Here it goes...

More pictures at the bottom...

Here we are, once again, in Redding. It seems that if we have more than three days off from school we have to make the 7 1/2 hour trek across the border. I guess I should be grateful that the people at CVS want Dusty to work for him any chance he can, but still...
Quite a lot has happened since our last post. Bella passed one more milestone, 18 months! and she's already nearing her 19th month. So instead of doing a post for each I'm going to combine them because, let's face it, I might not ever get around to doing a 19 months post. So we went to the Doctor for Bella's Well Baby check up and so far so good. She's weighing in at 22 pounds and 10 ounces and she's reaching 31 inches in height. We are so glad that she's been able to catch up to other kids her age, she's hovering around the 25 percentile. That's a big improvement from where she started, off the bottom of the charts. She has definitely hit that point where she remembers people, places and things (probably more than we know). One example of this occurred when we walked into the doctor's office. She was fine in the waiting room, but as soon as I stepped through the door of the exam room she flipped out. I think she only stopped crying for about 5 minutes of the hour that we were there. And that was only when the doctor and nurse were both out of the room. She didn't want to be weighed, she didn't want to be measured, she didn't want to have her heart,ears, or eyes checked and she certainly didn't want her shots. The nurse told us that 18 months is probably the worst check up and that most kids do that, but it's still heartbreaking to listen to your kid scream bloody murder even if you know nothing is really wrong with them. Bella continues to grow by leaps and bounds, this kid is always amazing me. She is talking up a storm now, you can only understand about 5% of what she says, but she loves to be heard. She knows what she wants and doesn't let up until someone figures it out. She is always on the move. It seems the only time she sitting still is when she's eating or sleeping (or getting into something that she knows she shouldn't be getting into). She likes to say "no"... a lot. If you try to give her something that she doesn't want she will flat out tell you "No!" We were driving in the car the other day and she was sitting in the backseat saying "Nnnnnno! Nnnnnnno! Nnnnnno!" over and over. She really likes to draw out the N. It's pretty funny. She loves her daddy and asks for him repeatedly throughout the day. She will say "Daddy" on command. She won't say Mommy on command yet, but if I do something she doesn't like she is quick to say "Mommy, No!" I think this may be because I find myself saying "Bella, no" multiple times during the day. She says please (peas) and thank you (taku) unless she's just asked for food and then says peas and then shoves it in her mouth. She loves dogs, cats and cars and will point them out to anyone within earshot. She loves going outside (quite possibly because this is where the dog, cat and cars are), but winter in Oregon (and lately California) don't allow for too much outdoor time. She loves playing with her friends, even the ones that push her around a little ;) and asks for them daily. She loves to eat and eat and eat. If it were up to her she would eat snacks all day, but every once in a while we sneak a real meal in there. She definitely loves to eat anything anyone else is eating. She loves using utensils to eat. Most of the time she won't start eating until you get her a fork or spoon. She still takes one afternoon nap everyday. If we're home she'll sleep for 2 to 3 hours. It's fantastic! That's for our Bella update. There are a million more things that Bella does, but you know...

Dusty finished his last ever fall term, two more terms to go! He got done almost two weeks ago and to celebrate we drove up the Mt. St. Helens. We've been up there one time before, but the weather was so bad that you couldn't see the mountain. This time it was so clear. It was neat to watch it get bigger and bigger the closer you get. You get a few sneak previews as you drive up the windy road and then you get to the top and it's like "Ohhh, Ahhh" It's great. It was very cold that day and Bella didn't want to get out of the car, so we pretty much just drove up there and drove back. But it was still pretty cool.

We got some pretty good views of Mt. Hood right after a wind storm blew through Portland. These are from the hill where Dusty's school is. Since I couldn't wait to get out and take some pictures with our new camera, this is where we went and what we took.

We went to my parents ward Christmas dinner. The dinner was a disaster and so was Santa. Not a very productive night. If there was audio on this picture you would have to cover your ears.

I took some pictures of Bella in her new Christmas dress.

She wasn't having too much fun until... ...She got a cookie.

Yummm.

She kept trying to sneak away. Like we weren't going to notice.

My mom found this in LA for Lily, but it was too small so she brought it back to Redding for Bella. I still cannot believe that she put it on since she hated her Finding Nemo costume so much.

Ghetto booty.

Things to blog about...

Goings on during the last month...

Bella turns 18 months...

Dusty finishes his last fall term...

Trip to St. Helens...

Many trips to Cali...

Christmas pictures of Bella...

Huh, I guess I better get on that...

random pictures from this month...

One of Bella's new favorite things to do is to steal other people's seats. If you leave the room she will sit wherever you were sitting. Tonight I was laying on the floor and when I got up to make dinner I came back to find this...

