29. Grandpa Griff has a new camera

Baby Elle here we come!

28. Merry Christmas!

27. Like mother, like daughter

A kitty cat!

26. Bouncing

Beatrice has discovered how to make her chair bounce.

She is going to develop some ripped abs.

25. Food and drink

It is so strange to feed Bea "real" food. I have tried some of the organic jarred stuff and made some from scratch. She definitely has a preference for homemade. (Although some of the Gerber organic things are tasty. Usually, if I try something and think it is tasty, she likes it. If I think it is gross, she tends to agree.) Last night I made her some spinach and it seems to have been her favorite thing yet. (Bananas are a close second.) She looked at the bowl longingly when it was empty and I was offering her the rest of her carrots instead.

She has also started learning how to drink out of a cup. She likes to chomp on it. She also likes when I give voices to the cat and dog that adorn the sides of her mug.

Here she is trying out the drinking thing (with a nice blop of spinach leaking out of her mouth). A warning: her father said of this movie, "It kind of goes on..."

24. Christmas Tree

Every year our family goes to a Christmas tree farm and tags a tree over Thanksgiving weekend. Then, sometime in December, we go back to cut it down and bring it home. (And each year my mom--a.k.a. Grandma Fox--exclaims, "I wish we had made plans to get a live tree this year!!!" I guess you need to dig a hole in which to later plant it before winter sets in.)

This year was no exception. We went to a new farm. It was beautiful and sprawling, and on the day we went to select a tree--COLD. Beatrice and I only made it part way to the trees before deciding to turn back. So Bea's first trip to pick a Christmas tree went about as well as her first trip to pick apples. But everyone else was very pleased with the tree they picked--it was by far the best one there.

Last week Dale, Bea, and I were back up in CT, so we and Grandma Fox and Grandpa Griff made a trip to pick up the tree. The weather was somewhat milder and Bea and I were well bundled (see photo above), so this time we made it all the way to the tree.

Or rather, we would have made it to the tree.

The photo below is of Grandpa Griff hurrying ahead to the tree. And the photo after that shows what he found.

Needless to say, Grandpa Griff was not pleased. (Nor were the rest of us.) Someone had stolen our tree! (Yes, stolen--we had already paid for it and it was marked with two large, labeled tags!) Some Christmas spirit. So we had to pile back in the car and start all over. (There weren't any more nice trees at that farm. At least, none of them looked nice to us anymore.)

On the way home we passed a sign for a different tree farm. We followed it and found a cute little farm (less a farm and more a very, very large back yard planted with trees for picking). It even had crazy wheeled, jingle-belled, tree-toting carts.

Beatrice was able to help pick her first Christmas tree after all. And everyone agrees it is even nicer than the original.

23. Bundled

22. Sitting up

Beatrice has been working on sitting up for some weeks now. She has been able to do a bit of self-supported sitting (with spotting) but mostly she has needed help after a few seconds, not being very adept at self-correcting for balance. But suddenly (it seems) today she can do it!

Here is a little photo and an even better movie:

21. A tooth!

I don't have a photo for this entry, although I'll add some Thanksgiving weekend photo or other later. But I just had to announce that Bea's first tooth has broken through! She has been a trooper about it, although this evening (24 hrs after I first noticed her new chopper) she was a teensy bit fussier, droolier, and chompier than usual. Poor thing. My teeth hurt just watching her.


Here are some photos from the weekend...

20. Food, glorious food

Tentative first bites.

This week Beatrice started eating baby rice cereal! We initially tried plain old breast milk from a spoon and she was really interested. The next day we added the cereal. At first she was a little perplexed, but after a day or two of attempting one or two bites, she has finally decided it is a-okay. (She also enjoys chewing on her bib and spoon.)

Next week, turkey and apple pie...

19. Happy Halloween

We originally ordered a bee costume for Bea online. When it arrived we decided it was icky, so I made one. It is hard to find a black onesie! Bea was remarkably composed when wearing her antennae. However, we did have to keep a sharp eye out to make sure she didn't chew on her pipe-cleaner infused wings (speaking of sharp and eyes).

