tongue

So, it seems that Bethany has found her tongue. She was doing all kinds of things with it today. She would stick it out, lick her face, even made a raspberry. It was so cute. It was funny watching her lick the salty water on her face at the beach!

We put her down for bed at about 8:00 tonight. A little while ago, we heard her saying something. It was weird. Usually, if we hear her after putting her down, it's a little cry or moan. Just something in her sleep. But this time was more of a babble. Like she was dreaming she was saying something. We just kind of laughed.

Here are some pics from the beach today. She loves it more and more:

sucky face

A few days ago, Bethany started putting her index finger in her mouth and sucking on it. To the point that she made a "fish-face". Then, she started rolling in her bottom lip and then smacking her mouth open. Well, now, she makes a fish-face (without the help of her finger) and smacks her mouth open. What a hoot.

baby's got the shakes!

Bethany has a new trick: shaking her head. She looks like she's saying, "no". But I know that's not it. I guess she just likes the feeling!

Last night I tried tickling her. For some reason she really tries to hold in her giggles. We keep telling her that she would feel much better if she would just let out the laugh. Well, last night, as I tried to tickle her, she SNORTED! Yes, just like mommy and Aunt Lilly. It was so funny! I did get a little giggle by blowing in her ear.

She also loves when I whisper in her ear, "I love you". Every time I do it, she looks at me and grins so big! I love that!

I think she's beginning to take an interest in faces. Most of the stuffed toys she has are animals. Well, today, she picked up my Amy doll and held her in front of her face and stared at her while babbling. It was so cute. She also does that with the DVD's. I'll have to get her one of those baby faces books.

Today in the laundry room, she was hysterical. I was taking clothes out of the washer and she was down the row so she could see the dryers. A man walked in and she held up her hand (like the queen does-with her palm facing her with fingers slightly curved) and shouted, "DA DA!". It was soooooo cute! I said, "no, that's not da da". Maybe she thinks all men are "da da". Hehe.

She's starting to make a "B" sound. It's so funny to watch her because she folds her lips in and her cheeks get all puffy. She puts a hum behind it and then finally, "BUH!". Then she'll do like four or five "buh's" in a row.

Well, Mommy FINALLY got a hair cut this weekend. It has been 7 months! Between being busy with a new baby and moving and having to find a place, it just took awhile. I chopped off about 3 inches. It feels so much better.

Now only one other thing would make me feel better: Could someone send me a #5 8-pack with a half and half tea? BBQ sauce with that. And, uh, value size the tea.

Thanks.

fun with geckos! part deux

So, the black fabric works great!!! She slept until 8:15 this morning! And even then, Nathan said by the time he went in to get her, she had put her head back down! So, maybe I should let a little light filter in.

Of course, everything did not go off without a hitch last night. Bethany goes down between 7:30 and 8:00 each night. Before we go to bed, Nathan changes her diaper. As he opened her door, a baby gecko was sitting in the doorway and darted into her room. It hid behind her bed and Nathan poised himself at one end of her bed with a tupperware and I poked at the gecko from the other end with a broom stick. Somehow, even though it seemed Nathan put the container right on top of him, he got away. We must have spent 10 minutes looking for that stupid thing. Bethany stayed asleep most of the time, but ended up waking up. At first she just sat up and looked at us like, "Am I dreaming? What's going on?" Then she totally woke up and, as Nathan was looking for the gecko in the draw under her crib, she tried pulling blankets out and then tried to climb in the drawer. It took a while for her to go back to sleep. And we have no idea where that stupid gecko went. Hopefully he found his way back outside.

Today we went to the zoo. We spent most of our time looking at the birds. She loved them. We had a good time. Here are a few pics:









Back to work for daddy tomorrow. He's done formatting all of the text for his dissertation. He just needs to add in tables and figures, and appendices. Can it really be this close? I don't know what we'll do when he's actually completely done. It will be like losing a member of the family. Well, more like the family dog, I guess.

More later!

Cheerios

Bethany had a pretty good day today. She was great in the nursery at church, as usual. One of the workers told us when we went to pick her up that she is "very brave". Yes, she is. She goes everywhere and wants to see what everyone is doing.

Tonight she tried Cheerios for the first time. She did pretty well. I cut them all in half in case she had some trouble with them. Before this, she's had these Vanilla cracker-y things by Gerber that dissolve easily. She liked them, but they make kind of a sticky mess. The Cheerios are much cleaner. I just thought as far as finger foods it would be better to start on something she didn't really have to chew (gum).

She is talking like mad. In particular, she loves talking to Woody on the Toy Story DVD case. Maybe we'll see if she likes other Woody stuff. And we'll have to show her the movie (not that she'll be able to watch the whole thing).

