what's been happenin

sorry it's been a while.

what have we been up to...
a trip to nj for our crazy passover celebration
with far too much delicious food
(thanks grandma for always making 25 vegetarian dishes
even though there are only 2 vegetarians.
you never disappoint!)
the bizarre seder with the jokes and kibbutzing we've grown to love
and lots of attention for bean.

random illnesses
coming and going
and coming again
bean sounds like chief wiggum

a new job for daddy
or the same job with more permanence
and we can go to the dentist again
yay

bean saying dadadadada
sometimes

bean's first solid food experience
(or as solid as mushed bananas can be)
she loves it
but mostly she loves the feeling of it running down her chin
and smooshing in her neck folds
kinda like the food that falls into grandpa's beard
i guess she's 'saving it for later'

yesterday she spent a long time trying to
get fresh with the baby in the mirror.
let's just say there was a lot of drool involved.
bean likes what she sees!

sittin' pretty(ish)

new skill time!
these days it seems as if something new is happening constantly.

she sits.
not perfectly all the time
but she sits more than she doesn't sit.
now she just has to learn to put her hands out.
nothing is sadder than watching someone's little face heading for the floor
knowing you can't possibly get there in time
(even though they move in
slooooooooo mooooootiooooooon)
and they don't have a clue as to what's about to happen.
there's always the delay...
making you think maybe it didnt hurt...or they didnt notice...
and then the cry.
ooooohhhh...the cry

today i feel like I might suddenly fall over and hit MY face on the floor.
let's just say we had a craptastic night's sleep.
i think teeth might be a-brewin.
tons of drool
and chompin on anything that get's in her way


or maybe that's just baby.
i guess teeth are always a-brewin...
until they pop out.
which according to the books could be anytime between birth and 1.
precisely pinpointed.
that's how most baby stuff is.
it could happen anytime between now and later.
just wait for it

an apology and a plea

i do truly stink at this blog thing.
i still claim it is the pictures holding me back.
i have trouble getting them small enough to upload...i blame the camera.
maybe i should do like my friend katie and pick days that are my bloggin' days
so that you know when to check
and actually find stuff.

something that might encourage me is if you left comments now and again.
katie is faithful...but the rest of the comments are sporadic at best.

how do you add comments, you ask?
click on the "add a comment" under this post.
you can add it anonymously and just sign your name.
you dont even have to join blogger to do it.
it would be nice to know that people are actually reading this now and again.
(edit: ok. so my mom tried to leave a comment
and couldnt figure this thing out
so i'll go through it step by step...
click on "add a comment" under this post.
write the comment in the box
then to be sure you arent a robot you need to type the
random confiuguration of letters you see in the next box.
then click on the circle next to anonymous
and then press the 'publish your comment' bar.
that should do it. let me know if it doesnt work!
hope this helps mom!
she claims her comment was incredibly cute so if we never get to see it just imagine cuteness.

bean is waking up and getting antsy.
more in a bit!

giggles

bean is developing a sense of humor
i guess she takes after her mom because other folks dont always understand what is so funny
only bean knows
and she laughs and laughs.

and you need to appreciate the funny while it lasts
because in an instant it can change.
what was once funny becomes incredibly unfunny.
i have discovered that the laugh/cry line for infants is very hazy.

you will be playing with bean
getting the best giggles out of her
and then you get cocky
take it one step too far
suddenly you go from being the funniest person on the face of the earth
to the meanest.

it's a dangerous road to travel
but it is worth it to hear the giggling.
probably the best sound EVER
besides the sound of rain on a tent

phull of phlegm

bean has a cough.
a body racking, gut wrenching, very wet cough.
sometimes she does cute little fake coughs.
but usually they are very real and very loud and very sad.
she has stuff she needs to cough up
but she doesnt know how.
i find myself clearing my throat around her a lot
as if somehow she will get the point and try it too
or it will magically cause hers to clear.
it doesn't.

oh...and remember all my worries about her not gaining weight?
well
she gained 2 pounds in the last month.
that's huge.
she's huge.
i couldnt be happier.
rolls and rolls and rolls.
lots of folds that are impossible to clean.
random parts of her that smell a bit like cheese due to the lack of oxygen that reaches them.
i couldnt be happier.
she couldnt be happier...
she's fantastic
even when she's she's phlegmy.
i guess she's phlegmtastic.

look who's learnin'

big days are here
and i guess big nights..
since i have heard that whenever a baby learns something it disrupts their sleep pattern.
uh oh
well it's not as if she slept well before.

bean has found her feet.
i guess she always knew where they were
but this morning she actually wanted to touch them.
repeatedly.

after amazing us with her flexibility
she decided to up the ante by rolling over.
she has now perfected the stomach to back roll and is well on her way to pulling off the reverse.
she gets her legs way over to the side and and her back into the air
and with a little push she would be all the way over
but chris says that the little push is equal to cheating.
so i just push really really hard with my eyes.

yesterday i also noticed while she was on my lap that she has freakishly hard working abdominal muscles.
she isnt sitting up yet per se
but she is dangerously close.
she weebles and she wobbles.
she manages to catch herself 85% of the time.
it's that other 15% that we have to worry about.
i do not look forward to the bruising ahead.


on a side note
we have figured out that bean does not always photograph at her best.
she will look cute.
adorable even
and then you face the camera towards her
and press the button
the lights flash
and her expression completely changes
to something crazy with big wide open eyes and a gaping mouth.
it happens every time
gorgeous...aim camera...crazy
we are working on ways to trick her so that we dont have an album (and blog)
full of this
(i am having trouble adding the image...i will try again later!!)

the grabbing hands grab all they can

today it happened...
she grabbed stuff!
and not because her hand accidentally swiped something and her fingers accidentally attached to it
surprising her just as much as it did us.
no...
she looked at something,
reached out,
and made it her own.

what a proud moment.
who ever woulda thought that we would take such pleasure in watching another person open and close their hand.
we literally sat and watched her. we could have sat all day
with big goofy grins on our faces.
we watched her do it over and over again
confirming that it is fact a new skill and not a fluke.
and she grabbed numerous things.
a stuffed carrot, a stuffed dog,
lots and lots of mommy's hair.
she is remarkably strong.
painfully so.
schwarzenegger strong (mr universe ah-nuld and not the "governator").
and while she's learned grabbing it appears she has not learned the art of ungrabbing.

we'll have to work on that next.

she can now control a little bit more of her world
and thus a little bit more of ours.