Sweet Beatrice

Snow

2012-01-11T12:00:00.000-08:00

These posts are a couple I forgot to publish, probably because I didn't have a photo to go with them at the time, but I like them, so here they are...

It's been snowing every day for two weeks. I haven't seen the sun for so long. There's no way we could live in Pittsburgh our whole lives.

and now that there is no snow in Utah, I wish it would snow for two weeks!

Golden Girl

2012-01-11T11:59:00.000-08:00

Bea is such a golden baby. Her tan skin is a golden color as is her hair. When I look at her she looks like a fat little gold Buddah statue, but she's alive and mine to tickle and snuggle.

Snow Bunnies

2012-01-11T11:58:00.000-08:00

Bea and Ella playing in the back yard. We love snow!

Bea and Ella had so much fun playing in the snow and as they played I realized I'm so glad I have so many extra snow clothes. I remember when I had a sleepover with all the Young Women from my ward in Pittsburgh during a huge blizzard and in the morning we all went out and played in the snow. Half of them didn't bring their snow clothes but I was able to clothe most of them in everything Justin and I have acquired over the years. Word to the wise: Don't ever get rid of snow clothes, no matter what size, especially when you live in Utah.

Playing Field Leveled

2012-01-07T08:49:00.000-08:00

Bea and Henry got these tricycle/big wheel/glider toy for Christmas called slider riders and they are pretty much the best thing since Big Wheels, and a million times more fun. Bea and Henry rip around the house all day long on these things and never get tired of them, plus, they are equally as good, so they can play on the same level, which is really nice for a change. Justin and I are trying to come up with a plan to dismantle one and enlarge it so adults can take a ride. Bea's is made by Radio Flyer and Henry's is made by Razor Scooter. I highly recommend this toy.

Three Amigas

2011-11-17T22:43:00.001-08:00

Bea Lily and Ella:Future BYU heartbreakers

Bea's friend Lily from out east came out for a visit to Utah this last weekend. Lily, Ella and Bea are all just a few weeks apart in age but we have never been able to get them all together at the same time so here they finally are in their pajamas right before bedtime. We wish Lily lived closer to us so we could watch her grow up. She's so much bigger than I remember her! She came to our house in pigtail braids, which was my favorite hair style in college, so I was an instant fan. She readily gave us hugs and was so sweet to Bea. We love you Lily. Thanks for coming to visit!

nothing better than a sister

2011-10-19T23:20:00.001-07:00

Bea is in heaven with her new baby sister. She just loves feeding her and holding her. Much more fun than a doll. Check out her new blog violettelucienne@blogspot.com

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4

toothpaste wars

2011-09-24T22:21:00.001-07:00

Bea has gotten in trouble lately because she has been wasting things, mostly toothpaste. She put water in her pink toothpaste tube which made it super runny and then squeezed it out the other day as she waved her arm in the bathroom, splattering it across the mirror, wall floor and carpet. Then today I noticed she was gone for a few minutes and found her with an almost empty tube of Clementine's baby toothpaste and I asked her what she had done with it and at first she denied any wrongdoing, but eventually admitted to me that she wasted it....in the toilet because she"wanted to clean it" which didn't make any sense to me until I used the toilet and realized that my rear end was covered in sticky toothpaste goo that was all over the seat. It doesn't help that there is no door on my blasted bathroom so she can get in there whenever she wants. I feel like I have to put a baby knob cover on every door in this house! I transferred a couple of the ones I had previously used for the bathroom doors to the doors that go outside since Bea ventured down the street to visit friend Ella without telling me twice and keeps leaving the fridge and freezer doors open in the garage and who knows how long it takes me to see that. Hours probably. She is just trouble right now.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4

We're glad it's your Birthday Dear Bea

2011-08-24T23:26:00.000-07:00

Dear Bea,

I'm a day late, but I haven't forgotten to write about you on your Birthday! Bea, you are one of a kind. When I think about you I can't even express how much joy I get from being around you every day. You have a huge personality and you constantly make me and your other family members laugh. People always tell me I should get you into acting because you are so animated and friendly. You hardly have a shy bone in your body and have an innate sense of confidence. To accurately describe your voice I would compare it to the Munchkins on The Wizard of Oz. You love to talk and play with your friend Ella and your brother, Henry and sister Clementine. You also love taking care of your baby dolls and you spend a lot of time wrapping them up, shushing them and pushing them around in strollers. Your love for babies hasn't changed, but you now understand that you need to be gentle. Yay! Goodbye BK!

You love taking care of your little sister and you two are slowly becoming better friends. Instead of running away from you with a look of horror on her face, Clementine enjoys your presence and you two have shared some tender moments and laughed together recently. You play at the pool together and you push your strollers around together. Whenever Clementine cries, you are quick to find her purple blanket or her bottle and then give it to her, talking like I do in a baby style voice, to calm her down. You are really excited about your new baby sister that's coming in October. You frequently talk to my stomach and tell her to come out. You also don't like to be carried for fear you will squish the baby. When we lay down at night together to read books, you rub my belly and say, "I'm not going to hurt my new baby sister". What a relief! I have been singing to you the song, "I'm trying to be like Jesus" and in the chorus it says, "be gentle and loving in deed and in thought," and every time you ask me, "mommy, be gentle? Be gentle to the babies?" I tell you yes and you gets a pensive look on your face and say, "oh, ok mommy". I think it's finally sunk in. It only took a year and 3 months to learn!

Just a funny photo of the girls and Daddy

Bea, you are still very average/small for your age and easily fit into size two clothing still. Some size three outfits still look just a little too big for you. It's kind of nice that you're so small because I feel like you'll be a dancer and I'm guessing smaller than me(I'm a very big girl) is probably better for dancing. Somehow you just have a dancer's body, flexibility and movements and so for your Birthday I have signed you up for dance classes and you went to the first one today! Your favorite book is Angelina Ballerina and have been talking about being in ballet for a long time. You have a darling black leotard and a stacked, fluffy tutu. At first you refused to put on your tap shoes(which is first) but when I threatened to take you home, you put them on and went into the room with a group of darling little girls you didn't know and had the time of your life. You did very well following the teacher and participating in your lesson, which makes me so happy to see because Henry at that age was impossible to put in any sort of class and expect him to follow any instruction. I almost cried when I saw you being so grown up.When you were told to go put on your ballet shoes, you have never beamed so bright! You love those ballet shoes!

Pointing your toes

You love to be clean, which I don't know where you picked up, and frequently change your outfits(sometimes up to 7 times per day). When I don't know where you are, you are either changing your clothes or wetting down your hair. You don't like your hair to stick out and even when it looks just fine you say, "mommy, my hair looks crazy!" and you flatten it to your head. You love headbands and bows but won't let me do anything but a side clip in your hair. Sometimes you have two or three hair accessories in at once. You brush your hair all by yourself even when Henry whines and says he can't even comb his. You brush your teeth a couple times per day and I have to say you do a very good job on your own.

Darling little ballerinas

One of my favorite things about you is that you are just about as capable as Henry in so many ways. You make your bed and clean your room on a regular basis. Every morning you get ready for your swimming lessons all by yourself and get dressed without me having to ask. You are 98% potty trained and don't even wear a pull-up at night. You can swim across the pool and don't love any activity more than being under water. You love riding your pink bike and can already speed down the street riding it. As you try to follow Henry everywhere, you get a lot of scrapes and bruises, but you recover quickly and love to put on band-aids. Your Blankie is still preferred over anything I can offer for consolation and you don't throw as big of a tantrum for anything else as when we can't find your blankie.

Personality coming through

You often ask to go camping and you love hiking and playing outside in the dirt and in the water. You don't mind getting dirty, but sometimes I think it's because you just want to take a bath or shower! One thing I do if I'm busy upstairs and you don't have anything to do is throw you in the shower. In our shower we have a squeegie that might be your favorite cleaning tool ever. You spend up to an hour washing and squeegie-ing the shower door with a very serious look on your face. I usually have to pull you out of the shower because you are never satisfied with how it looks since after 5 seconds it gets misty again and you have to wipe off the water. I can only get you out of the shower if I wake Clementine up and put her in the bath, in which case you usually want to join her.

Bea, you really love to sing and your cute little voice is always heard all through the house. Your favorite songs to sing are, "I love to see the Temple", "I'm trying to be like Jesus", and "Away in a Manger"(you know all three verses by heart). You are also learning the 13 Articles of Faith songs with your brother, Henry, and do a very good job at pronouncing the difficult words. Your favorite books are "Angelina Ballerina" and "Everyone Poops". You love reading books and I can tell you will take after your Aunt Stefanie someday, reading entire Harry Potter books in one day. Your teeth are still offset and you still sport a wicked underbite which I think inhibits some of your speech. You have quite a few letter combinations you can't say, but you don't mind being corrected and are always willing to try to say things correctly, which usually ends up in a family giggle. I have not been very diligent at teaching you to recognize your letters or numbers even though you know how to count and say the alphabet. You do understand the concept of numbers though and you know your colors and shapes very well.

Bea and Ella on Ella's first hike to Cecret Lake

Playing butterflies with Ella

Buddies

Sweet girls

I am greeted every morning by your smile waking me up(usually a little too early) and you crawl in bed with me to snuggle a little bit. I look into your eyes with our foreheads pressed together and we smile and giggle and hug as you stroke my hair and belly. You have always been my little snuggler and I will never tire of holding your little body close to mine for a nice long snuggle. You are such a wonderful, happy, fun, capable, lovely girl and I enjoy every year of your life more and more. I will never forget last week when you said, "you're a really good mommy", just out of the blue. I'm so glad you think so. I am so blessed to be your mother and being around your amazing little spirit makes me continually be a better mother for you so you can reach your full potential and be nurtured like you deserve. I love you to the moon and back little one. Have a wonderful Birthday.

Happy Birthday girl

Love,
Mommy

jail

2011-08-22T21:54:00.001-07:00

Today Bea was playing mommy with her baby doll and she told her, "if you don't clean up all your blueberries, you will go to jail". I always scare my kids into keeping their arms in their car seats with the police taking them to jail if they get caught, but spilled blueberries? That's taking it a little too far. Food is a big deal at out house though, so I can't blame her for taking it seriously.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4

Yittle Girls falling in Yove

2011-07-31T22:13:00.000-07:00

Bea in front of the waterfall on our hike

These were some highlights from our super long road trip through Utah, Nevada and California....

Bea and Henry hiking in Bryce Canyon

At lake Powell, our friends brought their younger brother, Dave, who's 18 and going to BYU on a swimming scholarship and Bea fell in love with him. I want him to marry Lucy:) One day while were were sitting on the boat Bea looked at me with a silly smile and pointed to Dave and said, "He's my friend" with a shrug. He totally helped me with the kids, especially Bea, when we went out climbing up on the rocks and out for swims. Then on the way home she asked, "Where's Uncle Dave? I want my Dave!" so there you have it. He's seriously darling.

Bea and Clementine with Nanni and Papi

This is a great shot of the kids cliff jumping. They were so adventurous!

Oh and someone else was in love with Bea. One of the older boys, named Ethan was always helping Bea out, making her mud balls and just playing with her, chasing her, etc. and on the last day as Bea was on the boat she called out to me and I came over to help her and she said, "Mommy, I'm just a yittle girl!?" in kind of a question, trying to get me to validate that fact and I agreed with her and said, "Yes Bea, you are just a little girl" and she responded(stuttering a little as usual) "I'm just a yittle girl, but he's trying to yove me", pointing over to Ethan. Hahaha! At first I was concerned he tried to kiss her or something, but she said he was just playing with her so it was all innocent, but then I got to thinking, how in the world can she know at such a young age what a boy's advances mean, and does she really have the realization that she's too young to be in a relationship? How would she put two and two together at two years old?!!! I'm in serious trouble if 8 year olds are already after Bea. I think I'll definitely not fix her teeth until she's in college. lol!

Dare Devil Bea and Dad

Oh, and on the way in the night before Bea was yelling from the back seat, "Mommy, this place is for you! This is for you guys!!!" with her super happy face expression and nodding her head. She is just hilarious. We swam at the pool which is where Bea learned how to swim completely on her own!!! she was totally swimming and coming up for air and then would swim again. I am so amazed at how much of a fish she is. Then she totally put on a show at the pool by diving and doing belly flops from the side of the pool. The water came up the the deck level, so it wasn't that far down, but she would stand on the side with her huge sideways grin, eyes wide open and belly poking out, arms outstretched, and would just tip over and do a full on belly flop into the water. All the people in the pool were watching and were totally cracking up and everyone was adoring the kids and their love of the water.

