Seymour Botanical Conservatory

CJ and I live right next to a beautiful botanical conversatory. The place is full of exotic pants and flowers as well as beautiful glass pieces by Dale Chihuly. We decided to take Bella there today to show her all the pretty flowers and art. She especially liked the fountain and the koi fish. Here are some photos from today.

A Couple Reasons Why Bella Loves Grandpa and Grandma's

3) She gets cookies. Bella LOVES cookies.

2)She gets ice water from the cup, which really seemed to make her happy. I think it was helping her tooth. Now I know what to do when her teeth are bothering her. She loves being a big girl. Even if this means wearing more ice water than that which makes it into her mouth.

I think her #1 favovorite thing about Grandma and Grandpa's is still Grandpa's shoulder. That is the place where Bella looks most happy of all.

Two Eyed, One toothed, Flying Monkey Bella Monster

Bella's first tooth has broken through (bottom left) the surface. It is barely through but you can see it and feel it. Ever since it broke through she has been blowing spit bubbles and playing with her tongue a lot. I can't wait to see what it looks like when both teeth are in. I know you can't see the tooth in the picture, but trust me it is there.

Uncie Jeff in Town

CJ's best friend is in town from Louisiana. We had a lot of fun this past weekend hanging out with him. We missed him a lot!

Bella liked uncie Jeff a lot! This is what she looked like after an hour with him. (remind us to never let him babysit!)

This is a joke for those of you who know Jeff...he is rather flashy haha. We love you Jeff, thank you for visiting!

Our little Valentine

Having fun preparing for Bella's first valentine's day...

March For Babies Walk

CJ and I are going to do the march of dimes march for babies walk this year. The walk is on April 25th. If any of you would like to donate here are the URLs to our pages.

http://www.marchforbabies.org/personal_page.asp?si=DFE97C1E-D68B-41DE-9447-D78CCA95BE69
Alexis

http://www.marchforbabies.org/personal_page.asp?si=36C1CCF4-B9B8-49D0-BF52-CC5E1833D12D&prefill
CJ

Hopefully we raise some money for the babies in need.

Help me reach my goal!Sponsor Me at March for Babies!

Happy Birthday Grandma Cooper

Today was Debby's birthday. We hope this year brings her great happiness! Here is grandma showing Bella how to pet Buster kitty. Bella sometimes has trouble understanding that Buster is old and we have to be gentle when we pet him.

In Case You Were Wondering...

I took a photo today of Bella right after I combed her hair. Normally it takes all of 5 minutes for it to dry and stick back up. So, in case any of you were wondering what she looked like with her hair combed...

Daddy's Little Bricklayer

Here's Bella playing with our brick by brick game. She takes after her daddy.

Surrounded by Love

Godmama playing with Bella

It fills me with joy to know that no matter where Bella is or who she is with, she is constantly surrounded by love. She had lots of fun with her godmama Carlena today. I love having wonderful friends and family that come to visit as often as they can. It is very special for Bella to see all these wonderful people in her life that love her.

My Little Chef

Bella loves to help with dinner. She thinks the key to making pasta is to smack it around a little. She will get pretty angry if we try and stop her so it looks like we will be eating a lot of broken pasta. She loves to watch us cook, I know she is going to be the best baking partner in a couple of years!

The Answers to All of Your Questions

So I decided to write on here about my meeting with my biological father so that you all can have the answers to the many questions you are wondering. We met Sunday afternoon at a restaurant in southcenter mall. It was a very surreal moment. My mother walked me in so that I wouldn't have to face the initial (and most awkward) first seconds alone. It was like a dream, I walked out from the bathroom and there he was. I took a moment to catch my breath and study every physical feature of his face. He did most of the talking to start with because I was, for the lack of a better word, flabbergasted. He brought a ton of pictures of his very large family and gave me a little bit of history of each one of them. Turns out a large part of me is Italian. I loved hearing about each member of his family. There is a lot of talent in my blood, ranging from music to writing. I was the most interested in hearing about him and his immediate family. He has two daughters, Maria (13) and Tess(15). He has been married for 19 years to a lovely sounding woman named Linda. I look a lot like his kids. I will post photos when I have access to a scanner. All in all, the meeting was a success. I don't know what this all means for us but I know that I look forward to meeting his wife and kids. I feel so complete. He is a wonderful man, both smart and funny. I am glad that he was so understanding and open to all of this. Thank you to all of my family that have supported me, and my decision to look for him. I couldn't have done this alone. If you have any more questions just email me. He is going to be sending me a family "kit" full of pictures and information to share with you all.