Here she is flapping around a bit:


No trick-or-treaters this year. Poor, lonely jack-o-lanterns.

18. HAPPY 90TH MRS. HALEY!

This past weekend marked the 90th birthday of Dale's maternal grandmother--Bea's great-grandmother! (Dale wanted me to explain that in the above sign "cruise in" refers to some sort of car show and "conserve" to the current drought in the area.)

Dale, Bea, and I made the trip to VA so we could attend the party, and so Bea could meed her VA grandfather "Papa," her Uncle Brian, and the many other relatives who would be there for the event.

The party was in the same church basement where Bea's VA baby shower took place! Here is a photo of four generations together:


We decided to take the train down rather than drive or fly. We had a "roomette" which meant that we had a bunk bed above, and two seats below that could flatten into a bed (not to mention a toilet--? in the room!--and sink). We reclined one of the lower seats completely and set up a little bed for Bea. It worked pretty well, especially on the way down, when most of the trip was at night and she slept. The way back was a little bumpier (our 6AM train was 1.5 hrs late, for starters!) but all in all, the trip went smoothly.

Daddy and Bea on the train:


At her grandparents' house, Bea especially loved Odie, the dog (he made her giggle), and the porch swing. Here she is with her daddy and Grandma Mary on the swing:

I got two of my favorite photos of her while she was swinging with her Grandma Mary.

We didn't grab any photos of her Papa holding her where you can actually see his face! (Intentional camera-shyness? Hmm...) We do have some good movies though.

And finally, here she is checking out her Uncle Brian!

We miss you, VA!

17. William

Dale's friend and former co-worker, Jennifer (how's Italy??), gave Bea a stuffed animal version of the Met's unofficial mascot (did you know the Met had a mascot?), William. She LOVES him. He speaks to her in a slow, deep voice and says, "Hi Beatrice. My name is William. I'm a river horse."

16. Hmm...that baby is warm

TWICE now, Sam has decided to curl up with Beatrice while she is asleep. The first time I was on the bed with her and Sam jumped up, curled up with me, but then thought better of it and went over to Bea instead.

The second time, I heard her stirring from a nap and went into the bedroom where I found Sam curled up in the crib with her! She was kicking him in the head, but he didn't mind. (I only have a video of that, and it is a video I took on our fancy camcorder. I don't know how to upload that type of movie file because YouTube won't recognize it. Oh well.)

15. The back of Bea's head

Adorable, no?

14. Rolling over

Beatrice has figured out how to roll over from back to front! She still doesn't know about rolling from front to back, which can lead to some consternation. (Usually babies learn these tricks in the opposite order, but Bea has never been thrilled with "tummy time.") Here's a movie, mostly consternation-free.

13. Dale, Bea, and Freddy watch baseball

12. Home again, home again

We are back from our extended stay with the CT grandparents. I've been slack on updating the blog because now that we have to feed ourselves again and go all the way to the basement to do laundry, it feels like there are a million things that need doing.

But here is a little update.

In the past few weeks Bea has begun giggling! It's fantastic and when I have a movie I'll post one. She has also begun successfully grabbing things, which makes it much easier to play with and chew on toys. (I see a tooth bud or two.) I've taken a page from the Oliver Magnus blog and put together a couple of serial photos. The first is Bea with Grandma Fox and the 2nd is Bea pulling herself forward to chew on her toy bar. Yum! (I am ashamed to say that in the 2nd photo she is also watching TV with mom and grandma. Thus the wide-eyed stare.)

11. First dance

Oliver came to visit Bea in CT this weekend...

Thanks to Oliver's mom, we have a fantastic movie of the two of them dancing in the Pack n' Play. (This video might appear on Ollie's blog too...)

10. Bea and Daddy on vacation

9. Delicious, delicious fingers...