The Peanut Gallery

2010-08-05T19:07:00.000-07:00

We have been M.I.A. from our blog for way too long, so to celebrate we are posting our first video blog--here is Conor and Beatrice reading together about emotions. Bea still doesn't say too many words, but she is very dramatic and can act out all of the emotions in her favorite book, "Baby Faces". Stay tuned till the end when she gives the camera a big kiss!

Baptism

2010-04-12T18:30:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since our last post. We ran into a few technical difficulties (we lost the cable to connect our camera to the computer) and a serious time crunch (the final semester for both of us). However, we see the light at the end of the tunnel, and my mom found us a cable that works.

Here is a little video of Beatrice enjoying the post-Baptism euphoria. We have a bunch of pictures from teh last few months and will try to get some more up soon.

She really loved that fountain.

Sleepy Bea

2010-01-16T12:39:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it is just too hard to eat and stay awake after a long day. Beatrice was seriously challenged by this a few days ago, but managed to fight through it.

Bea's 1st Santa Visit

2010-01-07T18:04:00.000-08:00

Beatrice's class had a field trip. Yes, you heard me correctly--her infant classroom had their first field trip last month. Now normally school field trips are a bit chaotic, but try taking eight infants to the mall to see Santa. We waited in line for over an hour at the Greenville mall (the things parents will do for a picture).

One after the next, the babies all were petrified and started to scream when put on Santa's lap, all but Bea. Beatrice laughed and smiled and looked for all the world like a jolly little elf, clad in a leopard-print skirt of course.

Her 2009 "school picture":

Bea the Professional Model

2010-01-07T17:45:00.000-08:00

These pictures are a little outdated now, since Beatrice is getting so big, but here are her first portraits. We finally made it over to Sears Portrait studio, and it was a pretty terrible experience. You know when you walk down the aisle at the mall and those hand-lotion kiosk salespeople try to grab you and cajole you into purchasing not one, but two expensive lotions guaranteed to revolutionize your skin? That is what it is like when you are at Sears photo studio.

After a whirlwind minute and a half photo session, the Sears' photo specialist sits you down and shows you about 500 photos of your child until you go googly-eyed looking at the computer screen. Then she presents you with about 250 different packages that you could buy and convinces you that you need at least four dozen wallet sized photos of your child in addition to all the portrait sizes you are getting, plus you really should get your child's picture turned into a canvas piece of art to hang on your wall. Of course. She continues to blabber on about extra special packages and deals and buy one get one free this and that until you just want to get out of there so badly that you spend wayyyyyy too much money on the pictures and are then wracked with guilt as you think about how many diapers that could have just bought.

But then three weeks later you get the pictures and just adore how cute your baby is, and all is forgiven with Sears. We will be heading back soon, I am sure.

Halloween

2009-12-02T17:16:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-12-02T17:06:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-22T18:35:00.000-07:00

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

Bathing Bea-uty

2009-09-26T20:32:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-16T17:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-07T18:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-08T06:21:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-04T19:59:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-20T19:01:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-07-02T19:46:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-02T19:38:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-22T19:05:00.000-07:00

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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

2009-05-25T18:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-25T18:16:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-05-25T18:10:00.000-07:00

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

Beatrice Meets a Horse and Makes a Friend

2009-05-01T19:45:00.001-07:00

Beatrice has been busy as always, having lots of "firsts". A few weeks ago, we took her out to my Aunt Nancy's land so she could play. Poor Beatrice was sound asleep and we woke her up so that she could see her first horse. As you can see from the pictures, she was a bit terrified.

Beatrice has also made her first friend--Minnie, who is the daughter of Kelly, one of my new friends in Greenville. Minnie is about 3 months older than Bea, so it is always fun when we get them together to get a sneak preview of what Beatrice will soon be up to. We have taken the girls on a couple of walks together, and now that it is getting nice, our whole family has started spending lots of time on a blanket in our front yard. Two weeks ago, we put the girls on the blanket together and tried to get them to interact. Minnie smiled and laughed, and Beatrice managed to stick her tongue out at Minnie a bunch, so we were pretty sure that they liked each other.

stuffed animal puppet show

2009-04-23T19:33:00.000-07:00

Recently I (Conor) put on an impromptu puppet show for Beatrice. Things started out pretty good, she was very attentive and interested:

There was a nice bear that came to visit her, and Beatrice was scoping it out:Then the Beatrice decided maybe the bear wasn't such a good buddy after all:
The bear is banned from the next puppet show.

