The End of an Era

We will no longer be posting here on Bella's website. For further updates, please turn to thebeckerfam.blogspot.com.

A & D Disaster

So this actually happened about two months ago, but I realized just now that I haven't posted it here yet. The other day (about two months ago), my little angel of a daughter found her tube of A&D ointment and decided to have a heyday with it while I was in the shower. It was on the filing cabinet, the leather chair, the Bible, the door knob, and most importantly, her hair, face, hands, and arms. When I say it was in her hair, I mean it was John-Travolta-Greased-Lightning in her hair. Slicked all the way through. After five or six shampooings, I began searching for tricks online for getting the ointment out of her hair. The best (and most effective) tip I found was to douse her hair with cornstarch to absorb all the oil. It worked pretty well, and made her look hilarious.

Election Day

Nothing brilliantly philosophical or political here, just a nearly-three-year-old's interpretation of voting. I told Bella last night that we were going to vote today and she asked, "We are going swimming??!!" very excitedly. By "vote" she thought I meant "boat" and was excited to go swimming in the water.

Telephones Heads

Tonight Bella was playing with Andrew's headphones. By "playing", I of course mean "taking them off of Papa while he's trying to study and using them for herself, and back and forth". What was funny - well, there were actually two funny things. The first bit was where she put the headphones on and started yelling when she said stuff to us (in the way that lots of people have trouble gauging voice level when they're wearing headphones, just much more exaggerated). The second funny bit was when she started referring to the headphones as "telephones heads".

Halloween

We went out to my parents' house again this year for dinner and trick or treating. Bella was MUCH more interested in the candy this year, and scarfed up her dinner in record time in order to qualify for more candy. She practically ran from house to house asking "Are we going to trick or treat AGAIN?!?!" with a look of glee on her face. The sugar high was very apparent, despite how little she had. We realized that we never have candy in the house (except the occasional dark chocolate bar), and so it made sense that the few pieces she had would throw her over the edge.

This year, Bella went as a doctor, because that's what she said she wants to be. A doctor who helps babies. We're guessing this stems from watching too much ER/House, having stethoscopes and cpr dummies lying around the house, and having parents who are basically nerds. Anyway, so we ordered her some kids scrubs, gave her a pen light and one of Andrew's stethoscopes, and as a result we now have the cover photo to her med school application.

Dr. Bella was very helpful with all the leaf raking that had to be done as well.

Hiking with Riley

Cornheads

Tonight as Bella and I were praying before bed, she thanked God for the Cornheads. I asked her what that meant, and after some careful interrogation, I discovered that she was giving thanks for the horns on the heads of the elk. Huh. And then, after we were done praying, she told me that she wanted God to bless the deer, so we prayed again and asked God to bless the deer.

There are two possible explanations that I can come up with. 1) She knows that hunting season is starting up soon and is somehow moved by the plight of all the venison out there or 2) She was thinking about visiting her favorite store (which would be a toss up between Tri-State Sporting Goods, Sure Shot Sporting Goods, and Sportsman's Warehouse) and all the elk and deer heads on the wall that she loves to look at. Ya got me.

Fun at the Fair

I love those yearly events that serve as a marker for your child's age. There's the obvious birthday celebration, where everyone makes a point of commenting on "how much they've grown!" but I think that one of my favorite markers is the Fair. I remember back to when we were at the fair and I was 6 months pregnant with Bella (and finally actually looking pregnant!), when she was 9 months old and in the front pack pointing at the cows, last year when she was almost two and loved the horses, and now this year when she's braver than I am when it comes to petting all the animals.

$100 Shoes

Bella loves these shoes. Whenever someone tells her how cute they are (which happens all too often) she says, "They were Hundred Dollars."

Helping Dad

Andrew changed the oil in my truck the other day and Bella, of course, had to help. Here she is, checking out the workings of the automobile.

Sewing with Grandma

Here is Bella helping Grandma with her quilt. Bella had to wear glasses just like Grandma (hence the green sunglasses), and apparently 'sews' the same way that I did when I was her age helping Mom with her quilting. Quite cute.

Reading to Baby

The other day I walked into Bella's room to find this:



The really cute part was that she was sitting there and saying "Moses. Jesus." over and over again.

