Sunday afternoon we went to my niece, Chiara’s, birthday party. Like all Bettinelli family events (technically she’s a Campbell; but the majority of attendees were still Bettinellis), it was loud and boisterous with more than a dozen children underfoot.
When Dom and I started dating Chiara was the baby of the family. Then her brother Joshua was the baby. Now Josh isn’t even the baby; Bella is. And Josh and Chiara and Kateri will be joined by Cecelia next month who will then become the baby. Funny how quickly things change.
My niece, Theresa, now 16 months, is now running around and babbling. She loves Bella, kept seeking her out wherever she was in th party, and calls her “La-la”, which is a very cute nickname indeed. And funny because just this past week I started calling her Bel-la-la. (Just the latest in a long string of nicknames.)
Bella, as usual, was in her element. She loves crowds and is quite content being passed from person to person, from Grandma to aunt, to my brother-in-law’s sister. She loves the noise and bustle, the kids gathering around her to coo and admire. I think she’s a little extrovert. When we got home Sunday night I was exhausted but Bella was in rare form, laughing and cooing, happy as could be, not her usual evening cranky self.
Raising an extroverted kid is going to be quite a challenge for introverted me. I could happily spend the whole week at home, going out just for errands. But Bella will probably need more interaction than that.
