Since I haven't been able to get a hard drive yet, I can't upload any more pictures to my computer and I can't make any more scrap book pages. I will catch up soon!

My friend Stefanie, (Stefanie "Mormon" according to Frank) watches Bella on Tuesdays and today they had a photo shoot. Thank goodness, because I hadn't gotten around to taken any 3 month pictures of her! click here to see them.

Digital Scrapbooking Question

For all of you that do digital scrapbooking: how do you store all your supplies? My computer is getting very full. It's not letting me save anything else, because I have too much stuff! Thanks!

I'm grateful for hand to mouth coordination

I know I shouldn't be happy about it, but I am. Bella absolutely REFUSES to take a pacifier and acts like I'm poisoning her when I try to put it in her mouth. Today, she finally got her hands to her mouth for an extended period of time. She was so happy about it!

I'm grateful for toys

Bella is getting big enough to start playing with toys. I got some of hers out today to see how she would play with them. She's still too small for the jumper, but she loves the tummy time one. Her toys give me a few mins. that she doesn't have to be attached to me so I can get something done a little easier.

I'm still grateful

LOL, my every day thing didn't last long. It's been busy around here and I've been too tired at night to blog or scrapbook.

Bella is feeling MUCH better. She woke up Sunday morning like her usual self. Smiling and happy and laughing. She's had a little runny nose since, but nothing else.

I'll post some video of what I'm thankful for today in a little while.

Health

Today I am grateful for good health. I realized today that we have really taken for granted that we are both generally healthy and we were blessed with a healthy baby.

Bella slept 6 1/2 hours last night and I was very excited this morning when she woke up for the first time since 10:30 last night. She was a little cranky when she woke up but I fed her, she fussed for a while and went back to sleep. At 8:30 I woke up and she was still sleeping (very late for her), but I didn't think anything of it. She ate and then just fussed and fussed. After being awake for 10 mins. she started to drift off to sleep, so i tried to put her in her crib and she would just wake up screaming. I held her until I had to leave for an eye appointment. When I left I thought that she wasn't feeling great (she's had a little runny nose for a couple of days). Frank held her and she just slept for another 3 hours until I got home. When I got home she still didn't want to eat. I decided to take her temperature and it was 100.4 in her armpit. I turned to trusty Google (I should know not to Google health issues), everything said to take the baby under 3 months with that temperature to the dr. So I called and she said to get her to the E.R. immediately. I consider myself a fairly calm mother, so I tried to talk the dr. out of it. I didn't want to go there and just have them think I was over reacting. She insisted I go, so I did.

Anyway, the point of this post, while we were there I was thinking how lucky we were that we didn't have to be in the hospital al the time. It about killed Frank to see her have to have tests done, I can't imagine if we had to deal with that all the time.

Long story longer, they couldn't find anything wrong. They sent us home with tylenol and Motrin and said to come back tomorrow if it's not better. When we left her fever was 102.5. We gave her a shower tonight, which she loved and actually quit her crying. Then she pooped and has now fallen asleep for the first time all day. I think she's feeling better now.

On a side note, I went to get contacts today, but I have white blood cell "pockets" on my cornea. BLECH. I have to take steroid drops for the next 2 maybe 3 weeks. I had pink eye about 2 months ago, and this is left over from that I guess. So no contacts for now.

Concert in the Park

Today I'm grateful for the concerts in the park. It was kind of a crappy day today. I spent all day dealing with insurance (I should be grateful for that, too) and bills. BLECH! It was great to get out of the house and enjoy some music, but most of all just being with good friends and talking and laughing. I love summer nights. I'm sad that summer is going to be over soon. I'm glad in CA we have another 2 months, at least.

Bouncy Chair

I'm exhausted, so please excuse my post tonight. I wanted to stick with my commitment though. Bella wouldn't sleep for longer than 20 mins all day today. Maybe that means I'll be able to sleep through the night. I don't think we'll be that lucky.

Today I'm grateful for her bouncy chair. We got it at a garage sale. I didn't have a bouncy one for her. I have another one that sits in my office that doesn't bounce, but she doesn't love it. Stephanie (my sister) encouraged me to get the bouncy one, I think it was $3, maybe $5. At first she couldn't sit in it because it was too upright and she would fall over. But now she loves it. Frank and I were able to eat dinner at the same time with both hands while she sat on the table and joined in the conversation. She was smiling and kicking and laughing (okay, not quite, but almost).

Yesterday's this morning

I forgot to do my gratitude last night, because I was working.

Work- that's what I'm grateful for.

I have a job that allows me the flexibility to be able to stay at home with Bella for most of the time. I can work nights and weekends when Frank is around to take care of her. Yesterday, as it will be with every Tuesday, Bella went to a baby sitter in the morning while I went and saw clients. It was a nice break to make me remember that I still have a brain and can carry on an intellectual conversation. Running your own business isn't all rainbows and cherries (don't ask, I don't know) it definitely has it's down sides, but so far the good out weighs the bad.

P.S. I found some new fonts from Krysta's blog. Here are the downloads to them:
http://1000wordsphotography.typepad.com/allie/free-handwritten-fonts.html
http://www.kevinandamanda.com/

Bath Time

Today I am thankful for Bath Time. Bella has had a hard time going to sleep the last couple of nights. She gets so tired but then just can't settle herself down (it doesn't help she won't take a pacifier). I went and bought some lavender bath stuff, bubble bath, lotion, massage gel. I'm trying it all! Not only does it stop the crying while she's in the bath, but after her massage Frank gives her when she gets out, a little food and she's right to sleep.

Organization

I just realized there a lots of typos in my page. I can't see the text when I'm typing it because it's so small. I'll go back and fix it later, you'll have to excuse them for now.

Today was a good but very busy day. We spent all morning cleaning the garage (that garage is our nemesis). It seems like every 4 months or so we have to spend a whole day cleaning it, because everything gets put in there. Our houses are so small here that the garage is not just where you park your car and for "normal" garage things. It's the laundry room, pantry (non-food items), kitchen appliance storage, office closet, coat closet, shoe closet and the list goes on and on. I think that I finally *knocking on wood* got everything a home in there. I managed to get rid of yet another 4 boxes of stuff. I love purging, it makes me feel so light weight.

After we got the garage done, we went to the Fremont Art Festival with our friends Kevin and Val. It was the perfect day for it, warm, sunny but not blazing hot. We just walked around and people watched (one of my favorite activities). Then we came home and our friend Paul came over and we all just sat and talked on the porch. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Gratitude Journal

I was reading a book tonight and it talked about keeping a gratitude journal. This is something that I have attempted to do, but making lists in a book is not my thing. So I have decided to turn my blog into one. Every day I'm going to post something that I'm thankful for. Since I plan to turn my blog into a book at the end of the year I decided that I would scrapbook all the days. This makes me do a few things. First, I'll get my scrapbooking done. Second, it will force me to take pictures. Third, hopefully through out the day I'll be looking for things that I'm thankful for and make me have an "attitude of gratitude."

Another reason that I decided to make this a public thing, is I think we spend a lot of time complaining to each other and it's not so easy to let people know the things we are happy and thankful for.

Today's reason: