before I forget

17 months:
Bella says "fotion" for lotion is a sweet little voice.
Bella now calls her Lovie "Wuzie." Too cute.

The other day, I said to her, want a bath? she said "bath." I told her to tell mommy to come on. She replied "come on mommy."

The other day, I put a courderoy dress on Bella. It was too big so i took it off and put on a jean one. She tugged at the jean one saying "off...off." I said, "you dont want this one?" She replied "dont want this one."

Christmas 2009

We had a really nice, relaxing Christmas this year. We did not go overboard with presents, we stayed in MD (although we missed all of our cousins and in laws :( ), and Omi, PopPop, and Aunt Joc spent the holiday with us.

We opened our Christmas PJ's on Christmas Eve. We made cookies for Santa. Morgan made sure that not only Santa was fed but the reindeer, as well. She put carrots and reindeer feed outside for them :) Morgan was up until midnight! She checked on Norad.com to see where Santa was before going to bed and saw that he already came through MD. She was devastated. We assured her that if kids are still awake, he always comes back. She went to sleep right away, hoping for Santa to return. Bella was in bed by 9ish. We were having too much fun for a 7pm bedtime for Ms. Bella.

On Christmas morning, Bella was awake at 4am....come on, she is far too young to understand that you need to get up early on Christmas Morning...hehe. Morgan woke by 8am and came running into our room saying, "Santa came, Santa came...he brought the Julie doll!" She was so excited. Santa brought Morgan the American Girl Doll, Julie. The girls woke Omi and PopPop and we began opening presents. A very relaxing morning...relaxing day. We all stayed in our pj's ALL DAY!!!

Bella would have been happy with one present, as she played with her fork and spoon stocking stuffer all morning. She wasn't too into opening presents. But she had a lot of fun.

Here are some pics...great pics taken by sister, Jocelyn (check out her website www.eieiphotos.com )

Last Night of Hanukkah and Blizzard 2009!

Last night was the last night of Hanukkah. Morgan lit the candles and said the blessings so beautifully. Now it is time for Christmas. Since we are snowed in by the Blizzard of 2009, we are going to decorate the tree today. Pictures to be posted later.

So far, we have over 12 inches of snow....probably more like 18 inches and we have several hours more of snow to come. We are expecting a total of 24 inches!!!!!! Woooo! We havent ventured out yet.....with everyone getting over being sick, we may wait until tomorrow when the winds die down and it stops snowing. Should be fun to see Bella sink in and Morgan build a big fort!

Til next time....

Great Santa Picture

Morgan went to the Olney Swim center to meet with Santa while scuba diving...how cool is this??? It was to benefit the Manna Food Bank.

HAPPY HANUKKAH 2009!

Last night was the first night of Hanukkah. We lit the candles, said the blessings, opened presents, and played dreydel. Here are some pictures.....

Fall and Thanksgiving

It has been a wonderful fall season. The weather has been great! There have been many outside playtimes, especially in the leaves. Bella and Morgan love the leaves. Morgan loves to rake them into a pile for Bella to play in. Too cute! Bella loves this mild fall weather. Everyday, when we come home, Bella wants to play outside for a bit. She loves walking around the yard, playing in the leaves, and playing with the rocks. Morgan loves just hanging outside :)

Thanksgiving was very different for us this year. This was the first time in 10 years that we did not travel to NJ or PA for Thanksgiving. Instead, we stayed home. Greg's family joined us for a Thanksgiving Feast. The girls had a blast with all of their cousins.

Bella continues to amaze us with her language. She knows so much and has so many words in her vocabulary. She looks through her vocabulary books and names things like "jack," "eagle," "refrigerator," and "yo-yo" to name just a few. She blows our minds. He is our little terror, though. She is into EVERYTHING! She climbs on EVERYTHING! She touches things she is knows she is not supposed to while saying "no no." She takes things she isnt supposed to and runs with them and hides in the corner. She is NOTHING like Morgan was :) But we love her to bits! Oh, she has 4 molars coming in at the same time!

Morgan is doing great, too! She made honor roll her first quarter of school. We are so proud of her. She continues with her violin and has her first middle school orchestra concert this Friday. Look for a video soon :) She is taking a break from swimming until after the first of the year due to an injury. She was diagnosed with Severs Disease which is a disease that will pass but is quite painful for her right now. It is an injury to the growth plate in her heel, causing pulling on her achilis tendon. She continues with karate, in moderation. Oh, while Bella has teeth coming in, Morgan is losing teeth...2 in the past week!

Happy Halloween!!!!

A rainy night for Trick or Treating but we made the best of it. Morgan dressed up as a pirate (so cute...she put it together herself...mostly :) ) and Bella was a ladybug...too cute for words. Bella lasted about 4 houses then was done....screaming and crying to go home. Morgan lasted, well, til her pillow case was 1/4 full! Here are some pics from last night and from the other day :)

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.