Holidays

Bella loved her Uncle Mike! He flew in for Christmas and was a great to have around. He slept with ear plugs as to avoid being woken up during the night and early in the morning by Bella. He helped us out a lot by cleaning up dishes, taking cute pictures of Bella, picking up lots of Bella's toys and even took us out to lunch. We loved the time he spent with us!
As you can see, Bella especially loved being "held" by him.
After church at All Saints Catholic Church, the children's program, we came home for a yummy dinner, drinks and the opening of presents.
Grandpa Joe and Tutu visited too. We thoroughly enjoyed their visit! Penny loves all the extra attention from them both Joe and Carol, but especially Carol who will play tug-o-war with her.
Bella loved being held by Grandpa Joe. He gave her the cute Christmas dress which she liked to pull up and show during church. (Note to self - put tights on under the onesie.)
This was our first Christmas in our home ever! We borrowed a tree from John & Ashley. We love the modern/retro/odd look of the tree! It was fun to have presents and a baby who really got into ripping the paper. It was definitely fun to host Christmas, to cook (well, I didn't but Matt, Joe and Carol did!) and to visit with everyone.
Bella became quite the present snooper.
She sought out all the tags and pulled them off. Penny tried this a week before too.
She loved the ribbons and tags. I just can't wait until next year when she's actually excited about what's in the box.

Since this was our first real Christmas (or what seemed like a very real Christmas), we started and borrowed some traditions. The general routine was church on Christmas Eve, followed by a hearty meal and the opening of some gifts (one for Bella before bed and the rest by adults).

Grandpa Joe made Irish soda bread. It was delicious! It was a recipe from Gypo's mother, Nellie. These are family friends of Matt's parents. We definitely want to borrow the recipe and tradition for future years. We placed a candle in the bread and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. Bella loved to hear us all sing so we'll be repeating this tradition too, especially to teach Bella about the purpose and meaning of Christmas. Before dinner began, we broke bread. No, not soda bread, but wafer-like bread that you get at communion. Grandpa Joe bought some at the Polish Deli (no, you don't need to be a pastor/priest to get it; it's for everyone) and we ate it together as a celebration of Christmas dinner.
A couple of days before Christmas, I traveled to Austin to visit a friend. I rode in the car with 3 other friends - it was such a good time to sit in the car and talk for hours, literally about 8 hours of driving and talking! We had a great time visiting Kelly's new home.
We all enjoyed eating lunch and sharing stories (and pictures) with each other.
This is just a cute little picture of Bella in a hole in a "slice of swiss cheese" at Wonderwild. We took this picture after getting the dreaded Santa picture.
Matt and I met my bowling team for "Lights in the Heights." We were too late to actually help with the making of the float, but we did arrive in time to see it and to enjoy some food and drinks afterward. I just love my bowling team - it's such a mixed group of such friendly, welcoming friends.

Santa baby

Santa and the baby didn't get along very well. I think it's to be expected. Santa was super nice and friendly. He wasn't frazzled at all by a crying baby.
We took Bella to Wonderwild to have breakfast with Santa. It was a great experience. Just a couple of days before Bella and I spent the afternoon at Wonderwild. It's similar to the Children's Museum, Tot Spot, but better, closer to our house and easy parking.

Christmas card rejects

With all this snow in Houston, it's easy to get in the Christmas spirit.

"What the heck is he doing?" "That's not even funny."

"Oh, WOW!"

"Waaaa! I'm tired of smiling and I'm not the center of attention back here behind Jack!"

"Where's Bella?"

I've got to remind her to not smile so much. Her horribly crooked and spaced out teeth are showing!

Thanksgiving 2009

post-turkey nap

Bella and Grandma crawling

Bella and Great-Grandma

We had a great time in Missouri for Thanksgiving! We drove through the night so that Bella and the dogs could sleep. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be so we're going to do it again!

Thanksgiving at my parents house with my aunts, uncles and grandparents was delicious! We enjoyed the oogling at Bella too.

