Fall Foliage

Yesterday we rented a car and drove up to Harriman State Park, meeting R and B there (it's about 45 minutes to an hour away). Beia was very good—taking her morning nap in the car on the way out and her afternoon nap in the car on the way back. She was particularly interested in all the leaves...and wanted to eat them all, putting them in her mouth! For lunch though, she didn't get to eat the leaves, much to her dismay. We brought a lunch from home and all five of us picnic-ed at a smaller park near Harriman. Beia did very well—sitting on Steve's lap and eating everything we brought her (steak with roots veggies in a basil pesto). 

During our walk through Harriman, Beia started to get antsy in the stroller so Steve took her out and put her on his shoulders—which she of course loves. Here she found that Rob's ear—so close—was of interest. Although to be honest, the likely target was his sunglasses (she loves glasses). 

Beia is also starting to take a few steps—only three or four at a time before falling back down, but she seems unfazed by the falling (actually, she seems to think it is funny). Hopefully we'll be able to catch that in action before too long. We're pretty sure she'll pick up walking fairly quickly. She's determined and is enjoying being able to move while holding her toys. With crawling, she ends up putting a toy in her mouth before she can move anyway.

PUPPY!!!

When Beia was born we received a lot of gifts from generous friends and family. Among the gifts was a fluffy, round puppy mat. We used the mat for tummy time starting from when Beia was about a month old, up until the time we transitioned to using her play gym a month or two later. From then on we weren't really sure what to do with the puppy mat. It just sort of hung around. So much so that we eventually positioning it under the Jumperoo as a soft spot for Beia to land her feet.

However, our keen-eyed nanny (Cindy) noticed Beia going straight for the puppy mat—despite it being beneath under the Jumperoo. So Cindy moved the puppy mat out into the open, and Beia has had a love affair with the puppy ever since. It's sort of her "home base" that she runs—er, crawls—to and then rolls around and snuggles on. Here we caught her (and her belly) in the act...

An OK Day

Today was an OK day. The weather here was fantastic, but the day mediocre. It started off poorly with a poor night's sleep for Beia—meaning a not so great night's sleep for us. Since she can't talk (beyond her continual babbling), we have no idea what the issue was. All we know is that a lot of crying and sitting up in the crib was involved, and no amount of intervention from us was helping. We even tried Children's Tylenol. She did eventually fall asleep, but it meant that she was still tired when she awoke today. Then this morning Beia fell backwards and hit her head (and bit her lip) while playing at home before daycare. Sigh. Presumably—hopefully—she had a better day at daycare. Now asleep for the night, we're hoping for a solid's night sleep for everyone and a happier day tomorrow. At least today she looked cute in her new "Sneech" sweater.

Ten Months

Friday not only marked our last day with Cindy, but it also marked Beia's ten month birthday. Beia seems to have fully transitioned into daycare—although we all still miss seeing Cindy every day. I know Cindy was hoping to see Beia take her first steps. Beia has been practicing standing and "surfing" the furniture, so those steps seem imminent. One fun thing that is already happening as a result of being in daycare—Beia is eating more and more finger foods, rather than the purees we'd been feeding her. Also, she now on daycare's set nap schedule, which we are trying to uphold even on weekends. This seems to be making her a better sleeper—knock on wood!

First Full Week

Today marks the start of the first full week of daycare for Beia...and the last week we will be with our beloved nanny, Cindy. It's hard to separate out my feelings for Beia moving into daycare from how I feel about parting ways with Cindy. Cindy has been a wonderful addition to our family ever since she started with us back in February, when Beia was only three months old.

I can't believe that we've only known Cindy seven months...and that Beia will be ten months on Friday and is now old enough to be in daycare. This moment in time is bittersweet, but we believe we are making the right decision for Beia—although we will all miss Cindy terribly. From now until Friday we'll be taking daily pictures of them, as we realize now that we don't have any documentation of their time together. This first one is a good one, and we are also starting off the week right with a great day in daycare today.

