Recently in bella's world Category

On Sunday, Bella and I shared a mama/daughter afternoon and went out to the movies to watch the new WALL-E movie with free tickets we received from a grocery store promo. Bella doesn’t go to the movies often but when she does, it is a major treat! I really enjoyed the movie and Bella did too, although it was a little slow for her in the middle. But as usual, after the movie she went into “let’s pretend� mode…I had to pretend she was Wall-e and I was Eve, complete with computer-type voices. This has become a normal ritual, where as we take on the personas of two best friends and act out a little scene. We’ve been characters that range from Pooh and Tigger to Lightning McQueen and Mater (Yeah, I had to do Larry the Cable Guy’s voice) to St. Catherine of Sienna and Jesus. (Yeah, that one was interesting.) It may be wacky but I don’t mind her innocent pleasures and I’m able to incorporate some of the Christian virtues we’ve been learning into our little scenes. Anyway, I better get going since we’re on our way to her first swimming lesson of the summer. No doubt on the ride over we’ll be playing Little Mermaid & Flounder.

Since we'll be celebrating Corpus Christi on Sunday, here's an appropriate book for the little ones - "Coloring Book: Eucharistic Adoration.

This inspiring coloring book for children presents beautifully detailed pictures, ranging from symbols of the Eucharist to images of the saints who contributed to our understanding and devotion to the Eucharist. Written and illustrated by artist Katherine Sotnik, this book teaches as it entertains, showing the vessels for the liturgy as well as explaining the different names and terms that the Eucharist has.

This morning Bella and I were watching Playhouse Disney and the new Wiggles Christmas show called Santa's Rockin came on. I was happily surprised that it is even more "religious" than past Christmas shows. There were numerous songs about the Christ child and character dressed as Blessed Mother, St. Joseph and Baby Jesus. There was even a song about Our Lady of Guadalupe and various religious images of Jesus, Our Lady and nuns praying in a church! I couldn't believe Disney had a show so blatantly Christian, if not Catholic. In fact one of the reviewers at Amazon gave the DVD a low rating precisely because it was "too Catholic". That's a definite plus for us! Check it out. (It'll be airing on Disney again Christmas morning.)

Okay, you either love 'em or hate 'em. If you hate 'em, don't waste your time and skip this post!

Personally we dig the dancing aussies, although we weren't able to see them in concert this week in CA. But we do send our congratulations to the recent (last month) wedding of Paul Paddick (Captain Feathersword - also known as "Paddy") to Charmaine, who was "Pirate Charlie" in the older Wiggle shows.

Anthony Wiggles (a new husband and papa himself) reports:

Gday all, just got back from Queensland, with Miki and Lucia, attended Paddy and Charmaines wedding! The wedding was beautiful, [Paddy cried] on seeing his future wife coming down the aisle, his brother was best man, all the Wiggles and the Wiggly dancers were there! If I knew how to post a photo from the wedding I would. Paddy wore pin stripes brown suit, Charmaine looked like a Really Beautiful Princepessa! All in all, a deservedly beautiful wedding for two lovely people! Good luck and God bless both of them! Well everyone, looking forward to seeing you all in concert soon. Happy wiggling to everyone, Antonio"

Hey guys. Hope you are all doing well. I should have slept in this morning because I got to bed late and am tired, but I woke at 6:30 am and was wide awake so I figured I'd let Bella sleep in and I'd get some work done. It's been a busy week although yesterday was fun since I went to the beach with some other moms and their kids. We had a great time although my face is a little burnt - I don't think I put enough sun screen. ugh.

Bella had fun too and it was a nice little lesson for her to learn to share her sand toys with the other kids and get along with others. Being an only child at the moment she is still learning the finer points of "the world doesn't revolve around me." She's not mean about it but just needs gentle coaxing and reminding that she has 2 shovels and can certainly share one of them or that baby Joe can sit in her beach chair for awhile.

Although there was one moment when one of the sweet 7 yr old boys "John" was playing around with Bella and sort of tickling her. She thought it was funny at first but after a minute or two wanted him to stop and pushed his hands away. He kept on, but before I could say something to him, she bit his finger as he poked her. I had her say "sorry" and asked John not to tickle her anymore. There was no harm done and they were soon laughing and playing again.

However, I have to confess that later I was inwardly proud of my baby girl for defending herself against unwanted "attention" and hoped she'd remember that 10 - 15 years from now. Not saying she should bite a guy, mind you, but have her limits and know how to defend them. I, in the meantime, will be on closer watch!

Thanks to my new Australian friend Mary Joseph (you're such a sweetheart!) I found out that Anthony Field of the Wiggles (the guy in the blue shirt) and his wife Mikaela just gave birth to their baby daughter Lucia Maria Angela Field. Anthony's brother Paul posted the news on the Wiggle site this morning. Congratulations!

As you know Bella is a huge Wiggle fan and their countless CD's have accompanied us hundreds of miles of traveling to grandma and grandpa's house. I admit that when I first saw the Wiggles (pre-Bella days) I thought there must be some kind of homosexual agenda going on! But after looking up info on the guys and their work I was happy to see that Greg (yellow) and Murray (red) were husbands and fathers with little kids.

Last May Anthony joined the married set during a nuptial Mass at his family parish Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church. If you want to read more (or see a pic) check out Sydney's Catholic Weekly.com or the news article "Bride's something blue was a Wiggle."

Along with the Wiggles being family men (although Jeff is still single) I also like that on their Christmas videos instead of having only "Santa songs", they sing "religious" carols around a Baby Jesus in the manger with little kids dressed as Mary and Joseph. And they have also been using their fame to help out worthy organizations such as St. Vincent de Paul's charity work. These things, and the fact that their music is wholesome and upbeat, keep me and Bella doing a lot of wiggley singing and dancing.

It was just two years ago this day that our sweet Bella entered the world. I remember it as if it were yesterday. My mom, dad and brother came up from So Cal to spend the weekend with me. My mom was to help my mother-in-law with the baby shower set for Saturday 9/29/01. On Friday I was feeling a lot of irregular contractions which I thought were Braxton Hicks. That night they got stronger but were still sporadic. By morning I told Brian he better call the doctor because something did not seem right. Before he could get to the phone my water broke and the contractions came full force. At this point I freaked. Suddenly it hit me. This baby was coming now.

We made it to the hospital and the nurse told me to change and try to go to the bathroom. I tried but couldn't. The contraction were hard and I was praying that I'd endure it as I knew it would get worst. Nobody thought anything was amiss until the nurse checked me. She was shocked to find out I was fully dialated and ready to go. She quickly called the other nurses and doctor and they all ran around to prepare things as I was told not to push. I was still in shock and didn't know what to think. Thankfully Brian was there to calm me and my brother was there to take care of the details of the details like parking the car and contacting family.

Well, 45 minutes later a tiny but fiesty Isabella Rose Marie was born. I thought we were having a boy so I was again shocked to see it was a girl. I thought of all the coveralls I would have to exchange for dresses. I secretly was happy because I always dreamed of my first being a little girl. Although it pained me to have Bella taken from me (she had to go straight to the NICU room) I was overwhelmed with joy at Bella's birth and the fact that my mom and dad happened to be in town. It meant so much to have them there with me. And I never did make it to the baby shower but the guests were ecstatic to hear that it had been changed to a birth-day party! My little peanut is still small and fiesty and she still fills my heart with love and joy. Happy 2nd Birthday, Bella, my sweet little one!