We were so thankful for my parents who babysat while Matt and I went out on the town for dinner & a movie. My parents also fed Bella breakfast and played with her while we slept in - it was wonderful! (if only I could learn to sleep in longer!)

almost 10 months

Bella is almost 10 months old (December 11th). She's an awesome crawler, sleeps from 6 pm to 6 pm, laughs, babbles (mama, dada, baba, nana, etc.), protests when she doesn't get what she wants and plays independently at times. Getting her to lay still when changing her diaper is a challenge, but that's okay.

Home Sick

Matt and I have been sharing 'sick child' duties. Here's a picture Matt sent me reassuring me that Bella is feeling better. Would you look at those thighs! I just want to reach out and grab them!

bronchitis

Penny and Bella enjoy looking outside together. This was taken this weekend before the major vomiting began.

Bella and I went to the doctor today. She has bronchitis and received a breathing treatment because she's having slight difficulty breathing because of the congestion in her airway. She screamed the whole time so the medicine got deep into her lungs. We're supposed to watch her closely and give her an inhaler every 4 hours. We didn't call her Barfarella today because she didn't vomit! Yeah!

post-tussin emesis

Do you know what that is? It's projectile vomiting from coughing. It's lovely. The fever started yesterday. Fortunately, these things seem to happen on the weekend and I have my theories about it that I'll share later. Once the fever started we put ourselves in lock-in mode. We stay home and just care for the baby, with just a few exceptions. We had an exception errand so we packed Bella in Matt's car and we were all off. Bella didn't get out of her car seat. On the way home, we heard a few coughs and then a very loud splash. You guessed it! The vomit flew out of her and hit the seat back next to her and fell down into the cracks, where the seat belts were. Penny (yes, Penny was with us in the car) jumped to attention and cleaned 90% before we even made it home. Good Dog! Bella ate strawberry yogurt for lunch. You can imagine what it smelled like. At first, kinda nice, strawberry fields! But then it changed; it was more like putrid, sour, bottom-of-the-trash-can stench. Matt's car is made for clean ups like this. All seats come out completely and there is no carpet so Matt cleaned the car while I cleaned the baby.

Two hours passed and it was dinner time. She seemed hungry so I fed her apple vanilla grain something and beef stroganoff (to heck with baby food making today) from Earth's Best. All was going well, then Matt gave her some Motrin for her fever. A cough later and everything from her tummy was on the floor, high chair tray and on her. Nasty yellow. Did I mention that Matt had just finished cleaning his car - literally, just washed his hands. So, round 2 started. I cleaned the baby (again), Matt cleaned the mess (again) with Penny's help (again). She vomited several more times in the bathtub. We got out Baby 411 and started reading.

Bella has always been a spit-upy kind of kid. Always little barfs all the time, especially after eating and when hungry. We call her Barfarella. It's reflux, but it doesn't bother her so there's not much to do about it. We're just thankful that we have Penny who quickly learned the command "come" once the baby arrived. Previous to baby, Penny was taught "come" but never, ever followed the command.

We learned 3 things from Baby 411. First, it's common for Motrin to upset stomachs. We switched to Tylenol. Second, how to make our own pedialyte. We adminstered it ounce by ounce to coax her tummy into tolerating liquids. Third, it's somewhat common for babies to barf while coughing hard (post-tussin emesis). We stayed up on and off through the night, waking to Bella's cries, giving more pedialyte and tylenol.

After tolerating pedialyte and tylenol we gave her breastmilk (saved, frozen) which she loved. 3.5 ounces down and it seemed to stay down...until a cough. Post-tussin emesis kicked in again and barf was on the floor, but mostly on a towel. It was just a bit, not a tummy full. I cleaned the baby (again) and Penny (again) cleaned the mess. By now, Penny's very well trained about how to clean the carpet so she needed no help from Matt. Matt got a break!

