Party Time

The pink and green butterfly themed party was a success! The only downside was the weather which kept all 35 guests inside for the entire party. Thank goodness for the play room. Beatrice and Natalie were showered with attention, love, and presents. I went a little over board with the decorations and you can see lots of pictures of the decor on my other blog, http://www.namesakedesign.blogspot.com/ (posting on April 14th). I will add additional photos from the party as I receive them from party goers.

Thank you everyone who came to celebrate - especially Grammy and Papa who came all the way from Colorado.

Aunt Lindsay, Brian, Beatrice, Amanda, Natalie, and Uncle John

Beatrice, Amanda, Mom-Mom (great grandmother to E and B) Lindsay, Natalie, and Mimsey

Beatrice really liked this plate. It was one of Natalie's presents.

The cake Mommy made

The babies look a little confused/concerned....

Natalie's Aunt Rachel helping the big kids with cake and ice cream.

Elliot wanted to test all of the new toys to make sure they were "safe". These Busy Gears were a big hit.

Natalie was fascinated by the balloons. Elliot was very sweet to his little cousin.

Beatrice Turns 1!

Today was Beatrice's first birthday. This year went by so fast! We kicked off the birthday celebrations with a trip to the doctor for her one year check up. I really would have preferred to go another day (nobody wants shots on their birthday), but today worked best schedule wise. Beatrice is 29" tall (60th percentile) and weighs 20 pounds 12 ounces (50th percentile). She cried her little head off when she got her shots, but recovered quickly.

She spent the rest of the day playing with Elliot and Mariana. At around 5 PM, Grammy and Papa arrived. They flew in from Colorado today and are staying until Sunday. Our friends the Haugens (minus Nick who is out of town for work) came over for pizza. For dessert we had pink cupcakes made by Elliot and Mariana. Beatrice liked smashing the cupcake almost as much as she liked eating it.

I can't wait for the big birthday celebration this weekend. We are having a joint party with cousin Natalie. It is going to be so much fun!

More Walking

When Elliot was learning to walk, it took him a long time to transition from crawling most of the time to walking most of of the time. This is not the case for Beatrice. Miss Priss wants to walk EVERYWHERE. I can't believe how much her walking skills have improved in such a short period of time. This weekend I captured her actually walking to me on video. Enjoy.

Click here to view video

Signs of Spring

In addition to the daffodils and pink buds on the trees, one of my favorite signs of Spring is a busy playground. We spent lots of time outside this weekend and ended the day on Sunday with a trip to the little playground a couple of blocks from our house. Beatrice was in awe of her big brother's climbing and running skills and was eager to play on all of the equipment too. Her favorite thing was the slide. She is my little dare devil!

Walking!

Beatrice is determined to walk. She can walk about five steps at a time and tries to walk everywhere. I was finally able to capture her skills on video this morning:

Click Here

Of course I can't get Miss Independent to walk to me! She is already doing her own thing.

Busy Beatrice

Beatrice is on the move! She is constantly moving, exploring, and playing. She has taken a few steps and can stand up with out pulling up or holding to the furniture. She is in to everything and we will probably need to step up our baby proofing. Something we never had to do with Elliot, he is our little rule follower.

Beatrice's latest obsession is the sit and spin. She loves to sit on it and spin it around when she is not sitting on it. Today her little friend Elsa came over and Mariana reported that Beatrice got VERY mad when Elsa tried to play with the sit and spin.

I'll try to capture some pics of her standing and taking steps this weekend.

Scooter

She doesn't go great distances, but Beatrice has figured how to scoot. Her technique is sort of a modified commando crawl. She still prefers rolling from point A to B, but she'll use the scoot if she wants something in front of her, especially if that something is the remote control.

Happy Half B-day Beatrice!

Today Beatrice is 6 months old! Where has the time gone? She is growing and changing everyday, Mariana swears she looks bigger after not seeing much of her over the weekends. Missy Moo, Pup, Bea, or BB (as she is frequently called) is a very happy girl. She smiles every time she sees her brother, Mommy, Daddy, or Mariana. Beatrice loves to laugh and finds Elliot, Mariana's singing, and Daddy's silly faces to be quite funny. She is getting stronger everyday and likes standing and sitting with help. She also loves to bounce in her rain forest bouncer (something that Elliot also enjoyed) and roll around on the floor. Beatrice is a great little sleeper and goes to bed every night with little to no fuss.

We've only been a family of four for 6 months, but it feels like Beatrice has always been a part of us. I know the next six months will bring even more changes and surprises as Beatrice gets bigger and becomes more engaged with the world around her. I can't wait to see what's ahead, but I also want time to slow down so that I can enjoy every second with my baby girl.

