mama night and baby day

last night i went out for dinner and drinks with one of my favorite
fellow mamas megs. we had such a good time and only spent about half
the time talking about babies and they other half having some really
fantastic deep conversations that we had never had before . i just love
that girl! i really needed a night out and last night was just perfect.
hopefully soon we can hang out with babies.

today we ran around just about everywhere on the west side with fritz and then brittany. we discovered the best book store (twice) and i am happy to that i have found my new favorite. its called liberty books & news and it is just the best store.

happy birthday holly

today i just wanted to do a special blog for my very first niece on her 5th birthday! happy birthday holly!! i cant even believe what a big girl you are now, you grew up way too fast! but you make me proud every day to be your aunt and to have the same name. i love you dolly!

cousins at easter

doing what she does best

please take note of belas cheeks in the middle picture... could she cram anything else in there? maybe some veggies?

picky

so my little "eats anything" bela girl has suddenly turned picky. well picky about certain foods. she still loves most meat and of course cheese, but lately she doesnt want anything to do with veggies. i even tried cutting them up in minuscule pieces and mixing in to mac n cheese which only caused her to not eat any of it. so last night for dinner she ate chicken and cheese and she was perfectly happy. now i just need to discover new tactics for hiding veggies. on the upside she will eat baby food veggies... is that weird? i guess i cant complain really.

on a sidenote, this morning i turned on the tv to belas channel and the wiggles were on. gag. it was the "little wiggles" segment where all of the men are replaced for like 8 year old boys. gag. their tv was malfunctioning and one of them made a comment about missing oreilly. as if the show isnt horrendous enough, but now they gotta be young republicans too? gag.

too much

somehow did i not only make it almost three weeks without posting, but
i made it without a single person reminding me of it. so know it has
been way too long and way too much has happened in that time. we have
been really busy and idont think my brain can take recapping it all right now.
we have family in town for easter which was wonderful. my sister, her husband and the their girls and also my aunt and uncle from colorado. we all crashed my folks house and it was such a full house, but no one complained. i think we all loved every minute of it, i know i did!
in current news, bela was sick again last night, i hoping today will look up.
okay so i know this was a crappy catch up post, but thats
it man. i will post more if i think of something worth while. and in typical style, i will supplement with pictures! lets
all just forget about the lapse and i will try to be a better blogger.
deal? deal.

guest sitter

mama chris is out of town so her daughter is taking over today and tomorrow! bela really likes her so its fine by me. i just called to check on her and was told that she was running the show and is for sure the boss of daycare. thats my bela!

busted

two strange things happened this morning all before 8:00am.

first, i was standing in the bathroom putting on mascara when bela came out of her room and down the hall. she was carrying a boris in each hand and had a look on her face that was a mix between "what kinda scam are you running here?" and "holy moly i just hit the jackpot!". as previously mentioned, there are many bori, but this is a secret that is meant to be kept. it started out with just one backup, but now there are a total of 8 in circulation. i am not sure how i allowed this to happen, but i quickly grabbed one from her tiny hand and threw it in the closet and scopped her up. i am just hoping that she will forget it ever happened.

second, we all know how much bela loves mama chris, most days it is all i can to pry her away and out the door at the end of the day. well this morning when we walked in, she didnt automatically reach for mama chris and when she did, she was reluctant. when i turned to leave, she actually started crying. that was a first! it broke my heart to leave her like that! one of the only things that gets me through the day is knowing that she loves it there. i called an hour later and was told that she quickly forgot the incident and was back to normal within minutes. glad mama.

back to the sick for a second

so in reference to the pukey virus that bela just recovered from, i would like to give a shout out to my favorite mama blog here. yes i know that dooce is the bomb, yes i love her too, but i think this lady is hilarious and her daughter is such a little trooper. she is exactly how i picture bela being at that age. check her out, she rules.

saving daylight

bela was all confused by this daylight savings garbage. this morning she didnt wake up at her usual 6am. nice, right? wrong, that just meant that i had to wake her little booty up which made for a very cranky baby. then bedtime came, normally 7pm on the dot, she doesnt usually make it a minute past. tonight, 8pm. so i know that some are thinking, that means mama gets to sleep in and then have more bela time at night. wrong. that means cranky bela at both ends and i still gotta wake up at 6am for work. i am hoping that this works itself out in a few days. but if not, eh more quality time is fine by me too even if it is with a monster.

finally

bela is finally over the crazy tummy bug and back to her old self again. i am so relieved. my girl is normal again!

daddy day

today brett stayed home with bela, she seems to be at the tail end of this bug, so this should be her last sick day. i talked to brett around lunch time and he was planning on taking bela to the comic shop when she woke up from her nap. i cant wait to hear how the day went! this is really his first whole day with her, i am sure they will both enjoy it!

