Beatrice in her Easter Dress

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

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

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

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?

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!

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

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!

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

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

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

Saturday Night Fever

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.