Bella Rey - 10 Months

On February 21, 2015, Bella hit her 10 month mark! I cannot believe how fast my sweet baby is learning and growing. I feel like the past month has just flown by, as if it didn't even happen. Bella has been such a busy girl this month. She is a little sponge that just soaks up every little thing we teach her. Our hearts are filled with so much joy having Bella in our family. It is such a delight to see the excitement on Bella's face when she knows she has learned something new, and that we are excited about it. There is nothing like looking into your baby's eyes and seeing them physically brighten and twinkle with pride.

What to know about Bella in her 10th month:

• Bella's mobility is really great! She can pretty much get anywhere she wants to now, and is almost ready to walk on her own. She loves to hold our fingers and pull us around the room. Yes, she pulls us. She seriously runs! We don't take her for walks, she takes us. She is all giggles when we prance our feet up and down and she tries to step on them as we walk. Bella is such a pro with her elephant walker. She still LOVES her elephant! (I have started calling it her Bellaphant). She has also gotten braver and braver and will transfer from furniture to furniture, or to the wall by letting go completely. She will walk around an entire room now too since she will walk along the wall. Her new found bravery has led us to so many bonks though! Seriously this girl has every stage of bruise on her head right now. We always know when Bella is coming to get us when she crawls because she stomps her hands. It is really loud, and I like to say "Uh oh! Here comes Babyzilla!" Bella is still working on getting down to the ground from standing, and she gets better and better everyday. This month she also started bending down to pick things up while she holds on to something. She looks like a little preggo lady while she does it. I love that she will purposefully throw things on the ground just so she can bend down to pick them up. A couple weeks ago, I heard Bella crawling into the kitchen to come get me, but she stopped at the stairs instead and started climbing. She climbed as if she had been doing it from her birth day. It freaked me out! Luckily she is good about staying away from the stairs unless I am near by. 

Always trying to climb.

• Bella LOVES to eat. Where did my skinny little bean go?! She still is below average for weight, but she sure is getting chubby. I love watching her little thighs jiggle when we take walks in her stroller. Since the day after her 9 month birthday, Bella has refused to eat baby purees. Luckily she has always been good at chewing and swallowing so we could just transition completely to table food, and not force her to eat purees. What do I feed Bella? The real question is, what don't I feed Bella? She eats pretty much everything we eat now, and last week we started meats (not the nasty canned puree meats, but real, delicious meat). Her favorite foods are cheese tortellini and ravioli, any cheese, ground beef, chicken, scrambled eggs, pears, blueberries, freeze dried yogurt bites, and avocado. She is really good about eating anything, but she likes to dig through the food on her tray and pick out her favorites. Example: If there is meat or eggs on her tray, she immediately picks them up and shoves her mouth full, then goes searching until all the pieces are gone. Then she will move on to the other foods. She eats so much food! The other night, Pedro told me that Bella eats as much as a 4 year old. She eats 3 meals a day with snacks between, and still nurses about 8 times in 24 hours. She is finally drinking from a sippy rather than just playing with it. She doesn't drink much, but its a step in the right direction. She will only drink whole milk from her sippy. 

She loves putting her feet up on her tray.

Hey Mom! where's the meat?

• This month Bella has really learned to follow instructions, and she is quite obedient for a 10 month old. She has learned my tones for when she shouldn't be doing something, and she rarely needs to hear me say "Bella" more than twice in my stern voice to know that what she is doing is a no-no. She almost always comes to us when we tell her to "come here".
• She loves to wave, jump, high-five, clap, and give kisses. She will do all these things on command. If we tell her to say "hi" or "bye-bye" or to  wave she will do this cute little wave, and will even do double waves for us. She is getting less shy and will wave more at strangers now when they wave at her. She especially loves to wave at Daddy. I like to give Bella the "Little Rascals" wave where you put your hand under your chin and wave. She has started doing it back to me and it is the cutest thing ever. Bella often claps for herself when she sees that we are excited for her. I love it! Her jumps are just her bending her knees over and over really fast while holding on to something. If I say "jump, jump, jump" to her she will go at it with a big grin on her face, and breathing in and out of her nose really fast. Just this past week, Bella has been giving us big slobbery, open mouth kisses on our cheeks, noses, and chins when we ask her to give kisses. Gosh it melts my heart every time! I have been teaching Bella to blow kisses. I know that she is paying attention when I am teaching her, but she hasn't repeated me on it yet. Bella still gives good high-fives to Mommy, and has even started giving them to Daddy when he asks. I love how hard she will smack our hands and get so excited. 

