MAAAAAAAMAAAAAAA

Melissa wanted a girl, and she wanted a Mama's girl. She got her wish. MAAAAAMAAAA, not MAMA, may be Bea's favorite word. It's sometimes followed by a quick Maaama? while turning to look back at me with squinted eyebrows and a little smile, which is her way of asking "where's Mom" and suspecting and hoping that Melissa is upstairs working in her office or somewhere else near by. If I reply "upstairs" and point up she squints her eyebrows and puckers her lips for a "ooouuuu" then bolts for the stairs at lightening speed with her left arm pumping as fast as it can go. She hasn't quite figured out how to run using both arms to gain speed. It's as cute as it can get, as if a 30" inch 25 pound little person with a bundle of energy can be anything but cute, even when crying. Okay, crying at 4 am is excluded from cute.

Melissa started her first week at a new job last week and Bea started her first week of toddlers at daycare last week. It was a big week for the girls. Both put in some extra energy and are extra tired. I'm in the middle of classes this semester and well Bullet is feeling the anxiety too.

Bea's favorite game with me right now consists of me chasing her, anywhere, but specifically from the kitchen to the family room/bathroom entry way and from the bathroom entry way/family room to the corner of the kitchen. She runs as fast as she can, which is pretty fast these days, with the left arm pumping as fast as it can go and lots of giggling, and even more giggling when I catch her. Repeat. Then repeat, over and over until Daddy is tired or she gets tired and wipes out.

She's picking up on words extremely fast and we need to be very careful with what we say, and eat in front of her. Her doctor asked me if she likes to eat a little of a variety of things. I replied that Bea likes a lot of everything. Lettuce and peaches are so-so, but she eats everything else faster then we can cut it and put it on her plate. More, MORE, MOOOORRRREEEEEE!!!!! with her hands signing (sign language) the word "more" very quickly is also common in our household. Foods with spices particularly mexican/tacos and my mongolian chicken from Leann Chinn last night are favorites. Also any diary product especially cheese. Mama's girl?

Other good news is Bea is blasting up the height and weight charts from around 30% at her 15 month physical to around 60% uncorrected and 70% corrected (for her due date). Her head is stuck at the 95% percentile though. It's really hard to get through the shirts and 2 year old hats are commonly too small.

We're having a blast and are sad summer and our pleasant walks are done for a while. We'll have to find some indoor ways to burn energy.

Matt

Bea & Sadie at the Pumpkin Patch: Part 2

Happy October everyone! Bea is officially18 months old. She is also officially a toddler at daycare. She's enjoying playing with all the leaves that are falling down from the trees and is now singing to her baby dolls. Unfortunately, she hasn't been feeling super great lately -- she's had a cold and tummy aches -- but overall she is doing great.

If you've been following our blog for awhile, you might remember that last year around this time Bea and her cousin, Sadie, made their first trip to the pumpkin patch/apple orchard (see blog from September 15, 2007). Here's what they looked like then (Bea on the left, Sadie on the right):

Last year, Bea couldn't even sit up on her own. Well, recently the girls made their second trip -- what a difference a year makes! Both Bea and Sadie climbed up on the hay bale by themselves. See them below holding hands... aw... (Sadie on the left, Bea on the right):

The farm has several animals for the kids to pet -- this year the girls actually noticed them. Bea was very excited to meet a "Neigh" in real life.

Here they are partners in crime... Sadie was probably telling Bea how to get bites of hot dog and potato chips without me noticing (that came later in the day). Here's Bea in the orchard -- she really enjoys being outside and she runs pretty fast these days, so you have to keep an eye on her. Sadie and Bea sample the apples after picking them right off the trees.
Here is Aunt Renee, Sadie, Matt, Bea, and I sitting on the back of the tractor/hay ride wagon. It nearly dumped us off a couple of times on the way to and from the apple trees. Here's Matt, Bea, and I in the pumpkin patch (well, the pumpkin sales area). We took the pumpkin Bea chose here home. And, yes, we are standing in the same place we were last year.
Here's Renee and Matt on the way out with apples, pumpkins, and tired little girls in the strollers.

Well, that's all for now. Hope you are enjoying the fall. - Melissa

Summer Round Up

Ok, so, this blog is starting to be a once-a-month type deal. Actually, it was Matt's turn to write the last blog, so give him a hard time about it.

Around here the adults have been quite busy. Matt got an A- in his summer class (hooray!) and started fall semester, Melissa got a real job downtown (yes, seriously), and our house has been on the market for a month. Nobody wants it, though. We only had one family look at it in the first three weeks. Today we had an open house and there were apparently some interested people. We'll see. I think Matt and I are getting tired of the whole thing. But, we figure that even if we don't sell the house, at least we cleaned it super well!

