Our First Visit with Santa

Who am I seeing tonight? Santa? Who is that?

Last night we went to church to see the children and youth perform their Christmas pageant. Arabella was amazed with all of the kids and their singing. She did very well during the the first half, but then started getting antsy after that. She was also trying to figure out why Mommy was holding baby Abby and wasn't sure what the baby's problem was when she'd start fussing. She had the most serious look on her face.

After the show Santa showed up. Adam put Arabella on his lap and then stepped away. At first she was intrigued with all of the other kids waiting to see Santa. And then it hit her that Daddy had disappeared and left her sitting on a strange persons lap. That's when she started crying her crocodile tears.

After our meeting with Santa we enjoyed some birthday cake to celebrate Jesus's birthday. We then took the opportunity to have my Mom snap a few family pictures. We haven't had any taken since she was three-months-old. It was a fun night.

11 Months ~ For the Record

I promised measurements and here they are. Drum roll please....

For weight she came in at 27.8 pounds.

For length she came in at 31.5 inches.

My Little Snow Monkey

As I stated in a previous post, we now have tooth number nine. Yay for new teeth. Boo for those teeth that are still holding out on us.

With it being so frigid lately we take dressing Bella up seriously when we attempt to go anywhere. Of course I had Daddy grab the camera and capture her all bundled up for the first time. She's covered head to toe with her snow suit, fluffy coat, and her signature monkey hat. Isn't she just a doll?

She decided that she needed to give Mommy (and brother) a hug.

I'm not a fan of photos of myself, but Daddy had to get some with me, my girl, and our soon-to-arrive little man.

And of course you can't end a short photo shoot without some kisses for Mommy.

11 Months Old

Well this is a couple of weeks late, but better late than never. These past couple of weeks have been very trying on a pregnant insomniac of a Mommy. At eleven-months-old we couldn't be any more proud of where our little girl is. She's a smart cookie and has the most gorgeous eyes you've ever seen. In the past month she's figured out how Daddy makes his signature "winkie brow" as we like to call it. It more or less resembles the one-eyebrow raise that The Rock is famously known for. She's somewhat doing it above but I've seen her do it better.

We've added a lot of new things to our list this past month, including walking, baby babble, attempting to say actual words, and being a little know-it-all-smart-quick learner (is that even a word?). We can now say the following, in context none-the-less, Uh-oh, Wow-Wow, and Bites. And I'm pretty sure today she attempted to say her own name. If you recall I made her name in wooden letters and placed them on the wall above her changing table in her room. Daddy has started this new learning time "game." After a diaper change he will pick her up, because she's also started pointing at things she wants, and she points to her name. He'll go through the letters one by one, twice. Then he'll say her name and we point to her. So today I picked her up, turned her to the letters and proceeded to spell her name. Before I could get to it the second time she said Ah-beh-wah, aka Arabella. She did this all afternoon long. So I'm pretty sure it wasn't a coincidence, but only time will tell.

Our baby signing has somewhat gone to the way-side. Sometimes she'll do it, but most times she won't. However, we still sign to her and she tells us if that's what she wants or not. We've also started the weaning process to get her off of formula. She loves milk. And for the first time ever she's begun drinking juice. But she still prefers to chug water.

And as seen below she's clapping for herself. When we say "good girl" or "big girl" she claps. It's too funny, but she does it on cue every time.


And in brother news, she's either really fascinated with the fact that Mommy is willing to show her bulging belly and belly button to her or she really does know how to "give lovins" to her little brother. She loves to kiss the belly and lay her head on it. Lord does she loves to punch and kick it, but recently her biggest fascination is sticking her fingers in my belly button until I laugh. Then she'll laugh.

I'm getting really terrible pregnancy brain so right now I can't think of every milestone she's hit this past month. This is probably due to the lack of sleep from the pregnancy and the fact that the poor kid seems to have every other tooth in her mouth trying to bust through right now. Her sleeping habits have been terrible. She's waking several times through the night and has started demanding food to get back to sleep. Sometimes she's refusing to go back to sleep period and just screams. It's been a train wreck. I did find one of her teeth FINALLY came through today, but unfortunately the remainder are still hiding behind her poor swollen gums and several of them are her molars. Who knows how long it will take for those suckers to come in. Until then we'll keeping trucking along and pray that they either give up or come in so there can be peace in the house again. Wishful thinking, right?

