It's the end of the school year

Bella's last day of regular school is today.  A couple of weeks ago I observed in her classroom to see if any noticeable changes had occurred.  I could tell that Bella did a better job paying attention to the activities around her and the kids in her class.  As mentioned in previous posts she is doing a better job grabbing and holding onto objects.  And while we still have to feed her and puree her foods, she is doing a better job at controlling them.  She hardly ever coughs/chokes while eating.  Although frustrating to us, she will still sometimes lean her head to the side while eating.  Because we know she can hold her head up, it must be a preference for her, especially when she isn't feeling well.

And most importantly Bella really enjoys going to school.  Even when she doesn't sleep well at home and I know she is teething, I am told she does great at school.  It has made a big difference these past couple of months to have a happy child at home.

We have really enjoyed the teachers and therapists that work with Bella.  And we thank them very much for all of their hard work!

I was able to make little clutches/wallets again for the teachers as a thank you.

It reads "Thank you to all who have impacted, taught, loved, and pushed Bella to achieve all that she can.  Bella has really loved going to school this year and we have been delighted to see progress."

Repeat

Colby had knee surgery on Friday.  This is Colby's third surgery.  Her last surgery was 1 month prior to Bella being born.....anyone see a pattern here?  While we may have repeated the knee surgery, really hoping to not repeat the "Bella experience".

It also makes for an interesting time around here.  You have one dog that can barely hobble around on three legs, a pregnant lady who can barely hobble around with a huge belly, and one child that refuses to move around on her own.  Oh and a scrambling dad trying to get a million things done before the second child arrives.

Concert

We went to the Josh Groban concert last night.  We very much enjoyed it, more laid back with a great orchestra behind him and of course a voice that can change octaves with such ease it's amazing.


Apparently the new baby also very much enjoyed the concert as we had constant movement for the whole 2 1/2 hours we were there.


As I was listening to the lyrics of one of his songs, it reminded me of Bella.  I thought this could be her theme song, "You are Loved".


Don't give up
Because you want to be heard
If silence keeps you
I...I will break it for you

Everybody wants to be understood
Well I can hear you
Everybody wants to be loved
Don't give up
Because you are loved

Progress

Slow progress is happening around here.  After moving Bella into her bedroom last September, we finally have a functioning closet and her clothes have been moved into the new room.  Hmmm......9 months to finish one closet, that's pretty sad.  Especially if you notice the closet doors are not installed yet, that's because they are not finished being painted.

 Onto the nursery.  We are 1 month out from the due date and the nursery still looks like a construction zone. 

I am generally a procrastinator, but this is kind of bad.

The good thing about this being the second child, the number of things you need to buy is considerably reduced.  We did finally purchase a new double jogging stroller.  We have been trying it out and trying to get Bella used to staying on her side.

 I'm thinking a stray arm might end up on the babies side once in awhile.

 And this has been my personal nightmare for the past week, shop drawings for work.  I am lucky enough that they are allowing me to work from home (this allows me to put up my feet and rest my back when needed, because this current checking of papers and being in one position for hours on end has actually been pretty painful for an 8 month pregnant lady).

At least I only have a couple more days of this, and then we can really start tackling the nursery, or else the baby is going to be "done" first.

6 days and counting.

It's been a little bit of a rough week around here.  As I mentioned before it's my last week of work....warning I'm about to do a lot of complaining here......I chose the end date I did so that I could finish out a project for work.  I was supposed to start working on it May 12th, which would give me 2 weeks to complete.  Well things didn't go that way, and I finally got the information needed to start working on it May 18th, the same amount of work that needs 2 weeks to finish, and only a week to get it done.  Who wants to have to work evenings and weekends on their last week of work?  It depresses me and let's just say I have very little motivation to actually work on it.

Then we can add in the fact that Bella is getting two new molars and hasn't been sleeping well, and to top it all off, I keep getting migraines and am no longer able to take the medicine that helps them.  So as I stated it's a little bit of a rough week.

But luckily even though Bella is teething, not sleeping the best, and coughing, she is normally in a good mood when awake.  She has been laughing a lot lately.....take a peek.

The Cable Experiment

Or should I say Non-Cable Experiment.  That's right, we have officially canceled our cable and are trying the realms of living with local HD channels, Netflix and the internet.  It's a definite summer experience that we are hoping might be permanent, but you never know how that football season is going to go.
We have only been off cable for one week, so I can't really give a good report on how it's going.  I will say I miss my DVR.  I have a couple of shows that I watch and having to catch them at 9pm live, well let's just say that puts me past my normal bedtime.  Not too mention I really had no idea what night the shows were on, I would just watch them sometime after they were recorded.
In other big news....maybe even bigger news.  I have officially turned in my two week notice at work.  We have decided that I will take an extended break for my maternity leave.  Right now we are planning on around 7 months, but only time will tell how that works out.  Of course just as I started work right as Bella started school (meaning I had no break from watching her) I am also ending work right as she ends school.  Bella does have summer school 2 mornings a week for 6 weeks, so that gives me just a little bit of time to try and get everything done around here, or just time to run errands as needed.

It's Bella the pirate.....again

This week in school they had pirate week where they did different crafts and activities related to pirates.  Here Bella is showing off her buried treasure (ring), pirate ship, and pirate hat.

Mainly I wanted to show you how she is getting better at grasping and picking things up.  She will now pick most things up even heavier objects that surprise me.

 At school they have been working with making her pick things up across her body, otherwise known as crossing mid-line.  This is a big goal for Bella, and she is starting to do it more often.

She is even starting to use her left hand a little bit more, but the right hand still clearly dominates.

I can't believe she only has two weeks left at school, where has the year gone?