Baby Love

Bella's first doll (Bay-Bay) is slowly being replaced by a new dollie named Mimi. We're not really sure how she came up with the name, but it is VERY clear she's referring to her baby doll when she says Mimi. To get her to sleep, she must have a pacifier...and Mimi.

Before we can officially replace Bay-Bay, we should remember the love Bella once gave her. This video is from last August when they first met, and I think Bella was about 10 months old.




She absolutely LOVES Mimi, which is proven by her willingness to share her necklaces. (This is a good sign that Bella considers you a friend).





Hugs & Kisses for the new baby....

**UPDATE: The new Mimi started to malfunction, so we had to exchange it. They were out of purple (seems to be Bella's preferred color of choice), so we had to go with a pink Mimi.

cRaZy Eights!

My friend, Susanna, tagged me for this, so here goes.



Tag Rules..
1. Mention the person who tagged you.
2. Complete the list of 8's.
3. Tag 8 of your wonderful blog friends!

8 things I look forward to:

1. Celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary in June.
2. Kristin visiting us so we can actually have a DATE in 2 weeks!
3. finishing our backyard flowers/ landscaping
4. making Brian a special Father's Day gift from Bella
5. hosting an ice cream social for our playdate friends
6. taking Bella swimming this summer- maybe enroll in swim class?
7. going to Kemah on Thursday nights for Rock the Dock
8. having a new niece & nephew born this August, only a week apart. YAY!

8 things I did yesterday (Memorial Day):

1. made delicious coffee in my new Cuisinart coffeemaker (Mother's Day gift)
2. played Wii with Brian, smoked him in tennis
3. read Sunday's paper and cut my coupons
4. did some laundry
5. caught up on recorded shows on the TiVo
6. played bubbles outside with Bella
7. watched Jon & Kate Plus 8 season premiere
8. read my Galmour magazine

8 things I wish I could do:

1. Finish decorating the playroom. It's painted, but just can't finish it.
2. Visit my sister in Florida more often.
3. Go on another vacation before school is out for the summer.
4. Travel to San Diego to visit my old friends.
5. Work at a radio station as a DJ.
6. Have more date nights with Brian
7. Cook more of our food from scratch.
8. Go on a Girls Only vacation.

8 shows I watch: (eh, not much of a TV bug)

1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Desperate Housewives
3. Ugly Betty
4. CSI: NY
5. Two and Half Men
6. Backyardigans (Bella)
7.
8.

Bloggers I tag:

Shelly D.
Shelley R.
Alisa
Heather
Laura
Sarah
Nancy
Michelle

Brian's NASA Adventures

I'm always posting stories or pictures of Bella, so I thought now would be perfect time to share a little of the spotlight with Brian. He found out last week that he'd be able to watch the shuttle landing from Mission Control Center. This was a huge treat for him because it's usually restricted during launches/ landings for only those who actually work in Mission Control.

The landing kept getting postponed from Thursday to Friday, then to Saturday, and it ended up being Sunday morning. Here's a couple snapshots he took:









Brian will be celebrating his 11th year with NASA this summer! Here are a few pictures of his previous flights on the Vomit Comet:

I also found a couple pictures of Brian with Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Harrison Schmitt when they visited JSC to check out the Dual Glovebox Chamber. Schmitt piloted the last scheduled manned Apollo mission in Dec 1972, and of course, Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon.



Schmitt, Brian & Armstrong


Brian & Schmitt

Flowers

A few weeks ago I showed Bella some pretty wild flowers near the park and we picked a few to bring home to Brian. Well, now I'm having to teach her that she can't just pick any ol' flower. She's been picking the flowers off my plants on the patio! So, new plan: teach her to SMELL the flowers, not to pick them.




Just a random picture of her playing....notice she even wears her bling out to play.

The desert rose has FINALLY bloomed again. I got this plant a few years back and it only had the inital bloom, which Milo chomped instantly. I never could get it to bloom again, although it was always green and had leaves. Brian added some organic plant food, moved it to the shade....and BAM! There are a ton of blooms!

Big Boat, Little People and Coloring

Bella and I joined our friends from playgroup to check out The Colonel paddlewheel boat at Moody Gardens. The one hour cruise featured a narration about Galveston's historic past, as well as information about the boat, the Moody family and Moody Gardens. I didn't get too many pictures because I was busy keeping up with Bella.

