Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all of our Jewish friends and family. The past few weeks have been quite busy. School and daycare have started, after school activities have started......the craziness has started. We were just in New Jersey for Rosh Hashana. 1 year olds and synagogues are not a great mix....maybe next year.

Bella, Bella, Bella......where do I begin??? Let's see. Bella is now 14 months old. She is walking, well running when she has something she is not supposed to have :) She talks up a storm. The number of words she has in her vocabulary is amazing. She still uses sign language along with her verbal language. Some of the words she uses regularly:
up
down
turtle
more
daddy
momma
cheese
night night
juice
yum yum
cracker
help
poop
puff
baby
truck
moo (for cow)
neigh (for horse)
no (for nose)
meow
woof woof
uh-oh
ball
bye
hi
go
shoes
pop pop
cookie
kacki
dog
baba (for bottle)
tractor
"klok" for block

She also signs: milk, frog, more, finished, fish, hurt, dog.I really believe that teaching her sign language has really helped with her language development.

She follows pretty simple directions, too. We tell her to go get her shoes and she brings them to use. If we ask her to go get her sippy cup from the table, she gets it. She really is a bright little girl. If it is time to go to sleep, she gets her lovely and stands at the gate saying "night night." So sweet.

Last time she was at the Dr., she weighed 18 pounds. She is still a little peanut. Her 12 month pants are far too big for in her the waist. Skinny little thing. She continues to be a very strong willed, determined baby. She wants what she wants when she wants it and does not take no for an answer. She loves to play with alot of toys, but loves her books. She will sit for an hour or longer with Greg just looking at books, pointing to and labeling all of the pictures. Her favorite kinds of books are books that show different categories of pictures, like animals, food, etc. She loves playing with Little People doll house and farm. Balls and anything she can push are fun, too :)

She had her first visual boo boos recently.....between her scratched cornea and face planting on the concrete...she has been busy in the boo boo department. All in all, though, not too bad.




Morgan, Morgan, Morgan.....Where to begin??? Morgan has adjusted nice to middle school. What a huge change from elementary school! 7 classes a day with a rotating schedule.....I am so impressed that Morgan is able to remember what class she has on which day. She continued with violin and has been doing great! Playing violin 4 days a week in school and practicing equally as much has made such improvements...We can't wait for her first Orchestra Concert.

Swimming and karate have begun, as well. Although Morgan caught a cold that turned into Bronchitis....she is on the mend now and ready to enjoy her after school activities with full force. She leaves on Oct. 7 for two days for Outdoor Education, a program that is required for all MCPS 6th grade students. Morgan is growing into a fine young lady. We are so proud of her.