Baby Dentures?

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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!