The Bell Family

Well, it’s time for another update on the little lady! Laura’s doing wonderfully and having lots of fun learning about the big wide world! We’ve given her a new nickname, ‘book worm’, based on her insatiable desire for reading!!! She just can’t get enough of it and she’s putting everything she learns to good practice by naming things as she goes (door, flower, bird, ‘but-by’, ‘pibbow’, doll). The newest additions to her vocabulary are ‘barbeque’, ‘tea-towel’, ‘happy’, ‘monkey’ and ‘dinosaur’. She has started counting (she pipes in with the 2, 5 and 8 ) and also knows some of the alphabet… her favourite bit is when we say ‘r, s, t’ she repeats the letters back and then says ‘Laura’ when we say ‘u’! We’ve counted several hundred words now, however she’s pretty shy in public and rarely says anything in front of a group at all, at least initially, except perhaps ‘up’ (code for help me, I’m being mobbed by strangers)!

Laura’s now around 81cm tall and weighs 13.5kg. She has 14 teeth (all the better for eating anything she can get her hands on, and especially for crunching ice – which definitely rates as one of her favourite past times, closely behind reading)!

Laura’s pretty active now and loves to walk, climb, run and dance! No matter what the music is, she’ll bop up and down, nod her head or swing her arms and turn around! For Valentine’s Day, it was ‘Red Day’ at daycare, so Laura got dressed up in her favourite teddy bear shirt and we added a little label to the bear ‘Be My Valentine’ – she was too cute!!! Here’s a piccie of Laura on the swings at home.

She’s also a bit partial to swimming pools (especially when she’s being spoilt at Nanna’s or Ma and Pa’s). We had a group function at the Rock Pool a couple of weeks ago and we all had a wonderful time (see piccie).

Anyway, cheers and have a good one!

Until next time,
Jason, Chrissy and Laura

Hi Everyone!

Time for a quick update on the Bell Family antics over the last couple of weeks. We’ve had a lovely holiday season, spending lots of time together just relaxing and having fun.

Christmas was fantastic. On Christmas morning, Laura couldn’t wait to get outside and onto her new swing set (which Santa and Santa’s helper worked on assembling late Christmas Eve and into the wee hours of the morning)! Laura’s a bit of a thrill seeker and isn’t shy about nodding her head rigorously and squealing ‘more’ as she holds on for dear life and we push her higher and higher!

She loves the swings so much, that when she wants to have a go, she runs around the house collecting everyone’s hat for them, then runs to the back door to get your attention yelling ‘wing, wing’! Once the ‘present opening’ ritual was over, it was time to head out for Christmas lunch at Nanna’s. It was just a quiet family day, but Laura was full of energy and abuzz with excitement (I think it was a combination of all the attention, new toys, pretty paper to rip and of course, great food to eat)!!! All in all, it was a lovely day and we were all thoroughly spoilt.

Once we recovered from Christmas, it was time to catch up with a few jobs around the house. We’ve done a heap of gardening and have finally moved all the soil into the backyard and planted out our new palm tree garden. We’ve organised our new shed and moved all the tools and we’ve also cleaned out the garage (which was quite an effort – I can’t believe how much junk you can collect in such a short amount of time)! We’ve also redone the back ramp and done some general work around the house.

For New Year’s Eve, we enjoyed a great party at a friends house. All of the kids kicked on until about 9pm, then finally crashed out, which allowed us all to let our hair down! We can’t believe it’s now 2006 – where do the years go???

After New Year’s, we headed down to the beach for a few days to relax. We did lots of swimming, played golf, slept a lot and of course enjoyed lots of yummy food. Laura’s at a great age now, she can walk around, paddle a little (however her favourite was the water slide), and eat pretty much whatever we’re having. She’s added a few new words to her vocab (we’ve counted about 50 in total now, including giving a few three syllable words a go) and pretty much knows all the basic parts of her body now (head, nose, eyes, ears, mouth, shoulders, hands, tummy, knees, toes).

Anyway, it’s back to work for us soon and we’ve still got so much we want to do, so we better leave it there for now! Have a good one and we’ll write again soon!

Cheers,
Jason, Chrissy and Laura

Hi Everyone!

