Camping with B

 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...

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

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

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

 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

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

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

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...

http://clementinerebecca.blogspot.com/

Chatting with Bea

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

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

New Words

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

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

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

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

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

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

Easter/Earth Day petal dresses

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

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

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

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

Beezy

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

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

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

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

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

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?