Bea wakeboarding with Daddy. So brave!

Bea on the tube with new buddy Bryn

All grown up

2011-07-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

Bea is officially potty trained. Woot Woot! We've been singing "No more diapers for me" from Potty Power and she couldn't be more proud of herself. Actually, I should correct myself because she only goes potty on the toilet 80% of the time. At least once per day I find her totally naked and squatting in a neighbor's yard, our back yard, or just today, the tennis court. She takes after her father and takes every opportunity to mark her territory. I really don't care as long as she doesn't pee in her underwear. Thank you Bea for never a dull moment.

Also, we were swimming in Vegas this past weekend and she swam across half of the pool, taking breathing breaks in between short stretches, so Henry and Bea are officially swimming at the same level. Lol. Henry doesn't like that too much so now he's taking swimming a little more seriously.

little fish

2011-07-01T21:30:00.000-07:00

Here is Bea in her swimming class. She is the littlest one in her class by a couple of years and the teacher even said she could be in the class above her, except that she might drown because she would barely be able to reach the bottom. All she wants to do is swim underwater and look around with her goggles. Hopefully she learns to swim this year and then she and Henry can be in the same class next year!

Bea and Ella

2011-06-28T23:07:00.000-07:00

This is Bea and Ella holding each other's baby sisters, Anna and Clementine. They play, they fight and they love their babies. We're so glad she lives just down the street!

BK on the PB

2011-06-19T23:01:00.000-07:00

Squinting on her new pink bike. Is this a blurry shot? My photography skill aren't what they used to be since I'm always in a rush:(

After I dropped Justin off at the airport we went on a walk and met some of our many neighbors and we met this nice Indian family who have a little boy and Bea kept monopolizing his bike. Bea just started taking off, pedaling and loving it, then she wouldn't even let him ride it anymore. I decided that it was time to get her a bike so on Monday morning we went to this local bike store and got her the cutest little cruiser bike. It's pink with white wall tires and fenders. I also got her a pink helmet and you can't believe how adorable she is riding it. Henry couldn't even pedal forward at this point in his life so I'm surprised that she can even do it. The funniest part is that every time she sees someone, even at a really far distance away, she yells at the top of her lungs "Look at me guys! I got a new pink bike and a pink helmet and I ride all by myself!!!!". The people either just smile and keep what they're doing, or they look behind them with puzzled looks thinking "wait, is she talking to me?". She also tries to wave at them at which point she almost falls off. She's the most friendly kid I have ever met, even though she almost kills babies.

Henry and Bea on our street

Cute pics of Bea this weekend

2011-06-13T23:26:00.000-07:00

Bea perching on the temple quarry trail boulders

Bea is growing up so fast. One of the things I notice more about her is that she finally understands why she shouldn't use up all the hand soap to wash her hair for hours in the sink and that she needs to be nice to her brother and sister. She is so capable and follows Henry everywhere she goes. She also has borrowed our neighbor's bike and goes racing back and forth on the sidewalk. I don't think Henry could even pedal forwards at this point. She's just so big now!


Posing at Lisa Falls

Happy little Piglet

2011-06-07T21:31:00.000-07:00

Climbing out of the mud pit

Here is Bea during the Piglet Plunge, which is part of the Dirty Dash race that I mentioned in Henry's blog. It's sort of an adventure race with many different heats and categories. Two years old and up do the mile loop. While Henry cried about getting his socks dirty, Bea plodded along and actually laughed and had a great time sliding down the slip n slide. She said she liked it and she let some random strangers help her along the way. I'm glad she's so friendly:)

The only succession of shots where Bea is smiling. This is to prove that she was having fun...


Nice action shot in the mud pit


Nearing the finish line. Almost there! I'm seriously impressed she did this one mile race!

At the end of the race. She kept looking at her hands wondering what to do. If any of you know Bea, you know she washes her hands a million times per day, which she does not learn from me. You should have seen her trying to wipe her hands off on some grass covered in mud. Haha. Poor little piglet.

Milestones

2011-04-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

Bea with her first Italian Easter egg. This is actually a small one. When I was there I got one that fit my whole head inside, but those were about $50 here so we got the $5 one. They have presents inside:)

Two noteworthy things have happened recently. First off, Bea has finally started speaking in full sentences. For example I would tell her to say, "Please may I have a drink of water mommy?" and she would always repeat back, "have a dink pease, mommy" with some difficulty getting the words out and now, after about three weeks of some serious stuttering which I don't know where that came from, she finally will say the entire thing and also comes up with full sentences to say on her own. Her favorite thing to say as of this week is..."Henry Jackson Hohl, please stop that now. 5,4,3,2,1!" Wonder where she got that.

Bad action photo of Bea on the trampoline. She just loves jumping. When I got on, a couple of the rusty springs busted...and so I got off. This trampoline is maybe 40 years old?

The other milestone is that she has officially potty trained herself. It was during our trip to Boston that she just decided to go #2 in the potty every day and only had one accident since then. I think it had a lot to do with the fact we were swimming and I forgot swim diapers so I told her that if she pooped in her swimsuit the pool would close forever. She learned how to hold it in and now has no problems holding it and telling me when she needs to go. She even goes all by herself most of the time without needing any help(except wiping). She also changes her pull ups when they get too full of pee a couple times a day so I don't even need to do that anymore. I do, however, have to pick the used pull-ups off the floor all over the house. I have to work on getting her to throw them away, but I'm hoping she just starts to use the potty for everything very soon. We have definitely come far from my first attempts at potty training. I have to say that just letting your kid do it when they are ready is the way to go(unless you're like my amazing friend Christi who's kids are potty trained at birth). No fight, no messes, nothing. It's brilliant!

Easter Treats

2011-04-24T21:33:00.000-07:00


Dance moves in her Easter dress. Hopefully this fits again next year!

Bea ate a lot of Easter treats these past few days and I'm already about ready to take them all away! Bea ate a ton of candy this morning before I even woke up to regulate the baskets and then had a sugar crash in nursery and just sat there for a couple of hours doing nothing. She threw a major tantrum at the end of church because she tried to steal Henry's candy and he took it back and that was the end of the world. We hurried out of there and got home in time to take a few photos of the kids in their outfits which went surprisingly well.

Classic Bea smile

It still cracks me up when Bea tries to smile with her underbite and crinkled nose. haha! We're going to have to get that fixed soon and it might include breaking her jaw. I really hope not.

The kids in their rabbit ears getting ready for the hunt. My darling little bunnies!

What the Hail?

2011-04-03T20:06:00.000-07:00

I am praying that my kids are all better tomorrow because it's going to be a very warm 72 degrees tomorrow even though it was 40 degrees today and will be 50 degrees on Tuesday. I think the second coming is near. This weather is crazy. We were playing outside today for a few minutes and there was lightning and thunder all around us and then started to hail like crazy. We weren't getting wet so I just stayed out there with Bea doing the spider on the swing and as we were getting pelted by tiny hail balls and listening to the cool sound they made as they hit the metal on the roofs, she looked up at me and stuttered, "mmmmmmmmommy, this is so fun." I was so glad that she was having fun after three horrible nightmare days of vomit, poop and tears. We ran around and screamed in the hail and picked some up and ate it before we got too cold and went inside. I just love my kids.

Oh and as we were putting the kids to bed Bea said, "mommy, Yoocy come home. I want Yoocy." It made me all teary eyed. Henry also keeps telling me we need to record stuff for Lucy for the tapes we make her. We really miss Lucy around here but are so proud of her serving her mission. She's finding out where she's going to be sent this week. Hopefully it's actually Japan!

Sick, sick, sick

2011-04-02T20:51:00.000-07:00

River, Nya, Bea, Clementine and Henry in the tub. So adorable.

Bea and Clemmie are super sick. I don't know when my kids were sick last. We have had such a surprisingly healthy winter with only a few minor colds and even an entire month with no runny noses in February. I kept expecting my kids to come home from church with runny noses, but we were healthy all month!

Nice shot of Bea's serious under bite.

Bea and Clemmie now have a stomach bug and have been throwing up and pooping everywhere for two days straight. I have never done so much laundry in my life. The pile looks like Mt. McKinley in our living room. Clementine is so miserable and it's so hard for me to see her usual permasmile traded for groans, tears and furrowed brows. They both wake up several times per day and night covered in vomit or poop, crying for water and daddy, and it's taking a toll on me. I feel so sick from all the putrid and rancid smells. Of course it's like 30 degrees outside so I can't even crack a window to air the place out. I thought it was supposed to be spring!

My day consists of sitting on the couch cuddling my girls and doing laundry. Good thing I have a ton of already roasted veggies and fruit for the non sicklings to eat and plenty of water and bread for the sick girls. I have to admit though that it's been so nice to actually snuggle with Clementine since she takes after Henry and has never put her head on my shoulder since the day she was born. She and Henry are the least snuggly babies that have ever been born. Also, thank heaven for weekends and for Conference weekend so I get my husband home for two days straight. Unheard of! Please get better babies. I miss my girls.

Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde

2011-03-22T20:09:00.000-07:00

Bea, what can I say about you at this stage. You keep changing week to week and every time I think you have moved on from your old ways, there they come back again. It does seem, though that it's two steps forward, and one step back with you so we're still headed in the right direction. Some days you are so gentle with Clementine and others you revert back to Baby Killer. Your personality around her is seriously like Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. I just listen to you in the other room playing with Clemmie and every time you hurt her I immediately hear hushes and "it's ok Kemmie" afterward and you still get so violent when I have to take her away to nap or to eat something and do the brain slap to her head as I'm lifting her up. What's up with that, sista!? You are also super neat and clean and don't like to wear anything that's dirty, but you also make messes on purpose just so you have an excuse to use some water to clean it up. You really get excited when I ask you to clean up your messes and you're definitely better than Henry already at wiping the floor clean. Henry still has no clue how to wipe something up until it's actually clean, but Bea should be hired by Merry Maids for child labor.

One thing I have to mention is that you LOVE Away in a Manger and I have to sing it to you every night. You're favorite verse goes like this...

Me singing: "The cattle are lowing, the poor baby wakes"
Bea: " Poor baby mama? Poor baby wakes?"
Me: "Yes, poor baby" singing: "The little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes"
Bea: "No crying mommy? No crying he makes mommy?"
Me: " yes, no crying Bea"
Bea: " Oh, ok"
Me singing: "we love thee Lord Jesus, look down from the sky and stay by my cradle 'till morning is nigh"
Bea: " till morning is night mommy? Baby Jesus sleeps at morning and night?"
Me: "yes Bea, morning and night"
Bea: "Oh."

It's pretty sweet and you're voice couldn't be more adorable, like a whispery, sweet cartoon character, that is, when you're not screaming.

Steelers Dresses

2011-02-05T20:25:00.000-08:00

Today I was wondering if anyone in our ward would fast and pray for fast Sunday for the Steelers to win the Superbowl...and then I wondered if anyone would be wearing Black and Gold and I thought for sure half the ward would do it, even if people just wear black and put on some gold jewelry. I think I'm going to take a count. I have these Christmas dresses that are black and goldish, so I'm dressing my girls up just for fun. This is as far as I will go to putting my children in sports paraphernalia. Go Steelers.

Baby Killer(BK)

2011-02-03T21:31:00.000-08:00

This is a section from Clementine's blog... Recently Bea has poked her with a fork, sat on her, kicked her in the face, steam rolled her, stepped on her foot as she sat on the wood floor in Indian style, crushing her ankle, walked over her, tried to drown her in the tub, poured 10 cups of water over her head in sequence before she could recover and take a breath, pulled her hair, clapped her head in-between her swinging arms many times, pulled her arms back, locked her legs around her body/neck, and every time Bea hugs her, it's pretty much reminiscent of a WWF choke hold.

I just thought I should include this for future reference.

Other than her interactions with Clementine, she's super fun, funny helpful and sweet. I have a walking dichotomy living at my house!

