Tag Archives: Beatrix

Really, She Can… Honest

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I’ve been meaning to get a video of Bea’s unique caterpillar crawl for weeks, because I know that one of these days I’ll blink and she’ll be crawling for real. Well, maybe by her birthday.  We don’t exactly have motor skills prodigies around here.

Here is yesterday’s attempt in three takes.
Take 1:
(Not much happening, but she does do a decent ring-wraith impression. We all have our gifts.)

Take 2:
(Thwarted by my faithful assistant.)

Take 3:
(There! Did you see it at the beginning? After that… I give up!)

Aww, she’ll be turning into a beautiful butterfly before we know it!

The Bittersweet Paradox of Motherhood

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As I was getting ready to put my sweet baby Bea down for her nap this morning, she reached her tiny hand up and around my neck as if to say, “Don’t put me down just yet, Mama.”

So I didn’t.  I held her and smelled her and tried to soak in as much of her baby-ness as I could.

Then I told her a secret.  (Babies are excellent at keeping secrets.)  I told her that every fiber of my being wants to be able to hold her just as she is right now forever.  I want her sweet baby voice to stay exactly as it is.  I don’t want her hair to grow in any more than it has.  I want her four and two halves teeth to stay just as they are.  I want her to always feel like nothing to carry and smell exactly as she does right now.

But.

I also told her that I cannot wait to hear her first words, to watch her first steps, to know what color her eyes and hair will end up, and to corral the latter together into its first pigtails.  I can’t wait to find out who she’s going to be, to watch her run and play with her sisters, to hear her sing her first song and know if she can carry a tune.  Will she be a lefty or a righty?  A tomboy or frilly pink princess?  Will she be kind and have a soft heart? Will she love the Lord?  (Oh, how I pray that she and her sisters all will… every day.)

She didn’t say a lot.  Just kind of looked at me like, ‘Mom, what are you going on about now?’

This is what motherhood is like to me every day.  My heart is in two places all the time.  I want to freeze time, and I want to race into the future, just to take a peak at how it’s all going to turn out.  I want to capture every moment and hold onto it, but I want to be fully in that moment, too.  There is just nothing for it but to squeeze my girls every day for as long as they’ll let me and thank God for the privilege of borrowing them from Him for these short years.

Farewell, My Tiny Girl

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We saw a little 3-week old bundle of pink, all ruffles and lace, in her infant carrier in Target today. I stopped and chatted with her Mom for a minute, and we admired each other’s little ones and oohed and aahed appropriately. I felt like we shared a moment as two moms of new little girls. Then as we parted, I glanced back into my cart, fully expecting to see something like this:

Instead, I saw this enormous little person smiling back at me.

<<<Insert screeching record sound effect here!>>>

I can’t really complain. Beatrix has had a nice long run as a “little baby”. She was late to sit up on her own. She’s shown very little interest in getting around until recently, and she’s been sporting the same signature bottom-tooth-only grin for a good three months now. But, as quickly as it began, that era has ended, and I now have a proper little lady.

Literally overnight one night this week, Miss Bea sprouted all four top teeth (click the photo for a closer look). Over about a two week period about a month ago, she went from barely being able to sit unaided for a few seconds, to being able to sit confidently and reach for things without losing her balance. She covers huge distances scooting around on her belly now, and has even started to attempt the true-crawling position. Cute, cute, cute!

All at once, my sweet tiny girl has gotten it into her head that she wants to be one of the big girls. Of course, I can’t wait to meet the little person she’s blossoming into, but it’s always with a bit of sadness that I bid a fond farewell to the “little baby” stage.

The Long-Awaited Cyber Playdate

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What do you do when your best friends and steady couple have a baby girl less than two weeks after you have yours, but then go and end up 2000 miles away? Well, in this day and age, you organize a cyber playdate, of course! That’s just what my dear friend Carol and I having been planning for the past month or so for Romilly and her little friend Tabitha, who is serving as a faithful MK (missionary kid) in Mexico City. Have a look at the amazing work Tabitha’s mummy and daddy have been doing working with street kids in Mexico .

Romilly and Tabitha have met a couple of times, but it has most definitely been much too long. (Yes, they really are just eleven days apart, but the remarkable difference in size is just as pronounced now as it was when they were 3 months old.)

So, as you can see, it was high time for a reunion of sorts. Let’s call it an e-union, shall we? The plan was as follows: Today, April 28, 2008, Romilly and Tabitha would don matching outfits and participate in matching activities, then we would swap photos and stories to share with the girls, and voila – it’s like we were really together! Hmm… not quite, sadly, but it was still a *fab* way to spend the day and we will certainly do it again sometime.

We started off the day by doing this craft: a picture frame inspired, once again, by my favorite toddler craft guru. It went okay, considering the attention-span constraints involved.

The next item on the agenda was supposed to be a trip to the park and a picnic, but as our weather forecast was for thunderstorms today (none so far, but plenty of rain) we decided to go with Plan B, which was probably more exciting for my girls anyway. (I wish I could say that this was Bea’s first fry, but, you know, third child and all…)

Unfortunately, the Playplace had nothing to offer poor Ro. She just wasn’t big enough to climb up to where all the action was. Happily, she was delighted to sit in a high chair and drink her juice and play with the American Idol Happy Meal toy (do kids even watch this show???), so it wasn’t a complete bust.