We went to the Temple with Jen and Maddy. We had fun walking around the pretty grounds. These girls love to walk together holding hands... well, most of the time they do...

Faux-hawk Bella

Rock star...

She can fly, she can fly, she can fly...

Bella can wink... almost.

Watch the beginning and you can see Bella 'swim.' She was doing it better and for longer, but by the time I got the camera out she was done with the costume.

Playing with Aunt Kellie when she came up to visit us last week.

pumpkins and trick or treating...

We had to try out a few costumes before we found one that Bella liked. At first she was very scared of this Nemo costume, but eventually she let me put it on her. She didn't mind having it on, but it would only last a few minutes until she wanted it OFF! Obviously this wasn't going to work...

We went out to a pumpkin farm outside of Portland. It was a lot of fun and the weather could not have been better (the day before this is was rainy and gross).

Here's Bella measuring herself (you're supposed to measure yourself every year you come to this patch, but it's unlikely that we'll every be back).

You ride a train out to the patch and Bella really liked it. There were two different trains to ride, unfortunately we had to ride the green and yellow train, we wanted the orange and black one, darn it...

Bella and Maddy had fun picking out multiple pumpkins.

She liked to ride...
...but she really liked to push.

One the way back, we rode a paddle boat. They had a dragon that rose up out of the water. They also had a shark that came out of the water, just like the JAWS ride at Universal Studios (okay, maybe not just like Universal Studios, but it was pretty cool).
Bella was being pretty quite so I went to check on her. When I walked into the kitchen this is what I found. She got out her raisins on her own and was munching away... in her Halloween costume.

Bella ended up wearing the costume Uncle Grant wore when he was Bella's age. Before the trick or treating...

She really liked her costume. Thanks to Uncle Grant for letting us borrow it.

Getting some treats from Queen Amidala at the Trunk-or-Treat. She had a lot of fun trick or treating. By the third or fourth trunk she knew if she held out her hand she would get some candy. And then she liked putting her candy in her little bag.

17 months

Bella passed her 17 month mark last Saturday, but we've been a little busy around here so I haven't had time to post anything about her. She is growing by leaps and bounds. It seems that she has decided that she is no longer the baby, but instead is a big girl now. She loves living here in Portland with her friends so close (we still miss those friends we left in Corvallis, but at least Bella has someone here to distract her). She loves going to play or go shopping with Maddy. If I tell her we're going to see Maddy, she automatically goes to the back door (the fastest route to their apartment) and says over and over MAAA, MAAA (that's Maddy in Bella). Even though she can't quite keep up with Maddy she certainly loves to hang out with her.
She is becoming quite the talker. She believes that she is saying actual words and will say them over and over until you figure out what she is telling you. She has gotten pretty good at showing me what she wants. So if I can't figure out what she is saying, I can say 'show me' and she'll do it. It works out pretty well until she wants something that she isn't supposed to have and she won't give it up. This seems to happen most often when she gets out a snack that she wants that she can't have (like four or five packs of fruit snacks... I don't think so). All of her snacks are in a low cupboard so she can get to them. Which works out most of the time, but every once in a while it's a pain. She new favorite snack is rasins and grapes. I'm glad that she likes things that are healthy, but if it were up to her she would eat rasins all day long (maybe not so healthy after all). We got her a fish this last month and she loves it! It's a Beta fish, which the lady at the store said are very easy to take care of, so we'll see if I can NOT kill it. She loves to look at him swim around and say 'shish, shish, shish' over and over.
I don't think there are too many new words that she has learned, but I can't really remember whay she was saying a month ago. She has learned how to ask for more and she knows that she won't get anymore until she asks. She can say please, but it doesn't happen every time she should be saying it. She is more and more aware of things she does that she isn't supposed to do. She says 'no no no', but then usually does it anyway. We're working on this and hopefully it'll get better.
We think that she is starting early with the terrible twos. When she doesn't get her way she really doesn't like it and she definately lets you know. I don't know if this early transition is due to the fact that all of the kids that she plays with are going through this same stage or if she's got something else going on (like a new tooth coming in). We'll see if it goes away soon or if we can get this transition over with early.

16 months and counting...