Beatrice is getting to be such a big girl. She has now started stringing words together, like "Bea sit" (when she wants help getting into a chair). She's even starting to go to bed awake. Right now one of us lays on the floor next to her crib until she goes to sleep. We try to pretend to go to sleep and not talk to her. She's taking it pretty well. She whines a little for Matt, and she drops her stuffed animals on me and says "Mama? Maaaaaaama?" before falling over asleep. In a few weeks she's going to move to the toddler room at daycare. And, we're investing in a potty chair.

We're very sad that summer is coming to a close - we've really liked taking Bea and Bullet together for walks in the warm evenings and playing outside. Since I haven't posted pics in awhile, here are a few of our favorite end-of-summer memories.

Matt & Bea mowing the lawn, with Grandma Liz watching from the house -- an instant classic picture.

Here is Bea galloping with a pony she got from Aunt Renee. She's had it forever, but was quite afraid of it for awhile. Now she loves the "NEIGH!" (All things that even remotely resemble a horse are now called "neighs.")

Here is Bea kissing the Neigh. She learned about kisses awhile ago, but she has recently become much more... generous. She kisses anything she likes, she makes us kiss anything she likes, she makes things she like kiss each other (her baby dolls have to kiss the teddy bears, etc.)

She also shares her bottles and food with baby dolls and stuffed animals -- she puts her bottle up to a baby doll's mouth and makes slurping noises for probably a 1/2 hour each day.

Bea loves food. Even the daycare staff are in awe at how much she can eat and how fast she can eat it. She likes spicy stuff -- Mexican is by far her favorite, but as you can see, spaghetti is pretty exciting, too. Unfortunately, whenever Bea is really excited (happy or sad) she plays with her hair. So, when she gets food she really likes, it all goes on her head. (And yes, she does actually kiss the food she likes.)

Here's Bea in the back yard playing with Grandpa Dick and Bullet. Bullet is now totally used to Bea. She jumps on him, pulls his tail, pulls his ears, and chases him... he sometimes looks at Matt and I like, "make it stop." But, then a minute later he'll choose to lay right by her. Just like "blood siblings," they're always after each others' stuff. You bring out two balls, one for him and one for her -- and they each go after the ball meant for the other one. You get a treat out for one, you need to get a treat for the other. Actually, with treats, Bea lets you know who gets them. She'll say "Bea," "Dog," "Bea," "Dog." She always mentions herself first, but at least she shares.

Bea likes all dogs actually, Here she is in her favorite doggie pjs, holding her pink polka-dot- doggie in one hand, and a Bullet look-alike refigerator magnet in the other hand.

In the background, you see the big purple ball, which has also been a big hit this summer. One day Bea and I were in Target and saw these balls on sale. I knew it was a hit, when I couldn't keep it in the cart. She kept launching it down the aisles and laughing hysterically.

A few weeks ago, we took Bea to the zoo for the first time. The Minnesota Zoo is quite large and really near to our house, so we bought a year pass. For the first visit, we took Bea to the farm section, because she has a toy farm and knows most of the animals/animal noises. I'm not too sure she really made the correlation between the plastic animals and the real ones, though. Here she is learning to drive a tractor with Dad outside the Zoo barn.

Here we are looking at the cows, which were a little overwhelming for Bea. She kept pointing and whispering "Dog?" Moo is the one animal sound Bea doesn't do particularly well (she says "mmmmm"). So, I was hoping one of the cows would moo. No dice, though. They were all moote. (ba-bum-tsch!)

Here we are with a litter of piglets. Bea liked the more active animals the best - she liked the piglets, the goats, and the chickens. I had to intervene, however, when she tried to kiss the real chicken through the glass (gross!). There was much crying in the kiss-free chicken barn.

Well, that's all for now. Talk to you soon..... well, maybe not. Talk to you in a few weeks. :)

Melissa

Half-way through August? Really!?

Wow, the last few weeks have just flown by! Matt is busy studying for his final this week, so I thought I'd put up a quick post.

We are putting our house on the market this week, so we've been busy cleaning and reorganizing. We've only been here five years, but I'm such a packrat, we've got a lot of stuff. And, that baby stuff takes up quite a bit of room, too. We are actually still pretty conflicted about selling our house... so we decided to leave it to fate. If we get a good offer by the holidays, we'll move. If not, we'll probably stay.

