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!)