Cutest, nicest little devil

2010-12-19T20:30:00.000-08:00

The best description I can think of to describe Bea at this stage is "wolf in sheep's clothing". Unlike Henry who would do bad things and then try to get away with it by running away or refusing to clean up or say sorry, Bea is a mastermind at causing cute chaos and sweetening up her abuse to Henry and Clementine. She's so quick to say sorry and give hugs and kisses when she hurts anyone and she says please and thank you all day long, gives Clementine her blankie and pacifier when she's crying(which is always caused by her), but one moment later she's pulling hair, pushing her to the floor, running over her with the doll stroller, pinching her face, stealing her toys and being equally annoying and abusive to Henry, who doesn't even fight back, but runs to me for protection. Where did she learn this? How did my sweet, lovely Bea turn into such a monster? I have no idea who she learned it from and I'm praying this is just a phase. Strange thing is that she will not hurt me, but has no reservations to hit Lucy or Justin, or anyone else. How can she love Clementine and abuse her at the same time. I put her in time out in the cold garage at least 5 times per day where she freezes and cries her eyes out and I know for a fact that she knows that she's in the wrong because after I hear a blood curdling scream from Clementine I always hear, "Sorry Commietine" afterward as she looks at me with a guilty half smirk on her face. I have started to put her blankie in time out and that is helping a little, but I'm open for any suggestions!

Happy Birthday to Nanna B

2010-12-12T21:14:00.001-08:00

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Potty Training Gone Bad

2010-09-11T19:10:00.000-07:00

Well, Bea has been taking her diaper off in the crib and pooping and peeing all over her bedding and she hates poop in her diaper and takes her diaper off when she poops in it before I can get her to lie down to change so I bought her some little panties and I thought maybe she would catch on to going on the potty but boy was I wrong. She had no ability to predict when she had to go and didn't even come close to making it to the potty both days we tried.

She even has a new baby doll with a potty chair and when it got some water in it from playing with it in the pool I sat her down on her little potty and squeezed it until some water came out of the joints and said, "look Bea, she went potty!". Bea leaned over, looked in the doll potty chair picked it up and drank the water. So I think we'll hold off for a little while.

California Girl

2010-08-31T22:00:00.000-07:00

So I keep putting off mentioning our California trip because I hate writing every detail of our trips so I'll just mention the important parts. We actually flew out to Arizona to visit Justin's grandparents and aunt in Prescott for a couple days before we headed out to the reunion. We spend some great time with aunt Patrice and with the grandparents even though Grandpa gave us all a scare and almost kicked the bucket with a SVT attack. Thank heaven he recovered! We ate good food, went on some hikes, drove through the beautiful desert and caught up on each others' families.

Then we caught a flight out to San Diego and spend the next five nights in an old FEMA trailer on the beach at Camp Pendelton. The location was perfect, but it was like we were back in a mission apartment with the worst government issue beds ever. You could feel every spring through the bed and we almost cut ourselves every time we rolled over. No kidding. We spent a lot of time at the beach, drove around some really beautiful neighborhoods, ate fish tacos whenever possible, tried surfing and actually got up! Woo hoo! And visited with some friends we haven't seen in a while. We spent a really nice evening with the Ohrn family and Justin and I couldn't believe that their two boys were more energetic and out of control than Henry. We were shocked! He couldn't have had more fun with those adorable boys. We ended up renting a boat for an hour or so and ate fish tacos in the boat as we went one mile per hour around the harbor.

The next day we invited Justin's other friend Alex to come surfing with us and it was fun to see him after the last time we got together when I was pregnant with Henry. I don't think he's ever seen me not pregnant or fat! We missed his wife and kids! Hopefully we'll see them sometime in the near future.

We got our family photos taken by Justin's sister, which I can't wait to see and spend one really boring and painful day at Legoland. This is the second time we've been so close to a Disney park and didn't go. Argh. Henry liked it, but we spent most of our time letting them play on what I would describe as a Lego playground with Lego building stations so I didn't think it was worth $50 each to play with Legos. The lines for the good rides were 90 minutes long and what 4 and 2 year old can wait that long? Not mine! I would have rather used that money to buy Henry a massive set of Legos(not that we could have taken them home with the baggage fees. We only had one 50lb bag for all five of us. Can you imagine? haha.)

The best part was watching the kids interact with each other and get to know one another. I thought the dynamic was great because Henry liked being the oldest and in charge of things and when one of his younger cousins were napping, the other wasn't all alone ever because Henry doesn't nap anymore so everyone always had Henry to play with. He enjoyed the company of his two boy cousins, Gabe and Colton who are both around 3 years old.

One of the most fun days was the day we spent the morning in La Jolla, which was real estate eye candy and then met the family to go to the Mormon Batallion Monument that was just opened in January. Then we walked around the Old Town in the area and ate awesome tortillas and enjoyed the surroundings. Oh, and I seriously love the trees in California. I couldn't stop staring at them.

That's all I have to say about our trip. I wish we would have celebrated Bea's Birthday a little while we were there, but I guess no one thought of it.

First Joke

2010-08-25T20:58:00.000-07:00

Bea and her accessories

Bea made her first joke the other day and I just love that she's getting a great sense of humor. We had Mexican food for dinner the other night and she didn't really love the food so when she finished what she wanted to eat, she asked for more food. I offered to her what we had and she kept saying no to everything. Then I said, "well what do you want?" and she said, "food" and I said, "what kind of food?" and she smiled, looked at us and said, "doggy food! He he he!(squinty underbite smile)". It was so funny and she knew it was funny. I appreciate a good sense of humor so much. Keep it up Bea!

Happy Birthday Sweet Bea

2010-08-22T21:51:00.000-07:00

Dear Daughter,

Today is your Birthday and I have to say that this past year has been nothing but delightful. 2010 has brought so many changes in you and we've watched you develop from a baby to a little girl which is definitely my favorite developmental stage so far. Last year all you did was copy Henry in playing with cars and dinosaurs and now you are busy taking care of your baby dolls and pushing them around in your stroller with flip flops and sunglasses on. You love accessories, especially shoes, but most of the time you only have one shoe on and it's on the wrong foot. You get frustrated when they don't stay on and start to throw a tantrum but are quickly pacified when I tell you to just ask for help, which you do, and I fix whatever you're having problems with. You are still a pretty obedient child and usually do what I ask you to do, however, when you don't want to do something you say "no" in such a cute way that we end up not even caring that you say no to us! Henry still has the habit of stealing things from you without asking which really makes you mad, but no matter what it is, as soon as he gives it back to you and asks nicely if he can have the item you are quick to share it with him. You then remind him to say thank-you. Thank-you is something you say all day long. You really love giving things to me -- garbage, snotty tissues, anything of mine you find around the house, etc, and when you give it to me you say, "thank-you mommy" over and over again until I thank you. You are still a very tidy child and always join in to help me clean up the house. You particularly like to help sweep and run to get your broom and dustpan when I start sweeping the floor. You don't like that your tools don't work very well and get mad when the dirt doesn't go up into the dustpan like mine does, but with a little help you're overjoyed when you get to carry a load of kitchen gunk over to the garbage. You love playing in the water and I frequently find you upstairs sitting on the counter top with a flood on the floor as you play in the water. You don't mind getting water in your face and love to make Henry laugh as you put bubbles on your face and pour water over your head to rinse them off. Your favorite word is "poopy" and you try to make everyone laugh by saying it over and over in different combinations like "poopy doggy" an "poopy, eeeeww". You really don't like poop in your diaper either. My biggest problem with you is that every morning I come to get you out of your crib you have completely stripped down and are naked in there just hanging out reading books. I never know when you wake up because you never cry and are perfectly content to sit and play in your crib for hours. Sometimes when you take your diaper off, you have poop in your diaper, or poop and pee in your crib which means that I'm constantly washing all your blankies and sheets. You are famous for taking your diaper off anytime, anyplace and I'm always chasing you down to re-clothe you after you strip down. You have a killer underbite and love to make it worse to make people laugh. Bea, one thing you also love to do is sing, just like Henry. You and Henry are always singing one song...the ABC's. You don't know all the letters yet but you constantly sing "ABCB Baby B, Baby, Baby CBB" and so on. One day all three of you were singing independently in the back seat of my car and it brought joy to my heart to hear all your little voices. Your favorite food is probably tomatoes and you can be seen at any time of the day picking and eating tomatoes from the garden. You love pasta with pesto and tomatoes, but still pick out the mozzarella saying, "mommy, no" to me. Some day you will love it! You are still my best sleeper and have continued to take super long naps and sleep for hours and hours at night. Just the other day you slept 13.5 hours at night and took a four hour nap during the day. Granted we just got back from California and are on a weird schedule but how many waking hours was that? 7? You are one sleepy girl! The thing you love the most, though, is your baby sister. You love her to death and spend your whole day trying to get access to her. You always climb into her pack-n-play and try to bounce her, put her binkie in, pick her up or even gouge her eyeballs out. Clementine usually smiles at you as you stick your face into hers, but always ends up crying as you squeeze the life out of her or smash your head against her head. I can't wait for the day when you two can play together and I'm praying that you two become best friends! Bea, you still have a really stylish haircut and everywhere we go you attract attention from people, young and old, saying how beautiful you are and how much they love your haircut or your eyes, or your smile. You are super friendly and will let anyone hold you and don't hesitate to copy anything I tell you to say to people. On our trip out to Utah a month ago, Henry poured apple juice on your head while I was getting my hair cut and it was a sticky mess but one of the stylists, with nothing else to do, ended up taking you back to get your hair washed in the washing room and brought your back to get your hair blow dried and styled. You were a perfect angel and just did everything she wanted you to do. By the time we left, the whole place was in love with you and made all the single girls want to get married and have kids so they could have a darling little girl just like you. Bea, you are such a little angel and I am so blessed to be your mom. You bring peace and love into our home and we love every moment we spend with you. Thank you for being such an important part of our lives.

Love,
Mommy

Mountain Maid

2010-07-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

View from the top of our hike courtesy of Eric

At the top there were a billion ladybugs flying up the mountain and Bea found a bush full of them to play with and collect. She was repeating over and over, "day-dy bug, dad-dy bug" spewing out slobber as she recited it

At the top: Me and Clementine, Nanna B, Eric and Lucy, Nanni and Papi and Uncle Will below holding Bea and Henry. Congratulations Will for graduating from BYU Idaho!

Here is Bea feeding crackers to some young boy at the graduation ceremony. I think most of the people around us were focused on them instead of the speakers. Sounds a lot like what happens during sacrament meeting

Bea playing in the "do not wade" pools at the Gateway Mall

Bea not so sure yet about Aunt Meghan or "Uncle Meg" as Colton calls her

Yep, she's drinking the water. With an infant on my chest at all times, there's little I can do.

Bea with her friend Ella at the Aquarium. They are pretty much the exact same age. So cute together!

Trying to get a shot at my grandma's grave but the sun was in the worst spot and washed us all out. Bea loved holding Clementine though. She looks really worried....and a little like Benjamin Button

This one has better light but the kids were out of control. This is the best one of them and of course I'm not looking!

Close-up of the underbite

2010-07-30T13:54:00.000-07:00

Sideways and under bite.

My sister's boyfriend Eric, who has a super mega professional camera, got some fun shots of Bea including some of her with her sideways under bite. It's pretty funny and cute right now, but it'll soon not be so cute and may impede her speech, which I think it already may be doing. Here are some other cute shots of her up in Idaho.

Bea at Grand Targhee Ski Resort on the wild bull powered by Nanni

Being silly outside the condos

Bea saying "doggie food"

Camping with B

2010-07-15T21:41:00.000-07:00

This is on a good day

Um, Bea is usually a very clean child but lately she's looking very dirty and shabby. I'm growing her bangs out and with all the ice cream, popsicles, corn, and fruit she gets all over her body and hair, she's looking pretty ragged, but oh so cute. Here she it!

You can see why she's naked much of the time

Baby Nya practicing to be like Bea. She's so ready for food!

Bea helping herself to the PB & J

Exploring her surroundings at our campsite in WV

Bea in the tall grass at our first campsite

My little water baby

Slowly becoming famous...

2010-07-07T13:27:00.000-07:00

My sister is working at a online travel magazine for the summer called Family Travel Forum and she wrote a piece on the swimsuit that she gave us called Snap Me Swimwear. There's a quote from me and a few photos of her. Leave a comment if you feel like it. Here's the article link..

http://www.familytravelforum.com/how/shopping/14229-Snap-Swimwear.html

Also I forgot to mention that we were on the cover of the BYU Alumni Magazine in May. Along with the sock modeling I'd say she's making her mark on the world! Personally, I can't get enough of her silly personality and her sideways under bite:)

Bouncing Baby Bea

2010-06-25T20:07:00.000-07:00

Bea played in a bouncy castle today and boy did she bounce. She was bouncing so much I should have put my camera on the sports mode! I love seeing her have a good time with the kids.

Accessorizing

2010-06-14T10:25:00.000-07:00

I just can't stand how cute she is.

