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).

Update

Evening all,

Here's the latest and greatest:

• Beatrice is 14 weeks old today (real age) and 1 month (corrected age).
  
• The Little One visited the doc today and weights 8lbs! This seems to be a magic number as we are now big enough to ride in the Baby Bjorn (even though we scream) and have graduated to the next size diapers.
• D witnessed Bea turn over this evening! This is the second time she's done it and, while it was most definitely an accident, it still qualifies as big doings.
• M saw Bea smile for the first time today (granted, it was at her mobile and not M, but M is still very very excited). M&D spent nearly 20 minutes trying to get her to do it again (fish faces, waving arms, squeals, etc.), to no avail. That's ok -- lots of smiles ahead.

Recent pics

D's favorite shirt.







Bundled up for a walk.








Party at D's office. Bea would still prefer breast milk to cake.

Power Outage!

At 5pm on Saturday night, with a roast in the oven and friends on the way over, we lost power. An early autumn windstorm toppled over a tree, or two, causing Team Beatrice to enter into full crisis mode. Such an incident probably wouldn't phase most people, but Team Beatrice remembered the 5-day outage of 2006, so we packed up the car, intending to head to Nana's house. And then we packed some more stuff into the car. And then some more.

You get the picture.

Ms. Beatrice travels like a Roman emperor, with both an entourage and the kitchen sink: Pack & Play, oxymeter, diaper bag, car seat, foam sleeping wedge, extra clothes, more diapers, etc, etc. Luckily, good friends agreed to a last-minute relocation of festivities, so Lil' Bea experienced her first dinner party away from home. We were a huge hit (we hope), and remained awake throughout the entire evening. Thank goodness the power came back on later in the evening, as Team Beatrice was exhausted.

And speaking of firsts...

Ms. Bea was treated to party thrown in her honor at D's office. Our first major outing other than walks and doctors visits. We thoroughly enjoyed the company and, most especially, the fluorescent lighting (which hypnotized us a little). M&D are thankful for and humbled by the generosity of D's coworkers. Thank you so much, everyone.

That's all for the evening. No health issues to report, although M suspects that Bea has a bit of a sniffle.

All the best,

Team Beatrice (Ian)

Testing out video

3 Months Old!

Evening Team Beatrice fans,

Bea is 3 months old today in real age (21 days corrected age). All is coming along quite smoothly in the Adams' household. The Little One continues to eat, sleep and poop (especially poop!) and is growing nicely. No more o2 needs, but we're still dealing with frantic eating behaviors (she's stronger than her size might suggest) and bad reflux which results in lots of screaming. Aside from loosing their hearing a bit, M&D are enjoying sweet Bea.



We think the mobile is very exciting!








Baby fish mouth.








Totally, completely zonked.








Kisses from D & M.

















First time Bea got her thumb in her mouth! It sure would save us a lot of time washing pacifiers...