Laowai

I have to do one more post today to show you the fun we had at the Saginaw Zoo. Mom, Dad, Jennifer, Jenna, Bea and I all piled in the car the day after Christmas. The sun came out and we had a great time talking to all the animals.

After the zoo visit I was inspired to make a balancing tower of Jenna’s farm animals.

Well, Christmas is done. There ain’t no more. I usually get a melancholy feeling after we open presents and I look at the empty space under my mom’s tree. This year I’m just now feeling that twinge of sad in my heart. We had a lovely first Christmas with Bea. Christmas really put our new role as parents in perspective – it’s not about us anymore. Now it’s all about doing everything I can to catch a glimpse of wonder in Bea’s sparkly eyes. Now I want to make Christmas memories like mine for her. One of my best memories of Christmas growing up is laying on the floor under our big tree and looking up through the branches at the abstract pattern of colors and light while breathing in the fresh pine scent. I can vividly remember the feeling of excitement that would well up in my chest.

Don’t tell Bea but we didn’t buy her a single Christmas gift. We thought about it but I knew she would be getting lots of nice toys from her grandmas and grandpas and Aunt Jennifer. The relatives did not disappoint. Some highlights: she got some extremely special hand-made puppets from Aunt Jennifer. A very entertaining Pooh car that makes her dance up and down from Gramma and Grandpa C. And a sweet baby doll from Grandma J.

So here are a few photos of Bea enjoying her first Christmas.

Wow all that excitement made us tired!

I was beginning to feel like I hadn’t completed any of the holiday projects I had planned, but then last night I finished Bea’s Christmas dress. So even though the only holiday decorating I got around to this year was getting out some Christmas themed dish towels and throwing some candy canes in a cup – I feel OK because I made a sweet little dress for Bea. Someday we’ll have a tree and stockings and lots of fun decorations. This year we have a hard time finding a flat surface to set our mugs of hot chocolate where Bea won’t reach them.

Here’s her dress front and back – I think she’s pleased.

* Snow – it’s so nice to have it stick around for a while instead of the ugly slush that comes when it warms up. My favorite thing is seeing Christmas lights on a shrub covered with a layer of snow.

* Getting ready for Christmas. Wrapping presents. My favorite thing is when the pattern matches up on the underside of the package.

* Brian has many nicknames. My latest favorite is B. Daddy. Not to be confused with P. Diddy.

Here’s a photo from Saturday night we went down to the Lincoln Park Zoo where they have tons of lights. Bea was in her bubble and probably couldn’t see a thing but at least she was warm. We saw penguins and had hot spiced wine and hot cider. Then we were freezing because we didn’t dress quite warmly enough so we ran back to the car and hit the road.

Here’s Bea and B. Daddy – I think they’re up to no good.

I kept debating whether it was OK to post this picture, but I’ve decided I just can’t deprive the world of this cute little cherub. She is so excited to have a bath she can hardly wait to take her socks off.

We had a nice weekend at home. I’m finally feeling better, we got some Christmas shopping taken care of and we had a great meal at a new italian restaurant.

Brian helps out with Bea a lot on the weekends. On Saturday you can see he dressed her – she didn’t mind spending the day with her shirt on backwards.

Jennifer gave us some shoes – I’m sure Bea will be wearing them soon. Right now I get a kick out of seeing them by the door next to Brian’s shoes.

Bea spends her time cruising around our place, opening all drawers she can reach and taking inventory of the recycle bin every chance she gets.

Well – I finally signed up on YouTube and it told me I have no friends – sheesh. That seems kinda rude.

Here’s a video of Bea using her current favorite syllable: Da

Uhhg – I hate that it’s been ages since I posted, but I’ve been trapped in a sicky house. I’m finally recovering from a nasty cold and now I’m playing catch up with my housework and Christmas projects.

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving weekend:

This year we have so much new stuff to be thankful for. I’m especially thankful for getting to see the world through a child’s eyes.

Right now I’d be thankful if my baby would stop fighting her nap time. Hopefully I can get back into the routine of posting more regularly now that I’m feeling better. Happy belated Thanksgiving to everybody.

Bea has been getting around and exploring her surroundings more and more everyday. She likes to pull all her toys and books off the shelves. The other day when she was playing in our bedroom she discovered that the bathroom was nearby and when she saw the tub (where she gets her baths) she got really excited. She doesn’t seem very interested in truly crawling. Her little routine is to go a couple steps and then sit up and then do that over and over again. She likes to get up on her hands and feet with her butt in the air like this:

And she is just starting to pull herself up to a standing position. She gets a big proud smile on her face when she stands up. Here she is pushing all the buttons on the TV:

Here she is looking out the window and saying hi to all our neighbors:

She also discovered the door stop and the doinggggggg sound it makes.

We’re looking forward to eating lots of turkey tomorrow – Yippee – we love Thanksgiving!

Do you know Doug and Joan Chapman? Do you know they sing Happy Birthday over the phone? I bet you didn’t know this detail, I bet you never would have guessed. This year I was wondering if I would get the call – I thought they might have provided this service to daughters-in-law whos husbands are out of the country on their birthday. But no – about 9:00 last night I got the call and I put them on the speaker phone because Brian had never gotten to hear it. I have to admit it makes me squirm a bit and laugh a lot. I don’t come from a family of people who belt out their feelings in song. I didn’t think Brian came from that type of family either.

So I have to say to my mom and dad-in-law. Even though it seems so goofy and unlike you guys and it makes me a bit uncomfortable to be serenaded. Don’t stop – it’s so very sweet and I love it.

And now to the other surprise singing family – The Johnson Family Singers. I can’t overstate how unmusical my family is. I have a horrible singing voice. My dad has strange, random taste in music. My sister is famous for refusing to sing. My mom didn’t inherit her mother’s sweet voice (or so she says). So how strange is it for my mom, my sister and me to be gathered around Jenna singing How Much is that Doggy in the Window? What a moment to look around at my mom and sister in mid-song and feel so close to them thanks to two little people named Jenna and Bea.

Later last weekend we went straight to the source and had Grandma Dice sing her famous tune How Much is that Doggy in the Window to Jenna. Ah it sounded much better than the Johnson Trio. Grandpa even sang a few lines of his favorite, The Bear Went Over the Mountain.

Listen to How Much is that Doggy in the Window here.

Another lesson of motherhood I’m becoming intimate with… There is nothing more yucky than a runny nose on a kid. It’s not her fault, poor babe, that she can’t wipe her own nose. She wakes up with her hair plastered to her forhead with snot. And I have snot smeared on the shoulder of my shirt all day. I think I’ll invent a shirt made of layers of Kleenex. Your baby can wipe her nose on your shoulder and then you simply remove a layer of tissue to reveal a clean Kleenex-shirt. Must call Brian’s former employer Kimberly-Clark to suggest this idea. Most of the day if we are not going out in public I just leave her crusty booger nose alone because it’s like torture to wipe her nose contantly. Gross I know. I only wipe her nose when she sneezes and those two big snot worms appear dangerously close to her mouth. Are you grossed out yet?

Here are some recent snot free photos. Did you think I’d actually illustrate this post with a snotty-nose photo.