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.

My smart little girl

I have known since the beginning how smart my little girl is, but today she is really proving it. This morning when she woke up I said to her, let's go change your diaper and she went straight to the room where her diapers are (since we are at my parent's house this room is on the other side of the house from her bedroom). Then after breakfast when her milk cup was empty she came over and asked me for more and then went to the fridge to get it. She also loves to help close cupboards, cabinets and especially the fridge. She was getting into one of the drawers in the kitchen and I asked her close it and she did it. She loves to help out. She's just about ready to take a nap and if I tell her that she's going to go take a snooze she'll go into her bedroom (when we're at home she doesn't wait for me to tell her it's nap time, she just goes in there on her own and tries to get into bed).

Here we go...

So we are on vacation. By this I mean that we drove up to Portland on Saturday and we are staying at our own apartment until Tuesday when we drive back to Redding. Even though it's not very exciting (going home for vacation) it is nice to have Dusty home during the day for more than one day in a row. We are planning on accomplishing many things during our short visit. Today we got to visit with our friends that live here. They had a baby a few short weeks ago and we got to see him for the first time. Little Sammy is so cute. He has the cutest hair and chubby cheeks. He looks like a little boy (which I guess is good because he is a boy) instead of a baby. On Monday we are picking up my sister from the airport. It'll be so much fun to see her and hear all about her trip (she's been in Italy all summer doing study abroad... it's a hard life, but somebody has to do it). On Tuesday Bella has a doctors appointment in Corvallis and we are planing on seeing our friends there who also just had a baby boy. We are so excited to see all these babies, but it makes me want to have another of our own. Hopefully I can get my baby fix and be good for a while.

So... here's the up date I have been promising... I wrote this when we got home from vacation and just haven't been able to post it or the pictures to go with it.

We’ve had another busy week this week. We left for LA last Saturday to visit my sister, Jennifer, her husband, Scott, and my niece, Lily. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of stuff packed into one week. We got down there late Saturday night and stayed in the apartment that we rented. The apartment wasn’t that great, but it was only a block and a half from Venice Beach (that also meant that parking was a nightmare).

On Sunday we went to the beach with my sister, brother-in-law and niece. It was a lot of fun. Bella doesn’t like the sand, but she’s okay as long as you are holding her. I put her down for a while in the wet sand (the compacted stuff is always easier to walk on) and she liked searching for rocks in the surf. She wasn’t too thrilled to get into the waves, but I think she had fun none the less. After the beach we all went home to take naps and then went over to Jen’s for dinner.

Those are some sweet shades.

Lily really loves the water and would run out into it without anyone with her if my sister would let her.Monday we went to the La Brea Tar Pits and to the Page Museum. It was neat to see all the animal skeletons that they have found in the tar pits and to see the work they are still doing.

Grandma, Papa and their girls.

If you can tell from this picture, the girls are really enjoying their time at the tar pits. This is right before we let them out of their strollers. They were so glad to be free.

Then we went over to Grauman’s Chinese Theater and saw the hand and foot prints in the cement there (I put my hands on Daniel Radcliffe’s… I should have done Rupert Grint’s. Ron is better that Harry. It was funny because they had their wand imprints too.).

A-W-E-S-O-M-E

Wolverine, need I say more.

My mom and I took a guided tour of the inside and were even invited into the VIP lounge. It was pretty cool. The screen in there is huge (the largest in the U.S. that’s not an IMAX) and I would love to see a movie there… maybe next time.

If your movie premieres at Graumann's, you are supposed to touch the face of the wax figure to make sure your movie does well in the box office (Graumann Good Luck Charm). I'll be looking forward to the good luck I got.

Later that night Jen, Anna, my dad and I went to see Harry Potter at Jen’s favorite theater. It was a good movie, but I plan on reading the book again soon so I can remember all the things they left out. During one scene (…where Dumbledore and Harry are in the cave and something is lurking in the lake…) some guy actually screamed very loud. It was very funny and everyone was laughing. When we were leaving the theater we saw Amy Smart (an actress from Just Friends and Felicity, among other things). I went all the way to Hollywood and I actually saw someone famous.

On Tuesday everyone but Scott went to Disneyland all day. It was a long day, but we had a lot of fun. Bella’s first ride was Peter Pan and then Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. She was not impressed and even got a little scared. Then we hit the carousel and It’s A Small World. She loved those two rides. She got to go on It’s A Small World a few more times while we were there and she loved it every time. She liked standing up in the boat and dancing to the song. She also liked pointing out things to everyone.
Dumbo. Bella liked this one.

Not her first Carousel and I doubt it will be her last. She loves these things.
Mickey and Minnie in the daily Disneyland Parade.

With my princess in front of the castle.