sick girl

bela has been sick with a stomach bug since saturday. it all started when i went into her room in the morning to get her, there she was covered in crusted puke. nice, sadly no pictures. anyhow she is still sick now, although not as bad as in the beginning. its so hard with a sick baby, i know that she is feeling bad, but she cant tell me about it. she is very whiny and grumbly and just wants to snuggle on my lap. that part i am enjoying. i just want her to be back to her normal self now though, poor kid. tomorrow we will be back to life though, i have to go to work and she has to go to daycare. i think she will be fine, the lack of mama will be replaced with mama chris and her friends and that should make things ok. i hope.

stirring up change

i am so witty with that title.... or maybe not since i felt that i needed to point it out, ugh. (sidenote- i would like to point out the crazy-fab pants bela has on in the pic to the left)
so i officially have a new job that i LOVE. I am still at the same non profit, just a different department, out of the hood. things are great and i am so happy.

bela is officially a seasoned walker, last night she even attempted to run down the hall. she is also now in her big girl car seat!! she is still eating anything and everything and has a new found love of olives.
if the moment is right, you can get her to blow kisses, too cute. the other night she was sitting in her high chair dropping peas for the kitties. i said bye-bye peas, she looked at me, looked at the peas and then blew them a kiss. i almost died.
in other bela news, she is obsessed with stirring. this girl will stir all day long, and most days she does. give her some sort of bowl and a spoon, she is in heaven. heck, give her a stick and a plate, she will stir it. no stick, she will use her finger. obsessed. is this weird? some sort of deep seeded need to stir? i might need some feed back on that. anyone?
last night bela discovered she had a tongue, i guess. she was in the tub rolling her tongue and sucking on it. funny girl.
last thing, not quite ready to deal with this, but that didnt stop it from happening. katie is gone. she was here, we played, shes gone. i dont think i can go into it any further than that cuz it makes me sad that its over. friggin love that girl, she is my soulmate.

snow day!

it is a crazy blizzard here. i didnt even go to work today because i literally couldnt get my car out of the driveway. bela and i are home and so i bundled her up and took her out in the snow for 5 minute photo shoot.

what i did on saturday while bela took a 4 hour nap...

joanna and i went to kellys wedding shower! the only bad thing was that i was starving and the provided snacks didnt do the trick! the whole affair made me feel really old, many old high school pals who now have kids also. its nuts, i am so old. but thats ok cuz i have my bela girl! but it was nice to see those ladies and always great to hang with my joanna!

you're too cute not to be somebody's wife

"You know I still love, you, right? More than ever?"

"I like to hear it."

this morning on the way to work i was listening to npr, as usual, and on fridays they have a special segment called storycorps. i know most of you are npr kids like me so i wont go into the description. anyhow this one was really interesting to me because it dealt with the topic of alzheimers disease. check out the article here. (i think it is way better if you listen to the entire thing rather than read the recap) my nanny(dads mom) suffered from alzheimers disease from just about as far back as i can remember. i cant honestly say i remember her in a time before it. through it all, my poppa(dads dad) was right there to take care of her and help her through it. my nanny was always so together, she was a beautiful woman and worked to keep herself looking that way. as time went on, and her condition worsened, she no longer looked like the nanny i remembered. "my doctor told me he did not want me to cook, and that was music to my ears." while listening to the storycorps segment, it really hit me that this was an exact conversation that nanny and poppa might have had if she had been aware of her condition that early on. the woman was more afraid of her husband having to take care of her than she was of the disease itself, she didnt want to be a burden. "you know I'm going to take care of you, don't you?" my grandparents are both gone now and i realized at that moment that i dont think about them as much as i should. halfway to work in the car, tears streaming down my face, all these memories of my grandparents together came rushing back to me. as soon as the story finished, i called my sister. as i suspected, she was standing in her kitchen in tears listening to the same program.

where i've been

sorry for the lapse in posting, my life has been overrun by a giant veronica mars obsession and i have little time for anything else. its really quite sad, but damn is it good! this show is such a great time waster. i will not go on any longer raving about it, you have all heard it a million times. i should be finishing season 2 tonight and then hopefully return to the non tv world.

its offical

my bela is the walking girl! she isnt crawling at all anymore. she is still kinda shaky and looks a bit like frankenstein, but she is getting better everyday.

mama night

last night my mom took bela for the night and i went out for dinner and drinks with joanna. we were out celebrating my birthday, which was december 19th, that shows you how often this mama gets out of the house for adult time! we had a great time, as always, just chatting and hanging out. i miss times like that, being able to just go out without worrying about having to be responsible mama. although i missed my bela every minute of the night. now i am at work, a bit groggy and sleepy, but it was all worth it. i cant wait to see bela now though, being away from her for this long is tough, but i know i need it every once in a while.