Bella's Eyes and Vocab

Annabelle is a happy baby and she loves to play and explore. Her vocabulary is growing rapidly, although some of the words aren't very clear. Diaper, apple, and bubble all sound something like "bapuh." She says "li" for light, eye, and slide. And "dee" means something like chair or stair or "I want to sit there" -- it doesn't seem to sound like any of those, although her hand gestures get the point across. Bella calls the phone "hello," which is very cute. Oh, and she calls her milk "mii," which always reminds me of the Wii game (which we don't have).

Some of her signs are multi-functional as well. Annabelle seems to think that two words that sound the same ought to share the same sign, too. Thus, bird and brr (and sometimes book) all get the bird sign, so when we go outside I don't know if she hears a bird singing or if she feels cold. She uses the cat sign for cow and hat, no matter how hard I try to teach her the other signs. She has made up her own sign for dance, which is really cute and she loves. She's also started using a where is? sign to ask where her toys or sister or milk are -- sometimes in an earnest quest, and sometimes when she wants me to play a hide-and-seek game with her.


Bella crawling through her door


Bella chasing bubbles on our front porch


Bella playing peek-a-boo


Bella's favorite expression


Bella swinging at Hidden Valley Park


Bella's goopy eyes
I try to keep Bella's eyes clean, although she hates it when I wipe them. Before that last picture, it had been about an hour or so since the last time I'd wiped her eyes, and you can see why I usually wipe them every 10 minutes. The wonderful caregivers at the church nursery kindly expressed concern about her eyes, and I felt like I needed to explain her condition so they wouldn't be worried about it being contagious. I do get sick of random people at the grocery store commenting on her eyes, though. Her oculoplastic surgery consult is scheduled for the end of March, at which point we will then schedule her surgery. Until then, her pediatrician has her on eye drops because she's at high risk for infection.