I Heart Waffles

Beatrix is now ten days away from being nine months old! She has made the transition from solids to finger foods and is loving every minute. She loves avocado, tofu, mozzarella cheese, ravioli and of course cheerios. Tallulah loves to feed her cereal every morning. Messy doesn't even begin to explain the aftermath of that, but it's worth every minute.

Our baby girl is still in combat mode most of the time when it comes to crawling but will get from one end of the kitchen to the other in the time it takes me to turn around.

She stopped saying dada, and now say booooo and blows raspberries. She can wave bye-bye and has clapped a few times. She's an angel face and we love her.

I'm 8 Months and I Can Almost Crawl

Seventh Months! How did that Happen?

When people ask me how old Beatrix is I just keep saying six months. I did that yesterday and realized that in two days she will be seven months and it hit me all of a sudden how quickly she's growing. It's hard sometimes to slow down and hold onto a moment of her life. To watch her grab for her dolly or her giraffe to chew; to just enjoy, despite the early morning hour, her new beautiful babbling, which is predominantly adadadada; or to catch her as she falls back while trying to sit up and remember how much she is learning from second to second.

Right now she is rolling around on the floor and keeps looking back at me to giggle and babble in between staring in awe at the ceiling fan. She still has hardly any hair, but is starting to grow a little tuft over her left ear so that sometimes in certain lights she reminds me of my granddad George.

Six Month Stronghold

I heart my excersaucer

My first word....almost

Tallulah is very excited that Beatrix can finally "talk". She seems to mimic us when we say hi, which I think I must say a lot. This video isn't the best representation of her first word (she can do it much better than this) but it's still pretty cute.

Please don't take my sweet potato away!

Hanging with Auntie Tiff

Picture Perfect Morning

Chatty Lady

21 Weeks Today!!!

Look at that face. I mean come on. I know she's mine and I know that all parents think their baby is the cutest baby in the world, but I think I'm the first person for whom that's actually a true fact. I'm not usually the kind of person to say such things (I leave the bragging to my dad) but I just can't get over this child and her pure light and laughter. Don't get me wrong, she knows how to cry. In fact, over the past week or so, she has adopted a cry that is almost superhuman in its strength and decibel level. She does not like to be tired and she does not like to go much more than two hours without eating and will let you know in no uncertain terms. It's almost as if she's saying, come on now, did you really think you could a baby as cute as me with all the laughter and the flirting and incandescent smiles and not have a few moments of unearthly crying?

As planned, she is now sleeping in her crib all night. Now that doesn't mean she's actually sleeping in her crib all night. It just means that physically she is there, cooing, crying, rolling over etc. and sometimes sleeping. Gavin and I can't quite figure out what to do because she's not very happy when she's swaddled these days and usually wriggles out, but if we don't swaddle her, she invariably ends up on her tummy, with one arm stuck underneath staring into the green light of the monitor as if to say, "Hello?! Can I get some help here?"

At her four month check up, the pediatrician said to me, "You know she's big right?" I burst into tears because my guilty brain translated that into, "You know your baby's fat, right? She's fat because you stopped breastfeeding her and formula-fed babies statistically have much less lean muscle mass than babies who are exclusively breastfed." What she really meant was that she's big everywhere, not fat, but tall and large-headed and in the 90th percentile for everything. And it's not because of the formula.

So I can remember: I love it when she tries to nibble my cheeks when I give her kisses. I love it when she holds one of my fingers when she's feeding. I love how when Tallulah, Gavin or I speak and she's not looking at us she whips her head around in the direction of our voices, and smiles. I love the way she stares out the window at the world going by from her car seat. I love that the only person she really belly laughs at is her sister.

Buddha Bath Belly

Before you all start making fun of my beautiful baby and her belly--this was post bottle and she gets scrunched up in the bath. I just wanted to document the contented stance she assumes when in the bath. She could be screaming the house down, but as soon as I place her in her blue heaven she calms down immediately.

Cheeeeeewwwwwwwwww!

Sissy Kissy

"A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit,
a golden thread to the meaning of life."
-- Isadora James

Four Month Foot Fetish

.I distinctly remember a picture of Tallulah at around this age on her changing table, grabbing her feet and staring into the camera with her big blue-gray liquid eyes. The only real difference between that image, which I will find and post, and this is color of the room. As I said from the beginning, it is so difficult not to compare our two beautiful girls because they do look so much alike. Beatrix doesn't have the fire that Tallulah had. That feisty push to constantly fight sleep because she might miss something isn't there. (Thank goodness.) Beatrix smiles in a way that I don't think Tallulah ever did at this age. It's a smile that illuminates her face and and creates a circle of peace and joy around her. Even when she's trying to be tired and cranky, or hungry and cranky, you can still fool her into smiling between the yarls. Her greatest joy continues to be be watching her sissy do just about anything.

All of her efforts recently continue to be focused upon getting and keeping anything that she can in her mouth. I keep trying different types of chew toys to help her find the perfect fit because it can be heartbreaking to watch her get a good chew grip on something and be in heaven for a few seconds only to lose it again because she isn't quite dextrous enough to keep it there. But she'll get it soon.

Movie Magic

15 Weeks

Born in the USA

Baby in Blue

I have lots to say...

A few mornings ago, Beatrix woke up smiling and "talking" to us and she hasn't stopped since. It looks like she's going to have lots to say just like her sister. Her voice is soft and sweet like pink melted marshmallows and I love listening to everything she has to tell us--even at 3 a.m.

I love My Bumba...Kind Of.

Fake Cough and Starfish

Roll Over!

Hanging with Mummy and Daddy

I can't believe our sweet girl is almost three months old next week. There was a time when I couldn't imagine getting to know another little creature the way I know and love Tallulah. Now I can't imagine not knowing Beatrix's sweet little face and kissing her scrumptious neck and head. The pics of me and Gavin say it all really when it comes to how much sleep we are getting: not a lot. Beatrix still has good nights and bad nights and is still sleeping in our room and I think we are going to wait until she's four months old to put her in her crib--even though I swore she'd be in there the first night.
I can already tell that she is going to be a happy girl. She laughs at the slightest thing and even makes herself giggle with her fake little coughs. She's fascinated by her hands and likes to sleep with her arms above her head when she's not swaddled. We love you lovebug.

tummy time!

Look Who Can Hold her Head Up!

Beatrix will be 11 weeks tomorrow and she is getting cuter and cuter every day. She is so good at tummy time and holding up her head. She is still just so sweet and loves to smile and giggle at everyone, especially her sister.

10 Weeks

Beatriz

I Love my Sissy

9 weeks

9

8 Weeks

Oh look, it's another matching outfit. I didn't think I would be one of those mothers who paraded their children around looking like carbon copies of eachother. I guess I was wrong, because it's so fun to do!

Seven Weeks and Sunny

No it's not gas, it's a real deal smile! Our honey bee is a giggler already and we love to see her smile.