Picnic

This afternoon we had an impromptu picnic at Washington Square Park. The weather was beautiful and we had about three free hours before Beia's second nap. Beia enjoyed a lunch of roast chicken with sweet potato, and then did her best to try and drink out of our water bottle. After that she moved on to sucking the camera case and eating Steve's sunglasses. Beia and I wore matching stripes.

Daycare Days 2 and 3

The second and third (and fourth) days of daycare progressed much the same as the first. Beia had moments of great unhappiness—as well as times when she was perfectly happy. I think the challenge is getting her used to the new people, a new place, and having to stick to schedule. Beia doesn't like having to stop playing with the toys to eat lunch—no matter how much she likes to eat! We are now going into our second week at daycare, and are hoping that it will only get better from here (and quickly)! The saddest part is that this Friday will be our last day with our fabulous nanny, Cindy. We've already let her know that we expect her back when the kids go to school and need to be picked up when they are done at 3pm...

A Tough Day

Today was Beia's first day at daycare, and it wasn't an easy one for any of us—including our nanny, Cindy. To ease the transition from our nanny to daycare, we had Beia start at 9.30am and leave after her first nap at 11.30am. The day started off well with playtime—nothing tough about that. Beia seemed interested and happy with the toys there, and sort of interacted with the other kids there (there were six others there today).

Then everyone was moved to an itty bitty table with itty bitty chairs to eat their morning snack of bananas and Cheerios. Somehow just sitting at the table proved to be upsetting for one of the kids, which then had the domino effect of making all the kids upset about being at the table. Beia wasn't sure how upset she should or shouldn't be, but in the end did fine eating her bananas. Until it was time to finish eating the bananas, at which point she was not so happy about the bananas (now banana mush) being taken away. All was resolved by bottle time, which came next.

Unfortunately the day didn't end so well, culminating in a nap in an unfamiliar crib... without her blankie, Hiccup. Thanks to NY state law, the daycare doesn't allow anything other than a paci in the crib until after the kids turn one. It makes sense, but was very upsetting for everyone. Our nanny was there to witness the scene and said that the entire daycare was filled with the sounds of crying kids—all upset for one reason or another.

Sigh. We get to do this all over again tomorrow. And then the next day and then next. Hoping it gets easier and better, for everyone. I'm sure our nanny is wondering how we can possibly be moving Beia from her great care to this—I know we are!

String Bean : Nine Months

Last Tuesday Beia turned nine months old (!) so on Friday we had her nine month appointment with the pediatrician. As usual, Beia was in her happy, smile-ly self—even through her two vaccinations. Her growth trajectory remains on track. At 29.25" she is in the 94th percentile for height and at 16lbs 14oz she is in the 17th percentile for weight. String bean, indeed. The doctor talked to us about reducing the amount of formula Beia is drinking and moving more and more to solid food. So this weekend we spent much of Beia's nap time cooking new foods for her to try and eat. Prunes remain her favorite, but she now has two new chicken dishes to try, along with the Greek yogurt she loves.

Ida-who?

Last week we all traveled across country—for the very first time—for a week's vacation at the Rubin family cabin in Priest Lake, Idaho. We were a bit apprehensive since Beia had never traveled by air, nor crossed time zones before. In the end, Beia traveled West like a champ—every bit the happy little girl we are used to.

The time at the lake was wonderful. Beia got to meet her "big" cousin, Max, who is just six weeks older than her. She also got to meet some more aunts and uncles, as well as spend some quality with her paternal grandparents. Of course Beia loved the lake itself, and we discovered that a boat ride is a sure-fire way to lull a baby to sleep—after the fussiness of having to wear a life jacket!

Beia also got to experience quality time with not one but three (!) dogs—Bailey, Blue, and Dylan—and she adored them all. Apparently she finds dogs hysterically fun and enjoyed watching them chase after toys (and each other), as well as see them splashing in the water!