Well, it’s the right time of year for a cyclone in the tropics, but this time, she’s pint sized and called Laura!!! We’ve borrowed a term from some friends of ours and affectionately dubbed her ‘Cyclone Laura’ after the path of devastation she leaves behind her!!! Now she’s up and walking, there’s no stopping her!!!

Her latest stats are:
Age – 15 months
Weight – around 12 kg
Height – 80 cm tall and
Teeth – 12 carnivorous little pearly whites (and another 4 on the way)!

Laura is now fairly steady on her feet and gets around the entire house in the blink of an eye. She’s also a proficient climber (she turfs her teddies out of their rocking chair and jumps into their place to have a go – when she’s finished, she sometimes remembers to put them back)!

Her brain is like a big sponge at the moment, so we’ve also nick-named her ‘the Little Scientist’. She just loves to pull things apart, to find out how they work or what they’re made of, and then attempt (only sometimes successfully) to put them back together again!!!

Laura’s latest craze is naming all the decorations on the Christmas Tree. She points to, and names, the ‘baubles (ball-balls), teddy bears (ted-ja’s) and star and can also point out her head, nose, tummy and feet!

She’s also taken a liking to the Tupperware ‘Shape-O’ and can put the whole 10 shapes into there holes in only a couple of minutes (sometimes with a distraction or two).

So things are really starting to come together for her and she surprises us with a new ability almost daily now!!!

It’s a beautiful age and she’s really great fun to be around!!! Oh to be a kid again (but then again, who said big kids can’t have fun)!!!

Merry Christmas Everyone! Have a safe and happy holiday season!

Cheers,
Jason, Chrissy and Laura

As you can see from the “Blog” entry below, we were kept rather busy with a number of things over the weekend. But what really made our weekend was the fact that Laura started walking to us in the open and took a couple of steps by herself unaided.

As you might already be aware, Laura has been walking around the furniture and walls for some time now. But the last few days I have been trying very hard to get her to walk by herself. I found that if I leant her up against the wall and “coached” her to come to me she would stumble a few steps. At first she would lean forward, stumble a few steps and then I’d catch her and praise her. But with more practice runs, she was walking from the fireplace to the lounge, this would be around 2 meters (about 14 Laura steps .

But in the past couple of days, she has grown enough confidence that you can stand her up in the middle of a room and she will walk to you, as well as move from a piece of furniture or wall to somewhere else. It is amazing how fast the transition is and I wouldn’t be surprised if she is up and running around the house in a couple of weeks.

So she is definitely keeping us on our toes.

Will keep you posted again shortly.

Take it easy,
Jason.

Well Laura thought that she would help me with shovelling sand into the wheelbarrow by climbing the sand mountain and of course pushing it down to make it easily for me!!!

As you can see, she had a ball and she even climbed to the top of the sand all by herself… Giving that it was almost time for a bath for her anyway, we didn’t think that if would hurt for her to have some fun and that is exactly what she did.

Take it easy,
Jason.

Party Girl

It’s time to party! The little Princess has just celebrated her first birthday!

We celebrated with a couple of different parties and Laura has lapped up all the attention! She received some beautiful cards, along with some wonderful toys, clothes and books!

It took her a little while to get the hang of opening the presents, but once she did, there was no stopping her! She couldn’t believe that they were all for her!

Laura loved all the party food and couldn’t resist the pink cake – she’s becoming quite a little sweet tooth and just loved the special treats! She also enjoyed all the music and by the end of the weekend, was thoroughly worn out by all the action!

Laura’s little personality is really beginning to shine through now – she’s so interested in everything that’s going on around her and she’s a really happy little girl, but oh so cheeky! Check out the photo’s for yourselves!

Cheers,
Jason and Chrissy

I apologise for not writing sooner, but as you can imagine we have been kept rather busy.

Well anyway, I experienced my first father’s day and it was rather special. I got a couple of presents and a hand drawing by Laura which was cute. We even spend time down at the beach where we had some fish and chips and Laura had her first experience with the ocean.

Because it was in the middle of the day, we only spent a minute or too on the beach itself, but Laura enjoyed walking on the sand and got excited every time a wave came up to her feet. She even stomped in the water when the levels rosed. I think she enjoyed her first time at the beach and will have to take her there again, but at a better time during the day so that she won’t get burnt.