Love the shoes from Nanna B. She tries so hard to keep them on. Don't you just want to squeeze her chubbiness?

O-B-S-E-S-S-I-O-N

2010-06-09T11:33:00.000-07:00

Tough Love. Poor Baby

To say that Bea is obsessed with her baby sister is an understatement. She throws huge tantrums when she sees Clementine and doesn't get to smother her with her affections(usually more like torture). I am learning, however, that Clementine can take more squeezing and smacking than I expected. Most of the time she doesn't even cry at all. The whole time Bea is around her she says, over and over again, "baby, baby, baby baby, hi baby, my baby, baby, baby, baby, etc", giggling and kissing and patting and poking and squeezing and dancing and screaming out for joy at every moment.

More kisses outside

I constantly have to remind her to be gentle and she does, for the most part. She really enjoys putting the bottle or pacifier in her mouth and she piles blankets on top of her, trying to be a big help. Once while I had set Clementine down in the baby bath hammock, Bea got the boppy pillow and put it around her head so Bea had to peak through to see her face. She said, "hi baby!" over and over again while laughing hysterically. It was pretty cute.

Bea, piling on the blankets and poking Clementine in the face

The thing I worry about most is Bea trying to pick her up. I seriously can't leave them alone for more than three seconds which means that they are constantly separated and now that Bea can climb into a pack-n-play, I don't know how to have the baby downstairs with us without Bea trying to attack her all the time. When I do take Bea away from the baby, she screams and kicks and flails her body around saying the same thing, "baby, baby, baby!!!!, aaaahhhhhh!!" I want the baby to be out more often so Bea gets over the novelty of her, but how? Any suggestions? Please help!

This is pure happiness on her face. See that painting in the background. Our friend's 7 year old painted it and we LOVE it.

Big Girl Swing

2010-06-08T20:14:00.000-07:00

We finally got real swings for our play fort and Bea looks so big in her new half bucket seat. I just love how her chubby legs look in her swing. She laughs and loves to lean back and say hello to me while I'm pushing her. She's such a ray of sunshine in our lives.

I had to crop this photo because she was completely naked so you can't see her chubby legs:( I'll have to get another photo. Thanks to Christi for sending taking this pic!

Beatrice and Clementine

2010-05-30T12:06:00.000-07:00

This week I am dedicated to recording what happens when Bea sees Clementine. Strangely, it's a rare occurrence because Clementine sleeps for almost the entire day. When I finally bring her downstairs while Bea is awake, she gets so excited, screams with delight, and goes in for the attack. She always wants to hold her on her lap and does so with an anaconda-like grip. She always wants to poke her in the face and giggles every time she gets to touch her.

I watched an episode of Martha Speaks(cartoon about a talking dog) while I was waiting for my car to be inspected and they were talking about the difference between a "dog lover" and a "doggie lover". Doggie lovers are basically kids who love dogs so much that the end up abusing them. Bea is like that, but with babies. I'm afraid to even leave them in the same room with each other. I have to be within three inches of them or else I know Bea's finger will definitely poke Clementine's eye out. For now, she can only rub her head and kiss her feet. She also holds her foot while we walk around. Feet are pretty safe, aren't they?

Carefree baby

2010-05-30T11:24:00.000-07:00

Remember that song from primary "Oh what do you do in the summertime?" I really loved that song and I feel like I'm reliving those feelings I had back then as I watch my kids play outside. It's been so nice to be outside all day long with the kids, working in the garden, pushing them on the swings, playing in the little pools and with the hose, watching for the raspberries to ripen and dreaming about heirloom tomatoes.

We have made several trips to the zoo, we went camping a few weeks ago and we took the kids out on our friend's boat to ride the tube and watch dad rip it up on the wake board. I think these kids have had a lot of fun in their short lives.

Bea kissing the boy statue at the zoo

Bea screaming in delight at the animals at the petting zoo at our favorite farm, Soergels

Lounging in chairs at the campsite eating snacks

Great shot of Bea splashing in the tub -- one of her favorite past times. We play in the bath every day in the winter when there's nothing else to do.

Introducing...

2010-05-27T15:25:00.001-07:00

http://clementinerebecca.blogspot.com/

Chatting with Bea

2010-05-19T21:43:00.000-07:00

Bea is becoming a little talker and what she says is sending Henry into fits of laughter. She copies everything he says which makes him feel really important and when she finds something that Henry thinks is funny, she repeats it many times, laughing along with him. Some of the funny things she says are "poopy doggy" and "pinky toe". She is constantly babbling nonsense which gets the biggest rise out of Henry because most of the time she's trying to be serious and stands in front of him telling him things, but we have no idea what she's saying. She puts two words together pretty well and really loves practicing what she knows. She loves assigning ownership to things and she's constantly giving everyone their things that they leave around the house. One of the nicest things about her character is that she cleans up after herself. If she takes something out, she puts it back. If she notices things out of place, she puts them back where they belong. Even when she's in a hurry and she accidentally makes a mess, she stops, turns around, fixes whatever she messed up and then keeps on her way. When she spills water on the floor, she "tries" to wipe it up, she cleans herself off before she comes into the house and picks up the food she's dropped from her high chair. She's just such a thoughtful little girl.

Now that she's talking so much more I finally feel like she's not a baby anymore and I am feeling more confident that we can welcome another baby into the house. She's getting to be such a big girl and she'll be a big sister in a week! I can't imagine her not being my little baby girl though. I still love snuggling with her little body and I feel like she's such a tiny thing, which I know will change when I hold my new baby and I know I'll miss our moments together. I truly hope I can still read to her every night and still have the sweet relationship with her that we have created. I just hope she doesn't hate me after her sister is born. I guess we'll just have to see. I love you my darling little Bea.

Memories of Christ

2010-04-25T20:13:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-11T19:41:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-06T19:20:00.000-07:00

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.

Beezy

2010-03-21T18:20:00.000-07:00

Bea is getting attached to quite a few things lately and just tonight I realized that I may be in a lot of trouble. Everywhere she goes she drags along with her...

1. Her small blankie which she calls her "beezy"
2. Her stuffed animal doggie called "doddie"
3. Her baby doll called "baby"
4. The blanket that we wrap her doll up in
5. Her large fluffy pink blanket

I can barely breathe as I carry all that stuff and her down the stairs after each nap. Tonight I had everything except her dog which got left in the car but she was calling, "doddie, doddie" in a very desperate voice and didn't settle down until I retrieved the doggie and she had everything in order, even her baby doll wrapped up in her blanket. I am in deep trouble if anything happens to any of those things. What should I do? Please tell me.

Excited for Baby

2010-02-19T18:21:00.000-08:00

Bea has a new cousin, Joshua, who was born a couple of weeks ago and we've been spending a lot of time around the baby. I'm relieved to see that Bea seems way more excited about the baby than jealous of it even when I'm holding him. She is learning to pat his head softly and not hit him excitedly in the face. I hope she learns really well before her baby sister arrives. We actually had two babies born in the last two weeks but I don't know what the others' name is yet. Two little boys and I'm having a girl. Figures!

Kisses for the Babies

2010-01-19T20:18:00.000-08:00

This week I went to visit two of my friends who have had babies recently. I was curious to see how Bea would react when I had another baby in my arms since I really haven't had that opportunity lately. I was pleasantly surprised when Bea was so gentile and kind to the babies in my arms. She very softly patted their heads, gave them tender hugs and then turned away to go play. I was so relieved that she didn't immediately defend her territory.

She got two baby dolls for Christmas and she's slowly getting more interested in them and is getting a little less interested in only boyish toys. This morning she clearly said "baby" and has been walking around carrying her babies and a little purse around the house.

Until yesterday morning Bea had never really understood the action of kissing. Never closed her mouth, puckered, no suction, etc. Yesterday I caught her hugging her baby next to the ottoman and I saw her repeatedly kissing her baby when she got totally carried away with it, leaned back, lost her balance and fell to the ground on her back. I ran over and she looked like she was in shock, unsure about what happened. Since then she's been kissing my head, kissing Henry and kissing her babies all over the place. The cutest thing about the whole thing was the repeated kissing sounds she was making. She just gets more lovable every minute!

Best snowsuit ever created

2010-01-07T21:16:00.000-08:00

Bea inherited this 12 year old hand-me-down pink snowsuit from her cousin that has been the biggest blessing for Bea this winter. It's for a 12 month old so it has soft feet and probably wasn't meant for bombing around in but our tiny little girl can really book it in her suit. The great thing is that it makes her look wider than she is tall. Everyone who has the chance to see her in the suit bursts out laughing and wants to squeeze her fluff.

This photo clearly illustrates Bea's horrible underbite. There could be some serious head gear in her future!

She spent many contented hours outside during Christmas wearing this suit and has never cried from the cold when bundled up in it. She doesn't even mind the mitten ends which don't allow for any hand movement. Her favorite thing to do is lay on the ground and eat the snow straight from the ground or from Gammie and Grandpa's pond(yuk).

When all the other little kids were crying as they struggled to walk on the ice or through the snow, Bea found it quite entertaining to fall on the ice since there was no way to get hurt in her suit. She willingly puts it on and all she wants to do is walk around in the snow for hours. Good thing it's going to snow all day tomorrow so we can have fresh snow to play in and for Bea to eat.

Christmas Dress Inspiration from Heaven

2010-01-05T20:37:00.000-08:00

I knew I wanted to make a dress for Bea for Christmas and I had already bought the fabric a couple weeks ago and it had been staring me in the face every time I walked into the sewing room(that barely gets used). I began the dress on Saturday late morning the day before she was supposed to debut it the Sunday before Christmas and I had no idea what I was going to make. I learned from my good friend Cynthia about just putting something together without a pattern so I started with a band around the middle and the straps over the shoulders and then I had to leave until 11pm on a date with Justin. While I was on my way to pick up the babysitter I had a revelation about how the dress would look. My heart was pounding and my adrenaline was pumping. I didn't even want to go on my date but I couldn't back out. I came home, began sewing and it all just came together like I was a pro. I was all but finished with the last details around 2am and it was exactly what I had imagined. The finishing touches were put on the dress five minutes before we had to leave for church and I ended up tying down the top to the straps and tucking in the corners to make it rounded. Now it's perfect. I just love the big pleats.

A few things need to be changed with the design, like it would have been nice if I could have measured Bea before starting or during construction because it was supposed to be more like a wrap dress in the back but I ended up having to sew snaps on the back. I'll make another and measure it out better. The idea was that the dress could somewhat adjustable so she could grow with it but it's exactly her size. Luckily she hasn't grown in about 6 months so maybe she'll be able to wear it for a few more months.

If you love this dress as much as I do, I'll make you one for a small fee. I need the sewing practice!

Regression

2009-12-11T20:37:00.000-08:00

As soon as Bea seems to learn something, she seems to stop saying it. I don't think I've heard her say mama in the last couple weeks and now she only says dada and doesn't call for me anymore. She also won't wave goodbye anymore and prefers to just blow kisses. She still only says a few words, mostly animal sounds. Has anyone had this happen to them?

Belated Halloween Post

2009-11-11T20:14:00.000-08:00

Here's a photo of her in her flower suit. I had ordered a peanut costume but it never arrived since I didn't get the million emails Amazon.com sent me about the card on our account being expired since they all went to Justin's Yahoo account which gets hundreds of emails every day, most of which are spam. Why do people even use yahoo mail anyway? Well, this is what we got instead courtesy of Nanna B. If it weren't for her, she would have gone as a trash bag or or a sack of rice.

You will notice I could have fit two of her heads into the hood. I ended up using a hair tie to tie a small ponytail on the hood so we could see her face which was covered by a constant stream of drool from her sucker. I hardly got anyone saying how cute she was with the mess on her face and front. haha. They were more like, "oh, and you're a flower, nice". Last year it was all coos and giggles with her mermaid costume.

As you can see Bea didn't have enough sucker in her mouth and tried to steal cousin Matthew's sucker as well. This was her first sucker. I don't know where she would have put another one seeing her mouth was barely large enough to fit one. I know it goes against everything I believe about the evils of sugar to let my kids eat Halloween candy, but I always LOVED Halloween, even more than Christmas and I can't deprive my children of that experience, and with that comes hoards of candy. My philosophy is that my kids can eat whatever they want a couple weeks after Halloween and then eat the treats and sweets of the Holiday season but on January 1st, it's all over. Candy gone, hidden, trashed, whatever. So far it's worked pretty well. When Henry knows(or thinks) there's no candy in the entire house, he doesn't even ask for it.

