It's Been Awhile...

It's been a while since I've posted anything, and I almost scrapped the blog completely. I decided to keep it alive with this new post. I'll just keep it simple with some recent videos. Enjoy!

Belle's Animal Noises

Belle feeding herself with a spoon.

Belle's Birthday Extravaganza

On May 3rd, Isabella turned the big ONE! We celebrated by having a birthday party on Saturday, May 2nd, at our house with family and all of her little friends.  Here are some pics of Belle eating her cake and a video of the day:

Belle is walking very well now, and even has started making attempts at running.  Although she tends to fall face first into the ground more often than not during these attempts.  Her new thing now is to climb into everything, buckets, laundry baskets,etc.  She's also trying out lots of new words.   She can now say, Dada, Mama, Cat, Cracker (sounds more like Caca though), Dog, Bye Bye, Hi, Baby, and Shoe.  Those are the ones I can recall at the moment. Sometimes she'll say a word for one day, and then I'll never hear it again.  Her favorite word is still by far, Dada.  I'm just glad she's finally saying Mama, even if it's only when she's upset.  

Easter, April and Rabid Cats

Well, April started off with a bang when our cat Coaster escaped outside all night. The next morning she came home, but her tail looked really funny.  We brought her to the vet, and found out that she had been bitten by some kind of animal and her tail was really infected.  Since Coaster remains indoors (usually), she was not up to date on her rabies vaccination.  Since we didn't know what had bitten her, we now must quarantine her for 6 months to be sure that she didn't catch rabies.  She now has taken over our guest bedroom, and actually seems pretty content.  No signs of rabies so far, and we've come to the conclusion that most likely it was our neighbor's cat who did it. However, we're not taking any chances.  Here is a pic of Coaster with her Elizabethan collar on:


For Easter, we went to James' parents house where we had lunch. Then we went with Belle and her cousins to an Easter Egg hunt in the park.  This was right during Belle's nap time, so she got pretty cranky and we had to leave early.  All and all though, we had a great time. Here are some pics:

Belle telling Evan not to take her Easter basket.

Belle and I in the sandbox waiting for the Easter Egg Hunt to start.

Belle in the sandbox.

Vivian and her Easter basket.

Grandpa Tom, James, and Belle.

This is Belle on the way home.  She loves wearing my sunglasses. They're my secret weapon when she's getting cranky in the car. When I put them on her, I sing "Cool baby, cool baby" and she starts dancing. It is hilarious!!

Finally some proof!

Here is the video I promised of Belle walking. It's been almost a month since her first monumental steps, but I've finally captured it. She still prefers crawling, but each day she walks more and more. The new shoes I bought her have also hindered her process a little bit, but I'm trying to let her walk around barefoot more often now that's it's warmer. Anyway, enjoy!

Quick Update on the Bellster

The past few weeks, the whole family has been fighting the flu. Combine that with trying to get our taxes done, Easter, and planning Belle's birthday party, not much blog writing has happened. I still don't have much time to write, but just wanted to give a quick update.

Of most importance, Belle is walking!! Her first real walking experience was on March 28th. Daddy and Grandma Karen were also there to see it, which made it that much more special. One second she was holding on to the coffee table, the next she had let go and was off! She took about 4 steps before she crashed. It was wonderful. Now, she'll take about 10 steps at most so far. She will now go from sitting to standing and walk until her balance gives out or she gets scared, whichever comes first. I've yet to get a video of it for various reasons. Mainly I've been sick, and the camera is never around when I need it. Horrible, terrible excuses, but I will get one very soon.

Pictures of Easter and other things in April to be coming soon...

Typical week in the life of Belle...

A typical week for Belle is: Mon-Wed we go to Story Time at the library. Each library in the area hosts a story time for babies, so we hit up three different ones during the week. They dance to songs, hear a story, watch bubbles. Belle loves it. On Thursdays, we go to a music class at a nearby gymnastics gym. This is a little more crazy. There is lots of dancing and a lot of older kids. Belle is still getting used to this, but she started dancing after the first time we went, so I think she's getting something out of it. Usually one day during the week, we'll meet up with other babies and their moms for a playdate. We'll also go see Belle's grandma and grandpa about once a week. During the weekends, it's Daddy Time! James is on full Daddy duty, while I take a break. And by a take a break, I mean I'm usually doing stuff like clean the house, anything that's very hard during the week to do with an active baby. We also just spend family time together, whether we go for a walk or go to a playground or even just spend time together in the house. Belle loves spending time with her daddy. During the week, I'll usually sleep in until 7:30-8, while Belle and James spend a couple of hours together. It's a special time for all of us, especially since she only sees James very briefly when he gets home from work and I don't get a lot of sleep at night. Anyway, here are some pics of Belle's daily life...

