Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Our non-traditional tree is becoming more traditional with all the ornaments that Bella has made and received. She made a penguin at school. We also received a snowflake framing a picture of Bella wearing a red Santa hat. Bella opened a present with an Alaskan, feathery girl ornament and a Lithuanian doll, which Bella refers to as herself ("Blahblah" with a tongue flip is how she says her name).
She loved the jingle bell on top of mom and dad's gift. "Dingle bell, dingle bell..."

She carefully rips off the wrapping paper.

Analyzes each piece.

Rip. Tear. Slow. Cherish. Wait. Patience.

Daddy and Penny helped.

She loved her puppets that Santa brought! Moo!

The Orange Car

The orange car hit a milestone!

We were all in the car when it happened on a Monday afternoon. We actually spent quite a bit of time in the car that day. Sunday night we took the black car to Mr. Allison, our family mechanic, to have it tuned and looked at after popping two tires. This meant that Monday we would share the orange car. I drove Matt to the dentist (unexpected appointment) then to daycare then to work. After about an hour, I drove back to the dentist then to Matt's work. An hour later, I returned to my work. Two hours later, I picked up Bella, drove back to Matt's work, then drove to get the black car. On the entrance ramp to the toll road the orange car turned 100. Wow!

Thank goodness that day is over. 3 hrs of work + 5 hrs of driving around Houston = no fun!

Houston Zoo

Can you see them? Two great Asian elephants and one cute little baby. Bella likes "AahFints" and makes the trunk sound perfectly by putting her lower lip over her upper lip and blowing. It's adorable but so far she won't do it on command when we have a camera in hand.

As a side note, we love our Step 2 Whisper Ride Buggy. We got the idea from Kimberly and it's just perfect. Bella looks cool around town and it's easier to push than a stroller because you can use one hand. Under the hood is just enough space for a diaper, snacks, keys and a phone. Ordinarily Bella falls asleep in a stroller, but not in her car.
Bella and the orangutan liked looking at each other. We love looking at Bella's outfit. She picked it out all by herself. Brown 'AahFint' pants, blue socks, green shoes, pink and white flowered short-sleeved shirt, black animal print sweater, black and white hat. Technically, it all matched.

We prefer the Dallas Zoo to the Houston Zoo, but we still had a good time. The weather was absolutely perfect on December 24th.

The Ranch

Matt and I were fortunate enough to get invited to The Ranch a couple of weekends ago. My brother was a superstar and watched Jack and Bella all weekend, even while Aunt Ashley was working Saturday. While diaper changing, feeding, bathing were on Uncle John's agenda, hunting, fishing, eating, socializing and relaxing were on our agenda. Thank you Uncle John & Aunt Ashley!



We took a little outing to visit the longhorns. They were fairly friendly. As with all cows, they are unpredictable so we were careful. They were beautiful and ate pellets from our hands. We learned that longhorns mature much later than the average cow. They also live much longer than the average cow.

While I was getting a pedicure and massage, Matt was fishing. We joined together for a 'hunting' outing. Matt and I don't have a license for hunting...nor do we know how to hunt. However, we wanted to go out to see what it was all about. We left on a gator (supped up golf cart) with 2 guides, 3 hunters and us. I thought we'd all be together quietly watching for animals for about an hour. Ha! Was I wrong! They dropped us at our own deer blind, a small wooden box elevated about 20 feet off the ground, all by ourselves.

Matt talked for about a half hour and anyone who knows Matt knows that he has a loud voice so we saw no animals. When I got to talkin' (ya hafta taalk like dis when you're out West) with my much softer voice then we saw a doe and her 2 yearlings. Success!
We sat in the deer blind for about an hour then decided to get out and walk around. When we did that we saw even more wildlife. Ants, armadillo and possum. (We didn't photograph the ants.)