Funny Faces

2009-04-18T06:47:00.000-07:00

Beatrice is getting very good at making crazy faces. She is now smiling often and starting to imitate us when we make faces at her. Her best move is sticking out her tongue at us, which is quite cute.

Relay for Life

2009-04-16T16:04:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Conor, Beatrice, and I participated in ECU's Relay for Life, which is an all-night walkathon to raise money to fight cancer. Different groups from ECU all had booths and various themes. Conor's geography program picked "Woodstock" as their theme and had a tie-dye party to make outfits. Beatrice was a very lucky girl--the girls in Conor's program tie-dyed a onesie for her so that she could fit in. We Health Psychology PhD students picked "80s Aerobicize" as our theme and all dressed accordingly, in pink spandex and leg warmers to boot.

Beatrice had a blast. She was awake for almost 5 hours while we were there--just wide-eyed and taking in all of the sights and sounds. She made lots of laps on the track, courtesy of Albee, one of my friends, who delighted in pushing her stroller around the track all night.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-11T17:02:00.001-07:00

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I just couldn't resist getting a head start on Easter and dressing Beatrice up in her little ducky dress and bonnet yesterday. I have to say at first I though that putting babies into bonnets was a little (no a lot) silly, but once we put it on her, I totally changed my mind! She was so adorable in that big white lacy bonnet.
Happy Easter everyone!

Project Viable's Newest Research Assistant

2009-04-11T16:18:00.001-07:00

Here at ECU, all of us Health Psychology PhD students are assigned to research assistantships for 20 hours per week. I work with an awesome research team under a big grant called "Project Viable". Our team consists of my mentor, Dr. Chris Riley-Tillman, and three other grad students, Lana, Shannon, and Jessica. Well a few weeks ago, Team Viable threw Beatrice a little baby shower at one of our weekly research meetings. Not only did they give us some great baby gifts, but best of all, Shannon had made customized baby bibs for Beatrice, since she is the newest member of the research team. So of course we had to have a photo shoot. I think my favorites are the "Too Cute 2 Be Analyzed" and the "I Love DBRs" bibs. (DBR stands for Direct Behavior Ratings--that is the tool that we research through our grant.)
So far Beatrice has been to two of our weekly meetings and was very intrigued by the whole process. She is well on her way to being a pint-sized academic.

Pretty Pics

2009-04-02T08:56:00.001-07:00

Conor took Beatrice to a tie-dye party yesterday, and one of our friends, Carrie, took these amazing pictures of her. The party was in preparation for Friday's Relay for Life event (a walkathon to raise money for cancer). Tons of groups on campus are participating and everyone is encouraged to come up with a theme and dress up in crazy costumes for it. Both of our grad programs are going to be out there walking--we Health Psychology girls are doing an 80's Aerobics theme for our group, and Conor's GeoClub is doing a Woodstock theme, hence the tie-dying. Beatrice got a onsie tie-dyed so she will fit right in. Of course she also has a pair of striped leg warmers so maybe she can wear those too.

Conor Turns 30

2009-03-31T07:03:00.000-07:00

Conor celebrated a momentous occasion this month--his 30th birthday. We got to celebrate him, our spring break, and ACC basketball during a family trip to Topsail Island. The weather was pretty lousy, although that didn't stop the guys from going surfing. The rest of us spent our time inside watching the ACC tournament and admiring little miss Beatrice.

For Conor's birthday, we threw him a surprise fiesta complete with streamers, party hats, and pin the tail on the donkey. Katie, Maeve, Clair, and I got him a collection of lovely gifts from Wings. (For those of you unfamilir with this great establishment, Wings is a monstrosity of a beach store filled to the brim with tacky tourist gifts and hermit crabs). Conor received the lovely tank top he is wearing, and Beatrice bought him a "Happy 30th Birthday" shot glass.

Beatrice was so excited by the festivities that she then fell asleep sitting upright in nameste yoga pose. (See below.)

Happy St. Patricks Day!

