Paint the town Red

This past weekend was going to be nice and relaxing with just a couple small things on the schedule... until Derek decided what better way to relax than to paint a few more walls in our house! So far, we have painted our family room, living room, kitchen, and now, our entry way. I think everything looks fantastic! Derek did a great job with the rolling and I did the majority of the trim (Derek helped a little bit as there was a lot to do). All that we have left now are the upstairs and downstairs halls and our bedroom. Nothing that I am wanting to tackle anytime soon though.
Della has been so busy growing. I can't believe how big she is getting. Everyone had said how quickly she would grow but it never hits you until you see it yourself. She for sure isn't the squishy ball of goo that we came home from the hospital with. Everyday she looks more like a little girl. She is starting to mimic us when we clap, put our hands in the air and make faces. She definitely loves to be around us and has started noticing when we leave the room when she goes down for naps (she doesn't like to see us leave!) Della is talking up a storm too! We hear lots of bababababa and dadadada and her voice is starting to have inflictions so she is developing a language of her own. It is so wonderful seeing her take everything in and process it.
For Valentine's Day, we attended a Rotary dinner dance named "Wise Guys and Dolls". Everyone was supposed to come dressed in 20s mobster attire. We had a great time and it was fun to dress up. My coworker had a fringe dress that she let me borrow that was perfect! Also for Valentine's Day, Derek surprised me with a new microwave! It was something that I had wanted since we moved in but the old one kept working so we dealt with it for a while until the other night, Derek put a bag of popcorn for 5 minutes and I came downstairs to NOT A SINGLE KERNAL popped. I had to put it on for an additonal 5 minutes. I still was planning on dealing with a slow microwave but Derek was sneaky :) Our new microwave has a popcorn button, a soften button and even a button for baby food. I'm so excited!! While he was at the home supply store, he picked out his own Valentine's Day gift from me - a new cordless drill set which he is thrilled about so I got kudos by default for gift giving :)
Needless to say, our weekend was a good one and I am getting caught up from the cleaning and laundry that got pushed aside while we painted.
We miss everyone and love everyone too.

A dedicated Della

This past Sunday, Della was dedicated at our church. It was a very special event and it was made even more meaningful because Pake and Beppe were able to attend. We do have a video (taped by Pake)and are working on getting it formatted to put on the blog.
We had a wonderful time with Pake and Beppe and it was so neat to see them interact with Della. She is learning so much, so quickly, that is's fun to share her skills with everyone. Beppe taught Della how to use her two teeth to eat an apple and how to dress very stylishly with all her new clothes while Pake let her wear his special hat (he also helped me learn how to play my new guitar :)
As we learned only a few minutes after Della was born, she has a thing with her tongue. It is usually sticking out; when she is "in the zone" and also when she is happy blowing raspberries. It also comes out when she is concentrating hard - I think that this comes from Pake
Thanks for the fun weekend and being here to attend this special day for Della! We love you!!

Della, Dutch and Daddy

Della has gotten to be a very busy girl in the past couple of weeks. Once she started crawling, everything has been coming fast! She is pulling herself up, crawling over tough terrain (such as the cross bars on the bottom of our coffee table and over Dutch) and she is even clapping her hands now. She is very curious about her surroundings - especially the ones that we try to protect her from. Whenever she finds new textures or things she likes to put her mouth on them. The first time she crawled onto the tile floor in the kitchen she kept giving the floor kisses and she found the stove and gives it kisses also. She is a very happy baby and loves to spend time with Mommy, Daddy and Dutch. She caught a little cold somewhere and has had a runny nose and cough for the past couple of days. It seems to be getting better but it sure is hard on a Mom when her baby is sick.
Della has also been experiencing new foods. She really loves bananas and some other favorites are avocado, sweet potatoes and one on the more exotic side - mango. She is growing so fast as you can see by her chubby cheeks. She is especially long (in the 95th percentile) while in weight she is in the 50th percentile.
Needless to say, each day is a wonderful day with Della - we all love her so much!

A new era

We have now entered into the era of movement... Within the past couple of weeks, Della has started to crawl and she is also now pulling herself up on objects. Sometimes when she is crawling she will try to stand up (by pushing her bum way in the air) but then she'll fall over. We told her to wait so we could have time to install all the cabinet latches and get the house baby-proofed but she refused.
Happy New Year to everyone!

Merry Christmas!! After the fact.

On the move

We have been busy with Christmas gatherings and travel so it's been a while since we've had new photos and videos.
In the time since our last post, Della has started sitting up on her own and is getting really really close to crawling. She will take a step with her knees and then later her hands but hasn't really matched them up yet. She can balance on her knees and one hand while reaching for an object and can now get to pretty much any where she needs to go within a 5-10 foot radius by rolling or launching herself from the crawling position.
We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!! I'm sure we'll post new pictures and video soon.

Sleepy baby and other stuff

So as it has been a little while since I have posted pictures or videos of Della, here is a hodge podge of the past month.

We spent a weekend in San Francisco and Della got to meet Laura Mitchel who was Derek's main mentor in becoming a State Farm Agent. She was visiting from Pensacola with her friend (and Derek's past co-worker) Gail. It was a great trip and we even go to see two baby sea lions on the docks at Pier 39. While we were there, we fed Della in the hotel and she was so tired that she kept falling asleep between bites but as soon as she woke up she remembered what she was doing and was ready for the next bite :)

Pake and Beppe, Louis, Shannon, Henry and Kaelan, and Julia all came to visit us for Thanksgiving and it was so good to see them. Henry and Kaelan got to spend some extra time with us and they even got to do a few craft projects. Thanks for coming to see us everyone - we had a great time.

All in all, November was a busy month and December doesn't look like slowing down! This Saturday we leave to go to Florida. We can't wait to see our friends there and spend time with Ducky and Pap-pap. I am hoping that Della does well on the plane as the flight is 4 hours one leg and 1.5 hours on the second leg. It will definitely be nice to have two of us to help hold her and play with her.

Love to all!
Sharon