saw herself in costume in the mirror.

Not cooperating and she wouldn't stand for Mommy.

Trick or Treating at Grandma and Papa's.

Adam captured this one.

Then on Halloween, Grandmama trick or treated us. Bella had just woke from a nap, so she wasn't too cheery faced for these pictures. This is the costume we won in a giveaway.

She was trying to put her fingers in Grandmama's mouth, like she tries with us, but Grandmama had a cure to stop it...

I believe she was actually talking to us in this picture...

And last, but not least, kissing her puppy pail.

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Baby Boy Update

Well, I haven't exactly been very good about blogging here lately. So here we go...

Baby boy has been kicking like crazy. Over the weekend he has began kicking hard enough to knock the wind out of me and for me to be able to see him on the outside. I still can't wait for him to be consistent enough for Adam & Bella to feel him.

Bella is "loving" her baby brother already. She finds every opportunity to kick me in the stomach, punch me in the chest and smack the tummy while on the changing table. On a lighter note, she does love kissing the belly. I find it very weird for me, I guess I never thought she'd be able to show affection to her sibling at this young of an age. But again, for all I know she's just trying to eat my shirt. Either way it is utterly adorable.

My heartburn is beginning to get the better of me. With Bella is was constant from the beginning of pregnancy. With baby boy, it's late in the evening or when I'm trying to sleep. TUMS seems to keep the heartburn at bay, so it's good that I don't have to take a prescription medicine for it.

In other baby news, last week Adam won our bedding set for baby boy's room. We had three options we had narrowed it down to. Once he saw the price of a 4 piece Turtle set, he changed his tune. It was very adorable, but over-priced. Then, when he saw that we could get the 9 piece bedding set below for $50.00, he jumped on it at the last second of the eBay auction. It should be arriving here this week. I cannot wait to see it in person.

Funny thing is it's called Bella Blue. It's a turquoise and chocolate brown color. Now, we polled some of our friends and several thought it is "girly." I have to disagree. The Bella Pink set is girly. The pattern is damask. It's a neutral pattern and non-themed, which I find a perfect fit. I didn't want to go with something themed, because everyone else does it. Besides, it's Mommy and Daddy who have to look at the bedding. Seriously, like the baby is really going to care what the nursery looks like, right? We also figure that by the time he's old enough to have an opinion we'll be ready to upgrade his room to a "big boy" room and he'll get to help decide how we decorate it then. Until then, Mommy will remain happy with her choice.

Close up of the print:

They have this matching blanky I'd love to get for him:

Then begs the question of baby furniture. How much, when, and what. Well, problem solved. Baby boy has a very generous family member who is gifting him his bedroom set. Without this person, I seriously don't know what we would do. I'm not naming the person because that's what was asked of us. All I can say is I'm in tears as I type because of this person's generosity. *Wiping tears*

Yesterday afternoon, we took a family trip (Adam, Bella and Me) to check out baby furniture. We knew where we would like to get it from because it was the same place that Bella's furniture came from. After a short twenty minutes, Adam and I had narrowed it down to three sets. Looking at them side by side, the choice was easy. When we got Bella's set we were adamant that it had to be light colored wood. This time around, we opted for a pretty cherry finish. So, here's baby boy's soon-to-be crib. We ordered from the same manufacturer for a couple of reasons.

1. Their products are "Made in the U.S.A." That is important to Adam.
2. Their products are approved by JPMA. They are tested and proven safe.
3. Their nursery furniture grow with the children. The crib will convert to a toddler bed (which we'll skip) and then to a full size bed (which we'll go to after the crib phase).
4. Their furniture has proven to last a lifetime and is just plain gorgeous.

So with all of that in mind, we will be ever-so-grateful to the donor of this furniture. I'm excited to see it when it arrives. Unfortunately this will be the beginning of the destruction of our "home office." We are going to have to find a place for all of our stuff as we prepare the baby's room. Joy, joy, joy...Les than 15 weeks to go!

