Belinda's Excited!

Belinda is a Packer fan - she's born in Wisconsin, therefore she likes the Packers.  We had a fun time this weekend at David and Katie's watching the game.  Belinda is definitely ready for the Superbowl.  Although I'm not sure how much of it she'll get to watch.  She does go to sleep early.

Here, Belinda is learning how to play the piano instead of watching the game.  I love this photo because it shows off all 7 of her teeth so nicely.  Notice the loud vest in the background?  That's Belinda's dear Dad!

Three future Packer cheerleaders!  Elizabeth, Sofia and Belinda.

Belinda only likes to eat hard and crunch things when she's feeding herself, so I invested in some cinnamon cookies from Trader Joe's.   She gobbled them up!  Of course I didn't let her eat all of the letters!

Belinda has begun taking baths in the big tub.  Of course she sits in her inflatable ducky tub, but she seems to like bathtime.  She'll begin her first swimming lessons in February.  We're all excited.

So to recap - things we're excited about: Packers, cookies, swimming and more Packers!

9 Months

Belinda is 9 Months today!  Woo Hoo!  She's a lot more mobile, but still not crawling.  She rolls wherever she wants to go.  I took a photo of her with the monkey model.  I had to include a photo of her moving during the photo shoot as well. 

Belinda sitting still for just a second.

 Belinda in action!

 Be careful when you leave the room.  You might find Belinda under a chair!

As for country music - I was going to listen to Hank Williams Jr., but it didn't excite me.  When I was driving yesterday, I heard a beautiful song on the country station.  It was called, "It Won't Be Like This for Long."  I didn't know who sung it - so of course I googled it.  It turns out that Darius Rucker, of Hootie and the Blowfish sings this precious song about a daughter growing up. 

The chorus includes
'It won't be like this for long
One day soon that little girl is gonna be
All grown up and gone
And this phase is gonna fly by
So he's trying to hold on
It won't be like this for long
It won't be like this for long'

It was very poignant, and I could not believe it was Darius Rucker.  I might have to check out his album.
Here's a YouTube link of him singing it at a radio station interview.



I hope you enjoy it.  Have a lovely week.

Fun Weekend

We had a fun weekend here in the Bailey/Felber household.  Cousins from MN visited and we helped Elizabeth celebrate her 1st birthday.  Belinda is trying to figure out how to crawl and move around.  She can scoot on her bum and turn on the wooden floor - she just needs to figure out how to get her legs to work.

Sofia is explaining princesses to Belinda.

 Timmy is telling secrets of legos and firetrucks

Belinda is trying her darndest to get to her stomach!

Right now it is snowing outside- perhaps we'll finally get a snowbank big enough to stick Belinda in it.  Happy Martin Luther King Day.

Cash & Creeping

Country Music Thursday might not always be extensive.  I've been listening to Rosanne Cash, but I haven't listened enough times to write critically.  I only have a few thoughts - She doesn't seem to be hardcore country.  Some songs remind me of Fleetwood Mac.  Apparently Retrospective, the album I picked, is lesser known hits.  I do like the song "The Wheel" and "Our Little Angel."  She seems like easy listening country.

As for Belinda, she's been backing up all over the living room.  I need to attach a horn, "Beep, Beep, Beep" - backing up.  She keeps me guessing as to where she'll end up.  She's turning into a creeper. :)

She also likes to take things in and out of containers.  She enjoys discovering her toys inside of her toy bin.

Have a great day - thanks for stopping by.

Monthly Library Visit - and Many Hats

We've had some adventures this past week.  We watched the Packer's game over at Grandma Sandy's house.  A fun time was had by all and Belinda tried on a few hats.  She also tried on her old hat from when she was a tiny newborn.  It makes her look like she should be attending a religious service.  Today we went to the library with Kelcey, Lyndia and Yoli.  The Franklin, WI library is impressive.  It is my favorite so far.

Belinda is wearing her newborn hat.