The other day someone asked me how old Bella is and I had to think about it. And when I finally came up with the answer I realized that we missed her 16 month milestone (hey, I realized the day after and it's not like I missed her birthday. It's also been a little crazy around here getting everything back to normal and getting Dusty ready for school).
She is still growing by leaps and bounds. She cracks us up everyday, it's so much fun. Her new favorite thing to so is run at full speed downhill. I'm not sure why she does this, but she gets going so fast that it looks like she can't control herself. Amazingly enough she hasn't fallen, at least not hard (knock on wood).
Her sense of humor is developing nicely. She definitely knows when she thinks something is funny and she lets you know. If you do something that she thinks is funny, she'll laugh and laugh. That's not saying that if you wait 5 minutes and do the same thing again that she will still think it's funny. She is also very ticklish when she wants to be. When playing and goofing around she is very ticklish, but when she's mad or tied she just gets upset if you try to tickle her.
She loves playing out side and loves to look at and pick up rocks. Maybe this is something that she got from me... Outside the backdoor of our apartment there is a little trail of rocks that the previous tenant put in and Bella loves to look through them all and carry them around. She wants to show them to you and let you hold them. It's very funny.
She loves sitting in chairs and reading her books. She is so proud of herself when she can get up into one of her little chairs and even more proud of herself when she can get up onto the couch to sit next to you. Once she gets into her seat (where ever that might be) she wants you to hand her whatever toy or book that she requests. This tends to work a few times, but as the toys and books become more varied it's hard to tell what she's asking for (and she wants a particular one and anything else won't do). Plus I don't want to be her retriever all day long.
If I ask her to show me what she wants she will go over to it and point to it. This goes for toys, books and even milk and food. I think that if she could get it herself, she would pour herself a cup of milk. When she's hungry she goes and tries to get in her seat at the table, when she wants a drink she'll ask for juice or go to the fridge for milk and when she's ready to take a nap or go to sleep she'll lay on the floor or go in her room and try to get into her bed.
She listens well and most of the time she'll do what you ask her. She usually knows when she's doing something that she's not supposed to do. She knows what NO means, but she still has trouble acting right away if you tell her not to do something (she looks at you when you tell her know and you can tell she's debating if she's going to listen to you).
Her favorite toys are her monkey stuffed animals, baby dolls and balls. And she loves to read all her books, but her favorites are Peek-a-Zoo, 101 Dalmatians and Lift the flap Farm. She's loving having all of her toys back. After being at Grandma and Papa's for the last few months, all of her toys are new to her and she's having so much fun playing with them again.
Some stats:
She's weighing in around 23 pounds (just an estimate).
She's wearing size 4 diapers, but they're still a little bit too big.
She's wearing mostly 18 month clothes. She's still wearing a few of her 12 month outfits, but since most of that stuff is summer clothes she can't wear them anyway, it's too cold here.
She wears a size 4 shoe.

Making up for Summer...

I know I have been pretty lazy about posting over the summer, but now that we're back and home and I have my own computer back I'm going to try and get back in the swing of things.

Here's Bella sitting in her rocking chair at Grandma and Papa's house. This was one of her favorite spots.

She's so proud that she can get in and out of it on her own.
"If I just pull a little harder, I can get it open."

Another one of her favorite spots. She knows she's not supposed to get into the cupboards...

"What did I do...?"

Rockin' out in the rockin' chair. I just love the look on her face and her double chin.

Hangin' with the Orange Kitty. I'm so glad that the Orange Cat (yes, that is his name) put up with Bella because she loved to follow him around.

Soaking up some rays with Aunt Kellie.Relaxing...

Playing in the space between the couch and the side table. This is where we stack all of her toys and Grandma and Papa's house. She moved all her toys out of the way so she could get back there. And then she sat there for 15 or so minutes playing.

Another cupboard she isn't supposed to be getting into. This is where the cereal is kept and about 2 minutes after this was taken she had her whole arm in a box of Trix. You would think I don't feed her from the way she scavenges for food.

Just having a girly moment, wearing jewelry and talking on a cell phone.

Helping Papa cook breakfast.

One of the new poses that she does, walking around with her hands behind her back.Is she really ready for bed or is she just playing...?

Maybe she really is ready...

Or not...

She found a Hot Tamale in my bag and this is what happened when she ate it.

She loves this towel that Grandma made for her. She likes to walk around the house naked after her bath, at least this way the towel is tied to her.

Grandma and Papi took Daddy out to dinner for his birthday.

We got to play at the lake while Grandma and Great-Great-Grandma went on a boat ride. These two girls had a lot of fun. Bella really loves the lake (not the ocean so much, but loves the lake).

Another new thing she has started to do. I love this "I don't know" look.

She has just started giving her baby dolls kisses. Until about a month ago she would only kiss her stuffed animals, but now she's started kissing her babies too. Every once in a while she'll kiss other little kids too (which I find very cute for now). One thing she will never do (at least not yet) is kiss a real baby.

Playing in the tub tonight.

She likes to squat down to play with her toys. I don't know how she sits like this, but she seems to enjoy it.

We went to Sea Side with Jen, Anton, Maddie and Sam today. We had a lot of fun. Here we are riding the train. Bella wasn't too sure about it, but Maddie LOVED it.

There is no question, Bella loves the carousel.