• Things Bella loves: Bella loves her bedtime baths. She will walk herself into the bathroom, holding on to the wall anytime the door is open and try to climb into the bath. She will lift one chubby leg up and claw at the tub, then get on her tip toe on the other leg. She likes to lay on her tummy and kick her feet in the water while she plays with her toys. I think that gets me the most when I think about her growing so fast. She looks like a little toddler as she plays in the tub. Bella loves books now. She will pull them all off her shelf then push 2 or 3 of them aside. I take this as her telling me which stories she wants for bedtime. I love that she sits in our laps and helps turn the pages as we read to her. Its one of my favorite times of day with Bella. Bella loves blankets. She loves to roll all over them and feel their softness. She also love to roll herself up into a burrito. We will just lay open blankets on the ground and watch as she has a ball rolling around. Bella loves being in the shopping cart. Especially the Costco carts. I think she feels so big sitting up and looking around. I have started singing more little kid songs to Bella, and she loves "Itsy Bitsy Spider" the most. She laughs so hard when I sing "washed the spider out". I guess she really loves the action I do for it. Bella loves to knock on closed doors when she knows one of us is on the other side. She also likes to close doors on Mom. Anytime I am in the closet or doing my hair in the bathroom, Bella goes up to the door and pushes it shut then sits in front of the door so I can't open it. Eventually she lets me out. :) Bella loves Taylor Swift still and gets excited to hear "blank Space" in the car.

Swiftie

We love Costco!

She helps push the cart. She even pulls back and is strong enough to slow the cart down.

• Bella still says "papa" "dada" "up" and occasionally "mama". This month I think she has started saying "hi" but it isn't distinctive enough from her other chatter to know for sure. We love her little voice and all the different tones and inflections she uses. She tells the best stories because they are so expressive. She likes to hum and sing along to songs. She even picked up on the phrase "up up up" in Kelly Clarkson's "Heartbeat Song" and will sing along actually saying "up up up". Bella loves to make elephant noises and growl. I love that she growls at us, and growls while she plays. Bella loves to imitate sounds we make, and she especially loves to imitate Daddy's yawns because he sings a run while he yawns.
• Bella is very good at helping Mommy clean. She loves to help fold laundry (throw the freshly folded clothes on the floor), put clothes in the dryer (pull clothes out of the dry and throw them on the floor), and help vacuum (attack the cord). 

• Bella is quite attached to Mommy this month. She has been more clingy, and has started to realize when Mommy is not there. She only gets really sad if I go away occasionally. I do like that she loves me, I just hope that it doesn't turn into a serious separation anxiety issue. I sure do love my Bella - Mommy time though!

• Bella has started pinching me. It leaves bruises and is not pleasant. She can still be rough with Mommy by pulling hair as well. I cut my hair into a pixie so the pulling has decreased, and it doesn't hurt as much when she does pull. She also loves to hit us with her binky, which really hurts when she gets you in the face. Other than that, Bella is a very pleasant girl who is always happy, giggling, and smiling. 
• Bella still adores her Daddy and loves to wave at him all day long. She still gets so excited when she hears the front door open indicating Daddy is home from work. During dinner, Bella is always looking over her shoulder for Daddy, and when I ask her "Where's Daddy?" she starts looking around. Bella loves to get horsey rides on Daddy's shoulders, pull Daddy's leg hair, eat Daddy's nose, rub Daddy's hair, wrestle Daddy, and cuddle Daddy under layers of soft blankets.
• Sleeping for Bella is getting a little better. She has had several nights in the past couple weeks where she slept 7-8 hour stretches. Last night she slept for 10 hours straight through the night. It was most pleasant to have a good nights rest! She has started only taking one 2 hour nap a day with an occasional hour nap in the afternoon. When she is ready to be done with her sleep, she likes to bang her binky on the crib. 

bed head!

• Bella still loves her binky, but is using it less and less. She has started to share her binky with us by trying to put it in our mouths. She does the same with food. I'm glad she has started weaning herself off the bink. It will make it easier later when we decide to be done with them. 
• Bella is a very independent girl still. She will play for long periods of time by herself. I think it is important for her to play by herself and develop her imagination. She has also become more social and will play and interact with other babies for short periods of time. She loves to watch older children play and loves when they talk to her. She loves going to the park and people watching. She also loves the swing and slide.

Playing with a friend

being "Big" by herself.

Independently watching Tangled while Mommy makes dinner.

I Just love this goofy little Girl! 

Bella had a tumble off of our bed this past month, and Mommy was traumatized. I couldn't go anywhere without taking her with me because I was so afraid of her getting hurt. A couple of weeks ago she dunked her face in the tub and swallowed some water. The look of fear on her face and the gasping just about broke my heart. It is amazing how much you can feel for your child. Their fear and pain becomes your fear and pain. We love this little girl so much and are trying so hard to keep her safe now that she can get around. I think that it going to be the hardest part of parenthood. Keeping my children safe. Safe from the world. Safe from physical and emotional pain. Safe from poor choices. Safe from hatred. Safe from self judgement. Just safe.

10 minutes after falling off the bed she was happy and ready to play.