BellaBlog

Archive for December, 2008

Christmas 2008

As I write this, Bella and Paul are lying on the floor playing with Mr. Potato Head. I make a point of saying that they’re lying down because both of them are worn out already this morning.  After a long day of holiday celebration yesterday, all of us are not quite 100% this morning.  Grandma and Grandpa Lee and Great-Uncle John came in on Christmas Eve, Uncle Steve and Aunt Donna came in on Christmas day and we all had a joyous time yesterday.

Paul was off work on Wednesday and continued cleaning up the house for our guests.  I was home from work around 1:30 and began cleaning up as well.  I wasn’t home 15 minutes and the power went out and stayed out until about 3:30.  It’s hard to clean up when you can’t run a vacuum or turn on the lights to see what you’re cleaning.  By the time the power was restored, our guests had arrived but they were very forgiving about the house not be spotless:).  We had a quick dinner and headed to church to enjoy a quiet Christmas Eve ceremony and communion.  It had been a while since we’d been to one and we all really enjoyed it.  There was music, a video of the birth of Jesus, communion, lighting of the Christmas candle, candlelight circle around the auditorium and group prayer.  We were back home having cake and goodies in time for Bella to go night-night and start her sweet dreams.  Once she was in bed for the evening, Dada and Grandpa Lee went to work on building her kitchen and car.  Dad went to bed after finishing around 12:15am while I fell asleep on the couch about 11 and his parents went to bed about 11 as well.  Thankfully Bella slept until about 8am.

On Christmas morning, we all woke up and began a breakfast of chocolate croissants and coffee while letting Bella get a peek at her new little red retro kitchen.  We had the box for her ar out on the deck and she could see it thru the backdoor window.  She kept running back and forth between her kitchen and the box.  We put cookies in the oven of her kitchen and she loved stuffing the cookies in her mouth while she explored everything else in her kitchen.  Paul and I only thought it would keep her interest about 30 minutes and then we’d move onto the car but after a few hours, Bella was still in love with the many facets of her kitchen.  We finally moved onto the car we had kept in her play room (sunroom) and she was overjoyed yet again with this new addition to her life.  About 4pm Uncle Steve and Aunt Donna showed up and we began the making of Christmas dinner. 

We filled our day with talking with the family, enjoying Bella and how sweet she is and how much she loves being with her family.  We celebrated Carol’s birthday later that night and opened up our presents which means Bella didn’t go to bed until 9pm, she was great until her meltdown began.  I immediately picked her up and she began saying ‘peese’ but I couldn’t understand waht she was asking ‘please’ for.  It took me a few seconds to realize that she was actually asking to put her to bed because she was so tired.  What a sweet girl!  We put her to bed, said our prayers and she was out like a light tl 8am the next morning.  She did wake up crying twice but by the time we got down there to check on her, she had fallen back to sleep.  Now all of Paul’s family knows what all my family knows already-Bella is a perfect, beautiful and sweet baby girl.  Merry Christmas baby-you give us a sparkle in our eyes and joy in our hearts.

Bella’s Second Christmas

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Date night with Mama

Paul was out of town working late again so Bella and I went out to eat for dinner.  On the way to Red Bowl (local Japanese place), I was humming a song, the radio was turned down low and I heard Bella start to sing.  She kept singing for about 2 full minutes.  It was so sweet and beautiful to hear.  At dinner, she and I shared a sushi roll with roe, crab, eel and avacado in it.  It did have some spicy sauce on it so occasionally she’s scrape her tongue to get it off if she got a big taste of it.  But she had her milk to wash it down so the hot didn’t last too long.  She shared my soup and ate every last bit of the edamame I ordered.  While we were eating (seated right next to the sushi bar), she would see the fish decorations they had hanging over the chef’s head and start making the fish face and the smooching noise that goes with it.  So adorable was she while doing this that the head chef kept waiving at her and smiling-she’s smile, waive back and kept saying ‘hello’ in her cute little way. 

 When we were finished, I was buckling her into her seat back at the car and she put her hand on her tummy and ‘ow’ like she’d eaten so much that her tummy hurt.  I loosened the belt just a tad to help out her huge belly.  We had a blast when we got home dancing around the Christmas trees along with the Christmas music, we sang a little together, made the train go backward and forward until I got tired of Bella saying ‘nee’-her way of saying ‘again’.  We read a Ballerina book together and played out all the different things dancers do like stretch, twirl, flutter and dip.  She loved it all.  I gave her a pillow to sleep on for the first time, she laid down, I tucked her in and gave her night-night kisses.  Now 30 minutes later, she hasn’t made a peep and I checked in on her and she  hasn’t budged from that same spot either.  I guess she agrees with me that we had a great night together.  By the way, I called Dada to tell him about the dancing and as soon as his voicemail beeped to let me begin talking, Bella yelled out ‘HELLO!’ as if she knew we were calling Dada and that was the normal thing to do.  Paul isn’t home yet but I wonder if he’s listened to it and if he saved it or not…What a great night!

Candy Cane

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Oh Fearless One

Paul should probably be writing this but he’s outside in 30 degree weather hanging Christmas lights.  (Hey, it was his idea, not mine.)  Paul called me during lunch today and asked me if I wanted to know what our daughter did this morning.  Paul was taking a shower this morning after I had already left for work and suddenly he heard a tiny knocking on the shower door.  (I can see it now-sweet Bella knocking with her index finger saying ‘Kno-Kno’-can’t quite get out the ‘ck’.)  Bella had climbed out of her crib, opened the door to her room, climbed upstairs, opened the door to our bedroom, opened the door to the bathroom to find her Dada.  Paul flipped out obviously but she was so sweet and happy, he couldn’t scold her.  I guess we are proud of her but thankful to God that nothing happened to her while she was making this adventure.

Bella, please be careful-you know those footy PJ’s are slippery and you could really hurt yourself on those stairs, not to mention the fall from the crib to the floor.  Thank you Lord she didn’t hurt herself this morning.  Our dear sweet daredevil…

Food as a hat

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