Finally, Carol made a rather odd suggestion for dessert, but she is a missionary after all, so I didn’t like to argue. Jelly and ice cream. Okay, Carol, if you say so… (must be some sort of delicacy where they come from. Northern Ireland: they’re a little backwards there.)

Oh, wait… she means JELL-O and ice cream! Now that, I can get on board with, and so could the girls!

Here‘s one of a couple short videos the girls made for their friends.

Meanwhile, south of the border, this is what the other little sweetie pie got up to. Isn’t she adorable and hilarious? I believe there might be some more photos of her day appearing here at some point.
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While it was wonderful to “spend the day” with Carol and Tabitha and baby Oscar, it did make me miss them all the more. Wouldn’t these two girls be the best of friends?
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Please know, dear friends, that we love you and miss you and are praying for you always. Until we can meet again for zilch and Starbucks, the Internet will just have to do.

Longer Out Than In

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As of yesterday, our sweet baby Bea has been on the outside for nine whole months.  Can you believe it? Incidentally, this also coincides with another important milestone in our family: Beatrix is now, officially, the longest reigning baby of the family, as both of her big sisters were already big-sisters-to-be by her age (which she is not, for the record.)

If it weren’t for the changing seasons, it would seem like we just brought our new little girl home from the hospital a few weeks ago. How the time has flown, and how we have loved watching her blossom into a happy, charming little person, who shows us more of her personality with each passing day. She may just be the sweetest baby in the whole world.

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Here is a brief interview while she was getting her monthly photo taken with Barnaby bear:

Happy 3/4 birthday, lovely girl!

Too Much YouTube?

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Yesterday, Pippa and I (and it really was partly her idea) came up with the idea of making this video, and we think it is very funny indeed.

If you’re not immediately getting why this makes us laugh hysterically every time we watch it, then perhaps you have somehow managed not to see the ubiquitous “Charlie Bit Me” video on YouTube.  We first saw it here on Girltalk, but have seen it crop up in a few other places since then.  Apparently other people have found it funny enough to make their own versions, too.  Last night all five of us were laughing around the computer watching grown Englishmen, teenaged girls, and even an Indian father and son pair complete with turbans put their own spin on little Harry and Charlie’s routine. Fun for the whole family! (Warning: they’re not all as family friendly as the original, so have your finger ready on the pause button while you hop around all the different spoof versions!)

My Kind of Party

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Ultimate Blog Party 2008
Welcome! If you’re here because of the Ultimate Blog Party, I look forward to ‘meeting’ you! If you’re just here because you’re one of my five (six maybe?) regular readers, then you are probably wondering what on earth this post is all about. Well, it’s a big old party right inside my computer! How great is that? I just love that I can write this post in my PJs, and then hop around visiting everyone else’s parties in my PJs too (if, in fact, you are wearing your PJs right now, then this must be your kind of party too!) I’m a little late getting in on this, since I only figured out today how to put the little Blog Party button in my sidebar. (I’m pretty new to blogging, so I feel like I should be putting words like “button” and “sidebar” in quotes, but I’m resisting. Happily, thanks to this party I now know what a “widget” is, too. Sort of. Almost. A little bit.)  To get us in the party mood, here is one of our girls’ favorite toys that we get to endure play with over and over again at our home.  Lucky us.  Feel free to sing along!

I suppose an introduction is in order, especially since I’ve never officially done that on my blog.  My name is Jodi.  I am recently(ish) 30.  I am blessed to be married to an amazing Englishman who loves the Lord.   We are both eternally thankful for God’s love for us.  You can read more about my faith by clicking on any of these highlighted words or by clicking the God category at the side.

We have three wonderful little girls under the age of four (my “baby” was three and a half yesterday!) The big girls tend to steal the show most of the time. Here they are in some transfer T-shirts I made them (more on them to follow!)
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This photo really captures their personalities, since Pippa is our thoughtful, reserved little English rose (okay, some of the time), and Romilly is the crazy American chatterbox.

Little Bea sure is starting to give the big girls a run for their money, though. She can steal the show back from them just by being in the room.
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Well, what is a party without cake? And what is a cake without icing? Hey, let’s just skip to the icing, okay? I’ve never done a giveaway before, so this seemed like a good occasion to have my first. Here’s the deal. You hop around a little bit and see if you can find a post that gets you thinking, or makes you laugh, or warms your heart or something, then come back to this post and leave me a comment about it (and make sure you include your e-mail address, please).  You can even just tell me you like this post, because it has a free giveaway – I’m not fussy about the comment love!  I will choose one at random using Amanda’s patented random number choosing system, and I’ll post the winner here (and e-mail you, too!)  The winner will receive, as quickly as I can put one together, a personalized transfer T-shirt or onesie with your little one’s name (or yours, if you like) in a street sign or a book title or wherever I happen to find your little one’s name.  (Like the ones my big girls are wearing above.)  Details are all totally negotiable, and we can discuss after you win!  Again, make sure you leave your comment on my party post, or I might not find it for the drawing, which will be after this whole sha-bang is over.