Monday Morning Cartoons

No, not the Cheerio's!

So, Mommy may have had to learn the hard way....

When a product suggest 12+ months, it's probably best to make sure your child is of age before giving them said snack cup or else you'll end up with Cheerios all over your play yard.

When Arabella wants a snack she's watch me push the rubber lid in on her snack cup and turn it over to retrieve snacks for her. I do it this way because it's more of a pain, to me, to remove the lid and then put it back on. After seeing me do this umpteen times, she's picked up on the procedure for "proper" removal of her snacks. Unfortunately I cannot get her to stick her hand into the cup to get the snacks.

I, in a sleepless daze, handed the cup over to her while in her play yard and proceeded to doze back off to sleep. She was being awful quiet so I sat up to see what she was up to. And to my surprise, or lack of surprise, she had pushed the lid inward and dumped 98% of the Cheerios out into the floor of the play yard. Needless to say she's a smart booger and got her snack quietly, without disturbing Mommy. Bad thing is, Daddy had to vacuum out the play yard.

30 Weeks

Well we had another successful appointment. I'm measuring right on track at 30 weeks, his hearbeat was around 150 and all sounds/looks well. Not really exciting I suppose.

Back to the doctor in another two weeks!

Brotherly Love

I caught Arabella from a Mommy's point of view loving on the tummy. She loves to pat me, kiss the tummy, and "talk" to her brother. The only annoying part about it is that she's discovered the belly button and won't leave it alone. Still...she's too cute with her baby brother.

Christmas Decorations

The day after Thanksgiving is our traditional "Decorate for Christmas Day." This year Arabella was able to partake in her first decorating day. Truthfully she didn't do too much damage, primarily because she had to go down for a nap shortly after we started. But she was up long enough to bang on all of the totes of decorations and freak out at the big green fury monster Daddy constructed in the living room.

This was taken right before the tree came out of it's tote. She just stared in awe of it, but later on became frightened of it every time a branch came near her (or she went near the branches.) It was funny to us, but she would crawl away screaming and crying. Apparently the tree bites her and she doesn't care for it, but it's her own fault. She's the one pushing her toys into the tree. One day she'll learn.

Here is Daddy stringing up the garland on Arabella's first Christmas tree.

Voila! The only thing missing is our angel. Her light burned out last year and we're having a hard time finding a replacement bulb for her.


Last but not least...

My First Thanksgiving

I took a ton of photos for Thanksgiving, so bare with me. These are the *few* favorites I narrowed it down to.

Grandma broke out one of the toy bins full of Aunt Erika & Daddy's old toys. These are her favorite toys to play with when at Grandma's house.

Her latest fav toy seems to be this talking clock.

I'm not sure what she was excited about, but it was funny.

Such a good girl.

She did take time out from playing with her toys to help Daddy read a Goodguys magazine. She wouldn't stop pointing at the hot rod on the front.

Aunt Erika wore her out after dinner. She even curled up next to her.

She caught a second wind and was ready to boogie.

Grandma tried to show her how to work the clock, but I don't think she was buying it.

After dinner Aunt Erika & Daddy pulled out all of Grandma's Christmas decorations. Two things she is frightened of seems to be the snow people that Grandma has. She ran away, cried and screamed at them. She didn't want them near her. I'm sure she'll get over it soon enough.

It was a long tiring day for her, b she had some cool food firsts. She doesn't really seem to be a very picky eater, which is good for us. So here's the list of new foods she gobbled up: jellied cranberry sauce, bread & butter pickles, black olives, stuffing, whole corn, Grandma's strawberry pineapple Jell-O dessert and pumpkin pie with Cool Whip. Not to mention she also ate some of her favorites including turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, and sweet potatoes. You wanna talk about a stuffed kid. What made the dinner even more interesting is she began to say "mmmm" after we put food in her mouth. Now, if we can only keep her on track with trying new foods as she gets older.