Just Lovely

I went in for my second ultrasound the other day to make sure everything is going well with the unborn and to check the placement of the placenta. Everything is looking good. Luckily it looks like the placenta is moving away from the cervix so I shouldn't need a c-section and hopefully I won't be at risk for bleeding. As part of the ultrasound they usually take several pictures and print them up to give to you as cute first shots of your baby. In general they are blurry profile shots or the money shot between the legs to show you the gender. I guess our baby wasn't feeling particularly cooperative that day, so this is the picture we got.

What parent doesn't want an up the nose shot of their unborn baby. It makes me giggle a little bit every time I see it, so we now have it hanging up on the fridge.

Finally an update

As many of you have undoubtedly noticed, it has been quite a while since I've updated my blog. The main reason is that the mother board on my laptop died and so I was virtually computerless for several weeks. I did get a new computer for Christmas (thanks Dad) but since then I have been working on other computer projects and unfortunately this blog has taken somewhat of a backseat to those. I did want to share some recent pictures we had taken as a family. Those of you that are family members who would like copies please let me know which ones you would like and what sizes.

An actual family portrait. We went primarily to get pictures of Bella but figured that we would try a family shot while we were at it.

This is probably my favorite picture of her out of the bunch. As Aunt Caitlin pointed out, she looks so sweet and innocent with her "who me?" face, and then you look closer and realize she is strangling the stuffed puppy.

Gardening update

I bet you are all wondering how my garden is doing. It is doing fantastic thanks for asking. The only problem I am having is that my huge tomato plants keep getting flowers but they fall off and no fruit is being produced. Any master gardeners out there that have any ideas?

I picked my first Zapallo after several disagreements with the Blue Prince about when they are ripe and when they should be picked. Thanks to the wonder of the Internet I discovered that my lovely Uruguayan squash (zapallito de tronco) is actually both a summer and winter squash so you can pick it either early and use it like a zucchini or latter and let it harden and use it like a pumpkin or other hard squash. (So we were both right) The plant is huge and I have to cut it back frequently so it doesn't block our back gate. So enjoy the pics and thank you for humoring my new little obsession.

Mommy please let me out of my highchair and quit making me pose with squash.

Recent happenings

It has been a while since I updated my blog and I have been severely reprimanded by several Aunties... So here are your Bella pics. You can stop the harassment anytime :).

This is a recent photo from the front of our house. I like the cute smile on her face, and it is only slightly blurry so you can get the feeling of constant motion that accompanies the child.

This pic is from a recent overnight camping excursion that we went on with a group of my friends from college. There were 10 adults and 11 kids under the age of 5. They put us in a campsite a little too close to the river for comfort sake. Luckily, we only had to fish one of the little ones out of the water and no one fell in the fire this year, so all in all the trip was a rounding success.

We brought our two hammocks and they were a hit with the kids. Here is a picture where we managed to get 10 of them in at the same time. I kind of felt sorry for the ones who got stuck in the middle. (you can kind of see the pained look on Eleanore's face)

Bella and myself in a quieter moment when we had the hammock to ourselves. I love my hammocks. This is one I bought in Brazil while on my mission. (We got to cross the border once in a while for our P-days in order to buy cheap stuff in Brazil and eat at the Brazilian buffets. It was the highlight of serving near the border) My other hammock is made of multicolored plastic twine and I got it in Nicaragua. My host father there knew how much I loved theirs and helped me bargain for one from a door to door hammock salesman. (I guess he wasn't actually a door to door salesman actually just someone who walked down the street calling out and selling his wares. He only came to your door if you called out to him saying you wanted to buy something. It's a sales technique that is used too infrequently here in the US. The ice cream trucks have kind of cornered the market.)

This is a rather freaky pic of Bella taken during the 4th of July fireworks. She must have moved just as the camera went off. Unfortunately none of the pictures we took that night look much better. The reason I am posting this is that it reminds me of a scene in the second Ghostbusters movie where the evil overlord spirit is trying to take over the body of the baby. A bit too much Vigo the Carpathian for my tastes.

Bella Pictures

Looking over my blog I realized that it has been far to long since I posted some updated Bella Pictures. Got to keep the core demographic of grandparents and aunties happy.

I've got a cute hat

But mommy I want to play with the camera
It has so many fun buttons to push.

Why yes I do let my daughter run with sharp objects.

