Being Bea - 5 Months, 3 Weeks

Just shy of her 6-month birthday,  we are learning many things about being Bea such as:

1. She likes peas (and apparently peas like her face, hands and clothes).
 

2. Drooling, whining and constant chewing are probably signs of teething (not her impersonation of our dog Tubby).

3. She is starting to sport a double chin (despite her inability to actually get food in her mouth).

4. She likes hanging with dad (even when he puts funny hats on her)

5. She is close to sitting up on her own (and will soon be running her own pink smiley-face flower power meetings when she can use the tiny furniture in the Montessori school classroom she visited)

6. She will not be taking ballet lessons...ever (as decided by her parents after a viewing of Black Swan)

7. She had decided after one week that eating twice at night is actually better than only eating once. (awesome.)

Potty Training Already?

Bea had her first unintended lesson in potty training recently and, as demonstrated in this photo, was none to happy with Mom a day after the experience.

It all happened one evening when Bea was super tired and happily went to bed about 6:15pm. Karl was out for the evening and Meghan was looking forward to a quiet evening at home after some long work days and sleepless nights. To Meghan's confusion, Bea woke up about one hour later rather upset. Upon checking in on Bea, Meghan discovered the source of the crying...apparently, a tired Meghan makes for a forgetful Meghan who manages to put her baby to bed WITHOUT a diaper. We guess Bea wasn't quite ready to hold her pee for even an hour and, as one would expect from an almost 6 month old, she soaked herself and the bed.

Oh my...angry baby indeed. Meghan managed to change Bea's jammies and change the bedding while Bea managed to wail and wail and wail. There was no calming an angry Bea!

All in all, Meghan's quiet evening at home and Bea's first potty training experience ended with Bea crying for 1 and 1/2 hours while Meghan tried every soothing strategy in her book of tricks but to no avail. Many tears later, Bea finally went back to sleep at 9:30pm...with a diaper on.

Perhaps we'll try again in about 18 months...

Beyond Milk

Step 1: Question substance.

Step 2: Put substance in mouth.

Step 3: Ponder next step - Swallow? Spit out?

Bea ventured into the world of solid foods recently. We debated on the timing, but in the end, I think Bea was ready as demonstrated in the video below where she basically pulls Meghan's hand with the spoon into her mouth.

So far she has only experienced the gourmet flavors of rice cereal mixed with breast milk. However, we plan to introduce her to some very exciting foods like peas, zucchini and carrots as soon as we figure out how to use the fancy baby food cooker and blender Bea's Aunt Gretchen got her.

The biggest upside of the solids...Bea dropped a night feeding!

Bea Goes Bopping in the Pool

Bea's First Swim Class!

Since Bea loves getting a bath every evening before bed, we thought it was due time to get her into a swim class. Basically swim classes at the YMCA are like taking her into a big bathtub since the pool temperature is about 98 degrees. She seemed to like her first class, or perhaps she was just confused as to the size of her new tub and why there were a bunch of other people taking a bath with her. Whatever the reason, she was all smiles.

Since her first class, she has grown a love/hate relationship with our weekly sessions. She loves splashing and kicking in the water, enjoys doing the hokey-pokey and turning herself around, but hates when she goes under the water. Over-chlorinated tears start flowing at that point. Fortunately, thanks to the horrible acoustics in the pool area, no one can hear her. We’re thinking of replicating the same acoustical effect in her room for those nap time cry sessions…

Happy 2011...the Year of the Bea Blog

After many repeated requests to update everyone on life with Bea, we have decided to expand our routes of communication about her to now include a blog. Let's face it, Facebook, email, mobile phones and video chats are so 2010. For us, 2011 is the year of the Bea Blog. Granted, its pretty 2007 but we're not trailblazers.

Our goal is to post photos and updates of the adventures of Bea as she learns to eat solid food, swim in a pool, drool constantly, stick everything in her mouth, tackle calculus and the great literary works, communicate through sign language, and, well, mostly just be cute. Of course, you can still call, email or video chat, but this blog will allow you to be passive in your admiration of Bea. You won't have to actually talk to us or reply to our emails!

If you want to be super-passive, you can subscribe to receive an email each time we post an update rather than having to check for updates on your own. Just click the Subscribe by Email link below.

We are excited about our little blog and hope you enjoy the photos, stories and, most importantly, keeping up with Bea. 

And you never know, if this goes well, maybe 2012 will be the year of the Bea Tweet.