Haircut

2009-11-06T18:40:00.000-08:00

Not perfect...but much better. Maybe I'll try to even it out next time. It's hard to cut hair while she's walking around!

Tomboy?

2009-11-03T20:32:00.000-08:00

I'm sure Bea is influenced in a major way by Henry but I think she truly is a tomboy. The first thing she goes for in the toy room are the cars which she brings to my feet and while she rolls them around the kitchen I make the car noises. She also loves playing with a ball and can throw and chase it for hours. The best, though, his her animal sound effects, particularly the growling.

Bea will find a dinosaur toy and walk around the house growling. She even growls when nothing is going on. I just assume she's practicing for when she finds something to play with. Henry growls a lot while he's playing with toys so I can only assume she's copying him. She loves playing in the dirt, splashing in puddles, getting really messy, and making animal sounds. Today we went to the zoo and at every animal I made some sort of a sound she could copy and she loved hearing the real roar of the leopard. She growled at almost every animal as we made the rounds.

As a greeting or a sign to show she likes you, she loves to bonk heads, so ironically as she was petting the sheep(rather hard, more like slapping them on top of the head) she was head butted by that sheep, which knocked her down and she hit her head pretty hard on the ground as she flew back. I feel bad because I'm always saying, "look at the nice baby lamb" and "pet their soft wolly coat" while we read the animal books. There was nothing nice or soft about this mean, dirty creature! Haha! Bea makes a funny "ruff" noise for a dog bark, says "baa" every time she sees a sheep, can say "meow" and peeps like a chick or bird.

She is also picking up more signs for bird, airplane, fish and will finally do the sign for food after so much coaxing! She's pretty stubborn and only likes to do things her way and in her own time. Reminds me of some sisters-in-law I know! She's such a sponge and I think she'll start saying a lot more words than mama, dada, uh-oh, woh and oh-yeah, which is actually really funny. I like that one.

I gave her a haircut since she has absolutely no curl and it was looking mighty scraggly. Now it's short in the back and she has bangs in the front with long sideburns, like the long bangs people wear these days. It's totally cute and looks a lot more kempt and a little punkish.

Giggly Girl and drowning in the hot tub

2009-10-07T21:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I hope all of you got to see Bea eating the snake on the post below because I just looked at it up close and it grossed me out all over again. Bea spent the last week in Dallas visiting Nanna B and she was a total angel the entire trip. Can I just say halleluja to the Lord for sending me a baby who sleeps through the night wherever we go? I can handle horrible plane rides, long layovers, giant messes at mealtime(Henry), small injuries, growling poodles, stair climbing, and giant poopy diapers as long as my babies sleep through the night. Nanna B has the best setup at her house with a totally secluded and quiet room in the back corner of her house with a really loud humidifier to plug in right beside her. Magic I tell you. She made the trip so much easier! Yes she had some issues with the flights and I'm dreading the flight I have to take out to Reno in six days(I don't even want to see how long the Atlanta to Reno flight is). Mercy me.

Bea was such a joy to be around for the whole trip. She's at a stage where she thinks everything is funny and giggles non stop with a scrunched up face and huge smile wherever she goes. The things she thinks are most funny were the poodles. Just the thought of touching them made her laugh with excitement until she managed to pinch their hair and pull turning it into screams after they would growl and nip at her. Most of the time she had a great time with the dogs. Standing at the top of the steps makes her laugh for some reason. She actually learned this week how to descend the steps backwards(something Henry never learned) and now I'm excited to soon be able to put the gate down for good! Can't stand that thing.

As for the hot tub. Not as bad as your imagining. So just as Henry had taken to submerging himself in the hot tub, Bea followed suit. After a few days she decided to take the plunge and never looked back. If I can describe it well enough...from standing on the seat, she would turn from the side, take a couple small steps towards the edge of the seat, close her eyes in a squint, smile really big, take a deep breath and let herself fall into the hot tub, completely under water. While under for up to 5 seconds she would open her eyes, stick her tongue out and attempt to swim around. I cannot tell you how Henry and I laughed at her little tongue sticking out at us while she looked at us from under the water. After I would pick her up out of the water she would take a big breath, regroup and do it again. Over and over again. She is a little fish! The big difference I think is the warm water. She is a whole different baby in warm water. No wonder kids can't learn how to swim in the frigid waters of the community pool. I'm taking my kids to the Bahamas to swim where it's warm like bathwater. Henry is learning what the word "drown" means and he couldn't distinguish between what Bea was doing and what drowning was so he called her little stunt, drowning. He would say, laughing, "I want to see Bea drown again. Lol, That was so funny mommy."

So the happy little toddler just parused the whole house, playing with toys, chasing the dogs and being hugged and kissed by Nanna B. Also, just for posterity, Bea can eat an adult portion of any meal at mealtime. She does not need any snacks because she eats so much at mealtime AND she eats with a fork and spoon. You should see her pound down a giant bowl of oatmeal. It really is astounding. Makes me wonder why she's still 18.5 lbs and can't turn around yet in a carseat. Hmmmm. What's up?

Eskimo Baby

2009-09-23T20:20:00.000-07:00

We went camping last weekend in Blackwater Falls,West Virginia with an excursion to Seneca Rocks and since it's September we knew it would get pretty chilly at night so I thought I packed some really warm sleeping clothes for Bea but, as I found out later, I misplaced them and couldn't find her snuggly night one piece so I ended up layering her clothes, her robe, and a sweatshirt to keep her warm at night. She also had to sleep like that.

The second night she screamed for quite a few hours, possibly all night. I was so tired I couldn't remember how long it was. She's usually such a great sleeper but I could tell she was trying to fall asleep but since she has to suck on her tongue with her blankie on her lips to fall asleep and with the cold she acquired, her nose was all stuffed up so she couldn't calm down and get comfortable. Where's a snot sucker ball when you need one!!? That was pretty brutal but other than that, she had a fantastic time.

She really had fun exploring the campsite, eating moss, tasting snakes(click on photo below), playing in the river, running away from Henry, and doing her first rock climbing.

At the climbing site and up at the top of Seneca Rocks she was pretty hard core about manouvering around the tree roots, rocks and other obstacles. She showed some very impressive problem solving skills that were pretty amazing to me. She did fall and roll down a few small hills, but recovered quickly.

One other thing is that she's saying her first word other than mama and dada. And that, just like Henry, is Uh Oh. I really love Uh Oh. She says it when she drops anything or throws anything to the floor. She usually looks up at me with a guilty look and says it under her breath. Henry thinks it's hilarious, and so do I. I love my little Uh Oh girl:)

This is right after one of her little spills. I think she looks adorable with leaves in her hair:)

Teeter Toddler

2009-09-21T18:42:00.000-07:00

I didn't jump to the computer, nor did I call my loved ones when Bea started walking like when Henry did. Maybe it was because it was so gradual that it wasn't so amazing when she finally took a whole bunch of steps all together. She basically took her first stable steps the week after her Birthday so it's been almost a month since then and she's still not as stable as Henry was right away. One thing's for sure, she LOVES to walk and has completely abandoned crawling even when it gets tough and frustrating. She's so wabbly that it's always entertaining to just watch her. One thing I'm happy about is that she never wanders off too far and always comes back when I call her which is something totally new for me. Henry used to just head in the opposite direction and never look back. Bea, however, always looks back, gives me a scrunchy smile and a giggle and walks as fast as she can to hug me.

Bea had a friend come to visit last week named Eva. She is exactly her age, has the same manorisms, walks about the same, talks the same but is about twice her size in height and weight. This baby is so chubby and tall! I loved hugging her squishy little body. I doubt I'll ever have a super chubby and squishy baby:( Bea played with her in the warm pools out back, tried to teach her how to eat all her food, toddled around and tried to avoid being attacked by Henry. The girls were on almost the exact opposite nap schedule, but it worked out for us to not have both wandering babies all over the house all day long. Bea tried to teach Eva how to climb up the slide, but a wet slide with naked babies going up and a big brother coming down does not add up to success. Usually she can do it in a bout 5 seconds but got really frustrated when she kept slipping down. I, however, didn't mind watching the whole spectacle:)

Little Peach

2009-08-30T19:41:00.000-07:00

Peaches remind me of babies, like how mine are covered in a nice carpet of blonde fuzz when they're born, even on their ears. Bea had a really grand time picking peaches until she spotted something on the ground and got stung by a giant stinging bug, the likes of which I've never seen before.
Her middle finger swelled up until her skin was very taut and when it stopped hurting her, she enjoyed opening and closing her hand because her finger felt different. She screamed for a while, but good thing there were plenty of ripe peaches everywhere because that was the only thing she would stop crying for. And there were good.

If you click on the photo you'll see her swollen finger.

Bea also got to pet pigmy goats and baby ducks after we picked peaches. Bea loved the animals and the goats especially liked her designer dress with buttons all over it. I was ripping their little mouths from her outfit so they wouldn't eat it as their afternoon snack. Looks like she takes after her mom, picking up bugs and loving farm animals. I love you little one!

Eating Bugs

2009-08-27T18:12:00.000-07:00

Today Bea ate a giant dead wolf spider that had died as a result of falling into a bin in the basement and was brought up with some toys. Henry found it and was playing with it and the next thing I know, Bea is chewing on it and there are legs everywhere on the ground. That's not the only time she's had a bug snack. I try to show her grasshoppers and Japanese Beetles outside and she picks them up, looks me straight in the eye and puts them in her mouth. Henry thinks it's hilarious. This might make you cringe, but I have always been interested in the prospect of eating bugs. Once I gave my dad a book called "Man Eating Bugs" that was of course about bugs that people eat around the world and people ate some pretty crazy things. I wouldn't hesitate to eat the roasted abdomen of a tarantula. They say it just tastes like a meatball. haha! There is also a dinner in New York where they serve mainly bugs and other strange delicacies from around the world to fancily dressed women and men who are out for an adventure. I would like to be a part of that crowd someday. Hey Justin if you're reading this, that would be an awesome Birthday present, wink, wink. The best story, however, was when I heard a the story of a church speaker talking to some Southeast Asian members about the cricket infestation in the early days of the pioneers and how it was a miracle sent from God that the seagulls came in to gobble them up. Well, I guess they eat crickets on a regular basis over there and didn't think it sounded like much of a miracle. They were all like, "well, why didn't you just eat them?" lol! I just think someday we might one day be in the jungle of Papua New Guinea with the Kombai tribe and will have to eat giant grubs for food or starve. Bea will have a head start on us for sure.

Happy Birthday Sweet Bea

2009-08-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

It's Bea's Birthday today! I can't believe it's already been a year since she was born. This year went by way faster than Henry's first year and I feel like I haven't noticed things that I did with Henry because I was so focused on him. That kind of makes me sad, but I guess that's how it goes with more than one kid.

Here's a little letter from me to my beautiful daughter....

