Bella is 20 Months Old!

It is March of 2009 and I can't believe how fast my baby is growing up. Here are some of the milestones of the past month:

Her top two eye teeth are coming in! This has been a ridiculously long process. I am looking forward to all of her teeth being in and moving on! I am also looking forward to her chewing her food a little better! I am a little sad to see her adorable smile change. But as we know, the only constant is change...especially with the little ones!

Bella loves to climb up on the arm of the red chair, sit down and play with the stereo. She has cleverly figured out how to obey us by sitting on her bottom, yet still be in arms reach of the stereo, which she loves to play with.

She has also started saying lots of new words and signing new words (see previous post for details).

Bella loves to read still. Her current favorites are "Runaway Bunny", "In Grandma's Arms", "Wild Animal Baby", and some of the others from last month too. Sometimes when it gets really quiet and I am in the kitchen, I think to myself "she is into something", but she is usually reading a book on her own.

She still loves her CDs. I broke down and bought some new Music Together CDs, but she still likes the old ones better. When I put her in the car seat she makes the sign for "music"!

Bella also loves getting on her rocking horse and riding the horsey...she also likes to climb on my back and ride around on my back around the house. She hasn't quite learned how to hold on, so she often slips off.

Another thing we do almost every day is watch the birdies outside of her window. There is a feeder in our next door neighbor's yard that attracts the most beautiful little birdies. They flit over to the feeder from the tree in our yard and sing such cute songs. They are actually probably telling each other to #@$% off, but I prefer to think that they are singing love songs to each other.

We have also started taking wagon rides around our neighborhood, which she loves. Every time we go into the garage to leave to go somewhere, she starts to climb in the wagon with the cutest look on her face saying "Please"!

Bella also loves giving high fives, low fives and playing pat-a-cake. She always gets the biggest smile on her face when you hold out your hand and say "fives".

She will also toast you with her cup if you hold up your cup and say "cheers". So cute!!!!

She is fascinated with her potty and loves to sit on it with her diaper on and off (although off is always better). She still has not peed in it yet, but she loves having a seat that is her size! She has also recently taken to standing on it like a stage.

Right now, I am watching her eat brown rice with marinara sauce and cucumber salad. She is eating them both with a spoon. Her spoon and fork skills have gotten much better over the last month. Although, she generally likes to eat with her hands and play with the silverware!

Over the past month Bella has gotten more affectionate. She has been giving lots of hugs and kisses and gives us lots of cuddles in the morning. She is still nursing in the morning and it is our time to be close and connect before she takes off and does not slow down until nap time. I am having a hard time letting this last little bit of nursing go and she still loves it, although she would prefer if more milk would come out!

Another funny thing she has been doing is if we start to sing a song and she does not want us to sing that song to her she says "no"! Often it takes starting several songs before she settles on the right one! It totally cracks us up.

Today she broke her first item at the store. I have been trying to strategically place her in the center of the aisle so that she can't grab anything...she is really grabby these days. Anyways, I was trying to find something and turned away and bam! She managed to drop a $6 jar of pasta sauce. Oh well!

On her 20th month birthday the three of us are heading to Hampton, VA to see Phish. Our wonderful friend Sarah is going to meet us there to watch Bella for two of the three shows. The third show is going to be Bella's first Phish show! It is a little crazy, but we are actually very excited to expose her to something that we have loved and been a part of for so many years. I hope that she likes it as much as we do.

Once again I have to say how amazing it is to watch this amazing little girl grow up each and every day. Mark and I are so blessed and we are so grateful.