No pictures of the Beanie today.

This is because she is sporting a black eye from trying to bouncy bounce on her knees with her face too close to the table. Bonk. My poor darling dotted i!

Last night we saw blood. This was because mom is slightly idiotic and forgot Beanie likes to stand. AND fall. My poor little baby and her puffy lip. Mein gott. I feel like the most horrible momma, but I know it's all just learning. I have heard of moms having CRAZY things happening to their kids, wacky stuff. So it just comes with the territory.

Anyway, my kid is 10 months old today. She's beautiful and funny and cheerful and kooky and cute. She likes to point at things and wave at people and say "HHHAH!" and yell "DUH!" at ducks and dogs, and "CZZZZhuh!" at the cats, and everything ends in "!" with the beanie.

Oh my little boo, I am so done with work. I can't wait to come home and cuddle you!!

Beanie is getting old.

We dressed her up her lady bug garb and took her to The Picture People for some photos with her grandparents and great grandparents (father's day gifts) and there was an 11 day old baby there. The baby weighed 8 lbs. And she was teeny weeny. Just a soggy noodlenodder of a baby. And I was shocked, because...MY BABY WAS EVEN SMALLER when she was that age! And their baby looked SOOOO FRESH. Sooooo new. Soooo delicate.

My baby is old.

waaah.

She's cute, though. She's the cutest of 4 generations. Even cuter than my grandma, who is super cute.



Congratulations to the Hull family, who welcomed baby Isaac sometime last week!! So great. New babies. Ah, how I loves 'em...

"Dat baby's doesn't gots no shoes on his feets...He gots feets."
As uttered by the most adorable 4 year old in Rite Aid, and it still cracks me up. She first complimented PF on his shoes (converse) and then freaked out because Beanie wasn't wearing shoes. She got her mom so she could tell on us.
It still makes me laugh.

I have Cee-Lo's voice in my head going "I think you're crazy" over and over again. How anyone can not like that song is beyond me. Beanie used to calm down to the Gorillaz Feel Good, Inc. Which means I probably listen to that Dangermouse produced stuff way too much for the PF's liking. Because that's what you do, baby. Dude, this stuff's better than Madonna ever was. I've been WAITING for something new to pique my interest musically on the regular radio. I think most people I hang out with are such music snobs they'd never give something this commercial a chance. The funny thing is, all their indie cred music is being coopted by commercial enterprise, and can be heard in the background of numerous commercials. It sucks, but that's the way it is. And that's how I found out my fetus was a rocker, thank you Jetta commercials.

The past two days have been overcast during the day, and sunny/bright during the evening.
Beanie and I have been walking Seamas and playing with him on the sand by the lake. She's such a calm baby. You'd never know she was teething until you put her down to do something and realized she's not gonna let you put her down no siree. She wants IN your arms RIGHT now and no ands ifs or buts about it.

That top left tooth is taking awhile to come in. Poor little Beanie, it seems to want to pop, but no relief yet. I can't believe how many teeth need to come in. I teethed. I don't remember being so miserable. Apparently we have it easy, though. Beanie's a really easy kid for the most part.

The last time we took her to Ikea, I put her into toddler beds and said "Night night" over and over again. The first few times she thought it was fun. The 4th time, she got pissed off. I wonder if she will take to a crib if we buy one soon? I definitely, no question about it, want a convertible crib that turns into a little toddler bed. I literally refuse to buy, or let anyone buy for me, anything that is NOT convertible. Mostly because I think cribs look like jails. And also because we've had her out of a crib for so long, it would be weird to suddenly put her in one. She's learned how to crawl off the bed on her tummy so she doesn't fall off. That's pretty impressive. So I kinda think she's ready for a toddler bed.

I'm also curious about when to start potty training. I know I'm jumping the gun, but the adorable baby bjorn potty is kicking my ass. I want this potty. Do you start when they are walking pretty confidently for a couple of months? Beanie is about to walk. She is doing the take-a-step-away-from-your-knee, turn, grab-the-table thing. She will also stand for a second before collapsing in a pile of giggles. This is the ULTIMATE in fun. I used to say I'd love her even if she was retarded, which is true, but I think I would stab myself if this was the game I played with her till she was 30. Luckily, even though she's doing this weird, weird "unnnhhhhh unnnnnh" laugh thing instead of normal giggles all the time, she's obviously not retarded. She's a little scarily smart, actually. I hope she isn't too precocious, because I hate truly precocious children. I shouldn't say "hate", it's a strong word.

