BellaBlog

Archive for December, 2007

123007 – More relatives

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Bella met up with some more of her Aunts, Uncles, and (first) cousins.

122907 – Lunch with relatives

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The other little baby in this movie is Alice Morgan McElroy – Bella’s first cousin, once removed (figuring that out was a job – Alice is the daughter of April’s niece Alyssa, making Alyssa Bella’s first cousin). Alice was born July 2, 2007 so she’s only a month younger than Bella but Bella looks like a beast in comparison size-wise. Also there was Bella’s Aunt and Uncle Baldwin, Aunt and Uncle Maxwell, and of course first cousins McElroy.

B's First Christmas

122507 – Bella must have played with the lights

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I went outside the house and found the Christmas lights just going nuts – Bella must have done something to them….

122507 – Bella's favorite part of Christmas

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Bella was happy to get presents for Christmas but what really thrilled her was the packaging. We made a pile of paper for her to play in and then she danced with Mom.

122507 – Bella opens her presents

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Bella’s first Christmas! We didn’t exactly go overboard on getting stuff for her – she pretty much gets presents whenever so she only had a few to open up today….

Bella's First Christmas

To make a long story short, Bella’s already napping because she wore herself out:).

No, I won’t let you miss out on the details of her first fantastic Christmas. We took a bunch of photos and video which Paul will share with you later but like any other child, the paper was Bella’s favorite. I’m glad Bella is at the stage where she’s able to sit up and explore her surroundings now. From the minute she saw the paper, she knew she wanted to tear into it. I helped a little but she couldn’t stop tearing and shoving it into her mouth as quick as I could take out the last piece. Here’s what she had to say about it all.

‘My first present from Mommy and Daddy was a bright lime colored shopping cart cover. It was bespeckled with polka dots, came with its own matching pillow (Mom said it was perfect for baby’s sweet head and it was, I tried it out but she wouldn’t let me nap just yet), and was plush enough to please any princess, that’s me of course. My favorite part was the buckle that was extremely chewable, that is, after the wrapping paper and the plastic bag it came in:). Next came the stocking that was hiding the shiniest, most beautiful snow globe I’d ever seen. Mom shook it up and wound it up for me and laid it on the floor in front of me. I reached out to grab the shiny thing and couldn’t help myself, but yes, I tried to eat it. It was so tasty with the snow and the shiny angel thingy inside.

     

Mom said it played Silent Night and she picked it out for me so I could ‘sleep in heavenly peace’ always. She’s so mushy sometimes but I love her for it. Then came the good stuff from Aunt Linda. She really knows what a kid likes. It had so much paper on top, I about lost myself in it and forgot about what else might be inside. I wanted to gnaw on everything before Mom and Dad could even get the toys unwrapped. I think they had more fun with them than I did, nah, that couldn’t be because I didn’t see them try to eat them and where’s the fun with the toys if you don’t eat them.

    

Once they put them on the floor for me and they started cleaning up, I wore myself out trying to nibble all of them at least once or twice before moving onto the next one. Mama gave me some sweet potatoes to tide me over and then I decided to take a nap (not without some whining but Mama and Dada know best). As I dozed off to sleep, I remember Dada said he’d make a huge pile of paper for me to play in. I’ll tackle that once I’ve rested a bit-that’s gonna take a lot of energy.’

As you can see, we all had a lot of fun but now I’ve got to finish the food so we can eat sometime today. Paul’s working on the turkey now. I’m gonna use my new mixer to make his favorite sweet potatoe casserole. By the way, I forgot to mention, Bella loves sweet potatoes too. Maybe I’ll give her the kind with marshmallows on top next year. Merry Christmas everyone.

Trying To Crawl

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Food

By the way, she’s been eating cereal mixed with food regularly since 2 days before her half birthday. She’s a professional eater now too. She doesn’t really play with her food but occasionally will grab for the bowl or spoon while we’re feeding her. After only 2 weeks of eating food, she’s had mixed veggies, applesause, prunes and peaches. No allergic reactions so far. A kid in her room at school had pneumonia and RSV so we’re praying that Bella doesn’t get either. So far, only the stuffy nose she’s had on and off for a while. The doctor said all is fine for now. I’m still breastfeeding her and intend to until she’s a year old but I’m hoping at least until the winter season is over.

She's put up with us for 6 months

My goodness, our baby is 6 months old now. Not only are we close to her first Christmas but she’s now surpassed her half first birthday. Bella can sit up on her own now for a good 15-20 seconds, then she gets distracted by something and leans toward it and then falls on her tummy or back, ready to roll to it instead. She rolls like Super Woman. Matter of fact, I left her on the spare bed in her room yesterday morning and within a minute, she had pushed herself up to the headboard and had fallen between the mattress and headboard. All this within a minute AND she was asleep when I left the room. Thank God she didn’t get hurt other than a red spot on her head but looking back on it now, it was pretty funny. When I heard the ‘bonk’, I ran into the bedroom and all I saw were her two little pink pajama covered legs wiggling around like she was hanging upside down on purpose. Paul too was grateful Bella wasn’t hurt but he’s happy that I was the first one to ‘drop’ Bella.

I took Bella to get her 6 months vaccines on the 4th where she also got the flu shot as well. 4 shots at one time was as bad as 3. The thing that upset me most was that instead of telling me I could pick her up at the end, the nurse picked her up and tried to comfort her, the whole time Bella was reaching for me and screaming her head off. As soon as I could get her from the nurse, Bella calmed right down. I know the nurse was trying to disassociate the shots from Mom but if my baby is reaching for me and in pain, there’s nothing that can stand in my way. Lesson learned: I won’t let anyone else pick up my baby after shots, whatever the reason.

Enough mean mom talk! Bella is growing like a bean stalk. She was 27″ long which put her in the 95th percentile, weighed 16 lbs. in the 75th percentile and her cute little head is growing like a genius at a 50th percentile (still has a sweet little head rather than a melon head like some of the babies in her class at daycare:). Speaking of daycare, she’s had some rough days recently and we’re not sure why. She rarely cries at school but last Monday and Tuesday, the teachers said she cried all day long like she does when she wakes up screaming. To me, that meant she thought she was alone or missing someone since she really only cries like that if she wakes up and feels like we’re not around her. I had read that separation anxiety can start about now but with the doctor saying a tooth might be coming in on the lower right jaw soon, we’re not sure what to think.

Paul was out of town most of last week and this week so Bella and I went shopping. Last week, I put her in the back of the cart where big kids sit and had her all bundled up with blankets so she could relax if she got tired of sitting up. She had this really sweet pink and white sweater outfit on and her Little Miss Hippo to join her in this new adventure. What would have taken about an hour, took 2. Everyone was able to see how beautiful and sweet she was and they all wanted to stop and chat and dote on our Bella. Paul will hopefully get those photos up for ya’ll to see over the holidays.

Merry Christmas to everyone and can’t wait to have Bella try on her Christmas dress and matching Santa hat-she’ll be adorable as ever, like she is in everything else. We’ll share those pics too.