2009-03-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

Our little red-headed leprachaun wishes everyone Happy St. Patrick's Day! As you can see from the photos, Beatrice continues to be a very serious, intellectually-minded baby. Here she is contemplating the Northern Ireland peace process and trying to figure out how to pour a perfect pint of Guiness. A second after we snapped these, she got quite angry because she realized she is not going to be allowed to have any green beer tonight--only milk for now. Sorry Bea!

"Take Bea Out to the Ballgame"

2009-03-12T18:51:00.000-07:00

Beatrice attended her first official sporting event on Tuesday, an ECU baseball game. As you can see from the second picture, she was very excited about the whole event. Actually, she slept through all nine innings (no surprise there).

Baldness

2009-03-05T14:12:00.000-08:00

I have recently become very concerned with something involving Beatrice's hair, although it is something that Sayward has assured me is perfectly natural. As some of you may know, I am very proud of the quantity of my hair, although the rest leaves a bit to be desired.

Beatrice appears to be exhibiting some characteristics of male pattern baldness. See above for an early picture and a more recent one. This kind of troubling.

Here some more recent pictures, for people who claim they have never seen her eyes.

A great thing, and something of concern

2009-03-05T14:04:00.000-08:00

I recently cracked the code on being able to make Beatrice stop crying at any time within 20-30 seconds. It involves laying her across my thighs and bouncing my feet up and down ever so slightly very, very fast. No matter how hard she was crying it is like she just sat down in one of those vibrating chairs like they have at the mall or Sharper Image (RIP).

Here is Bea in mid vibrate:

My one concern about this is that it makes my legs tired, and that at some point when she weighs about 45 pounds this isn't going to be so fun.

- Conor

Sleeping Beauties...and Nala

2009-03-02T12:07:00.001-08:00

This afternoon I was doing some work and noticed that all of my girls were sound asleep:

Sayward, with baby blanket over face:

Beatrice, wearing a nice Star Trek-esque outfit:And last but not least, Nala, sound asleep (as usual) in her new bed:

I was able to savor a few minutes of calm and take a nap myself.

Family Outing

2009-02-28T14:12:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we enjoyed 70 degree temperatures, so even though it was a bit cloudy, we decided to spend the afternoon outdoors. Conor and I loaded Beatrice up in her stroller and took her on her first picnic. There is a park on the Tar River that is about a fifteen minute walk from our house, so we headed to downtown to pick up some food and then strolled over to enjoy some time at the park. The second Beatrice gets in her carseat, she zonks out, so she slept the whole time, but Conor and I enjoyed ourselves. Conor is getting really good at copying Beatrice's funny faces, as the third photo demonstrates. She definitely looks more and more like him (in my opinion!)

Bathtime for Bea

2009-02-28T14:04:00.001-08:00

Beatrice had her first bath on Wednesday. Up until that point, we had only been giving her little sponge baths, which she didn't seem to like too much...So, we were apprehensive about her first "real" bathtime, but much to our relief, Beatrice seemed to love taking a bath (as much as a 2 1/2 week old can love anything). She was very calm the whole time and liked having the warm water poured on her stomach. With her extremely long hands and feet, maybe this foreshadows a future career as a swimmer.

The Two Faces of Bea

2009-02-17T08:05:00.001-08:00

Conor and I have suddenly realized that we have not one but two daughters--asleep Bea and awake Bea. These two children are as opposite as can be. Asleep Bea cannot keep her eyes open for more than a second. She is very calm and peaceful and more of a doll than a live baby. However, about two days ago, her alter ego began to show up--Awake Bea. Awake Bea is alert and has the biggest eyes you can imagine. She wants to paaaaarty all night long and hang out in her parents arms, listening to stories and looking at pictures. Since hardly any of her visitors have yet to see Beatrice's eyes because up to now she has been sleeping non-stop, I thought I would post these two contrasting pictures of her! As you can see, she is cute as can be either way.

Better than a Box of Chocolates

2009-02-14T21:01:00.001-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day! Conor indulged me and let me dress up Beatrice this morning in celebration of the day. After about 10 minutes we put her back in her standard outfit of a onesie and socks...we have quickly realized that there is no sense in putting cute clothes on this child since she manages to spit up, poop, or pee on herself like clockwork about 10 seconds after we dress her. Every time.

