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.