Welcome Abigail Rae

After a long drawn out day, Ms. Abby arrived on October 23, 2009 at 9:15pm via c-section. She's healthy and gorgeous. Mommy, Daddy & Sissy are doing fine.

I wanted to share some of the photos I snapped today. My sister won't be released until Monday and I can't wait for Bella to meet her new cousin. Due to the hospital policies with the flu running ramped she wasn't allowed past the waiting area.

Abby's coming...

So Ms. Abigail Rae will be here some time tomorrow. My sister has to be at the hospital by 6:00am to be induced. So, since we live five minutes from the hospital, Brooklyn is staying with us tonight. After Bella woke up from her nap this afternoon we decided to get the two in some pictures together before heading out the door.

I cannot believe how cute they are together. Brooklyn would giggle and the Bella would giggle at her because she was giggling.

In our quest to get them to stand next to one another, Bella didn't want to cooperate. So, we had to entice her with her lady bug hair brush.

I still cannot believe how big my little girl is. Brooklyn just turned 4 at the end of September and she's not exactly short. Bella will be 10 months very shortly. So this somewhat proves, or at least gives a better picture, of how big she really is. You can't really tell by looking at pictures of her alone.

This one was one of my favorites. They look like they're having some private conversation. Truthfully Brooklyn was giggling at Bella.

And to finish the night off... Tonight was the first time I tried to pull Bella's hair up. It worked and she didn't get called a boy once tonight while we were out shopping.

Oh and on a side note, we went to Babies R Us and thankfully Brooklyn was willing to help us test out tandem strollers. We really found an awesome stroller that both of us agree on, that's lightweight, and has four different seating positions. Score. Problem, it costs over $200 dollars. Time to save up I guess.

Pacifiers are for Suckers!

So a while back, let's say while Bella was still in the womb and we didn't know the gender, Adam bought this shirt for his child. We were at a garage sale of a friend who had a little boy. Adam didn't care the gender of his child to be, he just knew one day that child would wear this shirt. Today was that day. So, enjoy!

PeePee On the Potty!

Well, tonight I decided I didn't want to cook dinner. It seems like it's been forever since we've went out and ate a meal where you didn't carry it from the counter to your table. As usual we procrastinated and didn't leave the house until seven. We decided to hit The Landing, one of our favorite local bars. Yes, Bella was in tow. Thankfully The Landing has a section that is walled off from the rest of the bar and has booths for a more family oriented atmosphere.

So we get to the restaurant to find that the section was reserved for an "MU Tigers Fan Club" gathering. Fabulous. The guy taking covers to get into the other part of the bar said we could go up. That's great news, considering there were only three people in the entire area. Huge Fan Club, eh? Anyways, we sit down, order some food, eat and get out of there. Right as we left it was Bella's bedtime.

We get home and all I can smell is smoke. This is really strange to me because smoking isn't allowed in that section and there wasn't a puff of smoke to be seen in the restaurant (the section has windows so you can see down into the bar). So we peel off some clothes and I grab everything to get us into the shower. In the meantime Adam keeps Bella busy.

I start the shower and holler for him to bring her in. Well, the water tank wasn't cooperating and wouldn't heat up fast enough, so Adam stood Bella on top of the toilet. Lid down, mind you. I crack a joke telling her that if she has to pee she's in the right spot. And that's when it happened....

She peed, all over the toilet. Fabulous we thought as we were busting up laughing due to her timing. Adam was trying to hold her hand with one of his and unravel toilet paper to catch the mess. Why he was trying to tear it off I'll never know. And she peed again. So I grabbed the paper with my free hand. I kept on pulling and laying it over her mess. Then I told him just hold her, I checked the water, hopped in, and had him put her in the shower. Then it was up to him to clean her mess and sanitize the toilet.

Way to go Mommy and Daddy! So, lesson learned: Don't take the diaper off until you're absolutely ready to put the baby in the shower or tub. Secondly, if you're going to put her on the toilet, make sure she's sitting and the lid is up!