Tummy Time Success

Celebrating M's b-day yesterday! Ian made an amazing dinner and the most delicious chocolate cake. Bea has many tasty cakes in her future.

Tummy time suddenly isn't so bad. Bea can get up on her hands now and rolled from front to back about 20 times today! We took some video and will see if we can upload it to the blog. Stay tuned.

Holiday Festitivies

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah and Happy New Year to all!

Team Beatrice celebrated its first Christmas as a family and had a magical time. M, D, & Bea made it safely to Grandpa's house Christmas Eve, where we indulged in an amazing Paella and had lots of fun visiting with everyone. Bea had a little meltdown with all the excitement, but rallied with smiles just before leaving. She knows how to get an invite back!

We slept in the next morning (have we mentioned she sleeps 8-10 hours now?!?) and had a fanastic time chowing down on a great breakfast specially prepared by D, tearing into gifts, and playing in our pjs. The cats, Timmy & Oliver, had a field day and went berserk with all the paper and ribbon strewn about. Who needs cat toys when all they want is a pile of trash? In the afternoon, we were off to Nana's house for more great food (still thinking of the Baked Alaska...) and fun with Bea's grandmother, uncle and great-uncle. We sorely missed seeing M's family this holiday season, but are excited about an upcoming visit from Mimi and M's stepfather.

Here is a picture of the munchkin with a special stuffed animal from M&D. Monte the Monkey tried to make friends, but Bea was a little reluctant - he is, after all, still bigger than she is!


Bea tries to help open her presents. She mostly just drooled on them.

















Testing out her new Bebe Pod seat. Now she can sit up like a big girl!













Christmas at Nana's house.















M & Bea all dressed up!











Isn't her party dress too cute?

Snowed In

Greetings from a very snowy Seattle. Yes, this is our third post in the same number of days, but being snowed in is making us a bit hungry for contact with the outside world. D's office actually closed today due to the fact that no one would be there anyway. Yahoo! Now we can have another family snow day (complete with delicious homemade scones)!
While we shovel, shovel, shovel and frantically wonder if we'll be able to finish last minute shopping or even get over the hills and through the woods to Nana's house on Christmas, Ms. Bea slumbers away in her new sled.

Sleigh Bells Ring!

Bea takes a spin around the yard in an early Christmas present from Grandpa.








Thanks, Grandpa!

Bea's First Snow!

Bea is bundled head to toe for her first snow fall. She said she liked watching the snow a lot more from inside the house.






























Uh oh, the baby is loosing it...








Much happier all snuggled up with D.

Check out the buddha belly!

She's almost 13lbs....

Gymini fun

Bea is starting to swat at the animals on her gymini!















Playtime is exhausting!

5 Months Old!

Greetings all,
Bea is 5 months old as of yesterday -- we can hardly believe it has been nearly half a year since she was born. She visited the doc for a weight check this morning and is (drum roll, please)...11lbs 10oz! That mean she has officially doubled the weight she was when she came home from the hospital. Her doctor was ecstatic and declared she actually EXCEEDED his expectations and even made it, albeit barely, onto the chart for normal 5 monthers. We are just eating up every chubby finger and fat roll on our little munchkin. In addition to packing on pounds, she is developing a varied (and louder) vocabulary of "ah-hoos", "wa-ahhas", "a-gees" and much more. Mirrors are suddenly lots of fun and she finds various clocks and pictures just hilarious. No rolling over or reaching for objects just yet, but we think those are right around the corner. More pictures to come soon!
Best,
Team Beatrice

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Team Beatrice! We had a delicious meal with family and our NICU friends. Bea especially enjoyed visiting with her friend Ian, though she hasn't quite mastered much beyond just staring at him.
We are so thankful for our daughter and all the support from family and friends near and far.
Love to all,
Carol and Ian

Play Time

Bea is looking so much bigger!












The five seconds of tummy time before screaming begins.







Airplane! (this could end badly...)








Bea finds her bear mobile hilarious.








Oh dear. Developing a bad habit already?

Getting Bigger!

Hi everyone,
Bea continues to grow grow grow! She visited the doctor earlier this week with her first cold of the season. The cold is no fun and has turned her into a snot-monkey, but she is gaining weight really well and is now 10lbs 11oz! With the onset of "cold and flu season", she got her first Synogist shot today which will help her little lungs fight off the dreaded RSV virus. Most kiddos will get RSV during the winter months and this shot provides Bea with extra oomph to fight it off when and if she gets it. She said the shot was just terrible and tried to kill the nurse who gave it to her, but now is kicking away in her bouncy chair. If only we could all forgive and forget so easily.

