First Trip To The Dentist

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Today I took Bella to the Dentist for the very first time – and she was SUCH a champ, I am sooooooo proud of her. Thought I’d jot down some notes about her growth, so I can remember in a few months…

Bella is really growing up fast. She loves music, and loves to sing and dance and bounce on her horsie while singing as well. Lately, it seems I have a children’s music CD going full blast in the house at all times. She really prefers the fast songs (so she can bounce faster or march with drums/shakers) more than the slow at the moment. (Ants go marching, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes…) She knows the words to way more songs than I do!  We go to a kindermusic class and she LOVES it. She dances and sings and plays with all of the instruments – it is the highlight of her week. She also goes to gymnastic class once a week now – and I really feel like it is helping her to become stronger and a bit more balanced (although I am afraid she did inherit the clumsy genes from me :)…She loves it, and it was a big step for her, since the mommies don’t participate at all in the class. Today we went, and she really followed directions (I was so proud watching her!). I know it is hard for her little toddler mind to do that without finding distraction!!

Speaking of toddlerdom…we are really working hard on getting her to follow directions at the moment. It is a challenge for me especially (being the control freak that I am), as my emotional side of my brain says, “JUST DO IT”, while my logical side says I need to find a way to make her ‘want’ to do it. She is starting to do silly things, like take her socks off, and then proceeding to say how cold her feet are (“mommy, put them back on!”) over and over…or taking off her jammies at night to try get us to come into her room and put them back on because she is cold. She is pretty headstrong about her wants at the moment as well. She knows what the potty is, how to use it, but she DOES NOT want to use it. She goes at night and after nap, but beyond that she says she prefers her diaper. Hmmmm….still need to come up with a good tactic for that one…She is also more opinionated lately about what food she wants to eat, which animals she wants in her crib and whether she wants a bath or a shower, what she wants to do at the playground, pretty much everything. While, I don’t want to let her walk all over me with her choices, I’ve noticed if she can have more control over her choices (where I say yes more than no), she and I just get along better and she is more compliant when it really matters, so I am really trying really hard to be patient while she “grows” and learns about the ability to have choices.

She is also gaining more control over her body, and trying to challenge herself at the playground – climbing new jungle gym parts and jumping off of high points. She is gaining some courage in those areas where she had previously been a bit timid. She is also becoming a little more independent. (She still likes to keep me in sight, but she is happy bouncing on the see-saw on her own…)

That brings us to today. I’ve been telling her about the dentist and that we would go and meet one and she would count her teeth. We went in, they did the full cleaning with LOTS of scraping and Bella was such a champ. I sat by her and held her hand, but she was very brave and opened her mouth and kept it open the entire time the hygeinist was cleaning.  I could see from the look in her eyes that it was frightening her a bit – but she let the lady do her job, and then let the dentist come in and check her teeth as well. She had no cavities – and they said that her teeth look great! The dentist said that she would give her a special surprise if she gave up her passy (she still sleeps with it, good luck!) so maybe we’ll give that a go in April…

We are gearing up for the big cruise right now, and I’m hoping we can all stay well so that we can enjoy it. I swear everytime we go to the park it feels more like a hospital cause everyone is hacking and walking around with green slimy noses…

TGIF!


MiMi Visits

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This week, MiMi visited us and took care of Bella while Mommy and Daddy took a break with the Turners over the weekend to hit the mountain (which was absolutely glorious!). As usual, Bella had a fantastic time going to the park, the beach (feeding the seagulls, which she has no fear of…), the bakery (cupcakes!), listening to MiMi’s music and showing MiMi her music and gymnastic classes. Here are a couple of photos from the week…


Photos…finally photos

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I’ve been meaning to upload photos, so here goes. The first one is from a family photo session we did with our friend Renee at the botanical gardens. We all got haircuts (it was Bella’s first, and she was a champ!), new outfits and coordinated the schedule…brought balloons, music, flowers…but Bella was not into smiling for the camera 🙁 – go figure, toddlers just have minds of their own. I haven’t seen all the shots yet, but I’ll post some more when I get them. The rest of these are from Christmas.