Father's Fun

Last week was Father's Day and I had a great weekend. Sunday was a beautiful day Melissa, Bea and I had lunch next to Minnehaha Falls in Minnepolis with my parents. There is a fish/seafood restaurant next to the falls that was extremely busy, but we had a table close tot he falls and the food was fantastic. Bea likes water, and with the recent heavy rains the falls were flowing as heavy as they ever do. She was impressed. Fathers Day dinner was with Melissa's parents at a nice Italian restaurant in Edina. We were able to sit outside there to. Bea loved the waiter, he was hamming it up big for her. Father's day weekend was followed with a tour of the new Gopher football stadium on Monday evening. It's always neat to see a stadium as an engineer, it's even better to see a stadium that means something personal. The stadium has redefined the campus with it's large height, it looms in the background. The unobstructed (no walls yet) view from the top of the stadium were amazing and a perspective I've never had around campus of the outlying neighborhoods. It was a great way to wrap up Father's Day weekend.

Yesterday Melissa went back to Appleton with her parents to check on her grandmother Marcella who reportedly wasn't doing too well a week ago. Well the good news is her grandmother was in very good shape, she has had dimentia for a while, but she apparently recognized Melissa.

I was left to hold down the fort with Bea and Bullet, the day went well and we capped it with a walk around Lake Harriet. It started with me parking next to the lake and up on walking up to the Lake I realized the street was probably 30 feet above the Lake and the there were stairs with probably at least 50 steps, two blocks later we found an at-grade access for the stroller and Bullet. Then about 1/3 of the way around the busy lake pedestrian trail Bullet poops right on the trail. To my horror I quickly realized I forgot Bullet's poop-security-trash bags in the car, but I found a couple of bags in Bea's diaper bag. I'm embarassed with people all around and am trying to move quickly before Bea or Bullet get irritable, I pick up the poop when a woman behind me says "You missed one over here" and there was a huge turd. Bullet has pooped twice on a walk with me, ever, and he's 10 years old. I don't know if it was old age, a warmer day, or just bad timing. It was a long but fun trip around the lake. We capped the walk with a trip to Sebastian Joe's ice cream. I left Bullet in the car and grabbed some chocolate-oreo ice cream with a table next to some kids and a little water fall. Bea loved it. What she like even more was the little sample of ice cream I gave her. She was not happy when the spoon went over her head to my mouth. I had a separete spoon for her and let her likc some ice cream every now and then. I convinced Melissa and her parents to head back to the Lake to check out some nice houses and a repeat of ice cream. Bea likes chocolate a lot better then vanilla.

Walk This Way!

Just wanted to post a quick note to give you the big news: Bea is walking on her own! :) We're not exactly sure when her "official" first steps were, but she is now able to take 5-6 steps unaided... but only when she is distracted - otherwise she really still wants to hold your hand.

In addition, today I walked into the kitchen and she said "Mama?" FINALLY! :) She's been saying Daddy, Dog, and once even Gran (for Grandpa)... but never Mama in relation to me.

Well, our internet is down, so I am doing this on borrowed time, so I will talk to ya later!

Melissa

1 year (full term)

Beatrice is one year old, full term (when she was supposed to have been born), on May 25th according to Melissa and May 30th to me. The doctors went back and forth between the 25th and the 30th and the two of us use different dates. Her real birthday is April 6th which is sadly only a few blogs ago but there's been significant excitement since then.

Melissa has already alluded to Beatrice liking to walk a lot better than crawling. Today she had her fill of walking as we went to my Grandmother's 90th birthday party and the grandparents walked her until everyone was tired. Bea talks and laughs and squeals with delight quite often when she's walking.

Below is a picture of Grandpa Rach walking Bea and we captured her in mid-vocalization.














Here she is at (Great)Grandma Hazel's 90th Birthday Party with Grandma Pat, Great-Grandma Hazel, and me - four generations.












Lastly, here's Bea standing in her party dress after the party. (Look Ma, only one hand!)


When we're too tried or sore to walk her, she's crawling as fast as we can keep up. She loves torturing Bullet and following him around endlessly. Besides eating anything and everything, she without failure farts like a grown up when we're feeding her. She's slept through the night for probably three weeks in a row. It's amazing what a little rest can do.

I don't know that I've ever posted on the power of Branding. When Bea was a few weeks old, we put black and white prints of unusual shapes on the walls so she could develop her eye sight better. With time she was able to see the pictures a few feet away.

Probably the first thing she ever saw at a significant distance was a 12 pack of coca-cola. It was probably 10 feet away across the room and she just sat up and stared at it. It was the bright red and contrasting white colors with the patented swirl that locked her in.

During dinner after she got bigger and stronger and could stand in the exer-saucer she'd stare at the can of coke when I drank it at dinner. I would lower it down to her to let her touch it. She smiled the biggest smile like I was giving her the best christmas gift ever and she would touch the cold smooth can with both hands and stare back at me with the huge smile in wonderment. Today, she is much more aggresive, grabbing for the can whenever she sees it. When I drink out of it, she immitates me and licks the can. Here she is in mid-can-lick:



I guess I better be careful what I eat, drink and do in front of her so I don't set a bad example. I think I've found a new conscience.

Matt