Bella's dad drove her up to Lake Junaluska this past weekend to attend the annual Gathering of Avetts. She slept for half of the three-hour drive, and then we talked and sang songs and looked for buses and cows the rest of the way. One of the things that kept her going (and made the trip so easy) was the promise of feeding ducks once we got to the lake.
When we arrived, Uncle Wally and Aunt Deanie were already there to greet Bella but she had three things on her mind: the swing she saw on the front porch, the ducks, and her grandparents, Izzy and Bud, who were not there yet. She settled for swinging and talking with Wally and Deanie until Bud arrived. Then it was time to go feed the ducks. Bella decided to take her doll (that lives at Izzy and Bud's house) Mayspring in her stroller to feed the ducks, too. So the four of us took a box of stale Triscuits down to the lake to the first group of ducks we saw.
Bella LOVED the ducks, so much that she disregarded any dogs that walked by us while she fed them. And the ducks were accommodating, waddling up very close to Bella to eat the bits of Triscuits she was throwing on the ground. Bella also tried to be helpful to the ducks by pointing and yelling to them to show them where the Triscuit pieces were in the grass.
For the next two days, Bella and her dad got up in the morning and went to feed ducks after breakfast. We got the following video from that first trip with Bud and Mayspring, but wish we had been able to capture footage of the goose with no fear who walked right up to us on Sunday morning and demanded to be be fed. It actually had to be physically restrained by Bella's dad in order for her to feed the other ducks (and one squirrel).
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
DEAR READER
Thank you for keeping up with me on my blog. It's a lot of fun, but I want to let you know that my momma is doing something serious. She is running in the New City Marathon on November 1 to raise funds for pediatric cancer research. Here's the website for the story of Adrian, who she is running in memory of, and her donations: https://fredsteam.mskcc.org/fundraising/Controller?action=userHome&user_id=40161&event_id=128
Please help support her in this great cause!
thank you,
Bella
Please help support her in this great cause!
thank you,
Bella
Friday, September 18, 2009
NEW MOVES
Here's a collection of clips from the last month or two showing Bella at her finest/weirdest/fearless best!
GROWING UP
Been a while since I just wrote about Bella, and now that she's down for a night's sleep I'll take a few minutes to try to gather my thoughts and recollections.
Potty training has been great. Every one of Bella's BMs has gone in the toilet these last several weeks. She knows when she has to go, often tells us "poo poo" and off we go. Her urination is probably 80 to 90 percent in the toilet as well. We have accidents every now and then - usually when we are playing and she fails to notice that she has to go. But when we do go to the toilet, she likes to take all her clothes off, climb up the step stool and then - all by herself - use her hands and feet to get on the seat and turn herself around and plop down on the plastic training seat. She wants NO help with this at all. She also turns around and and flushes the toilet while she's still sitting on it.
At school, Bella is friends with Robert, Henry, Sela, Simone, Kate and her other classmates. But she is crazy about Alma, one of the assistants who comes in during the afternoons. Bella often refers to her as Elmo, and she enjoys spending time with Alma in the classroom when others are outside playing so she can help clean up the classroom. She is learning to clear the table and clean the table and how to wash hands and sweep. She loves helping around the kitchen these days. We can ask her to get one of her bowls or a plate or a glass and she goes right over to her little shelves and gets one. Then she'll put it on the table or bring it to us, whichever we ask her to do.
Bella is also talking more and more. She is stringing two and three words together at times. And she understands most of what we ask her. She will also repeat words we say if they sound fun, so Bella's momma is really watching what she says! The other day for the first time, Bella brought Hop the monkey into the kitchen and asked Hop if he wanted yogurt. "Hop want yoyo?" Apparently he (and Bella) did.
She's been painting a lot these last few days, choosing what colors to use and where to put them. After using a brush she often squeezes it with her hand and uses that hand to smear more colors on her paper. Will get some photos of her artwork up sometime soon. Gonna work on new videos to post now.
Potty training has been great. Every one of Bella's BMs has gone in the toilet these last several weeks. She knows when she has to go, often tells us "poo poo" and off we go. Her urination is probably 80 to 90 percent in the toilet as well. We have accidents every now and then - usually when we are playing and she fails to notice that she has to go. But when we do go to the toilet, she likes to take all her clothes off, climb up the step stool and then - all by herself - use her hands and feet to get on the seat and turn herself around and plop down on the plastic training seat. She wants NO help with this at all. She also turns around and and flushes the toilet while she's still sitting on it.
At school, Bella is friends with Robert, Henry, Sela, Simone, Kate and her other classmates. But she is crazy about Alma, one of the assistants who comes in during the afternoons. Bella often refers to her as Elmo, and she enjoys spending time with Alma in the classroom when others are outside playing so she can help clean up the classroom. She is learning to clear the table and clean the table and how to wash hands and sweep. She loves helping around the kitchen these days. We can ask her to get one of her bowls or a plate or a glass and she goes right over to her little shelves and gets one. Then she'll put it on the table or bring it to us, whichever we ask her to do.