In addition to my little giveaway, there are tons of prizes being offered at the main prize page.  My favorites from the list are 80, 101, and 7 (in no particular order), but of course I’d be delighted to win anything at all, especially something cute for my girlies!

Lovely to meet you!  Love the PJs!

Visitors, Parties, and Sickness, Oh My!

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Whew!  I don’t know if I’ve ever been more grateful to come out the other end of a weekend.

After two days straight of cleaning, washing, shopping and otherwise preparing for their arrival, I am happy to report that Trevor’s family got here safe and sound on Saturday night. All five of them! This visit, we have Mum, Dad, and Nathan as well as Grandma and Auntie Audrey, who haven’t been here since our wedding! That’s ten people staying in our wee four-bedroom Cape Cod (you do the math.) It’s a good thing we like each other. So far the sleeping arrangements seem to be suiting everyone: every time I ask Auntie if she’s *sure* she’s comfortable on the mattress on the floor of the playroom she says, “Oh, yes, Dear, it’s absolutely marvellous! I’m taking it home with me.” Oh, how I love her. Nathan might not be enjoying the sofa quite so much, but he’s certainly not complaining about it, and you can handle anything for a week, right?

So, yesterday was the big day:  Beatrix’s dedication and Romilly’s birthday party.
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(Trev’s mum with Bea, and Trev with Ro)

I haven’t actually counted, but let’s see… there were 27 people in my house yesterday! (Remember my house? The tiny little Cape Cod? Yeah, same one.) And it was really fine. I’ll do it again, I think. (You know, not next week or anything. It’s like labor, you have to give yourself time to forget.) Ro held up like a trouper through the endless present-opening (thank you, everyone!) and when she finished, we chose one toy to get out of the packaging and play with before her nap. Do you know, as soon as she got the toy in her hot little hand, she slid off Trevor’s lap and went running to share it with her sister, saying “I need my Pippa!”? I just love that kid. She’s definitely my favorite.

As you can probably tell from the picture of her, the poor birthday girl has been hit with the plague that’s been making it’s way through the toddler Sunday school class, and by the time they went to bed, Pippa was suffering, too. It seems to be mostly a coughing, snotty sort of affair, but when Pippa coughs too much she often gets gaggy and ends up throwing up. So she did a bit of that last night and then took herself off to bed (you know things are bad when a three-year-old does that!) At about ten o’clock we heard her cough some more, then cry a little, and then silence. We let it go rather than wake her up by checking on her. When Trev went to bed a bit later, he peaked in their room as he always does, and found her *covered* in puke vomit hmmm… is there a nice bloggy euphemism for this that I don’t know yet? How on earth do they fall back asleep after that?!? We did our best to clean her up with a warm washcloth, changed her top, and put a clean towel between her and the mess on her bed, but really, short of a bath and complete change of bedding, there wasn’t a lot we could do for her. And she was just *so* fast asleep.

This morning at 7:15 AM, I faced the ineveitable aftermath of the night before, and gave Pippa (and Romilly, who is never to be left out) a bath.  Seriously, I thought I was going to have to shave her head.  I haven’t had to clean up something so foul-smelling and unaccommodating since the time Gulliver ate a stick of butter.  But, we persevered, and I’m happy to report that (by some miracle) she is a picture of health today and we’ve had a lovely day with the family.  Sadly, we did suffer one casualty: Pippa’s little musical ducky that she has had since she was a tiny baby was unsalvageably covered in sick.  She doesn’t know it yet, but he’s out with the birthday party trash.  I’m home now with the napping littles while Pippa and the gang celebrate President’s day with a trip to Valley Forge.

So my house now looks pretty much how it did before I started cleaning four days ago, and the girls’ room still smells a little funky, but there’s nothing like a whirlwind weekend to make you appreciate the status quo. Even when the status quo involves *double* the already large number of people living under our little roof!

Only Child for a Day

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Look at this sweet girl! Is she happy to have her mommy to herself for the day or what? I’m pretty sure Bea and I have not had the better part of a day to ourselves like we did today since we were in the hospital after her birth (and this was *way* better than that!). It was delightful. We went to the produce store. (They have no carts there, so going there with all three? Not happening.) We went to Target and took our time browsing before deciding on anything. I even tried things on!  The best part was that she was smiling and chatting to me from the cart the whole time.  She always does, but today I could actually pay attention to her because I wasn’t busy keeping Ro from taking her socks and shoes off, or reminding Pippa to use her inside voice as she runs down the aisles singing her very own lyrics to the tune of Jesus Loves Me (“This is my song, Mommy.  I wrote on it myself!”).  I really do enjoy taking all of them out, but today was just… ahh… nice.

Thanks to DebbieMum for looking after the munchkins today.  I’m pretty sure they had the best day ever, judging by how quickly they fell asleep tonight!