Overall, it was a great day and of course no blog entry would be right without a photo, so here one taken on the day at the Yeppoon Beach Front.

Take it easy,
Jason.

Laura had a dress-up day at daycare last week, so Jason and I mustered some creative flair and put a little costume together using various things from around the house.

We found a cute little dress, shoes and bonnet and combined these with a lovely set of wings which Jason made!!! Laura was more interested in eating the wings of course, but she did look pretty cute and she loved the biscuits with pink icing which they served at morning tea. Here’s a couple of photo’s…

Laura appears to be having a great time at daycare lately. She has lots of little friends and loves scaling the ‘fort’ and playing in the sandpit. She’s a bit of a rough and tumble adventure chick, who just loves to have fun!!!

Anyway, all the best and we’ll write again soon…

Cheers,
Jason, Chrissy and Laura

Wow! What a wild child we’ve got on our hands! She’s gorgeous, cheeky, mischievous and clever, all in one package!

Laura’s latest stats are:
* Height – 75 cm
* Weight – 9.7 kg
* Hair – Finally growing!

Laura’s been busy exploring the house and yard – still crawling, but she can sit and stand by herself and manages a few little steps along the edge of furniture and when you hold her hand. She’s becoming a bit of a sticky beak and just loves looking at people whenever we’re out and about!

Teeth number 7, 8, 9 and 10 are all on their way through at the same time, so that’s causing Laura a little trouble at the moment, combined with one of the nasty flu’s that appears to be doing the rounds!

All the action hasn’t put her off her food though – she’s prone to give anything and everything a go these days – every conceivable fruit, vegetable and meat, plus a good selection of breads, cereals, cakes and bikkies! We thought we’d kicked the whole dairy intolerance thing and tried a few yoghurts and cheeses again, but it appears that a decent serving of dairy still doesn’t agree with her (yet she can get away with small amounts used in cooking, thankfully and loves soy formula and soy yoghurt).

Her favourite games at the moment are climbing over Daddy Mountain and Mount Mummy, as well as listening to music and playing with musical toys, familiar faces and animals!

Have a great month and we’ll be sure to write again soon!

Cheers,
Jason, Chrissy and Laura

G’day Everyone

Sorry it has taken us so long to write another blog entry, but as you can imagine we have been kept rather busy. Believe it or not, Laura is now 10 months old. She now stands up by herself (since 8 months), and with a little bit of help, she can walk along the edge of furniture.

She eats mostly what we do, but toast and meat are her favourites. Though she also enjoys her fruit and vege’s as long as she can hold them (no more mashed varieties for her anymore)!!!

She seems to be enjoying daycare, but has been having trouble with teeth # 7 and 8 – but thankfully they are almost through.

She has been growing fast and has been putting on lots of weight.

She is definitely very cheeky and has developed a contagious laugh, though she can be a little terror sometimes and can even be a little naughty! But mostly I reckon she is a little cutie, especially when she waves hello and bye bye, or when she is laughing because you are tickling her! She seems to enjoy playing games like give and take (sharing) , peekaboo and 1, 2, 3!

As always, no blog update is complete without a picture, so here is a picture of Laura and Chrissy taken only a week or so ago.

Until next time…

Cheers,
Jason.

Well g’day everyone.

Sorry it has taken us so long to produce a blog update, but as you can imagine, we have been kept very busy.

Milestones –

• If you didn’t already know, Laura has 6 teeth with another couple on the way;
• She has been crawling all over the floor and getting around quite well now;
• Eating solids and loves dry toast;
• Manages to wave goodbye to people sometimes; and
• Mimics the sound of laughs and words you make.

Laura is now 73 cm tall and weighs 8.2kg.

As you can see, she is growing up very very fast and it is amazing how time flies, I cannot even believe that she is 9 months old, let alone see that she can crawl and eat some of the foods we eat!

As always, I have attached another photo so you all can see what she looks like these days.

Don’t forget to leave comments.

Thanks and take it easy,
Jason.

G’Day All!

Hope everyone is doing well out there! The Bell Family is loving life at the moment! Laura is doing wonderfully well – her beautiful little personality is really shining through and she makes life so much fun!!!

Laura has 6 teeth now and loves whatever food she can get her hands on. She’s eating a wide variety of fruit and vegetables and she also tried chicken for the first time the other night and didn’t seem to have any complaints (carnivore Jason is of course, very proud)!

