some more pictures

We have a lot to catch up on....

Bella is now almost 10 months, (at the end of this month). I can't believe we are already starting to think about her first birthday! How the time has flown by. Bella started walking right after she turned 9 months old...now that she's almost 10 months, she's a pro, walking everywhere. Her little personality shines through every day. Bella and I are very busy between music class, The Little Gym, Gymboree, and play dates with all of her little friends. It is not uncommon for Bella to hug onto all the other moms at our classes, and during music and Gymboree she is always in the middle of the circle bouncing and clapping to the music. Walking at 9 months has definitely attracted a lot of attention from the other moms, and no one can believe how mobile she is. Bella has 6 teeth now, 4 on top and 2 on the bottom. Teething was a bit rough when the top teeth were coming through. She got a fever and seemed to be in a bit of pain, although it's nothing a little Tylenol could not cure. Bella never ate or really liked baby food after many many attempts. Her favorite foods at the moment are avocado, cherios, chicken, turkey, black beans, cheese, peas, and yogurt melts. Her all time favorite is still her formula, which she drinks about 32 oz a day of. Bella is definitely an easy going baby who goes with the flow....we've yet to encounter a full on temper tantrum at Stanford, although that's maybe because I always buy her whatever she wants...(we just keep that from Daddy)...just kidding...hehe.
It has been so nice now that Bella goes to sleep about 6:45 or 7 until about 6 or 6:30 in the morning. The mornings are not so nice, but I really can't complain...by 8:30 am she is back to bed for her morning nap. Then she takes another nap at about 1:30 or 2. It's amazing how much babies sleep! Although I can understand because she works really hard during the days playing!
Here are some recent videos and pictures:






http://sharing.theflip.com/session/77409a1682f23cf4c51f9df97fa3d4bd/video/74733

Bella in Hawaii

We took Bella on her first flight to Hawaii.  She did so much better than we anticipated.  We were able to get her her own seat, which was definitely a life saver.  She slept in her car seat for over half the flight each way.  Ben's parents have been in Hawaii all summer, and were so thrilled to see Bella again.  They couldn't believe how much she had grown and developed in only a couple of months.  Bella is now crawling EVERYWHERE, and pulling herself up on EVERYTHING! She has started to furniture walk a little.  It won't be long before she's running through the house.  Bella still only has her two bottom teeth.  She's sleeping about 11 hours at night, and she chews on everything.  Here are our pictures from our trip to Hawaii.

Let the baby proofing begin!

Bella is into EVERYTHING! She is the busiest little person I know.  The only time she sits still is when she's sleeping.  She sure is giving me a run for my money.

As you can see from this picture her two bottom teeth are in. 

 

We took Bella to the beach for the first time.  She loved the sand, and oddly enough she didn't try to eat it (at least yet).

Bella and RJ just love each other.  Watch out Daddy, we couldn't get their hands off each other.

About to leave for the Fair.

As you can see from the pictures Bella is a very active little girl.  She's now a pro at crawling and can get from one point to the next pretty quickly.  I always have to keep an eye out on her.  She says Mama all the time.  Especially when she wants me.  It's really cute.  We leave for Hawaii in two days, this will be the first time we fly with her.  I hope she will be a good girl on the plane.  

Bella will be 7 months in a few days.  I really love this age.  I feel like she gets things now.  Like when I laugh she giggles as well.  It's really cute to see her and her friends interact and play together.  It mostly consists of grabbing at each other.  The other day Jamie and Kendall were over playing so we sat the girls down and gave them each a toy.  Bella kept grabbing Kendall's toy, so we'd give Kendall a new one, then Bella would want that one.  I guess it starts young...wanting what you don't have.

Bella and I also tried out a music class...she LOVED it.  She smiled and laughed practically the whole time.  She loves playing with instruments and listening to music.  All in all everything is going great.  I can't believe Bella is almost 7 months old.  I am still loving every minute with her and can't imagine doing anything else!

We've got a crawler on our hands

Bella turned 6 months old on July 31st.  These last 6 months have seemed to fly by.  Bella is now crawling, pulling herself up, and eating baby food.  We've started with veges, which she isn't too fond of.  I'm going to start fruit this week, maybe she'll like that a little better.  Bella loves to babble, and Ben claims that she said "dada".  She's still sleeping great, but it takes a little longer to get her down sometimes.  I can see her from my room in the video monitor.  Sometimes I find her standing in her crib in the pitch dark.  Who knows what she's looking at, but most of the time all it takes is one more hug and she goes to bed.  Here are some recent pictures:

Photo Shoot

Here are some pictures I took of Bella today.  She is 5 months old.