Walking around and seeing the small critters took about an hour and I was sure we'd be picked up by the gator soon...but no one came. We walked around some more. We saw this old pipeline which amused us for about 10 minutes.We continued to walk around but not too far. We were unsure how close the real hunters were so we were cautious. Surely the guys were coming to pick us up soon. We kept hearing a gator in the distance so we walked toward it...then it disappeared. We finally figured it was a neighbor feeding the cows because we could certainly hear the cows mooing. We joked that if we were on a deserted island we would go crazy hearing things. I hushed Matt numerous times. We froze to 'confirm' that I indeed heard a gator coming toward us... only it wasn't. The sun set, but the moon was full and bright so we could still see to navigate around.

Once it was dark we decided we would chance it and walk back toward The Ranch. Clearly we had been forgotten. On the way we found the other deer blind with an unsuccessful guide and hunter. We waited with them the remainder of the time until the gator picked us up. We weren't really forgotten. Our group didn't kill anything, but the other group did and we got to see that dead deer skinned and prepared for eating.

Ahhh!! The warmth of the fire and the taste of the wine! As you can see I wasn't really prepared to walk miles in my slipper shoes, but they were ok.

We really enjoyed ourselves and the quiet of the Ranch. Food and conversation followed this gathering (many others joined me). It was a perfect evening out of town.

following and inspiring

The bigger Bella gets the less time I have to sit at a computer...even though I sit at one 75% of the day at work. (idea: start blogging while at work. at least I would be more consistent, which is a future goal or resolution this new year.) So, Matt promised an hour of Bella-free blogging time, however, she's sitting next to me screaming that she wants to read a book while Daddy attends to the laundry...so I'm not going to complain even though I gave him hours of Bella-free time earlier in the day because then the laundry won't get done. Ugh. Ignoring her is working this time. On with the purpose of this post. I use my blackberry phone more than I thought I ever would. It's my connection to the world and my escape from my world. I spend early morning or late evening hours when I'm too tired to do anything else with the 2 inch screen 4 inches away from my face reading all that I can about whatever I can. (I am getting very good and discerning words from the 'shape' of the word, meaning I can't really see all the letters, but I can see that the word had a tall letter at the beginning and a vowel (o or a) at the end. Using my context clues too, I figured out the word was "bravo.")

I am sharing my list, in the order of discovery, so you know what I'm reading when I don't have time or energy to be writing.

Urban Grace
I read for house ideas. They live somewhere in the Carolina's I think so it's not very applicable to Houston...or to anything that Matt likes.
Gun Blog
I read to laugh. A coworker's husband writes this blog for the Chronicle.
Fly Through Our Window
I read this for fun. The author is the sister of Urban Grace. The mom has 3 kids and I love to see her crafts. I made honey cinnamon butter from her blog last year as Christmas gifts to all my coworkers.
Life in Graz
I read this to see what life is like as an expat. Carolyn also spiffed up my blog so I like to check back on what she has done for others.
Mommy Said What?
I love this and read it every Monday, Wednesday and Friday when she updates. I'm going to try to do what she does and write consistently...we'll see if it happens.
Adventures in Renovating a Brooklyn Limestone
I read this to give me an idea of what it would be like to renovate Matt's house. I'm now completely disillusioned.
Young House Love
I just recently found this and I like it. I'm insanely jealous that this family lives off of the blog and gets to work together to renovate their small house. They have good simple ideas that I think I could do...if I had the time and money.
SciGuy
I read this for interesting science facts to share with Matt.
Green and Natural Parenting
I read this for a few ideas about gifts for kids.
Amazon
I search for ideas and reviews of items that I have seen on other blogs. Sometimes I'm successful. My current search is for Twilight Turtle.
Swamplot
I read this for all the Houston happenings.
Becoming Minimalist
Matt likes to profess that he's a minimalist. I read this to remind him that minimalists don't keep every receipt for gasoline from 2007. It's ok to throw things away or to recycle or to give to those who need it more than we do.

in search of...