Bethany has had a little difficulty the last week or so when I put her down for her nap. It used to only take about 5 minutes for her to go to sleep, and she would fuss or cry during that time. Lately, even though OBVIOUSLY tired, she'll stand up and talk for sometimes 45 minutes. I started wondering if it was because her room is so bright. So this weekend we bought some heavy black fabric and I hung it to the backside of her curtains. We'll see how it works tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed!

Here is a cute bath picture:



Click on the picture to see more!

Fantastic News!!!!!!

Ok, this has nothing to do with Bethany but I have to put it up here.

My friend (and sister), Lilly, has had a, let's say, less than great year. She has been through SO MUCH. What has made it even more difficult is that I'm here and she's there (Orlando). She is an awesome mom and is so great with kids and has been working at a daycare for as long as I can remember. More than a year ago she started taking classes to become certified as a fire inspector. She has been applying for jobs all over and of course has heard from everyone, "I'm sorry, but we're looking for someone with some experience". Which begs the ever famous question, "How does anyone get experience unless someone hires the person with no experience?" Anyway, today she got a call from Oviedo with an offer!!!!! I totally lost it over the phone and as I sit here typing this I have tears in my eyes. She is going to be a fire inspector for the city of Oviedo. I am so proud of her. I know the struggles she has been through for the past year and she really deserved this. I know that God has amazing plans for her. And I know that she had to wait this long for a good reason. We may not know what that reason is, and we may never know, but never doubt that God will provide.

Congratulations, Lilly. No one deserves it more than you. I love you.

why?

I'm never bragging about her naps again. She just woke up after sleeping for 30 minutes!!! Arg!!!!

Thank you Jesus...

...for 2 hour naps! Yesterday morning she took a wonderful nap! Of course, the night before, she slept terribly. We didn't have any problems as far as not sleeping at all, she just slept very lightly. It was extremely windy that night and we think the sound of the wind howling was the problem. Anyway, she had good naps yesterday and slept REALLY well last night, too. Thank you Jesus! Rejoice in the small things!

I've put a bunch of new pictures on the website. Mostly because she can wear so many new clothes! She's growing out of her 6 month clothes and starting to fit her 6-9 month clothes. Here are a few:









This one is cute, too. Bethany kept pulling Nathan's glasses off and chewing on the ear piece. So Nathan gave Bethany her sunglasses and she did it again, so Nathan did too and we get:



I just thought it was so cute!

laundry

Bethany LOVES the laundry room! She loves to watch the clothes spin around in the dryers. Today she was just talking up a storm when we went over there. She also just loves being outside. Whenever I buckle her in her stroller she waits eagerly for me to open the front door. When I do she gets the BIGGEST grin on her face! Then she starts babbling when the breeze is real strong. She loves it so much! Yesterday afternoon it was so beautiful that after she woke up from her nap I put a sheet down in the grass out our back door and she just crawled and rolled around and played and had so much fun. Then, when Nathan came home, he came around back and when she saw him she again made a beeline for him. I was laying on my side between them so she crawled up me to get to him and he said, "Can I have a kiss?" and puckered up and she kissed him!!! It melted my heart. Now, she doesn't know how to make a kissy face yet. Either that or she just really likes the open mouthed kiss. She does it to her animals and to herself in the mirror, but has rarely done it to one of us. Especially when asked. It was so adorable.

Her favorite thing to do right now is pull all of the DVD's off the shelf. There's a picture of it on her website.

She is talking like crazy today. After her nap this morning she just crawled around in her crib talking. When I finally went in to get her, she was standing up, stroking the wall and blabbing. Then after I picked her up she wanted to see the cross stitch on the wall next to her bed. It's a little girl with the saying, "To have a daughter is to know special joy". My mom made it and it hung in my room as a little girl and we brought it here to hang in Bethany's room. She really likes it, I guess because she kept wanting to touch it!

Happy Birthday, Nahna!!!!

no juice

Ok, so, Bethany just doesn't like juice. Not yet, anyway. I found these cups today, made by the first years. Now I had seen others (the Take 'n Toss) but in 7 or 9 oz sizes. Today I found a 5 oz size and it is shaped so little hands can hold on to them. Even without a valve they are spill proof. They are reusable and at 6 cups for $3.50 I'll take 'em! I took many pictures of her with one tonight so you'll understand better what I'm talking about. Anyway, I tried giving her some juice and even some formula in one and she didn't want it. Then I put water in it and she CHUGGED it! At least 2 ounces worth. It was so cool. Granted, some of it came right back out of her mouth, but most of it went in! It was so cute watching her drink from it. She was actually standing up at the ottoman with her elbows on the ottoman to hold herself up while she drank! She did the same thing later at my chair. Here are some of the pics I took. You can see her two little bottom teeth in one:







She did this the other day. She crawled under the dining room table and stood up at one of the chairs. Crazy!



