Life of Laraia: Bella Rey - 17, 18, 19 Months

I can't believe it has been 3 months since I last blogged about Bella. The time is flying by! Bella keeps me so busy with her adventurous, sassy attitude. We sure love this fiery-sweet little girl. And that is what she is now, a little girl. She no longer can be associated with infancy, and I am in denial. I still nurse her at night, and I am just holding on to those precious moments because I don't want to face the fact that she is growing up.

17 Months

18 Months:

19 Months:

18 month Stats:
Height: 33.25 in (80%)
Weight: 26.2 lbs (85%)
Head: 47.25 cm (75%)

Here is what we have been up to and learning over the past 3 months:

Bella talks so much now. A lot of her words are difficult to understand, but she is consistently using her words for each specific item. My favorite words are, "tasty" "saw-saz" (sausage) "chicken" (chichin) "I did" (I did it) "Weeeee" "pod" (potty) "aldoh" (hello) and "sirsul" (circle). She tells me "no" when she doesn't want something, and says "please" when she does want something. She is soooo sassy when she says "no" that it is hard not to laugh because it is cute. She is starting to realize you can join words together. She says 2-3 word sentences. She knows how to say all of her friends names, most of her cousin's names, and grandma, and grandpa. She jabbers all day long, and is so expressive. She has always been great at communicating with her body language and pointing so we pretty much always know what she wants, but now we have started telling her to use her words, and she has responded really well to that. She likes to put "the" in front of words and repeat it over and over. "the ball, the ball, the ball."
Bella is still being picky about her food, but not as bad as it was 3 months ago. She still won't touch veggies though, so that's fun. She loves to sit at her big girl table to eat, and has to have a fork and spoon like Mommy and Daddy.

All big pushed up to the table.

Sharing with Hulk.

Eat allllll the toast!

She set a "nic nic" (picnic) up for herself.

Bella loves to play, and lately she is developing her imaginative play. She will have her dolls interact with each other, have them dance, set up picnics, talk to Hulk, feed her babies, share her snacks with her babies, change her babies' bums, etc. She interacts more with other kids now too, and engages in imaginatve play with them as well. She especially loves to hold hands with her friends and pull them to where she wants to be.

Sith Lord Belsa

Look at that concentration.

She loves Daddy's "Hah" (hat)

Baby has to be involved in everything these days.

Hulk needs pretty hair too.

Hulk joining us on our walk.

Bella loves to read. She will sit down and recite the books she has memorized. Book page: "bubbles bubbles on my nose, bubbles bubbles on my toes" Bella: "bubble nose! Bubble toes!" She has a book that says mama in it a lot, so she will look at it's pages and say "mama mama." The books she doesn't have memorized, she will just sit and jabber as if she were reading it. I love it so much!

Reading "mama mama"

We have been working on our numbers, colors, and letters lately. I will start counting "1, 2, 3" and Bella will join in just to say "two." She asks to do her "Ah, B, shee's" on the tablet all the time. I have found that Bella responds better to learning when we are outside and using nature to learn. She learned her numbers up to 3 by using berries on a bush we found. She learned her colors (green, red, orange, yellow) by using the fall leaves. Now she goes around outside gathering yellow leaves and saying "lello." She now recognizes and says "sirsul" (cirlce) "hahr" (heart) "sdar" (star).

She seriously loves leaves!

Bella is going to be the best big sister one day. She loves babies! She will take care of her dolls with food, drink, diapers, cuddles, kisses, and playing. Sometimes she even holds her dolls up to her chest, bounces them, and says "shh, shh, shh." When we are around my friend's 2 month old baby, Bella will put his blankie on him, pat his bellie, and rock his swing for him. She says "baby" all day long. She is such a good little mommy.
Bella likes to help mommy workout. She will go get my weights from the closet, do downward dog, kick her legs and breath for Pilates, runs in place, and does push ups with me. We call our workouts, "dancing with Tony."

"Dawn dog" (downward dog)

She is so strong and always lifting my 5 lb weights up high.

A new take on Savasana.