I'm in love with this acrylic table lamp. I spotted it on this blog: www.brooklynlimestone.com and they said that it was from Marshalls. Of course they don't have it at my Marshalls. It's not on amazon either. If you spot this lamp online or out and about, please let me know. Better yet, buy it and I'll reimburse.

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving started with the Turkey Trot, a 5K walk/run/stroller push through the Galleria in 80 degree weather. It was fun, except Matt was not very happy that I made him wear a long sleeved shirt.

We ate dips for lunch and dinner instead of the traditional turkey and dressing. A block of Velvetta with rotel (Matt never heard of it before) and spinach & artichoke dip. It was just us and this suited us perfectly.

My parents arrived that evening and we went back to the Galleria area to watch the lighting of the trees and the fireworks. This time it was about 50 degrees and raining. The fireworks were beautiful and both Penny and Ellie didn't mind the "booms" and crowds of people.

Sunday we celebrated another non-traditional Thanksgiving feast with steak and lobster. Delicious!

Breakfast with Santa

Uncle John's neighborhood hosted Breakfast with Santa. We forgot about it until Santa, on his fire truck, rattled us out of the house. After Santa's tour of the neighborhood, he hung out at the clubhouse with his camel. Matt and Bella got to take a ride. In case you're confused, Santa rides a fire truck or a camel when in Texas. It's clearly too hot for reindeer.

flattened

We were contemplating when to buy new tires...and the decision was made for us!

Mr. Roy's Influence

At daycare, Bella's teacher, Mr. Roy, leads the class in dance parties. She's learned some moves. Check out the video that Uncle John captured.

Road Trips from Houston - Trip 4

Bella reunited with Matteo! We drove to Dallas to visit with Ana and Matteo. The last time that they saw each other was the summer. We stayed at a hotel that was connected to the Galleria which was so convenient and fun! Not once did Matt have any anxiety about shopping or about being at a mall. Surprisingly, he asked to go look at clothes at Nordstrom just for fun! Amazing! I admit that it was nice to window shop and be so accessible to so much to see and do. There were a few early shoppers, but for the most part the mall was empty.

Besides mall-walking, we ventured out to see the Dallas Zoo. Bella identified monkeys by saying "oo oo ah" and lions by saying "roar!" The giraffe was a new animal that she was a bit unsure of. Mostly because Matt had her face to face with one, literally. She named and quacked at the ducks. We all had a great time. Ana gifted us with a book, "Zoo Poo" which is a toilet training book that Bella loves. How do animals doo-doo? Buy the book and find out!


More about the hotel. We haven't stayed at a fancy hotel with a child before now. Surprisingly, everyone was very accommodating and friendly. We went to a suite for coctails and Bella happily enjoyed all the cheese, crackers, olives and pickles. Others looked on and smiled and laughed at Bella. We even received a gift bag for kids with a little rubber ducky, night light and a couple of other baby supplies. The next morning we returned for breakfast where Bella enjoyed THREE plates of fresh blueberries, strawberries, watermelon and oranges. I ate croissants and the blueberries that Bella fed us. It was a treat!

Bella loved the metal curtain at the hotel and they didn't seem to mind that she walked around and through it many, many times.

Camping with Bella - Trip #3

We went to Inks Lake State Park last weekend with Jack, John and Ashley. It was a good time, but would have been better if "Dak", "Don" and "Ashey" weren't so snotty. It was a bummer that they all had a cold.

We ergo'd (used the Ergo baby carrier) and climbed some rocks. It was warm and gorgeous during the day. It became cool at night. I would consider it cold since it was 38 degrees, but Matt kept his t-shirt and shorts insisting that it wasn't cold.

Jack & Bella love hanging out in the car. We don't mind either since they are occupied pressing buttons and pretending to drive. Of course we keep the keys far way.

Chucky Cheese

We visited friends at Chucky Cheese. It was our first CC experience...and it was a bit cheesy. Bella enjoyed some rides like the merry-go-round and the horse. We need to wait until she's older so she can operate and play the games and rides they way they are supposed to be played.