She said "da-da" or some form of that quite clearly today. Sometimes it was just one "da", sometimes "da-da" or "di-da". And I think she is making the connection of who "da-da" is. She said it a LOT and ONLY before Nathan left for work and once he got home.

Bethany had her first grocery cart ride today. She had so much fun! I think she liked being up higher to see stuff and also to look at me to show me she was enjoying herself.

I have this picture of myself with my brother, Michael, and my sister, Susan in a frame on a table by the front hall (it's from the pictures we had done Christmas 1999). I forget what I was doing with Bethany, but I was holding her to walk somewhere and as we went passed the table she squealed at the picture! So I stopped and said, "That's Uncle Michael and Aunt Susan and Mommy". And she looked at each person so intently. I've got to get pictures out to show her more people. It's just with digital cameras, I don't have many printed pictures of other family members unless I drag out the wedding albums.

Our little girl is growing up so fast! (sniff) :)

Nap Confusion

Well, we're not quite sure what's been going on with Bethany's naps lately. The past few days it seems she's regressed to taking 3 naps instead of 2. She's taken 2 naps since she was 5 months old and I loved the 2 nap schedule. So I was a little disappointed when she decided that she was sleepy at about 8:30 these past few days. Anyway, today it was at about 9 am that she seemed sleepy so I fixed her bottle (which she would normally have at about 10) and put her down for a nap and she then proceeded to talk to Ears, squeal, play, cry, sleep, cry, sleep, until she fell asleep for good at about 9:50. She slept until 11:15. So this pretty much screwed up any chance of that after lunch nap which meant she had to make it until about 3 so she wouldn't be up so long before bedtime. So we drove to the mall after lunch to walk around (today was one of those days where the clouds just sat over the valley making the humidity unbearable). As I was about to leave, I heard instruments tuning up. The Royal Hawaiian Band was performing at 2:00! So we stuck around and listened for about 15 minutes (she was soooo tired) but she enjoyed herself for those 15 minutes. It gives me hope for the possibility of taking her to concerts. The drums caught her attention, as did the trombones when they had a big part. And she looked in the direction of the music the WHOLE time. Except when looking at someone next to us to let them know how much fun she was having. So then she slept from 3 until 4:40. Still a long time until the 7:30 bedtime. She gets pretty cranky around 7 but we're so worried that if she goes to sleep at 7 she'll get up before 7am (which would STINK!). So, I guess we'll just have to continue experimenting.

She will climb into my rocking chair very soon. Thank goodness it locks. She puts her hands on my nursing stool, then up to the chair. Then she puts one knee on the stool and stands up on it with the other leg and then stands on the first leg. She is just about to get her knee up on the chair, it's just a little too high right now.

Bethany has this lamb that is praying and when you push his tummy he says the bedtime prayer. She LOVES him! It doesn't matter how upset she is about anything. If you push it, she grins so big! And then she looks at one of us to show us how cute she is! Sometimes she'll hug him after he says, "Amen".

So most days when Nathan comes home, he has to take off his helmet and sunglasses and backpack before she'll even acknowledge he's home. Today, he came in the door and called her name and she made a beeline for him saying, "heeeyyyyy" the whole way. Then she pulled herself up by his shorts and buried her face between his legs. It was SOOOOOO cute!!!!!!!!

She is so much fun!

fun with geckos!

Okay, so we just spent the last 45 minutes (it's now 11:05 pm) chasing and capturing a gecko in our apartment. Now, if you've never had an experience with one of these fascinating creatures you won't have an appreciation for the skill it takes to catch one. Those critters are FAST! And, they have sticky toes, so they can crawl anywhere. He crawled from over the door to Bethany's room close to the ceiling, around the corner and down the wall of the foyer, up onto the ceiling over the front door, along the other wall and around the corner into the kitchen and behind the cabinet (there's a piece that just goes from the cabinet to the wall since the cabinet itself stops before the wall) over the fridge where he decided he was safe. We left him there for about 10 minutes while Nate washed the dishes and I showered. Then, I banged a box underneath while Nate waited on top, hoping the noise would scare him out and he could catch him in a cup. When that didn't work, Nate dropped a t-shirt down the space hoping that it would cause our friend to drop into the box with the shirt keeping him down. Well, that didn't work, either, and he raced back up and along the wall above the cabinets.

Aside: it was funny watching Nathan walk/crawl/climb/run on the counters chasing him

Then he turned both corners and ended up on the ceiling above the cabinets on the opposite side of the kitchen. He eventually fell and Nathan got a box top (thanks to grandma's gift to Bethany that we got today) on top of him. He then scooched him into the bottom of the box, put on the lid and freed him outside in the bushes.