Bella is also talking more and more. She is stringing two and three words together at times. And she understands most of what we ask her. She will also repeat words we say if they sound fun, so Bella's momma is really watching what she says! The other day for the first time, Bella brought Hop the monkey into the kitchen and asked Hop if he wanted yogurt. "Hop want yoyo?" Apparently he (and Bella) did.
She's been painting a lot these last few days, choosing what colors to use and where to put them. After using a brush she often squeezes it with her hand and uses that hand to smear more colors on her paper. Will get some photos of her artwork up sometime soon. Gonna work on new videos to post now.
Monday, September 7, 2009
JERSEY GIRL
So Bella spent a week at the beach with her momma (she started calling Jen "momma" when we got to NYC, prior to that she called us both "daddy" or Jen "dadoo"), and her grandparents, Nunya and Nana, and her aunts - Stephi and Lindsey (aka NoNo), and uncles - Tony and Bill - and her cousins, Wyatt (aka WyWy) and Travis.
The whole crew descended upon a historic beach front home in Surf City, New Jersey and quickly fell into the beach vibe. Hurricane Bill (no relation) had just passed by, so the waves were some of the biggest Bella's dad had ever seen let alone body surfed. There were life guards on duty, and swimming was only permitted in certain marked areas. But Bella knew no fear and wanted to essentially walk to England over the waves. She was raring to go that first day or two. She liked the water, kept wanting to go deeper, she played in the sand, found seashells and loved seeing airplanes and "ducks" (aka sea gulls).
But the sun and sand took their toll and Bella had a bit of a cold, so she spent most of the rest of the week indoors where she and Wyatt and Travis played games, drew pictures, raced up and down the staircase and walked down the street with their parents to get ice cream cones (Bella's second, third and fourth cones). She also learned to love the outdoor shower, and loved just standing under the warm water and watching it roll off her onto the wooden floor. She also led the whole group in rousing renditions of "Happy and You Know It" and "ABCs" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."
When the sun started setting, Bella enjoyed going to the beach to look for shells, jump in the sand, and chase the "ducks" with the help of her father and Nunya.
She was ready to go when Saturday rolled around, and went back to New York City for a day where she got to meet and play with (and against) Ben Urbanski. Then it was onto a plane for a 7.5-hour delayed ordeal back to Atlanta and her home and her bed and her cats and her school.
The whole crew descended upon a historic beach front home in Surf City, New Jersey and quickly fell into the beach vibe. Hurricane Bill (no relation) had just passed by, so the waves were some of the biggest Bella's dad had ever seen let alone body surfed. There were life guards on duty, and swimming was only permitted in certain marked areas. But Bella knew no fear and wanted to essentially walk to England over the waves. She was raring to go that first day or two. She liked the water, kept wanting to go deeper, she played in the sand, found seashells and loved seeing airplanes and "ducks" (aka sea gulls).
But the sun and sand took their toll and Bella had a bit of a cold, so she spent most of the rest of the week indoors where she and Wyatt and Travis played games, drew pictures, raced up and down the staircase and walked down the street with their parents to get ice cream cones (Bella's second, third and fourth cones). She also learned to love the outdoor shower, and loved just standing under the warm water and watching it roll off her onto the wooden floor. She also led the whole group in rousing renditions of "Happy and You Know It" and "ABCs" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."
When the sun started setting, Bella enjoyed going to the beach to look for shells, jump in the sand, and chase the "ducks" with the help of her father and Nunya.
She was ready to go when Saturday rolled around, and went back to New York City for a day where she got to meet and play with (and against) Ben Urbanski. Then it was onto a plane for a 7.5-hour delayed ordeal back to Atlanta and her home and her bed and her cats and her school.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
BACK TO THE BIG APPLE
Bella went back to New York City last month for a few days before heading to the beach with her relatives. She had a good time walking on the sidewalks, seeing A LOT of buses, meeting doggie friends, seeing a few horses, eating yummy food (but turned her nose up at sashimi), and taking a long nap in Central Park. She also visited the museum of Natural History where she saw the skeletons of dinosaurs and all kinds of other cool/dead animals. It was also in New York City that her grandfather, Nunya, bought Bella her first ice cream cone - which she thoroughly enjoyed.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
BELLA AT THE AQUARIUM
For the 100th post on her blog, Bella is sharing photos of her visit to the Georgia Aquarium with her grandparents, Nunya and Nana. They visited for a week last month and enjoyed getting to spend time with their granddaughter and explore a bit of the ATL. Bella reportedly loved the fish she saw and entertained everyone else who was visiting the aquarium that day. We should charge admission!
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