Best Picture Day Ever!

On March 25 Isabella and I went to Sears for her one year photos. She woke up having a good day and I knew this had to be it, we must leave the house RIGHT NOW and hope for good pics. Our last trip was in November with Abby and Jen Dalsin, and it didn't go so smoothly. I now fear being peed on every time we venture to Sears.

We dressed her in a beautiful outfit that she will also wear to Nick's grad. It's a bit big now, but it was still cute. We went walk-in and were lucky enough to get a time only 45 minutes away. So we went to the food court for lunch. We shared a plate of Chinese food and watched kids play on the indoor carousel. Both of which Belle found very intriquing.

We've had this photographer many times and she gets the best smiles from Belle. She popped her head out of the room to say they were about 10 minutes behind and Belle immediately recognized her. She started beaming.

That beaming did not stop. The photographer had some great poses and props picked out and in seriously ten minutes we had 9 picture perfect poses of her. Three backgrounds, some of her standing, some lying, some sitting, and we even got the coveted NAKED picture done.

Now, at Sears I am very frugal with my photo money. I much prefer the candid shots for my scrapbook to the posed and so it takes a lot for me to spend more than my $7.99 coupon. But today was such a day. I am not joking. I spent a whopping $200.00, (giving up my April scrapbooking day in St. Albert), and I cannot wait for the pics.

Part of the expense was that I got a high resolution CD of the session with a copyright waiver. Meaning I can print as many of the photos as I want anywhere I want and it's legal. I'm so excited for what I will do with those for my scrapbook!

The pictures will be picked up on April 11 and I will post all the poses for you to see. Then I'll mail out the pics and if you don't get one, it's not because I don't like you, it's because I didn't know you wanted one! But now I can print pics until the cows come home, so let me know and I'll send you one. Or if I send you a pose and you'd like another, I can do that.

I love good picture days.

Once a month when I mail off our monthly payment on our leather furniture I wonder if it was worth it to purchase said furniture O.A.C.

Then we have days like yesterday. Isabella reached my glass of Ice Tea (aka the stickiest drink around), and poured in on the sofa before I caught her. Then she ate a cookie sitting like a good calm girl. Upon finishing the cookie with sufficient goop all over her hands and face she then decided to steam roll her way off the couch leaving a trail.

And then her tummy must have disagreed with the lasagna she ate because the Mount St. Helen's eruption that came from her diaper and up to my shoulders and down the side of the couch left quite the mess to clean up.

But each time I just grabbed my trusty rag and dish soap and wiped it down a few times. No stain removers, no making sure to dab instead of rub. None of the fuss of material.

And that's when I know it's worth it.

The Cake.

For Belle's first birthday I wanted to continue in the family tradition of 3-D cakes. Everyone who ate this cake was very impressed with it. It's true that it does have 3 dimensions and you can tell it's a bear.

It took a lot more work than I thought it would, and in my quest to do everything EXACTLY as the directions said to, I underfilled the pan a bit. Hence the droppyness. He kind of had to lean in a bit due to the empty spot right under his heavy head.

Belle loved the cake, especially the chocolate icing. So I think we can consider it a hit!

My little Mimic.

I have been puking a lot lately and I try to make sure that Isabella can't hear me or see me go to the bathroom to do it, but I do keep the door open so I can hear her should she pull a shelf onto herself or drown herself in water from the water cooler-again. I thought I was doing a good job, until today when she got into the bathroom and it took me a minute or two to get to her. I thought to myself "do I even have a clean shirt for her now that she's soaked to the elbows from playing in toilet water?" But when I got to the bathroom she wasn't playing in the water. Instead she was standing slightly bent over the bowl coughing into it. I guess she sees more than I think she does!

Belles New Smile.

What a delight this little face is. I realized just how long it's been since I put a blog entry about Belle and I tried to think of what I could say. She seems to have halted in her development for now, content instead to master the skills she's recently acquired. But she is developing a sense of humor, and a great one at that.

We now spend hours on the couch where she will crawl away from us towards the opposite end of the couch and we grab her ankles and pull her back while she squeals in delight. She has come to understand the game so that she squeals as soon as she reaches the end of the couch in anticipation of our grab. She has many games like that.

In the morning she may whine and whine at us to come and get her, (I confess I've started to leave her a few minutes longer than before in hopes she call for me), and although she is thuroughly upset that we didn't answer her beck and call immediately as soon as we open the door she melts into this smile.

She thinks that the sound you make when you blow your nose is hilarious.

This morning we were watching the Olympics and as the crowd burst into cheers her face broke into this grin and she dropped her cup so she could clap along. Clapping, she does that almost constantly, perhaps she has the gift of encouragement?

She now does high fives and knows how to make you chase her down the hall way. She is a funny girl, but it's hard to share that in typing. So you'll have to take my word for it, and her smile as proof.

Eating at our house is getting more and more adventurous. The other night we had hashbrown casserole which I gave Belle in her bowl because it sticks really well to the bowl and I wouldn't have to worry about it all over the floor. Good thing too. She has also become a true North American as last night she had her first Mickey D's. Tonight's adventure-spaghetti!

Well it's finally happened. Belle has started standing on her own. On Friday January 20 she started standing long enough for us to take pictures. And last night she got herself to stand long enough to clap in triumph! Yay. She has also cut her first tooth this week!

The Great Outdoors

Our first Owie

At Bible Study last night Isabella was a ball of energy. She was all over the place and ended up banging her head onto my chair which was metal. Today she is sporting this little "black ey" bruise dealy. Guy dig tough chicks, right?

Belle got into the recycling! Is this foreshadowing?

