I am beginning to see the light...

at the end of the diapering tunnel.

I wash a couple of diapers (apprx. half a pail) weekly. Beatrix has a couple of accidents during the days and is wearing a diaper at night for sleeping. She will even initiate her own use of the small potty, and then come get me to show her awesome achievement.
Irina, too, is using the potty on her own initiation and having fewer accidents. They are both taking their pants off when the pottying urge comes to them.
It's very exciting for me to think that within a few months I may not have dirty diapers to change and wash on a daily basis.

Baby's First Burn & Haircut

Memorial Weekend 2010, the family took a little camping trip. Beatrix loved every minute of it (except the ant bites). She swam all day and played all night with a few close friends.
She learned how to blow a whistle that was gifted to her and wears it pretty much all day at home.
The only casualties were her long tresses of hair, by the first night they were tangled and dreaded into one dreadlock on the back of her head. She is enjoying her new chic haircut!

(notice the whistle around her neck)

As you can see we have been quite busy since my previous post...
We celebrated Beatrix's first birthday with family and pizza on St Valentine's Day. A week later we moved to our new house only a block away from the house Beatrix was born in. The neighborhood is great and the neighbor's have been welcoming. We went straight to work planting a kitchen garden in the big backyard as soon as we moved in. Easter brought us 4 chicks and they are living in their new house built by Christian from left over scraps from our neighbor's sculpture the Cathedral of Junk.
Beatrix enjoys the new yard and loves her chickens. She will make the ASL sign and say something that sounds a lot like chicken along with a "bok bok".

Happy New Year!

I can't believe the invitations for Beatrix's first birthday party went out today. The year has gone by at the speed of light....
We had a great holiday season with a lot of family.
Thanksgiving we spent the afternoon with Nana, Aunt Lisa and the cousins in Glen Rose, TX. It was a pleasant road trip on a beautiful day.
Christmas was a non-stop family, food and gifts. Santa visited grammy's house and left a load for the little one.
We rang in the New Year with Nana over a pot of black eye peas and cabbage.
The Bea thoroughly enjoyed herself!

She has been completely mobile for about a month now. Walking, running, twirling, and now climbing. She is really picking up her signs, and can sign about 5 signs give or take.
We had a rough patch with the potty for the last five months. She had been putting her focus on getting up and moving; but, now that she has conquered that, she has taken interest in her potty. She has even sat on it and did a poop on her own!

8 month old bike wrench

She eats, she sleeps, she walks and she talks!

A Half Birthday!

Six months! It is really true - time does fly. Beatrix is 6 mos old and we couldn't be happier with her progress. She is such a sweet girl and very adventurous. She likes to do this crawl wiggle around the house after momma.

We started her on solid foods last week and she loves it - she has always showed interest in food - so far she has tried mashed bananas in breast milk; organic apple sauce (not crazy about); organic carrots, organic peas, and organic sweet corn pureed in breast milk; organic brown rice baby cereal (today).

Progress: signed 'dog' and can stand up from sitting on potty

back to the potty

Whew, after a few weeks of only using the potty as a sitting place, B has resumed using it to eliminate into. I have not had to wash a load of diapers in days and still only have a partial load in the wash today.