A Nervous Mama

Christian Smith

Today has to be one of the most important days in my entire life. For 20 years I have wondered about my biological father. Thanks to facebook, the support of my family, and genetics testing, the day has come for me to meet him. For the past few days I have gone back and forth thinking about how to describe 20 years over a couple of hours. I don't know what today has in store, and I don't know if this moment will be the life altering moment that I have dreamed about. All I know is that I am so happy to finally just have some questions answered.

My Tall Spiky Haired Monster

The nurse had me laughing yesterday at Bella's checkup. She was trying to accurately measure Bella's height but her big spiky hair kept getting in the way. Bella was trying to cheat and squeeze in a few extra inches. If her hair keeps growing like this I think she might be bride of Frankenstein next Halloween!

A Very Merry Un-birthday to Bella

Happy Un-birthday Bella Monkey!
It may not be Bella's birthday, but we are halfway there! Today she is 6 months old. She had her checkup and all is perfect. She weighs 16 lbs and is 27in long. She is around 50th percentile for weight and 95th for height. She is long and skinny. Doctor said she has so many expressions for a baby her age. He also said her balance is so advanced that he is positive she will be crawling any day now. We got the green light to feed her solids 3 times a day. Time flies by so fast!

Little Drummer Girl

Our goal from the moment of conception was to surround Bella in music. Music is a passion of ours and we love sharing it with Bella. Having said this, we got Bella some fisher price drums for Christmas. The real cool thing about the drums is that they fold together and roll around (encouraging Bella to follow!). She LOVES her drums. Daddy always said she would be a little drummer girl! We can't wait to buy her a real set of drums.

Bananas

I think my suspicions were right! She seemed to like bananas a little better than green beans and was more open to eating them. This came as no surprise seeing as how she is our little monkey!

Green Beans

Bella tried her very first real baby food tonight. We decided to start with green beans. At first she seemed really open to the idea of new food, but then she decided she wasn't quite sure if she was ready. I think we will try bananas tomorrow...I have a feeling they will go over better.

Another Fun Weekend With Bella's Favorite Uncle

Here we are on the stairs having fun with Jadyn's slinky...what are Jadyn and Bella looking at? I have no clue.

My favorite kids


Alphabet cookie cutters and a pankcake breakfast!

Cookie Monster

Bella loves playing with cookies. She smacks them and watches them break, and she finds this very entertaining. Well, today she figured out that cookies aren't only for playing. She stuck the cookie in her mouth briefly before I quickly snatched it from her little fingers.

Introducing the Amazing Balancing Bella

Bella is now learning that she can catch herself from falling. She is starting to balance so well. She even stands for quick periods by herself.

PS. No babies were harmed during this photo! (Mommy's hand was right outside of the picture ready to catch her if she fell, which she didn't!)

More Christmas Photos

CJ's brother in law, Ed, just sent us a bunch of very adorable pictures so I just wanted you all to see a few of them. Thanks Ed.

My Social Butterfly

Bella has so many friends. Here is her current BFF, Mr. Sockmonkey. They have been seen together all over town (town being my small living room). She just loves him. Thank you aunty Laura for Mr. Sockmonkey.

Catching Up

The blog is fixed and I can add photos again. This photo was taken to let everyone know that Bella's hearing appointment went perfect. She has outstanding hearing. If you were wondering why she even had an appointment, it is because she failed her initial hearing screening. She reminds us just how well she hears all the time by chatting on the phone all day. She is giving us a sneak preview of the teenage years. If any of you ever get a missed call from us, and it is a bunch of muffled noises, that would be Bella calling you.

Blog

I would love to be updating the blog but it isn't letting me upload photos anymore...I will try and fix this problem asap.

Christmas #2

Last night we went to my aunt Kelly's for Christmas #2. We has so much fun! I was so happy to see my family. It was extra special because my aunty Jayne was there (all the way from Whidbey Is.) and she brought her very nice, new boyfriend. Bella, once again, made out like a bandit with lots of wonderful gifts. Thank you everyone!! We finished the night with a fun game of apples to apples, I came in at 2nd place! Thank you aunt Kelly for the wonderful night.

Learning

Miss Bella is getting better and better at everything. I can now feel confident that she won't fall over when I sit her up (as long as she has something to play with). She is constantly saying "dada" and very rarely saying "mama". She is getting closer and closer to crawling. And she is now holding her own bottle more often. She won't hold the bottle if it is full, because it is too heavy...but here is proof. She is growing so fast.