Isabella's first "drop off" birthday party (and Bella writes her own name)

This weekend Bella went to her first "drop off" birthday party. It was one of her friends from school, Ava, and she's been talking about the party for weeks now. She turned shy as I dropped her off but Ava's mom told her she could call me if I was needed. Then someone suggested Ava take Bella's hand and lead her into the living room and she went, so I basically just took off.

When I picked her up, it sounded like she had a really good time. It was a Rapunzel theme and they gave me a picture of Bella standing in a cardboard castle. She's not smiling, so I wonder what was going through her head at that moment. She didn't want to leave with me, so I took that as a good sign. If took me a little bit to get her out of there, the party was right during her naptime, so she was pretty cranky. Naptime for Bella seems to be a thing of the past anyway, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

All ready to go!

This is the birthday card Bella made for Ava. She wrote Ava on the front and then drew a picture of Ava with their other friend Kate "stomping" on her head. (not sure what that is from). Notice she's writing her own name now. This is a really recent accomplishment. When she writes it, she writes the letters in order, but randomly across the page. She also likes to color/fill in any letters like Bs or As.

Iowa Men and Women's Gymnastics

Tonight we went to the Hawkeye Men and Women's Gymnastics meet. Bella was really excited because she is really into gymnastics and it actually held her interest once we were there for a lot longer than we would have expected. Having Herky there and popcorn helped too.

Both girls were very excited when they saw Herky and were waving at him from a far. I thought Evelyn would actually go up to him this time because she was waving with such a big smile on her face, but one he got close she would scream. He tried to get close a few times because when he would move back a little she would smile and wave, but nope, she almost gave him a high five but that was it. Bella had no hesitation and ran up and gave him a big hug.

Evie waving to Herky

Bella was really excited to see them do the rings during gymnastics. I was really hoping it wasn't going to be the last event because she kept asking when they would do the rings. Luckily, we didn't have to wait long. Bella also seemed most impressed when anyone did a handstand, probably because that is the only thing she knew the name of. (there weren't too many somersaults going on, but if she'd seen one I'm sure she'd have been excited about that as well).

Watching vault and eating popcorn

Isabella, the gymnast

Bella started gymnastics this week and she absolutely loved it. For the last couple months, she's been doing some crazy moves or jumping up and down and saying "Is this gymnastics?" We thought after the new year it would be a good idea to get her enrolled in something.

Her first night there were only two other kids in her class. She was shy at first, but with some coaxing off she went and she never looked back. We could only view her through windows, but we saw her following directions very well, like running through a routine while the teacher individually helped other students. We saw her (attempt) swinging around a bar, doing handstands, doing backbends over a barrel, jumping on a trampoline and I even saw her trying to do somersaults on a balance beam.

Evie was even a champ hanging out in the waiting room. We all went to the first night because we didn't know what to expect. Every once in a while she would just say Bella? Bella? and if she actually saw her through the window she would scream Bella! Bella! and jump up and down and point at her. It was quite a bit more energy that anyone else in the waiting room had(everyone was just reading or playing on their phones).

Bella will go once a week on Mondays until we decide to take a break. She's already very excited about next week.