Back to my theory about why she's sick on the weekends. The incubation for most sicknesses is 3-5 days. Our daycare allows sick kids so Bella gets exposed to the germs and by the weekend, she has whatever they have. For instance, a 14 month child in Bella's room had a cough and a 102 degree fever earlier this week. They claim that she was teething and she stayed at daycare, clearly infecting everyone else. Everything I've ever read says that teething does not cause fever, especially a 102 fever. We keep Bella home if she has a fever and keep her home until she back to normal and has been fever-free for over 24 hours. I think this is typical etiquette for sick kids.

all done

Bella was 9 months old today! She's growing up fast and is so much fun to be around. She gets from point A to point B with ease by crawling either lizard-style or up on her knees, depending on the floor and its slipperyness. She's a great sleeper and eater! We hear that kids are either one or the other so we're blessed to have both! She goes to bed, after "brushing" her four, tiny, crooked teeth around 7 pm. She wakes up at 5:30 am for some water (sometimes) and then for good around 6:30 am to play in bed with us. She tries any food we give her. We're really trying to get away from all the store bought baby food, not that she doesn't like it, but because it's getting pricey and she can tolerate much more chunky food now. We have a small food processor so we put in our leftovers and voila! she has her own dinner. For instance, tonight she had steak, green beans and tortelinni with a bit of fruit for dessert. Matt likes to mix her food, but I think she likes her food separately, just like her mom. I hate it when my food touches, unless it's supposed to be touching (as in burrito in a bowl, eggplant parm or a veggie sandwich).

This morning, I saddly declared that it was Bella's last breastfeeding day. For the last couple of months she nursed mornings and nights. Nights slowly disappeared for one reason or another. Either I was out or Bella was too tired or she just refused. Each time she went to bed without it and slept through the night so it seemed okay. Very recently, morning nursing has turned into a game. Bella loves to stick her tongue out and blow raspberries at you. It's a reciprocal game that her dad taught her...and happens to be really cute, at this age. Now when you're close by, she loves to lean on you and blow raspberries - she's really good at it too! She leans to your arm, blows, "pppaffth" then looks at you and giggles. Well, as you can imagine, she thinks it's fun to do this while nursing. Slowly morning nursing has become a raspberry blowing, giggling and wiggling event. She really is just interested in playing with us! ...so that's what it's going to be from now on!

I really wanted to try to nurse her for her first year, but I think she has given us enough signs to say that she's okay without it. I'm sure if I was more determined I could do it by pumping at work again (she gets 3 four ounce bottles of formula at daycare) and insisting that mornings and evenings were successful, but I'm just not up for it. I think in the scheme of things that it won't matter and that 9 months (vs. 1 year) is close enough. All Done!

Picture Day

We went to Sears today with our portrait coupon. Bella was a cutie! Matt and I managed to smile for our pictures. John, Jack and Ashley stayed for dinner and we made Christmas crafts, drank wine and watched Jack do something for the very first time!

(I cut my bangs because I have all this new hair growth and my new hair sticks straight up, so I thought if I had bangs I could disguise it until the new hair grows long enough to lay down. The bangs got flipped around in this picture so it looks a bit strange. Oh well, at least I have hair!)

The Children's Museum

While Matt was out helping a friend on Saturday, Bella and I went shopping at Target and then to the Children's Museum. It was a lot of fun! Bella was allowed to be there, but was a bit young, I think. Everything tended to go in her mouth, then I had to walk the toys to the "dirty" bag. She loved crawling all over the place and watching the older kids.

Little Lobster

Bella and I were invited to our fun neighbor's house for a witchy Halloween Party. We had a great time and the little lobster got lots of attention.

We have a monster lady hanging in the window of our front door. She's spooky!

hoof in mouth

Hee hee - it's not really hoof in mouth, it's hand, foot & mouth disease. Bella probably has it. She has a fever. Matt took her to the doctor. She had to be catheterized to get a urine sample - yikes! She had her toe pricked for blood too! We'll find out exactly what's going on on Monday when the cultures come back. Poor baby! Besides a pinky finger that has a rash and a few little bumps on her face, she doesn't seem so bad. We have antibiotics so that will get rid of any bacterial infection. We think she may have a urinary track infection too. All this with new teeth coming in. Yep, she's got two, almost 3!

Matt's been teaching Bella to "moo" but she hasn't caught on yet. She does pretty consistently say "dadada" or "pbffft" (sticking her tongue out and blowing).

