Another weekend come and gone.

Another weekend has come and gone. For the last long while all my days have felt like the same thing over and over. There haven't really been any monumental events going on or anything incredible happening to us, just the hum drum of life. But this weekend I could see some changes. For example, Belle now walks up the stairs and out the door by herself. She will hold your hand to walk down the stairs or any crazy large steps. She is getting to be quite mobile and independant. This weekend she actually started running in excitement when Nick was chasing her.
She can almost get her shoe on her foot, and at least knows where it is. She keeps her hat on outside without being reminded, (except when she feels we're ignoring her and then she takes it off to get our attention.) On our walk around the neighborhood on Saturday she looked especially girl guide-ish and as she stopped to touch the ants, trees, and flowers, pick up all garbage, and every stick I thought for a minute about the possibility of sewing badges onto a brown sash. Yikes. She still likes to just sit in the grass or gravel at the park, we haven't moved onto equipment yet. Mostly because I'm so short and getting more immobile by the day which makes it hard for me to feel safe with her tearing around on high places. I'm sure it will happen soon enough though.
And while we were watching her play a bit during a rain storm on Sunday we realized how strong Belle is. I mean look at that muscle definition, it's going to take me months to catch her physique! She was picking up empty water bottles for our water cooler, the bins we use for grocery shopping, and everything she didn't feel was away and moving them all over the kitchen. She is a strong one.
And the personality. We'll have to call her our little ham. We were sitting on the couch watching "While you were Sleeping" and sharing a bowl of chips. There was a throw pillow behind her head and torso. I went to hand her a chip and instead of taking it she put her head on the pillow and started making pretend sleeping noises, with her eyes kinda closed but open enough to see me. Oh the laugh that gave her. During our bedtime routine we say prayers and then ask her for a hug and kiss which she gives. Usually we then place her in her crib and say good night. But recently she's started offering more and more kisses knowing we wont put her down while she's doing that. Her eyes just light up and she tries to be sneaky with her kisses too. It's adorable.

I can't believe how much she's already grown and how the changes happen everyday. I can hardly imagine what it will be like when there are two of them. In church on Sunday while the pastor was praying Nick just leaned over and put his hand on my bellly. I haven't been feeling very much movement thus far in this pregnancy, (although I'm told there's no reason to be alarmed), and I didn't realize until Sunday that it causes Nick as much stress as it does me. I remember how much we loved Belle before she was born and that's something that hasn't changed. Although now our love is evolving to accept another.

Isn't it weird how so much can change and yet nothing at all?