My little helper

Everyone gets chores in this house, even Bell....
http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g119/handsfreebaby/?action=view&current=MVI_0211.flv

NY was great, but now Bell is sick.....

We went to New York last weekend on business! The New York City Babywearing Group Slings in the City sponsored a big babywearing event at the Hilton Hotel in Times Square! It was an awesome and exhausting day. They expected 300 people and got over 700, so needless to say we were busy all day long. Thankfully Don was there to help me, as he spent a lot of time sitting at the laptop (thanks Steve!) taking orders for BabyLegs. We did MUCH better than I had hoped and I spent this week re-ordering products, adding some new ones to my offerings (thanks to the profits from the show!), and getting ready for the local Baby Fair we will be doing this weekend (last year I was just starting out and there was a GREAT turnout of new and pregnant moms at this show). This is picture of the BabyLegs table Don manned for me on Sunday, and we had a baby carrier table right next to it as well. The only down side to the day was the Saints lost in the Championship game :(

Mom and Dad were up in Boston the weekend before for a renioun of their "old crowd". They had a great time and it sounds like lots of memories and even some mementos were brought to the day. Aunt Dot flew in from California for the gathering and then came down to New York to spend the week before flying home. We got to see her for a short while on Saturday evening when we got to my parents. Bell had a great time playing with all of her silver braclets, taking them off over and over again! It was great to see Aunt Dot again, last time we saw her was when Don and I were in California on our honeymoon!

We were up very early Sunday to get to the city and did not get home until late (stayed to watch the game on the bar TV at the hotel). We were exhuasted and had to return to Freeport to return the laptop, so stayed until Monday. We had a little detour on our way home as Don had a work related conference call, so we hit a McDonalds while he talked. Bell got to play in her first playplace and crawl around in the tubes. It is times like these I am very happy she has an older brother, as there is no way I would be going up in them! She and Austin had a blast climbing up and sliding down.

Otherwise we have had a pretty lowkey week until last night. Bell must have picked up some kind of bug or virus, as she threw up all over herself and daddy at 8:30 last night, and again two more times. Don got the great job of stripping down the bed, and handling the dirty clothes and towels each time - he is a GREAT dad!! She spiked a 104.6 at about 10 pm (and Don was ready to take her to the hospital), he says he is glad I have been through this before so I know what to do. We got her fever down after she was able to keep the medicine down, but she is still running a 101-102 this evening. Our poor little girl, it is so sad to see her feeling so bad. I also felt bad for daddy, as he had to go to work this morning after us being up with her off and on all night. Knock on wood, none of the rest of us has come down with it yet, and hopefully will not!! So tomorrows baby fair will be minus my favorite model, as she will stay home with daddy and I will bring Austin along to work with me.

Winter has finally showed itself around here. We got snow yesterday, but not a ton, just enough to cover the ground - and enough for Austin and his friend JD to try out the snowball makers he got for Christmas. I was going to take Bell out in it today, but no such luck with her not feeling well. Well I am sure we will get at least a little more before the winter ends!

What a beautiful day in January!!

The kids had a great time playing out in the yard together today! Our little Saints fan loves her new play yard, as does her big brother it seems.

They won!!!!

Don is SO excited!!! The Saints WON (and we live in Eagles territory) tonight and are going to the Championships!!!
GO SAINTS - Superbowl bound..............

Bell learns something new everyday!!!

Isabella is just going to town these days. Everyday is
something new and she is so much fun to be with. She has just gotten into her dolls and stuffed animals. She loves her black stuffed dog her brother Austin handed down to her because she kept taking it from him (his "Lucky dog" grandma Barry gave to him). Lucky dog goes to bed with her every night and she goes right down to sleep (well, at least most nights). Her little baby doll (a birthday present from Austin) and her Dora doll she got from Grandma Tuscano are now her favorites. I wrapped her baby dolls on her one day and she loved it, she walks around patting its back and playing. The other day she walked up to me with her doll, one of her play silks (which I usually use to wrap her doll with), and signed "help" to me. Too cute!!! This is her with her baby doll on the other day.