Needless to say, our halloween is going to be spent at home making sure we're all well and not spreading viruses.

dancing

Bella and I had extra time this morning to just hang out. We have an ipod in her room with a mini-speaker that Bella loves to listen to. We've picked out all sorts of songs. Air Supply came on and Bella and I danced and danced to the whole song! Click and listen to the song: Out of Nothing

UH CCC

We're in! We're finally in at the University of Houston Child Care Center - effective February 15th, 2010. Yes, Bella will be a year old by then and we would have been on the waiting list for 1 year and 7 months. It better be worth the wait!

transillumination

Bella and I returned to the ophthalmologist to ask more questions and he gave us more details.

She definitely has iris transillumination which is a marker for ocular albinism. She may not even have ocular albinism, but he's never seen anyone with iris transillumination who didn't have OA. OA can be genetic or not. She'll probably have 20/30 or 20/40 vision, but she can still drive a car. She won't wear glasses because glasses would only help focusing and she doesn't have difficulty focusing. He can't explain why she doesn't recognize me when I'm 2-5 feet in front of her. (Of course, when I speak, she jumps, laughs and wants to be picked up.)

We will be on the look out for nystagmus (shaking eyes). If she makes it to a year without the shakes, then she won't have any serious vision problems. Mild OA will be most apparent when she reads...or has difficulty reading. She's 8 months old now - 4 more months to go!

first tooth

Bella's first tooth popped up! The tippy top of her tooth is showing through her bottom gums. She doesn't seem to be bothered by it as we didnt' notice extra drooling, fussing or anything out of the ordinary. It was just there one day. We're looking for more teeth because we're ready for more real food. Baby food is making us go broke! We've trying making homemade baby food and we're somewhat successful. It's just easier to pop open a jar and serve than to get a container out of the frig and warm it up. However, Bella is getting better at eating an appetizer (puffs) while waiting for the real stuff.

snot or oatmeal?

It's both! Snot out of her nose and oatmeal all around her mouth. Disgusting, huh?

Dress rehearsal

Bella loves being put into her Halloween costume just about as much as the dogs love being put into theirs.

Penny and Bella

These two get along beautifully! Bella just crawls all over Penny and Penny just lays there. As you can see from her expression she's bored to pieces. Bella loves getting ahold of her ears and tugging on them. Penny is patient. We can't wait until Bella is older - they're going to be best friends!

quackie

Kimberly gave Bella this cute little duck. It quacks! Bella just loves the quack and whenever we were out and about and Bella got a little fussy, we'd squeeze the duck and it would quack and Bella would laugh. Duckie got dirty so I rinsed a bit of it under the water...and since then the duck has gone quackie - literally! The duck quacks randomly and often! It's hilarious and I love thinking about the dogs, home alone with the crazy, possessed duck! Quack!

eyes

Bella visited Dr. Lai, a pediatric ophthalmologist, and was diagnosed with mild ocular albinism and persistent papillary membrane. PPM is not a big deal; it's basically a small cataract on the side of her eye. The ocular albinism is a bigger deal that we'll watch. We just need to make sure the back of her eyes continue to develop so she can see clearly.

Of course it took me a few minutes after he said it and thought, "OMG - she's an albino!" but she's really not. Then I thought of this student that I saw in a public school who was an albino and had lots of vision problems. She had a wide gait so she walked differently and couldn't read, not that she wasn't bright, but because she couldn't see. Her eyes wiggled back and forth constantly and she wore glasses, but it was apparent that the glasses didn't do much...but they did make her look cute! Anyway, we're on the look out for shaking or crossed eyes. I'm not so worried and keep assuring myself that it's a mild case.

6 month check-up at 7 months

Statistics
Weight: 16 pounds - 7 ounces, 50th %ile
Height: 26 inches, 25th %ile
Head Circumference: 44 cm, 75th %ile

She's short with a big head...but I'm sure that will change! She's been waking up at night to eat so I'm thinking that a growth spurt is impending. Dr. Kinalska saw a spec on her eye so we're going to a pediatric ophthalmologist to get it checked out.

Grandma & Grandpa are visiting so Bella is getting all kinds of attention during the day at home with my mom. Pictures to follow!

almost crawling

Bella is almost crawling! She's been dragging herself for a couple of weeks, but now she's figuring out how to lift her body with her knees.

In anticipation of all the playing on the floor, we bought a new rug! It matches everything and looks good, but it's a little busy but since it'll be good for covering stains, we're keeping it.