I love my little Beanie.

I've been thinking that Elsa is a better name for her for school than Beanie. I really like the Elsa Peretti for Tiffany/Bean necklace. My girlfriend has one, and it's adorable. Anyway.

Today is a little slower than yesterday. Lots of fixing problems and talking to people.

Nice people, though.

Have to set up the webcam to do interviews. It works on my end, but not on the other person's. Had PF and Beanie test our home wireless to see if wireless loads video slowly, but it doesn't. Back to drawing board...At least I got to talk to beanie!!!

Ninja Maman and I are trying to figure out what kind of birds live in my back yard lake. PF caught a juvenile recently, it dove for his very lifelike minnow bait. It was very calm when he undid the hook and let it go none the worse for wear. But my neighbor said "what?? KINGFISHERS??! Nah, we have NIGHT HERONS."

Okay, except while night herons are the correct size, they aren't the correct colors.

Ninja Maman has been sending me audubon clips and pics so that I can ID these suckers. I still think they look more kingfisheresque, but kingfishers turn out to be small birds. These are pretty freaking big.

I have more pics of The Bean doing her crazy Beanish Things. She now demands ice cream. I know. We are bad for giving it to her in the first place and letting her develop a taste. Last night we ate the rest of the Rocky Road my friend brought for dessert last week. Beanie was squawking for it like a little bird with her mouth gaping. All I could think about was "crap. tree nuts. And chocolate." If my kid comes down with food allergies, it will be weird as hell because neither of us have any, but still, if she does, you know why. Rocky Road.

Her top tooth popped through last weekend and she is in good spirits again. She's very proud of these teeth. She grins with her eyes squinched up and breathes really hard a few times through her nose. It's really funny!

She also knows the word "NO!" and last night I think we were too tough on her, because she burst into tears. We are trying to make sure she has boundaries. It's hard, because we encourage her to explore and to crawl and to be independent, but she's fascinated with her daddy's vintage and/or expensive record collection, and we yell "NO BEANIE!" from across the room, we try to provide her with appropriate distractions, but it doesn't always work. Problem is, she can't always get "down" from her standing position. She can pull herself up no problem, but she hasn't got the "bend legs, plop down on bum, move away from the records" thing down quite yet. We both said NO and she just started weeping until Daddy picked her up. I think my heart nearly broke in half. She was up against the shelves and looking at each of us both saying no, and she just broke down.

My poor darling sweetie puffs. Just thinking about it makes me all teary-eyed myself.

Beanie, my love, what were we thinking?? Of COURSE you can rip daddy's records anytime you want to, don't cry my darling beanie boos....

Today is Thursday.

It's my favorite day of the week and I don't know why.

In any case, Thursday.

I was telling my coworker that I like the name Ebenezer for a boy, and he laughed at me and said "I don't know why I'm laughing, you named you daughter ELSPETH" and I said "yeah, but I kind of secretly wanted to name her "Rosebud", but I didn't" and then I started crying. WTF? I know why I started feeling emo, because I knew a woman who adopted a baby from the County who had a serious heart defect and the kid was just precious and sweet and died at age 3 and her name was Rosebud and for the brief time I knew her, I just loved her. But still. I can't even THINK about that name without crying like Kane.

Are the hormones STILL going strong?

Sigh.

This is adorable, though. A movie I forgot I shot because it's so grainy. It's 7 seconds or so of Beanie getting some love from Seamas.
seamas and beanie

This morning my daughter started screaming when I got up to get ready for work. Well, technically, I leapt from the bed shouting "oh my god, I'm late, I'm late" so technically, she may have just been upset from all my noisiness. How much do I love my PF for getting up and making coffee and feeding kitties and dogs? Too much.
He's perfect and lovely and brilliant.

And my darling little Beanie calmed down after some nunu.

Ah, Thursday. It's a relishable day.

I wish I had it off.