The way back East was not as successful, but we did learn that the red eye flight is not for us. We are still working our way back to a "normal" sleep schedule, but the trip was worth it and we are looking forward to visiting again next year.

Imagine Swimming

This weekend Beia had her second swimming lesson at Imagine Swimming. It's a 40 minute class with three other babies her age. There is one adult allowed in the pool with the child, so with parents, there are only eight of us plus the instructor. The goal is to simply get your kid used to being in the water so that, eventually, they can learn how to swim. Beia seems to really enjoy it. We practice getting in and out of the pool. Floating on our backs, moving side to side—as well as forward—in the water. We also practice going under the water. Beia seems to really enjoy the water so we are hoping to continue the lessons each week, even past summertime. The biggest issue thus far is just fitting the lesson in between naps and feeding!

Buddies

Today it was very hot outside. At one point the temperature reading was 97°F ... feels like 110°F. So, yeah, we spent most of the day inside enjoying our air conditioning. In the afternoon we moved from the main room into Beia's bedroom to give her a change of scenery—it's not like our apartment is that big anyway. Dibi followed us in to her room and was quite the trooper. He allowed Beia to follow him around, trying to pet him gently. At times she wasn't as gentle as we (and presumably Dibi) would have liked, but Dibi never moved more than a foot or two away from Beia. He seems to trust her. Or at least realize that she's still fairly slow-moving and won't be able to reach him quickly...for now...

Family Portrait

A few weekends ago, Steve's younger brother and his wife came to visit and meet Beia for the first time. It was great seeing them—and we even got a nice (and rare) family photo of the three of us together. And if you look closely, you can see Tonka's backside between Beia's head and Steven's. We're looking forward to spending more time with Beia's Aunt A and Uncle T when we go to the Rubin family lake cabin (in Priest Lake, Idaho) later this summer. At that time, Beia will also get to meet Steve's older brother and his wife...along with their baby M. M is just a month and half older than Beia, so we can't wait to see how they play together.

Baby Naming

Last weekend we drove down to Maryland for Beia's baby naming. It was a special occasion in a few respects, beyond the naming ceremony itself. This was the first road trip for Beia and we were anxious to see how she'd do. This was the first time for Beia staying overnight anywhere but home. And this was the first time that Beia would be meeting so many new people all at once. All in all she did quite well. The road trip itself went fairly well, with only one or two meltdowns both ways. Can't really blame her, given how long the trip ended up being (5+ hours in the car). Steve's parents drove down with us, so we were all quite thankful for Beia's adaptability.

And adaptable she was. Beia slept, generally, quite ok at my parents house. We learned some important things for future trips away from home (bring a nightlight!) and we were a bit more flexible than usual with her naps (namely, we napped with her on the bed to help her sleep).

The naming itself was wonderful. It meant a lot to have both sets of grandparents there, along with so many Harris family friends. We were also lucky to have the Rabbi that married us perform the ceremony. He was also the Rabbi that officiated at my bat mitzvah and confirmation. He did, however, point out to us that we will eventually have to find a temple that doesn't involve commuting. He was fond of the Village Temple (in NYC)—mainly because the congregation would be the Village People...

Avocado

When Beia turned six months, we started experimenting with solid foods. The first was puréed carrots, and since then Beia has tried banana, apple, sweet potato, peas, avocado, papaya, and prunes. She hasn't outright rejected any foods, but has clearly expressed a preference for sweet potato as well as prune. Yesterday was an avocado day and was quite successful, meaning most of it ended up in her mouth and being swallowed. When she ate avocado the day before, most ended up on her bib. Avocado and banana are easy for us since they don't need to be cooked and puréed, but everything else we've been making fresh ourselves. It's easier than I thought it would be, and fun. And we like knowing exactly what is going into what she is eating.