Watching the bubbles at Story Time


Playdate with David and Michael


Belle and David looking out of the window.


I tried to get some good shots of Belle outside when the weather was nice. She was so curious about the grass and leaves though, that I couldn't get her to look up. These are the best ones I got. I'm going attempt again once the rain clears up, and the ground is dry.

Trip to the Aquarium

Last Wednesday, Belle and I met up with some of our friends and went to the Georgia Aquarium. Two of our friends had season tickets with guest passes, so we were all able to get in free of charge. We were so grateful for this, considering how ridiculously expensive it is there. Belle loved the tunnel of fish and the giant wall of fish the best. It was a great day! Below are some pictures and some videos of our aquatic adventure.


Holding hands with Michael while watching the fish!


Flirting with an older boy she met at the aquarium. This girl is trouble!!


Amy with David, Me with Belle, Michelle with Michael, and Anamaria with Brodie



Belle in amazement in the tunnel of fish.



David and Belle fighting over the wall of fish.

Family and Baby Updates -Steps, Sleep, and Teeth!

STEPS
This post is sort of a catch up for all the new stuff going on in the Charlesworth household. In Belle news, she has taken her first steps! I'm not sure if I should totally count it as walking or not though. She has yet to go from sitting to standing on her own, but she will stand on her own for about 30 seconds if I let her go. The other day, I let her go and she took two steps into my arms! I was so excited, but I think I might have done it too many times with her. Now if I let her go, she immediately sits. She will refuse to stand on her own. I'm not going to attempt it for a few days, and hopefully she'll do it again.

SLEEP
Isabella has also started sleeping better at night. We've been using the Ferber method, and now she will only wake up once during the night. It's usually at about 4:30 am, and she's usually hungry. I'm going to attempt to try to push this back to at least 6 am. I wanted to attempt this sooner, but she's just getting over a cold and I didn't want to try this while she was still sick. She's also been in a heap of teething pain, which leads us to the next bit of news: new teeth!

TEETH
Belle has gotten some new teeth! Her top two teeth have started to show, and the two next to them seem to be close behind. It's been torturous for her and me, and nursing has become a whole new challenge. Weaning is in our near future, and I'm counting down the days.

KIM NEWS
Since I've last written, I've decided that the daycare job I had wasn't working out very well for Belle or for me. Belle, wanting to play with the older kids, was coming home with cuts and bruises. There was also always small toys around, causing a choking hazard for her, despite my best efforts to get them out of her reach. As for me, the daycare facility itself was not the type of place I felt comfortable in. To put it nicely, that place was a lawsuit waiting to happen. James and I decided that quitting would probably be the best thing. I've since been able to focus entirely on our company, Print My Baby. Because of the guilt of not bringing in extra income anymore, I've attacked my work on the company with a newfound vigor. My efforts have begun to pay off, and the business is continuously growing. Of course, this business wouldn't be half of what it is without James superior SEO skills!!

Belle's First Snow

It's been a while since I've blogged, so I'm going to make a few different posts. During the writing of my last post, it began to snow. It was our first real snowfall since Belle's been born, and in March no less. I took a video of her reaction from inside the house, unfortunately I didn't record the short time we were outside in the snow. I also have a video of when I put her in her highchair, and she just kept turning her head,looking in each window like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. It was really cute. She also kept putting her hand up to her mouth in sideways position. I'm not sure why, but she did the same thing again later that week when she saw bubbles.



Belle's First Sight of Snow

Jackson's Birthday Party and Snow!!!

Yesterday, Belle's friend, Jackson, turned one. He celebrated by having a birthday party at the Coffee Park, which is a cute little coffee shop with a great play area for kids. Jackson's mom, Nicole, made baby cupcakes for the kids, which were made of carrot and raisin puree with cream cheese and applesauce frosting. Belle loved it! Below are some pictures and a video of some of the babies playing maracas together! It was so cute. I'm also posting a video of Belle that I took while she was playing one day. She realized I was filming her and then she really started hamming it up for the camera. I thought it was hilarious.

Oh, and in other news, I decided to chop about 9 inches off my hair yesterday. I also posted a pic of that.

One last thing, as I was writing this it began to snow! This is our first real snowfall in Atlanta this year, and it is Belle's first real snowfall ever! Right now she is still sleeping, but I'm excited to see her reaction to it.

Videos from the Past

Since I just started this blog, I wanted to just post a few videos from Isabella's younger days. Enjoy.

The ride home from the hospital when she was

first born. She was all cheeks back then.

