Sibling Love

We were a little anxious to see how the kids reacted to Bella's birth. Austin was really interested in the baby in my belly before she was born. He'd talk to her and seemed to be excited about her pending arrival. McKenna was only just 2, pretty darn clingy and smack dab in the middle of the terrible (-awful-horrendous-miserable) twos, so we were afraid she'd be jealous of the competition.

Both kids were the exact opposite of what we expected!

As it turned out, Austin was fairly indifferent for the first couple days! He didn't dislike her or anything, but just didn't show any special interest in Bella. He kinda went about his business as usual. But after a few days, he started warming up to her and was so sweet with her.





And McKenna was OBSESSED with Bella! She never left her side, was constantly giving her hugs and kisses, just could not get enough of this new little doll! She wasn't always gentle, but it was just because she wanted to smother her with love!











She also developed this high pitch way of talking to Bella that she still does!

I'm so thankful for these three little people! I can't wait to see their love for each other grow and how much fun they're going to have together!

Newborns Have It So Rough

I want so bad to get caught up that I am tempted to condense everything into whole month posts, but these posts are like my scrapbook and I don't want to zip through all these early pics of Bella. I'm loving looking back at these first days of life with her. There's nothing like those first snuggles! And those were my last first snuggles! So bear with me as I savor getting caught up!





She had some serious built in pillows in those cheeks!


She was such a good sweet sleeper from the beginning! Thankfully she kept that up!

Bella Bella

The hospital has a wonderful service where a company called (coincidentally!) Bella Baby Photography, comes and does a free photoshoot with your new baby. The pics aren't free to buy, but it was so great to have newborn pics of Bella! (The hospital didn't have this service when Austin was born. In fact, the pics they did take were so pitiful, we didn't bother with McKenna, not realizing they had switched to Bella Baby Photography by then. Still very sad I don't have professional pics of that first day with her!)

Aren't these beautiful?!

My Sunshine Turned One!

I got horribly sentimental when Austin and McKenna turned one, but there's definitely some extra tugging of the heart strings when your last baby turns one! Our house will forever be babyless from now on! I'm not sure I'm ready for it! Because of this, I might just have a touch of baby fever now and will be stalking, I mean visiting often, my cousin who just had a baby to get my fill!

As sad as I am for all the baby phases to be over, I'm having so much fun with our new little toddler! She continues to be a hilarious ball of sunshine and I just can't get enough of her!





New this month

As early as she was pulling up and cruising, I predicted she'd be walking by her birthday. And then as we got closer and closer she didn't seem to be making much headway. And then one day, it seemed, she just decided she was going to walk! She took that one fluke step before she was 11 months, but didn't do anything for several weeks. Then it was suddenly several at a time and within a few days she was going across the room! And now she's walking about half the time. She'll walk until she falls and then crawls it out, but can easily get to a stand without assistance. She's had some impressive falls. Whereas Austin and McKenna didn't walk until they were absolutely surefooted, Bella just goes for it! Sometimes the feet would come and sometimes they wouldn't! She's not even walking 100% and she's already trying to run.

Her list of words is growing. She now says "Bye-Bye" and "Night-Night". The other day she was being goofy on the couch and I asked her what she was doing. She grabbed her blankie, laid down on it and said "Night Night!". She also has sorta words for her binkie and blankie, but they're not very distinct. She can sorta repeat words when she wants to.

Also on her new list of vocabulary are "Pat, pat, pat", "Blast off" and "Hot Dog Hot Dog Hot Diggity Dog". She loves to do the blast off sequence of Little Einsteins and the Hot Dog Dance from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Her hot dog dance is super cute. I've tried to get it on video and can't quite get it in all its initial enthusiasm. The best part is that she copies their dance moves and raises her arms at all the appropriate times, even if just listening to the music in the car.

She is even more convinced that both the iPad and my phone are hers. And she insists on bogarting them both at the same time. She has become very interested in phones now. She holds all sorts of things up to her head and pretends to talk!

Her new hobby is unloading and reloading things. Laundry baskets, the spice racks on the pantry door, dresser drawers, the cupboard of cookie sheets and her all time favorite, a good ol' pack of baby wipes.

I love seeing her "get" more toys each month. She has very little interest in her own toys and really just wants whatever the big kids are playing with. She's getting into her job as annoying little sister! The best is when they figure out how to play with her rather than get frustrated with her. She loves to be one of the big kids!

She discovered pinching. She pinches me a lot for no reason while I'm holding her, but she's taken to pinching the big kids when they do something she doesn't like. Starting to hold her own early!

She is becoming horribly shrieky and whiney when she doesn't get what she wants. I'm really hoping she learns how to sign please or yes soon, so that she can stop yelling at me when she wants something!

No new teeth this month. Still just 4 and I'm not sure I see any in the near future. I make really slow teethers! Austin only had two at one year!

I really want to know what color her eyes are going to be! I'm starting to lost hope in blue. McKenna's were blue really early on. Austin's stayed chrome-like for a while before settling on brown and I think Bella's might be going that direction, but some days I think they might be going green. I sorta hope so, so that each kid has different eye color.

It's been such a great year. My sweet bella Bella is so much fun! Thank you, Lord, for this blessing!