As usual, the California Summer is a whirlwind of fun. It has been HOT here lately (ok – I know you Texans think I’m wimpy for sayin’ that, but imagine ninety degree heat without any air conditioning…:) Since it seems to actually be cooler outside of our house than inside, we’ve been spending tons of time at the park, the beach, and the backyard.

Bella loves water! It is great, because I can fill the baby pool and water table in our backyard and she will be amused for at least an hour (sometimes two!) – add our neighbor Owie into the mix, and it feels like a party (plus it is nice for MaMa to get to hang with Kirsten, too!)

Bella’s development still amazes me daily. Sine she started walking (about a month ago), she barely ever stops moving when she is awake. She understands SO much – I find myself asking her for different items throughout the day just to see if she will give them to me (and often she does!) She is still REALLY into animals – and loves to make their sounds. She has a special sound she makes for fish, ducks, birds, horses, cows and sheep. It is hilarious. She also LOVES to give kisses and snuggles to all her stuffed animals/dolls, and feed all of them with a play bottle she has. She also loves to blow kisses to anyone and everything. Sometimes, I will just be carrying her down the stairs, and she will lean in and give me the sweetest kiss. It absolutely melts my heart every time. She also loves cars (or really anything with wheels). She tries to make a vroom, vroom sound, and will roll them on the floor. And of course, ELMO?!?! I swear, what do they do to make kids go crazy for that little red creature – it is ridiculous. We still don’t watch much TV…maybe Sesame Street or Mickey Mouse here and there – but her attention span is too short to really get into it (and I’m not that keen on it anyway)…BUT she goes absolutely bonkers for this one Baby Einstein movie (numbers) that we have. If I even say, do you want to watch a movie (that’s what I call the Baby Einstein dvd) she gets this huge smile…and then she will literally be GLUED to it, until I turn it off…we don’t do it much, but I will admit, it comes in handy when I have something important I need to take care of. It’s so simple…I don’t really get it, but she absolutely LOVES it.

She’s also been exposed to has enjoyed interacting with some of our friends more recently. She, Kaelyn and Cliff recently enjoyed a nice long day at San O. And we even headed up to Simi Valley and hung out with the Spencer twins for a weekend. And of course, there’s always our sweet neighbor, Owen.

Well, I know it has been a while since I posted, and I’ve made a promise to myself to stay up with this, so I will try to post more soon. This weekend Grammy is coming for a visit. I know we’ll have a great time – so I’ll try to post the pictures from our visit next week.

She loves to splash!