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