JELL-O, pools, and wild hair!

Before I fall asleep at night, I lay there and think through my next day with Bella. What will we do? If I don't have a plan, she ends up watching TV and I really try to limit that as much as I can. One activity that I thought might be fun is making JELL-O jigglers.
Bella has some fun with this.
And it's always a plus when your activity tastes good.

Ever since Tuesday, we have gone to the pool every day this week. Between swim clubs, friends' pools, and a birthday party, Bella has had a lot of water activity. These are some photos from our friends' pool.
Each morning, Bella wakes up with hair like this. My job is to tame this crazy mess. I often joke about how long it took for Bella's hair to actually grow. . . and now I'm really thinking that it was a good thing. She's not the biggest fan of getting her hair done, yet I clearly can't leave it like this.

Bonus Picture: Like Father, Like Daughter

Potty trained?

Bella has been doing so great with potty training. Ever since we've been back from Kentucky, I've been putting her in underwear during the day with a diaper still at night. We had a few accidents at first, but the past few days have gone especially well - she has stayed dry! I've even taken her grocery shopping, to the park, on various errands, etc. and she has never had an accident in public - she also doesn't seem to have a problem with public restrooms. For the past two mornings, she has also woken up dry! While I'm not ready to officially declare her as potty trained, I think we're just about there!!!

These next few photos are from a few weeks ago. I had Bella help me make some banana bread. I usually like to include her in my baking in some way to keep her occupied, though it usually creates more work for me. This time, she was actually very helpful. She stirred and mixed for me and our bread turned out soooo good. And she had lots of fun in the process.
I found a good deal on bubbles so I stocked up for Bella's hippo, which can easily go through a whole bottle of bubbles in one afternoon. Bella loves this toy.
Bella's feet. I painted them for the first time. She was so excited about her "pretty feet. Just like Mama's!"
Here are the ultrasound photos that I promised. The first one was on May 5th when I was 6 wks. 4 days pregnant.This next one was from June 11th when I was 11 wks. 6 days. The picture is not the greatest. The baby's head is at the left with the feet to the right (blurry because they were moving during the picture). What we saw on the screen was much better.
Andy and Bella accompany me to all of my visits. At the next visit, Bella got confused and asked me, "Where did the TV go?" By TV, she meant the screen that we saw the baby on. Guess she thought we'd be getting another ultrasound. My next dr. appt. is on Aug. 6th and then we have our 20 wk. ultrasound on Aug. 7th. If we were going to find out what we're having, we'd find out on that day. . . but we're going to wait! I thrive on the suspense!

Many people have asked me if Bella knows/understands that we're having another baby. She does. When we ask her where the baby is, she points to my belly. We also moved her old crib to the baby's room and when she saw it she said that it was "Jellybean's (our nickname for the baby) crib." She is a little confused in some regards though because she also thinks that there is a baby in her belly. I figure that, as mine gets bigger and bigger while hers stays the same, she'll start to figure it out.

BIG GIRL BED WASHING DISHES

We know what we're getting for Christmas. . .

This may not be news to some, but I wanted to make an official annoucement on the blog that we're pregnant! I'm currently 17 weeks. I've had two ultrasounds now that I'll try to get up here at some point. As you can see, our due date is Christmas Eve - kind of a busy day for my pastor husband. We just think that God has a sense of humor. About a week ago, I started feeling the baby move. I love that feeling! So far, everything has been going great and we pray that it continues!

In other news, we just finished up a week of Vacation Bible School at our church. I helped out with the preschool class while Bella tagged along with me as a sort of unofficial VBS-er. She really loved learning the songs. Here she is doing some of the motions. Thursday night, we had Parent's Night. All of the kids sang the songs they had been learning all week. To my surprise, Bella - who clung to me quite a bit and didn't want to sing on stage - actually got up and sang with the rest of the kids. Had I actually thought she would do this, I would have brought my camera. It was really cute.
Bella received a fun package from Grandma that had lots of clothes and this fun pool. We've been in a heat wave this past week, so she's been spending a lot of time in the pool. I like that it provides her with some shade.

Another fun summer activity that we've been doing is water balloons. Bella enjoys trying to pop them. I only fill them with a small bit of water to make it more of a challenge for her. I can happily say that Bella seems to have passed through her monster phase - at least for now. The past week and a half have been so much better! In retrospect, I think there was a lot going on that left her feeling out of control which caused her to act up more than usual. We were in Wisconsin for two weeks. After we were home for a week, Daddy left for a week. A couple of days after he came home, we left for Kentucky. In a month's time, she was apart from Andy for three out of the four weeks. They needed a little rebonding time - a couple trips to the park, shopping for new shoes, and a little Taco Bell seemed to do the trick. It seemed that once Bella and Daddy were back on track again, her behavior got a lot better. I am so thankful!

WE'RE PREGNANT

WALK BESIDE ME

Kentucky Camping Trip

About a week and a half ago, we set out for the Renfro Valley in Kentucky. This was a good spot as it was centrally located between Andy's family and us. We packed up our car after church on Sunday and started to make our trek west. We knew that we probably wouldn't make it that day since we didn't leave until noon and the drive was just shy of 11 hours, minus stops. Around 9:30pm that evening, we were somewhere in West Virginia. Bella was getting really antsy and we knew it was about time to stop. The problem: we were driving through the mountains and there really wasn't anywhere to stop for another 50 miles. While I'm doing my best to keep Bella calm, she starts coughing. . . her face loses all color. . . she starts gagging. . . and before I know it she has thrown up all over herself. This was her first time ever throwing up. Now she's really upset. Andy does his best to find an exit. We end up at a run-down gas station and get Bella cleaned up. Thankfully, she was feeling better after that episode. We got in the car for another 30 miles and found our hotel. The next day we finished up our drive and arrived at the KOA campground where we'd be staying for the week.

One of the first things we did was check out the pool. Bella hung out on the steps for most of the time. She was really proud of the fact that she could get in and out of the pool all by herself.
That night, the camp had some country singing as the entertainment. Bella had a blast dancing to the music.Jacob and Bella having a little snack before bedtime.We spent much of the next day at the lake. Bella thought it was fun to walk in the water.Tim and Laura brought their canoe, so we were able to get out on the lake a little bit. I think Andy did most of the work in actually moving the boat. I did my best but am the first to admit that I do not have much upper body strength. We went into town one day. The kids had fun running around on the grass of a local college. Craft time at the camp! The kids made little snack packs.Our last day there went a little differently than planned. The camp accidentally double-booked our cabin/campsite. They tried to accomodate us in a local bed and breakfast, but that didn't work out. We decided to just drive up to Lexington (which gets us all 1 hr. closer to home) and get a hotel. We found a nice place that had a heated pool, which we spent a lot of time in. Before we could check into the hotel, we stopped to eat at Cracker Barrel. Here are Bella and Jacob while we waited for our table. Bella, Tyler, and Jacob in the hotel room that night. Sibling photo: Andy, Laura, and TomCousins: Bella, Jacob, & Tyler (minus Charlie)Kids and grandkids. As I looked through these photos, I realized that the next two photos are the only ones that we took of baby Charlie.
The whole family. Tim's sister Vickie was with us and she was nice enough to take this photo.
Time to say goodbye: Jacob and Bella giving hugsBella and Tyler tried to hug. Just a moment after this photo, Bella fell on top of him.We pretty much parted ways after this. The drive back went well and it sure felt nice to finally get home. We're staying put in New Jersey for a month-and-a-half and then it's off to Texas for a Benetti family vacation!