Bea with her crimped hair. She likes it when I braid it and surprisingly enough, it doesn't get as ratty
This is Bea and Jayden on their way to preschool which is just down the street. He lives in our neighborhood and is the most darling boy ever! He was adopted and his birth father was a linebacker in college, so his parents are hoping that he gets those genes. So far, he looks like a pretty sturdy kid. He is really sweet and he and Bea get along pretty well, considering that Bea usually drives all her friends away by hitting them with sticks or telling them that they are dumb or that she isn't going to be friends with them anymore. She tells me every day that she's "not going to say dumb anymore or hit and kick". I'll believe it when I see it. She may not have any friends left if she keeps this up. I do believe she's improving though, baby steps.
I bought these clown costumes for one dollar at my friend's garage sale. Ella and Bea put them on and ran around in circles for about a half hour, laughing hysterically. It was adorable. All I need are a couple of red noses.
This tea pot was my grandmother's and the tea set I got for my bridal shower in Tokyo. It's so special to use these with Bea.
Bea and I have a tea party just about every day. It's our "special time". She is getting really good at pouring the tea and gets really excited about all the "tiny food" I put on the plates and for the little cups, plates and spoons we use. Just yesterday I tried to pour out of a new teapot and spilled it all over my plate. Bea told me that she knew how to do it without spilling and that she would do it for me next time. She felt so good about her tea pouring skills:) Even though Bea is hard right now, I'm really looking forward to her growing up a little more so she can be more capable and we can enjoy more activities together.
Henry pretending he's eating Bea with his Mouth Man shirt
Just kidding! I love you little fox
The Fox and the catch of the day
I'm trying to do some school with Bea. She never learned her alphabet when she was a baby so she and Clementine are learning it together. I make everything I can into some sort of school activity. This week we took two field trips, one to the new Natural History Museum of Utah and another to the local Aquarium. She loved both.
Time to go!
At the NHMU she dressed up as a fox or something and caught fish to put into her backpack. Henry was dressed up as a hunter to catch her. It was really fun. We talked about bugs and learned the names of trees and bugs and spiders. We love that new museum.
Bea looks so big in her pig tails
I also have to say that Bea knows a lot of the Dinosaur names. She watches Dinosaur Train often and she now knows more dinosaurs that I know. Smart little thing! She's constantly telling strangers that Dinosaurs died a long time ago with a really sad face. haha.
Don't these look like fake fish! They were huge!
She also has learned quite a few of her letters. I make her write them every day and we learn a new one every couple weeks. It's slow going but that's what I get for waiting so long to teach her the alphabet!
The kids in their Chinese outfits they wore to church.
We celebrated Chinese New Year a couple weeks ago. I accidentally planned it on the same day as the Superbowl, so it was slightly overshadowed by the game, but we had fun nonetheless. Tracie and Justin, Meg and Kirk and my Mom came as well as my cousin who just left for NYC. We ate a hot pot dinner as is our tradition. We made lanterns, danced to the dragon dance music, listened to the awesome soundtrack of House of Flying Daggers and ate a variety of Asian deserts. I put up the posters that I had painted years ago and hung up a bunch of lanterns for the party. I just love how festive it looks. We really missed the Chou family and had no Chinese people at our party this year. Well, at least Henry and my other kids will be going to Chinese school and that's a good enough excuse to celebrate a random ethnic holiday that's not our own.
The rooster that Bea loved playing with. I think she's pretty too.
All the kids have Chinese outfits, well at least they did. Henry's
ripped at the seams and by the time the party started, his outfit was in
shreds and it was the newest one! He kept complaining that his shirt wouldn't stay closed and that there was a gaping hole in the seat of his pants. I just used about 10 safety pins to hold them closed and made him go to church like that. haha. He even had to give a talk in church like that too. lol. Violette's dress is a Japanese pattern that my mom
sewed, so that was close enough to being Chinese for me. Clementine and Bea have authentic
outfits from China Town, or maybe they were hand-me-downs from the
Chous. Can't remember. Anyway, they were all Asiafied.
Chinese paper fish we put together a couple years ago
I like that it's the year of the Dragon because I would always call my sister, Lucy, my little dragon and we'd speak in our own dragon language. It's the most significant year of her life as she serves the Lord on a mission in Japan, so it's so fitting that it be the year of the Dragon. I miss my baby dragon.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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!
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!