Friday, Bella will be 7 months old! We've missed her 6 month check up so we don't have any stats to share right now but here's what life is like now:

• sleeps through the night (8 pm to 6 am...and if you nurse her and let her lay in bed with you, then she'll sleep until 8 am)
• nurses 3-4 times a day, but we're attempting to reduce it to 2-3 times a day
  
• eats cereal, fruit, vegetables and meat. She likes everything, but meat which has to be mixed with something else.
• she does not take naps, but who cares if she sleeps through the night!
• she has dry patches of skin on her left cheek and chin from sucking her thumb (the constant wetness made her skin chapped)
• sits up without falling over
• she likes Penny! Penny is so good with her!
• she's starting to be concerned when strangers hold her
  

Luau

We attended a Pink Panther Lounge (my bowling team) Luau Saturday night. No, it wasn't as amazing as John & Ashley's real vacation in Hawaii, but it was pretty fun!

Here's a video of Bella with Whitney.

It's Falling!

Can you believe it? It's getting slightly cooler and school has begun. School started back 2 weeks ago so we're now in the swing of things. I have a great schedule that allows me to stay at home with Bella some mornings if I want to...and most mornings I want to.

At daycare, Bella has adjusted nicely to new staff. She's no longer the baby as another younger boy has joined the group. There are 4 others that are about a year old and walk! So...Bella's very jealous, but also very motivated to move around. She sits up on her own and can almost crawl. She drags her body across the floor using her upper arm strength! She moves her knees and legs but she hasn't figured out how to make them support weight. If pulling herself along the floor is too slow, then she just rolls and rolls until she gets where she thinks she wants to go. Bella is also eating a lot of baby food. We're introducing her to all kinds of foods. She, like her mom, likes all vegetables. The first time we gave her meat she screamed! hee, hee. We figured out that if we mix it with peas then she'll eat it. By the way, wiping meat off her face, hands, head is really gross! It's balls up and just moves around. Nasty meat!

Matt has a project! He'll be traveling to Mexico and learning Spanish. It sounds great except for the part about leaving me to pick up, feed, bathe and put Bella to bed every Tuesday and Thursday night on my own. I'm going to have to do some negotiating to make this even out.

Quintessential Summer

Here are our favorite pictures!

Our summer vacation was grand!

Bellatrix as Flat Stanley

Our summer vacation seemed a bit like a 2nd grader's Spring Break assignment: show where "Flat Stanley" has been.
Here are the highlights of Bellatrix's adventures:Bella is in Wake Forest, North Carolina at the home of her grandparents, Grandpa Joe and Tutu (Grandma Carol). I just loved this outfit! It even came with matching "shoes!" I was given the sailor suit by a coworker along with a lot of other cute, little clothes.Here Bella is in "Cheeky's" lap while in Charlotte, North Carolina. We stayed for a week with Matt's friends who have 8 year old twins and a 5 year old - all girls! Bella absolutely loved all the attention she received from everyone. Besides playing with her and holding her, they fed her, changed her diaper and got her dressed everyday! We enjoyed hanging out at the pool with them in the afternoons and eating dinner with everyone during the evenings.

Now Bella is in Germantown, Pennsylvania with Uncle Jerry. He absolutely loved playing with her! He sang and "talked" to her. They thoroughly amused each other!Bella is at Matt's house in Baltimore, Maryland! His house is in Fells Point which is within walking distance to the water and in a 'hip' part of town. It's also within walking distance from Johns Hopkins so someday it'll be a great rental...or a summer or vacation destination for us (I hope).

Bella was not a fan of the cold water at Point Lookout, New York, but Matt sure loved it. He grew up on Long Island in Point Lookout. It's a great, small beach town! I was so glad to see it and meet some many of his friends and neighbors.Here Bella is telling her dad how much she disliked the water...and how much she hates to skinny dip. We returned later the next day with a swimsuit and sunscreen and she was much happier!
We're still in Point Lookout, NY. We're in front of a tree that was planted in remembrance of Matt's maternal grandmother.

Bella is in Patchogue, New York to meet her Great Aunt Eileen. It was crazy meeting so many family members and friends while on this trip! I counted! We met 10 groups of people in 3 days while in New York! Whew!