Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Bella's Official 1-Year Stats

We accidentally scheduled Bella's 1-year wellness appointment with the wrong doctor last week, so we rescheduled for this week so we could see Dr. Hosemann. Dr. Hosemann is our favorite pediatrician and she has seen Bella for all of her wellness appointments so she really knows Bella the best. Anyway... here are the 12 month stats:


Height: 31 inches (95th percentile) - What a tall girl! I'm hoping she inherited my family's height genes.


Weight: 24 lbs 10 oz (95th percentile) - She is finally evening out and losing the baby fat!


She received FOUR shots today! I was under the impression she was only going to receive three vaccinations today, however she received four. She was such a trooper and did really well (all things considered). Dr. Hosemann gave Bella a clean bill of health and congratulated us on our happy and healthy 1-year-old daughter!


On a more serious note... Dr. Hosemann has referred us to Dr. Fernandez, a neurologist at All Children's Hospital. It's more of a precautionary visit, as Dr. Hosemann wants to rule out any neurological reasons for why Bella has issues bearing weight on her legs. While she isn't technically developmentally delayed, she is having some issues pulling up on her own and appropriately bearing weight on both of her legs. This was not what we were expecting to hear today, but it is, what it is. Bella will see Dr. Fernandez in May, so please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. 


Well, Bella will be up from her nap soon, so I'd better get going.


Love always, 
Ian, Kim & Bella

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Happy Birthday Bella!

I cannot believe I'm writing this post, but today is Bella's 1st birthday! She will officially be 1-year-old at 11:30am, so I'm going to relish the next few hours of having an infant. It's hard to believe, but this time last year I was laying in a hospital bed getting ready to give birth to my baby girl. She is taking her last nap as a baby and when she wakes up, she will be a big girl. We are so blessed to have her! 


Bella hasn't gone for her 12-month wellness appointment yet, but her are some approximations:

Height: About 31 inches   

Weight: About 25 pounds

Clothing Size: Bella is generally wearing 12 month clothes due to the fact that she is finally evening out in height and weight. She does wear 18-24 month clothes, but only in Gymboree. It really depends on the outfit and I'm so glad that she is finally wearing age/size appropriate clothing!

Sleeping Pattern: Bella is a sleeping champ! She takes two 2-hour naps a day and sleeps through the night. She is such a good sleeper and we are very thankful! She has even started putting herself to sleep, as we have dropped the bedtime bottle. 

Eating Pattern: We've been weaning Bella off formula and mixing her formula with whole milk. We're giving her only organic milk (when we're at home) and we're hoping to give her mostly organic foods. She isn't a picky eater, but some days she refuses to eat a food that she gobbled up the previous day. We try to get her to finish the food, even if she fights us a little. Hopefully our method will pay off in the long run and Bella will eat what is put in front of her. 

Milestones: Bella is cutting her first molar and several other teeth. She has about 8-9 teeth and seems to be cutting new teeth every week. The molar has been difficult and we're relying on Humphreys teething tablets, Motrin and Orajel. Bella is crawling on all fours and has this mastered. She has been pulling up on furniture and we're hoping she will start cruising soon. Bella still says words like "da-da", "ma-ma", "out" and has added words such as "dog" and "car". She recognizes both Ian and I, as well as Grandma and her little friends. She loves to point at things and has been working on pointing at things to let us know her preference. 

Friends: The usual crew... Connor, Carter, Tyler, Layla, Camden, Luke, Taylan, Logan and Lily! Bella's friend Gia has been in Ohio since January and we're hoping to see her soon! The McGill kids are also great neighborhood friends of ours! =) Birthday party season is in full affect and we've been celebrating a birthday (or two) nearly every week.

Current Events: We had AWFUL weather in Tampa last week. We had several tornados within a 1/4 of a mile from our house! It rained so much and the wind was absolutely wicked. Trees were uprooted, fences were blown away, roofs were blown off and people were without power for days. Luckily our house and neighborhood faired very well.


Happy 1st Birthday Isabella Eve! We love you very much and cannot imagine our lives without you!


Love always,
Ian, Kim & Bella

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Bella's 1st Birthday Party!

Bella is going to BEE ONE! Today we celebrated Bella's birthday with our family and friends. After months of planning this special day went beautifully and we could not have planned a better party. 


I spent a lot of time planning and making things for Bella's party so I was quite pleased with how well everything turned out. I designed the invitation from a store on Etsy (my new favorite website) and made all of the decorations, including the cupcake toppers and birthday banner. It's all about the details so I really enjoyed working on Bella's birthday party. So here we go...






We woke up bright and early this morning to get a jump start on the day. We had a few last minute errands to run, like picking up the food from Publix and balloons at Party City. My dad and I ran errands while Ian stayed at home with Bella and finished up a few things around the house. We ordered party platters from Publix because we were hosting nearly 40 people, including 10 children. Subs, wraps, fruit and veggie platters and other snacks were served and everyone seemed to enjoy the food. 







We didn't have to order a cake because our amazing neighbor, Sara, offered to make Bella's birthday cake and smash cake. I left the design of the cake in Sara's hands and knew that it would turn out to be great. I was correct in my assumption because both cakes were absolutely BEE-autiful! Not only was the cake beautiful, but it was also very yummy, too. Sara makes a homemade buttercream frosting that was so good and that's saying a lot because I'm not a fan of buttercream frosting! She also made a dozen cupcakes with the prettiest shade of yellow frosting! Thank you so much, Sara!








Ian gave a speech and thanked everyone for being a part of Bella's life and then we sang her "Happy Birthday", which she loved and clapped for herself. We stripped her down to nothing but a diaper and so she could eat cake in her birthday suit. Bella then had the opportunity to live it up and make the biggest mess of her short, little life, but being the girly girl she is, she was very dainty in smashing her cake. She was adorable nonetheless, but it took a little coaxing to get her to get into smashing her cake. The black, yellow and white icing made for a messy clean up so we opted to give Bella a quick bath after the cake smashing.







After a quick bath, we opened gifts and took a few family pictures with our good friend and hired photographer, Jessica. Bella wasn't really in to opening gift and after each gift, she wanted to play with the new toy, book or clothing she received. This child did not need any more toys, but she made out like a bandit. She received many great gifts and she was eager to play with her new toys. She played with her friends until it was time for everyone to leave. After a fantastic 1st birthday party, the birthday girl was pooped and went down for a 3 hour nap.




We are very blessed to have such loving, caring and supportive friends and family. Thank you to everyone who laughed with us, cried with us and were there for Bella's first year of life. Bella is very lucky to have been born into a family with such a great support network. We wouldn't have made it through this first year without each and every one of you. We love you and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. 


Even though Bella's actual birthday isn't until April 5th... Happy Birthday Beautiful Bella! 


Love always,
Ian, Kim & Bella