18 Months Updated

Today Bella is 18 months old…a year and half…half way to age 2. It seems so odd to think that Bella has been around for 18 months. we are repeating months and events that we hit last year.

Our Typical Day:

Wake up around 6:30-7:00am then watch Blue’s clues/Nick Jr

Daddy comes in for breakfast around 8am, Bella gets yogurt(drinkable with her vitamin). 

9am-10:30am Get dressed, playtime, help mommy around the house. If it’s nice out, go outside.

10:30am-get ready for nap

11:00am-2pm Naptime

2pm-2;30pm- Lunch time

3pm-4pm: playtime

4pm- Head outside to help with chores/milking. Bella helps me “feed” bottles with Mommy and then hangs out in the barn with Daddy while Daddy milks

7pm: Supper time

7:45pm: Bath time (every other night)

8:00 PM Bedtime

Tuesdays we got to playgroup and Wednesday we got to Story time at the Library. Bella loves to go and play.

Some Random things:

Loves to climb up into the bathroom sink. Love to climb into or up on everything she can. She also will climb into her high chair when she wants to eat and is attempting to learn to climb in her crib.

Can turn on the TV and dvd/vcr player. knows how to record shows on DVR or Timer. Loves the cell phone and talking to Nana or Daddy on the phone. Also likes to Text Message.

Great at coloring with Markers, still will eat crayons if hungry or teething

can sign: More, Please, thank you

learning to sit on the potty, working on learning how to take off socks, shirts and pants. Has the diaper down.

Started up swimming lessons again and is really good at kicking and working hard on floating

Loves: Baby dolls and feeding them; Loves kittens, especially Gus; loves crawling through the tunnel, dancing to the Wiggles; watching people cook.

Favorite Toys: Little People Playsets, Sophie doll, Kitchen, Elmo mailbox sorter, bead maze and her tractor.

Favorite Books: Touch and Feel books or lift a flap.

Favorite foods: FRUIT (who would have guessed), mac and Cheese, ravioli and sauce, chicken tender and sauce and french fries and sauce (see a tread? we now dip everything!); also loves goldfish, cheese and cereal bars

Some Dislikes: Diaper changes and clothing changes, certain noises like the chain saw and a remote control car, hamburger, any pancakes not made by daddy, being told No or she can’t have it. being in the car more than twice in a day.

Teeth: four front and two molars on top, four front, two molars, and one eye tooth on bottom. But defiantly working on more.

Words: Bye, Hey, Hi, Cat, Cracker, Cookie, Elmo, mama, Daddy, Moo, I did it, I know, No, Tractor, Ball, baby, Balla(bella), nana, Banana, more (that I can remember at this time)

Doctor’s appointment is Wednesday, so check back then for height and weight…but my guess is around 33 inches and 25lbs

UPDATED: Bella is around 25.5lbs and 33.5 inches tall. I say this because she wouldn’t sit on the scale or lay down very well.  I guess a mommy knows :)

Here’s her in her chair that she’s been in each month since birth

Sorry it’s blurry

IF I had a little boy….

He would pretend his name is Steve and look oh so cute in his green striped shirt.

Or I have a really cute short haired little girl who happens to like blue’s clues, got a really adorable hand me down from her cousin Drew, and a crazy mommy who put her in it.

 

 

 

Sorry for the lack of blogs. things have been crazy busy with a visit to Madison, Nana(my mom) visiting, a date night and getting ready for a party on Sunday. . . Much more to come!

a little photoshoot

So I’ve been itchin to take some pictures and haven’t really gotten around to it since i’ve been busy creating…see last post.

I got this great white cloth, that need to be iron and somewhat patched together, but it was just a test run

 

 

 

 

adventures in cloth….

So I wanted a sewing machine to patch upu my husband’s pants, but i’ve yet to even start on them. Instead i’ve taken the jump into cloth diapers.  I’ve always loved g-diapers from before Bella was born. I really wanted to use them over pampers or huggies. Don’t get me wrong I love pampers and they have been great for us. (Huggies never worked otu well for us.) but for some reason i wanted to do something a little different.  I also know, why now. I did use my gdiapers in the beginning, but i ran into a problem, the flushable/disposable part of it is not easily available to me. Wait take that back around Bella turning a year they were finally in Babies R Us store. I did have smalls and Mediums that I would use off and on, but nothing like i”ve started in the last couple of weeks.  So of course that meant I got to buy new ones. LOL But I decided to use cloth with them instead of the disposable insert. 

