Busy Busy

Well Ok, Bella hasn't been that busy....but I certainly have. Which is the reason I haven't posted in a long while.

In February we went and had an annual check-up with the cardiologist. Everything looked good, and in fact one of the two holes had pretty much closed up. They are not too worried about the remaining small hole (PDA), most children and adults can live with it. So we don't have to go back for two years. Which anytime you can spread a doctors appointment out that far, is great news for us.

Next up is her cleft palate clinic yearly appointment in March. There we will see her doctor that performed the surgery in December to make sure everything looks good. We also see an ear, nose, and throat specialists, and auditory hearing specialists, a pediatric dentist, a nutritionist, and the geneticists.

I have been really busy working and we also just got our house re-roofed. So Bella has had to put up with her Grandma Judy and Jesse taking care of her. Here are pictures from their play session last Monday, when Jesse was home supervising the roofing crew.

All work and no play makes..........

Wait a minute I thought this was play not work. I must be mistaken, you see Bella doesn't nap. We try and try and try, everyday to put her down. Most days she prefers to lay in her crib and chew on her hands, she just refuses to shut her eyes, no matter how tired she is. But you see, right now all things we would consider play, Bella considers work. And Bella doesn't like to work. So when she is playing, a.k.a working, she finally chooses to sleep.

Wouldn't a nice nap in a crib be more comfortable!!

My first big tooth!

Now Bella starting getting her first tooth around Halloween, she would have been 13 months at that time. Shortly after that a second lower one starting poking through. But they didn't fully come through and are still just little tiny, sharp, beginnings of teeth. But yesterday we discovered that one of her top teeth is poking through. And I'm happy to report it looks nice and flat, like a tooth is supposed to look. So we will have to see how far that one comes down. I'm wondering if maybe her teeth along with the rest of her body has low muscle tone, and it's just going to take forever for her teeth to move down?? I don't know so I'll guess we will wait and see. I'll try and get a picture if her tooth starts coming through enough that it can be seen.

I'm too fast for mom

I couldn't figure out what to title this one.....it was between:

1. Progression of a roll

2. I'm too fast for mom

You can see which one won. But basically I wanted to get some pictures of Bella's new trick of quickly rolling over from her stomach to her back. I have to help her get her arms up underneath her, and after that it's off to the races. (sorry for the poor quality photos, but I swear she really was moving fast)

Look at my crazy have flattened/half standing up hair from all my hard work at rolling!!

I've become a big eater

I'm happy to say that Bella has become a big eater. She has finally taken to eating by spoon, and enjoys her vegetables. And we just tried meat with veggies, which has gone well. We still don't like our fruits very much, but hey I won't complain.

We do sometimes call her a pedia snob, or joke about how she needs her pedia crack. What am I talking about? Well the doctors and nutritionists, told us to look into pedia sure, as a substitute for formula, since it packs more calories per ounce. Well we tried it one day, and low and behold Bella loved it. And who wouldn't, it tastes like a vanilla milkshake. She also decided she didn't want anything else but the pedia sure. We soon realized that we had to give her small doses of the pedia sure and decided to mix it into whole milk and completely transition her off the formula. That seemed to work well, and now she has a pretty balanced diet (at least for a one year old). Not to mention the pat of butter she sometimes gets mixed into her veggies to give her additional calories.

So I would say we are doing well, and feeding her doesn't seem like such a chore anymore. Way to go Bella!!

Snow Baby

Yesterday it snowed here in KC, and today it is turning into quite a nice day...so we thought we would break out the snow suit and get Bella outside.

Bella's only complaint...........it's too sunny. So if we could only find some tinted baby ski goggles....ski slopes here we come!!

New Chair

Bella received her new chair "kid kart" last week. It's kind of a precursor to a wheelchair, it helps her sit up and see the world and better able her to play with toys. Basically so she's not always lying down on the floor. She doesn't seem to mind her new chair, but she sometime seems to work awfully hard to get her head in positions it's not meant to be in. I should have taken a picture so you could see what I mean. She is currently eating out of this chair which stays inside. It also has an attachment that makes it into a stroller for public applications.

It has now been two weeks since the palate surgery. Things are going alright, but we are definitely not back to normal. Bella seems to want to be held more, and has absolutely no interest in any of her toys. She is doing great with eating by spoon, although I think if given the choice she would give it up in a heartbeat to have her old trusty bottle back. We still have one more week of recovery, so we are attempting to feed liquids by cup, which is a very messy process. She still isn't getting all the nutrients she needs, but it's getting better every day. The plan is to go to a sippy cup next week, when she is allowed to do sucking motions again. We hope that works, and we can stay away from the bottle, but keep her and us a little cleaner than using an open cup. Thanks for everyone's well wishes!!