She is also learning to color with crayons. Of course this is a highly supervised activity at this point as the crayons apparently look to good not to eat!! We work on out and in as well while coloring, as they need to come out of the box and go back in about 5 times during coloring.

Bell also loves to "help" around the house. You know, I sweep up a pile of dirt and she un sweeps it, she takes the laundry out of the dryer when we are trying to put it in, and loves to try and crawl up on the dishwasher to help her brother load dishes. But she is learning and having fun! She is to funny with the broom, she holds it all the way down by the bottom and bends down to sweep. I keep trying to get her to move her hands up and stand up, but no luck so far.

She has learned a bunch of new signs recently and it is so great, she can sign: dog, cat, bird, milk, more, eat, drink, hurt, flower, fan, play, night-night, ball, pacifier, hat, coat, shoes, socks, Austin, daddy, hear, plane. There are probably more I don't remember - oh, cookie.
And she is starting to really say words as well - of couse they don't sound like words to anyone but those of us who can interperate them! Daddy and mommy are clear, but here are a few others:
Cookie is "cak ca" (i think from me saying cracker - as they all get the same sign and word).
Night-night is "ni ni" - she says ni-ni, waves and kisses everyone who is home when she goes to bed.
One she just picked up yesterday is Phoebe, "be be". She loves when Phoebe plays with her. Phoebe has two long dog toys (a duck and a snake). Austin calls the duck "tug a duck". Bell will wrap it around her neck and run up and down the hall with it. Phoebe goes after her and grabs one end and pulls it off her neck. Then bell grabs the other end and they run around the house with Bell laughing and now screaming be-be. It is amazing how gentle Phoebe is when she plays with her!! Lucky on the other hand tolerates her, but mostly just swats her in the face with his hard tail. She walks around with her hand in front of her face when he is coming at her, as his tail is right at her height now.
Well, enough about Bell, you would think she is the only one in this family - ha!! Her life is much more exciting than ours. Austin has a swim meet tomorrow in Chesapeake, MD - it is about an hour away, but luckily an afternoon meet and not at 8 AM like most of them! He is doing well in swimming and improving his times and working on his dives and flip turns a lot this season.
Don will be spending the weekend alternating between watching football (The Saints are in the palyoffs !!!) and making me a pegboard display I need for some upcoming babyfairs I have. If only we could get satelite hookup to the shed, he could do both at the same time!!
I am feeling well, and getting big! Feeling the baby move everyday now, which is pretty neat.
well that's all for now!
Love you all!
Karen

Pictures and Movement !!

Baby T. is moving around, I can finally feel his/her faint flutterings!
Here are some pictures from our Sonogram at 18 weeks, amazing!!
It never ceases to amaze me how God works. This little tiny life inside of me has fingers and toes, can hear my voice, and respond to sounds and light. And we are only half way there to his/her arrival. We are truely blessed to be having this baby!
Don & Karen

New Years Eve.....The END!

2006 was a wonderful year for us. We settled into our new home and made it our own. Bell grew more each day, from a tiny infant to a fast moving toddler, with a few words and LOTS of signs in her vocabulary!! Austin made new friends and did great in school this year.Don stayed local (if you call NJ everyday local), and did not have to do much traveling, which helped us to be expecting in the new year!! We are looking forward to 2007, and hope it is as wonderful as year as the one just passed. We wish you all a Happy and Wonderful New Year!!!!

We spent the last night of 2006 at home, as a family, with some friends. Our neighbor Chris went out dancing with the girls, so Jess and Lindsay got to spend the night with us!! We also had our friends Annette and JD over as well. The adults played cards and the kids played Scene It and video games through the evening, and of course we all had lots of snacks!!
The kids were excited to get to have champagne at midnight when the ball dropped, but of course. none of them liked it at all! They all had a fun time with the connfetti and poppers at midnight, as did Bell!! She actually fell asleep on my back and woke up about 11:45 to join in the fun.

