first "solid" food

i'm not tired

Bea was tired. I put her in her bed, socks on, head on the burp towel, binky in her mouth and under the covers. She didn't fuss. She did make this noise that she likes to make, that usually indicates that she is tired and will soon be drifting off. After a while, the noise stopped on the monitor, so I peeked in the door to check on her. I could see her moving, so I approached the bed. What I saw was a combination of these two pics....



She had the look on her face of the first pic and the position of the second pic. Either way she had a sock off, binky out, covers off and she'd turned 90 degrees. It was quite cute of course, so I got my camera.

Then a bit later Daddy came home from jogging and after his shower they decided to have a beer together.

Mutual Admiration Society?

exersaucer video

growing

I can't believe how much she is growing! As of Wednesday, she is five months old!! And it's not just chronological age either...she's growing! I've spent a zillion dollars this month on 'new' things. Below, socks. Finally, some socks that fit! She's been too big for our stash for a while, so I bought a pile this past week.


She is big enough to enjoy her exersaucer! Prior to this she was able to sit in it, but it was only a new perspective for her, not a fun toy. Now...she has a blast. She plays with the toys and can turn herself around in it. Mostly, she likes to try to eat as much of it as possible.


Among this week's purchases...highchair and bowls. We will be starting cereal soon! Those pics will be fun, won't they?? :-)

Oh...she loves her feet!

goofy girl

Lately Bea has been making this face...


Teething ya think?

The three photos below are from a week or so ago when we decided to play the pots and pans...

She's really quite good.

This next set of pictures go into my pile of favorites. Bea was getting tired, Charlie was jogging and I was wanting to do some scrapbooking downstairs. I put Bea in her pack n play. I decided to run upstairs and get some toys...but to occupy her while I did that, I gave her a book. She looked so cute I had to take a couple of pictures. I'll display them here, along with the comments that Charlie put on facebook.

Oh...Hey...OMG! Wait...you have to read this part!...

*flip flip flip flip*
"BELLY BUTTON!...bee bo..." HA HA HA! GENIUS! Boy, this Sandra Boynton should get some kind of awa...

*zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz*

Here are the two scrapbook pages I have done so far...



Finally, Charlie uploaded this video to YouTube this morning...

Bea's B

Bea's B
Originally uploaded by orange gearle

I should have posted this with the Christmas pictures, but I just remembered that I took it! This was Bea's first Christmas ornament. I thought it was appropriate for the obvious reason...and Orange and Green are our favorite colors, so even better.

bea wakes up

This was taken this past weekend. :-) She's always so happy when she first wakes up!

snow day

I'm home today with my baby Bea. It snowed about six inches overnight and the winds are supposed to pick up later today to blow it all around. It is quite beautiful as you can see in the picture of the tree in our backyard. Although I appreciate the day home with my wee one, it's fairly bad timing...meetings to reschedule, testing to complete, etc. etc. etc. I'm also NOT looking forward to school in June!

Below are a few pictures from the last few days...

holiday (and other) highlights

This time last year we started this blog to share our pregnancy with whomever would listen. (Is it whomever or whoever? I can never remember that rule) Since that time we created a facebook account for Bea, so our posts here have pretty much ended. I tend to prefer the old-fashioned blog to facebook, so I've decided to revive this blog from it's code blue, even if people stopped reading it. If nothing else it will serve as Bea's "baby book" since I'm horrible about contributing to that! Although Charlie can post too, I'll likely be it's only contributor with his focus on facebook. So this blog will mostly be a mother's musings...about a growing Bea and motherhood.

Since Bea's birth she has learned to breastfeed, smile, laugh, sleep through the (most) night(s), roll from her front to back, play with her toys and maybe a few other things I've forgotten to mention. Oh and drool. She drools often these days.

A quick look back in time...


In September Bea's big sister Hollyanne got married! The above photograph is Bea in her Grandma Braun's arms at the wedding. Hollyanne's beautiful wedding was at Palisades Park...and her flower was a pink Gerbera daisy...so Bea's outfit was perfect. Grandma Braun found the above onesie in a small shop in Algona, IA. It's really just a onsie...with tooling and a pretty flower attached. It came with little "shoes" (really just socks) that also have daisies on them. Quite cute!


On Halloween, of course, Bea was a bee (much to her father's chagrin). I thought the costume, a gift from my new friend, Amber, was adorable. Charlie thought it was mean to make her wear it! :-) He must've come around though...he made this video. I will admit that, at times, she did look like she was feeling a bit humiliated!

Here are a few photos from Bea's first Thanksgiving...

The above picture was taken at Uncle Mark's, where we celebrated with the Howe side of the family.

Below was at the Braun celebration...



After two Thanksgivings...Bea was tired!



If two Thanksgivings weren't enough...we had three Christmases!!!

First, at Grandma and Grandpa Howe's the week before Christmas...

A Bea sandwich with Aunt Jeanne and cousin Laila.

Cousin Rich and his son Ethan enjoying some father-son time.

Cousin Laila spent most of her day asking if she could hug Bea...and then doing it. Very sweet!

Hollyanne is holding her sister Bea while watching her baby, Mikaela, kick her! Only a few months until we get to see Mikaela (and Bea is an Aunt Bea)!

Our second Christmas was Christmas morning at our place with Hollyanne and Nate...


The first present opening (above) and loving (below)



Meet Sofie the Giraffe. Bea loves to chew on her. We think she might be teething already! You should hear the way it squeaks on her gums as she chews.

Eating the paper was probably really her favorite.

Really getting the hang of it now!

In the afternoon, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Brauns...

Great Aunt Mary is holding Bea.

Luc and Grandma

Yes, she is reading. Why not? Her mother is a literacy coach, father an avid reader and song writer, Grandma Howe was once a librarian and Grandma Braun a high school English teacher!

Cousin Jake is addicted to Hamster Ball (and quite good at it)!

Believe it or not we didn't take any photos on New Year's Eve. However, we did take lots of video with our new HD video camera. Here is a still Charlie captured from one of the videos!

Grandma Howe bought Beatrice the shirt! Happy New Year!!