Isn't life in Hawaii exciting?

The Zoo!

Well, it was a pretty clear day today so we thought we'd go to the beach, or maybe the zoo. We decided on the zoo since I've been wanting to take Bethany. She had a lot of fun. We saw so many different animals! Click here to see the whole album.





They even had a petting zoo:



It was a long day but she did so well. She loves her giraffe and zebra from her Noah's Ark so much and she got to see them for real today! Yay for the zoo!

another beautiful day

Okay, so everyone complains here when it rains. But would they rather the rain stay up in the clouds making it incredibly humid and REALLY uncomfortable? I wouldn't. It's been in the low to mid 70's the past two days. I love it. What I would really love is to go visit my friends in Chicago and cool off for about a week (and see all my friends, too, of course).

Well, the scab on Bethany's nose fell off today. When I went in to get her up from her afternoon nap I saw it in the bed and thought, "what is THAT?!?!" Then I saw her nose and said, "whew!"

Here are some cute pics of your favorite girl:







Enjoy!

Finally!

A cool day! At 8:30 this morning it was 66 degrees! And it is currently 74 degrees! Woo-hoo! I've been waiting for this weather for months! Hopefully it will last a few days. I'm not counting any chickens, though.

poor baby

I think we may be entering a phase of injuries. Today she was standing up in front of the Ikea chair and fell down (which alone would have been no big deal) and on the way down she banged her chin causing her bottom teeth to cut the roof of her mouth. She bled for a few minutes and then was back on her feet climbing up stuff again. At least she wasn't permanently damaged (mentally, I mean). I'm glad that she just gets right up again when these things happen.

So, how'd you like the "in your face" picture on the front page?


Happy Birthday, Daddy!!!!

nevermind

Ok, I wrote down Bethany's appointment wrong. Good thing I called first this morning. She has her appointment on Monday the 7th. So I'll let you know how that goes when it happens!

tags and pacifiers

Whenever I see a 3 or 4 year old child with a binkie in their mouth I thank Jesus that we have already weaned Bethany off of a binkie. I can't imagine having a child that old and still having to keep track of one of those.

She has discovered the tags on her toys. I was wondering when that would happen. When I see her doing that I remember watching my niece, Hope, as she would play with the tags on her toys. She just studies it so hard and then sticks it in her mouth and sucks on it for a couple of minutes. Then she'll take it out and do it all over again.

Here are some pictures of her nose. The first one is Sunday at the beach (the day she fell):



Next is one this morning, it's a little more brown:



And this is from this afternoon. It was looking a little purple:



We have another ultrasound tomorrow. Nothing to be concerned about. Just one of many she'll have to keep an eye on what her kidneys are doing.

Happy Anniversary, Grandma and Grandpa!

owie!

So Bethany is a little banged up. She fell off of the bed yesterday morning. I know, we're horrible parents for letting that happen. Let's just say we learned our lesson that even though she is sitting perfectly still, it doesn't mean she'll stay that way when we turn around for a split second. She seems ok. No bumps or any tender spots. The only visible sign that anything happened is on her nose. It looks like she got a rug burn on the tip of her nose. It's starting to scab over today so it looks like a little brown dot. She just seemed very scared afterward so we decided to keep her with us during church and sat in the cry room with her.

Then we did our usual Costco trip after church. And we decided on the way home since Saturday had been so crummy that we should go to the beach. We enjoyed a few hours on the beach and then came home. Bethany took a 2 hour nap, had dinner, a bath, a bedtime bottle and then went to bed. It was a big day for her!

But, as I said, she's doing just fine after her little accident. (Except for the screaming she's doing right now since I put her down for her nap.)

Happy Birthday, Aunt Lisa!!

giggles and 4 is the number

I'm so sorry it's been so long. I didn't realize it had been 5 days. I've had headaches the last few nights. I don't know why.

So yesterday Bethany got the hiccups, yes, four times! I don't know what happened. And they really sounded painful! I know I've read that babies aren't bothered by them, but if we are, how can they not be?

She could start cruising pretty soon. She can turn from one piece of furniture to another and take the steps necessary to do so.

Today was giggle day. She was so happy. I threw her up in the air several times today and every time she just laughed! It was so funny. Then tonight in the car Nathan put the carseat into the base and when it when in, Bethany's head kind of bobbled. Well, I looked at her and bobbled my head and she just roared! It is so cute when she laughs. Hopefully we'll get it on tape someday. You have to hear it.

Several times we've brought out the quilt and pillows from our bed to put on the living room floor for her to play. She loves it. She crawls all around and lays her head on each pillow and then cackles. She is so funny.

She's all over the place crawling now. She crawls into the foyer to the front door and back and to the kitchen and today she crawled under the dining room table to get to the living room!

She's crazy!! :)