The flowers obviously need fixing.

Bella and the tool supplier.

I'm a frog

Mom keeps saying don't pick and eat the flowers
But I conscientiously disagree. At least pansies are non-toxic.

And finally a video of Bella being a froggie with Papi.

Picture updates

On a lighter note and for the real reason most people follow this blog.... Bella Pictures and Updates:

The Blue Prince has been installing sprinklers at our condo complex. Bella has been helping in her usual way of digging in the dirt, testing it's edibility and pulling tools and parts out of Papi's tool bag and bucket.

Here is a close-up of the two worker bees and yes that is dirt around her mouth. (I love this picture of my husband, he is such a sweetheart)

Last night Bella discovered that she could climb into her toy basket and here is her showing off the skill this morning. Now she pulls half of the toys out, climbs in, pulls a book off the shelf and proceeds to read it. (I know Dad, Mr. "I used to sleep with books under my pillow", you are so proud)

Oh, and this post is dedicated to my loving sister Emily who likes to mock me for having a blog and joining the "trendy mommy blogging set". Because as she puts it "you get married, you have a baby and automatically you must start a blog"

Found in Uruguay

This is likely to be a semi-short post but I did want to put up some pictures and let everyone know we are home safely from our South American Adventure. We had a great trip, with many ups and downs which I may or may not get into later... but anyway here are a couple of lovely finds:

My baby's Curls:

We have always taken it as a genetic destiny that this child would have curly hair but apparently Bella's curls only appear in the presence of humidity. Or maybe it's a genetic switch that's only flipped on when she touches Uruguayan soil. Anyway, they were lovely and I am missing them already.

The Origin of the Blue Prince's Nose:

This is my husband's paternal Grandmother posing first with Bella and afterwards with my husband, and Bella's cousin Francisco. (I think the cousins definatly look alike). She is a fantastic woman and she got so exited to see us, though she kept exclaiming about how fat I had gotten and kept asking me what I had eaten to get so fat. It was so funny and hard to get offended when she said it with such love and humor as she was giving me hugs.

Carolina:

Standing next to me in the orange shirt is a young woman named Carolina. When I was serving as a missionary I taught her the gospel. She was 14 years old at the time. It was such a lovely surprise to visit my husbands home ward and to find her there actively participating in the ward. She is now married and has a daughter of her own (way to make me feel old) and she and her husband are making plans to be sealed in the temple soon.

One of the most beautiful views in the world:

This was the view from our hotel room in Piriapolis and it wasn't even a particularly well or specially situated room. This is the view you get from most of the town, beautiful sea views bumping up to lovely green hills and mountains in the background. My husband teases me about how much I like this place. I admit it is an ongoing fantasy of mine to one day buy a house or build on a plot of land in this area. Maybe one day...

Christmas Pictures

So I finally broke down and paid to get some professional portraits of Bella in her Christmas finery. She did great, it was probably one of the easiest photo session the photographer had ever done with a baby. Literally took about 20 minutes including changing the backgrounds to get 8 or so shots. The entire experience left me kind of Meh... and irritated at the incredible markups on the photo sheets. Using extreme self control and a couple coupons I made it out of there with 4 picture sheets (one of them supposedly free) for about $25. I will probably end up scanning the pictures and print off any additional copies I need myself.

California Dreaming

So last weekend we decided it was high time to visit the aunties in San Diego and since our credit card was nice enough to cash in our points for a plane ticket, off we went. We arrived early Friday morning with just enough time to say hello and introduce the baby to Bubie Joanie at the airport as she was leaving that day to visit family in Colorado.
A wonderful time was had by all. We ate dinner at Little Italy, walked along the port and saw cool ships, hung out at the beach on Coronado island and visited Bilbao Park. Blue Prince had never seen the Pacific ocean and neither had Bella and both enjoyed it immensely. Bella was a little angry at first that she couldn't eat the sand (she burst into tears at her first mouthful) but soon got into the grove and loved crawling around. Now if only I could teach her not to eat leaves.

Halloween

So here is Princess Bella in her Halloween costume,

The pink leopard costume was a big hit and knowing her personality a perfect fit.

No Prissy or Passive sheep or pumpkin costume for her.

Here are myself and my Dear Husband holding Miss Princess

Both the rabbit ears and the devil horns lit up, they were very cool.

Anyway I just wanted to post some quick pictures, more to come latter.