Fathers Day Part Deux

Today was Steve's second Father's Day, and the day really capped off a wonderful long weekend for us. Steve was away all week on business, so it was nice to have my partner in crime back on Friday. Beia was thrilled as well—and didn't take out any anger on Steve like she did the last time he was away (which was actually quite amusing). Today we treated Beia to brunch at Greenwich Project, with lemon ricotta pancakes. Of course rather than eating the pieces we cut up for her, she opted to manhandle an entire half pancake at a time. Lucky for Steve and I there was still plenty left over for us to enjoy (part of the plan, naturally). For dinner we were all treated to a home cooked meal of filet mignon, caramelized carrots, and sweet potato fries. Mmmm. We all enjoyed and cleared our plates. That's how we know Beia is ours—she's such a good eater! Let's hope it continues...

Cousins

Steve has been away at a friend's bachelor party since Thursday, so I'm flying solo on this mommy-daughter weekend. Today, we met up with Beia's cousin and her aunt and uncle at Washington Square Park. Beia and E played on the swings and slide, and E shared her sidewalk chalk with Beia. It created a dusty mess, but both girls seemed to enjoy it—even if Beia wanted to put all the chalk in the bag while E wanted it all out.

Muscoot Farm

Over Memorial Day weekend we rented a car and went on two excursions out of the city. On Saturday we went to a historic farm, Muscoot Farm, where Beia got to see all sorts of farm animals. More than adoring the baby animals that were there, she found the noises that the roosters, turkeys, and goats were making highly amusing. Even once we got back home and played video of the visit, she still laughed when she heard the goat making it's "maaaa" noise. We also thought she'd be scared of all the animals, but she signed for "more" when all the baby sheep ran toward her into their corral (behind the safety of a fence of course).

On Sunday we joined a friend's family picnic at Belmont State Park. Beia enjoyed wandering around and playing Goldilocks—sitting in everyone's chair, trying them out. She also got to play at the playground (swings! slides!), which makes everything better.

18 Months

Yesterday Beia turned a year and a half.  It's amazing to see what a personality she already has—with definite preferences that she expresses very clearly, despite not have a full vocabulary. She's mastered Mama and Dada along with doggie (pronounced "dogga"), all done, more, milk, Tonka, Dibi. All other words are a work-in-progress, so communication is often a guessing game. Luckily, Beia often points at what she wants, which helps limit frustration to some degree. Hopefully she'll get more words under her belt soon, alleviating frustration (and the possibility of tantrums) further.

Happy Mother's Day Weekend

We had a great Mother's Day weekend—mainly due to Beia's great mood both Saturday and Sunday. We went out twice to eat, and Beia not only ate well but also allowed us to finish our meals without having to rush through and remove her from the premises due to extreme antsy-pants. The weather was perfect, so we spent a considerable amount of time at the park. Beia also did a lot of walking this weekend—and was so good at holding our hands while out on the street. Previously this has been a challenge, so it was a nice treat not having to fight her to be safe. We're looking forward to having Beia's other set of grandparents visit this week—Grammy and Grandpa—so I'm sure we'll be out and about more next weekend too!

Overnight with Grandma and Granddad

This past weekend Steven and I spent the night in Long Island for a friend's wedding. We had my parents come up and stay with Beia for what ended up being a full 24 hours—the first time we've had anyone Beia-sit for quite such a long time. Naturally, Beia was happy with Grandma and Granddad and seemingly didn't even notice that we were gone. She was, however, happy to see us once we returned. Her favorite playmate, Steven, was back and she had a nice new crafts kids from Grandma and Granddad to play with! We wish they lived closer and could see us all more often, so this was a treat for everyone.

Curly Sue

Now that Beia's hair is finally growing in, we're seeing more and more curls develop. And as a result, her hair isn't getting longer so much as it's getting fuller. Of course she still gets mistaken for a boy often since we tend to dress Beia in gender-neutral clothes, but hopefully that will change as her hair continues to grow...

Flip Stool

This afternoon the flip stool we had ordered as part of Beia's potty training set up arrived. Of course it's a bit early for her to be potty training, but her day care noted that she was expressing interest—so why not be prepared? The sooner we can end with the diapers and the changing table the happier we all will be.

Steve had set up the stool in Beia's bathroom, expecting one of the cats to find it and make it a perch for an afternoon nap. Instead, Beia found it immediately upon returning home from day care. She already likes climbing and sitting on it—though has yet to ask about the potty itself. One step at a time...

My Little Pony

Yesterday when we picked Beia up from daycare her hair was "pulled back" into a little tiny pony tail on top of her head. It wasn't really pulled back as much as it was tied into a teeny fountain. Given that we've been waiting for her hair to grow long enough for her not to look like a boy we were quite excited. Although I think if Beia could have figured out where on her head the pony tail was she would have pulled it out so she could inspect the elastic.

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!