proud momma.

Isabella continues to amaze me daily, I find it incredible the new things that she picks up so easily. We definitely have a very active little girl - she has A LOT of energy. If I had only a 1/4 of what she had, my day would probably run more smoothly.

When I dropped Bella off at Linda's house this morning, she told me - do you know how sweet and gentle Bella is? Usually kids (especially her age) tend to be a bit more rough with their movements - not on purpose though. For example, I hear a lot of parents say to their kids - 'be gentle to the baby'...Linda told me this morning that Bella helps her feed the new 3 month old that goes there her bottle. She also pets her head very softly and is very sweet to her. She's the same way with animals - she just loves them to pieces! Here I am worried about how she's going to be with a new baby, but I think she's going to be just fine.

Some of her many new talents are:

She counts - 1, 2, 3...and then skips to 5 - and on some days will say 7. Maybe she only wants to count odd numbers after 3?? who knows.

We love to play face - to - face...this is just putting our faces together so that our noses are touching and me (or Stephen) will say, I love you, I love you, I love you...and she says "sksdkfskldfaskdlf" it's fantastic.

She has recognized the letter "I" - everyday at daycare they practice name recognition (have I mentioned that I love Linda!?) Bella can now pick out the letter "I" and she knows that her name starts with "I" - genius, I tell you.

New animal sounds that we're practicing: Monkey - "ooh aa aa", Lion - "rarrrrrrr", Bear - "rrarrrrr" haha! basically every large animal with teeth says "rarrr" to her. She LOVES butterflies...and can say that word too.

Her vertical jump is amazing! She's got hops...who knows, she just might be a volleyball player.

NO MORE BOTTLE - granted, she started taking a bottle really well around 10 months old, but she still only took it at night. She has not had a bottle for well over a week now, and it doesn't even phase her. She still drinks milk at night, just in a sippy cup. Such a big girl!!

I will sing the ABC's to her and then when I'm done, I will ask her to sing them to mommy...she will sing, but it's not the ABC's - but I know she's trying.

As I write all of these things down I just can't get over how big she's getting. It still feels like yesterday we brought her home from the hospital and I sat up all night watching her sleep in her bassinet to make sure she was breathing! Now look at her - she's a little person, with a lot of personality!!