Road Trips from Houston - Trip 4

Our road trip started out after a bar mitzvah. We went to East Texas to help out a friend. It turned out that we didn't to need help so the rest of the weekend became our own. We drove around Jacksonville and Rusk then ended up at Lake Livingston State Park. Yes, you guessed it, we got Bella's State Park Passport stamped. She actually got the "Piney Woods" sticker! Yeah!

We went to Lake Livingston State Park when Bella was in her teen months. We didn't camp, but just visited friends who were camping. It's not a fond memory. Hanging out with friends was a ton of fun, but at the end of the evening, for no apparent reason, Bella barfed. As I swung her around to avoid getting throw-up on me, the vomit sprayed across my face and mostly ended up in my hair. It was one of those moments when time slowed. My initial reaction was right on, I was avoiding the stream of barf, but as I moved, Bella moved and countered my move. Fortunately, this recent trip disassociated Lake Livingston with throw-up.

Above is a picture of Bella walking. She insisted on wearing those green shoes which are 2 sizes too big. She can still walk, but becomes pigeon-toed and clunky with the too big shoes.

Below is a picture of Matt and Bella crossing a crooked bridge.
Bella says, "I don't know" and motions with questioning hands. It's adorable and we mimic it all the time.
Swing, swing, swing. The girl likes to swing.
She also likes to climb. She is fearless. Her 'too big' shoes got stuck to the side (rubber soles don't slide on metal) so it was a one time ride.
All by herself, she climbs.

Halloween x 3

1. First Bella was a lion, but she absolutely hated that costume. We managed to get it on her once and that was all.
2. Fortunately we had a hand-me-down tiger costume that Bella wore to daycare.
3. For the real Halloween, Bella was a Chinese girl. Matt was an Indian (from India) and wore one of his native dresses from his travels. It really did look like a dress. People just thought he was a bald hairy Krishnah. If Matt was going to be from India, then Bella was going to be from China and I was going to pick a country to represent. It didn't really work out that well because I couldn't find a costume so I just went as a witch, but my hat wouldn't stay on so basically, I just looked festive. Next year, I've sworn off dressing up. It's a kid thing.

potty time - don't jinx us!

When Daddy was away, Bella tinkled in the potty! It was completely unexpected and such a great surprise! Before her bath, she practices sitting on the potty. It is part of the routine and she loves it. She sat on her potty top (Sesame Street seat that fits on top of an adult toilet), pushed toilet paper between her legs over and over. She doesn't actually wipe, but she knows that the paper goes down. She also toots, a lot. It's cute. She sits (plays) for a while then "makes bubbles" which means she wants to take a bath. Into the bath she went, lots of bubbles, lots of fun. Suddenly she stood and said "potty" with her hand pointed down. I lifted her and sat her on the potty. She tooted and then I heard tinkling!!! There was actual "water" trickling down into the toilet! YAY! I screamed, I high fived her, I encouraged her to flush since there was really pee-pee in the potty. I was so proud!

The next night we came home and she was fascinated with this portable potty. Up, down, moving it all around. It's been around for a while, but she didn't play with it as much as this night. I took advantage and made dinner and actually ate it all while she pottied. When it was "make bubbles" time (bath time) I picked her up and noticed that there was pee pee in the potty! Again! She did it all on her own! Two nights in a row must mean something. We are on our way to being potty trained and spending a whole lot of "diaper" money on something else.

Since then, she has refused to potty at all. When we ask, she consistently and adamantly says "no!" We're bummed, but I think we could get somewhere if we had some M&M's as motivation. Matt is concerned about the sugar in the candy so we agreed to get mini M&M's. We'll see how it goes. Fingers-crossed!

from Ms. Tiffany

Ms. Tiffany is one of Bella's teachers at daycare. She snapped these pictures from the summer and sent them to us. We love that Bella loves being a part of the Purple Room!