where've we bean?

new england craziness
the ice storm of '08 struck first
no power for 6 days
wonderful friends were nice enough to put us up
bean got to play with their son
he alternated between beating her up
and loving on her too hard
but she got back at him
by pooping in the tub
while he was in it

twice
HA!

then came the first snow storm
dumping one foot
and then another storm
dumping another foot
24 hours later
we just finished digging out

and now let the holidays begin...

it's thanksgivbean!

we went to grandma's

she made lots and lots of yumminess!

and lots and lots

the vultures attacked the leftovers as usual
and there wasnt a scrap left

bean celebrated her belated birthday

with a plethora of presents

mostly wooden or hand-me-downed

(thanks for listening family

we know we are pains!)

grandma also was a knitting fool

and made bean many new beautiful creations

including this amazing green dress

which i crazily let bean wear while she ate

and while she enjoyed her first ever cake
and i do mean enjoyed

i, of course, wanted to save the dress

for a special occasion or something

but grandma wisely said

there is no time like the present
what would i be saving the dress for anyway?

there are too many things that we only use at special occasions.

and those tend to be the prettiest things

like special dishes or glasses or silverware

and then we never ever get to enjoy them

for fear of ruining them

my friend stacy knows someone who uses her "good" china

everyday

i like that

speaking of stacy...

she took some amazing pictures of bean

it is our first 'formal' photo shoot

a birthday present

stacy is a real photographer

so they are truly special

bean is pretty lucky to be surrounded by such talented people

i hope some of it will rub off

on both of us

the haps

she's added 'uh-oh' to her repertoire.
at first she used it indiscriminately
but recently she's learned it's true usage.
she likes to drop things from her highchair
uh-oh
she likes to drop things as you carry her around
uh-oh
she likes to drop things from the carseat
uh-oh
she likes to drop things out of her crib
uh-oh
what a fun game!
she has also learned to kiss
there was a time when a kiss from hazel was pretty dangerous territory.
she'd grab your face and pull you in close
then her open mouth would be planted firmly over yours
and you'd feel her tongue
as it attempted to pry your mouth open
dangerous territory indeed.
then she stopped with the deep tongue kiss
and would put her mouth on yours
and simply slobber
but now she knows there is a sound involved
so she grabs you
puts her mouth on yours and yells
mwah
mmmmmwwwwwaaaaaahhhhh
sometimes there is even a hint of a pucker
and she is getting the hang of blowing kisses
before she put her hand over her mouth and left it there
now she often releases
with her new sound
mmmwwwwaaaaaahhhhhh

and did i tell you?
she has 6 teeth
6
she went from 2 to 6 rather quickly
2 top teeth
4 bottom teeth
she's only bitten me a few times
and only once while breastfeeding.
not bad compared to some of my friends.
(not that she bit them while breastfeeding...their own kids did that)

bean there - done that

grandma has already begun the knitting for this winter
we've got a bunch of hats
and they all needed matching mittens
we love grandma!

bean has a new fascination with things with strings
she likes to put things around her neck
belts
electrical cords
strands of toilet paper
socks
mittens on strings
this sounds bad...but she puts them around her neck
as if they were boas
or scarves
they dangle
not wrap
not dangerous
she is destined to be a girlygirl


she also likes to carry around shopping bags

she is into putting things in and taking things out
she does the hokey pokey and she moves things all about
it's an adventure

happy hallowbean

we sorta skipped halloween this year
bean seemed too young to really enjoy it
but then i found out the other kids at daycare were dressing up
i felt pressure
i didnt want bean to be left out
i put together a random outfit of halloween hand-me-downs

yes, those are bat tights!

and then i thought i'd top it off with her bear coat
this is what bean thought of that idea

Word to your bean

Bean has some new words.
when she is hungry she says
nummy nummy nummy nummy
it's cute
except when repeated 8,000,000,000 times
while she spits out everything you offer her

when she wants to be picked up she says
up up up up
or when she is in her high chair
or when on the bed
or when she has already been picked up

we now think she uses up when she wants to change position
we really have no idea

at daycare they swear she said
Hi Keegan

she can recognize bottles
and says ba-bo
this includes milk jugs
and medicine bottles
and bottles still in boxes

and right now she is obsessed with dada
he is the coolest
she cries in the morning when he leaves
and she says his name all day long
dadadadadadadadadadadada

green bean

so we were on the way to a memorial service for
Chris' grandmother.
we picked bean up from daycare
she'd had a lovely morning of playing with friends
and eating avocado.
we quickly changed her into her pretty dress,
because we didn't want it to get dirty before impressing everyone.

we arrived at our destination
and i went to retrieve bean from her carseat
only to find that bean had made some
guacamole during the trip
she was covered from neck to feet
bright green vomit
luckily the dress had a flower pattern
and her sweater was green
before the incident.
we zipped it up and no one was the wiser...
unless they got close enough to smell her
ugh!

oh...
we went to the doctor for our 12-month check.
bean continues to be in the 5oth percentile for height
the 90th percentile for weight
and the 95th for head circumference...
it's a good thing she's got that dense body to hold up that huge noggin!