Half B-day Update: At her six month check up Beatrice was 75 percentile for height and 64 percentile for weight. She grew two inches (to 26") and gained two pounds (to 16.4) since her last visit.

Roly Poly

Beatrice rolled from her back to her front this morning then did it again, and again, and again. She seemed quite pleased with herself. She is napping now - rolling is hard work.

The Mommy Photo Both

Our camera has a "rapid fire" feature the allows you to take a lot of pictures really fast. Its great for catching those baby smiles. The other day Beatrice was "talking" up a storm and making all kinds of funny faces, so I grabbed the camera and fired away. These are some of my favorites.

Shaking Things Up

Yesterday morning we experienced our first earth quake. You'd think that Brian and I would have felt the earth shake at least once during our 4 years in California, but we didn't. Yesterday's quake was a 3.6 and felt like a HUGE truck driving by or a VERY strong roll of thunder. The kids slept right through it. The big highlight of their day was the introduction of the Bumbo seat to Beatrice. She loves to sit up and really seemed to like her new seat. Elliot thought it was very funny to see Beatrice in her little seat and will probably want her to sit in it all the time.

The Summer the AC Died

Dear Elliot and Beatrice, I doubt that either of you will remember much about the last five days of the summer of 2010. I on the other hand, will always remember this as the Summer the AC died...while Daddy was on a business trip, forcing us to become nomads.

Last week it got very hot in our house. We were in the middle of a record setting heat wave (102 + all week) and our air conditioner stopped working. We stayed in the house for one night and decided that we'd had enough. After a night a Mommy's cousin David's house (thank goodness for family), and news that it would be another three days before the AC would be fixed, we packed up and headed to Williamsburg. Five hours later we arrived at Mimsey and Gramp's house. Unfortunately Mimsey and Gramps were still enjoying their vacation in CO. Elliot, this made you very sad so we decided to stay through Monday night so that you could see Mimsey and Gramps after they got home on Sunday night.

Although it wasn't planned, we had a very nice trip. I went to the office in Richmond while you and Beatrice spent time with Mariana (our wonderful au pair). Over the weekend we played at the beach and went to the Virginia Living museum. Beatrice, you spent most of your time sleeping while Elliot had a great time exploring and making new discoveries. As I write this we are back home in Silver Spring, MD and we are all looking forward to sleeping in our own beds!

Sleeping Beauty

Last night Beatrice went to bed at 8:30 PM and woke up at 6:00 AM. We are all hoping for a repeat performance tonight!

Lost my camera and track of time...

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last few weeks. Our lives have been actioned packed and I swear I have been documenting every moment, and I would post pictures from all of those moments if I had not left my camera at my cousin's house over a week ago. Thankfully my sister and mother-in-law have sent enough photos to give you a taste of our adventures. More to come.

The most exciting news to share is that our Au Pair, Marianna, has arrived from Brazil. She has been with us for three weeks now and things are going very well. Elliot is in love and Beatrice is quite content in her arms. Marianna has been quite the trooper, as the basement remodel is not exactly complete (hopefully it will be on Friday). As part of the remodel the kids will have a big playroom to spend their days in. Since I am working from home, this will make all of our lives easier.

Shortly after Mariana's arrival Beatrice and I left for Colorado to attend Stacey Farnum's (sister in law) baby shower. Stacey is having twins in July and we are all very excited about having two more cousins. Beatrice was a great traveler and we had great time hanging out with Grammy, Papa, Uncle Joe, and Aunt Stacey.

About a day after we returned home from Colorado, we all took a little trip to Williamsburg (everyone but Daddy). I was able to spend two days in the office in Richmond (my first week back after maternity leave), Elliot and Mariana spent their days riding the golf cart and playing at the beach, and Beatrice had lots of time with her Mimsey.

We went directly from Williamsburg to my grandmother's, Mom-Mom, 90th birthday celebration. Most of my cousins and aunts and uncles on my dad's side (the Heller family) were there. It was great seeing everyone and Elliot had a blast playing with his third cousins (my cousins' kids). His first cousin, Natalie, was also in attendance. She and Beatrice are 2 weeks a part. Of course we dressed them up in matching outfits and took lots of pictures.

Last weekend we went to a cookout to celebrate the engagement of two friends and say good bye to two others who are moving to Nebraska. The party was hosted by the McGinty family. They also have a newborn and a 2 1/2+ year old, Connor. Needless to say Elliot had a great time playing with Connor and Beatrice enjoyed being passed around and snuggled.

Phew... that's a lot of stuff. Enjoy the pictures, I promise to post more as soon as I get my camera back.