Bethany sings!

Bethany's Uncle Dr. Pete is living in Singapore, where he is teaching for two years.  The 12 hour time difference makes it hard to talk to him, so we recorded this little cinematic masterpiece so he could see one of her newer skills.  Ignore the fact that you have to listen to me, too.

Bethany - On Vacation.

We had our first big adventure in June. We traveled with Nana & Grandpa B. to Florida so that Bethany could meet her great-grandmother (Grandma GG) for the first time.

The ride down went fairly smoothly, and we convinced Grandpa B. to take my favorite route - US 23 - rather than the interstate. This ended up being AWESOME when Bethany decided she was starving at about Hour Four. All we had to do was pull over in the Dairy Queen parking lot in Alma, GA. That's Bacon County for those of you who care about such things - there is not much there except the Dairy Queen.
We thanked the DQ on the way home, when we ate lunch there. I may have scandalized the locals by nursing BEB at the table (don't worry - I used the cover), but we escaped without incident. ;)

While in Florida, Bethany got to meet Aunt Mary Beth, Uncle Bob, and her cousins Laura & Amy, as well as Laura's sweet boyfriend Chris. Aunt Mary Beth let her play with a measuring cup that is now her new favorite toy. It's always nice to see family, and we know Bethany will grow up with that as an important part of her life!
She really enjoyed all the attention, as well as watching the World Cup with Daddy & Grandpa.
Here she is clapping for the United States. We won't discuss the outcome of that game. ;)

Bethany also got to visit the ocean, which was hilarious. She was not too sure about the gritty feeling of the sand, and had NO idea what to make of the wide-open horizon, but had some fun splashing her feet in the waves. The water, being the Atlantic, was pretty chilly, but she didn't seem to mind. It was a pretty short trip to the beach, since we were leaving that morning to return home, but I'm glad she got to have the experience.

We can't wait to see everyone again soon!

PS - If you're wondering why the photos are tiny again, I've had multiple uploading headaches, and the small size just works better. You can click on them to enlarge, if you wish.

There is more to my life than that baby.

But not much. :)

One of our big adventures for this summer involves me learning to eat more some vegetables. In order to do that, we made the rather enormous decision to buy a CSA {Community Supported Agriculture} share. Every week, we'll be picking up a box of fresh-grown veggies from Scharko Farms at our friendly neighborhood farmer's market. Our first box arrives next Thursday, and I'm pretty excited. Of course, when it's entirely full of things I don't eat, the enthusiasm may dim somewhat. Fortunately, we split our share with our friends Mark, Shelly, & Conner, and Shelly is an amazing cook, so hopefully she'll be able to inspire me. (No pressure or anything...)

Eventually, Lindsey would really like us to have a decent garden of our own, but that will involve some massive tree surgery on the giant oak that shades pretty much the entire backyard. This year, he's content with three heirloom tomato plans from a coworker.

I am also sort of determined to start making "stuff" again - I've been missing it, and I have a few crafty ideas up my sleeve. Since they're all supposed to be speedy projects, maybe I'll get them done by September??

Happy weekend!

Backing Up... One Month.

At her one month checkup, Bethany weighed 10 pounds 5 ounces, and was 22 inches long. WOW. She is quite the smiley baby, which we love, and loves to stare up at the ceiling fans. Thank goodness we have them. Her favorite hobbies are eating and eating. Sleeping...not so much. She likes to hug Croshetta Mouse and spend time on her sheepskin rug.

This bonnet & sweater were mine. :)
(I know I already posted this, but I'm trying to put the milestones in the monthly posts.) Here is an example of sweetie's freakish head strength. She was able to hold her head up as soon as she arrived, and it's just gotten stronger. Of course, she's NOT as strong as she thinks she is, so she bonks her head a fair bit.
My mother had the extremely good idea that we should take a family portrait in the bathroom mirror every month - this is the one month version. I think we all know who's cutest. :)

Backing Up... Christmas.

We had a lovely Christmas. Lindsey's mom came for Christmas Eve, and gave Bethany her new friend, Croshetta Mouse. Croshetta is very popular, and Bethany will actually give her a little hug. We made it to the Christmas Eve service at church, and she did well for about 15 minutes, then got hungry. We left to nurse, and then made it back in time for Communion and to visit with everyone afterward. There may also have been cookies involved. Ahem. Moving on.

Christmas Day, my parents & brother came to Atlanta (with barbecue in tow - woot!), and we had a very relaxing afternoon. Uncle Andrew also started Bethany's college fund. She clearly takes after her Grandpa B. - she was more excited about the check than her toys. Next year, we'll buy her a 16-column pad to track all of her expenses. Ha.

Shortly after Christmas, she also demonstrated her rapidly increasing upper body strength with this awesome trick:

Like I've been telling everyone, she's advanced. :)

And finally, because I kept forgetting to link to them, our friends Melissa & Julie came to take Bethany's newborn portraits when she was a week old. Here is the link to the previews - they are FANTASTIC.

Things that make pregnant girls happy.

Yeah, so if you haven't had these yet, you're missing out. If you live somewhere without access to them, I'm really sorry. REALLY sorry.

Brownie is cooking away, and showing no indication of vacating the premises. Procrastination is apparently a hardcore genetic trait.

Back in September...

My good friend Lauren (who is already Auntie Lala to precious little James, and will be Auntie Lala to the Brownie as well) came into Atlanta for a little reunion weekend before, you know, our lives change forever. That's us in the top photo. She was able to arrive in time to attend a fabulous shower thrown at the MonkeyBean Mansion. Having friends who are photographers is very helpful, and Melissa ROCKS for taking these amazing pictures, even though it meant she didn't show up in any of them. BOO! I'll let them speak for themselves, with just a little captioning for fun.

Here you see Kinsley, with her extremely awesome cupcake, and also the tissue pompoms that Melissa & Julie made - three of them are going to be installed today (!) in the baby's room.

And here are Julie & Natalie working hard on making little bibs for the Brownie. You can almost tell that Natalie is pregnant in this picture, but now she's not! (Baby Avery arrived on the 18th - yay!)

Coming Soon:

December 1, 2009 (ish)