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.

School and Day care have begun!

Well, Morgan, my little sweet Morgan, she started Middle School this week! I cannot believe it. So far she says she likes it. She rides the bus at 7:25 every morning, goes to school, ride the bus home, texts me on her cell phone, and comes home by herself. A cell phone????What??? yes, we finally did it. We bought Morgan a cell phone. I really wanted some piece of mind and I wanted her safe. We figured she could call or text us when she gets home or goes to a friends or stays after school for an activity. Also, we put a locator service on her phone so we can track where she is at, especially in case of emergency.





Bella started daycare last week and of course caught her first cold of the "school year." Both Bella and I have this yucky cold and Bella just thought it would be a good idea to have a scratched cornea to go along with it :( Yes, she poked herself in the eye today and scratched her cornea. So sad and pitiful to see her not feel good. It breaks my heart.

Bella has been walking for 3 weeks now and is a pro! She loves to walk and climb on anything and everything. She loves daycare and hangs with the older babies during play time and LOVES to play outside!

She has 8 teeth now, and I think working on another. Her hair is really growing in nice, although kind of like a mullet from the 80s. A pure Jersey girl...hehehe.

Bella Signing

Bella has been watching Baby Signing Time DVDs for the past few weeks. She LOVES them! She already has learned more signs. She can sign:
more
milk
hurt
eat

The signing really helps with her verbal language. Now she uses words to say more...She says "mom" for more. She is such a bright little girl. Takes after her sister, for sure :)

Wow...so much changing....

Let's see...it has been a while since I updated. As you can see from the recent video, Bella is now walking. She started walking at exactly 12 months and 2 weeks old. We were in the pediatrician's office, for Morgan and Bella's check-ups, when Bella just stood up and began walking in between me and Morgan. She was so proud of herself! In addition to the walking, Bella has become quite the avid climber. We climbs up on most everything and anything....and has pretty good balance and planning.

Bella is fully transitioned to whole milk. We started the transition 2 weeks before her first birthday....mixing it 1/2 formula 1/2 milk. She took to the milk right away and we quickly switched to all milk. She also now drinks out of sippy cups for drinks, except her first and last bottle of the day.

Bella's language is blossoming, too. She says so many words (see the list on the side of the blog for an updated list). She also imitates just about everything she hears...even 2 syllable words. Pretty amazing. She is also doing alot of sign language. We started Baby Signing Time, a DVD series for babies for teaching sign language. She loves it! She signs MORE, EAT, MILK, FINISHED....we are learning more every day. Even Morgan enjoys the DVDs and is learning the sign language along with Bella.

Bella now loves the pool. She kicks and splashes and has no problem getting water in her face. I think we have another swimmer! She also had her first trip to the beach recently and LOVED it!!!! She plays in the sand and does not care to get all messy with the sand.

7 teeth and counting........

Morgan is gearing up for middle school. I cannot believe that in a few weeks we will have a middle school student. She is excited and a bit anxious. We are going out to the school before school starts to walk through and meet the counselor. This should help make her transition easier.

Morgan has been finished with swimming since the end July. She did well this summer. Her strokes are looking so much cleaner. She will continue with swimming, once again, in the fall. She will also continue with karate, too. In addition to these extra activities, she will be continuing with violin in middle school. In elementary school, she only had violin class one time per week. In middle school, she has it 5 times per week! It will be really neat to see how much her playing changes with so much instruction......

Will post some more pictures soon....
Until Next time....
Charlene

at 1 year and 2 weeks....

we have a walker...

Bella's First Birthday Party

Bella's first birthday party was Sunday, July 19 at the pool. We had alot of fun....swimming, hanging out, playing the pinata, and eating birthday cake. I cannot believe that Bella will be 1 years old in a few days....it has gone by so fast! Here are a few pictures from her party....thanks to Joc (eieiphotos.com) for taking the pictures!!!!

Here is Bella's Party Invite....made specially by her Aunt Melissa :)