Go Packers - she's borrowing cousin Isabelle's hat.

 

She likes to wear her dad's hat as well.

 Franklin's library has a tree inside it!

And finally - how could I forget Belinda's experience with homemade blueberry puree.  So yummy!

 

Belinda's First 6 months!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Country Music Thursday

Hi Readers!  I, the mama, declared I would learn like country music during the year 2011.  Learning to love country is part of my adventure with Belinda.  First I asked for recommendations from my friends on facebook as to whom I should listen.  Now I've decided I'll listen to a new album every week.  Sometimes it will be a recommendation, other times it will be an artist I know already, but I only know a song or two from him/her.  Belinda gets to listen in the car when we're on adventures.  As I write, I'll be sure to include a gratuitous photo or two of Belinda so you'll still want to read our blog.. :)

Week 1- Randy Travis - Greatest Hits Volume 2.
Reason picked: I love the song "Forever and Ever, Amen."  I wanted to learn some more of his songs.

Thoughts:  After picking listening to the CD in the car a few times, there are definitely some highlights.  First, I can sing along at the top of my lungs when I hear, "Forever and Ever, Amen."  This song's best line is, "As long as old men sit and talk about the weather, as long as old women sit and talk about old men." I know this holds true and women always like to talk about men, whether they're old or young.
               In the song, "I'd Do It All Again With You," there is one part where his voice just drops so deep, you can't help but love it.  I'm not even sure I know what the lyrics are, it is just the tone of his voice that gets me.
               "He Walked on Water" is a song about grandfathers.  It made me think of my grandpas.  I know I admired them and am glad I got to spend the amount of time I did with them before they passed away.  
               "Diggin' Up Bones" is an upbeat song that you want to clap along with.  I could not clap though, because I was driving.

Conclusions: I've enjoyed listening to this CD and getting to know more Travis songs.  I have a few more days to learn it.  Next week I'm going with Rosanne Cash's Retrospective.  I want to stay balanced between men, women and groups.  Let me know if you have any suggestions.

And now what you've been waiting for:

Belinda and I went to the Art Museum today.  We tried out the chairs in the Chair Park and saw a GIANT Chair.

Happy January folks!

Hodge Podge

Even though Belinda hasn't been here in photos - she's still very busy. 

We visited the BayView Library last Thursday with Kelcey and Yoli.

We celebrated New Year's Eve at Matt and Lea's house.  Belinda even stayed up an extra 30 minutes.  Woo Hoo.

Belinda spends a lot of time rolling around and pushing herself backwards.  I can't leave the room because she's in a new position or spot when I come back.  I've learned to bring her to the kitchen when I'm cooking - she likes to try to grab the square tiles off the floor.

Happy New Year!

Christmas Robes

Hi, I'm Brad.

You may have seen my name over on the right side there that I'm also a contributor to this blog, but I haven't made a post yet, until now.

Back in May I was at Wal-mart just browsing, and I saw this peace sign fleece fabric, and I thought I could make a great robe for Isabelle for Christmas out of this fleece.

I don't go off Christmas lists, but instead try to figure out what people would want. Much more satisfying that way. Sara and I went back and forth a bit, but we decided to make a fleece robe for everyone in both of our immediate families, except the ones that live in the tropics (Wayne). So we made up a list of 16 people, and a plan of making three robes a month until Christmas. We bought a few extra robes patterns (for the different sizes) and decided that Sara would cut the fleece, and I would sew them together. The pattern required hand sewing the whole length of the front band, but there was no way I was doing that, so I made some minor modifications to how it was all assembled.

Now that we had the plan, it was time to shop every store in the immediate area and every place on the internet that sold fleece. Also since it requires four yards of fleece, we were trying to maximize our coupons when we shopped at local places. Forty percent off makes quite a difference in price, but you can only use one coupon at a time. Luckily we had a few months.

It took us until one week before Christmas, but we got them all done.