Well, what a journey so far. Today we went for Isabella's 9 month well check up. She is doing great. My doctor is a bit of a whack, so I don't know how well Belle is really doing, only that she is meeting the minimum requirements for a baby her age. I'm glad to report that she has moved up from the 5th percentile to the 20th percentile for her height, and continues to maintain a good weight percentile, (although I wasn't told what it was). She is now 18 lbs 10 oz and 26.6 inches tall. That gave me great relief considering that at her 3 month appointment she was so small she didn't even get on the graph and at 6 months she was just barely on there. I am officially done stressing about the way she grows. She's small, I have no problem with that.

She is also doing a lot of great things. I'm not sure what is perhaps "beyond" where she should be, but she is definately mastering all things nine months old should be able to do. She is pulling herself up on everything, 'cruising' around the furniture and this week began to stand by herself for about 15 seconds at a time. She is eating all table foods now, of which her favorites seem to be hot dogs and bananas. She has perfected the pincer grasp and if something has a tag she actually prefers to pick it up by the tag instead of in her hand, unless it's a ball in which case she palms it and waves it in my face as though to say, "here's something my mommy can't do!". LOL.
She laughs oh so beautifully and has begun to do things that make herself laugh. She smiles about 80% of the day. She plays peek a boo, she watches tv with great interest,(especially Blue's Clues). I've listed a bunch of other things she can do in other blogs, and I'm not sure that any of this is really of interest, but today I was just blown away by how much she's grown and how she's already moving into becoming a little person instead of a baby.

Today during lunch Isabella dropped her sippy cup under her highchair and it fell a bit under the couch. I forgot about it after lunch and so it stayed there for a bit, until Isabella spotted it and went after it. She crawled under the high chair claimed her prize and then sat up to take a swig. She was kinda stuck between the highchair and the couch, and before rescuing her I couldn't help but snap these photos of her baby's plumber butt. I have no idea how it happens. Those diapers are huge and seem to go halfway up her back, but everyday a little bit into play time that crack just pops out. It's adorable. For now anyways. We'll have to find a remedy before Kindergarten.

I think that Belle has decided that 2006 will be the "Year of the Caper". Yesterday I fell asleep on the couch without meaning to. When I awoke she was inches from my face putting her sticky hands all over me. Her face was covered in pieces of nut and raisins. As I awoke rather in a daze I started to try and remember what I had fed her that contained nuts and raisins. Nothing. While I was sleeping she had reached onto the coffee table and removed the cover from the left over fudge and butter tarts we had at our New Years Party. She then consumed a butter tart, leaving 1/3 of it on her dress, 1/3 of it on the floor and 1/3 of it on her face! She was so pleased with herself too, I couldn't help but giggle. Then I got her some real super.

"Opening" her first stocking. She got her first toothbrush, a teddy bear, some mini Munsch books and some Little People.

The telephone I searched high and low for.

Her first Bible.

An oldie but a goodie, remember when you used to play with one of those?

Would it be Christmas without new toques?

A new twist on the "shaking" technique to find out what's in the gift. She did this with everything she could lift.

She almost got the idea here. I think it took us 1/2 hour to open this one.

Let the holiday traditions begin. I took Isabella to see Santa a few weeks ago, and it was fun. We did it at Market Mall. There they take your name and put you on a list then you get to go with your child to a play area and wait for them to call your name, like they do at restaurants when it's busy. We watched a movie, played with some fake snow, worked on crawling. And then it was our turn. I didn't want Belle and Santa to clash so I chose white instead of pink and everyont thought Belle was a little boy. Oh well. The Santa was very awkward and Belle was his last picture of the day, all he wanted to do was get out of there. So there wasn't any effort to make her smile, he didn't even talk to her. Hence the face. I thought of getting it done again, but this is a good memory, we can't erase what's less than picture perfect! So Merry 1st Christmas!

Necessity is the mother of invention.



Belle is no longer a happy baby when it comes to playing and sitting, or playing and lying down. She wants to be on her feet all the time. This makes for some very sore arms on my part. I decided she needed something totally baby safe to try out her standing technique on. So, we invented a little somethin somethin. This is her exersaucer, with a few minor tweaks. The water jug does well to hold it in place and keep it from toppling on her head and this way she has things to play with once she's on her feet. It's working well. And when she gets a bit taller we can pull the saucer up a bit. I love baby toys that are multi-functional.

One step closer.



Belle has learned to pull herself up to a standing position using the furniture in the house. She can't quite get a grip on the leather sofa but she holds onto the coffee table and reaches out for it. Then when she has one hand on each she tries to switch herself over to the sofa. She's one step closer to walking, I can't believe it.

There are things I can't take pictures of.

Belle has started to really become a little person lately. She does all sorts of cute things I can't take pictures of. She's started playing this game with me when we're eating. She'll shake her head no until she's ready for the next spoonful, but once she's done shaking her head she'll look at me until I shake mine yes before she opens her mouth. I told people about it and now whenever someone shakes their head yes at her she shakes hers no.

She sings. When we're in the car and the music is on if you listen close you can hear her singing along. Little 'la-la-la's'. It's quite cute. She also does it when we're singing to her. She also claps her hands a lot. Everytime someone claps on tv, she's right there clapping along. Oprah has become a very loud hour in our house.

She's now crawling all over the house and I can't get a picture of it in motion, plus whenever she sees the camera she stops crawling and puts on a big smile for a pose. Too funny.

She's learned the word no and knows when she's in a place she shouldn't be. She ducks her head a little bit and closes her eyes when her shirt is going over her head. She knows that when her jacket is on it's time to go to the car and when Nick walks through the door she gets all excited to see him.

It amazes me how many things she's learned when I feel like I've taught her so little.