Seven Months : Crawling

It's official—at seven months (as of yesterday), we now have a crawler. This morning Beia made her first successful crawl from one edge of her play mat, across the mat, over to the other side—to inspect the ever-interesting cat scratching post. We will now have to start removing the cat toys from the floor since she seems likely to put them in her mouth. Similarly, we'll have to start Swiffer-ing the floor more often—unless we want a baby as a dust mop (possibly effective but not ideal). We already have plans to lower Beia's crib mattress this weekend, since when we went into her room this morning she greeting us with a big smile—sitting up in the crib with her arm holding onto the railing. The next thing we know she'll be pulling herself up. I think we'll be baby-proofing the whole apartment soon...

We Have Liftoff (almost)

For the past few weeks Beia has been working up to a crawl. She's been practicing her plank position, downward dog, and cat pose. A lot of time has been spent rocking back and forth on all fours. She's managed to move forward by reaching her hands in front of her, going into downward dog, and then kicking both her legs in—helping to propel her forward. It seems that the downward dog component is getting in the way—almost like she'd rather skip crawling and move (literally) right to walking! We give her a few more weeks before she's mastered the crawl itself. Until then, she's quite able to rotate in circles on her belly, as well as push herself backwards. The cats better watch out—she's already expressed interest in them and now she's coming to get (er, grab) them!

Vesuvio Playground

A few weekends ago we visited Vesuvio Playground near our apartment. Named for a famed—now defunct—bakery in our neighborhood, the playground is small and not too busy. This will be ideal for Beia once she's old enough to enjoy the swings (there are no "baby" swings at this particular playground). The playground is semi-centrally located between our place and my sister's apartment. This allows us to meet up with H, C, and their little girl E, so Beia can get to know her aunt, uncle, and cousin.

On this particular day it was sunny, so Beia was appropriately dressed in her little white hat. We flip up the brim if the sun isn't in her face—so she can actually see a bit and look around. We think she looks cute in the hat, and she doesn't seem to mind it either. Good thing too, because she'll be wearing hats all summer long...

Big Girl

Beia is now 6.5 months—in ten more days she'll be seven months! We've started to feed her solids, starting with carrots and followed by avocado, sweet potato, and apple. So far her favorite (by far) is the sweet potato—whereas the carrots are almost always greeted with a grimace! Beia has also taken to feeding herself, with a little help, when she has a bottle. She needs to be reminded to tilt the bottle back to keep the milk flowing, but it's progress (and we think it's cute).

The biggest development is crawling—or at least the precursor to crawling. We see a lot of yoga poses—plank, downward dog, and a rocking cat pose. The latter of which is how Beia spends much of her time on the play mat. Unfortunately it's also what is keeping Beia up in the middle of the night. Much like when she was learning how to roll over, Beia seems to want to practice these things when she should be sleeping. We are hoping that she learns soon, because we do not love the 5am wake-ups.

Game Face

This weekend we had Beia's six month doctor visit. We learned that Beia is now 15lb 1oz (30th percentile) and 27.25" long (95th percentile), so our little string bean is still on track to being a basketball player or an international super model. Her choice. We also asked our pediatrician about using the jogging stroller, and if Beia is now big enough and strong enough to be in it—particularly while jogging. Dr. Marcus gave us the go ahead, so on Sunday we took Beia out for her first workout (if you don't include tummy time). The weather was perfect, and all three of us were able to spend time together and exercise at the same time. Now that it's finally getting warmer out, we're looking forward to a lot more time with the BOB. You can see how much see enjoys it, and is already practicing her game face...in the event that we enter any running races where strollers are permitted.

Saturday in the Park

This weekend we had perfect weather both days and were able to take Beia out for long walks. On Saturday we walked all the way down the Winter Garden (across from the WTC site) and spent some time at one of the parks there. We were hoping that Beia would also take a nice long nap while we were walking, but apparently there was too much going on that she wanted to stay awake and watch her surroundings instead. We're looking forward to a lot more time out of doors this summer—especially since she seems to enjoy it!

