Bella 2nd Birthday Party!

So another birthday has past! As Mark mentioned, Bella was sick on her birthday, a little better for her party, but still definitely not in her usual playful mood. We had her party at Pump It Up, mostly Mark's idea so he can play in the moonwalks. It was a fun party. My brother and family flew in from Pennsylvania, and little Andrew and his parents came in from Wisconsin/Minnesota border for the party... thanks guys! Here's the link to the pictures on shutterfly. I still can't believe how fast her birthday snuck up on us. Having a birthday so close to the holidays is a little stressful, you forget lots of things, and then with her being sick it just added more stress since I had to not go to work for several days since she wouldn't sleep with Mark anymore and she wasn't getting adequate rests.
Anyways, now she's better, the party is over, and so are the holidays, now we are on baby watch 2008. The month of February should be a quiet month. We'll just be getting the house ready for the baby, and working on Bella's potty training (which she's pushing us to teach her, since I don't really want her potty trained yet due to my public washroom phobia).

Baaby Looove

So, this has been a pretty busy week. Bella officially entered the Terrible Two Zone on Tuesday. Tracy and I took the day off to spend the day with our little booger. We planned to go to the Children's Museum in Glenview, but Bella woke up with a fever and was coughing non stop. So we called her pediatrician and with her party on Saturday, we wanted her to be 100%, so we brought her in to find out what was up with her. She ended up having an ear infection. Nothing serious.

Friday, January 18 proved to be Bella's first appearance on the evening news. Since we don't know who's in fact reading this blog, if you're interested in seeing Bella on the news, email either myself or Tracy and we'll give you the details.

Too many toys!

Thanks to Grandpa Marvin, Ninong Gil, Mommy Lu, and Daddy for fixing our playroom! Last weekend we finally painted the room. We used chalkboard paint on the bottom half of the wall. Haven't tried to write on it yet, actually don't want to show her her until we fixed up the room completely. Managed to fit most of her toys in there, but not all. TOO MANY TOYS!!! And just when I thought she was done certain toys and ready to pack them up, she shows interests in them so we keep them out.


Uncle Tom and Ninang Maito gave Bella the rose petal cottage for Christmas. Bella loves it!

Mark and I worked on assembling all of Bella's new toys from x-mas and her birthday (we decided to let her open her kitchen early so that we can fill her room up). This is probably the only time Mark will ever do any plumbing work (yes, on Bella's pink kitchen sink).

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

So our New Year's Eve started at Mark's parents house for dinner, but we had to leave so I could go to work where Mark and Bella stayed with me all night long! Was an interesting night, Mark was really sleepy, and Bella was really not. She walked around like she owned the place and wanted to touch everything! She made a tower using the pregnany test boxes, she played with the Thomas the Train vitamins by lining them up in a straight line (which totally shows that she's a mini-Little Tom), and my favorite activity of the night was her reading books. She can really say real words. She learned pizza, carrot, bananana (pronounced "nana"), sandwich, etc. Anyways, at least we were together on NYE. Mark's great news is that he finally broke down and bought a PS3 for the New Year. So he's currently playing that.
Anyways, hope everyone has a wonderful year 2008! Lots of new things happening this coming year with Bella moving up a grade in school next week (time for potty training), the birth of Brianna, couple of trips already being planned (2 Las Vegas trips this year maybe-hopefully so I can run the half marathon that KK ran this year- and 1 Hawaii trip), and hopefully me finally deciding if I should go part-time or stay full-time (I can't make up my mind). With each year, it's fun watching the kids grow older. I just realized that I'm addicted to my daughter and all my nieces and my one nephew. Ashley is growing up so fast, with an amazing fashion sense accessorized with her iPhone (WOW!!!), her huge collection of tv shows on her iPod, and her awesome soccer skills. Maxine continues to amaze me with all the skating competitions that she wins, all the performances she sings her heart out at, her awesome piano skills (she can almost play like me... almost :)), and on top of that she manages to keep straight As. Kayley, or shall I say Sr. Kayley, is always dressed so fashionably from head to toe, she definitely knows what she wants and doesn't want, when she says her prayers, she really says ALL of them, she LOVES her baby Bella, and her newly discovered talent is that she's SO CUTE when she ice skates!!! I hope she keeps it up, that's her sport. She performed the other day, and she did all her moves by herself, even with the large audience staring at her and the spotlight on her. She's come a long way!!! And finally my Little Tom. Little Tom is exactly what his name is... a Little Tom (Tom my brother). Looks like him and acts like him. Very focused, and hates when his focus is broken (as little Tom told Bella the other day, "Bella, you have to focus!!!). He builds these towers, and lines up his toys in just the perfect way. With him and Bella only a year and a half apart it'll be a blast watching them grow up together. They have this love/hate relationship that's hilarious. There was one point last week when little Tom was doing his usual, "No Bella, don't play with my toys", and Bella got fed up and snapped right back at him in her alien baby language... but they seem to understand eachother. I can't wait to see more from this little guy. He too also skates very well, especially since he's only 3 years old! And one thing I love about little Tom is that he's Grandpa's boy, what a good boy when Grandpa's around.
Anyways, I can't wait to see what greatness will be brought to these fantastic kids this year. Happy New Year again!!!