Super cute!  See for yourself!

(also, for anyone who read the previous post, About Bella, notice she is holding in her left hand “Pullin’ ” and a new one Daddy bought her – she says “I have TWO Pullin’s”)

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Our little Bella has astounded us with her sudden desire to potty train almost a month ago.  I am still blown away with how easy it was for her.  She just does it!  I think in this whole time frame she has had less than 10 accidents and most of those were in the first week.  This time I decided not to use candy as a reward and instead printed off a potty training chart off the internet with Dora the Explorer on it, laminated it and put it on the fridge – 1 potty = 1 sticker  Bella loved it!  We also used the “Easy Button” she got to push it each time she used the potty.  I don’t know what it is about that button but my little ones will do almost anything to be able to push that button.  “That was easy!”

Bella talks so much.  Really I don’t think there is anything she can’t say or communicate.  I love how she says “I potty twaining.”  She also says, in her most firm, independent 2 year old voice, “I do it my own!” Bella is fully able to “tattle” on her other siblings and does so quite regularly.  I love how she says things clearly so you understand but her sentence structure is not quite right.  For example, if Kellen were to hit her (not that it would EVER happen!) she would tell me “Kelly hit it, me!”

Bella loves to pray.  Her prayers usually go something like this.  “Dear God. I go McDonalds.  I get it, chicken, fries, pop. I go McDonalds, a playplace, a slide.  Amen.”

LOL  Sometimes she will elaborate more about her day but she always asks to go to McDonalds.

My children rarely attach themselves to a special toy or stuffy and if they do it’s not usually for long.  Bella may be breaking that trend.  She has a little Strawberry Shortcake figurine that Tom bought her in the late summer/early fall and she loves this thing.  The figurines name is “Plum Pudding” and she smells yummy.  Bella calls her “Pullin’ ” and she takes her many places and totes her all over the house.  Most nights she sleeps with Pullin’ though Pullin’ usually falls under the bed and needs to be retrieved by Kellen.  The other day Adriana and I were laughing because the Littles were playing house with their “babies” and guess who Bella’s baby was?  Yup, Pullin’.  She was carrying Pullin’ (who is no more than 4 inches tall) in a big dolly carseat, it looked so funny.  I plan to get some photos of her with Pullin’ this week.

Just some fun things I wanted to remember about Bella at this age. Â

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Yes, I have been very negligent in posting Sophia’s “month birthday” photos.  But I have been taking them so I guess that’s a step in the right direction.

Our little one is growing up so quickly! I cannot believe she is 5 months old already!  Here are a few stats about our Sweet Sophie.

- is the “Rolling Queen” and has been rolling over since she was 3 months old, it only took her a couple of days after learning to roll onto her tummy for her to figure out how to roll onto her back again.  Smart cookie.  She gets that from her mother.

- is a big smiler.  Sophia will smile at anyone, anytime, anyplace.  She has the cutest gummy grin.

- looks a lot like her big brother.  Everyone says so and I can definitely see it.

- stopped sucking her thumb. While other moms who have had “thumb-suckers” tell me this is a blessing, I admit I was sad to see it go…she was so cute sucking her thumb and I’ve never had a baby do that before.

- so drooly. This has earned her the nickname “Princess Drool” (see Toy Story) Lots of drool.  All the time.

- sound sleeper. Sophia has been sleeping 8-10 hours a night for months now, it’s been so long I’m not even sure when she started.  Maybe 6-8 weeks old? It’s not uncommon for Sophia to be the last one to wake up in the morning.  A miracle considering the volume with which her older siblings talk (yell, fight) at 7 am.

- funny hair.  Sophia doesn’t have much hair to speak of…except for at the nape of her neck.  There she has a tuft of long dark brown hair.

