Playing Catch Up

Wow, I am way behind. I suck.

Let's play catch-up, shall we? :-)

1) I took Bella to the little local zoo last Sunday, and she loved it! We had taken her in March, but she was a little intimidated by the whole thing then. This time, she was all about it. She wasn't sure what to think when we got to the first animals- she looked at me like, "what the heck are those mom??" I asked her if they looked like sheep, and her eyes got all bright and she said, "Baaaaaa!!!" Haha. She told me what sound every single animal there makes, and if she didn't know it, she made one up. (Apparently, porcupines meow.) She was loving the zebra, and the monkeys... but her favorite were the goats. I'm guessing because 1) they wouldn't shut up, and 2) they were eating out of my hand, which she thought was just super awesome.






2) Last Thursday night, I was sitting around playing with Bella and munching on some Fritos. I went in the other room to switch the laundry, leaving the bag of Fritos on the top shelf of the desk. This is what I came back to...


(please excuse her runny nose, we both had a cold)

I was thinking her first taste of Fritos was a loooooooong way off, but apparently she had other plans. O_0

And when the heck did she get big enough to climb up on the desk???

3) I just thought these were pretty cute pictures. "I see you" (as she calls it) is one of Bella's favorite games, and it's even better when she's playing with her own reflection.



4) And last, but definitely not least, I bought a ticket today to go home next week for Thanksgiving!!! Woo-hoo!!!!

For four months...

...I did not cry. Not since I got in the car after dropping T off that morning.

Tonight, because of some random story line about a sweet old couple on Grey's, I cried. The tears streaming, nose running, uncontrollable sobbing type of crying. I felt like a complete idiot. And at the same time, it felt GREAT. I feel refreshed. Seriously, one of the three knots I've had in my neck for going on two months- gone. Shoot, if I had known that crying would make them go away, I'd have been watching tear-jerkers one after another to get the waterworks flowing. ;-)

I miss him. And it feels really good to let myself acknowledge that. I wish I could be more like Bella, she is an open book.

Getting Brave

Yesterday was a *nearly* perfect day, weather-wise. 80 degrees, nice breeze, not a cloud in the sky... just plain gorgeous. I took Bella to the park for a while, to wear her out before nap time.

Now, around the beginning of the summer, she was very unsure about the slides. I would try to stand next to the slide and hold onto her as she went down, but it was still just a bit too intimidating for her unless she was sitting on my (or T's) lap. Then, later in the summer, she decided it was fun to go down the side-by-side slides together- her on one, and me on the other- holding hands. She'd have a death grip on my hand, but nonetheless she would be very excited and proud when we got to the bottom.

Well, yesterday, she came to the conclusion that she no longer needed to hold my hand as she went down the slide. She also decided that I did not need to follow her up the steps, and she much preferred for me to wait at the bottom of the slide for her.

She's growing so incredibly fast. **wipes away tear**

More Halloween

So, on Thursday night I took Bella to the aquarium for the Trick or Treat Under the Sea thing. It was fun, but EXTREMELY busy. Really, I would have been better off just taking her during the day, since it's not like she eats the candy anyway. But, even though we had to park a mile away, and stand in line for 20 minutes to get in, and pay even though I have a membership, and stand in line for every candy station (if I paid $5 to get in, I was sure as heck getting some candy out of it! lol), and could barely walk because it was so packed, I'm glad we went. :-)






On Halloween, we stayed home to hand out candy. Bella had a great time watching the Trick or Treaters running around, and was intrigued as to why people kept coming to the door. She would stand by the door and watch me hand out candy (I tried letting her hand it out, but she just grabbed a handful and ran. haha), and as they walked away she would wave and say bye to them. So cute. There were a ton of ToTers this year too... I bought the same amount of candy this year as I did last year (I had leftovers last year), and I ran out in less than an hour! I felt bad turning away so many kids, but the only pre-packaged thing I had in the house was granola bars, and I don't think that would have been a huge hit. ;-)

And, of course, I had a cute Halloween outfit for Miss B to wear. It's a little big on her, but I found it at the thrift store on base for like $2 and from the tag it looks like some kind of handmade or boutique brand. I was super excited when I found it.