Bella hugging Aiden

Bella talking with Zachary

On to other updates, I bought Bella a Little Peoples school bus yesterday because she is very fascinated with bus that drops the neighborhood kids off. She places her 3 people in the bus, shuts the door, and then she rolls it around saying "Brrrooom, brrroom".

She has gotten very good at coloring and sometimes even colors while playing with the school bus. We're still working on teaching her to color only on paper, but that may take a while.

San Antonio!

We spent the weekend in San Antonio for my 2nd Mother's Day, and we stayed at the Hyatt on the Riverwalk. What a great hotel and SO convenient to everything. After a 4 hour drive, we were very happy to finally be at the hotel. Bella ran around saying "ooohhh, ahhhh" and was very excited and pleased with her new digs.

Brian & Bella in the hotel room

We freshened up from the drive and headed to the Riverwalk for dinner. We weren't in the mood for Tex-Mex (yeah, I know!) and decided to eat at Michelino's Italian restaurant. We enjoyed a bottle of Chianti and plenty of pasta....my two favorites. After dinner, we strolled the Riverwalk and Bella loved watching the ducks.

SeaWorld: On Saturday, we headed to SeaWorld....YAY! Our first stop was to checkout the Clydesdale horses, and oh they were HUGE! We took a picture in front of them (SeaWorld copyright) and I was even a little nervous standing next to one.

Next stop was the dolphin tank. There was a very long line to buy fish to feed them, so we opted to watch them instead. Bella liked watching them swim and especially loved when they came over to get us soaking wet!

To cool off a little...it was 90 degrees!....we headed inside to see the coral reefs and the shark tanks. The coral reef was unbelievably big and packed with all sorts of awesome fish, eels, and sting rays.

Brian pointing out a stingray

Bella & Brian looking at the shark tank

We were anxious to check out the 4D IMAX theatre showing a Pirate movie, although not too sure how Bella would do. Thankfully she likes wearing sunglasses, so getting her to wear the special glasses wasn't too difficult. She didn't like the special effects of spritzing water or bursts of air, so she was quickly sitting on my lap. (I didn't mind because she ended up protecting me from the water drenching at the end!)

And what SeaWorld trip would be complete without seeing Shamu and the orcas??? Bella LOVED Shamu and was asking for SSSmooo the rest of the day. We were sitting about 4 rows up from the bottom on the right side of the stage and was perfect location to get soaked. Did I mention it was 90 degrees??? We were so miserably hot and were hoping for a soaking.

Shamu & a trainer

After a fun-filled day at SeaWorld, we were exhausted. We headed back to our hotel, took a small nap, and then headed back to the Riverwalk for dinner. This time we were armed with lots of tortillas to feed the ducks, but we found out they don't like that. Booooo! While eating chips & salsa, Bella kept yelling "Eat!" to the pigeons and she'd throw them a chip. Unfortunately this meant we quickly had about 15 pigeons eyeing our chip basket!

Bella- waiting for our dinner table

Me & Bella- dinner at Casa Rio's Mexican Food

Before leaving the hotel on Sunday, Bella wanted to check out the pool one last time. We had swam at least once a day in it, and she loved that we could see the pool from our room. By the way, hotel interior designers clearly do not stage rooms in a safe, baby proofing mindset. She just hopped up on the chair, climed on the windowsill ledge, and would yell "WaWa, WaWa".

Bella showing me that the room is NOT baby-proofed!

It was nice to get away for a mini-vacation, and I really had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. I think I might try to get it changed to a Mother's Month instead....but for now, I enjoyed the much needed break.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

We celebrated the 5th of May with a playdate and a big plate of green chile chicken enchiladas. (Lucky for us, we have a stock pile of green chile in the freezer). Our friends came over and everyone took their turn playing with the sombrero.

Bella helping Aiden to get his sombrero just right.

Bella running off to the playroom with the sombrero

Here she is...on her "Mexican" Dora bike.

And what FUN is Cinco de Mayo without Mommy wearing the silly hat too???

Milo, Bella and her *bling*

This morning I chased Milo out of Bella's playroom, but I didn't realize he was being her model. She quickly followed him to the foyer with all the necklaces and bracelets to get back to "work". Milo just sat there and let her put 2 necklaces on him. (Yes- I had to free him shortly after, but he was a great sport about it).

Look how happy she is once she had her dog dressed in bling too! She was absolutely thrilled that Milo let her put necklaces on him, but he also got in a few free licks on her.