In other news, M flew to VT last weekend for her friend Katie's wedding. The wedding was beautiful and she got to spend much needed quality time with her oldest and bestest friends and is much rejunvenated. D and Bea bonded at home, complete with many long walks and football watching at a friend's house. M, albeit exhausted, was so happy to see her family on Sunday night.

Here is the little one enjoying her nightly story time with D. More pictures to come soon!

-Team Beatrice (Carol)

Team Beatrice Gets Showered!

We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Nana's wonderful friends for throwing us a beautiful shower. We were blown away by the love and support for our little munchkin. Bea had a great time meeting everyone and socializing. She slept really well that night...we should take her to parties more often!







M & Bea check out the delicious cake







Nana shows off her granddaughter.

Squeals and Wiggles

Smiles!

M & Bea (you can really see her baby blues in this picture!)









We finally caught a smile on camera! While the animals on her mobiles still get the most squeals, she has started to smile at Ian and I -- it melts us to pieces.

4 Month Update

Hi everyone,

We visited the doctor earlier this week for Bea's 4 month check-up. She got a bunch of vaccinations and performed like a champ! Current weight: 9lbs 10oz. Her doctor is pleased with her weight gain, but is eager to see her pack on pounds, so we've been given marching orders to feed, feed, feed. Overall, the Little One got a good bill of health. Amazing. We'll start the Synogist (sp?) shots later this month that will help protect her from getting really sick from RSV this winter. It's a good thing she's used to be stuck with needles!

More pictures to come soon. Thanks for all your comments!

-Team Beatrice

Happy Halloween!

Our Buzzing Bea! Only this once could we force her into a bee costume.

Play Time

Hi all,

Our Little One is so alert these days! She coos and smiles and is making us oh-so-happy. She has been mostly healthy, but just to be safe, we visited the doc yesterday due to excessive stuffiness and trouble breathing while eating. We don't yet know how much of a cold is too much for her. They did a chest x-ray because her breathing sounded shallow, but all looks good. She keeps us on our toes. Bea was also weighed at the doctor and is 9lbs 3oz!! Can you believe it?
We're off to a pumpkin picking & carving party today, so stay tuned for pics of Bea in her costume. It is purely for our entertainment, but we can't help ourselves. Enjoy the pics and the video!
-Team Beatrice (Carol)

Friends!

The cats are jealous -- only Beatrice is allowed to sit on the table.








Our NICU friends! Genya and baby Ian (great name!) walk with Ian and Bea in Lincoln Park.





Bea finally got some pics with her friend Ian. They joined a mommy-baby group and got a chance to do vigorous leg kicks next to one another. As of now, that qualifies as socializing for these babes. M is thankful for a chance to get out of the house and discuss the ups and downs of mommyhood with other moms. D went back to work today much to everyone's chagrine. It was such a special treat to be home as a whole family.

Tuesday Night

Good evening all,

It's been a while since Team Beatrice has posted any news or reflections of any substance; we are aware that Team Bea fans must be appeased and apologize, profusely, for the omission. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Well, not that sorry. Team Beatrice has had a lot on its mind. A demanding (yet typical) child and the challenges of living on a single income have eaten into our time and energy. Furthermore, as many, maybe most, of you know, the joys and heartache of parenthood are difficult to express, so it it is usually better to let pictures do the talking. Can anyone adequately summarize the emotion a parent feels when his or her child smiles for the first time? I can't. On the other hand, how do you express the frustration that a parent feels at 4am after having rocked his or her screaming child for two hours? Again, maybe such a conflicted emotion is better left to memory than the page.

So that's where we are right now: We have a mostly healthy baby who is causing us to lose sleep at night while she fills us with life and energy. What's there to say? I (let's move to first person, shall we?) think that I'll be ready to write about this experience in another eighteen years, at the earliest.

But I promised a substantive post, didn't I?

D has taken the week off in order to spend some QT with the family. The exhausting, squirmy, screamy family that refuses to sleep in the day and reluctantly rests at night. So far, many long walks have been taken and many hours have been spent on the couch staring at our bundle of joy. We'll keep everyone posted if anything really, really interesting should happen.

All the best,

Team Beatrice (Ian)

Swimming Baby

Bea the pink snow bear! Aren't the ears too much?






























Beatrice is learning to swim baby-style (she credits her superior streamlines to her lesson from Aunt Julie).