Dear Beatrice Isabella,

You were born on August 23rd, 2008 after a night of rocking out to a Maroon 5 concert. I was trying to put myself into labor and it worked. My water broke and a few hours later you were born with no epidural while I watched the Olympic diving on TV in-between contractions. With my exercise mix on my IPOD on full volume you came flying into this world in one push. You had dark auburn hair and looked nothing like me, but your presence in my life healed my sad and worried heart from losing your brother, George, and I am so grateful that you came into our family. You were the hungriest baby in the world and I just didn't have enough milk to satisfy your hunger so the first months were filled with sleepless nights since you wouldn't take a bottle. At 5 months you had your first taste of food and didn't look back. You ate like a little piglet and immediately started sleeping through the night which helped me be a better mom, which is also when I started exercising again (yea!). You didn't ever roll over and could barely sit up at 6 months of age, crawled at 9 months(only on your feet, no knees on the ground) and finally rolled over at 9 months and a few days. You still can't walk that well although you try really hard. Your posture is like that of a ballerina and you point your toes out when you walk and your arms are always out to the sides. You are perfectly content to play on the floor for hours with toys and enjoyed anything that made a crinkly sound. You are an absolute joy to be around. You are a little shy and get really cranky when you don't get your naps, especially at church when the Young Women want to hold you and it's 2 hours past your nap time. You are known as the "coy smiler" because you always try to hide your face when people smile at you, but then you look back at them and smile over your shoulder. Your eyes have become a brilliant blue and your hair has become a beautiful golden blond. You have a fantastic tan from being outside and on two beach vacations and with your naturally red pouty lips you are often compared to Shiloh Jolie-Pitt. Basically, you're a baby knock-out! You have four teeth on the bottom and two teeth on top with a slight under bite. You love to crawl up stairs, be chased by your brother, to be higher up than someone, and to swing outside while you pound down heirloom tomatoes. You can climb up the slide all by yourself and you are really good to not try to climb down anything you're not supposed to. You will eat just about anything and prefer really flavorful, gourmet foods. Your favorite meal is pasta with fresh tomatoes, basil and mozzarella and your favorite snack is blueberries or raspberries. You love whole wheat pancakes with home-made jam and you can eat an adult sized portion of any food in one sitting. You adore fish and shrimp but don't care much for chicken or beef, especially if it's overcooked. You will only drink out of a cup, no bottle or sippy yet and don't drink much in general, just like me. You are VERY messy when you eat and usually manage to get food all in your hair and down your back as well as all over your face and front. You hate being fed with a fork but think it's pretty cool when I let you hold it. You love playing the drums in the music room and you often go in there by yourself to play the drums and dance to your own music. When you talk, you usually sound like you're singing and you mostly say dada, mama, nana, and you just recently started playing with your lips to make noises and making blowing noises as well. Your nick-names are Bealicious and Bealee and I usually do a rapping tune that goes, "Bea Bea Bealicious, Bea Bea Bealee" that you dance to. You have started to throw little mini tantrums when you're annoyed by throwing your body backwards from a sitting position and hitting the ground. Most of the time you don't hurt yourself, but I think you're trying to hurt yourself so you can have an excuse to cry, I can't tell yet. You sleep through the night, sometimes 14 hours straight and take two two-hour naps every day if you can. You love your little soft and fuzzy snugly blankie and when I put you to bed, you don't want anything to do with me rocking or singing you to sleep. You dive into your crib, grab your blankie, press it to you face and suck your own tongue against it and fall asleep with no crying or protesting. You are also really easy to transfer from the car. You'll fall back to sleep anytime after being woken up which is a true blessing. You enjoy exploring nature and still love eating dirt and have chewed on a few bugs and even munched on a toad that mommy caught. You love crawling over to the raspberry bushes or tomato plants and picking your own tomatoes for a snack. You even think it's funny and giggle when I put raspberries on your fingers. You love the ocean and can splash and play in the water for hours. You've been on 16 flights and on 7 road trips(counting last weeks). You love your brother most of all and every time he's around, your eyes light up and you wiggle out of my arms to join him in all his wild adventures. You adore your daddy and often give him hugs and are always excited when he comes home from work. You are loved by so many people and have so many fun cousins close to your age and I know you'll have so much fun growing up in our adventurous family. I love you so much Bea. Your fantastic spirit and personality makes our home the best place to be. Happy Birthday daughter!

Love,
Mommy

First Sock photos

2009-07-28T20:43:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the first photos of Bea wearing her darling socks. Don't you love the ones with the toes printed on? The funniest thing is that the skin color of the feet on the sock is supposed to match with a baby's skin color but since Bea's legs are as tan as a Mexican, they didn't blend so well. Isn't she darling? I think she really looks like her aunt Tracie in the ladybug flip flop socks. What do you think?

Sock Model

2009-07-25T21:20:00.001-07:00

Bea had her first official modeling gig today modeling socks for a company called Jazzy Toes. She and about 10 other babes, including cousin Matthew Chou, got their photos taken by a professional photographer in a studio for the website, jazzytoes.com

I have to say that Bea was a perfect little angel. She did everything they wanted her to do, smiled the whole time, had a great attitude, and looked darling. She had to change four times, and miss her morning nap by two hours and still didn't cry once. The Jazzy Toes creator and the photographer called her "the model of the day". I'm so proud of my girl! Photos to come soon.

Birthday Invite

2009-07-23T14:04:00.000-07:00

You are all invited to hang out at my house with a pool full of chubby and sandy babies!

Scary Clown Baby

2009-07-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

I think the shadows on her face are a nice touch, don't you?

Long Lost Bahama Bea

2009-07-12T21:16:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry I didn't post anything about Bea in the Bahamas! My Bahama Baby was so good! She most loved playing in the sand and surf. The first few days she ate sand regularly but then came to realize that it wasn't all that good to eat and stopped. She was very brave when she was splashed with sea water and was a happy, darling little traveler most of the time. What a good girl you are. Here are the best photos...

Baby Dentures?

2009-07-12T21:07:00.000-07:00

Bea has two new teeth coming in and instead of being on the top, they're on the bottom! Now she has four teeth on the bottom and none on top which doesn't help her in the chewing department. By this time Henry had about 10 teeth and Bea is a ravenous eater so it's getting hard for me to give her the foods she wants when most of them require some more aggressive chewing. Do they make baby dentures? Hmmm....oh here it is!

BABY DENTURES:Don't take for granted your child's appearance after the early loss of his baby front teeth. This may cause speech defect and insecurities. We make beautiful baby dentures to bring back the smile in your child.

What will they think of next?

Berry Blue Baby

2009-06-30T18:58:00.000-07:00

In case you don't know, it's berry season and you need to find your local pick-your-own farm and go raspberry picking in the next month. We have been collecting mulberries, strawberries and black raspberries this week and have been enjoying the raspberries from our own wonderful patch.
Mulberries could possibly be the messiest berry to pick since they grow on fairy tail umbrella trees and fall off rather easily when the tree is shaken. It's impossible to keep Bea from crawling all over them and covering her whole body in blue so I just let her crawl around, eating mulberries and turning blue all day long.

Picking raspberries is the worst since I don't want her to get pricked. She basically has to stay strapped in her stroller the whole time and watches painfully as all the other children gobble them up and are free to run wild between the rows of canes. Hopefully we won't have to go more than two more times to get the stock pile I'm hoping for. Hurray for berries!

Does anyone read this blog?

2009-06-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

I don't think anyone reads this blog anymore. It's all my fault because I write everything at midnight when my brain isn't working which produces brain numbing descriptions of what's going on in our lives. Sorry sweet daughter. Your life really isn't as dull as my poor writing style suggests.

Special Visitor

2009-06-10T19:47:00.000-07:00

Nanna B finally came to visit! We had been counting down the days until she could come and be with us. It was so difficult for me to watch Bea grow and not have my mom be there at every milestone since I think I saw her almost every month when Henry was born. Bea was taken with her after the first day of being held non-stop by such a smiley face and being smothered by kisses. She quickly started lunging out of my arms to be held by her grandma whenever she was around. Of course Nanna B brought some very stylish outfits and we had lots of fun dressing her up in the most darling dresses and jumpers in the world! Girls are way more fun to dress than boys, for sure. So thanks to Nanna B for all the fun memories and for keeping my children fashionably dressed! We love you!

Camping B

2009-05-31T20:26:00.000-07:00

Bea took her first ever camping trip and was an angel! Not only did she love hiking around and being out in nature, but she slept through the night, was cheerful, and took naps on the run. She tried to eat the inchworms that were infesting our campsite a few times, but luckily they were a little too squirmy for her to pick up very often. As we walked through the forest they would get stuck on her pants or feet and she would try to pick them off, but just as she would start to eat one I would catch her and get it out of her death grip. To read about our wormy camping trip in detail, see Henry's blog. My little girl is a good camper! Yea!

She crawls and THEN rolls over

2009-05-25T19:30:00.000-07:00

Well, Bea has finally figured out how to crawl, albeit slow, but like the tortoise, she keeps moving one limb at a time. After a few days of crawling she finally figured out how to roll over and now she's unstoppable. Has there ever been a child who crawls before rolling over? Anyone, anyone? Henry thinks it's really fun that she makes her way from one room to another to find where we are. I can see many hide and seek games in the future. The only problem is that now that she knows how to roll over, she rolls to her stomach and pushes herself to a sitting position in her crib when she's trying to fall asleep because it's just her reflex and she'll sit there, rubbing her eyes, totally sleepy, and not know how to get back down to sleep. Poor little pidget. I just let her cry in there until she figures it out.

Sweet faces of Beatrice

2009-05-17T10:50:00.000-07:00

I just thought I would post a bunch of photos that I just took. Bea is ALMOST crawling! I bet it'll be less than a week before she finally takes off! I am seriously dreading having to take out the gates again. Ugh. I can't complain though. Sometimes I stop and realize that she hasn't cried for days! Seriously, days. Not when she goes to bed, not when she wakes up, not when she's tired, or hungry. She just goes with the flow, sleeps when she can, eats when I feed her, and plays on the ground in between smiling all the time. She is such a wonderful girl:)

Thinking about Grandma Berry

2009-05-11T19:08:00.000-07:00

This Mother's Day I have been thinking a lot about my grandma Berry who died a few years ago right before I found out I was pregnant with Henry. I really miss her and I think about her all the time. I put on her "E" necklace (stands for Ethella) and wore it all weekend. I was eating raspberries and thought of making raspberry jam with her and then I was organizing my glass jars and found a jar of apricots that she canned just before she died that I've been saving for a special occasion. I think I'll open them on Beatrice's first Birthday and let her taste something that her great grandmother made with her own hands. It's packed in sugar so I want to wait until she turns one to give her any. Happy Mother's Day Grammie. We love you and miss you so much!

Sickling in DC

2009-05-06T21:16:00.000-07:00

I feel really bad, but I dragged Bea down to DC when she was sick with a fever. I thought it was just her second tooth coming in, but she was sick for about 5 days and so I pumped her full of ibuprofin and tylenol day and night. PLUS, it was 90 degrees outside which didn't help how uncomfortable she was. She was a trooper though and made it through. My kids actually get easier when they get sick. Does this happen to you? They take extra long naps and end up more lethargic and calm down significantly. Bea is already a calm baby, so it was even more pronounced. It was nice to have so many people at Christi's place who were willing to listen for her while she was sleeping so we could go off on adventures in the backyard or across the street in the stream. She didn't get to see much of the trip. "Just let me sleep" was pretty much her attitude throughout the whole trip.

She did have a run-in with River when he bit her on the cheek so hard that it left perfect teeth marked bruises on her cheek. They are actually still there but now it just looks like she's dirty and I forgot to wipe her face off. We speculate that he just thought it looked like a nice, juicy apple and wanted to take a bite. Dave thinks that sometime at BYU Bea's going to lure River on a date and when he goes in for a kiss, she'll bite him instead. Sweet retribution! haha! I didn't take a photo of the bite but should have. I was amazed that we drove for four and a half hours straight both ways without stopping and neither of my kids cried once. Thank you Heavenly Father for sending me such happy travelers!

Tooth #2 and first sign!

2009-04-22T13:21:00.001-07:00

Bea's second tooth is finally coming in. I will miss her snaggle tooth smile that is just so darling. She also has surprised me by making her first sign, three months earlier than Henry. She signed milk today twice along with a little coy smile because she knew that I knew what she was doing. That is one of my favorite parts of signing with my babies. There's a connection that exists from them knowing that you know what they are trying to say that I think is lost in non-signing babies. The fact that they know you are doing your best to help them try to express their needs probably makes them feel so special and important along with helping them get what they want without crying. And it was SOOOO easy to teach her. I just do the signs for milk before I nurse her, or the sign for food before I feed her, etc. I know she knows what the signs for food and all done are but just doesn't have the dexterity to do them yet. I can't wait for more to come!

Beatrice in her Easter Dress

2009-04-13T17:11:00.000-07:00

Here is the actual finished product of Bea's Easter Dress! It wasn't that hard to make with the help of my friend, Cynthia, but I still need to hone my skills of picking fabric. I feel like the color combination is pretty predictable. I really didn't have all that much time to pick them out so it turned out okay, but I like unusual combinations that make people think, "wow, I never thought those would go together but it totally works!" I'm working towards that stage. Her dress was a big hit and she looked darling in it. Thanks to Cynthia for helping me with it and for teaching me how to not use a pattern which is much more daunting then just figuring it out on my own.

All that purple and no results

2009-04-04T06:00:00.001-07:00

Well many of you already know that Bea got thrush because of the antibiotics she took for her ear infection in January and after three different medications, we still haven't been able to get rid of it and I'm just going to have to live with it until I stop breastfeeding. That means I'll have had it for about 6 months and it's so painful and horrible. There's no end to my breastfeeding woes and issues is there? Here is a photo of Bea with a purple mouth in her last treatment which was ginsin violet which was supposed to dry out her mouth so much so that it died. It only stained all her clothes with no results.