- weighs about 16 lbs, and 27 inches

- good=mischievous? Only time will tell.  Sophia is seriously one of the best babies I have ever had or met.  We are seeing her curiosity about the world around her grown, she is so interested in foods, though she’s not hungry, just anxious to see what this is all about.  She will grab any food/dishes/etc that come within her reach.  She will nearly jump out of your arms to get the previous mentioned things.  Sophia has been given a few sips of water from a cup and nearly exploded with excitement.

- Early crawler? Eeek! Sophia has become so efficient at rolling that she can move all over a room going where ever she pleases.  She lifts her whole upper torso off the ground with her arms and is trying to get her little knees under herself to try to move herself forward.

- swimmer.  Sophia has a move we call “swimming.”  When laying on her tummy she kicks her legs and arms while balancing on her belly in a “swimming motion.”  She does this when she is excited about something.  So cute.

- talkative. Sophia makes lots of baby noises.  Her two favourite noises are 1) a sound she makes as she “gargles” her drool. Lovely. 2) sounds like she is saying “Blah, Blah,Blah”  Tom thinks she is trying to say “Dada”

- sticks out her tongue.  Sophia has discovered her tongue not long ago and is often seen with it hanging out of her mouth.  She often “chews’ on her tongue, turning it sideways in her mouth.  I think there may be another reason she is “chewing” on her tongue more lately…stay tuned for that.

- nicknames.  Sophia, like any other Lister baby, has tons of nicknames.  Currently she answers to “Sophie”, “Sweet Fee,” “Feea,” “Foo,” “Fee-Fee,” and “Moe.”

Our Precious Sophia Amethyst

3 Months

4 Months

5 Months

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Today the girls and I were “googling” some of the animals they read about in their science book. We often do this as it’s fun to be able to see a variety of photos of whatever they are studying. We just finished studying about marsupials and are now moving on to primates. First up, the lemur. We found the CUTEST type of lemur ever and I want one!
Check out the super adorable, Mouse Lemur! Confess, you want one too!

A baby Mouse Lemur being fed

On another note, in our internet research the girls are I were in giggles over the fact that there actually is an animal called the Fossa.  If you have ever watched the Madagascar cartoon (it’s not a great movie, so don’t rush out if you were blessed to have not seen it! LOL) but there is a part where the lemurs’ all yell “It’s the Fossa!!” and we never knew what that meant.  Turns out its an animal native to Madagascar that likes to lunch on lemurs! Google it to find a photo!

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Erilyn (slightly concerned): Mom! Do you realize that Bethany is sleeping over and that means on Thursday morning there will be 10 kids here?!

Me (in a silly, slightly crazed voice): HA,HA! I can handle 10 kids!

Adriana: Yeah, that’s just how Mom rolls.

ROFLOL

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I wanted to keep up with our family blog this year, more for myself than anything, but now somehow a month has slipped by without a post.  So many things happen here on a daily basis that I have a hard time sometimes just keeping up with it much less blogging it.

But I WANT to!  I love being able to look back and have a record, a virtual diary if you will, of the things the children did and said.

I am going to make it a personal goal to post at least once a week – you can hold me to it! Please!

We are busy here with quite a few new things – Ami’s taking swimming lessons, Tom is busy at work with new changes there, I’ve started running again and Isabella is potty training. I guess I’ll go more in-depth with those things later as I’ve only just sat down and already my son is clamouring for my attention.

Sigh.

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Though our little ones are far from grown this has really been on my heart lately – to be more “in the moment” with my children. It is so easy to get bogged down will all the things that try to steal our attention – cleaning, cooking, media, etc, etc, etc – and I never want to look back on my life one day wishing that I had spent more time kissing my baby’s toes, stroking my toddler’s hair, reading to my preschooler, playing games or talking with my older children. I am so blessed to be able to spend so much time with my children and I don’t want to waste that…

Here’s Jennifer’s post

I’m off now to – snuggle, kiss, read, jump, sing, dance, play, chase, and fold laundry… LOL Bella’s favorite thing to do right now is fold laundry

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