Well, Belle is continuing to grow, grow, grow. She hasn't gotten much taller or much bigger around, but she is growing so much intellectually and developmentally. She is now an avid climber and can do the stairs all by herself. She likes to help pour in the ingredients and mix together stuff when we're baking. She greets everyone on the street with a hearty "Hello" followed almost immediately by a "Bye Bye See ya!". She is mimcking back pretty much every single syllable word we say to her, and even trying some two syllable ones, (my favorite being kapeesh which she says a-peesh). She is learning to play with other kids, and I think we're going to have to work on sharing! She understands so many things we say to her, like when we say "It's time to go for a walk." she runs to the front hall closet and gets her shoes, then sits down so someone can put them on and proceeds right to the door. She gives kisses and hugs if you ask for them, she is learning to clap rhythyms and she is never far from a pencil and piece of paper a she loves to write. This week she learned to put her finger in front of her lips and say "Shh" which almost brought Nick to tears.

A few days ago we went for a walk and she started looking up. She noticed the clouds and the birds and trees that were right above her. She was talking in the language I have yet to understand, but was so excited she nearly toppled over backwards taking it all in. She's so easy going and everyone here adores her. We are so lucky to have such a social butterfly in our family. She already loves to party, staying up until 10:00 some nights-being polite and friendly the whole time, and we have to keep an eye on her as she already sees beer as free game if it's not in your hand!

I am very excited to see her begin to interact with her new brother or sister. She seems to really adore babies. Whenever a car seat is placed on the floor she'll run to it and crouch in front of it just staring and staring. And with all the new babies in our friends lives it's often the case that a picture is on the computer screen which leads to squeals of "oooooo, baby" in a soft cute voice.

This coming weekend we're making the move to a toddler bed, and I'm sure there will be many a nights of learning a new level of patience ahead of us, but we are both so very much enjoying our baby become a big girl!

Moving through the Eyes of Child.

While we were setting up Isabella's room we began unpacking clothes which I had to separate into the things she's outgrown and the things she is wearing now or will wear soon. In the top of the pile were some hats and Belle found this one. She successfully put it on her head herself and didn't take it off until she went to bed that night. Nick's first comment was "Oh my, she's trailer trash!" I guess because it was on her head a bit askew and it was a winter hat in the middle of a heatwave, but he soon came to the realization of the adorableness. Watching a child get excited about a new place to live and re-discovering the things they own is a very humbling experience. Reminding me to live one day at a time and to enjoy the little moments.

Another thing Belle learned while in the process of moving was how to lay down and get her hair wet all by herself in the bathtub. At the place we stayed the bath tub didn't have any type of anti slip on the bottom and Isabella accidently fell backwards once. After that accident she decided this was a fun activity and would fling herself backwards without any warning. Nick tried to catch her, but sometimes she was just too fast and for the next week or so she had really short baths to avoid any injuries. Finally I had the idea to tell her to lay down slowly, and she did! So now it's her favorite bath time activity, up and down she goes over and over.

First she psyches herself up for the drop down. It takes a few minutes.

Then she very slowly moves her arms back and out to the side while lowering her body. It's funny to watch knowing that one day she'll be able to do this quickly but for now it's quite the task for her to get her body horizontal.
She stays laid down until her hair is all wet, or rinsed out and then she quickly jets up out of the water and looks to who ever is bathing her for a clap and a "good job". Then it's just seconds until it all starts again, even after her hair is washed!
So much bath time fun!

Fun with Poppa.

I think the did this for about 45 minutes.

She's so big and yet so small. The first week we lived in Georgetown we stayed in a basement suite that friends of ours had just moved out of. They lived their with their son, (that's his nursery above), and the people who owned the house and lived upstairs go to Georgetown Alliance Church so they offered us to live there until the new tenants moved in August 1. We accepted and they did everything they could to make us comfortable. They provided a few toys for Belle and a few chairs for us, a tv an inflatable bed and even brought us dinner a few nights the week we stayed there. We were definitely grateful. Belle and I spent most of the week inside as it was a heat wave and we needed to adjust slowly. She adopted to favorite activities. One was rolling this ball around the entire place saying "Weeee" over and over and over. The other was going into the nursery, standing in the door way, saying "Bye Bye, See ya" and then closing the door only to open it again a few seconds later and repeat.

The first thing our move taught Isabella, how to climb. I was working and she was playing around the house. Things were a little too quite so I went to check on her. She had gotten up onto the ottoman and was clapping for herself. How great! She then proceeded to fall off as she thought she could get off the ottoman the way we do. I calmed her down and showed her how to turn around and climb down backwards, she's been unstoppable ever since!