I've been keeping an eye out for Bella's two-year molars. She was a little crabby after her nap yesterday so I took a peek inside her mouth and one of her lower molars was definitely peeking out of her gums. The other three are still a no-show, but I bet they're not too far behind.
Check out all of Bella's expressions. These were all in a matter of five minutes.
Here she is doing a little reading.
We had a game night over at our house on Friday night and borrowed this dry erase board from the church for our game of Pictionary. Bella has loved drawing on it.
Yum - broccoli and dip! What a great snack!
Life: A 2 year old's perspective:
On what the job of a pastor entails. . .
Throughout the weekday, I may randomly ask Bella, "Where is Daddy?" to which she replies, "Daddy at church singing a song." Bella's experience of church mostly entails singing songs and then she's off to the nursery. So of course, whenever Daddy is at work at the church, he must be busy singing songs.
On what belongs to Daddy and Mommy. . .
Bella will randomly point out objects in the house and assign ownership to them. The bed, couch, and a few blankets are all Daddy's. I asked if the bed was also Mommy's and she said, "No." Apparently, I don't sleep; which, I guess, from her perspective it probably seems that I don't since I'm in bed after her and then get her up in the morning.
So, you might be wondering what things are Mommy's. There are a few select items in the house that Bella refers to as "Mommy's toys," most of which are kitchen gadgets. Lucky me!
Other than food, we really don't have to buy this child anything. Monday morning, one of the trustees from church stopped by with a birthday card for Andy and this tricycle for Bella. His granddaughters used to ride it around in his basement, but they've both outgrown it. In fact, it was his youngest granddaughter's idea that Bella should have the bike. She is really loving it! 
Of course, she's still learning how to steer the thing and sometimes gets frustrated when she gets stuck. 
And just for fun. . . here's Bella feeding her baby. She takes such great care of her little ones.
I also got him a computer game called Bejeweled. We played it at my parents' house over Christmas and had fun with it. Watch out Benetti's, this Kilps duo is getting pretty good at this game. Next time we're there, we're going to wipe out your high scores!!!
Checking out all the loot!
If you look closely at her lips, there's evidence of the chocolate kiss she ate. Since this day, whenever she sees a plastic egg, her first question is, "chocolate in there?"
Besides candy, there were lots of prizes to be won. Bella came home with a whistle, beach ball, bubbles, sippy cup, stickers, etc. The ladies who put this on do a fantastic job!
Speaking of bonnets, here is Bella's. The Sunday school has a little bonnet contest. The kids parade around while some women judge each bonnet. Bella wanted nothing to do with wearing her bonnet or parading around. It could have been because she was tired and cranky, but it was mainly because my brilliant idea for decorations wasn't so brilliant. I was proud of myself when I came up with the idea to decorate the hat with jelly beans. I neglected to consider how heavy all of those jelly beans would be. Bella cried when I put the hat anywhere near her head. If it's any consolation, her bonnet was voted "The Sweetest".
Each week, it seems like I always have photos of Bella in this outfit. She must really like it! Of course, it is a 'pocket shirt' as she calls it, which is her favorite!
Bella enjoyed a package of Easter goodies from the Benetti family! Here she is trying on her Easter hat. . . 
And her pretty white gloves.
This is a fun toy that spins and lights up!
And of course, what could be more fun than the box it all came in!
The weather was beautiful on Friday and Saturday. We played outside and went too the park. It felt great to be outside!
In an attempt to add photos of someone other than Bella, I'll include a pic of Andy checking his email!
Bella got a paper cut on her finger earlier in the week. After it happened, she was right beside me crying "see. . . I hurt. . . finger. . . kiss it!" I gave her lots of kisses on her finger and all was well for a few moments until she was back with "hurt again. . . kiss it!" I gave her more kisses. My kisses didn't seem to have their healing power that day so I offered her something she has never before worn. . . a Band-aid! Magically, her finger was "all better". She wore the bandage like a badge of honor, often pointing out to me, "see mama. . . a owie". It didn't take too long for the paper cut to heal, but Bella didn't want to give up the bandage. The next day, she tried to point out her "boo boo" to me, only, I was onto her game as she showed me the wrong finger. I humored her with another band-aid, but that's the last one! 
I let her play with some stickers. This is what she did with them.
I had a ladies group on Wednesday afternoon, so Andy and Bella had a Daddy-Daughter outing. They went to Taco Bell and Target. Daddy bought Bella a new Dora cell phone. We rarely buy her toys since she always gets so many gifts from our family and people from church; but she's been really into Dora lately and has always loved cell phones so Andy thought this would be a fun gift. Bella just loves this phone! Later that day, I overheard her talking to "Dora" and telling her about 'tacos' and 'Target' and 'Daddy'. 
We've been on an applesauce kick lately. Yum!
Not the most creative Easter craft, but I cut out some paper eggs for Bella to color.
I was talking with some women from church the other day and the topic of decorating your home for Easter came up. I happened to mention that I didn't have any Easter decorations. I had no hidden agenda with that comment, just my way of taking part in the conversation. Well, today at church two of the women had little gifts for me. Both of them were prefaced with. . . "I remember you saying how you didn't have any Easter decorations. . . " I now have a little bunny statue, some decorative eggs, and a bunny globe/music box. This is one example of how the people here just love to take care of us. Everyone is so sweet. Maybe I should start hinting around about our need for a bigger vehicle! (Just kidding). 
There's been some more piano playing going on this week - and not just from Bella. It's rare that I sit down and play these days, but I would like to do it more and I actually did a little this week.