After several trips to the Dr for her eczema, we decided to try the Naturopath. He suggested that we exclude dairy and wheat products for a little while and see what happens. We’ve also been trying a new cream and her skin seems to be on the improve, which is great. Surprisingly enough, she doesn’t seem to mind soy formula and yogurt and we even made some creamy banana rice for her on soy milk, which she loves.

Laura has settled into daycare really well and went for three short days last week and another three days this week and then I’m back to work next week! Laura’s sitting up by herself now and her little voice is developing well. Her chatter is becoming much clearer now and she seems pretty keen to talk about Dad all day long!

She’s starting to get pretty mobile now, and although she’s not crawling yet, she still makes her way around the lounge room via a series of rolls and shuffles!

So as you can see, everything’s going wonderfully here and we’re really enjoying our ‘Little Princess’.

Cheers,
Jason and Chrissy

Hi Everyone!

Laura had her first little adventure to daycare yesterday and she loved it!

Jason and I took her along in the morning and spent about an hour settling her in and getting to know the routine at the centre. About mid morning, I headed home and Jason headed off to work (he was really late, but he figured her first day at daycare was something he just couldn’t miss).

When I got home, I just balled my eyes out (the house was empty and I was so lonely)! I hadn’t been away from Laura on more than a handful of occasions since she was born and never any more than 2 or 3 hours at a time, so I took it pretty hard! So I decided to make myself busy – I was super efficient and cleaned the house from top to bottom, stained and varnished a pair of old kids rocking chairs I’ve been meaning to do for the last 6 months, washed and even did a bit of reading for work (the first half had taken me 4 days during Laura nap times, but the second half took me about an hour and was much less painful)!!!

After all that, I finally couldn’t bear it any longer, so Jason and I headed back to the centre and picked her up mid afternoon! She’d had a fabulous day – hadn’t slept a wink (well maybe 20 here or there, but no real nap), but had drank two bottles of formula and eaten the whole can of custard that I had sent with her (yes, she gets the sweet tooth from me)!!! Laura loved all the bright colours, fancy toys and of course, new little people to play with! She’d also had some time in the swing and played in the sandpit and garden for a while – all in all, she appeared to have been a fairly happy camper! Although the grin on her face when she saw Jason and I arrive to pick her up was absolutely priceless and I just couldn’t wait to get her back home again!!!

Only a couple more weeks until I head back to work, so we’re just easing Laura in at daycare and she’ll go a day a week until I start back.

We’re all having a great time together though and life is great!

Cheers to all,
Chrissy

Wow – what an eventful couple of weeks we’ve had since our last update!!!

Laura’s two top teeth have just cut through – they’ve caused her to become a little grizzly of late, but if you’ve ever experienced your wisdom teeth whilst they are on the move, you’d understand why!!! However, I’m sure the discomfort will be short lived (until the next set of teeth anyway)!!! So, Laura’s beaming grin now boasts four little pearly whites! Very cute – but watch where you put your hands or she’s likely to test out your fingers with one swift ‘chomp’!!!

On the topic of ‘chomping’, Laura’s daily menu has rapidly expanded over the last few weeks – from sweet potato, carrot, pumpkin and zucchini to pear, apple and banana, she reckons fruit and veges are great (best feed her up on the good stuff before Dad starts teaching her bad habits)! Of all the different types of food though, her new favourite is vegetable rusks!!! Leave her with one and it will keep her occupied for up to an hour, sucking and chewing away until there’s nothing left except the part of the little mushy stick which was clasped tightly in her hand!!!

She’s also developing a fairly large vocabulary for a little tacker – ‘hi there’, ‘hello’, ‘mum mum’, ‘bub bub’, and ‘dad dad’ have been known to slip out recently, in no particular order or context of course, however she reckons she’s pretty clever (and we have to agree)!!! We’re so proud of how she’s progressing and the way her little personality is beginning to shine through!!! She’s just gorgeous!

Anyway, all the best to everyone! We hope you had a great Easter and that you have a great week.

Cheers,
Chrissy and Jason

She sings, she dances, she rocks and she rolls!!! Well… that might take some explaining… after all, she’s still only a baby, but we reckon she’s a pretty clever one and we can’t believe she is already 6 months old!!!

