70. Snow!

We thought Bea would love the snow. While she does enjoy looking at it through the windows from within the warm confines of home (especially watching birds eating birdseed on the snowy yard), she does NOT like snow.

She doesn't like standing on it.

She doesn't want to touch it.

Interestingly, she likes ice, and she wanted to play with the patches of snow on the yard when they were limited to small bits from an earlier, lighter snowfall.

I hope she will change her mind later in the season, so we can teach her how to make snow angels in her puffy snow outfit.

69. Gobble

I thought Bea would really love Thanksgiving dinner, being the carnivore that she is. But she wasn't particularly interested in the eating part of the holiday. What she liked best was having lots of people around. Her favorite part of the weekend might have been the Bea Dance Party in the front hall of Grandma Fox and Grandpa Griff's house. (She continues to want people to dance with her on the front carpet.)

She also had a rollicking good time in her bouncy chair listening to Trevor on the guitar:

Her biggest frustration of the weekend was being too little to play Carcassonne.
One day, my dear.

68. Food, glorious (cat) food

Bea has a new obsession: cat food. I suppose it was only a matter of time, and I should be grateful it is the cat food and not the litter box.

Our cats eat two kinds of dry food. One is designed for dental health and this is their favorite. This is also Bea's favorite. Over the past week, on multiple occasions, Bea has made a dash for the food, thrown a few pieces of kibble in her mouth, and scampered off clutching a few more. As soon as I would spot her she would run away screaming, knowing I would take the food away from her.

The worst part is her cat food breath. Disturbing.

Instead of trying to scare her about the food, I've decided to try to reason with her. She is very fond of Sam and Freddy, so I've explained to her that if she eats Sam and Freddy's food, then they won't have any food and they will be sad and hungry. I have had to explain this a few times. I think it might be sinking in though because now she has a new technique. She brings over one of her little toy stacking bowls, places one piece of kibble in the bowl, then goes in search of a cat. She places the bowl carefully in front of the cat and slowly backs away with a look of anticipation on her face. (This is particularly funny to me because at her 18-month checkup at the start of this week they asked if she knew how to walk backwards and I had no idea.) Unfortunately, neither of the cats have taken her up on her offers and I am worried she might be testing them about the food, to see if I am being on the level with her. Yesterday she also took a piece of food out to her rubber duckie and pretended to feed him. It is hard to take the food away from her when she is being so cute.

Notice the new (slightly awkward) bangs!

67. Birdcall

One of Bea's favorite new activities is listening to bird calls on the computer with her daddy's birding software. She is very specific about what birds she likes. If she is displeased she will shake her head and we will move along to a different bird. She likes the Barred Owl. She did not like the Mallard. Strange. Here she is listening to the Eastern Wood-Pewee.

Other recent activities:
-She not only likes to wear my gloves, she likes to wear my socks.
-She pretends to eat cat food out of a dish like a cat.
-She tries to feed the cats.
-She pretends to feed water from her sippy cup to her stuffed animals, complete with drinking sound effects.
-She tries to blow the cats noses.
-She presses Play on the answering machine so she can listen to messages her Grandma Mary leaves for her. Yesterday, while listening to the messages, she accidentally called Grandma Fox on speakerphone, so she was able to listen to BOTH grandmas at the same time.

Here she is blowing a kiss.

66. Gloves

This was her idea:

65. Interpretive dance

Notice Bea's fantastic point-and-bounce move at the beginning. She had been doing that for quite some time before I found the camera. (And no, she isn't dressed for a tap class or a poetry slam in a smoky bar--she is in half of her Halloween costume.)

74. Happy Halloween!

Tonight Dale took Beatrice trick-or-treating for the first time. They went down the cul-de-sac next to our house. At the first house Bea was wary. But by the second, she realized that this business was all about taking little shiny packages out of containers and putting them into her own container. And if there is one thing Bea loves, it is collecting. She is a little magpie. When they got home she had a jolly time playing with her collection. I guess we will have to eat all of the candy before she wakes up tomorrow!

63. Many things

Sorry I haven't posted in a while! Sometimes the living of life takes precedence over its documentation. The following is a collection of bits and bobs to bring us all up to speed:

Ouija Bea

When she isn't pulling them out of their sleeves, or dropping them on the floor to turn one into two (or three), Beatrice enjoys scribbling with crayons. Often on paper. She has developed some skill flying solo, but sometimes she wants a little help. She will pick out a color, hand it to me, then point very determinedly at a spot on the paper. At first I would draw something for her when she did this. But then I realized that I could encourage her to hold onto my hand and the crayon and direct the two around the paper. I apply pressure to the crayon and she does the drawing. Dale has termed this process the Ouija Bea. This drawing is part Ouija Bea, part regular Bea.

Apple picking (pears too)

New Pond Farm

We recently learned about this fantastic farm in Redding, CT. They have hiking trails, farm animals, and a dairy store that sells the most amazing milk, cheese, yogurt, and eggs on the honor system. (They also offer various programs for children, but Bea is still a bit too young.) Grandma Mary is visiting and we took a trip to the farm on a blustery day last weekend and walked around.

Note my fantastic combination of "foul weather gear" (courtesy of Grandpa Griff), Ergo baby carrier, and hiking boots. Classy. But Bea is still cute in her rain coat!

very windy

with Grandma Mary

sitting on a tree, and loving it

Climbing

Bea is pretty good at getting off of furniture, and has been for some time. But the other day she pulled herself up into a chair for the first time. She was VERY pleased with herself. She even agreed to recreate the process for the camera (wearing part of her witchy Halloween costume).

62. Sleep (!)

Last night Bea slept for 11 hours straight. ELEVEN!
Grandma Mary is visiting and I told her we were going to have to keep her around if this is how Bea sleeps after playing with her all day.

61. Lazy, lazy mommy.

I promise I will upload some new photos soon. For now, I will just share with you how happy I am that Bea slept from 7:30pm until 5:00am the night before last (and after the 5:00 wake-up she slept until 8:15!) and from 7:45pm to 5:45am (and then until 7:00) last night. I hope this is a new era and not just a fluke.

Until I get more photos and movies up, please take a look at Oliver's blog for an awesome video featuring the adorable tots.
http://olivermagnus.blogspot.com/2008/10/bea-ollie-dancing-2-electric-boogaloo.html

60. First Pigtails

They didn't last long, but they sure were cute! (And they took care of Bea's almost-mullet.)

59. My Fair Lady II

Yesterday we braved the rain to go to the Durham Fair (in CT, not NC). Bea had a chance to try out her very first rain coat.

At every fair we have attended this summer (quite a few) Bea has expressed a strong interest in THE RIDES. I always assumed she was too little, but this time we checked to see if she would be allowed on the Ferris wheel and she was (for $4!). She LOVED it. No fear of heights in this one.




Bea would also like to send a shout out to her Grandma Mary who is currently travelling in China. We look forward to seeing you in October!

58. Tomatoes

Grandpa Griff came with us to our super-fantastic CSA farm this week (http://www.forthillfarm.com/) so he could take some photos of the master tomato-picker at work. After she had her fill of tomatoes (she always wants to walk around with three of them in her hands) she settled down to play in/with the dirt. She treated it like water, patting her hands in it then rubbing them together as if she were washing them, finally patting her head as if she were working shampoo into a lather. We don't have photos of that.