Snuggling with my darling daughter

2009-04-03T21:28:00.000-07:00

I just can't tell you how much I enjoy snuggling with my sweet Beatrice. She is so rolly polly and clingy and she hugs me all day long. When she wants to nurse she snuggles in and starts the sucking motion on my arm or neck and that is something new to me since Henry never got to this point in nursing. I just love that! She is also getting attached to me which is something Henry never really did. She cries when I leave her with others and gets so excited when I come into a room and smiles her chubby, squishy smile every time she looks at me and it melts my heart.

My own little Pidget

2009-03-26T21:31:00.000-07:00

We call my little sister, Lucy, our little pidget because she's just so little compared to the rest of us. I rather like it because it still feels like I'm the "big" sister and she's the "little" sister like when we were younger. Bea went for her 7 month appointment the other day and she was surprisingly small in both height and weight. She is only in the 25th percentile for height and weight but her head has jumped up to the 40th percentile(woo hoo!). I thought she was going to weigh more than that but I guess she just looks so chubby to me because she's so small. I'm actually glad she's still so tiny because it's just so much easier to carry her when she weighs so little. I'm glad to have my own little Pidget at home since I never see my sister anymore! I miss you Lucy! Have fun in Japan this spring!

City or Country girl?

2009-03-23T20:22:00.000-07:00

Henry, Bea and I decided to take a trip (while Justin was gone on his conference that was just an excuse to go snowboarding) to Connecticut, New York City and Philadelphia. We were gone for 8 days and we had a blast. Bea was especially good in the car and didn't cry at all for the entire almost 9 hours it took to get to CT and 7 hours back from Philly. It wouldn't have taken as long except we had to drop Justin off and pick him up at the airport at the beginning and end of our trip. We spent some quality time with Grandma and Gammie Hohl as well as our good friends the Smocks who also have a baby girl, Elizabeth (lily or li'l E), who is two weeks younger than Bea. They had fun together fighting over squishy blocks. It was so funny to see them ripping it out of each others' hands. They were seriously fighting over it and I hope it's not a sign of things to come! I'm sure they'll be great friends. After we spent the first half of our trip amongst the gorgeous farms and countryside of Connecticut we spent some time in New York City and then moved on to Philly. In New York we ate my favorite food (Bea ate some pear and apple gelato at GROM) and hung out with my dear friend Emilie. We spent the day in Washington Square park in the above 70 degree weather. We couldn't have picked a better day to go into the city. Bea did so well just sleeping when she got a chance in the car or in my baby wrap and hardly put up much of a fuss. We drove late into the night to Philly where we met up with my step sister, Ruth, and her darling family and tried to lift their spirits as her little angel boy, Jeffrey, began his chemo treatment for retinoblastoma or cancer of the eye. I'm going to do a special post on him soon. We might be traveling to Philly a few more times to meet up with whomever accompanies Jeffrey during his treatment. We're all fasting and praying that his eye and vision will be spared. We just love the Bryans! We went to the Children's Museum in Philly and to Valley Forge with them as well as ate really great sandwiches at one of the best cheesesteak joints in town, then ate hamburgers at 5 Guys and topped it off with free Ritas. That was a crazy long day! The next morning we spent with the Shimer's who we bumped into at the Children's Museum the day before and we got to eat breakfast and play at the park before the long drive home. We had such a great time in Philly and I hope we go there for fellowship! I would love living there for a year.

I do have to admit that I almost cried as I walked down the streets of New York because I missed it so much. I was so happy to be back and I felt that I was supposed to be there and I was missing so much by being away. I miss my old friend, the city. My children will know you somehow, even if we have to travel across the country to visit you. What an enchanting place.

First tooth!

2009-03-08T21:14:00.000-07:00

I was letting Bea chew and suck on my chin like I usually do when I felt something poking me and it was a little tooth coming in! I'm a little worried because this is when I stopped breastfeeding Henry because he started biting me but now I don't have the luxury of choosing to bottlefeed since she doesn't take a bottle. I really hope she's not a biter! I can't believe my baby is already growing up:) She's also sitting up pretty well and is enjoying the freedom to play with all her toys. She still hasn't even attempted to roll over and I hope she doesn't crawl until my tomato plants are too big to pull out of my garden which would be about July. I don't think I'll be so lucky:)

My little piglet

2009-03-03T20:11:00.000-08:00

Bea is a food maniac. About a month ago she started reaching for what I was eating and watching me put every bit of food into my mouth and would look at me with a longing stare, I'm sure just imagining how yummy whatever it was I was putting into my mouth. So, I decided to give her some food and she literally went nuts. I read online to feed your baby however much they will eat so I just started letting her eat. I always feed her after she's nursed, but I don't think she knows when to stop eating. I tried feeding her rice cereal and oat cereal and she really hated it. Then I read the ingredients on the box and I decided that it was WAY too processed to be good for a baby so I just started feeding her organic baby food in jars. She'll eat jar after jar of squash, pears, apricots, applesauce, etc. I also grind up fruit and oats in my grinder and she eats that like a champ. Even after she's done eating two jars of baby food she wants more. She bangs both hands down on the tray and lets out a desperate grunt/cry to tell me she's still hungry. Tonight she ate two full graham crackers for dessert. Is this bad? I feel like she eats a ton! The weird thing is that I don't feel like she's nursing any less than a month ago but she's just eating twice as much as she did before. Everything I read says to just feed them whatever they will eat and that they won't ingest more than they need or not nurse as much as they need to because they're eating food. What do you think?

no more sleepless nights for mommy!

2009-02-09T20:06:00.000-08:00

So a few nights ago I decided that I'd had enough of this getting up at night business, so I just stopped swaddling Bea, put her in her crib awake and let her cry herself to sleep. It took a good hour and a half for the past two nights until she stopped crying but she eventually went to sleep on her own. I also haven't been getting up to feed her when she cries, which has only happened once per night, which is astounding because I was lucky to get that ever these past 6 months. She soon stops crying and goes back to sleep. I do, however, have to get up before I wake up to exercise to feed her so I don't explode with milk, but she goes right back to sleep without a peep. She's sleeping at least 12 hours per night and then takes a nice two to three hour nap two hours after she wakes up. She takes after her brother Henry who was also a very sleepy baby. I can't tell you how grateful I am to finally be able to start sleeping through the night again. I basically did this with Henry at the same age, but I still rocked him to sleep every night, mainly because I loved doing it. I would love to rock Bea to sleep every night but it's just not practical when there's more work to be done around the house and I also have Henry to deal with. She's not going to get that luxury. Hmmm...what about Luxury for a name. Luxury Hohl. hahaha! I always think of funny names with our last name. Anyway, tonight it took about three minutes for her to stop crying and I just want her to know that even though it breaks my heart to hear her crying all alone in her crib, it's for her own good and for the sanity of her mommy! I love you Bea!

BTW check out the new photo album of her check-up from Dr. Henry Hohl N.D. (naked doctor)

Best Big Brother Ever

2009-01-28T20:57:00.000-08:00

Henry is so kind and thoughtful when it comes to Bea which is surprising because he destroys and doesn't think about everything else in his path. He is so sensitive to Bea's needs. When she's crying, he gives her a toy. He wants to watch shows with her, play with her, sit with her, put his arm around her, kiss her and hold her all the time. He laughs so hard just looking at her and her funny faces, especially because she has a tendency to play with her tongue and it can be hilarious. Bea is so lucky to have Henry who loves her more than anything in the world. Right now she's trying to sit up and Henry thinks it is so funny when she tips over and I catch her in mid tip to sit her back up again. It's like trying to keep a ball in one spot, but just keeps rolling around. She has almost no desire to sit up, roll, move or do anything but play with her toys and grab anything in sight. She also grabs the skin on my neck and chest when she's nursing so hard that I have red marks all over me! Those hands are so grabby!

New York Trip for Baby B

2009-01-21T20:47:00.000-08:00

Justin and I went to New York with a couple friends last weekend to basically eat good food. We had a ton of fun, saw some old friends and did a little shopping. Bea was such a trooper since it was FREEZING cold and we had to bundle her up a ton which she hates doing. Hilights of the trip for Bea were Grandma Hohl twisting her diaper so the front was backward getting pee all over herself(ay yai yai), meeting Uncle Sunny, eating GROM gelato (pear flavor), spending time with her adopted big sister Eva and Aunt Emilie and being admired all over town by stylish New Yorkers. Everyone LOVED her name and her propensity to smile at anyone who caught her eye. What a little doll.

The saddest girl in town

2009-01-06T20:49:00.001-08:00

Saturday Night Fever

2009-01-04T08:55:00.001-08:00

Bea has been sick since last Wednesday morning with a fever, cough, cold, and probably an ear infection. We went to the pediatricians two days ago and they said she didn't have an infection but that there was a little fluid in her ear. Last Night, however, her fever spiked at 105 and she has been grabbing her ear, screaming, and screams even harder if I hold her poor little head. She hasn't stopped crying for days, she cries all night long and I haven't had more than four hours of sleep since she got sick. Every hour she wakes up and I have to hold her for at least a half hour to calm her down and sometimes she nurses, but usually she doesn't want to eat anything. It seems that as soon as I put her down she's up again. When I have to re-administer her medication, it usually takes about an hour to change her diaper, calm her down, feed her and get her back to sleep. I am impressed though that through it all, she still manages to find her toes while I'm changing her diaper and plays with them while she's screaming. Please keep her in your prayers and hopefully her fever will break and she won't be in so much pain. My heart breaks when I see my darling baby girl suffer so much.

I don't even remember more than two times total that I ever had to stay up with Henry all night long. He was always really easy when he got sick and just slept right through everything. I NEVER had to lull him back to sleep after feeding him and I can only remember ONE TIME he woke up after a nighttime feeding and had to stay up for more than 15 minutes with him AND that time he was totally happy and cute. I am realizing more and more how easy that boy was!

Bea's First Christmas

2009-01-01T10:38:00.000-08:00

Bea had tons of fun this Christmas hanging out with all her cousins, grandparents and especially Courtney, Justin's sister, who couldn't get enough of her smiley chubbiness. Bea's spotlight was playing Baby Jesus in the live Nativity. All the kids were surprisingly good and luckily it was so warm on Christmas Eve because she only wore her diaper in the manger. I was very blessed during this week because my prayers were answered and she slept great through the night and even slept for most of the day on Christmas while I was preparing dinner. She is becoming very smiley and every time she wakes up from her naps she gets a gigantic smile on her face, even if she's been sobbing for five minutes (because her cry is so soft I can't always hear her right away. Even the monitor doesn't pick her up) she immediately stops crying and smiles for me. Bea got some fancy new toys from Nanna B, which she loves to play with, and she was entertained by all the family who came to visit which made her very content with life. Bea is such a sweet little thing. We just love having her as an addition to our family!

Built in toys

2008-12-18T20:05:00.000-08:00

Bea is obsessed with her feet. She constantly grabs onto them if they're uncovered and will very seriously study them until she gets hungry again. She used to mind being on her back, but now she just brings her built in toy up to her hands and plays forever. Being naked in the Bumbo also allows her to have a pretty good view of her feet and enjoys that position as well. I distinctly remember reading about how babies "discover" their feet when Henry was little, but Henry never had any interest in his feet at all, probably because he doesn't even have the dexterity to bring his feet up to eye view. I have experienced the "second child syndrome" where nothing seems quite so exciting the second time around, but this is pretty fun to watch and she is getting chubbier and cuter every day. She now weighs over 15 lbs and is getting heavy to carry around all day!

The travelin'ist baby

2008-12-09T20:24:00.001-08:00

In Bea's short life she's already been on 12 flights, been to Lake Tahoe, Sacramento, Monterey Bay, San Francisco, Amish Country, Dallas and Salt Lake and she does it all in her mom's baby wrap. She basically lives in that thing. Here are some of the most recent photos with her in the one I made for special occasions. We had to fly up to Salt Lake City during our vacation at my mom's in Dallas to attend my Grandmother's funeral. Bea is the only great-granddaughter in the family and I'm glad she met her before she passed away. We were only there for 24 hours so sorry to everyone in Utah whom I wish I could have seen:( Next time. Just in case anyone was wondering, Bea was so exhausted after our long trip to Dallas that she only stayed awake for a maximum of 5 hours each day and on Sunday she slept for 22 hours and was screaming for me to put her to sleep for the last two. We didn't go to church that day because we got in so late Saturday night and I'm glad because she would have screamed through the whole thing! I actually began to miss her after not seeing her smiling face for days!
Bea and her closest little cousin Kirkham who was born just a few weeks after her

Sleepy B

2008-11-19T13:35:00.000-08:00

Bea is still the sleepiest baby on the block sometimes sleeping 18 hours a day, but she hadn't really slept for really long stretches until last night. I have been kind of letting her fall asleep on her own wherever she is just for short amounts of time, especially in the afternoon for the past couple days and she hasn't really been that fussy. She fell asleep in her play chair twice, her bumbo and the carseat multiple times, but was constantly being startled by Henry and other noises, so last night I think she was so exhausted that she slept for 9 hours straight and then four more after she woke up at 7 to finish off her night of sleep. When I woke up in the morning I was so confused because I couldn't remember waking up at all. My glass of water was still full, I don't remember Justin's alarm going off and the sunlight was coming through the windows. I felt refreshed for the first time since I started to get uncomfortable during my pregnancy and/or started getting up to go the bathroom multiple times. This feeling is priceless and I'm such a better mother when I get good sleep. We'll see if she keeps it up! We love you Bea!