Headed Home

2009-02-14T18:13:00.000-08:00

Thirty-six hours after arriving at the hospital, Conor and I were given the A-OK to head home. Somehow someone decided we were capable of taking the baby with us--it definitely felt like they made a mistake allowing us to carry this tiny person home. It took us about 20 minutes to figure out how to strap Beatrice in the carseat and then we drove about 10 mph the whole way back to the house. We were so happy to get out of the hospital and get back to our own house to start life on our own as a happy little family of three.

Video!!!

2009-02-11T20:45:00.000-08:00

Conor's Dad made this video of Beatrice in action...

The Birth Story

2009-02-11T09:51:00.000-08:00

I thought I would get a chance to write about Beatrice's birth before now, but already Conor and I have realized that although newborns sleep for about 18 hours a day, the allotment of sleep for new parents is somewhat less to say the least!

So here's the story. On Sunday, we had the most beautiful weather here in Greenville--70 degrees and sunny. So Conor and I decided to take advantage and spend a lot of time outdoors. We walked downtown to have lunch and study and then Conor went off to soccer practice while I went to run some errands. Around 5:30 pm, I called our doula, Kelly, (for those not in the know, a doula is a woman who provides emotional support and help for a couple during childbirth) just to let her know that I was SURE that labor was not imminent. Despite past the due date, I wasn't having any contractions and felt sure the baby was still a long ways off. Turns out I was wrong.

About an hour after having assured Kelly I was not going into labor, I went into labor. At first I thought my busy day of walking had just worn me out so I laid in the bed for a bit and then took a hot bath, but nothing seemed to help the contractions that I was feeling. Conor and I rationalized for a bit that perhaps I was just suffering through a case of food poisoning (nothing like a little denial when you are 9 1/2 months pregnant), and decided to call Kelly to see what she thought. Kelly said it sounded like early labor and made her way over to our house around 10pm on Sunday.

By the time Kelly arrived, I was in some serious pain. My contractions were coming so quickly--it was nothing like the day I had pictured in my mind where I would have several hours to tidy up the house, watch a movie, take a nice long walk with Conor, etc. When our labor started, it got cranked right up! The contractions were lasting about 45-50 seconds with only about a minute break in between them.

All of our birthing plans flew right out the window of course. I now know that you cannot thwart Mother nature. Not with a birthing ball or a warm bath or aromatherapy or hynotherapy or massage or visualization or meditation. All of these were in our birth "plan" to use to get distract from the pain, but I quickly realized there is no way to distract yourself from the fact that an 8 pound baby is trying to squeeze out of you.

So instead, I spent several hours standing with my head against our hallway wall moaning and trying to remind myself to breathe. Around 10:30 pm, we called our nurse-midwife Frieda to consult. Frieda decided to head on to the hospital and get some sleep in the on-call room until we decided to come in. We managed to labor at the house until 1:30 am and I honestly already can hardly remember what was going on during those hours. I know we put some DVDs on (Dirty Dancing and 50 First Dates) and I attempted to take a few baths, but pretty much I just walked around groaning and moaning. Finally we decided to head on in and endured a car ride from hell. Unfortunately, our route to the hospital meant driving down 5th Street--Greenville's bumpiest boulevard. In the 15 minutes it took us to get there I think I had 7 or 8 contractions--no fun.

We got to the hospital at 1:30am, and they recognized that my labor was going strong and took us right back to our room where we learned to our delight that I was already 7 cms dilated. As soon as Frieda told us that, I said, "Seven centimeters--AWESOME!" and high-fived all the nursing staff who was in the room. Frieda said if I could get through about one more hour or so of contractions, the baby would be nearly here, so I resolved to endure without any meds. The next hour and a half are a blur. I spent most of it standing up by the side of the bed or in the shower. Conor and Kelly were amazing at being supportive and pretty much everyone let me do my thing. We kept the lights down and everyone was very quiet (except for me).

Around 3:15am Frieda told us that if we wanted her to break the water, pushing would be imminent. I was quite ready to get the baby out of me by then, so I said yes please. I got in the bed and Frieda broke the water which was actually totally painless and then they told me to push!

