1 year

I can't believe it's already been a year, crazy. To all who attended Arabella's party's Thank you for coming and if you get a thank you note, and you gave a gift, and I don't mention it, it's not that we aren't thankful for every thing she got, I just forgot who gave what. So thank you.
We started a diet on the 2nd, and it's not the blood type diet but the south beach and I tell you what, the food, what little we've tried is Good. I am still thinking we might still try the blood diet but, what do I know.
Also, after borrowing a book from my father in-law, I am fascinated with God given gifts. It is an intriguing search. I can't think of the title but the authors are Don and Katie Fortune.
Condolences to my cousin Amber and her family, who lost a valued member of the family.

Arabella's wish list

Please keep in mind, despite recent photos, the part of the house we live in is small.
Vertically challenged clothing (shorter in arms & legs)
12 month winter / 18 month spring
Rechargeable AA batteries (for her toys)
Mega blocks
Exploratory / Sensory toys
Signing Time DVD's
Kid songs (CD's)
Gift cards; Walmart, Kmart, Lowes (she needs daddy to build a toy box)
Lincoln logs
Balls
If you search "Down Syndrome Toys" you will find tons of stuff

yaa

Just this evening Arabella sat up all by herself and I almost missed it. I am sooooo excited. I am jumping up and down. Also, I forgot to mention that she has six teeth and is working on two more.

update on Bella

Arabella is scootin' all over, she's not crawling yet but she's working on that. We are still trying to learn how to sit on her own and pull to stand, but that will come with time. I took her to the Doctor Wednesday for a fever and throwing up a little. He didn't see anything to worry about but gave us some antibiotics for a possible ear infection. I think she will be feeling better tomorrow. She weighed in at 19lbs and 5 oz. She is growing so fast, it's fun to look back at the different things we have worked with on her. Reaching for things, looking at things, babling, getting out of sitting and her laugh. I love to hear her laugh, sometimes it's hard to get it out, but so worth the work to hear it. I am excited, she is so close to being able to sit up on her own, that will be a thrilling day for me. We are trying to teach her to pull to stand from a half kneel, but I think it will be a little while before she can pull to stand on her own. Imitating is another thing to work on, trying to get her to bable more adult like, ba ma da rather than ba ba ba. We also need to start teaching her how to follow commands, things like let go of mommy's hair ( which she does fairly well) and play peek a boo or patty cake (without being shown anything first). Getting her to stay on her hands and knees to try and crawl, the little mess flop. She likes to straighten her legs and flop forward which makes it hard to get her to crawl. It's really neat to learn all the steps to sitting and standing but a lot of work.
As far as me and my weight, well.... not so good, but at least I'm not putting on more:P We (meaning me) have been talking about doing the blood type diet (no, we haven't started yet) but I started looking into the south beach life style and like that better. With all the party's coming up (birthday and Christmas) we might wait until the first of the year to really start but we are trying to cut out some starchy carbs and sweets. Not that I think we eat to many sweets. and we have added an excersize to our day, stairs. now that our house has a set of stairs, we have been going up and down them 6 or so times at a time, each day. Wow it's Way past my bed time, later.

weight lose

I laugh, more like weight gain. 5 more pounds and I'll be the same weight I was when Arabella was born. I have no self control when it comes to sweets and cheese. It doesn't help that I'm a little bloated :P. I think the best thing is to keep the too tempting foods out of the house, and not to go shopping when hungry.
The garage is up and shingled. when we get the siding on it the outside it will be completely enclosed, ya.
We still have Kittens that need homes :P they are cute.

to long,

Since it's taking a while to put pictures on here I'm going to try face book. The weight doesn't come off too easy when you eat to many deserts. Arabella is starting to get on her knees and rock. I feel a little scatter brained today so I'm going to keep it short. Goodbye.

down it comes

nope, not the weight, the garage. There is next to nothing left of it, some boards and cement. As for the weight I think I gained some. oops. I'm still trying to eat healthy, I would be walking but besides the fact that I'm lazy, I twisted my knee helping kick down the garage. Maybe next month I can walk until it gets to cold. As to eating healthy, we are going to try the blood type diet, this is easy for us to do together as we are all A-. it's a veggie type of diet, low carb without the meat. we'll see, I think that's all for now, pics later.