Push-ups with Tony

We like to use Bella's favorite characters to get her to do things she refuses to do. Hulk let us push food in his face so that Bella would get over being picky, and it did help a lot! We also tell her to have a bite to grow strong like Hulk. She used to say "rawr!" and take a bite, but it has lost its effectiveness now. We use Elsa and Anna all the time to get Bella to put hats and gloves on, get dressed, and stop throwing fits.
Bella is too smart. She catches on to things super fast. She likes to take things apart then try and put them back together. She is fairly patient with the process too. When she needs help, she will put our hands exactly where she wants to fix something.
Bella loves to sit on her little potty. She sits on it every time when Mommy goes. She sits down fully clothed, waits like 2 seconds, asks for toilet paper, wipes, then closes the potty down and goes to wash her hands with help. I tried some undies on her the other day and she though they were pretty cool. We are just taking our time getting used to all things associated with the potty, but I think Bella would respond really well to full potty training right now. She has her special poop corner, she says "pee pee" before she pees in the tub, she controls her toots, and she points to her bums to show where her pee pees and poops come from.
Bella loves her baths. She is very imaginative when in the tub. She pretends to swim by laying on her belly and kicking her legs and moving her arms saying "sim" (swim). She loves to hold her ducky and rock him to sleep. She then lays him on his side, covers him with a wash cloth, says "shh shh shh, na night," then puts the duck away before we get out of the tub. She likes to put the cup on tup of the duck and shout, "duck? Duuuuck?" then pulls the cup off and we says peek-a-boo. She loves to splash Mommy and get the floor all wet.
One of my favorite things Bella does is say "Hi Mama" when we are reunited, whether it be me coming home from a lone trip to the store, or if she was just playing in her room by herself and I check on her. It melts my heart every time as her little lips crack into a grin, her hand is waving, and her little voice excitedly says "Hi Mama!"

She said "Hi Mama" and I turned around to this.

Apparently she likes to soften her punishment by saying "Hi Mama"

Bella loves to hide from us in corners, then jump out at us. She just loves tight spaces, and occasionally invites to sit in her tight spots with her. Bella still loves her pillows and blankets and is always making nests. We are not allowed to sit on the pillows and blankets unless Bella invites us to. A couple of months ago, Bella invited Pedro to lay down with her, but he put his head on a pillow that he was not invited to touch. She got mad at him, pushed him off and took the pillow back. She is a funny girl.

Bella loves "Frozen" and we watch it several times a week. She has been asking for it less so that is good. She is obsessed with Elsa and gets way too excited every time she sees a poster or toy with Elsa. Today she was shouting something that I couldn't quite place, then I realized she was singing "Let it go!" it was so cute!

Our Elsa inspired Christmas tree

Watching Frozen

Watching Frozen.

Elsa baby, Elsa stickers, while watching Frozen.

The face she gets when Elsa comes on the screen.

Bella refuses to climb backwards down stairs. She insists on sliding down on her bum! Haha.
Bella loves to grab us by the fingers and drag us and position us where she wants us. She especially loves to pull us from our seats to dance. She is quite the dancer. She will kick her legs up, jump up and down, twirl, run in circles, tap dance, tip toe walk, and she really loves when we spin her fast. I took her to a Mommy and Me ballet class and she loved it. She had a hard time not running around like a mad woman, but she still did well with learning the different moves. I can't wait until she gets older and we can start her in dance lessons.

ready for Mommy and Me dance.

Bella loves to help Mommy with laundry and cleaning. She insists on helping and feels so proud of when she does something all by herself.
Bella gets concerned for other people. When her friends are sad she will give me an inquiring look, softly say their name, then go and pat them. She also gets concerned when Hulk engages in a fight scene in her shows. We always have to tell her that Hulk is going to be okay.
Bella and Daddy are a sweet little pair. They have so much fun together with their pillows, blankets, and light sabres. I love when Daddy and Bella go on dates. I love when Bella lights up and runs to Daddy when he comes home from work. I love how Bella brings me my phone and asks to call Daddy. We love our Daddy!

Always putting daddy's shoes on!

Donuts with Dad (Apple Hill, Rainbow Orchards)

"Neeeeeiiiiigh!" (Apple Hill, High Hill)

Apple Hill, McGee's

Going on a date with Daddy!

Bella and Mommy have so much fun during the day. We love to make each other laugh. I can't imagine my life without her! I especially love Bella snuggles right after nap time. She nuzzles in so close. She also loves to give Mommy and Daddy big squeezy hugs, and grabs our faces to pull them in for a big kiss!

Apple Hill

She wanted to wear a belt like Mommy!

Free train Tuesdays at The Fountains

Picking mandarins with friends!

We love our little fireball and are so excited to do Christmas with her this year! She is already loving the Christmas decorations and shows we have watched. Bella brings us so much joy and teaches us so many things every day. She definitely tests Mommy's patience, but we are learning together. She is such a cuddly and sweet person. She has such a concern for other people that is just heart melting. Bella loves her Mommy and Daddy and we sure love her!