Mary Had a Little Lamb

I think its pretty safe to say after this video that Nathan wants Makaela to play the piano...what do you think?

Bella vs. the Orange Peel

As promised...

Our Little Love Bug

Just a few updated pictures :)

Oh Bella

I just really feel the need to talk about Bella a little bit. We've been talking a lot about all of the weird and quirky things Bella does, and something prompted me to search youtube for other boxer videos. I quickly learned that Bella is neither weird nor quirky but right at home with the rest of her breed. Here are a few hilarious things Bella does...plus a video or two of other boxers doing things that I can totally see Bella doing. I'm working on uploading a video of Bella (its about 5 minutes) that I will hopefully be able to post later. For now....Bella's quarks...or so we thought:
She barks at nearly everything...and I mean everything...with the exception of people. Hopefully we wont need her as a watch dog because she loves people too much!! Some examples of things she barks at include:

• food/water dish
• large branches that have fallen off trees in the backyard
• rake
• shovel
• and my favorite of all...the sky. Yes thats right, she barks at the sky. Because we live so close to the base, we often have sonic booms and her response to such a thing is to bark at the sky because thats where that noise comes from.

One of our favorite and most hilarious things she does has to do with when she passes gas. Its a pretty raunchy smell so we have taken to having a febreez spray bottle close at hand. Bella does not like the spray bottle. It used to be that whenever she passed gas, we'd spray the bottle to help mask the smell and she would run away from the bottle. Now, we don't even have to get to the spraying part before she runs away. When she passes gas, the perks her head and ears up real fast...looks back toward her rear end (as if she was saying "what the heck was that?!?!") then proceeds to quickly look at us (with the most guilty look I might add) and run away from the place of the incident.

She is afraid of nearly all the baby paraphernalia around the house and will run away if we put any of it near her (including the bags of dirty diapers). Anywho...here is a video of a boxer who is barking at/seems to be afraid of a little white jewelry box...something I could see Bella doing.

This video is will also give you a great idea of what Bella would do. This dog named Stella (maybe Bella's long lost cousin) is barking at the lawnmower. Bella doesn't bark at the lawnmower, but she does bark at the vaccuum and try to bite it while I'm vaccuuming.

~3 Months~

Here are a few snapshots...Enjoy

She strikes this pose often

Just reading :) Ok maybe not... but very interested in the pictures!!
This is a new bow I got her... I heard I was in big trouble once I decided to venture into the world of bows and its true. I can't wait to make all kinds of bows to put her in!!

So its a little big for her head... but its SO CUTE!!!

More reading :) This is how I get her to stay on her tummy for so long.

I cannot believe how fast the time is going!! (duh Leanna, thats how its going to be the rest of your life!!). But really the time has flown by. I was just thinking the other day, before I know it we will be introducing solid foods to our sweet girl who seems like she just joined us yesterday (cliche, I know :)). It has been so fun to see Makaela develop over the last several months. It seems like everytime I receive an e-mail about what my baby should be doing this month, she has already been doing that for weeks! As I sit here and look in the "what to expect the first year", by 3 months, the "may even be able to..." section reads:

~bear some weight on legs when held upright (been doing that since she was about 3 weeks--no joke)

~reach for an object (has been doing that for a little bit now)

~Keep head level with body when pulled to sitting (been doing that for several weeks)

~Turn in the direction of a voice, particularly mommy's (also several weeks)

say "ah-goo" or similar vowel-consonant combination (she started talking several weeks ago).

It seems like she's been an over-achiever in everything so far! It's like whenever I get to the "may even be able to" section for the current month she is already doing all of those things! We just can't believe it. She is truly the joy of our lives and we are reminded daily of how thankful we are to the Lord for blessing us with her.

In addition to what the book says she should be doing, she will give me anywhere from 20-30 minutes of tummy time. She loves looking at books I put in front of her, or if the blanket is enough to catch her eye, that keeps her occupied too! She sits up on the couch with us with a little help from the creases in the cushions. She squeals at Nathan (and sometimes me) with great excitement--SO CUTE!! And (praise to the Lord Almighty) she periodically will give us a few nights of anywhere from 6-8 hours of sleep! We treasure those nights dearly.

Cooking with Mom

A few weeks ago, I was making a dessert for a group we were having over. I tried my hand at a chocolate mousse which was a bit time consuming so I enlisted the help of the Bumbo to help out with Makaela. She was completely in awe of what was going on with all of the mixing. Needless to say, she showed great interest in the kitchen... maybe she will want to cook with her mama. :)

Safety note: I did slide the bumbo all the way to the back of the coutner, and I was close by at all times to make sure there were no accidents. She was hardly moving around though... I don't know that I've ever seen her sit so still. She just stared and stared with such intensity. It was so fun to see :)