Back to Belly

This past Friday Beia finally figured out how to roll from back to front. As exciting as this development is, it's also brought a whole new level of frustration to sleep—for everyone. Now when we lay Beia down to bed in her crib, the first thing she does is roll onto her side in an effort get onto her belly. Then, if and when she gets there, she cries in frustration because either her arm is stuck underneath her or because she's cornered herself in the crib and cannot roll back over. If she can't roll over in the first place, that too warrants a cry in frustration.

When this happens at 4 or 5am, we are crying right along in frustration. This morning, however, Beia somehow found a happy position on her belly...fussed a little...then slept for two hours until waking up at the very reasonable time of 7:15am. I'm hoping this means that she's starting to figure out how to sleep on her belly, or at least how to be happy on her belly, so we can all get a bit more sleep.

China Doll

A couple weeks ago I made the mistake of turning Lara onto various flash sale sites that have discounted baby clothes. This would not have been too much of a problem, however, after purchasing a couple of REALLY cute outfits, Lara is now playing dress up with Beia like she is a china doll. Also we (read: Lara) now go onto Gilt every night at dinner to see what cute outfits they have for Beia. My next big error was when I mentioned we should start looking for sales on winter outfits, as they may have bigger discounts. Thankfully, we are not the only parents that use Gilt to buy cute discounted outfits, so things sell out fast. Right now we are on the waitlist for 7 items (1.5 items a week)!! We (Lara) has also started find other “inexpensive” places she likes—BabyGap, Zara, etc. The dangerous part is that living in Soho/Tribeca we are within walking distance of a litany of boutique baby shops, and with Spring arriving we will taking Beia out for walks more frequently. Beia is going to quickly go from being the baby who always wears pajama’s to being Lara’s fashionable toy doll.

FEET!

This week Beia discovered her feet. And how nicely they can be shoved into her mouth. Unfortunately, this new found habit gets a bit hairy—literally—when you combine the slobber with the cat hair floating around our apartment. Yuck. The upside is that she is now always happy to hold her feet for you while you clean her butt. Downside—it makes it more difficult to actually put ON the diaper once said butt is clean.  

Sleep Begets Sleep

On Tuesday we made the ginormous mistake of thinking we needed to start sleep training Beia. Our goal was to eliminate her waking up around 11pm/12am since she hasn't been hungry at that time, yet wasn't able to get herself back to sleep without the paci. Tuesday night started out ok, and we were able to get her to sleep by her usual bedtime of 7:30pm—but without the paci using a modified CIO approach. But then Beia woke up at 1am. And she cried. And cried. We came in every 10 minutes to soothe her but to no avail. Eventually we gave in and gave her the paci. She fell asleep but the entire day was a wreck (for all of us) as a result.

After consulting other parents and much discussion, we decided that we were over-thinking the matter of the paci. Our new goal is now to optimize the amount of sleep Beia is getting, and hoping that everything else (ie. the 11pm/12am wake up) would sort itself out. So last night we put Beia to bed a 1/2 hour early (with paci)—and she slept straight through to her 2:30am feed! She then went right back to bed (sans paci) until waking up for the day at 6:00am. This is an hour earlier than we'd like, but still considered a success!

So far she is having a much happier day than yesterday, as are we. Hopefully this isn't merely a result of her being over-tired yesterday, and we are going to try the earlier bedtime again tonight. In fact, we are going to try moving her bedtime up a bit more—to either 6:30pm or 6:45pm. Crossing fingers and toes...

Giggles and Raspberries

This weekend Steve spent a lot of time teaching Beia how to blow raspberries—the sound you make when you purse your lips together and blow. Not only did Beia find this endlessly entertaining, but she also was endlessly trying to replicate the effect with varying degrees of success. Most of the time it looked like she had rabies because of all the foam she was creating—a result of blowing through all her drool. At least this is a new sound for her...one that should be the foundation for "B" words (like Beia)!

