Bella being so big.

Readers, I know I'm averaging a once-a-month post. It's become FAR too easy for me to update everyone on Facebook, and seemingly ignore my blog. Apologies, apologies.

Bella has three teeth now, (count with me, 1 ... 2 ... 3!) and we had SO many issues while she was cutting them. She would hardly eat, she caught a cold, and was NOT sleeping. On top of that, I had a sinus infection, was not sleeping because she wasn't, and wasn't eating well either. Fun fun fun times. :-/

She is also pulling up now, so the baby proofing began! Anything fragile was moved out of reach, her crib was moved down to the lowest position, with crawling came vacuuming EVERYDAY, and new toys emerged. It has been so amazing to see her crawl, pull up, and to cruise! Everyday it is something new.

Bella has made it to the Top 5 Finalists in the race for the cover of American Baby Magazine. On May 10th, we will find out if she has made it to the Top 3 - where she will receive a $10k scholarship for college, and a spot in the magazine. If she wins the whole shabang, she will receive $25k and will be on the cover of the magazine. It has been a fun ride to find out if she has made it to the next round, and taking the photos for her to continue. We've enjoyed it, and even if she doesn't make it to the next round, it has been fun. :)

A cute video to end the post. How big is Bella? SO BIG!

Bella's First Easter & Bella's crawly antics!

Bella's firsts!

So in the last week, we have hit two very big milestones.

March 23rd; 8:17AM - Bella's first tooth was cut. (Or atleast that's when I realized that it had actually COME THROUGH, I've been feeling on her bottom row of gum for about a week prior and had felt nothing, that morning I felt a little razor sharp edge! :) )

March 28th; 3:47PM - Bella started crawling! A very awkward, one legged crawl, but crawling no less!

Not only Bella has hit some milestones. Tramell and I have found a church home! After sitting down with Pastor Dr. John Huggins, we have decided to become members of Mt. Carmel United Methodist Church. Also, I have gotten registered for summer semester at Georgia Perimeter College. Things are really going forward for the three of us. :)

Tux and Marie have both been adopted!

So, so happy to know that both of our babies are in wonderful homes !

Bella's milestones.

So yes, I have been slacking a bit. Apologies to all followers. The last few steps in Bella's development have been such a whirlwind of events, they have kind of left me breathless. So much to say, so little time. (The following events are not in chronological order, mind you.)

Last night, Bella was involved in her first car accident. (No fun.) We were leaving the Target in Norcross with Daddy, and as we were in the right hand turning lane, this crazy lady whipped her car out of the LEFT hand turning lane, therefore running into Tramell's car. Awesome. Bella was crying, it was raining, and I had to have Queenie drive up to where we were and pick her up. Thank goodness the police deemed the incident the other driver's fault. (Serves you right, learn how to drive!) But it was traumatic nonetheless.


Bella has hit her six month mark and we're moving on to the seventh without fail. New for six months : saying "da da", up on all fours and rocking, crawling backwards, trying shredded meats, articulating more sounds with her tongue, attached to her lovie, Stella, and many more.


Bella's best friend is named Eva Felicity Aziz. She is the CUTEST little sumo wrestler baby you have ever seen in your life. She is about a month younger than Bella, but doing some amazing things for her age. She has been saying "da da" for about 3 weeks now, and yesterday, her mother Saara, found her standing in her crib! Can you believe that! Claps and love for Eva! We're so proud of you and we love you!
Keyshira's 5th birthday was this weekend and we ventured down to Augusta to see her and share some birthday cake and spend some time with her. She didn't know we were coming and we picked her up from school. She was so excited to see all of us and show her little sister off to all of her friends.



Well, hopefully it won't take me a lifetime to update again! Love you all.

Ughhh guys, sorry for my lack of updating. I'll be posting some new photos, videos, and more exciting information on Bella this evening! Life is hectic as a mommy! :)

Bella and her smiley self.

Bella has gone through a few phases that I wished had never passed. Nursing, being attached to ONLY me, not realizing that she can cry to get what she wants, and now, smiling at herself in the mirror has also passed. I think it's mostly because, I thought it was the cutest thing in the world, so I was shoving her face in a mirror any chance that I got. Here are two cute videos of her smiling at herself :

Though these adorable phases have passed, new ones have sprung; the beginnings of crawling, bouncing, eating all kinds of new things, and being comfortable with a handful of other people aside from myself. I can't wait to see all the new things that the next few months hold for our family.

By the way, my head looks huge only because of the angle. :)

Bella and her updates :)

So I've been slacking on the updates. I worked pretty hard on my last blog entry and there has been so much that has happened in January in regards to Bella's advancement. And I have some really cute pictures and videos to share with everyone as well. Bella has begun "scooting" which is pretty much a precursor to crawling. She will scoot herself forward a little bit, look up and around and then scoot a little bit more. Tramell and I call this her turtle moves. We first realized this when we put her to bed one night, and then went to check on her before we went to sleep and she had done a complete 180! I said outloud "What the hell?!" when I looked into her crib.

She also has begun to wake up happy. From the very beginning, Bella was NOT a happy baby when she woke up; she would be mad as a hornet for atleast 15 minutes before you could get a smile out of her. It was the strangest thing. But now she plays in her crib until I walk in there and see her little head bobbling around. She kicks her legs when I talk to her. It's the most adorable thing. [I was still figuring out my phone, sorry it's sideways haha]

The weather is pretty nice in Atlanta as of late, and Bella, Queenie and I have been to the park quuuiitteee often :) [Trying to work off those last 10 pounds isn't easy, let me tell ya. Arrrrgggg!] We put Bella in her first "big girl" swing. She loved it. I did record a video of this, but for some reason my phone won't link with my computer when I want to upload it. Technology sucks when it wants to. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to our dogs Tux and Marie this month. It has been very hard on all of us. Luckily, Marie has already been adopted by a wonderful family who happened to have another Yorkshire Terrier and I'm told she is extremely happy. Tux is very comfortable in his foster home and is hoping to find his forever home soon. We all miss them dearly. Last but definitely not least, Tramell and I have been (safely) experimenting with foods ... Bella is eating the essentials like a champ, and is a sucker for beta carotene .. Carrots, mangos, sweet potatoes ... you name it, the girl is on it. So far we've had : peas, green beans, prunes, parsnips, sweet potatoes, carrots, mangos, pears, peaches, avocados, bananas, and applesauce. She LOVES eating from a spoon, it's hilarious. :) Sidebar : Bella and I are very excited to know that a dear friend of ours has started a mommy group of young women my age! We have been looking and looking for a group to join where we BOTH would be comfortable around people our own age! Let's keep our fingers crossed that it goes well!

signing off with a smile!