Barney

Who doesn't love a big purple dinosaur with green spots??  Frankly, I think he's a little annoying, but Isabella LOVES him.  I haven't figured out why, but I'm not going to complain.  It's the only program she'll actually SIT down and watch so mommy is able to get some things done.  I have also caught her, on more than one occasion, singing several of the songs they do on the show.  She will go around singing "I love you, you love me, we're best friends like friends should be," to her babies and then she gives them all kisses.  It's so cute!  This show has also helped her with her alphabet and counting, with colors and shapes, and so many other things.  So even though he drives me absolutely mad, she is learning something from him.

Anyway, the reason I am blogging about a dumb dinosaur is, Bella is going to get a wonderful surprise next week when mommy takes her to see Barney Live "Birthday Bash" in South Bend (where we went to see Seasame Street.)  She is going to absolutely love it and I can't wait to see her face when Barney is right there in person!!  It will be fun just to see her reaction.  I will be sure to post pictures!!

Until next time...

Potty Training

Around Christmas, Bella was doing really well with potty training.  She was wearing pull ups instead of diapers and going pee pee on the potty, with very few accidents in between.  The only thing she wasn't doing was going poo poo.  Well a couple days after Christmas she got the flu.  She thought she had to go pee but ended up having diarhea in the potty.  Since that moment, she's had like this fear of the potty.  This last week though, she's actually been sitting on it again and trying to go.  Yesterday, she did wonderful!!  She wore big girl panties all day and only had two small accidents.  Before bed we put on a pull up, didn't want to have any accidents over night, and when she woke up the big girl panties went back on.  Well today wasn't as successful as yesterday.  We had one accident after another so the pull ups went back on.  I don't really find it entertaining to clean up pee off the floor.  So like they say, you take one step forward and two steps back!  I know she'll get there, it's just takes time.  I'm hoping after she sees her cousins, Ann and Nellie, again in a week or so she'll be back on track.  They were quite the little motivators last time!!  Wish us luck as we continue on the "potty train." 

Until next time...

DaNcE

We have officially enrolled Bella in her first dance class.  She will start next Tuesday!!  It's a creative movements class that focuses on pre-ballet, tumbling, and some tap if they do well enough with the other steps.  I'm excited to see how she does.  It will be a nice way for her to burn off some excess energy she has until spring gets here and she can get outside.  The classes run until the end of May and then they are followed by a dance review (I'm assuming it's like a recital) on Friday June 3.  It come at a good time because this is the last week of library group until April, so it will still give us something to do.  The best part is, two of her friends from library will be in dance with her!  I'm hoping that will make it more fun for her.  I'll keep you posted on how it goes, plus I'll get some pictures of her in her dance wear once we get it!!

Until next time...

No more plugs...

This past week, Bella had a check-up with her ear doctor.  It's been a year and a half since she had her tubes put in, so we had to go in so he could have a look at how she was doing.  We got great news...she no longer has to wear her ear plugs.  The tubes have finally seperated from the ear drum and he said they should fall out anytime in the next few months.  I won't be able to tell when they fall out since they are so small, but she goes back in 4 months just to make sure everyhing is ok.  It hasn't really been much of a battle to get her to let me put the ear plugs in.  She's been wearing them since she was almost a year old, so she was used to them.  But in the last few weeks, she hasn't liked it one bit when I put them in.  Come to find out, it was putting air pressure on her ear drum since the tube has seperated.  It will just be nice not to have to put them in before every bath or shower and not to have to make sure I remember to take them with if we go swimming or to a water park, etc.  The tubes were a blessing and I'm so glad we went through the process of having them put in.  They have helped tremendously.  Let's just pray she doesn' have anymore problems in the future.

Until next time...

Bella's First Valentine's Day Party

Today, Bella had a Valentine's Day party for library group.  They read a book about Valentine's Day and then they started the party.  They shared their Valentine's and treats that were brought in.  They also played a bean bag toss game before it was time to go home.  All the kids seemed to have fun.  Here are some pictures of Bella all dressed up in her Valentine's Day outfit:

Blizzard...Delayed

So a couple weeks ago we were hit with the Blizzard of 2011.  We ended up seeing about 18 inches of snow.  We had a drift in front of our house that came up to the bottom of our bird feeder.  It also took Jason about 3 hours to shovel the driveway (I think it finally occured to him that we need a snow thrower).  We took some pictures to share, so here they are:

When we opened the front door

The drift in front of the house

View from the garage

When we opened the garage door

A view of the front of the house

Our front walk after it was shoveled

Making progress on the driveway

Playing with her car

Taking baby for a walk

Hiding behind the drift

Taking a break

To top off all the lovely snow we got during the blizzard, this past Saturday we got about 8 more inches of snow!!  I'm so sick of snow and cold and the color WHITE!  I cannot wait for some green and the bright, beautiful colors of the flowers.  Hope the rest of winter flies by!

Until next time...

Here Comes the Snow

About 3:30pm, the snow started.  I walked out to get the mail and decided to take some pictures.  Here you go:

Part of our house and our side yard.

Looking across the street at the neighbors.

Our sidewalk up to our house.  This morning it only had a light dusting.

With all the blowing and snow so far, it's up to 2 inches.

Next to the bush by our garage.  It's at almost 4 inches.

If I can brave the cold, wind and snow, I'll try to take more pictures later as the snow accumulates.  It's going to be a very interesting night.  I'll keep you all posted!

Bracing for the Blizzard

It's time for winter to strike again.  This time though, we are getting a blizzard.  Last night we got about 2-3 more inches on top of the 2 inches we already had.  But tonight, it's going to get ugly.  They are predicting we get 12-18 inches (some areas may even get 20) of snow.  Plus the wind will be so strong that we could get up to 5 foot drifts.  I think tomorrow we will be staying in!!!  I'm going to get my few errands I need to do out of the way and then we are heading home and bunkering down.  Once all the snow arrives, I'll take some pictures to share with you all.  To all of our family that was hit with the ice down south, be safe!!

Until next time...