countdown

only one more day of work and then its a whole week of baby and mama time!! we have lots of fun stuff planned and i cant wait! we have lunch plans on monday with an old friend and her daughter, daddy day on tuesday with plans to tba, possible zoo trip on wednesday and if not then maybe stay in. on thursday i might be watching my friend megs baby too! its gonna be a baby fun filled day. maybe i am crazy, but i am really looking forward to it! on friday britt is taking the day off an i am sure we will find something fun to do, possibly the farmpark or the sprinkler park weather permitting. yay! i totally need a vacation and some quality bela time.

gotta catch the bus

this morning when i was dropping bela off, i realize that we forgot boris at home. bela was looking for him as i lifted her out of the carseat, but no fear, mama chris has a backup. on the way up the driveway i felt it necessary to spin a tale to bela about how boris came over early today on the bus so he wouldnt be late. not sure if she got all that, but it made me feel better.

water baby

bela officially loves water, she spent most of the day yesterday in her new pool from oma. this picture came from a camera phone and isnt great quality, but you get the point. the colors actually look kinda creepy and cool though.
we spent sunday night and monday at my folks (typical weekend). on sunday bela ran around like crazy with a 4 year old neighbor girl of my parents while we were at a rib cookoff party/picnic. she just loved this little girl and followed her everywhere, including into the slip and slide while fully clothed. as i was pushing the two on the swing set, the little girl said "bela just loves to look at me, she wants to be big just like me". so friggin cute.
on monday bela didnt get a nap, we ran around a lot and it just never happened. 5 minutes into our car ride home she was out like a light. when we arrived home she woke up but then proceeded to sit next to me quietly on the couch for the next hour until bedtime. she was so beat. i put her to bed with no arguments and she slept through until nearly 7.
of course there was much more to the weekend, but right now i cant recall...
4 more days of work this week and then vacation all next week. i want to say i will try to post each day, but who am i kidding? we will see.

i have a ball of stress in my tummy the size of texas

this helps....

yesterday afternoon brett was washing his car and playing with bela with the hose. she loved every minute of it! she kept running up to him giggling as if daring him to spray her. when he did she would just stand there with her tummy sucked in from the cold water. such a dolly.

happy medium

as many of you know, i have lost my ability, drive and lust for reading since about my first trimester with bela. up until that point i read about 2 books a week. so it was naturally very upsetting for me when this came to an abrupt end. i dont know exactly what happened, it started out because i was just so darn tired and reading was the first thing to put me out. after bela was born, i just had too much to do to even think of picking up a book. in the past 18 months i have probably started 30 books and bought or taken out from the library about 3 times that many. and its was killing me.
recently i came up with a perfect solution. i spend about 2 1/2 hours a day in the car (ridiculous i know) listening to loads of npr (which i love) and other crappy radio. so i decided to use my time wisely and turn to books on cd. best decision ever. not only does it make the time go so much faster, but it fills that book void.
i am such a smart cookie, too bad it took me this long to figure it out!

another busy weekend

we spent the weekend at my folks house because friday was omas birthday and because my brother in law paul and niece holly were in town. bela and i arrived at my parents house on friday evening and my mom, dad, karen, karon, holly and paul all came out to meet us. bela pushed them all aside and ran right to paul. so very cute. you gotta love that uncle paul.
on saturday we hung out with one of my friends from work, her husband and their adorable boxer. bela had a great time teasing the dog and climbing up and down the patio stairs, it doesnt take much. after that we headed to my nieces (on bretts side) first birthday party! bela tried her best to be the center of attention and did a good job of it of course.
on sunday we spent most of the day downtown while paul ran the cleveland marathon. he had been sick for several days, but still made it through and did a great job.
bela never got a nap that day... weekends are sometimes just too busy. maybe i am a bad mom to think that way, but there isnt always time.

weekend away

so heather and i had an awesome time in athens. so much had changed, but it was still the same athens i fell in love with over 10 years ago. we did a lot of eating, had a few drinks, walked around exploring, saw a fantastic movie and got our long awaited sister tattoos! we also spent some time with some old friends and their two darling children. two doses of casa nueva and delicious margaritas were just what the doctor ordered for two mamas on the loose without kids. although i think we were both ready to head home to the kids by sunday afternoon. i miss my sister and i hope that we can do this again soon, love you heather!

hop hip

belas current favorite song is temperature by sean paul.. she loves to shake her booty and sing into her microphone (which is actually a mini maraca) when its on. too cute. i tried to take a picture of her this morning, but she got shy and stopped before i could.

funny girl

some info and some stories.

we were in cincinnati last weekend and didnt get home until after 6pm on sunday. bela was tired and very ready for bed, which of course always equals a struggle. i put her down with little resistance pretty close to 7. at about 10 to 8 she was crying. i walked into her bedroom to find my little angel butt naked and standing in pee in her crib. she had taken of the pjs and the diaper and as far as i can speculate had woken up when she peed. such a wonderful young lady.

yesterday morning i was in our bedroom getting dresses and bela was just milling around doing her thing. brett was sound asleep and snoring, as usual. his head was very close to the edge of the bed and bela was just standing there with her face right in his, as if she were trying to figure out what all the noise was. she would look at him, look at me, giggle and so on. then she started mimicking the noise of his snores. it was the funniest bela noise i have ever heard. she was cracking herself up too, of course she knew how funny she was.

this coming weekend my sister and i are headed to athens for babyless mama weekend. i am so looking forward to it. well to the sister part, but not so much the babyless part. i am gonna miss her! update on all this to come soon!

grandpas girl

no the jacket is not hers, but it was too cute to not capture.

current fave

here is a link to my new favorite blog, but as you all know i am a blog reading addict so that could change in a moments notice.

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.