Dancing Queen

Here's our Little Chica rockin' out to Finger 11. And, if you're wondering, she got her rhythm from her mother, especially the stopping every once in a while to try to get back on track. . .

Miss Mischevious

This is how I found The Child when I went to get her up from her nap a few days ago:

My Little Sympathizer

I've been coughing a bit lately and Bella has been mocking me. When I cough, she starts into this super-lame hacking/gagging "cough" as if to say, "suck it up, Mom!". Today, however, she had a sympathy pang. I was coughing and she turned and looked at me and said, "Kay?", asking if I was okay. I told her thank you, and yes I was okay. She seemed satisfied and went back to reading her book.

More Bella-isms

Since we still can't post pictures, I'll tell a few more of Bella's stories.

Today we were inside the grocery store. The important word in that sentence is "inside". Bella heard a dog barking somewhere way out in the parking lot, and she said, "Coocoo! Come in!" and she slapped her leg a few times. I guess she's seen us call Scooter inside a few times at my parents' house.

Whenever we drive by the hospital, Bella says "Mama!" which is code for "Grandma". She wants to go see Grandma at the hospital. Silly girl.

Bella loves to put clothes on. If she sees you carrying around one of her shirts or sweaters, she'll run up to you, yank on her shirt, and yell "OFF!", because (obviously) she wants to put on the shirt that you're holding. Obviously.

Also, Bella now knows sign language. I got her a book of baby sign language strictly for the pictures of babies in it (Bella loves to look at pictures of babies). Last night, Andrew decided to try it out, and in fifteen minutes, Bella had the book down. It was only 8 or so signs, but still, I think that's pretty good. It's really cute to see her sign "sleepy".

Last night, we were in Office Depot and they were playing something a little more upbeat than the normal Muzak over the speakers. I guess Andrew was doing the "boom-tsch" thing, because Bella started doing it too. All the way home. Our little rapper in the back seat.

Manito

Saturday was Fall Family Weekend at Gonzaga, so we went up to see Uncle Scotty. While waiting for him to be done traipsing through the woods, we went to Manito Park, and had fun in the rain and leaves.

Helping Mom

I've been a little absorbed with finishing up a project these past few weeks. Lella decided to help me out this morning by coloring this page for me. Professor Drown would be so pleased to see a budding Landscape Architect with such wonderful rendering abilities.

Getting Dressed

This is how Bella prepares for her day:


forget changing out of your jammies. Just throw on a jacket, grab your purse, and make sure you have your cell phone.

Words

As The Chicka starts to talk more and more, I think that there will be more and more posts without pictures. Posts like this one.

We've been trying to teach Bella cheerfulness. It's a difficult thing for a sub-two year old to grasp. But we're trying anyway. When she fusses about trivial things, we tell her not to fuss and then we ask her to be cheerful. There have been countless instances where we have asked her to be cheerful and she has sucked in that lip and with very wide eyes given us a quivering "mmHMMM!" It's very cute to see her trying so hard. Well, we've decided to take it a step farther, and now we ask her what cheerful girls say, to which she is to respond, "Yipeee!". It's quite cute, because it comes out a bit closer to "appeeee!!" than yipee. What a blessing to have a child so eager to please!

The other day, Bella was having a rough time of it. She was crying at the littlest things, and just having a bad day all around. At one point, she put my purse over her shoulder, walked to the door, banged on it, and said, "Bye!"
I said, "Are you leaving?"
She said, "Bye!"
I said, "Where are you going?"
She said, "Papa!"
I said, "Are you going to see Papa?"
She said, "Yeah! Bye!" and banged on the door some more.
When I failed to open the door for her and let her out to tumble down the stairs, she started wailing and pounding on the door more. So we called Papa so that she could talk to him. Poor kiddo. Who knows what the neighbors think when they hear our toddler pounding on the door to get out.

1 Word + 1 Word = Cuteness

We've been trying to get Bella to combine words to make phrases for a little while now, working on things like " bagel please" and "cookie please" because we figured those were the most commonly used and thereby the easiest to practice. However, Bella has not been cooperative at all. That is, until today. I had just changed her diaper and was helping her down from the changing table and she said, "Deedee Mama," which means, "Thank you, Mama." And now, it seems that whenever I give her something, that's what she says. What a cutie.

First day of Fall

Monday was officially the first day of Autumn in the Becker household. It was cold and drippy outside, and warm and cozy inside. Lella and I took Papa some coffee at work and went to pick the last of the summer flowers out at the cuttings gardens. Lella got to pick out a few little pumpkins for the table too - a task which she took very seriously. She would pick one up, find a scar on it, say "Owwww", give it the raspberry, and then go looking for another one. It took a while to find the perfect ones. Once that was all finished we came home for a little nap and I whipped out a new fall scarf for Little B (and by 'whipped out' I of course mean "spent 3 hours on because I kept managing to drop a stitch and not realize it for about 15 rows, so I'd go back and rip it all up and start over"). And right before bed, we all headed out to Bucer's for some hot chai and a chocolate chip cookie. A great inauguration to our favorite season.