Bella Monster

I haven't posted much about Bella since she turned 6 months old... a lot has changed in 4 months! When she first started sitting up on her own, she would sit with one leg under her and one leg out. Now, of course, she can sit straight up on her bottom. I remember Taylor would only sit up on both knees for the longest time instead of on her bottom. Bella since has started crawling and pulling up on furniture. She has become very vocal and really thinks that she is carrying on a conversation with you. She doesn't say any actual words except for "mamamama" and "dadadada." "Dada" came first, but that's okay- I'll give it to him because Taylor said "mama" first ;-) She pretty much always says "dada" when she's happy and playful and "mama" when she's fussy.

She has earned the nickname "Bella Monster." Jared initially gave her the nickname because she loves to growl; if you growl at her, she will growl back at you, and once she really started crawling good, she would crawl after everyone. Jared would be playing with Taylor and wrestling on the floor or something, and Bella would want to get in on the action, so she would crawl towards them with a big grin on her face, and Jared would say, "Oh no! Here comes the Bella Monster!" At that point, Bella was the happiest, most playful baby. Now, the nickname is starting to take a different turn. She is starting to add quite a bit of sass into her personality. Again, she is very vocal, and if she doesn't like something, she will let you know, and she's even starting little mini-temper tantrums where she'll throw her head back, scream, and kick her legs. I don't like it one bit! I told her that she HAS to stay my sweet baby!

I didn't post after Bella's 9 month check up, and now I've forgotten exactly what her height and weight was. I believe she was 18-almost 19- lbs which is how much Taylor was at 12-15 mos. I think Bella is taller than Taylor was, too. She didn't have to get shots, but they had to prick her finger to check her blood count. She didn't cry one bit when they pricked her finger, but she didn't like it when they had to hold her hand and squeeze her finger to get the blood out, and then she couldn't stand the band-aid on her finger afterwards.

She got her first tooth on February 21st. It's one of her bottom front teeth, and the one right next to it is well on its way to cutting through (if it hasn't already- she doesn't exactly like for me to feel on her gums). She was never really fussy with the first one, but she had one really bad night with this second one where she just cried and cried and cried and was pretty inconsolable.

As far as eating goes, she has become more independent and wants to be able to put things into her own mouth which can be quite difficult when you don't have enough teeth to be able to chew. I still give her baby food but give her tiny pieces of banana, strawberries, green beans, hot dog, apple, cheerios... pretty much anything soft enough that she can gum on and hopefully won't choke.

She loves the big bath tub and loves to splash around. If she's awake and I try to get a shower without her, she will scream and cry until I let her in.

Shes loves playing with that tongue!

This is the sweet baby that I adore!