Bea is doing well. Her vocabularly is really growing:
- She's got "yes" and "no" down pat -- complete with head motions.
- She knows "up" (Bup!) and "down" (dowww)
- She can now point out (with about 70% accuracy) her mouth (mow), nose (NOOOO), eyes (eyezz), ears (ewaz), hair (hwair), and belly (bwell). We're working on the other body parts.
- She can say "red", "geeeeen", "pwuple", and "boo" -- but doesn't quite get the concept of colors yet.
- She is still obsessed with her shoes (Sues) and socks (SSSSocks).
- She likes to point out trees (Tee!!), birds (burr), and flowers (Ffffowuh)...
- She has lots of animals noises -- she does a great horse, sheep, chicken, and dog
- Some days she says "Accum!" for vaccuum because she's terrified of it!
- She also knows all of her classmates' and teachers' names at school
- And, finally, she now says "Mama" and "Dada" regularly and means us! She also says "grahmma" and "guhpa"... if you listen closely

She's becoming a big girl in a lot of other ways, too. She graduated from her high chair to a booster chair. She knows how to turn the stereo on and off (and starts dancing before she ever hears the music). She's even starting to transition into the toddler room at day care.

Along with her new toddler status, she's been having toddler-size accidents. I think it's pretty normal for a 16-month-old, but she is coming home with accident reports all the time from school and does the craziest things at home, too. She runs into walls, trips on toys, knocks her head, etc. It's terrible when she has little bruises and scratches, but we know it is inevitable, because she really moves fast... and doesn't really look where she's going.

This weekend, Bea is going on her first overnight trip with Grandma Pat and Grandpa Steve in Princeton, while Matt and I go to Chicago for a wedding. I think Matt and I are looking forward to the sleep as much as the wedding! haha.

Hope you are well,
Melissa

July has been busy, busy, busy!

Hi everyone,

Wow, have we been running around a lot in July. So many things have happened! Bea is now literally running around and her vocabulary is expanding every day. Her favorite word right now is "BABY!" -- usually in reference to her baby dolls, but also to point out the baby in any picture. Bea is also the proud owner of FOUR molars.

We had a nice Fourth of July. We spent the actual Fourth with my parents and then went to Matt's parents' cabin on the fifth. Bea got some lovely new shoes for the occasion. She was very impressed with them as you can see.














Here are some pics of the bathing beauty at the cabin with Grandma Pat before she tried the baby pool for the first time:



















We spent the next few weeks preparing for a party we were throwing to kick off Matt's family reunion. We had about 40 people at our house, so we were cleaning like crazy. Thanks to Grandma Liz -- she saved our butts by helping us clean for two days even though she wasn't coming to the party! We did take a break from the cleaning on my birthday, when we went out to one of our favorite restaurants in downtown Minneapolis.

The reunion finally came and our party went off without a hitch. Then, we went to a resort in Northern Minnesota with all of Matt's aunts, uncles, cousins, and their kids from all over the country... and Grandma Hazel (the matriarch of them all)! We all stayed together in one giant cabin. Unfortunately, Bea saved up all the bad behavior she has never used in her life for the week we were up North. She discovered the tantrum, and boy, can she scream. She also classically pooped while she was in the bathtub with her cousin, Sadie. Nice.

We thought she was just overstimulated and out of her normal routine. We felt really bad when THREE MOLARS appeared within two days after the reunion. Sigh. Sorry Bea, a little Orajel probably would have gone a long way. We had fun with all the family anyway. Here are some pictures.













Here is Bea (far left, crying...) and most of her cousins from California and Massachusetts. As you can see the troops were a little restless at this point. Luke, a two-year-old California cousin, had already crawled off the scene.













Here's Bea at the reunion watching bubbles. (Stopped the screaming for a few minutes.)













This picture is of Bea's Uncle Mart and cousin, Sadie (Minnesota); Matt's cousin Eric and his son, Jackson (California); and Matt and Bea. Sadie is six months older then Bea, and Jackson had the same due date as Bea -- so the three of them had a lot of fun together.















Matt and I NEVER look good in pictures. So, since by some crazy luck we got two good ones on the same day, we thought we'd post them!













This is Matt and Bea in the lake at the reunion. She was quite afraid of the lake and the sand at first, but with help from Mom, Dad, Aunt Renee, Sadie, Grandma Pat, and Grandpa Steve -- she finally got into it.


Finally, just days after the reunion was over, our friends Chris and Deanna from Maryland came to visit. We had a nice Friday night out with them and went to the Star Wars exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota. We actually got to sit in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, but that pic is on Deanna's camera. Here are some other fun pics for anyone who happens to be a Star Wars geek like the four of us.













Matt & Chris with Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder













M & D with Friends from Endor.

We hope you are having a great summer!
Melissa

Summer Fun Pics

Not much to report around here. Bea is super fun right now -- she is only unhappy when her teeth bother her (molars are coming in). She is now capable of walking all around the room, but she still tries to hold hands whenever she can. Her hair is getting long and curly! (If you click on the Phone picture below, you can see the curls). She is also going through a "Mommy's girl" phase, which is interesting... won't let me out of her site. Kind of nice to be loved, but kind of nice to leave the room once in awhile, too. :)

Anyway, hope your summer is going well. Have a great 4th.

Here are some fun pictures for you.

Melissa

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.