Halloween

Beatrice had a great Halloween costume this year. Sayward made it, and it was also very appropriate for her new superpower: she can grab things that you thought were impossible to reach.

It has been an exciting and busy few months for the Harrison family, especially Beatrice. Sayward set up an impromptu photo studio in our house, and got a couple of snap shots. Two of the best are below. The first is Beatrice au naturale, with only a diaper and a ball to keep her company:



And this one of her as a ballerina:


Everyday Beatrice is enjoying the world around her more and more. One morning she got in bed with us and was amazed with cars on the street outside our house. We had to keep a hand on her since she was trying to bust through the screen.


Beatrice has also gotten pretty adventurous with her eating. Here is she is eating the new health food, the cheese puff. Don't tell our doctor...

Rock Star

Beatrice has been picking up some rock star habits...we are not quite sure what to think about all of this:

Bathing Bea-uty

Beatrice is not a huge fan of the beach at this stage of her life. We realized this a few weeks ago when we went to the beach for Labor Day weekend with the Harrison/McGarry clan.

First there is the sand. She is very suspicious of the sand. When she sees it, she gives it the stink eye, and when she finally works up enough courage to touch it, it goes straight into her mouth. That is not a surprise, because that is where everything goes these days.

Then, there is the ocean. Beatrice finds it a little cold for her taste and does not particularly prefer it when waves hit her.

And finally, the trifecta of beach nuisances...her little pink hat. Bea HATES wearing hats. She has recently developed the ability to snatch the hat off of her head and hold it over her shoulder, as far away from us as possible. Luckily, she doesn't know how to work velcro yet, so when we can get her to stop wiggling for a few seconds to velcro it, she is out of luck.

Labor Weekend

Here are two pictures of Beatrice with her Aunt Katie (looking very focused) and Aunt Jennifer over Labor Day weekend at the beach. I am not sure why she is giving that smug look in the second picture, but it might have something to do with the Eddie Munster hairdo she has.

School has started back up and we are getting busy. Beatrice has decided to add to the fun by starting to crawl extremely fast and to stand up on every stationary (or not so stationary) object she ca get her hands on.

Summer Travels

Beatrice visiting with her Great-Great-Grandfather!

Beatrice and her great-grandmother, Mom-Mom.

Beatrice loved Gramps' trains--especially the whistles.

Trying to get Beatrice and her cousing Jackson to sit still long enough for this picture was nearly impossible!

Conor and I in Maine for Matt's wedding.

On the way home, Beatrice got her first balloon while we were eating at a restaurant. She was very amazed and didn't even cry when it popped one minute later. :)

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Beatrice just celebrated a major milestone--her first ROAD TRIP! After completing my comprehensive exams in August (a major milestone for me), Conor, Bea, and I took off on a nearly two week adventure. We had a wedding to go to in Maine, so along the way, we stopped in Reading, PA, so Beatrice could meet her great-grandparents and GREAT-GREAT-Grandfather! After PA, our next stop was NY, where Beatrice got to meet her cousin Jackson. From there, Conor and I left Beatrice with my dad and step-mom and went up to Maine for a fabulous weekend (our first away from sweet bea). Above are some highlights from the trip.

Watermelon Days

All week, Beatrice has been learning about watermelons at her "school". This has consisted of singing songs about watermelons, splashing their hands in tubs of water dyed red and green, painting watermelons, and even painting with frozen watermelons (never would have thought of that!). These pictures are from two of Beatrice's favorite activities from the week. The bottom two pictures show Beatrice after she has thrown red and green paper shreds all over herself. The top pictures have a longer story...

Yesterday, I (Sayward) was taking my comprehensive exams for my program. In the middle of the eight hour exam, my phone began to ring and I saw that it was her daycare. I immediately panicked, thinking for sure something bad had happened. No, no...it was just her teacher, Mrs. Von calling to tell me that in all of her 15 years of teaching in the infant classroom, she had never seen a child who was so crazy for watermelon. Apparently, during water play time, they had slices of watermelons for the babies to touch and feel. Well Beatrice wriggled her way over to each of the other babies, snatched their watermelon pieces from them, and proceeded to chow down and devour all of the watermelon! Turns out she is one watermelon-loving little girl.

Budding Food Critic

Beatrice certainly has discerning taste. And she has recently discerned that she does NOT like avocado. For evidence, see below:

"Seriously?? You guys want me to swallow this stuff?"

"This is totally disgusting."

"Nooooooo more, Mommy! Make it stop. PLEASE!"

"Alright if you won't listen to me then I'll just...."

"BLAAAAH."

Baby BEAthoven

Last week, I (Sayward) made a real find on craigslist...a "nearly new Fisher Price Baby Grand Piano". To my great sadness, I never learned to play the piano, but that is okay because now I have Beatrice to do it for me. So, we bought the piano and about 47 huge batteries to go in it, and put Beatrice's fat little fingers to work.

Piano practice is now Beatrice's favorite pasttime. She is incredibly intrigued by how the keys make music and light up. Of course, a toy piano of today cannot content itself with only playing notes. No, no...in today's world, a toy piano must also ensure that your child is on-track for early admission to Harvard.

Seriously, aside from playing notes, this piano also teaches your baby how to count, the name her colors (blue, green, yellow, and red), and the names of the notes (do, re, mi, fa...) so Beatrice will soon be able to join me when we sing our daily rendition 0f "Doe a deer, a female deer...". If that's not enough, it also teaches fast and slow, high pitch and low pitch, has a metronome, and plays 6 different songs (all of which are now permanently burned into our brains).

When you've got it made...

You've got it made.

Somehow Bea decided that when it is time to relax, you need to put your hands back behind your head and just chill out. Somewhere along the way, she also decided that Sayward and I were doing such a bad job of feeding her that she would do it herself. Don't worry, it's cool.

Sleepy B

As much as she tries to avoid it during the day, Beatrice can be caught sleeping from time to time. Here she is on Granny's (Conor's Mom) lap at the beach, drooling on Conor's shirt, and sound asleep in a big floppy hat after a long walk.

Bea's 1st Amusement Park

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Okay so we have been so slack in updating our blog recently. I will blame it on several consecutive summer trips. In the past two months we have been to Louisville, KY for four days, the Outerbanks for a week, Williamsburg, VA for a long weekend, and Pawley's Island, SC for a week. Phewww! It has been a whirlwind but we have had a great time visiting with family and friends.

Here are a few photos from our trip to Busch Gardens. We were treated to a full, exciting day at the amusement park by Dad and Cindy, and we all had a blast. Beatrice was so fascinated by all the sights and sounds that she stayed awake just about the entire TWELVE hours that we were at the park! When we finally got home late at night, she crashed, and slept (I am not making this up) until 12:30 pm the next day. Elliot really enjoyed the trip too, especially this roller coasters--he rode all 5 of them. Having Beatrice there with us worked out nicely, b/c if Conor or I were too scared to go on a ride, we had a good excuse to stay behind!

Stomach sleeping

Beatrice has been working on some new tricks, namely rolling over. After spending 3 months hating being on her stomach, Beatrice now rolls over as soon as you lay her down.

She also has a magnet in her head that directs it as close to the edge of the crib as possible. We lay her down on her back, in the middle of the crib, only to come back 30 seconds later to see this:


Or my favorite, this:

Jail Break

Be on the lookout for the leg of a 3 month old hanging outside the cell, I mean, crib.

Float like a butterfly, sting like a Bea!

During a recent trip to the beach Beatrice dazzled us with her left jab and right hook.