This is a photo of What Henry did to her this morning. Haha.

Beatrice's Baby Blessing

2008-11-04T17:37:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday Bea was given her baby's blessing by her father and in her mother's dress. It was so special for me to lay out all her white clothes, especially knowing that almost exactly 30 years ago I wore the same slip, dress, and headband when I was blessed. She is getting big and I could barely button the dress around her chubby little neck. She looked just darling and angelic in her outfit. She was also laying in the linen, handsewn and quilted blanket my mom made for her which I LOVE and hope she makes for all my kids(wink wink).

I was actually pondering on Sunday and thought about that blanket because in the corner there is a beautiful little "B" embroidered in pearls and flowers which immediately captures your eye and you might not notice all the hand quilting if you didn't squint and follow each line to make out the shapes in the body of the blanket. I even had a hard time making out some of the shapes since it is all white on white until my mom showed them to me, but I feel like that's why mothers are so lucky to be mothers. When the world only sees the embelishments like the obvious accomplishments and outward looks of our children, WE are blessed to eventually see what the creator has bestowed on our darling children and sometimes we are the only ones who ever know their true nature. Our little Beatrice has so much beauty inside her sparkling, clear eyes and I can't wait until I get to know who she is and help her become a women of God. She is so special to us.

The blessing Justin prepared for her was so beautiful and meaningful and I hope she keeps it in her mind as she grows up. Justin spoke about how her name means "woman who bestows blessings" and since the moment she was born she has been a blessing in our lives. She didn't cry at all and I was so happy to be able to take in the special moment. We love you so much sweet Bea.

Bea's first Halloween

2008-11-02T19:43:00.000-08:00

Bea went as a mermaid for her first Halloween. She was so darling all dressed up in pearls and in her blue blanket ocean. I pushed her around, totally asleep, in her stroller all night and uncovered her for all the old ladies which got lots of Awwwws. She didn't get much candy though.

California Girl

2008-10-31T07:51:00.000-07:00

Bea took her first trip last week to Lake Tahoe for a family reunion and then she drove all around California with us for a few days. She really hates the carseat and driving in the car, so it was a little difficult, but we had a ton of fun on the stops inbetween the driving. The family reunion was so fun because everyone was holding her and since it was a little chilly outside, I put her in all her snuggly outfits which made her fall asleep in everyone's arms, something she's not known to do often. She was glad her grandparents didn't get eaten by the gigantic mamma bear and three cubs they ran into while on a 18 mile run, and she didn't like her toes touching the cold sea water at all. Henry loved the ocean though and keeps asking to return. She was very good on the airplane and hardly cried on either of the flights. She was crying, however, in the airport and while we were waiting in line to get to our seats because I didn't want to feed her until we were seated and a few old men turned around and shook their heads at me, probably thinking I was going to ruin their plane ride. I almost told them they were a poopy screaming infant once themselves. On my Birthday we ate at the old Fisherman's Wharf and Bea wasn't in a good mood, or particularlly sleepy at that time, since it is usually her awake time and I had to eat my dinner standing up and/or bouncing her the entire time. All the people around us were dressed up and eating crab legs and lobster while I was all sweaty from driving 10 hours in a tee shirt, with a crazy toddler and a screaming baby strapped to my cheast. The seafood pasta was excellent though. All in all it was a fun trip and a lot less painful than I thought. The kids all slept well and we had some really special moments we will always remember.

Life with two can be rough sometimes

2008-10-08T20:14:00.000-07:00

So basically I'm amazed at all those mothers that have more than one child. Having a newborn and a two year old at the same time can be rough at times, especially when your newborn is constantly sucking on you because she's apparantly not getting enough milk. Ugh. My production is low for some reason and she just doesn't get satisfied for very long AND she's a light sleeper. I feel like I spend most of my day nursing and yelling at Henry to be quiet. The only good thing is that when we're at home, I can get Bea to sleep endless hours in her swing(with lights out and a noisemaker next to her head) It's like nurse, sleep, nurse, sleep every hour for as long as I want, unless Henry comes in and starts climbing all over me and kissing the baby over and over and I can't get him to leave. Then, she wakes up.

These photos show the many faces of Bea. She's definitely related to Henry. He made some pretty funny faces at this age too.

Fireworks with the family and the very poopy night

2008-10-05T19:50:00.000-07:00

Saturday night was the celebration of Pittsburgh's 250th Anniversary so we took the family to the three rivers area of the city where we witnessed a incredible display of fireworks that were lit at 17 different locations around the area including the tops of a few of the tallest buildings in the city. So Cool. Bea actually liked the fireworks and she stared up at the sky watching the gigantic display of lights. She likes lights a lot, sometimes more than people. They say that babies like people's faces more than anything, but sometimes I try to put my face really close to hers and talk to her, or smile, but she intentionally avoids looking at my face and looks out the window or at the nearest light source. So, after the celebration we spent at least an hour driving home during which I was trying to get Bea to stop crying. The only thing that worked somewhat was holding both of her hands and her binky in with one hand while I rocked the carseat with the other...that is until she had the most massive explosion of poo I have ever seen. I NEVER saw this much at once with Henry. She cried the rest of the way home because she was sitting in a bucket of poo and when I got home, I had to hold her by her chest and arms to avoid the yellow sludge. I undressed her and her entire body was covered in a coating of mustard like substance that Justin thought smelled like buttered movie popcorn. Sick. We washed her from head to toe in the sink at 12:30 am while we laughed hysterically at the disgusting scene we had just witnessed. I'm just grateful it didn't happen while we were in a gigantic crowd of people and while she was strapped to me. Oh, and the spot where we decided to sit had a huge dog poop right next to it and of course I got my shoes in it. I can't wait for the day when I'm not touching poo every day of my life.

Henry's lullaby to Bea

2008-09-30T18:07:00.000-07:00

Lately Bea has been really having a hard time sleeping and has been extra hungry. I was up every hour last night and she hardly slept today. Needless to say my house was a disaster, and after getting up, exercising, getting everyone ready to go visiting teaching the house had not been cleaned and it was already 5pm! Where does the time go? I tried to put her down and she kept crying after a few minutes each attempt. The last time I thought it was going to work, I was downstairs for ten minutes when she started screaming again and I had only emptied one half of the dishwasher. I drooped my head thinking my house would never be clean again when Henry said, "Uh oh, baby sister is crying. I go see her." I would have normally told him not to bug her, but I didn't stop him from going up for who knows what reason, but I'm so glad I did." With the monitor on I heard Henry say, "It's ok Bea." and then start singing the Winnie the Pooh song, "Deep in the hundred acre wood, where Christopher Robin plays..." and she stopped crying after about a minute. I heard Henry gently close the door behind him as he left my room and came downstairs. I turned to ask him if she was alseep and he said, as if it was no big deal, "yeah, she's asleep." I asked him what he did and he looked at me, shrugging his shoulders, " I sang deep in the hundred acre wood" with a slightly embarassed smile on his face. She stayed asleep for over two hours after that and I was able to clean the entire house. Even though Henry is usually driving me insane and making huge messes, he totally redeemed himself today. I know the Lord inspired him and me to let it happen and I'm so grateful that Henry is so sensitive to Beatrice's needs. They're going to be great friends.

Chubbing Up

2008-09-28T22:35:00.000-07:00

Beatrice went for her 5 week appointment the other day and she weighed a whopping 10 lbs 5 oz. I really wasn't expecting her to weigh that much since everyone I met was telling me how tiny she was. I think that was due to the fact that her head size is barely on the charts at the 5th percentile. So I guess when people see her tiny head they think she's way smaller than she actually is. Her head is roughly the size of a large grapefruit and it perfectly round.
I love holding it in my hands. She is turning out to be a really good baby and is pretty good natured. She sleeps most of the day and when she's awake, she is content to just lie on the ottoman and look out the windows. She also loves the outdoors. We have gone apple picking and I went green bean picking all day one day last week and she just slept in my front carrier. She is nursing pretty well now. I already learned how to nurse Henry in my super strappy front carrier from when we took him to Italy at this stage so that is the only way I can feed her in public. She's finally big enough to fill out some of her cute dresses for church and she was just adorable today in her turquoise and brown dress.
She is still ravenously hungry which really pumps up my milk supply which makes me feel so happy. I can't even tell you how good it feels to know that I have enough milk to feed her every time she's hungry. It's pure joy.

Breastfeeding Nightmares

2008-09-19T20:27:00.000-07:00

I don't know if anyone has as big of a problem breastfeeding as I do. I'm engorged for about a week during which time I have to freeze my breast with ice and then manually express/squeeze the milk out while it's throbbing and tender (think of mammogram X100) eight times per day until the pump can finally get the milk out when the engorgement ends, then, I have to pump every two hours for an entire month while my babies won't latch on. Then when my babies start latching on, I get so sore that tears come out while I nurse and I've even cried a few times because of the pain. I have to use the football hold on my right side which makes it impossible to nurse in public and since I have to smash my baby's face on to nurse, I have to use my other hand to make sure my babies can breathe and that leaves no hands for making sure I'm not exposing myself. Bea also doesn't open her mouth unless she's screaming, so I have to make her cry and then shove her face on and that, as you can imagine, draws a lot of attention. These are just the problems I feel comfortable admitting online. There are many more issues I won't embarrass myself by exposing. Is there good news? Yes, I actually have enough milk this time after all my efforts(yea, no expensive formula!) and I'm actually symmetrical on both sides not like I was with Henry when I was a size D on the left and an A/B on the right. Good thing I was carrying Henry on my front for months so I could hide it. Anyway, it's on the up and up and hopefully I'll be able to nurse in public so I can go places soon!

Welcome to the world darling daughter

2008-08-30T20:55:00.000-07:00

After what seemed to be the longest pregnancy ever Beatrice Isabella Hohl was born on August 23rd at 1am. On the evening of the 22nd while I was finishing up cooking dinner and after a week of hiking, the zoo and rocking out at the Maroon 5 concert, my water broke slightly and after eating I called the hospital and they told me to come on in and have my baby! I packed the rest of my bag, told Justin's parents and Stef and Franklin who were over for dinner and left for the hospital! My contractions didn't start until 9:30 so they sped them up a little with pitocin. Justin and I watched the Olympics on tv while we were waiting for me to dilate more. I was already dilated to a 4 so there wasn't too much more to go. I planned on not having an epidural so I brought my IPOD to listen to my hard-core exercise mix during the contractions. Every time I felt one coming on I imagined myself running on the treadmill at 12 and convinced myself that I could handle the pain for just a few more seconds just like I love the burn of the full out sprint for one minute. It totally worked! The last few contractions, though, were more than I had expected to bear, but our baby girl came just a few minutes after the really painful ones started. When the resident and OB finally came in, I got myself situated and in one contraction I pushed twice and she came out! She was 7lbs 11oz and had brown hair. I expect it'll fall out and grow back in blonde, but basically bald, until she's 5 years old just like her mom!

Bea(pronounced "Bay-uh") is a little more difficult than Henry and has a really intense and frantic gutteral cry. There's really no in-between for her. She's either sleeping or awake screaming for food. Bea is a very hungry baby and when she doesn't get food right away she really lets it go and when her nights and days are mixed up, it makes getting good sleep nearly impossible.
She is just as rigid and stiff as Henry was and can already hold her head up on her own and if I'm not careful she will lift her head up from my shoulder and whack her face on my collarbone. She also has spastic arms that constantly scratch her face and when she gets fed, her hands have to be right there as though she can keep the food there. Henry, her older brother, did the same thing and even right from birth was able to hold his own bottle because of his super rigid hands and arms that I could position to hold it up. I call her my little piglet because she makes little snorts and grunts when she finally gets food and then devours it.

Well, our little girl is finally here and we can't wait to discover who she is! We love you Bea Bella