The singing refers to her new found lungs and variety of vocals – she just loves squealing, giggling and babbling to anyone who’s willing to listen!
Dancing refers to her love of ‘boogeying’ with her Mum and Dad which is always greeted with squeals of delight! While the ‘rock and roll’ refers to her keen desire to get moving by rocking back and forward and rolling from side to side!

Laura’s latest stats are as follows:
Weight – 6.9kg (40th percentile, so a little lighter than average for her age)
Length – 68cm (70th percentile for her age, so a little taller than average for her age)
General Health: Excellent (although starting to develop a little eczema)
Milestones: Teeth for having some fun with real food!!!

Laura’s chomping on everything in sight with her two sharp bottom teeth (including your fingers if you’re silly enough to ‘lend’ them to her for a moment)! Given that she’s 6 months now, we’ve just started her on vegetables! As you can see from the photo, the fun and games have begun!!! At least I may have some hope in getting Laura to actually like her vege’s – it’s her father I need to worry about!!!

Jason and I have been having so much fun with Laura – she’s a great little person to have around and never fails to bring a smile to your face!

A bit of a countdown now until I return to work (albeit part-time), so I’m just enjoying every moment with her!!!

Cheers and lots of toothy grins,
From the Bell’s!

Hi Everyone!

Time for another update! Laura’s just had her 5 month checkup at the clinic and all is going well.

Her new stats are:
Weight – 6.9kg
Length – 66cm
Change – She’s already grown over 3kg in weight and 11cm in length, since birth!
Milestones – Teeth, solid food and a wriggly backwards crawl!

Since my last update, Laura’s two bottom teeth have decided to make their presence known, so she now has two cute little pearly whites to show off as part of her gummy grin! She’s still chewing everything in sight and her gums still seem to be pretty irritated, so we figure it won’t be long before another couple of teeth cut through.

Laura’s also developed an interest in ‘big people’s food’ and simply wouldn’t take her eyes off my dinner the other day, so we’ve started her on some baby rice cereal – she loves the stuff! She opens her mouth wide, licks her lips and is even attempting to hold the spoon as I’m obviously not shovelling it in fast enough for her liking! The advice on solid foods seems to change almost as quickly as the month, however the current medical thinking suggests that babies shouldn’t be given solid food until 6 months now (to reduce the chance of developing allergies and to ensure their digestive system is sufficiently developed). So we’ll probably just stick with the cereal for a few weeks before getting into the exciting stuff like fruits and vegetables – if she’s anything like her Dad, I can’t wait for Laura’s new facial expressions when she tries the stuff – should make for some great piccies!

The other point of note is that not only can she turn 360 degrees when on her tummy, she has also worked out how to wriggle backwards now and can make ground fairly quickly!!! Time for me to start developing those eyes in the back of my head I think!

Most of all though, her little personality is developing so quickly now and she’s such great fun to be around… always babbling away to herself and handing out lots of smiles and giggles – she’s a real cutie!!! Here’s a new piccie…

Cheers and have a great week,
Chrissy

Laura’s 4 ½ months old now and has just learned to roll! It’s amazing how they just wake up one morning and suddenly something clicks! Whilst having some early morning tummy time, Laura rolled from her tummy onto her back. I figured it was probably just a fluke and that it could be a few days or even weeks before she’d do it again, but incredibly she did it another 10 or 20 times before the day was out!!! Jason and I were so proud!!! Given our reaction to a simple ‘roll’, I can only begin to imagine what we’ll be like when she says her first words and takes her first steps!!!

She’s still teething and the little critters seem to keep going up and down (along with the volume of dribble)!!! Anything and everything that will fit in her mouth makes it there somehow (even her feet – see photo)!!! She’s been a little irritable (I think), but unless they bring out a new version of babies with subtitles, I guess we’ll never really know!!! But I’m sure her new little teeth will appear soon enough….

She’s become a real Mummy’s girl lately – has to have me in her sights (and preferably be in my arms) – if anyone else picks her up, she generally cries (but we think that might be something to do with the teething) – she just wants her Mummy!!!

Daddy is still her favourite when it comes to playing games though. It must be a great relief for her after hanging out with Mummy all day – I guess that could get boring after a while, but I’ve been having a great time!

