GOOD FRIENDS!

Bella spent some time recently with some good friends.

First it was Holden. The two of them got together at a Mexican restaurant in Decatur and played in the yard while their parents ate lunch and had some margaritas. There were some other kids running around, too, so good times were had by all. This photo of Holden and Bella together took us about 10 minutes to snap as every time one of them would sit down on the steps the other would get up and move. And vice versa. But it was all worth it to snap this.














Then this past Sunday, Bella's cousins, Grace and Maddie, were in town with their parents. After a round of pizza at Fellini's, we all headed back to Bella's house where Maddie showed off her soccer skills, Grace pushed Bella in her tricycle, and everyone kicked balls around in the back yard. Afterward, it was time for Daddy Marsh to catch up on some college basketball, Momma Jill to relax a bit, Maddie to try out Bella's keyboard, Grace to put on a fashion show with items from Bella's dress up box used on her stuffed animals, and for Bella to claim that everything was "mine" and then glue glitter to construction paper. When all was said and done - and Maddie had modeled from Grace - we snapped this photo on the back porch.

TOUCHIN' TRUCKS

Earlier this month, Bella took her parents to the annual Touch a Truck Day in downtown Decatur. There were LOTS of trucks (and motorcycles and vehicles) to be seen, and played, on touched. But also a lot of horns honking - hey, I woulda done the same thing when I was little boy - but Bella managed to touch a garbage truck and a firetruck.

NEW HAIR STYLES

Every parent's dream, right? Well, every parent with a little girl, at least. Pigtails! Though Bella only briefly allowed them to happen, we managed to snap a few photos before she took the bands out.















Then last week, it was time to cut Bella's hair for real. At least the back of it. It was getting very long and she doesn't like to brush her hair that much, so it was a basic rat's nest. Now, she has this cute pixie cut that shows off her eyes and eyelashes!

BIG CITY BELLA!

Just so Bella's friends can hear it here first rather than through the grapevine somehow, here's the deal:

Her dad was just accepted to graduate school at Teachers College at Columbia University in New York City. That is an opportunity that Bella's folks simply can not pass up, and she and the whole family are moving to New York City in the middle of May.

It's crazy, isn't it? But it just might work.

Obviously, it's with mixed emotions that we make this decision and move. We have so many good friends in Atlanta, Jackson, Dalton and all points in between, but - as with leaving the Jackson Progress-Argus after 13 years - this is a decision that puts this family and its future first. The good news is that the Teachers College program - a masters of arts in teaching English to middle or high school students - is only a year long. So we may end up right back in Atlanta. Or we may end up out west. Or we may stay put in New York for a while. We don't know, but we are very excited.

Needless to say, this blog will continue, because now more than ever Isabella Rose needs to HANG IN THERE, BABY!

FEBRUARY PHOTOS

Dressing up with necklaces and leg warmers!













Bella finally figured out that it's fun to climb into a dryer - when you're two years old. As a side note, today she walked up to me in the kitchen with a pair of her pants in her hands and told me they were still wet. I asked her where she had gotten them, and she told me the dryer!














Wonderful photo Jen took of Bells on the back porch one sunny afternoon.

CROUP!

Yeah.

Set the story: Izzy & Bud are in town to visit Bella and give her mom and dad a night out. They went out to eat and came home basically, but when they got back Bella had been up with a high fever and coughing. Izzy took care of it with medicine, and mommy was needed for soothing time in bed. Izzy said Bella's coughing sounded "croup"-like. Later that night, Bella was up with a very dry sounding cough.

The fever lasted three days, and a visit to the doctor on the second day confirmed Dr. Izzy's diagnosis. Croup - a virus that attacks the child's throat making breathing difficult and producing the dry-sounding cough. Can be dangerous if the airway gets blocked up dramatically. But we took some oral steroids - that did not taste very good, but went down easier with two Gummi Bear vitamins afterwards - and after five days, she was able to go back to school.

During the day, Bella wasn't too hindered by the croup virus. But at night she - and her parents - suffered from long bouts of coughing. Some sleepless nights for the whole house. But after a week the virus ran its course.

FYI: the virus can lay dormant for up to five days before you see symptoms, and the child is contagious until the fever passes. Adults who get Croup basically get laryngitis.