Babbling at about 3 months old.

She's about 4 months old here.  

On the Mend...

Belle went for the second recheck of her arm today. The doctor said she's healing very well. We just have to bandage her up for a couple more days, and then start rubbing some Vitamin E or Mederma on it to prevent any scarring. We've all gotten into a bandaging groove, and Belle doesn't give us any problems with it. We're all happy to have survived her first big accident, and we're hoping we don't get another one anytime soon.

In other news, Belle has now decided to refuse any pureed foods. She will spit out anything that she cannot feed herself. I guess it's her first step towards independence, God help us. We've now started feeding her a version of what we eat, and she seems to like that. Yesterday for example, she had salmon and broccoli for the first time. She LOVED the salmon, but the broccoli not so much. She tried really hard to like it though. She would put it in her mouth, make a face, and then spit it out. Then put it back in her mouth, and then spit it out again. It was pretty comical to watch. Whatever she decidedly doesn't like, goes over the side of the highchair to the dogs. She's made it quite clear that she HATES lentils. These proceeded to go very quickly all over the floor and on top of the dogs.

Belle's sleeping is still a big issue. She hates to sleep! She definitely didn't get that from my side of the family. I function my best with 10 hours sleep, but these days I'm lucky to get 5 or 6. I've tried to get her on a good schedule of naps and bedtime, but she will frequently just refuse one of the naps. She'll go to bed at night pretty easily, but then she's up again at least 2 times during the night and frequently more. I've tried to avoid the crying-it-out method, but I think that's the route I need to take at this point. I'm going to attempt the Ferber method, which is a gentler form of crying-it-out. I tried it when she woke up at midnight last night. It worked, but it took a little while. When your baby is crying though, a little while can seem like an eternity. We'll attempt it again tonight. I'll keep you posted.

Below is a video of Belle's first Christmas for those who didn't get to see it. As you can see, she was super excited!

And the Parents of the Year Award goes to.....

.....anyone but Kimmy and Jimmy! This morning Belle managed to pull a cup of hot tea on herself, creating second degree burns on her arm and first degree burns on her chest.  We spent the morning at Scottish Rite Children's Hospital treating her wounds.  She was such a trooper, and was even laughing and playing while we waited for the doctor despite the pain.  The doctor bandaged her arm and put her on some pain medication.  She told us that the wounds should heal easily and that most likely there won't be any scarring.  Isabella was not her usual cheery self for the rest of the day, and she had a really hard time getting to sleep.  Before bed, I changed her bandage and her wounds seem to be healing very well already.  The minor burns on her chest are almost nearly gone also.  It was quite the scare for us, and it brought to light how unprepared I am for an emergency situation.  First thing tomorrow, I'm buying a new first aid kit and a first aid handbook.  If it wasn't for the seriousness of the situation, the reactions of both James and I would have been almost comical.  I'd go into more detail, but I would risk sounding like a total lunatic.  

Here are some pics of the bandaged baby :(

I love this one.  She looks crazy.

Better late than never....

A few of my friends have started a blog for their little ones, and I've begun to feel like I'm doing a disservice to Belle and my extended family by not doing one.  So here it goes.  Belle turned 9 months old on February 3rd, which was also James and my 3 year wedding anniversary.  She's becoming more and more like a toddler and less like a little baby as each day passes.  She waves and says, "Hi". "Hi" is by far her favorite word, and will happily wave and say "Hi" to the dogs all day.  She also refers to everyone as Dada, but says it with more emphasis when Daddy is around. She hasn't quite gotten "Mama", but I'm hoping that's next!  She's also learned to clap in the last week or so, and does it anytime she excited.  She's having a blast cruising the furniture these days, and I even got her to stand by herself for about 10 seconds yesterday, until she got scared and had to hold on to Mama. 

A couple of weeks ago, we went to a Music Class. Ever since then, Belle will dance!  When she hears music she'll wave her arms back and forth, it's adorable.  Other than that, she's sleeping horribly.  She still wakes at least 2 times a night, but very often more. I'm trying different methods, but nothing is sticking yet.

Last week, I started working 2 days a week at a local daycare.  I've worked three days, and Belle has now become my little helper.  Yesterday I was tending to a crying child.  Belle came over, held the baby's hand and talked her baby talk to her.  I honestly believe she was trying to help me soothe the child. It was amazing to watch.  Belle enjoys playing with the children, but it's always hard for her to settle into a good nap.  

Video of Belle clapping.

Belle Saying Hi. (This one sound like sort of a "Hi/Hey" combo, but she does say "Hi" very clear on occasion)

Belle waving.