Beauty Treatments

The other day, I gave Bella a yogurt and a spoon and told her to have at it. She's performed wonderfully with yogurt and a spoon in the past, so I thought it should be no problem. So there I was, merrily surfing away online, and I heard a distinct *squelching* sound behind me. I turned around to find my daughter with both hands in her yogurt container, squelching it about. I got up to investigate further and found that she had rubbed it over her arms and face, sort of like a lotion. Like a dutiful mother, I elected to take pictures rather than disciplinary action.




And then last night, as we were about to go out, Bella came into our room where I was putting on make-up and said, "Mama, I need to wash hands!" and held her hands up for me to see. They were glistening with oil and had little bits of something all over them. Then the smell hit me and I knew it was my eucalyptus spearmint sugar scrub that she had gotten into. I went into the bathroom and sure enough, there was the tub o' scrub sitting on the toilet lid in a pool of eucalyptus spearmint scented oil. Fantastic. She still smells like a eucalyptus grove.

Coloring

Bella is a big fan of coloring these days. Ironically, coloring to her is what I do in my checkbook and not what a normal toddler does all over walls and cabinets. So when she sits down with her markers/crayons/colored pencils, she grips the marking implement very close to the tip and colors in very small little areas.

Camping Under the (falling) Stars

We realized on Sunday that early this morning (Tuesday morning) was the peak of the Perseid meteor shower for this year, so we decided to make a bit of an impromptu camping trip out of it. We borrowed all the gear from my parents (thanks again, Mom and Dad) and staked out a spot at Spring Valley Reservoir. We kept it simple and had hot dogs for dinner, roasted over the fire of course.


And Bella loved them and called them pickles.


After she went to bed, the real stuff started and we laid back to watch the stars fall from the sky. We saw a lot of beauties, but despite my 50+ pictures of mostly black sky, we didn't get any pictures of the falling stars. But here are a few pictures of the night sky. Just imagine that the stars are falling. (click on the photos to view them larger so you can actually see the stars)



After a long night of non-sleep under the stars, we got up and snuggled around the campfire, trying to wake up.


It became clear that caffeine was in order, so Andrew put the pot of coffee on the fire.


We then realized that we had no coffee cups and so we had to get creative and find a way to hold our hot cuppa joe. Last night's empty beer bottles to the rescue!! And let me tell you, it looks oh-so-responsible to be walking around at 7 am with a two year old and beer bottles full of dark amber liquid.

Miss Rosey

Bella has a new nickname, and it is Rosey, because she has roseola. What started out as a 4 day long fever last week resulted in a few visits to the doctor (we met some nice new ones) and a very long and agonizing time at the hospital trying to get her to, well, give a urine sample (I know she'll hate me for writing that in a few years). We (and the doctors) originally though she had a UTI, so she spent a number of hours on the potty and in other uncomfortable situations until we finally got a sample and determined that she did not in fact have an infection. The doctor at the hospital mentioned that it might be roseola, and when we got her up the next morning and noticed the rash all over her face and body (and the sudden lack of fever), we knew that that was it. So for the past two days we've been calling her "Rosey" and trying to keep her away from mirrors because she is now scared of her face. She also doesn't like to look at her belly, because it's all splotchy too. Anyhow, here's a few pictures of our little Rosey.

Fun at the Park

We headed up to Spokane on Monday for Andrew's day off and took some time out of our busy shopping schedule to take Bella to the park (after getting our frappuccinos, of course). She thought the ducks and geese were pretty funny and loved the playground and her two new little friends. The first shot also shows off her cute new haircut.

LaCrosse Games

A couple of weeks ago we headed to a nearby park for a little back and forth with the lacrosse ball. Bella mostly wanted to just run around "like the kids" (the kids I coached in track this year), and sort of whack at the ground with her LaX stick.

Another Arboretum Outing

We headed out to the arboretum Sunday evening to enjoy the lovely weather. I had to take the requisite "portrait in a palouse wheat field" shot, which ended up not being quite so fun because Bella didn't like the prickly wheat. And then she didn't want to get into her stroller, hence the set of pictures of her crying.

Drama Queen

There's a scene in Cinderella where Cinderella is out in the garden on her knees with her head resting in her arms on a bench and she's crying. Her evil stepsisters have just torn her dress to shreds and she isn't going to be able to go to the ball to meet her Prince Charming.

I'm reminding you of this part of the movie because it was about two minutes after this scene that Bella came over to the couch where I was sitting, got down on her knees with her head resting in her arms on the couch and started "crying". For a second I wasn't too sure what she was doing, but then I realized what we'd just seen on the TV, and it was all too clear.