Bell out cold before midnight.
Lindsay drinking the "yucky" champagne at midnight.
Lindsay and Don facing off over who got to eat my famous black bean salsa first - Lindsay loves it, so does Don!!!
Jess and Don celebrating New Years!
The kids toasting the new year (As you can see, Austin did not try the champagne, he had fruit punch!!).

Part 3... New Jersey

Saturday between Christmas and New Years we spent in New Jersey, first visiting with Don's family and then with Nick, Linda and the kids.

Bell always has a fun time at Uncle Eds, she loves to play with the little cat food cans. She stacks and unstacks them, and rolls them around.

















Bell hanging out with Grandma!! You can see her new playyard in the background, Uncle DAn and Aunt El gave it to us, and we trailered it all the way from NY!!












Bell with daddy and Grandpa. Apparently daddy thought something was very funny.












We visited with Edith (she lives next door to Grandma and Grandpa T.) while we were there. Bell had a great time playing with all her singing Christmas animals!


It was great to see Nick, Linda and the kids again. We wish we lived closer (or they lived closer to us!!), so we could see them more often. Isabella just wanted to take Morgan's baby dolls bottle and feed it to her brother. As you can see, he was a good sport about it! We gave Morgan a coloerforms silly faces game for Christmas, so the girls and I played with it. Of course Morgan, just wanted to turn the spinner to the part she need to finish making her face, but Kirsten and I helped her to play by the rules! She did not want to take any of the faces apart when we were done, so we put them away as they were - what a fun age!! Nick rounded out the evening by offering us some fresh clams. Well, he went to open up the first one and sliced right into his hand. So while Linda took him to the ER (dropped him off actually), we stayed with the kids. Nick ended up with a few stitches in his hand from it.

Part 2....The Zoo

The blog bogs down if you add to much at once, so this post is continuation of the one before it...

The Zoo:
Friday was a BEAUTIFUL day and Austin, Bell and I spent a few hours at the Queens Zoo with Aunt Elanore, Katie and Emily. Don stayed home as his knee was acting up and did not want to walk that much (I think he got some good time in playing on the computer!!). The kids always have so much fun together and Katie and Emily love being around Austin. The queens zoo is a great one for small kids. It is small enough to walk in 1 1/2 hours, nice and flat, but with lots for the kids to see. We all had fun seing the ducks and the bears, walking through the aviary and feeding the goats. Bell laughed when they were eating out of her hand!! She laso had a great time chasing around the pigeons, signing "bird" and saying "weet, weet" the whole time!

Austin's new best friend!
Bell LOVED the ducks!
She had them eating out of the palm of her hand...
The kids..
The kids....and the bear!!!

The end of our year, Part 1....

I finally have some time to get these up. The pictures take awhile to post and I have so many I wanted to share (can you see my BIG smile - I love my new camera, my husband ROCKS!!).
It is a long post, mostly pictures, about the great time we had ending out 2006 with family and friends!! ( Post is split into a few parts to add all of the pictures!)

Freeport, NY:


Bell just loves the mirror mom keeps on the floor in the living room, just her height. She also found some red plastic Christmas balls on strings that she played with ALL weekend!! Oh, and she now loves to wear her hats, both inside and outside!

Danielle and Gianna,

Isabella loves her new Bear Blanket (BB as we are calling it) from Aunt Denise and Uncle Dave!

Grandma and Grandpa with Bell.

The three cousins playing with Bell's playsilks.

The Old Gang:
Michelle had all of us over her house on Friday night and we had a great time!! It is so wonderful to get to see my friends when I get back to NY. We miss you guys!!


Nicollette with Bell, Thmomas, Court, Sarah, Austin and across the back, Robby!!

Maryann, Mary Ann, Angela, Michelle, me and Liz (this was the silly picture).