No first black eye entry in the baby book?

When Bella turned one years old, it was so hard to accept that my baby was growing up. Weeks after she turned one and I found out that I was pregnant, I joked that my attitude changed to "Come on kid. Time to grow up. You gotta master these stairs. And its about time that you fix your own snack." Of course this is not true though. Each month as Bella turns another month older and I update her baby book, it is hard to accept that my baby is well... not really so much a baby anymore.  She is 15 months now! I would know. After quadruple checking the calendar, I realized that lately when people ask how old she is, I have been telling them a month younger than she really is. Its crazy how fast time is flying by! But it is LOTS of fun to watch her learn, discover new things, and have her 'firsts'. It makes me want to hold on to each of these firsts and treasure them.

Bella said her first Chinese word.  "猫" (mao) or "Cat"  We have a cat that lives right outside our apartment and Bella loves to visit him. AiYi was so excited to hear that she spoke Chinese. She said later that afternoon she ran all around the neighborhood saying "Cat" and chasing the cats.

Bella got her first two teeth! Now we've just got to get her a hairbrush.

Bella also got her first black eye. This may sound disturbing, but I'm quite proud that it took this long for her to get visibly banged up. She is a fun, high energy girl. I could tell she was a wild woman as she constantly moved in my tummy. I saw this when she rolled over at two months and when she invented a new way to crawl at 3 months. She would lift her body and arch her back, supporting herself by her head and feet. Then, scoot backwards in a backwards crab walk sort of way. We knew for sure we had our hands full when we found her scaling the walls of her toy at 7 months.

Her next big move: climbing. We look away for a second and she is on top of something. Anything. She can easily climb out of her pack-n-play, on top of the couch, even the coffee table.  Setting a simple box on the floor can be dangerous. If you turn away for a moment she will climb it, sit on top of it, and wait to get in trouble. We have no recent pictures of her climbing abilities since we don't want to encourage behavior which we have made clear is "off limits."  But her favorite thing about our current apartment is the stairs. The area of stairs is very dangerous and difficult to block off (especially since they don't sell baby gates in China). So, for now we have made a wall of suitcases that block them off. Although she now knows how to move them, it at least slows her down enough for us to catch her.

Needless to say, a black eye was a long time coming. Where is the "First Black Eye" line in the baby book, huh? Its a close call what I say more these days, "I have to have to pee" or "Bella! sit on your bottom. No Climbing." If I could put a quarter in a college savings fund every time I have to tell that monkey to stop climbing, Bella could afford to go to the most expensive university. That is of course, IF her head is intact by then. And if it is, I will feel like quite an accomplished parent. 

Bella's black eye. Hard to see in the picture. Not hard to see in real life.

She also LOVES to dance. She comes up with such funny dance moves. I love watching her whether she is imitating Mr. Noodle (sesame street) or twirling around the room like a princess with Daddy.

 She has really enjoyed hide-a-boo (our family mix of hide-n-seek and peek-a-boo). We laugh every time she shrieks with joy as she 'finds' someone coming out of the bathroom. 

She is quite proud that she can now easily spin in circles and walk backwards (not at the same time, two separate accomplishments). She also has really gotten good at stacking blocks and sorting shapes. Bella loves little chairs and stools.  She  also now likes to "read" to Mama.

Bella came out of the womb a strong willed, opinionated thing, but this month she started picking out her own clothes. Even with her limited vocabulary of 5 words (mama, dada, hi, bye, yes), she makes it very clear to Daddy she doesn't want to wear what he picked out as she shakes her head no and hands him the 'right' outfit. 

 

Bella has become a really good helper. She can help clean up her toys. She loves to imitate Mommy or Daddy doing work. She even learned how to run little errands like go give this paper to Daddy.

Bella loves to talk on the phone! She will pretend that almost anything is a phone. She is quite the babbling chatterbox all the way around. She mimics lots of words and sentences.

Our growing girl, full of smiles and energy, is 15 months!