She has also gotten into the habit of saying goodbye to everything whenever we leave a place. As we're heading out the door, I'll hear her say, "Bye bye chair." "Bye bye toys." "Bye bye cup." She basically says 'Bye bye' to every item that she knows the word for. It's really cute. She even says 'bye bye' to her socks when I put her shoes on because she can't see her socks anymore. Such a silly girl!
We picked up some sandwiches earlier in the week and Bella just loved hers.
On Wednesday, my mom's group had a little Halloween party. We got a hand-me-down tiger costume from our church secretary, so that's what Bella dressed up as. Any passerby may have thought we were torturing Bella as we tried to get the costume on her. She wanted nothing to do with it until it was actually on; and then she loved it. We had a good time at the party and when we came back I let her play in the puddles.
Yesterday was another rainy day, so I thought Bella might enjoy painting her pumpkin. She stuck her fingers in the black paint first and that's the only color that ended up on her pumpkin. 
On Wednesday, my mom's group had a little Halloween party. We got a hand-me-down tiger costume from our church secretary, so that's what Bella dressed up as. Any passerby may have thought we were torturing Bella as we tried to get the costume on her. She wanted nothing to do with it until it was actually on; and then she loved it. We had a good time at the party and when we came back I let her play in the puddles.Yesterday was another rainy day, so I thought Bella might enjoy painting her pumpkin. She stuck her fingers in the black paint first and that's the only color that ended up on her pumpkin. Here's our finished products! 
The Halloween festivities will continue into the week with a parade on Tuesday night and trick-or-treating on Wednesday. We'll probably take Bella out to a few houses just for the experience. At the end of the week, I plan to shop for Bella's costume for next year while all the stuff is on clearance. I'm leaning toward something really girly. We'll see!
The Halloween festivities will continue into the week with a parade on Tuesday night and trick-or-treating on Wednesday. We'll probably take Bella out to a few houses just for the experience. At the end of the week, I plan to shop for Bella's costume for next year while all the stuff is on clearance. I'm leaning toward something really girly. We'll see!
Most kids like to play with the toys in the toybox. Bella has even more fun with the toybox itself, the lid specifically. She likes to sit and roll around in it. Can't say that I blame her. . . I remember doing the same thing when I was little (this toybox used to be in the room I shared with my sister while we were growing up). It is just me or is Bella looking way too grown up in these pictures?
Whenever it rains, Bella's car collects the water - which she loves to splash all over the place.
We bought her this little scooter at our church yard sale. It was only $2 and she really likes it. 
From these pictures, it looks like she has the hang of the thing, but she hasn't quite figured how to put one leg on and push with the other. She tends to stand on the base and wait for me to push her around the parking lot. Or maybe she secretly knows how to do it and just wants to give me a little workout!
I joined a local mom's group and the first outing I participated in was a trip to a local farm. We went on a hayride, picked out pumpkins, and got some new crayons and a coloring book. Bella had a great time and I enjoyed getting to know some other moms. This is just the beginning of all our Fall fun. Next weekend, we're getting together with another couple who has a little boy a few months older than Bella. They're going to show us another local farm and Bella will probably get another pumpkin. I also know that we're going back to this farm at the beginning of November with a group from church. I love Fall activities. With all these pumpkins, I'm going to have to make some pies and bake some pumpkin seeds.
Sitting on the hayride with her two pumpkins!
The weather took a turn to the chilly side so I had to dig out some of Bella's winter clothes from last season (that still fit). I was trying to take some cute fall photos of her, but she was too busy to look at the camera so I only got two. 
We had a huge victory today. . . Bella went to the nursery at church and didn't cry AT ALL!!! This has never happened before - such an answered prayer! Keeping her in church really isn't a big deal, but I want her to feel comfortable in settings where mom and dad are absent. The downside to all this is that she threw a tantrum tonight when she wanted to go back to the nursery and play. I guess it's either all or nothing with our girl. In other Bella news. . . she's been speaking in more phrases during the past few weeks. Some of the most common ones are:
Our major accomplishment of the week was getting our New Jersey driver's licenses and license plates. I was so nervous about this trip to the DMV. I always get intimidated whenever I have to go and I never enjoy my experiences there. Thankfully, this was a pretty positive experience. It cost us almost $140 to get everything done that needed to be done, but everyone was friendly so that made me feel good. I guess we're official N.J. residents now.
I took Bella to her 22-month well-visit on Friday. Normally, kids don't go in at this age, but we missed her 18-month appt. since I didn't call to schedule it in time before we moved. I really like our new doctor's office. I'm used to being there for at least two hours (our old office was always running behind. . . even if our appt. was at 9am). Our appt. on Friday was at 10:45am and we were in and out within an hour. Bella had to get two shots - her second Hep. A shot and the flu shot. She is now caught up until she's five! (with the exception of the flu shot every year). They also gave us a prescription for flouride. I guess our area does not add it in the water, so she has to get a dropper full every day. Another thing I like about this office is that they give me a print-out of everything that happened at the visit. Normally, I'd be scrambling to write down all of Bella's stats, but here they give it to me and also include where she is at on the charts. I really like this. So, here are Bella's new stats:
Bella really likes to jump in the puddles after it rains. It hasn't rained here in a while, so I decided to make some puddles for her to play in. She had lots of fun!
Our roses are starting to go away, but here's the new flower that's popped up in our backyard. Really, I thought these plants were dead when I first saw them, but they just needed a little water, some sunlight, and time since they are a fall flower.
Bella is really into bananas all of a sudden. For a while, she hasn't wanted anything to do with them. She must be craving them or something because she just gobbles them up.
We got a Halloween craft in her Sunday school goodie bag, so I thought it would be fun for us to put it together. I put the glue on the pieces and Bella put them where she wanted. 
Here's her Jack O' Lantern! LOL!
I didn't get a photo of this, but Bella got some nasty bug bites on her arms - at least six or seven and they blow up really big and red, just like mine. All weekend, she kept saying "itchy, itchy". Poor kid. 