Bella- 4-5 months

So much has happened since our last blog update.  We sold our townhouse and bought a new, larger one.  Even though Bella was only a few months old we were starting to feel a bit crowded and made the decision to put our house on the market.  Luckily everything worked out perfectly.  We sold our home very quickly and found a new one located just a few blocks away.  It made our move very easy, or I should say as easy as it gets with a 4 month old.  We were "homeless" for about a month, and luckily we were able to stay with my parents.  Bella was really able to bond with her Gigi and Popi.  It was great for me because when Ben was at work all day I had so much help with Bella.  Between Ashley, my mom and dad, Bella was never left alone to fuss or cry while I had to shower or do other things...it was great!

Now, here's the update on what Bella has been up to:

~She is sleeping great! Let's cross our fingers it stays this way.  She goes to bed between 7:30 and 8, and wakes up about 6, eats, then goes back to bed until about 7 or 8.  She is taking 2-3 naps per day.  One is always a long one, about 2-3 hours and the other 2 are short about 45 min- 1 hour.  It's so nice because it gives me a chance in the day to get things done around the house.

~She is primarily on formula.  As of now I'm only breastfeeding her in the mornings.  She seems much happier on formula, she was just way to hungry and I just couldn't keep up with her.  We've also introduced rice cereal.  She is starting the get the hang of swallowing the food, although I think most of it ends up on her bib.

~She is sitting up, rolling over, and scooting around (although not "crawling" yet).

~She babbles and talks all the time.  She does this little squeal when she gets excited and loves to smile.

~We took her swimming for the first time on Father's Day.  She really enjoyed the water.  We can't wait to take her swimming again!

It's been so fun to watch her personality evolve.  She is very serious and really takes everything in.  If only we knew what was going on in that little mind of hers.  

Here are some pictures from the last couple of months:

Bella!

Hello! We hope everyone is doing great.  It's been a very busy and crazy month here at our household.  We sold our house, which closes on June 9th.  So as of June 1st all three of us (and Lucky) will be moving into the Watson house until our new home is ready.  We will be staying there for a couple of weeks.  Thanks Mom and Dad!  We hope and pray that everything goes through with our loan on our new house and we will be all moved in and settled before July.  

As for Bella, she's growing like a weed.  She' s over 13 lbs, and very tall.  We go to the doctor on June 1st for her 4 month check up so I will get her exact height then, but I'm guessing she's about 26 in.  We have had about three solid weeks of GREAT sleep.  She sleeps about 9 hours, then between 5:30 and 6 am she wakes up, Ben gets her and changes her, then he brings her to me, she eats, and we both sleep for another 2-3 hours.  It's been so nice to get full nights of sleep again.  In the beginning I thought we would never get to this point.

Bella has also been talking up a storm, and she's started to do this thing where she blows bubble with her lips while making lots of noises. (If you can even picture that, I'll have to try to get it on the flip to show you).  She's rolled over from her front to back a few times, and loves to stand.  We think she may be an early walker like me.  We still go to baby bootcamp twice a week and she loves her play dates with her BFF's Halle and Kendall.

On May 16th Bella got baptized by Father Mike Healy.  It was a very special day, and we would like to thank everyone who was there to witness it.  Bella did great during the baptism.  She didn't cry, and when he poured the water over her head she got a surprised look on her face followed by a huge smile.  She did great!

This weekend we are headed over to Seascape for Memorial Day, we got the okay from the doctor to put her in the pool, so we'll see how she does.  I think she'll like it because she loves her baths.  I will update with pictures from her first swim after the weekend!

Here are some pictures of Bella and her friends!

Ready for summer!

Mila and Bella

Tutu (Bella's Great Grandma) and Bella on Easter

Bella, Halle, and Kendall getting their zzzzz's while the mommies layed out

Bella loves going for walks in her baby bjorn

I'm getting so big

I love tummy time, well kind of...

Play Date

Today Bella had a play date with her two friends, Kendall and Halle.  It was so cute to see them "play" on the blanket together.  Halle, who is only 3 1/2 weeks old pretty much slept the whole time, while Bella was waving her arms and legs all over the place, grabbing at Halle's overalls and hitting her in the face while she was trying to sleep, poor Halle, but she did a good job of putting up with her friend Bella.  It's fun to see Bella and Kendall together because they were born just one day apart so they are both going through the same stages together, and it's also amazing for Lisa and I to compare the differences between Halle and Bella in just a short 7 week age difference.  It amazes us how much they change and grow in such a short amount of time.  Here are some pictures of our day:

A Few Pictures...

Isabella Turns 2 Months

Over the weekend Isabella turned 2 months!  She is growing so much, here are some of the things she has done in the past month:

~As of 3-30-09 she weighs 10 lbs and 11 oz, and is 23 3/4 in

~she has started sleeping 9-10 hours per night

~she is sucking on her hands A LOT, but hasn't quite found her thumb yet, maybe she'll just be a hand sucker!

~her eyes are still very blue...we are so curious to know if they'll change to brown or stay blue

~she smiles a lot, and is starting to coo a little bit too

~she looks around at everything and really takes in everything around her

Halle and Bella...BFF's

Happy Birthday!

We caught you smiling!