Laura reckons that Nanna, Ma and Pa are pretty good as well and even the Uncle’s get a look in occasionally! She has good eye contact and has a great time blowing raspberries to them all! She’s even giving her vocals a pretty good workout these days – maybe I’m imagining it, but I’m sure there’s a ‘Mum’ and funny sounding ‘hello’ in there somewhere. Who needs entertainment when you’ve got Laura!!!

Anyway, all the best to you all and until the next instalment, take care and be well!!!

Cheers,
Chrissy

Wow – isn’t time flying! Laura has just turned 4 months! She has just been for her 2nd round of immunisations and was a brave little girl despite the three needles and icky tasting medicine!

The latest stats have her as follows:
• Weight: 6.2kg
• Height: 63cm

She’s growing really quickly and is still a little above average, however she only put on 200 grams during the last month in comparison to the 740 grams the month before!!! Thankfully things are slowing down a little there, because she was starting to become quite a chubby little thing! Nothing wrong with having a bit of meat on her though I reckon, means she’s nice and healthy! She’s finishing up in ‘000’ clothes now and moving into ‘00’s, and she has so many lovely outfits from all over the place!

Laura’s latest milestones are:
• reaching for and holding onto toys;
• grabbing and holding onto her feet;
• longer tummy time (holding her head up really well and often being seen with her bum up in the air);
• lots of sounds including uhuh, ugug, oh’s and happy squeals; and
• a general interest in being involved in everything that’s going on around her.

Here is a picture of Laura and I. She is a cutie isn’t she!?!

Hope you enjoy the update.

Cheers,
Chrissy

Well, as you can imagine, one of the major things we had to complete as part of the renovations was the refurbishment of the nursery.

If you were un-aware, every bedroom and living room walls were made up of a lami-panel type timber. The unfortunately thing was that every bedroom’s timber was a different colour and shade. Below is what the nursery use to look like before we started the renovations.

The bedroom was once desigenated as my study, which housed things like books and of course computers. Though, as soon as the news that we were expecting our first child, it of course became the nursery.

Like the master bedroom, when we decided to renovate the back bedrooms, we decided to replace the lami-panel with gyprock as well. The timing for the renovation was quite crucial, as Christine was currently 3 months pregnant and we wanted everything to be completed before bubsy came along. If you are unaware, they recommend that new carpet and paint be allowed to air for three months before a new-born is allowed into the room.

It was then decided that to speed up the process, you would employ a carpenter to fix up and improve upon the storage of each of the bedrooms, as well as get plasters to gyprock and plaster the walls. The main reason for this was the speed up the process.

The nursery use to have timber shutter opening doors for the cupboard. This was one of the things the carpenter improved upon, which he installed sliding mirrors, new hanging spaced and sliding drawers.

Once the new cupboards were installed, new door hanged and the walls covered in gyprock, it was time of course to paint. Like the master bedroom, I did do a lot of the timber work myself (door jam, window sills, architraves, skirting boards and various other timber work) which saved us a lot of money.

Other additions to the room include:

• Carpet to replace the lino;
• Timber bind for the window (I also installed and trimmed the blinds to fit the window, the new drop saw which I purchase has already payed for itself many times over); and
• New fan and adjustable down lights (Which have be great for late night feeding).

The only thing that we have recently done is place a nice “Teddy bear pattern” valance over the window.

As you can see, we selected fairly netural colours, as we didn’t like the idea of painting the room blue or pink. As we felt we could decorated the room to the sex of our first child, which you all know is a girl.

Anyway, I hope you like the looks of Laura’s room and the changes we made to it. Remember to keep those comments coming.

Cheers,
Jason.

G’day Everyone

I trust you all had a wonderful Christmas and a great new year’s!!!!

As you all know, this was Laura’s first Christmas and I think she really enjoyed all of the attention (and especially all the fantastic gifts and new toys that will keep her busy for the next few months)! Of course she is still too young to really appreciate Christmas fully, but I think she still had fun as can be seen from the photo below.

Having Laura around sure made Christmas special for the whole family this year and we can only imagine that it will get even better in the years to come!

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a great new year and will endeavor to keep you all posted with the latest information on Laura, house renovations and things in general. So keep on visiting this site and we will try to update it as much as possible.

Until then, stay safe and well,
Jason.