I pushed for 10 minutes and Beatrice Anne Harrison arrived into this world! My first words were "That wasn't that bad!" as they laid her onto my chest. Conor was very brave and managed not to faint during the entire thing. However, as soon as Beatrice had arrived, I think all of the excitement caught up with him, and he excused himself to take a seat in the corner. Next thing I know, Baby Beatrice is happily laying on my chest and Conor is in the corner of the room eating some cheese and trying not to pass out. Beatrice was the most beautiful thing we have ever seen of course. Actually I think I said in the first moments of her birth that she reminded me of a little hobbit--very red and wrinkled and extremely mad at being disturbed from her happy home of 9 months. After a few minutes though, she started to transform before our very eyes to the most beautiful little baby girl--head full of strawberry-blonde hair and very dark blue eyes, extremely long hands and feet, and a little dimple on her right cheek. She is everything we every could have dreamed of and are so happy with our new little one!

Baby Beatrice's Big Day

2009-02-11T08:45:00.000-08:00

Beatrice Anne Harrison has arrived!

Born: Monday, February 9, 2009

at 3:25 a.m.

Weight: 8 lbs., 3 ozs.

Length: 20.5 inches

Winter Wonderland

2009-01-20T12:12:00.000-08:00

Two big events today--Obama's inauguration (YIPPEE!!!!) and a big snow storm! With all of this excitement, we were just sure that the baby would decide to come today, but no luck yet. I woke up about 20 times last night, which is pretty typical these days, but at least this time, I got to enjoy peeking out the window and seeing the snow start to fall throughout the night.

It has continued snowing all day, and by now we have at least 3-4 inches of snow on the ground. Conor and I got all bundled up and walked over to campus after the swearing in ceremony. It was beautiful and people were out tossing snow balls, playing football in the snow, and making all other sorts of merriment. We tried to take Nala out in the snow too but she wasn't too thrilled about it.

Nesting News...

2009-01-20T11:58:00.001-08:00

Some pics of the nursery...

So they say that during your last month or so, you get into "nesting mode" and become obsessed with cleaning the house and getting all set up for the baby. I am not sure about the whole cleaning part, but I have had a good time setting up the nursery. In fact, planning and decorating the baby's room has been one of my favorite things about being pregnant (it is definitely more fun than most other parts of pregnancy like the constant nausea, gaining 40 pounds, and feeling tired all the time!)

The baby's room has an "under the sea" theme, complete with a surfboard and lots of sea creatures hanging all about. Jenn Smith helped me to make some beautiful curtains this weekend which we decorated with starfish. I think we are pretty much all set now...everything is put in its place, down to the baby's socks and hairbows. Now we just need for her to hurry up and get here!

Christmas Cheer

2008-12-30T11:48:00.000-08:00

Conor and I had a wonderful Christmas break and were very lucky to get to spend our break at Bob and Margie's getting stuffed full of delicious food and visiting with all of our family and friends who we have missed so much this past semester! There was a lot to celebrate with all 4 of the Harrison kids home for the first time in several years (and with the excitement of the upcoming arrival of grandbaby Harrison). We got to celebrate belated birthdays for Bob and Margie. Tim and Conor decided it would be a great idea to get Bob a BB gun so that he could spend his days shooting squirrels now that he is retired, and for safety's sake, they also constructed a suit of armor for Margie.

2008-12-23T11:39:00.000-08:00

Here is an ultrsound picture of "Peanut". See if you can decipher where her head is.

LaLa's Wedding

2008-12-20T14:48:00.000-08:00

Lauren and Nelson got hitched on Saturday! The Kinston/Snow Hill girls had a lively reunion in Black Mountain. We all arrived on Thursday night in time for LaLa's bachelorette party. Anna, Whitley, Jenn, Jessica and I were her honorary bridesmaids and had the best time celebrating together. Poor Conor had to share a room with Anna, Whitley, and me, so he has definitely had enough girl time to last for awhile.

Fall Break on the Outer Banks

2008-12-01T13:32:00.000-08:00

One of the perks of being married to a geographer is that I get to tag along when he has field assignments. This semester, one of Conor's projects was to travel to a tourist destination and analyze the impact of tourism on the land. Smart boy that he is, Conor picked the Outerbanks lighthouses as his destination, so over fall break we traveled to Hatteras, Buxton, Rodanthe, and Ocracoke. In between bouts of studying for midterms and doing his "research", Conor still found time to get some surfing in, of course!