A few videos

Has it really been six weeks?!?!

I guess it has. Well, that should be an indicator of how busy we've been. Bea's been busy, too. Busy not sleeping or eating, unfortunately. It's frustrating, but at the same time Bea's suddenly emerging from her little baby chrysalis with loads of new skills and personality. She can't talk yet, of course, but sometimes it almost seems as though she can because she's so expressive. In the past six weeks she's gone from barely sitting up to almost crawling. I think she'll have developed some type of locomotion by the end of this week. Her dexterity is amazing, and she LOVES the Sesame Street radio that Grandma and Grampa Armstrong brought her on their last visit. She'll slam it around to start the song, turn her attention to another toy while the song plays, then smack on another tune when it gets quiet. We've been slow to start solids with Bea, but she's enjoyed some rice cereal and avocado so far. The messes are classic. At some point she had rice cereal up her nose!

Almost a half-birthday girl

I can't believe how time flies. Bea seems completely different from when I last posted. She's coming up to her 6-month birthday, and sometimes it seems like she has new developments and skills every day. Four months old was a difficult time for us. Bea's gotten so alert that she has a hard time shutting down, so we spent several weeks struggling with naps and a cranky, overtired, overstimulated baby. Still cute, though.

Bea can sit up now! All by herself! She likes to go from sitting to belly by nosediving sideways. It looks painful, but this doesn't prevent her from doing it often. In the past week Bea's starting blowing raspberries and attempting some funny "m" or "n" sounds. Sometimes I think she sounds like ET. She's gotten so dexterous lately that I think she's bored with her simple little baby toys. She prefers to practice "drop" and "throw" than to hold her toys now. Oh, and she figured out how to suck on her toes!

So many firsts, so little time

It's been a long time since our last post, and Bea has changed a LOT. Here's a quick summary of our little Bea-uty's recent developments.

1. Bea is now 4 months old. She went to the doctor today and weighed in at 13.8. She's 25.25 inches long, which is apparently quite long for a baby her age. That explains why she's growing out of all her sleepers...

2. Tummy time is for chumps! Why bother learning to lift your head and crawl when you can move straight to walking? Bea's getting closer and closer to sitting up by herself, and is frighteningly good at balancing herself on her legs. As a trade-off, she's decided her arms do not exist and refuses to use them to catch herself when falling or lift herself up.

3. She talks! She laughs! It's really, really cute. She's moved on from those adorable little quiet gurgles of 3-months and on to vowel-only babbling. Ahhh, ehhhhh, awwww, etc. She'll stare off into space and just talk and talk. We will also swear that she said "Daddy" one day - minus the 'd's. We're eagerly awaiting the consonants.

4. Bea suddenly loves her bouncy chair. She can entertain herself for 20 minutes or so, either kicking and bouncing like crazy or whacking at the toy bar. Sometimes she'll "talk" to the toy bar animals.

5. She's suddenly pretty interested in the kitty, following her movements avidly.

6. As of just the past few days, she seems to have gotten over her fear of the world. When I offer her a toy, she takes it and it goes right to her mouth. Today, while practicing her sitting, she reached right down and picked up a teething ring chain from the floor. My hair is becoming a target for her little hands, too.

Those are the highlights. Overall, Bea's being a terribly sweet baby, although she's been having a relatively moody transition into the 4-month stage. I think she's uncomfortable with a lot of the changes she's going through right now, and perhaps teething a bit, also. She is very, very interested in the world and making major breakthroughs almost every day. We've been busy, but we'll try to capture more of these to post next time.

Little Bea has hands

Last week I bought Bea a set of plastic keys on a big blue ring. I dangled them in front of her face, and she stared at them. One day, though, I noticed something different: While she stared at the keys she stiffly, hesitantly moved her little balled up fists. It was as though she wanted to reach out, but was apprehensive or uncertain. Sometimes in the past she's swatted at toys in a random, aimless way and made contact out of luck. This time she refused to flail her arms at all. She eventually began to move her hands toward the toy in a very concentrated kind of way. She couldn't get her arms to move in the right direction at first, but then she suddenly got it! She touched the keys again and again, fondling them tentatively with her tiny fingers. Then she started to cry, and ever since that day she's been unsettled. It's as though she suddenly can't look at anything without the stressful possibility of touching it. I think she'd like to go back to her blissful state of newborn introversion. I try to comfort her, but my hair hangs in her face, and she stares at it in that "I could touch that....?" kind of way and gets upset. Poor Bea. It must be so hard to be a baby some times. Video forthcoming.

A New Home, Part III

We've been living in our new house for two weeks now, and it's going well so far. Someday we hope to be fully unpacked, but I wouldn't be surprised if we still had boxes hanging around in September!

Bea is keeping us very busy, and she seems to be getting cuter by the day. The three month mark has brought lots of changes. Bea has suddenly taken an interest in her bouncy seat toys. Generally she just stares at them, but sometimes she'll swat tentatively with her little hands. She likes to look at books with me (Mommy), and will even sit for long periods in he high chair , staring while I do dishes and wash her many, many bottles.




Bea's biggest achievement, though, is her "talking." Very cute.

A New Home, Part II

It took a lot of elbow grease, but we got our new house clean just in time to clutter it up with all our stuff. We'll spend the week getting things in order and move in for real this weekend!

It became obvious this weekend when Tim was away how much Little Bea loves her Daddy. She gave him lots of smiles when he got home and will stop mid-fuss to stare at him when he comes home from work. This week Little Bea's been using the potty (it's hilarious) , and she actually sat up all by herself for a few seconds. She's such a strong baby.

A New Home, Part I

At long last our search for an apartment is over! We will start moving into a little house in Lancaster next weekend. It'll feel good to have a home just for our little family, but we're glad we'll still be close enough to see Memere, Pepere and "the Aunties" often.

At her 2-month appointment this week Bea weighed in at 10lb 15oz and is 23.75 inches tall. She's finally learning not to scream like she's being murdered every time she has a bath. In fact, to her surprise, I think she really likes it. We're going to experiment with a kiddy pool soon.



As everyone who sees her can't help but mention, Bea's hair is still decidedly red, and she's developing beautiful, long, eyelashes like strands of golden silk. We're pretty sure she's the cutest baby ever, and she's vying with Auntie Karen for the title of earliest walker. (Legend has it, Karen was running around at just 9 months. )

Visiting

Little Bea did a lot of visiting this week. On Saturday we took a trip to New Bedford to visit her great-grandma ("Big Bea"), several aunts, and cousin Chelsea.


The next day Granny and Grampy Armstrong came to visit, and we celebrated Bea's second monthday. Two months, two cakes.




Bea continues to change and develop rapidly. She's getting better and better at standing up, and she likes to practice "walking." Her vocalizations are diversifying more and more, and she's getting quite smiley.

Free at last!

This was a big week for Little Bea. On Monday, we went to see Dr. Mortimer, the orthopedist. After waiting for hours to see him, he told us that her hip socket looks great. For the next three weeks she's allowed to be harness-free for 4-6 hours a day, and she's been loving it! She's working on using her legs for kicking, standing, bouncing, and pushing herself up during tummy time. We've been able to use her Flip diapers, which are working well and look adorable.

In other news, Bea's been going through a lot of developmental changes lately. She started sleeping through the night this week, which came as a complete (but very welcome) surprise. She has a repertoire of new vocalizations, too. Daddy's teaching Bea how to dance, and Bea's been practicing her rolling over skills during tummy time. She's not quite there yet, and it obviously frustrates her to be stuck halfway onto her side. It's only a matter of time before she's squirming all over the place. Hopefully we'll have some real honest-to-goodness smiles to report in our next update!