Bella's first bike!

We decided to give Bella her birthday present a couple of days early. Why? Because it was driving me nuts.. aaaannndd (I do have a real reason) because she will be getting other presents on her birthday so we thought it would be fun to let her enjoy this for a few days before. See? I know what I'm doing.

 Patiently waiting for us to reveal the surprise. 

 Checking it out.. 

 Trying it out..

She likes it best when dad pushes her around.

She loves her new bike and has been playing on it all day. In case your curious, it's Strider PREbike and it doesn't come with pedals or training wheels. It teaches kids at a young age to balance using a bike therefore never needing training wheels. 

In other news.. Bella inherited the biggest freaking Care Bear collection..

 Like 30+ Care Bears and most of them still had tags. I didn't even know there were this many different bears.

And this little playset too. Fun!

11 months!

I can't belive she is almost 1 year old! 31 more days!! This last month has gone by so fast. Bella learns something new everyday. She is starting to learn new words and she understands simple sentences. She loves new cloths lately and likes to help pick out her outfit. She gets so excited going through her clothes or looking at new ones at the store. She's getting some more teeth and she is a little monster lately. I guess I can't complain since she did so well with the first 8 teeth.


11 month milestones:
Took 1st steps. 7 steps is her record!
Says mama, dada, hi Ty, uh oh, oh wow, look, puppy (kinda), yum yum, hello, hiya.
She is really good at throwing tantrums lately. She's really got the screaming thing down. My mom got a little video of it the other day when she was trying to steal the video camera away. I'll have to see if I can figure out how to add it.
She likes to tear things up. Magazines, catalogs, books..
She is really good at climbing. If she can climb it, she will.
She likes to snuggle but only when she wants to.
She likes pretending to talk on the phone.

I can't wait until her birthday party! I've already picked some things on Etsy for the party!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope everyone had a fun and safe day. We had a nice and relaxing day. I didn't dare to take Bella out in the cold after just having the flu so we just hung out at my mom's and helped pass out candy. It's not like Bella can really trick or treat yet anyway. Plus she was really entertained by all the little ghosts and goblins that came to the door for candy. I was sort of worried that her costume wouldn't be dressed up enough but I was pleasantly surprised how it all came together. It was a fun day!

The swine flu and 8 months old!

Ha ha..I couldn't resist adding this picture :)

This week we all got the swine flu, yep even little Bella. We are pretty much over it now and luckily Bella did really well with it. Justin got sick first but I didn't realize it was the swine flu. After a few days Bella started coughing and running a low grade fever. I started not feeling good that same day. By midnight Bella's fever was 103.3 so I rushed her to the dr. They tested her for the swine flu and 11 minutes later the dr came in with a prescription and announced that she had the swine flu. I can't believe how fast it came on! Luckily they put her on Tamiflu right away and I really think that stuff works wonders! I'm just so thankful that she has a strong little immune system and she kicked the swine's flu's hiney!




During the week Bells had her 8 month birthday! She is growing up so fast! She is in to EVERYTHING. Even when she was sick she still wanted to be down on the floor trying to get into things. She is so cute (if I do say so myself)!

8 month tidbits:

• Bella now has 8 teeth! Crazy.
• She has crawled a couple of times but still prefers to army crawl.
• She loves suckers (thanks grandma!)
• She graduated to her big girl carseat. Of course we had to splurge on the "Recaro baby race seat", as Justin calls it. Recaro is known for their adult seats for racing. I can't complain since it's super safe and super cute!
• She can clap her hands and wave bye bye.
• Her favorite thing to do is stand up on the couch and look out the window.
  
• She isn't too sure of the cold but we did buy her a new winter coat, mittens and a hat yesterday and she looks adorable in them! I'll have to post a picture of her in them soon!
  

4th of July

I hope everyone had a happy & safe 4th of July! We didn't do much this year, so it was a nice relaxing day. In the evening, we went over to my parents house for dinner. My brother Chris and his family were in town for funeral. They flew out this morning but we were lucky enough to get to visit with them (even if it was only for a bit). My little niece Charity was very grumpy. I think she was ready to be home in her own bed and with her own toys. So unfortnately this is the only picture I took.

Yep, told you. Not very happy!

This is Bella's new favorite toy. It's a little Ty beanie bunny that my mom bought for her. She really loves it! Oh, and notice the scratch under her eye? That's what happens when you think, "hmm..I really need to clip her nails" and then decide to wait until morning. Poor little girl!

Doctors and Rice Cereal

Yesterday Bella had her 4 month well baby checkup. It went really good! She weighs 14.9 lbs and is now 24 inches tall. He said that developmentally she is at a 6 month level, and he told her that she can slow down a little bit because mommy already thinks she is growing too fast. So true!

He also gave us the go ahead on starting solids. So today we started her on rice cereal. I can't believe how good she did. I think she likes it!

Feed me already! I'm hungry!

Hmmm... I'm not quite sure what we are doing..

Now what, mom?!

She was WAY more interested at first in Meeko.
And Meeko was WAY more interested in what the baby was eating!

She likes it! Yay!

Overall, a success! She was such a trooper! After a few bits she did get the hang of swallowing. I was really shocked that she caught on to it so fast. Once she has gotten the rice cereal thing down, he said to try green vegetables, yellow vegetables, and lastly fruits. He said you start with the worst tasting and trickle down. I had no idea, but it makes sense!