Happy Days (are Here Again)

Last night went much better than the previous two—leading me to believe that perhaps Beia could sense that Steve was returning home that evening. And so Beia's regular sleeping habits returned as well—waking once at 3am to feed and then at 7am to get up for the day. After she was fed and changed, Beia was happy to spend some time playing with Dad. Here she's lying on our bed smiling while Steve makes funny faces and noises at her.

Good Morning

Steve has been out of town on business since Tuesday morning. This means I have been a single parent for the past two evenings. Going in, I thought that bath time alone would be the biggest challenge. It turns out that bath time was the least of my concerns. It was what followed the bath that was stressful. Rather than waking once in the middle of the night to feed, Beia woke up THREE times on Tuesday night. YIKES! Not fun and quite tiring for me. Last night she woke twice. Not ideal, but better than Tuesday. Somehow though, Beia always wakes up happy and smiling in the morning. She's lucky she's cute.

No Laughing Matter

As we've mentioned before, Beia loves the changing table. So when faced with an unhappy Beia (the Angry Squirrel), we will occasionally go to the changing table to see if we can turn her mood around. The best is when we can get her to start talking, because then we can get her laughing. We've discovered that there are certain faces or noises that she reacts best to and will send her into a fit of giggles. Here's the latest thing to get her laughing...

Supermodel : Four Months

This weekend we paid a visit to the pediatrician for Beia's four month visit. Overall it was a smashing success, despite the unhappiness later in day (a consequence of the two vaccination shots Beia received).

Dr. Marcus was very happy with Beia's physical progress as well as with how social she was during the visit—Beia did a lot of talking and was generally very active. The doctor commented on her leg strength while Beia was busy kicking at Dr. Marcus's stomach. Beia also showed off how well her head control is coming along by doing a very good tummy time execution.

Beia weighed 12lbs 9.6oz (27th percentile) and is now bigger than Dibi! She is 25.25" (81st percentile), so she still has a bright future as either a supermodel or basketball player. Our next visit isn't until six months. These next two months will be the longest we've gone between doctor visits, so it will be interesting to see what develops.

Four Months

Today the bean turns four months old. While she's still so little, it nevertheless feels like we've come a long way from when we first brought her home from the hospital.

Thankfully, breastfeeding is no longer much of a challenge—except now we need to get Beia to focus on eating rather than looking around. She's discovered her surroundings and is often more interested in what's to see than what there is to eat.

She's also starting to put herself on a regular sleep-eat-play schedule. We no longer have long periods of sleep during the day, but usually two or three hour intervals when we can spend some time playing together. Whereas Beia used to hate tummy time, she's now quite good at it—occasionally entertaining us by rolling over (tummy to back) one way or the other. As her head control has developed, she is also expressing an interest in sitting up. Just this week, we have started sitting her in the boppy pillow so she can practice holding herself up. Come night time, we've settled into a bath routine that gets her to sleep by about 7:30pm. She usually doesn't wake again until around 3am, so this gives Steven and I time for dinner together—as well as time to workout, watch tv, or finish us some work before heading to bed by 10pm. After the 3am feeding, Beia usually will sleep for another three or so hours until it's time to get up for the day around 6:30am. Daylight Savings Time has thrown us off a bit, but not too badly.

Beia is also proving to be Chatty Cathy—moving from gentle cooing sounds to having full fledged conversations and laughing. We're not sure what she's saying, but she obviously has a lot to talk about. She has also discovered the pouty lip look and already knows how to use it.

This weekend we have her four month appointment where she'll be weighed and measured. We are taking bets again on how much she'll weigh, as that was one of our first concerns with her. It's not an issue now, with her muffin top hanging over her diaper, but it's still fun to speculate. We're hoping for a solid 12lbs.

