The Sears Portraits.

Here are the pics of Belle. I put all of them cuz they sort of tell the story of the day. The way she's giggling in the first one is priceless. Hope you enjoy them as much as me.

The Cute Ones

The Naked Ones

Encouragement.

Whenever the dove commercials come on tv, the ones that are to the tune of "True Colors", Belle will stop whatever she is doing and stand up stare at the screen and sway.

It encourages me so much to think she's a clean slate in this area, that body image and self esteem are not issues for her.

I hope we can keep it that way forever.

The learning curve continues here in Alberta. Belle has started working with a spoon. I try to give her something once or twice a day that she can practice on and this meal it's yogurt. She starts off so great. Her spoon dips in and is very full, but for some reason her first taste is always just sticking her tongue in it to make sure she likes it-and then WHAM the whole spoon in her mouth! By the end of the meal though she gives up and just dips her fingers in the bowl and licks them! Too funny.


She has also started walking! Yep, just a few steps at a time but she's getting the hang of it. She was just standing there and I started saying "left, right, left, right" which is what I say when I hold her hands and she walks. And she smiled and picked up her left foot and then her right. We started applauding wildly and now she will take two steps, pause for applause, and then take more. Too cute. I think it will still be a while before she's tearing off on her own, so I think the grad ceremonies are safe!

As you may have read a few days ago I got some awesome pics of Belle done at Sears. I went to pick them up and they were all there-minus the CD. Shoot. I tried to scan one in and put it on here but the quality really goes downhill after the scan, so you'll have to wait, maybe up to a week to see the pics. I put a nice story below with pictures so you can hold on until then.

I am also putting the pictures in the mail this week, so if you don't have one in your hand in two weeks, and you want one, let me know.

Isabella is doing amazing things on a regular, and lately, daily basis. Yesterday I was making baked apples for dinner. One rolled out of the cupboard and across the floor. Belle picked it up and began eating it like I do. I never showed her how to do this, and she just started doing it on her own. She ate a quarter of the apple!

We do not have stairs in our home, however just outside our door where we do our laundry there are stairs to the entry of our building. She has often crawled over to them and used them to stand up, but never tried to get up them. We've never showed her how. Then yesterday a lady came to the door to take a census and I was filling out her paperwork, I glanced down and there Belle was standing on the second stair! Ohmigosh. I ran down and got her right away so she wouldn't fall backward. Hopefully I'll get a pic of that when Nick is home and can make sure all is safe.

Her laugh has evolved to include a snort at the end and sometimes she chooses just to snort.

She is walking while only holding one of our hands which is nice for my back, but not yet taking independant steps. Her only word is still hello. Which I'm sure is because she's around me all the time, and I don't talk much. I'm trying though, but as long as she's walking by the time the baby is here, I don't mind if she's not talking.

She does a lot of things it seems whenever she has the opportunity and I hope I can continue to give her new opportunities so she can continue to amaze us every day.

Oy.

This picture really has nothing to do with the story, but isn't she just so cute in just her socks waiting for the bath?! What this picture doesn't show is that she bounces up and down going "na na na" (which I think means now), over and over again until we turn the water off at which point she claps and then lifts up her arms so we put her in.

But the story I wanted to share has not to do with the bath, but the bum. Yesterday we went grocery shopping and little miss over here let one rip, as soon as she started she smiled and as soon as she was done she giggled. Then Nick let one rip and she giggled for that too.

Oh my gosh, what have we done! We've already taught her to laugh when someone farts. Watch out future bible study groups, our girl is the prayer disrupter!