So a friend of mine found me a link to make your own cloth inserts. (thanks Sarah) I had everything i needed to do them and they worked great, but only having three was a slight problem. SO i need to make more. I’m already finding out what works best to make them, works well for bella and when she needs more padding or less.  IT’s kind of fun to make them and her little butt is so cute in her little g-diapers. If I'm not working full time with the next kid, I'm pretty sure they will be in cloth all the time.

I’ll admit I’m using a disposable over night as I'm not ready to deal with leaks in the middle of the night. maybe when we get to potty training i might consider it.

I’m currently awaiting for a snap press to convert the velcro of the diapers to snaps. wish me luck on that one. :)

Sunday was the first day she wore them out and about. We went to church and no leaks :) Today we wore them to playgroup and no leaks either and she was wearing them for about the normal time you would wear pampers.  My husband can even put them on her :)

 

here’s some cute pictures

The first time Bella wore them

 

The inserts that I’ve made and in a diaper

 

   climbing into her crib

A crazy afternoon

So friday afternoon things got crazy in the house. Bella was just a handful and nothing but what she wasn’t suppose to get into or do was what she did.

As a distraction i decided to make sugar cookies with her. SHe had a blast with cutting out the stars and putting her figures in it. Then the big problem came when she discovered she could eat it. (no raw egg in it, so it’s safe) I managed to make probably three dozen little star cookies before she got to too much dough.

Then while I was cleaning up, I let Bella watch a little tv. Well in the couple mins i was gone she found some tums that must have been in the closet that feel out of my overnight bag at some point in time. She managed to get at least 10 of them in her mouth, those would be the 10 i pulled out. I don’t think she got anymore or ate any, but called up good ol’ poison control to be on the safe side.  Oh the joys of parenting.

by the time I was off the phone with poison control Josh was ready to take Bella outside for chores. Bella came out again to help with bottles, only it was really icy, so the poor kid kept slipping and falling down. I tired to get a few pictures of her “helping” to feed the calves.

The rest of the night went ok.

climbing up on the couch. I lvoe these jammies from Carter’s that were only 3.99

She had decided that with gDiapers on she doesn’t like pants.

First star attempt by Bella

They she kept putting the cookie cutter back in the hole left behind. I guess that shape sorter is working

  Using the rolling pin

Eatting the dough..yeah i know i should have stopped her instead of taking a pic. LOL

  Helping carrying the bottles.

Home to Stay

So after being gone Saturday through Tuesday, I decided that was it we are staying home. It meant no storytime this week, which was sad, but at the same time, I needed to be home!

I also decided that I would make the switch back to gdiapers using cloth inserts with Bella too. So we have been doing really well the last couple days with that. We do use a disposable diaper at nighttime as I'm not ready to have to change bedding for leaks. LOL

Wedensday morning, I set out to do some major cleaning of the house. I got every room done but the one bathroom and started my laundry for the week.  I got a ton done in the morning. Bella went down for a nap at 10:30 and slept til close to two… I think we are getting near our one nap a day.  After lunch Bella got to play with her newly organized toys and listen to her music. She now loves the Wiggles and will dance and “sing” to them.  We also went out to help daddy with chores.  Only it turned out to be too chilly, so Bella ended up coming back inside with me and sleeping again from 6 til 7:30. I know I shouldn’t have let her slept so long, but  think she was really worn out from the traveling.

Thursday, I was not so productive. I didn’t feel well and i think i was too pooped from yesterday. I did managed to keep the house clean and work on some more laundry. Bella got to do what she wanted to do, which always makes her a happy camper. we ended up going outside early to get chores started, so Josh actually got started early too. Bella hung out with him in the barn while I worked on cutting out covers for my diapers.  I also made meatloaf and corn for supper and it was all ready when they got in from the barn.