March (in Like a Lion)

These past few days Beia has enjoyed both her first snow day and her first picnic. On Friday we were treated to a winter wonderland--best enjoyed indoors. Convenient, since Beia does love to sit on the window ledge and watch the street below. We dressed her in a polar bear themed outfit (thank you Aunt Beth and Uncle Rob) which seemed appropriate for the day. We were just happy that the outfit made it through the entire day without any mishaps (read: spit up or poop explosions, necessitating an outfit change).

Then this weekend the temperature shot up into the 50s, and we enjoyed a walk along the piers. We brought along a picnic lunch to eat while Beia napped in her stroller. It was a bit chilly but beautiful overall. We're hoping for more picnics now that the days are getting longer and, hopefully, even warmer.

Wonder Woman

In an effort to keep Beia entertained (and quiet), we've taken to moving her around the apartment. We often "stand" on the window ledges and watch the cars drive by below. Or we go visit Beia's friend Beia in the bathroom mirror. She seems to like Beia a lot. When we don't feel like walking around, we play Wonder Woman. Beia loves the high vantage point ... And Steve tries to remember to keep his mouth closed, lest any drool dribble down.

Sleepytime

Last night was the night we decided to start "sleep training" Beia. I don't know if what we did is technically considered sleep training though, since we can't figure out what sleep training actually refers to. Getting baby to fall asleep on her own? Getting baby to sleep through the night without waking? Getting baby to fall asleep for the night at a specific time? Who knows? Regardless, after skimming a few articles and having a few spotty conversations about the topic, we dove in and tried this:

Beia always eats around 6:30pm and then again around 8:30pm. In between the two feedings she gets quite fussy, but after the second feeding (which includes bath time) she will fall asleep for the night. By "night" we mean the longest stretch of sleep she will have in a given evening. Usually this ranges anywhere from around 4hr 45min to 6hr 15min. We pray for the latter.

Anyway, she is usually good about getting to sleep after we feed her as she is pretty tired by then. In addition, she's been practicing getting to sleep on her own during nap times. So we thought that perhaps Beia was getting overtired by the time her 8:30pm feeding rolled around and that maybe—just maybe—we could move UP her bedtime AND get her to sleep longer as a result. Wishful thinking, we know.

So last night we did Beia's bath during her 6:30pm feeding, and put her down for the night immediately after. Although she didn't fall asleep right away, she only minimally fussed and eventually fell asleep within the half hour. She did wake up and squirm and fuss for a bit around 8:30pm (presumably since she was used to being up at this time), but she fell back to sleep after I went in to check on her. Then she slept. And slept. And slept. She didn't wake up again until around 3:45am, which is her usual middle of the night feeding time. At that point she'd slept 7hr 15min! HURRAY! PROGRESS! Of course at that point I went in to feed her (after all, we saw "eye balls") and then she went to sleep again, until her normal wake up time of about 7am.

What a good, good little bean. We hope it continues and will try again tonight. Cross your fingers...

Exhibitionist

Beia loves the changing table. This is a good thing since she hates a
dirty diaper and we are always changing her. During a recent crying
fit we found that the only place she would calm down was on the
changing table. She just lay there contentedly watching her projection
movie that we play her there. Odd but true and we weren't going to
question it.

In addition to being on the changing table, Beia loves to be NAKED on
the changing table. She's all full of smiles and happy sounds when
she's lying there naked. It's a good opportunity for us to admire her
ever expanding belly (note the muffin top pooch-ing out over her
diaper) and her Sneech-like belly button (due to the red spot right in
the middle).

Roll-y Poll-y

This weekend Beia figured out how to roll over from her tummy to her back. There I was, talking with a friend about how we'd have to stop swaddling Beia once she learned how to roll, and then she did it as if on cue! She must have been listening to our conversation. Luckily we've since found out that we only need to stop swaddling once she can roll from back to front, which is harder to do. For now we keep waiting for Beia to recreate her newest party trick. So far she's only done it four and a half times, but hopefully with practice she will be able to roll regularly. We think she looks pretty happy about it too.

Tonka Sheep

Witchy Woman