Today is Bella’s birthday, she turns 9! Happy Birthday Bella, we love you!
I was up around 6:30, and as soon as I started moving around I heard Bella’s voice… she was asking if she could come out. Hahahahah…. She was still in her bunk, with the curtains closed. I asked her to wait, and went to get Carol and Bia so we all could see her reaction to all the decorations, and Rosie. With everyone ready, we told Bella to come out…. Surprise! She was radiant! She looked at the decorations for like 10 seconds in awe and happiness, and then saw Rosie… and got even more excited and went right to her. hahahaha… It was nice to see how happy she was with everything. She was excited about everything, and the gifts she got. I’m so proud of her! For a kid, the birthday party is when they get a lot of gifts, and they get excited about that. For her, this time, she had just these gifts… not a big party, and she was happy. I know she missed the big party, the family and friends, but she didn’t say anything, she didn’t complain, she just liked what she got and was happy.
As is tradition here in our household, the birthday person gets to call the shots for the entire day, so Bella was the boss. She said early on she didn’t want to go to the playground, because there time passes too fast, and she didn’t want her birthday day to go by fast. hahahahah… She didn’t want anything special for breakfast, so we had our normal stuff. Most of the morning was filled with phone calls from friends and family. She was busy on the phone, and trying on her new dress, and playing with her new shoes, and what not. Bia and her were on the phone with Vi for over 2 hours, feels like maybe it was like 3 hours or so. It was nice that they could catch up and talk. Bia and Vi were “writing” this story they started together, so they were working on that. Coming up with chapter names and then writing the content.
Then, for lunch, Bella wanted Mac and Cheese and Steaks, so her and I went to Safeway on foot, which was a good opportunity for her to try on her new shoes with wheels, her Heelys.
Those shoes don’t roll too well unless the surface is nice and flat, with no bumps, and the parking lot here or the street was not it. While we were crossing the street right out of the campground, she slid one leg forward as the wheel actually turned, and she bumped a knee on the ground. That was it, she wanted the wheels out, so we stopped and I got them out and put them in my pocket. She did not want the wheels back the rest of the day. I have a feeling this was a bust, but hopefully she’ll be brave later and continue practicing and figure out how to ride it. At least the wheels come off easily, and go on easily, so we can just have them along and she can try it here and there. Anyway, we had a nice walk to Safeway together. Bella was in a great mood. At the store, she chose these peace sign shaped Mac and Cheese, all organic and stuff… pretty good choice I must say. Then we got two New York Strip steaks, and she chose a blackberry sparkling juice for her and Bia. We had a nice walk back, and I continued asking her what she wanted to do today… she said she didn’t know, maybe go shopping. hahahah…
When we got back, I got things ready to grill the steaks, and she said she wanted to make the Mac and Cheese herself. I washed the dishes to make room and continued outside, then Carol helped her with the Mac and Cheese inside. We had both ready almost at the same time, so we could eat it all at the same time. It was a nice and yummy lunch.
When we were done, I asked Bella again what she wanted to do, and she said she wanted to go shopping… she wanted to get a baby outfit to then “fix it” so she could make something for Maggie! hahahahaha… well, she’s the boss of the day, so I found a Goodwill store nearby and her and I went. The store was about 15 minutes from us, so we got there quick… Bella was very chatty on the ride there, which is always a good sign.
When we got there, there was a line with maybe six people distanced six feet or so apart, waiting outside. So, with the limited capacity orders, the stores that are open need to make sure no more than X amount of people are in at the same time, so we waited on line. It took about ten minutes for us to get in, and as expected, there were not that many people inside. We walked around there and didn’t see any baby clothes. Bella was thinking of maybe getting a scarf instead, but then changed her mind. I looked up on a map and saw there was a target nearby, so we drove there. There’s a mall nearby and that’s where Target was. The first entrance to the mall had a max height bar showing 6’7”… I tried going in, but the bar hit the XM antenna on the truck, so I backed out. My notes on the truck height show 7” height, so that’d make sense. First time I was not able to get in a parking lot due to being too tall with the truck. I drove around and found another parking area and we stopped.
This was a bigger Target, with two floors, we had to go to the second floor for kids clothing. That section was not that big, but we spent a good 30 minutes looking around. I gave Bella a budget of $5 🙂 and she did find something that she liked for $6, so we got it. She bought a little blouse that is fluffy and has hearts on it, and she was very excited. On the checkout line, she also got a kinder egg for herself and one for Bia.
When we got back, Carol was taking a nap, and Bia was on her iPhone (which does not have phone service, so it’s more like an iPod). The girls started playing again… I washed the dishes from lunch, Carol then came out… Bella got a few more calls.
Carol started working on some art project with the girls too. While they were doing that, I sat down to watch some TV.. just put on a random Netflix show about “Champions” which just has these wacky competitions across the world, like the Cheese rolling race down a steep cliff in England.. hahahaha.. that was crazy. Bella got a few more calls, the last one being Alex, and it was time for bed. She sure made her day last longer by not having any ambitious plans. We hung out together all day, and it’s great just spending time together. And just like that, it was 7pm, we got the girls ready for bed, ate something, and squeezed in some TV before they went to sleep. Great day together.
Happy Birthday Bella! S2