Bella update

I tried to find the post and picture I took of Cylie the first time she climb up onto the Little Tykes picnic table and stood up on the top, but I cannot find it. I swear I posted it on here.

Anyway, Bella is now doing it. She first climbed on it on Halloween, but only on the seat and then she'd cry as she couldn't figure out how to get back down.

Well, now she's an expert. Not only can she climb up on the seat and even sit down and get back off, yesterday she climbed all the way up to the tabletop and stood up. I didn't get a picture, but I did get some video of her trying to figure out how to get down. She finally did, with a little help from gravity. She now does it all the time; I have to make sure I move it out of the dining room after the toddlers eat as I don't want her falling from it on the hard tile. She doesn't even mind falling from it for the most part.

Oh, and she looked at a potpouri ball yesterday, said -and did the sign for- ball. She knows the sign for eat, but refuses to use it. She will use cookie occasionally though.

She seems to be a little more vocal then Cylie at this age, but doesn't sign nearly as well. It's funny how different they are.

Bella says:

Uh-oh
Mama
All done
Ball
Hi Bella
Baby
Spider (for itsy bitsy spider)
Bye bye

She is a good sleeper, except for her afternoon nap. She sleeps all night long and has a 2-3 hour morning nap, but struggles with the afternoon nap. She may only stay down for 30-45 minutes, but then she's fussy the rest of the day. She's usually ready to begin the evening around 6, which is dinner, bath, play-time, bottle in rocker with story, then to bed. She's usually in bed by 7:30ish and sleeps until 6 or 7.

She's also a very good eater and will eat just about anything put in front of her. We've started cutting back the bottles and are giving her whole milk in a cup with her meals and water between meals. She usually wants a bottle mid-afternoon and then the one before bed. I'm ok with this for a few more months; we will probably try to phase out the afternoon bottle first, then replace the night bottle with a cup of milk with storytime.

She's still not really walking, but will take up to 10 or 12 steps at a time and sometimes she'll stand back up to keep trying if she falls down. I keep waiting for that 'take-off' moment, but she seems to be taking her time on it.

Her toe is much better; the swelling is gone, I guess. We can now get her into a normal shoe (well, some of them). It still looks pretty abnormal, but we'll deal with it in a year or so.

She adores Cylie! I'm not sure what else to say about that; she is her world! And, Cylie is so good to her and has put herself into her protector role.

I'll post some more pictures soon and hopefully some video.