Enjoying every minute of It's a Small World.
Shaking their groove things during the Parade.

On Wednesday Jennifer took us to the LA Zoo. They had most of the same animals we have in Portland, but just before we left we saw the Australia area and we got to see koalas and kangaroos. That was pretty neat.

Trying to spot the birdies amid the leaves.

This bear was cracking us up. He was just chilling in the water. I don't blame him though, it was HOT.

Koala.

That night Anna, my Dad and I went to Medieval Times. It was very entertaining. Our Knight lost to the Knight that won. Either way I’m still cheering for the Blue Knight!
Our knight!

And the rest.Thursday we gave Jen and Lily the day off and went to the Farmers Market and drove around for about an hour until we could get a good view of the Hollywood sign. It was neat to see it for myself (and not just from pictures). On our way home we drove though Beverly Hills to see the big mansions and then down Rodeo Drive (unfortunately we didn’t see anymore famous people).

LA Temple

That night my Mom, Anna and I went to California Adventure to ride some more rides and to see the light up parade. Since California Adventure closes at 9pm we went over to Disneyland after that to see the fireworks and ride even more rides. We finally left around midnight just before the park closed.
Friday we took Lily to the Aquarium in Long Beach. It took a while to get there (why do people live in LA, I hate all that traffic), but it was worth it. The girls, Bella and Lily, had so much fun looking at the fish in the giant tanks. They also really loved the touch pools and got to touch a shark.

They were so excited to get right up there next to the fish. Some of the fish were even bigger than the girls!

Touching a shark, my brave little girl.

Lily was so excited to play in the water.

After the Aquarium we took a tour of the Harbor. We got to go past the Queen Mary (That boat is huge! And still holds the record for having the largest number of people on a ship at one time.) and a Russian Spy submarine. Also out in the harbor are the oil islands (the oil company paid Disneyland to come and design their oil island to camouflage them and make them look like Caribbean Islands.

She could have cared less whether we were on the boat or not.

The Queen Mary. Man, that ship is huge! It still holds the record for having the most people on it at one time.

Some seals just hanging out in the harbor.

An oil island designed by Disney. Can you see the oil tower?

On Saturday everyone got to go to Disneyland. It was Scott’s first time going to Disneyland with Lily. We took the girls on a few more of the kids rides and then the big kids went on a few rides while Grandma and Papa watched the kids. Since it was my Birthday they gave me a button to wear that said Happy Birthday Melody! All day long Cast Members were telling me happy birthday and one guy playing the fiddle in Frontier Land sang me happy birthday.

Still enjoying It's a Small World.

Here's Anna giving the girls driving lesson... we're in trouble.

I see she taught them well, they're already driving on their own.

Jen's going to blow this place sky high!

almost... almost...

These girls even get in trouble at Disneyland. What are we going to do with them?

Relaxing in the car on the way to Disneyland.

After we were done at Disneyland, my parents took us out to dinner at the Rainforest Café. The girls loved seeing the aquariums there and watching the animals move. It was a lot of fun. After dinner we went to California Adventure to ride the Monster’s Inc. ride with the girls and to go on Hollywood Tower of Terror, California Screamin’ and Soaring over California. I had never been on the Tower of Terror. It was so much fun. We were in the front row and when you get to the top they open the doors so you can see down at the park. That part wasn’t as scary as it was cool. The only scary part is when it starts going up and down and you don’t know which way you are going to go next. I would have ridden in 10 more times if we had the time. We didn’t get out of the park until late and the girls were very tired and fell asleep as soon as we got in the car.
All in all it was so much fun. It was definitely one of those vacations that you need to follow with another vacation, just to feel rested.

Since then we have gone to a Giants game in San Francisco. It was a long drive down there, but Bella did surprisingly well. I thought that drive might not make it worth it, but she was good on the way down there and then slept on the way home. She had fun at the game. There were plenty of kids near us to keep her entertained and it was doggie day so she had fun checking out the puppies.

Having fun with Papa in the Park.

Papa pointing out what is going on.

We went to that particular game because Lincecum was pitching.

Riding the 'fake' trolly. It's a real trolly, it's just parked in the Park.

I thought Lincecum was older than that... oh wait, that's Bella. She checking out the dogs on the lower level.

I'll finish with some random pictures taken over the summer.

Usually Bella doesn't take to people right away. But she loved playing with her third cousin (or is it second cousin once removed, I can never figure that out). Either way, she had a lot of fun with him.

Here's Bella showing Papa who's boss. Notice she's standing ON his laptop.

She crashed during Daddy's run.

She was walking around carrying her shoes and then she wanted them on. So here she is, in her PJ's and church shoes.

We'll have another update soon with pictures and such from Bella's doctors appointment and our "vacation."