Memories of Christ

The other day we were at the garden center looking at herbs and peat pots when Bea spied a small statue of Christ about her height and no sooner did she see it did she wrap her arms around it and start repeating to me, "Jesus, Jesus!"  I told her that she was right and then she started giving the statue kisses on the head.  Henry saw what was going on and joined in in the hugs and kisses and soon they were both hugging each other around the statue. I was really impressed that she had such a love for Christ at such a young age.  She has been so good lately at folding her arms for the entire prayer and saying her version of "amen" at the end.  She even kneels on her chubby little knees.  The amazing thing is that, being the second child, we haven't stressed a knowledge of Christ like we did with Henry.  I was just realizing it this week.  However, it seems like she just picked it up naturally...or maybe she still remembers him. 

New Words

Bea is definitely not as articulate as Henry was at this age in the pronunciation of words so it's hard for anyone but me and Henry to decipher what she is trying to communicate.  For example, even when she says "mommy" she doesn't even close her mouth all the way to say the ''m" sound and it comes out sounding slightly like "wah-wie".  Some of the fun words I can understand are...

Flush -- she loves flushing the toilet and now says flush when she does it
Chair -- this one sounds the most clear and I think she's extra proud of being able to say it because she's constantly pointing out every chair she sees to me. She also tries to say any word that rhymes with chair like bear and hair.
Pasta --  she loves eating her pasta every day!
Owie -- this one is the most hilarious because it's said super nasal and always with a scrunched up nose.
It's Hot -- every food I put in front of her she assumes is hot and looks up to me asking me if it's hot

The words and phrases she can not say she just says "na na na" in place of words but with the perfect inflection so you can easily tell what she's trying to say.  She says and signs, "all done" by saying "na na" with the inflection.  She also says, "na na na" for "here you go" and "I'm sorry" both with the correct inflection. 

One thing Bea does a lot is hit me in the face just for the entertainment value.  I try to tell her to not hit me very calmly and give her a serious look but she avoids any scolding by quickly pointing to my nose and saying "no" and then saying, "eyes, ears, mou(for mouth) and air(for hair)" Then she gives me such big hugs that it's hard for me to just put her down and ignore her for 10 minutes which is what they suggest you do if your baby is hitting you.  She's just so smart!

One thing she does when she knows she's doing something bad is when I catch her in the act, she points her finger at me and says, "no!" in that same nasal tone which is so funny to me.  I don't know how she got that because I make it a point to correct without saying no.  It is really cute though. 

So just to compare Henry with Bea at this point.  I think Henry recited the entire ABC's to me at this age and I still can't believe he was this young.  Goes to show how much more attention the first child gets.  Bea is no where near knowing her alphabet.  Poor neglected baby!

Easter/Earth Day petal dresses

I, of course, put off making an Easter dress until last minute and since I couldn't order any cute fabrics online due to time I had to resort to JoAnn for their less than stellar selection of fabrics.  I usually wonder around for hours trying to put a few fabrics together and never feeling satisfied in the end.  This time, however, I hit the jackpot.  I walked up to a rounder that had only green and brown fabrics on it, which was what I was searching for because I just had to make a very earthy and organic looking dress for my friend Christi's new baby daughter, Nya, and I thought I should just make it Bea's Easter dress as well.

I was floored when I found the most perfect fabric in the world...trees with environmental expressions underneath and brown fabric with green leaves.  I picked up some light green fabric as well as some green leaf buttons.  I put the dresses together using only a visual from my cousin's blog in about three days and staying up until two in the morning trying to figure out the Velcro that I decided to use instead of button holes(which are a disaster when trying to dress squirmy toddlers. 

I made Nya a wrap dress similar to the one I made for Bea at Christmas, but I made it versatile enough to even almost fit Henry as a shirt, so if it doesn't get eaten by their dog, it should last until she's three or four.  Bea's dress is also a wrap dress and will probably fit her until she's three, I'm hoping.  Don't ask me how I sewed them because I don't even know and they're not perfect at all, but it kind of goes with the organic theme, don't you think:? (please agree with me).  All I know is that they're darn cute and I'm going tomorrow to buy the rest of the fabric with my 50% off coupon!

Bea and Nya were so darling together.  Bea is obsessed with babies and had a blast being around sweet Nya all weekend.  I can't wait until they are running around together like Henry and River do.  Nya never cries and sleeps wherever and whenever.  She's also exceptionally chubby and snuggly so it's easy to fall in love with her.  Nya and my baby girl won't be very far apart in age so the three girls will surely become great friends/sisters.