It’s good it was, since 15 mins into supper, our power went out. Bella freaked out, but we found candles, used our phones, and my camera flash to distract her. I also set up my laptop for her to use for a bit too. No idea why, but someone was looking out for me, as it came back on at 8 minutes to 8, just in time to watch Grey’s :)

Today so far has just been catch up and pick up. Bella went down for her nap and is currently going on 2.5 hours of sleeping. I got some sewing done, but then almost broke the machine so I stopped. I”m going to make sugar cookies with Bella this afternoon for something fun and go through the cupboards and clean them out. :)

 

Playin with her pompom. Next football season she will be able to cheer with it

 

Playing with her little people and horses from Bucia

Hanging out in the milkhouse. She loves the calf bottles. She has been coming up with me when I feed the calves in the huts and she loves to “feed” them the empty bottles too.

  Playing with daddy on the couch

  Apparently the house was warm enough for her as she didn’t want to wear her pants. She also loves to take her books off the shelves in the  living room

  one of the 6 pictures i took to keep Bella happy in the dark while Josh was lighting candles

Candle lit dinner anyone?

  M&M’s and playing a computer game were treats with no power!

Stitzer to Madison to Beaver Dam to Green Bay to Madison to Stitzer

So that’s sums up where we all went on Tuesday In one day. We left home a little after 8:30am and return home around 8:45pm.

Our first stop was in Madison to try to get Bella’s pictures taken. She wasn’t so sold on it at first, but slowly warmed up to the idea. we started out with her on my lap, then moved to letting her have m&m’s. Then we switched outfits and she had a little piano to play with and didn’t even need us there. I”m very grateful these pictures turned out.  I finally got pictures of just Josh and Bella done too. :)

Then we loaded back up into the car and headed out to as far as we could get before Bella was hungry. We made it to Beaver dam and stopped at Culver’s to eat. Bella wasn’t really sold on eating but enjoyed being out of the car. She is also into Dipping now. So she had fun dipping her fries and chicken tender in ketchup many times. at least ketchup as tomatoes in it, right?

Then we loaded back up to make to Green Bay. We were going there to visit Bucia. She is currently in a nursing home and the next day was her 75th birthday. I wanted to go then but it just didn't’ work out, so we came a day early. Bucia seemed very happy to see us. Bella was pretty shy at first, but slowly started to run around the room. I’m sure the cookie didn’t have anything to do with that. ;) I wish she would have been more friendly with Bucia but as she gets old she will understand more. Bella sees her picture many times a day, but that doesn’t sink in very much to an 18 month old.

 

After visiting, we decided to make another small stop in Green bay just to run off a little more energy before heading the long way home. We stopped at Lambau Field..home of the Packers. We just walked around the inside a little bit and then the ProShop. I brought Bella a 1.00 pompom and she loved it!

 

Then we headed home.. the next couple hours were awful in the car as Bella didn’t want to sleep or snack or play with any of her toys. I managed to get us from beaver dam to Madison by letting her call my mom on my cell phone. Bella loves to call my mom or josh and talk on the phone.

WE stopped at PotBelly subs in Madison and once again Bella could care less to eat much, but she just loved being in a different place. I ended up changing her in to clothes she could sleep in and after we reloaded up the car, she slept the rest of the way home!

Manic Monday

     So Monday morning, after Bella slept til 6am and then another 30 mins with me, we got up and she got to watch Elmo at Nana’s house.She got her normal yogurt and cereal bar and then it was time to get dressed. Mom and I decided to go to McDonald’s to eat breakfast since she had to work at 10 and Bella and I were going to John and Hannah’s. Bella had fun playing in the playland, since there was not a soul in there. IT was so cute to watch her figure out where she had to crawl or where she could walk.

After we said goodbye to mom, we headed to John and Hannah’s. Ella was very happy to see Bella. Bella took a little bit to warm up, as normal but once she found all Ella’s toys she went to town. The girls had so much fun. We ended up staying for lunch and had a yummy lunch. It was so cute to see the girls sharing food. Our time was cut too short but us having to leave for pictures at JcPenny. little did I know i shouldn’t have even bothered.

 

We got to JcPenny’s and was 10 mins late. Bella nap the whole way and woke up happy. Got to the photo place, had to wait a few minutes and then when the photographer moved the curtains to change the background, Bella went crazy! She screamed and cried for the next 20 mins, so I gave up and I had reschedule for the next day. Thank god that they aren’t busy during the week days. I was upset and embarrassed.

 The only pictures I got…. as an attempt to get Bella to see my camera and be ok about her pictures being taken.

We came home and Bella saw her daddy and things were all right in her world again. She enjoyed being with daddy and hanging out in the barn. I guess three days away is too much for my little girl now.

18 month pic

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